Pentecost And The Courage To Love

Pentecost doesn’t start with perfect people, it starts with ordinary people who are scared, grieving, and unsure what comes next and then the Spirit shows up like wind and fire. We sit with Acts 2 and ask what we usually avoid: if the Holy Spirit is real, what should it look like in our actual lives and conversations? We name the fruits of the Spirit as more than a list, and we talk about “practicing resurrection” every time we choose love in an unloving moment, every time we forgive, and every time we let God wake us up from the dream that we’re separate.

From there, we lean into the miracle of languages and understanding as a picture of unity without conformity. The Spirit doesn’t erase difference; the Spirit creates connection. That becomes a challenge to any version of Christianity that carries harshness, prejudice, or contempt. We ask who we need to understand differently, what it would mean to learn a new language of gentleness, and how repentance can be as simple and as brave as letting the Spirit change the way we speak.

We also get very practical about what we “attune” to day to day, including the habit of retelling negative stories until they shape our homes and our hearts. And we share a small, surprising image a bird trying to build a nest that won’t hold and one person choosing to do something about it as a Spirit-shaped call to compassion with action.

If this sermon helps you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it. What’s one place you’re asking the Holy Spirit to teach you a new language?

Transcript

Pentecost Season And Practicing Resurrection

Heather 0:00

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. We are excited to be with you this morning, this morning of Pentecost season. The Spirit with you, the Spirit with us. We're grateful again to be in your presence. I want to remind us that we come this morning to this season, this remembering, this rehearsing into this goodness this morning, the goodness of the spirit with us. We were singing a song this morning and the lyric was, you know, the Holy Spirit overflowing. I don't believe any of us can make enough of the Spirit of God because it is how we live and breathe and have our meaning. It is this invitation into a new life, into transformation. I was thinking about resurrection because we've been in the Easter tide. And I was thinking that every time that we love someone who does not love us back, we are practicing resurrection. Every time we speak love to a situation that is unloving, we practice resurrection. And so the invitation into Pentecost is to practice moving with the Holy Spirit, to practice participating with spirit. And so we have been talking since last week about this understanding of how we attune ourselves to the moving of the Spirit. And today we'll read in Acts in that particular account of the Spirit moving among us. But what does it look like to have the Holy Spirit in your life? Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, John the Baptist, full of the Holy Spirit, Mary, Magdalene, and the other disciples, full of the Spirit. And so what does it look like for you and me to be full of the Spirit? It means to be full of love. It means to be full of joy. And again, we have a list of what the Spirit looks like in case you don't know. Love, joy, peace, patience, long-suffering, self-control, beloved. Self-control is an evidence of the Holy Spirit. Self-control is an evidence of God's Spirit working within you. And so again, during this season of the year, during this time of Pentecost, where we practice not only consent to the Holy Spirit, but then we practice living animated by the Spirit. And what does that look like in our midst? It also

What The Spirit Looks Like

Heather 2:35

looks like unity. When we read the scripture today in Acts, people from all different walks of life, people from all different ethnicities, people from all different understandings of how to live are included in the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit gives each person there the ability to understand each other. And so we are going to have a conversation this morning, and I'm going to ask the spirit to inspire you. Who do you need to understand differently? Maybe you think no one, but I'm going to tell you the spirit will tell you there is someone that you need to be able to understand. And the invitation or the consent is may I see this differently? May your spirit fill me so that I can see this the way that you see this.

