And if you haven't signed up, you can go to the website, church website, and click on Carry the Fire study and sign up there. There's going to be— Sean, did we get a clipboard? Did we find one? Yeah, so there's going to be a clipboard floating around if you would just sign up so we can get a record of you being here. But over 100, or close to 100 people have signed up, and we'll probably get some more as we move on.
So that's amazing. That shows me that there's a great interest in learning about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. So that's what we're going to start with tonight.
Let me give you a little bit of history of our church. This church was birthed in the charismatic renewal, the Jesus Movement of the early '70s, when the Lord poured out His Holy Spirit here in El Paso.
And Judy and I were just 18, 19 years old back then. We were just kids. And there were like 3 major things going on in El Paso at the same time. A bunch of young kids were meeting up at Park Hills Christian Church up off of Alabama at a meeting called Jesus Chapel. It was on Friday nights and it was just kids.
It was just kids from First Baptist Church who were getting together to pray praise, sing praise, simple praise songs and worship songs, very short teaching, maybe like a gospel presentation, 10 or 15 minutes, and then more praise and worship songs. And during that dynamic, young kids started coming to the Lord by the scores.
And then we outgrew that church, and another church opened its doors, a church on Fort Boulevard, and then we outgrew that. And another church opened its doors, a Methodist church down on Montana. And then we outgrew that, and we ended up at St. Paul's Methodist Church out on Edgemere a few years later, which has a very large sanctuary. And one of the memories I have of St. Paul's is going on Friday night to Jesus Chapel Friday night and seeing young kids like me holding hands with their parents walking into Jesus Chapel the chapel. Because what was happening was kids were getting saved, and they were going home and talking to their parents about coming to Jesus, and they were witnessing to their parents who were going to church on Sunday but weren't saved.
You know, back in that day, everybody in America went to church on Sundays. That's what you did. But most of us weren't saved. And so kids were getting saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, and going home and witnessing to their parents, and then bringing their parents, holding their hands, walking into Jesus Chapel Friday night.
Eventually Jesus Chapel became a church, Jesus Chapel Church out on Edgemere, Fred and Eileen Walker. Fred was the pastor there. So during that time, the Holy Spirit was being poured out on denominational congregations in El Paso. And right down the street here on Montana, Bill Buck was pastoring a Disciples of Christ church called Austin Park Christian Church. And Austin Park was a typical Disciples of Christ church that didn't believe in the continuing work of the Holy Spirit through the sign gifts, through tongues and interpretation, prophecy, healings, and miracles. They didn't believe in that.
Mount Franklin Baptist on the west side of town had the same doctrinal position. And within a few years of each other, the Lord poured out His Holy Spirit on both of those congregations.
The way it happened with Bill's church down here at Austin Park, there was a group of about 5 or 6 couples that were meeting to pray for their church. They had a very moderate-sized congregation, probably less than 100. My wife Judy and her two sisters made up the whole youth group of the church.
So it wasn't a large church. But so about 5 or 6 couples, including the pastor, started praying for their church. And they were praying for a number of things that they had on a list to pray for. And Bill's testimony was at the end of the list we put— we decided to put on our prayer list that the Holy Spirit would move in our church, because he said, after all, we are a Christian church. We thought that would be a good thing to put on our prayer list, that the Holy Spirit would move.
And so he said it was kind of just like a tip of the hat to the Holy Spirit. But that was on their prayer list, and so every week they were praying, and they would meet in homes. One night while these couples, 5 or 6 people were praying, 5 or 6 the couples were praying for the church, one of the ladies spontaneously started speaking in tongues.
So this was in like 1970, '71, and Bill was humble enough. Bill was a big man, played football for TCU. He had a big heart, a big spirit, kind of like Gil. He was about Gil's size, big man, had a smile like Gil's, but that was his personality, and he was a humble man. And even though he had been teaching that tongues don't happen today, he realized that God was doing something. And so he knew some Pentecostal ladies, missionaries. In fact, these are the ladies that started the 3M Ranch way back in the '60s where Dean and Denise now live.
Those two ladies had started the orphanage, the 3M Ranch. And he asked one of them to come over and start teaching that group of 5 or 6 'Let's lay hands on couples on the gifts of the Holy Spirit.' And so she did. And one by one, those couples started getting filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues.
6 · The institutional conflict: Bill's public teaching on Spirit gifts forces a denominational ultimatum
And then Bill started teaching about the gifts of the Holy Spirit on Sunday morning. And after a while, the board of his church gave him an ultimatum: 'Stop teaching that because that's not what we believe as a denomination, or leave the church.' On Easter Sunday, 1971, he had his first service of his new church called Church at El Paso.
So he left his denomination, left his pastorate at Austin Park, and started a new charismatic church here in El Paso called the Church at El Paso.
7 · Parallel story at Mount Franklin Baptist follows the same pattern—Spirit baptism, denominational rejection, new church planting
In a similar way, the pastor at Mount Franklin Baptist got filled with the Holy Spirit, started speaking in tongues, and was asked to leave his church. And he started a church called The Lighthouse. And he pastored that for a couple of years, and then he was— turns out he was allergic to ants. He got bitten by ants and died at a picnic, which was— and this was right in the middle of the Charismatic Renewal.
He died. There was a prayer meeting to raise him from the dead. People were— God was doing some amazing miracles back in that time, and there was faith to pray that type of prayer. The Lord didn't raise him from the dead, but another pastor, Val Munson, was called in to take the Lighthouse Church. Val changed the name to Sun Life Christian Center.
