Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #24408 - The Promise of The Father Arrives - Acts 2:1-4
Transcript
- 0:04Welcome to the study of God's word with pastor and author.
- 0:08Ed, Taylor recorded live from Calvary Chapel in Aurora,
- 0:11Colorado to learn more about the many resources available,
- 0:14through abounding Grace media, visit us online at Calvary
- 0:18Aurora dot org, or download our free app on all platforms.
- 0:22And now, here's Pastor Ed to take us into our study.
- 0:27Amen. Amen!
- 0:28Take your Bibles. Would you and open them to Acts
- 0:30chapter? After to Acts chapter 2, and a
- 0:34Bible study that I've entitled the promise of the father
- 0:37arrives, the promise of the father arrives and this study is
- 0:42kind of Preparatory for the whole chapter.
- 0:45So, forgive me for the longer introduction today as we prepare
- 0:49for some of the future studies in this chapter, but you know,
- 0:53at this point in Acts chapter 2, we have seen the death and
- 0:57resurrection of Jesus Christ. And Jesus This to this group of
- 1:01about 120 that he would send the promise of the father.
- 1:05He says, wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the father and
- 1:09then he ascends into heaven and leaves the disciples in a
- 1:13position of waiting, and that's where they are.
- 1:15They're waiting. And God is ready to act upon his
- 1:19promise in, just a few moments, as we see it unfold.
- 1:24But as we step back, I want you to consider for a moment, the
- 1:27room that you're sitting in. Now, of course, if you're
- 1:30listening, Being on the radio or watching online.
- 1:32You have to do this like as if you were here with us.
- 1:35But for the sake of us here today and downstairs, I want you
- 1:37to consider the room that you're in right now.
- 1:40And I just want you to remember that this room is filled with
- 1:44incredibly gifted, spiritual men and women that God, in every
- 1:48believer here has gifted you in an amazing way.
- 1:52And here we are as the body of Christ so much diversity Among
- 1:56Us, so many diverse gifts, and spiritual gifts Among Us.
- 2:00And yet, at the same time every person is unique.
- 2:03So you have a uniqueness about you and who God has made you and
- 2:07yet together were known as the body of Christ.
- 2:10So much diversity, so many differing gifts, but one body,
- 2:15and one family. And the problem that we Face
- 2:18many times is that we have had ingrained in us in our culture,
- 2:22this sense of Independence. And so you really magnify more
- 2:25of your individuality, then you do of the body that you're a
- 2:29part of, and There's this end, this independent Spirit about us
- 2:33instead of thinking about each other.
- 2:36We think about ourselves a lot more and I would like you to
- 2:39replace the independent spirit that word independent, I would
- 2:43suggest that you replace it when it comes to your relationship
- 2:46with the church and replace independent with the word
- 2:49interdependent. Because in the body of Christ,
- 2:52that's exactly what we are. We need each other.
- 2:55You are needed in the body. You are needed in this church.
- 2:58You are wanted and needed with the That God has given to you,
- 3:01you're needed but but I'm also needed and together we are
- 3:06needed. And I like to tell the folks
- 3:08that are in the school Ministry, the guys and gals that take that
- 3:10or if we're discipling the pastor's stopping whatever from
- 3:14time to time. I'll remind us that we the word
- 3:17we is the language of ministry. It's not just you and it's not
- 3:21just me. It's us.
- 3:23We we together in the power of the Holy Spirit.
- 3:27Using the word of God. Have the privilege of Making an
- 3:30impact in our community and Beyond, we're not independent,
- 3:35we need each other and you need to know that.
- 3:37Now, bring it at home, even closer to this particular
- 3:40Church, you know, you're a part of a large growing church.
- 3:45I'm going to use the words large and small, not because of one's
- 3:48more significant than the other. But just for illustration
- 3:51purposes because I mean, those are relatives words, you know,
- 3:54if we say large you got well, if we compare ourselves to a
- 3:57church, that's 15,000. Then we would be a Church, if we
- 4:01compare ourselves to a church, just starting at 30.
- 4:03We would be a large church, but for the sake of our discussion
- 4:06today, you could say that we are a large growing church or we are
- 4:10much, we are larger than when we first started.
- 4:13And I believe that's God's will for us.
- 4:15I believe, he still wants to continue to grow our church,
- 4:18grow our church, and impact and sighs.
- 4:21Now, as I'm teaching, or you might be talking to different
- 4:24people serving here, you'll hear all kinds of different things
- 4:26like, like, you'll, you may hear stories of the times when we
- 4:29were meeting as a Church down in the basement of a Baptist Church
- 4:32at least downstairs and a Baptist Church right up here on
- 4:35Winston and Hampton in that Community.
- 4:38Or you may hear of Stories of the many years that we spent and
- 4:42good old Columbia Middle School. Seven years, we spent there and
- 4:46what a ride it was. What's what lessons we learned
- 4:49in the Lord? There are perhaps you might hear
- 4:52the Episcopal Church referenced over on Wagon Trail and Buckley.
- 4:56You know, we were looking to start a midweek Bible study and
- 4:59I literally called Church after church after church after
- 5:02church, nobody would rent their Church to us midweek.
- 5:05But I finally got ahold of these guys and they said, you know, we
- 5:08won't rent the church to you either, but we have a shock in
- 5:11the parking lot. Do you want to use that?
- 5:13And we said, we'll take the shack and that's where we
- 5:16started. Our midweek, Bible study, adults
- 5:18up top kids on the bottom. And there were many stories
- 5:22there as well. You might hear stories of new
- 5:25life. When we met in New Life Church
- 5:27across from range of you high school, they rented to us a
- 5:29larger Room upstairs and a few of the children's ministry
- 5:32rooms. And we grew our midweek, study
- 5:34there. Perhaps you will hear from time
- 5:37to time us reference, the One Way Cafe and you might think it
- 5:40started downstairs, but it didn't it actually started
- 5:43across the street in the Seven Hills shopping center.
- 5:46We got this corner unit that nobody was using that.
- 5:50Nobody could find, but it was perfect for us and we signed a
- 5:53three-year lease. And we had this idea of opening
- 5:56a little coffee shop, a little bookstore.
- 5:58We had our offices there. God was growing our team and
- 6:01then we had little Gatherings of men and women there for many
- 6:05years. But here's the thing, many of
- 6:08you didn't experience any of that except that it's your
- 6:11history and so as you hear it you kind of think about it.
- 6:14But you weren't there, you're actually here right now in this
- 6:18building and you know, this building a property had its own
- 6:20story to this was a vacant lot of land for a long time that we
- 6:25had a sign up. That said, one day we'll have a
- 6:27building here and basically it was just whoa, it was
- 6:30Tumbleweeds and trash because you guys know, right?
- 6:33This road over here on Hampton, it dead-ends to the dump and it
- 6:37heads we are on the road to their.
- 6:39How do you find Calvary? Take the road to the dump and
- 6:42we're right on the right hand side, almost there and you
- 6:45notice the trucks go down Hampton.
- 6:47They share. What's in their truck with us
- 6:49and it comes on the property all the time.
- 6:52So we would have all these gatherings from time to time.
- 6:54We would come out. Clean the property up, pick up
- 6:56the trash and then the Lord, just let us to this place where
- 6:59we had to Good decision. And we started the process of
- 7:02building this building. But if you just walked in today,
- 7:05when we built this building, it stopped at this wall right here.
- 7:09This wall used to have Windows on there and you could see the
- 7:11Rocky Mountains and everybody on this side, used to be completely
- 7:15mesmerized by The View because it is an amazing view and I'm
- 7:19like, man, that was a mistake putting.
