Holy Spirit - for the sake of the world

Thank you so much for tuning in to the Healside Church podcast. We believe God

loves you, your past doesn't define you, and that God has good days ahead. Thanks

for listening to the sermon. Our hope is that it equips you, inspires you, and

encourages you in your faith.

I'm excited today. I know I've mentioned it by now several times. Today's Pentecost

Sunday. It's the day that the church globally celebrates the

promise of the Holy Spirit. If you're new to faith, or even if you are from the

outside looking in, I'm sure you've heard of Jesus. And Jesus is God's Son who

came in the flesh. He lived life, he died, he rose again, and he ascended into

heaven. Well, there were several followers of his that were following

him. Things had not gone according to plan. None of them, I mean that, none of

them planned on him being crucified. That was a surprise to them all. And Jesus,

though, had warned them, had forewarned them, that that was going to take place.

And it was an important part of his mission and the story of God through the

Scriptures. Like, this had to happen. But they were a little stubborn. They

couldn't fully see exactly how that fit together and was part of the plan. But it

happened. And so in an anxious season for the disciples, after Jesus had died and

resurrected, he would show up. He would pop up and kind of walk through walls. He

would encounter some of them and meet them in their doubt, meet them in their

fear, meet them in their anxiety. Jesus would show up and speak peace over their

hearts. Well, there was about a 50-ish day from resurrection, Easter Sunday, to

Pentecost Sunday. Several people were either remained in the city of Jerusalem

or had come from outside Jerusalem. Jews had come from different regions to

celebrate the Harvest Festival. Pentecost Sunday is, yes, for Christians, but it was

also a significant Jewish holiday. They'd celebrate the harvest. They still, to this

day, celebrate. It's called Shabbat. I'm glad you asked. You're welcome. And they

would gather together and celebrate. So people from all over were in the city.

And then we see in the book of Acts, we've got two passages, Acts chapter 1

Acts 1:8–9

verses 8 through 9. Jesus' last words, his final words before he ascended into

the heavens. He says this, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes

on you. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria

and to the ends of the earth. After he said this, he was taken up before their

very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight. Well, we move into the next chapter

and they have been praying. They've been seeking God. They've been going to the

temple and living life, anticipating, expecting, but having no idea what

exactly would look like. And we get in Acts 2, 1 through 4, we can now see the

beginning of the church. It says this, when the day of Pentecost came, they were

all together in one place. Now this is normal. The way the Jews would

celebrate is they would gather together. It was a big shindig, kind of maybe for

us like Thanksgiving or Christmas. I mean, they get the whole family, extended

family and friends and everybody's, if you will, a bit in a partying mood. And so

they had gathered for prayer and gathering together and then suddenly a

sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven, filled the whole house

where they were sitting. And they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that

separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the

Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

That's the birth, what we consider the birth of the church. Yes, for those verses,

but more for the verses following. The story picks up from there. Their gift of

tongues was not purely a heavenly language, as we may suppose in this day

and age. It was actually other people's languages who had gathered to come

celebrate the Shabbat festival. And so other people showed up to worship and

they hear the gospel message in their own language. How amazing is that? They

hear this gospel message and they're confused. They're like, we can see that you

are not intellectually capable of knowing our language. What is happening?

So Peter gets up and he shares what is happening amongst them. He begins with, I

think, a pretty good statement. Hey, these guys aren't drunk. I mean, that's always a

good way to get people's attention. We are not, they're not drunk. But they have

been filled with the Holy Spirit and this is the Spirit's working. And so

here's what's wild. Peter lays out the good news of Jesus, the encounter of the

last 50 days and what had just happened. People respond to the message and 3,000

people that first day of the church get saved, they repent, they get baptized, they

get plugged into the local church. And since then, for 2,000 years strong now,

the church has been going. It's beautiful. I want to read something that came up in

my prayer time this morning. We use, I use the Lectio 365 app and I was so

moved in my prayer time this morning that I thought I would just read this

little piece. It says this about the church. Today we celebrate the birth of

this 2,000 year old, 2 billion strong, messed up, blessed up, revolutionary

movement of justice and love we call the church. She is not perfect. Many grave

sins have been committed. Our hearts must often grieve, but still the Church of

Jesus Christ remains the greatest agency of human blessing the world has ever

known. Starting schools and hospitals, feeding the hungry, caring for the poor,

inspiring the greatest art the world has ever known, healing broken families,

redeeming cultures, and reconciling warring tribes. Establishing the

foundations for scientific innovation, human flourishing, shaping entire

civilizations, and above all, proclaiming today on this Pentecost Sunday the

same stunning good news of salvation for the nations in every generation

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. God has been up to good things in these 2,000

years. Today I do want to pivot now to a series we're beginning. It's called

Gifted and it's a look at the spiritual gifts listed in the New Testament. We're

gonna take a peek. We're gonna look. We're not gonna cover them all today.

