Speaker 1: Power. And what distinguishes Pentecostals from everybody else is that they truly believe what is in the book of Acts is for them today. Amen. And that's what I truly believe. I don't believe the Lord just laid it out there to show us a cool story.
It's a story that has a purpose, but it is for us, brother Jeff. It is for us to raise the dead. It's for us to bring healing. It is for us to prophesy. Not just them two thousand years ago, not just some people in revival a hundred years ago, but it is for us today.
Speaker 2: Hello, friends. Welcome to the Life Tabernacle Church podcast. It's an honor to be with you today. This podcast serves as our church's weekly sermon archive. Tune in each week to hear what God is speaking in our community.
Be sure to follow and share with a friend. We hope you enjoy today's message.
Speaker 1: Amen. So bless you, brother Kyle. Alright. Acts chapter two verses one through 41. Let's get into it.
Beyond the screen behind me, it's gonna be a lot of scripture, but that's okay. So let's build our endurance and our ability to listen to scripture. Acts chapter two verses one through 41. This is the word of the Lord. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them. Can you say all? All.
Good. We're filled with the holy spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit enabled them. Now they were staying in Jerusalem, god fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked, aren't these who are speaking Galileans?
Then how is it that each of us hears them in our own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia and Judea and Cappadocia and Pontius and Asia, Fygira, and Pamphylia, Egypt, and parts of Libya, near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans, and Arabs. We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, what does this mean? Some, however, y'all know there's always a some.
Right? Some, however, made fun of them and said, they've had too much wine. Then Peter stood up with the 11, raised his voice and addressed the crowd. Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you. Listen carefully to what I say.
These people are not drunk as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning. No. This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people.
Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days and they will prophesy. I will show you wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below.
Blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Fellow Israelites, listen to this. Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did among you through him as you yourselves know.
This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge and you with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God, can you say, but God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him, I saw the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices.
My body also will rest in hope because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead. You will not let your holy one see decay. You will you have made known to me the paths of life, and you will fill me with joy in your presence. Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised an oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne, seeing what was to come.
He spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God. He has received from the father the promised holy spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven yet he said, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this. God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Messiah. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, brothers, what shall we do? Peter replied, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promises for you and your children and all for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.
With many other words, he warned them and he pleaded with them, save yourselves from this corrupt generation. Those who accepted his message were baptized and about 3,000 were added to their number that day. My friends, this is the word of the Lord. Would you pray with me for a moment? Sweet Holy Spirit, come and have your way today.
In the precious name of Jesus, all of God's people said, amen. It's Pentecost Sunday. Last year, made everybody wear birthday hats because today is the church's birthday. Whether you like birthdays or not, you should at least like this one. For on this day, two thousand years ago, the church of Jesus Christ was birthed in the upper room.
The word Pentecost literally literally means fiftieth day, reflecting its timing on the Jewish calendar. For Jews, the festival of Pentecost was to be celebrated fifty days after Passover, and it celebrated the end of the harley the barley harvest and the beginning of another harvest. Thus, the festival was a celebration of God's blessing on the land, and the people were to praise God for his blessing and provision. And the Jews, whether no matter where they live, were supposed to come to Jerusalem and celebrate the feast of Pentecost every single year. And on this joyous celebration of blessing and abundance two thousand years ago, the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised would come and descend upon the 120 disciples who were prayerfully waiting in the upper room.
And my friends, listen clearly, everything changed that day. Everything. Because whether whether we are a Pentecostal Church or a Catholic Church or a Baptist church or an Orthodox church or a Presbyterian church or a Lutheran church or whatever church it is, we all find our roots right here in Acts chapter two on the day of Pentecost. From here, the early church was birthed and continues to grow as the body of Christ. Pentecost reminds us that there is a mission in the world that God has here for us to partner with him in.
For Jesus said in acts one eight, he says to the disciples, but you will receive what? Power. Power when the holy spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, into the ends of the earth. Pentecost serves as an annual reminder of God's mission here on the earth to empower his people to be witnesses of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ with signs and water wonders all the way to the uttermost parts of the earth. That's what Pentecost reminds us of.
