My name is Dave. I'm one of the pastors here.
Resurrection. Let me ask you, thank you.
Have you ever been in a room where something happened that
nobody planned, not a good plan that worked out, a strategy that
paid off something that just happened and nobody could
actually take credit for what just occurred?
It kind of reminds me of right before when my son Kevin came
into my life. By this time we had three
daughters, but we knew, my wife and I knew that God had a plan
for a son to be in our lives. We just didn't know how.
And we started fostering. One day we got a phone call.
They said would you like a son? OK.
They didn't say like that, but that's what it was.
We knew this felt different. This is this is something.
So what did we tell them? No.
We told no. No.
With all our heart. We wanted to tell them yes.
But every bed in our house was full.
We had a foster child already. But we knew this felt different.
So I started thinking, while I'm on the phone telling these
people, no, we can't do it, I'm texting my sister.
You met her last week. Could you temporarily take a
child? I'm frantically texting, she
said. Thank the Lord Kevin goes to my
sister's house in a little over a week.
Week and a half, we get news. Kevin's being moved, he's going
closer to home, He's going out of town, out of reach of our
lives. And we're thinking, OK, God,
what does that actually mean? I guess this was not the boy for
us. The next day, another phone call
happens. It says, would you be interested
in Kevin coming to your house now?
I remember just standing there not knowing what to think.
Like, what are you talking about?
We'd know he left. He's gone.
He's not even in Bakersfield anymore.
We said, of course, yes, we have a bed now.
They said, great, he's on his way.
He'll be at your house in 30 minutes.
I didn't plan that. Who can plan something like
that? We just kept saying yes to phone
calls. In the middle of chaos. 30
minutes later, there's a knock on the door and Kevin is
delivered to us. I remember thinking this is this
is not possible. In fact, to this very day, no
child has ever been brought to our door.
I did not do that. God did that.
And this is where we find ourselves in Acts chapter 2.
A God could only do this moment. We're three weeks into this one
a day one series, week 1. Pastor Daniel gave us a
statement that I think we're still wrestling with.
You don't need the plan, you need the power.
Last week in the message, the power showed up.
The Holy Spirit fell on the upper room.
The doors blew open. Outside the crowd, they thought
they were watching a circus, drunk people, chaos, noise.
Nobody knew what they were looking at.
Then Peter stood up and understand this, before Acts
chapter 2, this is the beginning of the church.
The church had been existing for about 15 minutes.
There's no building. There's no baking team, thank
you baking team. There's no budget.
There's no worship team. Wasn't worship amazing today
just a room full of people who got set on fire by the Holy
Spirit and the first thing the church ever does, the first
public act of the people of God was to open their mouth and to
proclaim the word of God, not organize, not plan, not create a
committee, just speak. Last week, Pastor Daniel talked
about the Tower of Babel. Humanity crawling their way to
God, building a tower, making a way to God, trying to reach
heaven their way, and God saying, no, I have none of this.
I'm going to scatter you all. I'm going to put a stop to this.
But right here, this is the reversal.
God doesn't wait for us to reach him anymore.
He comes down to us. He wants in our lives and what?
Peter stands up, He opens his mouth.
The things that got messed with in battle God starts putting
back together. Let's read Acts chapter 2
starting in verse 14. It says but Peter standing with
the 11th lifted up his voice and address them.
Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this thing be
known to you and give ear to my words.
For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it's only
the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered
through the prophet Joel right here.
The crowd thinks it's chaos. They think something went
sideways. They're confused, maybe a little
bit spooked. Peter's first move is not to
calm them down. It's not to explain, to be
logical. He reshapes the whole scene.
The prophecy has come 700 years earlier.
God told Joel, I'm going to pour out my spirit and all the people
your sons and daughters will prophecy.
I'm going to do something you have never seen before.
And Peter looks at the crowd and says what you think is disorder,
What you think is going horribly wrong.
God said this is coming and now the time has come.
This isn't chaos. This is a promise being kept
because some of you walked in today carrying something that
feels like disorder, something in your life feels like it went
sideways, maybe something in the church that feels like loss.
And you've been asking the question, what went wrong?
Peter is standing up in the middle of the mess saying that's
the wrong question. The right question is what is
God keeping His word about right now?
Because here we've witnessed and I've witnessed in my own life,
God does not get surprised. He doesn't scramble.
He's not looking down and saying, oh, I don't know what's
happening. I didn't see that coming.
Let me adjust my plan. What looks like disorder was God
keeping his word. That's not a bumper sticker.
That's Acts chapter 2, verse 22 says this.
Men of Israel hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man
attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and
signs that God did through him in your midst.
As you yourselves know, this is Jesus delivered up according to
the different plan and the foreknowledge of God.
You crucified him. You crucified and killed by the
hands of lawless men. God raised him up, losing the
pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held
by it. We have to feel the weight of
this moment. Pentecost brings every nation to
Jerusalem. Hundreds of thousands of people
come to the city. God didn't craft this moment
silently. He had 50 days to bring the
Spirit to the people. He could have done it any of
those days. But he waited until Pentecost,
until hundreds of thousands of people, people were in the city.
