Pentecost Sunday

All right, well, good morning, Celebration Church. Hey, I want to welcome everyone who is watching online as well as those at our correctional facilities. Can we give it up for them? I'm thankful. I'm thinking about Thomas. I'm thinking about Anthony, who I write frequently. God is doing a work behind bars. We're seeing people get saved because we have some covert evangelists and they thought they were going for one reason, but God is able to redeem everything. Amen. And I love it. We welcome you today. If you're here for the first time, we'd love for you to connect. You can do that through the tap technology that's in the seat back in front of you. We'd love to get to meet you. We'd love for you to be a part of what God's doing here in and through Celebration Church. It's pretty awesome to be a part of what God is doing here. And I know it's special. I've realized that. Pastor Joe, Pastor Lori realized there's something special that is happening here. And I think it's a special Sunday that we can lean in to talking about Pentecost and in particular the topic of the Holy Spirit. Somebody say Holy Spirit. Today is Pentecost Sunday and it is the day that we remember after Jesus ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit descends upon the church with power, with power marking not only the birth of the church, but the beginning of a transformed humanity. In the book of Acts in chapter one, I'm going to be jumping between Acts one and Acts two, but in one eight, Jesus is preparing now to ascend. And he tells the disciples that you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come

upon you. And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth, the eternal Christ who stepped out of eternity into time, who wrapped infinity into flesh and enters a finite world that he himself has created, now ascends again into eternal glory. Could you imagine subjecting yourself to your creation? The reality is that the sacrifice that Jesus made came long before the cross. The sacrifice came when he had to walk from here to there when he used to be both here and there at the same time. That it came when he now had to nurse from a woman that he created, where he now had to grow up and have the pains and the struggles of growing up wrapped in flesh when he had always been above all. But now he comes down to us and he wraps himself in flesh and we see the cross and we see the resurrection, but now he is going to ascend. The father sends a son and the son now ascends to the father so that the spirit can descend upon humanity, the infinite entering the finite. Infinity wrapping itself in flesh as Jesus did, but now it's happening in an altogether different way because the Bible says that the Holy Spirit resides in you and in I. Here's the thing, in the Old Testament when we had Moses and we had Abraham and we had David and we had the prophets like Elijah and Elisha, they ministered with such power and we see the spirit of God present. We see the Holy Spirit present, but in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit was with them and in the New Testament the Holy Spirit is in us. And that difference is transformational for us. That means that Pentecost is not merely a church event, Pentecost is the moment that heaven invaded human limitations so that humanity could become something that it could never become on its own and that is righteous. You and I are not righteous, we're made righteous because of what Jesus did on the cross and through the resurrection and now that we are righteous we have the Holy Spirit who is living on the inside of us because the deepest problem with humanity is not weakness, the deepest

problem with humanity was separation from God. When we sinned in the Garden of Eden we separated, we severed the relationship, we broke the home with God and the Bible is the story of God determining to work out this relationship with us and this is what Pentecost is all about. It's to fix the separation from God but also to fix the separation between you and me. Because we are called to be a community. We're called to be the family of God now Peter is one of the clearest pictures of why we need the Holy Spirit Amen, how many are like I like Peter because he feels a lot like me. That's that's that's me Peter gets it wrong a lot like Peter is one of those guys that he thinks he has it all together But then he's constantly putting his foot in his mouth or or tripping up over himself in one moment He is walking on water in faith. And in the next moment, he's sinking in fear in one moment He's he's slashing a sword at a man's head in defense of Jesus in the next moment He's cowering in front of a little girl at a campfire saying I don't even know who this blankety-blank guy is Like this is Peter. This is who he is He loves Jesus emotionally, but he does not yes possess the internal stability to Consistently live for Jesus on a relational level and I think many of us live here I think many people live in this place. You can love God deeply and still be ruled by fear You you can sincerely want a healthy relationship and still sabotage them through emotional instability and and and old wounds and And Eventually what happens is is we're building this picture of ourselves for others. We're propping up ourselves Trying to produce something externally that we do not possess internally And it's a fraud and it's false. And here's the thing. You're not fooling anybody Because people see it people know it and they know when there's something wrong or they know when there's something Missing in our lives. This is why we have to understand that we need the Holy Spirit Not occasionally not as an add-on to the Christian life. We are utterly Dependent on the Holy Spirit. There is no Christian life without the Holy Spirit You don't get saved and then there's some kind of moment with God where the Holy Spirit Descends into your life and now you got him. No, you couldn't have gotten saved without the Holy Spirit And the Holy Spirit in you is the evidence. It's the knowledge

