Morning church. Thank you for being here today. I kind of wish you were in the last service. I baptized a family of five all at the same time. And on this side of the baptism, we had 'em all in there at the same time. The little girl was just floating down to her eyes the whole time and it just showed me that I'm really not in control of anything in this place. But it was good. Hey, for all of you guys that wished me happy birthday last week, man. Thank you so much. I actually, man, I'm just telling you this, I got to live the dream day in a pastor's life. Last week I got to preach three times, take a fat Sunday afternoon nap. Can I get an amen to that? I got a great ribeye for dinner, some cake, some family time, and it was a great day.
So thank you, thank you, thank you for saying that last week. Also one more public service announcement is this, for those of you that have just started serving here at Bern Hickory, man, thank you guys. Thank you. Lemme tell you this, you are making a difference. You might not have seen it today in that fourth grader, but you are making a difference in their lives. We want to tell you thank you for that. And, and, and listen, we need more of you. All right? We need more of you. And I've already talked to God and he said yes. All right, so go, go ahead. I'm just kidding about that last part kind of. But we need you we need you in there. Alright, well, hey, let's jump into the message. This is week three in a series in the book of Acts.
If you're new, don't worry about it. We'll get you caught up. And in this series we're looking at the spirit of God, the power of God and the church. All right? We're kind of looking at what those things mean in our lives for the glory of God. All right? That's what we've been doing. Now, this morning's text, I'm gonna go ahead and give you a little bit of a heads up. This morning's text is one of those texts that probably was one of the most awkward moments in the disciple's lives. All right? Probably one of the most awkward moments to which I say bring it on. Why? Because if you know me, you know that I love a good awkward moment. I just love it. Ken, do I have any friends in the room that, that you, you kind of love an awkward moment.
I'm the guy that when something happens and, and listen, 30 years of ministry, there's been a lot of awkward moments when something happens that's awkward. I love to sit in it for a few minutes. But I also love that there are a couple of different kinds of people in awkward moments. First of all, there's the peacekeeper in the awkward moment where they almost pretend like nothing happens, right? And they just want to keep the peace. Second of all, in the awkward moment is the fixer, right? This is the person that just wants to fix the moment. Knowing that you can't fix all awkward moments. Sometimes you just gotta laugh 'em off and move on. And third of all in the awkward moments is kind of what the role that I play a lot of times and I'm maturing in this. Alright, there it is, is I like to add it on.
Alright, just a little bit more to soak in the moment, all right? Of the awkwardness. Well listen, this morning's moment in scripture is one of those awkward moments and it's actually one of the moments that a lot of personalities come out. And it's one of those moments in scripture that is actually been divisive over history. But it's so powerful on this sin, but it's so unifying on this sin. And it's one of those moments for the church and for us individually that changes everything. In fact, the title of this whole message is that changes everything. And I want you to remember that line. So if you've got a copy of scripture today, I want you to go ahead and turn with me to Acts chapter two. Alright? Acts chapter two is, is where we're going to land today. If you got that copy of scripture, let me catch you up on what is happening.
Jesus has risen from the grave, he has walked 40 days with the disciples and done so many amazing, amazing miracles and so many proofs to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is who he said he was. The disciples at this moment in their life, they're really just a little bit along for the journey, alright? They're just following after and listening to his instructions. And in chapter one, we looked at this two weeks ago, chapter one, just before Jesus ascends to the Father, he tells his disciples, you guys need to just wait. You need to wait on the Holy Spirit because he is coming and he's gonna change you. He's gonna empower you and I know you going to walk in him. Well, as Jesus is saying this, he, he's able to actually return to the Father. But just before that he leaves us with a thesis statement in the Book of Acts.
And we're gonna read it, I don't know about every week, but a lot of weeks has had Acts one, eight. And Jesus says to his disciples, this, you just saw it in the bumper. He says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Now the disciples heard this command from Jesus loud and clear. And so now that Jesus is gone, they're moving from the mountain a a sabbath, they walk, they're moving back into Jerusalem. And last week we talked about them operating and loving and worshiping even in those powerful moments of being overwhelmed. But now they are back in Jerusalem. And now they are thinking that Jesus said the Holy Spirit is coming and the Holy Spirit is going to be there when we get there.
