POWER-FULL - The Seismic Shift

we've got an entire world that needs to hear the message of Jesus and I can't think of a better way to arc our way to above and beyond Sunday than to come back to finish our series on the book of Acts we started this in the past we got about halfway into the book we're going to come back and finish it over the next few weeks together under the word power full not powerful but power ful that extra L is a difference maker in this series because what Acts is saying to you and me is that God wants to blow heaven win into your life so that the sale of your life takes on the inertia of the kingdom power of God and that you do things that you couldn't do in your own strength go places that you could not go under your own power and see God accomplish things that no human could do in and of themselves God wants your life to be defined as power full or to flip it around the other way full of power and that's what we see in the story of the book of Acts we're gonna look today in chapter 2 one of the great moments in history period not just the history of the church certainly that but one of the great moments in the history of humanity and in the history of the kingdom of God just to do a quick catch up if you don't know about the book of Acts it follows the four Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John it's written by Luke who also wrote Luke's Gospel in acts is the account of what happened to the people of God after the resurrection of Jesus Christ in chapter one Jesus is alive he's appearing to people and he's clarifying our mission we see this in chapter 1 verse 3 noticed this verse with me after his suffering Jesus suffering he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive now this was where we camped out with Lee Strobel last week we see this right in verse three of Acts chapter one Jesus appeared to many men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive he appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God now I just want to put a footnote there so that if you're a thinking person that you'll have something rational to wrap your faith around Jesus wasn't put in a tomb on Friday and then somehow a hoax was concocted on Saturday the body was stolen or some kind of a sham was pulled and then there was a mirage on the horizon and one person saw it and said I think I saw Jesus alive and then a faith was born no Jesus after the resurrection hung around in town for forty days so that many many people could see him not a select few not the little secret society not there are three guys that saw him and then they decided to start something called Christianity you know for forty days Jesus is walking around saying hey how you doing good do you have time to talk yeah I got time to talk I'm gonna be here 40 days I want to meet a lot of people I want old people to see me young people to see me I want people in east side of town in the west side of town to see me I want people who never even heard of me to see me alive because the faith that has been born it is going to need legs and the legs are gonna be the eyewitness testimony of the multitude of people who have seen me and want you just to think about this for a moment this is important because Acts isn't happening hundreds of years later it's happening days later after the resurrection of Jesus Christ in Acts couldn't happen could not have be been written and wouldn't have survived for a year had there not been many many many eyewitnesses who said it is true I saw it with my own so today we're not camping out on some sort of a mysterious behind-the-curtain secret society faith of people who purported it a resurrection from the dead we're talking about someone who walked around on the planet for forty days giving many many many people the opportunity to see up close and to experience the power of the Resurrection so not only was Jesus proofing if you will that he was the son of God alive from the dead he was also clarifying so in the very next few verses we see just Jesus sake and on one occasion among the forty days he was with his followers and he said to them wait in the city until you received the promised Holy Spirit that I've told you about and then later he says and when the Holy Spirit comes on you you will be my witnesses here in Jerusalem in Judea which is the surrounding area and in Samaria those are our neighbors that we don't get along with over mostly racial tension and you will be my witnesses to the very ends of the earth and he says how is it gonna happen it's gonna happen by the power of the Spirit there's something powerful about wind and that was one of the descriptors of the day of Pentecost and I don't know if you've experienced that or not but a few days ago we were traveling in California and we had this great idea our little crew dead that we wanted to sail in San Francisco Bay under the Golden Gate Bridge we've how many of you've driven over the Golden Gate Bridge few of you have how many of you seen it from an airplane probably a few of you had have you've gone up to that Park that's on the side of it and look back down on it we've done a lot of that but we said we want to sail under the Golden Gate Bridge so we chartered a sailboat we had an amazing captain she was an experienced racer and an experienced sailor it was her boat that we were on and immediately as we arrived that you