It's the confirmation that you are set apart. You are saved you belong to the Lord because the Holy Spirit Establishes us. He doesn't just establish us. He empowers us. He encourages us and he employs us into ministry So Jesus tells them to go into this upper room and to wait On the Holy Spirit to come before he ascends into heaven and so in Acts 2 verse 1 through 4 It says that when the day of Pentecost had fully come this is about 10 days or so after the ascension they were all with one accord in one place and Suddenly there came a sound as of a mighty rushing wind that filled the house Where they are sitting this description of this wind this that is filling the space it's reverberating It's shaking the area like it cannot be ignored It's overwhelming this moment and then it says that there appeared to them Divided tongues as of fire and one sat upon each of them now It's hard to know exactly what this image is Actually what the Bible is trying to say is happening in this moment We some people say that it might have been an actual fire That was maybe in the shape of a tongue or as a fire that's saying something or whatever the case may be We don't really know but what we do know is we do know the effect and it says that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and beat they began to speak in other tongues as The spirit gave them utterance. So something crazy starts happening y'all It's like they start speaking in languages that they do not know So to a Peter it sounds like gibberish But as he's speaking in that language There are other people around him witnessing it who speak they know the language He's speaking in and they are hearing the gospel in their language. And in fact as you read on in Acts They're asking the question like how do these Jews know how to speak our language and our dialect? Well, the thing is they don't but the Holy Spirit does So the Holy Spirit is doing this miraculous work where they are They are now speaking in these tongues and people are beginning to hear The message there and this Peter who was cowering and denying Christ three times who wasn't

Present at the cross and he's running and he goes fishing when all the the other disciples are like, hey, where are you going? He says I'm gonna go back to fishing. They're like we're gonna go with you. So now he's got this little tribe He's got these followers and he's out here just searching and and and here we see Peter who has always been kind of this person that wants to believe that he's somebody but when push comes to shove Right. We see that the substance is quite isn't quite there that the Bible says in this moment He's filled with the Holy Spirit and all of a sudden in Acts 2 38 He steps out in front of the multitudes thousands of people and he says repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and you shall receive The gift of the Holy Spirit for the promise is to you and not just you but to your children What changed in Peter? What change because he walked with Jesus he saw the miracles that Jesus performed he knew he was the real deal Jesus said you're gonna deny me. He said I'll never deny you and then he denies him He's filled with this shame he's filled with this this this this cowardly nature of not willing to stand in that moment and Now he steps out of the upper room in front of thousands of people and says you murdered the Christ Repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit What is the difference between that Peter and the old Peter? The difference is the Holy Spirit is That now Peter is not doing ministry For God he's doing ministry from God because now the Holy Spirit resides on the inside and this Unlimited source is now not outside of him It is within him and it's the engine that is fueling his Ministry as he steps out the Holy Spirit. This is your first point establishes us the Holy Spirit Establishes us before the Holy Spirit employs Peter He establishes Peter before Peter preaches with power in Acts 2 Peter has to come to the end of Peter If God begins where we end then we need to end sooner

We need to end as quickly as possible and be utterly Dependent on the Lord God does not build through unformed people who are merely gifted No God forms people so they can carry what he is building and that takes the weight off of me because There's no skill. There's no bit of education. There's nothing that will qualify me For ministry in that context. The only thing that qualifies me is not a thing He's a person and his name is Jesus and he says no, I don't need your your adequacy I need your obedience and if you'll say yes to me, I will form you into exactly what you need to be to carry the substance of What I'm going to build my church with and this is what is happening in Peter's life in this moment in Luke 2231 Jesus says to Peter Simon Simon remember that that's Peter's name before Jesus changed it to Peter He says indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat and then he says but I have prayed for you How many want Jesus praying for you? He says I've prayed for you that your faith should not fail and when you've returned to me then Strengthen your brethren. You see Jesus sees both Peter's failure and Peter's future Peter He's saying to Peter the very place that you think your story is over is going to be the place where I teach you how to strengthen someone else Your place of weakness your place of failure. I'm actually going to use that as a Pulpit to preach my gospel to people. I think it's it's incredible that Jesus calls Peter to leave the boat and To leave fishing behind to leave his past life and yet Jesus uses Peter's boat to preach the gospel Peter Jesus will use your story your past your mistakes as a Platform to share his good news with other people. He will redeem every single thing about your life if you will allow him to Peter is in a place where he has to strength strengthen other people And I think Peter he sees this picture of himself. He's asking Jesus who's gonna be the greatest Who's gonna sit on your right? Who's gonna sit on your left and Jesus is just over here. Like what are y'all?

