Pastor Gail – Welcome
1. If I need to shout, I just can’t hear. It’s wonderful to be here today. It’s an amazing day, today, to be in the house of God. How many of you are Americans in the room today? There’s a lot of you. Yeah, well I’m Greek-American, and I did not grow up with Pentecost, like we do here in Greece. You went to church and sometimes you talked about it and sometimes you didn’t.
2. But tomorrow is actually a national holiday. And I think that is kind of cool. That we live in a country and they may not understand yet, I like to put ‘yet’ on that phrase, but we live in a country that on their calendar, they have the word ‘Pentecost’, and tomorrow which is the real day of Pentecost, not really today, many people will be relaxing, but I hope you will remember that a little over 2000 years ago, there was a group of people, they were maybe not relaxing, but they were waiting as Jesus told them to do. And a most amazing thing, that changed the world happened on that day.
3. Oh Lord, we are here for You today. We lift up our praises, Lord, we are coming before You with our hearts united. Thank You for the beautiful privilege of worshipping You. We love You, in Jesus’ name amen.
4. Will You turn in your Bible, and if you don’t have a Bible, there are Bibles all over the room. We are actually trying to encourage people to use a paper Bible, I’m finding that even people who have read the Bible their whole life, people are forgetting where the books of the Bible are, and just kind of the story around the verse. This helps us.
5. We’re going to read in 1 Corinthians 15, and you can stand or sit. Not based on law or anything, but if you’d like to stand for the reading, or if you would like to be seated. We’ll start with verse 20-23. “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.”
6. I love this passage when we’re thinking of Pentecost. Pentecost was celebrating harvest, and we have a harvest today. A harvest of knowing, that one day we will live forever, amen, because He lives, amen.
7. So, we’re glad you’re here today, and we have some facts that we’re just going to go ahead and share. Brian and I we at the World Pentecostal Conference, and we served at this conference, and I told Kadi that Finland was cold. Not everyone knows, but Empowered 21, is launching a program, that by the year 2033, that every person in the world, will have a witness from Jesus Christ from a Spirit empowered person. And why 2033? Nobody is exactly sure, but theoretically it would be the 2000-year celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit.
8. And since they have launched this program, we wanted to share a few things with you. You’ll see the impact of some of the crusades up there. This was in Amsterdam 2 years ago.
Pastor Brian.
9. From the point of launch 2 years ago, at Amsterdam, by the way there are about 40 organizations that have joined, what is called ‘The 2000-year declaration,’ so it’s not just the group we work with, Empowered 21, but just Empowered 21, since 2 years ago in Amsterdam, we have launched campaigns that have seen 16.2 million people face-to-face. That should bring some kind of reaction in this room. With over 4 million followed up declarations of salvation. And these are actually old statistics, these were from the end of last year. Since then, we’re closing in on 24 million face-to-face, with over 6 million confirmed salvations. And because there are many groups involved with this, but one of them, is a tech company, actually powered by the people who made the You Version Bible, that once people come to faith, they put into a portal and actually followed up into discipleship groups, and we’ve over 80% of those people flow into discipleship groups. One example, in El Salvador at the beginning of last year, there were some 30 groups from around the world that came in, with their teams. They managed to encounter face-to-face encounter almost two thirds of the entire nation, and in a follow-up visit just a few months ago, the president of the country actually met with the representative of the ministry, and told us that they had done surveys, just prior to our coming, not because of this, but they had done surveys of their religious demographics, and at that point in time they had noted that their country, was identified as 40% Christian, Evangelical Christian, and since then they just did a new demographic report, they said that the number had jumped to 63%. These are government figures, not our figures. God is at work.
Pastor Gail.
10. And I have to tell Pari this, as we were leaving the stadium on Saturday afternoon, there was a group of young people that were in seminars 7 days that we were there, and in this big square in Helsinki, Brian and I got to see this group of young people, were preaching on the street in Finland, and they estimated that there were close to 2000 people there listening. Praise God, Amen. God is at work, Amen. Today let’s worship Him, let’s let Him out of the cage, let’s let God be free. He is the Lion of Judah, so, let’s not keep this Lion in a cage, Amen. Let’s let Him be the Lord God Almighty.
