Hidden Treasures, A New Season of the Spirit

Turn in your Bibles this morning, please, to Acts chapter 1. I need to move us right into the teaching time. I don't have a long message today, but I always say that. Let's look at Acts chapter 1. If you have your Bible, read along with me. If not, then just listen carefully, or maybe look on your neighbor's Bible for just a moment here. The Lord Jesus has been raised from the dead. He encounters the disciples. And look what it says in verse 3. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And so when they met together, they asked him, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them, it is not for you to know the times or dates, the father has said by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And after this, he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight. Imagine that just for a moment, talking to someone like I'm talking to you, and suddenly they get lifted up into a cloud. That tend to answer most of your theological questions right there. They were looking intently, I bet they were, up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand here looking into the sky? I wonder why, I mean, we just saw this guy lifted up. This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven. Right there is the specific promise that the Lord Jesus will return physically, bodily to the earth. How many are looking forward to that day? How many of you are afraid of that day? A whole lot of things are going to happen on that day. I want to talk this morning about something I didn't expect. As you might imagine, I take very seriously this teaching ministry privilege that I have. And when I have a week off like I did with Kevin being here, you probably think, well, that's great, you know, he has two weeks. He'll probably get two sermons ready. Well, as God would have it, I had already announced my message as being how God speaks to us through our pain. And I was going to talk about how the Lord uses suffering in our life. And I asked the Lord for several days to start getting this thing going, because this is not an easy subject. I got to Tuesday of this week and on the tablet of my heart was a big zero. Nothing was coming. By Wednesday, I'm getting a little uptight with the Lord about this. I'm saying, God, do you know what day it is? It's Wednesday and Sunday is coming and I have a retreat down in West Virginia on Friday and Saturday I'm going to do. And I don't have a whole lot of time left, Lord. I'm not one of those guys that can walk up there and just wing it. And I'm driving down to yet another Billy Graham crusade meeting. And he said, look up at the hills. And I've been driving that I-79 thing down to Neville Island. I don't know how many times in the last six months. Some of you drive that even today on your way home. And those hills have been brown and barren and ugly for how many months? I mean, at least six months. And I looked up and saw along the side of the hills, green lush trees and a few speckles of those white, what are those, wild dogwoods or whatever those are, and colors and just a glorious springtime. And I sensed the Lord deep in my heart speak to me. And he said, we are in a springtime, a new season of the Holy Spirit. And that's what I want you to talk about. You mean not about suffering? Okay, Lord, believe me, I said thank you because I didn't want to at that point. Pentecost Sunday is two weeks from today. Now, those of you from traditional church backgrounds are, you know, there's usually a special thing that happens on Pentecost Sunday. For those of you who aren't familiar, the Feast of Pentecost was one of the three traditional Jewish feasts. It was the celebration of the first harvest that was taken in. There's two harvest seasons over in the Middle East because of the great amounts of sunshine and so on that they have. And so the Feast of Pentecost happened 50 days after the Passover. Pentecost, you hear the word five in there? And so this time of Pentecost is a time not only that is a traditional Jewish holiday, but it's also the birthday of the church. And I want us to look just for a few minutes today at what the Holy Spirit was given to do in our lives. I want us to talk for a few moments about something that maybe is a little new to quite a number of you who are new to our church. What does it mean to be in the life of the Spirit? But I also want to say something to the many of you who stand around and meet this morning as long-term Pentecostals. Uh-oh, now I'm going to get down to where some of you live. You see, I'm convinced that God is always ready to do something that we haven't expected. And one of the things that I fear about many of us here who've walked with the Lord for years, who've been Spirit-filled for years, who know what it means to be a Pentecostal or a charismatic and have all that stuff figured out, we are sometimes the last ones to perceive a new move of God. And I want you to know something, folks. I don't want anyone to miss what I think God is in the process of doing. And so if you've been, quote, Spirit-filled for a lot of years, I'm specifically going to speak to you today. And if you've never really had an encounter with God's Spirit where you know that He's alive in your heart, I'm going to speak to you today. I don't want anyone to think you've already had it. The last thing I want to hear is someone saying, let's go back to the old days. I recently went to one of those car cruises. I like those. I put on a disguise so no one will recognize me. No, I'm just kidding. I love those things. It takes me back to the days, you know. And I was walking around looking at all these, you know, old muscle cars from the 60s and early 70s and some of the older hot rods have been all, you know, done over and some of the real pure antiques. And, you know, everyone