Upon All Flesh | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson

remain standing just for a moment i want to invite your attention to the book of joel chapter 2 and verse 28 probably one of our very favorite and well-known scriptures in the old testament wow so good what a what a great crowd that is in this place today i see so many guests that are here and i too want to welcome you thank you for making this your place of worship we know that you didn't come to see a choir come to here but you came to worship today and boy that is so that is so nice and we sure appreciate you making this making this your place of worship amen i miss our senior pastor and first lady they are ministering in florida this weekend and they're going to be on their way back very shortly back for wednesday night but i'm so thankful amen for their ministry across this nation across this world amen they're leading a great organization that we're a part of and i'm so thankful that they have the opportunity amen to lead in that fashion well joel two and twenty eight and i do i saw i saw ministry in the house and i'm so glad uh thank you i saw some pastors and i think i saw an evangelist as well thank you all amen also for being here at first apostolic we we counted an honor when we have visiting pastors in ministry here at first apostolic joel 2 and 28 simply says and it shall come to pass afterward peter i like what peter says because peter kind of brought it into his day he says it'll come to pass in the last days that i will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and those last three words are simply my title this morning i i couldn't come up with anything greater than what i had brother dale put on the screen today because simply this is a revelatory thought that our god is pouring out his spirit not on just a certain people a certain nation or a certain time but he's pouring his spirit out upon us today anybody thankful for that today come on let us just lift up both hands and let's just give him vocal worship right here without lyrics to a song come on let's just give them i hear you give them vocal worship god i'm so thankful for your spirit in the church today i'm so thankful lord god that you're still moving lord god that you're still doing great and mighty things lord miracles signs and wonders are still taking place in your church today because your spirit is alive your spirit is at work your spirit is ministering and i'm so thankful it has been poured out upon all flesh lord god i believe today and i want you to help me church pray this prayer god i believe today that souls are going to be filled with your spirit in this altar service i i believe if there is a response to your word preached today father there's going to be people in this altar that for the very first time they're going to receive a gift they've never received before they're going to receive a promise they've never received before and lord it's going to change their lives for all eternity if you believe that clap your hands in this place if you believe it to say i believe come on somebody say i believe in jesus name amen and amen you may be seated and i know already we have we have at least three uh at least three that are about to go down in the water in jesus name this morning at least three i believe there's gonna be more but at least three have made the decision to obey the word of god well it couldn't happen on a better day because god has given me a message i believe i believe that is really it's really going to help those that are here today that may not quite understand what we're going to do at the end of our service this morning the day of pentecost man how many are grateful for the day of pentecost anybody grateful for the book of acts acts chapter 1 acts chapter 2 i'm i'm thankful for for the day of pentecost and i i know it must have been an absolutely amazing time and i want you to think with me and i i'm not so much referring to the 3000 that obeyed uh the preaching of peter that repented and were baptized in jesus name and filled with the holy ghost although i do want to say that in my lifetime i sure want to see 3 000 filled in one day wouldn't that be awesome to see i i think we've had this church i think one one service we had 19 or 20 or maybe i think maybe 21 might be the record that we had uh filled with the holy ghost in one service but what about 3 000 how amazing would that be i know maybe brother naomi you've probably seen in the philippines i know in four nations i know where they have tens of thousands in attendance it's not a not a huge deal for 3 000 to get filled during a crusade or a conference but i believe that same power can fall right here in the united states of america it can it can happen right here it doesn't have to happen overseas we don't have to hear about it i believe we can experience it somebody shout amen i'm sure that was amazing but what i really feel is mind-blowing was the 120 disciples of jesus that were waiting on the promise in the upper room not many days before matter of fact about 10 days prior jesus had ascended into heaven you you know the story that the gospels end and and acts begins with with jesus giving the great commission and and jesus uh telling his disciples his apostles his followers there's probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 that were standing there and before before jesus defeated the law of gravity and that would have been awesome to see too i mean we're talking about this was before planes trains and automobiles right and all of a sudden jesus just starts ascending up into heaven i i can only imagine the awe of those that were there but but even before he did that he he said in in john 14 16 i want to read this he said and i will pray the father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever y'all see that right there even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him right here for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you jesus said i will not leave you comfortless he said i'm going to come back to you you're about to find out luke 24 45 another counselors then open he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures and he said unto them thus it is written and thus it behoove christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins we're about to do that in just a few minutes should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at jerusalem and ye are witnesses of these things and behold here it is i send the