Oasis Church Worship Service | Lean In | Acts 2:1-13 | Message by Aaron Stecker

good morning good morning everyone welcome to this absolutely beautiful morning in cedar rapids hopefully wherever you're coming to us from online you're having god's blessings this morning as well i do have a special good morning to our friend jody from a miss isetta so isaiah wanted jodie to know she was thinking about her this morning all right so we are here at the hilton garden inn in cedar rapids it's on the corner of edgewood and highway 100 so we are meeting in person we are doing the online so we'll be but we will be here in person and until the end of june at this point um except for mother's day there will be some new information coming out about mother's day so if you're in the area and would like to join us here in person hilton garden inn on the corner of edgewood and highway 100 until the end of june we would love to see you please take a moment for those of you online and in person to check in at oasisfamily.org we would like to just make sure we know who's joining us today give us your name your number i'm sorry name and address phone number is good too but make sure we have that address if you are new today we would like to send you a gift so make sure that we do get that address you can also share with us who's with you today so if there's two of you five of you however many we'd like to know that too if you are feeling god calling you to share the resources that he has blessed upon you you can do that in three different ways you can do that on oasisfamily.org our website you can do that here in person at the door you can also text eight four three two one that's eight four three two one all three of those methods are very secure ways to give and we are called to give back the resources that god gives us so thank you for considering that today we have a special message from an aaron stecker he's a member here at oasis church but the message time of our church will be new for him so we do um we are looking forward to hearing from him uh ordinary people doing extraordinary things is his topic today so we're excited to hear that we do ask that you pray for a moment for his calm and to give him grace as well as this is his first time doing that for us today so we're excited to hear from him um as we are preparing today for our service if you would please bow your heads and pray with me as we get ready dear heavenly father we are so thankful for all of our many blessings lord we even accept the challenges you give us because we know that we can do all things with you god we ask that you fill aaron with your words your calm and your wisdom give him the strong foundation upon which you have built to stand it's in your name we pray amen would you please stand up with us whether you're at home whether you're here in person we'd like to worship in music have a great day come on church let's sing about what jesus has done for us when darkness tries to roll over my bones when sorrow comes to steal the joy i own [Music] [Music] my fear [Music] doesn't stay in the chairs [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] though i won't shake come on [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh good morning hi isaiah are you going to come up and hang out with me i need some kids up here oh i love that you guys are so excited to come up here every morning we have something fun to talk about today you know what we're going to talk about today you do what are we going to talk about spiderman well we did that once and that was a really good message that was a really good message but this time we're in chocolate milk you remember the message is so well how are you that is awesome well guess what today we're going to talk about something chocolate but this time we're going to talk about chocolate cake i thought chocolate milk last week made me hungry for chocolate cake to go with it and i thought well let's see if we can make some connections here how's that sound do you like cake do you like cake i do too chocolate cake red velvet cake pink cake jello cake there's all kinds of cakes and they're all delicious with ice cream on it too absolutely absolutely do you know how to make a chocolate cake from scratch do you know how to make it do you know what the ingredients are that go into cake what are some of them what are some an egg yes you have to have an egg what else do you have to put in a cake to make it do you know milk sometimes yes sometimes milk goes in a cake chocolate milk and white milk i'm gonna make a chocolate cake with chocolate milk some cocoa powder goes in it sometimes there's flour or salt baking soda goes in it sugar you can't forget the sugar because that makes the cake taste so good right so here's a question if i would ask you to eat each one of those ingredients all by itself would you do it let's take a look at the screen would you eat a raw egg would you do that no that's so gross isn't it you wouldn't eat would you eat a big spoonful of flour have you ever seen what happens to flour when you put water on it and it kind of turns like to a paste it almost turns to glue can you imagine if you had that in your mouth it would be gross wouldn't it how about sugar no ground oh no that's a lie that's a lie i would definitely eat a sugar cube all by itself yes i would yes that is one ingredient in cake that i could eat all by itself i could eat a whole spoonful of sugar exactly but some of those ingredients are pretty icky all by themselves aren't they they're so gross but what'd you say i don't know i don't know but when you put all those icky ingredients together what happens when you stir it all together what happens with that sugar and that flour and that chocolate and the milk and the egg what happens when you stir it all together you get a batter don't you you get a batter and guess what i brought a little something that reminds me of god god is a little bit like a mixing spoon he stirs it all together all of it the good the bad the icky the delicious he stirs it all together and he makes it into something super super good do