Crying Out for the Holy Spirit — Steve Gallagher

The Lord’s Prayer and Persistent Asking

Are you ready to meet with the Lord? Me too. I'm gonna be sharing out of Luke 11 this morning, if you wanna open up there. A little bit later, I'll probably touch on Psalm 84. Luke 11, of course, Luke is a historian, and he is taking stories and anecdotes of things that Jesus did and taught.

And he, at times, packaged them together. They didn't necessarily happen right at the same time, but like I say, he's a historian, so he would just kind of put things together thematically, and I think that's the situation here.

But we're just gonna take it as if it all happened at once. And basically, it all begins with the disciples asking Jesus to teach them to pray. That's right. That's what began it all. And so the Lord shares his prayer, the Lord's prayer, and it's probably just the highlights of it, the main points of it, and so on.

And then he goes into a parable, a story, about a guy who needs some bread for a friend who's come from out of town, and his other neighbor has a big supply in his house. So he goes to the neighbor's door and knocks on the door, and the neighbor doesn't wanna get out of bed.

You know, don't bother me right now. And he keeps knocking. No, you don't understand, I really need this for my friend. And so finally, the guy, you know, just because his neighbor won't leave him alone, he finally gets out of bed and goes and meets the need.

Now, the Lord is not reluctant, but he does desire people who will seek him in spirit and in truth. And hunger. He doesn't just throw out the gifts of God and the things of God to flippant-minded people.

He's interested in people who are earnest, who are serious about the things of the Lord. And that's what that story represents, someone who's pounding on the door and will not be denied. Then he comes to verse nine, and I'm just saying all that.

This is the passage we're gonna look at today. That's the backdrop, and he says in verse nine, so, okay, that word has meaning in it. He doesn't just start another sentence. It's a tie-in with everything that's been expressed already.

So, because of everything I've just shared with you, I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives, and he who seeks, finds.

And to him who knocks, it will be opened. Now, suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish. He'll not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he asks for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? All right, he doesn't say how much more will your heavenly father answer your prayers.

He could've said that, and it would've made perfect sense. Actually, the way he said it, and it comes from left field. It doesn't seem to fit in the flow of what he's expressing. He doesn't say that he'll just answer their prayers and give them the things they desire.

He says he will give you the Holy Spirit. And really, when you think about it, everything you could possibly ask for can be found in the Holy Spirit. You want a new house, a bigger house? Wouldn't it be better if you had a fresh infilling of the Holy Ghost to where you are content to live in the house that you have, to drive the car that you have, to have the computer that you have, or whatever you could ask God for?

You need blessings for your family. Call upon the Holy Spirit because he's the one that can meet those needs. You have unsaved loved ones. Then it's the Holy Spirit who's gonna come and convict them of their need.

And of their sin and so on. The Holy Spirit is everything that you could possibly want. He is a gift from God given to mankind during our stay on earth that God can come into our lives and meet the needs that we have.

But as we have seen in this story, in this passage, he doesn't just hand out the Holy Spirit to people who ask without hunger. His Holy Spirit is promised, but it's promised to those who will seek him for the Holy Spirit.

Resisting, Grieving, and Quenching the Holy Spirit

But you know, the truth is, most Christians aren't interested enough to ask, to seek, and to knock. Most Christians don't really care enough. They're content just to go through life and really, to be honest, to live for the things of the world.

They're content to go to the flesh pots of Egypt so long as they can say that they are followers of God. They're content to drink of the stale wells of this world, to live in a dry and weary land. They're content with that.

And it's really kind of what the scripture says. In Acts 5, there are those who lie to the Holy Spirit. And then in Acts 6, those who resist the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 4, there are those who grieve the Holy Spirit.

In 1 Thessalonians 4, there are those who reject the Holy Spirit. And in chapter 5, those who quench the Holy Spirit. In Hebrews 10, there are those who insult the Holy Spirit. And finally, in Jude, there are worldly-minded people who are devoid of the Holy Spirit.