Dennis 3:20

You know, I want us to really see uh what what it's like to be awakened by the Holy Spirit. Do you know how scripture in several places is like, wake, uh, awake, oh you sleeper? Uh, I wonder if we realize that maybe we are asleep. And in this sleep that you're in right now, the dream you're having is that you're individual. That you're somehow special, you're different, you're a part. And so you're trying real hard to get yours. And you're trying to take care of you. But God is waking you from this dream and saying, No, you're not part of this world. You're my child. You're one with everyone. You're you're uh to be infused with my spirit, awakened and enlightened so that we can really connect with God, connect with each other, and move in this world by the by the virtue of the Holy Spirit, and not just be these drones that are just out working, trying to trying to achieve our little nest egg, our little pile. But what if we were called for so much more? What if there's an awakening that God wants to do? They're looking at me like I'm crazy. No, they're excited about this same message, about the invitation that we could wake up. It says, Wake up, thou that sleepest, the light of Christ has come. Beloved, the light of Christ, the illumination of Jesus has come so that our minds are no longer darkened, so that we no longer just see things one way. And I want to invite you when you see and listen again to the story. And for many of us who have been a part of church for a long time, I think one of the things that could be a danger, and so I ask you to proceed with caution, is looking at a story or listening to a story and going, Oh, I know that one. I've heard that one before. And the beauty of the text, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is that every single time we will receive something new, a new revelation, not something different, but another way of turning something and seeing, oh, that is what the spirit meant, or an invitation into more. And as we listen again in this story that's going to talk about unity, that's gonna talk about what it means gathering in one place. I also want you to pay attention to the diversity that is included in the text, to the diversity that is honored in the text. That the spirit doesn't come to bring conformity, the spirit comes to bring unity. And there is a beauty in the diversity. And we know this again, based on all of creation testifying to us. There is not a flower. There are flowers in all of the spectrums. There is not an animal, it's all animals. There is not a plant, it's plants and herbs and the earth that again testifies to us, reminds us of this truth that in the diversity, the unity that is presented is how Jesus is seen. Jesus told us that we were going to be known by our love for each other. And as our love expands, as our capacity to understand expands, the light of Christ between us will also expand.

Unity Without Conformity In Diversity

Heather 6:52

So this morning I read to you from Acts chapter two, and I come to you in the lineage of Mary Magdalene, of Priscilla, of Junia, of women who preached the resurrection and who brought hope and life to people on the day of Pentecost. All the believers were meeting together in one place. I remind you of that's kind of what we'd done this morning. Why will we meet on Sunday mornings? The church has since this time met together on this day because it was the day of the resurrection. Every time we come together, we are reminded the old things have passed away. Behold, God is making all things new. And so on that day, they were gathered together. And suddenly there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. They're all gathered together in grief, in fear, in disbelief. Some of them have heard there is talking, but they're gathered together, and the Holy Spirit is given. There's beautiful imagery in this, and it says it's like wind. And since the beginning of time, people who have described or tried to describe the Holy Spirit have used the idea of wind. Where does the wind come from? Have you ever just been outside, and out of nowhere comes a beautiful breeze? Out of nowhere comes a big wind out of nowhere. In fact, even Jesus, who is asked by Nicodemus, what is it like? And Jesus says, it's like the wind. So the invitation is into this beauty, into asking, what is creation revealing to us? And it filled the house where they were sitting. And

Wind And Fire In Acts Two

Heather 8:36

then what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. Again, the invitation is for us to pay attention that each of them individually, uniquely filled with the Holy Spirit, each person having their own uniqueness, but joined by the Holy Spirit. There is such a beautiful hope for us in this. We're on verse 3, and then what looked like flames of fire appeared and settled on each of them, and everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. The Holy Spirit came and gave the people there that had been gathered an ability that they did not have on their own. When the Holy Spirit comes and filled us, maybe you will have the gift of speaking in another language. But what you will have is the power to live differently. What you will have is the power to love expansively. What you will have is the power to attune to the spirit that God has already given to the church.

Dennis 9:50

You know, and I like the idea of speaking a language that I don't know because uh, you know, uh God has a way of being and loving that is is very contrary to uh to the the human experience. And so I want that new way of loving, that new way of living, and that new way of being. And I I think that if you think about the idea of the wind, you know, that God's saying that here's something that's offered that you can't really see and is very difficult to explain. But but I feel like a lot of my experience with Christianity was I've been coming to God for certainty. You know, I want to know for sure some stuff, and I I want to know for sure, you know, my soul is secure, and that's right for us to be concerned about something as big a deal as that. But we're often seeking certainty, and some people will peddle certainty, but I feel like God is always coming back to it's like the wind. There's not a certainty in uh facts, in leading, in in following the spirit, which can't be seen. But we're learning a new language, we're learning a new path, we're learning a new way. Are you open and surrendered to a complete new way? I need a complete new way. The old way just isn't going to work. I could try to bend it into church, I could try to bend it into uh maybe rub some rough edges off of it, but it's never going to carry the love of God unless I get an overhaul. Transformation, amen. The love of God.

