Today we thought it would be appropriate on Pentecost Sunday to spend our time talking about God's mission for the world. And it's not a mistake that we linked up global missions in Pentecost, because really what we see at Pentecost is the Holy Spirit empowering the church to take the message of the gospel to the entire world. And so that's where we're going today. Really excited about this morning. But first, let me pray for us as we kind of dive in.

Heavenly Father, God, I just pray that you would be with us this morning. God, I just invite you into the space. We are so grateful for the stories we just witnessed of baptism, the way that you are renewing and bringing people to yourself, the life that you breathe into our stories. God, I pray that this morning would be another part of that story. God, I just pray through the power of your spirit as we talk about Pentecost and your heart for the nations.

God, I just ask that you would be at work in each and every one of our hearts. And it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. Awesome. So no more Leviticus.

We're going to be talking about global missions and God's heart for the nations. And I feel like anytime there's a sermon on God's heart for the nations, you always have to start in one place. And if I were to ask you to shout out what place it is you think we usually start when we talk about global missions, what would you say? Great commission. Awesome.

I heard some answers, and you guys probably all got it right. That was great. Great commission. This is where we go because it really has everything. It's Jesus last words in the gospel of Matthew, and he says this.

Then Jesus came to them, and he's talking to the disciples, and he said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. Now, there is a reason we always begin in this passage because it literally has everything. It's Jesus command to go into the entire world proclaiming the truth about who he is and what he has done, sharing with others the good news. But it even has the Trinity.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It talks about baptism. It talks about obedience to Jesus commands. But at the heart of it, the reason we come to this is because Jesus calls his followers to go, to go and to take the message into all the world. But it's actually not unique to the gospel of Matthew.

In fact, every single one of the gospels, the stories of Jesus life, ends on a note where Jesus sends his followers out into the world. So if you take a look with me at Mark, one of the last things Jesus says to the disciples in Mark is he said to them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Again, you can see it right there, plain as day, go. And then in John chapter 2021, it says this again. Jesus said, peace be with you.

As the father has sent me, I am sending you. You can see the repetition there. And it doesn't exactly have the word go, but you can kind of see how I made that leap, right? Like, it's not a huge jump from go to send. Jesus is sending people into the world to proclaim his good news to the nations.

You may have noticed that I skipped over one of the gospels. What gospel did we just miss? Luke. And it wasn't an accident. It was actually intentional.

Because Luke breaks this pattern. Matthew, Mark, and John all finished with Jesus saying sin, go. Go into all the world and preach my good news to the nations. Luke has a go, but he also has an addendum. Look at how Luke has this moment in his gospel.

Then Jesus, he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures, and he told them, this is what is written. The messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. And repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are my witnesses of these things. You can almost hear it says, go.

I'm about to send you, but instead, notice the change. I'm going to send you what my father has promised, but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high. You see, Luke kind of breaks the pattern. There's an element of go. Go preach the gospel to all nations.

But before you do that, he says, wait. Before you go, wait, because my father is sending you something for the mission I am about to send you on. You see, it's as if Jesus is saying, I have a mission for you. I have a mission for the church. You are going to go and proclaim what I have done to the nations.

But when you go, I don't want you to go on your own power on your own. I am going to send you someone who will go with you and before you for that mission. You're not going on this mission alone. Now, many of us, if you're familiar with the story, probably have an understanding that that person that Jesus and the Father send is the Holy Spirit, one of the members of the Trinity. And we see that on the day of Pentecost, the day that we're celebrating today.

And it begins in acts two, one through four. And it says this. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. All of the disciples had gathered together. And suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house that they were sitting.

And they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each one of them. And all of them were filled with the holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit enable them. Now, I'm assuming that many of us are familiar with this story. And when we read the story of Pentecost, we think, oh, yeah. You know, it just kind of like, this is where the spirit comes and it descends, and then the tongues of fire, and they preach, and everybody can hear them, even in their own language.

And. Yes, but could you just pause with me for a moment on this story? Because this actually, if you look at the details, it feels like a weird Sci-Fi thing is going on here. I want you to imagine for a moment that you're having dinner with your friends, and as you're having dinner and you're all having conversation, and you've prayed for the meal, and you're eating together, and suddenly within your home, a violent wind starts blowing inside the walls of your house, and suddenly your hair's all tousled and your robes are all messed up, and the food is, like, getting overturned, and it's just, like, causing this huge disturbance. You're like, that's weird.

