Getting Filled

Have you ever had something new come into your life and it impacts you for the better?

For me it was having kids… I mean if you have ever had a kid then you know it changes your life completely.

And it changes it in all the gooy lovey ways but it also changes the way you view the world.

I mean I use to be a person that was not super patient… But whats amazing is kids make you a lot more patient!

I used to get a little annoyed when a kid was just screaming in a resteraunt.

Now I just want to go over and give the parents a hug, right?

When there was something on the floor I used to think “wow, our house really needs cleaned”

Now, I see that the house is standing and I think “wow” look how clean the house is!

But you know a kid coming into your life really changes the way you view the world,

But you know today we are talking about something else that came into the early churches life and really it completely changed their lives and the way they viewed the world.

And really it is God’s Spirit coming down on them for the day of Pentecost.

And so we will be looking at the story found in Act’s 2:1-13

And let me just set the stage because Jesus has resurrected which we celebrated last week, and He then for the next 40 days He was there before going to heaven.

So you can kind of picture the disciples thinking what do we do now?

But there was actually one big thing Jesus told them to do and that was to go! Right? Go and make disciples of all nations, but before He tells them to go, He actually tells them to wait.

And we hate waiting. I mean we hate when its a Friday night and we go out to eat only to discover there is an hour wait… I mean we hate it!

We hate when our flight is delayed, because it means we have to wait!

But Jesus tells them before anything wait for the Holy Spirit to fill you.

Because the truth is they could go, but if they are not going they would be waisting their energy and time.

It would be like if you had a bike, but the chain was broken, I mean you can peddle as hard as you can, but your not going to move anywhere, because you are missing the piece that actually has the ability to make things happen.

And you know I really believe before anything else whether we are a new in your walk with God or have been walking with Him your entire life we need to understand that if we want to carry out God’s will, we need Him… We need His presence.

If you want to see a broken area in your life restored to the way God has called it, you need God right?

If God is calling you to tell someone about Him, you can try, but if God is not working on you and the persons heart before hand, I can say pretty confidently probably not a lot is going to happen

Even as a church, we can do awesome programs and I can do an okay jobn on a Sunday morning, but if God’s presence is not actively moving in our church and guiding us, we might as well close, because we are just spinning our wheels.

And this sounds so simple, doesn’t it? But so often we catch oursleve’s either ahead of God or even not taking Him in consideration, even when we are doing things for Him.

And so I want us to look at this first verse, because Jesus has told them this and this first verse shows them how they are waiting to hear from God. Acts 2:1… It says this:

Acts 2:1 NIV

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

So they are waiting to hear from God, and something really interesting is it doesn’t say they were all at separate homes, binge watching the office of peacock (I love that show), but it actually says they are actually all together in one place and they are waiting.

And so first off I want you get that when we want to hear from God, it requires us to be intentional.

I mean how often do we say, well I am trying to figure out what God wants me to do, but in reality we have maybe spent a a couple minutes praying about it?

We want to understand where God wants us, but really we do not dedicate a ton of time to Him in general.

Because the truth is if you want to understand someone, you need to spend time with them right?

It’s almost like this: those of you who are married in your marriage there were probably things that your spouse would say where you might have asked them is everything okay, and they would respond “i’m fine” and at first you thought great! Right? I am doing great!

But once you got to know your spouse better you knew that maybe that means there is something going on and maybe you did something wrong...

And you know God isn’t cryptic, but a lot of times the issue is He will speak to us, but we miss it, because we have not been intentional in building our relationship with Him.

But theres also another thing I want you to notice, because like I said they are not alone, but they are together waiting to hear from God.

You know the verses we read after this tell us about probably the most significant event that has ever happened in church history,

But I think its important that this did not happen where everyone was isolated, but everyone was together.

And I just have to say our faith it has a personal aspect, but I also believe it has a strong communal aspect as well.

And I say this often, but its because a lot of times God will speak to us through the person sitting next to us.

Some of you know this, but I recently started going to the gym and a lot of times what will happen is I will be working out

And maybe I am just having a rough day and someone will say keep it up man!

Maybe I skipped a few days and someone else will say I where have you been?!

Recently I was there and a guy lovingly told me I am been using the squat rack backwards… (facepalm)

But you know just like that when you are with a body of people who are Christ followers, there are people who are their to support you.

And sometimes it might be through the message, but a lot of times it is through another person.

And these are people where you might be saying “wow, today was hard”, but there might be someone in this room who God is going to use to encourage you.