Heather 11:53

When we read here, everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages. I am confident this morning that there was no hate in the languages that was spoken by people who were filled with God's own spirit. There was no bigotry, no prejudice. That is not the message that was ever in the mouth of someone that was full of God's spirit. We can tell this in the way of Jesus, in the way of John the Baptist, in the way of people who spoke the words of truth, that there was no division. And again, the spirit comes. I remind you of this truth. The people understood the spirit was already promised. And when the spirit came, it says, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Everyone would be able to receive the Holy Spirit. There would be no exclusions. And so the people already knew that this was the promise. And so when the fi what appears like tongues of fire on people's head, what appears like this, and then the sound of this. I just want to have you imagine sitting in a room where it's like we have normal voice rattle, and then all of a sudden it sounds like a windstorm. It would get your attention, it might cause you to stop for a minute, and then all of a sudden we were speaking in languages we didn't know, but we could all understand each other.

A New Language Of Love

Dennis 13:15

You know, you hit upon some and then breezed over it like all of us get this. You said there was no bigotry, no hatred, no prejudice, no meanness. And you know, I was talking to somebody uh the other day, and I was trying to figure it out because I feel like they they really love God and they speak highly of God, but yet there was something that just doesn't seem to really compute and so I mentioned it to Heather, and Heather said, Well, I mean And it was just like a light went on. Not just about that person, but about myself. You know that this person really desires to be a person that follows God. I know that, I can see that hard, but yet they're not given to kindness, to gentleness. They're harsh, they're mean with their Christianity. And and I want to learn a new language. I don't want to just try to add some Christianity to what I got going on over here. I'm I'm wanting the whole overhaul. Amen. And so I need to learn, yes, my heart desires God. But how can we say we love a God that we don't see if we're not loving to those that we do see. I'm preaching to somebody here now. If not just myself. That there they're they're that gentleness and that loving. Guys, that needs to be the language that God is teaching us, amen? I thank you for sharing that. I just I love that idea that that if if I can if you lay down in bed and you think about some of the things you said today, tonight when you lay down, and you realize, oh, there was some bigotry in there, there was some some judgmentalness, there was there was not gentleness in the way I approached. Then Holy Spirit, teach me this new language. And the invitation then would be to change your mind about something, to say, what I don't want to do is harm anyone else, to bring any kind of harm, but to only bring healing. We are to be agents of transformation, we are to be agents that hold the miracle power of God in our hands. And so if you do go to bed at night and you do the prayer of examine, and I invite you to do that, in times where we have missed it, we are invited to ask for forgiveness, to ask for those things to be separated from us, and then for us to ask, may I feel your gentleness, may I understand the language of heaven, may I understand the language of the Holy Spirit that inspires us not only to hear differently, but to speak differently. Everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. And at that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. Now, this is essential for us to remember because, again, this also mirrors the things that we see in the book of Revelation when God starts talking about what it looks like for this beautiful kingdom to come among us. In fact, in John's remembrance of this vision, and he says, I don't know if I was here or if I was there, but let me just tell you about what I saw. People from every tribe, every nation, every tongue, every language, more people than we could count around the throne of God. And there is this invitation into expanding our understanding of other and how in the understanding other we recognize we are one. This is what Jesus prayed for us. Jesus prayed for us, Lord, make them one like you and I are one. And the Holy Spirit is the answer to Jesus' prayer for us. The spirit given to us allows us to have unity, to be able to experience things differently, to hear things and understand things that we didn't understand before. And when they heard the loud noise, this is everybody from every nation. Everyone came running. I just, I love about us as a people, as humanity. We are nosy. We have always been nosy. We are gonna want to know what the commotion is about. I mean, this is thousands of years ago. And if you would have said this this time, if somebody had heard something, we are all gonna say, what is it that I am hearing? And they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. Now, this was an actual miraculous understanding that you would have someone who didn't speak your language, who all of a sudden could speak your language, you could understand them. I was thinking about this in contemplation. And I was thinking, if all of a sudden I could say something to someone that they didn't understand before, I hope I say something really important, like you are loved, like you are one with God. And so the practice has to be if we have something to say to someone, it needs to be loving, it needs to be full of God's spirit, it needs to be an invitation into something bigger and something more expansive than we could have ourselves. But these people are bewildered and confused, and they're like, wait a second, how do you speak my language? Wait a second, how do you understand me? And this is the act of the Holy Spirit that we could understand people that we didn't understand before. How many times in your life, don't give me an actual number, please, have you said, I just don't understand them? Whoever them is. Beloved, consent to the Holy Spirit, consent to another way of hearing or listening or being able to say, is what I'm saying matching with the love that I feel in my heart.

