Suddenly | Pr Ronson

You're listening to a message to go from Acts Church.

We hope this message will light up your day.

Now, if you have your Bible, I'd like to ask

that you will turn to Acts chapter 2. And we're

Acts 2 · chapter mention

going to do the reading from verses 1 to 4. Alright,

if you're in Acts chapter 2, say yeah. You there? Okay,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

we're going to read from verses 1 to verse 4.

When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were

all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there

came a sound from heaven as of rushing mighty wind,

and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire,

and one 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 utterance. If

I have a topic for today, I would term the

message as suddenly. Everyone say suddenly. You know, whenever God

wants to intervene in our life, more often than not,

He will come in suddenly. Suddenly. And in my spirit,

I know that many of us are waiting for something

from God. Either you're waiting for an answer on where

you should go, what you should do, which option to take,

or you're waiting for a breakthrough, that you're believing for yourself,

you're believing for your family. In this context, We know

that when Jesus was ascended back to heaven, seated at

the right hand of the Father, as Scripture says right now,

interceding for you and me, He commanded His disciples to

go to Jerusalem, tarry there until they are subdued with

power from on high. I would like to let the

church know today that there's power in your faith. And

that as a church and as a people of God,

we should come back to the place where we not

only believe God for His presence, we should believe God

for His power. Because the church of God, the people

of God, is not without power. Scripture says in Acts 1,

Acts 1:8

verse 8, For you shall receive power when the Holy

Spirit comes upon you. So God did not leave you

as an orphan, as Scripture says. He says that He

will send His Spirit to be with you, abide with

you forever, and He gives you power. So the Holy

Spirit's sudden entry of presence and power into the disciples'

life happened in Acts chapter 2. Jesus already prepared them

Acts 2 · chapter mention

to say that when I go away, I will send

a comforter. I will send an advocator to be with you.

He will be known as the Spirit of Truth. So

when the disciples were waiting, they had to gather together

to pray. There are three things that I want to

share as a point to encourage us today. But before that,

I want to share that the term suddenly here also

means a shortening. It also means that there is a

form of acceleration. In other words, when the Spirit of

God comes upon your life, you will be able to

achieve more in a quicker time. Many of us are waiting.

But how many of you know that God's calendar is

not man's calendar? God is not defined or detected by time.

But unfortunately, as humans, we are all detected by date, time,

in our calendar. The hardest time for all of us,

and some of us will go through this one day,

is a time of waiting. especially when it matters the most.

You're waiting for a medical report result. You're waiting for

your scholarship result. You're waiting for a job offer. And

every time as the clock ticks and nothing comes true,

there's a feeling of anxiety. There's that feeling of fear.

God's timing, It's not our timing. But one thing we

can take faith in is He makes all things beautiful

in His time. God cannot be rushed. Cannot. Cannot. We

cannot rush God. No matter how sometimes we may be impatient,

no matter sometimes how we can be so desperate, as

though that God doesn't care. Let me speak into your

spirit this morning that He cares. And His timing is

not your timing. Because He didn't give an exact timing

to the disciples to say that the Holy Spirit will

come to you on 17 April at 3pm. I guess

when there is a date given, It makes the waiting tolerable.

It makes the waiting more doable because you can see

the end. But the disciples weren't given a timeline. They

were all told to wait faithfully. And all they needed

to do is to trust God, to trust Jesus, to

know that He meant what He said. So to make

our waiting bearable is to trust in God. Because in

that waiting, sometimes we can be very distracted. And it's

easy for our mind to veer off to something that

is ungodly. Like, does God really care? Will God really

come through? Oh, maybe God has forgotten me. Oh, maybe

I have sin in my life, therefore God is not answering.

You know, the greatest condemnation you and I can bring

to ourselves is thinking that because we have sin in

our heart, God choose to shut the doors of heaven.

Let me cancel that lie in the mighty name of Jesus.