Do any of those characterizations describe your response, your reaction, your relationship with the Holy Spirit? You know, one thing about our relationship with God, you have to be honest with yourself and with God.

If you're prone to lying to yourself and exaggerating to yourself what you have in God and so on, you're in trouble. You're just never gonna receive anything of value. You've got to be honest with yourself.

You have to start there. The Father seeks those who worship Him in the Spirit. Not in the flesh. And in truth, not in self-deception. That's who the Father seeks to have as His children, to have as members of His family.

That's who the Lord is looking for. You know, many people say they wanna be filled with the Holy Spirit, but to be baptized with the Spirit and fire means to have our idols overthrown. It means to have our pride smashed in the dust.

It means to give up the self-life in favor of the Christ life. It means to renounce the love of the world in favor of a love for God. It means to live in the reality of your great need even to be hated by this world.

That's what it means. If you are looking for a fresh infilling, a baptism of the Holy Spirit, this is what it means. And you know, if you really understood what it meant, there's some of you who wouldn't be praying, God, fill me with your Holy Spirit.

You'd be praying, God, save me from your Holy Spirit if you knew what it meant. Because you live in the flesh and you want to live in the flesh. I'm only talking about some and I pray that a change will come for them today.

A Birthday Celebration and Personal Testimony

Having said all that, I wanna say this. Today is Pastor Steve's 60th birthday. Amen. No, no, no. Please do not applaud me. That's not what I'm looking for, trust me. That's why I, how do you say it, forbade Jeffrey from saying anything about it before the service.

I'm saying it for a reason. Well, first of all, let me just tell you this. I believe this. You are going to witness today how God throws a birthday party for one of his children. And I pray and I believe that some of you, years from now, will say, I was there the day that God threw a birthday party for Pastor Steve.

His 60th birthday, I was there. And let me tell you, it was like no celebration I've ever experienced. Because when God comes to the party, everything's different. And that's what I'm believing for. Yeah, 60, well, who cares?

I don't care. It's just another day to me. If you knew me, you would understand how little I care about such things. But it's not coincidence that God made this day the day that he promised that he was gonna come to people in this place in a special way.

And I believe that for him. It just is one more piece of evidence in the whole thing. All right, now the whole point I was trying to get at here, let me get back on track. I'm 60 years old today. I'm a young old man now, as opposed to Tom, who's an old, old man.

I'm just kidding. Tom's young for his age. 75 or 80 now, I think. I've known the Lord for 44 years. Now, there was that 10 year period where I wasn't doing so good, but I have known the Lord for 44 years.

And during that 44 years, I can look back, and I kind of almost thought, if I'd have thought of it earlier, I may have changed everything in this message. I may have just spent the whole rest of this message just telling you about some of the powerful experiences with God that I have had and Kathy has had.

There have been times, glorious times, the times that make you just keep going, you know, in the face of all the hardship and the difficulties and the struggles and the opposition. Times of, where are you, God?

But you can think back to those certain mountaintop experiences where you met with God, where He came that day, and He met you suddenly and did something marvelous for you. They're like milestones down your timeline.

You know, when you get old, like me, you'll be able to look back and see those certain times. God came to me there. God came to me there. God came to me there. He met me along the path of life and filled me and invigorated me.

And lifed me and revived me. That's what God wants to do for you today. And He will do it. He will do it. There's a word that I talk about in one of my books, kairos in the Greek, it's often translated as time or opportunity, but it's those certain kairos moments in your life when God comes.

It's an opportunity to get what you want from the King. You know, there's a certain time when the King is in a good mood. And you know, if you bring your petition to Him on that day, just because it's His birthday or whatever, He's gonna meet, you know, He's gonna answer all those petitions.

You catch Him at the right moment. That's today. That's today. Here's an opportunity for you today. And that's what we're gonna be crying out for here after I'm done talking for a little bit. We're talking about the Holy Spirit.

Biblical Images of the Holy Spirit

Who is this person? I wanna just share briefly a few descriptions of Him. In John 3, Jesus equates the Spirit with the wind that comes when you don't even know when it's gonna come or where it's gonna come from or how or anything.