This is kind of what's in the mindset of the disciples. Well the hours seem like days. The day seems like a week. The week moves even farther after Jesus told them this. And now at the beginning of Acts chapter two, they're wondering, how long is this going to take? Well, this morning's text comes 10 days after Jesus ascends back to the Father. He ascends to the Father. And what have the disciples been doing? They've been waiting to, which I would ask you this question, have you ever had to wait on anything? Have you ever had to wait here? Here's what I know about me and know I know about you 'cause I've been in enough restaurants with a lot of you guys, right? We hate to wait. We hate to wait on anything. Right? Waiting is terrible. And the disciples at this point in their journey have been waiting for 10 days on the Holy Spirit to come.
And so you know what they're thinking in their mind. Let's get into it for a minute. They're going, what God, what in the world are you waiting on? Well, I'm glad you asked that 'cause I wanna tell you what I think they're waiting on in these 10 days of between Jesus ascending to the Father and the Holy Spirit coming. These 10 days actually lead us to the 50th day after the Passover Festival. Now, I know you know this, but lemme review this. You've got the Passover, one of the biggest Jewish holidays of the year. And then you've got another Jewish holiday that we call Pentecost. Alright, Pentecost. Now Pentecost is not a New Testament holiday that just sprung up that we're gonna read about here in the text. Pentecost is a Jewish festival that from this point backwards for 1600 years, the Jews had gathered to celebrate the presence of God and the harvest, the covenant of God and God showing up in a mighty, mighty way.
So now we find ourselves 50 days after the Passover, that's where Penta cost comes from. And now all the Jews from all over the world have gathered together like they've done every single year to celebrate the current harvest. Yes. But to really and truly celebrate these big moments of breakthrough where God either established his covenant or spoke to or led his people, especially in the life of a man named Moses. Now if you go back into the Old Testament, the three times that God broke through in Moses' life and showed him something big and showed us something big was number one when God called Moses through the burning bush, right? You remember that in Deuteronomy, right? That was the calling of his life. The second one was with the fire by day. Remember that it was all of the Israelites when the fire moved, they moved.
And the third event in Moses' life where God showed up big was the day that he went up onto the mountain and the fire of God fell down on the mountain. God reign a loud boom. And he spoke the covenant, right? The 10 Commandments. He gave them the the first four or the first five books of the Bible. And God actually calls his people out to give them the law and to give them hope on this mountain. So for 1600 years now, I want you to put these pieces together. The disciples are in the upper room, right? The people are coming into town, pouring into town to celebrate this day of celebration. It was the most celebrated travel day of the year. The weather was good. They had just had a harvest. The farmers had money and people were gathering, they were pouring into Jerusalem.
Person after person, thousand upon thousand. And all of this is leading to this moment that we're about to look at right here. Disciples are in the upper room, the people are pouring in, they're waiting on the spirit. And watch what happens in Acts chapter two. Here it is. Here's what it says. It says, when the day of Pentecost came, they were together in one place. Now stop that. The disciples are where they're up in this upper room. We've talked about it for the last couple weeks. Same upper room. They had the Lord's supper, same upper room that Jesus appeared to them a couple times. The disciples are there, Mary and Martha are there. The 120 others are there. And what are they doing? They've been worshiping, they've been calling on the name of God, they've been praying, studying the word of God. They're waiting but they're not sulking.
All right? I just kind of need to put that out there. In fact, I want you to write this principle down as a reminder about waiting, gather, worship, praise and pray. Here it is, especially in the times of waiting. You see many of us think waiting is this game where we just kind of veg out and kind of go to a flat line. Zero nothing. But the disciples are showing us that even in those moments of waiting, these are the things that we should be doing. We still should be together. We still should be worshiping and praising and praying and studying scripture. Why? Because God hears us in those moments. In fact, watch what happens after this. In verse two it says this. It says, suddenly say that with me on 3, 1, 2, 3. Suddenly, suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
Man, I love this. Why? I love the fact that verse two starts with suddenly after we just saw you say, man, what do you, what do you mean by that? Well, we just saw that for 10 days these guys had basically had to sit around and be together and pray and call on the name of the Lord watching the time pass. But now suddenly watch what God does. God shows up. He shows up. What does God do? Out of nowhere? Out of nowhere really at a time when nobody thought he was gonna do it. God moves. But listen to me, church, isn't that how God works? Isn't how he works so many times in our lives out of nowhere he showed up. Isn't this how most of our faith stories go right? We were far from God, we wanted nothing to do with God. We were struggling with the things in life.
