First Love Church
These podcasts are messages that were preached at First Love Church in Ocala, Florida. We hope that you are encouraged and inspired by what you hear. We are a non denominational, egalitarian church that practices a generous orthodoxy. Find out more about our local congregation online at firstlovechurch.org.
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First Love Church
Ancient Breath: Rediscovering God's Spirit in Modern Life
Have you ever been in such exquisite pain that you forgot how to breathe? That moment when something so natural becomes impossible reveals a profound spiritual truth about our relationship with the Holy Spirit.
This powerful message explores what happens when we forget the nearness of God during our darkest hours. Through a moving story about childbirth, Pastor Heather illustrates how sometimes we need another's presence to remind us of what we're designed to do naturally—breathe in God's spirit.
The Pentecost season invites us to reconsider our understanding of the Holy Spirit's role in our lives. Rather than thinking the church gives people the Spirit, we discover that God's Spirit is already present in everyone—our role is simply to help stir and awaken what's already there. It's the difference between providing oxygen and gently reminding someone, "You and me, we're breathing together."
Many Christians have elevated knowledge while diminishing spiritual experience, creating an imbalance that leaves us spiritually malnourished. Like having a marriage license without experiencing the relationship, we miss the vibrancy of authentic spiritual connection. This teaching challenges us to embrace both knowledge and experience as essential pillars of faith.
Perhaps most transformative is the revelation about hearing spiritually. The miracle of Pentecost wasn't just in the speaking but in the hearing—understanding what lies beneath angry words or defensive postures. When we truly hear others through the Spirit's insight, relationships that seemed broken can become pathways to healing.
Ready to rediscover the mystical dimension of Christianity that goes beyond doctrines to lived experience? Learn how silence becomes the doorway to hearing God's voice and how love serves as both the test of authentic spiritual insights and the path to deeper connection with the divine.
Subscribe now to continue this exploration of how the Holy Spirit transforms our hearing, our relationships, and our entire approach to spiritual growth.
This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church you can donate at https://www.firstlovechurch.org/giving
In the service of LOVE,
Pastors Dennis and Heather Drake
Welcome to the First Love Church Podcast. This is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the Revised Common Lectionary and recorded weekly in Ocala Florida.
Dennis Drake:Here's my mom and dad. Everybody, Goodbye.
Heather Drake:Bless, bless, bless. If you need to wrestle this morning, this is the place. I suspect. Who taught you how to wrestle with God? I think there needs to be a place this is more like a dojo than it is like a theater or a classroom where you do get to wrestle it out. But I want to remind you that your wrestling is not with someone who is angry with you, who is upset with you. Your wrestling comes like the wrestling of love.
Heather Drake:To be able to say this is what it looks like for love to be in this place. You are loved by God, completely and dearly as you are right now. The love of God does not change and so, as you remind yourselves this morning, as you come into the house of the Lord, you are loved and you are cherished. And may the potter craft us all into what we really are meant to be the true belongings, and may we be vessels of light and vessels of love. We're excited to be with you this week, the second week of Pentecost. I'm glad Pentecost isn't just only one week. Thank you, david, for ministering last week in Pentecost. I'm so grateful for that, and it is a joy to be able to have children who are growing up in the faith and turning into or they are already men and women full of grace and full of God.
Heather Drake:I'm one of the times as First Love Church is 25 years old, so when we began this church, our children were littles. And one of the times we came into church and there's always a lot of stuff for us to do beforehand and we noticed David had a stack of business cards that said First Love Church and then had the address, and this was before the web. The website wasn't on there. There was a telephone number and it said Pastor Dennis Drake, and David had taken his little pen and had crossed out Dennis Drake and wrote David Drake in all these little cards.
Heather Drake:And so how sweet, right, how beautiful to be able to say where's my place in the church, and so it was such a joy to be able to have him minister the word, and I was thinking, oh, as a little kid, when you came in, and on a regular basis we had to re-clothe him because he would be unclothed all the time, and so there was a joy for all of us when there's a certain point of maturity in someone who keeps their clothes on, and for you, you're welcomed in whatever state of immaturity you are, and we're gonna, together, remind you that there's a place to grow and to breathe. And so again, in this particular season in the Christian calendar, and in reminding ourselves what we're doing, we're listening to, we're learning how, and we're receiving the gift of God's own spirit, the Holy Spirit, with us.
Dennis Drake:He went around handing those cards out to people and saying I'm Pastor David, if you need any help, just let me know. And I think that you know sometimes we wink at that. But from the time he was little he figured where could he find his spot and he trusted that if he offered it would be useful. And I remember one time there was a couple that ran our greeting. We used to have greeters back there and the couple was there every week greeting uh, until the the week that, uh, the husband johnny died and uh, we went through the funeral that week and then come sunday, uh, joan was standing in her spot. But it was very obvious, it's, that uh, it wasn't right, and so everybody kind of looked around. We're gonna tell her she didn't have to greet. Are we going to say something? What are we going to do? And before we knew it, a six-year-old David just walked up to her and said hey, I think I'm going to stand here and greet with you today, and so for the rest of the morning he did that.
