Sunday Worship: Power Explained

Okay, good morning, guys. Good morning, morning. Just making sure I knew where all my kids were. This morning, as we begin our time of worship, we're going to be, Braden's going to be talking about the Holy Spirit and the helper that God has given us to get through this life, and I wanted to read a verse from our psalm that we're going to be reading together today. It's from Psalm 16, verse 1 and 2. It says, "Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. I have no good apart from you." And that's a pretty powerful sentence that we have no good apart from the Lord when you think about things in our life that that pretty much overtake our time with the Lord and how we kind of push sometimes Him to the side while we do what we need to do.

But when we're with the Lord and we're walking with Him, even in the bad times, we have good things. And what an encouragement it is that with Him, we're never alone and that He's always made sure we've never been alone. And you can see in the Old Testament, He was always with the Israelites, even in the midst of being in the desert for years. One of the verses I read this week about with my daily reading was, "They never ran out of food and their feet never swelled." And if you've ever had your feet swollen, it hurts really bad. And so, He's always with us and He takes care of even the things we don't even think about. And that idea of never being alone when we follow Him gives us such hope from the moment we're born, even to death, He's with us.

If we're following Christ, there's never a moment where He's not with us. And I can remember, it's been almost six years now, being in the room when my grandmother passed away. And it's a pretty terrible thing, death, your grandma passing away, but the hope and the peace that was in that room because of her life that she followed Christ and knowing the security she had in the Lord. And she knew, like she lived, "I have no good apart from you." And it was such an encouragement to me, even in a difficult time like that. So as we go through our worship today, through our song, through our singing and our reading together, I just want us to kind of focus on how God is always close to us. He's always near to us, even in times when it doesn't feel like it. And so if we want to go ahead and stand, we're going to be reading our verses together today.

If you'd like to read, that's great. If you don't, I would just ask that you just look at the words, think about them, and think about how they are. It can be an encouragement to your life. We're going to be doing Psalm 16, I believe five through eight. Yes. So, and it begins, "The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. You hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel. In the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken." This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. God, we thank you that we can gather here today. We thank you for the encouragement it is to be around other Christians and just drinking in the goodness that is you, God. And we thank you so much that you're always close to us. You never leave us. You give us help when we need it. You give us strength to get out of the pit when we need it. And you give us strength to get down the mountain when we're on top of it. And we just thank you so much for all that you've blessed us with.

I ask that you be with our service today and help it to glorify you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, so today we're doing two new songs. The first Song we're going to do is called "Graves in the Gardens." And this one I heard over the summer, and I loved it, and I've been wanting to do it here for a while. And so if you've not heard this song, that's okay. It's pretty easy to learn. The words are really good, and it just describes how God makes everything beautiful. Even death he can make beautiful. And so we're going to be doing a couple verses of that, and then our other new song we're going to be doing before communion. And it's pretty easy to learn as well. So, all right, we're going to start with this, and sing if you'd like, or just focus on the words if you want.

I searched the world, but it couldn't fill me. Man's empty praise, and treasures that fade, are never enough. Then you came along, and put me back together. And every desire is now satisfied, here in your love. Oh, there's nothing better than You. There's nothing better than You. Lord, there's nothing. Nothing is better than You.

I'm not afraid to show You my weakness, my failures and flaws. Lord, You've seen them all, and You still call me friend, because the God of the mountain is the God of the valley. And there's not a place Your mercy and grace won't find me again. Oh, there's nothing better than You. There's nothing better than You, Lord. There's nothing. Nothing is better than You. There's nothing better than You. Oh, there's nothing better than You. There's nothing better than You, Lord. There's nothing. Nothing is better than You. You turn morning to dancing. You give beauty for ashes. You turn shame into glory. You're the only one who can. You turn graves into gardens. You turn bones into armies. You turn seas into

highways. You're the only one who can. Oh, there's nothing better than you. There's nothing better than you, Lord. There's nothing. Nothing is better than you. Oh, there's nothing better than you. There's nothing better than you, Lord. There's nothing. Nothing is better than you.

