Pentecost

i'm just making sure it's

working good

morning how's your week

been mine's been

eventful lot

happened

um let's pray heavenly Father we just

thank you and praise you for today Lord

we thank you for your word god we ask

that you touch the minds and hearts of

all that hear today's message whether

they're here in person or online

um live or watch it later lord in Jesus

name we pray amen so today's

Pentecost and it's the most important

day on the Christian

calendar do you know why because without

Pentecost there is no

church the church was born on

Pentecost we had Jesus come on Christmas

that is death burial and resurrection at

Easter but without Pentecost there is no

church you are sitting here in this

church because 2,000 years ago there was

a feast day in Jerusalem called

Pentecost and what you don't realize is

it's been Pentecost for the last 2,000

years it is

Pentecost that builds the church it's

not your personalities is not through

yeses and nos or what the other things

it's the power of the Holy

Spirit just like he poured out on

Pentecost that builds the

church do you know the story of

Pentecost when's the last time you read

about

Pentecost acts chapter 2 verse one turn

your Bibles

there it says whi and when the day of

Pentecost now Pentecost is a Jewish

festival it means 50 days it marks the

beginning of the wheat

harvest and I think it's kind of unusual

that God would choose a wheat harvest

day to start the church on because he

sent us in to harvest souls that's your

job and my job both we're supposed to

harvest

souls and if souls aren't being

harvested the church isn't doing its

job listen to what they said and when

the day of Pentecost was fully come they

were all with one accord in one place

they were speaking the same thing they

were praying the same thing and they

were hoping for the same thing that 10

days earlier Jesus told them to go to

Jerusalem and wait until the promise of

the father is come listen what happened

and suddenly there came a

sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty

wind and it filled all the house where

they were sitting

and there appeared unto them cloven

tongues like as of fire and it sat upon

each of

them and they were all filled with the

Holy Ghost not the apostles not the 12

the 120 everyone they were all filled

with the Holy Ghost and began to speak

with other tongues as the spirit gave

them

utterance now you might ask why that's

so

important and actually brother Tam was

all over my message this morning during

Sunday school the reason it's so

important is because he gave you the

Holy Spirit to empower you with boldness

to

witness that's what it's

for it also empowers you to overcome all

the attacks from the

enemy if you're operating in the gifts

of the spirit you can overcome division

you can overcome attacks you can

overcome anything

depression and I mean anything you can

operate in the gifts of the spirit

anywhere not just at

church when I was working at the mission

and I saw the guy get off the bus his

leg was all tore up and God spoke to me

and said "When he gets over here pray

for him." right there on the street on

the sidewalk in front of the vice rescue

mission god did a miracle restored the

man's leg he got up and walked and he

did exactly what the man in Acts 3 did

he began to walk and shout and leap and

praise God right on the

street now you can't tell me that God is

dead

you can't tell

me that God is not still in the miracle

working business because I've witnessed

it with my own eyes i have seen

it

recently like a week

ago I got a call to pray for a lady i'd

been praying for them for 2 years

they're trying to have a baby every time

she gets pregnant she has a

miscarriage

okay they asked me to pray and I

did she had a positive pregnancy test

she goes to the

doctor and the embryo is not

viable and no

heartbeat they called me on the phone

this is last

week it said "Brother

John can you pray?" And they're freaking

out and I said "Just calm down and I

will

pray." And so we prayed and she goes to

the doctor that day and they do the

ultrasound fetal heartbeat strong as can

be the embryo is viable the doctor says

"All the things that were causing you to

have miscarriages have been taken care

of you're going to carry this baby full

term." That's the God I serve that's the

God of Pentecost

that's supposed to be the God you

serve it's not just a pastor that has

the ability to lay hands on somebody and

pray for them and for God to restore

them or heal

them marks chapter 16 tells us "These

signs shall follow them that

believe." Do you

believe deep down in your heart do you

believe because if you

do you should be living in

Pentecost he gave us the Holy Spirit to

empower the church to go and witness him

read through the book of Acts everywhere

Peter went people got healed delivered

filled with the Holy

Spirit to the point where just his

shadow alone was enough to heal people

just his

shadow he's not a respector of

persons if he did it for Peter he has to

do it for you

if he did it for James for

John for

Andrew for the

120 for the man that was at the

beautiful gate who'd been begging for

arms if he did it for him he has to do

