"I Am a Pentecostal" - Pastor Raymond Woodward

remain standing if you would for one scripture verse and then we're going to get right into the word of the Lord this is Acts chapter 2 verse 32 and verse 33 I know y'all thought I was going for 38 but I beat you by five or six this is Peter preaching on the very first birthday the first day of church history and here's what he says this Jesus hath God raised up where of we are all witnesses therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which you now see and hear when you're a Pentecostal if anybody knows about it if anyone's in your presence every time there should be something that they see and something that they hear Pentecost changes lives forever I know I am in the presence of some people that are Pentecostal by denomination but Pentecost is not a denomination it defies being a denomination I know I'm in the presence of some people and they're members of this local church and this search is a Pentecostal church but Pentecost defies you to confine it to one church building or one day of the week or one service of that week I know I'm among some people that grew up in Pentecost but Pentecost is not a heritage that can be passed down automatically everybody has to get it for themselves and this just happens to be Pentecost Sunday and I am a Pentecostal and I want to address some people that are presently Pentecostal or about to be Pentecostal because this is not just for this church or for a few select people this is for whosoever will this is for everybody and I'm thankful and grateful and forever changed by the fact that I get to be a Pentecostal if that's you in any shape or size if that's you by any stretch of the imagination before we're seated we continue into the sermon part of this service I'd like you to lift up your hands but this time I'd like you to put your voice with those hands and thank God for the privilege thank God for the honor thank God for the great blessing that it is to be filled with the baptism of the Holy Ghost as they were at the beginning as they were in the original church I thank you Jesus I thank you Jesus and if that spirit quickens you and you feel like beginning to speak in that heavenly language that God gave you that would be perfectly in order because this is Pentecost Sunday and this is a Pentecostal church and this is a Pentecostal service and sermon and right now this is Pentecostal worship level local chest up head up open ah yes Sunday get about I worship you Jesus I worship you Jesus yes yes yes yes you see what happens you see how it shifts gears when we get conscious of Jesus and we understand that this same Jesus that came in power in the first century is here by his power in the 21st century hallelujah yes yes thank you Jesus thank you Jesus you may be seated we live in a very confusing world in fact if you've been reading the news or watching the news we live in a very violent world and just as late as last evening another terrorist attack in the beautiful stately city of London it makes me angry but it also makes me want to pray that God sends revival to the church in this world because when the church gets revived the world has a hope when the church gets revived sinners have a hope and when the church gets revived Jesus can do anything through them by the power of his spirit and I stand here today as a Pentecostal pastor addressing a Pentecostal congregation on Pentecost Sunday and I am a Pentecostal not by birth not by upbringing not by heritage not by culture not by rules not by regulation not by tradition or not by policing I am Pentecostal by experience I am Pentecostal out of gratitude I am Pentecostal because Jesus has filled my life by the power of his spirit I don't like to argue with people I'm not trying to argue with anybody but I've got to tell you nothing can dissuade me or confuse me or convince me otherwise then this experience with God I am NOT just a proponent of a strange doctrine I am NOT ferociously paddling my little theological canoe upstream against the prevailing current of modern Christianity I'm different than that I am a Pentecostal by birth right now I don't make any claim of being 2000 years old I wasn't there for acts 2 and neither were you but in fact that is the point none of us were there that means if the only time in history that the power of God was supposed to fall was the day of Pentecost we're all in trouble and we might as well shut down shut up and go home but here's the good news the Upper Room was not a one-time experience it was not a once and never again event it was not a historical fluke Pentecostal theology if that was true would belong to a museum we just go visit the past and we stare at some artifacts and some pictures in a dusty case in an ecclesiastical Museum but we are not just an historical fluke we are Pentecostal we are not different than the first century Church we're not a branch of the 1st century Church we're not kind of like the 1st century Church the same power the same experience the same doctrine the same incredible presence of God is still available to everybody and there are dozens of people in this room that are filled with the same spirit that they received on the first day of church history there are many that would try to reduce Pentecost to the status of a treasured relic we honor it but we don't experience but those people deny its greatest reality and the reality is this the same Jesus who came