It's a reminder that we are in the last days. Is this what the prophet Joel said right there in Acts chapter seven? He said, in the last days, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. My friends, on the day of Pentecost, the day that transpired, we began the last days. By a show of hands, would you believe we're in the last days?
It started then. We're even closer now two thousand years later. We are in the last days. And Pentecost each year should serve as a reminder that our time is short, and that God desires for all to come to salvation, and that we have a mission to partner with him in to help accomplish that. And if you didn't know, this church, Life Tabernacle Church, is a Pentecostal church.
Did you know that? Amen? We're a Pentecostal church, so this day is actually very important to us. Right? Now our Baptist brothers and sisters, they appreciate this day, but they celebrate it a little differently.
Okay? But for us, this day is a big deal and I'm gonna tell you why. Because as I've grown, as I've grown up, brother and sister, I've realized how important Pentecost is and how important being a Pentecostal is. When I was in Missouri, most of y'all know I was in Missouri before I moved back to Virginia. I was a youth pastor at a church called Christ Point, and the pastor there is named pastor Josh.
And if I've ever met a Pentecostal person, it is pastor Josh Pennington. And while I was under his leadership and I served under him as his youth pastor, there's a lot of things that I learned under him. I learned how to honor people. I learned how to be generous. I learned how to study.
I learned how to pray, and a whole host of other things. But one thing I learned from pastor Josh was this. He told me, never be afraid of your Pentecostal heritage. He said, never be ashamed of where you've come from. You are Pentecostal.
Never lose your Pentecostalness. And I didn't understand why that was so important. Because to be honest with you, there's a lot of church denominations and traditions, and they all have beauty, and there's all thing there's things we can learn from all of them. But I didn't really understand what he meant until now. Because growing up, when I would go to school, lots of my friends would ask me, sister Darlene, hey, what church do you go to?
And I would always get nervous. I'd always get nervous. I, you know, I would say, well, I go to this church in Benton called Life Tabernacle, and, it's a it's a Pentecostal church. And when you say that, their eyes get real big. Why do they get real big?
Their immediate thought is tongues, snakes. No, thank you. Right? I don't want anything to do with that. All of my friends pretty much went to Salem Baptist, which is great, but they're like, you go to that weird, you know, tongue tongue speaking church.
And it was always weird to try to explain, hey, it's not just tongues, it's there's other stuff. But it was just kind of a weird point, attention as I was in high school. Right? And when I would explain to them that we did things differently, I I meant that we spoke in tongues, and we prayed loudly and we got excited and emotional quite a bit unlike other churches who it's like, you know, someone died each week. Right?
You walk in, you're like, is is there a resurrected savior here? You know? Like, where is he at? Right? That was their experience and and I'm trying to explain them what my experience was.
But even praying in tongues and praying loudly and singing charismatic music doesn't adequately describe what it means to be Pentecost. I need you to go with me for a minute. That that alone doesn't describe what it means to be Pentecost. Something in the early nineteen hundreds called the Azusa Street Revival broke out. In the early nineteen hundreds and nineteen o six, there was a black African American, minister named William Seymour who was blind in one eye.
And him, through the influence of others, led one of the greatest revivals the world has ever seen in the city of Los Angeles. Hard to believe. Right? And for almost ten years, God poured out his spirit in that revival. And from that movement, we get the modern Pentecostal movement that we are a part of.
And millions, if not billions already are already a part of across the whole world. But being a Pentecostal doesn't just find its roots in the early nineteen hundreds. It goes way back farther than that. But let me say this about Pentecostals. Amen?
And I'm gonna say this I wanna say it was some like nuance here. We don't have it alright. Okay? We don't have it alright. But I will say this, sister Dorothy.
I will say this, what Pentecostals do better than probably anyone else is that Pentecostals read the book of Acts and they believe what they see in the pages of scripture can happen to them in their everyday life. Right. Our other church traditions, they read the scriptures and say that was great, that was so cool that the apostles got to do that stuff, but that's not for us today. We'll just have to teach God's word and hope that's enough. And I believe in the power of God's word.