Good job, everybody. The song usually has like a rock band in the back. I wish we had that, but this is good. You guys did great. So, our next song we're going to do is "Blessed Be Your Name," and then we're going to have our prayer and share time. And if you're watching online, just feel free to text the number with your prayer request that Brandon's going to have on the screen, or you can leave a comment or send us a message with that. And just be thinking about here in the congregation, if you have something you want to share with us, please do. We would love to pray together with you for that. So, we're going to sing "Blessed Be Your Name."

Blessed be your name In the land that is plentiful Where the streams of abundance flow Blessed be your name Blessed be your name When I'm found in the desert place Though I walk through the wilderness Blessed be your name Every blessing you pour out I'll turn back to praise When the darkness closes in Lord Still I will say Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be your name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be your glorious name Blessed be your name When the sun's shining down on me When the world's all as it should be Blessed be your name Blessed be your name On the road marked with suffering Though there's pain in the offering Blessed be your name Every blessing you pour out I'll turn back to praise When the darkness closes in door

Still I will say Blessed be the name Of the Lord Blessed be your name Blessed be the name Of the Lord Blessed be your glorious name You give and take away You give and take away My heart will choose to say Lord, blessed be your name You give and take away You give and take away My heart will choose to say Lord, blessed be your name Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Russell. As we move into our time of communion, if you need juice and bread, we have individual ones back there on the table. Before we sing our song, I just wanted to read something, read a prayer from Valley of Vision, one of my favorite books I bought last year. As we get started and we just want to focus our minds on the rest of our worship today, this is called A Present Salvation: Creator and Redeemer God, author of all existence, source of all blessedness, I adore thee for making me capable of knowing thee, for giving me reason and conscience, for leading me to desire thee. I praise thee for the revelation of thyself in the gospel. for thy heart as a dwelling place of pity, for thy thoughts of peace towards me, for thy patience and thy graciousness, for the vastness of thy mercy.

Thou hast moved my conscience to know how the guilty can be pardoned, the unholy sanctified, the poor enriched. May I be always amongst those who not only hear but know thee, who walk with and rejoice in thee, who take thee at thy word and find life there. Keep me always longing for a present salvation in Holy Spirit comforts and rejoicings, for spiritual graces and blessings, for help to value my duties as well as my privileges. May I cherish simplicity and godly sincerity of character. Help me to be in reality before thee as in appearance I am before men, to be religious before I profess religion, to leave the world before I enter the church. to set my affections on things above, to shun forbidden follies and vanities, to be a dispenser as well as a partaker of grace, to be prepared to bear evil as well as to do good. Oh God, make me worthy of this calling, that the name of Jesus may be glorified in me and I in Him.

And so as we move on to our next song, this is a new one, so if you want to just follow along or focus on the words, it's called "Never Once," and it's just about how God has always been with us through all of our struggles and everything in life and how we can still have joy and find that hope in Him. So we're going to sing that together and then we'll move on to our service.

Standing on this mountaintop, looking just how far we've come, knowing that for every step you were with us. Kneeling on this battleground, seeing just how much you've done, knowing every victory is your power in us. Scars and struggles on the way, but with joy our hearts can say, "Yes, our hearts can say." Never once did we ever walk alone. Never once did you leave us on our own. You are faithful, God, You are faithful. Kneeling on this battleground, seeing just how much You've done, knowing every victory is Your power in us. Scars and struggles on the way, but with joy our hearts can say, Yes, our hearts can say. Never once did we ever walk alone. Never once did You leave us on our own. You are faithful, God, You are faithful. You are faithful.

God, You are faithful. Skies and struggles on the way, but with joy our hearts can say. Never once did we ever walk alone. Carried by Your constant grace, held within Your perfect peace. Never once, no, we never walk alone. Never once did we ever walk alone. Never once did You leave us on our own. You are faithful, God, You are faithful. God, You are faithful. Every step, we are breathing in Your grace. Evermore, we'll be breathing out Your praise. You are faithful, God, You are faithful. You are faithful, God, You are faithful. You are faithful, God, You are faithful. You are faithful, God, You are faithful. You are faithful, God, You are faithful.