As long as you are repentant, you are repenting, and

you put on a posture of repentance, and you sincerely

come back to God, Let me tell you that God

is ready to receive you again. God is ready to

answer you. So do not let the thought of, oh,

I have sinned, I'm not good enough, to stop you

from anticipating what God has in store for you. What

we need to do is to turn our heart back

to God. 2 Chronicles 2, verse 7. Sorry. Sorry. 2

2 Chronicles 2:7 2 Chronicles 7:14

Chronicles 7, verse 14 says, If my people who are

called by my name were to humble themselves, turn away

from their wicked ways and turn to me, I will

then hear from heaven and I will heal their land.

So at a point of waiting, it's important to also

examine our heart. Where is our heart? So that we

can turn fully to God. So the first point that

I have for us today is obedience. The disciples waited

in obedience because in Luke 24 verse 49, it says, Behold,

Luke 24:49

I send the promise of my Father upon you. But

tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued

with power from on high. So the tarry basically means wait.

And it's not an aimless waiting. Because sometimes you and I,

we can wait and do nothing. And we say we

are waiting for God. It is a wait with an intention.

It is a wait with a purpose that while waiting,

you put on a posture of prayer, ready for God

to move anytime. So we know that they were praying

in one accord, but yet as day one comes, day

two comes, day three comes, day four, day five comes,

it's easy to ask ourselves, can we really trust in

this God? When, Lord? How long more, Lord? So between

Jesus' ascension to the day of the fulfillment of the

prophecy of the grand entry of the Holy Spirit was

about 10 days, actually. It's reasonably short, but you think

about it. In a modern day today, how many of

you here, when your grab comes late, you already get

agitated like, Or when your Wi-Fi is lagging, we all suddenly,

our life comes cumbering down. Or when things are slow,

we get a bit impatient. Especially when we are in

the traffic. I was stuck in the traffic just now

because of all Sundays, the police decided to do a roadblock.

And I don't know. But you know what I meant, right?

Our lifestyles. It's moving in a way where we want

everything to be quick. We want everything to be fast.

Just look at your lifestyle when you interact with your

mobile phone. Last time, we had a patient to look

at a 10-minute YouTube video. And social media companies know this.

Then they created reels for you. 5-second video, 10-second. Then

you got TikTok. It gets more Bite-sized information. Why? You

want things to be fast. And if you're not careful,

we're taking that fast mindset and then we come to God.

We expect God to be like a microwave. Give 30 seconds, ding, done. Humbly,

I want to say that God cannot be rushed. Neither

is God a form of microwave. And often in that waiting,

God wants to build something in you. And that is

called character. And that is called patience. That is called

the ability to trust. That while you don't wait aimlessly,

you wait with a purpose, you will confess His promises,

you'll be faithful to His scripture, and that you will

remain faithful. So obedience is important in God's kingdom. God

will not answer because of our disobedience. Our very disobedience

will be the very door that shut ourselves from God.

I have to say this humbly. So at the time

of waiting, we really need to check our heart. Where

are we with the Lord? And if there's areas where

we need to confess and ask for His forgiveness, we should.

Scripture says that if we confess our sins to Him,

He is faithful and just to forgive us of all

our sins and cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness.

So in obedience, we should return to Him. The second

point I want to share with us is unity. In

Acts 1, verse 14, it says, So Jesus has left.

Acts 1:14

They all continued with one accord, with prayer and supplication.

Scriptures in the book of Corinthians actually shared that there

are close to 500 over people that witnesses the resurrected Jesus.

But the day of Pentecost, only 120 remain in the

upper room. They obeyed. They continued. And Scripture says that

they were all in one accord, where one accord to

me basically means everyone believe. You know, that is the

greatest unity, even in church. If we want to have

a breakthrough, even in our own family, first, let me

share that no family is perfect, all right? But let

me say that if we really want to have a breakthrough,

even in our own family, unity is very, very important.

Because Jesus says that it's important for us to be one.