could see her calculating who are these people and and you know that's what a good captain is gonna do and I think she calculated pretty quickly these people know nothing about sailing and they think that we're on Lake Lanier gonna go out and have some cold beverages and some nice conversation maybe play cards they don't understand we are in San Francisco Bay it's a whole different ballgame in the whole time I watched her carefully she was trying to balance between us dying and us enjoying at what we had paid for and maybe dying is a little too strong but there were 26 knot winds in the bay that day and for most of us were like that doesn't sound too complicated and the sailors in the room just went hmm that's that's big win she told us later you guys were right on the borderline of not being able to sail today because this isn't oh let's go out for a fun sail and take some photos whether I took this one little short video you're gonna love it it's 15 seconds long because it was an insta story video and that's all we got so don't get your hopes up that you're going to see a big drama just want you to catch a see the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance that's where we're headed people and what I love about the video is not so much the video what do you love about the video the audio you can tell we're in big wind and you can tell that there's an inertia happening that's moving us along and God wants us to experience that very same thing in life yes it's important what our lives look like but also it's important what our lives feel like as we know God is in the sail of my life God is in the story of my life God is moving me in ways that I could not move myself now we could have rented a dinghy cheaper we could have all got in it everyone had a paddle and said we're going to the Golden Gate Bridge we would probably still be out there right now because I'm telling you the wind and the tide and the waves were pretty fierce on this day and we could have paddled our way along and said boy aren't we having a good time I take a video but I can't stop paddling because if I do we'll blow back over there again and we're going to the Golden Gate Bridge but there's something altogether different when our captain raised that sail and she got it set and trimmed the way she wanted it and you could feel the inertia of the wind and you knew right away something was happening that was bigger than ourselves and God wants that for his church and he wants it for you he wants you to live a power full life why because we've got a big mission in a big mandate what is the mission in the mandate it's not to show up here once a week that's definitely not it it's to be witnesses of the resurrection power of Jesus to everybody in our city to everybody in our surrounding area even to people that we may not get along with and to the ends of the earth and God knows to do that we're gonna need a power source bigger than ourselves and that all happens on the day of Pentecost Acts chapter 2 verse 1 and when the day of Pentecost came now why is it called Pentecost a couple things here just backstory there are several festivals in the life of the Jewish faith one of them was Passover that had just happened when Jesus died was buried and raised from the dead it happened over the celebration of the Passover Feast fifty days later is another big feast the feast of weeks or Pentecost 50 days from Passover so think about this with me jesus is alive he's on earth for forty days for forty days he's proving the resurrection and clarifying the mission and then at the end of forty days chapter 1 says while they were watching again eye witnesses Jesus went back into heaven now they're under orders wait how long are we going to wait turns out they only had to wait 10 days because from the 40th day when Jesus went into heaven to Pentecost is now only 10 days so 10 days they're waiting who are the Veii in the story it's the disciples - Judas some of the other men who were followers in the inner circle some of the ladies who had been along supporting Jesus and helping with the ministry maybe a hundred or so of these believers now are in a place together with a mission of reaching the whole world but waiting for the power that Jesus had promised so when verse 1 the day of Pentecost came on the fiftieth day they were all together in one place can we say that together they were all together in one place Cumberland a little stronger also can we all say together they were all together in one place that's an important idea that we're gonna see over these next few weeks together moving to above and beyond Sunday suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit enabled them verse 5 now there were staying in Jerusalem god-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven why because it was the feast of weeks it was one of the high and holy feast of the Jewish faith people who had been dispersed through persecution through other nations taking them captive over centuries of time the Jewish people were constantly being pushed out of their homeland they were refugees if you will all over the known world it's estimated there were 4 to 5 million Jews living around the world at this time and as many as possible would want to get back to Jerusalem for Passover would want to get back to Jerusalem for the feast of weeks and so on Pentecost Jerusalem