SPEAKER_00: You might be thinking that's kind of an odd transition from worship and then prayer about Pentecost and and then into a video about Memorial Day.
SPEAKER_00: That might be kind of but folks, I think it's so important that we remember because these things really go hand in hand.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about Christian nationalism, so don't get that in your minds.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about how we honor where honor is due.
SPEAKER_00: And the fact that Pentecost Sunday and Memorial Day kind of come hand, you know, right next to each other in the calendar this year, I think it goes well together.
SPEAKER_00: That we remember those who went and sacrificed and gave the ultimate sacrifice, that we can sit here just like this.
SPEAKER_00: Because folks, there are places around the world they cannot.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: And so we need to remember and give thanks.
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, we also remember and give thanks for the one who gave the ultimate, ultimate, ultimate sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, the gift of the Holy Spirit has been given to the church.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: And so today we kind of celebrate two things.
SPEAKER_00: I think ultimately Pentecost is a little bit more important.
SPEAKER_00: But we don't, we do not want to just skip past Memorial Day, skip past those, because some of you have friends and family and loved ones who have served and who have given and given the ultimate price.
SPEAKER_00: And so thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Those who have served, those who have given, those who have gone, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: We are better because of you.
SPEAKER_00: So thank you, church.
SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bibles, I want to ask you to open up to the book of Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: This is like probably, I would say more than half.
SPEAKER_00: That's probably an easy estimate.
SPEAKER_00: More than half the churches are probably preaching from this passage today, right?
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: This is the story of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: This is the coming of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And as you turn into Acts chapter 2, I want to just kind of give you a brief intro.
SPEAKER_00: Before we get there, before we dig into the passage, I just want to remind you of where we've been for the past number of weeks.
SPEAKER_00: We've kind of talked about this machinery, excuse me, this machinery of our faith.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of what drives us, what helps us function and move forward.
SPEAKER_00: We've looked at some tools.
SPEAKER_00: We've looked at some of the spiritual gears that we have inside of us, how they work together.
SPEAKER_00: We've even talked about kind of mapping out a little bit of our unique spiritual designs.
SPEAKER_00: But today on this Pentecost Sunday, we're going to look back.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to look back at some history.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody like history?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, the rest of you are going to be really disappointed.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to look back at why we're even here in this room today and why we're even called a Church of the Nazarene.
SPEAKER_00: This is important, I think.
SPEAKER_00: If you know anything about our history, you know that this movement wasn't born in a sterile boardroom, which I am so thankful for.
SPEAKER_00: Anybody like going to board meetings or committee meetings?
SPEAKER_00: If you do, we're going to have a mental health test later.
SPEAKER_00: The church was not born out of some boardroom or some meeting.
SPEAKER_00: It was born out of this spiritual, holy wildfire.
SPEAKER_00: See, back in October of 1895, that's a long time ago, a man by the name of Phineas F.
SPEAKER_00: Brazee.
SPEAKER_00: Heard this name before?
SPEAKER_00: Phineas F.
SPEAKER_00: Brazee walked away from a very prestigious, wealthy, and comfortable church in Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_00: He was in a good position.
SPEAKER_00: He walked away from it.
SPEAKER_00: Because he noticed something.
SPEAKER_00: And what he noticed he did not like.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, to him it was devastating.
SPEAKER_00: The church had essentially become a museum for the elite rather than a hospital for the broken.
SPEAKER_00: He had a problem.
SPEAKER_00: And so he took a handful of people into the poorest and roughest part of LA and rented an old, drafty warehouse, threw some sawdust down, and called it the Glory Barn.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see a couple pictures of this.
SPEAKER_00: Nathan, throw those up for me.
SPEAKER_00: Look at these pictures of this.
SPEAKER_00: That's just an old warehouse.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't look nothing like our beautiful building, does it?
SPEAKER_00: But folks, in this place, lives were transformed.
SPEAKER_00: Not just made to feel a little bit better.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't just get, you know, the warm and fuzzies after their favorite song or after the preacher said a few nice things or made them chuckle a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking lives were radically transformed.
SPEAKER_00: Prostitutes no longer worked in the business.
