Blessings & Promises - Week 4 (Pentecost 2026)

Amen.

Today's pentecost Sunday, Pastor Clay said, this is our day, guys,

this is like our day, and uh, you know, for

for the gathered Pentecostals, I just wanna, I would like

to let you know something because I think it's easy

when we live, especially in the Bible Belt area. When

we live in the Bible Belt area, it's easy to

think that we're the weird ones in the family.

You know.

It's easy for us Pentecostals to think we're that uncle

that nobody invites to the family reunion.

Right, y'all, y'all know him, y'all all got him. Uh.

But uh, but the reality is is that when we

actually take a real look at Pentecostalism over the face

of the world, that Pentecostalism is the fastest growing segment

of Christianity. Let me give you one that's gonna that's

gonna move you even more than that percentage wise, Pentecostalism

globally is outgrowing Islam. Let me give you something that's

even more staggering. The Nigerian Islamic Church is now adopting

Pentecostal methods and manifestations to try to convince Islamic people

to stop leaving Islam.

And going to Christianity.

They're copying Pentecostalism to try to keep people tied to

that false religion. God is doing something special, and we

need to understand that God is breathing power in life

into the Church of Jesus Christ, and we need to

embrace who we are in it. Amen, So stop comparing

yourself to the people that just yell ouder. Isn't it

fun that we're louder in church but everybody else is

louder in the world. Anyway, Go to Acts chapter one.

Go to Acts chapter one. We're going to we're going

to talk about Pentecost and we're going to talk about

exactly what that means for us as believers. Acts chapter one,

starting in verse four, and being assembled together with them,

he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to

wait for the promise of the Father, which he said.

You have heard from me.

For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be

baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore,

when they had come together, they asked him, say, Lord,

will you at this time restore the Kingdom of Israel?

And he said to them, it's not for you to

know times or seasons which the Father has put in

his own authority. Let me just stop right here for

a second. You know, the things that we chase after

and that we put the most attention on are a

lot of times the things that the Lord says.

Don't let that get in the way.

Do you know how many people are absolutely captivated by

end times? Amen, there's charts and timelines and grass. Come

on now, I mean there's video presentations and there's podcasts

all dedicated to it. And Jesus said, hey, you know what,

that's not even for you to know. You don't worry

about the end. You worry about today. Here's what you

need to do. You need to pray and watch and

get about the Father's business. You need to pray, watch and.

Get about the Father's business.

Jesus in this closing monologue of life, he says, it's

not for you to know those things.

Quit trying to the major on the miners.

Stop worrying about the things that I have kept you

from being able to figure out. Let me just say this,

if you ever hear somebody that says, I know for

a fact that this is the day the Lord is

coming back.

You know he's not.

Amen, he's not, because no man knows the day or

the hour. No man, do I believe it's close?

Yes? Do I pretend to know? When?

No?

Do I care? When no? Don't care?

Send me an email if that upsets you. Steve at

ceased on TV. I'll answer that one personally. But I

don't care when he comes back, because if it's this afternoon,

it does not change my assignment for this moment, and

that is to get the bride ready. That's our responsibility.

So in verse eight, but you shall receive power when

the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall

be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in an all Judaea

and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Let's pray, Father,

we thank you for your word.

Your word, it's.

The only change agent we have on this planet. So

I pray that right now you bind it to the

fabric of our being, and that today we are awakened

to your will for our lives. Lord, we love you,

and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen, Amen, and Amen.

You know we've been talking about if then blessings this

is a when, then blessing this is a little bit different.

He says, when the Holy Spirit comes upon.

You, then you will be my witnesses.

And then he goes through a whole geographical region and

he and and he cuts those things out geographically, and

basically what he's saying is, you'll be a witness to me.

And it doesn't matter who the people are, where they live,

what they look like, what they sound like, what they

smell like, how big they.

Are, how little they are, none of that matters. I'm

calling you to be.

My witnesses everywhere, and I'm equipping you with this power

to be my witness everywhere. He doesn't just say go,

he says go, and by the way, I will equip

you to go. And here this is the promise of

the Holy Spirit. You know, this is a Luke is

writing this, and you can actually back up to the

end of the Book of Luke and this is just

a continuation of the conversation that he's having over there.

He has the same conversation and then he starts the

Book of Acts in the same way. So there's something

pretty significant about this moment in time when Jesus is

taking up in the clouds, because right after this promise

comes then Jesus is a taking away in the cloud.