Just like how the Father, the Son, and the Spirit

is one. So you want to see a breakthrough in

our family, unity is important. we want to see breakthrough

in our company, if you're a boss, or you want

to see a breakthrough in your department, if you're leading

a department, unity is very, very important. I'm in a

season where my family is going through some challenges as well.

I can't disclose a lot for now. But let's just

say that a medical report hasn't been looking too well.

And for the past one week to two weeks, I

struggled in that. I said, God, why? And then the

Lord lead me to just pray. And something beautiful happened

out of that, where the Lord... You see, me and

my family, we are all Christian. Just as we worship

in different churches, I'm in Acts. My mom is in

another church. My brother and his family is in another church.

And I felt very convicted that in a time of

challenge like this, the Lord told me, let's do communion

together as a family. And I felt very convicted because

we have been Christian for so long. But as a family,

we have never done communion before. It sometimes can be

very awkward also. You know what I'm saying. Sally, you've

never done communion before and now you do communion this

and that. I want to say that we have done

communion at least twice now and we have dedicated, I believe,

every Monday as a family gathering where we want to

do communion together as a symbol of unity in faith,

believing for a breakthrough. and a symbol of unity in

the spirit. It is so cute because I got nephew

and niece, and they are quite young. One is 12,

one is 8 years old. But of course, we have

to check their understanding of communion because you can't simply

take communion. They have to come to that understanding and

they want it for themselves and receive Christ as their

Lord and Saviour. I say cute because, you know, when

we do communion song, we always do the super changge song,

the very bombastic song. So we did a kids-friendly version.

We asked the kids, so what song, what song? Then

we landed on, Jesus love me, this I know, for

the Bible tells me so. So for two times, we

did that. And that will be our song of communion.

And I must share with you that it was very powerful.

It's very, very powerful. And I want to lead my

family to a place of unity. Acknowledging that it is

God who will unite us through this time. And it

is God that is going to deliver us out of

this valley. So if you want to see breakthrough in

our family, we got to put aside our ego. We

got to put on humility. Perhaps every breakthrough that the

Lord will grant you is when your family come together.

In humility, acknowledging His Lordship. Like what I said, there's

no perfect family. But we must, by faith, build that

family altar. Since last week, I've established a family altar

because I really want to invite God's presence into my family.

I really want to invite God's presence into our day-to-day.

Because I tell myself, what's the point of leading a

church and doing this for my own family? I'm not

doing that. Make no mistakes, friends, if you're a leader here, that...

you must not neglect ministry to your family as well.

Whenever the family is confronted with a giant, or whenever

a family is confronted with something, He has given us

the priestly anointing to lead our family. So God will

give you that grace, God will give you that boldness

to establish that. In Psalm 133, there is a very

famous prayer about unity. It says here, Behold, how good

and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together

in unity. How good, how pleasant it is for brethren

to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious

oil upon the head, running down on the beard of Aaron.

Aaron is basically the high priest, running down to the

edge of his garments, It is like the dew of

Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion. For there the

Lord commanded the blessing life forevermore. So in the context

of church, I want to say that when every level

in the church is united, from the pastoral team to

the leaders to your home leaders to everyone, When we

are united, there is a blessing that God will allow

to flow. And I want us to know that when

it comes to unity, it's not just, yeah, I'm united. Yeah,

I'm with you. I believe it goes deeper. It's about

whether are we on the same page when it comes

to our belief in God. Whether are we on the

same page when it comes to our belief in the

region that God has given to the house. I'll give

you an example. In this church, we are aligned to Scripture.

We believe that Jesus is the way, the truth and

the life. No one can come to the Father except

through Jesus. But I hope that no one seated here

says that Jesus is just one of the way. There

are many ways. Then we are not united. This church,

we make no apologies to the gift of the Holy Spirit,

demonstrating the gift of the Spirit and allowing room for

the Holy Spirit to move. This church is not constrained

by structures and rigidity of agenda. When the Holy Spirit moves,

we will allow Him to move even if we need

to break that structure or the agenda. I hope that

no one sits here and says that, But we need

to follow timing. There is a place for timing. There

is also a place for the Spirit of God to move.

