Awakening Pentacost In The Modern Church - Pastor Rob Urban

Welcome to Logan City Christian Church podcast where we bring God's Word to you weekly.

We pray that what you hear will bring clarity to your situation and open doors in your life.

Enjoy the message.

Praise be to God.

Hallelujah.

Glory be to God.

Father, we thank you for this morning.

We thank you Lord God for the wonderful worship in this place.

And Lord for the congregation singing and joining in.

It's just so good.

Father, this morning we sent your presence in this place and we're so grateful for this.

And Lord that we are expecting something mighty to happen again.

And we're just so grateful Almighty God.

And we thank you for it in Jesus' name.

And again Lord we sense your presence and your holy angels in this place.

Holy Spirit, we ask that you would flow in this place.

That there would be a fresh outpouring of your Spirit.

Touch our lives.

You make such an impact in our lives, in our families, in our churches, in our communities.

We declare the Lordship of Jesus Christ in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Now there's what a beautiful, beautiful presence of God in the house this morning.

Welcome to church and I just know that God's going to continue blessing and impacting our

lives for the better.

I'd just like to again welcome you all if you're here for the first time today, welcome.

And my name's Rob Urban, the pastor of Logan City Christian Church and on behalf of this

congregation we welcome you.

To our online congregation we welcome you again this morning.

Please let me just lay the direction for today is simply this, that after the Word of God

has been ministered there will be opportunity for those who have not yet received Christ

as their Lord and Savior to receive Christ.

There will be an opportunity given to you today to make the most important decision

of your life.

The most important decision of your life and also there will be opportunity for those of

us today who have not yet received the infilling of the Holy Spirit or the baptism of the Holy

Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.

I'm going to be speaking about that this morning and also if there be any among us today that

are sick or infirm we're going to have a prayer line for healing and I know that the Spirit

of God is going to touch your life.

Amen.

Amen.

Praise God.

Wow, this is a really high privilege to be experiencing this, it really is.

Today I'm going to speak on what I know the Lord has been impressing on my spirit a lot

of times that when a message is delivered here it's not something that's pulled out

of the top pocket, it's something that God has been brewing for a while and this one

is awakening Pentecost in the modern church.

Awakening Pentecost in the modern church and this is something that I know myself, I'm

very passionate about it as I do know many of you are as well and I believe that the

modern church today is drifting away from our roots and at a phenomenal rate of speed

and I believe today that the Spirit of God really wants to touch our lives and to bring

us back to where it all began.

Bring us back to where it all began.

And if we really want this, we need to go back to where the church started and that

was at the day of Pentecost.

We've got to get back there.

So what I'm going to do, I'm going to read probably about ten Scriptures that are going

to lay the historical foundation of the Holy Spirit and what Jesus taught and what the

apostles taught and accounts out of the book of Acts that will give us a very clear baseline

as to what the plan is for the Holy Spirit in the church and so bear with me as I read

these Scriptures because I need to lay a foundation and from that then we will see what God does.

But the first Scripture this morning is John chapter 14 verse 15 to 18 and it reads, If

John 14:15–18

you love me, this is Jesus speaking, keep my commandments and I will pray the Father,

listen, and He will give you another helper.

In other words, God is going to do something, He's going to give something or someone to

the Christian church that He may abide with you forever.

The Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows

Him but you know Him for He dwells with you and will be in you.

I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you.

And so there Jesus is saying, there's another person when Jesus leaves when He is raised

from the dead and performs and fulfills His priestly role, He said, you're not going

to be left orphans, there's someone else is coming to take my place.

Someone that would do exactly the same thing as I do when I'm here and that is speaking

of the Holy Spirit.

Now, I could go deeper into a lot of these things but I need to build a nice broad foundation

for where I feel the Spirit of God wants to go after.

John chapter 14 verse 25 to 26 and it reads, These things I have spoken to you while present

John 14:25–26

with you but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, listen, whom the Father will send in My name,

He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to

you.

So again, Jesus is saying to the Christian church that there was a day that Jesus is

saying whom the Father will send in My name.

In other words, somebody's coming, something's coming.

John chapter 15 verse 26, but when the Helper comes, here it is again, when He comes, whom

John 15:26

I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He

will testify of Me.

So there's something cooking, there's something happening, there's a mission.

John chapter 16 verse 13, however, when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide

John 16:13

you into all truth but He will not speak on His own authority but whatever He hears, He

will speak and He will tell you things to come.