SPEAKER_00: Drug addicts were no longer addicted.
SPEAKER_00: Alcoholism began to drop.
SPEAKER_00: The lives were, and not just lives, but families and generations, generations were transformed.
SPEAKER_00: So why did Brizi do this?
SPEAKER_00: I think I've read some, and you might be able to help me if you know more, and you probably do.
SPEAKER_00: But I think Brizee understood the true cost and the core truth of Pentecost Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: I think he understood it.
SPEAKER_00: See, when the Holy Spirit ignites a people, they cannot stay comfortable inside their fortress.
SPEAKER_00: They're propelled into the streets where the work is.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: I do too.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
SPEAKER_00: See, if we look at the story in Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit filled the upper room, the crowd's immediate reaction isn't this holy hush that takes place.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's confusion.
SPEAKER_00: It's cynicism, it's it's mockery.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at Acts chapter 2 today as we as we dig in.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 2, starting in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
SPEAKER_00: And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them utterances.
SPEAKER_00: Let me jump over to verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them.
SPEAKER_00: It's like 10 in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel.
SPEAKER_00: And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall see dreams.
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Keep your Bible open to Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: See, this event takes place.
SPEAKER_00: They've been in the upper room, they've been praying, they've been seeking.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, when he reappeared, he said, wait, right?
SPEAKER_00: Just wait.
SPEAKER_00: Something's coming.
SPEAKER_00: Wait.
SPEAKER_00: And now this wind has blown through, these things have appeared, and people began to speak in other languages that was not their own language.
SPEAKER_00: And people who were listening heard it in their own language.
SPEAKER_00: This is crazy.
SPEAKER_00: This is ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00: But these are just ordinary folks, ordinary disciples speaking in supernatural languages, and the folks who were listening, a number of them said, They're drunk.
SPEAKER_00: They're not right.
SPEAKER_00: They're not okay.
SPEAKER_00: Something's wrong.
SPEAKER_00: This cynicism, this confusion began to come over.
SPEAKER_00: But did you hear what Peter did?
SPEAKER_00: Peter said, No, no, no, hold on.
SPEAKER_00: And he gets up and he begins to preach.
SPEAKER_00: He begins to speak.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't offer a defense based on our human emotions.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, uh he stands up and he says something really profound and groundbreaking.
SPEAKER_00: He says, No, they're not drunk.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: It's like 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: They're not drunk.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, what he reaches is into this 800-year-old scroll.
SPEAKER_00: He takes them 800 years back in time.
SPEAKER_00: He says, this is what the prophet Joel says.
SPEAKER_00: In the last days, God says, I'm going to pour out my spirit on all flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And on.
SPEAKER_00: But think about this tension of the moment.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is doing the newest thing that these people had ever seen.
SPEAKER_00: Never seen it before.
SPEAKER_00: Do you like new things?
SPEAKER_00: Do you like that new car smell?
SPEAKER_00: You like that?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you like one of my favorite things?
SPEAKER_00: I love a new pair of socks.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why.
SPEAKER_00: There is something unlike a new pair of socks.
SPEAKER_00: It's the best thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are like, ah, you're kind of weird, Pastor Eric.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: I accept it.
SPEAKER_00: We like new things.
SPEAKER_00: And at this moment in time, the Holy Spirit is doing the newest thing that anyone has ever seen.
SPEAKER_00: And people are still going, ah, I don't buy it.
SPEAKER_00: They've had a little bit too much, right?
SPEAKER_00: They've been in that upper room enjoying the mini bar in the corner.
SPEAKER_00: But what they don't understand is the church is being born, is being birthed in real time.
SPEAKER_00: Fire is literally falling.
SPEAKER_00: Languages are flying all over around.
SPEAKER_00: The wind is blowing, the ground is shaking.
SPEAKER_00: Yet to explain this brand new cutting-edge event that's taking place, he says, let's go 800 years backwards.
SPEAKER_00: That kind of ruffled my feathers a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, Simone, when we say this, I'm like, what?
SPEAKER_00: This isn't new.
SPEAKER_00: Why do we want to go back in time?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think it's important.
