What Happens When God Comes Near | Pastor Jeremy Saylor | Sunday Service

I do have a message that's kicking off a new series today, as Pastor Noah mentioned, is Pentecost Sunday.

And I'm kicking off today a six-week series on the person of the Holy Spirit and who he is and what he does and how we partner with him to fulfill God's purpose for our lives.

And today we're going to begin in a very usual place.

We're going to begin in Acts chapter two.

So if you would grab your Bibles, your iPhones, your iPads, grab those and turn with me today to Acts chapter two.

We're going to start in verse 1.

And if you wouldn't mind, stand with me as we honor the reading of God's word together today.

Before we even read, I just I want to prophesy over your life this morning.

I want to prophesy over you today that if you feel empty, that God's here to fill you with his life.

I want to prophesy over you today that if your faith feels a little cold, a little bit lukewarm, that the fire of the Holy Spirit is going to ignite a fresh flame in your life today.

I want to prophesy over you this morning that if your faith, the gospel of Jesus, is a little timid on your lips, that God is going to anoint you with his word to proclaim his message to a world that is in desperate need of the message of Jesus.

Today you're in the right place at the right time for God to meet you and empower you for his purpose in your life.

It's what the Holy Spirit is all about.

It's what the day of Pentecost was about.

And we read in Acts chapter 2, starting in verse 1.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all together in one place.

Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind.

Everybody say wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

They saw what seemed to be like tongues of fire.

Fire.

Everybody say, fire.

That separated and came to rest on each of them, and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak.

Everybody say, speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Verse 5.

Now there were staying in Jerusalem, God-fearing Jews from every nation.

Every nation, don't miss that, every nation under heaven.

How many of you guys know that would cause some bewilderment?

Utterly amazed, they asked, Aren't these who are speaking Galileans?

Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?

Parthenians, Medes, Illamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontius, Asia, Phyrogeia, and Pamphylia and Egypt and parts of Liberia near Cyrene.

I'm just proud I got through that this morning.

Visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Christians and Arabs.

We hear them declaring, we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own language.

We hear them declare.

Can I tell you that the anointing of God on your life isn't for goosebumps?

It's for the declaration of the gospel of Jesus.

We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own language, amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, What does this mean?

Some, however, made fun of them and said, They've had too much wine.

They're drunk.

Verse 15.

These people are not drunk, as you suppose.

This is Peter.

It's only nine in the morning.

No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel.

That in the last days God said, I will pour out my spirit, not on some people, not on a select few, but on all people.

Everybody say, All people.

On all people, your sons and your daughters will prophesy.

Your young men will see visions, your old men dream dreams.

Even on my surface, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit on those on those days, and they will prophesy.

I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below.

Blood and fire and billows of smoke.

Then the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.

And don't miss verse 21.

And everyone.

Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord.

Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord.

Don't miss the point of Pentecost.

That everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

Title of my message this morning is simply this.

Turn to your neighbor and say, What happens when God comes near?

Turn to the other neighbor and say, What happens when God comes near?

Turn around the person behind you and say, What happens when God comes near?

Church, this is God's word.

And Father, we thank you for your word.

Your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light into our path.

It shows us the way to go and how to arrive there safely.

And I pray this morning that we would not just be hearers of your word, but that we would be doers of it in Jesus' mighty name.

And everybody said, You may be seated.

Thank you, Caleb.

There is a reel going around on social media that maybe you have seen.

It's been around for some time.

It's something that I see periodically, and every time I see it, I just I chuckle on the inside because of how how true it really is.

The reel portrays a man sitting with a large stack of papers, and he's he's reading through the story of his life as he's having a conversation with God about it.

And so he comes to every page as he's sitting there and reading the story, the unfolding of his life, and and almost on every page he gets to a point and he goes, Wah?

God doesn't say anything, so he just he keeps he keeps reading, he goes to the next page.

Wha?

Have you ever felt like that with your life?

As life unfolds, we have this tendency to cry out to God when things don't work out the way that we think they should, or circumstances unfold in a in a way we would not have chosen.

We we why God, why?

Why?

And and so he he turns about three pages, and on each page, why?

And then he gets about to the fourth page and he goes, oh, that's why.

And then he starts the process all over again.

Why, God?

Why?

Oh, oh, oh, that's why.

The reason that I I chuckle at this reel is because it really points to a truth of in the Bible, a truth about life that all of us are well acquainted with.

And the truth is simply this God is always doing more than we think he's doing.

God is always, not just sometimes, not every now and then, but God is always, everybody say always, always doing more than we think he's doing.