Hang on to that.

Luke chapter 24 verse 49, behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you, but tarry in

Luke 24:49

the city of Jerusalem until you are endured with power from on high.

Something was coming.

Acts chapter 1 verse 4 to 8, I should say somebody was coming.

Acts 1:4–8

Acts chapter 1 verse 4 to 8, and being assembled together with them, He commanded them not

Acts 1:4–8

to part from Jerusalem, listen, but to wait for the promise of the Father, to wait for

the promise of the Father which He said you have heard from Me.

For John truly baptized with water that you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not

many days from now.

Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him saying, Lord, will you at this time

restore the kingdom to Israel?

And He said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has

put on His own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you

and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends

of the earth.

When Jesus said to the apostles, and you shall receive power, that you was not confined to

them.

It was prophetically speaking about all who receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit from

that time on, all will receive power from on high.

And that word power is the Greek word dunamis, and the word dunamis for the believer, it

means a power given divinely, which inherits the Lord's ability.

So if you can imagine when the Holy Spirit came upon the church and comes upon us, there

is a dunamis power, there is a power that is not from this world, it is from heaven,

that it was sent from heaven, the promise of the Father that has been given to the Christian

church, a power from heaven, a dunamis power, an ability of God given to humanity.

And it says here that with dunamis is needed in every scene of life to grow in sanctification

and preparation for glorification, meaning going to heaven.

But Jesus was saying, guys, you need to hang about, make this a priority when I go.

Jesus is saying, when I am ascended, there is one thing I'm asking you to do, just one

thing, do not leave Jerusalem, stay where you are in that upper room, because not many

days from now, everything that I've been preparing you guys for, you cannot afford to miss out

on this because you are going to need every part of this to be successful in ministry,

the power of the Holy Spirit.

And they waited, Acts chapter 2 verse 1 to 4, and when the day of Pentecost had fully

Acts 2:1–4

come, oh Jesus, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound

from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were

sitting.

Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and sat upon each of them, and

they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the

Spirit gave them honorates.

What an incredible encounter that the Christian church was birthed with this power, the Holy

Spirit that Jesus had spoken about.

He said, when I leave, I'm not going to leave you orphans, I'm going to leave you someone

in my place that will do exactly what I would do if I was here.

And the Scriptures teach that not only will the Spirit of God be with you, He will be

in you, and empowering the very core of a Christian to be a mighty man and a mighty

woman of God, to possess this ability of God, His ability in our lives to do ministry, to

do things, to live life, to change this world.

And if you have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit as a born-again believer, because

that is the beginning of it all, we need to be a child of God washed by the blood of Jesus.

You see the Holy Spirit, He is exactly that, He is holy.

And the Holy Spirit can't indwell a vessel that is not first cleansed.

From the work of the cross of Calvary, the shed blood of Jesus, thank you Pastor Francisco

for the word this morning.

It was great.

The washing of the blood of Jesus cleansed us.

We were sinners, and because of the work of Christ, we became saints.

From a sinner to a saint, all because of what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary for you,

for me.

And from the sinner to the saint, everything in the middle, your past mistakes and everything

had been washed away, you've been cleansed, you've been forgiven, that you stand before

a holy God just as if you have never ever seen once in your life, and you stand there

before God clean.

And it's there that when that person opens up their heart before Almighty God and receives

the baptism of the Holy Spirit, well the Holy Spirit being holy will identify that their

vessel's been cleansed, and then He Himself will indwell that being that has opened their

life up to Him.

And there we see a mighty, mighty work of God take place.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit is subsequent to salvation.

In other words, it's another blessing after salvation.

And I tell you, I believe the modern day Christian church, we need to go on a journey and go

back to the place where it all began.

I truly believe that.

And so there has been given such dunamis power, explosive power of God that when you lay hands

on the sick, that they will recover.

That when you and I, when we share this marvelous gospel of Christ, that the power of the Holy

Spirit anoints and empowers the words that you say, and there we see people coming out

of darkness into light.

It's a work of the Holy Ghost through everyday people like you and me.

Can you imagine that Jesus, He chose fishermen, He chose a tax collector.

I mean, He chose them, there's hope for us.

And they moved in the power of God.

They didn't get it right in the beginning.

Poor old Peter strikes me as the guy that he was probably barely even able to write

his own name, but when he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, he preached his first

sermon and 3,000 souls came to Christ.

