ACTS: STORIES OF THE EARLY CHURCH - Pentecost

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.

Hey church, thank you guys so much for worshiping with us.

I want to thank you so much for allowing us to come into your homes.

We are so, so glad that you're here with us today.

I pray that you and your family are doing well.

And if there's anything that we can do as a church to better serve you, please don't hesitate to let us know.

I'm really excited about today's message because we're really going to be kicking off this new series.

It's called Acts Stories of the Early Church.

And today is a day of great significance.

You guys remember during our Easter services where we just talked about the death, the burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

And so you can imagine for the early disciples as they went through this moment and now their Savior has left them, they're trying to figure out what are their next steps.

Jesus has been giving them these code words, so to speak, and letting them know that they're going to be equipped and empowered to do some incredible things, and he was leading them to this very moment.

And this is the day of Pentecost.

Now you may be wondering, what exactly is Pentecost?

What does that mean in our context?

Well, let me let me explain it to you.

Pentecost was a day for our Jewish brothers and sisters where they would celebrate the giving of the law.

Now, I know what many of us are thinking.

We're thinking to ourselves, why would the law be something that's worth celebrating?

For most of us, when we think about the law, we think about isn't that the thing that Jesus came to do away with?

Isn't that the thing that when he died and as he was interacting with the Pharisees, that it was saying that he was doing away with the law?

So why would God create an entire celebratory moment, a feast that was connected to so many of these things exclusively for the purpose of the law?

Well, well, let me give us some context so we can understand the significance of it.

You have to understand that for the children of Israel, um, they were in bondage in Egypt for over 400 years.

And so for them, they were exposed to um uh these varying belief systems that had all types of different gods.

Here's a little um here's a little um note for you guys.

In fact, when we look at the Exodus narrative, every single time God issued a plague, it was actually a response to one of the gods that they worship.

So you can imagine for the children of Israel, they've been exposed to this multi-god dynamic and they're trying to sort through all of this stuff.

And so when God leads them out of, when he leads them out of Egypt, they're really trying to figure out what does God expect from us?

Who is God?

Who are we?

Because their exposure has only been to these multiple gods that it seemed as if you never knew what they wanted.

There was gods of fertility, there was there was gods of rain, there was gods of harvest.

So you have all these different gods, and so what God was ultimately communicating during the Exodus narrative is that he is the king of kings and he is the Lord of Lords, he is the one and only true and living God.

So when God began to communicate with the children of Israel and he gave them his word, it was such a relief to them.

They no longer had to guess and wonder what God want from us?

Who is God?

What does it mean for us?

But honestly, giving them the word of God was something that they celebrated because they finally had some clarity.

Now, all of us, if we really think about different parts of our lives, if we could just narrow it down for a moment, all of us probably have different things that we've tried to assemble.

Now, I I just yesterday, this is a real time guys, I just yesterday got my brand new grill and I couldn't be more excited.

I got it and I put it together, but you know why I was able to put it together?

It's because I had the instructions.

When I first got it, I took out all the pieces and there was literally parts all over the floor.

But when I looked at the instructions and I began to recognize what went with what, I was able to assemble it so that it could function accordingly.

It could function the way that it was designed to function.

You know what I think?

I think a lot of times with our lives, we have all these parts and we're trying to make sense of it.

But if we don't have God's word to help us to understand how we should assemble our lives so that we can function the way that we're supposed to function, we may find ourselves struggling with extra parts.

This is why in the book of Psalms, especially Psalms 119, there was such a great emphasis on the word of God.

There was all these different references to the power of God's word.

Look, I'm gonna show you a couple.

Here in Psalm 119, verse 11, I have stored up your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you.

Psalms 119:11

It's one of those things where they were excited about the word of God.

Psalm 119, verse number 15.

I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.

This was something they were excited about.

And of course, many of us are familiar with Psalm 119, 105, where it says this, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light unto my path.

You see, for the children of Israel, they looked at God's word as this beautiful declaration of them understanding who God is, and then by proximity learning who they are, what they have access to, and what God expected of them, but also what they could expect from God.

That really hasn't changed for us.

So for them, the word of God, it was actually giving them freedom.

And so you know what?

The same thing happens for us.

The day of Pentecost is the day that the Holy Spirit was given to the church.

And you know what?

His definition and his responsibilities and the way that we can interact with him is the same way that the word of God functioned for the Old Testament saints.

It allows us to have such great clarity.

So we see here that the Holy Spirit is given to the church on the day of Pentecost.

That is why we celebrate it.

It's the inaugural moment of when the church was birthed, when we had our mission, but we also had our power.

We can see here in the book of Acts, chapter 1, verse number 8.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

This is Jesus talking to his disciples.