They're watching him go up in the clouds, and then

these two guys wearing white show up and they look

at him and they say, hey, why.

Are you just staring? Why are you just looking at

him going to the clouds.

He's coming back the same way he went TikTok Church.

He's coming back. Pick pick, pick pick. What are you

waiting on?

Because He's given you an assignment, he says, And what

you do right now is you need to haul it

back to Jerusalem, and you need to pray, and you

need to wait. Don't preach, don't sing, just hang out,

pray and wait. And five hundred people assembled together, and

every day a few of them dropped off until they

they whittled it down to one hundred and twenty.

And it was a moment.

Now, listen, I don't think that they I don't think

that they that they arrived at this place for weeks beforehand.

I think that there was a moment, come on, somebody,

a moment. I think there was a moment where they

all lined up in their hearts. Think that there was

a moment where there was some alignment that happened and

they came into one accord.

And he was just waiting. And here's what happened.

In order for them to do that, some of them

had to swallow their desire to be the most important.

Some of them had to swallow their desire to sing

the special Come on now.

Some of them had to stop complaining about how cold

or how.

Hot it was Pentecost. I might just I don't know,

I just I can't dance. Y'all.

Listen, I'm not gonna dance because I forgot my belt

and it'll be a show if I start dancing. So

that's not gonna happen today. The Lord will bless us

with spiritual gifts, but he will not hold my pants up.

So people had to.

Understand that the Kingdom of God was not about they're comfort. See,

the Spirit doesn't come to make you comfortable. He comes

to make you a witness. He doesn't come to light

everything up so everything's perfect, so it's all puppy dos,

puppy dos, puppy dogs and rainbows.

He comes to make.

Us a witness, and the reality of that is sometimes

he needs people to see us go through some stuff

so that people see us, so that they can also

see him help.

Us overcome the stuff.

That we've walked through, because being a witness is not

about comfort.

Being a witness is about being a servant.

And when we come to the place that we realize that,

it's not about what we want. Because here's the thing.

I can tell y'all what I want. What I would

really like to do is I would really like to

show up at about I don't know, seven thirty in

the morning, preach for about thirty minutes. No music because

that just costs money. Come on now, no sound systs them,

none of that stuff.

Just show up.

I could scribble my scriptures on piece of paper, run

a copy, give them to you if you just need

to see them, amen, Or you could invest in a

Bible and bring it. I'm just saying, preach, maybe pray

for some people, and then go home. That's what I want.

But it's not about what I want or what makes

me comfortable.

It's who God is calling us to be.

It's all of those details and all of those technicalities

and all of those things that make me just stress

out beyond belief.

And listen, I know I'm.

Not supposed to stress. I just say that I'm stressing

for Jesus, come on now.

But it's not about that.

It's about understanding that His promise is to indo me

with power so that I can be His witness to

impact as many lives as I can while I'm still here.

He gives us the.

Power so that we can corporately impact as.

Many lives as possible.

And when the power shows up, the power doesn't often

look contained and well put together and polished.

Amen.

It's Pastor Clay dancing with his hair going everywhere. It's

somebody marching and praying in their prayer language. It's somebody

yelling over there and whooping over here, and all of

those things that happen.

And the reality is that He built the.

Church that way because all of those things are a

sign to the unbeliever. So I want to I just

really want to just put this together for you. If

you want the level of Pentecostalism to turn up, if

you want signs and wonders to happen in our church,

bring people that don't know Jesus, Invite your Muslim neighbor,

Invite the person that doesn't have the fruit.

Of Christ growing in their lives.

And he turns up the volume because those things are

assigned to the unbeliever, but what we want them to

be is a magic show and entertainment confined to our altars.

But He has.

Equipped us with this gift so that it is a

sign and a tool to be witnesses across culture, across.

Language barriers, across all.

Of those things. I have been in places where I

could not speak the language. But God shows up and

it's undeniable.

Because he's pouring out his spirit.

I was preaching in Mexico one time, and listen, First

of all, it was just pouring down rain, and they

hadn't gotten around the building the whole church. Yet they

invited me to dedicate the church and to preach on

the Independence Day. They said, oh, it's gonna it's beautiful building,

perhaps beautiful, beautiful building. We could see eight hundred people.

Great building. And I show up and there's only three

walls and half a roof. And I said, well, I

mean I just dedicate this part of we dedicating the

whole thing. I mean, I know they want me to

write a check for the rest of it. It's really

what they wanted. But and for this big celebration, it's

pouring down rain, and they looked at me and they said, listen,

people are not gonna come. It's raining, people have to

walk here, people don't have cars. They're not coming. I'm like, well,

what does that mean? Are we just not gonna have church?

