Untitled Sermon (3)

Date:

June 8th, 2025

Scripture:

Isaiah 41:10

Page 1122 of the pew Bible

Sermon Title:

“Fear Not, the Spirit is With You!”

Hymn Suggestions:

Opening Praise Song- 390 Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart

2nd Hymn- 392 Holy Spirit, Light Divine

3rdHymn- 393 Breathe on Me, Breath of God

Closing Hymn- 21 O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing

Sermon:

Good morning church family, it’s good to see everyone again.

Today marks our 4th Sunday in our pew to the pulpit sermon series, and you know something, God helps us, even when we don’t know we need help, doesn’t he.

For years now, I have used the Lectionary to base my weekly sermons from,

The lectionary serves a few purposes; the first purpose is to help the pastor preach threw the entire Bible in about three years and helps the pastor not to preach on the same topics over and over again.

The second purpose of the lectionary is to help a pastor not overlook special events, like ascension day, 1st Sunday in Lent, and Pentecost.

Now, for the past few weeks, I have been working through a sermon series and completely overlooked the fact that today is Pentecost.

However, when I looked at the scripture I randomly picked last week for today’s passage, I couldn’t believe what I read.

Isaiah 41:10

The scripture can be found on page 1122 of the pew Bible if you would like to follow along.

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10 is an Old Testament promise to Israel, however…

Gods command to Not fear.

Gods promise to be with us…

Gods’ instruction to not be dismayed…

And Gods promise to strengthen and help us still holds true today.

There is a story that I once read of a mother who was concerned about her son's relationship with a young woman.

The mother felt that the young woman came with a great deal of baggage, and she didn’t feel that this young woman would make a good future wife for her son.

The mother found herself praying for change.

Where like with most people she probably was praying for a change in the young couples love for one another, or even a change in the young ladies residence, where being in a serious relationship would no longer be possible.

But as she prayed, she found the change she was seeking but it wasn’t the change she was expecting.

Her prayers changed from asking God to change the young couple to asking God to change her own heart.

One morning during her prayer time, she felt the Holy Spirit speak upon her heart that the young woman needed a mother's love.

This is something that the mother never considered, she was so focused on God changing the situation, she never opened her mind to the possibility of the Holy Spirit Changing her heart.

This realization led her to pray for the Holy Spirit to help her love the young woman. To lover her like a mother would love her own daughter.

One day when the young woman came over for a visit, the mother felt an overwhelming sense of love for her that she never felt before.

a love that she recognized right away as a gift from the Holy Spirit.

This experience, through the Holy Spirit transformed the mothers and young couples’ relationship and deepened the mother's connection with the Holy Spirit.

This mother had a change of heart that assisted by the Holy Spirit.

And when we boil it down freedom is one of the major cravings of the human heart.

People want to live in freedom,

People want to worship in freedom,

People want to work in play in freedom,

The fact is the human heart rebels against restraint, bondage, and enslavement. Being forced into a situation that they are not comfortable with or into an environment that they do not feel safe or like they are in control, and that church family, can be very scary, can’t it?

Yet when the human heart and the experiences of day-to-day life are honestly evaluated, one tragic fact jumps to the forefront:

Sometimes we need help with our day-to-day struggles. Don’t we?

Not just help from family or friends, but rather only help that God can provide.

I truly believe the Holy spirit helps me not only every day, but if truth be known every hour and every minute.

Church family, I’m going to tell you right now, there is no way that I could do, what I do on a daily basis without the Holy Spirts help.

I remember when I was getting closer to my start date coming here, I was thinking to myself, what in the world did I get myself into?

I don’t know anything about being a pastor,

I still work full time,

How am I going to prepare a sermon every single week, while working over 40 hours a week,

to say I was scared was an understatement.

Church family, if my calculations are correct, today I am delivering my 111th sermon as your pastor,

and the amazing part is you keep allowing me to come back.

 The truth is we all have fear, about one thing or another, but the fear we have for doing Gods work usually far surpasses the fear we have about ordinary things.

Like I said in the beginning of the message, today is Pentecost.  

The New Testament understanding of Pentecost, particularly in Acts 2, which is what we are going to be looking at in a second,

shows a fulfillment and expansion of these very promises of God's empowering presence, strength, and help for all who believe.

Brothers and Sisters, The fear that the Israelites faced in exile which we read in Isaiah is fully reveled by the divine courage and empowerment given to the disciples at Pentecost, enabling them to fearlessly proclaim the gospel.

I will be reading from Acts Chapter 2 verses 1-4, 14, and 22-24.

2:1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

2:2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

2:3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

And then in verse 14 we see Peter Address the Crowd

2:14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, 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, then he quotes the profit Joel.

