SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Summit Church Podcast.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us as we share weekly sermons and teachings from Summit Church in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
SPEAKER_01: Our prayer is that today's message encourages your faith and helps you grow in your relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Check out our website at summitchurchtn.com.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for listening, and we pray this message encourages you today.
SPEAKER_02: So today is Pentecost Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: I love Pentecost Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: And let me tell you why.
SPEAKER_02: I wasn't raised in a culture where Pentecost Sunday was ever mentioned.
SPEAKER_02: It was like something that happened, but no one ever wanted to talk about it because it had attached to it supernatural things.
SPEAKER_02: But you know, we serve a supernatural God.
SPEAKER_02: And so as I was uh growing up and reading the Bible, I would get to Acts chapter 2 and I would say this, Lord, I want that.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I would have never said that to anybody in my culture until I did.
SPEAKER_02: When I was in a wonderful Baptist church with a spiritual father, my spiritual father, Pastor John Shepherd.
SPEAKER_02: And I was so hungry for God more than I'd ever been hungry before.
SPEAKER_02: And I began to pray and pray and seek the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And one day I was praying for someone, and all of a sudden another tongue came out of my mouth.
SPEAKER_02: And I rejoiced in the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And I went to my spiritual father who was Baptist.
SPEAKER_02: Now, have we got any Baptist in here today?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, how we love you.
SPEAKER_02: We do love you.
SPEAKER_02: We got any Methodists in here?
SPEAKER_02: Any Presbyterians?
SPEAKER_02: Any Lutherans?
SPEAKER_02: Any Pentecostals?
SPEAKER_02: For any charismatics?
SPEAKER_02: Well, we welcome you today because this is the day that we celebrate the birth of the church.
SPEAKER_02: Not only the birth of the church, but the empowering of the church.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: To the Jewish people, it is Shabuat.
SPEAKER_02: 50 days after Passover, the first Pentecost, when God gave the law for the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_02: Hebrews chapter 12 paints a beautiful picture of this in Hebrews 12, and I'm going to start reading in verse 18.
SPEAKER_02: For you have not come to a mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to the blackness and darkness and tempest, and to the sound of trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word that the words should not be spoken to them anymore, for they could not endure what was commanded.
SPEAKER_02: And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.
SPEAKER_02: And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.
SPEAKER_02: Here's a good part.
SPEAKER_02: But you, brothers and sisters, have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and the church of the firstborn, who are registered in heaven, to God the judge, and to all, to the of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks a better word than Abel.
SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_02: When I read that, I think of the thousands of years.
SPEAKER_02: Before Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And then the thousand years after Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And the power of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_02: On Mount Sinai, there was a sound of thunder, lightning, heavy clouds, and loud blast of a shofar, which rocked the mountain.
SPEAKER_02: The mountain was aflame with the voice of God, speaking the Ten Commandments, and the people were filled with the fear of God.
SPEAKER_02: Now let's look at what we celebrate.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Acts 2, starting with verse 1.
SPEAKER_02: When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
SPEAKER_02: And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
SPEAKER_02: Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one set upon each of them.
SPEAKER_02: And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
SPEAKER_02: The first Pentecost, a nation of God's people was birthed.
SPEAKER_02: In Acts 2, 50 days after Jesus had been crucified, there were a hundred and fifty people assembled at a prayer and worship meeting.
SPEAKER_02: And the church was birthed.
SPEAKER_02: Would you raise your hand if you've been Pentecostal for more than five minutes?
SPEAKER_02: And the church was birthed.
SPEAKER_02: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus told them to go and wait for the promise of the Father.
SPEAKER_02: He told them to go and wait for the promise of the Father.
SPEAKER_02: And beloved, if you're waiting, you're going to be doing two things.
SPEAKER_02: If you're waiting on God, you're going to be in prayer and you're going to be worshiping Him.
SPEAKER_02: You see, Pentecostal wasn't just a time of prayer, it was a time of worshiping the one who gave his life for them.
SPEAKER_02: It was a time of preparing.
SPEAKER_02: God was doing something.
SPEAKER_02: They started out, he visited God.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus came and met with over 500 people.
SPEAKER_02: But in that upper room, there were only 150.
SPEAKER_02: I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_02: There are people in the church, there are masses of people all over the world.
