Earth, Wind & Fire | Ps. Keith Pittman

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

The Bible tells us the prophet Joel tells us in chapter 2, verse 28, that there's going to come a time where God is going to pour his spirit upon all flesh.

Now, now I realize that in our current context, we may not even understand the significance of that statement, but this is Old Testament theology.

So this is before Jesus, before the Holy Spirit dwelled and inhabited every single one of us that confessed Christ.

So what the Bible tells us is that there's going to be a moment when God's going to pour a spirit out and make it available to everyone that is a willing recipient.

And what comes after that is that then the gifts and power of the spirit then come.

What comes after that is then it says that in those who call upon the name of the Lord, they shall be saved.

Paul then says that wherever the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

So when we talk about what Pentecost represents, this day that we're celebrating today, it's not us celebrating the cosmic force.

It's not us celebrating the force.

We are not spiritual Jedi.

What we're talking about is the moment when God allowed his spirit as a gift to all of us that now we are activated and on purpose and mission from God.

And then the consequence of that is that the gifts of the Spirit were available, that healing is available, that freedom is available, that miracles and signs and wonder are available.

I don't know about you, but there's been many moments in my life that in my own strength I certainly couldn't do it.

But because the Holy Spirit was present, it brought me peace.

Because the Holy Spirit was present, that it brought me freedom.

Because of the Holy Spirit, it brought me healing and breakthrough.

I'm wondering if I'm talking to anybody that acknowledges and celebrates the fact that God has given us the gift of his spirit and He's poured out on every single one of us.

Lord, we thank you.

We thank you for the gift of your spirit.

We thank you, Father, that you poured it out and it made it available to every single one of us.

So, Father, as we posture our hearts to receive what it is that you want to give to us, Lord, I pray that you continue to pour your spirit out, that you continue to make yourself available to us and that we can be willing recipients, ready to receive what it is that you have for us.

Father, we come here with an expectation, and it's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen, amen, and amen.

Church, we put our hands together for the goodness of God.

And while we're at it, can we show some love to our amazing worship team?

They disappeared like a vapor.

They're gone.

You guys can go ahead and take your seats.

We're gonna go back into worship in just a few moments.

We are going to celebrate some some baptisms um at the end of today.

Anyone excited about baptism today?

We have baptism at the conclusion of today's service, so we're gonna be able to participate in that as well.

But but today is uh is a sacred day.

It's it's referred to as the day of Pentecost.

And I want to spend a few moments unpacking um what that means for us, what's available to us, and then spending some time in worship and then going on out to celebrate um baptism with the rest of our family and community.

You know, the the book of Acts is a is a very powerful book because what it does is it gives us an indication of what we refer to of the early church.

Now, now often when you're talking about interpreting scripture, it's called the law of first mention, which means this the first time you see something introduced in scripture, it often gives you the purest definition of what it is supposed to be.

So whenever you see something appear in the Bible for the first time, that's God's intended purpose.

So if you come to church and you hear people talk about the book of Acts or the early church, it's it's the beginning, it's the way that God intended the church to function.

And what I love about reading the gospels and paired with the book of Acts, it's this what the gospels show us is when Jesus comes on a scene, how he begins to invite regular, ordinary people to participate in the work of the kingdom.

It's a beautiful thing, and you begin to see through the gospels regular people who said yes to Jesus stumble, make mistakes, but then seeing the heart of God and the expression of it, love through Jesus, helping people along, encouraging them.

That's what the gospel shows us.

It shows us what happens when ordinary people say yes.

What the book of Acts shows us is when those ordinary people say yes, what can happen when they're activated by the power of the Holy Spirit?

Because in the early church, what we see is those same people who struggled and stumbled in their faith in the gospels are now empowered by the Holy Spirit, and then we get a chance to see some incredible stories.

Here's what I want us to know we're just ordinary people, but when you say yes to an extraordinary God, you can do some powerful things.

That is what is made available to us through the outpouring of God's Spirit.

After Jesus is resurrected and he begins to communicate with his disciples in preparation for the day that we're celebrating today, he tells them in Acts chapter 1, verses 4 and 5.

Acts 1:4

It says that while he was with them, he commanded them, don't leave Jerusalem, but wait for the Father's promise, which he said would be given and spoken out to them.

He said in this in verse number five, he said, For John baptized you with water.

Water baptism is important, but you will be baptized by the Holy Spirit in a few days.