a town of somewhere between 20,000 and a hundred thousand people on a normal day possibly had a million people in the city on this day this is a good day if your God Almighty and you have a sovereign plan and you want to pour out your spirit on the sons and the daughters to announce and launch the kingdom purpose of taking the story of Jesus to the entire world a good day to do that would be on the day that the entire world was already in the city where you were gonna hatch your plan God is strategic and the Spirit of God is strategic in accomplishing the purposes in the plans of God when they heard this sound a crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard them speaking in his own language utterly amazed they asked are not all these men who are speaking Galileans then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language it would be as if an eruption happened in in Dublin Georgia and and all of a sudden there was a big international convention there and no knock on Dublin don't know why I said that if you're from Dublin it's a lovely place and people say wait a minute I can tell by their accents all these people from South Georgia all these people are from somewhere around Albany how are they all speaking in Xhosa and how are they speaking mandarin and how are they speaking Italian fluently how are they speaking all these languages all of a sudden I know they're not from around the world I can tell they're all from Galilee and then the explanation comes it's the work of the Spirit of God doing something supernatural to show the world what it's like when when comes in the sails of the church and the mission of God begins to be accomplished on planet Earth to sum up chapter 2 number 1 the promised spirit was given you can get all this in a recap by the way of the message from passion 2018 last year we're gonna put it up on the passion city church watch page and it will give you all the context but just to summarize today the promised Spirit was given a supernatural sign followed there was a prophetic explanation so immediately Peter stands up because we were like what's going on and how are these people speak in these languages and what is the deal here he says oh this is what Joel prophesied about hundreds of years ago when he said in the last days the Spirit is going to be poured out on all mankind and the sons and the daughters are going to prophesy it's happening people right now this is what God has promised from long ago following this prophetic explanation the gospel is preached in power when the gospel is preached for the first time in the power of the Holy Spirit there is an explosion of repentance and faith in following this explosion of salvation if you will the believers were woven into church and into community all this happens in Acts chapter 2 promise spirit given there's a supernatural expression of that there's a prophetic explanation of what God is doing the gospel for the very first time it's proclaimed in the unction of the Holy Spirit Peter now he's got more courage than he's ever had he has more focus and clarity and he has the Holy Spirit aiding the words in the message of Jesus faith and conviction sweep through the crowd and then a church is born before this chapter is over this thing that we're a part of today is born before acts 2 comes to an end before the first day comes to a close before day 50 is over this thing man how exciting is this that we're a part of today is born right on day 1 and people are woven together into a family a place where they can belong a faith that they can believe and we're all a part of that story sitting here today it really gets simple doesn't it they were eyewitnesses of the resurrection and although I wasn't there on the third day I certainly have seen the power of Jesus to transform my life they had a clear mission and mandate to take the story to the whole world they were filled with the Holy Spirit so that there was supernatural wind in their lives and forth they were knit into a family called church and that's as simple as it is for us today but the key to all that is the Holy Spirit even seeing the resurrection with your own eyes isn't enough to fulfill the mandate in the mission you're gonna need power from on high why well number one the spirit of self is strong amen the spirit of self is strong amen that's something you can aim in I mean even the last row can Amen that that that's that's strong the spirit of self is strong so for this mission to be accomplished we're gonna need a Holy Spirit to transform the spirit of self into a spirit of Jesus anybody here ever experienced the powerful leadership of the spirit of self the infilling of the spirit of self the miracle power of the spirit of self of anybody ever experienced that before and what does the spirit of self often lead us to hello self so the mission therefore is go ye therefore to yourself help yourself love yourself provide for yourself protect yourself bless yourself do not risk so do not put self at jeopardy do not do anything to compromise self make sure self and self alone are the beneficiaries of every good thing God has made including the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ get it all and keep it all for yourself oh it's okay to share it with a neighbor because you share with one neighbor they put their faith in Jesus they get baptized you're gonna