8 · The 1979 merger creates Church of the Covenant—the congregation's direct lineage point
So during the '70s, the church at El Paso and Sun Life Christian Center grew here in El Paso as people were coming to the Lord through this great move of the Holy Spirit here in El Paso. Sun Life Christian Center bought this land from Radford School back in the '70s, maybe the early '80s. '70s, it was in the '70s. Yeah, it was in the '70s. In 1979, those two churches, Church at El Paso and Sun Life Christian Center merged.
And formed the Church of the Covenant, which is where we get— that's where our history starts actually as a combined church. First name of this church was Church of the Covenant. And because Sun Life had bought this land, all the assets from both churches merged into the new church. And so this land became the possession of the new church, Church of the Covenant. And the name Church of the Covenant came from the fact that the two pastors covenanted together to keep their churches together, and the two congregations covenanted together to stay together.
9 · The merger's failure after one year—like a marriage without courtship—reveals the difficulty of blending leadership structures
But after a year, the merge didn't work out, and Pastor Buck reformed Church at El Paso. It was kind of like a marriage without an engagement, like a marriage without a courtship. It happened rather quickly in 1979, and it was a difficult thing, as you can imagine. Two senior pastors who were accustomed to leading their own church with their leadership team now had merged together, so the church had two senior pastors plus the accompanying leadership teams all learning to work together. It was quite challenging.
Quite challenging. And as it turned out, it didn't work out. So Bill reformed Church of El Paso, but he probably brought in about 400 members into the merger. But only about half of them went back with him to reform because everyone that came together was covenanting together for this new church. So a lot of his former members stayed here as a part of this church.
10 · Val Munson's long-term vision for unity—and his pastoral preparation of his congregation through servanthood teaching—made the merger theologically sound even if structurally premature
Val Munson, who was the other pastor, he was the one who had the vision to merge. When he got here to El Paso in the early '70s, he just had a heart to join forces with another church. He didn't see a need to have a bunch of independent charismatic churches, so he always had it in his heart to merge. And so he'd been teaching his congregation principles of servanthood, shared leadership, humility, that type of thing. So there was a foundation that he laid in his congregation that would support a merger if it ever came.
So when Bill pulled out, Val's heart was crushed and he left in another year. So after 2 years of the church coming together, the 2 senior men who had brought the churches together were gone from this church.
11 · Leadership vacuum filled by inexperienced young men (including Chuck), a retired missionary, and a businessman-elder
And it was left in the hands of some young men, me being one of them, and a retired missionary from Michigan who he and his wife had been missionaries to Cuba, Jesse and Irene Nicholson, and he had come to El Paso to retire. So he was here on staff. And then a local businessman named Carlos Morales was also one of our elders.
And it was Carlos's business that carved our front doors of the church. He was a cabinetmaker and an excellent woodworker. We took a retreat up to the mountains and thought maybe we should just close the church. By that time, Jesus Chapel Friday night had become a church. Fred Walker had realized that the kids that were coming on Friday night to Jesus Chapel were seeing and looking to that Friday night service as their church, which it was never meant to be.
12 · Chuck's unflinching honesty about mixed motives—spiritual zeal contaminated by selfish ambition—shows pastoral self-awareness
It was just meant to be a praise and worship night. But kids were going there to church. And so when they couldn't get the kids to disperse to the other churches that were established, Fred prayed with a group of men. Todd Peterson's parents being one of those couples, Rich Peterson and Fred Walker and Jack Hahn started Jesus Chapel Church and eventually built out on Edgemere. So when we went up to the mountains, we thought, well, we— if Maybe we should just close the church down because of what it— a lot of hurt, a lot of hurt lives, a lot of disappointment, a lot of discouragement.
But we were 3 young guys who quite honestly had quite a bit of spiritual zeal, but also a lot of selfish ambition. So it was hard to sift through all that and try to get the Lord's will.
13 · The decision to continue rests on theological conviction: the church occupied a unique position between charismatic excess and charismatic conservatism
But when we looked at how we were practicing the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the operation of the gifts in our Sunday morning services and in our gathered meetings, our home groups. We felt like the way the Lord was leading us was somewhat of a middle-of-the-road approach. There were some charismatic churches here in town that were doing some crazy things that we didn't agree with, and the Jesus Chapel ministry was solid biblically, but they were very, very conservative as the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
And so while we could commend our congregation to Jesus Chapel doctrinally, we thought that the way the Holy Spirit was moving in our church was a little bit different than what was going on in the city. And so we came back and decided to keep the church going.
14 · The survival narrative concludes with God's grace sustaining the church through name changes that track healing from trauma
And so that's actually why we're a church today, is we kept the church going. God gave us tremendous grace. We've gone through a couple name changes. We got tired of explaining what Church of the Covenant meant to everybody. Now it was jokingly and hurtfully referred to as the Church of the Broken Covenant. So that name didn't serve us very well. So we changed the name to Vista New Life Church, and you can see that inscribed on the door, on the front door is Vista New Life, and then a number of years back we changed it to Cross of Grace.
15 · Connects historical narrative to present reality: the church's continuity depends on faithful administration of Spirit gifts
With the roots of this church and the reason that we continued as a church had a lot to do with the move of the Holy Spirit and how this church managed and administrated the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our services.
And so I've told Ricky this a few times, that I don't think any church will move forward in any area of ministry but especially the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, it won't move ahead of where the senior pastor is. So you think about that dynamic. Think about how whoever the senior pastor is sets the tone of the church.
16 · Clarifies governance structure while affirming pastoral influence reality: even in plural elder leadership, the lead pastor shapes congregational culture
Now, Ricky doesn't— we don't have a strong senior pastor model where we do everything that Ricky wants to do. That's not— Ricky is our senior pastor, but we're led by a board of elders collectively.