Changing The Channel From Negativity

Dennis 19:30

You know, and I think it's also like, what do you want to attune to? What channel, you know, what frequency or whatever. Because I've been practicing this thing where I don't know if you've done this, but I I've got my spouse, my my partner, my friend. And so when I go out somewhere, I like to come home and tell her what happened, what I saw, what I did, and she'll do the same for me. How was your day? What went on? And and something, oh, you know, will always happen when you're out. Some cashier will say something super weird, or somebody will cut you off in the parking lot. And I have always just come home and shared those bummers, those downers, those negative stories that that escalated me, and and oftentimes it escalates the hearer. And lately I've been practicing. Can I walk in forgiveness? Now, this is the rub, and just not mention it to her. And oh, it's that difficult. And I want to tell that story. Now I'm sure I'm the only one, but it's just like I'm itching to tell that negative story. What is that? I have tuned myself to that frequency of that negativity, and so I when I see it as much as I can when I'm around, and then I go and I, and when it's not there, I tell people the story so I can get that negative back, and then I go, oh God, I can't believe it. I'm in such a negative cloud. Imagine that. I've tuned into it, I've practiced it. And so what my first step is, is that I'm whatever I whatever I can do, I keep from repeating those nonsensical. Now, I'm not saying you don't tell people your hurts and your thing, but I'm talking about the nonsensical stories that you and I know just stir you and other people up. And instead, I'm looking, what story can I tell her? Lord, what is allowed in this story today? And so what did I did? What did I did? I did it, I changed, I'm changing the channels what I did. And I'm looking for a different story. And you know what God always does? He leads me in that place where I can experience something beautiful, or I can rehash that stuff. Come on, church. You see what Spirit's doing? Inviting us to a new way of living, a new language, a new way of thinking, even. We

Share And Support The Podcast

Heather 21:59

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Spirit Shows Up On The Margins

Heather 22:26

And they were completely amazed. How can this be? They exclaimed. These people are from Galilee. Please don't miss the slight. Please don't miss. We can't expect very much from these people. These people are from Galilee. So there's a lot of bigotry in this. There's a lot of diminishment in this. There is a lot of prejudice in this. And I really invite you into the understanding that the Holy Spirit loves to show up in places where people are marginalized, where people are looked down upon. I remind you that Jesus came to a Middle Eastern young woman and gave birth to God's son in Bethlehem. And if we were all there, we're like, that's not the place to have the son of God. We should have something grander. It should be bigger. And God says, I have a plan. So do not despise wherever you are. Do not despise the small things. Do not despise that what comes from Galilee or Bethlehem or Dunellin or wherever it is that you are. I mean, that's like way out there, Inverness, you know, like those kind of places. Can that happen there? And the invitation is the Holy Spirit is awakening something in us. The Holy Spirit is come. And we hear them speaking in our own native languages. Here we are Parthians, Med, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontius, and the province of Asia, Pyrrha, Pamphia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs. Again, it is painting a picture. Again, we might not understand this, but this is so massive and so inclusive, it's startling. Over and over again, every time the Holy Spirit shows up in the sacred text, it startles. When Peter is gonna go preach about the resurrection and the Holy Spirit says, I'm just gonna pour it out on these people, Peter goes, On those people. And the Spirit said, Absolutely. The Holy Spirit is also known as the wild goose. This just spirit poured out everywhere, just like anointing, just like healing, everywhere for all people. And they heard them speaking in their own language about the wonderful things that God has done. Beloved, when you are going to say anything about God, let it be about the wonderful things that God has done. I once was lost, but now I'm fined. I once was blind, but now I see. There is a goodness that we are called into, being able to speak about. So the invitation for you to be filled with God's own spirit is that you would be able to speak and tell a better story. Perhaps you have only told the story about how you were lost, and the spirit would empower you to tell the story about how love rescues all of us, that we have a good shepherd who leaves the 99 and goes after the one, that we have a loving father who opens his arms to the prodigal, that we have a God who searches for us like a woman who searches for a coin. And they stood there amazed and perplexed. What can this mean? They asked each other. That's another beautiful indication of what we do when we gather together as a church fellowship. When we see the working of the Holy Spirit, we should ask each other, what does this mean? And we should have a conversation. You should have conversations with your neighbors, with the birds that visit on the porch, with the squirrels that are out there. You should have conversations. What does this mean, this moving of the Holy Spirit? But the others in the crowds ridiculed. Don't be those people, beloved. Be the people that ask the questions and say, what does it mean? Don't be the people who ridicule. Don't be the people who just stand there and make fun of. They're just drunk. That's all.