SPEAKER_02: But beloved, I want to say this to you.
SPEAKER_02: If you're real hungry for God, come on.
SPEAKER_02: If you're real hungry for a move of God, if you're real hungry for that which he promised, you'll be at a prayer and worship meeting.
SPEAKER_02: Come on, church.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm going to tell you, I'm going to preach till you all start helping me.
SPEAKER_02: It's Pentecost Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: Before I was in a church that celebrated Pentecost Sunday, I was excited about Pentecost Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: Because I read Acts chapter 2 and I knew.
SPEAKER_02: And if we can't get excited, who know and who have walked in and who have lived it, if we can't now, there's something, Lord, send your fire today.
SPEAKER_02: Send your fire.
SPEAKER_02: Flood this place.
SPEAKER_02: Send the wind of your spirit today.
SPEAKER_02: Reignite your church, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: On that day, a sound came from heaven.
SPEAKER_02: The Amplified Translation says the sound was like a violent tempest blast.
SPEAKER_02: The New Living translation calls the sound from heaven like a violent windstorm.
SPEAKER_02: And this sound filled the whole house where they were assembled.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine, in a house where you're assembled, 150 people there praying and worshiping God, and a sound from heaven came.
SPEAKER_02: A sound from heaven.
SPEAKER_02: God breathed on that place where that house.
SPEAKER_02: He breathed on that house.
SPEAKER_02: Everyone in that house was affected by the breath of God and the sound of God.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: Praise the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And fire fell from heaven.
SPEAKER_02: This fire didn't fall on a mountain.
SPEAKER_02: God's fire fell on the church.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine the violent sound of a windstorm filling a house.
SPEAKER_02: And fire from heaven fell on that house and didn't burn it up.
SPEAKER_02: The house wasn't burned up.
SPEAKER_02: If fire, like there when we have fires here, and the wind blows real strong, then the fire can move to other locations.
SPEAKER_02: And it's called a wildfire.
SPEAKER_02: But imagine God sending a fire at the sound of a windstorm and a fire, and all it did was light up the church.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_02: And the fire didn't consume the building, it sat on all 150 people in the house, not burning them up, but filling them with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: See, beloved, I want you to get today.
SPEAKER_02: When the Holy Spirit baptizes you, He baptizes you with His breath and His fire.
SPEAKER_02: His breath and His fire dwells in you.
SPEAKER_02: Now, some of you may have a few smoldering embers, but we're celebrating Pentecost today.
SPEAKER_02: We're thanking God for birthing the church.
SPEAKER_02: And what that meant, we wouldn't be here had He not birthed the church.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: Notice God did not choose only the elect few to have his fire rest upon.
SPEAKER_02: I have heard this from spirit-filled believers.
SPEAKER_02: And I ask them the same question every time they say it.
SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, God doesn't baptize all believers.
SPEAKER_02: All believers don't have the ability that they did that day.
SPEAKER_02: At Pentecost, only a few.
SPEAKER_02: Only a select.
SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah, if you go to a spirit-filled, charismatic Pentecostal church, well, yeah, they believed that.
SPEAKER_02: Beloved, I want to tell you, the Baptist church I was in, we had secret undercover stealth bombers filled with the fire of the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_02: I had one come up to me one day and he said, I saw you, I saw you, I saw you, and he started jumping up and down.
SPEAKER_02: He said, I saw that you were filled with the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_02: I saw you up there, and the Holy Ghost came upon you, and you started speaking in tongues.
SPEAKER_02: And then he looked around to make sure no one was gonna get in trouble.
SPEAKER_02: You know, at that time it was an assignment.
SPEAKER_02: There are people who are leaders from that church that got filled with the Holy Ghost and fire because there was a pastor who wasn't afraid.
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
SPEAKER_02: You see, I want to say this to you all.
SPEAKER_02: We are a spirit-filled word of God, believers in all things in the word.
SPEAKER_02: We're not ashamed of it.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not ashamed when I'm out in a store and the spirit comes up on me to just go ahead and pray in tongues.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not afraid of that.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not afraid someone's gonna go, oh, I'm offended.
SPEAKER_02: See, no one gets offended unless you go to the church.