But whoever is the lead pastor at any church, regardless of the structure of the eldership, that senior pastor will carry the flavor of the church. Most people come to a church because they strongly identify with the senior pastor. They either like his personality, they like his teaching mode, they like what he teaches, whatever. People normally stick to a church because of the senior pastor.
17 · Introduces Ricky's testimony by acknowledging his exposure to charismatic excess despite leadership efforts to prevent it
So I have been anxious for a number of years to watch Ricky's growth as a man, as a pastor, as our senior pastor, and especially in this area of the Holy Spirit's ministry.
Because as Ricky will share with you, as he grew up in this church, he saw some strange things. Even though we were trying not to allow strange things, he experienced some strange things. And so when he told us that he was writing a book on the Holy Spirit, I just could not wait to see it. Ricky, how long have you been leading us now? 12 years?
15? 45? What is it? 15. So during that time, Ricky has grown, as you all have witnessed, those of you that have been here.
18 · Chuck's commendation of Ricky and the book establishes ethos for what follows
He's grown into just a tremendous pastor who loves the Lord, who loves the things of God, and now has written a book that I think will be very useful, not only to our church, but I think to the church, who knows, maybe worldwide, as this very gifted book gets into the hands of people who have questions about the Holy Spirit. So I'd like Ricky to come up and share kind of his journey with the Holy Spirit and also what the Lord put on his heart for him to write a book in the first place.
Yeah, Ricky!
19 · Ricky opens with humor about logistical failures, using administrative chaos as evidence of unexpected hunger for Spirit teaching
All right, guys. So good to see y'all. Hey, wanted to say thanks as well for putting up with a little bit of our administrative hiccups. This evening.
We were honestly pretty surprised at how many people signed up, and people kept signing up even last few days. So our original plan was just to meet in there, in that room, and you can see that that plan did not work as we thought. So we'll be tweaking things, but thanks for putting up with a little bit of like, oh man, we need more chairs, and we didn't realize how many people would need name tags and all that stuff.
20 · Introduces the diagnostic framework: functionally broken Trinity
Listen, I wanted to share with you a little bit of my heart and why I wrote the book and hopefully give an overview of what we as pastors are hoping you get out of this class over the next number of weeks. I want to— I got a white— I'm a whiteboard guy. If you know, if you've been around me long enough, you know that I love whiteboards. And one of the things that I have found One of the things I found is— I think I put this on the back of the book— that most Christians have a functionally broken Trinity. And what I mean by that is most Christians have a Trinity of the Father and the Son and then a big question mark right there, functionally. Meaning most people know something about God the Father. Most people know something about God the Son, especially in a Catholic community like El Paso.
So my whole extended family is Catholic, but they didn't talk a ton about the Holy Spirit. And functionally, something is going in here. So if you are maybe from a Catholic background, this is basically the the way that many folks function. There's the Father, Son, and then the Magisterium, the teaching of the church, if that makes sense. Meaning, we're going to tell you exactly how to apply, you know, what the Father says and the Son says, and almost like push the Holy Spirit out of the way and go, no, no, we're going to take that spot and we'll tell you, we'll give you exactly what to do.
The problem is then, if you— if I've had a number of conversations with folks that are from the Catholic Church, they really don't have an understanding of who the Holy Spirit is. They're not taught much about the Holy Spirit. So, here is— so, we don't want to do that. We thank God for the church, but the church is under, if I could say it this way, the church is under the authority of God, right? It's not functionally a part of that.
21 · Completes the broken Trinity taxonomy and offers the corrective: Father, Son, Spirit give us Bible; Bible governs church
Now, the thing though that sometimes well-meaning Protestants can do is they can have a functional Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Bible, right? You know what I mean when I say that? It's functionally the Holy Spirit's— like, we don't talk about the Spirit, doesn't function in our categories of thinking. It's just, this is what the Bible says. And almost to the extent that the Holy Spirit is not seen or noted or thought about at all.
And we say, no, no, no. In fact, it goes like this. The Trinity Father, Son, and Spirit are what give us the Bible, and the Bible is what governs the church, right? Now, one last one to do. I think functionally today, though, folks that are not from maybe either of those two backgrounds have a different functional Trinity, the American functional Trinity.
And what I would say to that is they have a functional Trinity of Father, Son, and our holy feelings.
Meaning you'll have folks that the Bible speaks into an area of life like sexuality or something like that, and they're like, but I just don't feel like God would say that. I just don't feel like God would make me do that or not let me do that. Right. And we're going, no, no, no, no, no. That's, that's not a biblical Trinity.
And so what I want to do is I want to reclaim, help us over the next number of weeks reclaim the Trinity so that we go Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That's what we want to see.
22 · Sets up autobiographical framework using head-heart-hands triad
Now, I'm going to share my story in kind of a tongue-in-cheek way, if you'll let me, and if you're willing to put up with my really, really poor drawing. The problem is I'm a bad combination of I like using whiteboards and also I can't draw. So that's not helpful.
But I'm going to move this just so you guys can see. Oh, from that side. Can you guys see now? Less than witty, okay. So here's what I would say.
Here's me, here's Ricky. I've got some glasses.
I'm always anxious.
That's me, okay? Now, here's my heart, and then I would say, These are my hands. Okay, so there's 3 components here, right? He's thinking about things. So you got head, heart, and hands, and I want to share my story using those 3 elements.
