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Creekside Church, Sunday, May 24, 2026
Poured Out
Locations & Times
Creekside Church
660 Conservation Dr, Waterloo, ON N2J 3Z4, Canada
Sunday 8:25 AM
Sunday 9:45 AM
Sunday 11:15 AM
THE BEST DRIVER EVER
I think about that guy every single time I take that exit now. I used to think I was driving, but that guy was really driving. I did not even know that kind of driving was an option.
We all have a version of this story. We see someone and think, that could never be me. We see people who are fully alive. We see them at the gym, or we see their courage, their creativity, their goodness, their vision, and their character. We look at them and think, I do not have that in me.
---
THE ULTIMATE OVERACHIEVER
This is exactly what was happening in the Gospel of John when a man named Nicodemus went to see Jesus. Nicodemus was the ultimate religious overachiever. He had the pedigree, the education, and the status. But he looked at Jesus and realized that Jesus had something he didn't. Nicodemus noticed a completely different Spirit about Jesus, and he wanted to know what it was.
JOHN 3:1-8
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him." Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again." "How can someone be born when they are old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!" Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
Nicodemus looked at Jesus and said, "I see God in you." Jesus responded by telling him that if he wanted to live this way and enter the kingdom of God, he had to be born again by the Spirit.
Jesus connected the Holy Spirit as essential to following him. For the people listening to Jesus, this was a radical shift. Throughout the Old Testament, people were familiar with the Holy Spirit visiting individuals or resting upon them for a specific task or a short season. But Jesus promised something completely new.
---
FROM VISITING TO DWELLING
Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he told his disciples that he would send the Spirit to dwell inside them permanently. Forty days after the resurrection, Jesus ascended. Fifty days after the resurrection, during the festival of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers.
For the first time in human history, the Holy Spirit became available not just to visit, but to dwell inside every human being who decides to follow Jesus. The Spirit is available to all. It requires us to repent, trust in Jesus, admit we are at the end of ourselves, and surrender.
The Holy Spirit is not an "it." He is not a vague force. He is a person. He is the third person of the Trinity. He animates you, and he teaches you to live in a completely new way, guided by his power.
Every amazing Christian you have ever heard of, the ones you look at and think, "I wish I could be like them," lived by this Spirit.
* The people who suffered greatly to spread the gospel.
* The people who gave up massive opportunities to stay faithful to Jesus.
* The people who chose justice when it was unpopular.
* The people who refused to bend a knee to power and money.
* The people who fought against slavery and poverty.
* The people who risked their lives to serve the least of these.
If you asked any of them how they did it, they would all give the same answer: "It was not me, but the power of God within me."
---
THE PARACLETE
To understand how this works, we look at how Jesus describes the Holy Spirit to his disciples right before he goes to the cross.
JOHN 14:15-17
"If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate (Paraclete) to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."
Jesus uses the word Paraclete, which means an advocate, or one who comes alongside to help. To live by the Spirit is to live as someone who admits they need help.
Our pride and our desire to seem competent can keep us from surrendering. Can keep us from asking for and accepting help.
---
STRUCTURE WITHOUT LIFE
When we refuse help, we end up like the vision found in the Book of Ezekiel, where there is plenty of structure, but no breath.
EZEKIEL 37:1-10
The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "Sovereign Lord, you alone know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.'" So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, 'O breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'" So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
You can have a perfect calendar, a great career, and a spotless reputation. You can have all the right structure. But inside, you can still be spiritually gasping for air because you are running on your own oxygen.
---
Do you believe God wants to help you? Pentecost is God saying, "I am coming for everybody." It is the exact opposite of an exclusive insider club. The Holy Spirit speaks your specific language.
* If you grew up in a broken home, he speaks your language.
* If you struggle with mental illness, he speaks your language.
* If you have been left empty by a divorce, he speaks your language.
* Whether you are rich or poor, he meets you exactly where you are.
---
JUST ASK
The Holy Spirit is the ultimate help, and the most honest prayer we can ever pray is simply: "Help me."
