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Listen to me. That song we wrote that dropped this Friday—that first part of the chorus where we wrote about the firstborn of the dead—that ain't just a song. That's a testimony that brings strength and life.
I know what hell feels like. I know what it's like to go through trials and tribulations, hardship, and shed endless tears. But for the Christian, my hope doesn't have to be in next month. We have a hope that goes beyond this life.
When we write things like "the firstborn of the dead," know that I am coming behind him. I also will not remain in a grave. I find strength in all of my troubles when I remind myself that all of these afflictions are temporary. They hurt, but they're temporary. They're momentary, light afflictions.
When you get that tattooed to your heart, what can you not survive? When we sing about the Lion who has overcome, he's overcome. So you can overcome. He is the undefeated champion.
I'm going to keep talking to you like this until Christ comes back or I go first. I go through a lot of hell and I take a lot of fire. There's a lot of trash around my name, a lot of lies, and I shed a lot of tears. And every now and then I got to remind myself: momentary and light afflictions.
You're not immune from trouble or worries. I'm telling you, man, as your brother and as your pastor, when you walk with a different kind of confidence, a different Christian resilience, you walk with a different kind of limp. When you remind yourself in your own troubles, you start to shift.
This week I had to talk to myself. I had to say, "Philip, momentary and light afflictions. Momentary and light afflictions." Momentary lies, momentary and light. Evil of the devil, persecution on every side. And I have to remind myself: momentary and light afflictions. It doesn't even have to change, because my hope doesn't terminate in this life.
See, that's not sexy in the west. The persecution doesn't even have to stop. I pray God uses all that persecution to push out the gospel even further. It doesn't even have to stop.
So I talk to myself, and you got to talk to yourself: momentary, light afflictions. Now what is the devil going to do with a person that gets down like that?
If your hope doesn't go beyond the clouds, that means nothing to you. I'm so serious. If your hope does not go beyond the clouds, you will be weak. You'll be a coward.
We raise no punks under the banner of 2819. And if you're a guest, we welcome you to the army of 2819, this end-time church, this end-time global movement where we are serious about the spread of the gospel and the multiplying of disciples.
To all of our digital disciples, our global family growing around the world, and to our new global family in the nation of Iran, in the middle of hellfire and brimstone and persecution: we know that you're watching right from where you are. We know you're watching in hostile territory. We want you to know that you are covered under the blood, and we are praying for you.
All of our new brothers and sisters in the Middle East, we got your report. You may be suffering, but your sufferings are not in vain.
To the unbeliever under the sound of my voice, we are glad that you're in this place or watching. You could belong before you believe and be amongst the believers. We are praying with all seriousness that you would come to know the Lord Jesus Christ before time has run out on you.
Today is the beginning of a miniseries called Acts 1 and 2. It is a teaching journey through the first two chapters of the book of Acts. Acts is a book of origins. It records for us the birth of the Christian church and all of the monumental things that happened in the first 30 years of the church age.
It is placed fifth in the New Testament. It forms the perfect literary bridge between the gospel accounts of the life of Christ and the New Testament letters that inform us with doctrine, faith, and life and practice. It is often called the acts of the apostles, and it could be safely called the acts of the Holy Spirit. It is a book that illuminates the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the one who is here on the earth helping you and me today.
It was Helen Keller, that famous blind and deaf disability advocate, who once said that the only thing worse than being born blind is being born with sight and having no vision.
When I think about those words of Helen Keller, my heart is grieved in these days in which I live. There are all these people that should have sight. There are people that should have vision. It should be us, the people of God who are filled with the Holy Spirit, the people who have the teachings of God's word.
Yet right now, as I'm talking to you all across America and in nations all around the world, I fear that the church of the living God, the church of Jesus, is blind to the times that we are living in right now. We are not paying attention to the vision that God has given us for the redemptive plan of humanity.
Family, listen to me carefully. We are living in perilous times. We are living in times that are screaming to you and me and those who are discerning that we are very close to the end. What we need right now in America, what we need right now in Iran, what we need right now in Europe, on the continent of Africa, what we need right now all around the world is for the church of the living God, for the church of Jesus, to be awakened in this hour.
We must discern the times and make the final commands of Christ our very first priority.
These proclamations from 2819, they go beyond just regular sermons. This is oil coming to you every single week. Jesus taught us the parable of the 10 virgins. Ten women—five had oil in their lamps, and five did not. He told that story as an example that when he came, he would find half of his people ready for his return and another half who were not ready for his return.
I'm telling you right now from this pulpit: nothing but oil is coming across this platform. I'm asking how many of you are just hearing sermons, or how many of you are hearing the voice of God talking to you week after week and filling your jar with that oil?
We need to be ready when the Lord comes. You need to be ready right now. We need to be living like men and women who are on the mission field. We need to be living like men and women who are ready.
It's not enough to come in here and listen to me talk or turn on this stream and listen to me talk and then live like the devil from Monday to Saturday and do this all over again. It's not enough to do church and have spiritual blinders on our eyes so that we can't watch the news and scroll through social media and realize we're living in the fourth quarter of the church age.
I want to say to you again, my brothers and sisters, hear me carefully. I'm saying to you as a brother and as a pastor: no matter what is happening right now in our lives, the last commands of Christ need to become the first priority of the sons and daughters of the Lord Jesus Christ. They must become our highest priority.
Beginning with the Great Commission: go therefore and make disciples. Make followers of Christ in every home, in every city, in every nation, and on every continent. It should affect the way that we pray. It should affect the way that we serve. It should affect the way that we post. It should affect the way that we give. It should affect the way that we live. Your life must flow into the streams of the Great Commission, or our Christian life and our churches are pointless in this hour.
It was beyond the Great Commission that we come to what we find right now in our first text in Acts, which is the final encounter with Jesus and his followers. The final words of Christ before he left are very, very important.
Final words are especially important when they're coming from people who are about to transition out of this life. I think about the final words of my father who was battling a terminal illness in October of 2012. Right when I was getting ready to go into pastoral ministry, my family and I and a few other disciples would come together in my parents' home. We would hold a time of prayer for my father every single Wednesday night, believing God for his healing.
It was in that period of time, before my father slipped into eternity, that he had a private conversation with me. He whispered into my ear when he was dying: "Son, keep a time of prayer going in your ministry. Whatever God does, keep a time of prayer going."
It was that final declaration of my father that gave birth to access—a time of prayer that we have kept in our ministry from 2012 all the way to this day, all the way to the arena at State Farm. That seed was born from one request of a dying man: keep a moment of prayer going. So final words are very important.
Our text is coming from Acts chapter 1, verses 1-8. The writer of Acts writes:
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
Acts opens up with this intro from an unknown writer. He does not identify who he is, but history and other passages in the New Testament reveal to us the writer of Acts. He points out who the book was written to: a man named Theophilus.
We find that name earlier in the New Testament in the beginning of Luke. In Luke chapter 1, the writer of Luke writes:
In as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have been delivered to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all these things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account to you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things that you have been taught.
Now we see the revelation of the writer of Acts. The writer of Acts was a man named Luke. Luke was one of 40 men that God used to compile what we call the scriptures—39 Jews and one non-Jew, this man Luke.
Luke was not an apostle. Luke was not amongst the 12. Luke was not one of the first disciples chosen by God. In fact, we don't know much about Luke, but at some point in time, he became a follower of Christ.
Luke was a doctor in the first century AD, a medical physician. He was also a historian. He researched everything in this book. When you read the Gospel of Luke from the beginning to the end, you're not reading a gospel about a man that followed Jesus personally. You're reading a gospel about a man that took his time to watch everything that was happening in the first century. He listened to oral stories. He saw miracles. He did his own research and compiled a whole narrative that bears his name—the Gospel of Luke.
It is one of the longest gospels of the four preserved for us in the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Two eyewitnesses—Matthew and John. Luke, not an eyewitness. Mark, not an eyewitness but a friend of Peter.
When we read Luke, we're reading one of the longest gospels written to one man. In your lap today, that's a few pages. But in the first century, it was scrolls. To write something as long as Luke, it would have taken scrolls that are 10, 20, maybe 30, 40 feet long. It would have had to be done on parchment with ink by hand. Every single line, every single verse by hand. It would have taken Luke maybe months, maybe even years to write one book and send one book to one man named Theophilus.
