Have you ever felt left out of the introduction?
You know the moment. Someone introduces everyone in the room, then skips right past one person standing there thinking, am I invisible? In this Summer of Sermons message, Daron suggests that might be exactly how the Holy Spirit feels in most of our spiritual lives. We know the Father. We love Jesus. And then there’s this third person of the Trinity we never quite got introduced to. Jesus called the Holy Spirit our Advocate, which means comforter, encourager, and counselor. If you’re heading into this season saying you could use more comfort, more encouragement, or more counsel, you’re really saying you need more of the Holy Spirit.
Which category are you in?
Daron walks through the honest categories most of us land in. Some of us are thirsty. We have a real hunger to know God more deeply. Some of us are suspicious, cynical, or even wounded by bad experiences with how the Spirit’s gifts were handled in churches we’ve known. And some of us are simply uninformed. No one ever taught us. None of those categories is something to be ashamed of. Each one is something to be honest about. Daron shares his own six-month search for the Holy Spirit in his twenties, a night of prayer that didn’t go the way he wanted, and a prophecy about his future that took fifteen years to make sense. The Spirit had been with him the whole time.
Closing the gap starts with honesty
Most of us live in a gap between rumor and reality. We read what the Bible describes, we hear stories of what God is doing around the world, and then we look at our own lives and wonder why our experience doesn’t match. The way forward is not pretending. It’s telling God the truth about where you are. God, I’m thirsty. God, I’m cynical. God, I just don’t know. Then ask the question that changes everything: what do You want me to know, and what do You want me to do? Ask, seek, knock. The door opens to the ones who keep knocking. Listen to the full sermon and start closing the gap this week. Questions or thoughts? Reach out anytime at daron@daronearlewine.com.
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Episode Summary:
When life hits hard, most of us either crumble or, at best, claw our way back to where we were before. Daron Earlewine wants something better for you. In this Summer of Sermons message from Mercy Road Northeast in Indianapolis, he opens Hebrews 11 and 12 to unpack what it means to build an anti-fragile faith, the kind where pain doesn’t break you, it reveals you and grows you. He names the three lies the enemy whispers when you’re under pressure, the difference between lament and complaint, and why your identity has to be the foundation before any of it makes sense.
Key Takeaways
⚡️ Fragile faith crumbles and resilient faith recovers, but anti-fragile faith actually levels up through every setback.
⚡️ The enemy attacks with three specific lies, you’re alone, it all depends on you, and you have no purpose, and agreement is what gives them power.
⚡️ Lament moves toward God and complaint moves away from Him, and learning the difference is how you stay honest without faking your faith.
If one of those three lies has had a hook in you lately, drop it in the comments so we can pray with you, then like and subscribe so you don’t miss the rest of the Summer of Sermons.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: DARON EARLEWINE: SUMMER OF SERMONS 4
Hey everybody, it’s summertime. The weather’s nice, sunsets are later, backyard barbecues, all the good stuff. Here at The Daron Earlewine Podcast, we like to change things up too. We’re bringing back the Summer of Sermons. I do the podcast, I do books, I speak, I do all kinds of stuff, and I get a chance to speak a lot of Sundays, usually at a church here in Indianapolis called Mercy Road Northeast, and sometimes other churches around the country. What we love to do in the summer is grab a couple of the greatest hits from the past twelve months and share these sermons with you. It gives you a chance to hear me communicate in a different way and get more immersed in the content. You gave us great feedback last summer that you loved the Summer of Sermons, so we’re bringing it back for 2026. I hope you enjoy the greatest hits from the past year that we pulled out. Welcome to the Summer of Sermons.
Created on purpose and for purpose.
Happy New Year to you, great to see everybody. My name’s Daron Earlewine. I get to be one of the teaching pastors here at Mercy Road Northeast, and I’m stoked to be with you in the new year. Have you enjoyed the past Christmas break, the holiday time? Has it been good for everybody? Is anybody, okay, not so much, we hate Christmas, all right.