Don't play with me. But when I read God's word, I also see some other things that are are supposed to be normal in my life. We use the word, but we also operate in supernatural power. And what distinguishes Pentecostals from everybody else is that they truly believe what is in the book of Acts is for them today. And that's what I truly believe.
I don't believe the Lord just laid it out there to show us a cool story. It's a story that has a purpose, but it is for us, brother Jeff. It is for us to raise the dead. It's for us to bring healing. It is for us to prophesy.
Not just them two thousand years ago, not just some people in revival a hundred years ago, but it is for us to day. And these early Pentecostals, this early church, I mean, can you imagine? I mean, they had watched this man named Jesus of Nazareth go around the whole region preaching with authority, bringing healing to the sick, telling the religious leaders, hey, you got it all wrong. And he did it with such power, and they were so impressed by that. And then what happens on the day of Pentecost, that same spirit that rested on the Lord Jesus Christ came and rested on them, and they began to do the same things.
Now perhaps the simplest way to put it today is being a Pentecostal means living by the spirit every single day. That's what Jesus did. You remember Jesus' baptism into the River Jordan, the holy spirit descended on him, then the holy spirit drove him into the wilderness, then the holy spirit drove him back into public life, and he began to have this beautiful, powerful ministry. And there's no one who's ever lived that's done this better than Jesus. Jesus truly lived in step with the spirit, where he's God himself, but he lived by and in the power of the spirit every single day.
Being a being a Pentecostal means we have the ability, as the as the writer Ezekiel said, for our hearts of stone to become hearts of flesh. For us to be born again by the spirit into God's new family. It gives us the ability to crucify the flesh. Because if you read the stories all throughout the scriptures, we read that God's people couldn't obey God, And they wouldn't be able to obey God until God put his own spirit within them. And now that we have the spirit in us, we can deny the flesh, we can stop the acts of the flesh, and we can begin partaking and growing the fruit of the spirit.
It gives us access to the supernatural giftings of the holy spirit that all of us have. Let's pause there for a minute. When you came to know Jesus and you are filled with the holy spirit, you were given gifts. Every single one of you to use for the building up of the body. Did you know you had gifts?
Honestly, there's not a better feeling. You know, there's well, you get what I'm saying. This is a good feeling. Okay? Christmas morning, you open all the presents, and then you open all the presents and they're all gone.
You're sad. And then you turn your head a little bit and you look behind the tree and you're like, oh, there's one more. And it has my name on it. Well, you get excited. Right?
Just a reminder today, you have gifts that you probably didn't know you have, and God wants you to use them. And this is part of what it means to be a Pentecostal, brother Caleb. And in fact though, even though this is true, even though being a Pentecostal means to live in the fullness of everything that God has for us, the fact that as here at Life Tabernacle and many other Pentecostal churches and many, many other churches in America have not been living up to what is available to us. There's so much more, and we're settling. We all know it.
We try to use our music and our lights and our programs to attract people instead of the wonder working power of God. Amen. Yeah. We try to rely on our own power instead of trying to be weak in the spirit. Instead of trying to let God show himself strong, we try ourselves to figure it all out.
There's so much more that we're missing. Friends, if I'm honest, we have lost our Pentecostalness. Because being Pentecostal is more than tongues and snakes, and we will never have snakes at this church. Praise God. I don't like snakes.
I killed a snake a few years ago. It was a black snake. It couldn't even hurt me, and I I beat it so bad. You didn't even know what it was. It was awesome.
We'll So never do snakes. So if you're like sitting there like, don't know about this church. We're not doing snakes. Okay? There's a few churches in West Virginia that still do them.
Fun fact. Okay? But we've lost our Pentecostalness, and it's more than just tongues and snakes. And and and and the reason we've lost it might be because somewhere down the road, we got tired of be calling the weird ones. I grew up in school, and I got called weird all the time.
I remember there's a girl I was dating in high school, and she came to like a worship night we were having. And my youth pastor at the time was like, hey, I need you to help me move this foosball table. I said, alright, stay right here with sister Fiona and everything will be okay. And lo and behold, by the time I get back, the ladies are having prayer meeting. They're speaking in other tongues.