in power in the upper room he hasn't left us to our own devices to try to scheme and strategize to build a church no he is still in his search through the power of the Holy Ghost if he's ever done it he can still do it if he ever possessed it he still possesses it if he ever distributed it he can still distribute it the apostolic doctrine of the first century was that every believer should be filled personally I love coming to a church that knows how to worship God I love coming to a church where the services don't put you to sleep I love coming to a church where the worship is exciting and the singing is powerful I love that but here's the point every believer isn't filled with the Holy Ghost just because they attend a spirit-filled Church know you have to have this experience personally or you don't have it at all you have to experience it individually or you forfeit the blessing and the birthright and so that was the doctrine of the first century every believer can be filled with the baptism of the Holy Ghost personally and that conviction that holy priority that was at the epicentre of the Pentecostal earthquake that shook the church 2,000 years ago and then shook the church again more than a hundred and fifteen years ago at Azusa Street at Topeka Kansas and thank God it made its way clear across the continent and up into Canada and our pioneers in New Brunswick in the late teens and the early 20s they began to preach this message that changes lives I thank God for all the old tent meeting and all the old camp meetings and the first primitive church buildings with one little tin can microphone we're here today because they were there in that day we're here today because they paid a price and paid a price for us to exist today the Pentecostal power this 2,000 years old remains unbroken and undiluted by time people say well that was just for that day that was just in the Bible that was just for the apostles it just gave them power to start the church but now we're on our own what a foolish notion that would be do you think it ever occurred to the Apostle Peter even decades after the Upper Room that somehow now the Pentecostal experience was optional the everything Peter ever sat down and thought that some day Christianity would try to divide itself into Pentecostals and non Pentecostals that never crossed his mind do you think that Peter ever imagined a non Pentecostal church in doctrine or in power or an experience not on your life that would have been no more imaginable to Peter and Paul and James and John than us imagining a non-electrified city today no electricity anywhere you see Pentecost is the church's power Pentecost is the church's light and we are Pentecostal by spiritual birthright it started gnawing at the edges of people's experience way back in the 1600s who just when when Christianity began to crawl and claw its way out of a thousand years of the Dark Ages when people prayed the statues and people they the church would sell indulgences and people would pay it willingly thinking that giving that offering would somehow get them a place in heaven but you could give a million dollars every Sunday from now of the rapture that couldn't afford one brick on the streets of gold but if you have the Holy Ghost in your life you have a prepaid all-expense trip paid heaven because it's the power of Jesus that lives in you and it started to gnaw at the edges of their consciousness and then you start to see in church history sincere men men who had a hunger beyond what they'd ever heard and you see Martin Luther come to the forefront let me tell you something Martin Luther wasn't trying to start the Protestant movement Martin Luther was trying to start a biblical movement and then came John Wesley John Wesley they did that later he had no idea of starting the Methodist Church in England what Wesley wanted to do was pray and preach until he started a spiritual renewal in England the Bible college students in Topeka Kansas and those humble little churchgoers at 3:12 Azusa Street at the little mission in Los Angeles California they weren't envisioning a Pentecostal denomination with a world headquarters in st. Louis Missouri what they were trying to find out was can we have the same power of the first century in our century can we have the same experience of the book of Acts in our everyday life thank God the answer to them and the answer to us is still a resounding yes every person can receive the Holy Ghost every person can be baptized in the spirit every person can have the supernatural ability to speak in another tongue as the Spirit gives you the utterance I wish somebody clap your hands and lift your voice and it's Pentecost Sunday if there's ever a Sunday when you should feel free to talk in tongues it would be today yes yes very critical for us to realize we do not have we do not have a new revelation we don't have a new revelation we have an ancient revelation that we exist at all is a reminder that the same Pentecostal fire that burned in acts 2 is still burning today it is unextinguishable formalism it is undistinguished unextinguishable corruption that flame is still burning no matter what church history tried to do to it and without Pentecost the church in every era becomes hardly more than a glorified Country Club where we all come and we pay our dues and we hang out together that is not what church is about this church exists so that the world can hear the gospel of