SPEAKER_00: It's very important.
SPEAKER_00: Why wouldn't he bring up an old prophet when the spirit's doing something brand new?
SPEAKER_00: Why look backwards when you're being propelled forward?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Peter does this because I believe he knows a foundational law of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: God never improvises, God fulfills.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't decide, oh, I messed up.
SPEAKER_00: I better try something new.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what God does.
SPEAKER_00: God always fulfills.
SPEAKER_00: Yes?
SPEAKER_00: Peter uses this powerful phrase, this is that.
SPEAKER_00: And that present reality is the direct continuation of this ancient promise being fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: See, the law of kingdom is continuity.
SPEAKER_00: It keeps going.
SPEAKER_00: It never ceases.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you a secret?
SPEAKER_00: I told you this before.
SPEAKER_00: You are all vitally important to the church.
SPEAKER_00: But if I were to trip and fall and break my neck and be done, the church would still endure without me.
SPEAKER_00: If you decide or get your feathers ruffled over something that I said or that we did or that we didn't do, and you decide to leave and never come back, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: His church is still going to endure.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about us.
SPEAKER_00: It's all about him.
SPEAKER_00: Yes?
SPEAKER_00: This tells us that God's new things are always originally correct, connected.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, they're connected to the old promises.
SPEAKER_00: The new covenant does not erase the past, it matures it.
SPEAKER_00: It fulfills it.
SPEAKER_00: See, the fire on Pentecost, I believe, is the exact same fire that burned in the bush that Moses saw.
SPEAKER_00: It's that exact same glory that guided the Israelites through the desert and through the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: The only difference is the fire is no longer trapped in a mountain or locked behind a temple curtain in the grand temple.
SPEAKER_00: It's moved into the hearts of all everyday, regular, normal people.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty cool, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: You're not very excited.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, listen.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, listen, listen.
SPEAKER_00: So I've kind of still got this, you can hear me.
SPEAKER_00: I've got this head thing going on, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like this nasally, there's junk.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to get rid of it.
SPEAKER_00: I've blown my nose 1700,000 times.
SPEAKER_00: It's still there.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm working on getting rid of it.
SPEAKER_00: So I need your help this morning.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: Remember, I've given you, there's two things, two rules in our church.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to be on your phone, except for the teenagers.
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
SPEAKER_00: And number two, it's okay to talk.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay to be vocal.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I I grew up in the church that I grew up in in Flora, Illinois, little bitty town.
SPEAKER_00: If you'd blink, you'd miss it.
SPEAKER_00: Um, our pastor, Doug Romine, he used to get really excited, and he would tell people, you better start talking to me, or I'm gonna preach longer.
SPEAKER_00: So timer's it's counting down, but I really don't care what the timer says.
SPEAKER_00: So you better start talking, you know.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta help me out here.
SPEAKER_00: When we began to understand, we begin to understand this idea that the fire is no longer just on a mountainside, that the fire is no longer just contained in a bush, that it's no longer hidden behind a curtain in the temple, but that fire is now in the hearts of believers.
SPEAKER_00: When we understand that, we realize that we don't have to choose between being a church that honors tradition and being a church that embraces the invitation.
SPEAKER_00: See, true biblical innovation is simply ancient truth deployed in modern neighborhoods.
SPEAKER_00: It's doing the stuff that the book says to do.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to change a thing, folks.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: This is exactly why our Nazarene holiness heritage fits into this story.
SPEAKER_00: We don't look back at Phineas Brzee and the early holiness movement and turn 19, or sorry, 1895 into some museum.
SPEAKER_00: We don't look back and build a comfortable couch where we can sit down and reminisce about the good old days.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, sure, we look at the history of this local church, and man, there we look back, man, there were some good old days at this church.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, we're in the middle of it right now.
SPEAKER_00: Let's not get stuck in our past and in our history.
SPEAKER_00: Let's realize that God is doing something right now as he's always been doing something.
SPEAKER_00: We look back to see how fast God was moving so that we can catch up.
SPEAKER_00: So when Brzee launched this movement, he wasn't inventing a new gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't doing some new thing.