Because when God moves, he moves so people don't miss it.
And Peter doesn't soften it. He doesn't ease into God's plan.
He looks at the crowd. It's the same crowd that was
there when Jesus was crucified. And he says you did this.
In fact, God knew you were going to do this and he sent Jesus
anyways. That's the Gospel in two
sentences. Now you're basically good people
and God is proud of you. No, you did the worst thing
imaginable and God used it to do the best thing possible.
Verse 36 Let all the House of Israel therefore know for
certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus
whom you crucified. Now when they heard this, they
were cut to the heart. And Peter said, and the rest of
the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?
Cut to the heart, not inspired, not motivated, not challenged,
Cut, pierced. There's a difference.
Inspiration is a spark, motivation is a flame.
But the cut of conviction is like a burning fire that won't
let you stay where you are. There are things in my life that
have become convictions. Not opinions, not preferences.
Oh, conviction isn't something you have to talk yourself into,
it's something you've been trying to talk yourself out of.
There are times when I have said I believe, but my calendar is
full of everything except time with God.
Or I will give everything God but tithing?
That's an afterthought when I'm comfortable with it.
And the people who hurt me, man, they never know I follow a God
that says forgive them. Convictions like the person that
keeps coming into your mind. You keep reminded I should tell
them about Jesus or having a prayer life in theory or
convictions that are slowly becoming calloused less and less
week by week because he tried to deal with it, but you aren't
willing to radically change your life or your lifestyle to make a
change. Peter didn't produce that
conviction. He wasn't in a nice church.
He didn't have lights and a fog machine.
Shoot, he didn't even know he's going to wake up and preach that
day. He just opened his mouth, spoke
and the Spirit did the surgical work.
That's how it still works today. Verse 38 Peter goes on, he says
and Peter said to them repent, meaning regret the sinful things
that are happening that you're doing in your life and most
importantly run, run from those things.
He continues and be baptized everyone of you in the name of
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promise is for
you and for your children and for all who are far off every
everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself all all who are
far off our community groups that spent the last six weeks
learning learning how to reach people who are far from God.
Six weeks talking about how to open the door, how to invite
somebody in, and Peter uses these exact words.
We didn't stumble upon this in Acts 2.
This spirit brought us here. He's been planning it this
entire time. And if you're skeptical about
all of this, can I say somebody invited you or you felt the need
to show up and you're hearing this right now.
That's not chance, That's not luck.
That's the same Spirit working in your life.
Verse 40 and with many other things, he bore witness and
continue to exhort them saying save yourself from this crooked
generation. Sounds familiar.
So those who receive His word were baptized.
They were added that day about 3000 souls, 3000 from 120 people
in the upper room. No venue, no bands, no
marketing, 1 sermon, 1 moment, 1 Spirit filled afternoon, and
3000 people gave their life to Christ.
Nobody planned that. Nobody strategized and stood up.
Peter just stepped into it, spoke, and the Spirit did what
the Spirit does. Pastor Daniel told us three
weeks ago, you don't need the plan, you need the power.
This is what the power actually looks like, what it actually
does in our lives. This is what happens when
ordinary people like you and me stop managing God and start
following Him. One spirit moment can produce
what years of careful planning never could.
Some of us think that was That was 1000 years ago, that was
Pentecost, that was the early church.
We don't get that anymore. I reject that.
Don't you dare shrink the Holy Spirit down to a history lesson.
The same spirit that set that upper room on fire lives in the
believer. Now let me tell you what that
looks like for me. On a Wednesday a while back, one
of our students brought a friend.
Somebody I've never met just showed up to youth group.
I introduced myself and immediately the spirit tells me
this person is hurting. They tell me their name and I
don't know why I asked this. I don't know other than spirit
speaking through me. I say, who left your house?
Was it your mom or was it your dad?
No background, no warning signs. I don't know what I'm walking
into. I'm not qualified for this type
of thing. I'm just there and this kid, no
hesitation, opens up, starts talking about his home life,
everything he's caring. Probably hasn't said these words
out loud to anybody that actually cared before.
I didn't plan that. I didn't train for that.
I just asked a question that the spirit put in my mouth, because
the spirit knew exactly what that child needed.
And how do you to use an unqualified person like me?
That same spirit lives in you, believer in the Old Testament.
The Spirit would rest on a person for a specific reason for
a specific season, and then it would lift.
Kings lost it. Prophets wondered if it would
stay David. Literally pray, don't take your
Spirit from me. That's not what this is and acts
to. The Spirit is not clocking in on
Sunday and then clocking out in the parking lot.
The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in
you. The Spirit of the living God
lives in every believer permanently.
You are walking around with the same power that produced 3000
believers in one afternoon. The question is, the question
isn't whether the Spirit is available.
The question is, are we willing to move when He moves?