- 7:20So we got rid of all those windows.
- 7:23Now, it's the only place we could build.
- 7:24And so, the first building was right here on it, ended here and
- 7:27then we quickly outgrew that. And then we had We built all
- 7:31that on the other side, and then, once we once we had that
- 7:34then more people are coming and we need a more parking than the
- 7:37Grace Church up. There were very gracious to us
- 7:39and they sold us an acre and a half of their land.
- 7:42So we extended the parking lot but then extending the parking
- 7:45lot, open the door for us to build the little playground for
- 7:48The Calvary Christian Academy and take all those parking
- 7:51spaces. And so you can see that we have
- 7:53a history and you are a part of it, whether you were here or not
- 7:57that's your history but today You're going to learn that your
- 8:01history goes far. Back beyond the little basement
- 8:04down the street or Columbia Middle School.
- 8:06Your history goes back to the day of Pentecost.
- 8:10This is what we're learning today.
- 8:12Is your past. Yeah, we have our own little
- 8:14story. We're coming up on 22 years now
- 8:17and December. December 26th is our 22-year
- 8:20birthday is a church, but our history goes far back beyond
- 8:23that. The work of the Holy Spirit on
- 8:25the day of Pentecost, is you. But here's the thing about our
- 8:28church. Our church is large and growing
- 8:32because that's God's will, it's large and growing not because we
- 8:35adopted some program or we read some book or, you know, we got
- 8:39all some book. Oh, look this.
- 8:40How you grow a church? That's not what we're
- 8:42interested. When my family and I moved to
- 8:45Colorado, we weren't interested in growing a church.
- 8:47We were interested in serving the lord whatever he had for us
- 8:51and it's been an up and down left and right Journey for us,
- 8:54for sure. But we're grateful to be a part
- 8:56of what he wants us to be a part of and it's this church.
- 8:59And yes, this church is Much larger than when we first
- 9:01started. And I'm grateful that God has
- 9:03helped me in a mature and grow with it.
- 9:06And God is also, for many of you have been around for a long
- 9:08time, you've matured and wherever you drop in, on the
- 9:11life of this church, God is going to bless you through it.
- 9:14He's going to use it in your life and you're going to grow in
- 9:16the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
- 9:19And for me as a pastor, I love large churches.
- 9:22I do. I love large churches.
- 9:24I was saved in one one that's much larger than this.
- 9:27I was saved in a large church. I was discipled enlarged.
- 9:30Church. I was trained in Ministry in a
- 9:32larger church and I just love the diversity.
- 9:35That comes with a large Gathering of God's people in a
- 9:38large city that that has just so many differences.
- 9:42So many cultural influences, it's a beautiful thing.
- 9:45I think it's just a taste of what heaven is going to be like
- 9:49with every tongue tribe and Nation, worshipping God at the
- 9:52throne. It's just going to be glorious.
- 9:53Then we get a very small taste of it.
- 9:56But there is a few, there are a few problems with large churches
- 9:59and I You may be aware of some of them.
- 10:02Listen our Fellowship Church, our church grew and continue to
- 10:07grow larger because everyone at some point thought and believed
- 10:11that they were important and they wanted to be used of God,
- 10:15like you could say in a very real way, every generation of a
- 10:17church, we're standing on the shoulders of those who came
- 10:20before us. We're standing on the
- 10:22faithfulness. I mean, we're in a building that
- 10:24the people of Colombia middle school and some of you were
- 10:26there, but we're sitting in a building that people Columbia
- 10:29Middle School that Version of the church, they funded it all
- 10:32through, they're giving their faithful giving and we get to
- 10:34enjoy it. And then many of you, you know,
- 10:36as you're giving, you get to be a part of all, these type of
- 10:38we're really interconnected interdependent in the church.
- 10:42By the way, we're also interconnected and
- 10:45interdependent with every real good church in our city, what
- 10:49we're not in competition with anyone.
- 10:50Anybody that's doing a great work in our city.
- 10:52Preaching, the real true gospel lives are being changed
- 10:55families, being changed. That's a good thing for us.
- 10:58Not a bad thing. That's a Awful thing.
- 11:00That's what God wants. That's a kingdom mindset that
- 11:04God is doing what he wants to do.
- 11:06And we get to be a part of it. But for our church for us
- 11:10individually, you have to understand that there's a long
- 11:13line of faithfulness in the men and women that's called this
- 11:16church, their home, that there are many that along the way that
- 11:20have believed they had a place to serve and grow in the family
- 11:23of God. And so, you step out in faith,
- 11:27committed and then the Lord adds to the the church daily such as
- 11:31being saved. Building upon what he wants to
- 11:34accomplish in and through us. But then there's a subtle
- 11:39transition that takes place and I've witnessed it through the
- 11:43different phases of this Fellowship.
- 11:45You'll start to hear people say, oh, I'm not needed anymore, and
- 11:48it's just a spiritual attack of the enemy.
- 11:50That's all it is. Oh, I'm not needed anymore.
- 11:51What do you mean? You're not needed anymore?
- 11:53You're probably needed. Not more now than you ever have
- 11:56been in a growing Church. Yes, you're needed.
- 12:00A lot of times, you know, that that's when that fresh Wind of
- 12:03Change takes place and you know, how you don't respond to change
- 12:07very well. So, you know, they don't need me
- 12:09anymore because I'm significant change.
- 12:11No, not at all. We just got to go with the flow
- 12:14with or whatever God's doing with the changes.
- 12:16But of course you're needed. And I also like a statement that
- 12:20goes along with that as people start to think.
- 12:21Well, I'm not important anymore, you know.
- 12:23I live in a big city, I work for a big company.
- 12:26I live in a big neighborhood and nobody knows me.
- 12:28That's not true. Now, all that big stuff might be
- 12:31true but God knows you. And when you begin to step into
- 12:34people's lives, people will know you when you start showing up at
- 12:37hospitals and visiting people when they're sick.
- 12:39They'll know, you, when you start introducing yourself and
- 12:42praying for one another, they don't know you.
- 12:44Like, you just have to be careful that there's a spiritual
- 12:46battle going on as God continues to add to his church will learn
- 12:50that in the book of Acts just in the simple distribution of
- 12:54clothing and food to the Widow's.
- 12:56There was all kinds of drama over that because growing
- 12:59churches deal with Alma, it's messy.
- 13:01It's dirty, it's difficult. That's the Way Church is, and
- 13:04it's normal, but of course you're needed.
- 13:07And then when the church grows, people get tired, people get
- 13:10tired. You might be tired today because
- 13:11you serve in the church, there's nothing wrong with being tired.
- 13:15It's a matter of fact, if you're tired, you're probably doing
- 13:17ministry, right? Because the Bible describes
- 13:20ministry as a labor of love. I mean, if you're up all night,
- 13:23praying for people, you're going to wake up tired.
- 13:25If you have a late night time, you get done with church but
- 13:28you're in the parking, lot for two hours, you're going.
- 13:30Be tired. If you're dealing with the
- 13:31difficulties of people's lives, you're going to be tired.
- 13:34Tired is not bad. And that by the way, you can
- 13:37serve God and be tired at the same time, it's okay.
- 13:40There's no problem with that, but then tiredness is different
- 13:43than people go. Well, you know, I'm burned out,
- 13:45I'm burned out. Can I just say it's not God's
- 13:48will for you to be burned out. So if you're burned out, you
- 13:51should really consider resting. You should really consider, hey,
- 13:54whatever I'm doing. I'm not doing it right because I
- 13:56ended up being burned out, you know, being burned out speaks to
- 13:59have Of doing things in your own flush.