No? No, no, no, listen. I got a live chicken.

And an offering that day, first live animal I've ever

had given in an offering.

That's not part of the story. Hey, and listen.

It starts getting time for church, and I walk out

of this little tinted area in the corner that was

the office. It was just like a little tent put

up in the corner of this, you know, three quarters

of the way built building. And listen, there's people everywhere,

people everywhere.

The wall that was missing down this side.

There's people sitting on the fences of the homes across

the street that would not have been able to see

what was happening if they.

Had the wall built yet.

So I start preaching, and there's a lot of people

that know English. So I say something and they shall

and then they intervene. The other person says, it's like

the wave going across the saint here. It was just this,

And we get.

To the end.

I make the altar call and people just are running

to the altar. I mean that there had to be

a couple one hundred people that got saved and.

You could just feel God, just feel God in that moment.

And they run up to me and they say, now

you need to go pray for everybody to receive the

baptism of the Holy Spirit.

That's what we did.

Somebody get saved. We want to get the baptistm in

the Holy Spirit. So I go down and I'm praying

for this guy.

And listen, I'm.

Praying, and I'm praying, and I'm praying, and I'm praying

and I'm praying. I'm thinking this is gonna take forever.

It's gonna take forever. And I'm praying for God to

baptizement and holdly gonna praying.

I'm praying, and.

Then I think to myself, you know what, I don't

know Spanish, so I don't know if he's speaking in

tongues are speaking in Spanish. So emotion for the interpreter.

And I said, listen, is that Spanish? And he said, no,

that's not Spanish. He said he stopped speaking in Spanish

thirty minutes ago. Oh well, can you stay with me.

So when we know this happens, it happens right. So

we start praying for people. And as we're praying for people,

there are people walking down the street who now are

turning into this building and immediately giving their lives to Jesus.

They didn't hear me preach. They see the sign to

the unbeliever, and they're captivated by the supernatural part of

God because it's not meant for TBN. It's meant for

a church poised in position for an explosion of evangelism

on the face of the earth to get the bride ready.

For Jesus to come back.

In Acts chapter two, starting in verse fourteen, this is

that famous moment.

This is when it happens.

That they're praying and then there's a sound of a

mighty rushing wind. Tongues of fires sit on their head

and they begin to speak in other tongues as the

Spirit gives them utterance. And this is the moment that

the Holy Spirit doesn't move upon the church, but moves

into the church and becomes the indwelling resident power of

the Holy Spirit on the inside of men. And there's

manifestations that are happening. And then Peter delivers the first

Pentecostal sermon.

Pentecost happens, and this.

Is the first Pentecostal sermon, Acts Chapter two, verse fourteen.

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice

and said to them, men of Judea and all who

dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known.

To you, and heed my words.

For these are not drunk as you suppose. That's it

only the third hour of the day. But this is

what was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall

come to pass in the last days, says God, that

I will pour out my spirit.

On all flesh.

Your sons and your daughter shall prophesy. Your young men

shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And

on my maid servants, I mean, and on my men's service,

and on my maid service. I'll pour out my spirit

in those days, and they shall prophesy. I will show

wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth. Beneath

blood and fire and.

Vapor of smoke.

The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon

into blood before the coming of the great and awesome

day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass

that whoever calls on the name of the.

Lord shall be saved.

See the power came after the weight, but most people

don't stick around for the wind. We don't want to

wait anymore. We don't want to pause anymore. We don't

want those moments where we spend time with God and

go deeper with God.

We want something instant. We want it now.

We want a program that moves us from one place

to another and and listen.

That's easy to do. It's hard to wait on.

Jesus because he's not a time guy.

He doesn't move on time. He moves.

On the current of the spirit. He waits until our

hearts are where they're supposed to be. Then he fills

those voids, those moments where he can insert himself. He says,

Holy Spirit, Bam, I think that's what I do.

Think that's what he is.

I think, he says, bam, just my fault. I don't

know for sure, but bam. I think he snaps too.

Probably bam.

And Peter says, you know what, all these things that

you think don't matter, because here's really what's happening. God's

moving in a supernatural way.

And he preaches thousands get saved.

The first Pentecostal Church sermon, thousands get saved.

Thousands now watch.