He he's playing chess while we're playing checkers.

He's always doing more than we think he's doing, and we see this unfolding from beginning to end in scripture.

Story after story reveals a God that is active and doing more in our lives and through our lives than we realize.

I'm reminded this morning of the story of Joseph.

Joseph, who was betrayed by his brothers and thrown in prison for a crime that he did not commit.

And all along this journey that he would not have written for himself.

I imagine that he thought that imprisonment was persecution.

But if you read the end of the story, you realize that that prison wasn't persecution, it was posturing for a purpose to be fulfilled in his life.

Because God's always doing more than we think he's doing.

I'm reminded of the story of David.

David faced difficulty after difficulty after difficulty in his life.

First, it was a bear and a lion, then it was Goliath, and then it was Saul.

And I imagine David thought that each difficulty was intended to destroy him.

But when he got to the end of his life, he began to understand the difficulties that I faced weren't for my destruction.

They were for my development so that I could become the man that God has called me to be.

See, God's God's always doing more than we think he's doing.

And our our tendency, church, is to look at things on the surface and judge them and think we've got it all figured out.

Anybody like that this morning?

Anyone guilty of doing that?

A time or two in your life where you've looked at something on the surface at a single point in time and think you've pegged it, only to be proven that you missed it.

Anybody like that this morning?

Yeah.

There's there's about a third of you going to heaven, the rest of y'all are aligned and going to hell.

We've all, we've all done that in in our lives.

And if God's always doing more than we think he's doing, then what we have to learn how to do is to pause, take a step back, and look deeper at what God is actually doing.

And that's what I want to do today on Pentecost Sunday.

Here in Acts chapter 2, God is doing way more than we think He's doing on the surface.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

If we're not real careful, we'll look at all the activity that is happening on the day of Pentecost and we'll miss the message, the meaning, the purpose that God is trying to unfold, that God is trying to unveil.

And so this morning, I want us to look a little bit deeper into the day of Pentecost and maybe peel back the layers and pull back the veil and look at the plan that God is unveiling.

And I want to do that by looking at three signs.

There's three signs here, there's three symbols, there's three metaphors in this passage that Luke writes in under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that helps connect to the larger narrative that God is writing.

And these these three signposts of Pentecost are wind, fire, and word.

Not to be confused with earth, wind, and fire.

It's a different purpose altogether.

Wind, fire, and word.

Say that after me this morning, wind, fire, and word.

These three signs on the day of Pentecost are windows into the story that God is writing that's bigger than an a day, that's bigger than an event, that that is about his full promise for all people.

Let's look at the first one.

Wind.

Wind, wind.

When God comes near, he always, not sometimes, but always breathes life into a new people.

When God comes near, he always breathes life.

He breathes life into a new people.

And that's what we find happening here in verse 2 of Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

It says suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent.

Oh, come on now, be with me this morning.

But like a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

All throughout scripture, wind and breath are representative of the person of the Holy Spirit.

Not just representative of the Holy Spirit, the very words that are used in Scripture for the Spirit are also translated as wind and breath.

I have this for you.

The word spirit in the Greek is the word pneuma.

And in the Hebrew it is the word ruach.

I like just saying that.

Ruach.

And it means wind, breath, or spirit.

So the blowing of a violent wind was representative of the arrival of the presence of the Spirit of God.

And we find this sign, this symbol used throughout Scripture.

As I begin to think about this week, my mind went all the way back to Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

And we find the first record in Scripture of the word spirit.

And it's in Genesis chapter 1, verse 2, where it says that darkness covered the face of the deep.

Genesis 1:2

And the spirit, the ruach, the wind, the breath of God was hovering over the face of the deep.

I actually like the translation better: brooding, that it was brooding, that it was working, that it was active, it was bringing things together.

It was awaiting the word of God to create life.

Spirit of the Lord was brooding over the face of the deep, awaiting for the word.

Let there be life.

And as soon as the word was released, the spirit began to create light.

And for six days, the spirit of God just began to create whatever God said to create.

Let there be light, let there be earth, let there be water, let there be land.

And the spirit of God just began to create whatever God said to create.

In Genesis chapter 2, verse 7, the Bible tells us that we find another record of this word, and it says that God had fashioned man from the dust of the earth, but he was just a body.

Genesis 2:7

He had not yet become a living being.

As a matter of fact, I would dare say we don't come into being until we breathe the breath of God.

And the moment we stop breathing the breath of God, we move from this life into the next.

Another example is in Ezekiel chapter 37.

Ezekiel 37 · chapter mention

It's the story of the valley of dry bones.