You might have a doubt in your walk with God, but God can use someone in this room to walk along side you and stregnthen your walk with God.

There may even be times where you might be living in a way that might just be toxic for yourself and maybe your family and someone can lovingly come up to you and say “Brendan, don’t you see what you are doing?”

And its important to note that there are times where people might make a mistake and say or do something hurtful, and this is not a justification, but a reality that a church is full of imperfect people.

But here is the thing if we believe there is a God who speaks through His people then it is important to be intentionally living in community with others who are in a relationship with Him!

And I want us to look at what happens here because picking up in verse two it says this:

Acts 2:2–4 NIV

2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

You know I love the picture you get here, because they are all together and all the sudden this sound of a violent wind fills the house

And you can picture everyone in the room thinking a pipe burst or somethng,

But what I love here is words (in the Bibles original language) for the phrase “blowing of a violent wind” actually correspond a little with in Genesis where God actually creates Adam and Eve and if you know that story God actually breathes His life giving breath and spirit into them.

And you see them come alive.

And so you get this image of God breathing His Spirit into this room.

And not just that but it says tounges of fire come to rest on each of them.

And if you are like me you either think this is a really cool band name or get this scary image of tongues that have been set on fire falling from the ceiling.

But in the Old Testament fire was a sign of God’s presence, and the really neat thing is in Genesis (going back to the tower of babel)(if you do not know this story), but one of the parts of living in a falling world was people spoke different languages and it created a little bit of disunity,

But here we see God actually making it so the Spirit is allowing these people who might speak different languages and come from different cultural background be unified and empowered by the Spirit of God where they are understanding eachother and speaking different languages.

And I know that was a ton of background information but I was thinking about our church and we all speak the same language, but we are people who are different.

Each of us have grown up differently,

Some of us might like different types of music

Some of us might have grown up with certain preferences

Some of you might be different then me and you are thinking “wow, Pastor Brendan is kind of a weird guy”

And your justified in that...

But you know the beautiful thing about this is while we are different people and have different views, we have a God who despite our differences can unify us and empower us to do His work!

And let me read this last part in verses 5-13 it says this:

Acts 2:5–13 NIV

5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” 13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

And so like I mentioned they are speaking different languages and but the weird thing is everyone understanding

And so all this is happening and you get to verse 12 and 13 and there are two groups of people.

There are some who say wow this is amazing

I mean as someone who crammed 2 years of spanish into 4 in highschool I would be amazed right

But then there are others and they are very skeptical.

They are going this is not a thing, in fact these guys are drunk!

And I think I mentioned this last time I preached on this passage, and I don’t drink, but I am pretty sure when you drink a lot you do not get the ability to speak another language.

But I want you to see whats happening, because when people see the church operating how God has intended it too.

When people see a church or person empowered by God’s Spirit there are usually two reactions that occur.

First is people will often times get a little skeptical or even critical. They might say this is all just for show, or their intentions are bad

I mean if you were to look throughout the Bible, whenever God was up to somthing big there were always the people who were the naysayers

And not just that, but almost everytime there were people that did not want to see God carry out His will.

And really when God wants to accomplish something big in us Satan is wanting to find a way to stop it.

I mean Satan would love nothing more then to throw a wretch into what God is doing in your life and in our church.

And can I just say a lot of times when that happens he want’s to isolate you from the people that will help you grow closer to God

A lot of times he might just use someones mistake or maybe twist words to make you feel like that person is the enemy.

And can I just say do not buy the lie. Because I just want to be transparent this morning. I believe God is doing some neat things in our church and I believe He is doing some or wants to do something amazing in your life.

Please do not allow Satan to draw you away.

Lean in stronger to God

And finally going back to the other part of the story is people see this happening and their reaction is not critical, but they are amazed.

And I read that and I think how cool would it be to be so empowered by what God is doing in our life and church that the people and community look at us and go wow. Something is happening there!

There is somthing amazing going on at there.

And what we are going to find out in the next couple weeks so many people come to know Christ because of this event.

And you know as we close (the worship team will be coming forward) and I guess I just want to ask us do we feel like we are empowered by God this morning?

In what ways is are you being pulled away?

In what ways can you lean into God despite feeling pulled away?

Do you feel tied into a community of of people who are helping your grow closer to God?

Because the truth is I believe God is up to some neat things in your life andI want to see you become the person God has created you to be through Him.

Will you pray with me?