you want to practice stirring you want to practice stirring the batter yep isaiah's turn too he makes something delicious he's like a mixing spoon and he takes all of those yucky ingredients he makes them together into a batter and then we get a chocolate cake and so delicious so you see sometimes there are things that happen yeah that's the chocolate cake i'm talking about happy birthday to you yes that's exactly right there are times when some yucky icky things might happen right i mean sometimes we don't feel good sometimes our friends might hurt our feelings we might get in an argument with a parent or a brother or a sister sometimes some of those icky things like the eggs and the flower happen and you might get an argument with your baby too but sometimes and a lot of times that's that's just not who that's not what makes us all into the person we are we might even we might even make some icky decisions on our own and hurt other people's feelings but that's not who we are that is not who we are all about that's not the only part of us just like with the cake we might have some icky ingredients but really awesome ingredients too and god takes everything and works it in to something good and beautiful and maybe delicious like a chocolate cake too in the bible romans 8 28 says and we know that in all good in all things god works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose god has a purpose for you and you and you and for everybody out here and whether or not you've got icky things going on he wants you to be with him he's called you to be with him and eat cake yes absolutely and jeremiah 29 11 says for i know the plans i have for you declares the lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope and a future so even though you may have experiences that are kind of icky sometimes god works for the good for all of us who love him and there might be times when we feel icky we might act icky but with god's help everything always works out so i want you to remember something are you ready i want you to remember something isaiah when things happen that aren't the way you want it to go or how you planned it to go and this happens and you feel a little yucky god is like that mixing spoon that mixes everything together to be beautiful and when church is over today come and see me because i might have something chocolatey in my bag that i'm gonna share with you when church gets over okay let's say a prayer shall we say a prayer heavenly father thank you for being with us and loving us all the time we know that when yucky things happen you are there to get us through it and when we act a little icky sometimes you are there to help us too you put us back on our path you never stop loving us and work all things for good it's in your name we pray amen and i would invite everyone to stand to worship in song yes lord we celebrate you today all that you are your forgiveness your love we celebrate that you're here wherever we are you're with us if we worship you [Music] you are here [Music] working in this place i worship you i worship you and [Music] god [Music] keep light in the darkness [Music] that is [Music] [Applause] [Music] i worship you [Music] [Applause] [Music] i worship you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] me oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] daddy [Music] um [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you never stop working you never stop [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] my god [Music] well good morning or should i say good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to kennedy high school i miss that's the wrong intro sorry i get a mic in front of me and i go back to old habits on that that was for you brian and glenn i hope you appreciated that okay well good morning everybody and thank you for joining us whether you're here in person or whether you're joining us online uh on facebook thank you for being here today and uh let's just start by asking for some grace as we move in today how's that sound uh let's get started let's join in prayer heavenly father we thank you for bringing us together here this morning whether we are here in person or whether we're online at home lord you brought us here for a purpose and a reason today lord we ask that your work be done here today so we can further your purposes for your ways so we can grow closer to you lord and live life abundantly in you and through you we ask these things in your name amen so tuesday night jody sanza sends us a text message and says hey can you guys jump on a zoom call with us here later on tonight i've got to share some information with you sure no problem um not that uncommon for jody to ask us to jump in with her and uh she's got some news to hear so she begins to tell us that her brother-in-law nathan was just diagnosed with coba 19. now if you remember nathan was here last week as our guest pastor gave us a a great talk on being the church and what it means to be a part of the church we appreciate that nathan thank you so much for that message it was certainly powerful but um that meant he was here within that 48 hour window we all hear about with with koben and they came over he and his wife lisa jody's sister and their family came over and spent the night with the scogans on saturday night so that now means the co the scogins are a closed contact so jody's sharing this information with us first let me tell you that nathan and his family as well as jody and her family have given us permission to talk about that they've shared that fairly openly but it does mean that the scogans are a closed contact thankfully nathan's symptoms were minor and the skogen family has not uh they've been asymptomatic to this point as well and we hope and pray that that continues for them but it creates a dilemma for us if you've been around oasis church here for the past you know six eight nine twelve months you understand that sunday morning service without jodi and tara and dan creates an interesting city would you agree that they're kind of been they've had a little role here uh in oasis