And they preach another message and then 5,000 come.

You see, that is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said, you will receive power from on high and you will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem,

Judea, and Samaria, and to the outermost most parts of the world, and that you will carry

an authority from heaven to preach the gospel.

Saints of God, let me encourage you today, I'm speaking about you.

You're watching online, I'm speaking about you today, that if you truly are a child of

God, you need to receive this infilling of the Holy Spirit because it's been promised

and it's been spoken about in the Scriptures over and over again and the reason is, is

because without it, we are powerless.

We need this power from on high in our everyday life and ministry, the power of the Holy Spirit,

the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

And I believe that there's going to be a great move of the Spirit of God.

In fact, I'd have to say this that I feel it's knocking on our door right now and I

believe one of the signs that we are going to see is that the average Christian, Joe

Blow, is going to be empowered from on high and is going to go into the workplace, into

wherever it is and are going to be preaching Christ and bringing a lot of converts into

the kingdom of God.

That's what I see happening, a great expanse of evangelism one on one, one on two, one

on five, one on ten, that sort of thing.

Sometimes what we want, and it does happen when the Spirit of God moves, that we see

miracles and signs and wonders but let us always remember what the greatest miracle

of all is and that is when someone comes from the grips of Satan, from darkness, the kingdom

of darkness and is translated into the kingdom of light and is born again, forgiven, given

a new nature, accepted by God and then filled with the Holy Ghost and therefore that person

replicates after themself because they too got saved one time.

They too, the person witnessing once they were lost, now they're found, the child of

God filled with the Holy Ghost.

So I see that this is going to happen on such a great expanse across this nation.

God is so good.

There are so many people today and I believe there are a couple here this morning that

have not yet made their peace with God and I believe that today is a day that you're

going to choose Christ because when I finish what I have to say today that I know that

the Spirit of God has given me that you're going to see it, that you're going to feel

it and you'll understand it that before you walk out of these doors of this place today,

that you're going to accept this great and wonderful gift of salvation that Christ has

purchased for you and freely offered to you, that if we would just simply from our heart

choose Christ, He will come into your life and do a wonderful work in you as He did with

us.

And so the Upper Room, they had this empowering, they had this encounter that they were never,

ever the same again.

How many of us here today want to never be the same again after the Spirit of God fills

us once again?

That empowers us to never be the same again and obviously I'm speaking of a better position.

Now I'm going to read a few Scriptures and we're going to see what the apostles did and

some of them everyday people when they were filled with the Holy Spirit and went out and

started preaching the gospel.

I'm going to start with Acts chapter 8 verse 14 to 19.

Acts 8:14–19

And now when the apostles, let's realize these are not bedtime stories that somebody

wrote that we could read to kids and just, you know, this happened, this is history,

this is historical, this really happened and what I'm reading here really happened, what

happened in the Upper Room really happened.

Well someone might say, well what evidence do you have?

Do you speak in tongues?

If you speak in tongues today, that's evidence, it really happened.

It really happened.

Speaking in tongues and the gift of the Spirit, the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of

Pentecost is evidence of a resurrected Savior.

Do you know that?

Jesus said, when I go to the Father, the promise will come.

So obviously Jesus went to the Father because the promise is here.

And I'm saying church, we've got to get back to where it all began to really experience

a great move of the Spirit of God.

Acts chapter 8 verse 14 to 19, I'll see if I can get it this time.

Acts 8:14–19

Now excuse me, now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received

the Word of God, you see that they were going out.

They didn't stay in, they were going out.

They received the Word of God, then they sent Peter and John to them who when they had come

down prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.

For as yet He had fallen upon none of them.

They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Then they laid hands on them and received the Holy Spirit.

You see how that is subsequent to salvation?

That the apostles went down, Samaria had received the Word of God, people were being saved.

And the apostles went down and said, we've got to make sure that they receive the full

blessing.

So once they were saved, then they received this incredible blessing.

And it says here, they laid hands on them, verse 17, and they received the Holy Spirit.

Now there was this guy called Simon, he was a sorcerer.

He was a tricky little fellow and he was very dishonest.

And he had for many years been conning people for money that he pretended to be this great

power of God.

But when this Simon, when he saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands, the

Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money saying, give me this power also that anyone

whom I lay hands on may receive the Holy Spirit.

Two things here, obviously Simon the sorcerer saw there was an obvious outward sign of an

infilling that took place.