23 · Age 8: total Spirit resistance across all three domains—head (didn't know), heart (didn't like), hands (wouldn't practice)
Okay, so let's just say age 8 in the church. Okay, some of you guys knew me for age 8, so I'm sorry. I was the most annoying kid in kids ministry. I was getting people in trouble all the time. I was the kid that would be like, "They're talking." "Excuse me, teacher." "Yes, they're talking." And the other kids are just like, "What's wrong with you, man?" So, when it comes to understanding the Trinity, my default— this is what I want you to understand about me— I'm a very unlikely person to write a book about the Trinity, about the Spirit in particular, because I did not want anything to do with the Holy Spirit.
Especially when people called them in the Holy Ghost, right? I just thought, nope, not doing that. And so there'd be a prayer time. And I remember my dad asking me, you know, age 7, 8, you know, mijo, do you want to go up? They're praying for people to experience the Spirit.
Do you want to go up? And I was just like, no. And they would ask me the next week, would you like to get up and, you know, go up and be prayed for, for the power of the Spirit? I'm like, uh-uh, nope. Not that.
And so essentially I had— I didn't know much about the Spirit, but I knew I didn't like it. I had no heart for the Spirit. I didn't have a personal relationship with God, and I didn't want to practice any of the stuff around me that I saw being practiced related to the Holy Spirit, right? So that's where I start.
24 · Age 11: conversion in the kids ministry corner—heart awakened but Spirit still unwanted
Now, two things happened to me at age 11 and 13. Okay, age 11, the first thing to change was my heart. Related to the Lord, because over there in that corner, you guys can see it from here, that corner kids ministry door— there used to be a kids ministry class, uh, that door right there— that's where I was saved. One of the teachers, I don't even remember who exactly, was sharing the gospel for the millionth time with me. And at that moment, what I now know is that the Holy Spirit sparked my heart to life, and I understood Jesus died for my sins. Not for their sins, for my sins.
And he loved me. Jesus had a relationship with me. He wanted to have a relationship with me. He died that I might relate to him. And so all of a sudden, something changed in my heart, right?
But I still didn't want anything to do with the Holy Spirit. I wanted to relate to God, but I was like, I don't want to relate to the Holy Spirit. Then I went to a youth missions camp in Ciudad Juárez across the border. Shout out to our sister church, Gracias Soberana, for hosting this camp. But at the camp, they were praying for people, and at the camp, I felt the Lord tug on my heart.
I went forward, received prayer, and again, remember, I don't like the Holy Spirit, but I was prayed for. And in that moment, a few things happened. One, the vivid reality of God's love for me through the cross of Jesus Christ was impressed on my heart and mind. I mean, it was almost like standing near the cross. It was almost the, the impression and the reality I had.
I couldn't move. I felt the reality of, again, Jesus died for my sins and was overwhelmed with God's love for me. And as I was overwhelmed with God's love for me, I just began praying out loud in a language I did not understand. Now remember, I don't want the gift of tongues. I don't like the gift of tongues.
I think it's weird. And yet God gives me at age 13 the gift of tongues. And I just, I'm beginning to pray in tongues. I don't even realize what's happening in the moment, but looking back, I realize, okay, that's unique. Now here's the challenge though.
So I'm, if you talk about hands practicing some of the reality of the spirit, and understanding the heart of the Spirit was there, but I did not understand who the Holy Spirit was still. I wasn't— I did not have a functional theology of the Spirit.
25 · Age 13-19: theological awakening through father's library
So next stage, you think, okay, great, you're going to fix it. Nope. This is what happens in the next stage. From age 13 to 19, I'll just say, uh, I begin to love theology. I begin to grow in my understanding of who God is. I began reading every theology book I can get my hands on. My dad had a huge library. My dad graduated high school, never went to college, but has read probably 2 books a month ever since he was saved, which meant he had a massive library of stuff in our house.
So I just began to tear through Systematic Theology with Wayne Grudem. I began to read Puritans at age 15 and 16. I mean, I just began to get— read anything I could get my hands on, and I began to grow my understanding in my mind of who the Holy Spirit was. But as I grew in my understanding of what the Holy Spirit was, I began to, my heart, if I'm totally honest, began to close off a little bit. Like, okay, my relationship with God is moving up to my mind.
I love learning about God. And if somebody were to ask me, Ricky, do you have a personal life-giving vibrant relationship with God? I would say, well, I read a lot of books and the books are great. Right? So I lost a little bit, honestly, of the heart.
And as I read more and I began to see all of the realities of the Christian faith and who God is and his attributes began to fit into, like, these nice, neat categories, I began to be like, yeah, the Holy Spirit stuff that seems subjective, I actually don't want that either. Right? I like the theology. I like organization. My mom tells a story of when I was a kid, she found me organizing.
And she was like, "Ricky, what are you doing?" And I'm like, "I'm just organizing the crayons into shades. These are the blues, the greens, the reds." Right? And then she would go, you know, find me later. "What are you doing?" "I'm organizing my Legos into blues and greens and reds." You know, that's the kind of kid I was. So as I began to grow and reading more and more, I began to go, I like that.
What I don't like is the subjective perspective personal relationship thing.
26 · Late teens: 'open but cautious' = door cracked, requiring divine skywriting
Now, thankfully, God did not leave me there because here's what happened eventually. Eventually, as I read and studied the Bible— and I got— let me just be totally straight with you— I got to the point where late in my teens, I thought maybe I could just not deal with any of the Holy Spirit stuff anymore, any of the sort of presence of God stuff. And so, I even refer to myself at times as, well, I'm, you know, you ever heard this term open but cautious? In my case, it was I am slightly opened and extremely cautious.