You don't understand the wind. They still don't understand the wind and how much less the Holy Spirit. And actually the Greek word, pneuma, and the Hebrew word, ruach, both are the same, have the same meaning.

They are often used to describe wind or they're often used to describe breath. So, you know, when Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit coming, and, you know, whenever He wishes, when He wishes in a sovereign mood, you can't create just a nice little formula and demand that God bring revival or something.

God creates revival from His heart when He wishes, when He knows it's the right time. Now, I'm not saying there's gonna be revival today, but there will be some reviving of some drooping spirits here today.

That I will tell you. I believe God promised that to me. In Matthew 3 and Acts 2, the Holy Spirit is associated with fire. In John 4 and 7, the Holy Spirit is described as living water that wells up from our innermost being.

In John 14, He's called the Spirit of truth. In Romans 5, we're told that the Holy Spirit pours out the love of God within our hearts. In 1 Corinthians 2, we're told that the Holy Spirit searches out the heart of man.

And in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, we're told about the gifts of the Spirit. And in Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit. In 2 Corinthians 3, we're told that where the Holy Spirit, there is liberty. In Psalms 51 and 139, the Holy Spirit is equated with the presence of God.

All right, now, Robert kinda jumped the gun on me here, but you see the list right up there. This is a prayer. Holy Spirit, blow God's breath on me today. Is that your prayer? Holy Spirit, baptize me with fire today.

Some of you need that. A real Holy Ghost baptism of fire. Robert, what are you doing to me? Come on, Robert. One more. There we go. Holy Spirit, drench me with living waters. Holy Spirit, present your absolute truth to me.

Holy Spirit, pour out the love of God within me. Holy Spirit, search me and see if there be any wicked way within me. Holy Spirit, make me a usable vessel in your kingdom. Holy Spirit, set me free from every bondage.

Holy Spirit, usher us into the presence of God. That's what we're looking for. We're not looking for some little experience that gives us goosebumps. We're not looking to speak in tongues necessarily.

Although if that happens, that's fine with me. But that's not the point of it. The point of it is to have God in all his fullness come upon us and into us and through us. To experience him for who he is.

To allow him to take possession of us. That's what we're looking for. A taste of heaven, which we all need. Okay, Robert, thank you. Now, here in this verse nine, Jesus shows us three types of prayer that I'm gonna get into.

Asking as Dependence on God

We ask for something we want, right? That's why we ask, because we want something. We seek for something that we either have lost or we feel like we're missing out on. You know, if you've lost a coin, and Jesus gives that parable elsewhere, the woman tears the house apart until she finds it.

That's what seeking is all about. You're missing out on something that God has for you. Do you feel that? That's what drives you to seek. And you're knocking at a door that is standing in front of you closed, and you wanna get on the other side of it.

That's what we're looking at today. All right, so these three parts to this prayer represent three aspects of the Christian life, if I could say it that way, or maybe three stages even, because they are kind of in stages, they really are.

It's one of those things where we wanna pray for each one of them. We want that cry in our heart, all three aspects of it. But really the reality is as you go down your Christian journey, you're gonna see that you have to learn to become an asker first.

That's the starting place. And after you've done that, and that's become established in you, then you learn to become a seeker. And then you learn to knock. And we'll get into that briefly. Now listen, I'm not trying to preach some mighty sermon here today.

What I'm trying to do is create an atmosphere here, an atmosphere of faith to believe God. This is not the important part of the meeting today. The important part of the meeting is when I'm done. You say, well, why don't you just sit down then?

Because I've got a whole sermon here and you're gonna listen to it, whether you like it or not. We're creating an atmosphere, just keep telling yourself that, he's creating an atmosphere. All right, number one, asking represents dependence.

Let me tell you something, asking is extremely important in the kingdom of God. It's just a very vital part of Christianity. If you don't know how to ask, you ain't getting anywhere in this kingdom because everything is dependent upon asking for it.

It's there for you. All you gotta do is ask. How much easier could it be than that? Really, I could even say that everything hinges on asking. Everything hinges on it. This is the language of beggars, asking.