Today's an introduction. The next few Sundays we'll look at groupings of

these spiritual gifts and how they can benefit not only the life of the

believer, but how they were sent to benefit the local church and the kingdom

of God moving forward. And so you may be here, never heard of a spiritual gift. You

just know there's some people who follow Jesus. You're absolutely right. And so

hopefully I'll be able to teach you a little bit through the scriptures,

through experience, what is the significance of spiritual gifts. For the

others of you, you may be more seasoned, you may be encountered spiritual gifts,

you may be operating in what we call spiritual gifts. But these were gifts

given by the Holy Spirit to help the mission of Jesus go forward throughout

the world, and especially these last 2,000 years. They're gifts that come from

God for the follower of Jesus. And these gifts are used to bless others, to serve

others, to encourage others in their faith. Now the church that Paul the

Apostle is writing to, some of you this will be of great comfort, from others of

you it'll be a little concerning. The church Paul is writing to about these

spiritual gifts is one of the most messed up churches in the history of the

church. It's the Corinthian church, and I won't list their grievances, but I would

just say that in today's climate, you would find them on a Hulu documentary

somebody. I mean Netflix would be knocking on their door saying, hey, hey

can we just follow you guys around for a few weeks and hear what's going on. I

mean it's it's one of those, I've got two daughters, we have not sat down and read

Corinthians together yet, because they're not ready for it, I'll just say that. But

the Corinthian church is a lot like most churches. It was made up of people who, I

mean this honestly, on your behalf are doing their best. They are trying to

follow the ways of the Messiah. They are trying to love one another. They are

trying to honor God with their life, live their life sacrificially. They've got bad

habits, many of them have been addicted to things, and they came to hear the good

news and encounter God's love. And Paul isn't ever-present. Paul is traveling, the

apostle who wrote Corinthians. He's moving around the region, he's traveling

to different cities, starting churches, and so what he would do is he would write

letters back to that group of people gathered. And he says something

significant in 1st Corinthians chapter 12 verses 1 through 7. He begins a

discussion, he begins a conversation on spiritual gifts. Here's what he has to

say. Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you

to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were

influenced and led astray to mute idols. So the Corinthian church, like not mute

idols in their head, they would go to a church. And that church had

idols. This was all over Rome, the Roman Empire. So these people kind of gave

themselves over to them. We're keeping this message kind of G-rated. And so you

can read more on your own time about what that looked like. But again, it was

wild. They would give themselves, quite literally, over to idolatry. And Paul's

like, listen, those idols, they couldn't do anything for you. They got nothing to

say to you. You trying to appease them, thinking they're mad at you, they don't

even exist. So Paul uses that that flip of phrase, mute idols. Therefore, I want

you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus be

cursed. And no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. There are

different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are

different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of

working, but in all of them and in everyone, it is the same God at work. Now

to each one, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. It's

probably halfway through the sermon a good time to mention what the sermon is

titled, For the Sake of the World. Would you say that with me? Three, two, one. For

the sake of the world. You are looking at someone who believes spiritual gifts

are given for the sake of the world. When we, as followers of Jesus, come to the

knowledge that God has placed within us through the Holy Spirit, resources, wisdom

from heaven, and we release that to the people and the world around us, it has

the potential to change their life forever. When we walk in an experiential

relationship with our Heavenly Father, an encountering relationship with God, when

we encounter and experience His love, and we have done the due diligence to become

aware, begin to practice, begin to cultivate, and lean in to the spiritual

gifts, it has the potential to change the course of people's lives. We are

gathered together, and you may have had no clue how many spiritual gifts are in

operation that have led to this very point, and we got a ton of them. The gift of

hospitality, somebody. You didn't know you needed it, but as you sip that coffee,

mm, mm, mm, mm. You grateful for the gift of hospitality. The gift of administration. The

gift of leadership. How about this? The gift of service. Maybe you're here today

because someone carried out the gift of evangelism. Like, well, that's a fancy

word. It is, but they just invited you to church, somebody. They shared the hope of