And then all of a sudden something happened. Now that's something for you might have meant that she, that girl invited you to the pizza party deal, right? And you went because she was pretty. Amen. That thing for you might have meant that somebody was praying for you and something happened in your life and you found yourself in a church. You found yourself in front of the only Christian you knew that thing for you might have been that you prayed for her or you prayed for him for so long you had almost given up. And God suddenly does something. Listen to me. Don't give up. 'cause God is the God of suddenly. Come on, come on. He's the God that we don't know when he is gonna work. Yes sir. We don't know how he's gonna work. But suddenly what happened? God pressed in. He moved here and watch what it says.
He shows up big time suddenly a sound like a violent wind. Now I'm, I'm convinced that they would've used the word suddenly a sound like a freight train. But that wasn't invented yet. But it kind of gives you that mental picture, right? Suddenly this sound like a tornado if you would hits the room. Now don't picture wind in your mind 'cause there was no wind. I don't know why growing up reading this, I always thought there was like a bunch of wind. Maybe it blew the disciples out into the streets. There was no win. It says like a win. In other words, there was a violent sound is what the scripture's saying. A booming noise, a booming present. But also notice what the Bible doesn't say here. 'cause I think this is important as well. The Bible doesn't say that in the midst of their worship, in the midst of waiting, in the midst of their prayer, that God was kind of hiding behind the closet and just whispering to them.
That's not what God says here, right? Hey, remember me? No, no, no. That's not what God does here. God outta nowhere with a booming presence shows up on the scene, which I love. Why? Because I've told you this before. Let me be honest with you for a second. I'm so sick of the populist view that we serve a weak and puny God. Come on teacher. I'm sick of this idea that we don't serve almighty God because we do. We serve a mighty God that at any moment, at any time and at any place he can with his booming presence, rain down on a spot. Yes sir. In your life And in my life was the hymn say, what a mighty God. We serve angels bow before him. Heaven and earth adore him. What a mighty God. We don't serve a little God with flowing locks and a skirt with two pick arms.
That's not him. We have a mighty God. And he shows up right here in power. And what happens? They listen. They listen. In fact, keep going in the text, they listen. Watch this. They're listening. Verse three though, it says this, they Saul. So now they've gone from their listening to something boom in their presence. And now what's happening? Now their other sense, they're beginning to see, watch this what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and it came down to rest on each of them and all of them. Here's where I want you to stop right here. And all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now in your mind, just like I told you not to, not to think that there was this wind rushing, get, get this idea in your mind that there was like this human tongue that was like floating above them.
'cause That's not what it is, all right? Not what it is. Get that out of your head. In fact, there's not just one tongue. There's many tongues that have now from God has divided off amongst them. Think of flickering flames. If you would like the screen behind me. Think of little bitty moving flames that now have reigned from God separated over them and into them in this moment, which is powerful just in reading that. But when you put that together with the pieces of why they were in Jerusalem, stay with me. 'cause I know you can do this. You're like Bible a plus honors students. It is even more powerful. Why you say that, Matt? Well, remember what they were celebrating? They were celebrating Pentecost. Remember? They were filling the streets, celebrating this time of God's presence. God giving them the law, God giving them guidance, God giving them the harvest.
They were celebrating a time that God's power and presence fell into a people group and guided them in the wilderness. Fell onto a mountain and gave his power and his presence and his covenant. And remember where they were? They were in a place that they were at the temple celebrating a place that God's presence in fire rained over the place. His presence in fire from all of the sacrifices every morning and every night, and especially on the day of Atonement burned up the celebration feast and the sacrifices. And they were at a place where God's covenant rested inside of a box. The same ones that Moses had written in this place at this moment. This is when God reigns down on them and fulfills the promise that the Holy Spirit is no longer an out there thing. It is now on an in us thing. Amen.