SPEAKER_02: Are y'all hearing me?
SPEAKER_02: Come on now.
SPEAKER_02: Are you hearing me?
SPEAKER_02: You sit by the wrong person and you start she dadaboko.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not praying to you right now, I'm praying to him, so don't get offended at me.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_02: When we were a young church, I was standing up here and the Spirit of God came upon me, and I began to speak in tongues, and I was told by two people, you are out of order.
SPEAKER_02: I wasn't speaking to you, I was praying.
SPEAKER_02: Come on, come on, hallelujah, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: I said, How do you know the next words I said weren't interpretation?
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
SPEAKER_02: We we got we got have y'all noticed that in every church there's somebody wearing a Holy Ghost badge.
SPEAKER_02: They gotta go around and they gotta arrest people.
SPEAKER_02: I'm arresting you because you acting too, you acting too spiritual.
SPEAKER_02: You you you you got no earthly sense because you're too heavenly minded.
SPEAKER_02: Let me tell you something about that.
SPEAKER_02: I thank God I'm heavenly minded because if I wasn't, I wouldn't be here today.
SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't have paid prayed some people through.
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not I'm not bragging on me, I'm bragging on him.
SPEAKER_02: Come on, he put, he took away the fear.
SPEAKER_02: See, I wasn't there at Mount Sinai and tremble in fear.
SPEAKER_02: You see, I was at Pentecost, I was there the day.
SPEAKER_02: You say, Pastor, you weren't there the day.
SPEAKER_02: No, but I am joined with them.
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
SPEAKER_02: We're one.
SPEAKER_02: One day we'll see each other in heaven and they'll go, I saw you.
SPEAKER_02: I saw you there.
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, the church that believes in the fullness of the spirit should be the closest, most unified church on planet earth.
SPEAKER_02: There should be no disjointedness, there should be no strife, no anger, no jealousy.
SPEAKER_02: No, we're one.
SPEAKER_02: You see, they all came together and they were in one accord.
SPEAKER_02: I'm telling you, one accord.
SPEAKER_02: What a miracle! You know why they were in one accord?
SPEAKER_02: Because they loved Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: They were so full of his love.
SPEAKER_02: And let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_02: When they went out, when they were filled with the fire of the Holy Ghost, they were filled with the power and the love of God.
SPEAKER_02: Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_02: You can't love people unless you have the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: You can't love people.
SPEAKER_02: You can try to, you can put on a show, you can go love you, and you don't mean a bit of it.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible tells us we should owe no man anything but what?
SPEAKER_02: To love him.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm not saying that you have to be debt-free to be a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: What I'm saying to you is, God's in God's economy, come on.
SPEAKER_02: In God's economy, we owe each other a debt of love.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I might not like what you do.
SPEAKER_02: And you may not like what I do.
SPEAKER_02: But we're still to love each other, amen.
SPEAKER_02: Come on, beloved, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: So they were all filled.
SPEAKER_02: The fire of the Holy Spirit came and filled the whole house.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: So when people tell me, well, no, only a few people, one woman said to me one time that she didn't have the gift of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: God had given her the gift of Gab.
SPEAKER_02: That's an insult to the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's an insult to the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to this in Luke chapter 11 and verse 13.
SPEAKER_02: If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
SPEAKER_02: All you have to do is ask.
SPEAKER_02: All you have to do, well, Pastor, I've asked and I didn't receive.
SPEAKER_02: Ask again.
unknown: Come on.
SPEAKER_02: And tomorrow, if you don't receive, ask again.
unknown: That's right.
SPEAKER_02: Come come on.
SPEAKER_02: We we I've had people that say to me, Pastor, I I just I don't think God wants me to be baptized in the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_02: I I just I don't think He is.
SPEAKER_02: And I'll say, Well, let's make an appointment you come up to my office.
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes it's just a private thing.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: Anyway, so there was a woman said that, and and I I I said, just uh, we I said, I'm gonna pray for you after we talked for a while.
SPEAKER_02: I asked her to show me in the word, she couldn't.
SPEAKER_02: And so I asked her, can I pray for you?
SPEAKER_02: And I prayed for her, and I said, now go ahead and and pray in the spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Go ahead.
SPEAKER_02: And she said there, I said, just go ahead.