promise of my father upon you but terry wait in the city of jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high now i'm getting a little excited because i know where i'm going with this and most of you probably don't really know where i'm going this quite yet but we we commonly say that the 120 waiting in the upper room for the promise of the father they didn't know what the promise was we i've preached that i've said that but that's not that's not entirely a true statement because they may not have known what the evidence would be of the promise they may not have realized that they would begin to speak in another tongue however they did understand what it meant to have the spirit of god fall upon somebody or they understood what it meant to have somebody filled with the spirit or have the spirit be put upon set upon them matter of fact in the in the jewish teachings the jewish people living in the time of jesus we're very familiar with the torah the first five books of the old testament and and many of them could recite maybe they could recite the torah they kind of put you in the mind of bible quizzing they they could recite chapter and verse and and they can recite the books of the torah and then there's the dead sea scrolls that were discovered a collection of biblical texts and and it was found that in the first century it was proven through the dead sea scrolls that even the old testament as we know it existed in the first century when jesus walked the earth so these people uh these jews if you will these people of god if you will they knew the prophecies they they knew the stories of the old testament they knew the prophets and the kings they they understood the priest of old they knew about joel the prophet even in our text that we read they read that same scripture when they would read the text in the synagogues they understood that there was coming a day when god's spirit would be poured out upon all flesh however you got to understand that that prophecy was given over 800 years prior 800 years is a long time and you got to imagine that probably the people that were living in jesus day we're thinking themselves you know it was prophesied over 800 years ago surely it's coming but surely it's not for us it's kind of how we feel about the rapture sometimes right we believe it's coming but but it's going to be some it's going to be our kids kids kids right and i got to believe that that's kind of how they felt even in jesus day that that i we've heard about joel and we've heard about this spirit that's going to be poured out upon all flesh but surely it's not gonna take place in our lifetime but it's important to observe i'm gonna i'm gonna kind of build on that thought right there but it's important to observe that in the old testament the spirit of god wasn't revealed in a universal way he didn't indwell everyone instead the spirit would come upon or or fill specific people for a specific purpose follow me with this the the story of the great deliverer the story of the great redeemer moses we read numbers chapter 11 where the lord makes reference to the spirit of god that rested on moses this is look at this with me in 11 25. it says and the lord came down in a cloud and spake unto him and took of the spirit that was upon him and gave it unto the seventy elders and it came to pass that when the spirit rested upon them they prophesied that sounds familiar the spirit that rested upon moses was the key to his relationship with god you see remember the israelites remember them worshiping the golden calf remember that that golden catheter and said just this kind of somehow came up out of the fire they they put gold in the fire and air in the way he kind of told the story it sounds like this calf just kind of fell out of the fire and and here they are the people they're taking their their clothes off and they're dancing before this calf and and i got to study about this and and they actually began to worship the calf and call it yahweh you kind of wonder why god was furious you wonder why moses was furious when when he came off the mountain and he brought the law and he heard the people worshiping and he comes to see the people as they're bowing down before an image and not only bowing before an image but they're praying unto yahweh and they're naked without clothes and i don't know about you but i would not want to face the anger that must have been with our god because god just told moses said you know what i'm going to do i'm going to kill every one of them i'm going to kill them all matter of fact he told moses he said i'll say what i'm going to do i'm going to kill them all and no longer will there be israelites i'm going to take your seed moses and i'm going to start all over again it's going to be kind of like noah where he just took he said okay everybody out of the pool we're going to start this thing all over again and moses and your eight we're going to he said he said no he said he said moses he said i'm gonna do the same thing i did with noah i'm gonna do with you and here we have as moses is pleading with god and saying god come on you can't do this to these people you brought them out of slavery you brought him through the red sea you brought him out of so much he starts talking about there's the nations that are watching there's nations that are taking notice and if you kill all your people the people of all this world are going to think that you're some god you're some god that doesn't have love and you're some god that doesn't care and i'm paraphrasing but but god finally the bible says he repents or he changes his mode of action he says okay he says i'll tell you what i'm not gonna kill them all but i'll tell you what i'm gonna do i'm not gonna go with you any longer it's not gonna be my my presence or my spirit that leads you into the promised land he said i'm gonna send an angel to lead you and moses said oh no god moses said no god if you don't lead us we don't wanna go if you won't be with us we're gonna stay right here if you're present listen i i don't know about you but being a part of an apostolic church if we don't have the presence of god leading us in the presence of god guiding us we can no longer call ourselves apostolic i wish somebody would help me today because i'm watching churches and i'm watching congregations as they're getting so programmed that the spirit of god is no longer leading them the spirit of god is no longer guiding them now they have good music and they've got good