- 14:01Maybe you feel pressure guilted to do something.
- 14:04Got that's not God's heart or you're doing too much, you don't
- 14:06know how to say. No.
- 14:08Then you get to a place. Listen, if you're burned out,
- 14:10not only do you need a rest but let me consider.
- 14:12Let me let me let me suggest to you.
- 14:14Something else you should take responsibility for being burned
- 14:18out personal responsibility. You should look at your life and
- 14:22say okay Lord and this is not where you want me, but this is
- 14:24where I'm at. So how do I not get here again?
- 14:26Because I want to serve you and I love you and I love serving
- 14:29God's. People, but burned-out is not
- 14:31where God wants you to be. And then they get bummed out and
- 14:36you just forget that it's the spirit of God using you.
- 14:40That it's a privilege to serve the Lord and then we forget, the
- 14:44reason why people in this Fellowship were so blessed by
- 14:46the, community's blessed, by this little church, that God had
- 14:49in his heart so many years ago. We forget that.
- 14:53This church was an answer to God's prayer to man's prayer.
- 14:56God, God gave this church. This community is an answer to
- 14:59prayer, the prayer of many Saints, wanting a fellowship.
- 15:03Family. Like Calvary Chapel in this side
- 15:05of town. It's literally an answer to
- 15:07prayer that God would reach this city with a Ministry like ours,
- 15:12and many other great churches. Because God loves this city.
- 15:15It doesn't matter what people think about this city or the bad
- 15:18reputation or the bad, it doesn't matter.
- 15:21God, loves the city, he loves you and your family and the
- 15:24children. He loves the refugees that are
- 15:26here, he loves everything about this city.
- 15:28When Jesus would look out, if he was up on the hill, on Hampton
- 15:31looking out over the city, all the way into Denver, all the way
- 15:33into the Foothills, he would weep over the city.
- 15:37He would weep over the lostness and what sin is done to destroy
- 15:40people's families. What it's done to destroy lives.
- 15:44What it's done to cut life short, because of the sin.
- 15:49That is interred in the rejection of Jesus.
- 15:53That's it, isn't it? Somewhere along the way we
- 15:56forget, the reason why churches grow that's not because I read a
- 16:00book and brought it back to the staff.
- 16:01Hey, check this out, guys. This guy's Church grew and let's
- 16:04apply all his principles. We don't do that.
- 16:06That's great, that his church grew, but his deal is not my
- 16:09deal. I don't need some programmer.
- 16:11Tell me how just read the Bible. Pray, teach it.
- 16:14And let the Lord do what he wants to do with this church.
- 16:16That's our heart. Jesus said he would build the
- 16:18church, I trust him, it's his church, I get to serve in his
- 16:22Church. Imagine that you get to be a
- 16:24part of his church. That's how much he loves you.
- 16:26He says, come on in, come into the family.
- 16:29Yeah, but but Lord, you don't understand.
- 16:31I'm so messed up. Yeah, I know.
- 16:32Messed up. People are the only ones that
- 16:34get in. That's all there is.
- 16:37We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
- 16:40God is so good to us. But somewhere along the way, we
- 16:43forget that we start in the spirit but then try to perfect
- 16:46things in our flesh, in our wisdom.
- 16:48And let me just say this. Not only do I love large
- 16:50churches, not only do I love our large church but I don't want to
- 16:53shrink as a church. I don't want our church to
- 16:55shrink. I don't want our church to quit
- 16:58giving Faithfully. I don't want our church to quit
- 17:01caring. I don't want our church to quit
- 17:03praying. I don't want our church.
- 17:05I mean, I mean, if you think about it to the to the end, I
- 17:08don't want our church to disappear as many churches have
- 17:11over the years. I don't want it to disappear and
- 17:14I thought of it. This thing you know, as came to
- 17:16me last night where you know that Calvary one day would
- 17:18shrivel up like that. Can you imagine driving through
- 17:21town driving through town, coming through one Hampton and
- 17:23Biscay here, coming Hampton and Tower.
- 17:26And on the right hand side instead of a church it's a
- 17:28marijuana dispensary is I what you want to see happen to this
- 17:31building is not what I want to see.
- 17:33God did not give this building to the The Church of Jesus
- 17:36Christ, so you can sell pot from it.
- 17:38That's not his deal. That's not his will but you
- 17:41know, churches do get to a place where man, they shrivel up and
- 17:47die. You know, I think that we should
- 17:50buy more property for Jesus not less.
- 17:53I think more property should be dedicated to the Gospel of Jesus
- 17:56Christ, but one day will vacate this property, but as a
- 17:59leadership team, we have made a commitment.
- 18:01We will only sell to another church.
- 18:04This is going to stay in the family until Jesus returns.
- 18:07As long as I'm, the leader, this is going to stay in the family.
- 18:09That's the way it's going to be. I don't want some pot dispensary
- 18:12here. I don't want this building shut
- 18:14down. I mean, I don't want a gas
- 18:15station on this corner. This corner belongs to Jesus.
- 18:18Us. And the gospel needs to come
- 18:20from it all day every day until he returns Like I want to be
- 18:26able to say hey you know what? You gave a turkey to some guy.
- 18:29He got saved that turkey. Yeah, that turkey that gift
- 18:32card. You gave a gift card to someone.
- 18:34Yeah, he got saved. Like wow, that's crazy man.
- 18:37I give gift cards all the time. They don't get saved.
- 18:39Sometimes they do. For the sake of Jesus.
- 18:44I don't want to see everything just shrivel up, but if you
- 18:47don't, if you don't protect yourself, you'll shrivel up.
- 18:51If you don't watch out for the Warfare, you'll just start
- 18:53complaining murmuring archers to Big, Ed supposed to get big
- 18:57today. You're going to see in one
- 18:59moment with a message, that is far less Long than my
- 19:03introduction. 3,000 people are going to get added to the church
- 19:093,000. Now, I've never seen that in our
- 19:12church. God has always done ones and
- 19:14twos in our church. For the complete history of our
- 19:16church. We've never seen this massive,
- 19:19you know, thousand hundreds of people.
- 19:21It's always been one at a time which is the way I think God
- 19:23wants us to grow. He, that's his desire.
- 19:25But here, 3000, 120 Believers going to be 3120 in just a
- 19:30matter of moments but I can say this.
- 19:34We in our church, I am more committed today than the day
- 19:39which I moved here. And that's a pretty big
- 19:41statement to make is I was thinking about it like, like I
- 19:44on Saturday nights, I say a lot of things I'm like, where did
- 19:46that come from? And then I get to repeat them to
- 19:47you today and it just like yeah I'm more committed.
- 19:50You know, like what it took a lot of commitment to come here,
- 19:53like we left everybody and everything.
- 19:55It wasn't that far as about a thousand miles but like I was
- 19:58thinking back like man, I was pretty committed when I got
- 20:00here, how can I be more committed?
- 20:02And the only answer I can say is that the law Lord continues to
- 20:05grow my heart, that's it, I don't know, but I am more
- 20:08committed. I mean I can think to in the
- 20:10early days I wanted to go home. I can tell you that it just
- 20:13wasn't working out the way I wanted and I was committed but I
- 20:16was ready to go home to I was actually on the phone with my
- 20:19boss at one point in time, saying, hey man, it's not
- 20:22working out here. This isn't works.
- 20:23Not working out churches and happen the way.
- 20:25I thought it would be, so it's my job still available.
- 20:28Oh yeah. Come on back.
- 20:29Eddie boy. That's what he called me.
- 20:30Come on back. Eddie boy, I sure am reason.