Jesus understood enough that you guys have sat around me for over three years.

I've given you intellectual and practical experience as to what it means to be a follower of me and to literally walk it out.

However, before you can actually go and do it, you need my spirit to dwell on the inside of you.

Jesus knew that intellectual knowledge isn't good enough, that that practical understanding isn't good enough, that we need to be powered by the Holy Spirit.

So in Acts chapter 2, we see this encounter takes place.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Starting here at verse number one, it says this that when the day of Pentecost had arrived, turn to your neighbor and tell them, That's today.

Um turn to the one you ignored and tell them, That's today.

Because you know you always have that one, oh I'm gonna turn it out one.

Oh man, you're gonna make me turn it on.

Okay, that's that's today.

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

That sounds a lot like us right now.

And then suddenly there was a sound like that of a violent Russian wind that came from heaven and it filled the house where they were staying.

They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each of them.

They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Now there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout people from every nation under heaven.

When that sound occurred, a crowd came together and was confused by each one hearing the gospel in his own language.

They were astounded and amazed and saying, Look, aren't these those that are speaking Galileans?

How is it that we can hear them speaking in our native language?

This is the gift of the spirits at work.

And this is what it says that we have Parthians, we have Medes, Elamites, those who live in Mesopotamia, um, in Judea, Cappadocia, Pontius, Asia, Vigaria, Pamphylia, Egypt, the parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts, Cretans and Arabs, we hear them declaring the magnificent acts of God in our own tongues.

They were all astounded and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean?

Time doesn't permit me to unpack the significance of all the names that I just rolled out because you may be wondering what all of this means.

But I but I do want to take a quick moment to say this.

In Genesis chapter 11, we are exposed to a world that at once all spoke the same language.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

Maybe you're familiar with this idea of the Tower of Babel.

And what happened is all the people were unified, but they weren't unified under God.

And so as they began to build things in their own honor, in other words, gathering in man's own name, and what scripture literally says is let's make a name for ourselves.

That God came down, he judged it, and it caused division.

I want you to hear me, hear me really clear that whenever we gather, and it's not in the name of God, it will cause division.

Now we have the redemption of that moment.

We see that people are gathered together, and all the people who had been scattered in Genesis 11, those different nations that were mentioned that were the consequence of Genesis 11, those same people groups were now gathered together with their own languages, but because they were gathered under the name of Jesus, it brought unity and strength.

Hear me closely, friends, that if we're ever gathered together, and all it brings is division, it's not God.

If we're gathered together under the name of God, even though there may be differences in distinction, it actually should birth birth unity and strength.

And that is what we see here being redeemed in the book of Acts.

Friends, I want us to understand that God moves in rhythms and in patterns.

And the biblical writers took great detail to make sure that they spoke in rhythms and patterns and hopes that the careful biblical reader would be able to interpret and see what God is communicating to his people.

One of the first things that I want to highlight from this passage is that it's Pentecost.

Penta means 50.

Now I want to show you some parallels with what that means to the person who has an ancient Israeli mind.

See, that number 50 has deep significance.

And in the mind of the ancient Near East, they understood that God spoke to Abram and God said to him, If I can find 50 righteous people, then I won't judge Sodom and Gomorrah.

What we see is that number 50 connected to mercy.

We also understand that that God had gifted the children of Israel on the 50th year, what we refer to as Jubilee, this moment that all debts are forgiven, that all slaves are set free, that everything lost is then restored and redeemed.

So once again we see this number 50 being gifted to the people of God that represents grace and forgiveness and redemption.

And now we see this number emerge again where 50 days after Passover, 50 days after the resurrection of Christ, 50 days after the children of Israel were set free from Egypt, that they were then led to Mount Sinai, and God descended down and gifted them with his word, which gave them identity, purpose, and direction.

What we're seeing is this pattern and rhythm emerge in scripture where God says that on the 50th, this is the gift that I'm going to give you, and God connects it all to his spirit.

What I want you guys to know is that today is 50 days after Passover.

This is literally the day of Pentecost, and we believe that there's opportunities for us to partner with God's redemptive plan, and it's all connected to the power of his spirit.

But now we don't have to wait for a single day to experience these things.

It's available to us every single day.

Friends, over the next couple of minutes, and it's just going to be a couple of minutes, I want to speak to you on the topic of the Holy Spirit, and I've entitled today's message, Earth, Wind, and Fire.