has their thing. And I was looking around for a car like I used to have when I just got out of college and didn't have any responsibility and just had this, you know, how fast can you go mentality. I still have that. I want you to know that. But it's refined now. It's, you know, I was baptized since then. Anyhow. And I saw the same exact car that I had bought when I got out of college. I mean, it was a monster. I mean, it was nice but a monster. And I looked at it and, you know, Carol, this is one of those things that wives do just because they love their husbands and could care less about. She says, oh, that's nice, you know. We looked at this car and it was longer and clunkier and uglier than I remember mine being. And I looked at this thing and I couldn't... We said, are you sure that's it? Did it look like that? Did it have that same ugly interior? And you see, in my mind, I had this memory of this tremendous car that would do all these wonderful things just by pushing my foot down and all this kind of stuff. But in reality, that thing rattled. It was expensive to maintain. And it was so long and, you know, all these big, long body panels. No wonder it got eight miles to a gallon. And that was on premium. And now I realize, 25 years later, there's a lot of new things out there, new technology, new ways of going faster, new ways of driving. And if I just live back in the nostalgia of it all, I'm going to miss the better things that are yet to come. Forgive the analogy if it doesn't really ring some of your bells, but I think it's true of the Spirit of God, too. We don't need to go back to the 60s and early 70s, Church, or early 80s. God is doing a thing now. Behold, do you perceive it. When we have 200 women walk into this place for the first time, many of whom didn't know Christ. When we've got a couple dozen men, kind of outspokenly not Christian, come to a breakfast. When we see something like what we heard about here, and we've got several people being baptized in the Second Service, we see lives being changed. When we know God's at work, and there are things that He wants to do in us, the body of Christ preparing us for what He wants to do, and to accomplish in the days ahead. I like what Oswald Chambers says so clearly in his reading from yesterday. God does not want a museum. He wants a living body. I don't want to be a museum piece, do you? Thank you. Now let me share with you, and I'm going to just abbreviate this today, three specific empowerments that you can expect. If you're taking notes, the blue outline, and I really like that outline. And by the way, notice how those notes, I think they look marvelous this week. We've changed them. Did you notice inside? They're easier to kind of read and follow along. That means you won't miss anything. Three things for you as believers, or as those who are seeking to walk in Christ, that you can expect in the Holy Spirit in these days. Number one, the Holy Spirit's been given... to wait on God's intervention in our lives. What do I mean by that? Well, flip the page of your Bible over to Acts chapter 2. For Peter says, when the crowd says, What is all this noise? Are these people drunk? Look at Acts 2.17. Peter rises up and says, In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. Dear ones, that scripture, Acts 2.17, tells us that we are living in the last days. The last days before Christ comes again. You're saying, yeah, well, how long have they been? Two thousand years of the last days. Nonetheless, we need to understand what will mark these days, and as I believe things intensify and increase in frequency, we can see more and more that God's preparing us. He's preparing us for what He is going to do when He soon returns. And one of the things that the Holy Spirit's given is to help us to get through the stuff of the culture that we find ourselves in. How many of you are aware of the fact that by anyone's measurement, the culture seems to be slowly drifting away from the values that you hold? I was encouraged by an article in the Wall Street Journal by William Bennett. It was a condensation of a major piece that he wrote on the leading index of cultural indicators. And here's what he talks about. He quantified the evidence that our culture is eroding in its value system and what it holds to be the essential beliefs that comprise who we are. And I only have time to mention a couple of these things, but since 1960, the U.S. population, and I want to jot a couple of these down, has increased by 41%. Total social spending by the government has increased 500%. Violent crime has increased 560%. Illegitimate births have increased 419%. Divorce rates have quadrupled. The number of children living in single-parent homes has tripled. The teen suicide rate has risen 200%. And the number of abortions have soared to an all-time high of 1.7 million per year. The incidence of child abuse has risen to 2.7 reported cases. Bennett quotes Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The West has been undergoing an erosion and obscuring of high moral and ethical ideals. The spiritual axis of life has grown dim. I could say so much more about that. How many of you know it's getting increasingly uncomfortable in America? Anyone here just a little more aware of violence than you used to be? How many of you have an alarm system in your car? Did you know that the number one growth business in America right now is home security systems? How many of you find yourself, when you walk out to the mall to get into your car, you're just a little more careful than you used to be maybe 5 or 10 years ago? You look in the back seat first. When you stop at a traffic signal, you kind of glance at the cars around you just to make sure. Folks, we're in a fairly secure area. I mean, it's a lot worse than a lot of other places. But I find myself, and