But Theophilus was probably not convinced with just the Book of Luke. So he writes volume two, which is the whole Book of Acts, which probably took him more years to compile the Book of Acts, all by hand.
Just a reminder to you and me as servants of the Lord: we have to continue in faithfulness. Although Luke spent years probably writing Luke, his work for Jesus was not over. He had to continue in faithfulness and probably spend another couple of years writing the Book of Acts to convince one man that everything he had heard from Jesus was credible.
We cannot think that you and I, because of the labors from the past, are exonerated from current labors or future labors. We must be faithful in everything that God has assigned us to do, no matter how difficult in the past, no matter how long it took in the past. We must continue to be faithful until God calls us home.
It was not easy to write the Book of Luke on parchments, and it was not easy to write the Book of Acts on parchments. That would have taken a long time—many hours, many weeks, many months, many years—all for one man. He did all of that to convince one man about the Lord Jesus Christ.
The man he wrote it to was Theophilus. We don't know much about him either. We know that his name means "lover of God." He calls him "most excellent." So we can ascribe that Theophilus was a man of nobility, maybe a man of royalty. He may have been a seeker or a new Christian, but he was an important man, maybe a patron of Luke who paid him money. "I want you to write for me everything you heard about Jesus."
Luke goes beyond his gospel. He writes the gospel that bears his name and then he writes the Book of Acts. He says in the Book of Acts, verse one, he wrote everything that Jesus began to do and to teach. So in his first account, he writes everything that Jesus said and everything that Jesus did.
Those two words are very important because they communicate congruence between the teachings of Christ and the life of Christ. It is a model for you and me who are ministers, preachers, followers of God—to not have a life where our words and our actions do not match.
A lot of posting, not enough living. A lot of pictures on social media, not enough living. Instagram is "insta-sham." We put all of our highlights up there, but we don't see how you live in the dark. For you and me, we see that Jesus lived, did, and said—there was congruence in his life. We need to follow after him.
I'm talking to you, brothers and sisters. We need to come to a point where the things we preach is the way that we live, and the things we post is the way that we live. There must be congruence between what we say and what we do.
He writes about everything Jesus began to teach and do in Luke. And I will go so far as to say he writes about everything Jesus continued to do and teach in Acts through the Holy Spirit.
See, Jesus had to leave. If Jesus did not leave, the spread of the gospel would be hindered because Jesus was a human being, a divine human being. He had a physical body like you and me. Therefore, he could not be in multiple places at the same time. But Jesus, now through the Holy Spirit, could be with you in Africa and me in America, using us wherever we are to do his work all around the world. So the Lord had to do a tag team handoff for the Holy Spirit to come.
Luke tells us that everything Jesus did, pay attention—he did through the power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, he's the Son of God. But everything he did, he did through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is Luke introducing to us that effective ministry must be done in the power of the Holy Spirit.
There's a lot of ministry in America, but not in the power of the Holy Spirit. There's a lot of people singing songs, but not in the power of the Holy Spirit. There's a lot of preaching, but not in the power of the Holy Spirit. There's a lot of serving, but not in the power of the Holy Spirit.
If ministry is to be effective, if ministry would be efficacious, if ministry will be powerful, it must be done in the power of the Holy Spirit. The flesh is not enough to do ministry. Even Jesus—Luke tells us—did ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit.
And he says he did this through the apostles whom he had—watch this word—chosen. These are those 11 men that were about to carry out the Great Commission to the world. The Lord handpicked them. You remember how he walked around the Sea of Galilee and he looked them in the eyes and he said, "Come and follow me. I will make you fishers of men."
I love that part of the text to remind you and me that if you're in the kingdom, you're not in the kingdom by accident. Oh, no. If you are in the kingdom, listen to me. I just want to remind you that if you're in the kingdom, you are in the kingdom because the Lord chose you to bring you into the kingdom.
He saw you when you was an enemy of Christ. He saw you when you was an object of God's wrath. He hunted you down through the power of the Holy Spirit and brought you out of fire and into the power of the kingdom of light. Is anybody thankful that you was chosen?
The fact that you are chosen—listen to me, my brothers and sisters. The fact that you are chosen. Every now and then you need to remind yourself of that. Your morality did not do that. Your good behavior did not do that. You are in the kingdom because God sought you out. Amen.
With all of your mess, all of your drama, all of your baggage, and all of your past, the Lord, for whatever reason—we may never know—sought you out personally and brought you into the kingdom.
When you get a glimpse of the fact of where you was, and a glimpse of the fact that you were chosen, every now and then, you should feel this: watch this feeling of gratitude for your salvation and a sense of accountability. Because I was chosen, I owe him my life. I owe him my obedience. I owe him my submission. I owe him everything.
This is important in a country when we're so full of self-entitlement that we think God owes us something. No, we owe him everything for the fact that I was chosen. I was saved from damnation, brought into the kingdom, made right with the Father, filled with the Holy Spirit, clothed in righteousness, named in the glories and the Book of Life.
So when you think about the fact that you was chosen, what's the word? Selected.
But pastor, you don't know my shame. Selected.
But pastor, you don't know my insecurities. Selected.
But pastor, you don't know my past. Selected.
Pastor, you don't know what I struggle with right now. Selected.
This is me crying in my prayer room because I messed up something again and saying, "Lord, have mercy on me. I know that you're being patient and kind. Lord, please don't take your spirit." This is me reminding God. I know I'm a mess. I know you snatched me out of darkness. I know I was a knucklehead from Queens, giving him this long litany of why he shouldn't let me go. But he knew all of that, but he chose me.
Verse three says: He presented himself alive to them, his followers, after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
Now, Luke is not an apostle. Let me remind you of this again. I'm going somewhere with this. He was not amongst the first 12. He was not amongst the 11. He did not walk with Jesus personally. Everything Luke knew about Jesus, he researched and figured out on his own.
After Luke, who is a historian—just like any other historian—did his own research, he came to this conclusion: he presented himself alive.
A historian testifies of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Another man testifying that the Lord was not left in a tomb, but his body was raised from the dead. I only point that out to you again and again because the resurrection is the foundation of Christianity.
If you don't understand the resurrection, you don't understand the power of Christianity. What separates us from every other religion in the world is that we serve a man who is alive.
And because he's the firstborn from the dead, you too will be the second born from the dead. Because Jesus is alive, you too will be alive.
I told my family they could cry when my funeral comes and shed tears because I'm not there. But don't cry too long. I would have slipped into the presence of the one I call Savior and stumbled into his loving arms. And then the tears should not be for me. The tears should meet me where I am. Don't cry for me too long when my body is sitting in a box. No, cry for yourself to make sure you make it to where I am.
Luke testifies of the resurrection of Christ. He is a historian, not an apostle, who testifies of the direction of Christ. He said the Lord demonstrated this with many proofs. "Touch my hand. Touch my side. Look at my scars. Ate food. Testified that he was resurrected."
And he said he appeared to his disciples over a period of 40 days, speaking to them about the kingdom of God.
Now pay attention. The Lord was appearing and reappearing to his followers over a period of 40 days. He is raised from the dead, and for the next 40 days—one month, 10 days—he is appearing to his followers, disappearing from his followers. And when he's appearing to them, he's teaching them about the kingdom of God.
Forty days teaching. Forty days teaching. Forty days teaching. Forty days teaching. Forty is a very important number in the scriptures, and it's often times synonymous with preparation.
We see a man named Moses who led the nation of Israel out of Egyptian slavery. He brings them into a land and then he goes up on a mountain, Mount Sinai, spends 40 days up there with God in preparation to lead this nation. He comes down from that mountain with the Ten Commandments.
We see Jesus 40 days in the wilderness, fasting and praying before he starts his public ministry. Watch: prepping for what he was about to do.
So we see 40 days as a time of preparation. Just a few days before this encounter—this is happening in Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives—just a few days before this, they were in northern Israel on a mountain in Galilee. And it was on that mountain in Galilee that he gave them the Great Commission: you need to go into the whole world and make disciples of all nations.
But watch. You can't do that in your own strength. So now what he's doing is taking time to prepare them for the mission. And he's teaching them things about the kingdom. He's probably reminding them about his parables and everything he taught and everything he did.