Jesus Christ this church exists so that families can be mended an addiction can be broken and lives can be put back together this church exists so our kids can grow up and not become a terrorist not become a drug addict not become an alcoholic they can grow up and serve God and go to heaven that's why we're here on Pentecost Sunday years ago a scholar named dr. C Oz CI Scofield he wrote a reference Bible and some of it is fine some of it is even good but some of it is very misguided and doctrinally incorrect and in dr. Scofield dangerously misguided footnotes on Acts chapter 2 he says after Pentecost quote no Christian needs seek the Holy Spirit because dr. Scofield believed that somehow now the whole church is automatically filled with the Holy Spirit the second you acknowledge Jesus as Lord that is doctrinal and biblical nonsense the book of Acts makes clear that it's not enough just to believe in Jesus it was an apostolic priority that all believers should be filled with the spirit of Jesus that they should have a personal Pentecost look at Acts chapter eight Peter and John are brought out of hiding because of persecution and they make the dangerous journey to Samaria and when they arrived in Samaria they immediately begin to pray for a city that's full of new converts to receive the Holy Ghost that would be a wasted prayer if all new believers somehow automatically were filled with the Holy Spirit by virtue of what happened in the Upper Room several months prior to that that would be a wasted prayer but it wasn't a wasted prayer because they knew that every convert whether Jew or Samaritan or Gentile they all needed the baptism of the holy ghost look at Acts chapter 10 see just how important this experience was to the first century Church Peter took an entourage of Jewish men to Cornelius household what proved to them they weren't interested in the Gentiles joining the church the Gentiles were unclean to the Jews what proved to them that God wanted to save the Gentiles at Cornelius house the same as he had saved all the Jews on the day of Pentecost it was the moment when the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word and when Peter and those men that were with him heard the Gentiles speaking in other tongues that's when they knew that was the evidence that God didn't just want a Jewish Christian Church he wanted on every nation every tribe every tongue every background every ethnicity that's the kind of church he wanted it's ironic to me today that there are actually church denominations that argue against speaking in tongues when there wouldn't be any Christians non-jewish if it hadn't been for speaking in tongues that's the reason they allowed us to come into the church and Peter immediately looked at those people freshly filled with the baptism of the Holy Ghost and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins you're in a good place this morning because we still know and believe we still preach and teach we still experience and we still celebrate that you can be baptized in the name of Jesus and have your sins remitted we still experience and celebrate that you yes you can be filled with the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues it is power from on high it is the earnest of your inheritance it is Christ in you the hope of glory it is the engine that runs the New Testament church if Peter expected that experience for every one of his new converts if Paul and James and John expected that experience to show up in the lives of all their new converts we must preach no less if we're to be an Apostolic Church in the 21st century look at Acts chapter 19 years later years later in Ephesus Paul is still asking a question that arises out of this very same holy apostolic priority here's this question in acts 19 verse 2 have you received the Holy Ghost since you believe folks that's still the question today I thank God that you're in church this morning I thank God that you're sitting on these pews and you graciously listened to this preacher I thank God that you worship with us but here's the Bible question for you I thank God if you believe in Jesus I thank God if you've accepted him as Lord but we still ask the Bible question from 2,000 years ago have you received the Holy Ghost since you believe it's for every believer to receive first you believe in Jesus but don't stop there first you accept Jesus as Lord but don't stop there first you acknowledge him as your Savior but don't stop there first you accept you ask him for forgiveness of your sins but don't stop there because there's a power from on high it's one thing to ask God to forgive you but if that's all you do you know and I know you're going to fall back into the same sin you're going to stumble and you're going to go back to old habits you're going to make a mistake and you're going to slide back into that addiction or bondage but if ever get the spirit of Jesus in you he'll help you live above all that mess he'll help you conquer hidden sin he'll help you live above addiction he will break the shackles of bondage in your life I need some Pentecostals right now that have had bondage broken and shackles loose off your life to lift up a praise to Jesus on the birthday of the Apostolic Church his Pentecost Sunday and I get to be a Pentecostal yes yes yes yes yes and that's still the question have you you you have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed the church and