services and everything's organized and they've got good programs going on in their churches but the spirit of god is not among them and they might be happy doing that but i'm like moses and i say god if your spirit is not with us i don't want to go you say what about the promised land we've been promised a promised land don't what does it matter if god goes or not as long as he gets you to the promised land what else could matter i'll tell you what else could matter because they're going to need god even in the promised land they're going to fight against giants and they're going to have walled cities they're going to have to overtake there's a whole lot of battles they're going to have to fight and unless they have the power of god with them moses said i'll just stay here and we'll just stay in the wilderness because your presence is required for us to move on somebody said amen and god once again he changed his mode of operation and i i love this because we see the pillar of fire by night in the cloud the cloud the pillar of cloud by day and that represented the spirit of god it was a very thing matter of fact it's awesome because we have moses and and we have that same cloud it was like a pillar just just a rose up in the air and then we had that same cloud as it fell into the tabernacle and spoke with moses matter of fact i want you to see this right here in exodus 33-8 i want you to see how the spirit of god it was much more than just leadership ability or power that moses had he had a relationship with god that nobody else had that walked with him that nobody else had that followed him in exodus 33 and 8 it says and it came to pass when moses went out under the tabernacle that all the people rose up and stood every man at his tent door and looked after moses until he was gone into the tabernacle now let me stop right here this is not uh the tabernacle uh that we know of with the with with the with the altar and the laver and the candlestick this is not the same tabernacle this was before that time this was simply a a tent that moses had erected outside the camp it was a tent of worship it was a place where he went to worship his god and so here we have in verse nine nine says and it came to pass as moses entered into the tabernacle the cloudy pillar descended i want you to imagine this in your mind's eye and stood at the door of the tabernacle and the lord talked with moses and all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door and all the people rose up and worshiped every man in his tent door and the lord spake unto moses face to face y'all see that as a man speaketh unto his friend that's what kind of relationship i want with my god not a relationship that says i i'm just gonna i'm just gonna come to church and see what i can get out of church i'm gonna pray on sundays and wednesdays you know when we have pre-service prayer that's not the kind of relationship i want to have with god i want the kind of relationship that moses had where he stepped up into his own place that he had built for god that he was going to worship his god in and as he walks into his own tent that he builds the spirit of god or the representation of god it was a manifestation of god his spirit came down and spoke to moses face to face that's a living life in the spirit right there that's living life in the spirit when you can communicate and commune with your god and when your god tells you something and you can beg him and pray to him and your god would be willing to change what his future is just so he can please you as a friend the entire theme of the old testament was oh that i might know god oh that i might find god oh that i might experience god and it was just a very few of the elite that actually got to have a true relationship with their god but i want to make it clear and don't lose this point i'm going to say it over and over again that when jesus began to promise that the spirit of god would be poured out not many days hence there was a great amount of anticipation because the disciples knew about moses they knew about the mighty judges of old who had the power of the spirit of god in their lives judges like gideon gideon was able to deliver israel because the spirit of god came upon him somebody said amen in judges 6 34 the bible says but the spirit of the lord came upon gideon and he blew the trumpet we realized that the midianites in the amalekites are and the bible says the children of the east all gathered together to war against the israelites oh think about this what intimidation everybody comes together to war against one nation all the nations we're talking probably over a hundred thousand some even say could be up to a quarter of a million there are so many people there are so many warriors that the bible talks about their camels were where they had so many camels you couldn't even number them you couldn't even count them like like sand on the sea and there's so many of the enemy and here's gideon and he's saying god i know we got to fight him i know we got to defend you and we got to defend our nation but how in the world is this gonna happen and he brings together 32 000 people just a fraction of what the enemy's about to bring war to and here god god looks at the 32 000 and says oh gideon it's far too many 32 thousands i can see gideon going god come on now far too many do you see what i see and god said i i need you to weed those out that have fear in their life i want you to weed those out that have that are afraid and are scared to go to battle and so sure enough here we go gideon's left with ten thousand and now he's probably thinking to himself oh my word that's about 1 on 25 you're only leaving me 10 000 and god said it's still too many because god began to speak and say if you have too many on your side then people are going to say that it was your might that won the victory and people need to realize that it has nothing to do with your might it's about my might it's about me coming down and winning this battle for you oh for the battle is not ours but it is the lord's and so finally finally here we have gideon he's going to war with only 300 men oh and the spirit of god because this is when the spirit of god comes upon him this is when he starts to feel the spirit rise up inside of him this is when he he starts to say oh my help has shown up and god begins to to instruct him how you're going to win the fight and here we are when the when the final when the final blood dropped to the ground we have gideon and