Dennis Drake:And there's something about us being able to just kind of be innocent and be open in our hearts to how God would use us, because it's not all about getting into the pulpit, it's about all those little things that you would do to kind of prepare you to be the kind of person that we would want to hear from you. Follow me, you can just be good at speaking or have something to say, but it doesn't mean that we want to or need to hear it. It's really from that place of service, and so I am grateful for my sons and my daughter and their contribution to the church and to all of you that make it happen when we're here and when we're not here. But it's nice to be able to go away and know that things are handled well. We preached at Pastor Wade's church and Julie's church in Claremont and spent the weekend with them and just kind of loved on them and encouraged them. That was their 15th anniversary of the church.
Dennis Drake:And in November we'll be celebrating our 25th.
Heather Drake:Yeah, that's exciting. That's a real gift. Again, we are grateful for your presence here with us and for those of you who are online. We're grateful for that as well, for everyone who brings their gifts, for Amy, who brings us beautiful flowers every week, and I do hope that during the week because this is something that Pastor Dennis and I pray for you, as we do pray for you all the week, because this is something that Pastor Dennis and I pray for you, as we do pray for you all the time is that nature would testify to you of the goodness of your God, of your place in the creation story, of the frequency of God's love and how it is all around us, and the invitation to breathe into the peace, to breathe into the grace. This Pentecost season we started last week with Pentecost and this will be a time where we will listen to each other's stories. We'll listen to the stories in scripture and we'll practice learning how to listen to the Holy Spirit, to be with each other and to be attuned into God's Holy Spirit. What is it like for someone to help you to hear the Spirit for yourself, for you to hear the grace for yourself?
Heather Drake:It was more than 30 years ago that I was in the hospital in Tulsa, oklahoma, giving birth to Thomas, and I was in such exquisite pain that I forgot how to breathe and I mean, breathing is something you don't usually use your brain for. But in my pain, I began to hold my breath and in that pain, in in that breath holding, I began to not be able to breathe, something that my body could actually do. I became in my anxiety to be unable to do something that I was actually made to do. And people were panicking around me. Someone was shouting, saying get her some oxygen, and there was all these things. And a nurse walked in. She wasn't my nurse and she looked at me in that exquisite pain and in my inability to breathe and in everyone else's chaos. And she came right over to me and she put her hand right here at the side of my jaw and she said you and me, we're breathing together, breathe now. And when I couldn't think to breathe, she helped me breathe and so I began. She put her hand right here so I wouldn't be distracted with the crazy that was happening around, with the pain that was in me. She said we're going to breathe together, breathe now, breathe now. And I began to calm. Even the pain didn't leave. In fact, the baby was being born, the pain was essential, and so we didn't want that to happen.
Heather Drake:But sometimes, as humans, we are in such exquisite pain that we forget the nearness of God, and what I needed was some woman's presence to come here and say together, we're going to do this, together, you can do this. She did not breathe for me, but she gave me a remembrance, an ancient knowing. My body was made to be able to breathe, and this is what we see Jesus doing when he sees the disciples in rooms, locked doors, panicked that the same thing that happened to their friend was going to happen to them. In their exquisite fear. Jesus comes in and he says peace and he breathes on them and he says receive the Holy Spirit For each of us.
Heather Drake:This morning, whatever pain you are in, I want you to hear me say with me breathe, breathe in the Holy Spirit, breathe in the love, breathe in the goodness, because sometimes, when the world around us is chaotic, we forget to take that big breath of God. This is how we're made, this is the very beginning of us, this is the remembrance of us when God made woman, when he made man when he made mankind and he said he breathed into them, received God's own spirit. And so, during this season of Pentecost, together we remember that ancient breath, that beauty in saying we are not alone. Even in our pain we are not alone, we are together, the breath and the power and the creativity of god with us always who is that nurse for you?
Dennis Drake:it can be, uh, pastors, it can be the church, it can be spiritual leaders and people that you have, and it's probably not going to be some book or some TV show you watch. It's going to be someone that knows you and can say to you, can really look you in the face. But I want that for you and I believe that's what our church really is. I think one of the greatest things happened to me not so much Heather and the kids I'm sorry that they had to experience it with me but I was let go from a church after six years of working at a church and it was probably one of the greatest things that happened to me because I was in the church world and you kind of get this idea that, boy, if you work at the church, that's going to be heavenly, you know, know, get away from the, the people, the world, just be with christians, and. But I tell you what, when I was let go from those, uh, those claws and knives that were in my back, it was actually a pretty good day, but uh, but I tell you, I went and I worked at at a. I started selling pianos, among other things. I did a bunch of jobs in that meantime, but I was selling pianos and I thought, well, you know, I'm I'm at the church anymore Now I'm among the heathens.
