SPEAKER_00 0:00

Um, I have, as we just said, five kids. And so therefore, I've been through five childbirths. Um I'm going to counseling for that, yes. Uh no, it was it's a very different experience than what I thought it was. It's kind of the out-of-body experience. It's kind of the um the I remember the first child that we have. I won't get into great details because we have college students in the room, you know, they kind of flip out, you know, childbirth. But um but uh, you know, I just I remember, okay, this is weird. I mean, that's all I could say. This is very weird, weird. It was a very emotional experience going through um us having our children and and it was really my wife having our children and me being there, right, as the coach. Go, you can do it. And and now it's funny because we've got all these ladies in our church that are pregnant, and so we are uh proliferating kids around here. Um we might be we might be bunnies, I don't know, but um, but we definitely know how to have babies around here. And it's so fun to watch new babies come into the world and to see uh them grow and change and everything else. Well, tonight we're actually gonna look at a story in the in Acts 2 that tells us about the birth of the church. And so we're gonna be looking at a story of the birth of the organized church and as it was recorded by Luke in the book of Acts. And I'm excited to talk about it because there's some significant things I think that we need to see in this story, okay? Now, how many of you guys have noticed that we are a culture that is really enamored with and intrigued by the supernatural? Have you noticed this? Yeah. So maybe just around the room, because I want to make this conversational, um share, tell me a little bit or tell us uh maybe a few places you've seen some of this in our culture. Yeah.

unknown 1:50

There's a section at Barnes and Noble called Teen Paranoble. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Yes, exactly. There's a section at Barnes and Noble called Teen Paranormal. Romance. Oh, romance. You've got to throw the romance word in there. That's good. That's good. What else? Ghost hunting shows. Yeah, we got these quote reality TV. It's ghost hunting, right? It's like an oxymoron. All right, somebody else.

unknown 2:13

Vampire movies.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Oh, yeah. Totally. It's like there's vampire movies are everywhere these days, you know, and these books that are written and then turned into movies. And I mean, even uh like the whole Harry Potter thing, right? We've got the magic sorcery thing going on. What else? You guys seen any other places you you notice the supernatural? I'm sure one of the men is gonna say it in a minute, but we'll see. There we go, that's what I'm talking about. The superhero movies. Have you noticed all the comic book characters that have have come to the to the big screen because we are so intrigued by this uh this supernatural ability to do these heroic things because they got super strength, you know? And and this is not a new fascination, by the way. As humankind, there's a part of us that really um has always, I mean, you look back, they've always been intrigued by the things that we can't understand. What's interesting to me about that is while we are very intrigued and fascinated and enamored with the supernatural realm, we also have this incredible skepticism about it, specifically inside the local church. Would you agree with that? Um we look at the local church, um, and I'm specifically talking about the Christian church, uh I see a lot of people very skeptical about the supernatural. As if that the church thing, if you will, is just a religious rote process that we go through. It's this thing we do, but it really has nothing supernatural about it. In fact, I recently read a book with some of the guys here in the church, and it's called Unchristian, and they were interviewing people uh across the United States asking the question what do you think about Christians? What do you think about the church? What do you think about um what they believe and how they interact uh with their faith and how they live that out? And you know, the indictments were pretty hard. I mean, they were very harsh, actually, um, very intense about uh, you know, they're they're hypocritical, right? It's one of the constant criticisms we hear of the local church, that it's it's a hypocritical group of people. They say one thing, but they live out something completely different. And the truth of the matter is it's a true statement a lot of times, right? Um depending on how you define hypocrisy. And that's we don't have that's for another day, another time, all right? But another thing uh that we saw in the book is that people, even outside the church, said that Christianity is supposedly a supernatural religion with a God that's in heaven, that's over all, that created all, that's through all and in all, and has the capacity to change lives, and yet their indictment against the church was that they didn't see anything supernatural about it. Now, think about that for a sec. What does that say about the faith that you and I interact with and live out as Christians? And if you're not a Christian, you don't have to get lumped into that, but if you're a Christian, if you're a believer in Jesus, and we say we believe in a supernatural God who's able to do supernatural things, and yet the culture views us as very unsupernatural, right? There's something wrong with that, isn't there? There's something missing, especially when we look at the Acts 2 passage that we're going to discuss tonight, and we see how the early church came about, came into being. So if you have your Bible, I'm just gonna read the first 13 verses of Chapter 2. Here's what it says. When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying. Tongues like flames of fire that were divided appeared to them and rested on each of them. Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in different languages, as the Spirit gave them ability for speech. There were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven, and when this sound occurred, a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language, and they were astounded and amazed, saying, Look, aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? How is it that each of us can hear in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, those who live in Mesopotamia, in Judea, in Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs, we hear them speaking the magnificent acts of God in our own language. They were all astounded and perplexed, saying to one another, What could this be? But some sneered, This is great. They're full of new wine. So when we look at this, this is the beginning of the church as we know it today. Alright? Last week we talked, as we started the book of Acts, about the nature of what Christ called the apostles, that would be the ones who were following him, those who had interacted with him, right? He calls his disciples, and uh. He calls them to wait on him, and then he says that you will be my witnesses when the Holy Spirit comes on you, okay? So he tells them that the Holy Spirit, which they didn't yet just have this all figured out. I'm sure they were kind of a little bit uncertain what's gonna happen here, but he says the Holy Spirit is gonna come on you, and he's gonna empower you, and you're gonna be my witnesses to the whole earth. Not just to the people in Jerusalem, but Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts. The whole earth is what he tells them. So they're kind of scratching their heads, but they're saying, hey, look, this dude rose from the grave, he's our leader, he's smart, we're gonna do what he says. And so they do, right? And in Acts 2, we see this come to fruition. We actually see the Holy Spirit come, which is a good reminder that if God says something, guess what? You can bank on it, it's gonna happen. We can trust in a God who has always, always, always kept his promises. He's never failed to keep his promises. When we read the Bible, we hear what he says in the Old Testament and we see him fulfill it in the New Testament. And there's some promises that he has made in the Old and the New Testament that have yet to come to fulfillment. But you know what? His track record is a great one. It's 100% that when he says he's going to do something, he will do it. That's great confidence we can have in God, isn't it? But notice what happens in this story. That the Holy Spirit comes on the day of Pentecost. Now, just FYI. Pentecost is uh the celebration which Penta means five, right? So this is 50 days after the Passover. Passover, you remember Jesus was with his disciples and he had washed their feet during the Passover meal. It's when he did the first Lord's Supper, the where he broke the bread and they took the wine, and so he dispersed it to them and said, Take this and remember my sacrifice. Remember, he did that pre-cross, right? So he's telling them, This is what's going to happen to me. Now we do it, looking back, saying this is what happened to him. And he says, One day I'm going to come and we're going to take this meal together in heaven, and we're going to celebrate this together and remind you that this is what has given you life, okay, is because my body was broken, my blood was shed. And so, 50 days after Passover, here are the disciples doing what Jesus said, waiting on the Holy Spirit to come. And the Holy Spirit comes. Now, can you imagine? Here they are in this room, and all of a sudden, this wind comes rushing in. Now, I grew up in the panhandle of Texas. Anybody else grow up in the plains? And when I hear a sound like that, the hair stands up on the back of my neck because I know the tornado's coming. Now, some of you maybe didn't grow up around that kind of setting or that's that kind of climate where that's the case. But my brother and I have had a couple different experiences where tornadoes came in and you could literally hear this roaring wind. Sounds like, you know, if you've ever heard people describe it, you know, like the the um it's always great the people they interview, right? It's like it's like they pick some redneck out in the middle of nowhere and say, Well, what happened? Well, you know, they were sitting there and then this freight, this freight train came, you know, it's like it's I know, sorry, I apologize for the uh the uh terrible accent. But this is what I I mean it never fails. That's who they interview, I guess. And can you imagine they hear this net this sound, this noise, this rushing wind come, and then there are these, there's these flames, there's this fire that comes and it divides, and there's these tongues of fire that land on each one of them. Now, again, without getting too detailed and too lost in the weeds here, let me let me just make one observation here. Jesus had used the word pneuma to talk about the Holy Spirit long before this happens, when he's explaining it to his disciples, which means wind or breath, right? And so it's the idea that the breath, the breath of God comes in to the room. Have you ever been in a situation or have you ever been in a worship gathering or in a in a in some sort of context where you really felt God's presence tangibly? I can remember uh multiple times when this has happened in my own life, and maybe you're like, that's that's kind of weird. That's okay. But I can remember multiple times I've been in a room in a setting, in a worship setting. I felt the presence of the Lord. And I can remember one specific time, and it was