Jesus, and told you the story of God, or invited. Maybe they just said, maybe they

are, maybe they have no personality. Maybe they're the most boring people in the

face of the planet. I mean, you'd never tell them that, especially with them

sitting with you here in church. All they said to you is, God changed me. That's why

I don't do what I do in the past. And I believe God can change you. And somehow,

behind the scenes, the heavens were open, and the Holy Spirit invaded somebody's

heart, and we're like, whew, all right. It doesn't matter your personality. It

doesn't matter your gender. It certainly doesn't matter your ethnicity. The

Spirit, if it's teaching us anything in Acts 2, it was poured out for all y'all,

and everybody. And so, we encounter the loving, living presence of God. I was

thinking about this. I'm grateful. I mean, I'm very grateful for those teaching the

next generation, in kids and in youth, somebody. It's more than just child care.

They are activating and cultivating. They're gifting to teach, because you

only know how much of a gifting that is when you try to teach kids, somebody.

Follow. Just pay attention, kids. Listen. Listen. When I learned that I did not

have that gifting was when I was a high school soccer coach, and the one

responsibility they did not tell me I had to do before I signed on was that in

the spring, you have to lead coaching camps for kids. And we have some phrases

that my wife still teases me about, because she had the great idea to come

take photos for the school of what that looked like. And she holds me

accountable through some of the words that came out of my mouth to try to get

the kids' attention. But I'm grateful for those with the spiritual

gift of giving and generosity. Grateful for those with the gift of prophecy.

Those who have discernment and wisdom. And it's been this way as a church for

over 2,000 years, that here's the beautiful thing. All of our giftings work

together for a common cause, and here it is. It's to point people to Jesus Christ.

It's to point people to the love of God. It's to come alongside and encourage

people to encounter a living, alive God who still forgives, who still offers hope,

who still breathes new life into dead things and dead situations. But if we're

wondering who we need to be waiting on, who's God gonna use? Who's God

gonna send? Hold up the mirror. You're looking at Him. It's you. God has uniquely

gifted you with spiritual gifts to be used. So a few truths about these

spiritual gifts. These are truths, realities. You'll read the New

Testament. They'll never be listed in point. The Bible is story, okay, and themes and

doctrine. It's not exactly points, but I'm saving you the time, so I'll share some

points. Three helpful perspectives when it comes to these spiritual gifts. One,

spiritual gifts come from the Holy Spirit. I've been in some circles of

church world where that sometimes is forgotten. It's not according to your

personality. It's not according to your looks. Thank you, Jesus. It's not according

to your education, your intellect, or the lack thereof. It's a gift of the Holy

Spirit that He has assigned to you. The Holy Spirit does multiple things in our

lives, but one of them is He does empower us. He does empower us to make a

difference for the sake of the world. And so spiritual gifts are given to

followers of Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit. We see these come up in

the New Testament writings. We're in 1st Corinthians, but we also see Peter has

some things to say about this. Other passages of Scripture are very informed

as to what's happening. Paul and the disciples, they didn't necessarily know

all that was going to happen, but they started seeing in the life of the church

that everybody gets to participate. Like, Christianity isn't left to the

professionals. In fact, a lot of times, Christianity is a lot better off without

the professionals. God's always, always envisioned you making a difference. And

some of you are new to the church. Shoot, some of you are here for the first time

and you'll be like, me? Yes. Maybe not yet, but yes. But here's the other thing.

Soon, soon, soon, God can do wonders through your life. God can do incredible

things through your life. And it's not according to your track record. In fact,

one of the funnest things the Holy Spirit does is He'll take somebody born and raised

in the church, and then God will promote somebody who literally found Jesus a

week ago. There's no competition. There's no comparison. It's the breathing of the

Holy Spirit to anoint us. Anointing is Old Testament verbiage to pour out oil where

they would set someone apart. You have been anointed. The oil has been poured.

You've been set apart to do good works, to do good works through the power of the

Holy Spirit. But part of that is the spiritual gifts. So spiritual gifts,

they come from the Holy Spirit. Thank you, tech team. Awesome job. They had that list

available. Different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them all.

We can bring up that image again. A listing of spiritual gifts. Encouragement,

giving, leadership, mercy, prophecy, service, teaching. 1 Corinthians 12,

administration, discernment, healing, interpretation of languages,

prophecy, wisdom, apostle faith, helps, knowledge, miracles, teaching.