11. At this conference we were just at, there was a young man there that was deaf, and he received his hearing, just instantly, Amen. Judy is not 39, but where’s your thrill at what Jesus can do. My goodness, a young man was deaf, they prayed for him and he got his hearing back. That’s our God. Our amazing God, that’s what God does. Hallelujah. That’s who He is, God of Power, God of presence, God of love, God of healing. Hallelujah, Emmanuel, God with us. And we sing, ‘You are welcome in this place’, sure it’s this room. But you know what, He is a lot more than that. Everybody put your hand on your chest and tell Him, ‘You’re welcome in this place.’ Don’t lie.
12. Actually, we have the Praying Pelicans with us. And actually, at this meeting I was just at, the first person I met there was one of the Praying Pelicans. I love their name, because some of these reports we gave you earlier, it is probably the first time ever, in the last few hundred years, all the groups that pray, are trying to unite for a purpose to pray for every person on the earth. What a great day to be alive, and so, I have asked the youth leader of Praying Pelicans, to come greet you.
Rob of the Praying Pelicans
13. Well Good morning. My name is Rob; I know God created rhythm but He left it out when He made me. I love coming and just hearing about what God is doing. A couple of things that stood out was that the harvest is plenty but the workers are few. We heard that in all of Greece there are about 10 million people, and only about 20,000 believers. Which is exciting. Because there’s a harvest right out there. And a cool thing about Pentecost Sunday, you got in a room like this, they’re all gathered together, with one purpose, one accord.
For the rest, please watch the video.
Pastor Gail – Main Message
1. This is a hymn that I really like, because you know, there’s just no one, that can saturate every part of your life, like the Lord, like Jesus. Wow, He’s just so amazing. Today, we want to share the joy of that for just a little. The joy of the One that you can have tears flowing, but still, you know He’s there and He understands when no one else does. Amen.
2. I grew up, what many of you would know as an old time Pentecostal Church. Some of you might know what that would mean. Many of would not. We clapped our hands with almost every song, we danced in church, we shouted in church, we raised our hands to praise the Lord, Amen. And even if the pastor was preaching, if you felt like somebody had a burden, you kind of like sneak out of your seat, and you would go back and you’d say, ‘Can I pray with you while they preach.’ And you prayed, that when they left that church, they were free of that burden.
3. Now, you don’t have to do church like that. That’s the thing I love about church. Church has many different flavors. Amen, I see some heads shaking. Sometimes it’s just so quiet and it’s deep and you feel like you can open your eyes bigger. You would see angels in the place. Have any of you ever sensed that presence of the Lord so much? Yeah, I thought so.
4. Have any of you ever been in a room, where there was suddenly a cloud of smoke in the room while you were praying? Like a blue cloud, but me and I know Brian has. Katy, I know you have. There are those times, it’s not regular. And you don’t necessarily pray for it. But when He decides to come, in His own beautiful way, or powerful way, we want to be ready.
5. And actually, what I’m trying to say is that I have 2 sermons and I’m trying to decide which one. We’ll probably a little bit of both. Because I only got home at 2:30 this morning.
6. But I am concerned, that we are trying to put God in a box. I always think of the example of going to the zoo. If you’re like me, I like to see the big powerful animals. The birds are OK, the little frogs you know, they’re OK. But I want to see the gorillas and the bears, and the tigers. You too? And the lions. And actually, I feel a little sorry for them but I like to see them.
7. But have you ever thought that one of God’s names is, “I Am the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” And I am concerned that those of us in the church world, we like God in a cage at the zoo. We like to come look at Him. We like to hear Him roar, but we don’t want to let Him out of the cage.
8. But I sense the Lord is saying, “I’m looking for those that will say, ‘Holy Spirit, You are welcome here. I’m available. Roar out of my life.’” And it may not be that He is always going to roar. He just wants out of the cage. And sometimes, He might just walk around and say, “The King of the whole earth is here.” Amen.