They're praying loudly. She grew up in a Presbyterian church and she's like, what is happening? And I don't think she ever came back to church. So how about that? Right?
And I think some of us, because we don't wanna be the weird ones, we've kinda shied away from our Pentecostalness. But I think there's probably something else that has actually caused us to be less Pentecostal. And if you were honest, this is probably what's on your heart. More honestly speaking, it's because our experience and our expectation didn't get met in a way we thought it would. You had someone in your life who was sick, someone who needed a breakthrough, and you prayed.
You prayed with faith and nothing happened. And you said to yourself, maybe maybe this ain't for me. Maybe it doesn't work like that anymore. Maybe the scriptures aren't really for me, and it's just a story. And because of our disappointment, because of our limited fickle experience, we allow our belief in God and what he wants to do on the earth today to come down to the level of our experience and our feelings.
And my friends, that's a problem. You can't build your theology and your belief in God just off your experience alone. John Wesley said it well, it's scripture, tradition, and experience. Tradition and experience are good. Those things help us be who we are.
But the ultimate authority of who God is and what he wants to do in our life is from the word of God itself. Instead of bringing ourselves down, we must bring ourselves up and say, you know what? Peter walked by this guy. He said, look at me. In the name of Jesus, I don't have money, but what I do have, I give you.
In the name of Jesus, get up and walk. That's not just a story. It's for you. It's for you. It's for us.
And my friends, we're Pentecostal. We don't need to lose our Pentecostalness. There's too many churches that are looking the same. There's something special about being a Pentecostal. In the early church, that was their experience.
They were just regular Christians, and they were having a Pentecostal experience. Because being a Pentecostal, what we see in the scriptures and what it simply means to be a Christian. And so today, in the power of the spirit, I need to remind you of three important things before we have a time of prayer together. If you have your neighbor beside you, look at them and say, Pentecost is for me. Look at your other neighbor and say, no.
No. For me. It's for me. Brother Nutter, it's for me and you, but for me. Let's look back at Acts chapter two verse three.
So this is the context. Jesus told his disciples in the 120, hey, I need you to wait. I need you to tarry because I'm going to send the Holy Spirit very soon. So the 120 disciples went and met in this upper room, and they're praying fervently, waiting on the promised Holy Spirit. Then on one beautiful day, something changed.
This is what it says in Acts chapter two three. It says, they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. Can you say each? Each. I love what the NASB says.
It says, and tongues that looked like fire appeared to them distributing themselves and a a tongue rested on each one of them. A tongue rested on each one of them. A 120 people were gathered in that room that day, and every single one of them had their own personal experience with the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is for me. Look at your neighbor and say, me.
You know one thing I love is olive oil. Okay? And, as some of y'all know, I'm kinda bougie. I'm kind of I'm kind of fancy in the way I eat, in the way I use olive oil. And, this is my special olive oil that I buy.
This is not Bortoli or the Kroger brand one. Okay? If you buy that, that's fine. But this is my oil. And this oil is some of the best tasting olive oil that you've ever had directly from Italy, has all the certifications.
This is real olive oil. And guess what? I bought it myself. It was expensive and I use it for cooking. It's delicious.
If you wanna try it afterwards, come see me. I'll give you a sample. But here's the point. This is my oil. This is not your oil.
This is not your daddy's oil. This is not your mama's oil. This is not your favorite preacher's oil. This is my oil. And what I'm reminded about Pentecost is we cannot live off the oil of the past.
We need our own fresh oil for the moment and for ourselves. We need fresh did you know olive oil expires? Do you know if you look on most of it, it has a lot date, expires by 2027. My friends, when we're reminded of Pentecost, you need to be reminded that it is for me and I need my own oil. Not just the oil of others, again, but my own oil.
And that's what we see here. All the tongues of fire come and rest on each one of them. Each one of them had their own personal fire that touched them. This is why each one of us this is why you can't save your kids yourself. Right?
You can't save your coworker yourself. Each one of them has to be convicted by the Holy Spirit, and they personally have to respond to God's work and his atoning sacrifice on the cross. Each one of us has to. Pentecost is for me. So get that in your head today.