The Bird Nest And Compassionate Action

Dennis 26:34

You know, um, for three days now, the uh there's these two red birds, and they're trying to make a nest on our ceiling fan on the back porch. You know, there's no screen in there. So that and she's flying in. I think the dude's helping a little because he's there all the time, and I don't know, maybe he's just watching. But uh she's just and then it looks like the haunted mansion because they're getting that um Spanish moss, and it's hanging from the uh it's hanging from the each blade, and then she sets it up on the top of that metal thing, and it just slides down on the blades, and she just looks up there, and then there's a pile of rubbish on the ground because it all fell from there. Two or three days now she's been doing that. And um uh this morning, uh Thomas he goes uh and gets uh one of those. I mean, we've been putting pot you know, plants out in the ark.

Heather 27:34

I want to interrupt your story just for a minute. I won't I won't spoil it. I just wanted to do it in the when I edit this, I'll do the commercial and we'll get back to my story. Go ahead. We have all been looking at the nest that is on the ground that is no good. That is not what she intended to do. And we've all been asking ourselves the question, how are we like the bird? How is our intention to do something, to build something, to create something, and it's not working. And our hearts are broken for this little bird. And I have tried to explain it to her. I have very gently in a very quiet voice say, not here, beloved, there are ferns right there. You could just sit in the fern basket, a nest could be built. I've offered many other locations, she's not interested. She is not interested. At one point, we took down and we're like, that's just dangerous. So we're gonna take down her work, and she persists. She persists, and this pile is on the floor. Thomas came in this morning, and I know you're gonna say what he did, but I want to say something.

Dennis 28:34

But you're missing, but I get to say the point. The point is all the rest of us passed it by. And Thomas decided to do something about it. Do you see my point? Do you know what I mean? There's like this we've watched this bird struggle for three days, and we all tell that dumb bird you need to go somewhere else.

Heather 28:54

Thomas got a ladder and fashioned something to help her. And I was so beautiful, it was beautiful. I just tears came to my eye when he was like, I'm gonna fix this.

Dennis 29:08

Yeah, you know, a little plastic left over, you know, for the and he made it like a small little bird nest, and then he gathered all that stuff and shoved it in there, and then he was hiding by when I left for turn story, he was hiding by the thing, and the bird was like inspecting it, flying all the way on all the blades and looking, and the bird. So I don't know if the bird decided to abandon this new thing, or now this like got this condo now because it's this awesome thing. But my point was as it was Mike. Was it yours? Well, you were gonna steal my point, weren't you? They all saw it. I caught you. Uh but isn't that isn't that awesome though? And I want that for you and I, that we won't just watch something, but by the Holy Spirit we'd be prompted to do something about it. Because we can sit around, man, there's a lot of pain around here. But I can do something about that. And that's profound, church. To those people that are struggling, I don't want you to struggle. If there's something we can do to help you, pick up some of that, carry that burden.

Peter Proclaims Resurrection And Spirit Promise

Heather 30:17

And Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd listen carefully, all of you fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem, make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o'clock in the morning is much too early for that. No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel. In the last days, God said, I will pour out my spirit upon all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. And in those days, I will pour out my spirit upon my servants, men and women alike, and they will prophesy. And I will cause wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and clouds of smoke, the sun will become dark and the moon will turn blood red before the great and glorious day of the Lord arrives. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. People of Israel, listen. God publicly endorsed Jesus of Nazareth by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know. But God, who knew what would happen and had prearranged his plan, was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed him to a cross and killed him. But God released him from the horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not keep him in its grip. King David said this about him. No wonder my heart is glad and my tongue shouts his praise. My body rests in hope. For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow the holy one to rot in the grave. You have shown me the way of life, and you will fill me with the joy of your presence. Dear brothers and sisters, think about this. You can be sure that the patriarch David wasn't referring to himself. For he died and was buried in his tomb, is still here among us. But he was a prophet and he knew that God had promised with an oath that one of David's own descendants would sit upon his throne. And David was looking into the future and speaking of the Messiah's resurrection. He was saying that God would not leave him among the dead or allow his body to rot in the grave. God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this. And now he is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven at God's right hand. And the Father, as he has promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you see and hear today. Beloved, this would be a great time to shout when you're thinking about this. This is the hope of the whole world that Jesus has come, that God loves the world and sent Jesus, that Jesus has come, that Jesus has completed the work, and that Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit. All loosey goosey poured out on everyone, poured out everywhere, a big giant mess, not neatly in certain containers, just this overwhelming Holy Spirit anointing, this invitation into transformation. Beloved, we can be people of great love. We can be people whose lives are completely transformed. We can be miracle workers if we will choose to allow the Spirit to change the way that we see things, to change the way that we speak about things, and to expand our heart, to include everything and everyone. I want you to see, church, that uh that that God is laying out the plan for you and I, that Christ is the path and he's empowering us by the Holy Spirit. He's shown us the way of repentance and he's shown us the path of oneness, of unity. Now,