we have his 300 men who have not moved out of their position but they have in their left hand a lamp and in their right hand they have a trumpet and the enemy took their own swords against one another and killed each other friendly fire they killed each other and god's people didn't have to even lift a sword all they had was a lamp in one hand and they had oh they had the trumpet in the other and i can just see us today if we truly want the spirit of god to use us and to work through us and to fight our battles for us we've got to have the light of truth in one hand and we've got to have the trumpet of worship in the other hand because if you ever put worship with truth if you ever put your worship with truth that's when the battle is won we sing the song this is how i find my battles this is how i fight my battles and i know some people that are visiting they might think they're not telling us how they fight they keep on singing this is how i fight but they're not showing us they're not telling us where's the lyrics that tell us how they fight but you missed it because when we sing their song we're in the middle of worshiping and we're simply saying this is how i find my battles this is how i find my battles it may look like i'm surrounded oh but god i'm really surrounded by you it may look like i'm surrounded but i'm surrounded by you we read in matthew 18 18 it says verily i say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven again i say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my father which is in heaven watch this for where two or three are gathered together in my name there am i in the midst of them with the name of jesus the minority becomes the majority and i know listen i know we quote this verse i i know if there's a if there if there's a lot of snow falling and only about 100 people show up to church i know we get up and say where two or three are gathered in his name i know that's what we say but that's not really in context i know we we try to help we try to encourage our our mission america pastors and we and we tried our church planters we try to encourage them and say hey you don't have to have a big crowd where two or three are gathered in his name and i know we quote that i've been i've been to youth rallies that weren't well attended and i heard that quoted but that's not really what it's talking about it's not talking about it's talking about spiritual battle that whenever you bind on earth it's gonna be bound in heaven whenever we loose on earth it's gonna be loosed in heaven if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that ye shall ask it shall be done where two or three are gathered together in his name if the spirit of god is on your side that's what it's saying it's saying get in you don't need a big army you don't need to have 200 000 to fight against two hundred thousand if the spirit of god is with you and i'm so glad in our dispensation we can say if jesus is with you that's all you need we don't need oh my gosh i feel the holy ghost in this place because i feel the devil's coming against somebody in here and you feel all alone and you feel helpless but i want you to know that greater is he that is within you than he that is in this world if you have the spirit of god if he's upon you if it's been poured out upon you if it's in your if you have jesus that's all you need we are the majority somebody clap your hands if you believe judge is like gideon judges judges like like samson and i know he doesn't carry a very good reputation but judges like samson the bible says in judges 13 25 and the spirit of the lord began to move him at times in the camp of damn between zorah and ashtol judges 14 and 6 and the spirit of the lord came mightily upon him and he rent the lion as he would have rent a young goat and he had nothing in his hand judges 15 and 14 says and when he came unto lei the philistines shouted against him and the spirit of the lord came mightily upon him and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax it was burnt with fire and his bands loose from off his hands i want you to know that samson i know he had a lot of issues he was a he-man with a sheep problem and that'll trip a lot of people up but one thing he had going for him was god had put his spirit upon him to deliver his people from the philistines and god saw samson and said i'm willing to work with you because there's a covenant there's a vow that you have and i'm willing to put my spirit now he wasn't filled i want you to realize he was not filled with the spirit of god it was just the spirit that in momentary times would come upon him and give him power to overcome impossible odds i don't have time to go in to go into all the stories of samson but just realize that with the prophets with the prophets you had you had and with the judges you had so much power that was given because the spirit of god at times would come upon them the first century synagogue worshipers heard these scriptures read about the prophets about the judges about the kings matter of fact in first samuel 10 and 1 oh they loved they loved their kings first samuel 10 and 1 samuel took a flash of oil imported on saul's head and kissed him saying has not the lord anointed you leader over his inheritance and that was another way to say that the spirit of lord the spirit of the lord that was the anointing was upon these leaders samuel explains he says in verse six he says the spirit of the lord will come upon you in power and you will prophesy with them and you will be changed into a different person as saul turned to leave samuel verse nine god changed saul's heart and all these things all these signs were fulfilled that day when they arrived at gibeah a procession of prophets met him the spirit of god came upon him in power and joined in their prophesying i don't know if you're recognizing this but there's a lot of things right here that are starting to match up with joel and i start to match up with the book of acts but that just lasted a little while because then the next king the favorite king the beloved king david in first samuel chapter 16. now the lord says samuel fill your horn with oil and be on your way i am sending you to jesse of bethlehem i have chosen one of his sons to be king and you know david's out watching sheep they can't figure out we got all the sons walking by the prophet and nobody's being anointed and finally he says do you have another son we know the story we love the story and then comes david and