Latest / REZ CHURCH Podcast / Why Am I Still Empty - April 19, 2026
Transcript
- 0:00I'm Daniel, I'm one of the I'm the lead pastor here at Res
- 0:02Church. Welcome.
- 0:03If you're new. OK, I've had, I've had the
- 0:08blessing of having some, some newborns and maybe you've had
- 0:12kids or you're an aunt or an uncle or a cousin and you've
- 0:15gotten to spend some time around infants and newborns as well.
- 0:19And one of the things that's kind of unique if you're a dad
- 0:22is it when that baby is really small, the mom almost
- 0:26immediately bonds with the baby, The, the, the scent and the
- 0:29smell and the feeding and everything.
- 0:31There's a chemical reaction. And so the, the bonding is
- 0:34really quick. But if you're the dad, you're,
- 0:36you might as well be a lamp. You're just like, and, and so,
- 0:42and you know, I mean, we all know that babies are cute only
- 0:44because we're biologically wired to believe that babies are cute
- 0:47because actually they're, they're kind of little tyrants.
- 0:51They scream, they demand, they never say thank you.
- 0:55And so for those first few months, if you're a dad, it's,
- 0:57it's a little bit more difficult to connect.
- 0:59And there's a moment with every single one of my kids.
- 1:02And you might be able to relate to this.
- 1:04Well, the light bulb comes on. And what I mean by that is I,
- 1:07you know, I pick Avery up and it's some period of months into
- 1:10her life. I pick her up and she recognizes
- 1:14me Bing And, and in that moment, the, the, the connection with my
- 1:23daughter becomes 2 two ways instead of just one way because
- 1:28she actually recognizes that I'm not a lamp.
- 1:32I'm, I'm, I'm dad and so, so up until then, you know, everything
- 1:37that that baby's processing is just kind of a blur of hunger
- 1:39and noise. And, but then in that moment, a
- 1:42real connection starts. It's the moment that the
- 1:45connection becomes mutual. It's the moment that it becomes
- 1:48personal. And, and that's when everything
- 1:51changes. And, and so we're going to
- 1:53continue our series today. We're going to be in Acts
- 1:55chapter 2. That's exactly what happens at
- 1:58the end of Acts one beginning of chapter 2.
- 2:01The connection becomes real. You see, God had always been
- 2:04there. He's always been present.
- 2:07He's always been loving. He's always been leaning over
- 2:10the crib since Genesis. But there's a moment in history,
- 2:16a very specific, loud, fire filled moment where the Holy
- 2:22Spirit arrives and all of a sudden the relationship isn't
- 2:26just real, it's personal. It becomes intimate, it becomes
- 2:30individual. And that's what we're talking
- 2:33about today. Our big idea, if you get nothing
- 2:35else out of today, is this. God wants in.
- 2:39God wants in. Last week in this series that
- 2:42we're calling day one, we talked about Jesus disciples being told
- 2:47that they needed to wait for the arrival of the Holy Spirit.
- 2:50And they're not given a lot of details about the mission of the
- 2:53church and how it's supposed to work and when it's supposed to
- 2:55happen and how are we going to spread this gospel.
- 2:57And everything seems a little bit crazy because they're given
- 2:59so little information. And we talked about why that was
- 3:03because we love to have all of the details to feel like we're
- 3:06in control of the outcome. And so we're going to pick this
- 3:09story back up in Acts one. We I think we left off in verse
- 3:1311 or 12, they walk back off this mountain.
- 3:17It was a mount called all of it. It's about 1/2 day journey.
- 3:20And so they've walked back and they're now in an upper room
- 3:22with a bunch of the other disciples.
- 3:24And so in the middle of axes, they're going to name off a
- 3:26number of the disciples that are in the room.