I mean, like, is there a ghost? Like, what is happening in this moment? And then suddenly you see a ball of fire just, like, floating in the middle of your kitchen. And suddenly this ball of fire begins to, like, lower and separate out and then suddenly, there is, like, a little tongue of fire floating towards you, and you can barely take your eyes off of it because fire is floating at your face. And then suddenly, you also realize that the same thing is happening to everybody else in the room in this moment.

And then the fire stops, and it just rests right above your head, and it just sits there. And then suddenly, all of your friends start speaking in Mandarin and German and Spanish, and you're just thinking, like, what in the world is happening? It is not a normal story. There is something very specific happening in this story. And sometimes we can come to familiar places in scripture, and we kind of just breeze past the details.

But it's in the details that we actually see a beautiful story being written. And so, in order for us to understand a little bit more about the story of Pentecost, what I want to do with you today is go back to the beginning of the story, and we're going to walk through scripture. And I want you to see, as we go through scripture, if you can pick up on some. Some of the details that lead us into Pentecost, if you can kind of follow the pattern and see what God is maybe doing, that gets us to this point where balls of fire just start, like, floating in people's kitchens and resting on people's heads, because it's very specific. So that's where we're going today.

And so if you are one of those people who likes to follow along in your Bible, I need to just give you a warning up front. We're going to be covering a lot of ground in scripture. We'll try to leave the passages on the screen for you so that you can kind of follow along and see where we're at. But we're going all the way back to the beginning to see if we can uncover this pattern all the way back to Genesis one. And you're like, wow, we are really actually going back to, like, that is the first thing.

Yeah, we're going all the way back, all the way back to the beginning, Genesis one. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now, the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Now, the reason we go all the way back to this, you look at that and you think, Paul, I don't see anything about, like, a violent wind or, like, tongues of fly or, like, what's the connection here? Well, this word spirit is actually the hebrew word ruach.

Everybody say ruach. Oh, so good. You guys are like, almost hebrew scholars. That was amazing. Ruach, it means breath or wind or God's spirit.

So it has this very particular connotation that it's something you can't see, but it's this wind, this vital energy that creates life. And so what we see at Genesis one is God's ruach, this wind, this spirit hovering over the chaotic waters before creation. And it is this that begins to then divide those waters and bring up the land and divide the sky from land. And it creates the entire universe. This life giving energy, this ruach, is actually the center of all creation.

It's this immense power of God's spirit that is always bringing new life to Bear. But it has this alternate interpretation of wind. And so at creation, it's almost as if there's a wind of God, you could say, that's blowing to create new life. We're going to fast forward just a little bit, and we're going to jump to the Exodus. And we're in the middle of the exodus story.

God has just freed the people from slavery in Egypt, and he has brought them out of Egypt. And as he brings them out, they come to the Red Sea. And as they come to the Red Sea, Pharaoh suddenly has a change of heart, and he sends all of his armies out to try to, to recapture the slaves, the hebrew people, and bring them back to Egypt into slavery. And notice what happens in this scene as the people come to try to take back Israel. Notice what God does, starting in Exodus 1419.

Then the angel of God. Oops, did I just lose my microphone again?

All right. Hello, hello, hello. You can't hear me any better? All right, this is just actually a built in suspenseful moment. We're just trying to.

Oh, all right, there we go. Whoo. All right, we good? You guys hear me? All right, how about you guys in the back?

Good. All right, so Exodus 1419 through 22. That was so suspenseful. Pharaoh's about to take back the Israelites, and you didn't know what was going to happen. All right, here we go.

The angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army, withdrew and went behind them. And the pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them. And this, what you have to recognize is this cloud. It's been represented in Exodus as a pillar of fire. Like this cloud of fire, it moved from in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel.

So this pillar of fire moves behind them to protect them from the pharaoh and all of his armies. And throughout the night, the cloud brought darkness to one side and light to the other side, so neither went near the other all night long. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. And all that night, the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground and with a wall of water on their right and a wall of water on their left.

So you see their fire and wind show back up in God's immense presence and power, rescuing the people of Israel and separating the seas, bringing them out of this chaotic situation and into new life. In fact, some people would even say this is the moment in some ways where the hebrew people were baptized into new life as the people of God, as they walked through the parted Red Sea. But God shows up again in fire and wind to bring them into a place of life, out of death. Let's jump forward in the Exodus story just a little bit more. Exodus 19.

God's presence comes to rest on Mount Sinai and notice what happens. On the morning of the third day, there was thunder and lightning with a thick cloud over the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord descended in fire, and the smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently.