I'm like, the door is cracked because biblically I don't feel like I can close it all the way, but it would have to be like God skywriting something for me to think that it's from him. And yet, and yet, as I read the New Testament, I would be in Bible reading plans. As I read the New Testament, I just began to see, no, no, no, God throughout the Old Testament personally relates to his people in a way that was unheard of in the ancient world. Like, you have to understand this, in the ancient world, gods did not have personal relationships with their people. They lived like up on Mount Olympus and then occasionally came down and did some stuff.
Usually not great, and then went back. And so you see in the, in the Old Testament, God dwells among his people. The psalmist relates to God as a personal relationship, which is unheard of in the ancient world. And then in the New Testament, you see them relating to God personally through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, that began to help me go, no, no, no, what I'm missing it.
I'm missing part of the Christian life if I'm missing the Holy Spirit. Because functionally for me, I just didn't have anything in here. I knew enough to know, well, I shouldn't put the Bible in there, I shouldn't put the church in there, I shouldn't put my feelings in there, but I just didn't have anything in there until through reading the Bible itself, I became convinced, no, there is a whole part of life that relates to the Holy Spirit.
27 · Age 20+: integration achieved—head, heart, hands aligned
And so finally, I think it'd be right to say 20-plus, I finally began to understand the Spirit, have a heart for the things of God, and then functionally lean into practicing some of those things. Now, I want to make one big qualification here.
When I talk about the Holy Spirit, I'm not just talking about what we think of as the more spectacular gifts of the Spirit. I'm not just thinking like tongues, prophecy, miracles, healings, etc. If you read the book, one of the things I try to very clearly do is say the Holy— our relationship with the Holy Spirit is much broader than just any specific gift. If you reduce the Holy Spirit down to any one specific gift or aspect, you've tried to collapse God into your own personal box rather than seeing God for who he is.
28 · Preview of study's scope: Spirit as sanctifier (conforming to Christ), Spirit as missional power (evangelism), Spirit as gift-distributor (including unglamorous gifts), Spirit-filling rightly defined
And so, uh, one of the things you will do over the next number of weeks with Chuck's leadership is go, hey, the Holy Spirit, who is the Trinity, and what does the Bible say about the Holy Spirit. We're gonna talk about how the Holy Spirit, one of its main functions is to change you to look more like Jesus, right? If you wanna be filled with the Spirit, you gotta look like Jesus. And we're like, oh man, could I, many times I've gone, I'd like the Holy Spirit stuff, I'd like the comfort, I'd like the presence stuff without changing. And the Holy Spirit's like, "No, it doesn't work that way. We're going to put you in the forge.
You're going to get reshaped." We're also going to talk about the Holy Spirit as a gift of missional power. I remember years ago, one of our pastors was talking to a friend from our congregation, and they were just— the person from our church was just expressing, "Man, I just wish we saw the Holy Spirit move more powerfully these days." And the pastor replied kind of tongue-in-cheek, I won't say the I don't even know who it is, but tongue in cheek, they said, well, I know one surefire way to see the Holy Spirit move and experience his power. And they were like, oh yes, what is it? And they said, go across the street and tell your neighbor about Jesus. Meaning the Holy Spirit is given in Acts 1 for the power to witness and testify to Jesus, right?
So if you want more of the Holy Spirit, man, you gotta be all about evangelism. We're also talking about a bunch of very broad gifts. Gifts like encouragement, gifts like administration, gifts like the— it's funny, I was thinking most of the time we are almost like, yeah, get out of the way, administration, get out of the way, encouragement. I want the healing guy, right? There's never a conference for the, you know, the encouragement guy.
You know, you're not selling out stadiums for like encouragement conferences. You sell out a stadium for a healing conference. Now, is healing a good gift? Yeah, absolutely. But we don't want to neglect any gift that the Holy Spirit wants to give us.
And then we also talk about at the end, what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? And it often doesn't mean what people think it means.
29 · Identifies three audience types on the spectrum: skeptics (anti-supernatural), enthusiasts (anti-intellectual), and theologians (anti-emotional)
And so this is my heart. I share all that to say this. Our goal is you're probably somewhere on this spectrum. Maybe you're coming in tonight and you're like, man, I am in the nope, nope, nope, like category. I walked in skeptical. Are they going to try to do some weird thing?
They have snakes they're going to handle at the end of the service or something. The answer is no, we don't have any snakes. Or maybe you're like, I love the subjective stuff. I love to feel the feelings. Why do we have to do a class?
Why can't we just worship? Well, this is for you as well. Or maybe you're where I was at a time of my life where you're like, I love to know about the Spirit. I just don't want any weird stuff. I don't want any subjective stuff.
I don't want the emotional part. And my goal through the book, and I think Chuck's goal through this class, is to help bring everybody from wherever you are to where the Lord wants us to be so that we understand the Spirit, so that we have a heart for relationship with God through the Spirit, and so that we understand how to rightly steward the gifts and qualities of the Spirit in the church.
Amen. Well, that's our heart, uh, and that's my testimony. Um, is there anything else you want me to share, Chuck? Is that good, man?
30 · Book genesis: recurring new member questions
Okay, so part of the— is partly the book came from every single, uh, new members class we've done. Somebody puts their hands up and we go, do you have any questions? And then somebody, brave person, puts their hand up and goes, I was reading your statement of faith. I'm like, good, that's great. I have a question, okay?
And I already know what it is. So you think you can talk in tongues? Like from the Bible? What language is it? Or something like that, right?
Or some question about, you know, do you think— why don't you have a prayer ministry for healing every Sunday? Or maybe it's even a skeptical question. Like, you guys don't believe blank, right? Like, you believe in the Spirit, but not like the weirdo I saw on YouTube one time, right? And so part of it was, you know, we answered that question, and that question, every— I don't think we have had a membership class where somebody has not asked one of those questions, usually multiple ones.