One of his parting words that he was saying to them, he says this, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, until the ends of the earth.

Jesus is telling them that before you go out to accomplish what I've called you to do, you're going to be empowered with the Holy Spirit.

It's this great idea.

Because I believe this is the main theme that I want to share with you guys.

It is impossible for us to accomplish our God-given assignment without the power that only God can give.

I want to let that settle for a moment.

It is impossible for us to accomplish our God-given assignment without the power that only God can give.

That is what Pentecost was all about.

That is what the Holy Spirit is all about for us.

So, what I want to do is I actually want to spend a couple of moments and looking at the passage of Scripture in Acts chapter 2, where we actually can see the arrival of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Beginning here at verse number one, I want you to read along.

It's going to come up on your screens.

I want you to read along with me.

It says this it says, When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.

And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.

And divided tongues of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues as the gift had given them utterance.

Now there was dwelling in Jerusalem Jews devout from every nation under heaven, and at the sound of the multitude they came together, and they were bewildered because each of them was hearing them speak in their own language, and they were amazed and astonished, saying, Aren't all these men from Galilee?

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

So this is a list of the people that were there.

There were Parthians, there were Medes, there were Elamites, there were Mesopotomians, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontius, Asia, Vigeria, Pamphylia, Egypt, and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytides, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling of the good things of God in their own tongue the mighty works of God.

What's happening here is we have all these different people from the Diaspora, which is simply the language of where the Jews were scattered and they were no longer all living in Jerusalem.

So what would happen in this great feast is that they will all come together.

This feast was so powerful, it was a time of community.

It was a time where they would send their offerings to God.

It was really a powerful moment.

But then they hear about this Holy Spirit movement.

They hear the sound of the mighty wind.

And what the Bible says is that they all gathered in this one location and they're hearing about the power of God in their own unique language.

We're going to circle back on that in just a minute.

Verse number 12 says this, and they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean?

But others mocking said, They are filled with new wine.

Others mock because they thought they were filled with new wine.

Going on from here and through the rest of the chapter, we'll find that Peter stands up and he provides some context as to what they are experiencing.

He lets them know that it's a fulfillment of prophecy.

He lets them know that it's the Holy Spirit, that they're not drunk off a new wine, but it is literally the power of God that shows up.

Peter goes on to preach an incredible message, probably one of the best messages in the New Testament about the power of God and who Jesus truly is.

We see on that day that more than 3,000 people surrendered their life to Christ, and this was the birth of the church as we know it.

What I want to do is I want to spend a few moments just talking about the day of Pentecost, talking about the Holy Spirit, what it means for us, and what he's empowering us to do.

So if you're taking notes, I simply want you to write this message title down.

It's super simple.

Pentecost.

That's it.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you so much for your word.

And we're thankful for every opportunity that we have to gather in your presence.

So, Lord, in the name of Jesus, we pray for open eyes that we can see you.

We pray for open ears that we can hear you, God, and we pray for open hearts that we can receive everything that you have for us.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray.

Amen and amen.

So I want to share something with you guys that I'm pretty sure that if you've been around me for any period of time, you're already familiar with.

I'm a person that loves whenever I can automate anything in my life.

I love the simplified, complicated task.

Anything that I can get my hands on that will make things a little bit more simple, I'm all about it.

So I'm an early adopter when it comes to pretty much any technology that there is.

Whenever any new phone comes out, I'm typically the first one to hop on it.

That's just the way I'm wired.

If there's a new technology, I want it at my fingertips because I believe it can make things a little bit easier.

And so I've learned to navigate and have these things in my home that allows me to simplify certain aspects of my life.

I have a I have it all in the palm of my hand.

I have the ability to control the temperature in my home.

I can open up the door, I can let down a garage.

All these technologies are wonderful and they're they're incredibly convenient.

But then I found out recently that they actually had this technology through an app and through interfacing with my vehicle that my car actually could now be operated through my phone.

Man, that was a game changer for me.

Now I have the ability that I can lock, unlock, check the gas um levels on my car.

There's so much that I can learn when I sync my car up with my app on my phone.

So to me, it was a game changer.

So when I would go to different places, I would I would leave the keys in the car, I would lock it with my phone, it was the best thing ever.

But I remember this one incident where um I go to a grocery store, it was getting a little bit late.

The grocery store is about to close, but I had to run in and get some things because I was preparing to a meal for the next day.

Again, you guys know I'm serious about my girl game.

You know how that goes.

So I wanted to go and get some ingredients so I could let my food marinate overnight.

And so while I was letting it marinate, I go into the store and I pick up the ingredients that I need, and then when I come back out to my car, you'll never guess it.