And when I'm talking about beggars, I'm not talking about these manipulators who station themselves on intersections and American streets and they're looking to get your money out of you so they can go do drugs and get high.

That's not what I'm talking about. You have to go to third world countries to know what a real beggar is. A beggar over there, they are looking for something and if they don't get it, they could very well starve to death and they know it.

When they beg, they're begging out of desperation. They're not looking to con people or to manipulate them to get something they just wanna do or something. They are in trouble. And there is only one possible way that their need is gonna be met and that is if someone takes pity on them.

And praise the Lord, we serve a God who's full of mercy, full of pity, full of compassion for our needs, desires to give to us. He desires to give to you men far more than you realize. God created his whole kingdom to operate on this principle of asking.

He created it all that way. You know, the Sermon on the Mount is the treaties of the kingdom of God. Treaties, I guess I could say it that way or maybe there's, I don't know, there's another way of saying it, but the kingdom of God, what it means to live in that kingdom is summarized in the Sermon on the Mount.

That's the whole theme throughout. And where does it begin? What is the very first thing Jesus said? Blessed are those who are poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom. It's them. Those of you who are full of yourself and you're happy for it to be that way, you don't belong in the kingdom of God and you will never make it into the kingdom of God until you become like a little child who is full of need and in his own infantile way cries out.

He doesn't care. You know, have you ever noticed about children how embarrassing they can be? I have never had them. Thank you, Lord. I'm sorry, that's my own personal view on the subject, but that's just me.

But I see these poor mothers, you know, there's some, they're in a, you know, a beautiful service at church and everything's still and quiet and all of a sudden, here it comes, bursting forth out of a two-year-old flesh.

You know, ah, you know. I don't know how you mothers handle that, you know. I just, I don't know how you handle it. But anyway, that is what we have to become, that we don't care what anyone thinks. You know, that kid don't care what you look like when he starts screaming because he wants some milk or he wants to get his diaper changed or he just is tired of being there or he just is being ornery, I don't know.

But he doesn't care what people think. All he knows is he has a need and he's gonna make it known to everyone until he gets it met. That is the way that beggars are, you know. And if you look at the stories throughout the Gospels, you'll see that that, they are the ones who got Jesus' attention.

You know, the lepers that cried out. And what was it, the blind man who was crying out to David, Jesus, son of David, heal me. And people are trying to tell him to shut up. He would not shut his mouth until he got what he needed from the Savior who was walking by.

This was an opportunity of a lifetime. That's poor in spirit. People who see their great need. Does that describe you today? Or are you pretty satisfied with how things are? Are you happy with where you're at?

Or do you want more? You need more. Are you desperate for more? Are you desperate enough to cry out to God in spite of what others think of you? Or are you gonna stay in a nice, safe, little, quiet world where no one can possibly, possibly criticize you?

You know, when you're desperate, you don't care. You don't care. James explains it. James could explain to you. James, this is the brother of Jesus. They said that his knees, this goes back to a tradition early, early days.

I think the second century, someone said this. They said that his knees were like camel knees. You know, that they were so calloused from the hours that he spent in prayer pleading with God. He was a man who was full of God.

And he knows something about this business of asking God. And you know what he said? You have not. And let me tell you why. Because you ask not. The only reason you don't have all the fullness of God, all that God has to give you is because you haven't bothered to take the time to put forth the effort to ask.

That's what he's saying. He was a man who knew how to ask. Knew what he was talking about. All right, number two. Seeking represents desire to know him. The desire to know him, to experience him. You know, some of you, your whole Christian, I say that in quotes, your whole Christian experience or existence or life or past is nothing but academic head knowledge.

Seeking to Know and Experience God

It's something you learn in books. You go to a church that preaches that kind of gospel. You go sit under a pastor who has no or very little experience of the Lord himself. He knows how to tell you all the ins and outs and why fours and all the stuff you learn in cemetery.

That was an honest mistake. That wasn't a joke. Seminary, that was honest mistake. But you feel comfortable in that church. You know why you feel comfortable? Because no one ever puts their finger on the reality of what's in your heart.