- 3:28But then we find out later there's 120 of them waiting in
- 3:32this upper room. And Peter decides while they're
- 3:35up there and they're waiting, you know, we now only have 11
- 3:39apostles because Judas has taken his life and we need a 12th
- 3:43disciple. And so they, they, they have
- 3:45some criteria for that. It needs to be someone who's
- 3:47been with Jesus since the beginning and has seen the
- 3:49resurrected Jesus. And they whittle it down to two
- 3:51candidates. And then they got to decide
- 3:53between the two. We're going to pick this up in
- 3:54verse 23. And they put forward 2/2 of the
- 4:00disciples. Joseph called Barsabbas, he's
- 4:03also called Justice. And Matthias, so they have
- 4:06justice in Matthias. And they prayed and said, You,
- 4:08Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two
- 4:12you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and
- 4:16apostleship, from which Judas turned aside to go his own
- 4:19place. And they cast lots for them.
- 4:22And the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the 11
- 4:26apostles. Casting lots was an ancient
- 4:30practice. You can read about it all the
- 4:32way back in Proverbs 16. It's basically a version of
- 4:36rolling the dice if they did it with stones, but you're just
- 4:39rolling dice. And so the, the methods actually
- 4:42used a bunch in the Old Testament whenever people
- 4:45couldn't get access to God. So we've talked a couple weeks
- 4:48ago about how access to God in, in that time was difficult.
- 4:51And so if you couldn't get to the temple or you couldn't get
- 4:54to the Tabernacle, or you couldn't get to a priest to get
- 4:56access to God, then what you do is you'd, you'd use this method
- 5:01of casting lots. It was the equivalent, the
- 5:05theological equivalent of I'll flip a coin and let God decide
- 5:10or guide that coin. And it wasn't meant to be
- 5:12superstitious at all. It was a, it was an honest
- 5:14acknowledgement that we don't have the internal capacity to
- 5:19discern this for ourselves. And that sounds kind of crazy
- 5:23now, and I'll explain why it's crazy now.
- 5:24But, but in the Old Testament, for a lot of major decisions, we
- 5:27see them cast lots when they're dividing up the land in Joshua
- 5:3014, when they go to the promised land, when they're selecting the
- 5:34scapegoat in Leviticus 16, when they're exposing the sin of
- 5:37Aachen in Joshua 7, when they're identifying Saul as king in
- 5:41First Samuel 10. All of these decisions they cast
- 5:44lots for. It wasn't gambling.
- 5:47It was a method of deferring to God when direct divine
- 5:52communication wasn't available. Now, here's why this is kind of
- 5:56notable here in Acts 1. When we see them do this, it is
- 6:00the very last time in the Bible they will cast lots.
- 6:07Never again. And it's not a coincidence that
- 6:11the author of this book, Luke, he's very deliberate in in
- 6:15listing out how they did this on purpose because he's about to
- 6:19contrast it in the next couple verses.
- 6:21So he knows what he's doing. You see, after Acts 2, which
- 6:25which we'll read about in just a moment, the early church will
- 6:28never cast lots for anything. They won't cast lots to select
- 6:31elders or for mission decisions. In fact, when they send elders
- 6:37or I'm sorry, when the church in Antioch sends missionaries in
- 6:40Acts 13, the Holy Spirit speaks directly to them.
- 6:44It says, set apart Barnabas and Saul.
- 6:46When Paul doesn't know where to go in Acts 16, he gets a vision.
- 6:51The dice are gone because what the dice pointed toward is now
- 6:56living inside the believer. So you don't need an external
- 7:01source anymore. And it's exactly what Jesus had
- 7:06already promised. If we go back to his message in
- 7:10John 1613, He says, But when he the Spirit of truth comes, He
- 7:18will guide you into all truth. Even later.
- 7:22James, who's the half brother of Jesus, writes a letter to the
- 7:25church and he actually says this.
- 7:27If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, ask, not roll, ask.
- 7:37So church, listen, this is important if you're, if you're
- 7:40trying to follow Jesus to try to live this Christian life, I want
- 7:43you to hear this. You don't need a Ouija board,
- 7:47you don't need divination, you don't need to roll dice.
- 7:49You have the spirit of the living God, who knows the mind
- 7:53of the Father living inside of you in the moment here, after
- 7:58this, this casting of lots in Acts One, it'll end the moment
- 8:02that you ever have to guess again.