This is what happens at Pentecost. This is why it's the day that changes everything. Here's the deal. It had never happened like this before. From this point looking backwards, they were celebrating an event. They were celebrating a moment. They were celebrating a big presence of God that was out there. Stay with me. Stay with me. Now listen to this. They are celebrating a moment where God's presence is in here. Amen. See, that's the difference. That's what separates us from the Old Testament. That's what separates us as people that no longer worry that the Holy Spirit is not bouncing in and out of us. Because once it rains in us, it is sealed inside of us. Come on in. In fact, I want you to write this principle down. God's presence at this moment was no longer to be celebrated for falling on a place because it is now falling into his people.
Amen? Amen. And his people is you and his people as me. If you've given your life to Jesus, here's the good news this morning is that his presence and power is in you. Church. This changed everything. This changed everything. And now God is in us. And Jesus, this promise that he made to us in Acts one, eight, it has happened. This promise of John 14, 15 and 16 in that upper room movement that he had is now happening. The Holy Spirit is the, is the person that makes us the Christian. The cleansing and purifying and power giving spirit is now in you. But do we operate like that or do we still operate that we just need a place. We just need a moment and we hope that he shows up. Listen, God is in us and this is the gift of this moment. So what happens?
What happens in the moment? I'm glad you asked. 'cause What happened in the moment is these guys through the filling of the Holy Spirit. That's the main point of this right? Filling of the Holy Spirit. These guys were then given this gift that they can now speak into the people that were there, the languages that they brought with them actually. So Matt, why is it that that God did this whole language thing? Well, I think first of all, it was an incredible way to live out the prophecy of what Jesus said would happen in Acts one, eight, right? Acts one, eight, you will be my witnesses. You can't be a witness without speaking it out of your mouth in Jerusalem, in all of Judea, in Samaria, which by the way, that were the people that they all hated, but there were still witnesses to them and to the ends of the earth.
This is a great way for them to now live that Acts one, eight si lifestyle out as well as for every person that was gathered together on their doorsteps to now hear the powerful gospel of Jesus Christ being spoken in their heart language. That's what happens. But lemme pause here for a second and just say this about the Bible and especially about the Book of Acts. Acts in the Bible. There is what the Bible would call prescriptive language. Prescriptive language is the commands of God. It's the things that we should do in God. It's the things that he tells us to do. But then there's also descriptive language. And that's the things where he's just describing what he did. Now, there's prescriptive language in this event here saying that we need to be as witnesses and we need to live out the power of the spirit.
But there's also descriptive language when it comes to the idea of speaking in other languages right here. Could that happen again today? Could that happen in this place? Absolutely. It could happen. In fact, you start reading missionary stories and it's happening all over the world where people are able to understand languages. People are able to walk into villages they've never been and communicate in languages they've never had before. But is it normative for the church? No. Right? It's just not normative. That's what it means right here. But I want you to keep reading and see what actually happens. Look at verse four. It says this, all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in other tongues as the spirit enabled them. Now they were staying in Jerusalem. God-Fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. In other words, Luke says, Hey, from every spot I can think of, everywhere I know of, there was somebody there.
Now think with me. This may have never been on your radar before. How amazing is it that the first time that the gospel is preached post Jesus under the power of the Holy Spirit, catch this, every single nation was present. Wow, how powerful is it? What a display of God that basically just looked at the disciples and said, Hey, it would've been great for you guys to go out on the streets, win a couple people here and there, right? That would've been fabulous. But how cool is it right here that we serve a God that went, just wait a minute. Just wait a minute. Just wait a minute and watch what I'm gonna do. Because I'm gonna show you how much every person, how much every nation, how much every tribe, how much every tongue is in my scope. And I love them. And God wants them to know that he is king.
Man, I I, I got news for you. Church, the gospel of Jesus Christ is not some American gift to the world. It's not some gift to the world that we give them. It's for everybody. The gospel of Jesus Christ would say there's no room in the gospel for any kind of hate, for any kinda racism and for any kind of exclusiveism at all. This seems to plague so many people. What does God show us here? He loves all people, all places, all nations, all tongues, all under his banner and his spirit. And God has called every single one of us to have this primary source of our identity as being his children. First, you wanna, you wanna celebrate your heritage. Hey, that's great. You go celebrate it. You wanna celebrate where you're from or, or, or what your background is or, or, or, or what your skin tone may be.