This church, we take our tithe and offering seriously. I

hope that no one sits here and suddenly says that, oh,

actually no need to give tithe. Tithe is the Old Testament.

When it comes to New Testament, no tithe. Be very,

very careful in this. Because you may come to church

thinking that we are united in numbers, but unity goes

beyond that. It goes right into the spiritual realm. So

we want to see blessing flow from the very top

to the very level of our church. We got to

all come back to the same page. Because for these disciples,

It's the same. They were all in one accord. They

need to believe on the same page that the Holy

Spirit will come, that Jesus will say what He says

He will do. So unity is important. And I've seen

it in the life of many people here and across church.

Whenever one leader had a breakthrough in their career, it

just trickled down. Whenever a leader breaks through in evangelism,

it just trickles down. Whenever a leader breaks through in

a family relationship, it just gets trickled down. Why? Because

you're showing to people that because you apply your faith

in God, God made it possible for you, you become

a good example for other people to follow. So breakthrough

will flow. Likewise, when you guys were campus students, breakthrough,

in your academics, breakthrough, in your first job offer because

you honoured God and your subsequent generation gets blessed. Why?

Because there is unity. There is that alignment. And when

there's unity and alignment, God will command a blessing. So

that's the second point. The last point for today is prayer-centred.

Scripture says that they were in one accord in prayer

and supplication. They didn't gather and gossip, you know, friends.

They didn't gather and say, hey, this Jesus can be

trusted or not. He say he will send, but today

is day five. There's nothing. Hey, Peter, what do you think?

And Peter say, I don't know. The last time he

was in the tomb, I was found to be fishing.

Then go and ask John. John, you are Jesus' beloved disciple.

What do you think? Can we... You know, can we wait?

Should we go? What should we do? I don't know lah. Please. Please.

At a time of waiting, be very sensitive in who

you give your ears to. Nothing kills faith than gossip.

Because gossip, number one, will undermine leadership in the church

that God has established. Number two, It undermines the credibility

of God. And we let doubt in. So instead of gossip,

instead of just talking things that are causing doubt, they

anchor themselves in prayer, in supplication. So the difference between

prayer and supplication is this. Prayer is drawing near to

God and speaking to God. It speaks about relationships. Anyone

can speak to God. You don't need to be a

high priest. You don't need to go up to a

mountain up high somewhere. You don't need to travel to

another country and say that God is there. It can

be your own room. It can be where you are

right now. You can be in your car driving. You

can talk to God. Okay? He wants to speak to

you He can speak to you, my friend. All you

need to do is to open your heart and seek Him.

Scripture says that I love those who love me. And

those who diligently seek me will find me. So where

is the answer? The answer is found in our diligence

in seeking God, in our perseverance in not giving up.

God can be found to those who earnestly seek Him.

He can. You may not have a Bible degree. You

may not have this. You may have not that. It

doesn't matter. When you have faith in God, He can

speak to you. Supplication is about making your requests known

to God, which is asking earnestly because you have a

need or a lack. So it's okay to ask God

if you have a need. It's okay to bring your pain,

to bring your frustration, to bring your disappointment to God.

It's okay. I always tell people that if you want

to learn about prayer, the book of Psalm is a

fantastic book to learn about prayer. Because in the book

of Psalm, not only it is poetic to me, it

is also one of the most emotional books. You see

how David poured out his heart before God. You see

how the Psalmist says about injustice, about just different things. And,

you know, God already knows what we are feeling. And

it's okay to come before Him, to let Him know

what we need or what we want. So the last

point is prayer-centred. As the clock has already struck, I

guess it's time to end, but I'll end with a

testimony about my encounter with the Holy Spirit. Remember, Acts

Acts 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 is about the entry of the Holy Spirit

into the disciples' life. So when I was growing up

as a Christian, I gave my heart to Jesus when

I was 20 years old. I became a Christian. And

every time when I come to church, I realize that

how come people can pray in tongues and I can't?