And God brings the prophet to this valley that's filled with dead men's bones.

God asks him, son, can these bones live?

The prophet says, God only you know that.

God says, Prophesy to the bones.

Speak to the bones, command them to come together.

And so Ezekiel begins to prophesy to the bones.

And all of a sudden, there's a rattling, there's the sound of a moving wind, there's the ruach of God that begins to create in that moment again.

And all of a sudden, bone comes to bone and ligament to ligament and tendon to tendon and muscle and flesh until again there's a body.

On the floor of the valley, just like in Genesis chapter 2, verse 7 with Adam, there's a body, but it doesn't have life in it yet.

Genesis 2:7

And Ezekiel says, I don't know what to do.

God says, You've got to prophesy breath.

You've got to ruach into this moment.

And all of a sudden, Ezekiel begins to prophesy the breath of God.

And then the breath of God comes into this, and a mighty army stands up because you can't live without the breath of God in your life.

Can I give you?

You guys know I've been working on a doctorate and I'm getting real close to being done.

Praise God.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus.

Something I've I've discovered through that process.

Little sidebar associated with this is that the name Yahweh for God that we have in the Old Testament is our best construction of what we think the name of God is, because in ancient Israel, they didn't write out the name of God fully because they revered it so deeply.

What they would write is four constonants.

Yod He Va He.

Yod Vei.

These four constonants, and then we would put in the vowels because we we think it's Yahweh.

But we don't really know.

As a matter of fact, they revered the name of God so much that they wouldn't even write that a lot of times.

They would just say the name.

Theologians have studied it for years.

And what's amazing is they think the name of God sounds like our breathing.

If that's true, a baby, when it's born and breathes its first breath, declares the name of God.

We cease to be when we declare the name of God with our last breath.

From beginning to end, the Bible tells us that there is a spirit that moves like a rushing mighty wind.

It's the breath of God, and that breath it creates life.

Wherever it goes, it creates.

And so we come to Acts chapter 2, and there's this rushing, mighty wind that is blowing upon the house.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And the Bible says that it fills every person in the place.

Don't miss this because this has never happened in history before.

Never before had a people gathered, and the Spirit of God came to rest on all of them.

See, before Pentecost, the Holy Spirit would be poured out on specific people and places for a specific purpose.

But now, on the day of Pentecost, the breath of God, the wind of the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all people in all places for all purposes.

Why?

So that the glory of the Lord would fill the earth like the waters cover the sea.

Never before had this happened.

See what is happening here?

God is breathing life, He's creating life into a new creation.

And that creation is called the church.

And if it hadn't happened 2,000 years ago, we wouldn't be here today.

He's creating something that's never been before.

The Spirit of God moving over every person in every place for every purpose, so that the glory, the glory, the glory of God would fill the earth.

There's there's new, I love what Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17.

2 Corinthians 5:17

He says that we are therefore a new creation.

We are new creations in Christ Jesus.

Old things have passed away, and behold, all things have become new.

And you may be here this morning, and you say, I don't really feel that new.

Maybe you feel like you've always felt.

Maybe several reasons for that.

But I can think of two offhand.

When the life of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, doesn't seem alive in your life, I would suggest that there's two things at play.

Number one, you really haven't surrendered your life to Jesus as Lord.

You prefer to call him Savior.

I want to I want to clarify something for you this morning.

In Romans chapter 10, Paul says, if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord, you will be saved.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

It doesn't say Jesus as Savior.

See, salvation is the benefit that we receive from our relationship with him as Lord.

If I'm not receiving the fullness of the life of Christ to create me into a new creation, it might be because I really haven't died to myself.

In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus said, if you're going to come after me, you have to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

For whoever will save their life will lose it.

But he who loses his life for me will find it.

I think a primary problem that we have in the church today, especially in the West, is that we've got too many Christians choosing themselves over God.

I'm choosing my preference, my passion, my desire.

Jesus said, if you want to have life and it more abundantly, you've got to bow the knee and surrender to the one who gave everything.

And when you do that, he said, His spirit will fill you and make you into something you've never been before.

We gotta die.

We gotta die.

Number two, the second reason maybe we don't experience that creative life is that we've stopped receiving a fresh impartation from the Lord.

Far too many believers approach the baptism of the Holy Spirit or the day of Pentecost from the standpoint of I did that once, I'm good, I'm done.

Listen, one and done doesn't work here.

Matter of fact, in Ephesians, Paul says, don't be drunk with wine that leads to debauchery, but be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Be filled.

What is that?