Has anyone else had a moment in the past couple of weeks where you weren’t even sure what day it is? I’ve asked my wife at least twice, what day is it? And she’d give me the date, and I’m like, no, no, what day of the week is it? Is it a Tuesday? I don’t even know. Yesterday my oldest son went back to Ball State, and this afternoon my youngest son flies back to Phoenix to go back to college. It’s going to be sad, because we had five of us, and now we’re back to three. But there’s this weird feeling where I’m ready to get back to regular life for a little bit. I’ve loved the time, and I’ve loved watching football. We watched a lot of football in our house.
So I changed my intro for the first service, and I’m going to change it for the second service too. I just need you to stand up with me real quick. The first service needed a little more instruction. You guys are at a different level. I’m not saying first service is bad, I’m just saying you’re at a different level, but I feel like we could all learn a little bit. We watch a lot of football, and here’s what I’ve noticed. I just want you to participate. I’m not going to give you any instruction. You’re just going to naturally know how to do it.
If you’ve been watching football the past couple of weeks, you’ve potentially seen what the Indiana Hoosiers have done. Maybe you watched the Ohio State game, maybe the Alabama game. When you knew the game was over and Indiana won, what was your reaction? Give it to me. That’s what I was expecting. If you’re more of the Purdue persuasion, and let’s say this weekend you watched the Hoosiers completely implode and lose, your response would be… You Purdue people are sick and twisted. I’m just kidding. How about this one? We go home today, and breaking news, Adam Schefter, ESPN breaking news, Andrew Luck has decided to come out of retirement and he’s now the quarterback of the Colts. You did perfectly.
Here’s what I want you to notice. I asked you questions about something you’re invested in and care about, and I told you some good news. And without giving you any instruction, your excitement and investment in the thing, and knowing it was a good thing, made your body naturally do something without anyone telling you. I told you something exciting, and you went, woo. At no point did I say, in a minute I need you to woo and maybe lift your hands. No instruction given. Your body just knew what to do when given a scenario about something you’re invested in, something you care about, and something positive happening. We do that naturally everywhere in life. Then we come to church.
Some of us grew up in a church where they said, when you come into the house of the Lord, no running, no smiling, no laughing, no making unusual noises, and probably no coffee. We may have grown up in a church where, when you’re doing Jesus stuff, it’s super serious, and be quiet. So sometimes when we come into this environment, we wonder, what are the rules? And maybe we haven’t been told the rules that often. So I’m going to tell you the rules. But I also wonder this. This year, Pastor Ken, Pastor Kareem, the staff, and I have been praying, and we’re declaring 2026 the year of the Spirit. 2025 was the year of the word, where we did our best to read the whole New Testament together. This year we sense God leading us and saying, we’ve got to learn to be filled with, rely on, communicate with, be empowered by, encouraged by, counseled by, and healed by the power of the Holy Spirit. We want to walk into that.
But one thing I notice sometimes in our gatherings is this. We have something we really feel great about, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, our salvation, the things we sing. And our spirit says, you’re really happy about this, this is really moving you, and then, before you let your body match it, you stop. I get to watch week in and week out, from up here or from the back. If I had to make a broad statement about the worship posture most of the time here at Northeast, it’s one of these two. This one, followed in second place by this one. Third place would be this one.
I’m guessing, and I actually know many of you, that you feel more passionate about Jesus than you do about IU football, the Colts, Purdue, or just about anything else. But maybe you think that here at church we want you to contradict your spirit. We don’t. Your body will not contradict yourself. It’s basically impossible to scream with a body that’s totally relaxed. When you do it, your body responds. So for us to really grow in interacting with the Spirit, and to make sure what our spirit is feeling is reflected through our bodies, I just want to let you know you have full permission to respond in excitement to things you hear, things you sing, and things you read, the way you would at any football game or anything else where you go, I’m going to be expressive. We welcome it.
