Acts chapter 2, we're gonna pick up in verses 36 through 41.
Last week we began in Acts chapter 2 at the very beginning with the day of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit being poured out.
The Bible says that the that the wind filled them, that the fire rested on them, and the word of God flowed through them, and that Jesus was magnified, and that God's purposes were being accomplished in the earth, and and that purpose is that his presence would fill the earth as waters cover the sea through his people.
We're gonna continue looking at that this morning and the story that God is unfolding.
Stand with me where you are as we honor the reading of God's word together this morning.
Acts chapter 2, verse 36.
Peter is continuing preaching here, and he says, Therefore, let all of Israel be assured of this.
God has made this Jesus, whom you've crucified, both Lord and Messiah.
Can I?
I just got to pause here.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is for one purpose above all others, and it's the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus.
And that's what Peter is saying here.
This Jesus whom you crucified is both Lord and Messiah.
And when people heard this, they were cut to the heart.
Said to Peter and the other apostles, What shall we do?
And Peter replied in verse 38, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift.
Everybody say, gift.
You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
This this gift, this promise in verse 39, he says, is for you and your children, and for all of you who are far off.
He's talking about us, guys.
This isn't just a gift that's for you.
No, it's for your children and your children's children, and for your children's children's children, and for general and for 2,000 years, God's still been giving us this gift.
For all who will call on the name of the Lord, verse 40, with many other words, he warned them and he pleaded with them save yourselves from this corrupt generation.
And those who accepted his message were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to that number that day.
Praise the Lord.
Title of my message this morning is simply this: The God who gives.
Say that after me this morning.
The God who gives.
Turn your neighbor and say the God who gives.
Turn your other neighbor and say the God who gives.
Turn around the person behind you and say the God who gives.
Father, we thank you for your word this morning.
Your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.
It shows us the way to go and how to arrive there safely.
Now pray this morning.
We wouldn't just be hearers of your word, but we would be doers of it.
In Jesus' mighty name.
Everybody said, Amen.
You may be seated.
Caleb, thank you.
Several years ago, a book came out that began to reshape how people perceive relationships.
It started as a Christian book and it really crossed over into the mainstream and and became a cultural sensation.
To date, some twenty million copies of this book have been published.
And the title of this book, you may know, is called The Five Love Languages.
How many of you guys are familiar with this book?
The Five Love Languages.
Most people are at some level or another.
The premise of this book is that every person has a primary way that they both receive and give love.
That's your love language.
And it's the goal of husbands and wives and friends to understand the way other people receive love, and so that you can then impart love in a way into their life that fills their love tank.
How many of you guys know what those five love languages are?
Can anybody recall them off the top of your head?
Give me, somebody give me one of those love languages.
Yeah, you're right.
Did everybody discern that very clearly?
Let me help you.
So we have words of affirmation.
Where are all my words of affirmation, people?
That when people speak encouragement into your life, it fills your love tank.
I got I got about four of you that are in here that have words of affirmation.
If there's only about four or five of you in here, that probably explains why you're discouraged today.
So we have words of affirmation.
We've got acts of service.
Where are all my acts of service people at?
Like you really only feel love when somebody does something for you.
Where's your hands?
Y'all got real bashful all of a sudden.
Yeah, few, few, few acts of service.
Yeah.
Where are all my physical touch people?
Every guy in the house raised his hand.
That's right, that's right.
That the only way Lorel, leave Khalia alone.
Where you only feel loved when when somebody's touching.
All right.
Somebody just touch them.
Just just just touch them.
Just touch, touch them.
So it so there's three of them.
Um I'm trying to remember the oh, quality time.
Where are all my quality time people that I only feel loved when I'm spending time with you?
Where's my quality time people?
Right, right.
And then the last one is the uh gift or uh gifts that that I only feel loved when I'm receiving a gift.
Where are all my gift people?
Gift, gift people.
Yeah.
I'll be praying for your spouses.
God give you a raise.
I gotta fill that love tank with gifts.
I was thinking about gifts in particular this week.
In context with the five love languages and what we read here in Acts chapter 2, where Luke, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says that there's a promise that God has for his people, and it's actually a gift.