Dennis Drake:And as I was among the heathens, I began to see the spirit in these people in a way that was stronger than many Christians I knew. And I thought well, that's funny, because I was always under the impression that the church gave these people the spirit. But it turns out they all already have the spirit. God gives us the spirit, and so when you decide to come in relationship with God, he fills you with his spirit, he gives you spirit. And so I began to realize that if we started church and that's what we did instead of us thinking that we're going to give the spirit, why don't we help the people that have the spirit, stir it, or come to know it and look at their faces and remind them, breathe in the Holy Spirit? You understand what I'm saying, you understand where I'm going with this, and I wonder if maybe you have thought the church is supposed to give you that spirit and then, consequently, you're the one who's very disappointed with church, because those leaders failed you, they broke your heart, they betrayed you. In some cases they, they weren't less than than honorable, uh, but maybe we put them in a place and asked them to do something they were never called to do. God's the one who gives the spirit, and but we all can be that nurse and come alongside and say remember to breathe. That nurse didn't breathe for Heather. That nurse didn't put the breath in her lungs. The nurse didn't provide any miracles other than remind her of the gift you know.
Dennis Drake:And so I would really like and hope that as a church, we would help you come into that, and I believe that those people that I was calling heathens were living outside of the best that God had for them, but there was still a spark inside of them and that spark could be fanned into flames if we encourage them with the love of god and with the promises of god and not hand them dogma and and doctrines and that are cumbersome and burdensome and and and try to lace them with the religious things that hold us all back. But if we were encouraging them, and that's what I believe pentecost reminds us and when we celebrate it every year. So remember, wait a minute we're not people of knowledge, we're people of spirit. Now I've seen people with spirit and no knowledge. They're a nightmare.
Dennis Drake:But I come to the church and I find most people so filled with knowledge and zero spirit and they're in many cases a nightmare, because it's the, the spirit that that we experience god and we follow god and we respond. You know, uh, and, and so I, I would challenge you that, while it's good to get understanding, I think as a church of jesus christ in general certainly in america, where I'm very familiar we have exalted knowledge and almost diminished experience, and god really has asked, uh, those things to walk hand in hand. They're, they're both pillars that the church is built on and so both are needful. And I've heard people say you know you can't base your spirituality on your experiences, and I believe that, but in that they have diminished experience to be something that we've maybe fallen asleep on expecting or looking for. And I tell you that is the spice.
Heather Drake:I mean, I have a marriage license but I really enjoy experiencing my marriage with Heather On days when we're pleasant with each other. There are other days when we remember that there are good days.
Dennis Drake:She enjoyed that. Yesterday I apologized to her by saying I wasn't pleasant with you and she goes. That's what you call it.
Heather Drake:That's cute. That's a cute little word. Wasn't Bless for all of us in all of the ways we are unpleasant with the world, in all of the ways that we forgot who we were or we forgot to be able to breathe? This is the season of Pentecost. It is our joy to be with you here and to remind you of these things. I'm going to go. If we could talk about all the scripture that reminds us of what the spirit is, we would not have the time, and so I am going to give you a little bit, and then you are going to listen to the spirit who is going to speak to you Because one of the things that Jesus said. I'm going to go back and forth, back and forth here. We're going to go to John. For this reason, in fact, it's best for you that I go away. I would have stopped Jesus right there.
Dennis Drake:I think, it's not.
Heather Drake:I think it's not. I know you think that it is, or someone told you that it was, but I would like to keep you here with me always.
Dennis Drake:Right.
Heather Drake:But if I don't go, the advocate won't come. So if I do go away, then I will send him to you and when he comes he will convict the world of its sin and of God's righteousness and of the coming judgment. Side note on this we have the Holy Spirit. We have God's own spirit. We have the spirit that is capable of raising Jesus from the dead. This is the spirit of God that is coming, that is living in each one of us, and the spirit's job is to convict the world of the illusion of sin, of this separation. Convict the world and tell the world how there is a restorative judgment coming. That is not our job. That is the job of the Holy Spirit. Our job is to receive the Spirit. Our job is to listen to the Spirit and our job is people who will surrender our thoughts so that the love of God that we're going to read about in Romans, that is already shed abroad in your heart through Christ Jesus. That love that is already there is something that we live on and breathe out of.
Heather Drake:The world's sin is that it refuses to believe in me. Righteousness is available because I go to the Father and you will see me. No more Judgment will come, because the ruler of this world has already been judged. There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can't bear it now. I would have been super disappointed. I really would have been. I would have been like, but I want to know, and do you hear the ego in that and not the precious spirit who says I trust you to tell me, when I can bear it, how gentle a shepherd we have to be able to say I would give you more to know, but it's too much for you, how gentle a shepherd we have, how good a father, how beautiful a holy parent we have who will not give us too much. You cannot bear it now.
Dennis Drake:You know, this reminds us that. You know, the revelation. Knowledge is progressive, you know, and it takes a lifetime, I believe, for us. You know, I know that when I first became a Christian, you know, certainty was what I was looking for and I wanted to know, like, what was right and what was wrong so I could do it, and I wanted certainty. And so, you know, I found the things in Scripture that I thought would give me. That, you know, and I think you know for us, and you know many of us, you might have found yourself there, you might still find yourself there, but since that's not a thing that we're promised, he said that you know whether abased or abound, and all. You know those things. You can have peace, but it doesn't mean that you're not gonna. In this world there will be tribulations. You know those things. You can, you can have, uh, peace, but it doesn't mean that you're not gonna. In this world there will be tribulations. You know there is going to be struggles and so, uh, I was looking for that magic bullet or or whatever, and, and for a while that that appeased me, that pursuit and the revelation that I was getting.