My phone battery died.

Now, you may be saying, okay, that's a common thing that happens all the time, Keith, but no, I don't think you connected the dots.

My phone battery died, which now means I don't have access to my phone, which now means I don't have access to the app, which now means I don't have access to my car.

So I'm literally standing outside of my car.

My keys are on the inside of the car.

I don't have access because I depended on this technology.

You know, there the the slang or the statement that they use for this technology is smart.

Smart home, smart car, all these smart features.

And here's what I learned a very valuable lesson.

I was relying on my smarts, even though I actually had what I needed, but I locked it on the inside.

Now, if you guys are tracking with me, let me give you some connection here.

I believe that many of us find ourselves standing on the outside of our purpose, on the outside of our destiny, maybe even locked out of our calling.

But could it be that we found ourselves relying on our smarts instead of being dependent on the Spirit?

See what I did there?

I believe that this is what happens a lot of times with us as believers.

We end up locking the Holy Spirit out of areas of our lives and we end up relying on our own strength.

But at some point, our own strength would fail.

At some point, our own capability and skills will fall short, and we can find ourselves having to walk unnecessarily, having to be exposed to things unnecessarily, being vulnerable unnecessarily because we decided to lock up the very source that we needed that could give us access.

This is why I believe for the early church, it was so important that before they took a single step, they had to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.

This is why Jesus spent so much time talking to them and encouraging them, but telling them, don't you leave until you get the Holy Spirit.

Imagine if we lived our lives in such a way, where we didn't make movements unless we knew the Holy Spirit was with us.

I even love how in the Exodus narrative, when there's moments when God leads the children of Israel and they're close to the promised land, and God says, Well, you can go on in, but I'm not going with you.

And Moses makes this bold statement if you're not coming with me, then we're not going to go.

They were right there.

God had given them permission to move forward, but he said, But if you continue to move forward, I'm not going to move with you.

And they paused and they waited.

I think that's the way that we should orient our lives and recognize in these moments when I'm not going to move a single step if the Holy Spirit isn't with me.

So when we look at this passage of scripture here in the book of Acts, chapter 2, there's a couple of things I want to highlight that I think can be some encouragement for us.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

The first thing that we see is that it says here is that when the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.

Let's pause and talk about that for a moment.

They were all together in one place.

Now you have to understand that for the disciples, they come from different backgrounds.

They've been mentored and discipled by Jesus for three and a half years now.

But now they were all in this one space together.

And here's what we know about the disciples.

They had all types of different belief systems.

We had some who were Pharisees, we had some who were fishermen, we had some who were tax collectors, we had one who was a zealot.

Here's what all these statements mean.

That means that these are people who were diametrically opposed to one another in the social context.

But somehow, inside of the kingdom of God, somehow, when they're united around the things of God, that they were strengthened and they were all together.

There was a little bit of confusion, but they were all together.

They didn't know what the next steps were going to be, but they were all together.

They were waiting for the Holy Spirit and didn't even know in what form it was going to come, but they were all together.

Let me encourage us right now, church, we are in this all together.

We are in this all together.

As people who are made in the image of God, I want us to be encouraged in knowing that we are all together.

If we could begin to orient our lives and begin to function with recognition that we may have different backgrounds, we have maybe we may even have different passions, but at the end of the day, when we orient our lives around the things of God, we are all in this together.

I'm talking about the power of agreement.

That's what's happening here.

Jesus says it this way: if any two touch and agree on any one thing, I will do it.

Imagine if the people of God began to touch and agree what God would do with it.

Imagine if we began to be a group of people that would honestly pause and reflect and say that we truly believe that racism is wrong, that no matter what your background is, no matter where you vote politically, but we can all agree that certain things are wrong, I believe that will usher in the presence of God.

We are all in this together.

Listen to me, church.

There's a lot of things that are happening in this world.

And we're part of a world that is so broken and it wants to keep us divided with our differences, our different perspectives, and our different ethnicities and our different everything.

But listen to me, if we can begin to orient our lives around the things of God and say that we are all in this together, I believe that is when we're gonna see a move of God.

I believe that is when we're gonna see the power of God showed up.

That is when we're going to see a revival takes place.

Understand this church, we're all in this together.

But we live in a world that wants to try to accentuate our differences.

But if the people of God could just recognize that we're all in this together, I believe that agreement ushers in the presence of God.

That's what we see here.

And so as they're all together, a little concerned, a little nervous, not knowing what to expect, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit shows up.

That the Spirit of God shows up, and it's a powerful moment that takes place.

It says here in Acts chapter 2, verses 2 and 3.

Acts 2:2

It says, And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house, and they were filled where they were sitting.