- 20:33The background were not Calling home.
- 20:35Hang up the phone. We haven't even been here.
- 20:38Six weeks. You're already wanting to go.
- 20:40And it's like, I'm sorry. Ron, I got to go click.
- 20:44We're here, 22 years later, Marie was right.
- 20:48Again, don't tell her. I said that just keep it between
- 20:52us. I am committed.
- 20:55I'm more committed than ever before, some of the most
- 20:58enjoyable, highest things I've ever experienced been in this
- 21:01church. And some of the most deep
- 21:04searing pains have been experienced in this church, and
- 21:08I think it's all God's will for us to grow and learn for us to,
- 21:12you know what, he's not even really interested God, I think
- 21:15at the way we are like growing a church.
- 21:16He just loves you, he wants you to grow.
- 21:19And when you grow the church grows and when the church grows
- 21:22the communities impacted and And changed by your faithfulness.
- 21:26It's not some Pulpit Ministry, or radio, or rate.
- 21:29It's all about or just tools so that God can use you.
- 21:33So that God can build you up. So you can be the man the woman
- 21:37that he wants you to be so that we can be a church with the best
- 21:40love best cared for best, spiritually fed sheep and all of
- 21:45our community. We picked that up from Pastor
- 21:47Chuck Smith as he laid that before us.
- 21:51God wants to pour His Spirit out on you, so that you use your
- 21:54spiritual gifts. So with that in mind, we're
- 21:56going to look at the first four verses.
- 21:58And then remember, this would be a Prelude to the rest.
- 22:01As we finish out chapter 2 in the coming weeks, But notice
- 22:04with me in verse 1, now when the day of Pentecost had fully come,
- 22:09they were all with one Accord in one place.
- 22:11And suddenly, there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing,
- 22:15Mighty Wind and it filled the whole house where they were
- 22:18sitting, then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire.
- 22:23And one sat on each of them and then they were all filled with
- 22:26the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the
- 22:30spirit. Gave them utterance So notice
- 22:33with me again, verse 1, the day of Pentecost fully coming, this
- 22:37is an exciting time in the city of Jerusalem.
- 22:40This was one of the three Pilgrim feasts were all males,
- 22:43were required to come to Jerusalem and celebrate.
- 22:47This Feast, it's a key celebration in the city is
- 22:51packed with people. Remember the three feasts of
- 22:54you're taking notes, the first one was Passover and when you
- 22:57celebrated the Feast of Passover, you were commemorating
- 23:00and remembering God's faithful Deliverance of Children of
- 23:04Israel from Egypt? They were never to forget God's
- 23:07delivering power. Secondly, is this one the day of
- 23:10Pentecost? The Feast of Pentecost.
- 23:12This was the Feast of the end Gathering.
- 23:14You could say, it was a Harvest Festival and they were to
- 23:17celebrate the provision of God as they would bring in the crops
- 23:21and thank God for them. And then thirdly was the Feast
- 23:25of Tabernacles where they build little booze, and they'd sleep
- 23:27in him at night and they would be there to be reminded.
- 23:30The Feast of Tabernacles, would remind them that They God was
- 23:34faithful and took care of them in their Wilderness wanderings.
- 23:37Isn't that beautiful? God doesn't want you to forget
- 23:39his faithfulness. He doesn't want you to forget
- 23:41his protective power, his provision, his presence in your
- 23:44life, and all of these are fulfilled in Christ.
- 23:48But here's the thing, by the time you come to Acts chapter 2,
- 23:51it had just become a religious activity on, not unlike some of
- 23:54you here today. You're just going through the
- 23:56motions. Just religion, you just doing it
- 23:58because it's the thing to do, you're doing it because you got
- 24:00kids and you're going to show them, you go to church.
- 24:02So we go to church. Do our thing and we go live our
- 24:04own life that's kind of how it is here.
- 24:06Except that it's worse here. Because the spiritual leaders,
- 24:10they are not leading the people properly.
- 24:12And the reason being is that they have rejected Jesus.
- 24:16So the temple is there. The priests are doing the whole
- 24:19thing and God has his voice is silent.
- 24:24Why? Because he's already answered by
- 24:26sending Jesus. The answer is Messiah, the
- 24:29Savior. But what did the priest do?
- 24:31What are the religious Elite do? They murdered him.
- 24:36Rejected him. Heaven is silent but there's
- 24:40this little group. So you got thousands worshipping
- 24:43up on the temple, but there's this little group of 120.
- 24:48You'll read when you're every read through the scriptures,
- 24:49there's always what's called a Remnant.
- 24:52Just a small group of faithful. You know, everybody might be
- 24:55doing one thing, but there's always a small group of faithful
- 24:57people even Elijah was reminded of that.
- 25:00He felt so alone or because you're not alone, man, I got
- 25:02thousands Reserve. Don't worry about it, you keep
- 25:04your eyes on me. And there's this little faithful
- 25:07120 people. That's who God is going to speak
- 25:10to. Now, he's going to speak to
- 25:12them. He's going to fulfill his
- 25:13promise of sending the holy spirit.
- 25:16It's really encouraging to me to know that in times where I feel
- 25:19like I'm forgotten and times where I feel like I'm all alone.
- 25:22I'm not the Lord is with me. There might be all kinds of
- 25:26activity on my feel like man, personally, maybe today.
- 25:29You feel like, oh, I'm overlooked everybody, I'm being
- 25:31neglected, you're not. Let the world do whatever the
- 25:34world's going to do, you just be faithful.
- 25:36The Lord will meet you with 120. The Lord O meet your new little
- 25:40family of three or your little family of one.
- 25:42God is with you, it minister to you.
- 25:45He's going to show up just like he said, he would And so notice
- 25:50as they're coming together, also in verse 1 that they were in
- 25:53unity like you can right next to it in verse 11, Accord just
- 25:56write that word. I share with you interdependent.
- 25:59That's what they are. They're together, we are in this
- 26:02together. That's really what he's saying.
- 26:04They're there in unity. We use Unity kind of gets lost
- 26:07think of it as together or like what we like to say here.
- 26:09We lock Shields, we're in this together, we're fighting the
- 26:13right war with the right weapons, and we're not fighting
- 26:15one another, we're together. We're finding the real, Real
- 26:19Enemy, and that's what they're doing.
- 26:21They're waiting, they're worshiping their wanting the
- 26:24promise and then suddenly verse to suddenly, let me pause on
- 26:29that for a moment and remind you because, you know, when you
- 26:31think of suddenly, it almost always refers to bad things, you
- 26:34know, I was going along and then suddenly this change and boom,
- 26:37it ruin my life or boom, it hurt me or we think of suddenly like
- 26:41like bad things only happened suddenly.
- 26:43But today, the Lord wants to remind us in the text that good
- 26:46things happen suddenly to it's not just bad things.
- 26:49Good things can happen fast, things can change very quickly,
- 26:52the Lord can change the whole trajectory of your life in an
- 26:56instant suddenly. They didn't know when this was
- 26:58going to happen. Remember, they didn't know.
- 27:01They said, wait, but when it happened, they knew because it
- 27:04happened quite happened quick. That's why, that's why I think
- 27:07too. There's that sense in the
- 27:09scriptures of us being alert Sober, Sober minded because
- 27:14things can happen in an instant and you want to be ready for
- 27:17them, you want to be Hurt. So you can respond properly.
- 27:20So notice how he gets their attention.
- 27:22First of all, there's a sound and Luke here describes it.
- 27:26He Compares it to a rushing Mighty Wind, so think tornado.
