Transcript: Discover the Power of God | Agents of C.R.O.S.S. #1 | Pastor J

Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Something that we're missing in our very lives and in the lives of the church is the power of God. We're missing it. We seem to feel like we don't need it. Well, I can make it on my own. I can do it on my own. That's kind of our whole thing is do it yourself, right? Be out of line. Do it yourself, right? And that's kind of what we... I mean, and do it yourself is cool when you're, you know, talking in your homes and your cars and stuff like that. You can do that. That's really cool. I do a lot of DIY myself when it comes to fixing computers and fixing things and doing things. I DIY. But when it comes to my spiritual life, I don't want to DIY. I don't want to do it myself. I don't want to do it yourself, right? I need God. I need His resources. I can't do it in my own strength. I can't do it by myself. I can't do it in my own strength. My strength is insignificant and insufficient to do what I need. I can't be saved in my own strength. I can't be a powerhouse in the kingdom of God in my own strength. I just can't do it. I need the power of God. Now interestingly enough There were a bunch of people That knew that they needed The power of God too So They decided to gather In another room And Isn't it awesome That after all this time That just Happenstance Just for chance Just the way it worked out the way we did, the way it is. This is Pentecost Sunday. Coronavirus, the lockdown has kind of stopped here in our state. And we're allowed to gather together. And finally we can open the doors of the house, of God's house, and we can gather together. And today we are gathering in the upper room, if you will. We are gathering in his house today. And I'm going to tell you something. I'm looking for a blessing. I'm looking for an anointing. I'm looking for a spiritual manifestation, a miracle today. Something special to happen in this place. The people gathered up in the upper room and they were there waiting for the blessing. Let's read what it says in verse 1. It says that when the day of Pentecost was fully coming, They were all with one accord in one place. Now let's look at first what Pentecost is. We've got to go back to the original Jewish thing. And Pentecost is literally the Feast of Shabbos. Okay? Now, the Feast of Shabbos is not like Yom Kippur. is not like the day of the Tome and it's not like these other feasts that are so widely and so amazingly celebrated. The feast of Shabbos is very low key. And the reason is because the feast of Shabbos is just a day that the Jewish people celebrate the day that they finally accepted God's holy scripture, the Torah, and they study God's Holy Word during the feast. They're studying God's Word during this feast. And that's what we do. We need to study God's Word more. We can't just expect that we're just going to be okay and never read God's Word. Reading God's Word is part of our daily experience. We need God's Word. It is more than just a book. It is our roadmap. It's our roadmap to heaven. It's the way we get where we need to be so that we can transform into that likeness of Jesus and be ready to go when he calls. The feast of Shavuos is such an amazing thing. The time that they accepted the Torah. now it's interesting the reason why it's so low key as I studied this is because really what it is it's like a marriage in a marriage after you say your vows the husband and wife kind of want that marriage that excitement to go on forever right that honeymoon stage if you will to go on forever and that's what the feast of shahush is it is a very low key kind of love relationship between God's people and the word I'm not going to ask you to say it out loud but in your own mind and your own heart today do you love God's word is it something that you're so in love with that you can't help but be glad when you can read it See, that's the kind of love we need to have for God's book. God's book should be more than just a book. It should be part of our life. That's what Pentecost is. That's what the Feast of Shavuot is. But for us in the Christian church, Pentecost is a little bit more. It's an amazing day of when the power of God fell. and today I want the power of God to fall. Are you wanting the power of God to fall today on you? Do you need God's power today? Oh, I tell you, I need it today. I want it today. I'm not satisfied with what I'm doing. I'm not satisfied with where I am. I want to move up. I want to get closer. I want to be closer to God. That's what I need. I need it. I love this. When the day of Pentecost was fully come, They were all in one accord in one place. I like that. All in one accord in one place. This is beautiful. All in one accord in one place. They had one mindset. They had one mindset that said, God first, everything else after that. Do we have that kind of a mindset in this church that says God first and everything else next. My desires, my wants, my wishes, my things, doesn't matter. It's all about God. That's what we've got to have. We've got to have that kind of a mindset, and that's what they have. They were all in one accord in one place. Hmm, that's beautiful. Many say, oh, I've got to be in church to worship God. And that's true. You don't have to be in church to worship God. But church is a vital thing for the Christian. It's vital. It's something we need. It's more than even something we need. It's something that we can't live without. See, in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 25, you read that word that says, For saying not the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is. Because there are too many people in this world that are living a type of thing that says, I don't gotta go to church. During the coronavirus thing, we had a big thing in the district that we did a Zoom meeting. Many of you may know Zoom, okay? It where you all gather together over the internet and talk So we had a Zoom meeting We talked about the fact of what coronavirus has done to our church and that we had to close down, we