The message this morning is THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT! Here is what I hope this message accomplishes! I hope that you will have a greater desire to be filled and refilled with the Spirit! It is my prayer that you would be open to being filled with Spirit or Baptized in the Spirit. And it is my prayer that if it has been a while since you have been filled with the Spirit that you would allow the Holy Spirit to fill you fresh and anew! I believe there are some people here this morning that God wants to comfort you with His Spirit! He wants to charge your batteries, He wants to heal the hurts! He wants to lift your burdens…His burden is easy and His yoke is light! He will take away your weariness! He wants to give you a new sense of hope! He wants to confirm something down in your being! So…at the conclusion of the service…before communion…we will spend some time waiting on the Holy Spirit!

This morning I want to talk to you about GROWING IN LOVE FOR THE CHURCH! Did you notice the progression of this series? Grow in love…for Christ, your husband/wife, family/children, the church! That is the order that we need to have established in our lives! We do not ever want to sacrifice our marriages or our families for the church! That is one reason why we struggle with balance…here at First Assembly.

Today’s message is about GROWING IN LOVE FOR YOUR MARRIAGE. Marriage is special and significant for the Christ follower…at least it should be. Why? Because our marriages are to be living examples of God’s relationship with the church. How HE loves us…and how HE wants what is best for us! How He gave himself…sacrificed himself…so that we could be all that we have been created to be. Our response to HIS sacrificial love…is submission. We submit ourselves to HIS leadership, love, care and concern. That is what Paul was writing about in Ephesians 5! Our marriages should communicate to the world…something about God’s love! We need to grow in love for our marriage!

Today we are going to talk about HOW TO GROW. Just as a baby learns to walk...he must take more than 1 or 2 or 3 steps. If he is going to learn to walk…he must learn to take many NEXT STEPS! Walking is just part of a child’s capabilities. With patience and persistence…a child can walk, skip, jog, run, and a whole lot more!