riverside magic episode 01 breakthrough church: Yeah. Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Breakthrough Church podcast. Great to be with you again and want to share a word of encouragement today, just about the Holy Spirit and his desire to be with you, his desire to know you, his desire for you to know him as a distinct person, and not just as the the member of the Godhead, three and one, one and three, the member of the Godhead that is behind the scenes doing his thing, and yet we can't really know him or know how he works or what he does. and I wanted to share a a word on that in in a second. But first, a couple of testimonies. We did an outreach on Saturday. And what that means is we have we had nine. We were usually averaging about nine or so on on the first Saturday of the month. And We we meet at Loft City and we drink some coffee, we catch up, hang out, and then we I'll I'll do a short little equipping and stuff and then we'll we'll go and and just wherever we feel led throughout the city and have random interactions with people and just say, Hey. So I I t I went with two others. We had three groups of three and the what I what I encouraged people with before we left out was John chapter four. And Jesus' method of quote unquote evangelism, it was not trying to convinced convince somebody of an argument, but he was trying to identify the places in someone's life where there is maybe shame or guilt or regret and offer something better, offer forgiveness, healing, living water, he would say in John 4. so really quickly, just to remind you of John 4, Jesus goes to a well talking to a Samaritan woman. She a he asked her for water and she's like, You're asking me for water? you're a Jewish man, I'm a Samaritan woman. We're not supposed to interact, especially in public. And Jesus is like, If you knew who I was, you would ask me and I would give you living water and you never have to come back to this well. You could drink it forever and ever. And she's like, Give me this water. And he he has her right where she wants him, right? begging for this living water. And and you and I in this moment, we would be like, All right, sweet. say the prayer and get saved and let's do this, you know? And And and he doesn't do that. He says, Go get your husband. I believe it's a word of knowledge from the Holy Spirit. And this woman, the Samaritan woman says, I don't have a husband. And he's like, You're right. You don't have a husband. You've had five. And the one you're living with now is not your husband. And she's like, I perceive you're a prophet. You know, our fathers say you should worship on this mountain, but the Jews think it's this. And Jesus has this conversation with her, which leads to this point of re the revelation of him as Messiah and the savior of the world. So let's let's just t connect some dots. In order for her to receive the living water, which I believe is the person of the Holy Spirit, and the life that the Spirit gives, she has to acknowledge the darkness and chaos and shame in her life. And when that happens, Jesus reveals himself as Messiah. So the revelation of the Messiah, the revelation of Jesus, who he really is. Is the the life source of a Christian that makes room and gives way to the flow of the Holy Spirit. so for her to receive this living water, she has to Jesus has to poke something in her that is something that's a source of regret and a source of shame. And it's in that place living water flows. Living water doesn't flow to all the nice fancy. Fancy, the all the nice, fancy, it's about it. All the nice, flattering, impressive parts of you. The Holy Spirit flows to the places in your life that ha are experiencing the most shame and regret and and the most guilt. The darkest place in you, that's where the Holy Spirit wants to flow. And and that's just like incredible that Jesus is so full of mercy and grace. It's not just full of it. He he he is it. He is grace. He is mercy. He is the manifestation of the love of the Father on the earth. He came from the Father into the world, not to condemn, but to save. And how he does that is identifying your place of shame, the place you're most embarrassed about, the place that you're most afraid of people finding out. He wants to poke that, expose that, because there's that's where the Holy Spirit does his best work to bring healing, which is the love of Christ. That that's that surpasses knowledge, the love of Jesus that goes to the places we think are the most unlovable. And it's in that place, the most unlovable place in our hearts, where Jesus' love can be experienced most deeply and profoundly. And that's the ministry of the Holy Spirit, to identify sources of shame and then to almost apply apply the healing balm of the love of Christ. it's amazing. But this is not just. On this is not the only place we see this at work. We see it in Genesis chapter one. Man, I'm just getting right into it. I'm sorry, I didn't even share the testimonies. I'll get there in a second. in Genesis chapter one, it says, And in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. Okay, so what's happening at the beginning of creation is God has created everything