And people began to speak in tongues.

There was such an obvious sign.

And he says, give me this power also.

And Peter rebuked him and it didn't end well for Simon.

To this day, there is such a term called simony.

If you don't know what it is, look it up, but what you hear me say, you'll find is true.

Simony is when people try to buy the office of ministry.

Now I don't have to go too far to mention how many denominations do that.

But it is not of God.

But me tell you when the power of God is in you and moving through you, you don't need

to pay for anything because it already resides in you and it will flow through you.

It's all about the great grace of God and this other gift, the infilling, the baptism

of the Holy Spirit.

Acts chapter 10, 44 to verse 48, while Peter was still speaking, now what happened, Peter,

Acts 10 · chapter mention

he was told by the Lord that some guys are coming, I mean I'll just shorten this a bit,

and they're praying for you to come so you can preach the gospel to them.

And these were unsaved people.

They weren't in the Jewish faith, so to speak.

And so Peter goes there and he preaches the gospel and something really amazing happened.

Let me read.

So they were still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard

the word and those of the circumcision, that means those of the Jews who believed, so they

were born again Jews who believed, were astonished as many as came with Peter because the gift

of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles, also the unsaved, the people

outside of the Jewish covenant with God.

But they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God and Peter answered, can anyone

forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit, just as

we have, referring to the upper room.

And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord and they asked him to stay

a few days.

Let me take something out of this.

I know that the people that have been mentoring or going through a lot of people that have

been just recently saved, you do need to be water baptized, it's important, I know you've

been told that and it really is important.

So we are organizing baptisms in the coldest month of the year here in Australia, but praise

the Lord, it'll be a real test of your commitment in Jesus' name, hallelujah.

But it's good, it is really good and there today maybe you will receive if you want and

if you want it, you will receive it, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

I would encourage you with this, don't wait another day.

I remember the day that I was filled with the Spirit of God.

It was just such an incredible experience, such an incredible experience.

And so in Acts chapter 9, 17 to 18, here is another encounter, Apostle Paul, he went out

Acts 9 · chapter mention

to persecute the Christians, he was giving them a hard time and on the road to Damascus,

he encountered Jesus and right there, Saul, he was converted.

Saul gave him a new name, his name became Paul.

But listen to this, Paul, when he fell to the ground, he was blinded by this great light.

Then God speaks to Ananias, I'll pick up there from verse 17 of Acts chapter 9, and Ananias

Acts 9 · chapter mention

went his way and entered the house and laying his hands on him, on Saul, he said, Brother

Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road has come, as you come, has sent me

that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales and he received his sight at once

and he rose and was baptized.

Acts chapter 19, this is the last one.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

There was a great move of God happening around Ephesus, a mighty move of God.

And Apostle Paul just happened to be around the area and I'll pick up from verse 1 of

Acts 19.

And it happened while Apollos was at Corinth that Paul, having passed through the upper

regions, came to Ephesus and finding some disciples, said to them there, did you receive

the Holy Spirit when you believed?

And this is a question that I pose to everyone here today and those watching online, did

you receive this wonderful gift, the Holy Spirit, when you gave your life to Jesus?

Because if you haven't, there is still another blessing to come into your life, the baptism

of the Holy Spirit.

Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?

And they said to him, we have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.

And he said to them, into what then were you baptized?

And they said into John's baptism.

John's baptism was pre-cross.

So they had some distance to go.

And then Paul said, John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance saying to the people

that you should believe on him whom would come after him, that is on Christ Jesus.

When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

And listen, and when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they

spoke with tongues and prophesied.

And so here is another way people receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

I know Pastor Chantelle, she received it one night just asking the Lord.

And her encounter was that she felt like this hot oil running over and she began to speak

in other tongues.

Mine wasn't so easy like that because I had to get my head out the way and allow God to

get here.

If you're a mechanic or a handyman, you always want to try and work things out.

Let me tell you, this is one of the things you will never work out.

It is something that you just receive in Jesus' name.

And it is an incredible blessing.

So I want to just now just go open here.

What I mean by that, I've laid a foundation and I just want to speak what the Holy Ghost

puts in my mouth from here on in.

And I feel like there's such a, I don't know the word to use right now, a sadness that

a church that was birthed with such power has ended up being such a modern institution.

We see that there have been such great institutions, Christian institutions built over the years

that do do a great job and teach us sound theology and do their best to keep us strong

in the Word.