when I felt God calling me to ministry. And I was in Colorado, and I was at Silver Cliff Ranch, it's a great place, beautiful place. This big Silver Cliff back behind it, Buena Vista, Colorado. And I remember sitting there in a service one night, and it was if all of a sudden somebody had opened the doors and this rush of wind just kind of came into the room. We were in the middle of a worship service. He turned all the lights down, and we were just the guy that was speaking, I can't even remember what he was saying, but I just remember that the Spirit of God was so real in that moment. And I was like, God, I feel you. And I felt like God was saying to me, God, you know, Nick, I want you to fulfill the call of ministry that I put on your life. I'm calling you to do ministry with your life. And I'll never forget that moment. It wasn't loud, it wasn't like a big rush of wind in that way, but I literally felt the breeze come in the room, and it was an amazing moment that has that will stick with me for the rest of my life. And these guys here they are, it says a violent rushing wind came in, and this flame comes and it divides over each individual guy. Pretty fascinating. Can you imagine what that had to be like? Can you imagine the experience? Can you imagine how these disciples felt as they prayed and as this Holy Spirit came and landed on them? And it is interesting that it's fire, isn't it? Because in the Old Testament, we see God represented by fire. In fact, uh Moses, you remember he talked to God in the burning bush, right? It was a fire. Then we remember the people of Israel. They were led in the desert, the desert, the wilderness, by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. And so we see again this connection between these Old Testament passages talking about God and then this New Testament where we have the wind and we have the fire. And it appears to each one of them. But here's the thing that I want us to really hone in tonight is that God is a supernatural God who is capable of supernatural things. But many times we as believers, followers of Jesus in the church, we don't experience the supernatural. And because of that, it causes us to doubt. It causes us to doubt our faith. It causes us to doubt that God is real. And it also undermines what God is trying to do in us and through us. Because He wants to empower us to do the work of the mission that He called us to. Remember last week, Acts 1.8 said it a while ago? You'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and uttermost parts of the earth. Listen, you can't do that. I can't do that. We can't do that without his power in our life. Okay? So last week we said that there in the church are many distractions that keep us from doing what he's called us to do. Some of those are fear, some of those are doubts, some of those are theological debates. We kind of get sidetracked, some are building our own personal kingdom instead of doing what God has called us to do. But we get distracted. We get divided, don't we? This week, I want us to remember that we have a supernatural God who wants to do supernatural things in our lives as a church. Because we want to be as Redemption City Church, and whether you're a part of us in the sense that you are here and you're saying, hey, I'm all in, or whether you're just checking us out, I want you to know that this family of believers, we want to be a church that really experiences the power of God, the supernatural acts of God, because we believe that He wants to do great things through us and in us to reach people with the gospel. So there's some things that I want us to, if you've got your worship guide there, one of some things that I want to just speak to us tonight. First is this that the unstoppable church, the unstoppable church is a spirit-filled church. The unstoppable church is a spirit-filled church. What I mean by that is it says, of course, in the text that the Holy Spirit comes in that moment, in the early church, and fills these men, fills these disciples with his power. The church that is going to have an impact on the planet, the church that's going to have an impact on our city, the church is, because we're not the only one, is a church submitted and surrendered to the Holy Spirit, a church that is, it is relying on the power of the Holy Spirit to lead us and to guide us and to do amazing things in and through our lives. Um, it does not make sense that this ragtag bunch of guys should have been able to accomplish what they were able to accomplish. I mean, when you think about the New Testament story, these guys who were fishermen and tax collectors and just normal guys and they're young and Jesus calls them to be his disciples, it doesn't make sense that the movement that comes out of this is still around today, and literally millions have come to faith in Jesus through this movement, right? Something beyond just humanity is going on here. This is this is supernatural in nature. And so we see that. Um a spirit-filled church has a supernatural. I'm going to give you four things that I see in the text tonight, but the the that the spirit-filled church has a supernatural, first, ability to witness about God. What happened in the text? Well, what happens in the text is that you've got all these people who are from different cultures and backgrounds and they speak different languages, and the Holy Spirit comes and it says in verse uh let's see here, verse four. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and they begin to speak in different languages as the Spirit gave them ability for speech. So as the Spirit gave them ability for speech. Listen, I don't know if you know this or not, but God can still do miracles today. God can still heal people today. In fact, he's doing that around the world, in different places where we they people aren't as skeptical. They're much more open to the spiritual realm. God is bringing healing, he is doing things. And even in our country, he is. The problem, if you're like me, is that I've seen enough people abuse this stuff that I'm kind of like, I don't want to really want to be around that. It's just weird. I don't really want to see the guy that's on TV with his you know big gold crown standing up praying and and you know, like knocking people over and doing these strange things that I just really don't understand. Like I I struggle, right? And so because I get skeptical and because I've seen some of the spiritual gifts misused or abused, my assumption then is as well, none of it's true, right? None of it's right, none of it's good. And the truth is that God is still doing miracles today. In fact, I talk to people periodically who are on the mission field in other parts of the world. They they're in places like Africa and they're in places uh like in Asia, and people are seeing limbs restored. I mean, crazy stuff. Sight restored, hearing restored. We have a God who is in the business of doing miracles today. I do not believe that those gifts and that those miracles ceased when the apostles died. I believe we have a God who is powerful and he is still doing amazing things like that today, supernatural miracles. But in this particular story, he gives them the capacity to speak a new language, a different language. Think about that. I mean, it's kind of funny, honestly. Think about it. Um, all of a sudden you're speaking English, that'd be for us, and Matt over here, all of a sudden he is like fluent in Russian. And I'm like, whoa, like what just happened, you know? And he's just talking in Russian, right? Completely just out of the blue, right? You feel the Holy Spirit, start speaking in Russian. How crazy would that be? But not just that, can you imagine that every one of us in this room all speaking a different language at the same time? And that the people in our city who speak those languages, they're around, gathered around, and they're able to understand what is being spoken. But notice, what is it that they are speaking about? Is it, you know, hey, the weather's nice? Is it, hey, we're gonna all go eat uh at this uh place over here? No, it's it's about the magnificent acts of God, the magnificent works of God. That's what they were speaking about. God gave them supernatural ability to communicate about Him, the truth. Because that's what they have been called to do is to witness about God. And so God gave them that ability. Listen, I there's a lot of controversy surrounding some of this passage between those who believe in the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues and those who don't. And that's not what the point I'm trying to make tonight is. Here's the bottom line God gave them the ability to speak to people in another language so that they could understand the gospel. That's a miracle, and God still can do that today. Okay? But the second thing that we can see about these spirit-filled churches is that the spirit-filled church has a supernatural insight into the scriptures. Now we didn't read this, but the next section of Acts 2 is Peter, Peter's sermon. And Peter is uh typically the spokesperson for the apostles. And if you remember who Peter is, just in case you you for have forgotten, Peter's the one who always speaks what's on his mind, whether he should or not. Right? He always has to just go ahead and speak it out, and sometimes he looks like a complete fool. But we see here that Peter is the one who gets to be the main spokesperson. He's preaching a sermon. And honestly, if you read his sermon, it looks pretty short. You're probably like, that's kind of nice. It's a pretty short sermon, kind of gets to the point. But it does say at the end, I always go to this, it says that then he continues to teach and teach and teach and teach. So he was he was a preacher. Okay, he gets it. But notice what Peter does in his sermon, okay? Without us reading the whole section of his sermon, first in verse 17, in my Bible, it's indented and it's bold. Maybe it's in yours. I don't know what yours looks like. But notice it says, and it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all humanity. Then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. Point being this he's quoting scripture from the book of Joel in the Old Testament. Okay? And then he goes on, and later in verse 25, again, we see the same thing in my Bible. It's indented in bold. I don't know how it looks in yours, but it's showing that he is quoting scripture from the Old Testament about King David. But when he's doing this, he's pointing to the fact that these Old Testament passages are not just Old Testament passages about the characters that were then, but they are actually prophecies about what's going to happen, right? And he tells them that these passages are speaking about Jesus and about the Holy Spirit. Now, remember, Peter was what before he became a disciple? Huh? A fisherman. I mean, this guy was not your most educated dude, alright? Man's man. I love it. I think it's great. And he is teaching these people in Jerusalem, these Jewish leaders who'd studied the scripture and poured over it, spent their whole lives trying to learn what the scripture meant. And he's teaching them, instructing them. Hey guys, you know what? You've been reading all that stuff? Listen, it's about Jesus. Isn't that cool? You see, because the spirit-filled church has the capacity, has the ability, has insight into the scriptures. And though many people in Jew, uh the Jewish people in Jerusalem had uh worked through the scripture, Peter was able to step forward with the power of the Holy Spirit in him. Not because he was smart. Thankfully, the