tell that story for the next 40 years of your life oh yes I did I shared with Mary in the 10th grade yes absolutely we were to get a sleepover to friends house she was having a meltdown I invited a church she came to the youth retreat she got saved and I'm still hanging on to that now 31 years later she's my girl when I get to heaven she's going to be there waiting at the door congratulations I'm here because of you now the rest of you billions of people on the planet you can fend for yourself but I got Mary she's my girl and it worked but mostly the spirit of self leads to self if we're gonna move out to people we don't even like can we be honest some people we don't even love and a lot of people we don't even think deserve the grace of God we're gonna need the Holy Spirit to displace the spirit of self inject the Spirit of Christ who did those very things for us loved us when we were unlovely gave us grace when we did not deserve it and reached out to us when a lot of people around us had given up on us if we're gonna have that spirit we're gonna need the Holy Spirit to do that the second reason why the Holy Spirit's key is because what we're gonna do isn't gonna be easy there is a war going on around us spiritually the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers that they cannot see the glory of God in the face of Christ we are not living our faith in a vacuum ladies and gentlemen you do not have conversations with your coworker in a vacuum and if you're a seeker today and God bless you for being here today if you are seeking Jesus or seeking faith or seeking answers about God that you're not seeking those answers in a vacuum there is a spiritual force at work that wants to keep you and me from the Grace and the love and the mercy and the beauty and the glory of God Satan the Bible says fell like a star out of heaven rebelled against a god that he had experienced as an angel in heaven and if an angel in heaven having seen the glory of God can fall away to his own plans of being greater than that than any one of us can fall away and if the enemy does have spiritual authority and power on this earth for a short season of time as we know he does through the scriptures then he's going to try to take as many people as he can with him into the darkness forevermore see we don't make our decisions about faith in a vacuum we have an enemy at work the enemy isn't the culture next door or the country across the street the enemy is powers of darkness the spiritual forces of darkness the Prince of the power of the air and if we want to take seriously our opportunity to take the story the resurrection of Jesus of the world hello we're not going to be applauded on every corner some countries are going to say you bring that message in here you're going to jail you proclaim the name of Jesus in our town and we'll take your life they're going to be corners of society where you're not going to be welcome to proclaim your faith in Jesus and your hope in his Living Word why because there's a spiritual war going on around us and how are we going to endure through the difficulty and the resistance because there's going to be god-sized win in our sail that pushes us through the waves and through the tide and through the WIMP and carries us forward with a Power greater than ourselves and lastly we're going to see in the book of Acts that and I hate to be a spoiler in the series and I don't really want to ruin it for everyone but everybody dies in this story welcome to Acts hey it's something you do and be apparently it costs you your life Paul one of the heroes of the story ends up in a Roman prison and ends up giving his life for the very gospel that we sing about today how did he do that how do you go through shipwreck how did he go through nakedness how did he go through being beat up outside Lystra how did he how did you go back to the city when he came to his senses and right when I'm still alive hello I'm going back in there and preach again this is not spirit of man this is spirit of God and if we're gonna accomplish this mission it's not an easy mission we're gonna need that kind of urgency and that kind of supernatural capacity in our lives but the payoff is gonna be extraordinary the whole world right now is riveted to the rescue mission of 12 Thai boys and their leader as you saw coming into the gathering today some of those boys have already been rescued from the cave and reached safety in a process is underway right now to save them all a process that has already cost life for someone who is willing to enter into a situation fraught with danger in a moment that has been filled with urgency we all have been keeping abreast of the pulse of the situation the monsoon season is here the rains are coming there's been a little bit of an abatement of rain we've been pumping water out of the cave we're not sure how that's affecting the situation but we know rescue workers going in are diminishing the oxygen supply we know these boys many of them cannot swim none of them have any experience in underwater diving or underwater breathing techniques we know it's three miles in we know that it is fraught with danger and we know the time is running out and there is a global sense of urgency in this moment and the Holy Spirit of God put that global sense of urgency in people like you and me on the day of Pentecost and all of a sudden