Dennis Drake:But there came, there came a point when, oh when, when I have to, even when I can't see God's hand, I trust God's heart. When you can't sink your teeth into certainty, when you can't even seem to find a handle on your faith, that God has not left you. And there's a progression in my faith and there's a place where that helps me turn loose of my illusion of control that I think I can control my family. I think I can control my future. I think I can tell God what he needs to do in my life. How foolish of us. All of us need to learn to let go of that and really then trust the God of the universe. It sounds great in theory, but none of us want to do it in practice. To really trust the God of the universe with your next breath, yeah, that's great and all. But I still got to put some money in the 401k.
Dennis Drake:And I'm not saying, don't do that, but we tend to fall back on our certainties, don't we tend to to to fall back on our certainties, don't we? And uh, there's, there's this place of, of, of true that I I mean, I live in the natural and I'm called to this place of the spirit. There's no certainty in that, there's no, fully understanding that there's no scripture that you're going to quote and all of a sudden it's all going to fall in line. There's always going to be that place of faith and trust. Amen, and I think you might even find that to be. There might be comfort in that discomfort, there might be knowing that I am growing, that God is revealing things to me that maybe I didn't know before. Amen, amen.
Heather Drake:There are beautiful spiritual practices that the church has given us that help us learn how to hear the Spirit. When the Spirit comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will tell you what he has heard and he will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me, all that belongs to the Father is mine. So Jesus is saying it's better that I go. You will receive a spirit and the spirit will teach you. The spirit will be your teacher, because you have a very specific life that is different than mine, and the things that help me may not be the same things that help you, and my path is different than yours. But together, as a family of God, we learn how to hear the Spirit, how to attune ourselves to the whisper of the Spirit who is leading us, who is with us always, who is inviting us into the co-creation that is happening between the kingdom that is coming and the one that we already have and so beloved. It is a beautiful invitation to learn how to hear the spirit of God. I will tell you one of my favorite practices, and it's recent, but it has brought me such awe and I just remind you that awe is really what's needed for worship. But I'm not going to tell you, I'm going to rewind it. I'm not going to say you should. I'm going to invite you to sign up for updates from the James Webb Telescope and you should? No, I'm going to rephrase that. Help me.
Heather Drake:It would behoove you to look at the galaxies, to stand in awe of the creation of God. How incredible it is to look at the heavens. Beloved. If you need to find that place in spirit that is quickening you, that is reviving you, that is giving you direction, step outside, even into the Florida heat. I will tell you, the spirit will meet you there in the fire. I know this. But go out in the cool of the morning or in the cool of the evening and be able to watch the trees and to be able to listen to this and let God's own creation witness and testify of your place here and of God's care for all the things that are around us. There is a holy witness to us. The scriptures are a witness to us of Jesus, but the spirit we have been given, god's own spirit, each one of us, alive, creation inside of us, offering us comfort, guidance, truth. This is the promise of Jesus and this is why Jesus said it's better for you that I am not here, because you will contain me, the Spirit of God.
Dennis Drake:Are you familiar with church history at all to know anything about Martin Luther? Martin Luther wrote a thesis of 97 things that he thought were wrong with the church and nailed it to the doors. And he was saying I want to have a discussion, but at that time stuff like that got you beheaded. So you ever ask yourself, like what was going? Or is he just a church history person? Or do you ever think about what would cause him to stand up against the entire church? That's amazing. It's the Holy Spirit. But I mean, would anyone do that today? You know, and I was talking to a young lady that attends our church and she was saying in school she went to kind of like a goofy um Christian school that had some weird doctrine and they would like say to her you know, you have to believe this doctrine, and as a little girl she'd be like well, you know, I appreciate what you're saying, but I disagree with it. And do you ever think of this? And it'd make the teacher steaming because they couldn't answer her questions. You went to that same school, I think. So then these two that I'm speaking of now all of a sudden are made to feel like an outcast and begin to question themselves. But they're just, they have a knowing, you know. Now, all of a sudden, are made to feel like an outcast and begin to question themselves. But they're just, they have a knowing. You know that I shouldn't step in, that there's just a common sense there.
Dennis Drake:And then, even when these people are preaching and they're like you've got to believe this, and here's what's happening, most people will go along. There's a study, a controlled study, and they'll go. They'll have two lines a line that stops here and a line that stops here and 19 people are in on it and one person's not. And they'll have the 19 people come up and they'll say this line is taller than this line. And you can see it's not. But 19 people will come up and say this line is taller. And then, when they come up to the subject, they'll walk up and almost always say line A was taller, even when they know beyond the shadow of a doubt line B was taller.
Dennis Drake:That's just how we are.
Dennis Drake:We don't want to be wrong, we don't want to rock the boat, we don't want to make people uncomfortable and I'm wondering why it is that certain people just have that ability to just say this is not right and those people need to help us and teach us, and we need to be around people like that, otherwise we become the people that will stand up and swear that a line is not as tall as the other, you know, just because we want to get along. And so there's something here that I want you to kind of see that the Spirit speaks to us, and sometimes we train ourselves to ignore the Spirit and we need to be trained to respond, and that happens through us experiencing other people and watching their lives and for them to encourage us and look us in the face and remind us in the toughest time breathe, we can trust God. Now it's great to say I trust God in smooth sailing, but when the storm is going and the boat looks like it's gonna sink, can you lay down on a pillow and fall asleep then?