church isn't built on just smart people. Now, there's some smart people in the church, right? Hopefully. But it's not just built on human intelligence. If that's all we had to do is just be smart, you know, be much easier. The problem is that much of what we teach in here, it really messes with our intelligence. And it's why we need something more than just a head knowledge about God. We need an experience and encounter with God. Does that mean that you can't be smart and be a Christian? Absolutely not. I know some brilliant people that are believers. But I'm saying to us that the Holy Spirit can give us insight into the scriptures. Thirdly, though, you notice this. Not only do they have the ability to witness about God supernaturally, insight into the scriptures that comes from God, from the Holy Spirit working inside, but then, thirdly, boldness with the gospel. Now I find this pretty funny, but Peter starts preaching. Now, what did Peter do whenever Jesus was being uh being uh when he was in trial before he was crucified? You remember? Jesus predicted something was gonna happen, which was he would deny him three times. He said, Before the rooster crows, you're gonna deny me three times. That's what Jesus told Peter. And did he do it? Yes, because Jesus knows what's gonna happen. He said it happens. So this Peter, who denied Jesus three times because he was concerned that if they're crucifying Jesus, if I'm connected to him, guess what's gonna happen to me? They're gonna crucify me too. So, not real bold, right? In fact, the story, if you read it out, it's a very interesting story that it says that he literally cursed, saying, No, I don't know Jesus. I don't know who you're talking about. I'm not a part of his crew. And that same Peter, who was scared out of his mind and who denied Jesus, in this situation here, stands up, preaches a sermon, giving insight from the Old Testament, pointing to the person and work of Jesus Christ, and then he says this in verse 23 Though he was delivered up according to God's determined plan and foreknowledge, you use lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him. If that's not strong enough, jump across to verse 36. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Master. What is he saying? He's telling a crowd of people who are all out there listening to him, you killed Jesus. He's saying to a crowd of people, hey, you killed the Messiah. You killed the Lord. Where does that boldness come from? You're either dumb, right, and asking for it, or you are filled with the Holy Spirit and you trust that your hand, that your life is in God's hands. And he has this amazing moment of boldness and he calls them out. I don't think he called them out out of anger. I don't think he called them out because he was like trying to say you're all terrible, but he was speaking the truth in love. He was speaking the truth in love. And the truth is tonight, there are times when we have people in our life that we want to speak the truth to, and we are scared out of our minds. There's people in our life who are dishonoring God, they're destroying their lives, they're living totally opposite of what God has called us to in the wisdom of his word, and we are scared of our minds. Listen, ask God to fill you the Holy Spirit and give you boldness. Because he can give it to you, he can give it to me, enable us to speak with boldness into the lives of others. But the fourth thing we see here, it's really cool, and this is what we pray for and ask for, we hope for, is that a spirit-filled church has a supernatural response to our message. A supernatural response to our message. What happens when they hear this from Peter? They kill him, right? They go out and stone him and they say, Peter, we don't want to listen to what you have to say to us. Why are you preaching at us? I can't believe you're telling us all this stuff. Quit talking to us, we're gonna kill you, and they go kill him, right? That's that's the end of the story. Right? You with me? It's not what it says in here, does it? It says they asked this question, one of the greatest questions. I love it. I wish this was the response I got every time I talked about Jesus. It says, when they heard this, they came under deep conviction, and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what must we do? What an awesome response. They became convicted of the truth, and they said, Brothers, what must we do? Now, you think Peter could have elicited that type of response on his own? You think, you know, he could have he could have done a great enough job preaching that this is the kind of response that he got? No, but the power of the Holy Spirit was working in the lives of those that were there hearing the message, and in that moment, the Holy Spirit caused them to be convicted of what they had done, and they asked the question, what must we do? Listen, some of the people, some of the people in your life, hey guys, some of the people in your life, you know they're not living the way they should, or you you sense that. And I know we we live in a culture where we are very careful, like we don't want to be called judgmental. That's like the worst curse you could get, right? Is if you call somebody out and be judgmental. Because tolerance is such a high value in our culture. But listen, if you love somebody, I mean, if I love my kids and they're doing something wrong, I need to speak truth in their life to protect them, right? Because I love them. And there's some people in your life that you know you see, they could be family members, they could be coworkers, they could be friends, they could be neighbors, I don't know. Whatever it is, but you see people in your life and they're doing things that are destroying them, they're hurting them, devastating their lives. And