Here’s what could be dangerous. We’re a growing church, we have been for five years, which means there are always people brand new to church, or brand new to Jesus, who join us. They come because they think, those people know Jesus, and they might be passionate about following Him. They’re curious about what those Jesus people are like. And we say some powerful things in the songs we sing about this Jesus and how we feel about Him. We might confuse people who don’t know Jesus yet, because they look around the room and go, I don’t know if this person’s dog just died, or if they really like what they’re saying about Jesus. Is that fair? So throughout this next year, the rules are, don’t contradict your spirit. You may have to get out of your comfort zone, and that’s okay. Although I’ve been to a lot of concerts and football games with you guys, and at no point do I see you going, I’m just not comfortable cheering for this touchdown. You’re very comfortable cheering for the touchdown, or for your favorite song. So as we grow in this year of the Spirit, those are the ground rules, and you know naturally how to do it. Let’s grow in our ability to respond and let our spirit be seen through our bodies. Grab a seat.
So, Christmas Eve, I had a funny interaction with a family. Maybe you’ve been in a room where you didn’t know everybody, people were getting introduced, and you got left out. Have you ever had that moment where you’re sitting there, this is my cousin Bill, this is my Aunt Stacey, and you’re standing there thinking, am I invisible? I was talking to a family, I knew one of the ladies, and she introduced everybody, mom and dad and this and that, and then she stopped, and there was somebody standing right there with this look of, am I invisible? And the woman stepped in quick and said, hi, I’m Holly, I’m her sister. And I thought, there’s a dynamic here we just watched between siblings. When you get left out of an introduction, it feels awkward. You think, am I not important? Do I have nothing to add here? Am I invisible? Hello, I’m here.
I wonder sometimes if that’s how the Holy Spirit feels about His interactions with us. Like somebody forgot to make the introduction. I get that the Godhead, the Trinity, is a mystery, and it’s kind of confusing. How do you have three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and they’re one, but they’re three, and three, but one? It’s a mystery, so I get how it can feel weird. But sometimes it’s like, this is the Father. We love the Father, also known as Yahweh, very Old Testament heavy, amazing stuff, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the whole thing, a lot to read about the Father. We love the Father. And then this is the Son, also known as Yeshua, can be known as Jesus. He’s really special. He’s God with us, Emmanuel. He’s got a lot of cool names. This is Jesus. So we’ve got the Father and the Son. And this is our other friend. He’s a little flowy. He’s a little different. We can’t see him. He’s still in the family. We don’t talk about him a lot. Sometimes when he hangs out with people, weird stuff happens. People talk weird. Sometimes there’s some power here we’re not sure about. Sometimes when he shows up, tongues of fire start flying around the room. So he’s here, we’re not really sure, but yes, this is the Holy Spirit, I think.
I wonder if the Holy Spirit is saying, hey, we’re all equal, the Father, the Son, and me, the Holy Spirit. How come you guys don’t know me? How come you don’t introduce me? The reality is, I think we all fit into a few different categories when it comes to the Holy Spirit, and we’re going to grow together this year, which is exciting. Some of us are at a place right now where, if I asked, what’s your experience with the Holy Spirit, you’d say, it’s amazing. I’m growing and developing, I’ve never known this kind of connection to God, it’s the best, I’m in the best place possible. Phenomenal. Help us grow and lead as a community this year. For some of you, you’d say, honestly, I’m kind of excited, and I’d say I’m kind of thirsty. I have this hunger to know, and I’m ready to grow. Another group of us would say, when you talk about Holy Spirit stuff, if I’m honest, I’m a little suspicious, a little cynical, and maybe even a little wounded. Perhaps you went to a church where you saw the gifts of the Holy Spirit abused in some way, or you saw people act like super Holy Spirit people, but it didn’t all seem consistent. So you’re a little skeptical, a little cynical, a little wounded. And there could be another category, where you’d just be uninformed. It’s not that you’re not intelligent, you just go, I don’t know, no one’s really taught me much about the Holy Spirit, I don’t have a lot of opinions either way, I just don’t really know.