- 8:08You don't have to guess. If you've ever been paralysed by
- 8:14a decision, kind of stuck, not knowing the will of God, You're
- 8:20not supposed to flip coins or read signs or wait for a feeling
- 8:23that never comes. You have the Spirit of God, you
- 8:27have the word of God that you have prayer to the Father.
- 8:30You have wise counsel from others, Spirit led and filled
- 8:34people. And that is the complete
- 8:38decision making tool kit of the new covenant.
- 8:43So they're in this upper room and other than rolling or
- 8:47casting lots to select a disciple, what is it that they
- 8:49were doing? Well, back up in the chapter
- 8:51just slightly to verse 14, the the text is going to list a
- 8:56bunch of names of people, tells us there's 120.
- 8:59But look at what they were doing in verse 14.
- 9:00It says this, all of these, all of these 120 people with 1
- 9:06accord were devoting themselves to prayer together with the
- 9:12women and Mary, the mother of Jesus and his brothers.
- 9:15So this is now 10 days in this room.
- 9:17They've been sitting in the upper room together waiting,
- 9:21praying for what Jesus had promised.
- 9:23Jesus ascends. We read about that last week.
- 9:27And now for 10 days they've been in this room.
- 9:31So it's 50 days total since the resurrection.
- 9:34And they weren't told how long they'd have to wait in the upper
- 9:37room. They're given no time frame
- 9:40about how long it would take. So what are they doing up in
- 9:43that room? Well, number one, they were
- 9:46persistent. They were persistent.
- 9:49It says they all join together constantly in prayer.
- 9:53There's a Greek word there. It's procarturu Ness.
- 9:57Procarturu Ness is a big long word.
- 9:59Here's what it means. It means to attend to
- 10:01constantly. It means to not quit.
- 10:06It means to endure. That's the way their prayer is
- 10:08being described in Greek. This wasn't a one time prayer
- 10:13meeting. This was 10 days of non-stop
- 10:16prayer in the upper room. No breaks.
- 10:20They weren't killing time. They were positioning
- 10:22themselves. There was a revival a couple
- 10:27years ago back on a college campus on the East Coast.
- 10:30And it started as a as a Sunday evening evening Bible study.
- 10:34And the next thing you know, it just became constant prayer day
- 10:39after day after day. And it actually made national
- 10:42news. People were flying in to see
- 10:44this, but what was actually happening was people enduring in
- 10:48prayer. Secondly, they weren't just
- 10:53persistent, they were unified. It says they all joined
- 10:55together. And the actual phrase, the word
- 10:57that's used here for join together or of 1 accord is used
- 11:01a bunch in the book of Acts. Intentionally.
- 11:03It is the word homothumadon. Homothumadon.
- 11:07It appears 10 times in the book of Acts.
- 11:09It means of 1 accord, of one mind, of One Direction.
- 11:13There were no factions in the room.
- 11:14There were no theological debates about whether the spirit
- 11:17would or wouldn't come. No one was lobbying for a
- 11:19preferred agenda. We have to do it my way.
- 11:22They were of 1 accord, a unity that was itself important for
- 11:29what was about to happen. See, I personally believe that
- 11:33the way that you get to that unity is you actually have to
- 11:35start praying together to get there.
- 11:38I don't think you get to this unity that we see in the book of
- 11:41Acts if you're not praying together.
- 11:43I think 1 leads to the next. And if you want this kind of
- 11:46Unity Church, come pray together.
- 11:48Come pray together over and over and over again because prayer
- 11:53together builds unity together. So they're praying together.
- 11:58It builds unity together. And 3rd, they were dependent.
- 12:02Jesus said that they would not be able to do this without the
- 12:05Spirit. You need to wait to go do this.
- 12:07They knew they couldn't manufacture what was coming,
- 12:10they couldn't strategize it, they couldn't fund it, they
- 12:12couldn't network their way to it.
- 12:14So 120 people with 0 ability to do what Jesus had called them to
- 12:19do without the Holy Spirit get up and up a room and their
- 12:22prayer wasn't, Lord bless what we're about to build.
- 12:26Their prayer was we can't move without you.
- 12:29A theologian, John Stott, observes that the waiting period
- 12:35of those 10 days was not passive.