You can't have my oil. I'm oily, so I'm gonna throw the oil out. So you're gonna get a little bit of my oil, and we'll get to that next. But I'm just reminding you today that Pentecost is for you. Say, it's for me.
It's for me. You need to get some more oil. You need to get your own oil. Your own oil. And you can try my oil afterwards for free if you like.
Let me set this down because this I don't want that to drop. That'd be sad. Pentecost is for me. Secondly, today, look at your neighbor and say, Pentecost is for us. Acts two four.
Acts two four says this, all of them. Can you say all? All. Y'all need a Greek translation of all? It means all.
It says, were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit enabled them. Fire rested on each one. They all had their own personal experience with the baptism of the holy spirit. Then all of them began to be filled with the holy spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit enabled them. It went from a personal encounter to a corporate encounter of God.
They were now putting their oil together. Pentecost is for us. And so one of the I think one of the issues we have in modern church, not just our church, but a lot of churches, is that we come to church and we spectate just a few people's giftings. We spectate a few people's oil, forgetting that we are supposed to be having our own personal ongoing experience with the holy spirit during the week, and we're supposed to bring that to the body when we come together on Sunday. Because it's not just about what I can give you, and I have giftings and I have oil.
I'm gonna pour it out. But the truth is all of us are to have a corporate experience of God's empowering presence together. Think about think about those times. I don't I don't know where you were or what it was, whether in the old sanctuary, whether at the other church, I don't know where it was. You remember those times when you came hungry for worship?
You came hungry for the revival meeting, and all of a sudden God blew in that place and he filled that place and all of you all, y'all, we all had an experience with God. And you began to lay hands on so and so, and you began to prophesy, and that person got healed, and we all brought our gifts to the table. This is why I love potlucks. Anybody like a good old potluck? You know why?
Because when you have a potluck, brother, I'm gonna say when you have a potluck, I'm gonna probably bring some meat. I can smoke some good meat. Okay? It's a gifting I got from God, guess. Alright?
And as a good smoker, that helps too. But when we have a potluck, we all bring a dish. I bring some barbecue, you bring some mac and cheese, you bring some banana pudding, someone brings the plate, someone brings the drinks, someone brings the straws. Alright? Someone brings something.
Everybody brings something different to the table. And that's what makes a potluck so good. Cause if we all brought baked beans, k, that would be a really stinky party or a very stinky potluck. Right? But I just wanna remind you that Pentecost is not only just for me.
Because our personal experience with God has began to move out of ourselves, and it's began to bless others. So Pentecost is for me. I have my own personal, but when I get with the people of God, it's an experience for us, where we begin to pour our oil on Jesus, where we begin to pour our oil on one another, and we're all filled with the Holy Spirit, and the place is shaken. Pentecost is for us. Pentecost is for us.
Number three, look at your neighbor and say, Pentecost is for them. So the early church, they all had a personal experience. The early church, they had a corporate experience. And while these people are having a beautiful prayer meeting with these tongues, these languages that people here's the here's the crazy part what you need to know. Because you you know how it said like there was tongues and but the people could recognize the tongues?
Another way to translate this word is languages. And there's all these people down below of the upper room, all in the city, and they're hearing the wonders of God in their own personal native language. And God is taking the mysterious tongues of fire in their mouth, and he's translating it on the fly. And the people who are from all over the world, there's like 15 different languages represented, are understanding the gospel in their own native language. And these people begin asking questions.
What is this? Are these people drunk? Right? And then Peter's really funny. He says, no, they're not drunk.
It's only nine in the morning. Right? No one gets drunk in the morning. Okay? It's supposed to be a joke he's telling.
But here's the important part which you need to know. Look at Acts five through 13. Let's read it. Now they were staying in Jerusalem, God fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard their own language being spoken.
Utterly amazed, they asked, aren't these all who are speaking Galileans? You see where it says they? They asked. Pentecost is for them. And this is what I mean by that.
Because and this is a problem that our Pentecostal churches have had. We'll have our own personal experience with the spirit. Right? We'll get in our prayer closet. We'll get filled with the holy ghost.