they realize there is an entire world out there who has never one time heard one of the songs of grace that we sung today there is a world out there that has never heard about a savior who would rescue them not on their merit and effort but on his merit in effort there is a world out there that thinks God is against them and not for them and we have a sense of urgency now and we're willing to pay the cost in the price to go on a rescue mission to the world why because there's wind in our sail and the purpose of the Holy Spirit wasn't so that we can sit around a campfire sing Kumbaya the purpose of the holy spirit is to put inertia in our lives so that transformed by his power we could move out in confidence to the people of earth and see the very same things happen that happened on the day of Pentecost and outpouring of the promised spirit supernatural evidence of that in our lives a declaration of what God is doing a proclamation of the gospel in power an explosion of repentance and faith in a church that is strengthened day by day as people are knit together into a family and into a community the results were extraordinary and I want to just highlight the two main results of the Holy Spirit coming to the church on the day of Pentecost number one there was a seismic shift in the spiritual climate of the city it wasn't you know like a well I think somebody put their faith in Jesus today there was a tremor that could be measured on the Richter scale of eternity that happened on day one at Pentecost listen to what it says toward the end of the chapter beginning in verse 38 Peter replied repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off for all whom the Lord our God will call with many other words he warned them he pleaded with them save yourselves from this corrupt generation and then look at the result those who accepted his message were baptized so this was like an all-in moment it wasn't like if you want to put your faith in Jesus today and go through the baptism class and come back in a year maybe you know something this is like an all in a full life response to eyes being open to the person in the work of Jesus those who accepted his message were baptized in about three thousand were added to their number that day now that's revival when you have your first church meeting and 3,000 people get saved and baptized I mean how do you baptize 3,000 people spontaneously on the spot in a city that has never technically baptized people like that before I mean everybody Pilon out to the to the rivers around town I mean how did this happen and now the buzz and the energy in the city because 3,000 people have come to life from death and are now woven into a brand-new eternal family in one day there was a seismic shift in the city and in the cities it just below where we were reading before where it said they all heard them speaking in their own language it says a little bit later that in the city verse nine there were Parthians Medes Elamites residents of Mesopotamia Judea and Cappadocia Pontus and Asia farah and Pamphylia Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene there were visitors from Rome Jews and converts to Judaism there were cretins from the little island of Crete there were Arabs from all over the Arabian Peninsula so when this message was proclaimed and these 3,000 people's hearts were open to faith people didn't just get saved from Jerusalem people got saved from the whole world and if all those names sound a little confusing all you have to do is Google who are all the people in Jerusalem on Pentecost in all those places that we just talked about represent almost all of the known world at that time all of Iran or Iran all of Iraq all of what is now Afghanistan all of the middle-east all of the Arabian Peninsula Egypt and all the way over in Africa as far as Libya Rome the epicentre of civilization Crete in the middle of the Mediterranean all of what is now Asia Minor minor in Turkey and all of Judea there was every kind of person hello there was every culture of person hello there was every language of person hello all met Jesus on day one in this church this church I'm telling you just want to say it one more time for some of you it's kind of a revelation that Church of Jesus was not born in America I love America happy 4th of July I love living in a land of freedom not a perfect country but an absolutely amazing gift of God but the church wasn't born in America it wasn't born among Western white people there were no Western white people at the church unless you consider us Italians Western white people which we sort of kind of halfway are it was Middle Easterners people Arabs people speak in all the languages of what would be now Iran in the Persian region people from all over Turkey from Africa there was a global explosion of faith because of a man named Jesus Christ who was the son of God in human flesh it wasn't an invention of America it was an invention of any man it was the birthing of the Holy Spirit of God pouring out this story of grace on all people God wanted us to get a global mindset and a global image of the church on the very first day so I'm glad I got in it I'm glad you got in it I'm glad everybody gets in it but God already told us on day one everybody already is in it from the very first day so think about it 3,000 people came to faith not just in Jerusalem but all the