So God has brought the people out of Egypt. He's delivered them through the Red Sea. He's brought them to Mount Sinai. We just got through Leviticus, where we spend a lot of time at the foot of Mount Sinai. This is the first moment God brings them to the mountain, and he meets them with his presence.

And what happens? A violent storm, or wind, if you will, a rushing wind that's accompanied by a loud trumpet blast and by fire and smoke, God's presence comes to Mount Sinai. And just imagine this for a moment. I mean, we live in Colorado. We see mountains almost every day.

I mean, they are huge. Can you imagine being at the foot of a mountain about to, like, embark on a hike to the top, and as you get there, the whole mountain just starts to tremble and shake violently. Can you imagine the power that it would take to shake an entire mountain? You see in the people, they see this and they see the fire, and they see the storm, and they think, like, wow, that's really cool. God invited us here, but I think we're good.

Like, I don't want to go up on that? Like, that seems really scary. Moses, why don't you go up and you can just, like, play telephone with us and tell us what God said, and we'll just try to do it that way, because this is a little intimidating. They're terrified. It's not just the mountain that's trembling.

They themselves are trembling with fear because God's presence has. Has showed up in power, in wind and in fire. And this is actually the same pattern that repeats itself. God's presence on Mount Sinai then moves to the tabernacle. After Moses builds the tabernacle and we see it descend in a cloud of fire in a rushing wind.

And then later in the story, when the Israelites are settled in the land and they've built the temple and the ceremony to inaugurate the temple and worship at the temple, God's presence sins, lands on the temple in a cloud of fire that comes out and consumes an offering. You see, it's as if part of the story is that when God's presence comes to dwell on some place, that there's kind of two symbols that show up repeatedly where God shows up to allow his presence to dwell and rest on the people. And it's a window. Fire. You fast forward just a little bit further in the story, and we get to the prophets.

And what happens at the prophets is that the people of God, they are in exile. They've lost the temple. The temple has been destroyed. And one of the questions that hangs over the entire story of the prophets is, where is God's presence now? Because God's presence had always been with them from Sinai to the tabernacle to the temple.

But suddenly their temple, their place of worship, the place where God's very presence dwelt is completely destroyed. And half the people are living in foreign countries. Half the people are living in poverty and destitution in Israel. And their question is, where is God's presence? Where is his spirit now?

And so God shows up to a person named Ezekiel, and he pulls Ezekiel into a vision where Ezekiel comes and he's standing in a valley of death. As Ezekiel looks out in this valley, all he sees are bones covering the entire floor of the valley. And what he realizes in this vision is what he is looking at is the people of Israel who have been utterly decimated and destroyed and killed. It's their soldiers, their children, their men and their women, and they've all just been slaughtered. And there's no life in this valley at all.

And what happens is, in this moment God comes to Ezekiel and he asks him the question, can these dead bones live? Can they live? And I love Ezekiel's answer because he says, God, only. You really know the answer to that question, which I can't tell if that's, like, wisdom or if that's just, like, a cop out of, like, yeah, I don't really know God. It looks pretty bad.

Like, I think you probably know, but I don't have any idea. And so then he tells Ezekiel to preach to the bones, to preach to essentially a floor of dead people, which is every preacher's worst nightmare. Like, people who are just like, don't care at all. And he begins to preach. And as he preaches, suddenly these bones begin to rattle, and they begin to form back up together.

And as he continues preaching, there's actually flesh that comes around to envelop these bones, and these dead bodies come back to attention, but there's no life in them at all. It's just a valley of corpses. And do you remember what God says to Ezekiel in that moment? He says, prophesy. Preach to the wind.

It's a weird command. Preach to the wind. God's not just telling him to preach to the air. He's telling him to preach and prophesy to the Ruach, the spirit, the wind of God. And then a rushing wind comes through the valley, and suddenly these corpses come back to life.

The life of the living God is breathed into them, and suddenly they're reanimated and alive again. And it's as if what the vision God is giving Ezekiel is saying is that, I know it looks like death and destruction and everything has fallen apart, but the same spirit that created the world, the same spirit that brought your people through the Red Sea, the same spirit and ruach and breath and wind that descended on the temple and the tabernacle, it is still here. And I am doing something to bring new life where it looks like death completely fast forward. And this question of where the spirit of God has descended or where the spirit of God is at work in the world is still hanging over the hebrew people and the Israelites. And we get to the New Testament, and it's fascinating because John opens his gospel with a statement that the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

And when he says the word dwelling, do you know what the word is there? Do you remember what the word is for dwelling? Tabernacle. You see, what John opens his gospel saying is that the very presence of God, the presence of God that has brought the people that created, that brought the people through the Red Sea. It is actually dwelling.