What are you doing? What is wrong with you? But I think Peter doesn't he didn't realize how hard it would be to become the person that he saw. He saw something in Jesus that awakened something in him. And he wanted to be courageous, and he wanted to be loyal, and he wanted to be strong, but he underestimated how much of himself that he still had not surrendered to the Lord. And he thinks he's in good, he thinks he's ready. He's ready to take it on, I'm ready to do this, I'm ready to go all in on my strength, and Jesus is trying to get him to understand, he's like, Peter, until you give it all to me, you're not going to be effective for me. But what I love is that Jesus has this grace for us. He has this mercy for us, because we love the idea of maturity until process is required. We love the idea of strength until our weaknesses are exposed for everyone to see. And we love the idea of becoming whole in this whole thing until God starts to confront the parts of us that we've learned to manage over time, but we've never completely surrendered to God. It's like these, you know, we minister to a lot of young people, especially young professionals, and obviously we have my son who graduated yesterday. Give it up for my son, Luke, and many others here. Noah Valdez, somewhere in here, I don't know if he's in this service, I've got others that I love and know

that my son has grown up with. But I talk to a lot of graduates, I talk to a lot of young people, I talk to a lot of young people in college, and they have these dreams and they have these aspirations. Like, I want to, really what I'm going to do is I'm going to do this dream job. I'm going to make, I really want to make movies, or I want to write screenplays, or I want to, I'm like, okay, that's great. I'm like, well, let's go on a video shoot together. Ah, I don't got a lot of time. I'm doing this, I'm doing that, and I'm like, okay, but you said you wanted to do this, right? Or you want to start a business, it's like, all right, all right, well, let's start talking about a business plan. Ah, I got to be where my friend's at, you know? It's like, there's this idea of a dream job, but you underestimate what it takes to actually attain that, that that doesn't come overnight, right? But it's a process of working it out, it's a process of being with mentors and coaches and learning and applying what you learn. You need someone to walk it out with you, and what I love about the Holy Spirit is that he's not, he's not a force, he's not a feeling, he's not a vibe in worship, he is a helper. He is with us, he comforts us, he is with us, and he is in us. It says in John 14, Jesus says,

and I will pray the Father that he will give you another helper, he's talking about the Holy Spirit, that he may abide with you forever, the spirit of truth, that he dwells with you, and he will be in you. I needed, when I think about graduation, I had to take Algebra 1 four years in high school. I failed Algebra 1 ninth, 10th, 11th grade. In fact, in order for me to graduate, they said, you have to take Algebra 1 and Algebra 2 your senior year, and you gotta pass them both, or you're not gonna graduate. And so I'll never forget this man, his name is Mr. Wagner. He joined the school my senior year, he was my Algebra 1 teacher. Mr. Wagner said, hey, look, we're gonna make sure that you pass, you gotta pass with a 70 or you don't walk. We're gonna make sure you pass. He gave me a test, I failed the test. He said, okay, we're gonna start some tutoring. I want you to come a few times a week after school, we're gonna sit for 45 minutes. He would sit there for 45 minutes with me, and he would go through the problem, he'd say this, and then that, and then A plus B equals C, and that still doesn't make sense, and he's just like, do you get it, do you understand it? I'm like, no, I don't understand it, do it again, from the top, let's do it again from the top. And we would just do that over and over, and I would take the test, and it would be like a 68,