SPEAKER_02: Just go ahead.
SPEAKER_02: And in just a minute, she began to pray in the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_02: And it it shocked her.
SPEAKER_02: What is what yeah.
SPEAKER_02: All you have to do is ask.
SPEAKER_02: They were all filled.
SPEAKER_02: And they sp all and they all spoke another language.
SPEAKER_02: I love this part.
SPEAKER_02: And they all spoke another language.
SPEAKER_02: Remember in Genesis 11, the people came together to build a tower to heaven to make a great name for themselves.
SPEAKER_02: God said, they're all united in this effort to build a name for themselves in the heavens and on the earth.
SPEAKER_02: So he confused their language.
SPEAKER_02: But on the day of Pentecost, come on.
SPEAKER_02: But on the day of Pentecost, when it had fully come, God brought the kingdom order to his language.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that beautiful?
SPEAKER_02: And so the church spoke a God-breathed language.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_02: The church of the living God spoke a God-breathed language to take the gospel to all the languages of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: Acts 2, 5 through 11 says, and there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews devout men from every nation under heaven.
SPEAKER_02: And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language.
SPEAKER_02: Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, Look at, look, are not all these people speaking Galileans?
SPEAKER_02: You know, the Galilee was called the Galilee of the Nations, where all the nations came together.
SPEAKER_02: And how is it that we here, each in our own language, in which we were born, Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Phyragia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya, adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs were here.
SPEAKER_02: We hear them speaking in our own tongue the wonderful works of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: You see, heaven's language empowers.
SPEAKER_02: It empowers us.
SPEAKER_02: This was always God's plan.
SPEAKER_02: Always God's plan.
SPEAKER_02: God wanted the message of Jesus and his kingdom spread throughout the whole world.
SPEAKER_02: Praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: You see, every time I pray for you, Ryan, in Peru, I pray for these pastors.
SPEAKER_02: There'll be some there that'll be weary and wondering if they have the strength to carry on.
SPEAKER_02: Concerned about their nation and what will happen in the future.
SPEAKER_02: But you see, God is, and I'm going to use a Ryan, Alabama phrase.
SPEAKER_02: God is going to carry Ryan.
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
SPEAKER_02: Carry him on that plane, carry him in the car, whatever.
SPEAKER_02: Carry him in a buggy.
SPEAKER_02: I don't care what they God's carrying him to Peru with the message of the kingdom of God, with the message that God has burning in his spirit, because God is not through with Peru.
SPEAKER_02: He's not through with any nation all over the world.
SPEAKER_02: He's not through with the United States of America.
SPEAKER_02: Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is Lord of the United States of America.
SPEAKER_02: Come on, somebody shout with me.
SPEAKER_02: If you can't shout about anything else, you can shout about that.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness, there was always God, this was always God's plan.
SPEAKER_02: In Acts 1, at 4 through 8, he says, and being assembled together with them, he, Jesus, commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You have heard from me.
SPEAKER_02: For John truly baptized with water.
SPEAKER_02: But you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?
SPEAKER_02: And he said to them, It's not for you to know the time or seasons which the Father has put in your own, in his own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses, the witnesses of me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I sure am glad God's got some uh evangelists.
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure glad that God's raised up a couple of evangelists in here.
SPEAKER_02: But you see, beloved, he didn't say that evangelists would cover the earth.
SPEAKER_02: He said we would.
SPEAKER_02: That we would preach the gospel, that we would preach about Jesus, that we would tell the story of the one who saved us and who empowered us to be powerful sons and daughters of God.
SPEAKER_02: Because the day after is the beginning of the harvest time.
SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_02: You see, Pentecost is the only holy day that's only one day.
SPEAKER_02: Because tomorrow will be harvest time.
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
SPEAKER_02: If you're here and you're a smoldering ember, maybe you need to get a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you need to have the fire afresh.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you need to have the Spirit breathe on you again.
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
SPEAKER_02: Acts 2, 40 through 47, listen to this.
SPEAKER_02: And with many other words he testified it, exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation.
SPEAKER_02: Then those who gladly received his word were baptized.
SPEAKER_02: And that day about 3,000 souls were added to them.
SPEAKER_02: And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
SPEAKER_02: Now all who believed were together and had all things in common, sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need.