- 12:38He says it this way. They were not idle during those
- 12:4010 days. They were busy in prayer.
- 12:45Church, we need to be busy in prayer, not not too busy to
- 12:51pray, busy in prayer. He notes that the early church's
- 12:57posture of corporate, persistent, unified prayer is
- 13:01itself a model. It's not just for revival, but
- 13:04for an ordinary Christian life. Hear me, Church, for the
- 13:10ordinary Christian life, we should be busy in prayer.
- 13:15DA Carson commenting on this Greek word homo thermidon is in
- 13:19the theme that in Acts he actually says this.
- 13:21He says that every time this word is used in the book of
- 13:25Acts, it's not coincidental that every time it is used it it
- 13:29precedes some significant divine moment comes right after it.
- 13:33So every time the church prays gets in one accord, he uses this
- 13:37word because the next thing after the church gets in one
- 13:40accord is something phenomenal from the Spirit.
- 13:44Unity is not the result of God's blessing.
- 13:46It is repeatedly shown as the condition to get God's blessing.
- 13:52When you walk in those glass doors on a Sunday morning, there
- 13:55are three ES. We call them three ES.
- 13:57It's a vinyl that's on the door. When you walk by it, it says
- 14:00expect, engage, and encourage. It says expect God to move.
- 14:08Engage with the worship and with the Word of God and encourage
- 14:12and be encouraged. And we ask you to do that
- 14:16anytime you walk in here. And it maps directly to the
- 14:19posture of the 120 in the upper room.
- 14:22They're expecting God to move. They are engaging in prayer.
- 14:26They're in one accord. And what we try to model every
- 14:30Sunday when you come in here is the exact same thing they're
- 14:32modeling in that upper room. And when they do that, then it
- 14:39gets spicy. Look at Acts 2, verse one.
- 14:44When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together
- 14:48in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a
- 14:51mighty rushing of wind, and in it filled the entire house where
- 14:58they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire
- 15:02appeared to them and rested on each one of them, and they were
- 15:07filled with the Holy Spirit and begin to speak in other tongues
- 15:10as the Spirit gave them utterance.
- 15:13So we're 50 days from the resurrection.
- 15:15We're also 50 days from the Passover.
- 15:18They are celebrating a festival called the Feast of Weeks in
- 15:22Jerusalem right now. And Israel celebrating what was
- 15:26really an anniversary of the giving of the Mosaic Law back on
- 15:30Mount Sinai when Moses comes down with the law, the 10
- 15:33commandments. And here's here's God's word.
- 15:35And so they celebrate that fifty days after the Passover.
- 15:38And so thousands of people have gathered in Jerusalem what
- 15:44happens on the anniversary of the giving of the Law?
- 15:47God gives them the Spirit, which means that the Law now gets
- 15:50written on their hearts. This has been prophesied both in
- 15:58Jeremiah 31 and in Ezekiel 36 had pointed to a moment when God
- 16:03would no longer use external laws, but rather internal heart
- 16:07change. The feast of weeks which fell on
- 16:13this day had come to be associated with the giving of
- 16:15the Law on Mount Sinai. So it was fitting that the New
- 16:18Covenant should be inaugurated on this day.
- 16:21The Law written on the heart, replacing the Law written on
- 16:24tablets of stone. That didn't replace the Law at
- 16:29Pentecost. He relocated it.
- 16:32He moved it from a stone tablet that you have to look at to a
- 16:35heart you can't ignore. Why?
- 16:40Because God wants in. It says they heard a sound like
- 16:47the blowing of a violent wind. Not an actual wind, just the
- 16:50sound of it. That's that's a repeated pattern
- 16:54that we see in the Old Testament, the breath of life,
- 16:56like in the Garden of Eden when God breathes life into Adam, or
- 17:00in the valley of dry bones where Ezekiel hears the dead bones
- 17:04come alive through the divine breath of God.
- 17:06It's a creation moment as the spirit descends on the
- 17:09believers. But you know what they didn't
- 17:12see? They didn't see wind.