I want you to see that before there was platform, there was preparation.
I'm talking to you and me especially in America because we love platforms without process. This is crazy to me. I see people on social media. You've been married for 30 days and then you give birth to a marriage ministry. How are you coming off your honeymoon and then you got the nerve to be on social media teaching us about marriage?
How do you put the title "marriage coach" in your profile, but you only been married for 30 days? You ain't even survived an argument yet. You haven't survived the argument. You haven't paid any bills together. You haven't had any agreement. You haven't had the thought of, "I want out of this marriage" and survived that. You ain't been through no conflict. You ain't been through no wars. You ain't been through no spiritual warfare. You ain't did nothing.
But this is our generation. This is what y'all love to do. You get saved on a Monday and you're giving birth to a ministry on Wednesday. We go straight to platform without process. We love stages without process. We love blessing without breaking.
You're doing conferences and you haven't been shaped in character. And this is all over America. It's all over social media. You got all of these people. You a coach this, a coach that. How are you coach of anything you haven't done for more than 60 days?
It is the kindness of God to prepare you for every task. And I would to God that his preparation would just be a wand that he just waves over you when you're sleeping and then you just wake up ready. You wake up prepared. But God don't work that way.
He sees pride in you and nastiness in you and attitudes in you and arrogance in you and lust in you and evil in you and all kind of rebellion in you. And the way he works it out of you is with life's circumstances.
So you got issues with faith. He'll put you in circumstances that demand faith. And then he'll use those circumstances as the preparation tool to train you to have greater faith. But then you go birth something without having faith. And then when hell comes, you can't sustain. Because we got too many Ishmaels running around the kingdom.
We're giving birth to all of these Ishmaels—things that God did not tell us to do. And anything you birth in the flesh, you got to sustain in the flesh. Repeat: anything you birth in the flesh, you got to sustain in the flesh.
Let me help you right now. God is not responsible to bless anything you started in your own flesh. You got people pastoring churches God didn't tell you to do that. Doing ministry God didn't tell you to do. Writing books he did not tell you to write. And being a coach in areas he gave you no character, skill set for, or wisdom for yet.
There's a difference between receiving a calling and being prepared for it. There's a difference between hearing God and knowing when to execute. You must know the difference between receiving and execution, calling and preparation. This is how we start things that break us because we did not have the character formation to sustain it.
People be talking about like, "Oh, 2819 is overnight success." The devil is a liar. Ain't no overnight success in the kingdom. That don't exist.
Though nobody talks about the 10 years when I pastored Victory Church in the dark, dealing with hell and hardship and troubles and labors and leading every team. Lena was the only admin. She did all of the administration. She did all of the paperwork. She did all of the computer work. I led every team: usher team, welcome team, credentials team, set up and breakdown team. Set up for three hours. Preach twice. Break down for three hours. Though nobody saw that life.
You just want to persecute me like I'm some kind of overnight success when nobody sees the 10 years of hell and hardship and breaking and labor that God was using to watch foster in me character to sustain the level of ministry he's trusted with me now.
See, that I can walk off this platform every Sunday in humility and tears, saying, "Lord, I'm still a sheep growing in you. Lord, I did my best," not walking off that platform with a head swollen because there's thousands of people listening to my voice.
The Lord had to break some things out of me in those 10 years that I could be trusted to lead an organization at this level. Ten years. A decade of preparation for this assignment.
Okay, I'm trying to help some of y'all. You're missing the point.
"Lord, how long is it going to take?" You don't know the greatness of the assignment.
"Lord, this is really painful." You don't know the anointing is going to take.
You don't understand the weight of your assignment is also synonymous with the weight of your pain.
Some of you are complaining about what you're going through right now. Don't even say the breaking you're going through right now is a reflection of the anointing God wants to give to you for the assignment he has entrusted to you.
And some of us, man, you'll be going through—listen to me—you'll be going through hell and you'll be begging God to get out. Maybe the prayer is not always, "God, get me out." Maybe the prayer is, "God, teach me what I need to learn while I'm inside of this, man."
I feel the Spirit of God. We hurt ourselves to rush out of the season of preparation. If it take 5 days, 10 days, 30 days, 40 days, 40 years—Moses 40 years. Said, "I wouldn't wait 40 years for preparation," but he saw God's back. Have you seen God's back? You ain't even seen God.
And sometimes the hell that you're going through is God working through life circumstances, preparing you for something that you're heading into. You don't even know.
I'm telling somebody right now in the sound of my voice: some of the things you're going through is God's tool to prepare you for where you're going. And it is his kindness to not give you the things you're asking for before he has prepared you to be able to steward it.
Verse four says: And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, "You heard from me, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
Now watch me. Jesus is giving them all kind of commands. A few days prior to this, he said, "Leave Jerusalem. Go all the way to northern Galilee. Meet me on a mountaintop in Galilee." Lord, this is crazy. But they obey anyhow.
They get to Galilee. They receive the Great Commission. Then he says, "Go back to Jerusalem, and I want y'all to stay there. And wait for the promise of the Father."
Now that too makes no sense to me. Why? Jerusalem is hot. And I ain't talking about temperature. I'm talking about the beef in the streets. When Biggie talked about, "What's beef?" Beef is when your mom ain't safe up in the streets. That's what Biggie said. Beef is when you need two gats to go to sleep. Beef is when I see you.
There was beef in the streets of Jerusalem. You don't remember that? Remember men were running saying the disciples stole the body. And now there's controversy in Jerusalem. These disciples were hiding because they didn't want to be executed like Christ. So the streets of Jerusalem is hot right now.
The streets is talking. The streets is hot. It makes sense to get out of them streets. But the Lord said, "Nah, don't leave this city. Wait."
We know the streets is hot. Wait for the promise of the Father. That is, you're about to do something that's going to require supernatural help. I need you to stay still until I give you what you need to do, what I've called you to do.
Listen to me. Waiting is not passive. Waiting is active faith. It takes faith to wait. Too many of us, we hear from God and we rush ahead of him. And we got to learn to stop rushing ahead of God.
Zeal without wisdom, the Scripture says, is dangerous. And we can't be so zealous and so full of ambition that we keep hearing things and running to do them. We need to learn to wait until God gives us the tools we need to accomplish what he's telling us to accomplish.
He says, "Wait." Waiting ain't passive. Again, wait of his faith.
You ain't never been to a restaurant and seen a waiter standing still. Lord, help them. Now, the waiter comes to the table and asks you, "What do you want to drink? What do you want to eat?" They never rush ahead of you. They don't bring you food you didn't ask for. They're not rushing ahead of you to bring you a meal you didn't ask for.
We got to learn to be like waiters. We come to the table of the Lord. We're waiting. We're asking questions. "Lord, what would you have me to do in this season? Should I marry this person? Should I be dating this person? Should I start this business? Should I give birth to this ministry? Should I be friends with this person?"
Lord, I am waiting on the Lord. I am waiting on the wait. Stop rushing ahead of him.
It's when the writer of Galatians says, "Man, walk in step with the Holy Spirit. Don't get out ahead of him. Don't lag behind him. Walk in step with the Holy Spirit."
He says, "Wait." That's a curse word to you in America. We don't know how to wait. You want everything when? Now. Ministry is a microwave. The best ministry comes out of a pot, not a microwave. It comes from stirring, not from buttons.
Y'all got buttons ministry. Anybody push them? You crazy. You hot. The best ministry comes from stirring. That comes from things that's been brewed for a good period of time.
Wait. Wait is God's kindness to make sure you're equipped for what he's called you to do. He tells them, "Wait. Don't leave. Wait for the promise of the Father, for you will be baptized with the Spirit not many days from now."
He gives them a promise to make it easy for them to wait. He says, "Wait." He tells them a promise. You will receive something as you wait. He tells them about the promise of the Father—the Holy Spirit that's been promised to be poured out.
We read about that promise in Joel. We're reading about that promise in the Old Testament that a day was coming when the spirit of God would be poured out on all men. He's saying, "Wait, that date is right around the corner. Biblical prophecy is right around the corner."
In fact, as we continue into Acts chapter 2, we'll see it's only 10 days away. But they don't know that. Lord, help us right now. They don't even know what they're waiting on. It's 10 days away.