One of the things that Jesus says that brings, I think, great comfort to us is found in Matthew, the 11th chapter. He'll say this, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Sometimes when we're getting ready for dinner, it is exhausting. You're trying to wrangle three children, you're trying to cook food, and my personal struggle is trying to get all the food done at the same time, you know, so your vegetables aren't done an hour before your meat is done, and so we're running around and we're trying to get the table set, we're trying to get the kids wrangled, and meals for us can be exhausting. However, when we go eat

with somebody else, right, it always tastes better, because we didn't have to make it, right? Rachel and I were talking about this the other day, I said, "Why does salad always taste better when somebody else cuts up all the vegetables and makes it?" Right? And part of it is that we come to that meal, and we get a break, right? We get some rest. One of the things that I love about gathering together with God's people around this table is this is not a meal that you have to make. This is not a meal that you have to make. It's not a meal that I have to make. That Jesus invites us to this table with his work in redeeming us completed. As he said on the cross, it is finished. And this meal for God's people is an invitation to rest in the finished work of Jesus. And the fact that he gave his body for our sins, that he gave his blood.

To bring us into fellowship with him. And so we come, and maybe we're tired, and maybe we're frustrated, and maybe we're struggling, and so I would invite you this morning to consider the gospel. That Jesus died in your place for your sins, that he rose again for your victory. That one day he is returning to make all things new. And that this would be a meal for us of rest. I'm going to pray and then we'll read a little Scripture together, and we will gather together around the table. Father, thank you for allowing us these moments. May this nourish us deeply. May it refresh our souls. May you give us strength and hope. May you remind us of the sacrifice of Jesus, of the cross, and of the nails, and of the anguish, and the price that was paid for our sins.

And may you help us to see that salvation clearly and rejoice in it deeply. I thank you for Jesus. I thank you for grace. I ask that you bless this bread. I ask that you bless this cup. May we be a church who proclaim your son until he comes again. Paul will say, "What I received from the Lord, I also delivered to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and he said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, he took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." And then he will say, "As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."

Starting in verse 14, "But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, 'Men of Judea, and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And in the last days it shall be," God declares, "that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." Even on my male servants and female servants, in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood.

Before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day, and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your word. Thank you for your prophets. Thank you for your apostles who teach us and encourage us and strengthen us. So help us this morning as we look at the beginning of Peter's sermon, as we look at this prophecy from Joel, that you would teach us, that you would encourage us, that you would help us to see your goodness. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So there are some things, as a parent, that grab our attention. So one of those things, and you wouldn't think this would be the

case, but when your kids are too quiet, right? You're sitting in the living room, and it's like, wait a minute, I'm not hearing anything, right? It's quiet, but it's too quiet. And then there are times when you hear a crash followed by somebody going, oh, it's okay, it's okay, don't come in here, right? And that immediately gets your attention. Or you hear one of your kids say, don't worry, I'm not going to tell mom, right? That also gets your attention. It was, I guess, last summer I was sitting in my office, downstairs here at the church, and I heard this gigantic boom, and then all the power went out. And so what did I do? I walked outside to check it out, and Rachel walks outside, and one of our neighbors over here walks outside, right? The big noise got our attention. Turned out our

neighborhood squirrels decided that they wanted to be crispified, and it grabbed our attention, right? That noise grabs everybody's attention. What you find in the beginning of Acts 2 is it begins with this attention-grabbing event. It says, "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting." And then down in verse 6, "At this sound the multitude came, and they were bewildered, because each one of them was hearing them speak in their own language." And so you're outside, and you hear this giant noise, and you go, "What's that?" Just like when you hear the boom, or when you hear your kids say, "No need to tell mom about that." And so you go and investigate, and that's what these people in Jerusalem

do. You come out for a look, and they begin to hear people telling the mighty works of God, and this is the remarkable part, in their own language, right? They didn't need a translator. They didn't have to wait for somebody to tell them what was being said, but all of these people from all of these different places, through the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit, get to hear the good news of the gospel in their own language. Now there's two responses to this event that we pick up at the end of verse 12 and verse 13, right? There's some people who are interested, and it says they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" So there's people who are curious, and they're hearing this noise, they're hearing this sermon, and they're going, "What about