had to find different means to do things, whether it was having online services or driving services or whatever the case may be. And one of the things that came forth through this meeting was the fact that this very well probably is going to change the way we worship. Because people will say, why should I go and see church when I can sit in front of my computer in my pajamas? And as we were talking this, cold chills ran up and down my body. Because what I realized was as good as the internet is to spread the gospel, what we're doing is we're allowing Satan to whisper in our ears. And we're listening. He's saying, you don't have to go and sit in church to worship God. And people are saying, you know what, you're right. You don't have to go and sit where, because you know what, you might get sick. So don't go. I say this, and I say this with zero hesitation. If you come to God's house, with an open heart that says, God, I am here to worship you. I believe with every ounce of my being that God will protect you. And I believe that. And if I didn't believe it, I wouldn't say it. But what we are seeing is this generation changing. And who is behind it all? Satan. Because what is he? What does the Bible say he is? He is the father of our lives. That's it. That's it. And he's lying to us. And people are falling for it, as they used to say. Hulk, liar, you sinner. And the church, our very district, our very denomination even said, well, then, you know what, we just got to learn to adapt. Look, I understand adapting, and I get that, but I cannot stand the idea of saying, well, we're going to set up cameras, we're going to run the services over the internet, and you can sit in front of your computer and you can watch it that way. Let me tell you something If we're going to do that We might as well close the doors And be done with it We might as well close the doors If we're going to sit there And sit behind computers Or sit in front of our television And do Roku's or fire TV's And do the streaming services We might as well shut the doors down Were these people afraid Let's be honest here What was going on here in this generation when these people were going to the upper room? They were, there was very much so, we're worried about coronavirus and COVID-19 and all this type of stuff. These people, if they were found out, were going to be put to death. Be put in jail and put before the courts and possibly be put to death. If not, just be thrown into jail. But whatever, whatever the case may be, that was their, what they were looking at. So did they stay home? No. They gathered together. They gathered together in the upper room. And they were waiting for the blessing. They didn't care about what the cost. We're going to gather together. We're going to do what God wants us to do. And when we gather together, God's going to bring about a blessing. Hallelujah. I love this. They were gathered in one accord. One mindset. In one place. Verse 3 says And suddenly there came a sound from heaven As a mighty rushing wind I love it The gift of God was coming And it was coming with a trumpet type of sound There was something that was going to be trumpeted A sound trumpeting This appearing of the blessing of God And let me tell you something That is also going to happen There is coming a day Not very very far off that another blessing is going to come for the church of the living God. And it's going to be preceded by a trumpet. And it is that the dead Christ shall rise first. And we which are alive and remain will be caught up to be with the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. That is what's coming very, very soon. And we need to be ready. We need to be ready because if we're not ready, we ain't going. that's not popular people don't want to hear that people don't want to hear that we're going to put this on our video on the internet today and let me tell you there's going to be some people probably that will watch out and will say oh I don't know I don't think I have to go to church well I don't know I don't think I have to pray oh well I don't know I don't think I have to read my bible these are vital points of what a Christian is It's not that going to church is going to save you. It's not that talking to the Lord every day is going to save you. It's not that reading your Bible is going to save you. There's only one thing that's going to save you, and that's falling on your knees and saying, Lord, forgive me of my sins. But the point is, those things are how we show that we love God. These people gathered in the upper room to show that they love God. we love you Lord we love you more than we can put into words that we're going to gather together there came a sound from heaven as a mighty rushing wind and it filled the house where they were sitting the problem with most Christians is we got a little bit of God but we don't get enough think about what I'm saying am I lying let's be honest we got a little bit of God but we don't got enough anybody want to say here to me today anybody want to raise up their hand and say I got enough of God then thanks I figured I got enough of God I don't need no more yeah we don't have enough of God none of us do I don't think you can ever get enough of God. I know I haven't got enough yet. I haven't got enough. See, you can get enough of some things, right? We can get frustrated with people. You know, want to smack them around. Right? We can get enough of our favorite food You ever get a favorite food And you eat and eat and eat And then you get sick It's like And you gotta go lay down And you're sitting there going I'll never do that again Until the next time Right But we can get too much of that But you can't get enough of God God's gonna fill you up But you're not really going to have that feeling of fullness in its entirety. See the house was filled where they were sitting I love this Romans 15 and verse 13 says something very interesting It says, Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that He may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. we need to be filled. We want