I bet you do too, aware of violence in this whole gang thing. It hasn't gotten quite out here yet. But I say that because I believe it will. Violence is on the rise. And I don't know if you think it's never going to affect us, but I believe it already has begun to affect our mentality about things. How many of you carry personal protection devices? Mace, that spray pepper stuff that you can buy now. Some of you probably have even considered, maybe I ought to get a gun. And then it seems to be somewhat glorified. Were you aware of that crime summit thing? Out in Kansas City, the gang summit, all the gang leaders got together, and they covered it like it was a bonafide. All the gang leaders got together to talk about how they can sort of improve their act a little bit. Well, folks, I don't believe it's going to get a lot better. In fact, Jesus said, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when he's going to come back, like we read right here. What was it like in the days of Noah? Just flip up Genesis 6 and verse 11 on that scripture, please. What was it like back then? Here's what the Bible says. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. That's what we can expect. God is going to continue to allow things to erode until people say, God, something's got to happen. There's got to be something. Just the other night, my daughter Amy was babysitting in one of the local apartment buildings, one of the newer ones, the nicer ones. And late at night was accosted by a man who sought to come and violate her and the woman she was with. Folks, these things are going to happen. I don't believe we're going to fix it. Why? Because the heart of man is continuing to erode. Now, what do you feel like doing in times like this? What do you feel like doing? How many of you just like to find an island somewhere, put a big fence around it and say to the world, goodbye? Isn't that the temptation? We just want to withdraw? I find myself thinking, man, Lord, just put me somewhere where no one's going to be violating me. And I want you to know the Bible clearly tells us that one of the reasons why the Holy Spirit came was so that you could be strengthened to walk through this stuff that's going to happen and not have to cower in fear. The Bible says God has not given us a spirit of fear but of love and power and a sound mind. And if you find yourself caving in now and then to fear and the fear of violence, the fear of being abused, the fear of being taken advantage of, then you need to let the Holy Spirit sweep over your life because you'll find a tremendous exchange of confidence. You can walk out, sure, using sound judgment and not doing foolish things. You know, I wouldn't ride up in the Hill District with my windows down waving to everybody or any place else in the city for that matter. But you can walk with a sense of security in who God is by His Holy Spirit. Church, listen, we cannot abandon the culture. We are called to be what? Salt and... let's say it again. Salt and light. We cannot give up on it. It's not going to get better. It's probably going to get worse. But we have got to learn how to stand. The Holy Spirit has been given to us for that purpose. And I want to encourage all of us to think of how we might allow the Spirit of God to fill us with strength in these days. Peter said, Save yourself from this corrupt generation. Look at Acts 2 and verse 40. What did he mean by that? He didn't mean run away from it. He meant be empowered to stand while the whole culture erodes around you. You've got to stand. Next, I believe it is Saturday. Tim, I'm not sure if Marilyn mentioned this to you. I think it's next Saturday. There's a community impact meeting over at Pittsburgh East Church. You might want to go to that and see some ways you can influence the culture for good. It's in your notes, some of the details. The second reason why the Holy Spirit has been given is so that we can learn not just to wait for God's intervention, but also to walk through our daily personal needs. Folks, along with all this pressure, along with this increased sense of cultural erosion, we are all affected by it. Can you imagine, as Mark mentioned here just a moment ago, people getting their idea of life from watching television? What kind of a life would you put together by watching television? You've heard my comments and all that. But people are affected by this. How many of you today are in a season of your spiritual life that was a lot like Interstate 79 two months ago? Every place you look in your life, it's kind of brown and barren and there isn't much happening there. My heart goes out to many of you who haven't really had a touch from God in a long, long time. Don't live there. Don't be looking back to 1982. God wants to empower your daily walk in the Spirit so that you can have a resource by which when those things happen that you can't control, you are not overcome by them. You don't need to cave in to what might be, for most people, a destructive experience. Church, listen. What does it mean to be a Spirit-filled church? If it doesn't mean that when things get a little tough, we don't run away. I find it really kind of disturbing. I don't say this in any anger. I say it in a sense of real passion today. God's given this Holy Spirit to the church not just so we can have gifts flowing, not just so that we can have certain expressions and manifestations, but so that we can have an inner strength to rise up and find the power to get through the tough times that we're going to face as a people of God because we're not perfect. Look around us. We've all got our weaknesses. We've all got our own sort of shortcomings. And if it means anything to be Spirit-filled to me, it means that I've got power to love you even when I don't agree with you. And you can say amen to that, one or two of