this?" And they want to investigate further. And then there's a group that are sort of mocking and dismissive. And in verse 13 we hear this, "But others mocking said they are filled with new wine." Now, this is not really an honest critique, to look at what's happening and say, "These guys are just a bunch of drunks." Because being drunk doesn't grant you the ability to speak in a new and understandable language, right? And more so, these guys are Galileans. They're not super educated. In fact, in 2:7 it says, "They were amazed and astonished, saying, "Are not all these who are speaking are Galileans?" And so these mockers, they're not being honest in their critique. And so what Peter is going to do is he's going to stand up in front of this gathered crowd from all of

these different nations and places, and he's going to proclaim the good news, and he's going to do so in a wonderful and powerful way. And what he's going to do is he's going to inform the interested, those people who have questions, he's going to establish a foundation and answer those questions. To those people who are mockers, he's going to respond and defend what is happening. And for us, he's going to encourage us and strengthen us as he unpacks what it means to have the gift of the Holy Spirit. So look at what he says, "But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them. Men of Judea, all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you. Give ear to my words, for these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the

day." Now on the surface, right, this doesn't seem like a great defense. Well, it's too early in the morning to be drunk, right, because we might know people or have heard of people who like nine in the morning is not too early. I remember several years ago, we were outside, and there was a gentleman who would occasionally come by and want me to give him a ride. And one of the last times I gave him a ride, I realized that his Sprite can was actually just filled with wild turkey. And I was like, "Well, I'm not real comfortable with that." So he shows up, and he was wanting me to do something, and I looked at him, and I said, "You've been drinking?" And he goes, "Who are you to judge?" And I said, "Well, first of all, it's 10 o'clock in the

morning, right?" So this doesn't seem like a great defense by Peter to go, "Well, it's too early in the morning." So just like in our day, there are some cultural taboos about day-drinking, right? And in Jesus's time, these taboos were even stronger, right? So we know that that's probably unacceptable in our day, at 9 o'clock in the morning. In Jesus's day, it was even stronger. But more than that, this is a feast day. And so what would happen is the Jewish people would fast until the feast begins. And the feast has not yet began, and so everybody has been fasting. Even the guys who really like to party have been fasting. Now, if this has been two or three hours into the feast, it might be a different scenario. But the feast hasn't started. So what Peter's

gonna do, his argument sort of has two parts to the mockers. One is that the feast hasn't started, and then secondly, through his explanation of the Old Testament prophecy from Joel and from Psalms, what he's gonna do is present this sort of cogent logical argument that makes it obvious that these people are not out of their minds. And so he's going to say in verse 16, "This is what is uttered through the prophet Joel." And so in order to understand what is happening, you have to see it through the lens of biblical prophecy. And so what he's going to do is build a foundation under these events to show that this is not ridiculous, but rather it's a remarkable gift, and it's a wonderful promise of God being fulfilled. For us as Christians, I think this is a text that we often take for granted. You

know, when we round something a whole lot, we take it for granted. So growing up, Mom would cook dinner just about every night, and never really thought about it. I went to college, went to the cafeteria, and was like, this is not nearly as good as eating at home, and I began to appreciate Mom a whole lot more. And then there was a week where we had some time off from school, and I didn't realize this being a freshman, but the cafeteria closed. And because I was in between paychecks at my job, and I was a college student who made really terrible financial decisions, I was like, alright, I've got 239, let's go get like six packs of ramen. And then I appreciated the cafeteria, and my mom even more, right? Because I had become

so familiar with all of the good things she had done, right, I didn't think about it very much. Christians, we tend to approach this passage in Acts chapter 2 the same exact way, right? We've heard it, we've been around it, we know it, we think we understand it, and so we just sort of say, "Well, that's great for them, but what about me?" And this is a passage that not only for that audience, defends and explains the events, but for us as Christians, encourages and strengthens us in the power of the Spirit. And so the first thing that we see is that God is keeping a promise. Peter begins his explanation by going back to the prophet Joel. And I don't know how familiar you are with the prophet Joel, but the book starts out pretty dark, talking