9. Let me ask you this and stop and think about it. Do you really think this world, is looking for a God, that can be defined by the mind of man? Really? To bring Him down to our level? I don’t think so. I want somebody bigger than me, don’t you? I want someone that can do what I cannot do. Like these last 2 days when Brian and I saw that young man who was deaf, suddenly receive his hearing. Wow!
10. If the Lord said to you today, would you just stand up and say, ‘God I believe.’ Would you, do it? If the Lord said to you today, “I am choosing you to go down into the plateia of Glyfada, and just stand there and just say, ‘Jesus loves you.’” I saw Artemis with Luca at Monastiraki, and there were some in the group that wondered what would happen if we started to preach in Greece. But do you know what, suddenly a voice stood up and said, ‘Jesus loves you!’
11. Look at what happened. All of a sudden, nobody threw oranges, nobody threw eggs, nobody screamed curse words. All of a sudden, we heard voices. ‘Yes, He loves us.’ I mean they were screaming, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah!’ In Monastiraki in Greece. Amen. Is that not cool? It’s wonderful.
12. But when we try to put this God, who sent us the greatest gift, in Jesus Christ, and then Jesus said, “I am going to give you another Gift, and I have to go away, so that you can have this Gift,” and I love this part, and I’ll read the Scripture, wait for it. I like Christmas, and I don’t. Because I’m one of those people, I kind of want to know what I’m going to get. And I kind of don’t. You know what I mean? Trudy is terrible, she opens all her gifts before Christmas, she can’t wait. I kind of shake the box, to see what’s in there.
13. I cannot tell you in a definition, who the Holy Spirit is, other than He’s God. And then I can begin to tell you what His names are and what He does. And the Lord is saying, “I want to give you this Gift, and if you’ll wait for Me, and pray, when I come into your life, I will be your Comforter, I’ll be your Counsellor. When you fail, I’ll knock on your heart, gently, and let you know, because I don’t want to let you keep going that way.” But sometimes, I think we’ve got into the spirit of waiting, but there’s dust on the box.
14. Have you ever lost a gift? I have some friends, they pack things away and a year or two later they find Christmas gifts, that they had lost. And she says it’s kind of nice, and I guess it is. But because the Holy Spirit is always ready, to come out of the box and be the greatest gift, to walk with us, to talk with us, to be with us.
15. I’m telling you what, most of you, young people who aren’t married yet, but I got to tell you a secret. Your husband or your wife, does not stay awake all night, and watch over you and look at you, and try to read what you’re thinking, and say, ‘I’m here, I’m here.’ They do not. They do not. No, but guess what? I met the Holy Spirit, hallelujah. When I can wake up in the middle of the night, and I can hear Him say, “Gail, I’m here.” He knows your name. Even before you know the wonder of Him, He knows your name.
16. So, how can we put Him in a box and confine Him? Some of us are living with a compromised Gospel. I’ll live for Jesus, if I don’t have to look foolish. I’ll live for Jesus, and I’ll let the Holy Spirit into my life, if He doesn’t ask me to do anything a little crazy. No, no, not having any of that. I don’t want to look different from the world. If you do not live differently from this world; I’m not talking about you got to eat, I’m talking about that, then you have not given the Lord, all that you are.
17. There’s an old song and it just says, ‘All to Jesus, I surrender. I surrender all.’ The voice from heaven is calling us, ‘Will you follow Me? Will you be open to the presence of the Holy Spirit? To use you in this day.’ When people are confused about their sexual identity, when people are aborting little babies. In a day when it’s OK to lie, because ‘You know, it’s my truth. My truth is my truth; your truth is your truth. You don’t have to have my truth.’
18. I think it’s the most exciting day to be alive. Amen. When people think that being a Christian is just for cowards, or weak people, they don’t know what they’re talking about. God is getting ready to raise up those who will say to the Lord, ‘I’m Yours. I’m available.’ He is getting ready to raise up, the mightiest army the world has ever seen. Amen.