Dropping The Us Versus Them Story

Heather 34:27

it's lost on us more than likely when it talks about this ragtag group of people that were together on that day, because it when they start talking about these people from this place and that place, we don't realize what that meant to a Jew. It was it was really the who's who's of enemies of us, the who's who of people that don't believe correctly. And today we could do, we could go through denominations of people we think that clearly don't know as much of us, and then we can move from denominations to other groups of people that we're convinced are absolute heretics, that do not even, you know, uh, you know, there's people that uh just on the other side of the world that are doing stuff that just to us is no uh way they could be right. And and that's the kind of mind-blowing experience that's happening right here. They're beginning to hear things in a new way they've never heard before by Holy Spirit, that there's a love that's opening up and open up and start accepting these people, not categorizing them as uh lost, uh worthless, but they're part of God's family, and we're to view them differently and not see ourselves as separate and different and better, but that we are God's children. And I'm not suggesting that you begin to change your doctrine and your things that that you believe, but it's not for us to sit there, well, sure, unless they're not uh loving. Uh, but but what I'm what I'm saying is that we uh we have to remove that part of of us and them and and that separateness because that's just that's not how unity works, and that's what the Spirit of God was bringing on that day, and still it is seems to be the biggest struggle for us in the church world. And and you recognize that there are cultures and times where things are the biggest struggle. There's one particular time because the barbarians were also included, and we as a people don't necessarily think about that, but when we're talking about the table of Jesus and we're talking about gathered together, and the barbarians were naked a whole lot, and they just show up naked. And part of that was intimidation, part of it was who they wanted to be, but these people were warriors and they were just naked all the time, and they would just show up to the fellowship. In fact, there's some ancient writings I was reading that was so beautiful, where someone was confronting these people and saying, Well, you have to change. And they're like, This is who we are, we are barbarians, and we are filled with God's spirit. And they couldn't say that they weren't filled with God's spirit because there was evidence of God's own spirit. And people were like, But you can't come like this. And they said, We come as we are, made in the image of God. You have just fashioned your fig leaves in such a way, but we are as God made us. And so the invitation, again, we don't necessarily in this culture at this time have people that are showing up in a way of intimidation, being completely naked. But every time that there is a transference of this understanding, there's an understanding that beyond the imagery that we would consider okay, or that we would consider like what is good for us, the Holy Spirit pushes those boundaries and says, Look at what I'm doing. I am doing a new thing. David himself never ascended into heaven, yet he said, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at the place of honor at my right hand until I humble your enemies, making them a footstool under your feet. So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah. This would