Heather Drake:We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining us today. If you're finding this episode meaningful, would you take a moment to share it with a friend? This podcast is made possible thanks to the generosity of people just like you. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church and the continued work of our podcast, visit us online at firstlovechurchorg, reminding you to like, follow and subscribe.
Heather Drake:I think one of the powers of Pentecost and one of the things that we forget or don't remember is that the miracle of Pentecost is in the hearing. Every time you hear someone and really hear them, you hear their heart. You've experienced Pentecost. Every time you are heard, you are participating in Pentecost, and there is for us a practice in holy listening, for us to be people who listen to the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit makes our hearing possible, not just the ability to capture sounds, but to be able to really, truly understand. This is the message of reconciliation. This is the good news of the gospel. In fact, all of the scriptures that we will look at in this time of Pentecost is of people who have to go beyond their natural borders. In fact, peter, filled with the Spirit, says let me tell you, these people are not drunk, as you suppose. This is what was prophesied by the prophet Joel when he said in the last days, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy Again. There is a distinction there between sons and daughters, who we honor, who we elevate. And Joel said, and Peter says the exact same thing no, in the day that God's spirit is poured out on everyone, all the distinctions are gone. And so Peter has to continue to hear these things because he doesn't really believe it.
Heather Drake:A little bit later in the story, he's on the rooftop praying and an angel appears to him and visions appear to him, and then people come to the door and say please come. And he has to go to the house of a Gentile which is against all the rules. And he gets there and he's going to save the Gentiles because he has an idea that they need to be saved and they need to hear this good news and they need to change from who they are. And he begins to talk and the Holy Spirit interrupts him. And I want to tell you the Holy Spirit, who is so good, is readily to interrupt you and ready to say you know where you've placed those boundaries. It's us and them. The Holy Spirit's going to just absolutely destroy those, because love is a reconciliation. God is love and God's incredible, radical love, in the power of the Holy Spirit, is what changes our way of being heard and of hearing other people. And over and over again we'll see this.
Heather Drake:We'll see this Ethiopian eunuch who is on the side of the road. Here is a person outside of the norm and because of this sexual it's something that actually happened to him. Nobody makes themselves a eunuch. Somebody had decided this had happened and he was changed and because of that he was kept out of the temple. He was not allowed to be in. He's on the side of the road. There's an actual miracle. Philip, just absolutely like drops in from outer space.
Heather Drake:We were talking the other day about time travel. I think Philip has already experienced that. But he's there by the side of the road and this person is already studying the scripture and Philip sees it and says, oh, I see that you're studying this and do you want information? And the eunuch just asks him and says, hey, is there any reason why I can't be baptized? Is there any reason why I can't be a part of this family. Is there any reason why I cannot experience this life?
Heather Drake:According to their culture, there was. According to all the rules that were there, there absolutely was. And Philip said, by the Holy Spirit, oh, I see no reason at all. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will, inspired by the Spirit, say those lines that are between us absolutely not. They're not. And miraculously by water in the desert, and he's baptized. And so, over and over again, through this time of Pentecost, we will see the expansion of love, the expansion of spirit, the expansion of reconciliation, all God's people being redeemed, being able to hear the message and being loved and brought in. Our faith in Jesus transfers God's righteousness to us and he declares us flawless in his eyes. Let me talk.
Dennis Drake:I just want what I want to piggyback on what you were saying, because I really want us to land on that idea. Pentecost, one of the major miracles is we talk about how they stood up and they began to speak and everyone that was in the city heard, you know, within their hearing, heard them speak in their native tongue, and so you know, within their hearing, heard them speak in their native tongue, and so you know, a lot of people will talk about you know. We kind of narrow it down. Well then, there's only two ways for the Holy Spirit to move. It's like, you know, either in the miracle of you speak and you speak in a language that you don't know but the people can hear it, or you speak in an unknown language and you edify yourself to God, and so then we kind of like, then we kind of spin off into distraction, and I think Heather really brought up a point that that's super profound and I kind of want to say it again, that the miracle can be. It was in the hearing that they heard it, so could that miracle already have happened to you before or be happening to you, or could happen to you if you learn to expect it.
Dennis Drake:I'll tell you something. I had somebody come up to the to me and they just kind of tied into me about how mad they were of of what I did. And they were just going to leave the church and they're kind of insulting, you know, and pointing out my flaws and they are many, and I don't like to think about them and I don't like to be listed to me. But it was so weird that like right in the middle of it, I realized, oh man, what they're doing is they're just trying to reject me because they're afraid of being rejected. And so, after all those hurting things, they said I wanted to defend them all, but instead I didn't defend any. When they finished talking, I said I said that. I said I think you're just, you know, worried that that maybe I'm going to reject you and so you're just wanting to reject me first. And I want you to know I love you and I will always love you. And that person just melted in tears in my arms And've to this day have an incredible relationship.