You're safe there. You're safe. You'll get some nicey little teaching that'll tell you about, you know, whatever. Not that there's any, I mean, that's a good thing that those kinds of background information is good.

I love it. I spend hours studying that stuff, but it's only to fill in and to support the main thrust, which is to have an experience with God. Jesus said that the scriptures are there for a purpose. They're there to lead you to God.

They're an end, they're a means to an end. They're not the end in themselves, but a lot of, a major portion of the Christian church looks as if studying the Bible academically is the end. It's not the end.

It's just a means to the end. There's a person on the other side of the Bible. That's what the scriptures are there for, to reveal that person, to call you to him so that you can experience him. We have a movement, different movement on the opposite side maybe of the church.

They call the seeker-sensitive church, the seeker-sensitive movement, and it's actually a blatant lie. It's actually the very opposite. It's not for true seekers, people who sincerely seek after the Lord.

It's for people who don't really care. They call it seeker-sensitive. Some devil's false prophet named it that to make it look good, and there's nothing seeker-sensitive about it. It's for dead Christians.

They're not Christians. People who don't really want the Lord but can go to a church that are not going to present them with the reality of their spiritual condition. No, seekers have a whole different mindset.

The Lord said through Jeremiah, you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. That doesn't sound like the kinds of sermons you hear from the seeker-sensitive crowd. No, it's all about how you can live for yourself, how you can live for the things of the world and call yourself Christian.

That's the message of the seeker-sensitive crowd. It's all a lie. It's not true. David represented what it means to be a seeker. His life was a long history of someone who was hard after God, and he said in Psalm 27, he revealed one of those kairos moments, and that's what we're looking at today, men, a kairos moment for you, that God is going to condescend down to you in spite of all that you have done, in spite of the trash that you've filled your mind and heart with.

He is going to condescend down to you today. This is one of those moments. It's for you, just out of sheer pity and love for you. And David described one of those times when the king was ready to meet with you.

He said, when you said, this is Jesus talking to the Lord, when you said, seek my face. David's saying this to the Lord. When you said that, my heart said to you, your face, oh Lord, I shall seek. And that word for face, sometimes it does mean face, literally, but it's also used as his presence.

It's interchangeable. When the Lord said to him, seek my presence, the reaction in his heart is your presence, oh Lord, I will seek. You know, Paul said that he gave up everything to know Jesus, everything, everything.

His reputation, his years of study, everything he owned, he became a vagabond. He had nothing that this world has to offer. For one driving passion that he might know him. That's what God wants to bring you into, man.

And it's through experiences in the Holy Spirit that creates that hunger, that desire to carry you through. You know, it's not a matter of just having a nice experience today. We want to have that, to taste and see that the Lord is good.

We want to experience his presence today. But it also is really a means to a greater end. The greater end is that it would continue, that it would become a way of life for you, that it would elicit some kind of something in you that will keep you pressing on a week from now, a month from now, a year from now.

What's the point of coming to pure life and having wonderful experiences if you go home and go back into the cesspool, right? You want something to happen inside you while you're here, man. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

And today is an opportunity for you during your stay here. Some of you are gonna meet the Lord today in a marvelous new way. A .W. Tozer said this, come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God.

They mourned for him, they prayed and wrestled and sought for him day and night, in season and out. And when they had found him, the finding was all the sweeter for the long seeking. That's what God wants to make into you.

He wants you to be a seeker of God. Would that be all right? You want to be that? If you don't, you're in the wrong place. If you do, you're in the perfect place to learn how to become that person. All right, number three, knocking represents love.

Knocking as Love and Dwelling in God’s Presence

The picture is that the traveler has come to a house and the door is barred shut, but there is something magnificent inside that house and he wants it. So he knocks at the door and he waits, no answer.

Now, a lot of people give up right there, you know? Oh, I guess they're not there. I guess they don't want to help me. Who needs you? That rises up in a lot of people's hearts towards the Lord. Why don't you answer my prayers?