about the judgment of God and the struggles that the people would face. In fact, I'll just give you one example from Joel 1:4. He'll say this. He talks about a plague of locusts. "What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. And what the swarming locust has left, the hopping locust has eaten. And what the hopping locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten." Right? So that's some cheerful stuff, right? You're going to get this locust, it's going to destroy everything. And then whatever's left, this next locust is going to come on, and then this next locust. And I don't even want to think about the destruction locust, right, who just gets everything that's left. It's not cheerful, and it's a beginning about the judgment of God. And what God will do is he will call his people to repentance, and

he will promise them what he will do. And this promise that Joel makes is fulfilled ultimately in the gift of the Holy Spirit. And just as this promise for those who had heard of the judgment of God in Joel chapter 1 and most of chapter 2, as they hear about how he will restore and renew, it brings them hope. So for us, when we hear that God keeps his promises and he has fulfilled it, it's even more wonderful for us. The gift that God pours out is generous. One of the hardest things is to share food with your kids because they think it's all there. So Luke had something the other day. We were sitting at the table and he was sitting in my lap. And I go, "Hey, can I have a bite?" And he goes, "Okay." And he puts his

hand out with a piece of food and I go to take a bite. You know what he does? "Yup." And then he's like, "Hold it out. I go take a bite." And he goes, "Nope." Right? Sharing food with kids, oftentimes not very generous. Twice in this passage in Acts, in our text, we find this phrase, "Pour out." In verse 17, "In the last days it shall be," God declares, "That I will pour out my spirit on all flesh." In those days I will pour out my spirit. Now the picture of this phrase is not sort of a controlled pour, like when we put milk into a cereal bowl or water into a cup. The picture here is not a sprinkle. It's not a rain shower. The picture here is like a tropical monsoon where it rains and it pours and it keeps going and going and going. This is a massive deluge of

water, the picture here. And when we talk about the gift of the Spirit, God's not just going, "Well, here, have a little bite." Nope. Have a little bite. Nope. Or let me pour this gently into this thing. It's God just pouring out His Spirit in a tropical rainstorm on His people. Additionally, there's sort of a finality to what is happening. And the way this word is used in Greek, there's a picture of the pouring. This is poured out and not gathered up. And so we understand this a little bit because there's some things that when we dump out, we can pick up, right? So we can dump out. The kids dump out all their Legos, right? They have to go and pick them out. When they dump the gallon of milk on the floor, right? There's no picking that up,

right? It's just like, that's done. It's gone. And the picture here of God pouring out His Spirit is that He's not just going to pour it out, and then in a moment, pick it up and take it away. In fact, you see that in the Old Testament. God's Spirit would fall on His people and His prophets and His kings, and then it wouldn't stay with them. But the picture here of this pouring out is that God's Spirit is being poured out, and that it's poured out to stay on God's people. It says, "God's Spirit would be present for the last days." And what we mean when we talk about last days is those times between when Jesus ascends into heaven and when Jesus returns. So when Peter talks about the last days, biblically, what he's talking about is

that time from the time that Jesus ascended into heaven until the time that He descends in judgment. And so this period of time is the time that they lived in, and it's the time that you and I live in. And what is wonderful about this gift is that it's not only generous, that it's without regard for outward status. We're familiar with different restrictions. So for example, I remember once we went to the amusement park, the Great Escape when we were growing up, and I think now it's like Six Flags Great Escape or something, but I remember all the cool rides, right? It's like you have to be this tall, and I was this tall. I was like maybe if I stand on my tiptoes, right? There was some external qualifications in order to participate. Notice what it says here about this. "In the last days it shall be," God declares, "that I will pour

out my spirit on what? All flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my male servants and my female servants, in those days I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy." Right? Without regard to gender, without regard to age, young men, old men, without regard to social class, talking about servants, and as we'll see moving through the books of Acts, it's Samaritans, it's Gentiles, it's the Jewish, it's men, it's women, that God gives his spirit generously, and he gives it without regard to outward status. Now, inward status is a little bit different, right? God gives this specifically to those who follow him. But if you are a follower of Christ, it doesn't matter if you are a man, or a woman, or young, or old, or where