Hear me right now. It is 10 days away. You don't even know how long that wait is for. It was 10 days away.
God can change your life in a week. He can change your life in a month. He can change your life in six months. Just wait on the Lord. Wait. Don't rush ahead of him. Just wait. Let him manufacture what he wants to. Don't try to rescue yourself. Don't try to manufacture it yourself. Wait on the Lord.
They don't even know what they're waiting for is coming. 10 days later, he said, "You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
Now, he talks about John. John—who had a ministry that was a forerunner of Christ, a ministry in which he was preaching, preparing the nation of Israel for the coming of Jesus. He said when he was preaching: "I baptize you with water unto repentance. But there is a man who is greater than me whose shoes I'm not worthy to even bend down and untie. A man who's coming behind me. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."
So we see that Jesus has two baptisms: the Holy Spirit and fire. Notice he does not mention fire in this text. Because the baptism of fire is for the unbeliever. The baptism of fire is a fire of judgment.
So Jesus has two baptisms because he has all authority. He baptizes people into the kingdom, and the unbelievers, he will baptize them with fire. He will baptize people with the power of the Holy Spirit. Others, they will get the wrath of judgment.
Notice he does not say "fire" in this text because there's no judgment for his followers. The fire is coming for those who reject him, everyone who dies apart from him.
So everybody's going to get baptized. It's just which one do you want? You can play him now and treat him like a sucker. You still going to get baptized when you die. So Jesus said, "Wait, you're going to be baptized."
What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit? It is that salvific moment when the Holy Spirit unites a person with the Lord Jesus Christ and then fills them with himself, giving them power to do everything that God has called him to do.
Some traditions believe this happens after salvation. I'm not going to fight about that. But if you're saved, you have the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is in you. You have dunamis power in you.
Verse seven says: So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
Verse eight: And he said to them, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has fixed in his own authority."
This is so much heat. Everybody look at me. Look, look right at me. Listen. One more verse and we're done. Listen to me carefully. Everybody listen.
Luke is writing in the AD 60s reflecting on the AD 30s. He's writing during a time when the Jewish nation is living under Roman occupation. Rome has dominated the Jewish culture and has not allowed them to have complete autonomy.
The Jews were frustrated. Listen to the word: frustrated. They also lived under Assyrian occupation and Babylonian occupation. The Jews knew the Old Testament. Watch.
They knew that in the Old Testament there was prophecies about when the spirit came and the kingdom came. That would be the coming of the Lord, and they would be restored back to the way things were. So they hear the teaching about the kingdom. They hear the teaching about the spirit.
And because of their frustration and pain, they say, "Lord, is this the moment now you're going to free us from our frustration?"
Lord, are you finally going to give us—watch this—utopia? Are we finally going to be able to follow you without problems?
You know what? They're asking for complete comfort to do ministry. And you do the same thing. You in your heart and me in my heart be begging God in our heart for a life where we have no problems. No relational tension. No marital tension. No issues. No sickness. No disease. No nothing.
You know what we're begging God for? Knowingly and unknowingly, we're begging God for utopia. We want to follow Jesus and do this life with no problems whatsoever. But Jesus promised you a cross in this life. He promised you that in this life you will suffer.
I've lived long enough to tell every young person under the sound of my voice: listen to me. Watch. It's not coming.
I wish I had some older saints in the room that could tell some of the young people where's my Titus 2 church? That could tell: listen, that utopia y'all looking for is not coming.
I want to tell you this. I know you don't like it. You will always be dealing with trouble, tribulations, hardships, trials, betrayal, relational issues, marital tensions, corrupt people. You're always going to be dealing with drama. That never goes away until you die.
What they're asking for is a legitimate question. "Lord, will you deliver us from the frustration of Roman occupation?"
And the Lord says, "No, it is not for y'all to know the seasons and the times that the Father has fixed in his own authority."
That is, there is a type of divine ignorance that is a blessing to you and me. Knowledge that God does not want you to have. It is God's kindness to keep from you certain knowledge that is forbidden, that he does not want you to have.
If the Lord told you the hell you was going to go through three months from now, you would crumble right now. If the Lord told you the blessing you was going to receive three months from now, you would not focus on right now.
What is the point you're trying to make, Philip? The absence of certain knowledge helps you to be faithful today.
Helps you to be. You know what the Lord was saying to them? "Don't worry about comfort right now. Just worry about faithfulness to what I gave you. And be faithful while you cry, while you hurt, while you suffer, while you go through. Wipe tears from your eyes and be faithful. Be hurting and be faithful. Go through trials and be faithful. Go through hardships and be faithful. Be running through tissue boxes and being faithful."
This is me this week shedding tears over new enemies, new persecution, and accepting it. I'm saying, "God, even if you don't change it, I'm going to be faithful to what you call me to do. Whether they like me or not. Whether they understand me or not. I'd rather be hated for who I am than loved for something I'm not."
And I ain't asking God to free me from my persecution. I'm asking God to cause the gospel to go further as a result of that persecution. Let them keep calling my name on their platforms and making me known to all their followers. They didn't know me before you called my name.
This is me shedding tears this week and driving here with tears and coming up on this platform with tears because of all the hell that I go through, especially this week. Y'all don't know the hell that I go through, man.
Y'all think this is. Y'all don't know the hell that I go through, man. Dealing with these crazy people and trying to protect my wife and my children. It ain't like living with death threats all the time.
Y'all don't know the hell that I go through and still got to be faithful.
"Lord, at this time, will you now restore the kingdom back to Israel?"
"No, Philip, but be faithful anyhow."
No, Brittany, be faithful anyhow. Be faithful even with tears in your eyes.
You're asking to be relieved from your frustration. He pivots away from that. Don't even focus on that. Focus on the Great Commission.
This is like single people that believing for husbands, and you be fasting all year believing for a spouse. You ain't see Ruth doing that. I don't care. You know where Ruth was when she was single? Being faithful.
And then during her faithfulness, God sent a godly man into her life to cover her with the borders of his garment. She was not preoccupied with a husband. She was preoccupied with faithfulness.
And she had every right to be preoccupied with her husband, because she was married for 10 years. Ever read that part of her story? Her husband died. She was married for a whole decade.
I'm trying to help us to be faithful even while you're hurting.
And just before last verse, notice the word. Watch this: fixed season. "Lord, I've been going through for a long time." Yes, he knows. But he knows when it's going to come to an end. The Lord knows every season. He knows the season you're in and when it's going to shift. He knows the hell you're going through and when it's going to change. He knows the tears you shed and when he's going to comfort that.
Every season is fixed. He knows the season you entered into and the season you're about to go out of.
And what we read next in this one of the most famous verses in the New Testament, listen to me. What I'm about to read to you next—listen to these words—are the final words ever spoken by Jesus when he was on the earth.
This is the time when we be in the streets and we say, "yo, lock in." Listen to me. I'm about to pray for you before I pray for you. What I'm about to read to you next are the final words Jesus ever spoke before he left. It is his final words on the earth.
And because they're his final words, they should be important to you and me. If you was in the hospital at the deathbed of someone you love, who told you their final words, it will be important to you.
If they said to you, "Baby, I know I'm not going to make it out this hospital. But when I leave, I want you to love your brothers and your sisters. I want you to forgive that person that hurt you. I want you to reconcile."—if that was their final words and then they left, it would mean something to you.
Verse eight, the final words of Jesus when he was on the earth:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
Finished. Final words of Jesus. He looks these men in the eyes. He says to them, "You will receive power."
Power to speak. Power to live. Power over sin. Power to post. Power to parent. Power to do ministry. Power to do business. Power to pray. Power to endure. Power to suffer. Power to come out. Power to go through trial. Power to live. Power to survive difficulty.
You will receive power to do everything you got to do in this life when the Holy Spirit has clothed you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem where it's hot. In Judea, in the surrounding villages and country. In Samaria, don't read past that.
He says, "You're going to be my witnesses in this city, in the surrounding areas, all safe places in Samaria."
You know who was in Samaria? A half-race of Jews. You know who hated them? The Jews. He's telling ethnic Jews, "You're even going to be my witness to people where there's hostility towards you."
Teaching us that the gospel mitigates all of our ethnic beefs. That in the gospel there is no ethnic beef.