so we see in in verse 12 rise and anoint him he is the one so samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers and from that day on the spirit of the lord came upon david in power now the spirit verse 14 says now the spirit of the lord had departed from saul so what god simply did he said i'm taking my spirit my power i'm taking these leadership abilities that i've given you to empower my nation and lead my nation and i'm gonna take them from youthful and i'm gonna put it i'm gonna put that same spirit upon david because david is my next anointing you got to think about this it was kings it was rulers it was prophets it was it was these people who the spirit of god fell upon with the holy spirit upon him think about david david could defeat a giant with the holy spirit upon him david was one of the most incredible military geniuses with the spirit of the lord upon him david was the political genius and the excitement in here is what i've come to preach today because the excitement of the apostles and disciples that jesus told about the promise and all it was all about the fact that they understood that the same spirit that was placed upon david was going to be the same spirit that was placed inside of them the very same spirit that was placed upon samuel and it was placed upon all these great prophets and all these great leaders it was going to be placed upon them and listen david was their hero because david was led by god's spirit david did everything in his power to have a relationship with god oh can you see david as he was writing out those psalms even when david messed up even when david fell even when david committed the fornication even david he said oh god whatever you do cast cast me not away from my presence and take not thy holy spirit away from me come on do you see where i'm going with this a lot of times i know we preach the book of acts and we should we preach the book of acts about salvation and it is essential we cannot be in the kingdom of god without being born in the water and being born in the spirit but i just believe that the excitement that those disciples those apostles had was because they heard jesus say you're going to be the people that joel was prophesying about you're going to receive this very same spirit of old you only seen this very same power that everybody you've been reading about in the torah and everybody you've been reading about in the scriptures and i just believe because of that there was such excitement when the day of pentecost came but it doesn't end there because even what we consider the new testament or the beginning of the new testament which is really the end of the old testament we have stories in matthew mark luke and john that took place before the new covenant went into action several people had the same spirit that was placed upon them in this transition time matter of fact look with me mary the mother of jesus in luke chapter 1 verse 35 the angel answered and said unto her the holy ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of god and you see that the holy ghost shall come upon me elizabeth john the baptist mother luke 1 41 says and it came to pass that when elizabeth heard the salutation of mary the babe leaped in her womb and elizabeth was filled with the holy ghost now don't get confused that is not the new testament holy ghost that's the old testament spirit of god that god gave power to his people you got to get in the right timeline zechariah john the baptist father luke 167 and his father zechariah was filled with the holy ghost and prophesied saying blessed be the lord god of israel for he have visited and redeemed his people and then john the baptist himself luke 1 15 for he shall be great in the sight of the lord and shall drink neither from wine nor strong drink and he shall be filled with the holy ghost even from his mother's womb and again i want i want to preface this people go back there and say well he didn't speak in tongues he was filled the holy ghost even from birth it's not the same holy ghost it's not day of pentecost so it's old testament it's the very same type of spirit that was put on samuel the very same spirit that's put upon david that's what he was put upon john the baptist because he was the forerunner of jesus christ himself so through all the old testament the believers they can know god in some sense but only those that were blessed enough to have the spirit of god could really have an intimate relationship with him so the time when all israel will know the lord directly we'll wait until the new covenant but before we get out of the old testament there's some final prophecies that must be fulfilled the first of these is a prophecy that the holy spirit will come upon the promised messiah well let's see if that happens a descendant of david isaiah the prophet says in in chapter 11 verse 1 says and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots and the spirit of the lord shall rest upon him matthew 3 16 says in jesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the water and lo the heavens were opened up unto him and he saw the spirit of god descending like a dove and lighting or resting upon him you see this prophecy was fulfilled right here and for the sake of the audience to make sure that everybody that was present understood that this was a prophecy being fulfilled by isaiah god allowed this visible manifestation of his spirit so the prophecy could be witnessed and the prophecy could be fulfilled and then we have jesus himself in the synagogue and he reads from another prophecy of isaiah the tales of the anointed messiah and listen to me church family i would have loved to been there the day that jesus stepped up and said i've got something i need to read to everybody in this house because jesus said in isaiah 61 he quoted he said the spirit of the lord god is upon me because the lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the lord in the day of vengeance of our god to comfort all that mourn i can just see jesus and when he was done reading he just said and walked on his microphone dropped and walked off he said i'm i am he i'm the one you've been looking for for thousands of years i've been prophesied about i am he i'm here i'm here today and the exciting thing was oh this same jesus this same jesus that fulfilled all prophecy this same jesus was now promising the same spirit to be filled and to be poured out upon all people not just to the jews not just to the hebrew but he said i'm gonna