church and on sunday mornings and so that created a bit of an issue for us to solve well interesting how this all works because intersecting with that connecting with that is the fact that this whole oasis church thing i think for us as a community whether you're online or here in person i think it has uh it's it's certainly had an impact on us as a community collectively uh growing through oasis church in this process in this journey it's also i think having impacts on us personally while i can't speak for you i'm sure you're no different than i am this whole journey we're on through oasis church certainly has been stirring things up in my heart god's been doing some work here on on me in the past few months maybe bringing back some things that were there a few years ago as well and jody and i actually have had some conversations about that and it was just a few days before our tuesday night zoom revelation that jody had asked me to consider speaking as a part of this upcoming sermon series that we're going to start today and she said hey i'm interested you and you doing week four aaron would you prayerfully consider uh taking the week four sermon on that and i'm like sure jody whatever she goes no i'm serious so i've been thinking about that praying about that thinking is this the right time should this be when i step up and do that and i was ready to contact jody actually that night and say hey i've been thinking about it and i know that god's been tugging at me i know you've been having these conversations with me jody i think i'm ready to lean in and i was going to say yes i'll do that for you jody in four weeks well then i had a chance to do that yet and of course then you heard the story of the zoom call in four weeks quickly becomes four days god's timing right funny um so we spent the past few days getting ready for this am i excited about this opportunity absolutely am i nervous about this opportunity absolutely i feel better now actually than i did on wednesday night and and thursday night even yesterday morning but i'm i'm apprehensive about how this is going to go um on this and but i'm also curious of how this is a stepping stone to what's next what god has planned for me and so i'm going to ask you to join in with me today and then we'll see how this goes if that's fair all right so have you experienced something like this yourselves maybe you've been excited about what's coming up ahead maybe you're a little nervous about what it means maybe it's going to mean a change in job maybe it's going to be a change in where you're living or maybe it's just going to be a change in circumstances if you say yes to this and move forward with it it's going to change things and that can agree that can raise feelings of apprehension of nervousness and wondering hey what's next i'm curious how this is going to work out but you're also excited about it well that's kind of the situation we're in here today all of us kind of step it up and trying to lead this thing without jodie being here and dan and tara sorry tara we we know all right we're going to start a new sermon series we're actually going to call this sermon series extraordinary power in ordinary people and we're going to talk today in acts 2 as we kick this thing off about 120 believers the 12 disciples and the other believers who were about ready to learn a big lesson in just how god uses his extraordinary power in ordinary people to accomplish amazing things so let's get let's dive into this um and lean in and see what god has to say about this in the bible so i'm going to invite you to take your bibles out or your phone i'm going to be honest with you i'm going to go with my phone today the last time i pulled the bible up here to try to start reading out of the bible um i hide my cheaters my biful because they're in my contacts but last time i was approved i was trying to read from a bible the letters all of a sudden got very very blurred and so i told jody i'm not going to be up there trying to read devil out of the bible on the day i'm giving a sermon so i'll use my phone today but pull your bibles out i want you to actually i know i said we'll talk in acts two but i want you to go to acts one and we're gonna preface this a little bit so go to acts 1 verses 8 and 9 but you will receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses telling people about me everywhere in jerusalem throughout judea in samaria into the ends of the earth now remember jody used that verse a few weeks back i think actually jeanette used that verse when she was talking about spider-man uh just a few weeks ago as well it goes on then verse 9 says after saying this he was taken up into a cloud where they while they were watching and they could see and they could no longer see him so that was the ascension so right before jesus rose back up into heaven and joined his father in heaven he laid some pretty heavy stuff on the disciples and we're gonna get back to that here in a little bit but that order to bring that to light here because i think that it comes to play as we get into into chapter two so fast forward now to chapter two and let's start there i'm gonna read verses one through four first so on the day of pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place suddenly there was a sound from heaven like the ruin of a mighty windstorm and it filled the house where they were sitting then what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them and everyone present was filled with the holy spirit and began speaking in other languages as the holy spirit gave them this ability so i'm gonna stop there after verse four give me a second and kind of dive into some things going on there verse one in particular on that so let's start there um it opens up saying on the day of pentecost so let's talk about pentecost and what's going on there um you know we understand pentecost is a part of the church calendar uh and really if you've got questions on that on the wrong person ask talk to jody the next time you run into her but we've pentecos means a lot of different things but let's talk about pentecost