SPEAKER_02: Now there would be a mi that that's a miracle.
SPEAKER_02: When it says sign, wonders, and miracles, one of the miracles is that the church would have such a burden for the people that you go to church with that you would sell a piece of land just to help them out.
SPEAKER_02: You see, if you move on down from chapter two, you get to the chapter where they they sold possessions and they brought them and put them at the feet of the apostles so they could live like wealthy people.
SPEAKER_02: That isn't said in the word, is it?
SPEAKER_02: That isn't said that they brought the money so that the apostles could build their own kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: Beloved, sadly, today there are people who call themselves apostles, and uh they amass great wealth to build their own personal kingdom instead of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: Beloved, it should not be so.
SPEAKER_02: It said, and they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all people.
SPEAKER_02: And the Lord added to the church daily those being saved.
SPEAKER_02: Wow, hold it right there.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord added to the church daily those being saved, the Lord did it, the Lord did it, the Lord did it.
SPEAKER_02: That's amazing to me.
SPEAKER_02: We gotta figure out.
SPEAKER_02: We gotta figure out a way.
SPEAKER_02: Let's have evangelism training.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing wrong with it.
SPEAKER_02: But the Lord added, you know what they were doing?
SPEAKER_02: They were praying, they were fasting, they were worshiping, they were being obedient to everything God told them to do, and they were so different that it absolutely shook the cities they were in, and people ran to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: Do you hear this?
SPEAKER_02: It's harvest time.
SPEAKER_02: The sound of Pentecost came and filled them with Holy Spirit, not only them, but also us to empower us to witness, to be a witness of Jesus, what he has done in us and for us, and what he will do for all people.
SPEAKER_02: And he will add to the church those who are being saved.
SPEAKER_02: Brother Ryan, I'm gonna ask you to come up here.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm gonna ask you to take this service where you know the Lord is wanting it to go by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting that this says the sound of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that stays with me is sound precedes the manifestation of revelation.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times we're looking for some kind of manifestation so that we can have something that will give us hope or give us peace or comfort or something.
SPEAKER_00: But the deal is God speaks.
SPEAKER_00: There's a sound.
SPEAKER_00: And then through the prayer and the travailing, there comes a manifestation.
SPEAKER_00: And then there is the revelation of it.
SPEAKER_00: What was happening at Pentecost when that sound first came?
SPEAKER_00: The sound came, and the manifestation was because of what they had been in prayer for, what they had been travailing for, what they knew that they had sought the Lord for when he said, I must go, but one is coming greater than I am, one who is filled and gives you power, one who has the ability to take you to a place that I'm not willing or able to take you because the comforter himself must come.
SPEAKER_00: And that Sam preceded something.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, the manifestation was that fire, clothing, tongues, but the revelation was when they came out of the upper room and they began to speak in another language.
SPEAKER_00: When they began to go and minister, and the church was added unto, when they began to spread out, that revelation was the revelation of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: You and I cannot get our all of our eggs in a basket at just the manifestation.
SPEAKER_00: There is a revelation that must be demonstrated.
SPEAKER_00: And if we do not persist and endure what it is that we're called to do, where we're called to go, who we're called to be as sons and daughters of God, we'll be satisfied with manifestations.
SPEAKER_00: But manifestation was not where the glory was at.
SPEAKER_00: The glory was in the revelation when they went out of the upper room and they demonstrated the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: So the sound, yes, we get excited about the sound.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we get excited about that manifestation, but it's the revelation.
SPEAKER_00: There are people out there who do not know the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: There are people who do not know the healing power of the Father and the blood of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There are people who need deliverance and they don't know that they can be delivered.
SPEAKER_00: There are people out there that don't have any hope because no one said there is hope and his name is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The sound was the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: The tongues was that manifestation, but that revelation.
SPEAKER_00: You and I, as sons and daughters of God, we don't simply go around and saying God loves you.
SPEAKER_00: And God has a heart for you, and God wants what's best for you.
SPEAKER_00: No, we demonstrate that revelation.
SPEAKER_00: We demonstrate the manifestation.
SPEAKER_00: We demonstrate the sound.
SPEAKER_00: The sound of Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: It came like a mighty rushing wind.