you're from, your background, or your social status, God pours out his spirit. And the purpose of pouring out the spirit is the declaration of good news about Jesus. So notice he uses three words: vision, dreams, and prophecies. And that's three ways of kind of saying the same thing. When we hear prophecy, and we'll focus on that one, because that's probably more familiar to us, it can mean different things throughout Scripture. So prophecy, in some cases, it means talking about the future. So when Joel prophesies that in those last days, he's talking about an event that would happen in the future, and most of us, when we hear prophecy, we think events in the future. But prophecy is broader than that. For example, in Israel, a prophet could be a job, or we would say that it is a specific

role, or an office, like prophet, priest, and king. What do you do? Well, I'm a prophet of God. And what that means is not that you just spoke about the future, but you also spoke God's truth to God's people. And so Old Testament prophets confront God's people with God's truth. And so prophecy, sometimes it means talking about the future, sometimes it means a specific office, or role, or job in God's plan. And then in its most general meaning, it simply means this: declaring the truth about God. So in Acts 2:11, as the gift of tongues falls upon the disciples of Jesus, what does it say? They are declaring the mighty works of God. Martin Luther says it this way: "The knowledge of God through Christ, which the Holy Spirit kindles and makes burn through the word of the gospel, that you take this knowledge, and the

Holy Spirit lights it on fire, and it just flows out of you, just like a campfire lights up the darkness, that this prophecy is God's people lighting up the darkness through the truth about God, which they share, because they are empowered and encouraged and strengthened by the Spirit of God to witness in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of earth to tell what God has done. What you find is this gift of the Spirit is generous. It's without regard to social standing or gender or age. It has to do with following Jesus. It has to do with declaring the truth about Jesus. And for us, I think this is a wonderful thing. One of the things that you see very clearly as you begin in the Old Testament is that man is separated from God,

and that separation is so clearly enforced. If you remember in Genesis chapter 3, after Adam and Eve sinned, what does it say? They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And what happens? The man and the woman hid themselves from God. Because of their shame and their fear, they separate themselves from God. And what you find is that sinful man cannot stand in the midst and in the presence of a holy and almighty God at Mount Sinai when God descends in His glory. In Exodus chapter 20, it will say this, "Now all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, and the people were afraid, and they were trembled, and they stood far off, and they said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us, lest

we die." So Adam and Eve, they hide the Israelites at the base of the mountain as God descends in His glory, and they're just seeing a shadow of this glory and hearing a shadow of this glory and this might. What do they do? They say, "We don't want any part of that." Right? "Moses, you go and be our intermediary." Samson's parents, as they see the angel of the Lord in Judges 13, Manoah will say to his wife, "Surely we shall die, for we have seen God." And Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 5, they'll say, "Woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." And so as Isaiah beholds the glory of God, he says, "I can't

do it! I can't be in the same place! Woe is me!" And Hebrews will talk about the priestly work in the temple, saying, "These preparations having been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but only into the second, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, taking without, not without taking blood which he offers for himself for the unintentional sins of the people. But by this, the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy place had not yet opened as long as the first section was still standing." You see, the temple was separated into sections. So in the outer outer court, anybody could go and worship at the temple. And then you go in one court, and that's where the women were allowed to worship. You went in one more court, men were allowed

to worship. You went in one more court, the priests were allowed, and Levites were allowed to worship. You go into the temple proper, only the priests allowed to work there, and into the holy place to stand in the presence of God, only the high priest, and only once a year. And to imagine that in our context, that you come to church, and you pull up in the road, and somebody says, "Well, where were you born?" "Well, I was born in New York." "All right, well, you can worship in the road." Somebody pulls in, "Well, where were you born?" "I was born in Virginia." "All right?" "You're a lady, you can worship in the parking lot." "You're a man, you can come up to the front steps." "You work for the church, you can come up on

the front steps." But only one person, right? There was a separation, and it was a separation because mankind could not stand in the holiness of God. And what Hebrews says is that's no longer the case, because those things have been done away with. And because of the gift of the Spirit, you and I are no longer separated because of what Jesus has done on the cross, God's Spirit now dwells within us. Paul will call us the temple of the Holy Spirit. And the picture for those of us who are Christians right now is that we are not alone, that we are not unequipped, that we do not have to be fearful, because the Spirit of God dwells within us to strengthen us, to encourage us, to help us declare the goodness and the truth about God. Hard things are made so much easier when we are not alone.