This is not an earned help. Earned help is a paycheck. The Holy Spirit is a gift. When you ask God for help, you are asking for the Spirit. We often try to bargain with God or create reasons why we do not deserve it, but no justification is needed. You can just ask.
LUKE 11:9-13
"So I say to you: 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. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are 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!"
Even on the weeks where you feel like you failed at following Jesus, you can still turn to the Spirit and find help. You can open your hands, take a deep breath, and pray a simple prayer of expectation:
---
PRAYER PRACTICE
"I breathe You in, Holy Spirit, and Your strength comes suddenly, and Your peace fills me completely."
This prayer is not about commanding God to do something. It is about reminding yourself of reality. If you are a follower of Jesus, you are never alone, and you are never out of resources. This applies to your job, your conflicts, and your emergencies.
---
STOP ROWING, START SAILING
The giants of faith in the Old Testament longed for what is available to us right now. Abraham, Moses, David, and Elijah had to travel to a mountain or a temple to be near the cloud of God's presence. They watched the Spirit drop down on a leader for a moment and then lift away.
Because of Jesus, the Wind does not just visit you. The Wind has moved in.
You are living in the most unique, high-privilege era of human history. The exact power that raised Christ from the dead is currently looking for permission to animate your ordinary, Monday-morning life.
---
Jesus sees far more potential in you than you see in yourself. You might look at someone else's life and think, "Imagine if that was me." But Jesus looks at you and sees greatness.
JOHN 14:12
"Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."
---
Jesus went to the Father so that the Father would send the Spirit. In Hebrew, the word for Spirit is Ruach, which means breath or wind.
As Saint Augustine famously said, "God provides the wind, but man must raise the sail."
Some of you are absolutely exhausted. You love God, and you are trying your best, but your arms are tired. You are rowing upstream against anxiety, a broken marriage, an addiction, or just the mundane demands of life. You are wondering why the Christian life feels so heavy. It feels heavy because you are rowing.
Pentecost means the Wind has arrived. You do not need to generate the power; you just need to cooperate with it. Stop grabbing the oars of self-sufficiency. Drop the oars, open your hands, and raise the sail of surrender.
"I breathe You in, Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, help."
Life should not feel like rowing. It should feel like sailing. Stop rowing, and catch the wind.
I think about that guy every single time I take that exit now. I used to think I was driving, but that guy was really driving. I did not even know that kind of driving was an option.
We all have a version of this story. We see someone and think, that could never be me. We see people who are fully alive. We see them at the gym, or we see their courage, their creativity, their goodness, their vision, and their character. We look at them and think, I do not have that in me.
---
THE ULTIMATE OVERACHIEVER
This is exactly what was happening in the Gospel of John when a man named Nicodemus went to see Jesus. Nicodemus was the ultimate religious overachiever. He had the pedigree, the education, and the status. But he looked at Jesus and realized that Jesus had something he didn't. Nicodemus noticed a completely different Spirit about Jesus, and he wanted to know what it was.
JOHN 3:1-8
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him." Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again." "How can someone be born when they are old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!" Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
Nicodemus looked at Jesus and said, "I see God in you." Jesus responded by telling him that if he wanted to live this way and enter the kingdom of God, he had to be born again by the Spirit.
Jesus connected the Holy Spirit as essential to following him. For the people listening to Jesus, this was a radical shift. Throughout the Old Testament, people were familiar with the Holy Spirit visiting individuals or resting upon them for a specific task or a short season. But Jesus promised something completely new.
---
FROM VISITING TO DWELLING
Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he told his disciples that he would send the Spirit to dwell inside them permanently. Forty days after the resurrection, Jesus ascended. Fifty days after the resurrection, during the festival of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers.
For the first time in human history, the Holy Spirit became available not just to visit, but to dwell inside every human being who decides to follow Jesus. The Spirit is available to all. It requires us to repent, trust in Jesus, admit we are at the end of ourselves, and surrender.
The Holy Spirit is not an "it." He is not a vague force. He is a person. He is the third person of the Trinity. He animates you, and he teaches you to live in a completely new way, guided by his power.
Every amazing Christian you have ever heard of, the ones you look at and think, "I wish I could be like them," lived by this Spirit.