And each and divided tongues as fire appeared to them, resting on each and every one of them.

The Spirit of God shows up.

Now here's the thing I want to help us to understand: that the Holy Spirit is not a New Testament concept.

It's not a New Testament idea, it's not something that has just been birthed after Jesus has died and then ascended into heaven.

No, we can look in scripture and see that the Holy Spirit has been present the entire time.

Let me let me first give us some context.

The Holy Spirit is a person, he is an aspect of the Godhead, he is an expression of the very nature of God.

So we see this in Scripture that we see these moments where the Spirit of God is very present.

It's not a New Testament idea.

We can even look in Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

The Bible says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth was without form and void.

Darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God hovered.

That spirit of God that was hovering in the beginning when God was doing creation is the same spirit of God that was hovering over the disciples right here.

It's the same God that's even hovering over your situation right now.

The spirit of God was presence.

The Holy Spirit is the very presence of God.

We even see, and this is in scripture, when we look in the book of Judges and we hear about Gideon, and it talks about how the Spirit of God would come upon him and he was able to successfully defeat his enemies.

We would even see that the Spirit of God would come upon Samson, and the Bible says that he would shake himself, and the Spirit of God would come upon him, and he would be able to defeat the Philistines.

We see these moments in Scripture where the Spirit of God would show up and allow the people to perform these supernatural tasks that they probably couldn't do in their own strength.

But now there's a little bit of a shift here.

Because no longer was the Spirit of God just going to be upon people, he was going to actually begin to dwell inside of them.

That is the that is the big shift.

That is why we celebrate Pentecost.

Because no longer is God with me, but now God is dwelling on the inside of me.

And this is something that is incredibly powerful.

It's no longer going to be a temporary thing, but it's going to be a permanent residence.

We can see this in John chapter 14, verses 16 and 17.

John 14:16

And when the Spirit shows up, there's a couple of symbols that helped us to recognize that the Spirit of God was there.

There's a couple of things that happened.

We can see in this passage of Scripture where it says that the Spirit of God showed up and he came down like a mighty Russian wind from heaven.

It was the sound of this wind that came down from heaven.

Now I want to pause and talk about this for a second because as it talks about the wind of God, all of us, especially those of us who live in Florida, we know how wind is.

You can hear the wind, we can see the wind, we can see how things are shifting, specifically during storms, we can even feel the wind.

But as it describes the presence of the Holy Spirit, it doesn't focus on any of that.

All it says is that the Spirit of God could be heard.

There was a wind that showed up.

I wonder why God made sure that we didn't focus on the fact that they could feel it.

It doesn't even say that they could feel it.

I wonder if it's I wonder if it's because God wanted to make sure that our faith wasn't so wrapped into feelings in a way that we identify the Holy Spirit.

I think too often we're looking for a feeling for the Holy Spirit.

We're looking for something that can give us a little bit of a feeling.

But the Bible says they didn't feel it, but they did hear it.

Listen to me, friend.

The Holy Spirit did not come to give you goosebumps, he came to give you power.

The Holy Spirit did not come to give you chills, he came to fire you up.

The Holy Spirit didn't come to make you feel good.

He has called you to make a difference in the world.

This is why the Holy Spirit came.

And I believe that when we reduce the Holy Spirit down to just our feelings, we end up missing out on opportunities that God is leading us into just because we don't feel like it.

I assure you that when Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, he didn't feel like dying, but the presence of God was surely with him.

I believe that there's some of us right now we can think about how we don't feel like being where we are, but it doesn't mean that that's not the place that God has assigned you and equipped you to be.

We don't want to reduce the Holy Spirit down to just our feelings, looking for moments that can help us to chase after that feeling when we know that the power of God is dwelling with us and he is very, very present.

See, the very concept of the wind showing up, that's literally like the breath of God.

It's literally his presence.

It's the same wind that showed up and breathed on Adam and He became a living soul.

It's the same wind that Ezekiel talks about when it says, prophesy to the winds, and they became an exceeding great army.

It's the same wind that the Bible talks about when God exhaled and parted the Red Sea.

It's the same wind that Jesus blew on his disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit.

That when we say yes to God, that is the same wind that comes alive on the inside of us.

But here's another thing that we see that shows up for the people of God as they begin to recognize the power of his spirit.

It also symbolizes and says that there was also fire present.

So we have wind, and now we also have fire.

Wind and fire.

If we had a little bit of earth, man, we can make a little joke about earth, wind, and fire, but we'll move on from that.

That might be a little bit too old for this young demographic.

Earth, wind, fire, or we can make an avatar reference.

You know what I'm talking about, Danny.

Um, but let's let's be serious for a moment.

There's these moments where these elements are being used to express an aspect of the nature of God.