Ephesians 4 talks about apostle, pastor, teaching, evangelism, prophecy.

1 Peter 4, serving, teaching, hospitality. Second part, how you can maybe engage

with this series is think about this. Secondly, spiritual gifts are to be

desired and practiced. Now, in my journey as a pastor, I've recognized a lot of

people didn't know this. And that's no problem. This doesn't make you

more or less. It's just a statement. But you can desire, you've been wired to

desire spiritual gifts and to practice them. I use the word practice because

it's the Holy Spirit moving through human people, somebody. And last time I

checked, none of us are perfect. But I would rather be practicing and making a

mistake here and there than not even touching it. And so spiritual gifts are

to be desired and practiced. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 1, it says this,

1 Corinthians 14:1

follow the way of love. Follow the way of love. You maybe have no church

background or any Bible background, but you already know 1

Corinthians 13 because you've been to a wedding. And they done nothing but talk

about love. As two people gathered to look into each other's eyes and hear the

pastor say, love is patient, love is kind. Some of us need to hear that today, love

is patient, love is kind. That's 1 Corinthians 13. It's just, here's what's

wild. Y'all want context? It's on spiritual gifts. Because Paul's like, dude, even if

you have all the gifts but not love? And you, you annoying. That's Paul's words, not

mine. Then 14, 14 begins, follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the

Spirit, especially prophecy. And we can desire those just to become aware like

God can use me. That's where it gets settled. If you haven't heard last week's

sermon, I encourage you, please listen. Pastor Donnie Whitlow preached a

tremendous word and a live message, a timely word for us to come alive in our

hearts that God can do exceedingly abundantly more than we can think or

imagine through our lives, somebody. And now I'm coming alongside that and

encouraging you that the Holy Spirit has uniquely wired you for the sake of the

world, for the sake of the world. You think, little old me, God doesn't say

little old you. Like, those words have never come out of his mouth. He's looking

for available people. And you can desire, you can think about, you can prayerfully

consider, I wonder how God has gifted me. Three, spiritual gifts are for common good

of local church and the kingdom of God through serving others. It's not limited

to the local church, don't misread that. Corinthians, we see contextually, it was

for the life of the church. It was for the life of what God was wanting to do in the

lives of others in Corinth. The same is true today. Spiritual gifts are

tremendous, tremendous opportunity in the local church. They should be used there.

They should be available and practiced. But it's not, it's beyond the four walls

of the church. You use them at home. Now, don't weaponize them at home, but use

them at home. And all the husbands are like, man, my wife has been speaking in

tongues since we got married, man. I do not, I do not have the gift of

interpretation, so I don't know what she's been saying. I just got some of y'all

in trouble. All right, spiritual gifts. Some of you just woke up with that story

right there. Man, I didn't think it was that good that we said that. Spiritual gifts for the

common good of the local church, the kingdom of God, serving through others.

First Peter 4.10. First Peter 4.10. Each of you should use whatever gift you've

received, what is it? What is it? To serve others as faithful stewards of God's

grace in its various forms. Beautiful, beautiful. Here are four approaches to

spiritual gift, and then we're about done. Four approaches. First, ignorant. Paul's

writing to the Corinthian church, he said, I don't want you to be uninformed. And I

am not the Apostle Paul, but for Hillside, for those seated here, for those online, I

do not want you to be uninformed. I don't want you to have lived your life here on

earth, not recognizing that you are an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That you are his witness in the world. Here's the thing, throughout life, we

get what is affectionately called baggage. And sometimes we bring that

baggage into the walls of the church. And I just want to say, your baggage is

welcome here. I've got no beef with your baggage. But eventually, there comes a

time where if words were spoken over you like you're never good enough, you'll

never have what it takes, you're a loser, what are you even thinking? What have you

ever done? Eventually that baggage, that voice, that inner critic, we have to give

it over to the Lord. And then we have to take our new mindset, our renewed mind in

Christ. Not arrogantly, but affectionately say, God, I'm a child of

you. And I thank you, Lord. I can look back and see that in my life, you've been

drawing me, inviting me to encounter your love. And then we spend a season growing

in that, learning that. And here's the deal, then we begin to recognize God

wants to do amazing things through us. God wants to help us share his good news.