you're praying for boldness. Listen, one thing that can happen sometimes, and we've got to be very careful about, is that we can actually try to be the Holy Spirit in their life. Now, this usually happens between husbands and wives. Right? I'm saying this from experience. That I can tend to try to be Jada's Holy Spirit. And I can try to make her feel conviction over something that I see in her life. But the point I'm making is listen, when the Holy Spirit is working because it's God's truth and it's God's way, and we are submitted to that, the Holy Spirit will convict them. And we can say it in a way that is loving and not manipulative. We can say it in a way that's truthful and honest and gospel-centered, you know, that we don't have to perform for each other, and God's Holy Spirit can work in that and convict them and bring restoration. So a spirit-filled church is to see a response. Not only is this what they said when they were convicted, was what should we do? But notice verse 41 in chapter 2 where it says this. So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about 3,000 people were added to them. Isn't that awesome? Can you imagine how crazy that was to go from the 120, remember it's 120 in chapter 1, to 3,000 new believers, new followers of Jesus saying, Hey, we'll step up. Now, listen, not every person that they talked to responded that way. In fact, what did I say earlier? Some of them saw them and they saw them uh talking in their language, and they saw them, they they heard this wind, they heard all these things, and their accusation was they're drunk. They've had too much wine to drink. And Peter, of course, first thing he says in his sermon, he gets up and he says, Hey man, it's like it's like 10 o'clock in the morning. It's like, you know, it's too early for them to be drunk. Come on. I love it because he doesn't really just take it, he doesn't take it too serious. He's like, I get why you think that we're drunk or whatever, but he says, hey, it's it's too early for that. But notice, not every person responds, yes. Not every person says, Yeah, we believe this message. Not every person says, Yeah, Peter, amen. Let's do this. We're convicted, we're gonna follow you, whatever you say. But 3,000 people did. And that's unbelievable. That is supernatural results to see that kind of response to the gospel. So the question that I wrestle with tonight is as Redemption City Church, as this new expression, this very infant-staged group of people that are trying to grow a church in South Austin, not so that we can become a big church, but so that we can reach more people with the gospel, so they have the opportunity to experience the life change that Jesus brings when his good news really saturates into our hearts that we don't have to earn his favor. We have it in Jesus. How do we become a spirit-filled church? How do we become a church that sees the supernatural things happen? Well, remember that the church is not about the organization itself. It's not just some gathering. Church isn't, hey, we go, we go to church on Sunday. Church is we are the church. That the church is the people. And so to be a spirit-filled church means it has to be full of spirit-filled people. Remember those tongues of fire when they came in the upper room? It didn't just come as one large thing of fire and stay that. It actually divided. And I think it's intentionally in the text to remind us that each one of the apostles, the disciples, were touched by the Holy Spirit individually in the midst of collectively worshiping God and praying together. They were unified together, but yet each person received the power of the Holy Spirit working in them. There is unity, but there is diversity. Because here's the truth there are people that you know that I will never be effective at reaching with the gospel. There are people that are in your circles of influence and in your world, or even geographically, or even in your workplace. There are people that I will never even interact with. But as you are filled with the Holy Spirit, as we go, because the church is both the gathered and the scattered, isn't it? God will use you to reach them. And some of you are like, I don't think I really want him to do that. I'm not real sure I'm ready for that. Hey, that's okay. Wherever you are in the process, just know this God can fill you. It is not that just God is with you, God is in you. It's not just that he is with you along your way, but he is inside of you. That's a crazy reality. That the God of heaven lives and dwells in people. In fact, Old Testament tells us, you know, they used to build temples. They built this big temple, they had the tabernacle they carried around while they were in the desert, and they built this big temple and they went to worship God there because that's where God dwelled. But in the New Testament, we see a new reality that your body is the temple, that we are the temple of God, and that he resides inside of that. And so there's a supernatural reality about every single one of you that have put trust in Jesus Christ, that he lives inside of you. He lives inside of me. So how do we become? I just want to look at the text as we finish this up and say, how do we become a spirit-filled church? How do we become a collection of spirit-filled people? Well, Peter says here to them when they ask the question, what do we do? I mean, that's my question tonight. What do we do, God? What do we do now? He says this first, we have to repent. He tells them, repent. Now, let me just give you a very basic understanding of what we mean by repent. Repenting means not just a change of behavior, okay? But it's a change of belief. At the core of who you are, a change of belief that does affect your behavior. Because here's what I know. Um I've been in church long enough