its doctrines didn't produce Pentecost Pentecost produced the church and all of its doctrines it wasn't the preaching of the Apostles that brought down power from on high they hadn't preached yet rather men who were filled with the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost they spent the rest of their lives trying to figure out and explain and write down all the great stuff that God had done for them when they received the baptism of the Holy Ghost we're still trying 2,000 years later to figure out just how great this Holy Ghost is just how much he can do it's like they say about your brain they tell us that studies show that you only use a very limited number of the cells in your brain you've got lots of spares up there some people have an incredible amount of spare brain cells but the Holy Ghost just like that we haven't tapped into one little fingernail of what the Holy Ghost can do through the body of Christ I thank God for everybody that preached to me when I was a kid growing up in Pentecost I thank God for every sermon that's been preached to this congregation I thank God for all of that but you listen to me we haven't begun to scratch the surface of what Jesus can do to vessels that are surrendered to him and filled up tanked up topped up with the power of the Holy Ghost those people those apostles those preachers and leaders they were not apologists defending their Creed out of a sense of duty to the poor old Prophet Joel no they were souls who had been set on fire and when they wrote down doctrine for us it didn't come out of their brain it came fresh from the heart of God through their spirit and a holy men of old wrote this Bible as they were moved by the Holy Ghost the doctrine is good were admonished to preach sound doctrine but the tragedy is there's a lot of Pentecostal churches today sinking like dinosaurs into the tarp is their doctrines on paper are right but they're destined to become nothing more than a museum to a former revival god help us I thank God for our history and our heritage I thank God for the buildings we've occupied and the pastor's that have led us I thank God for the precious saints of God that have prayed for us and given and sacrifice and many of them are gone on to glory but you listen to pastor we are not here to build a memorial and put up a few glass cases and some old pictures and say it used to be like that god help us it better still be like that and furthermore if they preach the right message it should get greater with every generation it should get greater the more young people and kids and grandkids are added to the Apostolic Church those kind of churches are destined to become nothing but fossils of former revivals they may have the right doctrines but without the right experience without the real power of God the doctrine becomes dusty and the doctrine it kills it is the letter that kills but it's the spirit that gives life so I thank God for every word of Scripture and you better believe we're going to preach the scripture and we're going to rightly divide the word of truth but this book can't help you unless you obey this book this book can't take you to heaven unless you have the experience that this book points you to so I thank God not just for the letter but I thank God for the spirit so the words here this morning and the spirits here this morning that means anything can happen come on back to the music experiential Pentecost not just doctrinal Pentecost that is the Apostolic model the right doctrine will always follow the right experience can I be honest with you I worry about people that get doctrine before they get experience they can argue with you but they've never experienced what they're arguing about they can paint you to the wall arguing about the oneness of God or baptism in Jesus name but they've never experienced it for themselves they're just arguing from a theological perspective by the way it's pretty easy to prove from the book of Acts in the New Testament that it's a requirement to be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins that's a pretty easy task it's a pretty easy pass to prove that every believer in your Bible was baptized in Jesus name and every Christian in your Bible was filled with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues it wasn't that somebody said oh brother you've received the spirit I don't need you to tell me I've received the spirit I want God to tell me I've received the spirit he said how can God tell you you receive the spirit oh he can when I can only speak English and I can speak about ten French words from high school friends I didn't pay much attention I can say si Senor in Spanish that's about it I can speak a little pig latin huh I was fascinated with that when I was in high school hello hey but doc can tell me I've got the Holy Ghost when I began to speak in a language that I've never learned as his spirit gives the ability that's God showing up saying hey Raymond you just received my spirit into your life you couldn't do that by natural means but I can let you do it by supernatural means oh my goodness Pentecostal preaching of doctrine may ensure that we believe in the Holy Ghost but only spiritual hunger will ensure that we receive the Holy Ghost a believed Pentecost is good but it was a received Pentecost that turned the world upside down and it still works that way you do not receive the Holy Ghost through your head you do not receive