God wants to help us show his good news. God wants to empower us, not of our own

strengths, not of our own abilities, but with a supernatural power from heaven to

be used as a vessel for his glory, to serve, to care, to love, to teach, to host,

to evangelize, all sorts of ways God wants to use us. And Paul, he's tremendous in

his teaching because he says all of these are powerful for the common good.

There's some we may think is most important, and if you've never heard me

say this, preaching is not the most important part of a Sunday morning. I'm

not the most important person in the room. We are all here gathered under the

cross and in the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. And all of us, all of us are

on a level playing field. I'm doing this just because you could see me. I could

come down and lie on the floor and preach this message, but that would be very

strange and confusing, so I'm not going to do that. You are a vital, vital piece.

You may be the missing link to the gospel growing in our region. You may be,

you're like, I don't have it in me. Good. We need some people who don't have it in

them, but who the Holy Spirit has placed in them to do it. In our weakness, he is

strong. And so ignorant, I don't want you ignorant. I don't want you uninformed.

You didn't know. That's kind of one area, but I've taken that off the table today.

Y'all are no longer ignorant. Come on. Just elbow your neighbor and tell him,

pastor said you're not stupid. Just tell him. Go ahead. I'll tell him. I just saved a

marriage right there. I mean it. You're not stupid now when it comes to

spiritual gifts. I mean that lovingly. You're not uninformed. You've been

uninformed. But here's other areas, and these are more dangerous. Ignorant is

ignorant, and then the one at the end are the least dangerous. The two in the

middle are the most dangerous. Dormant. Dormant spiritual gifts. Are your gifts

dormant? Following Jesus, but never sensed any giftedness or desire for the gifts.

I can't wonder what spiritual gifts are just laid dormant in your life. Let's be

honest, through no fault of your own, we are all, can we just agree, we're all doing

the very best we can. But some of us are distracted. If we're honest, we just right

now don't have time to have spiritual gifts, pastor. Like I just don't have time.

And we're all like, we know. We've seen your kids. We understand. I don't have

time. Like, it's like, whoo, I get it. Maybe we're distracted. Maybe we're

distracted. Maybe just life's got in the way. Maybe busyness has got in the way.

How about this? I might not just be talking about spiritual gifts in this

moment. Is your relationship with the Lord dormant? That it used to be passionate, full

of life and zeal. No shade and no shame thrown. I'm just here to remind you, we

can, we can move it from dormancy to vibrancy. We can move it. We'll encourage

one another. We'll spur one another on to good works. We have a very lame, terrible

sense of humor here at Heelside, but we can encourage like none other. And I'm

just talking about the men. That's nothing on the ladies. Dormant, inactive, as in

asleep, as in asleep. Or how about this? One way of thinking about this is, who's

always getting your best? Yes, to family schedule wise. Yes, to family life. But I'm

thinking spiritually. What do you have to offer? What do you have to give? Stagnant.

This is characterized by a lack of development, advancement, or forward

movement. The, the, the image, the image is like a pool of water, but there's nothing

flowing in and nothing flowing out. Just gets, just gets stagnant. It's kind of

that water that, that, I guess if you're, we're a high school teen, you kind of

dare your buddy to jump into and just, fingers crossed, let's see what's at the

bottom. That's stagnant. Hasn't been moved in, in ages. Or is it vibrant? Is it

vibrant? Active, alive, full of energy. My prayer, my hope in this series is that for

for all of us, we will move to a place of vibrancy in the faith. Here's the thing,

not for the sake of kill side, but for the sake of the world. For the sake of

the world. Because some of your giftings are gonna change your workplace. I mean,

have you ever encountered an encourager in the workplace? That's a gift in the

Holy Spirit. Somebody that infuses courage. Your workplace right now may be

crippled in fear. And, and you can fumble forward through the power of the Holy

Spirit. My pastor said I can pray for that. I'm gonna pray for you. I'm gonna, I'm

gonna pray for the blessing over our institution where I'm working. I'm gonna

pray over my family. I mean, I mean, it can move, it can move to a place of

vibrancy. That's my prayer for this series. We're gonna, we're gonna have

something short available during the week, online, not a video, just a little

devotional on the spiritual gifts as we go through this series. It'll be

available on our Facebook page. You can check the back of your worship guide,

connect with that if you're interested. You'll be able to just read it and kind

of pray through it along with whatever quiet time you have. You could do it any

time of the day, obviously. But I'm grateful for the sake of the world. I'm

grateful. I've been personally influenced by spiritual gifts and, and I'm, I'm

grateful for the gift of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. I'm

grateful for people and their faithfulness, and I'm grateful for, for

many of you here. I'm grateful for all of you here. Grateful for many of you here.