But watch this fire purifies, right?

That's what fire has historically been used for.

And you know that God takes on the form of fire.

It says that our God is a consuming fire.

We see that that the writer of Hebrews tells us about that.

It even says that when God appeared before Moses, that he appeared in the burning bush, Exodus chapter 3, in the form of fire.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

So when God shows up, it should fire us up.

That when God shows up, it actually purifies us.

That when God shows up, it allows us to be activated and engaging his presence in a way that never allows us to be the same.

We see this moment where the Holy Spirit is present and there's wind and there's fire, but when you put those two together, what that does is it allows it to spread.

I believe that God is symbolically showing us that when you allow him to breathe on your situation and you allow it to ignite a passion on the inside of you, this is how our faith becomes contagious.

This is how the gospel spreads.

This is how we're able to make such a significant difference.

This is how God showed up with the early church and what I believe what it means for us.

So now that the Spirit of God is there, there's wind and there's this fire and there's this ignite that takes place.

The Bible tells us that they were baptized in the Spirit of God.

Acts chapter 1, verse number 5 says this that Jesus is talking to his disciples.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

He says, For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

This is the word of Jesus telling his disciples that the Holy Spirit is going to show up and Baptize you.

Here's I like the statement here.

It says this that baptism is a divine act.

It's been promised by John the Baptist and by Jesus.

The Holy Spirit initiates the Christians into realizing that they have union and communion with Christ, and therefore they're equipped and enabled for sanctity and for sacrifice.

I know that that's a whole lot to say, so I'm gonna say it one more time so we can kind of really grab a hold of these words.

That the that the baptism of the Spirit, it's a divine act, and it was promised by John the Baptist and by Jesus.

The Holy Spirit initiates Christians into the realization that they have union and communion with Christ, thus equipping them and enabling them for sanctity and for service.

The Holy Spirit shows up and it purifies us.

It is how we become a new creation.

This is so powerful.

So the Bible talks about how we are made new into the things of God.

That word baptism, it literally means to be submerged or identified with.

That's the implications of it.

That when we as believers of Christ, the moment that we confess our faith, the moment that we repent, the moment that we surrender our lives to Christ, that there's something on the inside of us that comes alive.

I love the way that Paul puts it.

He says that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians chapter 1, verse number 13, it says it this way.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

In him, speaking of Jesus, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit.

It says that when we place our faith in Christ, that this baptism, that this moment of being submerged, this idea of us being connected to Christ comes alive on the inside of us.

That's how when we talk about when someone comes home, that they're now brothers and sisters in Christ.

It's not obviously through our bloodline, but it's because of our connection in the Spirit.

We all have that same spirit on the inside of us.

Here's a couple of things that I want us to see, because it's important for us to know that you indeed have the Holy Spirit if you've called Jesus your Lord and Savior.

Our belief is that the moment that you confess Christ, that all sinners are now converted into brothers and sisters in Christ, you are now a son of the Lord, and now you have the Holy Spirit dwelling on the inside of you.

Here's a couple of things that I want us to see.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit, it was promised.

I'm gonna give you a couple of scriptures to write down that you can go and look at later.

It's in John chapter 1, verse 33, Acts chapter 1, verses 4 and 5, John chapter 7, verse 38 and 39.

John 1:33 Acts 1:4 John 7:38

In fact, I want to I want to read that to us because I think it has a very powerful implication.

Here's what it says.

This is Jesus talking to his disciples.

Whoever believes in me, as the scriptures have said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

39 is really important here.

Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who believe in him were to receive.

This is Jesus saying that if you can believe in me, that the Holy Spirit is something that is promised to you.

It's for all believers.

Acts 2, 38 and 39.

Acts 2, 16 and 18, the book of Joel 2, 28 through 29, Galatians 3, 2 through 5.

These are reference points to let us know that as believers, as followers of Christ, this is indeed what you have access to.

You have been submerged, you've been identified with, you've been connected to Christ.

But that's not the end of it.

Because what the Bible tells us on the day of Pentecost is that there's this powerful moment where they are also filled with the Spirit.

Now, I know that that can sound a little bit like semantics.

I know that can seem very similar to what we just talked about, but there's a difference between being baptized in the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit.

See, being baptized with the Spirit is being identified into the things of God.

But being filled with the Spirit is that moment when our gifts are activated.

It's when our calling becomes concrete, when it becomes set.

It says here at verse number four that they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues.

That was when they were activated.

The power of God showed up on the inside of their lives.

Here's what's so important for us to understand is that when the Holy Spirit shows up inside of our lives, that we are purified.

We now become clean vessels.

Old things are passed away, behold, all things become new.