you, anyhow. It's so easy to pick up and run, and I just want to thank you. I want to stand up here today and thank every one of you when something's not gone the way you wanted, when you knew that there was an error in thinking or judgment or a mistake, you didn't choose to pick up and run. Out of the gate. It's not a formula. But don't just sort of drift back and say, well, I guess I'll get through it. But if I don't, I'll run on down and find someone else. The Holy Spirit's been given to you to walk through those tough times in your marriage. And my dear sister who shared about her two teenagers, the Holy Spirit's been given to you so you can have strength to love those teenagers through the times that you don't understand. And it's true in your business. How many of you are in a last-day scenario in your business right now? You know, the orders don't come, the business is going down. Can I say to you, the Holy Spirit's been given for you to find strength and make it through those last days to get where you need to be in the purposes of God. Folks, these are not easy days. These last days are characterized by some pretty awful stuff. Do we have an overhead of Galatians 5? Here's the kind of thing that you can sort of expect to happen as people increasingly trust in their flesh. Let's read it out loud and together, shall we? But when you follow your own wrong inclinations, your lies will produce these evil results, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, spiritism, that is, encouraging the activity of demons, hatred and fighting, jealousy and anger, constant effort to get the best for yourself, the feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group. I love the Living Bible. Let's read that again. The feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group, and there will be wrong doctrine, envy, murder, drunkenness, wild parties, and all that sort of thing. Let me tell you again as I have before that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God. These are the marks of the last days. But the Holy Spirit comes to give you the fruit of the Spirit, love and joy and peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control and humility. That's why the Holy Spirit is poured out right now. And I just want to say, don't shrink back. Don't feel like He's not there for you because He is. It's time to wait on the Lord and find the strength to walk through those difficulties. And third, number three, and I think sort of obviously, the Holy Spirit has been given to witness to the grace of God. To wait, to walk, and to witness. It's absolutely impossible to separate the power of the Spirit for our daily lives with this clear promise of Acts 1.8 that you shall receive power to be my witnesses. And by the way, the word witness there isn't someone necessarily who stands up on a podium and makes a testimony. A witness is someone who just shares what they themselves have seen and experienced. We are called to witness to God through our work, through our lifestyles, and through our words. And how many of you know it's true when the great devotional writer A.W. Tozer said, preach the gospel in every way, use words when you have to. Let your life be a testimony. I just want to conclude by asking this question. Do you think it's any coincidence that, I mean is it just possibly an accident that Billy Graham is coming to Pittsburgh the week following Pentecost Sunday? That really just, I was taken back by that. Pentecost Sunday is May 30th. Billy Graham comes June the 2nd. Isn't that kind of like God? I mean the timing. Find the Holy Spirit in a fresh outpouring in your life and then be a witness. And go out and be bold enough to invite someone to come and hear. One of the greatest preachers of all time, certainly the greatest preacher of this century. To experience the love of 50,000 people gathered together in one place. I find that to be a real exciting God incidence myself. People are watching us. People are looking at our lives. People are sort of just keeping tune with us, waiting to see if we'll extend to them an invitation to experience the love of God as we've come to know it. I have a specific application for you today. If you're ready for a new season of the Spirit in your life, could I invite you to come back on Tuesday night this week? Our plans for the normal community night thing where we have a little dessert or something to eat and then share, they just didn't come together. And so we sense that what God was saying is let's just come and wait on God. Now some of you are not going to hear this and you're going to wonder, what did I miss? This Tuesday night at 7 o'clock we have no agenda except to come and to pray and to seek God for a fresh outpouring of His Spirit. I was with a group of 30 pastors about a month ago. We went up to a retreat center outside of Ligonier and for three and a half days these pastors sought God and that's all they did. They had no agenda. They had no prayer list. They had no request forms. They had nothing except three and a half days. And I want you to know, try praying for 12 hours a day if you think it's easy to just do this. It was one of the most humbling experiences of my Christian life. I heard one of the associate directors of the Billy Graham crusade tell a group of pastors this last Wednesday the day I was driving down to that meeting. She said, something happened in Pittsburgh while those pastors were praying. For the first time we have seen things begin to break open in this city. We found there to be some openness to things that have been closed off and even though we're not there yet, we sensed a change, a shift in people's attitudes about this whole crusade. I just want to submit to you, when you seek God for God alone, He'll take care of everything that concerns you. You say, well I don't have time to come