Hey, that is fine. But you never do that in expense of number one. You are a child of God. Come on teacher, because that's what unifies us. And that's the message that we see in this moment right here. Why? Because God is in the business of unifying and redeeming his people. And we should be about that mission. A spirit filled believers. This is what we're seeing in the text. In fact, keep going. Watch what it says. It says, when they heard the sound that this is the people that were out right? Not in the room. A crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard their own language being spoken. Man, I love this for seven, utterly amazed. Oh, I'd be amazed too, right? They asked, aren't all these who are speaking Galileans, what's happening here? The people that were on the outside of this room heard the booming presence of God.
That's, that's what we're seeing in the deal. And what happens, they come to find out what is happening and, and they walk into this place and they're like, wait a minute, those are Galileans and Galileans. Get a bad rap. They must have had a heck of an accent, right? <Laugh>, they're like, wait, those are Galileans. That's just that little, that little podunk town on the north side of that lake that's up there, right? I mean, that's a great farming town, a great fishing town. They even had a rock quarry evidently, right? All of that was cool. But it's not exactly the hotbed of academia, right? That's what they're saying. And, and these people are looking at it and going, Hey, how did these guys learn all these languages? All of a sudden <laugh> To which guys, like, they didn't, they didn't. In fact, scholar, the best scholars that, that are out there would say there was somewhere between 19 and 21 languages represented at Jerusalem at this moment. How did it happen? Did they learn all these languages real fast that morning? No. Maybe during that 10 day, they, they, they go, they got on the Duolingo, right? No, right <laugh>. God gave them the ability in the moment to give him glory. Listen to me church. That's what the spirit does.

Amen.

That's what he does in you. That's what he does in me when I come to him like this. Hey God, I just need you to move. And I love the fact that this thing is like nothing that these little farmers and fishermen were like, we don't know where this is coming from, but we know the one that is giving it to us. So many nations that were out there. In fact, look at 'em. 'cause Luke loves details. Watch what he does. He gives us all the nations. I had to practice these this week. So watch this. Here's what it says. It says, then how is it verse eight, that each of us hears them in our native tongue? I love that they're walking up and this guy from Egypt's like, Hey, that's my language, right? He's walking up and he's hearing it. Watch this. Ians and Meads and mites and residents of Mesia, Judah and Cappadocia, Pontius in Asia.
Fia, that's my favorite one, right? And Pamela Egypt in the parts of Libya, near, near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, crets and Arabs. What? Watch what they said. We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues, amazed and perplexed. They asked one another. What does this mean? You know what happens when we begin to live in the spirit? People begin to look at us. They say something's different. They know something's different. They know something else is up. And they begin to look at us and go, whoa, something's up with that person. Lemme give you a little bit of a point that's not in your notes. If nobody's asking what's different about you and what's up in your life, you might not be walking in the spirit. So what's happening? The, the crowd, the crowd doesn't under understand what's going on.
They hear a sound now. They're hearing their languages, their crowds were like, Hey, are you hearing that? Now everybody spoke Greek at this time. It was Nia, the common Greek. The Romans did that to the whole area, right? But now everybody is hearing someone speak to them in their native language and they're all praising God. This Jesus thing that was this little bitty groups thing right here in Jerusalem, maybe around the little lake and around the area, is now being expanded out of the small little local thing. And now it's a global thing. It's for everybody thing. The spirit is opening it up for everybody. But even when this powerful moment happens, I want you to notice something. There's some people that just don't get it. Listen, even when you're walking in the spirit, there are some people that aren't gonna get it, and that's not on you.
Your role is to walk in the spirit and proclaim the message of Jesus. That's your role. Not to make them get it. In fact, that's how it always is. It's how it was here, watch this in verse 13. It says this, some even after all this noise, a language, these guys busting out some, however, made fun of them and said, I love this line. They have had too much wine. Right? Well, it sounds like Friday at the girls deal, right? What do they say? Right? They're like, Hey, those, those, those, this is in the morning, by the way. They're like, Hey, those, those, those galileans, they start early. I mean, that's what they're saying right here, right now. I want, I want you to put up a little pause right there in the text. 'cause We don't have to time to go any farther in the text.