Do you remember September?

Okay, let's pray and let's get into this word really quick.

God, we thank you for your word and we thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Lord, we pray for open eyes to see you, open ears to hear you, and open hearts to receive everything that you have for us.

It's with expectation that we posture ourselves in Jesus' name, amen.

And amen.

As we stated, uh Jesus has been resurrected.

He's with his disciples and he tells them to wait for the Holy Spirit.

He's with them for about 40 days after he's resurrected.

And then there's about a 10-day window where they're just waiting.

He tells them to hang out and just wait.

So for 10 days, they don't know what's going to happen, but they are filled with expectation.

They know that something is about to happen.

So they're all gathered together, having a prayer meeting, filled with expectation.

And what scripture tells us is that the atmosphere shifts.

In one moment, it seems like they were having a regular service, but then the atmosphere shifted.

I think all of us probably can attest to moments where the atmosphere just shifted.

Like you could be sitting somewhere and all of a sudden the atmosphere shifted.

I I see some blank faces, so let me make it plain.

Have you ever been at work and you're having a good time talking with a coworker, and if somebody shows up and the atmosphere just shifts, you're like, man, I thought they were off today.

Come on, man, we can tell the truth in church.

We we're all honest.

Like, we've all been in environments where we have had people that have the ability to just shift the atmosphere because maybe they bring a certain type of energy, maybe they have a certain perspective, they're toxic, they're negative.

We all know the people that you try to avoid because man, I'm in a good mood.

I can't talk to like we all know those people that have the ability that could just shift an atmosphere, but but that's also on the other side of the coin.

We all also know those individuals that could just come in and they're just so full of joy and excitement, and they're like, man, like that's the person I want to talk to.

Like they shift an atmosphere.

It could be low, it could be quiet, but when they show up, they're coming in like a ball of energy, just turning up.

Looking at you, Megan.

Yeah, that's that's my wife.

Like, she she the later it gets, the more she gets turned up.

Like we're all trying to go to sleep, and she's like louder and louder.

I'm like, please give her something.

Where's the vintage roll at?

Anyway, um, someone who just has the ability to shift the atmosphere.

I want us to see that the disciples, they had lost Jesus.

They were they were grieving, but they had expectation, but then they were together and they were praying and the atmosphere had shifted.

I I sense that among some of us that if we're honest with ourselves, that maybe we're in some environments where we just need the atmosphere to shift.

That maybe we're dealing with some circumstances and we just need the atmosphere to shift, that we're dealing with some drama that's uncomfortable and we just need the atmosphere to shift.

We we've talked to our friends about it, we've we've we've came and we've talked to our coworkers about it, we've we've talked to our parents about it, we may even posted about it on social media and we need the atmosphere to shift.

But but I believe if we can take a lesson from the pages of the Bible, that the thing that shifted the atmosphere was expectation and prayer.

They had an expectation and they began to pray.

What if I were to tell you that our ability to have an expectation for God to move and posture ourselves in a position of prayer, that that has the ability to usher in the presence of God, that our prayer changes the atmosphere.

This is why the prophet tells us in 2 Chronicles, it says, that if my people who were called by my name will humble themselves and pray, then I will hear from heaven and I will heal the land.

In other words, I will change the atmosphere.

I'm not sure if I'm the only person, but as I look out in the world that is filled with violence and division and brokenness, that I recognize that there is a need for the atmosphere to change.

But I want us to see what brings in the change.

If my people, the people of God who are called by my name, the followers of God, if we can humble ourselves and pray, then we will see a change in the atmosphere.

I am tired of looking to people to do the job that only God can do.

What if we as the people of God began to say, I am called by the name of God and I'm going to pray because I need to see healing take place in this nation.

I need to see healing take place in my marriage, I need to see healing take place in my body.

Our posture of prayer ushers in a changing of the atmosphere.

And what the Bible tells us is that when this prayer ushers in the presence of God and the atmosphere shifts, there's a couple of things that are present that I can recognize that are present in this room right now.

The first thing we know that are there is people.

Now, the Bible uses language and imagery to help us get an understanding of a deeper spiritual meaning.

In other words, when we look in the Bible, we see consistently through scripture that often man is referred to as earthen vessels.

That is meant to communicate that we come from earth and that we are vessels.

Now, we understand that earthen vessels in and of themselves, they don't have any significance unless they're in the hand of a creator who then molds it.