The actual verb tense there says, be continually being filled with the Spirit of God.

I don't need it once.

I need it every day.

I need let me know I need it every moment of every day.

Any of y'all deal with some difficult people?

Anybody face difficult problems?

You need the Spirit of God filling you and offering you creative solutions to the problems you face.

I don't need it every now and then.

I don't need it just on Sunday.

I don't need it just on Wednesday.

I need it every moment of every day to live out the walk that He's called me to live.

Being continually filled with the Spirit of God.

Listen, if you want to be a new creation in Christ Jesus, you want the full creative life of Christ to take up residence in your life and make you into something that you've never been before, then if you'll die to Him and be filled with the Holy Spirit, you'll become something you've never known before.

Problem is we like ourselves, we like our preferences.

Second sign here is fire.

Fire.

When God comes near, here on the day of Pentecost, he fills a new temple with his presence.

Verse 3, they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

Throughout the Bible, the fire represents God's presence, God's purification, and God's power.

And we see that from beginning to end.

Anytime you see God show up in Scripture, you find the fire of the Lord accompanying his arrival.

One of the first places we find this is actually on Mount Sinai in the Old Testament.

50 days after Passover, after God had delivered Egypt, delivered Israel from Egypt.

They they go to Mount Sinai, by the way.

That's where we get Penta.

Pinta is 50.

It's 50 days after Passover.

50 days after Passover.

Tradition has that Moses ascended Mount Sinai.

God descended upon the mountain.

The mountain trembled, the mountain quaked, the mountain smoked, that the fire of the Lord descended upon that mountain, representing his power, his presence, his purity.

And it was in that very first Pentecost moment that God gave Moses the word of God.

Other moments throughout Scripture, we find that when they constructed the tabernacle, the fire of God came upon the tabernacle, declaring, This is the place where I will meet with man.

Fire filled the tabernacle, smoke filled the tabernacle, God's presence, his power, his purity.

Later, when they constructed the temple, the same thing happened.

When Solomon began to dedicate the temple, the fire of the Lord descended upon the temple, declaring, This is the place where I will meet with man.

But here in Acts chapter 2, the fire doesn't descend upon a place.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

The fire descends upon a people.

What does that mean, Pastor?

It means that we become the temple of the Holy Spirit.

We become, church, you are the place where people encounter the presence, the power, and the purity of God.

It's no longer in a temple or on a mountain or a tabernacle, but we are the presence of God in the earth wherever we go.

We are, church, we are the dwelling place of God, dispersed throughout the earth.

Yes, we gather like this on a Sunday and we worship because we need encouragement and we need comfort and we need strengthening and we need equipping and we need empowering.

But the church was never supposed to exist inside of four walls because we are the church.

And wherever we go, there the presence of God should abide.

It should abide in the classroom, it should abide in the boardroom, it should abide in the office, it should abide in the car, it should abide in the grocery store, it should abide in the gym.

Wherever you go, you're bringing the presence of God because you are his temple.

It's no longer about a place, it's about a people.

Think about the the imagery, the difference.

Before when the presence of God was in the tabernacle and the temple, people had to come to one place to encounter the presence of God.

But we as the temple of God are dispersed to the world.

To the world, to the wherever your home is the temple of the Lord.

Wherever you go, you are the abiding presence of God in the earth.

This is what Pentecost tells us is that God desires to burn brightly in us.

And you may say this morning, Pastor, I don't have much fire today.

There's not a lot of fire burning in me for the Lord.

Well, if I know anything about fire, in order for fire to burn brightly, it needs two things.

It needs fuel and it needs oxygen.

Fuel, you gotta have some wood for a fire to burn.

And you gotta have oxygen.

You gotta have breath.

You gotta have oxygen for a fire to burn brightly.

Well, Pastor, what is the fuel of our life that we lay upon the fire that the presence of God breathes on?

Can I tell you what your fuel is, is your sacrifice.

Your sacrifice is the fuel.

You need to get this this morning because it'll change your life.

Your sacrifice is the fuel that the Holy Spirit breathes on that empowers you to fulfill his purpose in your life.

Your sacrifice, let's go back to Matthew chapter 16 for a second.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus said, if you're going to come after me, you must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

For whoever loses his life for me, whoever sacrifices his life for me, you following me this morning.

Whoever gives up his life for me finds it.

Like when I lay down my life for him, it is the fuel that he breathes on that empowers me to fulfill his purpose for my life.

Maybe the reason we don't have more fire is because we don't have enough sacrifice on the fire.

He says, For I am crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives within me.