And from there, I begin to yearn to understand more.

What is tongues? Who is the Holy Spirit? What are

the gifts of the Holy Spirit? It's important to bring

ourselves to a place of wanting to understand first, before

we ask. So we say that we want an encounter

with God. We want to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

We also got to ask ourselves, what does it mean?

Why do we want it? So I began to desire,

I went to new Bible study classes. And I began

to desire, and I know that praying in tongues is

just one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which

is one out of the nine. And every time you pray,

you pray directly to God, your spirit is praying, and

you edify yourself while you pray. I remember God giving

me two dreams. In a dream, I was in a gathering,

and suddenly I can pray in tongues. It was so amazing.

But when I woke up, it wasn't that amazing because

I couldn't. A few weeks later, another dream. This went

on for close to two to three months. Just desiring

that God, would you fill me again? Would you give

me this gift? And really, it's not out of selfish ambition.

It's out of that desire in wanting to have a

deeper encounter with God the desire of just enriching my

time with Him as well. I remember on a Sunday,

Pastor Kenneth was preaching a word. Back then, our church

was in SS15 Subang Jaya at the third floor. And

he made an altar call. He says that, I can't

remember what he says, please don't tell him that because

it was 20 years ago. But I responded to the

altar call, asking God, to deliver me from a very

bad habit that compromises my purity. And I went out.

I want to pray, be prayed for. And church leaders all,

they came, they began to lay hands on me. El King,

I was there, I remember. And they all started to

pray in tongues. They started to pray for me. And

remember the word suddenly? I had my suddenly moment. Suddenly,

my mouth began to give an utterance that I can't

even understand. And it just starting to just utter words, words, words.

I couldn't stop. The next time I found it, myself

lying on the floor with both my hands up, just

praising God and allowing the Holy Spirit to just take

over and to be infused. So much so that after

they declared the benediction, I was still found there with

my hands up. And Joe Lloyd, now he is with Ex-Ampang,

he came up to me and he says that, hey bro,

are you okay at all? And I told him that, yeah,

I'm okay. It's a new experience. And ever since then,

when I reflect back, the Lord told me that the

reason why He wanted to fill me again and give

me the ability, the gift of praying in tongues. It's that.

He knew that in our life, there will be times

when we will be very weak. Where we can't even pray.

And having a prayer language, which is the language of

the Holy Spirit, helps in that. And I want to

let you know that it's available to all who would desire.

Because it does bring that dimension in your faith. Some people,

they will pray for six months, then they'll come. But

I always believe that there is always that suddenly moment

where the Holy Spirit will enter into your life. Why?

Because number one, you chose obedience. Number two, you chose

to be united. Number three, you are prayer-centred. Remember, while

you wait, as you practice this three important truths, your

suddenly will come. I don't know how it will look

like for you in this season of your life. But

one thing I know as X-Ring comes forward, I always

hold on to this promise in Jeremiah 33 verse 3.

Jeremiah 33:3

The scripture says that, call to me and I will

answer you. And I will show you great and mighty

things that you do not know of. I love this

scripture because, number one, we can call on to God.

Number two, He will answer. Number three, not only He

will answer, He will show you great and mighty things

that you do not know of. That is our God.

Whenever He suddenly appears, whenever He suddenly enters into our life,

it will always be spectacular. Because at the end of

the day, who gets the glory? God gets the glory.

When He has come through for you, sister, when He

has come through for you, brother, God will always get

the glory. So that when people look at your life,

they knew about your need. They knew about the impossible

circumstance you are in. And they saw you overcoming that.

They will then know that you worship the true and

the living God.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

information on our church, please visit xchurch.org. We are also

active on Facebook and Instagram. We're believing that this week

is going to be a good week ahead for you.

God bless.