There is no me as a Black man hating White people and you as a White person hating Black people. There is no ethnic beef in the kingdom. Ethnic beef—that's in the flesh. The gospel levels the playing field and watch. And makes us all one family.
That's Ephesians in Christ. That's why racism is an affront to God. And hating people who are different is an affront to God.
The world will be boring if we all look like me. Don't nobody buy a box of crayons with the same color. But instead of persecuting each other for our diversity, we should be celebrating the genius of God in making diversity. We should see diversity and it points to the glory of a Creator.
And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in places that are hostile, and even to the ends of the earth, which in that day was the ends of the Roman Empire.
These were the final commands of Jesus. Make disciples. Make followers of Christ. Your prayers should support that. Your giving should support that. Your life should support that. Make disciples and be my witness where you are and wherever you go.
Be my witness. You know what a witness is? A person that testifies to the life, death, resurrection of Christ in the way that they talk, in the way that they live. In the Greek, it can even be translated a martyr—that person who has died to themselves.
This is you being a representative of Jesus on your social media, being a representative of Jesus in your home to your children and to your spouse. This is you being a representative of Jesus at your job. This is you being a representative of Jesus on your college campus. This is you being a representative of Jesus on your social media.
This is you living like Christ is on the inside of you. That through your life and your words, people see Christ in you.
Man, last week I'm doing a business transaction with a man who did not believe what I believed. I'm a Christian. He was Islamic. And we have to do this transaction. And he said to me, "Man, no one has ever treated me this nice."
He goes on to Google my name. The next time I see him, he calls me Pastor.
That meant so much to me that this man who doesn't even believe what I believe saw something in me that he says, "I've never seen in anybody else." What am I being to that Muslim brother? I'm being to that brother a witness of the love of Jesus.
And maybe he'll figure it out in time that what's different about this man is the person he serves.
Does your spouse feel that coming off of you? Your children? Your employees? Your family? Your followers on social media? Your co-workers at your job? The members of your team?
If we ain't about making disciples and being witnesses in this final hour of the church age, then we are wasting our time and we're wasting God's time.
The Lord is calling every single one of you to care about the Great Commission—that it affects your life. And he's called you and me to be witnesses of him in our proclamation, in our posting, the way that you live, that people would see Jesus in you and be drawn to the God you said you serve.
It has to affect my attitude, the way I treat people, the way that I love, the way that I pray, the way that I handle my money, the way that I live, the way that I serve.
It has to govern every decision. Listen, man, if we don't do that, there's nobody coming behind us to do that. It is the fourth quarter and we must be on that field being witnesses for Christ.
Everywhere you go, remember you represent Jesus.
Now, Father, in the name of the Holy One, the one who chose us and redeemed us and saved us, we cannot make excuses for the nastiness that's in us. God, you've called us to care about the commission. You've called us to care about the winning of souls and the multiplying of disciples.
You've called us to be witnesses of you in our homes, in our jobs, in our cities, and in our nations, even if it cost us our lives.
I pray for my brothers and sisters in Atlanta, in America, and around the world that disciplemaking and making disciples would rise up in this hour. And that wherever we are, we will be faithful witnesses of you, our Savior.
In all our spheres of influence, we will represent you in how we talk, live, pray, serve, sacrifice, suffer, and die. Let that settle on my brothers and sisters and let it bring a change in the way that we see, in the way that we move, and the way that we govern our lives.
Let something shift in us today. We ask in the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our soon-coming King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Listen to me. That song we wrote that dropped this Friday—that first part of the chorus where we wrote about the firstborn of the dead—that ain't just a song. That's a testimony that brings strength and life.
I know what hell feels like. I know what it's like to go through trials and tribulations, hardship, and shed endless tears. But for the Christian, my hope doesn't have to be in next month. We have a hope that goes beyond this life.
When we write things like "the firstborn of the dead," know that I am coming behind him. I also will not remain in a grave. I find strength in all of my troubles when I remind myself that all of these afflictions are temporary. They hurt, but they're temporary. They're momentary, light afflictions.
When you get that tattooed to your heart, what can you not survive? When we sing about the Lion who has overcome, he's overcome. So you can overcome. He is the undefeated champion.
I'm going to keep talking to you like this until Christ comes back or I go first. I go through a lot of hell and I take a lot of fire. There's a lot of trash around my name, a lot of lies, and I shed a lot of tears. And every now and then I got to remind myself: momentary and light afflictions.
You're not immune from trouble or worries. I'm telling you, man, as your brother and as your pastor, when you walk with a different kind of confidence, a different Christian resilience, you walk with a different kind of limp. When you remind yourself in your own troubles, you start to shift.
This week I had to talk to myself. I had to say, "Philip, momentary and light afflictions. Momentary and light afflictions." Momentary lies, momentary and light. Evil of the devil, persecution on every side. And I have to remind myself: momentary and light afflictions. It doesn't even have to change, because my hope doesn't terminate in this life.
See, that's not sexy in the west. The persecution doesn't even have to stop. I pray God uses all that persecution to push out the gospel even further. It doesn't even have to stop.
So I talk to myself, and you got to talk to yourself: momentary, light afflictions. Now what is the devil going to do with a person that gets down like that?
If your hope doesn't go beyond the clouds, that means nothing to you. I'm so serious. If your hope does not go beyond the clouds, you will be weak. You'll be a coward.
We raise no punks under the banner of 2819. And if you're a guest, we welcome you to the army of 2819, this end-time church, this end-time global movement where we are serious about the spread of the gospel and the multiplying of disciples.
To all of our digital disciples, our global family growing around the world, and to our new global family in the nation of Iran, in the middle of hellfire and brimstone and persecution: we know that you're watching right from where you are. We know you're watching in hostile territory. We want you to know that you are covered under the blood, and we are praying for you.
All of our new brothers and sisters in the Middle East, we got your report. You may be suffering, but your sufferings are not in vain.
To the unbeliever under the sound of my voice, we are glad that you're in this place or watching. You could belong before you believe and be amongst the believers. We are praying with all seriousness that you would come to know the Lord Jesus Christ before time has run out on you.
Today is the beginning of a miniseries called Acts 1 and 2. It is a teaching journey through the first two chapters of the book of Acts. Acts is a book of origins. It records for us the birth of the Christian church and all of the monumental things that happened in the first 30 years of the church age.
It is placed fifth in the New Testament. It forms the perfect literary bridge between the gospel accounts of the life of Christ and the New Testament letters that inform us with doctrine, faith, and life and practice. It is often called the acts of the apostles, and it could be safely called the acts of the Holy Spirit. It is a book that illuminates the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the one who is here on the earth helping you and me today.
It was Helen Keller, that famous blind and deaf disability advocate, who once said that the only thing worse than being born blind is being born with sight and having no vision.
When I think about those words of Helen Keller, my heart is grieved in these days in which I live. There are all these people that should have sight. There are people that should have vision. It should be us, the people of God who are filled with the Holy Spirit, the people who have the teachings of God's word.
Yet right now, as I'm talking to you all across America and in nations all around the world, I fear that the church of the living God, the church of Jesus, is blind to the times that we are living in right now. We are not paying attention to the vision that God has given us for the redemptive plan of humanity.
Family, listen to me carefully. We are living in perilous times. We are living in times that are screaming to you and me and those who are discerning that we are very close to the end. What we need right now in America, what we need right now in Iran, what we need right now in Europe, on the continent of Africa, what we need right now all around the world is for the church of the living God, for the church of Jesus, to be awakened in this hour.
We must discern the times and make the final commands of Christ our very first priority.
These proclamations from 2819, they go beyond just regular sermons. This is oil coming to you every single week. Jesus taught us the parable of the 10 virgins. Ten women—five had oil in their lamps, and five did not. He told that story as an example that when he came, he would find half of his people ready for his return and another half who were not ready for his return.
I'm telling you right now from this pulpit: nothing but oil is coming across this platform. I'm asking how many of you are just hearing sermons, or how many of you are hearing the voice of God talking to you week after week and filling your jar with that oil?
We need to be ready when the Lord comes. You need to be ready right now. We need to be living like men and women who are on the mission field. We need to be living like men and women who are ready.