nations of the known world surrounding Jerusalem were touched people were now going home with the story of Jesus to the whole world even back to the epicenter of Rome telling the story you won't believe it people started talking in my language I was like what's going on they said it's the Holy Spirit what's the Holy Spirit it's the promise of God from days of old it's when God comes and touches people with supernatural power to proclaim the story of Jesus and I mean they were talking I'm telling you these people were not from Rome these people were from Galilee they were they were hillside lakeside Hicks these people or I could tell by their accents but they were talking like perfect Italian I'm like I don't know how you're talking Italian right now but I understand everything you're telling me about Jesus right now who is this Jesus and then a dude stood up I think his name was Peter he started proclaiming from beginning to the end the whole story of Jesus our eyes were open we went blue we knew Abraham we knew Moses we knew the law we've heard it all before but now it all makes sense it's culminating in Christ resurrected from the dead he is the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world my eyes were open my heart was ripped in two I said God I want you and I need you and I was baptized in that moment received the Holy Spirit I can sense a difference in my life and there is wind in my sail and on day one the gospel had reached the world there was a seismic shift experts and I don't know how to quantify all of what experts say but experts say those who study the church and study the history of the church that have 10% of the people in any city have a genuine conversion of faith in Christ come alive from the dead in Christ are filled with the Holy Spirit and begin to move in the purposes of God in their life move out of a spirit of self and move into the Holy Spirit which bursts in us the Spirit of Christ if 10% of a city experiences that kind of life change that city is in revival those same experts study in our city Atlanta Georgia and they said on a given Sunday 6 to 8 percent of our city attends church not is truly born again fill the Holy Spirit and onboard with the purposes of God in their life but it tends a church which is awesome that's somewhere between mid 300,000 and 500,000 people are in church in Atlanta Georgia today this weekend for 10% of our city to be alive in Christ fill the spirit in onboard with God's purposes would be 650,000 people today so we're close and it is in reach for us to see a seismic shift in the city of Atlanta to see Atlanta move into what experts say is revival now you would think revival is 100 100 percent of the people put their faith in Jesus but think about it think if there were a hundred and sixty thousand more alive Jesus followers tomorrow in this city and think if maybe I don't know how you know I would be foolish to even put a number on it but what if a hundred percent of the people sitting in a seat or a pew in church this weekend were fully alive Jesus followers and then you added a hundred and sixty thousand more people to that tomorrow think about the difference that you would feel in the Richter scale of heaven in the soil of Atlanta Georgia so there are a lot of people in this city cross denominational lines across racial lines i sat down at the table with a brother of mine the other day having this conversation who is a black pastor in our city there's a lot of conversation around this idea that we need to start moving with urgency toward that 10% no one Church can do that everybody's got to come on board to see that become a reality there's got to be a citywide movement for that to happen but our goal that passion said you don't want to get you lost all numbers is 1% it seems like a little teeny tiny goal I don't even like saying it I hate it I've never in my life said boy we just want to get that 1% and whoa look out but our initial goal right now is to move to a place where on a weekend 1% of the city of Atlanta would be at worship at Passion City Church I'll tell you why because I just think it's that good I think this is a place to meet Jesus I believe the spirit of worship is in this house I know that you can sit under the teaching of the word of God and I know that you can meet the best people you've ever met and there's a door for you to hold there's a launch table for you to sit at there's a community group for you to belong to there's a place for your baby to bloom if you're an engaged couple there's a place for you to unite before you take that most critical step if you're a lady there's a Grove for you to be planted in and a place for you to flourish if you're a man there's a Fight Club that you can join if you like getting sweat on your brow for the sake of the gospel there's a love Atlanta week where you can pick up a shovel and you can start moving some dirt and you can get your hands dirty I believe in this house and I think a good goal for us we talk about it internally all the time would be that 1% of our city would be in passionate city church on a given weekend and we're aiming toward that goal right now maybe well that's a long way off for us and I don't know you probably haven't ever ridden a shuttle to church Louie because I don't think we're really ready for 65,000 people coming to church well obviously they can't all come here