SPEAKER_00: He looked back at John Wesley, who who looked back at Peter, who looked back at Joel.
SPEAKER_00: Brzezi looked at the ancient promise that the Holy Spirit is for all people.
SPEAKER_00: All not just the social elite, not just the ones who dressed up fancy and and who drove the right cars and who sat in the right places at the pews.
SPEAKER_00: No, it was for the broken, it was for the poor, it was for the marginalized, it was for the social elite, it was for all.
SPEAKER_00: So they did.
SPEAKER_00: They went to Skidrow, the dirtiest, the darkest, most awful place.
SPEAKER_00: Why would Christians go there?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's who needed the gospel at the time.
SPEAKER_00: See, heart holiness has never been a private luxury.
SPEAKER_00: It's never been a private luxury.
SPEAKER_00: It's a public hazard to the kingdom of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: That's what heart holiness is.
SPEAKER_00: And folks, if it's not a public hazard to the darkness around you, we gotta work on some stuff.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We gotta make sure we're getting things right here first.
SPEAKER_00: We have to know our past so that we don't lose our minds in the future.
SPEAKER_00: We anchor deep into our holiness roots, our understanding.
SPEAKER_00: So when the wind of the Spirit blows us out of this building, we don't blow away.
SPEAKER_00: We blow exactly where he's called us to go, and we carry this unshakable history into his unstoppable future.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we do.
SPEAKER_00: We be the church in real time.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, we didn't name this place or rename this place the neighborhood church just because it sounded friendly, even though it kind of does, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: We kind of like that now.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good name.
SPEAKER_00: But I think we named it that because it's our geographical mandate.
SPEAKER_00: God planted this church here in the 1950s on purpose for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: We are still here on purpose for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: You walked in this morning and sat where you are on purpose for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: He still wants to use you.
SPEAKER_00: He still wants to move among the people in his church.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, the sanctuary is not a hideout from the world.
SPEAKER_00: It is not a hideout from the world.
SPEAKER_00: It's a crucible of holy fire where we get filled, fueled, and then deployed.
SPEAKER_00: Would you agree with that?
SPEAKER_00: And so what we're asking is that we're asking that the Holy Spirit would move into our personal lives.
SPEAKER_00: Not just the stuff on the outside, not just the fluff, not just to give us some warm emotional experience.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we all like goosebumps.
SPEAKER_00: We all like that, ooh, I feel good.
SPEAKER_00: I went to church.
SPEAKER_00: No, I don't, we don't care about that.
SPEAKER_00: What we want him to do is to completely occupy the unique wiring that he has designed us to be.
SPEAKER_00: I think God wants to take your your everyday personality, the practical skills and gifts that he's given you, your natural talents, your common grace.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to take your common grace and boost them into this uncommon power.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do that under our own power.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do that under our own strength.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: I can't get in my Chevy van and turn the key and just hopefully it acts like a Dodge Challenger Hellcat.
SPEAKER_00: There are some days I wish it would.
SPEAKER_00: But I can't, it doesn't.
SPEAKER_00: I can say, okay, please, please, please, this time.
SPEAKER_00: Nope.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do that on our own.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, he wants to take your common ability to cook and turn it into an uncommon power of hospitality that breaks down the walls of some isolated neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've got a fantastic banana bread recipe.
SPEAKER_00: Make it.
SPEAKER_00: God's given you a gift.
SPEAKER_00: Make it and give it to somebody who's a shut in.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you haven't seen your neighbor in a couple of days.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe knock on the door.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to take your your uncommon, or your sorry, your common neck for numbers, for understanding, and turn it into this uncommon power of administration that brings peace to some chaotic local.
SPEAKER_00: Nonprofit.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to take your regular everyday voice and fill it with a holy passion and desire to accomplish the work of God in your workplaces.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to use you.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we receive the Holy Spirit, just like these folks, these folks who were gathered in the upper room, common, regulary, regular, ordinary people, and when the Holy Spirit fell on them, they began to do uncommon and powerful things.
SPEAKER_00: That same God who did that, that same Holy Spirit who moved, is the same Holy Spirit who is with us today.