- 27:31Think catastrophe, Think Loud disruptive attention-getting,
- 27:36although it's a sound, it's actually not the wind, it's just
- 27:41a sound. That's like the wind and at the
- 27:44sound notice in verse 2, filled the whole house where they were
- 27:48sitting. Then.
- 27:50Secondly, there appeared. So first he got his at their
- 27:52attention with their ears. Secondly, in verse 3, they now
- 27:56he's getting their attention with their eyes, then appeared
- 27:58to them divided tongues and they whatever these divided tongues
- 28:03are. They looked like fire and set on
- 28:06everybody, so that was pretty trippy.
- 28:08So they're watching it all happen.
- 28:09There's this noise out there, just waiting worshiping, and
- 28:12then boom. Everything's happening all at
- 28:14once their sound. There's something with their
- 28:17eyes with these little fires and then verse, Or then they were
- 28:21all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other
- 28:25tongues, as the spirit. Gave them utterance, this is the
- 28:29Fulfillment of Acts 1:8 Jesus said, wait, you'll receive the
- 28:33power of the Holy Spirit become Witnesses.
- 28:35Now it's happening and it's happening in a very spiritually,
- 28:39dramatic episode. I would say The mighty rushing
- 28:45wind is a great description of the the move of God here, you
- 28:50know back in John chapter 3, let me show it to you.
- 28:53Would you turn back just to John chapter 3 for a moment?
- 28:57The Greek word for Spirit, here is Numa.
- 29:00Whenever the spirit is referred to in the Hebrew, it speaks of
- 29:03the Breath of God. And then notice here in John
- 29:06chapter 3 is Jesus, is teaching to Nicodemus, and verse 5.
- 29:10Jesus answered most assuredly, I say to you.
- 29:13Unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the
- 29:17kingdom of God, that which is born of the flesh is flesh that
- 29:20which is born of the spirit is Spirit, don't Marvel.
- 29:23That I said to you, you must be born again and then check out
- 29:26verse 8. The wind blows where it wishes
- 29:30and you hear the sound of it but cannot tell, where it comes from
- 29:33and where it goes. So is everyone, who is born of
- 29:38the spirit and so the spirit now is likened to wind, you feel it
- 29:44but you don't know where it's going or where it's coming from.
- 29:47And now you have the spirit of God, combining with fire in your
- 29:51life and you could call this like a firestorm of God's
- 29:56presence. That happened suddenly happened,
- 30:00suddenly church if we're not in a position.
- 30:03To be ready for the sudden work of God.
- 30:05In this culture, we're going to miss it.
- 30:08And I don't want to miss it. I don't want us to be caught off
- 30:11guard and off on doing something and being involved in something
- 30:15what God is doing something in the culture, we're off doing our
- 30:18own thing. That's not God's will for us
- 30:21getting caught up in things that have no Eternal significance.
- 30:25They have no Eternal significance.
- 30:28So, we're a church, all active and doing this, and having this,
- 30:31and, and all the while people are lost.
- 30:33Dying going to hell, but we've got our cause and we've got.
- 30:38Let's go fight for it. No, no, no, listen.
- 30:40God wants to work suddenly in US Empower us, and then send us
- 30:45into the world. And here's the thing, here's the
- 30:49thing about this section, it's y+ verse 4.
- 30:52You read this text and so many people.
- 30:54Miss the significance of the text because they focus on
- 30:57tongues and they just want to argue about tongues, that's
- 31:01their big deal. I believe, I don't believe in it
- 31:03Sis. It's that.
- 31:04And they just argue and argue and argue about tongues, is it
- 31:07for today's an offer today on and on.
- 31:09And while they're arguing about it, they're actually missing the
- 31:12whole point of Pentecost and the whole point of Acts chapter 2,
- 31:16you see Acts chapter 2. This section here is not about
- 31:20the gifts. That's not the priority of this
- 31:24text. The priority is Texas, not about
- 31:27the the wind the noise that sound that comes in like Mighty
- 31:29rushing. Wind, the emphasis of this text
- 31:32is not about the little tongues of fire.
- 31:33That is all, although, it's all pretty amazing.
- 31:36And that's not the emphasis, the emphasis is not even on the gift
- 31:39of tongues. The emphasis here, is not even
- 31:41on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and God fulfilling his
- 31:45promise. Listen, the emphasis of this
- 31:47text is God himself, The promise keeper.
- 31:53That's the emphasis of the entire scriptures.
- 31:57But, you know, people get caught up in tongues and what and they
- 32:00missed the whole point. Like, God is keeping his promise
- 32:02here and over and over again. If God's going to keep his
- 32:05promise with them, don't you think he's going to keep it with
- 32:07you? You know, when the Bible says
- 32:09that what God began in, this what God began, he's faithful to
- 32:12complete until the day of Jesus Christ.
- 32:13Don't you think he's going to keep that in your life.
- 32:15He was promise keeper to these guys.
- 32:17And this is your church Acts. Chapter 2 is your church, your
- 32:21history. And God was faithful to them.
- 32:23He's going to be faithful to you.
- 32:24He's going to take care of that situation.
- 32:26He's going to keep. I promise he's going to speak.
- 32:28He's going to lead. The point is never the gifts
- 32:31ever. Never, it's always the giver.
- 32:34He's the focus in this section. And what we learn about him is
- 32:38that God is utterly faithful, and reliable in every way.
- 32:43Can I get an amen on that you guys with me?
- 32:45God is utterly faithful and utterly reliable in every
- 32:49possible way in your life. You can Bank your life on it,
- 32:55the entirety of your soul. Acts chapter 2 is God, who cares
- 33:00about his people? Cares about his promises and he
- 33:05loves the broken dark culture so much that he pours out on 120
- 33:11people, to go out and reach it. This is God's plan.
- 33:14We learned previous studies to reach the world.
- 33:17This hundred twenty people. Can you just step back for a
- 33:20second. And wonder what's God's plan for
- 33:21this little church? What does he want to do?
- 33:24Like, what does he want to do through our lives?
- 33:26Well, who's going to be reached? It isn't reached yet.
- 33:30What's going to be bird that out of ministry that will reach and
- 33:33Minister and serve and be the church in our community in our
- 33:37workplace? I mean they were given the
- 33:39promise and now God's beginning to fulfill it and the promise
- 33:42comes to you too. So when you come up to this text
- 33:46I don't want you all caught up with tongs.
- 33:47I don't believe in tongues I wasn't raised in tongues.
- 33:48Listen set that aside. She's like why we tongues
- 33:52differently than you do it? Okay?
- 33:54Okay, I'm not gonna argue with you about it.
- 33:56That's okay. I don't want to argue about it.
- 33:58It's fine. You have a different view, fine.
- 34:00I'm going to walk away and I'm going to move on.
- 34:02If you want to keep arguing, you're gonna have to go to a
- 34:05mirror and argue with yourself because I'm not going to.
- 34:08I'm Not going to go there and because I'm a Bible teacher.
- 34:11I want to give to you our view of tongues here.
- 34:14We believe it exists. We believe it's for today.
- 34:16We believe it can be exercised, we believe, it's not given to
- 34:19everyone, but let me give you a definition, just for the sake,
- 34:21just for a few moments of tongues.
- 34:25Because here as you look at this gift, it can be easily
- 34:30distracting. And as you're distracted, I
- 34:34don't want you to struct it anymore.
- 34:36The gift of tongues by definition is a Heavenly
- 34:38Language by which a Believer communicates to God, we're human
- 34:43language is incapable. So here we see it as a Heavenly
- 34:46language that was interpreted in their own language, according to
- 34:50verse 6, or the Greek word, there is dialect dose.