31 · Publishing gap identified: Reformed books emphasize regeneration, ignore gifts; charismatic books emphasize gifts, ignore systematic theology
And so finally, and I looked and looked and looked for a short introduction to the Holy Spirit that you don't need to know anything about theology. You can just understand the basics, and not just the gifts, and not just regeneration. Because here's what I found, okay? Can I just be real with you guys for a minute? Um, I'm gonna— this isn't being recorded, is it, Sean?
It probably— oh, it's being recorded. Okay, I guess it's being recorded. That's fine, I'm fine. We'll just put it out there. So books on the Spirit, I found, fit into two big piles.
Okay, there were the Reformed books on the Spirit, if I could oversimplify, that were very much like, guess what the Holy Spirit did? He regenerated your heart by divine power. And I'm like, amen. And then I'm like, now do the gifts. And they're like, nope, he regenerated you.
I'm like, okay, but what about the rest of it? And then there would be a pile of sort of charismatic books that I found And they are all about like the healings, the miracles, the overflowing, the all that stuff. And I'm like, awesome. But what about sanctification? What about regeneration?
What about, you know, the basics of who the Trinity is? And there wasn't a whole lot of that there. And so it was almost like I felt like there were two piles of books that I wish I could just take and smash together and create a new book.
32 · Writing process: booklet proposal becomes full book with elder support
And I kept looking every year and every year. And so finally, 2 years ago, I went to the elders and I said, "Hey, I would just like to write a sort of a booklet, just a small booklet that we could have in the bookstore that would bring those 2 things together." And they were like, "Sure, that's great." And then I came back and said, "Okay, the booklet's a little bit bigger than I expected. Is that okay?" And they were very gracious and said, "That's fine." So, I want to give a huge thank you to the elders at Crossville Grace because they were the ones that basically gave me the time and ability to write this.
And look, I'm not saying it's the only one like it. There are some other books in a similar vein, but there was nothing that I thought that we as pastors went, okay, this is the kind of introduction we want to hand to people when they, in the new membership class, ask about what we believe about the Spirit. And so that's where it came from.
33 · Ricky's experiential spectrum: divine healing and prophetic word on one end; anxiety, depression, and felt absence of God on the other
Also, I will say this as Chuck comes back up. At some point at the end, I would love to share some of the insane things I have experienced related to the Spirit. And here's the spectrum, okay? Just maybe to give you a flavor, the spectrum is this. On one side, I've been physically healed in a medically verified way after being prayed for.
By people for healing in a way that I go back to the doctor and the doctor's like, yeah, I guess we're done here, right? That has happened. I have— the Lord subjectively told me that I would begin gospel ministry at 19, and I just held that with an open hand. He told me at age 15, in 4 years you're going to start ministering, and I forgot about it. And then at age 19, since age 19, I have always worked for a church or Christian ministry.
Which I— that's insane. Now, that's one end of the spectrum. The other end of the spectrum is I deal with and I fight anxiety and depression semi-regularly. There are times that subjectively I do not feel any of what I know is true in the Bible about the Spirit and his nearness. There are times where it is dark and it feels lonely and I feel subjectively like I cannot sense the presence of God.
And that, brothers and sisters, I think is the spectrum of what it means to live a normal Christian life. There are gonna be times where you see God move powerfully and miraculously, and there will be times where you go, I know this is in the Bible, but I'm not, I don't feel as though I'm experiencing it. Lord, help my unbelief. And that's where we're gonna live together.
34 · Humorous self-deprecation about art teacher firing
All right, so Chuck, come back. You stopped walking. I was wrapping it up, and then you went back. And I'm like, no, no, no, come over here now. So thanks for putting up with my drawings, guys.
I will say one other thing about my drawing. My parents did try to give me an art teacher in this age group. And apparently, the Lord did not give me that gift, because after 3 weeks, the art teacher went to my parents and said, there's nothing I can do.
Thank you, Ricky.
35 · Chuck's brief pastoral affirmation of Ricky before moving to book orientation
Aren't you glad he's our pastor? Yeah, I just— I'm so thankful, so thankful to the Lord.
36 · Book walkthrough: teaching sections, Selah pauses, historical prayers, personal prayer prompts, discussion questions
I'd like you to open up your book. I want to— if you haven't looked at it Let's look at it together. If you have looked at it, let's review just a bit. There's a specific format that Ricky has used. And let's just turn to the first chapter, which is on page 13.
So each chapter has a few pages of teachings with examples. And then at the end of each chapter, if you'll turn to page 22, you'll see a pause, a Selah, which is just a pause to reflect. And then Ricky has researched, and you'll see it here in the middle of page 22, he has researched some very meaningful prayers from church history. And you can see this one goes back to the 1600s. So each chapter ends with a meaningful prayer that pertains to the material in that chapter.
And then you'll see a page of things where you're just invited to pray. To write down your prayer. Lord, thank you for whatever comes to your mind after reading that first chapter. And then, Lord, help me in these specific areas. So this is kind of like a textbook plus a workbook together.
And if you turn over to page 24, here are some questions to think about. And these are some of the things that we're going to be talking about in our discussion groups. So each night we'll be going through the book and then we'll turn our chairs around and we'll have a short time of discussion between the 7 or 8 people that are in your discussion group. Okay, and so what I'd like for you to do is if you would cover between now and next week chapters 1, 2, and 3.
37 · Pascal's fire narrative: the scientist-philosopher who sewed his conversion account into every jacket
Chapter 1, is entitled The Fire. And Ricky starts the book with a very interesting narrative from Blaise Pascal. In fact, let's just read. You follow along as I read this.
