This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day three of week one of our study through the book of
Acts. That means we're in chapter two. We're going to focus on chapter two for a
couple of days because so many powerful things happen in this chapter that are
lived out in the rest of the book.

Yesterday we talked about waiting and today we get to talk together about
something worth waiting for. We're going to see together how the Holy Spirit can
be a part of each of our lives, our daily lives. Now Satan's strategy is to
cause us to talk about the Spirit, maybe even argue about the Spirit rather than
live in the power of the Spirit.

So the focus we're going to have is how do I live in the power of the Spirit?
How can I experience the genuine power of the Holy Spirit in my life today? It's
not a feeling, it's a reality.

It may cause feelings, it may not cause feelings. It's a reality of God's
presence in your life making a difference in your day. For some of you as you
listen to this, even these few minutes, from this day forward nothing will ever
be the same because there will be a new sense of dependence and trust on God's
Spirit in your daily life.

How do I experience the genuine power of the Holy Spirit in my life today?
Simply it starts with this. You recognize the reality of its power.

Unless you recognize it's real you don't see that it's something that you need.
In Acts 2, 1-4 clearly lay out the reality of the power of God's Spirit. Listen
to these verses.

"When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a
sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole
house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that
separated and came to rest on each of them.

And all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other
tongues as the Spirit enabled them. " They've been praying for all these days
together of waiting in this upper room and the Holy Spirit comes and everything
changes. It's the day of Pentecost.

Now what is Pentecost? It means 50 days. It was a Jewish celebration, a
celebration of gratitude for the harvest.

It was held on the day after the Sabbath so both the resurrection and the day of
Pentecost would fall on a Sunday. So we're looking forward to what's going to
happen in eternity with God as you and I think about what it means to follow
Jesus Christ but in the day of Pentecost they're able to look back to what Jesus
had done for them in the resurrection and God provides for them and for us on
that day some signs. Now signs always point to something and these signs that
you see here, there's a wind, there are tongues of flame, there are speaking in
other tongues.

Why does this happen? These signs point to something. These signs are symbols of
what the Holy Spirit does in our individual lives.

They are symbols of what he wants to do in your life. The wind, the fire, the
other tongues. First the wind.

The wind is a symbol of the power of the life that only God can give. The Old
Testament word for spirit is the word ruah and it means breath or air or wind.
It's a reminder to us that the power of God is present in his spirit.

His very breath, the very life of who God is, is literally blown into the life
of the believer. Jesus, even before he died, breathed on his disciples, you
might remember it said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. " He was looking forward to
this day.

The breath of God coming into your life. The life of God coming into your life.
We are all created by God, every one of us.

But until we come to Christ, until we give our lives to him and his spirit comes
into our lives, we don't really experience the life of God, the abundant life
and the eternal life that comes through Jesus Christ. It's different to be a
creation of God and to be a child of God. When this breath, this wind, this life
of God comes into these disciples, it's a reminder of the life of God in us.

This isn't just something that happened to them. God knew that we would read
this. It's something that he wants to recognize has happened in our lives
because we believe in him.

What do you have to do to get that breath of God, that life of God in you? It's
all about Jesus. It's all about Jesus.

When I trust in Jesus Christ, when I put my life into his hands, he breathes his
life into me. The wind is the power of God's life. The fire is also a symbol of
power.

It's the power to cleanse. The fire is a sign of purifying all through the
Bible. It's a sign of God's purifying and refining energy in our lives.

God's spirit gives through the miracle of God's presence being in our lives,
gives instant and constant cleansing to the human soul. How can I live in
relationship with God? I'm a sinful human being.

If you look back in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 6, when Isaiah has an
experience of seeing God in the temple, being in God's presence, he says,
"Depart from me. I am a man of sinful lips. I am a man who cannot stand in your
presence.

" So how can we stand in God's presence? Through the cleansing and refining
power of the Holy Spirit. That is the only way.

It's a symbol of what God's done in your life. If you feel unworthy to stand in
God's presence, you are, and I am unworthy. But don't end the story there.

You have been made worthy because of what Jesus Christ has done to stand in his
presence. And so we are encouraged, we're challenged in the book of Hebrews to
come to his throne boldly to stand in his presence, not based on our own merits,
but based on the love and the gift and the merits of Jesus Christ. There's the
fire.