We'll feel empowered for the day. We'll come to prayer meeting, and we'll come to church, and we'll all bring our giftings. We have this beautiful service where we're all blessing one another, praying for one another, using our giftings with one another, pouring our oil on one another, and then we just keep it at the church. We just keep the oil in the storehouse. And then all the people who are out there, them, don't get any oil.
And what I mean is this, Pentecost was supposed to move us outward to the uttermost parts of the earth. God has a mission. Can you say mission? Mission. God has a mission to save all those who are far from him.
All human beings, male, female, young, old, you name it. And Pentecost was supposed to move us outwards. And what's funny is the early church, this this happened, this literally happened in the book of Acts. They get so content with the outpouring of the spirit in their own community, they forget that they were supposed to go out and be witnesses and preach the gospel. So the Lord allows persecution to transpire to disperse them to all the regions so that they could go preach the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth.
Because being a Pentecostal, we get very content just keeping the oil to our self. But my friends, let me show you this. This is gonna make sense. It's all gonna connect. I wanna show you a picture of someone who was in my yard yesterday.
Yesterday, let's go to the next one. The next one's cuter. Alright. You see my friend, this is Darius the duck. You're laughing now.
It's great. I promise. Look. So yesterday, my family and I were here. We were setting up for service, putting the tables out and whatnot.
As we walked home, this little precious duck was in my yard. And there's no neighbors that I have that have ducks that I know of. He just in my yard. Just cute little duck. And I thought to myself, well, he'll just walk on away.
He'll go find his home or he'll go find his mommy or he'll go walk into the drain and live with the skunks. Okay? And, and here's the problem. As soon as we came walking towards him, he came running to us. He came running to Emily and sat under Emily's feet, And Emily had the twins with her, and he sat under her feet and just sat and didn't move.
And I'm sitting there, I'm like, I have four kids. I don't need a duck. Alright? I don't need a duck. And so my daughter, Simmy, is like, dad, we need this duck.
He's so cute, and he needs a home, and we don't want him to be lonely. So I said, well, we at least need to take him to other ducks. So we got a box for him, and we got him a snack and some water, and we took him to the Roanoke River. And I thought to myself, that's not nice. I didn't see any ducks.
So I'm like, well, I need to go find a place where there's ducks. So I drove all the way to Salem last night at 08:00 to the duck pond. Ever been to the duck pond? I drove to the duck pond. My mom and dad joined us because they thought it was so much fun.
That's when you know like you're getting older when the most fun thing you do on a, you know, Saturday night is put a duck out. Love you pops. Alright. And, and we get to the duck pond. We pull him out.
My daughter's just like just thrilled. And and we we we put him on the ground, and he wouldn't leave us. The other ducks didn't want anything to do with him. And he just kept following Semi around. So I said, well, I guess we'll just take him home.
So at my house right now, in my son room, there's a duck in a box. And his name is Darius, and he's very sweet. And we're gonna find a good home for him because I'm not ready to be a duck dad. I don't think the pastor allows ducks in the parsonage show. I have to talk to the pastor about that.
But here's the point, and this is why I think the Lord sent a duck to my yard last night. My friends, there are so many people in this city, in this world who are lost, who have no hope, who are wandering around like a lost duck wondering if there is a god in heaven, wondering if there is salvation for them. My friends, we have the answer. He came to me last night, and I could have kicked him to the street, but we took him in. I gave him some of my own oil.
Friends, we must take our oil out of this church to others. It is so uncomfortable sharing your faith. Is it not? This is why we don't do it. I'm not gonna ask you to show your hands the last time you shared your faith, but we don't share our faith because it is uncomfortable, because it is awkward.
And we think to ourselves, what happens if they reject us and we think we're weird? We have to get over that. We have to get over that. Why? See this sheet here that was in your bulletin today?
This is the call of the roll. Each year our church has done the call of the roll remembering those who have gone before us, that were a part of this church, that were a part of this body, but who have preceded us in death. And there's no way I could try to do this like pastor Tino and Brenda have done in the past. They've done such an excellent job. But when I look at all these names, look at Maddie Stacy, David Leffel, Mildred Cooper, Fannie Palmer, Jeff Thomas, Hazel Hagerman.
