May 23, 2021 ~ Pentecost Sunday ~ Sermon & Zoom Worship Recording

Zoom Recording Link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/kgwt-sTdkA4_BrVtsNlXsZDvdT-StKiRv8qFWiXLyVgYkKX-cPOaCb696eTTXZQb.nmsp5GNOWXg76i35

Pentecost                                                                                 05/23/21

“Angels in the Outfield”

Psalm 104: 24-34, 35b; Acts 2: 1-21; John 16: 4b-15

Pearl: the awesome power of the church (in the community of believers) comes directly from God the Holy Spirit.

Function: To motivate listeners by the power God provides to represent Christ, carrying out the gospel mandates no matter how daunting with ever renewing confidence.

In 2018 Keri Day wrote a piece entitled “We Need a Pentecost.”

1. She was commenting on the state of things in the nation, in the church, in the world, and she surmised that what was needed was a movement of the Holy Spirit like what happened on that first Pentecost to the gathered Apostles.
   1. You see that arrival of the Spirit came at a time when it was really needed as well.
      1. The apostles were waiting and praying and lacking motivation, hope, confidence, and understanding.
      1. But one thing we have to say to their credit was that they hung “together, praying.”
      1. They were not praying alone in their homes. They didn’t’ tell each other “I’ll pray about that.” They were together, praying, and I dare say with regularity and with intensity.
2. Only three years later in 2021, and what a three years we have had; it is worth repeating, “We Need a Pentecost!”
   1. The church community (globally, nationally, and locally), is always in need of renewal, in need of re-empowering.
      1. But after a long, and quite difficult year, we surely need God’s empowerment once again.
         1. And we will again.
         1. And we will need it again. That is the way of things for the church of Jesus Christ. It is according to God’s design for the church. We are meant to have continual doses of the Holy Spirit. It is not a once and done phenomenon.
3. Just like on that first Pentecost the key to the new energy and power that the Apostles experienced was God’s doing. “The Spirit gave them ability” to be and to do more than they ever thought or might imagine.

One of my favorite movies which came out when our children were young was “Angels in the Outfield.”

1. Our boys were just becoming Little Leaguers when it came out in 1994. (By the way let’s watch it for a Movie Night in the Grove!).
   1. It’s the story of a boy despairing at his parent’s separation who asked his father when their family would get back together again and the father said, “When the Angels win the pennant.” It was not an encouraging response because the Angels were by no means a good team.
   1. Well, the boy fell asleep that night praying that God would help the Angels become winners.
      1. Key point: the boy prayed for God to do something!
   1. In the movie, angels were dispensed and amazing things began to happen with the team.
      1. In a precious line spoken by children which my family likes to repeat, as two boys considered whether the Angels might actually win the pennant that year, they said to each other and they would say again and again to each other with a twinkle in their eyes, “It could happen!”
2. That is the attitude which should undergird the church of Jesus Christ always and forever: the notion that “it can happen.” That the Gospel of Jesus Christ can make a difference in all of our lives and in the world and that God’s kingdom of love and light will one day win over a world occupied by enemy forces: “It can happen.” Not only can it happen, “It should happen!”
3. For it to happen it is not a matter of communities of believers digging down deeper within themselves, or proverbially “pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps” to do it.
   1. We have to reach out to God together urging God to empower us to do it. We have to continually reach out to God for the empowerment as a community to love the world and to realize God’s righteousness through all the earth.
4. Your calling as the local church and the calling for the global church is to represent the gospel of Jesus Christ. And your Lord Jesus is a radical Redeemer.
   1. Christ’s agenda is comprehensive and challenging.
      1. It will cause you pain and discomfort. Allan Boesak, the wonderful Episcopal Bishop from South Africa who was a major force in dismantling apartheid said something like, “When we get before our Savior in heaven he will ask to see our scars.” Being about Jesus’ project will get us beat up and bloodied.
   1. The gospel mandates call for radical change and new life.
   1. The gospel of Jesus Christ is all about transforming people and about reforming systems.
      1. How can we do it?
      1. By the Spirit! “The Spirit gives us ability!”
      1. All of God’s will is accomplished by God’s Spirit.

It is the Spirit of God who provides breakthrough.

By God’s Spirit “It Can Happen!”

1. The impossible becomes possible, the unlikely becomes reality, because “the Spirit gives the ability.”
   1. In 1906 one event is pinpointed to be the beginning of North American Pentecostalism. The Azusa Street Revival was a historic revival meeting that took place in Los Angeles, California. It began on April 9, 1906 and continued roughly until 1915! A nine year revival!
      1. Azusa forged a community across differences, a community where black men laid hands on white women and black women laid hands on white men to receive the power of the Holy Spirit.
      1. It was a community that announced a new humanity, a humanity that rejected the nation’s segregated social order.
   1. For things like that to happen, it took “the Spirit who gives the ability.”
2. There are many things in our world which seem like impossible situations.
   1. The church is up to the challenges! Why is the church up to the challenge?
      1. Because to the church, “the Spirit gives the ability.”
      1. It is not by our power or by our might, but by God’s power (Zechariah 4:6) that we represent the love and the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
3. Together the church has to prevail upon the Lord to provide the power. It is God’s way that we ask for empowerment. God wants to give it but waits for us to seek it.
   1. On Wednesday, June 9 the Elders and I are calling for a Day of Prayer for Highland Presbyterian Church. Nine hours of prayer on the 9^th of June.
      1. We will prepare themes and items for prayer and ask you to come for an hour or a half hour to pray in our sanctuary for our church, its people, its ministry, and its mission.
   1. The last year was a hard year, yet even through this past year we saw many highlights and creative innovations. There are many excellent things we are doing and plenty of resources within our church.
   1. To move forward, upward, and onward after some tremors we cannot just dig deeper within ourselves. We have to reach out to God, and we have to do it together.
      1. We will do this every Sunday in worship but we are also setting apart a “Day of Prayer for Highland Presbyterian Church.”
         1. Nine hours on the ninth of June!
   1. We are “praying” because it is “the Spirit who gives you the ability.”

What could happen by the Spirit who gives the ability? That is a terrific question and one about which we should keep asking and imagining and dreaming.

1. Hearts could soften toward other hearts and grace and forgiveness abound.
   1. You know, IT COULD HAPPEN!
2. The church could rally behind and get excited about the gospel mission of “Sharing Christ’s Love and Growing Disciples.”
   1. IT COULD HAPPEN!
3. Minds could open to what the Spirit is saying to the church.
   1. IT COULD HAPPEN!
4. Diverse groups of people could get together to read the scriptures in all of their beautiful diversity so that deeper understandings of the heart and mind of Christ could be discovered: groups including the rich and the poor, men and women, the young and the older, gay and straight, white people and people of color. All of these collective insights about the scriptures will bring us closer to the heart and mind of Christ.
   1. IT COULD HAPPEN!
5. The church, even Highland Presbyterian Church, could receive new people into the community who bring new energy and new life to encourage and inspire this historic and wonderful assembly thus ensuring a bright future of continued, meaningful and appropriate impact upon the local community and beyond.
   1. IT COULD HAPPEN!
6. The Orioles win the pennant this year!
   1. IT COULD HAPPEN!

By the Spirit who gives you the ability, everything that Christ desires COULD HAPPEN!

We will go to God praying and pressing in TO MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!