it for you is he because if he doesn't

he's a respector of

persons i have laid hands on people in

hospitals that were brain dead and God

brought them back to life they walked

out of the

hospital that's your heritage that's

your inheritance the only person

preventing that from happening in your

life is the person looking back at you

in the

mirror that's what you're supposed to do

that's what Jesus said to

do that's fulfilling the ministry of

Christ and it doesn't matter where

you're at

the only thing stopping you and brother

Tim touched on this the only thing

stopping you is

fear you are afraid that if you step out

in faith to do that God's going to let

you

fall on your face and I'm here to tell

you he

won't if he tells you pray for that

person he's trying to use you to pray

for that person he has something for

that person and he's depending on you to

be obedient to him just like the 120

here were

obedient to meet that person's

need it's not up to

me it's up to you as to what you have

operating in your life i can preach up

here until I'm blew in the face i can

yell i can scream i can dance on the

altar but if you're not willing to be

used by God I'm just making a fool of

myself but when you accept the

charge from God to make a difference in

people's lives and you actively pursue

it God changes people and he changes

things god's all powerful he's

omnipotent and he's everywhere at

once but there's one thing in this world

and he created it that can stop his

power and that's you because he gave you

a will to

choose and he won't violate your will he

won't force you to serve him he won't

force you to get saved he won't force

you to receive a healing he will not

force you to have any of those things

but he provided for all of

them and he empowered all of it on the

day of

Pentecost so my question to you is

this what are you going to do with what

God gave

you are you going to sit on

it or are you going to use

it because he's the same God yesterday

today and forever he's the same God that

healed that lame man in front of the

beautiful gate he's the same God that

healed Dave Green on the streets right

in front of the Vicelia Rescue Mission

he's the same God that healed Jason Dudy

after he scrambled his brains on Mooney

Boulevard at Kawia Delta Hospital and he

woke up the next morning after being

brain dead and get and all hope was

given up nothing shown on his EEG

he's the same God that restored

viability to an embryo in a

womb what are you going to do with

it is the

question because this is

Pentecost this is what defines the

church so I'm going to tell you they

have Pentecost in Jerusalem but they're

celebrating a wheat harvest

they have lots of lots and lots of of

celebrations in the Jewish faith and the

Muslim faith has just as many because

they can't be outdone by the

Jews so they have match for match what's

going

on but Christians that's you and me we

got

three we got Christmas we got Easter and

we got Pentecost and guess what the

others don't have Pentecost just the

church does that is something God

created just for this age when the Holy

Ghost was poured out on the day of

Pentecost the age of the law and the

prophets ended and the church age began

and we're still in the church age now

this is the dispensation of grace it's

by God's grace we're able to preach it's

by God's grace that healings happen it's

by God's

grace that you're sitting in this church

saved and it's by God's grace that you

extend it to other

people you don't have to like me

you just have to be obedient to God's

word and you have to do what God said or

else you're going to be

miserable brother Tim was talking about

being content and having the joy of the

Lord do you know where that comes from

it comes from being obedient to God if

you're doing what he called you to do if

you're doing the ministry he put you

into you're going to be content because

the joy of the Lord will fill your

heart when you're constantly

wrestling with what God tells you to

do and you're fighting

it are you

content are you at peace

because if you're not content and you're

not at peace and you don't have the joy

of the Lord moving in your life the

problem is not

God the problem is

you because your focus is on the wrong

things

the Apostle Paul that that one song we

sang today was all written about Acts

chapter I mean Romans chapter 8

especially the end there's nothing can

separate you from God's love there's

nothing that can drive you out from the

presence of God except

you you can

choose to step out of God's

presence he won't stop you

how many believe you don't backslide

overnight okay you backslide one step at

a

time same thing happens when you begin

to move out of God's

presence today you're in tight man

you're there man i can feel the presence

of God everything's going i can feel the

anointing around i want to run out and

pray for everybody I can find then

pretty soon not so much been a little

bit later eh not so much pretty soon you

can't feel the move of God at

all and you begin to say things like

"Man that's a dead

church." And actually it's

not it's not a dead

church you've grown cold in your soul

it's not the effectiveness of the

message being