- 17:14They saw fire. You know, throughout the Old
- 17:18Testament when God made his presence visible to people, it
- 17:22was always fire. Think about the burning Bush
- 17:28that burned so brightly Moses couldn't even look at it
- 17:31directly. Or the the pillar of fire
- 17:33leading Israel through the wilderness, visible to everyone.
- 17:371 manifestation for the whole nation.
- 17:39Or Exodus 19 fire consuming Mount Sinai when the law was
- 17:44given. This is the anniversary of that
- 17:48one big fire or big cloud, one pillar, always 1 manifestation
- 17:52for the for the community. And then in Acts two, verse 3,
- 17:58it's not one big fire anymore. They saw what seemed to be
- 18:01tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of
- 18:04them. So that fire doesn't come down
- 18:08as a cloud or a pillar. It comes down to begins to
- 18:11divide 120 times. It becomes individual.
- 18:18In the Old Testament, there's a story of something called the
- 18:20Shekinah glory that once filled the Tabernacle.
- 18:24So overwhelming was this presence, this fire from God,
- 18:27that the priest couldn't even go into the Tabernacle.
- 18:30And now that same presence, that visible presence of God, is
- 18:35splitting itself and dividing itself to each of the individual
- 18:38believers sitting in the upper room. 120 individual flames.
- 18:44This is the theological revolution in Acts 2.
- 18:48God doesn't live in a building anymore, He lives in his people.
- 18:54The Temple of the Holy Spirit is not in Jerusalem.
- 18:56It's in every believer in this room and every believer after
- 19:01that. Martyn Lloyd Jones says that the
- 19:04transition from the temple to the body is not incidental, it
- 19:08is the entire point. God always wanted to dwell with
- 19:11his people. The difference is now he dwells
- 19:14in his people. The Shekinah glory that filled
- 19:18the temple, the same fire Moses couldn't look at the same glory
- 19:21the priest couldn't stand in, divided itself into 120
- 19:24individual flames landed on 120 ordinary people.
- 19:29God didn't get smaller, he got more specific.
- 19:32He got personal. God wants in verse 4.
- 19:39And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak
- 19:42in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
- 19:46Now there's a festival going on. Now there were dwelling in
- 19:49Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.
- 19:54And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were
- 19:57bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own
- 20:01language. And they were amazed and
- 20:03astonished, saying, are not all of these who are speaking
- 20:05Galileans? How is it that we hear, each of
- 20:10us, in his own native language? If you keep reading, what you're
- 20:16going to see is a list of how many different regions and lands
- 20:19and languages were all represented, and somehow every
- 20:23one of them could hear the disciples in their own language.
- 20:30So we're going to, we're going to take a quick sidebar from our
- 20:32story because I want to make a theological point.
- 20:35There's a doctrine that is introduced here that's it's a
- 20:39bit controversial because it involves speaking in tongues.
- 20:46That's what we're reading here, speaking in tongues, and I don't
- 20:48want to skip past it without addressing it.
- 20:49So here's what you need to know. The Bible actually addresses two
- 20:53different types of manifestation of speaking in tongues, and
- 20:57they're actually separate things, distinct gifts.
- 21:02The first one is what we're reading here in Acts chapter 2.
- 21:04It is speaking known human languages, real people hearing
- 21:10their real native languages spoken fluently by Galileans who
- 21:14had never learned of those languages.
- 21:16And the purpose is very clear. The Gospel is crossing every
- 21:20linguistic or language barrier all at the same time.
- 21:23That's what's happening in the text.
- 21:26Now there's a second type of speaking in tongues that we read
- 21:29about in First Corinthians 14 when the apostle Paul addresses
- 21:34it with a church and he writes this, anyone who speaks in a
- 21:37tongue does not speak to people, but to God.
- 21:42Paul calls it a personal private, and he and, and it is
- 21:46edifying to the speaker. And he doesn't forbid this type
- 21:51of speaking in tongues. He actually says, I, I would
- 21:53like every one of you to speak in tongues.
- 21:55But he does regulate it in a corporate setting without an
- 22:01interpreter. He would say that needs to
- 22:03remain private because it's between you and God.