It's not enough to come in here and listen to me talk or turn on this stream and listen to me talk and then live like the devil from Monday to Saturday and do this all over again. It's not enough to do church and have spiritual blinders on our eyes so that we can't watch the news and scroll through social media and realize we're living in the fourth quarter of the church age.
I want to say to you again, my brothers and sisters, hear me carefully. I'm saying to you as a brother and as a pastor: no matter what is happening right now in our lives, the last commands of Christ need to become the first priority of the sons and daughters of the Lord Jesus Christ. They must become our highest priority.
Beginning with the Great Commission: go therefore and make disciples. Make followers of Christ in every home, in every city, in every nation, and on every continent. It should affect the way that we pray. It should affect the way that we serve. It should affect the way that we post. It should affect the way that we give. It should affect the way that we live. Your life must flow into the streams of the Great Commission, or our Christian life and our churches are pointless in this hour.
It was beyond the Great Commission that we come to what we find right now in our first text in Acts, which is the final encounter with Jesus and his followers. The final words of Christ before he left are very, very important.
Final words are especially important when they're coming from people who are about to transition out of this life. I think about the final words of my father who was battling a terminal illness in October of 2012. Right when I was getting ready to go into pastoral ministry, my family and I and a few other disciples would come together in my parents' home. We would hold a time of prayer for my father every single Wednesday night, believing God for his healing.
It was in that period of time, before my father slipped into eternity, that he had a private conversation with me. He whispered into my ear when he was dying: "Son, keep a time of prayer going in your ministry. Whatever God does, keep a time of prayer going."
It was that final declaration of my father that gave birth to access—a time of prayer that we have kept in our ministry from 2012 all the way to this day, all the way to the arena at State Farm. That seed was born from one request of a dying man: keep a moment of prayer going. So final words are very important.
Our text is coming from Acts chapter 1, verses 1-8. The writer of Acts writes:
In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
Acts opens up with this intro from an unknown writer. He does not identify who he is, but history and other passages in the New Testament reveal to us the writer of Acts. He points out who the book was written to: a man named Theophilus.
We find that name earlier in the New Testament in the beginning of Luke. In Luke chapter 1, the writer of Luke writes:
In as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have been delivered to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all these things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account to you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things that you have been taught.
Now we see the revelation of the writer of Acts. The writer of Acts was a man named Luke. Luke was one of 40 men that God used to compile what we call the scriptures—39 Jews and one non-Jew, this man Luke.
Luke was not an apostle. Luke was not amongst the 12. Luke was not one of the first disciples chosen by God. In fact, we don't know much about Luke, but at some point in time, he became a follower of Christ.
Luke was a doctor in the first century AD, a medical physician. He was also a historian. He researched everything in this book. When you read the Gospel of Luke from the beginning to the end, you're not reading a gospel about a man that followed Jesus personally. You're reading a gospel about a man that took his time to watch everything that was happening in the first century. He listened to oral stories. He saw miracles. He did his own research and compiled a whole narrative that bears his name—the Gospel of Luke.
It is one of the longest gospels of the four preserved for us in the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Two eyewitnesses—Matthew and John. Luke, not an eyewitness. Mark, not an eyewitness but a friend of Peter.
When we read Luke, we're reading one of the longest gospels written to one man. In your lap today, that's a few pages. But in the first century, it was scrolls. To write something as long as Luke, it would have taken scrolls that are 10, 20, maybe 30, 40 feet long. It would have had to be done on parchment with ink by hand. Every single line, every single verse by hand. It would have taken Luke maybe months, maybe even years to write one book and send one book to one man named Theophilus.
But Theophilus was probably not convinced with just the Book of Luke. So he writes volume two, which is the whole Book of Acts, which probably took him more years to compile the Book of Acts, all by hand.
Just a reminder to you and me as servants of the Lord: we have to continue in faithfulness. Although Luke spent years probably writing Luke, his work for Jesus was not over. He had to continue in faithfulness and probably spend another couple of years writing the Book of Acts to convince one man that everything he had heard from Jesus was credible.
We cannot think that you and I, because of the labors from the past, are exonerated from current labors or future labors. We must be faithful in everything that God has assigned us to do, no matter how difficult in the past, no matter how long it took in the past. We must continue to be faithful until God calls us home.
It was not easy to write the Book of Luke on parchments, and it was not easy to write the Book of Acts on parchments. That would have taken a long time—many hours, many weeks, many months, many years—all for one man. He did all of that to convince one man about the Lord Jesus Christ.
The man he wrote it to was Theophilus. We don't know much about him either. We know that his name means "lover of God." He calls him "most excellent." So we can ascribe that Theophilus was a man of nobility, maybe a man of royalty. He may have been a seeker or a new Christian, but he was an important man, maybe a patron of Luke who paid him money. "I want you to write for me everything you heard about Jesus."
Luke goes beyond his gospel. He writes the gospel that bears his name and then he writes the Book of Acts. He says in the Book of Acts, verse one, he wrote everything that Jesus began to do and to teach. So in his first account, he writes everything that Jesus said and everything that Jesus did.
Those two words are very important because they communicate congruence between the teachings of Christ and the life of Christ. It is a model for you and me who are ministers, preachers, followers of God—to not have a life where our words and our actions do not match.
A lot of posting, not enough living. A lot of pictures on social media, not enough living. Instagram is "insta-sham." We put all of our highlights up there, but we don't see how you live in the dark. For you and me, we see that Jesus lived, did, and said—there was congruence in his life. We need to follow after him.
I'm talking to you, brothers and sisters. We need to come to a point where the things we preach is the way that we live, and the things we post is the way that we live. There must be congruence between what we say and what we do.
He writes about everything Jesus began to teach and do in Luke. And I will go so far as to say he writes about everything Jesus continued to do and teach in Acts through the Holy Spirit.
See, Jesus had to leave. If Jesus did not leave, the spread of the gospel would be hindered because Jesus was a human being, a divine human being. He had a physical body like you and me. Therefore, he could not be in multiple places at the same time. But Jesus, now through the Holy Spirit, could be with you in Africa and me in America, using us wherever we are to do his work all around the world. So the Lord had to do a tag team handoff for the Holy Spirit to come.
Luke tells us that everything Jesus did, pay attention—he did through the power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, he's the Son of God. But everything he did, he did through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is Luke introducing to us that effective ministry must be done in the power of the Holy Spirit.
There's a lot of ministry in America, but not in the power of the Holy Spirit. There's a lot of people singing songs, but not in the power of the Holy Spirit. There's a lot of preaching, but not in the power of the Holy Spirit. There's a lot of serving, but not in the power of the Holy Spirit.
If ministry is to be effective, if ministry would be efficacious, if ministry will be powerful, it must be done in the power of the Holy Spirit. The flesh is not enough to do ministry. Even Jesus—Luke tells us—did ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit.
And he says he did this through the apostles whom he had—watch this word—chosen. These are those 11 men that were about to carry out the Great Commission to the world. The Lord handpicked them. You remember how he walked around the Sea of Galilee and he looked them in the eyes and he said, "Come and follow me. I will make you fishers of men."
I love that part of the text to remind you and me that if you're in the kingdom, you're not in the kingdom by accident. Oh, no. If you are in the kingdom, listen to me. I just want to remind you that if you're in the kingdom, you are in the kingdom because the Lord chose you to bring you into the kingdom.
He saw you when you was an enemy of Christ. He saw you when you was an object of God's wrath. He hunted you down through the power of the Holy Spirit and brought you out of fire and into the power of the kingdom of light. Is anybody thankful that you was chosen?
The fact that you are chosen—listen to me, my brothers and sisters. The fact that you are chosen. Every now and then you need to remind yourself of that. Your morality did not do that. Your good behavior did not do that. You are in the kingdom because God sought you out. Amen.
With all of your mess, all of your drama, all of your baggage, and all of your past, the Lord, for whatever reason—we may never know—sought you out personally and brought you into the kingdom.
When you get a glimpse of the fact of where you was, and a glimpse of the fact that you were chosen, every now and then, you should feel this: watch this feeling of gratitude for your salvation and a sense of accountability. Because I was chosen, I owe him my life. I owe him my obedience. I owe him my submission. I owe him everything.
This is important in a country when we're so full of self-entitlement that we think God owes us something. No, we owe him everything for the fact that I was chosen. I was saved from damnation, brought into the kingdom, made right with the Father, filled with the Holy Spirit, clothed in righteousness, named in the glories and the Book of Life.