He concludes in verse 22 by proclaiming the Gospel.

2:22 “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.

2:23 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.

2:24 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.

Acts 2:1 says:

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

Now while we can’t know for sure how the disciples were feeling, I would be willing to say that they were together trying to figure out what the next big thing was that was going to happen,

Trying to make since of everything, and among those emotions there was probably some fear.

If we notice something changes within them once the spirt came.

And like with the mother in the beginning of the message, and my story about coming here to serve,

When the Spirit of God shows up, a change happens,

A transformation if you will.  

As for the disciples, the Holy Spirit dramatically changed them, giving them boldness and ability to confess the Gospel. Look what scripture says.

2:4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

And then in verse 14 we see Peter Address the Crowd

2:14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, 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,

Church family if one minute the disciples were all huddled together in one place and after the arrival of the spirit, they are out preaching the Gospel,

We can see when the believer is filled with the spirit, that the spirit brings the words of Isiaha to life.

do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Church family, this event in Acts, and the words of Isiaha wasn't just a one-time event.

the Holy Spirit continues to be with,

strengthen,

help, and

uphold believers today.

While Isaiah 41:10 does not directly mention Pentecost,

the themes present in the verse can certainly be connected to the events and significance of Pentecost in the New Testament, and our lives today.

Brothers and Sisters, we can see God's Presence ("I am with you")

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples, fulfilling Jesus' promise to send the "Helper" as we read in John 14:16-17.

14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever

14:17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

This outpouring of the Spirit shows God's presence with His people in a new and profound way,

empowering them from within.

The assurance of God's presence in Isaiah 41:10 finds a full fulfillment in the dwelling of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer.

Church family, I encourage you to look back through your life, and count all of the times, all of the trials, all of the hurdles you navigated that you know you couldn’t have gotten through if not for the presence of God through the spirit in your life.

Perhaps it was in suffering the loss of as loved one,

Navigating an illness or bad diagnosis from a doctor or test result.

Maybe it’s the comfort in knowing that God is working even when you can’t see it.

Next, we can see God's Strengthening and Help "I will strengthen you; I will help you"

Before Pentecost and the appearance of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were often fearful and uncertain.

However, after receiving the Holy Spirit, they were transformed.

Church family, think about this, we read in Acts that:

Peter stood up with the Eleven, 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

2:22 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.

2:23 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.

2:24 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.

Do we remember what else Peter did?

He did it 3 times what was it church family?

Denied Jesus, didn’t he?

Now, Peter, who had previously denied Jesus, boldly preaches the Gospel to thousands.

The Holy Spirit empowered Peter with courage,

With understanding,

The ability to speak in other tongues,

And the ability to rather than deny but enabling to proclaim publicly the Good news of the Gospel to fulfill the Great Commission.

Matthew 28:16-20

28:16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.

28:17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.

28:18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

28:20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

This directly aligns with the promise of God's strengthening and help in Isaiah 41:10.

Church family, one of the most untrue statements a Christian can make is the statement “I Can’t”

I can’t pray in public,

I can’t teach Sunday school,  

I can’t witness to people in my life,

I can’t pastor a church,

I can’t write a sermon every week,

If that’s you today, like it was me a few years ago, know this now,

You absolutely can through the spirit who gives you strength.

And finally, we see God's Upholding Power "I will uphold you with my righteous right hand"

And quite frankly, I love this reassurance. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand

The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was a divine act of God's power establishing the Church and sustaining His people.

It demonstrated God's commitment to uphold His promises and to empower His followers to carry out His purposes.

The "righteous right hand" of God symbolizes:

His strength,

His authority,

and His faithfulness in sustaining His people, which is evident in the birth and growth of the early church following Pentecost.

Church family, think about it like this, lets narrow it down to The Broadfording Church of the Brethren Fellowship,

What if everyone here said I Can’t

Starting with me,

I can’t, pastor the church I don’t have the time,

I can’t go visit people, the sick and needy, I don’t know what to say,

I can’t lead bible study or Sunday School, I’m not smart enough,

I can’t witness,

I can’t pray,

And the list goes on and on, what would be the condition of the church? Not very strong right?

It would only be a matter of time before the doors would close and there would be no more.

But the truth is Church Family, through the Holy Spirt who resides within the believer, we can do amazing things,

Things we never thought we would be capable of doing.

If we place our trust in God, and allow the spirit to work within us, than we will not fear,

for we will know without a doubt that God is with us.

We will not be dismayed, in other words, we will not experience the daunting feelings, alarms, and concern of what life has to offer us.

Because we will know that the God of Isiah, and the God of the disciples is our God.

And that through the Holy Spirit, he will strengthen us and help us; and that he will uphold us with his righteous right hand.

Amen.