But when we are filled with the Spirit of God, this is the moment where God begins to activate the gifts that are on the inside of us.

He comes delivering gifts.

And for this context, what's happening here is the Bible speaks about how they were given the gift of tongues.

Now, this is different from our what we refer to as our prayer language, but it's the gift of tongues.

It's when you can speak a language that you didn't learn so that the audience can actually understand what is being communicated and what is being understood.

Here's some things and some identifying marks that I think is helpful for us to recognize when someone is filled with the spirit.

See, the Bible tells us that people being filled with the Spirit was an identifying mark for Christian character.

And I have a ton of scriptures to go with these, so I'm actually going to just reserve that and we're going to post it later and you'll see all the different scripture references.

Here's another one.

That when you're filled with the spirit, it was evident in boldness.

There were moments when the disciples had to step up and speak up and step into some places that were uncomfortable, but it says, but they were filled with the spirit and they were filled with boldness.

Listen to me, church.

You are filled with the spirit, but we have to continue to perpetually put ourselves in a position where we can engage the presence of God in such a way that that filling continues to go to a place of overflow, a place of abundance, a place of complete blessing.

In addition to that, we know that the Bible talks about that being filled with the Spirit is the very thing that brings liberty.

That being filled with the Spirit is the thing that anoints our gifts and activates our service.

Now I want to talk about this for just a moment because I think that I can encourage somebody right now.

Listen to me.

You may have a lot of different gifts, but when you surrender those gifts to the things of God, God begins to fill those very gifts, and you're no longer just gifted, but now you're anointed.

Let me say that again.

You're no longer just gifted, but now you're anointed.

See, the Bible talks about how David was a gifted worship leader.

He was gifted at making music.

But there also was this moment when he was anointed to become king, that the Bible said that the Spirit of God rushed upon him.

Same language that is used here in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And it says then that whenever he would play worship music in the presence of Saul, that it would literally drive away demonic spirits.

So that gift was now converted to being anointed the moment that it was surrendered to God.

I want you to hear me right now.

No matter what your circumstance is, no matter what your profession may be, please understand that you are not just gifted at what you are, but you are anointed to do it.

The book of Isaiah tells us that the anointing is the thing that destroys our yokes.

You can have a lot of people who are gifted at a lot of different things, but it doesn't mean it's going to produce the fruit that God has called it to produce.

But when you can take your gift and surrender it to God and invite Him to fill it, now that gift becomes anointed.

Now no longer are you just a gifted lawyer, but you're an anointed lawyer who's going to bring justice to those who have been oppressed.

You're no longer just a gifted mom, but you're an anointed mom who's raising up children in the things of God.

You're no longer just a gifted police officer, but you're an anointed police officer who God has called to help to bring order and to establish protection for all people.

You're no longer just a gifted teacher, but you're an anointed teacher that God has commissioned and assigned you to make a difference in the world that you've gone to.

I want to let you know that you are not just gifted at what you're called to do.

You're anointed.

And when you're anointed to do it, you can destroy yokes.

When you're anointed to do it, you can drive the enemy away.

When you're anointed to do it, you allow itself to bear much fruit.

Listen to me.

Take the gifts that God has given you, surrender it to God, allow him to anoint it with his presence and watch the field and watch what it produces as a result of it.

You're anointed to do what you're called to do, but surrender it to God.

I want you to see this.

If we are not filled with the Spirit, then we're full of ourselves.

If we're not filled with the Spirit, we're full of ourselves.

This is why the disciples had to continuously position themselves where they could be filled with the Spirit on a continuous basis.

See, the baptism of the Spirit, that takes place once.

The moment that the sinner confesses, that baptism takes place once.

And the same thing with us.

The moment that we accept Christ, we get baptized once.

Some may symbolically do it again, but the idea is you get baptized once, you don't have to do it over and over again.

But the filling of the spirit, that takes place every time that we engage the things of God, every time we read the word of God, every time that we worship, we are filling our spirit up.

You know, the Bible talks about how we're made up of body, soul, and spirit.

That spirit man on the inside of us.

That is the part of us that's the greater is He that's in us than that's than He that's in the world.

That's the part that's on the inside of us that allows us to have anointing and authority that can destroy yokes.

But we have to feed it.

And we feed it by getting connected to godly community.

We we feed it by every time that we we go to church, we feed it every time that we give, we we feed it every time that we serve, and we end up building up a spiritual um endurance that allows us to be able to resist the devil so that he may flee from us.

This is the power of the Holy Spirit.

See, this baptism of the Holy Spirit is that moment when no longer am I just identified with Christ, but now Christ is dwelling on the inside of me.

So now we see in this passage that the Bible says that we have the people together.