19. We will become the army of the living God. Amen. When we hear His voice, we will obey Him. Acts 2:1-4, “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. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
20. The Lord is looking for people that will embrace the message of Pentecost. Pentecost is the day, the promise of the Holy Spirit’s coming was fulfilled. And the believers were filled that day; they were ignited. They were not just filled, they were ignited. They were ignited with supernatural boldness.
21. They were waiting, because Jesus said, “Go and wait, wait and pray.” All of you probably know this, but Pentecost means this was 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And originally, Pentecost for Jews, was and is still a feast of harvest. And God chose this day, a harvest day to pour out His Spirit, because a new day of spiritual harvest was beginning.
22. You and I, who are the church were empowered that day to go and reap a harvest that day, Amen. I like to think about being one of those 120 that were waiting in an upper room. Just think, they’ve kind of been through an emotional roller coaster, the last few months. Many of them were with Jesus, when Jesus made that triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
23. They had followed as He had been tortured and they had seen Him die. And then they knew, He had been resurrected and appeared to them. Can you imagine this has all happened, whew, just in the last 2 months. You’re out there, I’d like to have been there and think, what’s He going to do next? What is He going to do?
24. ‘I appeared to you. I’m not dead.’ I mean He appeared to them. ‘I’m alive.’ And that’s kind of the message of Pentecost too. 1 Corinthians 15, Jesus died, but we are going to be the fruit of resurrection in the day to come. Amen. Nobody had ever seen resurrection before. It was a new thing.
25. Do you want something new from God? I do. Hello, do you? I want Him to give me something I’ve never tasted or seen or done before. I want to get it before you, because I want you to know that God doesn’t quit working with old people. So, we’re up there waiting, 120 of us, we know He’s alive but He went to heaven. What in the world is He going to do now? Can you imagine?
26. But I loved what happened as they were waiting. They begin to pray; they were in one spirit. Can you pray more than 15 minutes with a group of people, or do you get bored? Do their prayers bother you? Do they have to pray like you want them to pray? Be truthful.
27. We put God in a box. I can ‘Only do it my way.’ He wants to do it His way! He wants to do it His way. I don’t know how they prayed while they were waiting, for that time period. I don’t think that they stayed there all the time and never ate. They probably went out for a falafel, you know or a gyro. You know they took turns. They probably took turns sleeping. I don’t know but they were there, it says, ‘In one accord.’ It says ‘One heart.’
28. And suddenly, the Holy Spirit came. Can you imagine? Would you like it to happen today? I would. I would love flames of fire to come into this room and sit on each of us. Hallelujah! I would love for Him to empower me. To reach out and lay my hand on you, and you would be healed. And your arthritis or whatever your cancer would go away. Your sight would be restored. I would love to have that empowerment from God that does say, ‘In the name of Jesus,’ rise and be healed. In the name of Jesus. Hallelujah, trust God, He will meet your economic needs, in the name of Jesus.
29. Your children will follow the Lord. Just trust Him, trust Him, trust Him. The Lord wants to send an anointing where we gather together and we expect something we have never seen before. The Holy Spirit when He came, there are so many examples, we don’t have room today, but the Bible says, “Signs and wonders followed them,” after they were filled with His presence. They became fearless for God.
30. When I was a little girl, I was saved really young. My parents were not Christians. So, I needed some heroes. You know, who my heroes were? I learned about people who went to Africa and they packed their caskets, thinking when they left England, going to Africa, never expecting to return. They gave their lives to the Lord. When I was a little girl, I was told about these people, that decided to follow Jesus, they left the world behind, their eyes were on the cross and the victory of Jesus.
31. Who are our heroes today? People preaching on TBN, there’s nothing wrong with that. Big speakers in crusades, like Reinhard Bonke. I mean he preached, he’s dead now, he preached to millions of people. Millions, and that’s great. But who are your heroes? Michael, you’re one of my heroes. Katherine, you’re one of my heroes. People who have left their lands, they’ve left it all, and come here, to reach the lost here. Because they heard the call of God. Who are your heroes? The Lord wants to anoint us to make us bold for Him.