power? We gotta be filled. We want blessings? We gotta be filled. That's the only way we're gonna see these miracles, these blessings, these things in our life is if we're filled. Gotta be filled. The problem is we're not filled. We're always trying to do it ourselves. We're always trying to make it in our own ways. There's a story of a young missionary named Hubert Jackson. He was given a car in the mission where he was working. The car had a major issue. It didn't want to start on its own. When you turn the key, it didn't want to start. You always had to have a jump start. A jump start or somebody could push it to get it to go. Once he got it going, though, boy, it ran. So, Hubert came up with an interesting idea. He went to the local mission school, and he would say, okay, every morning at such and such a time, I'm going to start out. If you can have the kids come and help me, and just kind of push the car off, and I can get started, I'll be good. And they agreed. So every morning the kids would come out there, help him push start the car. Then as he went throughout the day, he would always leave the car running. when he had to go somewhere he would make his short visits and he would leave the car running he'd go in, he'd do what he could do he'd come out and the car would still be running he'd take off and go well Hubert started to have some physical problems he could no longer do the mission so he and his family had to retire from the mission field so they brought in the next missionary a young man and Hubert told the young missionary he said this is the car and he told him all of the issues and he said, hmm, let's pop open the hood. So he popped open the hood and he said, here's where your problem is. Your cable's loose. He tightened up the cable, closed the hood, went around, turned the key, started up no problem. Hubert was doing so good because he was doing it in his own strength. but if he would have just connected the cable a little better he would have the power. The problem with us is we try to do what we think we're doing so good but yet we can do so much better if we would just connect our cables, if you will, to God and get to the resources and get to the power and the power resources of the Holy Spirit to inundate us and to fill us to overflowing then we would be filled with the power of God. Ooh, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Verse 3 tells us, it says, And there appeared unto them clobin tongues. Clobin meaning divided or separated. So tongues were like separated, if you will. It kind of looked like two tongues almost, if you will. And these tongues were like a spire and they sat upon them. came, literally sat down. They didn't burn. Didn't physically burn them. Just burned out all the impurities. You got any impurities in you today? Got anything in you that can keep you from being at your best for God? Got anything that's in there that's making you say, You know what, I don't know. Maybe this or this or this. Maybe there's something there we need to burn out. That's the only way we can see the blessing of God is if we allow God to purge us. To destroy all of the impurities. To destroy all of the things that are in us that are keeping us from being in our midst for God. The fire of God fell and it burned out all the impurities. If you remember what Jesus said just before he left, he said, wait for the gift my father promised. In a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Again, I'm not asking you to say it out loud, but in your own mind, in your heart today, have you been baptized by the Holy Spirit? or have you maybe been holding off on that? You're just satisfied with saying, Lord, forgive me of my sins. I need a second touch. We need a second touch. That's what it is. Now see, we get saved in an honor of prayer. We'll go down to a river and we'll get baptized in a river and all those are great. But the baptism in a river or in a tank or whatever the case may be is not the same as being baptized in the Holy Spirit. That is what we in the Western denomination call sanctification. And that is the second step in every Christian's life. We first get saved, then we best get sanctified. It's burning away all that impurities. It's taken away all those things that keep us from being at our best for God. That's what we need. Interestingly enough, in 1 Corinthians 12 and 4, it says, Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. And that's the point. God is going to give us all gifts. Now, we may not all get the same gift. But God will give the gift. And it all comes from Him. Hallelujah. Verse 4 says, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak in other tongues, other languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance. No, this was not their doing, it was God's. They didn't do it, God didn't. And why did God do it? Because they were humble, coming before God, saying, God, I need you. I need you first in my life And everything else is going to pale into insignificance Because it doesn't matter Nothing matters to me but you Nothing matters to me I don't care what anybody else does I don't care what anybody else says I don't care what anything he has done I only care about my relationship with you Because that's the only thing that I can handle That's the only thing that I can focus on That I can really change we can't change people we can't change things we can't change the way things go sometimes but we can change us we can change the way we're doing things we can change the way God our relationship with God is and that's what we gotta do we gotta be focused on Him because that's the only way the blessing of God will fall 1 Corinthians 3 16 says these words Know ye not that ye are the temple of God And that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you We are to be the temple of God And the Spirit of God needs to dwell in us And if it isn't We're not going to see the blessing We're not going to see the anointing We're not going to see the power We're not going to see the victory Unless the Spirit of God is dwelling in us It's all about