So when you think about the fact that you was chosen, what's the word? Selected.
But pastor, you don't know my shame. Selected.
But pastor, you don't know my insecurities. Selected.
But pastor, you don't know my past. Selected.
Pastor, you don't know what I struggle with right now. Selected.
This is me crying in my prayer room because I messed up something again and saying, "Lord, have mercy on me. I know that you're being patient and kind. Lord, please don't take your spirit." This is me reminding God. I know I'm a mess. I know you snatched me out of darkness. I know I was a knucklehead from Queens, giving him this long litany of why he shouldn't let me go. But he knew all of that, but he chose me.
Verse three says: He presented himself alive to them, his followers, after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
Now, Luke is not an apostle. Let me remind you of this again. I'm going somewhere with this. He was not amongst the first 12. He was not amongst the 11. He did not walk with Jesus personally. Everything Luke knew about Jesus, he researched and figured out on his own.
After Luke, who is a historian—just like any other historian—did his own research, he came to this conclusion: he presented himself alive.
A historian testifies of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Another man testifying that the Lord was not left in a tomb, but his body was raised from the dead. I only point that out to you again and again because the resurrection is the foundation of Christianity.
If you don't understand the resurrection, you don't understand the power of Christianity. What separates us from every other religion in the world is that we serve a man who is alive.
And because he's the firstborn from the dead, you too will be the second born from the dead. Because Jesus is alive, you too will be alive.
I told my family they could cry when my funeral comes and shed tears because I'm not there. But don't cry too long. I would have slipped into the presence of the one I call Savior and stumbled into his loving arms. And then the tears should not be for me. The tears should meet me where I am. Don't cry for me too long when my body is sitting in a box. No, cry for yourself to make sure you make it to where I am.
Luke testifies of the resurrection of Christ. He is a historian, not an apostle, who testifies of the direction of Christ. He said the Lord demonstrated this with many proofs. "Touch my hand. Touch my side. Look at my scars. Ate food. Testified that he was resurrected."
And he said he appeared to his disciples over a period of 40 days, speaking to them about the kingdom of God.
Now pay attention. The Lord was appearing and reappearing to his followers over a period of 40 days. He is raised from the dead, and for the next 40 days—one month, 10 days—he is appearing to his followers, disappearing from his followers. And when he's appearing to them, he's teaching them about the kingdom of God.
Forty days teaching. Forty days teaching. Forty days teaching. Forty days teaching. Forty is a very important number in the scriptures, and it's often times synonymous with preparation.
We see a man named Moses who led the nation of Israel out of Egyptian slavery. He brings them into a land and then he goes up on a mountain, Mount Sinai, spends 40 days up there with God in preparation to lead this nation. He comes down from that mountain with the Ten Commandments.
We see Jesus 40 days in the wilderness, fasting and praying before he starts his public ministry. Watch: prepping for what he was about to do.
So we see 40 days as a time of preparation. Just a few days before this encounter—this is happening in Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives—just a few days before this, they were in northern Israel on a mountain in Galilee. And it was on that mountain in Galilee that he gave them the Great Commission: you need to go into the whole world and make disciples of all nations.
But watch. You can't do that in your own strength. So now what he's doing is taking time to prepare them for the mission. And he's teaching them things about the kingdom. He's probably reminding them about his parables and everything he taught and everything he did.
I want you to see that before there was platform, there was preparation.
I'm talking to you and me especially in America because we love platforms without process. This is crazy to me. I see people on social media. You've been married for 30 days and then you give birth to a marriage ministry. How are you coming off your honeymoon and then you got the nerve to be on social media teaching us about marriage?
How do you put the title "marriage coach" in your profile, but you only been married for 30 days? You ain't even survived an argument yet. You haven't survived the argument. You haven't paid any bills together. You haven't had any agreement. You haven't had the thought of, "I want out of this marriage" and survived that. You ain't been through no conflict. You ain't been through no wars. You ain't been through no spiritual warfare. You ain't did nothing.
But this is our generation. This is what y'all love to do. You get saved on a Monday and you're giving birth to a ministry on Wednesday. We go straight to platform without process. We love stages without process. We love blessing without breaking.
You're doing conferences and you haven't been shaped in character. And this is all over America. It's all over social media. You got all of these people. You a coach this, a coach that. How are you coach of anything you haven't done for more than 60 days?
It is the kindness of God to prepare you for every task. And I would to God that his preparation would just be a wand that he just waves over you when you're sleeping and then you just wake up ready. You wake up prepared. But God don't work that way.
He sees pride in you and nastiness in you and attitudes in you and arrogance in you and lust in you and evil in you and all kind of rebellion in you. And the way he works it out of you is with life's circumstances.
So you got issues with faith. He'll put you in circumstances that demand faith. And then he'll use those circumstances as the preparation tool to train you to have greater faith. But then you go birth something without having faith. And then when hell comes, you can't sustain. Because we got too many Ishmaels running around the kingdom.
We're giving birth to all of these Ishmaels—things that God did not tell us to do. And anything you birth in the flesh, you got to sustain in the flesh. Repeat: anything you birth in the flesh, you got to sustain in the flesh.
Let me help you right now. God is not responsible to bless anything you started in your own flesh. You got people pastoring churches God didn't tell you to do that. Doing ministry God didn't tell you to do. Writing books he did not tell you to write. And being a coach in areas he gave you no character, skill set for, or wisdom for yet.
There's a difference between receiving a calling and being prepared for it. There's a difference between hearing God and knowing when to execute. You must know the difference between receiving and execution, calling and preparation. This is how we start things that break us because we did not have the character formation to sustain it.
People be talking about like, "Oh, 2819 is overnight success." The devil is a liar. Ain't no overnight success in the kingdom. That don't exist.
Though nobody talks about the 10 years when I pastored Victory Church in the dark, dealing with hell and hardship and troubles and labors and leading every team. Lena was the only admin. She did all of the administration. She did all of the paperwork. She did all of the computer work. I led every team: usher team, welcome team, credentials team, set up and breakdown team. Set up for three hours. Preach twice. Break down for three hours. Though nobody saw that life.
You just want to persecute me like I'm some kind of overnight success when nobody sees the 10 years of hell and hardship and breaking and labor that God was using to watch foster in me character to sustain the level of ministry he's trusted with me now.
See, that I can walk off this platform every Sunday in humility and tears, saying, "Lord, I'm still a sheep growing in you. Lord, I did my best," not walking off that platform with a head swollen because there's thousands of people listening to my voice.
The Lord had to break some things out of me in those 10 years that I could be trusted to lead an organization at this level. Ten years. A decade of preparation for this assignment.
Okay, I'm trying to help some of y'all. You're missing the point.
"Lord, how long is it going to take?" You don't know the greatness of the assignment.
"Lord, this is really painful." You don't know the anointing is going to take.
You don't understand the weight of your assignment is also synonymous with the weight of your pain.
Some of you are complaining about what you're going through right now. Don't even say the breaking you're going through right now is a reflection of the anointing God wants to give to you for the assignment he has entrusted to you.
And some of us, man, you'll be going through—listen to me—you'll be going through hell and you'll be begging God to get out. Maybe the prayer is not always, "God, get me out." Maybe the prayer is, "God, teach me what I need to learn while I'm inside of this, man."
I feel the Spirit of God. We hurt ourselves to rush out of the season of preparation. If it take 5 days, 10 days, 30 days, 40 days, 40 years—Moses 40 years. Said, "I wouldn't wait 40 years for preparation," but he saw God's back. Have you seen God's back? You ain't even seen God.
And sometimes the hell that you're going through is God working through life circumstances, preparing you for something that you're heading into. You don't even know.
I'm telling somebody right now in the sound of my voice: some of the things you're going through is God's tool to prepare you for where you're going. And it is his kindness to not give you the things you're asking for before he has prepared you to be able to steward it.
Verse four says: And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, "You heard from me, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
Now watch me. Jesus is giving them all kind of commands. A few days prior to this, he said, "Leave Jerusalem. Go all the way to northern Galilee. Meet me on a mountaintop in Galilee." Lord, this is crazy. But they obey anyhow.