Dennis Drake:Well, what had happened was that I heard what they said, but I didn't. I heard it in a different language. I heard what was really being said. Do you understand what I mean Now, how many times has that happened with your children? Or how many times has that not happened with your children? And your wife said hey, dennis, your daughter's up in that room crying. And I said no, we had a great exchange. I'm sure I'm father of the year and she goes. If you go up there, that girl's going to be crying. And I go, I'm going to go prove you wrong. I knock on the door and her face is buried in the pillow Are you sleeping? Pulled back and it's wet with tears.
Dennis Drake:And she heard the voice, the interpretation, that understanding, the insight that I needed, and it was revealed to me that was a work of the holy spirit. Thank god for pentecost, thank God for our parenting, thank God for your having the understanding at work. How did you know that those things needed to be adjusted? How did you know that this was something that would help in your marriage, in your relationship? How did you know that? Well, the, the Spirit of God speaks.
Dennis Drake:And then I begin to train myself and learn either to push away those thoughts and those voices you know, or or to recognize oh, that was the Holy Spirit. I can trust the Holy Spirit. And there's all kinds of bad doctors like well you know, if you, you know, don't listen to the Holy Spirit, that's it. You're going to scar your heart and never be able to hear God again. God's going to wait until the next time, because you are loved. He doesn't parent you that way, and for us it is important to repent and to recognize oh, that was the Holy Spirit all day yesterday telling me to put that stuff in my car. And now today I'm in that problem and I think to myself three times.
Dennis Drake:God told me to put those jumper cables in the car. I looked at them when I was in my shop and I was walking by. And now I'm standing out here with my battery dead and people saying I'd jump your car. But I don't have jumper cables. Neither do I because I listen. Now God's not punishing me, but that's a perfect opportunity to go. Next time, when I get that nudge, I'm going to respond and I'm going to train myself to hear, because it might not be jumper cables next time. It might be a life preserver that saves someone's life, amen. And so it is important for us to train and be around people that believe this way and talk this way, because, you know, if we're just getting our heads filled with knowledge and we're not experiencing the god that leads us in this fantastic manner, we miss the glory and power of being followers of christ. We do ourselves to just some student that's working on a book. Oh, we're followers of the living God. Amen.
Heather Drake:Our faith in Jesus transfers God's righteousness to us, and he now declares us flawless in his eyes.
Dennis Drake:Read that again.
Heather Drake:Intentional pause. There's much to discuss this morning morning, but I just want to remind you this is the truth you are flawless in God's eyes. You might not even be flawless in your own eyes, but in God's eyes, flawless flawless. This means we can now enjoy true and lasting peace with God, all because of what our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, has done for us. Our faith guarantees us permanent access into this marvelous kindness that has given us a perfect relationship with God. What incredible joy bursts forth within us as we keep on celebrating our hope of experiencing God's glory.
Heather Drake:But that's not all. Even in times of trouble, we have a joyful confidence, knowing that our pressures will develop in us a patient endurance. And patient endurance will refine our character. And proven character leads us back to hope. And this hope is not a disappointing fantasy, because we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us. You can experience this kind of joy, you can experience this kind of peace. This is the Holy Spirit holding your chin and saying breathe with me. Through this pain that you are in, through this situation that you are in, there is hope for us this morning in learning to hear the Holy Spirit. One of the ways I think the greatest ways that we can learn to hear the Spirit is stop talking ways that we can learn to hear the Spirit is stop talking.
Heather Drake:I will give you the keys to this. And it is silence, and I just want to tell you that silence is uncomfortable and we know that. But it is in that stillness, it is in that breath you take between the torrent of words that you want to pour out on someone and you listen for the Holy Spirit. Jesus, living fully human, fully divine, said I don't speak anything that I don't hear the Father say. I encourage you the next time you want to say something to someone, ask the Holy Spirit is this what the Father is saying to them? I'll tell you what he's saying to them. You're flawless in my eyes. You are beloved, beloved, beloved. You are beloved. We get to speak words of truth and love. We get to hear words of truth and love.
Heather Drake:The Pentecost reminds us of transformation, of the blessing that comes with fire, of the blessing that comes with hearing the Spirit, of learning to hear our own spirit testify to us of the goodness of God that has already been shed abroad in our hearts through Christ Jesus, according to Romans. The love of God that has already been shed abroad in our hearts through Christ Jesus, according to Romans. The love of God is already there. That needs to be the source of all of the things we do, our source not in ourself, but our source in the love that is already there. Returning to love, returning to the good, reminding ourselves, turning to the good, reminding ourselves. In that pain, I didn't stop being able to breathe. I forgot, and when somebody reminded me, and when someone stayed with me in that reminder, I could do what I could not do by myself. This is what God is saying when I'm making a new family, a new community. The things that you didn't think that you could do, you can do because you do them together, because this is the glory of what is happening here. I'm so grateful this week for all of the ways that First Love Church got to be real miracles in people's lives, and we were able to do that because everyone participates.
Heather Drake:Recently I was traveling down 441 and I was at the stop light right there on 27 and it was hot and a brother of mine had a little cardboard sign and he was standing at the edge of the road and that's a really busy intersection, you guys know that, and so I motioned to him that I had something to contribute to my brother and I held the money out the window so he could see it. And he went in front of four cars to be able to get the money. And he went to the window and he was on that side of the car. So I leaned all the way over and I gave him the money out the window and he said God bless you, I love you. And then he said oh, no, no, I'm sorry, you know what, like, sometimes we say things and we didn't mean it. I said did you just take back the I love you? I said don't take that back, because I love you too, because we're family. And he started laughing. He goes yes, yes, okay, you could have the I love you. And I was like, yes, and you can have my.
