The Wind That Never Stopped Blowing | Mission in Motion Week 1

the outcome.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

I want to begin by reading two scriptures.

One is in Acts chapter 1 verse 6.

It says, "...then they gathered around him and asked him, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

He said to them,

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

If you've been in church and are immersed in church culture for a while, you probably have heard the phrases, have seen the stickers, seen the t-shirts.

In fact, Jeremy preached about these two weeks ago.

By the way, thank you, Pastor Jeremy, for preaching twice for us.

Thank you for your willingness to step up and share God's word from your heart.

But he read the scripture that says, after the Spirit came, they were eating bread in their homes, and they were eating together with glad and sincere hearts, and they were praising God and enjoying the favor of all people.

In other words, as they waited for the Spirit, the Spirit came.

As the Spirit came, it produced in them something that only the Holy Spirit can do.

We value Acts 2.

We elevate the importance of how the church was born in Acts chapter 2.

In fact, there are many conferences and church leadership conferences and church growth conferences that try to give us the steps to be like the church in Acts.

But I think sometimes we have it backwards.

We think that if we do those things, we become like them instead of paying attention to the reason why the church started the way it started.

It's not that they ate bread together and enjoyed fellowship with one another together to receive the Spirit.

It is that they received the Spirit that produced in them the desire to grow in knowledge and to grow in love for one another.

Acts 2 is kind of like the birth certificate of the church.

It is the ultimate success story.

It describes an outpouring of God's power so explosive that it redirected the trajectory of human history.

The church of Jesus Christ has changed the history of humanity.

I mean, you just look at the math in this chapter.

Before the events of Pentecost, for example, the entire roster of Jesus followers fits in a single upper room.

About 120.

That was it.

if you were actually a betting person in the first century, you would not have put your money on this group, on this group of 120 Galileans whose leader had just been publicly executed on a Roman cross.

But then came Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit fell upon them.

And in a single afternoon after that,

Peter stood up and preached the sermon, and 3,000 newcomers were baptized.

Wouldn't you love that?

I mean, I would.

That's a 2,500% growth rate in one day.

Now you fast forward to this morning and today Christianity is the largest, most widespread movement in human history with roughly 2.4, 2.5 billion followers in every continent, from every culture, tribe, tongue.

And to put that in perspective, in Jesus' day the total population of the entire planet was about 300 million people.

Today the number of people who profess the name of Jesus Christ is about eight times that number.

There are over four million local churches and you and I are part of that movement.

So when we read this and when we try to break it down and analyze it and figure out why is it that the church grew so.

This way?

Why is it that there was no system in place other than a complete reliance on the Holy Spirit and things happened?

What are we missing, right?

How did a movement that started in a small occupied province, led by Jesus and 12 and then 120, how did they survive the Roman Empire and

How did it grow so big that you and I are here on the other side of the world praising the same Jesus?

I think to understand the fire of Acts 2, we have to look back at the quiet room.

Because over a period of 40 days, and we often miss this.

I don't know if you're anything like me.

But when Jesus tells them, go and wait.

He's speaking to them in a glorified body.

He already died and resurrected and He appeared to them.

Jesus appeared to His disciples.

He sat with them.

He ate with them.

He taught them about the kingdom in a glorified body.

Can you imagine sitting at that table with Jesus glorified?

What questions would you have asked?

The disciples were anxious.

They were probably uncertain.

They were afraid when Jesus went to the cross.

But now they see him resurrected in a glorified body.

And their minds play tricks on them.

You know what they asked him?

As Jesus is with them in a glorified body.

They said, Lord.

Are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?

They have a small view.

They have limited ability to see beyond what they can see.

I don't know if you've ever felt that way, but I do that often.

They were still thinking about local political liberation.

They were thinking about the Roman occupation.

They were thinking in terms of human power and political timelines and regional victories.

And Jesus essentially says, you know what?

You're asking the wrong question.

You know, I had a conversation with someone recently.

Before my mom passed away there and one of the questions was, how's your mom doing?

Well, she's not doing well.

And they were like, well, you know, good thing she loves the Lord and that she's ready.

But then the conversation changed and that person said, because Christ is coming soon and we all have to be ready.

To be honest, it kind of made me mad to talk about that in those moments.

But then I started to think, well, Christ is coming soon and has been coming soon for the last 2,000 years.