Allegiance To Jesus And Repentance

Heather 38:18

have been a text that would have startled everyone. He's there and he's saying, because what people would have said, they were told to say, Caesar is Lord. There was a government and there was things that they couldn't couldn't say. And they said, Caesar is Lord, all the goodness comes from Caesar, the Caesar is going to do this. And so when this Peter says he is Lord and He is Messiah, he is declaring his allegiance is to Jesus alone, his allegiance is to the resurrected Christ, his allegiance is into this illuminated way of being, and his allegiance is not only directed in this way, he is full of the spirit. And Peter's words pierced their heart. And they said to the other apostles, now we stand here just at a second, it says Peter's word pierced their hearts. Just a few weeks ago, we talked about the scripture and the road to Emmaus, where Jesus is telling them a story, and they say, Oh, didn't our hearts burn within us? The same thing is happening here. Peter's words are just words until the spirit is on it, and then it causes a piercing in their heart. All of a sudden they see things and hear things that they couldn't before. And there's an invitation for all of us to live in the spirit. Beloved, in you, believe you, beneath your chest, here in the middle of you, you have a knowing. The Holy Spirit, in fact, the scripture says in John that the Holy Spirit will be given to you and you will know the things of God. Now, maybe other voices will compete and you'll have uh, you know, questions, but deep in this knowing, this did not our hearts burn within us? Did not our hearts be pierced with these words? Brothers and sisters, what should we do? And Peter replied, Each one of you, repent of your sins, turn to God, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, to those far away, all who have been called by the Lord our God. This is a beautiful promise that keeps ongoing, that keeps getting bigger, that keeps enclosing more and more people and more and more opportunities for us to say this is the hope that we ourselves will be filled with the Holy Spirit, but that we would watch this, that we would invite this into the kingdom, that we would make space for it, that all would be filled with God's Spirit.

Dennis 40:47

I mean, this is you written in scripture, you know. Um, it's talking about this far off, as far, you know, and uh uh and look at ahead in time a couple thousand years, and you're sitting in this church, opening up your heart, and God's saying, the Holy Spirit is for you. And we we see here that what they're doing is they're explaining and and helping them understand how it works to follow spirit.

Learning To Discern The Spirit

Dennis 41:14

And so don't expect that all of a sudden you're gonna be some Olympic level performer at following Holy Spirit when you just begin. That's what really fellowship is. It's it's training and trying. You know, we stand up here. Sometimes I feel like I got a word, sometimes it's so powerful and my heart burns within me. And other times you look at me like I'm crazy and I feel even crazier. And and and what we do is we discuss that. You know, you you talk about that, like you're even seeing them having this discussion. What should we do? And and and what that's what community does, and we learn how to discern the spirit. And I think more than anything, you also kind of learn how to just pay attention, you know, because God, you know, God isn't making it, you know. I think when when we talk about learning, you know, it makes it as if God made this difficult quest. And you've got to climb the mountain of Mordor and throw the ring into the fire, and it's gonna be this big journey for you. God did not make a path difficult for you, uh, but it's difficult for us to shut off our ego and our minds and to discern the spirit that's right in front of us. Amen? And so, really, the struggle is really with with within here, not out there, not against some obstacles God put against us, but in in our own training. If I am practiced and depending on my own skill, then it is very difficult to learn how to surrender to spirit. I had talked with somebody years ago, and this woman had been extremely physically abused as a young child and sexually abused, and somehow she survived, and she survived because she was extremely intelligent, and just with her own wit and her own skill, she made a great life for herself. And uh about the time I really got to know her, she got in a terrible accident and it was a head injury. And I remember her struggle more than anything was like I survived all that stuff when I was young because I could count on this one thing that worked, and now I'm here in this place, and I can't depend on me anymore. See, because even in all of that struggle, her skill and her ego and her intellect were what she depended on, and God will um allow circumstances like that to expose to us the need to depend on spirit. And again, that's stepping out into the unknown. That's that's the wind. I don't see that. I want certainty. Show me in the Bible what it says to do, and I will go do it.

Heather 44:16

Doesn't your heart burn within you? That the hungry should be fed? Doesn't your heart burn within you? That we should love everyone as Jesus told us to. Doesn't your heart burn within you? This is our Father's world creation testifies to us the Holy Spirit within you is here to lead you.

Holy Spirit As Comforter And Guide

Heather 44:51

This is the gift that Jesus gave the church. God said, I will give you my own spirit, and you will have a comforter. Why? Because things are painful in this world because life is sometimes what it is. I will give you a comforter, I will give you a companion, I will give you a guide, the Holy Spirit with you. This is the promise of new life. This is what the church is about, is us learning to live now, animated by the breath of spirit. When Jesus tells us in John, about this same time, Jesus shows up and breathes on them and they receive the Holy Spirit, breath and presence, a part of this. But in this invitation into the spirit is recognizing the spirit is within you. Beloved, I speak to you of your sovereignty, of your ability to hear the voice of God. And if you have a question, find someone who is following God, who you see evidence is following the way of Jesus, and then ask. Have a conversation, look to the ancients, go back and say, what was it look like for Jesus to show us who God was? We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon. If you would like more information about us, visit us online at firstlovechurch.org.