- 34:53They could understand it in their own dialogue because
- 34:55notice in verse 5 in Jerusalem, there there was devout men from
- 34:58every nation under heaven. And this all this activity got
- 35:02their attention. According to verse 6 and then
- 35:05says, at the end they heard them speak in his own language.
- 35:07Look at verse 8 and how is it that we hear each and our own
- 35:11language in which we were born notice in verse 11 cretans and
- 35:15Arabs, we hear them speaking in our own tongues.
- 35:18The wonderful works of God later on.
- 35:22This gift was misused in the church in Corinth and Paul spent
- 35:26some time in First, Corinthians 14, correcting that now I have
- 35:29taught on this and more in depth in those studies.
- 35:33So on our website on our app, there's a section there of
- 35:35spiritual gifts, or you can just go directly to Romans 12, or
- 35:38First Corinthians and I've taught specifically in First
- 35:41Corinthians on the gift of tongues interpretation in
- 35:43tongues. But for us today, let's consider
- 35:46in First Corinthians 14. Paul says that the gift of
- 35:49tongues is something that speaks to God in verse 2 and verse for
- 35:54the gift of tongues as a self, edifying gift.
- 35:57So you are edified when you exercise it in verse 5 less than
- 36:01it, compared to the spiritual gift of Obviously again in the
- 36:04broader Gathering, it is less important than using the gift of
- 36:08Prophecy. We learned that in verse 5 and
- 36:10then in verse 6, this is First Corinthians 14.
- 36:13It's not understandable in the body without an interpretation
- 36:18and it's better to teach than two exercises give in a group of
- 36:21people. And then finally, in verse 12,
- 36:24when you think of spiritual gifts and tongues in particular,
- 36:26just think about edifying, the body more than edifying yourself
- 36:30and that'll Lead You In what gifts to exercise.
- 36:32Because it According to verse 40 of First Corinthians 14, God
- 36:36loves everything to be done decently and in order and we
- 36:40went through that in depth when we think about it language.
- 36:44When you think about language in its very essence language is
- 36:47really just an agreement between two people that certain sounds
- 36:52mean. Something that's all really
- 36:54languages where right now I'm speaking a making noise with my
- 36:58mouth. Hopefully articulating words
- 37:01that you understand. You understand?
- 37:04The sounds I'm making and then you understand the word.
- 37:06I'm trying to say and you know the definition of it and now you
- 37:10understand what I'm saying? That's all language is like when
- 37:13I was teaching recently at that Pastors conference and India
- 37:17dialing in, I was doing exactly what I'm doing right now.
- 37:20Making sounds of the only language I know, English.
- 37:23That's the only language I know. And so as I was speaking in
- 37:26English, there was another guy on the other end that understood
- 37:29the sounds. I was making and he understood
- 37:31them and And he then turn them around and then he started
- 37:35making completely different sounds completely different.
- 37:38I had no idea what he was saying.
- 37:40Oh, how what, how he was saying it.
- 37:42But you know, the people in front of them, they had an
- 37:45agreement with him that those sounds meant something and they
- 37:48totally understood it. You know how I know.
- 37:50And one of the times I didn't do this on purpose, but it's good
- 37:52for illustration. One of the things I said when I
- 37:55was saying, I was like, I asked for a response.
- 37:57So that if they understood and they agree, as I just raise your
- 38:00hand and say, Amen. So I said that That and then the
- 38:03guy, he said his and guess what? The people did?
- 38:06They raise their hand and said, amen.
- 38:08In a whole different set of sounds, that's language you guys
- 38:11with me. Let me give you a test.
- 38:12Okay, here's the test it, when I say the word, this this, you
- 38:18understand that? This means this Yes or No.
- 38:28Yes means. Yes, no means no.
- 38:31How do we? How do we do that?
- 38:33I made a sound you understood it.
- 38:35You responded with a sound that I understood, that's just
- 38:38language. That's all languages.
- 38:40It's an agreement of sounds and a variety of sounds.
- 38:44Depending like, you know, you think about what language they
- 38:46were speaking. I don't even know what dialect
- 38:48that were speaking in India, but it was something that was very
- 38:50foreign, not a, not anything that I understand, but the same
- 38:53is true. Ooh, with Arabic, I've been in
- 38:55Arabic countries, Hebrew is hard for me to understand Chinese
- 39:01Japanese. Like it's very hard, but all it
- 39:04is is just you know, you think that languages have divided us
- 39:07all these years but in the Lord, by faith in Jesus were all
- 39:11together and every tribe tongue and Nation from every language
- 39:16that you can think of going to be worshiping Jesus At The
- 39:18Throne. That's just incredible to me and
- 39:21it's something I want to experience more and more in my
- 39:24own life. Tongues then is an agreement
- 39:28with God. He makes this agreement and
- 39:32tongs is an agreement made by God that when a Believer utters
- 39:35ecstatic sounds inspired by the Holy Spirit, they are
- 39:39interpreted and understood by God as prayer.
- 39:43And praise, that comes deep within my soul.
- 39:47So the mind of the person is engaged but it's not leading to
- 39:50for understanding. It's a communication that
- 39:53bypasses, the mind, the speaker knows What he's doing but
- 39:56doesn't necessarily understand what he is saying and yet is
- 39:59edified and this is the problem because whether you realize it
- 40:02or not, our culture has very has made us very much rational,
- 40:08logical pragmatic people to some, some are more than others.
- 40:12Nothing wrong with any of those characteristics.
- 40:14By the way, except when they dominate your life, when they
- 40:18dominate your life. And this is what it's like this.
- 40:21This is what it's like when they dominate your life, you'd begin
- 40:23to dismiss the spiritual and the supernatural.
- 40:25Natural. You dismiss anything like.
- 40:28Well, that's from the law. I don't believe that.
- 40:30Well, why not? Cuz I don't understand it.
- 40:32And here's what it sounds like, you know.
- 40:34Like we live in a culture like if II need to understand it, if
- 40:38I understand it, then I'll do it.
- 40:40And I want to understand it and that's our sense of learning and
- 40:43growing again, another great attribute.
- 40:46But what it's led to is this, if I don't understand everything, I
- 40:51won't do anything and a lot of people live their life like
- 40:54that. It's like you go to a difficult
- 40:57year, going through a difficult time or you're faced with a new
- 40:59opportunity because I just don't understand.
- 41:01How can this be listen for those words because that is you in the
- 41:05place of, I will not move forward until I get the answer
- 41:09to this question. And when I, when I'm in a place
- 41:12where if I don't get the answer to this question, I won't move
- 41:14forward. What you're doing is, you're
- 41:15living by understanding. Now, of course, things can be
- 41:18explained again, you want to look at this in the broader
- 41:21sense but I know for a fact there are people listening me
- 41:24right now. Now, this describes your life,
- 41:27you don't step out in faith for anything because you don't
- 41:29really understand. And because you don't
- 41:32understand, like, you look at Toms.
- 41:33I've never, I would never even be open to that.
- 41:35Doesn't make any sense to me. Okay, so the whole Eternal God
- 41:40is now limited by you don't, it doesn't make sense to you and
- 41:43you're not open and you're not willing to obey and follow the
- 41:47prompting of the Holy Spirit. Let's back up a little bit.
- 41:49This is something more simple. You're on your way to work and
- 41:52you just decided to get a doughnut run.
- 41:54You want to bless everyone? So you go down on on Parker,
- 41:56their the Shipley's Donuts. You get in the drive in line you
- 41:59order, but as your the second car in, you get this impression
- 42:02to say, you know what, get the donuts.