at that time in this moment that we're going to be talking about today so two things going on um in jerusalem first uh there's an agricultural festival uh going on the the festival of the wheat and and the farmers had brought their first sheaves from the wheat harvest so think of the you know that that picture you see a wheat cut at the at the bottom of the stock and kind of wrapped together and tied together and twisted okay so those are sheaves and so they were bringing their first she's uh as an offering to god for two reasons one to out of gratitude to thank god for his uh for his for the bountiful harvest they're about to partake in and two to praying that that harvest would go well so there's this agricultural festival going on and then we also have the celebration of pentecost taking place at this time as well so the celebration of pentecost happens 50 days after the passover and so at this time jews are celebrating that 50th day after passover so go way back in time to egypt um so the passover was that last straw for pharaoh the angel of death passing over and killing of the firstborn in egypt except for homes that had the blood of the lamb over the top of the door and that was the last straw at that time of pharaoh said okay god you win and granted them their freedom and they left egypt and it was 50 days later that they reached mount sinai and moses went to the top of the mountain received the ten commandments and brought them down and that now provided the the way the the guide for how they're going to live their life moving forward carrying out god's purposes carrying out god's ways moving forward so that's the celebration going on and this is a big deal this brings thousands and thousands of pilgrims educated scholars religious leaders from as the bible talks about from all the lands under heaven and they all come to jerusalem at this time so there's these huge celebrations going on a comparison to think about this i think of the olympics you know every four years the winter olympics or the or the summer olympics who's a big fan who likes the summer olympics best who likes the winter olympics best i used to say summer but i don't know some of those x game things they've kind of you know like the the the sean white stuff that they do i don't i won't have the right terminology but anyway i think of the olympics and you think what happens every four years where you have the ent the entire world converge onto one country in one city all these different cultures all these different languages all these different ways of life converging in one place and they're trying to communicate and work with another and celebrate sport in that moment well that's what's going on in jerusalem at this time there's people from every corner of the earth coming together celebrating pentecost but they bring with them all their different cultures all their different languages and you can just imagine what that might look like what that celebration might look like the other thing in verse 1 i want to bring up and spend a little time on is the disciples because it says there in the second half verse one all the believers were meeting together in one place now that's intentional jesus that was part of jesus instructions to them before hit the ascension and he gave them that drop that little nugget on him before he he rose to heaven he instructed them specifically to go back to jerusalem to stay together to go back to that room and pray together and wait for the holy spirit to come upon them and then they would know what's next that would give them the instructions that would be the signal for them to move forward he said specifically go back to the city go back to the room we've been meeting in for the past several weeks and wait there together and pray in anticipation for what comes next wait for the holy spirit so they're there and i'm just trying to envision the the back and forth the dialogue that they're praying they're anticipating what's coming next and i can just here imagine maybe what's going on um because go back to what jesus said to him in in that previous verse we read you will be the witnesses of the good news of my story throughout jerusalem judea samaria and to the ends of the earth this isn't a to-do list of hey while i'm gone let the dog out get the groceries do the dishes clean the house you know make sure the place doesn't fall apart while i'm gone i really appreciate that thank you very much he's talking to them about you're going to be the instrument the tool that i'm going to use to start the church from this point forward that's big stuff and so i'm thinking of them sitting up in that room talking contemplating what jesus just got done telling them is coming next i can see them on one side of the room saying we've been with jesus for three years he's taught us he's shaped us he's molded us we're ready for this moment but then i can see my other room saying well yeah but anytime we didn't understand scripture any time that we had confusion we didn't understand that the parable he was sharing he was always there to explain it to us and he's not here anymore well yeah but we've done this he sent us out while he was here on earth he said hey once you go to these communities these villages before we go there i want you to prepare them i want you to teach them heal them and he gave us the power to do that and we've done this before well yeah but we always knew he was there to kind of clean up the mess in case we didn't get it right and he's not here anymore well but we witnessed the power of the crucifixion and then god rising from the dead and on on easter sunday that certainly should give us some confidence and some power that we we've got this because god can do anything and on this side of the room them saying well yeah you're right but we're also human and if you're anything like me i'm sure they weren't different than us while you're excited and you think god's got us jesus told us this is what's going to happen and we've seen way too many things to to to doubt that there still has to be that little bit of apprehension me us really