We get so anxious about the end times.

We want to know, we want to know, we want to know.

And Jesus says, it's not for you to know the times or dates.

And Jesus tells them,

You have no business trying to figure that out.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.

And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Notice that Jesus doesn't give them a pep talk.

He doesn't hand them out a five-step strategic plan, ministry plan of church growth.

He doesn't command them to go out and try harder.

He doesn't tell them, oh, you have to add and multiply numbers and go to Daniel and figure out.

You can figure out when I'm coming.

I'm just not telling you.

No, it's not for you to know.

What you need to know is that the Holy Spirit is going to empower you to be a witness.

Jesus gives them wisdom.

powerful declaration he says you will receive power and you will be my witnesses it was not an invitation to perform it was a promise of what God was going to do through them and you know what the instruction was

It wasn't, oh, you have to start serving more or giving more or go to the membership class on August 30th.

I'm just adding that so that you don't forget.

The instruction was to wait.

They had to wait.

They had to wait because Jesus knew what we so easily forget.

We forget that human energy can produce human programs, but only the Holy Spirit can build the church.

Only the Holy Spirit will build the church.

Yes, we can do things happen with human efforts.

I've said it before.

There are many, many institutions, even churches, that can grow solely on human power and cleverness.

We don't want that.

We don't need that.

We want the Holy Spirit to be the one that grows us, even if it takes time, even if it takes years.

Listen, one thing I've brought with me to Houston is a lot of patience.

I know some of you are thinking, no, you didn't.

Yeah, I did.

I promised you.

And I'm learning.

I'm learning.

And I want to learn with you, but if the Holy Spirit is not in it, I don't want to know about it.

If the Holy Spirit is not leading you in your conversations inside the church and outside the church, I don't want to know about it.

If the Holy Spirit is not in every decision we make to glorify the Father, we don't need it.

Gossip doesn't have room where the Holy Spirit is.

Ten days later, the waiting ended for this group.

Acts 2 opens with 120 believers gathering in one place.

And suddenly there's a sound like the blowing of a violent wind that fills the whole house.

Tongues of fire spread.

They rested on each of them and they are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now think about how God handled this moment.

If the purpose of the baptism of the Holy Spirit was to display supernatural power, if God just wanted to show off, He could have done something far more theatrical than this.

I mean, He created the cosmos from nothing.

God can put some good shows on the sky.

Have you seen those?

I mean, it just takes a split second at night to look up and say, we are nothing and He's everything.

He could have written the gospel in letters of lightning across the Mediterranean sky.

He could have caused many things to move or display His power.

But see, God wasn't putting a show.

He was building His church.

And look at what happened immediately after the fire fell.

They began to speak.

In other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Why that specific miracle?

See, God's miracles always have a purpose.

Verse 5 in that chapter says that there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.

And you know what happens when you have different cultures in a building?

It happens constantly.

In our church, not with that many languages, but we have English and Spanish.

And the challenge is communication.

You see, the timing of Pentecost was not an accident.

Thousands of pilgrims from across the ancient world, speaking a dozen different languages and dialects, had flooded Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of weeks.

In other words, they all spoke different languages.

And when the roar of that violent wind shook the neighborhood, a massive crowd came running to see what had happened.

And when these international travelers arrived, they were shocked because...

They didn't hear abstract heavenly noise.

They didn't see strange manifestations, although I have nothing against those if they produce a heart change.

But what they found is that they heard Galileans proclaiming God's wonders in their own native tongues.

That was the genius of Pentecost.

God didn't give them power to isolate them in a holy huddle.

He gave them power to bridge the gap between human hearts.

And listen, as a church, we need to go into the world and tell them about Jesus in a way that is understandable.

Not strange, not weird, not funny, not hyper-spiritual.

It's real and raw life that manifests in our culture, in our communities, and that shares the love of Christ.

My mother had such an ability to talk to strangers that sometimes was uncomfortable.

But she could talk to anybody.

In fact, you know, when she went to the hospital, they sent her back that same day.

And she called me and she was energized.

And she said, you know, I was there only for a day.

But I was able to witness to everybody that came into the room.

Like, Mom...

Pentecost is amazing.

Those pilgrims stayed.

They heard Peter preach the gospel.

They repented.

They were baptized.

And then here's the beauty of it.