SPEAKER_00: And he can still do that in all lives.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, what you've done, what you haven't done, where you've been or where you haven't been, how many degrees you have on your wall, or how none.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to be used by him?
SPEAKER_00: So how does how do we make this happen?
SPEAKER_00: I guess that's that's a good question, right?
SPEAKER_00: What do we do with this?
SPEAKER_00: It's good to know, and I think some of you have agreed with me, and you're like, yeah, I I'm kind of getting some buy-in to it.
SPEAKER_00: But as we talked about gifts and talents and different things like that, have any of you questioned maybe your own abilities?
SPEAKER_00: Have any of you had struggled with some of that?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I I yeah, it's okay.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: I want to help you out today if we can.
SPEAKER_00: Because a neighborhood doesn't change.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh a church doesn't shift its mission just through a massive, flashy corporate campaign.
SPEAKER_00: So just by changing our name, just by doing this, sign whatever, stickers, blue dots, this is not gonna change who we are unless we buy into the mission that the Holy Spirit has filled us with.
SPEAKER_00: Yes?
SPEAKER_00: And so I believe this work of the Holy Spirit in our lives takes place exactly how it started.
SPEAKER_00: Exactly how it started.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same way that God has always worked.
SPEAKER_00: One person, one small situation at a time.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: We want to see our neighborhood transformed, yes.
SPEAKER_00: You want to see your homes trans, your workplaces transformed, yes.
SPEAKER_00: Your schools, your where you where you gather, you want to see those changed for the better, yes.
SPEAKER_00: So what if we just start doing it the way God has always done things?
SPEAKER_00: With one person at a time.
SPEAKER_00: One small situation at a time.
SPEAKER_00: I think it starts with this micro moment of obedience.
SPEAKER_00: I chose the word micro on purpose because it's small.
SPEAKER_00: We can we can we can handle small things.
SPEAKER_00: Yes?
SPEAKER_00: It's the big stuff we look at and we're like, oh, it's so overwhelming.
SPEAKER_00: But we can handle a small thing.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So it starts like this.
SPEAKER_00: We we're in a small little, uh, a tiny, a tiny, small little sailboat.
SPEAKER_00: And we pull our sail up.
SPEAKER_00: See, the small sailboats, you know, they're not they're not very complex.
SPEAKER_00: They don't have all the big major riggings and all the things.
SPEAKER_00: It's just one sail.
SPEAKER_00: Whoop, done.
SPEAKER_00: That's nice.
SPEAKER_00: You pull up the small sail, the wind catches it, you start going.
SPEAKER_00: It might not be big and flashy, it might not be, ooh, ah, as it sails by in the harbor.
SPEAKER_00: But you pull up your small sail and you let the spirit move you.
SPEAKER_00: And what it is, this is a micro, a micro moment of obedience, and you choose to respond, here we go, with supernatural patience.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that fun?
SPEAKER_00: Micro moment of obedience, pull up the sail, let the spirit do its work in our lives, let it begin to move us, and then we have to choose to respond with this supernatural patience.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe to our children.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe to a coworker, maybe to the person who cut us in line at public when we had three items and they had 42.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe when we pull up our sail and we let the spirit move us, we choose to respond with supernatural patience as we step into a messy situation and offer mercy.
SPEAKER_00: See, there's this kingdom snowball thing that begins to happen.
SPEAKER_00: It's a snowball thing down a mountain.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: One small situation, small, micro, little bitty.
SPEAKER_00: Leads to maybe one person being just just one, one person being transformed.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe out of that one person being transformed, maybe a marriage begins to be healed.
SPEAKER_00: A relationship begins to be healed.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe, maybe then the next thing is a family begins to become restored.
SPEAKER_00: And relationships are being repaired in the family, and and pretty soon the street begins to see this, and and the street becomes shifted.
SPEAKER_00: They start to see, wait a second, something's happening here.
SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't stop there, but pretty soon oppression on this street in this neighborhood begins to cease.
SPEAKER_00: Problems begin to go down, things begin to stop.
SPEAKER_00: Because there was a small micro moment of obedience.