- 42:04But also, I want you to pray for the girl that's going to stick
- 42:06them out the window for you and you're like, I don't know why.
- 42:09Would I do that? I'm late, I'm going to be late
- 42:11to work. Why would I do that?
- 42:12That can't be the Lord. I'm just here for donuts and the
- 42:16Lord goes, no, you're actually not here.
- 42:18Just for donuts. You're here because I want you
- 42:21to pray with that. Gal.
- 42:23Well, I don't know. I think I just want to get my
- 42:24donut. I'm just here for don't
- 42:26understand. Why would I ever want to pray?
- 42:28Like, I don't have and you start explaining away, explain it
- 42:30away, explain away. But could you ever consider that
- 42:33even the desire for donuts was so that you could be connected
- 42:36with that, gal out the window. So you could be prompted by the
- 42:38holy spirit so you could just pray with her and you're like,
- 42:42well what if I do that then everybody's going to wait, wait
- 42:44wait, they've been waiting forever anyway so they can wait
- 42:47some more. It's no big deal.
- 42:49Well, I just don't understand. Nobody said, you need to
- 42:52understand. How would you ever know the kind
- 42:56of upbringing? She had, how would you ever know
- 43:00single mom? How would you ever know?
- 43:04The difficulty her getting to work or the bus being late, how
- 43:07would you ever know she can't bear was?
- 43:09How would you ever know what it could?
- 43:10How could you ever possibly understand that just obey God
- 43:13and then when you obey God, he'll start to reveal things to
- 43:16you. And then you find out, man, I
- 43:18think, I think I need to come back and Order Donuts every
- 43:21Friday because I just want her to know that there's a God in
- 43:24heaven, that loves her Simon about tongues, are you guys with
- 43:28me? It's not about tongues and you
- 43:31can hold whatever you want on tongues.
- 43:33That's great. But you know what's more
- 43:35important is the glory of God, manifested in our city, the
- 43:38glory of God living through your life, the glory of God saving
- 43:41your marriage humbling, you the glory of God, raising your kids
- 43:45in the next Jerry. Why do we want?
- 43:47Why would we want a large church?
- 43:48I'll tell you why. Because salvation equals
- 43:51generational change. That's why because when you are
- 43:54saved you almost always Your family follows and then look
- 43:58what happens in a site saved family.
- 44:00What happens? What happens?
- 44:01You start? Ministering to your wife, you
- 44:02start administering your husband.
- 44:03You start ministering to your kids.
- 44:04You start caring about your mom and dad then you start reaching
- 44:07out to Grandma and Grandpa. You got aunts and uncles nieces
- 44:10and nephews generational change. Then what happens?
- 44:13You start raising your kids. You could be the generation
- 44:15where your whole family's change.
- 44:17You want you want a large church.
- 44:18I want a large church because I want to see generational change
- 44:21in our community over and over and over and over again.
- 44:26And so I see the Lord return. That's my heart, that's why I
- 44:29hope is your heart. So now everybody that's clapping
- 44:32we have we have you on Iris. We just read all of your irises
- 44:36and we're going to follow you all with every camera in this
- 44:38city to watch you. Change your community.
- 44:41Yeah that's what it's about. Like you agree with me then,
- 44:44live it out. The lord loves you wants to use
- 44:47you. He wants you to be raiding and
- 44:49worshiping and wanting the power of the Holy Spirit.
- 44:53He wants you to recognize you have more years but behind And
- 44:56you, then you have in front of you because nobody knows the day
- 44:59or the hour that we're going home, man.
- 45:03None of us. We had to go out strong and
- 45:05faithful and stronger than when we started and maybe you're just
- 45:09barely making it to the Finish Line.
- 45:10Then we got to help. Remember, we learned the feeble
- 45:12knees. The weak hands, the church.
- 45:15We help one another and it's not even about serving in the church
- 45:18because you can listen to a study like this and go, oh,
- 45:20well, I guess you need a whole much more people serving in the
- 45:22church. The answer is.
- 45:24Yes. Yes, we do.
- 45:25We do. We need all of you.
- 45:27It would be my dream to see every single person serve in
- 45:30some way in this church. Yeah, all of it not 20%.
- 45:32Not three percent 100 percent across the board, but that's not
- 45:36what I'm talking about. Because serving in the church is
- 45:39not the end of your life, it's just the beginning.
- 45:42Who's when you serve in a church?
- 45:44It's like practice. You get the practice on people
- 45:47that love Jesus and understand or learning about forgiveness or
- 45:50have a heart that's been touched.
- 45:52Like you serve in a church, you start to understand your
- 45:55community, you start to walk in. You go, man.
- 45:57This, this community is hurting. Like, there's a lot of hurting
- 46:00people here. There's a lot of hurting family,
- 46:02you know, you listen to the news and on Fortune, our city's been
- 46:05in the news because of great loss of life.
- 46:07And if you've View that any other way than broken families.
- 46:10Hurt families, you're not going to respond properly.
- 46:13You're not going to respond with the Heart of Jesus, you just
- 46:16going to play into the narrative.
- 46:17Everyone has oh bad City. Although there are such a bad
- 46:19City. All about City, listen, every
- 46:21city is bad. Because every city is filled
- 46:24with people touched by scent. And here you are and here I am.
- 46:30In such a position to make a difference.
- 46:33You go ahead but it's not that big a difference.
- 46:35No know if it's we, it's huge. And God uses his body.
- 46:40Yeah. You have a little you have a
- 46:41little. You have a little.
- 46:43You don't think a thousands and thousands of little changes
- 46:46aren't going to make a difference in our city.
- 46:48They have for 22 years now they have.
- 46:51This is what this little group of people are going to launch
- 46:53off onto. It's not about tongues.
- 46:56It's not about the wind about the noises.
- 47:00God is prepping, they don't even know this.
- 47:02But in seconds like that can minutes the holy spirit's going
- 47:06to say 3,000 people through a very simple message.
- 47:08That Peter gives from memory Why?
- 47:11Because he hid God's word in his heart.
- 47:16So Church. Let's not minimize or Miss
- 47:20What's Happening Here? God is alive and moving and
- 47:24ready to act in a cold hard dry empty religious City.
- 47:28The focus isn't on tongues but on the promise keeper, the focus
- 47:31isn't on tongues, but The Giver of Life, the focus is not on
- 47:34tongues, but the gospel lived out in our lives.
- 47:37Because, you know, people always want to put you in some kind of
- 47:39category. They'll look at our church and
- 47:41go. Are you guys Pentecostals?
- 47:42The answer is yes. We believe in the day of
- 47:44Pentecost. Yes, we're Pentecostals.
- 47:47Well then are you charismatics? Actually, we are the Bible
- 47:50teaches about the carrot Charisma gifts.
- 47:52So yes, we are. But here's the thing, we aren't
- 47:55the way you probably think, and the way you want to put us in
- 47:58some category, we just believe the Bible and we want to live it
- 48:02out. We don't want to fill anybody's
- 48:03categories or be anybody. That's why I just like to refer
- 48:07to myself. You know what, I just like to
- 48:08follow Jesus. I'm a Christian that's who I am.
- 48:11And I want to live my life to please him and honor him.
- 48:14And I want him to be manifested and shown through my life.
- 48:18That's who I am and that's who I want to be and that's what I
- 48:21want our church. To be, we don't believe the holy
- 48:24spirit is weird at this church, okay?
- 48:26You might be weird. Holy spirit is not weird.
- 48:28I might be weird. That's fine.
- 48:30It's okay. I don't even judge myself.