You can't make the wind blow. You can't make the spirit move.
But we can raise our sails. We can be there when He calls us
to be. We can open our mouth and speak
when He needs us to. That's our application for this
week. Not a program, not a checklist.
One conversation. One moment this week where Jesus
is the most relevant thing you could possibly say to someone
else. Instead of going quiet, instead
of not talking, we spent six weeks learning how to reach
people far from God. The Spirit has been in your
living rooms week after week. You don't need to have it all
figured out, Peter didn't. You just need to raise your sail
and open your mouth and speak as the Lord leads you.
The Spirit will do the rest. That's walking into Monday
morning with an open mind, not with a plan locked down.
I know what I'm going to do this week.
That's asking God. Where are you already moving God
and how can I get in on that? Because 3000 people, it didn't
happen because Peter had a great strategy.
It'd be it happened because the Spirit showed up and they were
willing to step into it. So how do we get this meaningful
conversation this week? 3 different ways.
Number one, pray for somebody by name, not a group, one person,
somebody that's on your mind, somebody that you know that's
far from God, somebody you know that's hurting.
Pray for them every day this week.
Ask the Spirit to soften their hearts.
Ask Him to give you the courage and to be bold and to be present
when the moment comes #2 find that moment and ask them a real
question not the drive by questions.
How are you doing? An eye contact, a sit down maybe
ask them how are you actually doing.
I want the real version not the American answer.
You will be amazed what people tell you when you actually care
about them #3 let them talk, let them talk.
That's the hardest thing for me. Let them talk.
Let the Spirit lead your discussion.
Be praying in that moment. You don't need your speech
ready. You don't need your theology
figured out. You don't have to have an answer
for every question. In fact, if you tell them, I
don't know they're going to respect you more.
But you care for them enough to be present, to be genuine.
The Spirit knows what this person needs.
Your job is to show up and be there.
Peter didn't have this figured out.
He just stepped into it and the Spirit did what the Spirit does.
Maybe this feels overwhelming to you.
Maybe the last season has felt more like loss than harvest.
Maybe something feels like disorder that's been just
weighing in on You hear this, Peter preached to a a crowd
standing in the middle of chaos, thousands of people not
understanding what's going on. I tell you, God is not done with
your story. He's not scrambling.
He's not adjusting his plan. What looks like disorder God
already knew was going to happen in your life.
But maybe, maybe you don't have the power I'm talking about.
There's a reason for that. You can't buy this power.
You can't earn it. You can't manufacture it.
No matter how hard you try. It's a gift. 2000 years ago a
man came to Earth and he earned the right to give this power
away for free. Jesus lived a perfect life, a
sinless life that you and I could never live, so that we,
you and I who are broken, messy, sinful people, could receive the
free gift that he paid for with his life.
That's the good news of Jesus. That's why 3000 people gave
their lives to following Jesus that afternoon.
Every single person started in the same place.
Cut to the heart, sitting with a burning conviction.
A conviction you can't explain, asking the same question.
What do I do with this? Peter gave them.
The same answer he's giving you right now.
Repent from your sins. Run from them.
Commit to following Jesus. Receive what he.
Already paid for. He paid for.
By dying for you and gives you forgiveness it.
Gives you salvation. Romans 10/9 says if you confess
with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Or with the heart one. Believes and.
Is saved and. Is justified and with a mouth.
One confess confesses and is saved.
In the spirit of. God lives within you and.
It looks so. Different when you have the
spirit, people are going to ask why are.
You different, they won't understand.
It you have patience, that doesn't make sense.
Peace that has. No business being there.
Joy in the middle. Of hard, hard things.
The same spirit. That moved in Acts 2 is in.
This room, right? Now.
He's still producing. Thousands from 120.
He's not. Done yet?
There's somebody in. This room that needs a chance to
tell God you believe you surrender to Him.
That chances right? Now.
Let's bow our. Heads in prayer.
If you're ready. To surrender your life to Jesus
today you. Can do that.
Right now. Just talk to him.
You don't need perfect words, He already knows your heart.
Pray something. Like this or similar.
Jesus, I. Know.
I can't save myself. I repent from.
My sins, I'm done running from you, and now I'm running to you.
Today I receive. Your forgiveness.
I receive. Your spirit.
I receive the. Promises never leaving me be, my
Lord Jesus. If you pray.
That for the very first time, would you be brave for me to see
by raising your hand? I see your hand.
Anybody else you may. Put.
Your hand in. In Jesus name.
Everybody says Amen if. You just prayed.
That prayer for the very first time.
Welcome to the family of God. In a moment, we're all.
Going to stand, we're going to sing one song.
Our prayer team is going to come forward and I encourage you to
pray with them about anything, and I mean anything.
There's tables in the back between now and.
Before you leave, please stop by the I raised my hand table.
We have. A book for you we want to
celebrate with you we want to take the first steps of you
accepting God with you Prayer team come forward may the.
Spirit. Who lives in you?
Now move. Move you and you follow him.