and I would take the test, and it would be like a 71, and I'm just teetering right on this line, and I would fail this exam, and I would fail that exam. But I kept showing up, I kept showing up to tutoring. I'm gonna be there, I was there. And wouldn't you know, at the end of my senior year, I passed with a 70. Come on, somebody, algebra one. I got a 78 in algebra two, make that make sense. But in retrospect, you know, in hindsight, Pastor Mark, you know what I realized? I probably didn't pass. I don't think I passed. I think he felt sorry for me, because I kept showing up week after week after week, and so he just passed me. How do I know that? Because whenever I'm walking onto the field, at the fence, you know, for the gate of the field, I'm walking, and he is the last person, the last teacher at the fence. And I walked by, and I said, thank you, Mr. Wagner. I said, without you, I know I wouldn't have passed. And he said to me, and I walked out on that field, and I realized, I know I didn't pass, Marcus. I didn't pass. But you know what I had? I had a helper. And the thing about having a helper,

because the Holy Spirit is a helper, is you can fail and still pass. You can make a mistake and still pass. You can trip up and still pass. You just gotta keep showing up, keep showing up day after day after day. And the Holy Spirit leads us, and makes sure that at the end of our race, we become everything that God has intended for us to become. If you're not established by the Holy Spirit, you will constantly ask relationships to do what only God can do for you. If you're not established by the Holy Spirit, you will look to your children to give you purpose. If you're not established by the Holy Spirit, you're gonna look to your business, to your bank account to bring you peace, and none of that has anything for you. The things that you're missing in your life, the voice that you have can only be filled with God, can only be filled by the Holy Spirit. We have to be established in Him. And I want to speak as well to singles in this room, because sometimes in church culture, we can accidentally make family sound like it only belongs to people with spouses and children. And that couldn't be farther from the truth. In fact, that's not even a biblical way to understand family, because Jesus was single. Paul was single, the one who wrote

most of the New Testament, he's single. And both of them carried extraordinary fruit and extraordinary impact. So your household is not merely about who's under your roof, your household is you. And you, as being someone who is single, no matter what stage and age of life you are in, that's why it's important for you to be in the family of God, because you need a family. You may have a physical family, they may love the Lord, they may be great, and that's awesome, but you still need the family of God. That's why God grafts us in to his family. And you, as someone who's single, in fact, I think in one case, you can accomplish a lot more. And I think we see it in the life of Paul, because he was so focused on wanting to please God. He didn't have all of these distractions and all these things that are going on. And I'm not saying that that may not be something that you ascribe to, that maybe you do want a spouse, maybe you do want kids at some point in your life. I'm just saying that that's not the end all be all. Because here's the thing, man, I've got two kids that graduated, they all leave. They leave. You know, my son, we've got his graduation party today, but as soon as that's over, he better find another place to live. You know what I'm saying?

Like, we're good. It's been a good 18-year run, but it's time to go. You know what I'm saying? Is that news to you, son? He said, no, that's not news to me. No, no, no, no, I'm joking, obviously. But what I'm not joking about is us thinking that somehow because we're single, that we're less than. It's like, no, no, no, that couldn't be farther from the truth. God establishes you to be able to do his work and his ministry, and the Spirit unites us through something that is deeper than biology. He unites us into the family of God that transcends all other families. So before the Holy Spirit empowers us to do the ministry, he establishes us. Number two, the Holy Spirit empowers us. Jesus said in John 16 that it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come, which I think is a crazy statement, because these disciples have seen him now in resurrection form, and they're thinking, this guy needs to show out now. Like, he needs to go after it. And he's saying, it's actually better that I go. And I'm like, no, we need you here. I know if I was there, I'd be like, no, don't go. What in the world?

Like, this is incredible what we've seen. Like, you need to stay here. But he's like, no, no, no, you have to understand that me beside you is powerful, but the Holy Spirit in you is transformational. And so I can only be here with you, and I can only have limited effect by who I can reach and who I can help. I can touch, and who I can get to, but the Holy Spirit can be with each and every one of you individually at the same time. So you want him to come and fill you with power. And many Christians, we treat the Holy Spirit like something optional, because we haven't fully realized that we are desperately in need of him. And we're actually not Christians without him. That's the crazy thing. So Paul doesn't treat the Holy Spirit as some second tier experience. He says that if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. That's Romans 8, 9, for those of you who want to know. The Spirit is not a luxury package of Christianity. It's not the most luxurious trim model of Christianity. The Holy Spirit is the life of Christianity. The Holy Spirit is the life force. It's the source. It's the fuel that we need to be able to accomplish what God has called us to accomplish. So Peter has witnessed this now in the upper room.