Every single other name on this list, most recently, sister Lucy Irene Derschwiler. I can't help on this day as I look at this list of gone of those who've gone before us, I can't help to think that if they were to communicate one message to us, it is we must tell them. Someone reached every single one of these people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Someone stood out, looked like a fool, and shared Jesus with every single one of these people listed on this list and shared some of their oil with them. And because of it, they are now in God's kingdom forever and ever, and we will see them again.
Amen? But for us, we have to be reminded of their witness and of what our commission is here on Pentecost Sunday that we must go out and tell them who Jesus is in the power of the spirit. We must do that because Pentecost ultimately moves us outwards to those who don't know Christ. Like I said, it's really awkward sharing your faith in a public space. You're standing in line in Kroger and you begin having a conversation.
It's weird to kinda butt in, hey, do you know Jesus? Think you do. You're kinda mean, you know. Right? It's kinda hard to do that.
But let me just tell you this, people are open to God. It's really quiet because y'all don't believe. People are open to God. And the one of the most secular places in the world, one of the places in the world, which is London, England. It's one of the places that is most against the idea of God.
In the past five years, their percentage of people being open to God and people not wanting God has gone from 19%, those who say they want to know God, up to forty nine percent, the people who say they wanna know God. We're living in a moment right now where people are seeking for the one true God. And people are seeking in everywhere. They're they're looking at Islam, and they're looking at Hindu, and they're looking at crystals, and and occultism, and spiritualism. You look at the city of Roanoke.
We live in a very spiritual city. Here's the point. People are seeking the one true God. And guess what? You have the goods to let them know who he is.
Amen? And evangelism, to just help you relax, evangelism, I've heard it said, evangelism is joining a conversation the Holy Spirit is already having with somebody. So on Pentecost Sunday, I just want to remind you, your goal is not to completely just win somebody to Christ, but you're just to be a witness to what you've seen and heard. You're supposed to just simply, hey, hey, is there anything I can pray with you about? Oh, your back hurts.
Let's pray. Lord, would you bring healing to their back? And then lo and behold, you might be surprised God brings healing to their back. And they'll say, woah, what was that? And you say, it was Jesus.
And then they're one to Christ. Stand with me if you can this morning. Pentecost reminds us of our birthday. Look at your neighbor and say, it's my birthday. It's my birthday.
Alright. Pentecost reminds us of the beloved Holy Spirit who's come to dwell in us. Pentecost reminds us of God's mission to save lost humanity through the church of Jesus Christ. Pentecost wasn't just for them back then. It is for us today.
Pentecost is for us. My friends, we must get our Pentecostalness back. The great and terrible day of the Lord is coming soon. Jesus is returning for his bride, and as it says in Acts chapter two, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. You have a role to play in this great mission, my friends.
You have oil that you need to pour on others. So I don't know where you're at this morning, if you're like, I'm ready to go home or you feel really impressed by the spirit. For the next few moments on Pentecost Sunday, don't get fidgety. We can get to lunch in our plans here in a minute. But I wanna have a moment where you can get some of your own oil this morning.
If you need prayer, more than that, if you just need to be reminded of who God is and Holy Spirit is, and you just need a touch from God, you need some fresh oil this morning, I wanna give you an opportunity to seek the face of God for it. To expect him to pour out his spirit in you in a fresh way today. So if you wanna do it in your seat, that's fine. If you wanna come up here and get prayer, I got oil. I'll anoint you.
I'll bless you and pray. But for the next five, ten minutes, I just want us to lift up our hearts and our praise to the one true God. Whatever you need, you seek his face and get some oil this morning. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this morning.
Lord, we thank you for Pentecost Sunday. Lord, help us to become who we're supposed to be. Help us to get our Pentecostalness back. Lord, I pray Lord, whatever one whatever thing someone needs this morning, I pray Lord they would receive it in Jesus name. As we worship you and infuse this place with praise, Lord I pray Lord you would come.
Come Holy Spirit.