The Holy Spirit shows up.

They are baptized, they are filled, and now we have this moment where the gift of tongues is communicated.

Now, I want us to see what's happening here because many may ask, of all the different gifts that are in the body of Christ, of all the gifts that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 12 through 14, why would he choose that gift specifically to be expressed on the day of Pentecost?

Here's the most simple reason that I can give you.

It is meant to be a reversal of what happened at Babel.

See, in Genesis chapter 11, the Bible tells us about how the group of men they had gathered all together and they wanted to make a name for themselves.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

So they created this giant structure and an and an offense and the way to be opposing to God.

God comes down, he sees all of this, and he recognizes that they had one language, and that one language was allowing them to be unified around the wrong things.

So God literally confused the languages and caused them to go astray.

But now we have here the day of Pentecost, the very idea that no longer are we trying to build something to make a name for ourselves, but we're trying to build something that can make a name for God.

It's literally a reversal where God shows up and now he's able to use the split languages but unify it inside of the context of the kingdom.

God was reversing everything in that one felt moment, bringing clarity and confusion and unity to people that have been far away from him.

My encouragement for all of us is make sure that we lean in and embrace every single gift that God has for us.

That we lean in and that we we tap and hold and grab a hold of everything that God has for us.

The gifts of the Spirit are for you as well.

The Holy Spirit is for you as well.

It is meant to empower you, to equip you, anoint you so that every environment that you may find yourself in, you realize that you're there with an assignment, but you are also blessed by the very presence and power of God.

You know, as I reflect back on that moment when I was locked outside of my car, I ended up having to walk home.

Fortunately, it was only a mile away.

I had to go inside of my house, I had to go and get the spare key, which um I never told Megan that, so she's probably watching this in real time.

So here's a confession.

I didn't want her to make fun of me because she told me not to rely on it, but that's a whole nother conversation for a different time.

But I walk in, I grab the key, I end up taking an Uber back to unlock it, and just to be able to drive my car home.

What I want us to be able to recognize and see in this moment is that I had access.

I had what I needed, but it was locked up.

And I had to walk a distance that I shouldn't have had to walk.

I had to be exposed to elements that I shouldn't have had to be exposed to.

But I was relying on a smart device more than relying on the power that I should have had in my pocket the entire time.

And what I believe for some of us as believers is that we end up relying on our smarts, relying on our strengths, and we end up walking through things we shouldn't walk through, being exposed to things we shouldn't be exposed to, because we have taken the very power that gives us access and put it in the glove compartment because it's something that we've distanced ourselves from.

What the day of Pentecost was meant to be was a day where we can experience true freedom, understanding that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

This is the moment that the church was birthed, where now we have the ability to have access to everything that God has for us.

I want to read this passage of scripture to you in Mark 16, and then I want to close in prayer in just a moment.

But here's what the Bible says.

Starting at verse number 15, it says, And he said to them, Go in all the world and proclaim the gospel to whole creation.

Whoever believes, whoever, that's you.

Whoever, that's you.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.

But whoever does not believe will be condemned.

But these signs will accompany those who believe in my name.

They will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues, they will pick up serpents by their hands.

This is not telling us that we should go and handle deadly snakes.

That's not what it's saying.

Ultimately, what it's saying is that we're going to be empowered to operate with the true dominion that God had intended us to function with, with Adam and Eve in the beginning.

These are the signs that accompany those who believe.

If you're a believer in Christ, let's not allow that power, that anointing, that access, that authority that God has given us to stay locked up and we're relying on our own strengths and our own power.

Why don't we let it out?

Embrace it, recognize that this power is for me, that this gift is for me, this anointing is for me, so that I can be activated for service and step into places, recognizing that God has given me assignment to make a difference in the place that I am.

It will be very difficult for you to fulfill your God-given assignment if we don't grab a hold of the power that only God can give.

Here's my homework for us.

Embrace the Spirit of God, recognizing that it's a gift that Jesus saw, that He loved you so much that He said, I will not leave you as orphans, but I'm going to leave you an expression of myself so that you can have dominion where you go.

Allow him to fill every area of your life.

Remember, you're not just gifted at what you do, you're anointed for what you're doing if you surrender it to God.

Let your words be a demonstration of God's presence in your life.

Do we see the correlation here?

That when a Holy Spirit shows up, the first thing that he grabbed a hold of with the disciples was their tongues.

That means that if I truly have a surrendered heart, it should be reflected in my mouth.

I'm gonna move on from that one.

No, I'm not.

If I truly have a surrendered heart, you should see it in my mouth.

You should see it in the way that I type.

You should see it in the way that I talk to people, you should see it in the way that I talk about people.