It's the gift of the Holy Spirit, and it hit me this week.
Do you know that God has a primary love language?
I've not really thought about it in those terms, but the Bible's pretty clear.
If you look for it, it's there really from Genesis all the way to Revelation that God has a primary love language, that God has a primary way that He demonstrates love.
And it's found very clearly in one of the most famous verses in all of Scripture.
It's found in John 3, 16.
For God so what?
That he did what?
For God so loved that he one more time, for God so loved that he when you really read Scripture with that filter, what you begin to understand that God's primary love language is generosity, that God is a giver from beginning to end.
And and this resonates with all of us because how many of you have heard something to this effect, or maybe you've even said something to this effect.
Don't tell me you love me, but show me you love me.
Why do we say that?
Because love that isn't demonstrated is no love at all.
For love to be genuine, for it to be authentic, for it to be real and powerful and transformational, love has to have an outlet.
And the Bible tells us that God's outlet for his love is demonstrating generosity.
For God so loved the world that he gave.
Another little interesting sidebar to this is, you know, in scripture, if you kind of categorize topics, what you find is there's about five hundred verses in scripture referencing prayer.
There's another five hundred or so verses in scripture referencing faith.
Do you know how many verses in scripture are about giving?
Two thousand.
Two thousand verses in scripture referencing giving in some form or fashion.
I I've always thought about that previously because God did that because he knew generosity would be something that we struggled with.
And I do think that's part of the equation, but I think the full other side of the equation is why is there so much in scripture about giving?
Because it's revealing to us the very heart and nature of God.
That God, in his nature, in his character, in his heart, he is a giver.
For God so loved the world that he.
Every tree, every plant, all across the face of the earth, it's all yours.
You can eat from any of it as much as you want, but there's one tree you can't eat from.
And the enemy made them focus on the one thing that God told them not to do and to ignore the plethora of his blessing.
Can I tell you today, church, the enemy still does the same thing to you and I.
His tactic in your life is to get you to forget the goodness, the giving, the generosity of God, and how he has lavished his blessings and his favor upon your life.
And he does it through comparison.
Matter of fact, comparison is the tool of the enemy to steal from you the gifts of God to you.
Wow.
Yeah, you may have had that, but you don't have this.
And all of a sudden now my mind is on this, and I forget that.
And in the process of forgetting it, I forfeit it.
I want to challenge you this morning to stop comparing your gifts to other people's gifts.
Just thank him for what he's given you.
I found in my life is that when I focus my attention on his blessing that he has poured out upon my life, I can't do anything but worship.
But the moment my attention shifts from his blessing to what I don't have, or maybe what he's given to somebody else, you know what doesn't come out of my mouth is worship.
What comes out of my mouth is complaining.
I'm gonna tell you what, you can't complain your way forward, but you sure can worship your way forward.
God in creation gives us everything that we need.
Number two, God gave us his son.
When you really study the story of scripture, we find a God that gives over and abundant abundantly above all we could ask or think or imagine.
And in Jesus, we find how far God's generosity goes.
We read this verse just a moment ago, but I want to reread it.
For God so loved the world that he gave his what kind?
His one and only.
How does God give?
God gives his best, not his leftovers.
This is the God that we serve.
I'm gonna give you the best that I have to offer.
I'm gonna give you my one and only son.
And this best gift has the power to change your life because through this gift you will receive eternal life.
Come on, somebody.
Thank you, Jesus.
The Father gave the Son so that the world might be saved.
You understand that forgiveness is a gift, grace is a gift, mercy is a gift, righteousness is a gift, adoption is a gift, eternal life is a gift.
Everything that we have in life is a gift from God.
This is who he is.
What's interesting is that not only does he give his best, he gives his best sacrificially.
Romans chapter 5, verse 8 says that but God demonstrates his love for us in this way.
While While while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
While we were still sinners, before we turned our heart and our mind and our attention to the Lord, before we were even concerned or even cared about who he was, before.
Before.
See, in our world, most people operate according to a standard of.
If you want to be loved, you need to be lovable.
Is that fair?