This is back on page 13. There was something odd about Blaise Pascal's jackets. For years, every time he changed jackets, he had an odd habit. He would carefully unsew and remove a piece of paper from the old jacket and have it sewn into the new jacket. A peculiar piece of paper, something he wanted near his heart always.
Pascal is best known today as a scientist, mathematician, and philosopher. So what was his small, carefully sewn note? An equation? A philosophical maxim? The answer wasn't discovered until his death when a servant finally found the paper in Pascal's last coat.
On it was a simple emblem of a cross. When the servant unfolded the paper, he found the following: The year of grace, 1654. Monday, 23rd November. From about half past 10 at night until half past midnight, fire.
38 · Chuck pauses Pascal reading to clarify purpose: not academic but experiential
So let me just pause and say that as we start this teaching on the Holy Spirit, if we're true to the Word, it's not just going to be a stale study. But as a church, we've made a decided decision to open up our hearts to the person and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So the purpose of this class is not just to learn about the Holy Spirit, but to invite the Holy Spirit into our lives in a deeper way. To not just learn about him, but to experience him. And that's what happened here with Pascal.
He was saying fire, something happened to him on that night, fire.
39 · Full Pascal Memorial reading: ecstatic, repetitive, affective
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and of the learned, certitude, certitude, feeling, joy, peace, God of Jesus Christ. My God and your God. Your God will be my God. Forgetfulness of the world and everything except God. This is a man whose heart has been apprehended by the Lord.
He is only found by the ways taught in the gospel. Grandeur of the human soul. Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you. Joy, joy. Joy, tears of joy.
I have departed from Him. They have forsaken Me, the fount of living water. My God, will You leave Me? Let Me not be separated from Him forever. This is eternal life, that they know Him, the one true God, and the one that You sent, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. I left him, I fled him, renounced, crucified. Let me never be separated from him. He is only kept securely by the ways taught in the gospel.
Renunciation total and sweet, complete submission to Jesus Christ and to my director, eternally in joy for a day's exercise on the earth. May I not Forget your words. Amen. Blaise Pascal Memorial, 1654.
40 · Interpretive summary of Pascal: scientist reduced to fire-language
Pascal spent his life in the realm of science and ideas, but what he kept near his heart until his death was no mere religious idea. He was used to speaking of God as a force, as an idea, as a part of the philosophical landscape, but this was something entirely different. This was fire.
This was the presence and the power of God.
41 · Alpha video quotation from Pope's pastor
In our Alpha class, we have a series of teachings on the Holy Spirit, and on one of the videos, they're interviewing the man who is the pastor to the Pope. And he is a cheerful, joyful man. He's got a big white beard and this huge smile. And he had one quote that just apprehended my heart.
And the quote was, "What and who the Holy Spirit touches, the Holy Spirit changes." and who the Holy Spirit touches, the Holy Spirit changes.
42 · Application of the transformation principle to the study itself
So that's our prayer, that as we go through this study of the Holy Spirit, that the Lord would touch us by his Spirit and change us.
Change us to look more like Jesus, empower us to do his mission, draw us together as a body, and understand His call on our lives in a deeper way.
43 · Personal testimony from Billy Graham crusade: Chuck went forward at age 12/13 but wasn't saved
And let me just tell you from experience, I have had the— since I'm 73, I've had the privilege of living through two waves of revival here in the United States. One was through the ministry of Billy Graham in the '50s, '60s, and '70s. 1970s, where the Lord used him to preach to hundreds of thousands of people.
Like I've said many times, back in that time everybody was in church, but nobody was saved, or very few people were saved. And the Lord used Billy Graham to draw church people to his crusades, and they responded to the gospel, many of them for the first time in their life. Even though they'd been in church Sunday after Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. Billy Graham came to El Paso sometime in the '60s out to Kidd Field, and I remember being at one of his crusades. I was 12, 13 years old, something like that, and I remember going forward myself during the invitation.
I wasn't saved, but I went forward. The Holy Spirit was working in my life. I went forward to give my heart to the Lord, but my life wasn't changed.
44 · Billy Graham revival validated; Jesus Movement described as roaring river that sweeps away anyone who steps in
But the ministry that God gave Billy Graham here in the United States and eventually around the world was an amazing revival of God calling people back to Himself. And then in the early '70s, late '60s and early '70s, the Jesus Movement, the Charismatic Renewal, amazing move of God. And I will just tell you when the Holy Spirit moves. I was telling the guys the other night, it's like a roaring river, and you stick your foot in, and it sweeps you away.
And it's an awesome thing, but it's fire. It's like Pascal said, when the Holy Spirit starts to move, it's an amazing thing.
45 · Corporate prayer for fresh Spirit movement—nation, city, individual hearts
And so our prayer is, Lord, move again. Continue to move in our country. Continue to move in our city. Continue to move in our hearts individually, that we might be swept away by the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's our prayer for ourselves.
That's our prayer for each of you, is that as we go through this study, it won't just be knowledge about the Holy Spirit, but it will be anointed knowledge that affects our hearts and changes us.
46 · Imaginative entry into disciples' confusion pre-Pentecost
Think about the Apostle Peter, the disciple who denied the Lord 3 times.
The Lord restored him, told him to wait in Jerusalem along with the other disciples for the promise of the Father.
Turn to Acts chapter 1, and we'll close with this.