SPEAKER_00: And when it came, it filled the whole house.
SPEAKER_00: The whole house.
SPEAKER_00: I love this about Acts.
SPEAKER_00: When it says, when you go on and you read this, we get excited.
SPEAKER_00: I get excited, and God added to the church.
SPEAKER_00: It's like Pastor was saying, I get excited about that every time.
SPEAKER_00: This church was added to by thousands.
SPEAKER_00: And you read in Acts chapter 2, they met, they prayed, this happened.
SPEAKER_00: You read in chapter 3, we see a pattern start to develop.
SPEAKER_00: They met in people's homes, they prayed and they broke bread.
SPEAKER_00: They prayed and they broke bread.
SPEAKER_00: We see it in Acts chapter 4, we see it in Acts chapter 5, and we see it in Acts chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: And then we miss it.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing there about meeting, praying, and breaking bread in 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 12, all of a sudden, one of the disciples has been executed and Peter's in prison.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter's in prison, and the church is now deciding we better pray.
SPEAKER_00: And they're gathered together and they're praying for Peter's release.
SPEAKER_00: I can't prove this, but hear me when I say this.
SPEAKER_00: There is a possibility that one of the reasons that one of the disciples lost their life and Peter's in prison facing for his head to be cut off is because the pattern of breaking bread and praying daily had become routine, or they took it as something that they didn't see as efficient enough or important enough anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And it became, it became familiar in that.
SPEAKER_00: I want to charge us today.
SPEAKER_00: You can't allow the prayer to become familiar to something that you haphazardly do.
SPEAKER_00: It must be something that you be intentional about.
SPEAKER_00: And when the church began to pray, all of a sudden an angel came and visited Peter where he was at.
SPEAKER_00: And the angel had to wake Peter up and tell him, come on, we're going.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter thinking it's a dream, and all of a sudden the angel opens the gate, and then Peter realizes this is real.
SPEAKER_00: This is real.
SPEAKER_00: And he walks out.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter goes to where they are praying.
SPEAKER_00: And that girl, Rhoda, there, right?
SPEAKER_00: We know this story, Rhoda.
SPEAKER_00: It's Peter.
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, no, it can't be him.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting that a praying church was looking for Peter to be released but couldn't recognize that he was released because it came in a way that they didn't expect.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell us something this morning?
SPEAKER_00: There's going to be a lot of things happen in the way that we don't expect it to happen.
SPEAKER_00: But when the breakthrough comes, don't try to redefine what it is because it didn't come in the way that we wanted it to.
SPEAKER_00: And the girl knew it was Peter.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what the scripture says Peter stood at the gate.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't come to the house.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't come to the door.
SPEAKER_00: He stood at the gate.
SPEAKER_00: And the church addressed him from the house to the gate.
SPEAKER_00: They never opened the gate.
SPEAKER_00: The church that was praying for him to be released never received him in the home.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter said, I've got to go on.
SPEAKER_00: I love this nation and I love all churches.
SPEAKER_00: Don't misunderstand me.
SPEAKER_00: I love them, but there's a lot of churches that are praying for a visitation, but they're happy with the gates that are closed.
SPEAKER_00: In this region, we're not happy with gates closed.
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to the presence of God, when it comes to Jesus, when it comes to Holy Spirit, we say, open up the gates.
SPEAKER_00: Open up the gates.
SPEAKER_00: When it comes to the enemy, no, you have no right, you have no territory, you have no legal authority.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot do anything that is governing because we as the sons and daughters of God, we as the ecclesia are the defining voices that God has put into a region to proclaim what the Lord is actually saying.
SPEAKER_00: It's not out just about praying in the upper room.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just about praying in the house, it's about the demonstration everywhere we go.
SPEAKER_00: The church that was praying for his release could have simply opened the gate and said, Peter, come on into the house.
SPEAKER_00: I want us not to be satisfied with a drive-by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Hey Jesus, you got close enough to me.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get too close because I don't want to speak in that gibber jabber.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to, I don't want to be one of those people that gets excited and lets us shout out.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want people to think less of me, and I don't want all this and that.
SPEAKER_00: Just, Jesus, I'm good with you on the outside.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing about the Bible where it's negotiating.