It is tabernacled, not in the tabernacle or the temple, but it has come to rest on the very person of Jesus. In fact, we see this. When Jesus is baptized, the heavens open, and the spirit of God descends like a dove and rests on Jesus. It animates his entire ministry. It's the power of the ruach, the wind of God, that animates his entire work in the world as the messiah.

But what's fascinating is Jesus shows up, and though he's empowered by the spirit for the ministry God has given him, he doesn't just say that it's confined to me. He says that this spirit will actually go out to my followers. Look with me in Luke 315 through 16. I get, we've been jumping around so many different places. This is the last place we'll stop before we get back to Pentecost.

The people were waiting expectantly, and we're all wondering in their hearts if John, John the Baptist might possibly be the Messiah. And John answered them, I will baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and what? Fire.

And in fact, it goes a little bit deeper than that, because the word for spirit right here is pneuma, which is the greek word for wind, ruach, spirit. And so what John says is, someone who is more powerful than I will come, and his followers will be baptized by wind and by fire. The spirit of God is going to come and rest on the people. So go back with me to where we started. Acts, chapter 2114.

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came out to rest on each one of them. And all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit enabled them. Do you see it?

Can you connect the dots of the story that's been taking place? You see what the story is telling us, that what happened at Pentecost is that this same spirit, this wind of God that created the entire universe, that parted the Red Sea to deliver the Israelites out of slavery, that came and shook the mountain at Sinai, that rested on the tabernacle and on the temple that made the dry bones Ezekiel saw come back to life with resurrection power. The same spirit that the apostle Paul said raised Jesus from the dead has come to dwell on the followers of Jesus. The same wind and fire has come to rest on the people who call Jesus Lord. Let me be crystal clear.

What this story is saying is that if you are a follower of Jesus, if you have given him your allegiance, if you claim to be a disciple of Jesus, that his resurrection, his atonement, is for you, and you have given your life to him, what this story says is that same power, that power that created the entire universe, that parted the Red sea, that shook the mountain, that resurrected the dry bones, it has come to dwell within you. The spirit of the living God resides in you. Do you believe that?

Do you believe that God's very presence has tabernacled in your very body? You see, because the apostle Paul actually says that that's the new temple. It's not only just the body of gathered believers, but it is actually the physical body of each and every individual believer. It's the reason why the fire separates and rests on each individual person. Do you believe that that power resides within you?

If I am honest with you, I don't know that. I always do, because I think that if I actually believed that story, I mean, let's be real. If I believe that the power that created the entire universe, that spoke stars into existence resides within me, I think I would have a very different interaction with the world. I think it would drastically change how I live my life. For one, I think I would probably be a little less nervous when I'm standing down here about to come up and preach, because I wouldn't assume that this is a conversation just between you and me and that it's just the work that I've done to try to figure out what to say to you about Mission Sunday and Pentecost, I would be changed and trust that actually, what's happening here is a conversation that the Holy Spirit is deeply a part of, because you have the spirit within you and I have the spirit within me, and he is calling us and convicting us and encouraging us and challenging us to live out the mission that God has given us.

It's not just up to me. It probably changed how I interact with my family. And I'm tired and irritable, and so I think, oh, yeah, I'm tired and irritable. So it's okay that I'm short and kind of. Kind of a jerk, which I was this morning to my daughter.

Man, if I believed that the spirit of resurrection lived within me, bringing new life? Would that change when I'm tired and irritable? And I wouldn't just think, yeah, I'm tired and irritable. So whatever happened, no. That I have a spirit within me that is powerful enough to overcome whatever I might be feeling, feeling in the moment.

To change how I interact with the world, to treat my daughter with kindness and gentleness, even if I'm a little tired. And to be honest with you, those examples are probably far too small. How would it change how I prayed for people? How would it change what I pray for? If I truly believed that the Holy Spirit that shook a mountain was within me?

Do you believe it? What might it change about your life? I wonder if some of us would stop just living for the weekend and might begin living for a better, bigger story. Because we would believe that our weekend and our satisfaction in our life is not just about hitting the slopes or having a good hike in sunshine, but actually living for a spirit that has come to empower us to live on mission for what God is doing in the world. Maybe some of us wouldn't just try to make it through the week thinking like, man, I hope I can hold onto my faith one more week in a secular work environment and actually go into that environment thinking, what might the spirit empower me to change?