to know that sometimes the church becomes a place where we just try to be the moral police and try to make everybody act certain ways. And uh and if we don't, you know, we might not act that way during the week, but on Sundays we put on a certain show for everybody, you know, we kind of conform behavior. Listen, true radical transformation that happens in our lives comes when our minds and our lives are completely shaped around the person work of Jesus Christ, the gospel, the good news, the message that we were sinners and we still are. We were headed for destruction, but Christ, in his mercy and grace, dies for us and gives us life, gives us forgiveness, offers us everything. So Peter says, repent, and what was he saying to them? He was saying, quit thinking about Jesus as this crazy lunatic teacher who came and tried to teach you something different than what the scripture says. Repent and believe who he really is. He really is the Savior, the Messiah, the Son of God. Believe rightly, repent about him and who he is. But he then says this, and be baptized. Now I grew up in a Baptist church, and baptism is a big deal in the Baptist church. But I know people that were in the Baptist church that came to faith in Christ and weren't baptized for a long, long time. Let me just tell you, this is not, this is not just my opinion. This is what I believe the scripture says, that baptism is very important to our process as spiritual, as believers. Baptism does not, hear me say this, baptism does not save you. If you put your trust in Jesus Christ and you can't get baptized before Christ comes back or you die, you're going to heaven. That's not the issue, okay? I believe that. What I do believe, though, is that for people who have put their trust in Christ that have not gotten baptized, you're in disobedience. Now, for some people, it's like, well, the pastor's never given me a chance, or the church has never had a baptism. We had the opportunity not long ago, just a couple months now, to have our first baptism service. Baptism celebration is the way I like to say it. And it was awesome. Because here's the thing I understand that when we are baptized, we are following Christ's example, and we are reminding ourselves and everyone around us that we belong to God and we are followers of Him. We are connecting ourselves with His community, and we are identifying ourselves with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. And so Peter says, repent, but then he says, be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. And so let me just say this tonight that if you've never been baptized, but you're a believer in Christ, like the next time we do baptism or even before we leave tonight, come talk to me. You need to be baptized. You do. You need to be baptized. And the baptism is not just the water baptism as it was pre-Jesus and pre-Holy Spirit here. The baptism, it goes on, he goes on to say this, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. So if we want to be a spirit-filled church, a spirit-filled people, we have to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Isn't it funny that we teach in the church that you receive your salvation? Hopefully you hear this. We teach that your salvation comes as a gift from God, Ephesians 2.8, right? For by grace you're saved through faith. It's not by works, so that no one can boast, right? It's a gift from God. But what's funny to me, and I should say, shouldn't say really funny, but sad reality because I see this in my own life, is that I receive my salvation as a gift from God, but then I think I have to earn everything else. Let me say that differently. It's like salvation comes, like I get to heaven because God just gives it to me. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God's eternal life in Christ Jesus. But then after that, I think I've got to work to earn everything else from God. Notice where he says that the Holy Spirit is a gift. And that the same grace that gave us our salvation is the same grace that grows us up in holiness. Because it's the Holy Spirit working in and through our lives. So let me just close out and say this to us tonight. Listen, if your life as a Christian feels like it has no supernatural elements to it, it's not because God doesn't want you to have supernatural elements to it. If you're not experiencing things in your life that you can't, you couldn't say, like, man, all I can say is that that's God. It's not God's desire for you to live that way. Doesn't mean that every day you wake up and you're gonna see somebody's sight healed and hearing restored. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying that, you know, you just start saying, well, God, you know, you're gonna do miracles and bam, they just start happening. But listen, we serve a God who can do the impossible, who can do the amazing. There's some people in your life who need to hear the gospel, who need to hear the good news of who Christ is. There's people in my life. And we have the Holy Spirit to give us the boldness to do that. The ability to cross cultural boundaries, socioeconomic boundaries, cross across barriers. Um, in just a month or so, uh, maybe a little bit longer, we're gonna go to Mexico again and do some work down there in a culture where we don't speak the same language, but we have seen the gospel work and move, even across a language barrier, because God's Holy Spirit can do that. So we want to be a church that is spirit-filled, that is, that is believing that God can do the God can do the impossible. And when we gather, we want to feel and sense the presence of God working and moving, but when we leave, we want to feel and sense the spirit of God working too. Okay? So let's pray for that as we close out tonight, and then I'm gonna give you a few instructions.