SPEAKER_00: The life that we're called to live is a life of transformation.
SPEAKER_00: Who we are no longer gets to be when we surrender our lives to who He is.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking when Pastor said about receiving the baptism in the Baptist church.
SPEAKER_00: My parents, I had good parents, I have really good parents.
SPEAKER_00: I was raised in a great home.
SPEAKER_00: But as a kid, we didn't go to church a whole lot.
SPEAKER_00: But when we did, we went to a Baptist or a Methodist church.
SPEAKER_00: That was my background.
SPEAKER_00: I knew God and Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's all I knew.
SPEAKER_00: I never even heard the terminology Holy Spirit, much less Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: And I finally was born again.
SPEAKER_00: Christy and I were married, and believe it or not, I was pastor in a church, and I got a hold of a book by Tommy Tenney called The God Chasers.
SPEAKER_00: And I was reading that book, and I can remember telling Christy, you know, he writes like there's more.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know what he's talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Christy's background, her whole family, they're tongue talkers.
SPEAKER_00: They're Pentecostal.
SPEAKER_00: But I was warned when I started dating Christy, my mama said, don't let them make you like one of them.
SPEAKER_00: But I was pastoring this church that had a background of a United Methodist background.
SPEAKER_00: And I read that book, and I went to my great-grandmother's house, and I'm sitting in my great-grandmother's living room.
SPEAKER_00: She had a couch and love seat, and sitting there, and I'm sharing with my great-grandmother about the more.
SPEAKER_00: And my great-grandmother looked at me and she said, Son, you know what it is.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't have a clue.
SPEAKER_00: She said, You need the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: I said, What is that?
SPEAKER_00: So she started telling me.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm pastor, and think about it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that is.
SPEAKER_00: But she starts telling me, and I said, I don't understand that.
SPEAKER_00: She said, You don't have to understand it.
SPEAKER_00: Do you want it?
SPEAKER_00: I said, I want everything.
SPEAKER_00: And then on a love seat in my great-grandmother's living room, I was filled and baptized with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't have to happen at an altar.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't have to happen in front of a whole people.
SPEAKER_00: It didn't have to happen because I understood it all.
SPEAKER_00: It happened because I said yes.
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you something this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Everything that that pastor shared and everything that I've just shared right here, it all comes because you say yes.
SPEAKER_00: Those that were in the upper room, they said yes.
SPEAKER_00: Those that could have opened up the gate could have said yes to his presence.
SPEAKER_00: And those that needed more, those that need more, all you gotta do is say yes.
SPEAKER_00: We serve a God that you don't have to beg.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to plead with him.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to live the perfect life.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to live the perfect life.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about how good we are as people.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about what do we have to do to prove to God that you love me or that I am a good person.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about being a good person.
SPEAKER_00: It's about saying yes.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I want all of you.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I want more of you.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I don't even understand it, but yes, I want more.
SPEAKER_00: I want more of your love.
SPEAKER_00: I want more of your grace.
SPEAKER_00: I want more of your glory.
SPEAKER_00: I want more of the anointing.
SPEAKER_00: I want more fire.
SPEAKER_00: I want more of who you are.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning, it's an honest and sincere question.
SPEAKER_00: How much do you want?
SPEAKER_00: The crazy thing in my mind is as much as God wants to give all of him to us, he will respect what we ask.
SPEAKER_00: And that blows my mind.
SPEAKER_00: Because we say he's a good God.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, he's wanting to give you all of his goodness, but we're the ones that deny him.
SPEAKER_00: We're the ones that says it's enough.
SPEAKER_00: We're the ones that says, I don't want to go any further.
SPEAKER_00: And he respects it.
SPEAKER_00: That blows my mind.
SPEAKER_00: Because as a father, man, I want to do everything I can for my kids.
SPEAKER_00: And now, getting to be a grandfather, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, it's another level of wanting to give.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, y'all seen, y'all have seen little men running around.
SPEAKER_00: The other day I asked a simple question has he had ice cream?
SPEAKER_00: Nope.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, we're going to get ice cream.
SPEAKER_00: Because I want to give him the experience of something that he's never had.
SPEAKER_00: How much more do you think the Father in Heaven's wanting to give you the same thing this morning?