What might the spirit empower me to bring new life into this space? Coming from a place where the spirit has brought new life to you, you see what might change within us if we actually believed that the resurrection power of the spirit, the spirit that parted the Red Sea, resided within us? The promise of the gift of the spirit is that we would be empowered to carry out the mission that God has sent us on. You may be sitting there wondering, like, okay, Paul, I kind of get that, but why are we talking about that on missions weekend if we're talking about God's heart for the nations and how we're supposed to go and share the good news, and why are we walking through this whole story of the spirit? And there's two reasons for that.

I think what often happens on a mission Sunday is we can inherently assume, as we come and gather together, that missions is all about global and what's happening out there. That missions is really for the people who kind of got, like, an extra dose of the Holy Spirit. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's the people that are just, like, a little more committed than me, and then they're a little bit more out there. And so mission Sunday is just like, yeah, let's kind of hear about what's going on over there, and we forget that actually God's mission is for here, too, that you have been just as empowered and equipped for the mission of God.

And that's not at all to diminish those who have been called overseas. That is an important element of what the church has been called to do. But God is just as interested as what with what is happening in your neighborhood as he is by what is happening in Africa or Asia or South America. And he is just as at work globally here as he is over there. Global missions is not just about the people who go overseas.

It is about every single one of us who have been empowered by the spirit to carry out the task God has given us in our place and space. So that's the first reason. The second reason is this. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that it is so easy for the church, particularly in America, whatever her state might be, and however worried you might be about our country or our church, I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the church in America will not experience renewal of life and revival until we recognize our need for the dependence of the Holy Spirit. See, I'm convicted about this myself, but I think it is so easy for the church to be really good at doing the church stuff.

I think that the church in America, what I see in so many different places, and what I see in the life of believers, that it is so easy for us to go through life doing the right church things and having absolutely no dependence or life with the spirit. We show up to the things we're supposed to show up to. We do the prayers, and we read the scripture, and we go to the classes and we come to church. And the truth is, while all of those things are good, absolutely none of it matters if we are doing it of our own power and volition. It only matters if we are dependent on the spirit that brings new life.

You see, I think one of the temptations for the church, and I think many churches and believers struggle with this, is that we are very content to do the christian stuff without the power of the spirit. And so we get good bands, we have a great choir, we build good programs, and most weekends we try to get a good speaker. You might be thinking right now, yeah, Paul, not your best one.

We try to build good programs and equip small group leaders and make sure everybody knows what they're supposed to do. But if we do not go in the power of the spirit. You see, what's fascinating about the early church is if you look at them, they were people who had nothing to their name. They were poor. They had no education.

Many of them, I mean, many of them were just absolute losers by the world's standards. And yet they were desperate for the spirit of God to show up, and he did. I wonder for how many of us, what pentecost and global missions might be calling us to is a holy dependence on the Holy Spirit in our lives. Because, you see, there's nothing wrong with any of those things that I listed. But if we don't ask for the spirit to join us in them, see, gathering together, this is not the mission of God.

The mission of God is not to just gather people in a cool building with nice seats and good coffee and listen to someone give a talk through from a stage. It's not these lights, it's not this choir that the mission of God is the renewal of all things. And the reason we gather together is so that we can be fueled and empowered for that mission. But it's not just to gather together so we feel better about ourselves.

See, none of this matters if we don't invite and we aren't willing to follow the wind of the spirit wherever it blows. I was reminded of that a couple weeks ago because I saw a video of a pastor in Texas. And this pastor, he was preaching a sermon on how Jesus leaves the 99 to go after the one. And as this pastor is preaching this message, suddenly you begin to hear someone in the audience start to shout curse words and obscenities at him and like, b's and like, f that and all the things. And the pastor kind of pauses for a moment and kind of chuckles.

Last is like, wow. Hey, you know, what's your name, man? And he says, hey, my name is Anthony. And he said, hey, anthony, do you mind? Like, we've got kids in the room.

Could you just maybe stop? Like, let's just tone down the cursing. Is that all right? And so the pastor goes on and begins preaching again and talking about how Jesus leaves the 99 for the lost. And he talks about, he makes this point about how even the people who think that they're the most in or whatever, like, they still need Jesus, Jesus still loves them.

Jesus still pursues them. And this man just started shouting out, like, b's, b's. And the pastor stops and kind of chuckles and said, anthony, I really. I love you, man. Like, you.