There's the power to cleanse. There's the wind, the power of the life of God in
us. And then there are the tongues.

And that is a symbol of the power to witness. We're going to see when we finish
this chapter tomorrow that they went out to speak in these tongues outside of
this upper room. And as they went outside, everybody could understand in their
own language.

These were not unknown tongues, some language that nobody could understand and
had to be interpreted in some other language. No, these were people speaking in
the languages of all of that region. There were in that region many, many
different languages spoken.

And because it's the day of Pentecost, people had come from all over to be there
for this celebration. So for the news to be heard, it had to be spoken in all
the languages. And God gives the gift of being able to speak in all those
languages to these disciples, these apostles.

Now, there's lots of discussion about what kinds of tongues. You may have been
in on it in Acts chapter 2. And in all that discussion, we miss what is most
important.

We missed what they actually said. That's what's important. They began to speak
in other tongues as God's Spirit enabled them, and they spoke of the mighty
works of God we're going to find out.

They spoke about what God could do in people's lives. They spoke about what God
did through the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They spoke about the
power of God being revealed in the world today.

In many ways, the miracle of this day of Pentecost, it is a reversal of the
judgment that happens at the Tower of Babel in Genesis chapter 11. In Genesis
11, because people were depending on themselves, God confused their languages so
no one could understand each other, so they would not become prideful. Here in
Acts chapter 22, because they're depending on God's Spirit, God helps everyone
to understand each other's languages so that they can, instead of being
confused, become committed to him.

The Bible says that each one understood in his own language, her own language.
And that shows us that the Gospel was for the whole world. In this chapter, the
Spirit is challenging me, he's challenging us, to proclaim God's Word in ways
that other people can understand.

And so wonderfully and miraculously, this good news is told. That's the power
that Jesus said he would give in Acts chapter 1 verse 8, the power to be my
witnesses. And in the immediate beginning of the church, because that's what
happens in Acts chapter This church is beginning in Acts 2, in that upper room.

But that upper room could not contain the Spirit's message for even a moment. It
immediately broke out into the streets. That's what's to happen in our lives.

The old preacher, Vance Havner, once said, "We are not going to move this world
by criticism of it nor conformity to it, but by combustion within it of lives
ignited by the Spirit of God. " Now what does that look like, when your life is
ignited by the Spirit of God? Because we don't get those same signs.

These were to teach us. But we don't have obviously signs of the flame of fire
on our heads, or speaking in other tongues for the most of people, or what
happens with the wind, you don't hear that. What does it feel like?

What does it look like for us to be filled with God's Spirit? Well, I'll tell
you this, you don't feel invincible. You don't feel like you're perfect, because
you're not.

You don't feel like somehow you have become as strong or as great as God. No,
you feel humbled. You don't feel unnatural, you don't feel supernatural.

You feel connected, you feel directed. To be filled with the Spirit is to be
connected with God, because you recognize God's presence is with you wherever
you go, but also directed by God, because you realize that God's Spirit isn't
just with you in the room where you are now, he goes with you as you walk out of
that room. He's not just with you in the car where you are now, he goes with you
wherever you're driving right now, each moment along the way.

God's Spirit is with you today to connect you to God and to direct you in God's
power. One of the ways that Bill Bright for years taught people to recognize
this was just through the simple process of spiritual breathing. Breathing in
and breathing out, recognizing God's Spirit is with you.

Let's just do that right now in prayer as we end this look at the beginning of
Acts chapter 2. Just right now in prayer, just breathe out, and as you breathe
out say, "Lord, thank you for forgiving me. Thank you that you have cleansed me
of my sin because of the cross.

" And then breathe in, and as you breathe in, in your mind say, "Jesus, thank
you for filling me with your Spirit because of my trust in Jesus Christ. " If
you've never trusted in Christ, trust him for the first time now for
forgiveness, for the kind of life that only he can give. And as you trust him,
breathe in, recognizing that he sends his Spirit into your life.

Breathe in, recognizing that he sends you connection and direction for this day.
Jesus, thank you for sending your Spirit. Thank you for keeping your promise in
our lives today.

In your name we pray, amen. Tomorrow we're going to continue to see what happens
when God's Spirit comes into our lives.