that's why we started demolition inside our existing building on our Cumberland property it's the phase we can't afford to pay for right now it's not super glorious and glamorous but we are starting asbestos abatement hello that's good news thank you for asbestos and we're starting demolition inside the building and actually there'll probably be some bulldozers on the property Cumberland because we're already moving now in phase one to prepare a place for more people in the Cumberland area to come to Passion City Church that's one way toward that hole but there's going to be another Cumberland and a third Cumberland and a fourth Cumberland and a fifth Cumberland and a sixth Cumberland and its seventh Cumberland not at Cumberland you understand Cumberlands awesome but I need that awesome and that all could happen any day now as soon as the holy spirit puts urgency in our hearts and as soon as the Holy Spirit opens our hands from a self focused financial plan to a mission focused financial plan we could accomplish that goal in a very short period of time and maybe our part in helping Atlanta get to the 10% is for passion city church to move toward the 1% and it's a different mindset it's a seismic shift it's a different way of looking at life it's not it's not saying oh I'm glad I got a space oh I'm glad I got a seat oh I'm glad I made it into the gathering today it's saying man there there needs to be hello why aren't we having 20 gatherings on a weekend what why don't we build a bigger building this building is awesome and we told the story a million times but it's an old warehouse that wasn't ever even designed to do what we're doing and on a lot of occasions we can't get more people in here why don't we do something else hey our family has decided we think we should move faster we think we should move further we think we should go above we think we should go beyond our families got some urgency our families got the Holy Spirit's putting wind in our sail we want to see this thing move forward I'm not happy that I got a seat I'm only going to be happy when the city gets a seat I want to see what happened on Pentecost happened today and what happened on Pentecost was this number one there was a seismic shift but number two a church all of a sudden was functioning as a community of believers with a place and with a purpose for every person don't you love that don't ever disparage the explosive power of the gospel don't ever disparage that seek it long for it hope for it believe for it pray for it god save my whole company save them all save the whole cul-de-sac bring my whole family in Pennsylvania to face god save everybody at soul cycle in my hour bring them all God do a miracle Holy Spirit win only you could do it only explanation God showed up the win of the spirit blue lies were transformed the gospel is proclaimed hearts were open eyes were awakened and people lots of people put their faith in Jesus don't ever dispatch that please seek it pray for it long for it want to be a part of it but know that it never happens at the expense of you having a place in God's family because God isn't an either/or God when it comes to things like this he's Holly will doe in a big church I won't Sally to feel like she has a place to belong oh man that's a tough one I definitely wanted have a place to belong so I love her and she needs people right now and she needs to know she matters and she needs to know she has a gift and she needs to exercise that gift on something big because that's gonna bring her the most life so Ike I don't want to say I'm a place to belong but gosh there's a million more Sally's out there so who that's a hard one do I say Sally a place to belong or a million more Sally's get to know about Jesus gosh I don't know what I'm gonna do I'll have to convene the angels and get the Trinity together and think about this one and come back to you guys because this is really stumping me right now no he's God water into wine he's like yes yes is the answer to that question yes I would like millions of that was her name Sally's to come to faith I just turned 16 it's already happening just that fast just in the blink of an eye yes I want a million sally's and I want every one of the million to have a place to belong and there is no organization on earth that can do that except the Church of Jesus Christ three thousand got saved next word they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching and to the fellowship they showed up and got under the Word of God to the breaking of bread and to prayer everyone was filled with awe many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles all the believers were together they had everything in common selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had needed everyday they continued to meet together in the temple courts they broke bread in their homes they ate together with glad and sincere hearts they were praising God enjoying the favor of all the people and the Lord added to their number every single day those who were being saved he said here's my plan I want three thousand people to get saved and I'm gonna put them all into homes and into families and the relationships under teaching under preaching I'm gonna have them all experience God's power in their lives all be amazed at what God's doing in and through their lives all sharing in common what they have