And in Acts 2, 14, the Bible says that Peter, standing with the 11, raises his voice to the multitudes. This Peter, this man who denied Jesus publicly, is now standing and proclaiming Jesus publicly. The man who collapsed under pressure, he now stands under pressure. And this is empowerment from the Holy Spirit. And it's not just empowerment to do ministry. It is empowerment for transformation. The Holy Spirit does not give Peter a sermon. The sermons were already inside of him. The Holy Spirit gave Peter stability because Peter was the most unstable dude we see of the disciples. So much so that God, Jesus changes his name to Peter, which means rock. I'm like, Peter ain't no rock. Nothing stable about Peter. But the thing about the Lord is that he was speaking something into Peter. He was saying, I am God. I am at the beginning. I am at every moment of your life and I am at the end. And I see the finished work. I see what I've made you to be. I see if you will allow me to form you, what you will become. You are a rock. One day, I am going to build my church on the back of people like Peter.

On the back of people like Peter, people who hear from the Holy Spirit and the gates of hell will not prevail against them. And I think that Peter probably remembers this in this moment. And now he's alive by the Holy Spirit and he steps out in front of these people and he begins to proclaim boldness over them. And he says to them, therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made Jesus whom you crucify. The closer translation is the word murdered. You murdered both Lord and Christ. You did this. Like here's the guy that's like, oh, I don't know who he is. That's like, no, you killed him. And I'm willing to take whatever I gotta take because I'm standing in boldness for the Lord. He is bearing witness to Jesus. And the Holy Spirit empowers us to tell the truth about Christ, but it also empowers us to live the truth of Christ, to live it out in our daily walk, to live it out in our thoughts, to live it out in how we treat people and how we interact with people. Yesterday, I'm at the graduation and for a moment there, Georgetown High School, that stadium there,

the sun creeped out. It was eight in the morning, 8.30, nine in the morning, somewhere around there, and that sun is creeping out and it is hot. And I told my wife, I said, I'm gonna go get some water, get something to drink. And so I go down in the back and I get there and I'm like, hey, can I get three waters and let me get one of those Gatorade Zeros? And she's like, great, okay, that's gonna be $8. And I said, okay, and I pull out my card and she's like, it's cash only. I said, bruh, who has cash? Who carries cash? And he's like, I carry cash. And for exactly that reason, right? Curt knows. And I'm like, ah, I said, well, do you have an ATM? No, we don't got an ATM either. I'm like, okay, y'all ain't helping me at all, man. Y'all gotta help a brother. Well, there's a guy next to me, he says, no, I got it. I got it. And I was like, oh, hey, let me Venmo you. Let me pay you back. He's like, no, no, no, no, no. No, he's like, you don't worry about it, man. I got it. I don't know who the guy is. I never met him before.

But I'm like, here's a helpful guy. I'm like, I wonder if he's a Christian. He probably is because he saw me and I'm glad I didn't manifest like Pastor Joe does sometimes in front of people. I made sure I said, this is the Holy Spirit testing me. I'm going to overcome a faith in him. I forgot where I was in my notes. What was I saying? Did I say Holy Spirit empowers us? Okay, good. Let's say the Holy Spirit encourages us. One of the greatest misconceptions people have about the Holy Spirit is that if the Spirit is present, then struggle disappears. I would submit to you that you probably. probably were aware of more struggles and challenges after you got saved than before. And I'll tell you why. It's because before you were saved, all of you was in agreement. So maybe the promiscuous lifestyle, or maybe the lying, or maybe the cheating, or maybe the overindulging in this or that, maybe it wasn't really a challenge for you because your spirit and your body were in agreement. But when the Holy Spirit shows up, all of a sudden the Holy Spirit and your flesh don't agree. On the things that they desire. And so there's this challenge,

so there's this conflict that we have. And Peter's life proves to us that the Holy Spirit does not always remove the struggle. Sometimes the Holy Spirit uses the struggle to expose what still controls us. And that there's places in our lives that we haven't yet surrendered to the Lord. And so when he's preaching to these people, the Bible says that it cuts them to the heart. And that's what the Holy Spirit does, is he cuts us deep. He cuts us to the heart. He reaches our heart. He convicts us. But here's the thing. Conviction is not condemnation. Condemnation leads you away from Christ in shame. Conviction draws you to Christ in repentance. And that's what the Holy Spirit does. Some of you are tired today because you've been trying to change yourself without surrendering yourself. You've been trying to do this in your strength. And the answer isn't try harder. The answer is surrender faster. Surrender deeper to the Lord. And this is not about God giving you more of the Spirit as if he gives you the Spirit, he parcels it out. He gives it to you in percentage and ratio. No, this isn't about God giving you more of his Spirit.