pour it out upon all flesh there were there around some around 500 i said already disciples of jesus they gathered jesus brought them all up onto the mountain it was time it was time for him to leave the earth he had fulfilled his ministry on earth and and 500 followers 500 disciples of his had heard the great commission all of them heard him say go to jerusalem and wait on the promise of the father but apparently 380 didn't believe 380 must have thought the promise it's too good to be true and this is what this is what blows my mind because 380 disciples of jesus who had seen him die had seen him resurrected and then saw him ascend up into heaven i mean if you've seen those three things y'all what else do you need i'm thinking 380 people what was so important that they couldn't it was 10 days they couldn't go to jerusalem take some time off work get some paid leave i don't know could leave the kids with the grandparents i don't know and just go to jerusalem and wait you just saw a resurrected man ascend up into heaven and got lost in the clouds and there you all are looking up dazed and confused and jesus had to send some angels just to tap you on the shoulder and say hey go on he ain't coming back right now but here you are and only 120 out of the 500. believe that the promise of jesus was for them they got the revelation somehow that the promise was not for a future generation only but it was going to also be for them that very same power that raised christ from the dead was promised of them and they thought i think it's worthy to get into an upper room and have a prayer meeting and wait i don't know exactly how it's going to happen i don't know what's going to take place but i'm sure going to be there because i don't want to miss the outpouring of the spirit of god matthew chapter 10 tells us that jesus gave his disciples power over evil spirits i want you to see this right here he gave him power to heal all sickness and disease disease matter of faith he even gave them power to raise the dead this is back in matthew chapter 10. i don't want you to think that his disciples and his apostles were in the upper room trying to receive power because jesus had already given that kind of power matter of fact look at 10 and 1 says and when he called unto him his 12 disciples he gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease verse seven and as you go he told them preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand heal the sick cleanse the lepers raise the dead cast out devils and freely you have received so freely give miracles signs and wonders were already being performed by the disciples long before pentecost took place but that just lets me to know that they realized that there was something more to the promise than just miracle signs and wonders and i don't want to be that kind of church listen i'm apostolic through and through i'm thankful to be apostolic and part of being apostolic is we still have miracles signs and wonders miraculous things take place all the time we have people being healed all the time there's there's lives put back together all the time marriages are mended all the time we see cancer that's healed and taken out of bodies all the time it happens we believe in it we're thankful for it but that's not the reason why we're after the spirit falling upon our lives there has to be more we got to get out of the and i know there's a charismatic movement that swept through the united states in the mid and even later 1900s i know it swept through and everybody was was trying to be a faith healer and and there's all kinds of crazy stuff going on even beyond far beyond what was the will of god in in the presence of god the power of god but we can't get all caught up in that because that's just people that are following after signs and the bible clearly says that signs will follow after us but here they are these disciples in the upper room and this is what i started with i i got to imagine as they're getting ready the anticipation as they're praying and they're crying out to god and they're the same god i don't know what's about to happen but oh i just know something good is on its way i don't know exactly how it's going to take place but you promised that you're going to pour out your spirit upon all flesh and i'm just getting ready for it i'm just getting ready for it because i may not be i can see some of those 120. i'm not peter one of them another one said i'm not john another one said i'm surely not mary the mother of jesus she's here but i i'm surely not her i'm just a faithful follower of jesus but i've got myself here in prison because just like peter is going to be anointed they said i'm a nobody but i'm going to be anointed too i i may not be one of the 12 but when the spirit is poured out upon all flesh that includes me and the very same power that these ministries are going out and there's healings taking places and there's even the dead being raised there was somebody in their room there was a nobody if you will in that room who said if i could just be here when the spirit is poured out i'm going to have the very same power that samson had that was put up on samson and it was put upon david and it was put upon all these greats but all these great men and women of old i can have that i can have that same power and so here they are they're waiting on the power of the holy ghost they're anticipating the power of the holy ghost but i just want to i want to hit the pause button right there i'll come back to the day of pentecost but i got a phone call i got a phone call about six months ago and a precious young lady named amanda was on the other line and i i think they're here this morning i think they came in i see you right there amanda amanda and dylan and they got a two-year-old little boy named [name redacted] that is adorable little [name redacted] and amanda amanda called the church about six months ago and i i got a hold of me and she began to tell me that that she was on i believe it was instagram i might not have the story perfectly correct but i believe that she was on instagram and there must have been an apostolic young lady from florida that started kind of talking to her about god a man is very hungry for god and was reading her bible through and she began on instagram talking to this this apostolic lady from florida and amanda finally said is there any churches that believe what you're telling me in my area and they live in towns and and so uh this this leia from florida uh gave