And the life I live in this body, I live by faith in the Son of God who gave himself for me.

I am crucified with Christ.

My sacrifice is the fuel that the Holy Spirit breathes upon that brings power to my life to fulfill his purpose.

I want to tell you this morning: if you want to be on fire today, maybe there's something in your life that you need to lay down.

If you'll lay it down, maybe God will breathe upon it.

See, when we sacrifice our time, our talent, and our treasure.

God breathes upon that sacrifice.

Fire of the Holy Spirit empowers us for his purpose.

Finally, number three.

I'm on number three and I'm about done.

Have I done good today, time-wise?

I mean you're good.

I could be here all day.

Number three is Word.

When God comes near, he sends a new voice into the world.

Word.

All of them, verse four, were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak.

They began to declare the wonders of God in unknown languages to them, but in known languages to those that were around.

They began to declare the word of God to all those who were present.

Every nation, the Bible says, under the sun was gathered there.

And all of them heard the word of God, the wonders of God proclaimed in their nation.

I said it at the beginning of my message.

I want to say it again here.

Listen, Pentecost isn't about goosebumps, it's about the proclamation of the gospel.

See, Pentecost really, if you track this through scripture, you find that Pentecost is a reverse of the curse of Babel.

In Babel, God did He do He divided the languages, and mankind divided over the course of the planet.

At Pentecost, God unites language so that again man can declare the praises of God to every people on the planet.

It's a reverse of the curse of Babel so that the whole world will be filled with the glory of God.

Listen, God's not called you to keep your faith to yourself.

It may be personal, but it was never intended to be private.

Your faith, your faith has an anointing on it.

It's got a fire upon it that it may declare the wonders.

The wonders of what God has done in your life and what he wants to do through your life for the world around your life.

There's people that are dying and going to hell and are awaiting somebody to declare the wonders of God to them.

You have friends, you have family, you have people that you walk by every day that are lost and don't know Jesus and are just looking for somebody under the unction of the Spirit of God with the fire of God in their belly to tell them the testimony of Jesus.

Stop keeping it to yourself.

To keep this story to ourselves is the most selfish thing that we could do.

If you had the cure to cancer, there's no way you could keep your mouth shut.

We have a cure that is greater than cancer.

We have the cure to every ailment, every disease, every break, every division.

We have the cure above all cures that at his name, every knee has to bow and every tongue has to confess that he is God.

We have the answer.

Stop keeping it to yourself.

Well, I might lose my job.

I know that might be a reality.

I'm gonna say something.

If you lose your job for telling somebody about Jesus, God will give you another job.

Why?

Because your sacrifice is the fuel for your fire, it's the fuel that the Spirit of God will breathe upon that'll empower you and propel you for.

See, this church is what about Pentecost is all about.

It's not about goosebumps, it's about the fullness of God coming to man, that man now becomes the dwelling place of God, and him, as he goes throughout the world, brings the good news of Jesus to the world.

Stand with me where you are this morning.

I'm gonna ask my prayer team to join me this morning, to my left or to my right.

And I just have three simple responses for you today.

And my responses are simply this: if you need fresh life, don't leave this place without somebody praying with you.

If you feel empty like a shell of who you used to be, God is here to fill you with his life.

Number two, if your faith seems a little lukewarm, your faith may have cooled a bit.

Don't leave this place because God wants to ignite a fresh fire in your life for him.

And number three, if you're timid about your faith and you need some courage today, don't leave this place.

Don't leave this place without praying with one of our prayer team members because we are here to do what the Bible says, to bear one another's burdens, to lay hands on one another, and release the anointing and the power of the Holy Spirit to give life, breathe fire, courage into your life.

You just bow your hands with me right where you are this morning.

Worship team is gonna lead us in a song here together today.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we come before you this morning.

We thank you, Lord, Jesus.

That you said, as the Father has sent me, I'm sending the Spirit to them so that they may have the life of God inside of them, and that life would create something together all new.

God, that life would burn brightly inside of us, that life would ignite a fire in our heart for you.

That would spread beyond ourselves to the world around us.

So this morning, Holy Spirit, I say breathe upon your church again today.

I say, fire of the Holy Spirit, burn brightly.

I declare, may your word go forth from this place today.

In Jesus' name, if you need prayer as the worship team leads us, I invite you right now, move out of your seat.

Don't leave this place the same way.

Get out of your seat right now.

This is the end.

God's here to meet you this morning.

God's here to stir you today.

God's here to draw you closer this morning.

That's right.

People are already moving.

Come on, let's worship together this morning.

Come on, Pastor Meg, lead us.