- 22:07Gordon Fee, one of the foremost New Testament scholars on the
- 22:10Holy Spirit, says it this way as a gift of private prayer and
- 22:15utterance. Paul speaks of tongues quite
- 22:18favorably, obviously a topic that for Paul is very personal
- 22:23and private. The breakdown, the controversy
- 22:27for him has occurred when what is personal and private comes
- 22:32into the public assembly since it has no facility for
- 22:36strengthening others. If you're, if you're pretty new
- 22:41to Christianity and and you're like, why are we taking time on
- 22:44this? People have lost their minds
- 22:46over this. OK, there is some some real
- 22:50debate on both sides of this issue and let me tell you where
- 22:53our church stands on this. We believe that we would call
- 22:56this an open handed issue. There are Christians who
- 23:00genuinely love Jesus and believe that certain gifts ceased after
- 23:06the age of the apostles. We call that theological term
- 23:11cessationism. There are also Christians who
- 23:15believe that none of those gifts ceased and are still active
- 23:18today. We would call that
- 23:19continuationism. Both can worship here.
- 23:25Neither breaks the gospel of Jesus Christ.
- 23:30Now we're open handed regardless of what you believe.
- 23:33We would say there is a biblical way to honor God regardless of
- 23:38how you believe. But here's what we are not open
- 23:40handed on. The Holy Spirit is real, present
- 23:43and active. However He chooses to show up.
- 23:49We want to be a people who are positioned to receive Him in a
- 23:53biblical manner. In my opinion, one of the most
- 23:59interesting things that happens in Acts chapter 2 is everything
- 24:04seems very new, But the reality is I think it's actually the end
- 24:08of a beautiful story that started all the way back in
- 24:11Genesis. And I want you to, I want to
- 24:13show you something that happened in Genesis.
- 24:16And if you're unfamiliar with the Bible, if you're new, I'll
- 24:18do my best to kind of summarize what happens.
- 24:21But there's a, there's a crazy weird story in Genesis Chapter
- 24:2411 where people decide they're going to build a building to
- 24:28God. They can actually build a tower
- 24:30tall enough to get to God. In Genesis 11, chapter 1, it
- 24:34says this. Now the whole earth had one
- 24:37language and the same words, and they're all together in one
- 24:41place. Verse 4 Then they said, Come,
- 24:43let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the
- 24:46heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be
- 24:49dispersed over the face of the whole earth.
- 24:51And so they're building the tower to God, and God
- 24:58intervenes. Verse 9.
- 25:02Therefore it's name was called Babel because the Lord confused
- 25:05the language on all the earth. If you've read the story, he
- 25:07comes in, he everyone suddenly speaking different languages and
- 25:11he scatters them. And from there the Lord
- 25:12dispersed them over the face of the earth.
- 25:14So in arrogance, humanity decided we would build to God
- 25:22yet another moment where we decided we could be God or like
- 25:25God. And God responds to the pride
- 25:28and the rebellion by striking people with confusion.
- 25:33And the result is division, tribalism, the origin of every
- 25:39language barrier, cultural conflict, and national war in
- 25:41human history. Here's here's why I'm bringing
- 25:47that up. The exact opposite happens in
- 25:52Acts 2. It's the end of that story.
- 25:54You see, in Acts 2, instead of man building to God, God comes
- 25:59to man. We go in reverse.
- 26:02Instead of one group of people being scattered into many, we
- 26:06actually get all of these different languages and all
- 26:09these different nationalities gathered into one.
- 26:11So instead of being scattered, God is gathering, and instead of
- 26:14withdrawing his presence, he's pouring it out.
- 26:17Instead of the building stopping like it did in Babel, the
- 26:20building of the church has just begun and has continued to this
- 26:22day. In Acts 29 through 11, Luke
- 26:31lists 15 different regions. Scholars like NT Wright and
- 26:35Daryl Bach note that this list roughly maps into all of the
- 26:39known inhabited world. It's a symbolic inventory, The
- 26:45scattered nations of Babel now all being called together into
- 26:50one place, hearing one message in their own languages.