This, not thousands of people raised in Georgia who know

the Good Lord, thousands of Jews that were there for

a feast. They get saved because when the power shows up,

people are captivated by it. He has equipped us for

this day and this time. He is rebuilding the circumstances

around this moment. Pushed into Jerusalem that day where people

from all over because the Feast of Weeks was one

of those pilgrimage feasts where everybody would go to Jerusalem,

and he was moving people into population center. And he's

now doing that. On the face of the earth. People

are being moved into population centers, and he's putting churches

there who want to worship Him with a reckless abandon

and are willing to have a voice in their communities,

in their neighborhoods, in their cities. God is returning the

context back to the church so that we can see

the application inside the context. He's not bringing a new Pentecost,

because there already was one. He's calling the church to

return to its first love. But here's why we don't.

I'm gonna go quick.

When you when you talk to people, you know other

people and you tell them, hey, I go to a

Pentecostal church. Maybe they ask you, where do you go

to church? Oh, I go to Pentecostters. I go to

Symblies of God church.

I got. Here's the first question they ask is do y'all.

Well, First of all, let me let y'all off there.

Let me tell you something. Pentecostals are not the ones

that are handles snakes. Those are primitive Baptists, not assemblies

of God. We don't have snake tanks. Although one time

a rumor did get started about our church. They said

that we had snakes in these little bags and that

we would pass them around and people would reach in

and pet their heads. Now, let me tell you something. Obviously,

whoever visited our church that day that started that rumor

did not given the offering because those were offering bags. Yeah,

so that tells you a lot right there. But nonetheless,

we are in this place where this one little thing,

this one little thing, weirds us out to the point

where we don't want the rest of it, that we

won't have the power because we're afraid of the manifestation,

because we think people are gonna think we're weird. But

Pentecostalism is the fastest grow showing religious segment in the world.

But he robs us of that power because we think

we're less than because we receive this supernatural gift. Go

to James chapter three, with me real fast. I want

to show you something. Let me show you something in

James chapter three. James chapter three, My brethren, it means

he's talking to us.

Talk to the church, my brethren.

Let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we

shall receive a stricter judgment.

For we all stumble in many things.

If anyone does not stumble in the word, he is

a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed,

he who puts a bit he Indeed we put bits

in horses mouths that they may obeyss, and we turn.

Their old body. Look also at ships.

Also, although they are large and are driven by fierce winds,

they're turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.

Even so, the tongue is a little member in both

great things.

See how great a forest the little fire kindles, and

the tongue is a fire. A world of iniquity. The

tongue is so set among the members that it defiles

the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature.

And it is set on fire by hell. For every

kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of

the sea.

Is tamed, and it's been tamed by mankind. Listen to

verse eight. But no man can tame the tongue.

That's a powerful statement, and it made the Bible, so

it has to be true. But no man can tame

the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

With it we bless. With it, we bless our God

and Father.

And with it we curse men who have been made

in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth,

proceive blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not

to be so. So you can't tame the tongue, but

the spirit can rule it. You don't have the power

to tame your tongue, but the spirit has the power

to bring it under the submission of you. The reason

we're afraid of tongues is because we want the ability

to wag the evil in our mouth and speak death

to those that we don't like, and to speak life

to those that we love. But when we have truly

submitted to the Spirit, we speak life everywhere we go,

even to the ones that do us wrong, even to

the ones who have hurt us and cut us deep,

because the spirit leads to blessing both to God and

to men. The reason tongues is part of the baptism

of the Holy Spirit. It's part of the process of

bringing our whole body under the subjection of our Lord

and savior, Jesus Christ.

And he says, if you'll just follow me in this, if.

You just won't get hung up on this little thing,

if you'll just get weird out of your mind and

just allow me to just have complete rule and authority

over your life, then I'm going to endo you with power.

And when you receive that power, where you will be

my witnesses. It's not you can be, it's you will

be that when you finally bring yourself in submission to

the Spirit and his guidance and his leading, that I'm

going to position you in places where the natural process

of your life is a witness.

Fan. Come and get ready. Here's the thing.

I don't I don't, I don't. I don't buy a

lot of shoes, you know, I mean, I buy shoes

every once in a while. I don't like shoes. I

prefer barefoot that I hate socks. But every pair of

shoes I bought antoinette, every pair of shoes, not flip flops,

not cowboy boots, every pair of shoes I buy.

The ngs just come with them. It's not an optional purchase.

If I want my feet to go where they're supposed.

