This past weekend we continued our series in Acts, this time journeying into the story of Pentecost in Acts 2. Pentecost marks the time in the history of Jesus' Church that he sent the Holy Spirit to us.
From John's sermon, the Holy Spirit inspires several different things in us:
- the freedom to be authentic with people
- the power to love people differently
- the mission to reach the lost by all means necessary
- the illumination of Scripture
God blessed us with the opportunity to tell the story of the Holy Spirit by telling the story of Dave Koob, now a member of the Waterloo campus, and how he came to Christ this past year. In fact, scattered in segments throughout John's sermon were video clips of Dave's story. Matt Miller, our Created Video Director, did a wonderful job of shooting and editing Dave's story, and our technical teams did a fabulous job of weaving in and out of John's live sermon and Dave's video. What a powerful, powerful way to tell the story of how the Holy Spirit changes lives.
On a side note: Dave's story was so good, and John felt he had so much to tell about the Holy Spirit, that we're having to make a mid-course correction and split this message into two parts. We'll see the rest of Dave's story and hear the rest from Acts 2 this coming weekend.
John ended the weekend with a challenge: to intentionally and deliberately create space for the Holy Spirit to speak to you. He illustrated this with a part of Dave's story where Dave got quiet, turned the cell phone off, embraced silence, and started to listen to God. In Dave's words, here's how he recounted what God said: "I love you, I love you, I love you."
We created space for people to do the same by playing some instrumental music, and then singing part of Hillsong's "Fire Fall Down." Give it a listen sometime this week as you read the story below.
On a side note: Dave's story was so good, and John felt he had so much to tell about the Holy Spirit, that we're having to make a mid-course correction and split this message into two parts. We'll see the rest of Dave's story and hear the rest from Acts 2 this coming weekend.
John ended the weekend with a challenge: to intentionally and deliberately create space for the Holy Spirit to speak to you. He illustrated this with a part of Dave's story where Dave got quiet, turned the cell phone off, embraced silence, and started to listen to God. In Dave's words, here's how he recounted what God said: "I love you, I love you, I love you."
We created space for people to do the same by playing some instrumental music, and then singing part of Hillsong's "Fire Fall Down." Give it a listen sometime this week as you read the story below.
I had someone from the Cedar Falls campus run up the stairs on to the stage after the 11:00 a.m. service, kids in tow, and grab my arm as I was tearing down the stage. His name is Mike. He simply had to tell me what happened to him earlier this summer as he was fishing in Canada with his dad.
There they were in the middle of nowhere, out on a boat in the middle of the lake on a beautiful day. All of a sudden, he insisted that they shut of the motor and just sit and listen. Mike couldn't explain why. He just felt compelled to be silent, and for everyone else to do the same.
So they did. They cut the motor. The boat drifted silently along the water. And has the silence grew, here's what Mike said that he heard: God, speaking to him, revealing himself to him. In Mike's words, here's what God said:
"Mike. Look. Look around you. Look at this. I created this. It's beautiful. And I'm here, right here, out in the middle of nowhere, right with you."
Mike was tearing up as he was telling me this. It was a moment that crept up on him, took him by surprise, and made a very deep part of him alive. I resonated with him. Here's why:
It wasn't the most complex theological truth that God revealed to Mike that day. He didn't answer Mike's biggest question. He didn't solve any specific problem that Mike was wrestling with. In fact, he wasn't even responding to some sort of specific request that Mike had made or meet a need that Mike was praying about.
What God did was this: he reminded Mike that he was real. Apart from any prayer, apart from any song, apart from any program, apart from any request, apart from any initiation on Mike's part, apart from any manipulation or need, apart from any devotional practice, God is.
It's those types of encounters with God that our souls sorely need. We need God to creep up on each of us. We need to encounter him in a way that isn't initiated or controlled by us. Our hearts need to be reminded that God is, apart from us, good, and revealing himself to us.
Will you create some space for God, through the power of his Holy Spirit, to do that to you this week?
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