They packed their bags, got on boats and dusty roads and took the gospel back to Rome, Asia, Egypt.

And it spread all the way to us.

You see, the miracle of Pentecost was not a one-time show designed to dazzle a crowd.

It was the spark that lit a global fire.

And that's the reason why you and I know about Jesus Christ and His saving power today.

Oh, but there's always resistance.

Don't think that everybody was like, oh yeah, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

No, no, no, no, no.

Notice what happens next in the story.

Right at the high point of this incredible miracle.

When lives are being changed.

When God's presence is filling the atmosphere.

It says in verse 13 that some, however, made fun of them and said, they have had too much wine.

Shocking, isn't it?

Indifference to the Holy Spirit, His presence, and His Word.

I wish I could tell you it doesn't happen anymore.

I wish I could say that every time we share God's Word, everybody is listening.

But I've had to do it sometimes where I have to tell people, Hey, if you don't want to be here, you don't need to be here.

If you don't want to listen, you don't have to listen.

You can have a room full of people experiencing the tangible, life-changing power of the Almighty God, and there will still be someone standing in the corner, maybe even rolling their eyes, thinking, these people are crazy.

I don't know if you've noticed, but mockery and sarcasm are not new.

If you scroll through social media today or you listen to political commentary or you pay attention to cultural discourse, you will notice that sarcasm is the native language of our world.

By the way, in our family, we're extremely sarcastic.

In a fun way.

But on the other end, there's this cynicism and mockery that costs nothing in our day.

Many people get consumed by the comments and the negativity.

It is easy for a cold heart to dismiss a warm fire.

And yet there's a strange truth hidden in their insult in this passage.

Why did the mockers think they were drunk?

Because when the Holy Spirit fills a life,

It produces a joy and a freedom that looks completely irrational to a world bound by fear.

I've been in rooms where the presence of God is so real, so palpable that you can reach and touch it.

I have stood in worship services where the weight of God's presence...

It's so thick that people begin to weep with no reason.

Where people sing and dance.

But there's joy.

I've seen some of you walk through difficult things with a smile on your face.

To an outsider that looks strange.

Telling you during my mother's funeral, I had a strength.

And I was telling Norma, it's not me, it's the Holy Spirit in me.

But a few people would come to me and they would cry instead of me crying.

Now, I've cried.

And I have a lot of crying to do still.

And I think that's okay.

But there's a supernatural strength that comes.

There's a supernatural peace that comes from God's power to those that are willing to trust Him.

Christianity is not just a collection of intellectual doctrines to agree with.

By the way, Nazarenes are really good at doctrine.

I mean, some of you took a membership class years ago.

Some of you went through the Articles of Faith class.

That's great.

We're good at doctrine.

It's okay to learn doctrine and what we believe.

I agree.

But there are many things that I didn't understand that I experienced before I even understood them.

Because Christianity is an experience.

It's a relationship with the living God through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

And so when the mockers started laughing, Peter didn't shrink back.

He didn't go into hiding.

He stood up.

He brushed off the accusation with a touch of humor and he preached Jesus.

And you know what he said?

He said, repent and be baptized.

Every one of you, he said, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Now you would think with that message people would walk away, but 3,000 came to Jesus.

And I'm afraid in many of our churches there are people still that need to repent and come to Christ.

That agree with the truth of God's love, that enjoy God's blessings, but they have not surrendered completely to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

And the church of Jesus Christ has survived for all these years.

Why has the church survived?

I think it's the Holy Spirit.

If not for the presence of the Holy Spirit, Christianity would have died in the first century.

I mean, think about what was against it.

The religious establishment tried to crush it.

The Roman Empire tried to execute it.

What would happen if they would begin killing Christians right here in Lake Houston?

How many of us would still show up?

Early believers faced torture, isolation, property confiscation, death, and yet persecution didn't destroy the church.

You know what it did?

It scattered it.

Now, the church not only survived the external attack and continues to do so.

I think it's even more remarkable that the church, other than surviving the external attacks, that the church through the Holy Spirit has been empowered and has been enabled to survive itself.

Listen to me.

Throughout the last 2,000 years, the church has been made up of broken, sinful human beings.

Most of our problems don't happen from the outside in.

They usually are from the inside out.

We have suffered through internal scandals.

Within the church, you wouldn't believe it, but there have been political power struggles.

There has been financial corruption.