We're, we're gonna go next week. So listen, you, you need to be here next week. This is where we're gonna pick it up next week. But what happens through the power of God falling on this place, the disciples begin to preach the gospel. The power of the Holy Spirit falls on the whole area. Peter preaches the first Christian message, which by the way, that's where we're going next week. The church starts to boom. It goes from 120 people to 3000 people because of what God is doing in this place. Now, that is what happens in the event. And, and I get it in most churches, we would pray and go home, but y'all are extra Bible people, okay? All right. You're extra. And so this is what I wanna do this morning. I wanna not only show you what happened in the story, but I wanna give you some things that this event shows us as now believers in Jesus that are filled with the spirit that we should now have as a part, as a part of our core doctrine and teaching.
Here's why. Because I think sometimes when we read these stories, we're like, oh, that was great for back then. I wanna show you what it does in us right now. So I wanna give you four Holy Spirit walkaways this morning in the next nine minutes and 56 seconds. Here we go. Here's number one. All right? Here's it's number one. Here's what the disciples would say. They would say this trust in God's timing because it's always perfect. Boy, that one stung, didn't it? That one stung in W. Why? Why does it sting so much? Because I get it. Some of you're walking through some things right now in your life that it just seems like God has hit the Pauls button. But lemme tell you something the disciples are showing us right here. Trust in his timing. Trust in his timing. Trust in his movement. Think about these disciples.
They'd seen the power of God. They'd seen the resurrection. They were the best of the best. They could have been used by God. They had actually perform miracles more than anything. They wanted God to move through them. But Jesus told them to their faces, you're just going to need to wait. Just wait. Actually in Acts one, four, do not leave Jerusalem. He said, but what? Wait for the gift my father promise promised. So for 10 days, they, they waited, they met, they waited, they worshiped, they waited. They got into scripture. Why? 'cause God's timing is always better than our timing sometimes. Listen, church, we just have to wait. And I get it. We live in an instant society, but we need to wait. You know what this is showing us right here? Sometimes the trust factor is in the waiting. That God's power is greater than our power.
Listen to what David says about waiting. He says this in Psalm 40. He says, I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and he heard my cry. He lifted me outta the slimy pit, outta the mud and mire. He set my feet on a rock. He gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. And watch the result of his waiting. It's the last sentence. Many we'll see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him. Amen. Listen, this is a guy that didn't know the Holy Spirit, like we know the Holy Spirit and he's telling us sometimes you just need to wait. Could God have come on day one? Yeah. Could he have come on day 30? Yeah. Could he have come on day 49? Yeah. Could he didn't? Why? Because he wanted to wait to this moment, to launch the gospel, to launch it not only for Jerusalem, but he could launch it to a people that could disperse it all over the literal known world with a new covenant, with a new message for God, with a new harvest of God and with a new power that is in us. Man, I love this. Sometimes you just need to wait. But let me give you a little caveat about waiting.
Yes, we wait on God, but when God says move, listen closely to me, you better move. When God says move, you need to move. When it comes to making a move for God, when it comes to serving God, when it comes to living out your Christian priorities for God, when it comes to living for the kingdom, when it comes to giving our resources and serving inside of a church, listen, you need to do this. Listen, maybe nobody's ever told you this. Assume the yes is there and allow God to pull you back. Listen, if it's written in scripture, you don't need to pray about it. The yes is already there. If the command has already been given to you from God, listen. You don't have to pray about it. Assume the yes and pull back when he says, wait. Oh man, I've heard so many people go, well, let's just let me pray about that.
I'm like, brother, you don't need to pray about that. God told you already. Well, let me pray about, no, no, no, no, no. The command is there. Number one, trust in his timing. Number two, here it is. It's simple. Stand in God's promises and not our strength. Oh American church, come on. You know, one of the hardest things about leading you guys is that you're very good at everything. You know, one of the coolest things about speaking in Kenya every time I'm there, is they have nothing. And they're desperate for God to move in their life. They have no strength left. The disciples could have moved in their strength. They could have went out into the streets whenever they wanted to. They could have proclaimed the message. And in fact, they were really good at it. They were really incredibly good at it. But God said, wait, but listen, we don't have to wait.