Man, I prayed for three minutes. That's in a lot of people's hearts. They live their lives that way with that kind of self-imposed disappointment and nasty spirit towards the Lord. They're blaming on the Lord, their own lack of hunger and desire and willingness to persist and to knock at the door until it's open for them.

But this person knocks and knocks and knocks because he knows that there's something in that house he's got to have. You know, the Christian life is built on asking. That is a foundational part of the Christian life, dependence on God.

And he will continue to cause you to become increasingly more dependent as the years go on. So it never stops. It's not like you arrive there and you put that behind you and you go on to becoming a seeker.

You will always need to be an asker and you will discover that the further you go down this path the more you will find yourself asking for his help. The Holy Spirit is called the helper in John 14. The helper.

The helper is the one who rushes to your aid when you ask. And that's got to be established first. And then you become a seeker. You want to know him. You know, something happens for you in the asking in the Christian life.

Maybe the Lord draws near it sometime or whatever and it creates a longing inside you to know him. Just to know who he is. And when you've experienced a little bit of that something else happens. You fall in love with him.

It's really, I'll tell you the shortcut to it to loving the Lord is gratitude. Learning to be grateful. And my wife came up here the other night. She didn't use the word love for God. I don't think she used that word but what came out of her mouth was just a gush of thankfulness to the Lord that she lives in.

It's her daily life. That is the best description of what it means to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind is to just live in sight of all that he has done for you and to live in the gratitude.

You know, that just wells up within when you see someone like that, when you come to know someone like that. So anyway, getting back to our picture here, this person comes up to this house and someone fabulous lives in that house.

And this person is not content to just knock at the door and hey, can you give me some help? He's not content even to come up to the door and say, you know, I wanna get to know you and I'd like to drop by occasionally and meet with you and learn more about you.

He's not content with that. He wants to live in that house. This is where the Lord has taken you. You wanna know what it means to be a Christian? This is what I'm describing to you today now. What it means to be a Christian.

This is the path that God has for you. It's really a neat Hebrew word that kind of describes what I'm talking about. It's yashab. Literally, it means to sit, but usually you see it used in dwelling. He who dwells with the most high, that's the word yashab.

And well, for instance, in Psalm 27, four, David said, one thing I have asked from the Lord that I shall seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his temple.

That's that word, that I may sit in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Now, you know, literally that wasn't possible. He had things to do. He had a kingdom to run. He had a life to live. He had wives and children and all that stuff.

You know, he just had to do things. He couldn't literally go live in that house. I mean, he was the king. He could do whatever he wanted, but you know, but he couldn't do that. So what's he saying? He's saying that there's a way to live your life.

Somehow you can get to a place where you're dwelling in the house of the Lord. For David, this was one great overriding passion. One thing I have asked from the Lord. You know, when he said this, when he wrote this was almost certainly when he was out on the wilderness, you know, and on the run for his life.

But the one great desire of his heart was to live in close fellowship, that love relationship with God. Now you guys are experts in the realm of pursuing with all your heart the desires of the flesh, right?

Experts, me too. I was an expert. I completely went for it. I had one thing I asked for in life and went after it with everything in me for years. What's being described here is the opposite. It's the same passion, but it's a spiritual passion instead of a fleshly passion.

And the difference between the two is this. The more you go after the things of the flesh, the more empty you become. The more unsatisfied you become, the more miserable you become. Think, no, don't think, but all the fantasies of the, all the experiences you've ever wanted to have, you could have them all.

And out the other end of it, you'd be a miserable person, more empty and hollowed out than ever before. You know that's true. But this passion to dwell in the house of the Lord is the opposite of that.

The more you get, the more contented you become, the more fulfilled you become, the more full of joy you become, the more grateful you become. Psalm 84, I'm gonna go over a couple of verses here real quick.

The psalmist said, Ray, could you give me that water please? Thank you. How lovely are your dwelling places, O Lord of hosts. How lovely are your dwelling places, O Lord of hosts. And you know, when I read that a couple of days ago, the picture in my mind was God and his temple in heaven.