Heather Drake:I'm like get out of the street to this man we're having this conversation. He goes, spoken like a sister, and I'm like, yes, get here, take your love, take this thing, but don't get yourself harmed. And I started laughing and he was laughing as we were leaving this interaction. That took about 30 seconds, if it took that. And here's someone who's standing on the side in the heat, sweat pouring on the side of the road. This is my brother, this is your brother.
Heather Drake:And in this quick moment of release, when we remembered we're not taking our love back. I love you, you love me. There's nothing weird about that. We're family and in our reminder get out of the street. Love tells me don't be standing here talking when cars are flying by, and then you just take it. You remember, yeah, my sister's reminding me don't be standing here talking when cars are flying by, and then you just take it. You remember, yeah, my sister's reminding me get out of the street.
Heather Drake:But both of us were laughing at the end of this exchange and I was thinking look at joy, look at God right there in the middle. Not every problem was solved, not everything was changed, but joy, generosity and love was there. Beloved love created the world. God is love. Love is the only thing that's always going to remain. When we give anyone love, we give them the eternal, and that is what we are all returning to. What does it look like for us to know, to hear and to live in the presence of the eternal? There's two things I want to talk about and I want to get to hear and to live in the presence of the eternal.
Dennis Drake:There's two things I want to talk about and I want to get back to that. But beforehand you had mentioned prayer, maybe not directly. You said being quiet.
Heather Drake:Yes.
Dennis Drake:And I just wonder how many of us realize, in our way of being trained to pray, that probably one of the biggest parts of prayer is being quiet. You're looking at me like maybe you don't know, maybe we were trained that prayer is that time for you to give your wish list to God, or to maybe impress Him with the scriptures you know, or try to repent hard enough to make him like you. All these things, I think, are amiss to that place of, and the hardest thing to do for me is to just sit down with intention to pray and be quiet and empty my mind and let the spirit fill it. Let the spirit give me ideas and we're not, and then recognize the difference between distractions and stop and and and let uh the spirit. Maybe you might want to comment on that that kind of reflective uh prayer, uh, but um, I really, you know, in the verse that we were just looking at, I really want you to see, there's a method to heathernize madness every week. How is it possible that they preach a message about love? It's Pentecost week and we're talking about love. Well, you know, uh, I really believe that that love makes way for you to connect with the spirit, because if you wouldn't love that man enough to have stopped and said something, uh, you know, or provide, you know, or gave a gave generously, then we wouldn't have seen the spirit do what the spirit did and bring back, you know, the spirit of gratitude and joy, you know. And so there, there's, there's, you know, there's sort of like yeah, the engine can run, but not without fuel, not without oil, it seizes up, you know. And so there's, god has given us the holy spirit and then, through love is is how we maintain our heart tender. Uh, because, imagine, you know, uh, I just watched you look at heather with a very interesting look. It said a million things that I'm not going to repeat. But when you, when you're about ready to give somebody the business at work, and then you ask God, first, what do you think about them Exactly? And then there's, and then God said I see them as innocent, I see them as whole, as lovely. And then what if we then started repeating that versus the thing we had queued up? Now, I'm not just picking on robert. Every one of us have these situations, right, and love is is what will prepare our heart to make that tremendous leap that's. That chasm is so great. It takes love in order for us, to empower us to do that and for us to even hear that voice, because isn't that the miracle of Pentecost, that I heard the voice.
Dennis Drake:In my understanding, I'll never forget that the other day I was sharing that story about being in the tractor supply and the lady started cursing and yelling at the lady at the desk and I was in my good mood and everything. And boy, her yelling and cursing. It changed the whole energy in the whole tractor supply. Everybody got quiet, everybody got, you know, small, and it was just so awkward to hear all the cursing and yelling and immediately I thought, oh, I acted like that lady. I hate that. I wish she'd just leave.
Dennis Drake:The lady was the bad lady and what had happened was the spirit said do you see her? No adult acts like that. She's acting like a child. Do you see? That's not some adult lady that you despise. That is a little girl that was hurt by somebody and was trained. The only way she's going to get care is if she gets loud and gets violent, and so she's just. That's a little girl just doing what she was trained to do.
Dennis Drake:But I didn't see it. I heard mean person who I need to get away from and who needs to get out of our world. We don't need people like that, god, do we? But the spirit of the Lord caused me to hear a hurt sister and all of a sudden I had compassion. To hear a hurt sister, and all of a sudden I had compassion. Oh then, all of a sudden, the spirit started to flow. Everything I needed for that situation. I was no longer unsafe and uncomfortable and now I can understand what's going on. God, I see, and now I can be used to help out, because I was blind. But now I see the Spirit revealed that to me. Don't you want to see past the angry face of your husband or your wife, or the rejection of your you know, maybe your parents or your children, or the way you've been treated by somebody? Don't you want to see past that? See what God sees? That's better. Preaching your amen, and I'll tell you right now.