SPEAKER_00: What if we start doing the small things?
SPEAKER_00: It starts with one broken life finding grace at a coffee table.
SPEAKER_00: I like coffee.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we skip that and go to ice cream.
SPEAKER_00: We could do that.
SPEAKER_00: See that one person goes home and suddenly a spouse or or or relative sees the change.
SPEAKER_00: The children watch mom and dad pray for the very first time in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: That family opens the front door, and pretty soon the neighborhood notices wait a second, it's been there's not been much yelling over there recently.
SPEAKER_00: Their lights are their windows are open.
SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
SPEAKER_00: They get curious, they want to see what's taking place.
SPEAKER_00: And pretty soon that holy micro moment of obedient fire begins to spread.
SPEAKER_00: What starts as a tiny little bitty spark becomes this raging wildfire of transformation in a neighborhood.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that could happen?
SPEAKER_00: I think he might still be on the fence.
SPEAKER_00: I'll ask you an easy question.
SPEAKER_00: Do we believe God can do anything?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that was much better.
SPEAKER_00: So do you believe something like that could happen?
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe he can transform our neighborhoods?
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe he can transform our workplaces?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he can, because God can do all because remember, God's not just saying, huh, that's a novel idea.
SPEAKER_00: I might transform.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: This has been God's plan the whole time.
SPEAKER_00: He's just fulfilling it as we become obedient to what he's calling us to be.
SPEAKER_00: Yes?
SPEAKER_00: So let's bring us all the way back to four weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: You remember four weeks ago?
SPEAKER_00: No, that's alright.
SPEAKER_00: Remember when I talked about keeping our tools?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we keep our tools closed up in the tool shed.
SPEAKER_00: We were uh we we've been doing some work down at that end of the building recently, and and uh we've discovered there's the church has a number of tools that we didn't know that we had.
SPEAKER_00: And we kept buying because we didn't know that we we've got like 17 shovels.
SPEAKER_00: No, we don't have that many.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have that many, but we have an exorbitant amount of yard tools.
SPEAKER_00: Like, why do we have all this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because we didn't know the tools were there.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, we can't deploy if we don't know the tools are there.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: We were on I'll tell you another story about our van.
SPEAKER_00: Do you like stories about our van?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Angela loves Angela loves them, yeah.
SPEAKER_00: We were we were uh we had two years ago dropped Aaron off at college for the fresh said goodbye to our baby.
SPEAKER_00: She's a freshman, traveling back.
SPEAKER_00: Um we were in Kentucky approaching the Tennessee line.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna try to stay in Nashville that night.
SPEAKER_00: And started feeling like something's like something's not I heard something.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't sound right.
SPEAKER_00: And pretty soon, wait a second, it's getting really warm in here.
SPEAKER_00: The AC went out.
SPEAKER_00: Well shoot.
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's try to make it and we'll just roll the windows down.
SPEAKER_00: It's by the way, it's August in Kentucky, almost Tennessee.
SPEAKER_00: It's that means it's it's nice and cool at night.
SPEAKER_00: We get to the hotel, crawling under the van, you know, in a hotel parking lot, because it's a perfect place to do that.
SPEAKER_00: And notice, oh, I see the problem, but I don't have the tools to fix it.
SPEAKER_00: So up half the night looking, okay, this place has that part, that place has this part, and then I have to buy tools.
SPEAKER_00: But guess what?
SPEAKER_00: I had those tools, but they weren't with me.
SPEAKER_00: They were they were away.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't keep the tools with me.
SPEAKER_00: Guess who keeps tools with me now?
SPEAKER_00: Uh so now I have two sets of tools to fix a simple problem.
SPEAKER_00: We often operate the same way, which by the way, we gotta fix.
SPEAKER_00: It was a belt and it came off, and I had to do this and that and put the belt back up.
SPEAKER_00: Um we often operate the same way in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Either we don't keep our tools with us, or we keep them shut up and locked up, or we just forget about it.
SPEAKER_00: God has blessed the church with you, with tools, with resources.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes we don't know that we have them, we don't know that we need them, and we leave them to the side.