This is why it says that Adam was formed out of the dust of the ground.

This idea is patterned throughout the course of scripture that we don't just exist, that we were created by a creator.

We are earthen vessels made of clay, which means that we are full of opportunities, but yet there's still some fragility that exists within us.

Isaiah chapter 64 tells us that we are clay in the potter's hands, that Jeremiah 18, 6 says that we are simply clay in the hands of a masterful God.

Isaiah 64 · chapter mention

Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 2 that we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

This idea that we are clay vessels that are molded for a specific purpose that are meant to fulfill what God has called us to do.

Paul even reinforces this idea in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse number 7, where it says that we have these treasures hidden in earthen vessels or jars of clay that we're defined as being these vessels.

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

Now, what's so important about this is that any vessel that is created, there's a specific purpose attached to it.

That whenever a potter is working on something, there's something that he envisioned for it to do.

You take a cup, for instance, the person that's creating a cup, in their mind, they're saying, I'm creating this cup for the purpose of it being able to contain water or whatever liquid, I'm not judging anybody, contain something that then can be poured out.

There's a purpose intended for it being molded and created.

Watch this.

So, in order to fulfill the creator's intention, that cup has to be available and then it has to receive.

We get the idea that this is now presented to us in scripture.

The other thing that's available that we see here in the book of Acts is we see that we have a bunch of vessels that are there, that are empty, but they're there.

Then we see the wind show up.

Wind means pneuma, it's the ruach, the literal breath of God then comes in.

That same wind and breath that we see in Genesis that breathed in Adam and became a living soul, that showed up in the room.

The same, that same breath and wind that breathed on the Red Sea imparted it, that very same wind entered into the room.

We see this correlation that the wind, that the pneuma, the ruach, the breath of God is literally the personal presence of God that showed up and it changed the atmosphere because the people of God were sitting in an environment with an expectation and they were willing and available vessels.

But then we see this other component that shows up, and that is the fire.

There was this fire, and there are so many passages in scripture that connect fire with the literal presence of God.

We see that in Exodus chapter 3, that when Moses is called out to do the incredible work that he was called to do, what does he see?

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

He sees a burning bush, and God says, Take off your shoes, you're standing on holy ground.

The fire represented the actual presence of God.

We see in Exodus 13 and 14 that Yahweh, the personal name of God, that God is literally leading them by a pillar of fire.

It was his literal presence.

We see in Exodus 19 that he descends down a mountain.

We see these scriptures that communicate that the fire of God is a representation of the presence of God.

So let's put it together.

We have a room that is filled with people, which represents earth.

We have the wind and we have the fire.

This earthen vessels and the wind of God and the fire of God then come together.

And this imagery is beautifully showed in Exodus chapter 19, because this is the first time that God had descended amongst men in a multiplicity of people.

Exodus 19 · chapter mention

And when he did, you know the elements that were there?

People, wind, and fire.

So for the disciples who were in the room on the day of Pentecost, and as they were there, they heard the sound from heaven, they saw the wind beginning to move, and they saw the fire of God showed up.

They had this revelation that some of us can miss.

The throne room of heaven has entered and come amongst them.

This would have been so powerful for them to visualize, and I want us to catch a glimpse of this.

It then says that when God shows up, that they are all filled with his spirit.

See, vessels need to be filled in order to fulfill their purpose.

An empty vessel is not a vessel at all, it's just a decoration.

I was raised in a home where we had a China cabinet, and we had cups and plates that were there on display, and they were really good.

They had a lot of historical context to them, but they weren't able to be utilized.

And I often found myself saying, Why do we have them if we can't use them?

God doesn't want our faith to be a China cabinet faith.

He wants our faith to be one that's active amongst the community, pouring out and presenting the goodness of God amongst the community, and we need to be filled with the Spirit.

The beautiful thing about all this is that we as followers of Christ, scripture tells us that the moment that we confess Christ, that we then become the temple of the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 6 19.

But we have an obligation, and our obligation is to make sure that the presence of God stays a light aflame inside of our hearts.

This is why Paul tells Timothy, make sure you fan the flames of your faith.

Because when you said yes to me, that that flame was ignited, but now you have to do some things to keep that fire alive.

You got to do some things to make sure that you stay on mission and that you stay focused.

Because we understand that fire.

It has to be engaged.

We can't ignore it.

You know, just last week, um, Megan and I, we we just came back from um taking our family on on a quick cruise to celebrate my youngest son Caleb graduating um from high school.