Heather Drake:This hope is not a disappointing fantasy. Sometimes hope is very difficult, or what feels difficult. When I was little, someone told me I hung on to it like truth. I recently gave it up. You're going to be proud of me. When I was little, someone said don't get your hopes up. Manage your expectations, don't give your hopes up. So I did a really good job of creating suffering for myself and not getting my hopes up.
Heather Drake:The Holy Spirit is hope, not in the expectations of others or in their ability to change, but hope. My hope is in Christ. Not in the expectations of others or in their ability to change, but hope. My hope is in Christ. My hope is in the power of love, love that created the worlds, love that created the galaxies not just this one, the millions of galaxies beyond this, love that is still creating. My hope is in love beloved and that will never be disappointed.
Heather Drake:This hope is not a disappointing fantasy because we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us, the invitation into this divine frequency, into this flow of love that comes to us and that we can give out to the world. It's an invitation to step into that and to feel the holy and to live into the holy and to live in the presence of love, to live in the presence of God, to walk with him. We pray together, the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And Jesus said the kingdom is so close to you, it's in your mouth. It's not some far away thing, it's here within us. God's good kingdom and the invitation in the spirit is learning how to attune our hearts so we stay in the Spirit and we hear the witness of God's Holy Spirit.
Dennis Drake:You know, isn't it amazing that right now there's all kinds of songs flowing through the air. There's country music, there's classic rock, there's even Christian contemporary worship, but you don't have a radio and, furthermore, you don't have it dialed in to the channel to that frequency, and so you're not hearing it. And I'm telling you something that we have made being a Christian, just your get out of hell free card, just your ticket to heaven, and that's it, and we're, you know. The rest of them they'll just figure it out when we get there. And just get them saved, get them, you know.
Dennis Drake:And we have missed the opportunity and the beauty, the true mystical part of being a Christian. And so I hope that Pentecost, in these weeks that we talk about, would remind you of that mystical part. And all of us have seen people that are hyper-spiritual, and we used to call them granola Christians because they're filled with nuts and flakes and fruits are filled with nuts and flakes and fruits, and that may or may not be your experience with certain people, but I tell you that there is a mystical part of your Christianity, your spirituality Even to say I have spirituality and for us to not ever surrender to the Spirit or ever hear the voice of the Spirit or ever say I, I've discerned this or I'm feeling this. Leading this way, we're missing out on such a big part of our Christianity. And one time I went to a big dam and it had these big openings and if the water got too much they would open these openings. And there was three of them and they had one of them kind of cracked open and a little bit of water was coming out. And then another time I came back and the thing was wide open and that water wasn't just pouring out, it was shooting out just, I mean, just like half a football field. That water was shooting out.
Dennis Drake:You know, and I think to myself that I'm this follower of God and there's these opportunities that I have to let God loose in the world, and I trickle every once in a while and then sometimes you guys get me riled up in this pulpit and I start opening up that and it starts pouring out. But then I get a funny look from somebody, so I back it back off there and some people say, no, I have a flow and I have a flow and I'll read the Word of God, but this whole spirit thing, I'm closing it off and what we're talking about during this time is learn how to open that up without your granola bars. How do you do that in a way that now becomes fruitful for your life and for the lives of everybody that's around you? I think the path is love. That is certain, and that we really do open up our hope and our expectation for God. Could you leave this place with a hope that God would speak to you, or is that only for somebody that's more spiritual than you?
Heather Drake:I do want to say there is a cofete in learning how to hear the Spirit. If it's not loving, it's not the Holy.
Dennis Drake:Spirit. Oh, thank you.
Heather Drake:I just want to say that If it's unloving, it is not God's Spirit, because it cannot come from God, because God is love, oh that's a good thing. So if you were feeling something, a deep something, and you felt prompted and it was unloving.
Heather Drake:hold that word and then, bring it to somebody else who hears the Spirit too, and say this is what I heard, and how do we feel about this? Or how do we process this? But if it's not loving, it is not God. God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believed in him would not perish but have eternal life. God did not send Jesus into the world to condemn the world, but that the world, through Jesus, might be saved.
Heather Drake:Reconciliation has always been the thing that God offers to the whole world through Jesus and through us. Would you bow your heads with us for a moment? I'm going to pray over you and I'm going to speak peace over you, the same way that Jesus did. I am going to, but in the name and in the authority of the church and in the authority of Scripture that is given to us, and in the authority of God's own Spirit. I speak peace over you even right now.
Heather Drake:I pray that the spirit would fall upon your friendships, on your families, on your communities, on our nation, and grant us the understanding, a miracle of hearing, hearing the heart of God for all of us. Hearing, hearing the heart of God for all of us. A miracle of the sort of hearing that reconciles siblings and spouses, and friends and leaders, and brings us into holy peace. Lord in your mercy, heal our ears For the person who needs to be heard from their heart, for the person who needs to hear the other from their heart, for the miracle of expansion and understanding, for all of the good that flows from the spirit of understanding, the spirit of truth. We pray to you, lord, jesus Christ. Have mercy on us, send your spirit to us again. We receive your peace. We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon. If you would like more information about us, visit us online at firstlovechurchorg.
