Declaring the Power of God

Psalm 78:1–7 (NLT) O my people, listen to my instructions. Open your ears to what I am saying, 2 for I will speak to you in a parable. I will teach you hidden lessons from our past— 3 stories [accounts!] we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us. 4 We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD, about his power and his mighty wonders. 5 For he issued His laws to Jacob; He gave his instructions to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children, 6 so the next generation might know them— even the children not yet born— and they in turn will teach their own children. 7 So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands.

Psalm 71:18 “And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me, Until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your might to all who are to come.”

I urge you to read, pray about and meditate on the magazine that the church purchased for you called “Pentecostals.”

Pentecostals 2023

In his opening remarks on Page 3

Page 3

Doug Clay, the national leader of the Assemblies of God, with which we are affiliated, reminds us:

That David prayed in Psalm 71:18, “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come.”

In the same way, may WE want to see the many in our generation who have experienced their Pentecost share that experience with succeeding generations.

A couple of months ago, the movie: Jesus Revolution came out.

All of us old gray-heads watched and reminisced about how many got saved in the late 60s and early 70s.

Hippies, drug addicts, rebels — they came to Jesus.

But there was more — the Holy Spirit was poured out.

There was a mighty move of God in signs and wonders and miracles.

I wish I could tell you that we never let up.

That we kept pressing in for more of God.

But unfortunately that is NOT the case.

We got caught up in raising our families, securing our retirement, acquiring stuff.

Instead of making God our priority.

Instead of experiencing all He wants to do in our lives.

But it’s not too late with God.

The promise of Jeremiah 29 can be OUR promise:

Jeremiah 29:12–13 (LSB) [where God says] ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

I call on all those who ONCE knew the power of God to seek for God with ALL their heart.

Not just for ourselves.

But so that a new generation — who desperately needs the power of God to operate in their challenges — so they will know the Presence and Victory of God.

Let’s focus our passion, let’s pray that Millennials and Gen Z will have THEIR Pentecost.

Clay goes on to write:

The Assemblies of God story is one of ordinary people of all ages who have done extraordinary things through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In every century of the Church Age, Pentecostals have trusted the promises of Scripture and testified about what God has done in their lives.

We live in such a superstar, personality cult time of the church that too many might believe the Holy Spirit only moves in ostentatious ways on super-saints.

That is not true!

As Doug Clay says, being Pentecostal is about ORDINARY people doing extraordinary things through the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit.

And folks, the church will die without the miracle-power of God flowing in it.

In fact: IT IS DYING.

Oh God, rekindle the fire in Your church!

The Apostle Paul asked the question in:

Galatians 3:3 (LSB) Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

And yet so many in the church seem to think they can be successful (whatever that mean!) through human intellect, human effort, human strategies.

May we at New Life fall on our faces to God and say, “Lord I believe what You said to Zerubbabel in...”

Zechariah 4:6 (NASB95) [That it’s] ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the LORD of hosts.

Ordinary People

The Holy Spirit operating in the lives of ordinary people.

I stand before you this morning just an ordinary man.

Anything good that I have done has been done through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Anything stupid or rotten that I’ve done has been through my own abilities, my own desires — my flesh.

My desire, my prayer has been to operate more in the Spirit than according to my own abilities.

My desire is to exhort all of you and this younger generation to experience all that the Holy Spirit wants to do in our lives.

I was baptized in the Holy Spirit a few weeks after I gave my life to Jesus in August of 1971.

Like my salvation, it happened on a Sunday night.

The power of the Holy Spirit enabled me to stand for Jesus right out of the gate.

I didn’t have years to get ready. Not months or weeks.

Right after I was saved I started the 10th grade and was immediately immersed in an atmosphere that was hostility to Biblical Christianity.

People that had known me the previous school year were confused about how I acted, how I spoke, how I prayed, read my Bible in this new school year —

“Who are you!” they wondered. And it gave me a chance to tell them what Jesus had done in my life.

Because I was being discipled at the church I attended to live out the Bible, I became a lightning rod of hostility when I opposed openly professed witches coming to speak at a school assembly.

But, through it all, I was just an ordinary teenager living for Jesus as best I could through the Holy Spirit operating in my life.

When I became an adult, got married, served in the Army and then re-entered civilian life I continued to serve in the church.

I taught junior boys.

I taught youth.

I sang in the choir.

In small churches I attended, I played my guitar and led worship.

In all that I did, I depended on the Holy Spirit operating in my life.

And then, at 29 years old, the Holy Spirit called me into full-time ministry.

My daddy wasn’t a preacher — he wasn’t even saved when God called me.

I wasn’t a superstar orator.

I didn’t stand up in services and prophesy, pray prayers that saw miracles.

I didn’t even have an aura that enveloped me.

I wasn’t anything special.

I was just an ordinary man saying, “Yes” to the call of God into full-time vocational ministry.

I was just an ordinary man who told God, “If the Holy Spirit doesn’t work in me I will be the biggest flop ever. Lord, I’ve got to have an anointing! I’m desperate for that anointing!”

Now, 38 years later, 35 years of which have been spent pastoring — which, at the beginning of ministry, I told God I could never do — here I am.

I’m still just an ordinary man dependent on the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

I’m still not encased in a supernatural aura.

Nothing special about me.

I have failed many times.

I have failed, and, unfortunately, continue to fail in spectacular and horrible ways.

But when I have repented and called out to God, He has given me what I need to do what He called me to do.