If you want love, then you need to be lovable.
That the extension of love happens after the fact of me demonstrating my love.
Like if you want to receive love, then you need to be lovable.
But here we have a demonstration of love that precedes us being lovable.
We have something that is flipping the script on its head that's saying, no, no, no, no, no.
God loves generously and sacrificially before we even turn our attention towards him.
That his demonstration of love precedes our response.
It comes before, but that's not really how the world operates.
The world operates.
If you'll behave, if you'll act right, if you'll do right, if you'll speak right, then you get love.
You've got to fix everything on the front end to get to the love on the back end.
And Jesus flips it and says, No, I'm gonna love you before you earn it, before you deserve it, before you act right, before you behave right, before you do right, because my love is enough to change you on the back end.
You see the flip.
Let me make it real practical.
Everybody just got sat up in their seats.
Attention.
Somebody said, I'll take that.
So in our world, to get this, you gotta work for it.
You gotta deserve it.
You gotta put in the time.
You gotta, you gotta work hours on end.
Then you get the reward after the fact.
But in the kingdom, I get the reward before.
See, I'm not let me think of something about this way.
In salvation, I'm saved before I've acted like I've been saved.
I get the benefit of the relationship before my actions reflect the relationship.
Are you following me this morning?
How Jesus is flipping it.
And what Jesus is trying to communicate to us is that He is a giver and that when He gives His love, He gives it to us before the fact and it's so transformational that it causes us to reflect what the love did in our hearts and our lives.
And so if I were to if I were to give this hundred dollars, it would be a gift to somebody.
Jada, come here.
As we were worshiping, I looked over at you and I just the Holy Spirit stirred my heart and wanted me to tell you that He's proud of you.
And that whether you deserve it or not is irrelevant, you're his daughter.
And he wanted me to give this to you.
See, church, it's not about earning it, it's not about deserving because we have a God who gives.
You know what I have found?
The gift has the power to change the person.
And when it changes me, all of a sudden I begin to reflect the type of gift that's been given in my life.
And that's what God wants to do in us through Jesus.
Number three, God also gives us the Holy Spirit.
Verse 38, we read this: repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, and you receive what?
The gift, the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Peter replied, Repent and be baptized.
Every one of you.
Not some of you, not a select few, but every one of you.
Everyone means everyone.
No one is excluded.
No one has to be special.
All you have to do is respond.
And if you respond, every one of you will be lavished with the presence of God in your life.
I want you to think about how much of a giver God is.
He has given us creation to inhabit, to experience his glory.
He has given us his son as a sacrifice for our sins that we might be restored into relationship with him.
And then to top it off, on top of all of that, he has given us his Holy Spirit, literally a piece of himself to live inside of us.
Our God, church, is a giver.
Just three things, and I'm gonna wrap this up this morning.
Number one is this how to respond to a gift-giving kind of God.
Don't strive for his gifts.
Just ask for them.
Just ask.
Don't strive.
How many of you would throw your lot in with me this morning and confess out loud?
I've spent a lot of my time striving to earn God's gifts.
When the Bible tells us he's a giver who delights in giving his good gifts to his kids.
Matter of fact, that's what he says in Luke chapter 11, verses 11 through 13.
He says, which of your fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
If then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children?
How much more?
If though we are evil and can figure out some kind of way of giving a good gift to our kids, how much more is a good, wonderful, beautiful, pure, heavenly father able to give good gifts to his kids?
How much more?
Do you really understand who he is?
He's a giver, and he knows how to give good gifts to his kids.
And then he says, This will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask some of you for years have been striving to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Maybe you've been striving to walk in the anointing of the Lord.
Maybe you've been sacrificing and you've been praying and you've been working and you've been straining and you've been, I'm gonna do everything that I've got to do to experience what He has for my life.
Can I tell you this morning?
Stop striving.
And just ask the lights.
And if we could ask over and over throughout the New Testament, Jesus says to his disciples and says to the multitudes, just ask.
Why does Jesus emphasize us asking?
Because he's trying to connect us to the nature and the character of a God who gives.
So just ask.
Number two is this just receive his gifts with gratitude, with thanksgiving.