We’re going to work through those categories this year and hopefully come to a place where we all take a major step up in understanding who the Holy Spirit is, His role, His encouragement, His power, His guidance. Because Jesus thought the Holy Spirit was a really big deal. We find that in His own words.
In John chapters 14, 15, and 16, I’m going to read a good chunk of Scripture this morning and get some of Jesus’s words about the Holy Spirit. In John 14, He says, if you love Me, obey My commands, and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate. We’ll come back to that word advocate in a minute. Who will never leave you. There’s the first piece of really good truth about the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit who leads into all truth. There’s a second great piece. The world cannot receive Him, because it isn’t looking for Him and doesn’t recognize Him. But you know Him, because He lives with you now, and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans. I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me. Since I live, you will also live.
Jesus continues further on in 14. All who love Me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and We will come and make Our home with each of them. Anyone who does not love Me will not obey Me. And remember, My words are not My own. What I’m telling you is from the Father who sent Me. I’m telling you these things now while I’m still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, as My representative, He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. Then at John 15, Jesus continues, I will send you the Advocate, the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about Me. And you must also testify about Me, because you have been with Me from the beginning of My ministry.
Now into John 16, Jesus is still teaching about the Spirit. But now I am going away to the One who sent Me, and not one of you is asking where I am going. Instead, you grieve because of what I’ve told you. Listen to what He says here. But in fact, it is best for you that I go away. Because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send Him to you. And when He comes, He will convict the world of its sin and of God’s righteousness. What a huge statement. Jesus telling these men who had followed Him for three and a half years, God Himself walking with them, listen, I’m leaving, but this is better. Better than Me being here so you can see Me is Me leaving and sending the Holy Spirit. Powerful stuff. Then He continues in verse 12. There’s so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now. But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own, but will tell you what He has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring Me glory by telling you whatever He receives from Me. All that belongs to the Father is Mine. This is why I said the Spirit will tell you whatever He receives from Me.
Just in these three chapters, you see the unbelievable importance of understanding, connection, and communication with the Holy Spirit. So if you’re at a place where you’re thirsty, or suspicious, or just not knowledgeable, think of everything that could be coming your way if you step into a greater understanding and experience of the Spirit. Jesus uses that word advocate. Here’s what it means. Comforter, encourager, or counselor. If you’re heading into 2026 saying, you know what I could use more of? I could use more encouragement, more comfort, more counseling. Here’s what you’re really saying. I need more of the Holy Spirit.
Paul, talking about the fruit the Spirit brings into our lives, says in Galatians 5, but the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If you’re looking into 2026 and you go, you know what I could really use more of in my relationships, love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, what you’re saying is, I need a greater experience with the Holy Spirit. Jesus, talking about how the Spirit empowers us, says in Acts 1, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. If you’ve been thinking, in 2026 I’d love a greater experience with the power of God in my life, what you’re saying is, I need a greater experience with the Holy Spirit. This is big. Really big.
That’s why we’re going to spend a year walking through it. And my guess is, if that’s something you want or need, you may be experiencing what we could call the gap. What I find for most of us in our relationship with God is that there’s a gap, and the gap is between rumor and reality. As you’ve read the Bible, you’ve heard stories about things God does, but they’re in a category of rumor to you. You’ve not experienced that yourself. I hear about God healing people in India, or Africa, or over there. I hear about these Jesus movements and amazing things. I read the Bible and it’s inspiring. But then I have what I’m living. One of the things that will be key for us if we’re going to grow this year is being really honest with God. Telling Him the truth. If you’re at a place where you’d say, I’m experiencing that gap, but I feel weird telling Jesus, this isn’t everything I thought it was supposed to be, let me tell you, that’s a great place to start. I have been in the gap a lot in my life, where I think I should be growing more, I should be more mature, I should be experiencing more of this, and I’m not. A lot of it seems like rumor, and it’s really stretching my faith. We have to be honest with God in that moment.