To go, the tongues just are there.

I wonder if there's people here today who you There's

people in your life that you want to talk to

about Jesus, but you just don't ever feel like you

find an opening. You're intimidated every time you get ready

to talk to them about the Lord. There's just some

kind of insecurity and fear that rises up on the

inside of you. But when you receive the power, you

will be my witness. And maybe your understanding was that

at I receive it in an altar, and it's a

church thing. When I was fourteen, you're.

A camp meeting.

I got the baptism with the Holy Ghost. You got

speaking tongue sins.

Do you have a prophesy spirit?

Don't stir you? You need to be refilled. Let me tell

you exactly how it happens, just like everything else in

the Kingdom, by faith. Forgat mean, you receive the baptist

in the Holy Spirit by faith, just like you do

everything else in the Kingdom. I can't shake your head

fast enough to make you baptize in the Holy Ghost.

I can't push you down in the floor and make

you get the Holy Ghost. The band can't sing just

perfect to make you receive the Holy Ghost. You ask

God for it, and you receive it. I know some

of you. I know your testimony. You've told me it's

you sought the Holy Ghost for years and years and

years before you ever received it. But you don't have

to because you were seeking something that is not Maybe

you were seeking proof to the people you go to

church with that you're just as spiritual as they are.

But the Bible says.

He wants you to have it so that you can

be a witness. So he doesn't withhold it because it's

not even.

For the church.

It's for the world. It's for us to make an

impact out there. It's a tool belt full of tools.

Listen, I'm gonna say some things that are gonna upset

some of you, but listen.

When we really get down to brass tacks.

We have made some things about the church that are

simply not about the church. We want a healing to

be for church people, but healing is for the world.

It's a sign to the unbeliever.

Listen, when Barry's healed again, it's a sign.

To the unbeliever.

As a matter of fact, if you really look at it,

divine health is for the church.

Prophecy is not for the church. Church, it's for the world.

For them to take note that God is working and

moving in our midst Word of knowledge?

How did you know that about me? God loves you

enough to tell me word of wisdom. I don't know

what I'm going to do. Well, here, this is what

you should do.

And the reason I know this is because Jesus loves you.

We're not trying to make a ultra call highlight here,

trying to get y'all on, you know, sports center of

the Kingdom.

I want to equip you.

To take over our community.

I want you to be equipped.

That tomorrow when you show up at the office and

that person that is bound by depression has the way

of the world sitting on them, that you can walk

over and put your hand on their shoulder, say by

his stripes, you are a heel.

It breaks.

If you're here today, you want to receive the baptism

of the Holy Spirit, where everybody's standing with property. If

you want to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit,

if you want to if you want to have a

refilling of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, that's what

you want in your life right where you are now.

Listen. This is not like, Okay.

If you're here and if you want to ask you

that I want you to raise your hand, That's not

what I'm saying. If you're here and you want that,

raise your hands right now. It's not like, okay, I see.

U, I see us. See that's not what I mean.

If you want to receive a touch of the Holy Spirit,

raise your hands right now. You understand the difference between

those two things.

I'm saying. Keep them up, keep them up, Keep them up,

keep them up, Keep them up. Father, right now, in

the name of Jesus, right now, in the name.

Of Jesus, our Baptizer, in the Holy Ghost. Fill your

people right now, in the name of Jesus, every person

with their hands up, Fill them right now in the

name of Jesus, pour out your spirit and fill them

right now in the name of Jesus. Remove every fear

and every hesitancy. Remember all, just remove all of those

what is Remember just right now, Lord, help them. Remember

what you did on the cross was for salvation, and

your ascension was so that Holy Spirit could come to

be our ever present help in our.

Time of need. Fill them right now in the name

of Jesus.

Because move right now, Move right now, Holy Spirit, move

right now, move right now.

Thank you Lord. Listen.

Just say fill me, Lord, I receive it.

Fill me Lord. You got your hands up.

Say fiel me, Lord, I receive it. Fill me, Lord,

I receive. Just keep saying it, Just keep saying it,

Just keep saying it. Pass that's worship together.

Just keep listen.

Just say it and he'll do it. Receive it and

he'll do it.

Receive it and he'll do it. Now listen.

He's not gonna take over your tongue and make you

speak in tongues.

He's gonna draw some syllables in your mind. You're gonna

say those things.

You're going to learn to be a participant in the

work of God. Thank you, Jesus, Thank you, Jesus fill us,

Lord phil Us,