whether we feel the presence of the filling of the Holy Spirit in us. And you can feel the Spirit when it's in you. You really can You can feel the Spirit when it in you In conclusion I love this story There was a little boy and he was flying a kite And the kite was a windy day, and it was getting higher and higher and higher and higher. Every second, it was getting a little bit higher. And finally, it got so high, it was out of sight. He couldn't see it anymore. And an older gentleman came up beside the young man, and he saw the kid with the string going up, and he goes, he stands down beside him and he looks and he looks up into the heavens. He's focusing. And the older gentleman says, how do you even know there's a kite up there? And the young boy looks over at the older gentleman and he says, I can feel it. I can feel it. I say today this to you. Can you feel the Holy Spirit permeating your being? Do you feel it inside of you? Do you feel the power of God flowing inside of you? If you honestly can say, I know that the Spirit of God is flowing through me. I can feel it in my bones. I can feel it in my veins. I can feel it in my heart. I can feel it in my mind. It is permeating my being. And I say hallelujah. And I give God praise for that. But if there is someone today that would be honest and would say, you know what? Hey, I don't know that I feel that kind of presence. Today, I say, is the day. Today on Pentecost Sunday is the day. Pray, Father God, let the Spirit of God fall. burn out all the impurities in my life and make me whole. Fill me to overflow and make me what I need to be. And God will do it. Just like he let the cloven tongues of fire fall, those cloven tongues of fire can fall again. There's no difference between this day of Pentecost that we read about and this day of Pentecost in which we're living. There is no difference. God is still God. God is still God. He's the same yesterday, today, forever. He never changes. He's always the same. So as we bow our heads this morning, as we close our eyes, and I want you to just focus on God this morning. Don't focus on anyone else. Focus on you and God and your relationship to Him. And as you focus on Him, and you focus on that relationship, is there someone that would be honest to God today not to me but to God and say God I'm missing out I can't feel the presence of the Holy Spirit permeating my being but I want it I need it will someone be honest and raise up the hand this morning and say pray for me Pastor Jay hand going up anyone else another hand another hand another hand another hand all over the place hallelujah. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. All kinds of people praying, Lord, I need your presence. I can't do it in my own strength. Anyone else be honest to God and say, I need the presence of God in my life. I need it to fill me to overflowing because I can't do it in my own strength. Anybody else this morning? Another hand going on. Awesome. All over this house. Hallelujah. I'm going to pray for you this morning. Father God, these hands that went up this morning are honest people saying, I can't do it in my own strength. Father God, I've tried and I've failed. Father God, I've tried and I've failed. Father God, I've tried and I've failed. But now I need you. Father God, I pray just like the old time religion days back in this time when we just read. when people were gathered in the upper room and the coal and tons of fire began to fall on these people. Father God, I pray right now that you will begin to rain down the fire of the Holy Spirit in your church right now. Father God, burn away all the impurities that are in our life. Burn it away, Father God, to all the impurities that are in our soul. Father God, fill us to overflowing. Father God, may we hear the mighty rushing wind come sweeping through and burn away all the things that are keeping us from being what we need to be for you, Father God. May we feel that presence, Father God, begin to fill us from our toes to the top of our hips. May we feel you in our veins. May we feel the presence in our souls and in our hearts. May we have you in our minds, Father God. Burn away all the impurities of our minds, Father God. The hatred, the diseases, the disgusting things that are in our minds that keep us from looking and saying, you first and everything else in the background. Father God, burn it away. Purge us, Father God, and make us what we need to be. Father God, may we have you filling us to overflowing. We pray it right now. Father God, open the windows of heaven. Pour us down a blessing. And Father God, may we be able to leave this house today rejoicing, knowing that we have been redeemed, that we have been filled, that we are blessed because of you. Father God, I thank you for that. I pray, Father God, that you will go with us today. Father God, as we leave this place this morning, Father God, may we feel your presence. May we take your presence with us. May you be with us all week long. May when we want to think about things that obsess, may we only think about you. Father God, when Satan comes in and tries to discourage us, may we only think about you. Father God, when Satan comes in and tries to tell us you have not been redeemed, you have not been blessed, may we say Satan, you're nothing but a liar. And may we only focus on you. Father God, I pray that today. I pray, Father God, for the blessing that make us rich and have no sorrow, is it, to be with us all week long. And now, Father God, as we dismiss this morning's service, Father God, we ask that you will not dismiss us, but Father God, that you will come with us. That, Father God, you will keep us safe. And, Father God, you will bring us back safe into your house. That, Father God, we will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we will have a relationship with you. Father God we love you today We praise you today We give you honor And glory And Father God Be with us Until we meet again In Jesus name We beg these blessings And we accept them And thank you And we say Amen and amen Amen. Amen. Thank you.