Eugene Peterson had a great quote. He says, the Bible, all of it, is livable. It is the text for living our lives. It reveals a God-created, God-ordered, God-blessed world in which we find ourselves at home and whole. Here’s a question to be honest about. Do you really believe all of the Bible is livable? When you read the stories of the disciples and the early church, when you read the stories of Jesus’s life, and He says things like, you could even do greater things than I have done, is that just a cool thing Jesus said, or is He saying this is livable? When you read about the miracles and amazing things that happened through the early church, do you go, oh, that was just the first century? Or do you go, if this is in the Bible, it’s livable, meaning I can experience this, and if I’m not, I’m living in the gap. So how do I take steps to narrow the gap between rumor and reality?
It comes back to the three categories. Some of you are thirsty, some are suspicious or cynical, and some are lacking knowledge. We need to figure out which one we’re in and how to take our next step to close the gap. That’s what I want to invite you to do today as we kick off this series.
Are you thirsty? St. Augustine said, Lord, You have put salt on our lips that we might thirst for You. Some of you are at a place where you’re excited about where we’re going as a church, because you’ve felt really thirsty to know more about the Spirit. That’s a great place to be. And what you have to do is seek after Jesus in the Holy Spirit. Seek Him. Jesus says it like this in John 7. On the climax of the feast, Jesus took a stand and said, if anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in Me. He said this in regard to the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were about to receive. If you’re thirsty, come to Him and drink. And sometimes that’s going to mean you have to search.
When I was in my twenties, I was experiencing one of these gap periods. I was a church planter, didn’t know what I was doing, way over my head. I had little kids, a marriage, and I started having some freak-out moments where I thought, I think the problem with my life is I don’t have the Holy Spirit. I never had this ecstatic moment where I spoke in tongues or did any of the things you read about in more charismatic circles, or in the Bible. So I thought, I missed it. I’ve been living my whole life and the problem is I don’t have the Holy Spirit. So I went on a six-month journey to find the Holy Spirit and figure out, do I even have Him? I was thirsty, so I started to seek. I started to drink from the Spirit.
It culminates when a mentor of mine says, you’ve got to go meet this retired pastor named Don Poulson. He knows about the Spirit, he teaches about the Spirit. You need to go to one of his Monday night gatherings. So I go to Don Poulson’s meeting on a Monday night, big group of people, and Don gets up and says, tonight the study is going to be on how to know and receive the Holy Spirit. And I was like, yes, exactly what I’ve been looking for for six months. They have worship, it’s great, Holy Spirit stuff is happening. Then he says, we’re going to have a time, if you want to receive the Holy Spirit, come up front, we’re going to pray for you, lay hands on you, anoint you with oil. It’s about to go down. So about twenty people come up, and I’m waiting. Don goes to the first person, lays hands, anoints with oil, and that guy gets slain in the Spirit. I didn’t even know what that meant. It basically means they pray for you and you kind of pass out. I don’t know how it works, I just know I’ve seen it, the Holy Spirit comes over people and they pass out for a minute. And I’m thinking, yes, that’s proof, I want it, slay me in the Spirit right now. That guy falls down and I’m like, yes, this is the real stuff. Next guy, fourteen more to go, boom, he’s speaking in tongues, I’m like, whoa, we’ve got the real stuff happening here. When is it my turn?
They get all the way down to me, and Don Poulson comes and lays his hands on me, anoints me with oil, and starts praying. And I’m ready to receive, I’m crying, checking my knees, am I going down, what’s happening? And then Don goes into this prophecy. He’s like, I see a dark cave, a dark room, and you’re in it as a light, and your words will be like a fire that brings light to the darkness. And I’m like, cool, I guess. Caves, dark, light, fire, my words. Now, what I didn’t know then is that about a decade later, I’d start going into bars and taking the word of God. I didn’t know I’d soon be on the number one secular radio station in this town telling people about Jesus. I didn’t know we’d start a tailgate theology thing. I didn’t know we’d launch a wrestling theology thing. I didn’t know that now I’d be launching a ministry where I go into the marketplace to do personal development as an on-ramp to see a disciple movement start in the secular marketplace. I didn’t know any of that back in my twenties. He’s prophesying my future. He finishes, amen, and I’m still standing there. No speaking in tongues. I’m not slain in the Spirit. And I’m mad. I’m like, I want a Holy Spirit refund. I’ve been thirsty, I’ve been seeking the Spirit for six months, and I get some dark cave, fire in your words deal, and it moves on to the next guy?