preached because the word of God is

anointed and it breaks every yoke of

bondage there is no boundary that the

word of God cannot

penetrate except the one that's in your

head when you harden your heart and you

no longer are receiving from

God you don't know what you're doing

because you're walking around aimlessly

like a blind person

the Holy Ghost gives us direction the

Holy Spirit gives us

direction he comforts us he instructs us

in ways of righteousness all of these

things come through our relationship

with God because of the Holy

Spirit we have the Holy Spirit people

under the the law and the prophets did

not he resides in you you can pull it up

at any

time but it requires

you

submitting to

him that's the only way it comes

you ever met

a a theological scholar who had no

spiritual

roots they knew the Bible but they

didn't know

God did you have a conversation with

them you walk away scratching your head

because the things you believe they

don't

believe they base everything they do

just on

on the written evidence that they can

see because there's no attachment from

the Holy Spirit applied to it to truly

interpret what God's saying you can't

truly interpret God's word

without understanding the Bible studying

it having solid doctrine and good

theological principles but with just

those three things and without the Holy

Spirit you're not going to interpret

scripture correctly and you're going to

walk around less than you could

be god gave us the Holy Spirit it

happened on

Pentecost he's still

here and until the Holy Spirit is

removed along with the church it's

Pentecost and we have to get ourselves

to the place where we're walking in

Pentecost where we're doing what they

did do you want to see a church grow go

back and look at the

pattern it's in the book of

Acts what they

did they

shared the goodness of God and people

got saved they talked about the great

works of God the first

day 3,000 people got saved and were

added to the church and then over the

next few days God was continuing and add

to the church and then the healing of

the man out in front of the beautiful

gate took place and after immediately

after

that there were 5,000 men added to the

church and that doesn't count me women

and children

so the church starts out with 120 people

in one day it grows to 3,000 and then

within a few days they're over

20,000 that's how God grows

churches and he uses people

that's why it says in the Bible that God

uses the foolishness of this world

because uh you can get offended at me if

you want and I really don't

care we're foolish all of us but yet

it's us God uses to build his

kingdom

flawed broken messed up needing God more

than anything else and then he turns

around and he uses us to build his

kingdom with look at Peter man you want

to talk about a messed up brother peter

was messed up he was He was controlled

by his

emotions he was either happy or

angry rarely in the

middle he he he even wanted to build

three shrines one to Jesus one to Moses

one to Elijah and Jesus had to rebuke

him when they came to take Jesus into

custody he cut off the high priest

servant's ear and Jesus had to heal him

put his ear back on and tell Peter "Put

your sword

away." Then Jesus Peter denied him three

times and then this is the power of

God and this is what you need to realize

this is what Pentecost is about jesus

comes up to Peter and it's in the end of

John you can read it for

yourself he says

"Peter do you love

me?" And Peter says "Yes Lord I love

you." And he says "Then feed my

lambs." And then he says again Peter

"Dust thou love me?" And it made Peter

hurt the second time he asked him and he

said "Yes I do Lord." He said ' Then

feed my

sheep.' And then he asked him again

Peter dust thou love me and he he was

really grieved now he's really got tears

going he said Lord you know I love

you and then he tells him then feed my

sheep and he tells him how he's going to

die and Peter willingly accepted it

and that's the

power of the Holy Spirit operating in

your

life is no matter how many times you've

failed no matter how many times you've

messed up Jesus is still standing there

saying "Do you love

me feed my sheep."

So I want you to take that with

you i want you to pray about that i want

you to actually meditate on it and ask

the

Lord

God am I feeding your

sheep and if I'm not empower me to do so

with boldness

everybody

stand i want to give anybody here an

opportunity that needs to be prayed for

i'll pray for you if not we're going to

I'm going to pray and we're going to

dismiss and Pastor Tuck is here to talk

to you guys afterward and I'm going to

go find some

tacos heavenly Father we just thank you

and praise you Lord God we thank you for

your word God we thank you for

Pentecost God we thank you for your Holy

Spirit being poured out upon our flesh

and we thank you Lord for empowering us

to boldness to be your witnesses god we

ask that you go with us each and

everyone that as we make our way through

this week that you give us opportunities

to witness Lord and point out to us how

And we just want to thank you and

glorify you Lord and give you praise in

Jesus' name and everybody said "Amen."

And what are you going to do this week

go you get