Um yeah, we we can give it up for that.

We can give it up for that.

Um the main thing I want y'all to give it up for is that we're one step closer to being empty nesters.

So bless God for that.

Um so we we yes, for those who are empty nesters, they're like, yes, bless God.

Um so so for us, we went and we we had this this great celebration, quick cruise.

It was, it was it was all good.

So we're we're about two days away from getting ready to come back home.

We stop at our at our last port.

And and as we pull into the port, our cruise director comes on and he says, Hey guys, there's another cruise ship that is about to pull up.

Um so when it does, we won't be letting anyone get off the ship.

But once um they get they get docked, then we're gonna once again let you guys get off the ship, go off and enjoy the beauty of the port that we're at.

So we're just waiting there, and I'm still kind of waking up and and and preparing to get ready to go so we can go out and and and enjoy the the beach.

Well, as I'm there and I'm kind of groggy still, my wife, again, I told y'all, like, she's just a ball of energy.

She's like, Do you do you hear that?

And I'm like, hear what?

I'm on vacation, man.

Like, I don't I don't hear anything.

She's like, Do you there's there's a bunch of yelling going on outside.

Like, do you hear it?

And so in my mind, I'm like, I'm I do hear.

I hear a lot of noise, I hear a lot of commotion, but in my head, I'm thinking to myself, if it's anything significant, the cruise director will come on and let us know.

He's been amazing at communicating what's going on thus far.

So I'm literally saying, so if it's anything important, they'll let us know.

So we continue to hear people yelling and yelling, and it's getting louder and louder.

But again, I'm completely unbothered.

But again, Megan is already on level 20.

It confuses my kids so much that when she runs into a room screaming, I'm like, man, it's all good.

Like they're confused because they don't know which one of us to believe.

So Megan is like, I think the I think the ship is on fire.

So when she says these words, I then begin to make out the muffled yells of all these people, and literally everyone is yelling, fire, fire, it's a fire, the ship is on fire.

And so I'm thinking to myself, there is no way our ship is on fire.

There, there is no way our ship is on fire.

Wait a minute, I've paid too much money for our ship to be you ever like feel like I've paid too, like there's no way, like, there's no way our ship is on fire, but I'm continuing to hear the yelling and the screaming of people saying fire.

So I finally get up and and I look out the window, and and I'll admit I feel a little bit bad because as I look out the window, I recognize it's not our ship that's on fire, it's the ship next to us that's on fire.

So I feel guilty because you feel relieved, like, oh, it's just them.

But at the same time, you you feel like you should be helping.

So I'm doing like, hey, fire! And the reason why everyone was yelling is because like we're looking across and above at the very top, that's the part that's on fire.

So there are people that are on a ship, they have no idea.

So they're waking up, they're standing on the balcony drinking their coffee, and they have no idea that their ship is literally on fire.

So literally everyone on our side is saying, It's on fire! You're on fire, and they're like, Yeah, I know I look good.

Like, no, that's not what we're talking about.

Your ship is on fire, and then we didn't understand why they weren't responding.

Because all of us know that when something's on fire, you have to engage it.

Friends and family, when you confess Christ, there's a fire that's igniting on the inside of you.

And I feel like I'm still on that ship yelling to you, hey, listen to me, friends, there's a fire on the inside of you, there's a calling on the inside of you, there's purpose on the inside of you, there's healing on the inside of you, there's breakthrough on the inside of you, there's miracles on the inside of you, and I'm concerned because I don't see you responding.

Fire has to be engaged, because if we don't, it can get out of control.

As we were looking at this fire and people were ignoring it, I look out at our church and I often wonder, man, do we recognize that there's a fire on the inside of us?

Do we recognize that there's so many things that God wants to do inside of us, but we need to engage it because fire has to be engaged.

I want us to understand that when we engage the presence of God, the power of God engages us.

That is how we fan the flames.

That is how we engage the fire.

When we read our Bible, that's how we fan the flames.

That when we fast and pray, that is how we fan the flames, that when we exhibit generosity, that's how we fan the flames, that when we serve and we come into church and we lift up our hands and we worship, that is how we engage the flame to ensure that we don't lose our fire for God, because when we don't engage, we begin to experience what Paul communicates at 1 Thessalonians, where he says, Don't let, don't let the fire go out, don't quench the spirit.