The sacrifice of time, talent, and treasure, recognizing the spiritual gift. A lot of

it is overcoming ourself, amen? Recognizing who God says we, we are. I'm

gonna end with a story on this Pentecost Sunday. In 1981, a lady in her young

thirties at the time attended a local gathering of the church. At this

particular gathering, there were multiple streams of the Christian faith gathered

together. A particular Anglican nun named St. Joan was walking in her spiritual

gifts, and she gave a prophetic word to the hundreds that were gathered in the

room about someone who was in the early stages of pregnancy. She saw the baby

being held in the hand of God. It was a prophetic word, and she declared, I don't

know everyone in this room, she said, but someone in this room needs to hear. You're

pregnant, and the Holy Spirit, God's hand is on that child. Little did the lady and

her husband know they were pregnant necessarily, but little did they know

they were going to have a difficult pregnancy. At one point, the doctor would

lovingly recommend only one of them, the mother or baby, may arrive at the end of

term. But because of that vision and that word from the Lord, they were able

to hold on in hope that that word the Holy Spirit spoke would become true. That

couple was my mom and dad in 1981. Held on to the promise of God over their lives. I can

honestly say I'm glad they held on. I was the toughest pregnancy my mom had, but

the best child. We've got guest speakers preaching on pride in the fall, but it is

wild, wild what the Holy Spirit can do in the life of a believer. There are words in this

room waiting to be released. People simply becoming aware that God loves

them, that the Holy Spirit is in them, and that the Holy Spirit wants to speak

through your life, just to pray through your life. I'm reminded of in the 1600s,

y'all, Blaise Pascal. Phenomenal mathematician, phenomenal philosopher. On

November 23rd, it's celebrated every year in the church calendar, this

moment that happened at 1030 p.m. to 1230 a.m. I don't know if you know any

mathematicians, but think about engineers. An engineer, a professor, a leader of

leaders, intellectually minded, scientifically minded, rationally driven,

wealthy, wealthy, tremendous philosopher. You can look him up, Blaise Pascal. He had

a moment that he describes at 1030 to 1230. One word he said, fire. Fire from

God consumed me. Where the scriptures became an experience in my life. That I

moved, if I could put these words in his mouth, that he moved from simply an

intellectual awareness of God to an experiential encounter with God. And for

those who've encountered the presence of God, it doesn't happen for me all the

time, y'all. There are moments you feel like a burning on the inside. You just, you

can't describe it. Sometimes it's in worship, you know, when the tears just

fall and you're like, who's cutting onions in this place? It's the presence

of God moving over our hard hearts to soften the way that our lives would be

on an altar as living sacrifices. God, what would you have me do? Blaise Pascal

is a beautiful example of just what happened in the book of Acts. He didn't

stay in that moment of fire. Just think, man, this is incredible. You can just keep it to

himself. No, he wrote down in a journal what had happened. And keep in mind, 1600s.

He took that piece of paper and in his suit cloak, he sewed it into it.

Everywhere he went from that time forward, it was found on him the day he

died, everywhere he went, he carried that personal encounter with him as a

reminder and to keep it before him. Here's what happened in that marked

moment of his life. He was overwhelmed with a burden for the poor in Paris. For

those that were marginalized, for those who were starving, he began to empty his

wealth and earthly treasure on behalf of those who didn't have enough. And can I

tell you what happened for these apostles? Some of the most fear-filled,

messed-up, absent-minded were empowered with the Holy Spirit to not hang out in

Jerusalem, but to go to Judea and Samaria to the ends of the world for the sake of

the world. I wonder this morning what potential awaits our future as a local

church by your yes to what the Holy Spirit's placed inside. It'd be cool to

see what God is going to do, amen? Through our church, through your life in our

region, not for our glory, not for the name of the church's glory, but for the

glory of Jesus Christ. That people would come to a living encounter with God, amen?

Let's pray. Lord, thank you, thank you, thank you for your goodness, your kindness.

Short prayer, one plea. Come, Holy Spirit, fill our hearts with the love of God that

we may go forward with the hope of Jesus Christ to the world around us. Amen.