The Holy Spirit has seldom moved in my life in grandiose ways, but He has moved.

I’ve seen people saved, Baptized in the Holy Sprit, healed and delivered.

I don’t know what you expect from being Baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Maybe God will turn you into a Smith Wigglesworth or a Katherine Kulman — if you even know who those people were.

That wasn’t my experience, but God moves in different ways and who are we to question what He does in our lives?

Who are we to compare?

Since we don’t hear about Wigglesworths and Kulmans and Reinhardt Bonkes and others as often, maybe it is more likely He will use the Holy Spirit in your life in quiet ways.

He’ll use your ministry to touch others in quiet ways.

Declare the Power

But even quiet people…

Have experienced the power of God in profound ways.

Have ministered in the gifts of the Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12 so that the church is edified (built up).

Have been led by the Holy Spirit to speak into the lives of the hurting and the broken at just the right time, in just the right way, with just the right words — and seen salvation, deliverance, provision and healing.

There are many here who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit…

And you have seen undeniable evidence of God working in your lives.

Using you for His glory.

Don’t be quiet about what God has done.

Like the Psalmist in Psalm 71, cry out to God.

Ask Him to give you the strength to tell your children and your grandchildren about His power.

Ask God to give you favor with a younger generation to tell them of the mighty things God has done.

Mighty things in the scriptures.

Mighty things in your life.

God has done great things. What are you doing about it?

Psalm 78 tells us we should tell our children, who will tell their children.

All so that, according to verse 7, they will set their hope anew on God.

Not forgetting His miracles.

Not failing to live in obedience.

How do we do that?

Through the power of Pentecost.

Through the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

See the Church as the agency God is using.

Through the Holy Spirit, let’s encourage a generation that has backed away from the church to re-evaluate their opinion.

Yes, covid scared some people away and they got used to it and developed the habit of staying away.

But Pentecostal power flows best in the church when she gathers.

I’m not trying to say that those of you who watch online shouldn’t do so — especially if that is all you can do.

But it falls so short!

On May 7th, 4 days after back surgery, I came over to the church to help get everything up and running for the service.

I stayed for worship practice and worshipped with the team as they practiced.

Then, because I was having problems being comfortable, I went over to the RV and watched the service online.

I was thankful for being able to watch, but it just couldn’t compare to in-person worship.

Being in church, being with the church.

Pentecost also helps us to understand the value of the Church in today’s culture.

At times, people may think the Church is unnecessary.

Pentecost, however, is a vivid reminder of the truth that the Church is central to God’s work in the world.

He invites us to be on mission with Him!

Pentecost underscores the Church’s critical role in the advancement of the gospel.

Too often in American culture, people live as if the Church is merely optional.

This mentality would have us believe that if we have a personal relationship with God, church involvement is sort of secondary.

But Pentecost is a reminder that His Spirit was poured out upon the community of God’s people.

An invitation to join Him on mission resulted.

Let the Holy Spirit cause you to long for the Book of Acts in 2023

We see how the mission of God, operating through the church, can be a glorious thing.

May Pentecost cause us to look again at the Book of Acts.

To see it as both a history and a strategy manual of how a healthy church operates.

The history of the Church over the past 2,000 years is not a record of its evolution.

Rather, it demonstrates the spiritual battle in which God’s Spirit arises to restore the Church to its rightful place.

God launched the Church from the beginning at Pentecost fully developed, not as a spiritual infant that grew to adulthood later.

In periodic renewals in the Church, no new truth was added by God, but rather timeless truth became timely as the Spirit gave life and restored.

Spiritual renewal is one of God’s ways of bringing His church into alignment with His intended purposes.

Receive the Holy Spirit

I can’t help but believe the Church, THIS church, needs spiritual renewal — a fresh outpouring of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

We regularly pray for and spend time waiting on the Spirit to break through barriers and hindrances.

Tonight when we gather at 5 pm, let’s again cry out for a time of refilling.

Do Not Neglect Tongues

Let’s especially ask God to rekindle the use of tongues in our lives.

There is a misunderstanding about tongues.

The Bible shows us, especially in the Book of Acts that tongues was the initial evidence of a person being baptized in the Holy Spirit.

But that wasn’t all for which tongues was used.

Obviously, when accompanied with Interpretation, tongues is used to build up the church.

We see that explained in 1 Corinthians 14.

But tongues is also used in worship.

In Acts 2, in Acts 10 we hear tongues used to praise and worship God.

To extol His majesty, His greatness, His grace and love.

So it is in 2023 — let’s not be afraid to worship in tongues.

Human languages are just not sufficient to praise Almighty God.

And then as we pray, let’s pray in the Spirit — let’s pray in tongues.

Romans 8:26–27 (NLT) And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.

Come and do not delay.

Pentecost is available for all of us.

Don’t hang back.

As the Worship Team comes, I want you to think about a prophetic message given last week.

The Holy Spirit, through the gift of prophecy, last week encouraged us.

We were encouraged to come into co-union, into communion with the Spirit.

To not delay.

To come and stay in God’s Presence — in the inner courts, where He is.

Being in communion with the Spirit starts with being in communion with Jesus.

Have you repented of your sins?

He Jesus the Lord of your life?

Surrender this morning.

If the Holy Spirit is calling you to declare your relationship with Jesus, would you take a step of faith and come?

We will pray the Spirit will enable you to live for Jesus.

As we dismiss in prayer:

A show of hands:

You want more of the Holy Spirit in your life.