So I go to my car, and I’m mad. I close the door. I’m like, Holy Spirit, six months. This is the problem, and I don’t get tongues, I don’t get a sign of the Spirit, I don’t get any of that stuff. And in the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, which I realized, oh, I’ve had Him the whole time, He said, Daron, what are your spiritual gifts? Communication, wisdom, faith, a few others. He said, yeah, so I’m not giving you tongues, and I’m not giving you that, but you go with the gifts I’ve given you, you be faithful, and I am with you always. I stepped into that, and I realized, like I said, this prophecy Don Poulson gave me has come true now, fifteen years or so later. I continue to use those same gifts, and I have the Holy Spirit. I had the Holy Spirit then. And I still have not spoken in tongues or ever been slain in the Spirit, but He is with me, He guides me and directs me. And I realize, all these years later, that one of the most difficult things is still to actually listen and obey the Holy Spirit. If you’re thirsty, seek and drink. He’s available.
Now you may be skeptical, suspicious, maybe a little wounded. Again, let’s start the year the way we will at the end of the service. I just want you to be honest with Jesus, honest with the Holy Spirit, and say, God, I’m really suspicious of this Holy Spirit stuff. I’m really cynical about it. I’ve been wounded by some bad expressions of it, and I’m just telling You that’s where I’m at. And then you ask Him, what do You want me to know about that, Jesus? And the Holy Spirit will communicate to you. What can happen when we get into the gap of suspicious or wounded is we just get stuck. Here’s what Jesus says. If you’re at a place where you’re suspicious and wounded, it’s not something to be ashamed about, it’s something to be honest about. And then Jesus says, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Knock, seek, find.
Eric Maitland, that name may be familiar to some of you. Eric was the original worship leader for Mercy Road when it started eleven or twelve years ago over in Carmel. He was the worship leader there for years, and he helped start a cover band [band name unclear in the audio] that does worship on the water with us a lot. Before that, Eric was a music missionary. In his twenties he started doing music missionary work, and he still does it now, but he started in India and did some amazing stuff over there. He got to a place a couple of years ago where he was in a gap, becoming really suspicious and cynical. He got together with his friend Justin, and here’s where Eric was. He said, I read all these rumors about these amazing Holy Spirit Jesus movements over in India, Africa, China, and I don’t see any of it actually happening in America, and I’m starting to get cynical, suspicious that maybe it’s not even true. In that moment, Eric and Justin had a decision to make. We stay and sit in our cynicism, or we seek. They decided to seek.
So they put a team together, raised some money, and flew to India to go seek after this Jesus movement they’d heard rumors of. They took a film crew and traveled all over India to find the people they’d heard about, to ask, is this actually true, or is it just rumor? And guess what they began to find? They found this amazing Jesus movement that is really happening and has really happened in India. The majority of the people who came to faith, whether from a Muslim or Hindu or completely agnostic background, came into the kingdom of God through miracles. They’d meet people who said, I used to have one leg longer than the other, they prayed for me, and now my legs are straight and I can walk. They talked to one woman who said, my child died in this community, they prayed, and he came back from the dead. They talked to a man who said, my son was paralyzed, and for months I drove him down this mountain on my little moped to their prayer meeting, because I heard there was this Jesus who could heal my son. He said, I came for months and months, and then one day they prayed, and he began to walk. They’re looking at the man with his kid who is now walking, and he now leads a small Jesus movement in India. Eric met people like that time and time and time again. And he went from cautious and suspicious and a little wounded to saying, the Holy Spirit is real. I have to keep seeking and finding and being filled.