certainly there were other uh religious leaders people who might have been had the the credentials to carry out such a thing in that time they were educated scholarly religious leaders or they were influential and affluent political leaders certainly those people might have been better served to carry out god's or jesus message to the ends of the earth not us but here's the thing and we're i'm sure they just had to land when this whole discussion and everything was done god didn't send jesus to the affluent the well-to-do the political leaders the religious leaders he didn't god didn't send jesus to them and say teach them how to move forward and teach people and heal people and lead the movement of the church the way we want to see it go he came to the galileans he came to ordinary people he came to people like you and i and said to them come follow me said to them come love me come have relationship with me come learn from me you will be the instrument you will be the tool that i use moving forward to set our church in motion the way god has planned from this point forward extraordinary power in ordinary people so verse two moving forward on this you're like wow aaron we've just done one verse are you kidding me so verse two on that um this great noise i'll re-read that for you suddenly there's a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm and it filled the house where they were sitting different versions of the bible describe this in different ways strong and blowing wind mighty and gusting wind violent and rushing wind different ways to describe this wind but there's one thing that they're all in agreement upon of where that wind came from this wasn't a northeast wind this wasn't one of those middle of march cold northern winds it just goes right through you this wind came down from heaven there's no debate about that whatsoever it came down from heaven and filled the room now we know a little bit about wind here in cedar rapids right but this wasn't that kind of when this wasn't destructive wind this was a win that when it settled in the room where the disciples and the believers were gathering it was a win that filled them with life the next thing it talks about is the tongue the fire coming down from heaven and they looked like tongues of fire and came into the room where the disciples were and settle or wrapped around each one of them and then settled on each of them and filled them with the holy spirit think about that moment for just a second jesus had been talking about his death his ascent his resurrection his ascension and he'd been telling the disciples for some time that after i'm gone we will give you the gift you'll be given the gift of the holy spirit the holy spirit will be your guide after i leave the holy spirit will remind you of me and my teachings and what we've been through so you can move forward after i'm gone they had been promised this and jesus had told them about this for some time now and here was the moment that transition from jesus's ministry on earth here in human flesh to this is the church moving forward here we go i can't imagine being there in that moment the unleashing of the holy spirit in that moment nathan talked about that last week about what it means now to be the church that we're all a part of that church now it's not buildings it's not walls it's not doors it's not windows it's it is us it is god's people going out in the world and sharing the good news again great message from that last week and that's what this is the kickoff of it this is the launching event for that what a great moment to be and i can't imagine the power there that was going on amazing extraordinary power happening amongst ordinary people like you and i all right moving forward we'll move on to i'm going to read acts 5 through 13 here so at that time there were devout jews from every nation living in jerusalem when they heard this loud noise everyone came running and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers they were completely amazed how can this be they exclaimed these people are all from galilee and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages here we are parthians medes elamites people from mesopotamia judea cappadocia pontus and the province of asia fijia pamphilia egypt and the areas of libya around cyrene visitors from rome both jews and converts to to judaism cretans and arabs and we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things god has done about the wonderful things god has done they stood there amazed and perplexed what can this mean they asked each other others in the crowd ridiculed them saying they're just drunk that's all i'm going to leave that hanging for next week on that last part because peter jumps all over that as soon as that's what people want to say is going on here so we'll leave that part for next week as we move forward in acts 2. so let's dig into what's going what's being said here so first of all this commotion that happened so it says there verse 5 at that time the devout jews from every nation living in jerusalem and we heard the and when they heard the loud noise everyone came running now i was a little busy on thursday night at home inside working on something on that but my wife took the dogs out for a walk and came back and asked me if i'd heard the loud noise uh that was going on on thursday night i'm like i have no idea what you're talking about jody's got me a little busy right now um but uh so she starts she said well i heard it's not like jets like low flying jets you didn't hear that i'm like nope sorry i didn't hear it but so she starts looking on facebook and and sure enough there's people in cedar rapids area that are friends of ours on facebook talking about this this loud noise this jet that they're hearing flying over the top of cedar rapids and we come to find out a couple of days later that yes there was indeed a military jet that was out there over the cedar rapids airport that was doing military maneuvers over the top over the airport on that and that's a loud noise if you've been around that before or somebody who's taken