- 26:54Just think about the direction. Babel is humanity ascending
- 26:59toward God. Pentecost is God descending
- 27:03toward us. This is not just a reversal of
- 27:08the language miracle. It's a reversal of the entire
- 27:10theological posture of humanity before God.
- 27:13Babel says we will reach up and grab you.
- 27:17Pentecost says I have come down to get you.
- 27:24This is the gospel compressed into architecture and it answers
- 27:27the deepest human question. Can I get to God with a better
- 27:31one? What if he already came to get
- 27:33you? That's what Christ's blood on
- 27:39the cross has accomplished. Jesus made a way for you and I.
- 27:47Now there's another point here because he he very purposefully
- 27:49mentions that the crowd says these are Galileans.
- 27:51And so we could talk about how Galileans were very uneducated
- 27:54men suddenly doing amazing things for God in the Spirit.
- 27:57But I can't see how that would be applicable for a church in
- 28:00Oildale. So we'll move on.
- 28:06What do we do with this story? It's beautiful, it's amazing,
- 28:10it's crazy. But now what?
- 28:14Kent Hughes says this in his commentary about the book of
- 28:17Acts. He says a grandson asked his
- 28:19grandfather, Grandpa, what is the wind?
- 28:23The old fisherman replied, I cannot explain the wind to you,
- 28:26but I can teach you how to raise the sails.
- 28:30So you can't manufacture the Holy Spirit, you can't produce
- 28:33Pentecost, you can't engineer a revival, but you can position
- 28:37yourself to receive what Jesus is ready to give.
- 28:42The 120 disciples that are in the upper room raised 3 sales.
- 28:47These are the same 3 sales available to you.
- 28:49And I, number one, raise the sale of persistent prayer.
- 28:58That doesn't say that the 120 prayed once and then waited.
- 29:01They prayed constantly for 10 days.
- 29:04Persistent prayer is not trying to change God's mind.
- 29:07It's the act of making yourself available.
- 29:09It is posturing ourselves toward God and staying there.
- 29:14There are people in my life that I have been praying for for
- 29:16years, and it doesn't seem like there's been any progress.
- 29:20But nothing that I do as a pastor is more important than my
- 29:23prayer life. Nothing.
- 29:29And there are weeks that I am so terrible at being consistent in
- 29:32prayer that it is embarrassing. In fact, I often times think
- 29:39that God drives and allows suffering in my life so that He
- 29:42will drive up the desperation and urgency for His presence.
- 29:48And my question for you, is there someone, something in your
- 29:50life that you prayed about once, twice, three times and you gave
- 29:53up on? Can you imagine if the disciples
- 29:57had quit on day 7? The second sale they raised is
- 30:03the sale of unity. The Spirit came when they were
- 30:08in one accord, homothymidon in one accord.
- 30:13Division in the body is not just a relational problem between
- 30:16people, it is a spiritual blockage.
- 30:20The opposite of Pentecost is a church that is scattered.
- 30:23While in the same room every week in your life and in your
- 30:28church, you will have opportunities for disunity.
- 30:32They will be available to you. You'll have opportunities to be
- 30:35offended. They are available to you.
- 30:37You have opportunities to find things wrong with this church.
- 30:40That's not that hard. In fact, every person who's ever
- 30:47been part of a church has experienced church hurt.
- 30:52I'm not minimizing church abuse. That's different.
- 30:55What I'm saying is that to be around other messy humans is at
- 30:58some point to be hurt. Amen.
- 31:03In fact, I've never been hurt as deeply as I have by people in
- 31:07the church, this church. But we have a choice to be
- 31:13offended, to be wounded and stay there, or to prayerfully choose
- 31:18unity, to love inside the conflict, to forgive freely, to
- 31:26think the best of others. In fact, we're we're in our
- 31:30leadership development. We teach once a month.
- 31:33This thing called Supercharged over in the Chapel.
- 31:35It's tonight at 5:00 PM. You're all welcome.
- 31:37We are going to teach on thinking the best of others.
- 31:44I have days as a pastor where it feels like I can't stop crying.
- 31:50And yet in the midst of that, God has done his most beautiful
- 31:54work in my life and through this church.