in the heavens and on the earth. And the earth was without form and void. The Hebrew for that means wild or and waste. Wild and waste, meaning there's no structure, nor or no organization. It was just chaotic. and that's what dark that's what waters and the face of the deep mean too. It's a symbol for for chaos. So at the beginning, you see chaos, void of life. There's no life and there's no structure. Okay, so just painting the picture, the world before the Holy Spirit really brings light. Through the word of the Father is chaos, it's dark, and it it's it's marked by a a void, like there's no life in it. Okay. And that's where the Spirit of God is hovering. The word hovering is it it carries with it this idea of this active, living, dynamic presence. It's it's symbolizing, actually this word can be used to describe a bird hovering over its nest and over its young. So it's just flapping its wings, it's it's active. The spirit of God is not just sitting around, the spirit of God is active, present, setting the atmosphere, making them making sure the metaphorical temperature is right because God's about to speak and bring order to the chaos and light to the darkness and life to the void. And and before God speaks, though, his presence is there. His presence is priming the pump, getting Things ready for it to receive the word of the Father. And then it says, and God said, Let there be light, and there was light. You see the Father speaking the word and the Spirit giving substance to the Word. It says, And God said, that's the Father, let there be light, that's Jesus, the Son, and there was light. That's the role of the Holy Spirit, to apply the word of the Father to the earth. To administer, to execute, to manifest or reveal the word of the Father to bring substance to it. So it's not just words in the air, but it actually manifests in real life. You might say, How do you know let there be light is about Jesus? Well, there hasn't, he hasn't created the sun and the moon yet. How can there be light when there's no sun or the moon? Now, I I believe Maybe there's multiple interpretations, but I I believe the whole Old Testament is about ultimately Jesus and about who he is. And so in this moment, what I believe is happening is that God is speaking, the Father is speaking of his word, his eternal divine word, that is Jesus, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. He's speaking of the Son. And the only way the Son is truly revealed is by the Holy Spirit. It's by the Holy Spirit. Now, why does this matter and why is this encouraging? Because the only way for the light of Jesus, the revelation of Jesus, to be real in my heart as a person is by the power of the Holy Spirit. And we see that happening in John 4. In John 4, the Father is revealing the Son by the power of the Spirit to a woman who is full of shame and regret and guilt. She's a social outcast because she's slept around. She's going to the well midday because it's too hot. Most people aren't there. There usually people are there in the morning. They get there in the morning because it's cooler and it's easier to travel to and from the well. But in this moment, the woman is there midday because nobody else is there. She doesn't want to be seen. She doesn't want to be known. She doesn't want to be included or welcomed. She does not want to be exposed to anybody at all. And here in this moment at the well, Jesus, by the Spirit, Is exposing the place in her heart that is the most dark, the most shameful, the most embarrassing. Because Jesus knows what's happening is the same thing that was happening in Genesis 1, that the Spirit of God was hovering over this dark area of her life. And if she was willing to simply acknowledge it and to give it to Jesus, what would happen is the Father would speak the Son directly to her heart, and the Spirit of God would give substance to that word. And it happened because she drops the jar that she used she was using to get water. She's like, I don't need this jar anymore because I have true living water. And what was the living water? It's the person of the spirit and the revelation of Jesus as the Christ, the Savior of the world. So many people might think, man, I don't I don't I don't know the Holy Spirit, or like I feel like maybe if I'm supposed to really know the Spirit and go deep with the Lord by the Spirit, then I'm not experiencing that. And I feel like there's a blockage, or I don't know what to do. And I I will say that one of the things the Holy Spirit loves to do is to gently, gently bring to light areas of your life that are full of shame. These things that you are embarrassed by, these things that if if people knew and if God really knew about this thing, then There's no way he would love me. That's obviously a lie from the enemy, and that's what shame is. Shame is you've taken on this identity, this false self that's defined by this thing you've done or this thing that's been done by you. And because you've defined yourself by that, your whole life is wrapped around and centered around trying to protect this secret. It's Adam and Eve covering themselves with fig leaves. It's all over again. It's we just We're so full