If you have a heart that is truly surrendered to God and the Holy Spirit is dwelling on the inside of you, it should be reflected in your words.

It should be reflected in your attitude, it should be reflected in your behavior.

This is what we see that Jesus is enacting here on the day of Pentecost.

And here's the last thing don't allow substitutes to take the place of the source.

I know we have a lot of smart devices and a lot of things that are very convenient for us, but don't allow that to substitute the true source of the very Spirit of God.

Jesus thought so much of this that he said, Don't move until you are in power with my presence.

Because then you'll be have the power to move into any environment that I've called you to go into with confidence and with boldness.

Church, we love you.

And what I want to do now is I want to pray for you in a belief that we're gonna grab a hold of everything that God has for us.

The Holy Spirit is with us.

He brings us liberty, he brings us freedom, he gives us healing.

And as we go through the rest of this series, identifying these varying themes that we're gonna see throughout the course of the book of Acts, we're gonna see the presence of the Holy Spirit and how He led, He guided, He protected, He anointed, He ultimately allowed them to spread the gospel and accomplish exactly what Jesus was commissioning them to do.

But here's the beautiful thing: the mission's not over.

It still lives with me and you, but we would not be able to accomplish it without the power and the presence of God's Spirit.

Father, we thank you so much.

We thank you for the perfect sacrifice of Christ.

And we're grateful that you've invited us to be a part of this family to have a seat at your table.

So, Lord, I just pray right now, in the name of Jesus, that we radically accept the power of your presence, that we can embrace your spirit and allowing us to walk in the anointing, the dominion, the authority that you've commissioned us to walk in.

So, Father, I pray that we receive your spirit in the name of Jesus.

I pray that you activate the gifts on the inside of us, God.

As we surrender our hearts, God, we also surrender our mouth.

And we're praying, Father, for a supernatural empowerment of every environment that you send us in, God, where we recognize we're not just gifted, but we're also anointed.

In the name of Jesus, amen.

Man, we're so thankful for that Pentecost Sunday message from Pastor Keith.

And one of the things that he talked about was living a life of surrender to God.

And so for some of you, maybe today you need to make a decision to actually surrender your life to Christ for the first time or for the first time in a long time.

And we want to give you the opportunity to do that today.

Yes, we believe, like it says in Romans 10, that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

So we want to give you that opportunity today.

Yeah, so if you want to recommit or commit your life to Christ, then just repeat this simple prayer after us.

Dear God, thank you for your son Jesus.

Thank you for your son Jesus.

I believe that he died on the cross and he rose again.

And he rose again.

Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ be the Lord of my life.

Be the Lord of my life.

Thank you.

Thank you for saving me.

For saving me.

In Jesus' name.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, church, hey, listen, if you just made that decision, that's the best decision that you have ever made and will ever make in your entire life.

So we just ask that you would text the word, decide, to the number 25101 so we can walk with you on this journey.

And right now, we're going to take a moment to really take communion together.

And I want to take a moment and just explain this for a second.

So here's the thing: the early church, every time that they would meet, they would take communion together.

Number one, to remember what Jesus Christ had done on the cross, to make sure that he stayed the center.

But then number two, here's another reason they did it.

So that they were in unity together.

And if there's ever a time in our life where we need unity, it is now.

And so I'm going to ask that you stop whatever you're doing.

You go and get your communion elements, and we're going to take communion together and believe that as we do this as a unified church, remembering what Jesus Christ has done, that he's going to work miracles through it.

I believe that that can happen right now.

And so let's take communion together.

And so on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread and he broke it and he said, This is my body that was broken for you.

Take now and eat in remembrance of me.

So let's eat the bread together.

In the same way, he took the cup and he said, This cup represents the cup of the new covenant, remission of sins.

It represents his blood for the remission of all sins.

And so right now, as we take this, we're going to remember the fact that Jesus' blood was poured out for us to not only cover but to cleanse us of all of our sin.

Let's take the cup together.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you so much for your son Jesus.

We thank you for what he did on the cross.

God, we thank you for his body that was broken and bruised for us, God, for our healing and also our salvation.

God, and we thank you for his blood that was poured out for us to cover and cleanse us of all of our sin.

God, we pray that we would remember that.

And God, we pray that that would be something that we could have unity over as your church to bring unity and love to the world that we live in.

And we thank you for it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you again so much for joining us for Celebration Church at Home.

Know that we love you, we're thinking of you, and we are praying for you.

Make sure to stay connected by following us on social media at CelebrationORL.

Have a great week.

We will see you next Sunday.

Yes, and tag us in everything that you do at Celebration Our L.

We want to see what you're doing.

We love you guys.

And like she said, see you next Sunday for Church at Home.

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