the it Holy Ghost through your intellect you do not receive the Holy Ghost because you decide well I think I'll try this and I think I will learn the technique and then I will do it no you can't do that you only receive the Holy Ghost by getting hungry for it that you get so hungry for Jesus to come into your life that you give everything to him and you abandon yourself in worship and it is in an atmosphere of worship and praise that the Holy Ghost descends they pray for ten days in an upper room nobody left they just stayed there and prayed for ten days asking God to fill them with the Holy Ghost and then it happened it was a rushing mighty wind it filled all the house where they were sitting and it sat upon every one of them it wasn't the church collectively that received the Holy Ghost it was believers individually that received the Holy Ghost John chapter 7 Jesus said in the last day that great day to feast Jesus stood and cried saying if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink he that believeth on me so we believe I've accepted him I know about him I've asked him in my heart I've accepted him as Lord and Savior but they that believe jesus said if you really believe on me as the scripture said not just like a denomination told you to believe not just like a preacher told you it was okay to believe but if you believe on me as the scripture has said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water but this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive if you believe you should receive if you believe it's God's will for you to receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given Jesus was speaking prophetically because Jesus was not yet glorified but aren't you thankful that Jesus is now glorified he's now gone back to heaven and because he went back to heaven he said if I go away I'll send you the comforter and so now we can have that river of living water the power poured out in the upper room is not optional equipment it is indispensable equipment Pentecostals it's not what we believe about ourselves that sets us apart in the first century it was what they saw and what they heard that's what Peter said being by the right hand of God exalted having received of the father this promise of the Holy Ghost Jesus has shed forth this which you now see and hear so folks don't tell me what you believe tell me what you've received the question of Acts 19 and two is still the question for this morning have you received the Holy Ghost since you believe a couple of years ago November 2014 almost three years ago a church growth consultant named Ed Stetzer wrote an article for Christianity today and he titled it why do these Pentecostals keep growing the articles too long to read here's some quotes he says in almost all Pentecostalism speaking in tongues follows the Holy Spirit's baptism when you receive the Holy Ghost you get the tongues now here's what he says this is a church growth consultant' not Pentecostal after that experience it's pretty hard to say oh I don't take this whole thing serious I don't even know if it's real pretty hard to say that after you've received it he says Pentecostal believers and churches constantly emphasize spiritual practice and engagement it's harder to be a nominal Pentecostal what does nominal mean by name only it's hard to be a Pentecostal by name only here's why he says the beliefs of the movement tend to weed out nominalism because of what is happening in the church because of what is happening in the community of faith people don't just hang around as casual observers in Pentecost either you join in it or you move on and many join he says movements populated by nominals believers in name only they are usually in decline but nominals they don't populate Pentecostalism and that's why Pentecostalism continues to grow around the world Stetzer says this he said when I meet with Pentecostal leaders they're always strategizing about where to plant a church they break out the maps and they determine where they need to focus there at 10 look at this never mind there are already six churches in a ten-block community that doesn't matter to the Pentecostals because to them if there's not a spirit-filled Church in that community there's not a Church in that community until they plant one so they're often avid church planners not just in their own area but in missionary work around the world and finally he says of course to non Pentecostals all this seems quite odd sometimes for younger Pentecostals or dissatisfied Pentecostals they want to de-emphasize the supernatural in their services and here's what Stetzer says not a Pentecostal he said my response to them is I wouldn't downplay what is the engine of the Pentecostal movement the engine of the Pentecostal movement is not our strategy drafted at a table in the office wing the engine of the Pentecostal movement is not even the doctrine that we might teach in a Wednesday night Bible study the engine of the Pentecostal movement is this experience that fell before there was any doctrine before there were any church building before there was any kind of pastor or preacher or leader but it fell in the first century and it is still available today Setzer says you don't care for their expression you don't care for their expressiveness that's fine but Pentecostals are trying to reach the loss and grow the kingdom they're distinctives apparently aren't hindering their growth in