SPEAKER_00: When in fact they come in actually really, really handy.
SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes we don't know we need the tools until crisis happens.
SPEAKER_00: But folks, God has blessed you with exactly what you need.
SPEAKER_00: He's given us tools.
SPEAKER_00: So I think it's important that we figure out the tools that we have.
SPEAKER_00: Just like we figured out that we have 17 shovels.
SPEAKER_00: Not that many, we need to figure out what the tools we have right here.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want you to again pull your phones out.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody pull your phone out.
SPEAKER_00: If you're sitting next to somebody over, uh that's uh if you're sitting somebody next to you that has hair that's grayer than yours, you might want to help them out.
SPEAKER_00: But if you tap your phone, touch your phone to the blue dot, or you just go online to our website, or you can scan the QR code that Nathan's gonna put up for me after he stops talking.
SPEAKER_00: Um there's a little QR code.
SPEAKER_00: There we are.
SPEAKER_00: A couple of different things.
SPEAKER_00: We've created a spiritual gifts assessment.
SPEAKER_00: We call it a shape assessment.
SPEAKER_00: This is gonna take you about 20 or 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have reservations, you may want to push some.
SPEAKER_00: No, you're not gonna do it now.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to be able to access it and you can do it later, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's also online or at the blue dot or wherever you can scan it, see it, it should pop up.
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual gifts or shape assessment.
SPEAKER_00: It's through a group called ServeWire.
SPEAKER_00: It's a neat, it's a neat little tool.
SPEAKER_00: It's a tool the church is gonna use, a tool that we didn't know that we had that was available, and we were gonna use it.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna take you 20 to 30 minutes to walk through a series of questions, answer some stuff.
SPEAKER_00: There's even places for you to write in and fill out things about your experiences and what God has done or what you feel like you have done before or haven't done.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna ask you, there's there's two choices.
SPEAKER_00: You can sign in with Planning Center, and you're like, I have no idea what that is.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, if you've signed up for anything at this church before with your name and your email address, you have a planning center account.
SPEAKER_00: All right, we'll get into all that stuff later.
SPEAKER_00: But if you've ever done that before, you can sign in with your name, first name, last name, and your email.
SPEAKER_00: The common email that you use.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not sure at all, do it as a guest.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy.
SPEAKER_00: Same thing.
SPEAKER_00: We'll get the results, and you'll get the results.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: No, we're not selling your information unless it's profitable.
SPEAKER_00: Um this is gonna help us get an assessment of where we are, where you are.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a first-time guest, if you're somebody who's brand new, you're like, I'm not really connected to the church.
SPEAKER_00: I don't really, that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Do it for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Take the results for yourself.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't one of those hour, two-hour long assessments that goes super in depth, but it's also not one of those little five-minute uh Instagram quizzes either.
SPEAKER_00: This is kind of the middle of the road.
SPEAKER_00: Gives some pretty good results.
SPEAKER_00: I took it.
SPEAKER_00: I I agree with what it had to say.
SPEAKER_00: But this week, this is your challenge.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to take this assessment.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: If you log in with your email and I see, I get I can see that.
SPEAKER_00: That's that's the cool thing.
SPEAKER_00: I want to see, I want to see, I want to know.
SPEAKER_00: And then our staff and our team, we're gonna work that because then we can begin to find ways to, hey, you have that you did you know that you're gifted and skilled in this area?
SPEAKER_00: Let's find ways to plug you in.
SPEAKER_00: Let's find ways and opportunities for you to be able to serve.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's find ways to for for to equip God's people for the work of God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: Can we do that?
SPEAKER_00: Now, don't look at this as some chore to do.
SPEAKER_00: Don't please don't look at it as that.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to look at it as an equipment check.
SPEAKER_00: We're checking the equipment shed to make sure we're using what God has blessed us with.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: And so when you get your results, I want you to know that you are looking at the specific cog, the specific gear, the specific tool that God has placed in your hands.
SPEAKER_00: And so your job this week is to look at those results and then to look at your neighborhood, to look at your surroundings, to look at what's around you, and say, okay, Holy Spirit, I have a little bit better picture of what my design is.