I'm not denying that.

But it becomes a problem when everything pertaining to the birthing of the church with the Holy

Spirit is left out.

There's a problem.

You see, the Scripture says that knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.

Love edifies.

So we can have all the biblical knowledge, theology can be so, so good and be so well

trained in theology.

But theology is theology.

That somehow the information that came to our mind has to be converted to revelation

in our spirit and church.

The only way that that can happen is by the Holy Ghost who brings that revelation so that

from our belly will flow rivers of living water.

Otherwise it just remains information.

We've got to go back to where it all began and that is in the upper room.

Now I'm not saying we've got to find an upper room.

I'm speaking about the experience that happened in the upper room.

Have we moved on from that?

Because many of us as Christians we have and rightly so been born again, baptized in water,

filled with the Holy Ghost, we began to speak in other tongues and then it stopped and we

go, well what's next?

I know what I'll do.

I'll sit down, I'll read my Bible and I'll just chill.

And this is something that I believe the devil is so happy with.

What I believe God wants is not for anything else in this hour that we live in or maybe

there might be a few, but I think primarily is for Pentecost to be awakened in the heart

of every true believer that we truly in our hearts go what has become of the modern church

today.

You look at it today from Pentecost, from the day of Pentecost there was how many churches?

One.

One church that believed the entire infilling of the Holy Spirit, the whole gospel message

and they went out.

And here we are today.

We got one denomination that says that if you speak in tongues you have a demon.

There's another one that says that the Holy Spirit doesn't do anything anymore.

Another denomination will say, well where of this part that actually don't believe that

God does miracles anymore?

And another will say that we have all the truth because we believe this and I am a Christian

because I'm baptized into this denomination.

What has become of the modern church that we look at today that it's drifted so far

and fragmented and Christ I believe wants the Christian church to go back to where it

didn't start that way.

But look at where it's become, what it's become.

The very person that was promised.

I shared with you the Scriptures this morning.

How important Jesus laid it out and the apostles received it and they went out with this power

and for some reason now the modern church has seemed to think, well we can put programs

in its place.

We can put some technology in its place because we can do it now without the Holy Spirit.

And that's why people today are saying there are no healing.

God doesn't heal anymore.

Yes He does.

God doesn't save anymore.

God still does save.

That God doesn't do this and God did.

Well that's the world that they live in.

Why?

Because they took the Holy Ghost out of their theology.

They removed God out of it and left with the Word.

The Word is good but it needs to be empowered by the Author and the Author is the Holy Ghost.

We got to go back to where it all began.

What we see today, it didn't start that way.

God is waiting for a church.

He's waiting for a people that we look back and say within ourselves, am I one of those

people that I did receive salvation?

Praise God.

Yes, I was water baptized.

Yes, I received the infilling of the Holy Spirit and I speak in tongues.

And yes, I'm one of those people that has allowed it to lay dormant in my life.

And a lot of times many of us have this residing, dunamis power in our life and are going through

tests and trials, going through hardships.

God, where are you?

And Christ would say, I'm in you.

Stir up that gift that is within you.

Stir it up.

Stir it up, church.

Go back to the day or the place where it first began.

Do you remember the day when you got saved?

Can you remember that day?

What a glorious day it was when Christ saved you.

And the day that you received, if you had the infilling of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit

of God came upon you and filled you and all of the sudden that you start speaking in this

language that you never had before.

And as we begin to pray in this heavenly language, we see that things begin to change, that our

spirit man, the very core of our being comes alive in God, becomes powerful in God.

I tell you church, your life changes, your marriage change, your family dynamics change.

Everything begins to change.

I believe that God is wanting the heads of homes, the husbands, to bring Pentecost back

into their marriage, into their family, to bring the very core of how it began back into

where it belongs in family.

What is the thing that the devil's attacking today?

Family.

Family.

And the church should have all the answers.

The church should have all the resources.

Now many churches have a lot to offer, but if they do not have primarily the first thing

to offer is the power of the counsel of the Holy Spirit and the power to heal, if we have

left that at Pentecost, if we've left it behind, what do we have?

I'm reminded of the story when Jesus and His mom and stepdad, Joseph, they went, I think

to Jerusalem, I think it was, for the Passover feast.

And then on the way home, they married the first night, I think it was, where's Jesus?

Where's Jesus gone?

Where is He?

And see, as a mom would, first light, she was there and she found Him.