This is about you giving the Spirit more of you and more of your life. And saying, I haven't surrendered this part of my life, so I'm gonna give it to you, God. I haven't surrendered this. I haven't surrendered my thought life. I haven't surrendered this habit that is taking me down or dragging me down. Like, I gotta give it all to you. And so it's not about getting more of God, it's about giving God more of you. And say, I'm not gonna hold on. I'm gonna trust you, God, because I know you know the end from the beginning and you see who I'm going to be and I can only get to that place if it is you that is motivating me, if you lead me there, God. So I'm gonna trust you with my life and what I'm doing 20 years from now, if I've given you my whole life, it's none of my business. It's only yours. That's true faith in God. We all have these ambitions and desires and dreams and some of them are God-given, but many of them are not. Many of them is once they're satisfied, you get another desire. It wasn't enough to fix things in you. So we have to get to this place of saying,

God, I wanna be sourced from you. I wanna be fueled by you. Galatians 5.16 says, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. And then in 22 and 25, it says, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And if we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Fruit does not appear because a branch tries harder. Fruit appears because the branch stays connected to the source. And that's why some people are exhausted is because they're trying to produce spirit fruit from flesh strength. And what we need to do is we need to lean into God because our marriages, our friendships, our coworkers, they need us to be living and walking in the spirit. And here's the thing. You don't discover whether Jesus is enough or not by standing on the shoreline. You only discover that Jesus is enough when you're in the storm. Lastly, the Holy Spirit employs us. I'm gonna wrap up. My partner in crime, Josh Davis over here is letting me know it's time to land the plane. He's led by the spirit. That's why he's like, we gotta get people home.

I'm just playing. I do love Josh Davis though. Our music director at Celebration Church, man of God. And he's my fellow Detroit Lions fan. So we have a bond there. Yes, sir. Love it. The Holy Spirit employs us. The Holy Spirit does not merely heal us, but he sends us. And Pentecost is not just about transformation, but it's about rebuilding communities of transformed people. In Acts 2 42, it says that they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and the breaking of bread and in prayers. Now all who believe were together and they had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and divided them amongst all as anyone had need. And so continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food. Hello somebody with gladness and simplicity of heart. How many need a little simplicity of heart? And they're praising God and they're having favor with all people. People love them and they love people. Like I love that guy who fronted me $8 and the Lord added to the church daily all who were being saved. This is a description of the life of a healthy church

in effect and in action. And obviously there's some dynamics here that are cultural but I believe it's similar to what we're seeing here at Celebration Church. So many different backgrounds, so many different people can join together, worship together, pray for each other, give and serve, pour out of themselves into others so that people can be impacted and find favor. We're raising up leaders through Austin Christian University. We're raising leaders through WAVE students. We're raising leaders in our small groups and everything that you can be a part of is for the end result of getting you to that place that God desires for you to be because He wants to employ you into His ministry. Before Pentecost, Peter was trying to protect himself but after Pentecost, Peter is now selflessly sharing himself with others, exposing his vulnerabilities with others and saying if it wasn't for Jesus, the man standing before you would not be here. Peter wasn't telling them to repent and be baptized because he was on some high horse. He was like, no, I know what it will do for your life if you will do it, if you will surrender all to Him, if you will submit to Him. I, Peter, I know how it can change your life and what God has for each and every one of us

is greater than we could ever imagine and if he shared that with you today, you'd probably freak out. So we don't need to worry about the end of your life. We need to worry about this moment. We need to worry about today and it's okay to repent if somebody cut you off on I-35 this morning. This is the place to do that. Speaking for a friend. Peter steps out in Acts 2.38 and he says, "'Repent and let every one of you be baptized "'in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins "'and you shall receive the,' what? "'Gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you "'and not just to you, to your legacy, "'to your children, to your business.'" You can interchange that with whatever it is, whatever sphere of influence that is under you is all impacted by your willingness to submit to the Lord. We need the Holy Spirit desperately and so the question here today is not necessarily do you believe in the Holy Spirit, it's have you surrendered to the Holy Spirit? Have you given your life over to Him? The Bible says that if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Repentance is a part of confession. Repentance simply means I am going to stop my sinful living,