This isn't the right place for that. Maybe we could just talk afterwards. But can you just stop shouting right now? And as he does that, Anthony begins shouting out, this man saved my life. This man next to me saved my life.

And you can feel the whole service just, like, screech to a halt. And the pastor sets down his bible, and he says, anthony, can I ask you a question? Are you homeless? And Anthony shouts out, yes. And suddenly you just feel the energy in the room change.

And he begins looking at this man, and they just have a conversation for a moment. He says, did someone bring you here today? And he said, yeah, this man saved my life. He brought me to church today, and he saved my life. And the pastor realizes in this moment that you can, like, almost see him working it out in real time.

Whatever message he had doesn't matter anymore because the message is being lived out in this congregation. And so he actually just comes to the foot of the stage and he just sits. And he invites this person who invited this homeless man to church, and his name was Michael. And what he finds out from Michael is Michael had been at the first service, heard this message about Jesus leaving the 99 for the one, and on his way home, saw a person who was homeless and thought, man, okay, I just heard this message. I got to do something.

So he shows up, gives this person a meal, and has a conversation with him. And as he has this conversation, Anthony talks to this person, Michael, and essentially says, where did you just come from? And Michael's like, well, I just came from church. And Anthony says, could I go? And Michael's like, sure, yeah.

Like, let's go. Let's hop in the car. We'll go back. And they go to church. And you can imagine, I mean, what would Michael's experience be like as he's sitting in church, having brought this homeless man who just starts shouting obscenities at the preacher?

I mean, could you just feel like, oh, what have I done? Right? Like, I just. I don't want to be here anymore. Like, this is not how I thought this was going to go.

He's literally shouting, like, all these things at the pastor, and suddenly he's pulled up onto the stage, he's having a conversation with the preacher. And what it turns out happened that morning is Anthony's plan was in about five minutes before Michael stopped to give him some food, he was going to walk into traffic and try to end his life.

And Michael, who followed the spirit, who had just heard a message, who had been fueled by the moment, stopped and had a conversation, entered into this man's story, and it just screeched the entire worship service to a halt. Because it's not about the lights or the message or even the songs we sing, it's about what God is doing in the world. So everything just paused in this church for a moment. And people from the congregation, as this conversation is happening, they begin coming up and laying cash on the stage for Anthony. And then something happens where Anthony actually gets up out of his seat, walks forward, and you can tell, I mean, he's a homeless person.

And he just wraps this preacher in a bear hug and begins sobbing. You see, something shifted for this church in that moment. And the story goes on because it's not like they just had this moment and then let Anthony go back to the streets. They actually. That money that they raised, they sent him to a rehab facility to help him get back on his feet, to bring new life out of a place that was a moment away from death's doorstep.

See, what we're doing, what all of this is, it's not just simply about gathering together so we. We feel better about ourselves. It is stepping into the story that has been going on from the very beginning of this holy Spirit, this God who has always been bringing new life into situations of chaos and darkness and death. And the beauty of that story is that he invites you and me into that story, asks us to join him on that mission of the renewal of all things, and promises us that we are not doing it on our own. The question is, will we follow wherever the wind blows?

Will we follow wherever the fire of the spirit leads? So my closing thought for you today is, as we close this morning, I would invite you to pray that prayer if you feel willing. Say, holy spirit, may you empower me to follow wherever you might blow this week.

And what could we maybe see God do? How could God maybe use you to bring new life to this world that's broken and hurting? Would you pray with me, heavenly Father?

God, I pray for your spirit to come in each of our hearts and minds and souls. God, we know that if we are followers of you and believers in you, we have already been given the gift of the spirit.

Sometimes it's as simple as paying attention to where the wind is blowing. We can't always see it, but God, we can feel it.

God, I pray that our hearts would turn and tune in to what you might be doing in the world.

God, the places that we just happen to be going, you have called us to go. Absolutely. But that might be the grocery store, the PTA meeting, or simply walking to get the mail.

God, may we pay attention to where you at work in this world, because, God, we believe that you are always at work to bring new life. God, what a gift that you have invited us into that story. May we live for that story. And may we believe that your power, your spirit that spoke the stars into existence, that created the expanse of the skies that parted the Red Sea. God, your spirit that shook mountains resides within each and every one of us who call you Lord.

God, may we believe that.

And may we live a life that ties our story to your story, God, may we see what things you might want to do through us. May we live for something bigger than ourselves. It is in the name of Jesus and his Holy Spirit that we pray. Amen.