But let's look at the modern day Christian church.

We've gone on in ministry, where's Jesus?

I'm not going back there.

I'm not going to do that.

Been there, done that.

I'm going to move this way and Jesus is like still there.

I believe it's a message for the modern day church.

Get Christ back in your pulpit, get Christ back in all of your departments, get Christ

back in every area of our lives, get Him back in our prayer meetings, that He is the central

focus.

It's not a church program that's going to win souls to Christ.

It's the power of the Holy Spirit moving through yielded vessels.

That's where it's going to happen, church.

Holy Ghost led worship, Holy Ghost led prayer, Holy Ghost led prayer meetings.

We've got to go back to where it started because what we see today, it didn't start that way.

I think we can all agree with that.

Now I know there are some great churches out there that are moving in the power of the

Holy Ghost and are experiencing Pockets Revival, praise God.

And I know the ones that I'm aware of, they all are preaching what I'm speaking today.

The reason why it's happening is because Christ is center focus, not a superstar in the pulpit

or not some clever orator that has got some new idea of how we can do church.

No, Christ needs to be at the forefront in everything that we say and do.

It's Him.

It is Him.

And if we try to move on in life without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, we

are going to find life being incredibly difficult.

I'm also reminded of the story where Elisha the prophet, and he was with the prophets,

and they said, our house has become too small.

Give us permission to go out and we'll cut some timber and we'll build a bigger dwelling

for the prophets, he said, go.

So off they go, they get their axes and they head off and they start cutting down trees

and preparing the best of the best of trees to build a place for the prophets.

And then this one particular guy, he comes to Elisha and he says, master, I can just

picture him.

He's standing there with an axe handle with no axe head on it.

He says, master, as I was chopping, the axe head flew off.

Has anyone ever done that before you split in wood and all of a sudden you feel it get

really light?

You know, there was a debauchery.

It's got to come down.

He said, master, I was chopping and the axe head flew off and went into the water and

I'm worried because it was borrowed.

Come back to that.

You know what I see and I sense the Spirit of God.

He's been talking to me for months now saying, Robin, all things Pentecost needs to be the

forefront driving force within every minister, within every Christian, every one of us.

And there are times in life that we go through hardship and sometimes we can be standing

there like one of those prophets with an axe handle with no axe head on it because something

went wrong.

But do we...

Axe head's gone, I'll just keep going and trying to chop a tree down with an axe handle

that has no head on it.

And it's hard work and you don't see much fruit and it wears you out.

It's fruitless.

And so, well, there must be another way of doing this.

Instead of looking for the axe head, let's find another alternative way how we can get

this tree down where initially the way was is the sharpness of that edge of that axe

was designed to cut that tree down.

The Holy Spirit is like that axe that this Christian uses to cut through the powers of

darkness.

But if we're just using an axe handle with nothing on it, we're going to be there a long

time.

And so, he went to Elisha and he says, Elisha, what do I do?

He says, where did it fall in?

He said, over there.

We know the story that Elijah broke off a stick, threw it in the water, the axe head

floated and he said to the guy, you go and get it now.

But what did Elijah do?

He took him back to the place where he lost the axe head.

And some of us today, we're feeling dry and morbid in the Spirit, dry as a chip, that

we feel that, oh, you know, this Christian walk is becoming so hard.

But I'm hearing what you're saying, Pastor, and I know I've got to get to...

You've got to go back to the place where you lost it.

You've got to go back to where that axe head symbolically fell off and ask the Holy Ghost

to reveal to you where it is, why it happened and learn from those experiences and get that

axe head put firmly back on the handle and get back to work and think no more about the

past.

The Christian church, I believe today, has to go back to where it began.

What we see today, most of what we see today was not so back then.

Now, if you're agreeing with me this morning, come on, acknowledge it, say something, because

I tell you, the Spirit of God is wanting to wake up the Christian church and to say you

need to revive Pentecost in your own life.

There needs to be a reviving.

So you're asking, how do I do that?

Paul said that he who prays in this unknown tongue is edified.

It's like in your car if your battery's flat and you go, man, what am I going to do?

So you get a battery charger, all of us have got battery chargers in the shed, right?

And you get a battery charger and you edify your battery, charge your battery.

And we as Christians, as children of the living God, have been filled with the Holy Spirit,

and maybe we've allowed that fire to go from a roaring inferno down to smoldering coals.