her our website and said check out this website call call this church well amanda called and amanda started watching our online online services and over time she calls and she says i see the need to be baptized in jesus name and so i began to talk to her i said well when when can you come i said i think she said well we can come tomorrow my husband and i will come tomorrow can we come i said absolutely come on she says and my husband's thinking about it he might get baptized too but she says i'm not sure she said but i definitely want to get baptized i said well come on both y'all come on and we'll have a bible study and then we'll just see what god does well well amanda amanda came and dylan came and i'll be honest with you and dylan's here and i i i'm going to tell the story like it is and dylan was was so friendly but i could tell he just wasn't sure you know he just and here's and here here was here's what he told me he said i am reading the bible all the way through and i want to get all the way through the bible before i make a decision about baptism i said go for it that's awesome read away and uh so we long story short we baptized amanda met their family beautiful family we of course exchanged phone numbers and i told them about a bible study and at the time they said well we're reading our bible through and and maybe we can have a bible study after we read it through and i said i said okay well and i thought you know god you you know that you know you know what's going on here and if it's your will lord maybe they'll call back and we can get a bible study going and i'll just be honest with you six months went by and it kind of left my mind until friday when dylan texted me and said i'm ready to get baptized he said and i've got a friend i got a friend named matt that wants to get baptized too we've been working together some and we've been talking about the bible and he said matter of fact i've read the bible through i think he said about three times now and he said the more we read the clear it gets that there's not a trinity i didn't tell him that he told me that listen when you read the word of god and god's spirit begins to talk to you and open your mind a lot of things that i think that we call revelations are really not revelations they're black and white brother hammond they're so black a lot of times tradition holds people to beliefs it's not so much they get a revelation of the oneness of god they simply drop traditions and read the bible and then it's clear that their mind opens up and they're saying well well this only makes sense how can there be three so yesterday dylan and amanda and cool [name redacted] and dylan's friend matt show up to the church except this time dylan is way different now mind you he was a he was friendly we had a great conversation but there was something different about him this time i mean i could tell i could tell that reading his bible he was he was on fire yesterday he was ready i'm talking we we had a conversation out in the lobby man i got pumped because i started i started actually he's already they've already heard most of this message i started sharing a lot of this message with him and i said man i'm just so excited about this and and we went up to the water and we baptized dylan and we baptized matt and dylan listen this is so cool because the last time they came they said you know we feel like towns is just a little bit too far to drive to church i said okay but yesterday they said we're gonna be in church tomorrow because a church alive is worth a drive someone that heard that and listen dylan now listen amanda she told me since i've been baptized in jesus she told me this yesterday she said since i've been baptized in jesus name this this language that i really don't know has been getting more and more real she says i've got this heavenly language and she says i got it before i was baptized but it really didn't do anything but since i was baptized in jesus name she said something has got a hold of me and that language has gotten stronger and stronger and dylan i just believe today is your day i just believe the same spirit oh my god that fell on the day of pentecost is gonna fill you that same spirit that empower those in the old testament it's gonna fill you and not only you dealing i believe there's people all over this congregation who have never been filled with the holy ghost you've never heard the speaking of tongues come out of your mouth there's never been the evidence of the holy ghost and you're going to receive it in this place today remain standing with me i just believe listen the reason i believe that dylan is going to get the holy ghost today and i'm just saying this by faith is because they said over and over and over again yesterday we're just hungry there cannot be more beautiful words to a preacher of the gospel then somebody's saying we're just so hungry because let me tell you something i know exactly what can feed the hunger i know the bread of life oh my god dylan there's a reason why god inspired you to read his word over and over and over again amanda there's a reason why god has inspired you to read his word because he wants to put his word inside of you jesus said i'm gonna come i'm not gonna leave you comfortless i will come and the word of god will fill us today he said i want to pour out my spirit upon all flesh not just judges of old not just prophets of old not just kings and rulers not just priests not just the mother of jesus not just upon the jews or the samaritans he said i want to pour it out upon every body acts 1 and 8 says but ye shall receive power after that the holy ghost has come upon you and you're gonna be witnesses unto me in judea or jerusalem and judea samaria unto the uttermost part of the earth but not only power but relationship i want you to notice that every i didn't have time i didn't have time to go through the stories of every one of these men that i told this morning but oh each one of them had a personal relationship with their god oh yes they did it was more it was more than just power it was more than just authority it was more than just miracle signs and wonders when they had the spirit of god there was a relationship it was david it was david writing the psalms talking about how as a deer pantheth after the water brook so my soul longs after your spirit god to know you to feel you the spirit that david received upon him all the days of his life was a direct it was it was a direct from heaven because david