this Tuesday or I'm out of town. Well, I'm sorry. I just want to say, if you can come and you want to pray and you want a fresh outpouring of the Spirit, please come. You say, well is that all I need to do? It's a starting point. Can you guarantee me something great's going to happen? No. I can just promise you we're going to seek the Lord with all of our hearts this Tuesday night and ask His Holy Spirit to touch us. Let's stand together. Bow your head for just a moment, please. I just want to ask for an opportunity to bear witness with some of you. With our heads bowed, how many of you would say, Jay, I'm going through a time right now where I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by the culture and its values and I've been succumbing to fear and I need the Holy Spirit to fill me afresh to be able to wait out these last days in the grace of God. Heads are bowed. Lift your hand and look right at me just now, if that's you. All right. Thank you very much. Yes, thank you. Many of you, in the name of Jesus, be encouraged today. The Holy Spirit wants to fill you afresh with grace and strength. Number two, how many are here today and for you, it's been a barren season and you're saying, I need a fresh feeling of the Spirit to walk through a dry season, a dry relationship, a dry responsibility that's just not bearing fruit. If you lift your hand right now, let our eyes meet. Yes, yes. God bless you. Many of you, in the name of Jesus, yes. Receive a freshened feeling of the Spirit of God. And how many know that God wants to pour out His Spirit upon you right now to empower your witness so you're not timid and afraid, but bold to share His great love. You lift your hand right now. Thank you. And it should be nearly everyone in this place, in the name of Jesus. Thank you. Oh, God. Spirit of Jesus, come and fill us right now. We open our hearts to you. Let this season, verse 4 come. Let's sing this song of gladness together. So, Lord, we ask you for the grace to wait upon you in these coming days, to wait on God for strength in the last days just before us. In the name of Jesus and all God's people. Don't forget tonight at 6 at the Hilton. Don't forget Tuesday night at 7 right here at North Way to pray. I'm going to ask you, before we're all seated just again, come on up here, Chris. If you're a guest today for the first time, maybe you were here Tuesday but came back today, we're going to dismiss you right now just to slip out while we're taking our offering and doing a couple concluding announcements to follow Chris and Wanda over to where it says Visitor Center. So, while people are just sort of settling down, feel free to slip out of your chairs and head over that way and you all can be seated as they're doing that. Let's prepare tithes and offerings as a church, please. Debbie, come on up real quick. I know you have an announcement. In the middle of getting ready for Billy Graham, one other important thing that's going to happen the following week is the March for Jesus. Last year we had... Come on to the center here, Debbie. We had about 20,000 people march the city streets. You know what it's like to stand in front of the U.S. Steel Building and say in the name of Jesus? I mean, it's a powerful thing. I believe God really honored that time. Tell the folks just what they need to hear about getting ready for the March for Jesus. The March will be June 12th. It's the Saturday following the Billy Graham crusade. As Pastor Jay has said, there was about 20,000 people last year and they're expecting at least twice as many this year. We would really like for you to be involved. We can use you in the praise choir, praise leaders, march leaders, banners, evangelism. There's so many outreaches that you can be involved in and it really will bless you. All I need you to do is my name is Debbie Z or contact Sue McCabe at the church offices and we'll be glad to tell you more about it. We are having March 23rd, which is next Sunday. On May 23rd, we are having a practice for the choir and the praise leaders, so please come join us. Great. You can mark your communicator. That's a good way just to say you're interested and Debbie will call you back. The singles are undertaking a new mission project. Where are you, Greg and Joy? I saw you somewhere. You're already out on the deck. Okay. Don't forget Touchpoint to meet other singles out on the deck. And then on this Saturday, Sherry Arnold is taking a team down to the Light of Life Rescue Mission's new facility down in Washington County. Sherry, where are you? Stand up, Sherry. Meet Sherry out on the deck. If you're interested in helping out, if you missed the work day yesterday, Sherry will be out there. They need just painters and cleaners. It's a lot of fun, too, so you might want to avail yourself of that. Let's pray and the officers are going to come for today's tithes and offerings. Let's ask God's blessing. Lord, in the name of Jesus, now we give to opening our doors. We give to the mission of this church, the outreach, Lord, that's all around us. And Lord, we give not grudgingly, but with joy today to a God that we know cares for every one of our needs. In Jesus' name, amen. Are you ready, officers? Greg, come on up. Roy, stand for just a second. Roy Thompson is going to be out by the model of the new building. Roy is the chairman of our building committee. If you don't know some things about that building that you want to know, Roy's got the answers. So he'll be out by the model right in the middle of the foyer right after the service. Stop and see him and ask him your questions about the building and what's going to happen there and how it's going to happen. I'll probably be right behind you. Christian Working Women, you meet this Saturday. Barbara Garlington, Joseph Garlington's wife, will be speaking. She is a neat, neat lady.