- 48:32I just want to serve the Lord with a clean conscience and a
- 48:34simple mind, but we don't believe the holy spirit's weird
- 48:37here, but we believe he is amazing and powerful and ready
- 48:42to explode upon your life. Just like these guys suddenly,
- 48:46suddenly suddenly, he wants to empower you and use you.
- 48:50He wants you to walk forward. Third in his strength and his
- 48:53power. We are not going to like Paul.
- 48:55Hey, I don't look back anymore. I look forward.
- 48:58Let the Lord do what he wants to do in my life.
- 49:00Amen. Amen.
- 49:01Father we pray for your Holy Spirit to make use of this time
- 49:06today. Thank you for this church.
- 49:11For the growing Church you know all the people we've had the
- 49:13privilege of serving over the years.
- 49:15Some are still here. Many have moved on, bless them
- 49:19even the family. I prayed in the Kansas today,
- 49:21bless them, courage them use them in Greater ways.
- 49:26We just pray God that our hearts would be in tune with you and
- 49:30that we would really Embrace a real personal Pentecost.
- 49:35Just be done with any game playing.
- 49:40Come to you, human, humble and repentant.
- 49:44Just come with Open Hands. Receive ready to receive
- 49:48whatever you have for us in Jesus name.
- 49:52Amen. Amen.
- 49:53Let's take that little element and start to carefully.
- 49:56Open it, please. And we're going to sing this
- 49:59song Under the Lord you have freedom to stand or sit.
- 50:01There's a whole open area here in front of the stage.
- 50:04You want to use it to Neil lay face down, whatever the Lord has
- 50:07for you. Let this be a sweet intimate
- 50:10time of communing with God. Coming together, let it be
- 50:15meaningful. So just hold on to it.
- 50:18We're going to sing together and I'll come back and lead us in
- 50:20receiving the elements. You have the elements with you.
- 50:25These elements are just symbolic.
- 50:29You know this this is just a symbol of a symbol.
- 50:34Remember the bread and Jesus hand and he said, remember this
- 50:39take it and eat it's my body broken for you and you know we
- 50:42don't often remember the broken body.
- 50:45We don't think about it every day to our own.
- 50:48You know, so for us we should be remembering it.
- 50:50So Jesus said, remember it. Remember I was beaten for you,
- 50:54not a man, not a church, not a pastor, Jesus died for you,
- 50:58Jesus was beaten for you. Jesus was slapped and spit Upon
- 51:03Jesus had his clothing, stolen from him and gambled over.
- 51:08Jesus went all the way through all the Romans scourging and
- 51:12everything else so that you might remember the price.
- 51:16Remember what Jesus, what Paul I said the holy spirit said that
- 51:20God, demonstrated his love toward us that while we were
- 51:22still yet, sinners Christ died for the ungodly.
- 51:25That's you and me. So it's lift this up before the
- 51:29Lord, and that's due in obedience what he said.
- 51:31And remember this God, we pray that our memories would improve
- 51:37and we would daily live with a sense of your body.
- 51:43Sacrificed and given for us in our worst, not our best.
- 51:46But in our worst we pray your spirit.
- 51:51Make it known to us that we might receive the supernatural
- 51:55power of abiding in you. We take it together in Jesus
- 51:59name. Let's partay Then he took the
- 52:04cup. It says, you have that in your
- 52:07hands. This too is a symbol of a
- 52:10symbol. He said, take this cup and drink
- 52:12it. It's the the New Covenant.
- 52:14It's my blood that is shed for you.
- 52:16The New Covenant, not a covenant of performance or activity and
- 52:20everything that we can do. But it's a covenant of what he
- 52:23did. It's not our works.
- 52:27It's not all that. We can offer up to him.
- 52:29It's it's his finished work. And it's so good to remind it
- 52:35deals with the sin in our life, right?
- 52:37The guilt, the condemnation. It deals with the shame.
- 52:41It deals with the heavy burdens. We place upon ourselves, it
- 52:46deals with the unforgiveness that surrounds us.
- 52:52The blood. It's real.
- 52:55But so that the cup father, we pray your blessing upon the New
- 52:59Covenant. Our Lives.
- 52:59We want to walk in the newness of life.
- 53:02Not in the Old Miss. We want to walk in newness.
- 53:04We know walking cleanness. We want to walk in sobriety.
- 53:07We want to walk in Clarity. We want to walk in a copy and we
- 53:12all have room to improve. So we just yield ourselves.
- 53:16See, we cast our cares upon you. You like, it says in.
- 53:19Romans, I beg you by the mercies of God, to present yourself a
- 53:23living. Sacrifice holy and acceptable
- 53:26view which is our reasonable service.
- 53:28And as we stand, as we have this cup in our hands and will soon
- 53:32be partaking together. God, we are wanting to respond
- 53:36to that plea, to present ourselves.
- 53:41So we ask your blessing in Jesus name.
- 53:43Let's partake. And we have an issue, don't we,
- 53:48you don't know where to put it. So this happened last night, I'm
- 53:54aware of it and I said, let's keep it this way.
- 53:56We could have put things out and fix it today.
- 53:58But I asked for it not to because I wanted you to feel
- 54:00that feeling that just, it's a little feeling where I don't, I
- 54:04don't know what to do, what I used to do.
- 54:06I used to put it but now I can't do that anymore.
- 54:08It's changed. You know it's not significant
- 54:12it's not a big deal. Righteous little cup we're going
- 54:14to take and throw in the trash. No big deal but it is because
- 54:17your whole life is made up of little things like this where
- 54:20you're unsure, you're uncertain and you don't No, and you got
- 54:23that little feeling but it's actually bigger and bigger and
- 54:25you're wondering, what am I going to do?
- 54:27How am I going to do this? It's different.
- 54:28It's different change or not and you just had it for a split
- 54:31second, but in life, sometimes it's much longer and I just want
- 54:34you to know the Lord is going to take care of you.
- 54:36You're going to be okay, you're going to get make it through,
- 54:38God's going to help you navigate through this challenging time.
- 54:41He's going to help you with that feeling.
- 54:43I'm not sure what to do. I'm not sure where to go.
- 54:45He may not give it to you today. He's gonna give you his presence
- 54:48today, but it give you a solution when you need it.
- 54:50He'll give you the answer when it's time he'll come upon you
- 54:54suddenly. But along the way, he's going to
- 54:56take care of you. He's not just faithful in the
- 54:58moment. He's faithful and every moment
- 55:00church so cops, you know, we're going to be careful with them.
- 55:04We're going to throw them away. We're going to set things up in
- 55:06the future. We can just throw them away in
- 55:08here but it's not about the cups.
- 55:10It's about you. How you feel in life, how
- 55:13challenging things, get how difficult things can be, and
- 55:17just have that feeling. What am I going to do?
- 55:19And they're like, no, I'm going to look to the lord.
- 55:21It's going to trust him. I want to walk with him.
- 55:25I'm going to cast my cares upon him because he cares for me.
- 55:28So let's Stand Together. We pray that you've been
- 55:32encouraged by this Bible. Study delivered live from the
- 55:35sanctuary of Calvary, Aurora for prayer or a copy of the study,
- 55:39call us at 877, 30 Grace, that's eight 77304, 2:53 or visit us
- 55:48online at Calvary, Aurora dot-org, be blessed as you
- 55:53worship Jesus this week. We pray that you've been
- 55:32encouraged by this Bible. Study delivered live from the
- 55:35sanctuary of Calvary, Aurora for prayer or a copy of the study,
- 55:39call us at 877, 30 Grace, that's eight 77304, 2:53 or visit us
- 55:48online at Calvary, Aurora dot-org, be blessed as you
- 55:53worship Jesus this week.