Just let worship.
God, I'm gonna Philippians chapter four.
I'm gonna present my request to God.
I'm not gonna be anxious for anything, but I'm gonna present my request to God and let thanksgiving arise in my heart for a God who delights in answering the requests of his kids.
Just let work.
Can I tell you that thanksgiving isn't just something that we do after the fact?
A lot of times it's what we do before the fact.
That God, I'm gonna present my request to you, and I'm gonna thank you in advance because I know you hear and you love to respond.
And I don't know when you're gonna answer, but I know that you're going to.
And so I'm thanking you already for how you're gonna move in my life.
I'm gonna allow worship.
I'm gonna enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.
And I'm going to thank him in advance for what I'm laying at his feet.
And number three is this I'm gonna steward it faithfully.
I'm gonna steward his gifts faithfully.
If church, if everything in our life is a gift, that means we own nothing.
It's not mine.
It's not yours, it's his.
So, Lord, I offer it all back to you.
And I want to take the time and the talent and the treasure that you've entrusted into my life.
I want to steward it faithfully in the fashion that you have given me.
I know a lot of times in message like this, pastor, preacher, whomever will talk about finances, and man, I'm not really gonna do that other than say this.
Can I tell you the transformational moment in your life will be when you understand that the 10% tithe isn't God's, it's all God's.
When the 90% is his too, that's when things change in your life.
That no, no, I'm gonna give, I'm gonna give God 10.
No, no, I may offer him the 10 to begin with, but he can do whatever he wants with the 90 as well.
Transformational moment.
Because when you when you make that shift, what you are declaring is that God, you are the giver.
And if you ask me to give it all, that you're somehow how gonna replace it back.
He is the giver of all good gifts.
Will you stand with me where you are this morning?
I'm gonna ask my prayer team to join me to my left and to my right this morning.
And I just have a have a couple questions in conclusion for you today.
My first question is this Do you need to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
Have you received the outpouring of God's Spirit upon your heart and upon your life?
It was what Peter promised wasn't just for them or their children or their children's children, but it was for all people for all time who would simply ask.
Every head bowed and every eye closed just for a moment.
You're here this morning, you say, Pastor, I need the outpouring of the Holy Spirit poured out upon my life.
I need his anointing, I need his touch, I need a fresh wind to blow into my heart, I need a fresh fire to burn in my spirit.
I need the Holy Spirit poured out on my life.
If that's you, would you just raise your hand right where you stand?
Because I want to I want to pray for you this morning.
Thank you, thank you.
I see that hand.
Thank you, thank you.
Lord, thank you.
Number two is this how many of you would say, I I've got a very specific need in my life, not just a general need, no, it's very specific.
I need God to move in my life, I need a miracle in my life, I need revelation in my life, I need vision, I need something from the Lord in a pivotal way in my life.
If that's you, we just raise your hand.
Yeah, that's me.
That's me.
I see that.
I see that hand.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
I want you to look at me this morning.
Here's what I want you to know.
We're gonna spend a moment in a in a song here, the end of our service together, and our prayer team is here to my right and to my left to meet you, to pray with you, that God's spirit would be poured out on your life, and that we would partner with you in the request that you are lifting up to the God who gives and believing that he's gonna answer because he's a God that delights in meeting his kids right where they are.
So, would you just stretch your hands towards heaven with me this morning?
And God's been speaking in your heart, God's been stirring in your heart, and I want you to begin to move right now out of your seat.
Don't stay there, take a step of faith and watch God meet you.
Get out of your seat and come to one of our prayer team partners, because we want to agree with you that God's gonna meet you in a miraculous way this morning, that he's gonna answer, that he's gonna speak, that he's gonna move, that he's gonna stir, that he's gonna feel, that he's gonna empower, that he's gonna do the work that he delights in doing.
Father, right now, I pray, pour out your prince, I pray, pour out your spirit, I pray, pour out your anointing! God release your answers to every person that raises a request today, not that you would meet them in the greatest point of day, because that's what you delight in doing.
We worship you this morning, we thank you in advance for the request that will be answered today in Jesus' name.