Well today is a day that I believe that God can set it alight again, such power of God.

And he who prays in an unknown tongue is edified, their spirit, man, begins to be set alight

again, on fire again.

And so how many here today can say that, yes, that is me, I need to be edified, I need to

be charged up, I need to get back to Pentecost, I know I've got to get back to that place

where it began.

This modern day things like TVs, iPads, phones, what a distraction.

It's like pulling the plug out of one's spiritual life.

Social media and all these things that had to offer, it wasn't so back then.

There are so many distractions today.

I tell you, saints of God, it wasn't like that then.

And we can choose today to be filled again fresh of the Holy Ghost.

In Acts chapter 5, I think it's Peter and John, they were put in prison and they were

Acts 5 · chapter mention

let go and then they were released and as they get out with the rest of the disciples,

they praise God and they thank God and the ground shook and it says, and there, those

who were in the upper room, same people, it says, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

See when you're doing ministry and you're giving out and you're ministering to people,

you need to have that top back up again.

It's just continually flowing and if streams of living water are flowing out of your belly

when you're ministering, you've got to be connected to the fountains.

If we don't, we run dry.

And if we run dry and we don't put the time in to remain filled with the Spirit, we begin

to find easier other ways to do things.

And that's where so many different doctrines come.

Well, you want to be part of our denomination, you have to sign this document that you will

never speak in tongues in this church and you'll never raise your hands in worship and

that you never, never do this and never, never do that.

You might be thinking, oh yes, if that would happen.

It happens today.

It was never so in the beginning and you see salvation.

Salvation is not found in a denomination.

Never has been, it was never so from the beginning.

Salvation, hear me, is not found of something that Logan City Christian Church has to offer.

The same with the Baptist, A.O.G., the Catholics and all the others.

Just because you attend that church or part of a denomination doesn't grant you salvation.

And I think that's one of the biggest traps ever.

Now I have Baptist friends and friends from various different denominations, we're good

friends and we've spoken about this.

I'm not bagging them out, I'm just telling you a very simple truth here.

There's no salvation in the denomination.

Oh, I was confirmed, water dropped on my head when I was three months old and that sort

of thing.

Great, you were confirmed in that denomination.

But what about now?

You see, salvation is only found in one alone and that is Jesus Christ.

It's not found in a denomination.

Jesus did not establish denominations.

He didn't say to Peter, I want you to be the Pope of the Catholic Church and to someone

else, the followers of John, you can be of the Baptist Church and you find out what scriptures

you want and what beliefs that you will underscore.

But Jesus didn't say that.

Acts chapter four, verse 12, there is no name given under heaven, no other name by which

men must be saved, but the name of Jesus.

You may be wanting this empowering gift this morning, but please again, let me just say

this, you first need to be born again.

Have you ever given your life to Christ, you ever surrendered your life to him?

If you haven't, I'd like to give you this opportunity today that receiving Christ is

the most beautiful thing that you will ever do in your entire life.

That God loves you and without Christ, we stand before God at a great distance, guilty

before God because of the sin nature we had that we received from Adam.

But when we receive Christ, we are forgiven of our sin and that sin nature is washed away

and we receive the nature of God, a nature of righteousness.

And it's there that we stand before our living God, justified as if we've never seen.

Have you received that gift this morning?

Because if you haven't, I want to lead you to this person, Jesus Christ.

And it's as simple as this.

If you really mean what I'm about to say, it's a simple prayer, receiving Christ into

your life, he will truly save you.

He will truly save you.

Amen.

Truly save you.

Now I'm going to pray this prayer and I encourage you all and those watching online, maybe you've

wandered away from the things of God.

Today's a good day to come back.

So why don't you pray with me?

Would you repeat after me?

If this is what you really want, let me say this, it's what you need.

I didn't know it until I got saved some 30 whatever years ago.

The best thing I ever had in my life, to receive Christ as my Lord and Savior.

Would you do that today?

Would you do this today?

Okay, pray with me.

Would you repeat after me, Father God, I come to you in the name of Jesus.

I believe in my heart and I confess with my mouth, the Lord Jesus, God that you died for

me.

God, you raised him from the dead for me.

This day, I give my life to you, Jesus.

I ask that you would forgive me all that I've done wrong in Jesus name.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you for joining us.

We pray God's richest blessing on your life.

If you haven't already, make sure to join us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

You can also find us at LoganCityChristianChurch.com.

See you next week.