32. Suddenly, a sound, like the blowing of a mighty wind. We need an anointing, a fresh anointing from the Holy Spirit. Just really briefly, I’ve been reminded of king David. He understood the power of fresh oil. As a king, but also as a shepherd.
33. Do you know why you anoint with oil, the head of a sheep? When the oil was poured on their head, it protects them from flies. Flies that can fly up their nose. They can lay eggs inside their head. And when the little larva hatches it can fly around in their head and it can drive them crazy and they will run into something to stop the buzzing in their head.
34. David understood that he had to anoint the head of his sheep with oil. David understood the anointing as a king. Everywhere somewhere in our lives we will be leaders. You will be a leader somewhere. You need your head anointed, your mind and your spirit with fresh oil. The anointing of God, placed David in the position as king. But the anointing of God, kept him in the position as king.
35. We need anointing for this day, amen, to live. We need fresh oil. The Holy Spirit, one of the ways He is signified is the fresh oil of anointing on us. When we are anointed by Him, we will be able to do things we have never done before. We need to say today, ‘Jesus I need fresh oil.’
36. Sometimes we think that the coming of the Holy Spirit was just in the New Testament. But it was prophesied that He would come. Joel 2:28-29, “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”
37. The Holy Spirit is a gift; He is not a reward. He is a gift. When He comes and we allow Him to reign in our life; when we allow Him to speak and we obey, we become spiritually transformed. We cannot be comfortable Christians. We’ve got to become uncomfortable with the status quo.
38. Let’s let the Lion out of the cage. Let’s ask for fresh oil. If you don’t know what to pray for today, why don’t you ask the Lord to fill you afresh with the power of the Holy Spirit. If there’s any part of you that is spiritually dry, but that the Lord would just pour the water of His love, the water of His Spirit today.
39. Are you afraid to be a witness for Him? ‘Oh, Lord, help me to be a witness for You. Lord, break fear off of me Lord, break fear off of me. Lord, I pray for the body of Christ, that we will be one in the Spirit. Lord, we pray for signs and wonders You promised they would come. Lord, just let the fruit of the Spirit just grow and mature in my life. Lord, let my life reflect Divine fire and presence in my life. Lord, use me; You can use me, to bring awakening in my city. People in my church, people in my family. And Lord, I am open to a fresh experience, a fresh baptism from the Holy Spirit.’
40. The Scriptures are clear. We are not going to take time today, but you cannot get saved, without the Holy Spirit coming to you. When you ask Him into your life, the Holy Spirit is with you. He is. But there’s more. There’s so much more. Don’t you want the more of God?
41. Would you stand with me. This morning, if you’ve never felt like you’ve received, maybe you’d like to have a prayer language. Maybe you don’t know what the gifts of the Holy Spirit are and you would like to. Today, today we want to pray with you. When I don’t know what to pray, I have a heavenly prayer language, glossolalia, and I know that He is praying, I don’t even understand, but I trust the Holy Spirit. Thank You. You’re telling me better that what I know.
42. Today, I don’t know what you’re thinking but the Holy Spirit is saying, ‘Ask for more of Me, I want to be not just there to save you, but I want to be in you, through you. I want all of you.’ Amen. If you would like someone to pray with you, if you would like to have a prayer language, if you’d like to pray for more of the Holy Spirit, we invite you to come up or just pray with someone near you. If you’re embarrassed, if you’re afraid He’s going to ask you to pray out loud, if you’ve never prayed out loud, start now, start now. ‘Lord, help me to open my mouth, so my voice can be heard a little bit.’ A little bit, just start there. ‘Lord, my voice is Yours. Oh, yes Lord, use my voice for You Lord. Use my voice for You.’ Oh, hallelujah, hallelujah. If you would like to be prayed for, for more of Him, we’re here today.