What could your story be over the next year? It has to start with honesty. God, I am thirsty. Or, God, I am really, really cynical. Or you could be the third category, where you go, honestly, Daron, I’m just uninformed. I just don’t know. You may be brand new to faith and you’re like, I came on Christmas Eve and found out about Jesus, I just gave my life to Him, I think He’s amazing. You’re saying there’s more? I can actually be filled with the power of God? I didn’t even know this was possible. And that happens. We have a story like that in the book of Acts. It’s in Acts 19. Apollos was in Corinth, and Paul travels and meets some believers, and he asks, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, no, we haven’t even heard there is a Holy Spirit. He said, then what baptism did you experience? They said, the baptism of John. Paul said, John’s baptism called for repentance from sin, but John himself told the people to believe in the one who would come later, meaning Jesus. As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, then Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in other tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve men in all. You may just be at a place where you’re uninformed. There’s nothing wrong with that. It means you have an amazing opportunity to learn and experience the power of the Holy Spirit this year.
Here’s how we’re going to help. Here’s a QR code. If you scan it, it goes to a form where you can ask any question you want about the Holy Spirit. I’d encourage you to scan it, take a picture. If you’re like, oh my gosh, I have all kinds of questions, I didn’t know this was the kind of church where we could ask questions, this is the kind of church where you can ask questions. I don’t care if you have two questions or twenty, or if you think, this one feels a little disrespectful. No, just ask the questions. Believe your beliefs and doubt your doubts, and doubt your beliefs and believe your doubts. Dallas Willard said that. It’s a great way to seek and find. So if you have questions, send them in, and they will help form what we teach and learn this year. If you’re at a place where you go, I’d love to know this, we want to help you learn it.
And we will grow in being comforted, encouraged, taught, empowered, healed, guided, and directed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Because our vision as a church is not just to be a church led by Ken, or by Daron, or by Kareem, or any one person. We want to be a church actually led by Jesus and empowered by His Spirit. A church where young men see visions and old men dream dreams. A church where anybody who calls out to the name of the Lord will be saved. A church where the kingdom of God forcefully advances, and forceful men and women lay hold of it. A church that helps create the future being downloaded from the Holy Spirit, who Jesus just told us will tell us about the future. What’s the future of your family? What’s the future of your business? What’s the future of Fortville, Ingalls, McCordsville, Fishers, Geist, and your school? The Holy Spirit knows. And we want to be people getting downloaded from the living God, from the Holy Spirit, and then moving in faith to go create the future that’s currently on the heart and mind of God. That is possible, and that is the kingdom of God. The biggest challenge will be us learning to listen, and then actually obey. We’re going to unpack that together this year.
So we’re going to sing a song to end our time together. I want to invite you to be honest with God in this moment. Where are you at going into 2026? God, I’m thirsty, what do You want me to know about that, what do You want me to do about that? God, I’m cynical, I’m really suspicious about this whole thing, I feel uncomfortable right now, what do You want me to know, what do You want me to do? Jesus, this is exciting, I didn’t know about the Holy Spirit, and I’ve got a lot of questions because I just don’t know, what do You want me to know, what do You want me to do?
Heavenly Father, we thank You for this opportunity. We thank You for the way You’ve led Ken to lead us this way this year. We thank You for the opportunities that are going to unfold. We thank You for those of us who are thirsty, who are going to drink deeply of Your Spirit and be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We thank You for the folks right now who are very skeptical, very cynical, that they’re going to find a childlike faith again. I thank You for those who are uninformed, Father, that they will be transformed by the renewing of their minds, that the Holy Spirit will guide and direct them, be their guide and their teacher, and they will become amazing men and women of faith, of obedience, of power, of encouragement, because they are filled, they are empowered, they are led by the Spirit of God. We give You these moments. Holy Spirit, I just ask that You would continue to be in this place. Speak to us now, and give us the courage and the ability to obey. In Jesus’s name.