a ride in a blue angel f-18 i can tell you those babies are loud that's a loud loud noise different than we're used to hearing we're used to hearing you know jets land and you know flying in land to see rappers all the time it's kind of background noise white noise for us here in the cedar rapids area now this was different and people knew it and they paid attention to it and it created a commotion well go back here to this to the pentecost this wind coming down from from heaven remember we got this festival going on thousands and thousands of pilgrims who are there celebrating the pentecost together from all the corners of the earth and when they hear this loud noise they went running what is going on let's go find out what's going on over here so they run there to where they they see the wind blowing to where they see these tongues of fire coming down and it says that they are astonished and amazed well why are they astonished and amazed because when they get there they're hearing the great news of god they're hearing the good news and the wonderful works of jesus being proclaimed to them not just in any language but in their own native tongues their own native languages now going back in time here you know we've got all these people there that have all these different languages that they speak their own native languages um at the time in the area many of them knew multiple languages most of them their second language probably probably would have been greek and now i as i was looking at this and reading through it i would imagine greek maybe i'm guessing would have been maybe that default language that if you were talking or speaking with somebody else from a different from another country and you didn't have the same native language greek may be one of those languages you'd communicate in and you kind of muddle through together with what you knew of greek to speak and talk with one another to communicate to one another but that wasn't what happened here when they all came running to see what this commotion was all about they heard the good news of jesus christ in their own language astonished and amazed why were they astonished and amazed by this well a little dig a little deeper on this and you and you understand that so these pilgrims that had traveled to uh to jerusalem at the time um judean jews and they again they're educated i mean to get there to to to have the means to travel to jerusalem and stay in jerusalem for a long period of time they're affluent they've got connections okay and they kind of saw themselves as more pure more devout jews than the galilean jews the fishermen and tax collectors the disciples and the believers so they kind of saw themselves as a step above them so when they get there and they see these galilean jews the disciples and and the believers speaking all these different languages like wait a minute these are just ordinary people they don't know how to speak these language how is this happening and i think that's a really really intentional moment of the holy spirit that moment had to stick that moment had to resonate that moment had to demonstrate extraordinary power power beyond what anybody on earth had the power to do so they were astonished and they were amazed because here they were in the streets and these galilean jews the disciples and the believers telling them about the powerful things got it done in the streets of jerusalem in every tongue no coding necessary you know you when you listen to teenagers talk from time to time and you hear that and they're using different lingo and slang and they've got all these acronyms i mean there's an acronym for everything now anymore and so you're hearing teenagers talk and it's like oh i think i know what that word means oh and i think i know what that acronym stands for and you start to piece together maybe what they're talking about but you never it's just kind of the gist of it you never really understand exactly what they're talking about well if this would have happened where the disciples weren't speaking in tongues the disciples weren't speaking in all these native languages if these these pilgrims these travelers weren't hearing it in their own native language they would have had to code they would have had to kind of piece together oh i know that word i understand that word so i kind of understand what they're talking about well that wasn't what god intended for that moment that wasn't going to have the impact that moment had to have they needed to hear it in their own native language so it was written in their heart and they needed to see it in such a powerful way that there was no doubt what god was up to that there was no doubt of the direction we're going to move from this point forward extraordinary power in ordinary people this is probably why you don't use your phone the third thing i want to talk about here real quick is the amazing timing god can have and an amazing orchestration of events god has i want you to think about what's going on here so jesus had specifically told the disciples you need to go back to jerusalem stay there and wait together praying until the holy spirit comes upon you and then you'll move forward from there timing the pentecost this large celebration when you have all the people from the ends of the earth all gathering in one place at one time and then god throws the holy spirit into the mix and jesus gives the gift of the holy spirit to the disciples in that moment to stir it up to mix it up and make it all happen that powerful moment think again what we're talking about this is the launch of the church moving forward from this day on for generations to come and how god orchestrated that to use ordinary people to demonstrate his extraordinary power and he did it in the presence of people who are going to leave jerusalem and go back home to their native countries and share what they have seen acts 1 8 you'll be given the power of the holy spirit and you'll be my witnesses you will share the good news throughout jerusalem judea samaria to the ends of the earth wow how god orchestrated that moment to launch his