had prayed and wrote songs and wrote psalms saying god i just want to know you i want you to know if you're hungry in this place today i want to open this halter because this we can have this and this could be our own day of pentecost right here if this is your first time the first apostolic or this is the first time you've even ever heard the day of pentecost let me just tell you this just very quickly what happened the 120 are gathered in the upper room they're waiting upon the promise and suddenly there came a sound as of a rushing mighty wind just heard this roar you've heard what what wind sounds like when it brushes through almost almost like a tornado they heard this roar and then there were clothes and tongues like as a fire that sat upon all hundred and twenty every single one of them the holy ghost sat upon it but i want you to see this acts two and four says and they were all filled with the holy ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance every single one of them in the upper room we're filled y'all see that and every single one of them when they were filled with god's spirit when they received the promise they began to speak with other tongues nothing that they had learned but the bible says as a spirit gave them utterance when you come to this altar this morning and you begin to pray and call out to god and you begin to wait on the promise of the father with your hands lifted as you begin to praise we're going to do it just like they did the day of pentecost as you just begin to praise and open up yourself when the holy ghost fills you you will speak with another tongue that's how you know it's taken place it's a sign it's evidence that you've received the power of god today we're going to baptize we're going to baptize i said at least three matter of fact they could be getting ready to get baptized right now but when they go down the water they're gonna go down in the name of jesus for the remission of their sins because that's what they did on the day of pentecost for the removal of their sins that's what we did yesterday with dylan and matt every sin that was ever committed was washed away peter simply told him he said listen there's three things you got to do three things are so important he told the crowd they said what must we do we say what do we do we we feel conviction tell us what do we do how do we how do we get out of the mess we're in he said repent which means turn from your sin turn away repent is so much more than just being sorry being sorry is not enough you got to stop doing it because people can be sorry and feel a convicting spirit and still go out and do the same thing again but repentance is simply saying i'm not going back and doing those things again i'm not i can't go hang out with them anymore because they do things i don't do they drink stuff i don't drink they smoke stuff i don't smoke anymore i can't get on the phone with her anymore because she talks about things i i don't talk about no more has nothing to do with the baptism has nothing to do with the holy ghost repentance is you making a decision i'm not going to do it no more then peter said once you repent you need to go down in the water in the name of jesus for the remission of sin he said then then you shall receive the gift of the holy ghost upon all flesh it's for you it's for your children it's for those that are far off even as many as the lord our god shall call anybody in this place thankful you've been filled with the holy ghost come on if you've been filled i want you to throw both hands in the air and throw your head back and just say thank you lord that you saw fit to fill me with your spirit come on i don't know about you but i'm a nobody i don't come from some great lineage i'm not a king i'm not a priest i'm not a president i'm not a prophet i'm not a leader i'm not a patriarch i'm just a kid that grew up in upstate new york and found his way to this beautiful church but i'm so thankful that god saw fit to fill me with his spirit i'm so thought i wish somebody to pray this prayer i hear god i'm undeserving i have not done anything worthy enough to receive your promise i've not done anything worthy enough to receive your power i've not done anything worthy enough to receive the presence lord god in my life but i'm so thankful oh god that you saw fit to pour out your spirit upon all flesh i'm so thankful i don't have to make a certain amount of money in order to receive your spirit i'm glad i have to be of a certain political persuasion to receive your spirit i'm glad i don't have to be white or black or yellow or red or what nationality i might be it doesn't matter god said i want to pour my spirit out upon all flesh if you're rich if you're poor if you're happy if you're sad he said i'll pour it out upon all people it's not just for you here in jerusalem i'm talking about your offspring i'm talking about your sons i i'm talking about your daughters i'm talking about those you work for those you live with those that are under your roof i'm gonna pour my spirit out upon all flesh i want to open this altar right now and i wish right now holy ghost field apostolics would begin to pray that god would speak the hearts of those who have never received the gift they'll never receive their power come on it's going to help you it's going to give you relationship with your god if you think you understand the word now wait until god's spirit is living inside you wait until he puts his presence and his power upon you oh come on church family help me oh you'll know you receive the gift when something begins to flow out of your mouth as you can't explain when something begins to just erupt out of yourself you can't you can't deny it you all you can do is just enjoy all you can do is just say feel me god feel me god come on they're coming right now they're coming right now come on church family why don't you come with them why don't you walk down the aisle with him church family and let's pray together that god would feel and pour out his spirit upon every single heart in this house today oh come on it's for you it's for you it's for you it's for you it's for you come on but you gotta want it you gotta want it you gotta want it he's not gonna feel you if you don't want it it's gotta be something that you desire like david desired come on you gotta be a deer that's looking for a water brook you gotta be like a deer that's looking for a water brooke i need the spirits like i need water i need the spirit like i need water