There has been spiritual immaturity, infidelity, gossip.

There have been seasons in history where the human institution of the church made a complete mess of things.

What I'm trying to say is that human failure should have sunk this movement a thousand times over.

In fact, any human corporation or political party with our track record of internal errors would have collapsed centuries ago.

So why are we still here today?

And to make it more personal, why is one church still here today?

Lake Houston Church.

Why is this church here, still here today?

I'll tell you why.

Because the church does not belong to pastors.

does not belong to bishops or elders or committees or councils or board of directors or district leadership.

It's accountability.

Don't misunderstand what I'm saying.

But the church, in the end, doesn't belong to any of our institutionalized structures which are helpful and we should pray for.

The church belongs to Jesus Christ.

And its power source is the Holy Spirit.

I said its power source is the Holy Spirit.

It's not the largest giver.

It's not the best preacher or worst preacher.

It's not the best volunteer or the worst volunteer.

Its source of power is the Holy Spirit and nothing else.

And without His Spirit leading one church forward,

We won't accomplish anything.

Would you stand up with me so that I can begin to close?

Listen, when we mess up, the Holy Spirit convicts us.

When we mess up, the Holy Spirit calls us to repentance.

When we mess up, the Holy Spirit renews our hearts.

And he pulls us back onto the track.

The wind keeps blowing.

And that wind doesn't just blow in dramatic Pentecost moments.

I love Pastor Jeremy's call to stay grounded and keep doing the things that the early church did.

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching.

the fellowship, the breaking of bread into prayer.

All the believers were together and had everything in common.

The Spirit moves in the wind and in the fire, but the Spirit also moves in the ordinary.

And I don't want you to miss this.

Don't wait for the church to create structures for you to share the love of God.

The Spirit moves in the faithful rhythms of Christian community.

You know when the Holy Spirit moves?

When you cook a meal for a family in crisis.

When you sit across a coffee table and listen to a friend who is grieving.

When a local church opens a food pantry or builds a shelter.

When we gather on an ordinary Sunday morning to open the Bible and pray together.

The gospel reached every corner of the world because the Holy Spirit reached into every detail of their lives.

What I'm saying is the church, if this church is to survive, it's because the Holy Spirit is going to live inside of you and love on people wherever you are.

Church, you are connected to Pentecost.

We don't have to wait anymore.

The Holy Spirit is ready.

When you stand in this room and sing praises to God.

When you feel that quiet wave of pace wash over your heart during prayer.

When you feel a sudden nudge to forgive someone who hurt you.

Or to share your faith with a neighbor.

I want you to realize something.

You are directly connected to that upper room in Acts chapter 2.

Because I believe that the wind that roared through Jerusalem that morning did not die out when the apostles passed away.

It didn't stop during the dark ages.

It didn't stall out in the 21st century.

The same wind is blowing through this room right now.

It's real.

And I know...

And I know that it's hard sometimes to experience it, but if you long for it and you search for it, Acts 2 is both a promise of hope and a direct challenge to our lives.

It shows us that God takes ordinary, timid, broken people, people who mess up, people who get scared, people who sometimes fail and fills them with supernatural courage to do what they could never do on their own.

Church, you do not have to live this Christian life in your own strength.

Listen, that's been a reminder for me.

Especially lately.

The Holy Spirit is with us.

The promise of Pentecost is for you.

It is for your children.

And it is for all who are far off.

Would you close your eyes?

Father, we thank you that you did not leave us as orphans.

We thank you that you sent the Holy Spirit to comfort us, Lord.

To guide us, to empower and sustain us.

Lord, forgive us for the times we tried to do your work on our own strength.

Forgive us, Lord.

for leaning on our own plans instead of your power.

We ask today, Lord, that you would blow fresh wind through our hearts, our families, and our church.

Fill us, as the psalmist said, with the joy of your salvation.

Lord, I pray that you will give us the boldness to face cynicism,

And criticism, Lord, and use our lives to proclaim your wonders to the world around us.

Lord, one church belongs to you.

And I thank you that your Holy Spirit is still moving, is still strengthening.

Guiding, providing.

We love you, Lord.

And we thank you for your spirit.

In Jesus' name we pray.

And the church says, amen.

If you're thankful that the Holy Spirit is in you and moving through us, would you sing this with the worship team as they lead us?