- 31:57And I'm trying to tell you that it's worth it.
- 31:59It's worth it. Is there a relationship in your
- 32:03life, in your small group, in your family, in your marriage
- 32:07where you're carrying division that needs to be resolved?
- 32:13Because we see a pattern where the, the, the Spirit empowers A
- 32:18unified body. 3rd sail, raise the sail of expectancy.
- 32:25They weren't in the upper room hoping for the best and crossing
- 32:28their fingers. They were waiting for Jesus
- 32:30because he said to wait. Expectancy is faith with an
- 32:33address. It's believing that God is going
- 32:36to do something specific. You know, every time we preach a
- 32:42message in this church, I actually expect that they're
- 32:44going to be people that are giving their life to Christ.
- 32:46Every single time, every single time we preach, every single
- 32:50time Pastor Dave or Richard or anyone comes up and preaches a
- 32:53message and gives an invitation, I'm looking around because I
- 32:55expect God to save people. And you can say, hey, that's
- 32:59naive or that's unrealistic, but I'm on my toes waiting for God
- 33:02to move because I'd rather be a fool than miss it.
- 33:07Call me a fool, but don't let me miss a move of God and then
- 33:12wonder why my faith is boring. We say we believe in a real act
- 33:24of God, but are you expecting him to move?
- 33:29When you walk into this church on a Sunday morning, when you
- 33:31sit down to pray during the week, do you genuinely believe
- 33:34that the Spirit of God is present and active?
- 33:37Or have you gotten so practical, so managed, so efficient that
- 33:41the Holy Spirit is an afterthought?
- 33:47We can't make the wind blow, but we can raise the sails.
- 33:52We can be persistent. We can fight for unity.
- 33:55We can be expectant. And when we do that, when a when
- 33:59120 people came together and the wind comes, everything changes
- 34:06because God wants in For some of you here today or or maybe
- 34:12watching online, maybe you've never surrendered your life to
- 34:16Christ. And so you, you hear me that God
- 34:18wants in that, that he desires to save you.
- 34:20And you're not even sure what that means.
- 34:23Let me explain. Jesus died on a cross to pay the
- 34:29penalty for your sin. Three days later he walked out
- 34:36of that tomb alive, and He is offering you salvation,
- 34:42forgiveness, and eternal life. The Bible says that to be saved
- 34:53you must believe in your heart that God raised Him from the
- 34:56dead, and you must confess with your mouth that He is your Lord.
- 35:01So I want to offer you a chance to do that today, to let Him in.
- 35:08If you'd like to surrender your life to Christ and follow him as
- 35:11King, I'm going to lead you in a prayer.
- 35:14Will you all bow with me for just a moment?
- 35:17close your eyes. If you want to declare today
- 35:23with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, just pray this after me.
- 35:29Jesus, I know I'm a Sinner who can't save myself.
- 35:39I want you to save me and adopt me into your family.
- 35:46I surrender everything to you and I receive your promises of
- 35:53forgiveness, of adoption into your family, and of eternal
- 36:00life. Be my Lord.
- 36:03Please Jesus, if you said that prayer for the very first time,
- 36:11would you be brave and raise your hand for me to see Thank
- 36:15you, thank you, thank you can put your hands down in Jesus
- 36:24name, Amen. Real quick Jesus loves you more
- 36:31than you actually believe or imagine he does and if you just
- 36:37gave your life to Christ. Welcome to the family.
- 36:45In just a moment, we're going to respond to this sermon.
- 36:48Our prayer team is going to come up here.
- 36:49We we love praying for you guys and with you guys for any
- 36:52reason. But as you stand to sing this
- 36:55song, if you just made a declaration of faith to Christ
- 36:59or you've done it recently and not told anyone about it.
- 37:01I want you to to go back to one of those two tables in the back.
- 37:04It says I raised my hand. We have a gift for you.
- 37:06We want to celebrate with you. We're excited for you.
- 37:08We want to talk about what a journey of following Christ
- 37:10looks like. So will you stand with us?
- 37:13Our per team is going to be up here.
- 37:16You move as the Lord leads you. We thank you church.
- 37:19We love you.