If you can imagine being one of Jesus' disciples, and I would commend you as you're reading the first 3 chapters of the book and answering the questions in the back, write down questions that you have as you're reading through it. But I'd like you to read John 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20. The last 7 chapters at the end of John, and read the words of Jesus when he starts to tell his disciples about the coming of the Holy Spirit. Especially in those chapters where he says, "It's important, it's imperative that I go, that the Holy Spirit come." Put yourself in their shoes. Here you've been walking with Jesus for 3 years, and now He's saying it's important that I leave, and they didn't know what He was talking about.
But it's imperative that I leave, that the Comforter, the Helper, the Advocate will come.
How discouraging that must have been for them. They didn't want Jesus to leave. They wanted Him to stay, and then He got crucified, and then He died, but then He rose again. And can you imagine seeing Jesus after He rose again and came back and started talking to those disciples? But again, He said, "I'm going to leave again." What an emotional roller coaster for those guys, having no idea who the Holy Spirit was, what Jesus was talking about.
47 · Acts 1:4-8 read in full
Acts 1:8, verse 4. And while staying with them, He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said, 'You have heard from Me. For John baptized you with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.' So when they had come together, they asked Him, 'Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?' They were still hoping hoping that He was going to establish an earthly kingdom and overturn the Romans. So they were asking Him, is this the time? Are you finally going to do it?
He said to them, it's not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the world.
48 · Four-fold pneumatological claim: Spirit's power operates in salvation, sanctification, unity-building, and mission
When the Holy Spirit comes, he comes with power. Power to save us, power to sanctify us, power to build unity among people who would not normally be friends, and power for us to do the ministry that he's called us to do.
49 · Final logistical instructions: homework (John 14-20, book chapters 1-3), answer questions, come ready to discuss chapter 3 (The Spark—regeneration)
So we're excited about these next 8 weeks. So I would encourage you, do your homework. Read those 7 chapters in John. Read the first 3 chapters. Answer the questions.
Respond to the areas that God is speaking to your heart. Come next week ready to discuss the third chapter, which is called The Spark, which has to do with God regenerating our lives and saving us.
50 · Q&A session opens
So I'd like to open it up now for just some thoughts or questions. Any questions or just impressions that you might have tonight?
Don't be shy. I might have to call on somebody.
Rick? Yes, in the back. Young man.
[Speaker] My best guess is maybe we have everybody in there, because they're in a circle, just pray for the study for the next few weeks. I'm sure you're thinking that though. [Speaker] Yeah, that's a great idea.
So before we do that, any thoughts, questions, comments? [Speaker] Is this every week? [Speaker] Every Wednesday at 7 o'clock. All of June and all of July. Good question.
Someone else, yes. I'm sorry, this isn't a question, but you did open it up for the possibility of a comment. Possibility of a what? The possibility of a comment. Sure.
So I was just looking at Isaiah 61, you know what Jesus said, and I thought about what Pastor Ricky said and our experience in the last few years as we've been going to the Lord healing our broken hearts. And that's been a hugely overlooked aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, you know, the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. Right, right. And a lot of other beautiful things.
I just thought it was so interesting in the hour we're living in where now even science tells us about trauma and the broken heart. I long to see the wonderful counselor empower us as his people so people don't have to go spend $200 an hour to get free. Yeah, I mean, that's a beautiful comment. And you guys are relatively new back to the church. So stand up, you guys back there.
I'm sorry, is it Mike or Mark?
Mark? Mark. So Mark came up to me either this Sunday or the one before, maybe it was this Sunday, and he goes, I was here in the middle of the '80s when it was you and Paul and Keith rushing right here in this building. So he was part of our church back then. And then you guys got married after that, right?
You weren't— yeah, so— yeah, yeah, yeah.
So you guys have some history. With us, and he's brought you back just at the right time, just at the perfect time. So thankful about that.
Yeah, I'm hanging on, Mark.
Yeah, well, I know a lot of the gray hairs have been praying for this day, for a time when we would take time to dedicate teaching to the person and work of the Holy Spirit. I mean, I could point out a number of you who I know who have been praying for decades for this day to come. And God's faithful. It's in His timing. It's in His wisdom.
And this is that time. And like, yeah. I heard this quote last night. I was watching this testimony about Nora Lamb. Yeah.
And she said something about John Wesley. And I don't remember the exact words, but some people were asking about why people come from people all around to see him. And he was like, I get with God, God sets me on fire. People don't come to watch me preach, they come to watch me burn. I love that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was thinking when you were talking about the brokenhearted, we have seen over the last few years that God has been bringing to our church a lot of broken people.
And they just end up at our front doors. And we've heard testimony after testimony that— and this is just a work of the Spirit— as they walk in the doors, they feel the presence of the Lord touching their hearts just as they walk into the building. There's nothing holy about this building. But the presence of the Lord is here. And so the Lord's been doing that and using this church to help people who have had very difficult experiences in life and in church life as well.
Yeah, one more. Yeah. I was wondering, since I won't be here like in the month of July, is there like, hey, read these chapters, is there something that we could do do when we can't participate? Yeah, so we're going to take one chapter a week. So next, this first week, we're doing three chapters.
Then after that, it'll be one chapter a week. Yeah, this, we're going to like, oh, we want to— it's— I know it's not the same, but at least we can try to do it. Yeah, and we're going to record all these as well. So yeah, yeah, those— well, we're not video— I don't know if we can video them, but we're going to record them. So so you can hear it.
Yeah. Yeah.
51 · Closing instruction: turn chairs, share what God has been saying, pray together in small groups
Okay, guys, let's turn and face each other, and let's have a time of prayer together.
And I would encourage you, as you're turning your chairs and as you sit down, before you pray, just get a quick response. What's the Lord been saying? What's the Lord been saying to you? So get a response from one another about what the Lord's been saying to you through tonight, and then pray about those things, okay?