of shame so many times that we think there's no way God would really love me. But what we see in the ministry of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit is it's that that place is the exact place that His gospel speaks to, that His word speaks to. It's the shame, it's the guilt, it's the regret, it's the secrets of our hearts that we're hiding, that we don't want to be exposed. It's those very things Jesus came for. He didn't come for the healthy, but for the s for the sick. He didn't come for the righteous, but for the sinner. This is why tax collectors and sinners were hanging around him all the time because he they they just felt this draw, like that his what he had to offer was for them. The worst of the worst, the outcasts, the sinners, the dirty, the unclean. That's who he came for. And so here's I'm gonna try to I'm gonna try to bring this really, really down to like a a a a practical thing. In okay, how do I say I want to say this really clearly. I want to be really practical. If you want to experience greater intimacy with the person of the Holy Spirit, it will come as you learn to acknowledge and confess the things in your heart to God and to a trusted person that are that are just are bringing you so much shame. And as the Spirit of God highlights those things, to be faithful to confess to God and to others, then the Holy Spirit, I promise, you will understand that wow, if God can love me in that place and love me even though I've done this or said this or this has been done to me, if he can still love me, then man, he's such a good God. And I wonder what kind of plans he has for me. I wonder what kind of God this really truly is. And you begin to discover him for who he really is, which is a God full of mercy and grace. I'll I'll say this. There's one testimony from the outreach on Saturday I wanted to share. One of our teams, this is related to what I'm talking about. One of one of our teams, I'm not gonna share any names, but one of one of the teams went out and they they found a guy who, I don't know him, I was not there, so I don't know the full story, but I know bits and pieces. He just openly admitted that he is an alcoholic. And he said those words. He said, I'm an alcoholic. And one of our One of our guy one of the guys on the team at at that specific moment said, You're not an alcoholic. You are a child of God, loved by God, and you're going to get drunk on the spirit. And he just he just he just spoke identity into him and prophesied what he was going to experience from the Lord. Now I don't I don't know what happened, but what I do know I do know there was another person on that team on the outreach re representing Breakthrough who has been going through a struggle. And Saturday night at church, he admitted to me afterwards that when that man said that, you're not an alcoholic, you're a child of God and you'll get drunk in the spirit, that he was deeply ministered to because there's something in him that's convinced that God doesn't love him and he's not his son because he's doing all of these things and he's done all these things. And the word of Jesus, the word, the blood of Jesus speaks a better word. The blood of Jesus speaks identity that's not deserved but freely given. That no matter what behaviors you're experiencing, no matter what heart desires you have that are contrary to God, the blood of Jesus speaks identity, that you're a son or daughter of the Father. And it's only because of that you can experience the presence of the Holy Spirit. So I just want to encourage you that. The thing that you feel like disqualifies you from God's love is the very place that you can experience his love in the deepest and most profound way. Tell him about it. Let him into that space. Admit those things. Say the thing to God that you've been afraid to say to him. Say the thing to the trusted friend that you've been afraid to confess. Say it out loud and watch the life of God, the Spirit of God that's hovering over you, enter that space and shine a light in the darkest place of your life. And that's when intimacy with God will increase because you'll see that He loves you no matter what. And you can come to Him with anything. And at any moment of any day, you can get touched by His mercy and grace. And it's a beautiful, beautiful thing. So just wanna encourage you guys with that word today and hope hope you hope you're encouraged, man. And and and we would love to see you on a Saturday night for church at five PM and we worship the Lord and I'll bring a word and and we'll receive the Lord's body and blood together and just encounter him. but I just want you to know that the the thing that that you're most embarrassed by, the thing that brings you the most shame, the most regret, that's that's the very thing God wants to use to show you how much he loves you. It doesn't disqualify you or create distance. It actually qualifies you to experience the gracious love of the Father and creates nearness with Jesus, for he is humble and he is gentle and he is lowly in heart. And he gives rest to those with heavy burdens. So go to him today, receive his love. All right, love you guys. We'll see you later.