all meeting each other's needs not offloading this to the organization of a church you do the benevolence nope you are our benevolence plan you are our care ministry you are our pastoral network you have the ability to look next door and meet the needs of the person sitting right next to you as well as any of us do this is the beauty of God it's big people but it's not too big for you to have a place in God's plan and without the Holy Spirit it doesn't work none of it works without the Holy Spirit you either end up in some big organizational machine it's just trying to get people saved or you end up over here in some little Church it's like all six of us huddled together having our 47th Bible study together I just don't get anybody else in here because I like our group the way our group is don't y'all awesome it's just a mentality that says we're all in no holy spirit in that or hey it's an organization it works like clockwork we can explain it all probably not a lot of holy spirits that either but when the wind is in the sail explosive growth happens and people feel like they belong at the same time and this is what we're aiming for that passion city church we want to be an axe to church we want to be a place where the city has a seismic shift but where every single sally has a place to belong a place of purpose a place where she knows she fits and has a home and this is the work that God wants to do the reason why Cumberland when we do get a permanent home out there God willing we are going to do that so that we can move quicker toward that 1% you will have some version of what we have here that Jesus is life law it's hard to pull that off on a weekly gathering at an High School where we're transforming space but if you've ever come Cumberland folks over to 5:15 you've seen welcome mat 101 for us which is what we call that Jesus's life law it's there because we understood from the very first day how fast the spirit of self could overwhelm and push away the Holy Spirit of God and we could become settlers and no longer pioneers and pioneering is what led us to this place so when you come in every time you see it when we put it on the wall that Jesus's life wall had to and 265 empty sockets in it mm 265 like man seems like y'all could have figured out how to get that up to 3000 yeah we weren't thinking so that when someone puts their faith in Jesus at passion city goes from death to life by the grace of God they have the opportunity to take a light bulb write their initials or their name on it write the date and put it in one of those sockets and it literally becomes a picture of the transformation that happened in their life and it collectively tells all of us coming through the door Jesus is life and the reason passion city church exists is to fill up walls like this for his glory so the good news is that five people put a light bulb in the Jesus's life wall after the 9:15 gathering this morning at passion city church that's awesome that means that there are currently 2129 lights in the wall and there are only 136 empty sockets in the wall and I would like to believe and I would like to invite you to believe with me that all 136 of those sockets will have light bulbs in them by above and beyond Sunday which is five weeks from right now why don't we just start they're tiny and ask God for that but it's a visual reminder that we're on a mission and today is just that encouragement that we're never gonna fulfill that mission apart from the power of the Holy Spirit in our life so I ask you today do you know him do you know the Holy Spirit we worship God Father Son and Holy Spirit and the operational power for the mission and the transformation that God is calling us to comes from the Holy Spirit of God indwelling us and bringing the wholeness of Christ's life to bear in and through us for the glory of the Father who is in heaven and so I ask you today do you know Jesus that's maybe the most important question of all but do you know that when you come to know Jesus you receive the Holy Spirit so it's not just intellectual today oh I know there's a Holy Spirit it's experiential today I'm in a relationship with the Holy Spirit and he is actually empowering and guiding and filling and leading my life so that Christ can be known in me and that the world can hear the story of the finished work of Jesus the unfinished work of this church in every Church today is to share the finished work of Jesus with all the people on planet Earth and the Holy Spirit is available today to you to give you power for your personal transformation and to give you power for your place in that story the Holy Spirit's objective in life isn't it make you weird the Holy Spirit wants to make you powerful supernaturally powerful to do things that you could never do in your own strength

Channel: Passion City Church

Views: 40,523

Keywords: passion city church, passion city, passion city Atlanta, passion city dc, PASSION 2022, Trilith, doorstop - topic, elevation worship, maverick city music, passion conference 2022, passion city conference 2022, what denomination is passion city church, worship, church, church from home, virtual church, best virtual church, sermons, passion city church denomination, ben Stuart, passion church, passion church Atlanta

Id: FRzeBbHvXu4

Length: 53min 19sec (3199 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 09 2018