church moving forward amen so if god can orchestrate that type of event the kickoff the launch i'm an apple guy so i think of apple launching a bit you know the newest iphone i'm still back on iphone 10 the rest of my family has moved on but i'm still back in the i've missed a launch of too long away but you got to think if god can launch his church in that powerful moment and orchestrate that do you think it's possible that god might be able to orchestrate a few powerful moments in our lives no matter how ordinary we might feel i'm thinking yes so my question for you as we move on here would be this what's something you've been thinking about maybe feeling compelled or drawn to do here in the past few weeks past few months maybe it's been stirring for longer than that but maybe you've always kind of stepped back or leaned away from that call nervous anxious feeling unequipped unprepared maybe lacking the confidence to carry that out i go back to that room i talked about for a while there were the disciples and they were having that same struggle and they had to make a decision jesus gave us a pretty big to-do list are we going to back away are we going to scatter and be afraid or are we going to trust and lean in and thankfully the disciples trusted and leaned in they didn't feel equipped i'm sure they didn't i mean can you imagine that i mean it's human nature right i'm sure they felt unprepared but they were curious about what's next and that's what that's what god's asking us to do be curious about what's next so here's the deal what do we have to learn from this whole pentecost moment and the birth of the church jesus didn't expect the disciples to do this on their own that would have been impossible go back to acts 1 where we started this jesus said to them you're going to be the witnesses and spread the good news throughout the to the ends of the earth but right before that remember he said you'll receive the power of the holy spirit and then you'll go change the world that's all we're being asked to do on our end when god gives you those nudges when god gives you those pulls god doesn't expect you to do it on your own he gives us god's size stuff stuff that makes us uncomfortable stuff that makes us nervous stuff that might uh ask us to stretch in ways we don't feel like stretching god knows we can't do it on our own that's not the point god's not going to ask us to do god-sized things on our own but we have to be willing to lean in and see what's up and then jesus is going to is going to have the holy spirit rise up in us and give us the strength the skills and the power no matter how ordinary we might feel to do the extraordinary works he has planned for us but first we have to lean in so if you've got those things going on in your heart right now or maybe you're not feeling a whole lot of tugs you're kind of wondering okay god what's next i guess my challenge for you this would be this and we all have to do this my challenge this week would be to pray about it to spend time praying and saying okay god what is it you're asking me to do what do you need me to do next what are you asking of me well god i know you've been talking about this for several weeks and maybe i'm ready to take some steps your direction so i'd ask you first pray about it ask god's help ask him to equip you to use you for the work he has planned ask him for the power of the holy spirit because it says as you read about the holy spirit all you have to it's in your heart already all you have to do is ask for the holy spirit for the power and strength of holy spirit and it will be given all you have to do is ask so in your prayers this week ask for the holy spirit to rise up and be with you and give you the strength to do what god's asking you to do and then just sit back and see what happens next and join god in whatever work he has going on pray about it ask for help ask for the holy spirit and then look for where god's at in your life lean in and trust that god will use his extraordinary power to do amazing things through us no matter how no matter how ordinary we might feel imagine just for a moment what things might look like in our own lives what they might look like in our community what they might look like for oasis church if we'll all just lean in a little more trust god ask god for his help and allow the power of the holy spirit to move in us to do the things god's asking us to do let us pray heavenly father there are times that you want to make us really uncomfortable lord you ask us to do god size things and we want to step back and say well wait a minute god i don't know if that's something i'm ready for right now and we can come up with all types of worldly and earthly reasons as to why our answer right now is no lord is no right now lord i ask you to open our hearts open our minds lord to the possibilities that you have those those nudges those moments when you're asking us to step forward and just become a little more uncomfortable lord i'm going to ask you that we lean in and trust your amazing power to do amazing things through us your people your children moving forward we ask these things in your name amen i invite you to all please rise and those your home please rise as we respond in song [Music] my hope is built on nothing less than [Music] i jesus not trust the sweetest in jesus [Music] name my hope [Music] in is yes it is [Music] christ [Music] is [Music] to hide his face i rest on his unchanging grace [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] yes [Applause] [Music] christos [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] stand before [Music] actually receive this blessing blessing may the lord bless you and keep you may the lord shine his face on you and be gracious unto you may the lord look upon you a favor and give you his peace in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit amen thank you for being part of today uh let's go out there let's let's lean into this week and let's see what kind of guy size things he's got in store for us this week thanks for coming we'll see you here next week have a great week