I'm gonna turn around and I'm gonna go towards God. That's all it means. But here's the thing about the Christian faith because I'm gonna offer you an opportunity to give your life over to Jesus today but I need you to understand something. This is not an augmentation to your life. This is an abandonment of your life. So count the cost because there are people all over the world that are losing their family and losing their lives for making the decision that I'm going to offer you today and it isn't to make your life better, it's to glorify God and when we glorify God, yes, He will make our lives better but this is not about us, this is about Him and what He was willing to do for you and for me and for people like Peter in the Bible. There has to be a willingness to give your life, your future over to Him because He knows the greatest future you'll ever have will be in relationship with Him and get this, the greatest thing about you will always be Him. That's the beauty of the gospel that He loves us so much that He offers this to us. And so if you wouldn't mind indulging me for the moment and close your eyes and bow your heads, there's nothing particularly scriptural about this, there's nothing spiritual necessarily. about this, I'm just trying to ensure that you can be

at one with your thoughts and really reflect and not be distracted from the things happening to your right and left. But if you were in this room today and you'd be honest with me and you say, Daniel, I know that I have not made Jesus the Lord of my life, I have not given my life to him. I've been in the driver's seat of my life and I keep crashing out, I keep swerving, I keep failing, I keep finding myself in immense shame. And I know that as long as I've led my life, I seem to get to the same destination. And Daniel, you're telling me that there's a God who sees me and who bore my sin, who paid the penalty that I owed? I want you to understand something, that the wage of sin is death. So Jesus took your sin on the cross and died your death so that you could be reunited with the Lord. That's why it's so important that we understand that. And I'm telling you today, yeah, he did that for you. He did that because he loves you and he offers that to you. And I know it's crazy, it doesn't make sense because many of us probably wouldn't do that for each other, I get that. So I'm glad we're not God and he is. And he offers that to you, salvation today. If you wanna give him your life today, say, Jesus, it's all for you.

Live in me through your Holy Spirit. I want you to lift one hand in the sky right now all over the room and keep it up for me if you don't mind. Keep it up for me, please, thank you, sir. Thank you, all over, all over. I'm just asking you to keep it up because I wanna see you, I wanna make sure that I've been obedient to what I've sensed the Holy Spirit has asked me to do all over this room. Thank you so much, thank you. I'm gonna go over here to this side, thank you, sir. Wow, all over, keep it up for me, please, keep it up. You can be bold in this moment. It takes a lot already to do this. Let's go all in, let's go all the way. Thank you, sir, oh, my goodness. Wow, wow. I can see what the writer meant when he said that they were added to the church daily. What God is doing in the hearts of the men and the women in this room is so significant. You may put your hand down. The Bible says that there's no walk-ins in heaven. You gotta have your name in the book. And as I said, if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. I can help you with the confession of your mouth. That's what we're about to do here in a few moments, but I can't help you with the belief in your heart.

But what I do believe is that for the fact that you were willing to lift that hand, that you were willing to signify that I believe this in my heart, that lets me know that you believe it. And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna recite this prayer together, everyone in the room. For those of you who are Christians, it's just an affirmation and a celebration of your faith. But for those of you who raised your hand, this prayer is a game changer because your name is going to be written in God's book and you're gonna stand before Jesus one day at the end of your life and he's gonna say, well done, good and faithful servant. This is the gift of eternal life and it's available for you today. Before I pray this, one more chance for anyone who didn't raise their hand. Let me give you a moment. Just feel a sense of my spirit. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you, man. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. All right, here's the part where I cry. We're gonna be good. We're gonna make it. I'm gonna pray this prayer. Let's repeat it all together. Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. Today I turn from my sin and I turn to you. I believe that you lived for me. I believe that you died for me. I believe that you rose again so that I could have new life. I receive that life today and I call you, my Lord, from this day forward, in Jesus' name we pray. And everybody said real loud, amen. Amen. Come on, let's give a hand for every decision that was made today. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. All right.