fact they're distinctives are propelling their growth around the world so folks it would be a tragedy if today at ccc we had some third or fourth generation Pentecostal people who knew about the distinctives of pentecost but their experience had dried up and blown away we can't be content for people to just say I know what the Church teaches we can't be content ever for people to say well I used to speak in tongues or I did have the Holy Ghost one time or I remember the day I received it if you haven't spoken in tongues recently there's a refreshing and a renew here for you today I wouldn't leave this building especially on a Pentecost Sunday without being renewed in the Holy Ghost and if you've never received the baptism of the Holy Ghost I've got good news for you the Bible says in acts two and four and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost it's not for a few it's not for the super spiritual it's not for the people who have some kind of pedigree in a Pentecostal church it is for everybody I don't care where you come from or how messed up you've gotten I don't care what wrong turn you took I don't care if you're suffering from five addictions at the same time when the Holy Ghost intersects your life when the Holy Ghost fills you up all of that is broken all of that is history all of that is past and the same Jesus that came in power to his church 2,000 years ago he's here this morning I need you to stand to your feet not because we're getting ready to go to the foyer I need you to stand to your feet with intention and lift your hands and I need all the Pentecostals that are currently filled with the Holy Ghost to lift up your voice right now you say it's been a while pastor Raymond well today's your day master Raymond I just kind of feel a little dead and dry in my experience good news you're in the right place to get what we call a refilling the Bible tells us in acts do they were all filled with the Holy Ghost but it tells us in acts 4 that the same people got together and prayed and the place was shaken and they were all filled again with the Holy Ghost that's pretty good for a nominal Church that's pretty good for a denomination but we're not just a Pentecostal denomination so I need some tongue talkers some Holy Ghost tanked up believers to begin to lift up your voice and pray here's what I know if there's a hungry heart here God wants to fill you with the Holy Ghost today I know this if there's a hungry heart here this mornin God wants to refill you if it's been years if it's been months if you had a lot of struggles God wants to tank you up with the Holy Ghost yes yes yes yes yes surah Baqarah boyo saba articulable so let's lift the screen and let's lift our hands simultaneously call down the power of God in this room yes Jesus yes Jesus uh-huh yes oh my goodness oh my goodness now we're not going to make any distinction here because everybody needs to leave here talking in tongues everybody needs to leave here filled with the baptism of the Holy Ghost and everybody can leave here that way so I'm not going to make a distinction I'm going to ask everybody that would like to be filled either the first time or the hundredth time you'd like to be filled to overflowing with this spirit of Jesus you're not content to just be a brain of believer but you want to have your heart filled with his overflowing presence and power God's going to break somebody's addiction here today God's going to lose somebody's bondage here today pastors a few minutes early so we got time to get in the altar this morning so I'm inviting this whole church everybody take the whole church everybody shout at me the whole church I'm inviting this whole church to make your way from your seat to the front and I'm inviting all of our guests any visitors any new believers that have not received the Holy Ghost yet I'm inviting you to get in this altar because it's Pentecost Sunday there's not a better day on the church calendar to receive the Holy Ghost then on the day that it first fell there's not a better day come on quick come on quick if you'd move right into the front I need some ladies right over here [Music] yes yes thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you Jesus today's your day today's your day you say I've already filled with the Holy Ghost how can I help here's how you can help take whatever strength you've got and lift up your praise to the Lord right now and let God renew you in the Holy Ghost let's have a knack score here today let's have an axe for where everybody in the place is still with the baptism of the Holy Ghost where everybody in the place is renewed in the baptism of the Holy Ghost I need some people to pray right over there I need some people to pray right back there I need some people praying over here Church family would you reach out your hand lay your hand on somebody it doesn't matter who and let's pray in the Holy Ghost right now God wants to pour out his spirit on Pentecost Sunday he always has done it say yes yes yes I've got that [Music]

Channel: Capital Community Church

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Keywords: pastor, raymond, woodward, preaching, preach, sermon, ccc, capital, community, church, fredericton, nb, new, brunswick, canada, am, pentecostal, pentecost, sunday, upc, upci, united, international, apostolic

Id: wgW5SeX52s4

Length: 39min 5sec (2345 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 05 2017