Why? Because given us his power and his promises, and now can I tell you, the goal for our lives is just to walk in them, is to say, yes, Lord, here I am. You can do it. But I can't. I I lemme tell you one of the best prayers that in just a few minutes, that some of you just need to pray to God. Hey God, I know I can't. I know I can't. And it hurts me to say that out loud. 'cause I've always been taught. Never say you can't, but God, you can. And I'm walking in that promise. In fact, I love this outta Amos four. He says this about, this is God talking. He said, he who forms the mountains, he who creates the wind, he who reveals his thoughts to mankind, who turns down the dawn to darkness and treads on the heights of the earth.
Watch this. The Lord Almighty is his name. And now church, here it is. He's living in you. He's living in you. And now our role is just to walk in those promises. This is how Paul says in two Corinthians one 20, for no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ. Listen, standing in God's promises might look a little bit different than some of you think it is. You know how to stand in his promise. You keep doing what the disciples are doing. You meet together, you worship, you pray, and you lift up the name of God. Number one, trust in God's timing. Number two, stand in the promises of God. And number three, here it is. Walk in confidence that the Holy Spirit has you. Oh man, if we could just do this, if we could just rise to the level of confidence of who we are, that God has already told us we are man, it would change our decisions.
If we could walk in the confidence to realize who we are and what we possess, that God has already spoken over us, oh, it would change this place. Pause for a second and just think about this. If you've given your life to Jesus, he has not only redeemed you for your past, but he has placed himself in you. The maker of the universe is in you. So what in the mess Does it matter what that neighbor thinks? What that person at school thinks? When I'm walking in the Spirit, acts two, four, and all of them, and this is for you. They've given your life to Jesus. We're filled with the spirit. So what we're gonna see next week and 14 through 41 is what we see in the rest of this book. Over 45 times we see the spirit move and the disciples fall. The spirit move and the disciples fall. Why? Because God was in them. And listen, he's in every single believer. And God, first John four is greater than anything that anyone else can offer us. And do you realize what advantage we have over these people? We no longer have to walk into a city to hope that we can get some secondhand encounter with God.
We have the presence of God in us and our role is to walk in it. And God's role is to constantly fill us and constantly fill us. And His promises always happen. And therefore, second Timothy one, seven, it says this, for the spirit of God does not make us timid, but gives us power. Oh, I love it. Oh, love and self-discipline. Listen, believe me, I, this power is available to us. He's given it to us. And he's called us not to walk in pride, but to walk in confidence that no matter what this world throws at us now, what this world offers us, no matter what this world puts in front of us, that I now have the confidence that the Holy Spirit is inside me. You are like, man, why do you keep saying that? 'cause I don't think we get it. 'cause If we did get it, it would shape our decisions.
If we did give it, it would give us confidence and times needing confidence. If we did get it, it would give us the ability to run away from the things that the world dangles in front of us. If we did get it, it would lead us out of that despair. That for so long that we've been living in, that I can now walk not in pride, but in confidence that he has me and his promises are true. Which leads me to the last one. I trust in his timing. I stand in his presence. I walk in his confidence. Here's the last walkaway I just want to give you. Just allow the Holy Spirit to lead you. Allow him to lead you. So man, what does that even mean? I hear that all the time in church. Allow him to lead me. How? Number one, where scripture speaks walk.
It's pretty easy. That's the first one. Number two, how does the Holy Spirit lead me? Surrender all of you to all of him. Number three, do everything you can to limit the distractions that are trying to pull you away. And number four, just tell 'em right now, Hey Lord, my yes is there. That's how it leads you. Oh, church, what a day it would be for us to walk in the i. I realize some of you grew up in churches where you didn't talk about the spirit a whole lot. And some of you, this is like in a kind of week three, you're beginning to wonder, Matt, are we turning Pentecostal? No. But listen, the spirit is what gives us power. The spirit is what reaches down in us when we have nothing left. The spirit is what seals us for eternity. And the spirit is what gives us the ability to speak on behalf of the king and kings and the Lord of Lords. But let me ask you this as we close. Are you living for him?