As I was looking at the fire on the ship, we eventually saw how the fire department showed up, and when it showed up, they're they're trying to put the fire out.

And of course, in that context, that's exactly what it's supposed to be doing.

But then God had showed me when we don't engage the flame, that's exactly what the enemy does.

He shows up and he's trying to douse the fire before we have an opportunity to really recognize what we're called to do.

Listen to me, friends, don't allow the enemy to put the fire of God out of your lives.

Today is a day where God had gifted us with the fire of his presence, the purpose, the calling, and we have an opportunity to engage it.

With the Holy Spirit, we have healing, we have direction, we have insight, we have freedom, we have so many things that are available.

We have access to the throne room of grace simply because the fire of God is on the inside of us.

This is not a celebration of an ambiguous force, but that this is the celebration of Christ's ongoing presence in our lives.

When he says that I will never leave you nor forsake you, this is what he had in mind: us being filled with the Holy Spirit.

When we engage the presence of God, we experience the power of God.

We're gonna go back into worship.

And as we prepare to go back into worship for just one song and then we're gonna pray and go out and do some amazing baptisms.

I want this to be a moment where we engage, where we fan the flames.

I want to ask you all to stand on your feet as we prepare to go into this moment.

And what I want is for every single one of us to engage.

Maybe, as we've experienced already, there's prayers for healing that taken place.

There's there's prayer for barren wounds to open up.

But I believe that that God is not done.

I believe that there's still a work that God wants to do.

I believe that God wants to restore rest and restore rest relationships.

I believe that God wants to bring healing to our marriages.

I believe that God still wants to do a mighty work in us, and it's in moments like this where we have an opportunity to experience it.

You know, as Megan said earlier, we celebrated 22 years of marriage just two days ago, right?

It's been it's been the joy of my life.

And and and and so, you know, you know what you do whenever you have these milestone moments, is you you you gotta post it on social media or it didn't happen.

So, yes, I rolled over and said, Hey babe, happy anniversary.

Let me put it on social media.

That's just what we do, it's expected.

But but this is what we did.

I posted it on social media, and and she posted on social media, and she got more likes than I did.

And I'm a little bit bitter about that, but it's okay.

Um, but when we posted on social media, I want you to I want you to see this.

Like, as we posted it, and I began to see like people responding.

I seen people beginning to interact with it, and and so I got a notification from Instagram and it said to me, like, hey, this post is doing better than all your other posts.

I'm like, all right, great.

So it says view insights.

Never even paid attention to that button.

I clicked a button and then I was led down this rabbit trail of actually looking at how social media works.

It is nauseating and captivating at the same time because I began to run the metrics in my head because I was like, okay, I have a couple thousand followers, and then it shows me how many people actually saw it that are my followers.

And then for the people that saw it, that I had like a couple hundred likes.

I'm like, how could you see that I'm celebrating marriage?

And you're like, Yeah, I'm not gonna mess with that.

Like, hey, I'm not, I'm not, I don't like that.

And and and and I say that in jest, but literally I said to myself, I'm like, wow, like, why follow if you're not gonna engage?

I got so many followers, but so few people engage.

And as I had pondered this existential crisis in my mind, Jesus said, Imagine how I feel.

I have so many people that say that they're followers, but I got so few people who engage.

We we we don't lift our hands, we we we don't we don't engage, and Jesus is saying we have an opportunity to change that.

Let us not be the followers that look at it and keep moving, let us be the ones that celebrate the message of the gospel and actually engage.

The altar is open.

We have a prayer team that would love to pray with you.

Don't let this be a moment where we spectate, let this be a moment that we engage the power and presence of God because when we engage the presence of God, the power and presence of God engages us.

Let's pray and see what it is that the Holy Spirit wants to do.

Lord, we thank you for your presence.

We thank you for your grace.

And Father, we thank you for the gift of your spirit.

Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus that as we go into this next worship song for just a couple of moments, that you pour your spirit out and as willing, available vessels that we receive whatever it is that you want to pour out.

For those of us that need to come to the altar, let us engage and experience what you have for us.

For those of us that need prayer, let us go to our prayer team and engage and have someone intercede for us.

For those of us who just need to stand still and lift our hands in your presence, whatever it is, God, I pray that we engage and we can experience what it is that you want to pour out.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

With expectation, God, I'm asking for you to shift the atmosphere in Jesus' name.

Let's engage, family.

Thanks again for listening.

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