* The people who suffered greatly to spread the gospel.
* The people who gave up massive opportunities to stay faithful to Jesus.
* The people who chose justice when it was unpopular.
* The people who refused to bend a knee to power and money.
* The people who fought against slavery and poverty.
* The people who risked their lives to serve the least of these.
If you asked any of them how they did it, they would all give the same answer: "It was not me, but the power of God within me."
---
THE PARACLETE
To understand how this works, we look at how Jesus describes the Holy Spirit to his disciples right before he goes to the cross.
JOHN 14:15-17
"If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate (Paraclete) to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."
Jesus uses the word Paraclete, which means an advocate, or one who comes alongside to help. To live by the Spirit is to live as someone who admits they need help.
Our pride and our desire to seem competent can keep us from surrendering. Can keep us from asking for and accepting help.
---
STRUCTURE WITHOUT LIFE
When we refuse help, we end up like the vision found in the Book of Ezekiel, where there is plenty of structure, but no breath.
EZEKIEL 37:1-10
The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "Sovereign Lord, you alone know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.'" So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, 'O breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.'" So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
You can have a perfect calendar, a great career, and a spotless reputation. You can have all the right structure. But inside, you can still be spiritually gasping for air because you are running on your own oxygen.
---
Do you believe God wants to help you? Pentecost is God saying, "I am coming for everybody." It is the exact opposite of an exclusive insider club. The Holy Spirit speaks your specific language.
* If you grew up in a broken home, he speaks your language.
* If you struggle with mental illness, he speaks your language.
* If you have been left empty by a divorce, he speaks your language.
* Whether you are rich or poor, he meets you exactly where you are.
---
JUST ASK
The Holy Spirit is the ultimate help, and the most honest prayer we can ever pray is simply: "Help me."
This is not an earned help. Earned help is a paycheck. The Holy Spirit is a gift. When you ask God for help, you are asking for the Spirit. We often try to bargain with God or create reasons why we do not deserve it, but no justification is needed. You can just ask.
LUKE 11:9-13
"So I say to you: 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. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are 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!"
Even on the weeks where you feel like you failed at following Jesus, you can still turn to the Spirit and find help. You can open your hands, take a deep breath, and pray a simple prayer of expectation:
---
PRAYER PRACTICE
"I breathe You in, Holy Spirit, and Your strength comes suddenly, and Your peace fills me completely."
This prayer is not about commanding God to do something. It is about reminding yourself of reality. If you are a follower of Jesus, you are never alone, and you are never out of resources. This applies to your job, your conflicts, and your emergencies.
---
STOP ROWING, START SAILING
The giants of faith in the Old Testament longed for what is available to us right now. Abraham, Moses, David, and Elijah had to travel to a mountain or a temple to be near the cloud of God's presence. They watched the Spirit drop down on a leader for a moment and then lift away.
Because of Jesus, the Wind does not just visit you. The Wind has moved in.
You are living in the most unique, high-privilege era of human history. The exact power that raised Christ from the dead is currently looking for permission to animate your ordinary, Monday-morning life.
---
Jesus sees far more potential in you than you see in yourself. You might look at someone else's life and think, "Imagine if that was me." But Jesus looks at you and sees greatness.
JOHN 14:12
"Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."
---
Jesus went to the Father so that the Father would send the Spirit. In Hebrew, the word for Spirit is Ruach, which means breath or wind.
As Saint Augustine famously said, "God provides the wind, but man must raise the sail."
Some of you are absolutely exhausted. You love God, and you are trying your best, but your arms are tired. You are rowing upstream against anxiety, a broken marriage, an addiction, or just the mundane demands of life. You are wondering why the Christian life feels so heavy. It feels heavy because you are rowing.
Pentecost means the Wind has arrived. You do not need to generate the power; you just need to cooperate with it. Stop grabbing the oars of self-sufficiency. Drop the oars, open your hands, and raise the sail of surrender.
"I breathe You in, Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, help."
Life should not feel like rowing. It should feel like sailing. Stop rowing, and catch the wind.