SPEAKER_00: Show me where I can start.
SPEAKER_00: Show me that first small micro level of obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Help me in my little bitty sailboat to put up my little sail to let the spirit catch, the spirit's wind catch the sail.
SPEAKER_00: Show me where I can begin.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, Phineas Burden said this.
SPEAKER_00: He said, we are debtors to every soul to give them the gospel in the same measure as we have received it.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, we've received this ocean of grace and we've been trusted with an uncommon power.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stop playing defense.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stop just having little holy huddles and making ourselves feel better and then going with the rest of our week.
SPEAKER_00: Let's stop waiting for the world to just walk into the building so we can then be the church.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what we do.
SPEAKER_00: Let's receive the Holy Spirit today.
SPEAKER_00: Let's renew this fresh win their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Let's let the fire consume us and fill us and transform us into who he's called us to be.
SPEAKER_00: And then let's go.
SPEAKER_00: Are you ready, church?
SPEAKER_00: Let's stand together.
SPEAKER_00: I want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to challenge you.
SPEAKER_00: Let's not sit still.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go be the church that He has created and called us to be.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: You're awful quiet.
SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
SPEAKER_00: You have the put the code back up for me again.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody have it?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: If not, you can go to the websites on our church website, theneighborhoodchurch.com.
SPEAKER_00: Make sure to get this done.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I heard like three over here.
SPEAKER_00: Yes?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, goodness gracious.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm gonna give you a confession.
SPEAKER_00: I've done mine already.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm I gotta make sure that my family does it.
SPEAKER_00: We're we're very busy this week.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: There's something happening next weekend.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of an important day.
SPEAKER_00: Sort of.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know my daughter Erin, who's actually helping with her great-grandmother right now.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Erin is getting married right here Saturday at 1.30.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Saturday, what so we're getting kind of busy this week.
SPEAKER_00: Abnormally busy.
SPEAKER_00: Frustratingly busy.
SPEAKER_00: But it's gonna be good.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to know, church, you are invited.
SPEAKER_00: We want you to be a part of this.
SPEAKER_00: This is important.
SPEAKER_00: This is special.
SPEAKER_00: You're invited, we want you to come.
SPEAKER_00: We we did, I'll have to be honest, we didn't have to send out special invites for the reception because on a pastor's salary I can't afford to feed everybody.
SPEAKER_00: So that's but afterwards there's time for fellowship, and there'll be snacks in a coffee bar because that's what we do as skeletons.
SPEAKER_00: We have coffee.
SPEAKER_00: So Saturday, 1.30, you are welcome to come and join us as we celebrate our oldest daughter's wedding.
SPEAKER_00: And as I make my future son-in-law uncomfortable as can be in a loving way.
SPEAKER_00: But before that, I'm gonna make sure my family does it as well.
SPEAKER_00: Before that, take the assessment, take some time.
SPEAKER_00: Invest in what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: That's the most important investment you can make in what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: Because guess what?
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't just scrap a plan if it doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: No, he fulfills everything.
SPEAKER_00: Your investment will not come back empty.
SPEAKER_00: Take time to invest.
SPEAKER_00: Put the work in, and then let's be the church.
SPEAKER_00: Yes?
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: And then we're gonna worship as we're as we're headed out, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Good?
SPEAKER_00: Kind of a different Sunday, yeah?
SPEAKER_00: But let's be encouraged.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be encouraged.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you and praise you just for who you are.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for this day, this the celebration of Pentecost Sunday, when you sent your spirit way back then, but that same spirit is here now.
SPEAKER_00: God, when you fill us with a fresh fire, a fresh wind, and when you when you recharge us from the inside out, remind us that we are vital, that we are important to your plan to transform this world.
SPEAKER_00: And it starts with just one small micro obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Father, give us that fresh wind as we leave this place.
SPEAKER_00: Fill our sails with that Holy Spirit wind in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Transform us, shape us, help us go and leave the church.
SPEAKER_00: We love you, we praise you, we thank you for what you've done in the past, we remember the past, we celebrate the past, but we also look forward to the future for what you are gonna be doing! Because you are the life!