You see, the gift of the Spirit is a wonderful promise. And in Acts 2, we see its reality. And Peter will speak of receiving that gift in terms of those who come to Jesus a little later in this chapter. This is intended to be for us encouraging, but it's also a little bit sobering. Because in verse 19, it says, "I will show you wonders in the heavens above, and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor and smoke, and the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." And what you see is that God's judgment is a reality. Just as the gift of the Spirit and the fulfillment of prophecy is a reality, so is the judgment of

Almighty God. And these words call us backwards, right? To the cross where Jesus dies, where he takes the wrath of God, and the sun stops shining, and the earth starts shaking. But it also points us forward to the final judgment. In Matthew, the 24th chapter, Jesus will say some of these exact words in regards to what will happen when the final judgment comes. You see, this is incredibly encouraging. But it's also sobering, because God's judgment is a reality. And what this is for us as Christians is a call to share the good news of the gospel. That Jesus has saved us from our sins. That we don't have to hide. We don't have to be separated. We don't have to stand outside the temple. But rather that we can come in, not as servants, but as sons and daughters. That we are welcomed into the family of God with hope and a

future and an eternity with Him. It's a reminder that the invitation to call upon the name of the Lord is a serious one. And so if you have questions, I would encourage you, as Peter does, to encourage these people to dig deep into the truth of Christianity. God can answer your questions. He can handle your questions. There's no problems with answering questions. God wants to explain His truth to you. Maybe, like some of these people in Acts 2, you're skeptic. Examine the logic of your skepticism. Ask the questions. Look at the truth. For Christians, be encouraged, be energized by realizing that you do not walk through this life alone. Let's pray. Father, I thank You for Your Word, for Your church. I thank You for the gift of Your Spirit. May we not try to walk through this life on our own, in our own strength, in our own abilities, but may we depend

on You. May we speak the truth about who You are and what You have done with courage and with power and with strength. Encourage our hearts. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let's stand and sing our closing song.

Come, Thou fount of every blessing. Tune my heart to sing Thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing. Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above. Praise Thy mountain fixed upon it, mount of Thy redeeming love. Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I'm come. And I hope I, Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God, He to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.

Oh, to grace, how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be. Let Thy grace, Lord, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, Lord. Take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above. I want to thank you for joining us this morning, whether you are joining us here in person or online. We are so thankful that you are here. You are a great encouragement to us. Coming up this week, on Monday, we've been doing Monday Psalms. We're just walking through the book of Psalms. Just kind of very briefly, about five minutes or so, which on some of these Psalms is kind of hard to limit to that point. The hour will be in the fourth Psalm. You can find those on Facebook. They post about six o'clock in the morning, but they're there all day, on our YouTube channel, and also on our website, collegeparkcc.com.

So we'd encourage you just to spend some time in the hymn book and the prayer book of God's people as you begin your week. Also, this Wednesday night, 7:00 p.m., we will be here for Bible study. We are going through the parables of Jesus, beginning some parables about judgment. So you have workers in the vineyard. You have some of these parables that Jesus is calling people to repentance. So if you would like to read ahead for those parables, there is a handout on the back table, and I just encourage you to pick one of those up and kind of read through it. And we'll be here both in person and online Wednesday night. Go ahead and have a word of prayer, and we'll sing the doxology and be dismissed. Father in heaven, we thank you so much for all the good that you have done for us.

We thank you for the love that you have shown to us. We thank you for your spirit that in these last days you have poured out upon us. Help us to speak your truth boldly and gracefully and with strength and power. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen. Amen. God bless you.