They get to Galilee. They receive the Great Commission. Then he says, "Go back to Jerusalem, and I want y'all to stay there. And wait for the promise of the Father."
Now that too makes no sense to me. Why? Jerusalem is hot. And I ain't talking about temperature. I'm talking about the beef in the streets. When Biggie talked about, "What's beef?" Beef is when your mom ain't safe up in the streets. That's what Biggie said. Beef is when you need two gats to go to sleep. Beef is when I see you.
There was beef in the streets of Jerusalem. You don't remember that? Remember men were running saying the disciples stole the body. And now there's controversy in Jerusalem. These disciples were hiding because they didn't want to be executed like Christ. So the streets of Jerusalem is hot right now.
The streets is talking. The streets is hot. It makes sense to get out of them streets. But the Lord said, "Nah, don't leave this city. Wait."
We know the streets is hot. Wait for the promise of the Father. That is, you're about to do something that's going to require supernatural help. I need you to stay still until I give you what you need to do, what I've called you to do.
Listen to me. Waiting is not passive. Waiting is active faith. It takes faith to wait. Too many of us, we hear from God and we rush ahead of him. And we got to learn to stop rushing ahead of God.
Zeal without wisdom, the Scripture says, is dangerous. And we can't be so zealous and so full of ambition that we keep hearing things and running to do them. We need to learn to wait until God gives us the tools we need to accomplish what he's telling us to accomplish.
He says, "Wait." Waiting ain't passive. Again, wait of his faith.
You ain't never been to a restaurant and seen a waiter standing still. Lord, help them. Now, the waiter comes to the table and asks you, "What do you want to drink? What do you want to eat?" They never rush ahead of you. They don't bring you food you didn't ask for. They're not rushing ahead of you to bring you a meal you didn't ask for.
We got to learn to be like waiters. We come to the table of the Lord. We're waiting. We're asking questions. "Lord, what would you have me to do in this season? Should I marry this person? Should I be dating this person? Should I start this business? Should I give birth to this ministry? Should I be friends with this person?"
Lord, I am waiting on the Lord. I am waiting on the wait. Stop rushing ahead of him.
It's when the writer of Galatians says, "Man, walk in step with the Holy Spirit. Don't get out ahead of him. Don't lag behind him. Walk in step with the Holy Spirit."
He says, "Wait." That's a curse word to you in America. We don't know how to wait. You want everything when? Now. Ministry is a microwave. The best ministry comes out of a pot, not a microwave. It comes from stirring, not from buttons.
Y'all got buttons ministry. Anybody push them? You crazy. You hot. The best ministry comes from stirring. That comes from things that's been brewed for a good period of time.
Wait. Wait is God's kindness to make sure you're equipped for what he's called you to do. He tells them, "Wait. Don't leave. Wait for the promise of the Father, for you will be baptized with the Spirit not many days from now."
He gives them a promise to make it easy for them to wait. He says, "Wait." He tells them a promise. You will receive something as you wait. He tells them about the promise of the Father—the Holy Spirit that's been promised to be poured out.
We read about that promise in Joel. We're reading about that promise in the Old Testament that a day was coming when the spirit of God would be poured out on all men. He's saying, "Wait, that date is right around the corner. Biblical prophecy is right around the corner."
In fact, as we continue into Acts chapter 2, we'll see it's only 10 days away. But they don't know that. Lord, help us right now. They don't even know what they're waiting on. It's 10 days away.
Hear me right now. It is 10 days away. You don't even know how long that wait is for. It was 10 days away.
God can change your life in a week. He can change your life in a month. He can change your life in six months. Just wait on the Lord. Wait. Don't rush ahead of him. Just wait. Let him manufacture what he wants to. Don't try to rescue yourself. Don't try to manufacture it yourself. Wait on the Lord.
They don't even know what they're waiting for is coming. 10 days later, he said, "You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
Now, he talks about John. John—who had a ministry that was a forerunner of Christ, a ministry in which he was preaching, preparing the nation of Israel for the coming of Jesus. He said when he was preaching: "I baptize you with water unto repentance. But there is a man who is greater than me whose shoes I'm not worthy to even bend down and untie. A man who's coming behind me. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."
So we see that Jesus has two baptisms: the Holy Spirit and fire. Notice he does not mention fire in this text. Because the baptism of fire is for the unbeliever. The baptism of fire is a fire of judgment.
So Jesus has two baptisms because he has all authority. He baptizes people into the kingdom, and the unbelievers, he will baptize them with fire. He will baptize people with the power of the Holy Spirit. Others, they will get the wrath of judgment.
Notice he does not say "fire" in this text because there's no judgment for his followers. The fire is coming for those who reject him, everyone who dies apart from him.
So everybody's going to get baptized. It's just which one do you want? You can play him now and treat him like a sucker. You still going to get baptized when you die. So Jesus said, "Wait, you're going to be baptized."
What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit? It is that salvific moment when the Holy Spirit unites a person with the Lord Jesus Christ and then fills them with himself, giving them power to do everything that God has called him to do.
Some traditions believe this happens after salvation. I'm not going to fight about that. But if you're saved, you have the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is in you. You have dunamis power in you.
Verse seven says: So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?"
Verse eight: And he said to them, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has fixed in his own authority."
This is so much heat. Everybody look at me. Look, look right at me. Listen. One more verse and we're done. Listen to me carefully. Everybody listen.
Luke is writing in the AD 60s reflecting on the AD 30s. He's writing during a time when the Jewish nation is living under Roman occupation. Rome has dominated the Jewish culture and has not allowed them to have complete autonomy.
The Jews were frustrated. Listen to the word: frustrated. They also lived under Assyrian occupation and Babylonian occupation. The Jews knew the Old Testament. Watch.
They knew that in the Old Testament there was prophecies about when the spirit came and the kingdom came. That would be the coming of the Lord, and they would be restored back to the way things were. So they hear the teaching about the kingdom. They hear the teaching about the spirit.
And because of their frustration and pain, they say, "Lord, is this the moment now you're going to free us from our frustration?"
Lord, are you finally going to give us—watch this—utopia? Are we finally going to be able to follow you without problems?
You know what? They're asking for complete comfort to do ministry. And you do the same thing. You in your heart and me in my heart be begging God in our heart for a life where we have no problems. No relational tension. No marital tension. No issues. No sickness. No disease. No nothing.
You know what we're begging God for? Knowingly and unknowingly, we're begging God for utopia. We want to follow Jesus and do this life with no problems whatsoever. But Jesus promised you a cross in this life. He promised you that in this life you will suffer.
I've lived long enough to tell every young person under the sound of my voice: listen to me. Watch. It's not coming.
I wish I had some older saints in the room that could tell some of the young people where's my Titus 2 church? That could tell: listen, that utopia y'all looking for is not coming.
I want to tell you this. I know you don't like it. You will always be dealing with trouble, tribulations, hardships, trials, betrayal, relational issues, marital tensions, corrupt people. You're always going to be dealing with drama. That never goes away until you die.
What they're asking for is a legitimate question. "Lord, will you deliver us from the frustration of Roman occupation?"
And the Lord says, "No, it is not for y'all to know the seasons and the times that the Father has fixed in his own authority."
That is, there is a type of divine ignorance that is a blessing to you and me. Knowledge that God does not want you to have. It is God's kindness to keep from you certain knowledge that is forbidden, that he does not want you to have.
If the Lord told you the hell you was going to go through three months from now, you would crumble right now. If the Lord told you the blessing you was going to receive three months from now, you would not focus on right now.
What is the point you're trying to make, Philip? The absence of certain knowledge helps you to be faithful today.
Helps you to be. You know what the Lord was saying to them? "Don't worry about comfort right now. Just worry about faithfulness to what I gave you. And be faithful while you cry, while you hurt, while you suffer, while you go through. Wipe tears from your eyes and be faithful. Be hurting and be faithful. Go through trials and be faithful. Go through hardships and be faithful. Be running through tissue boxes and being faithful."
This is me this week shedding tears over new enemies, new persecution, and accepting it. I'm saying, "God, even if you don't change it, I'm going to be faithful to what you call me to do. Whether they like me or not. Whether they understand me or not. I'd rather be hated for who I am than loved for something I'm not."
And I ain't asking God to free me from my persecution. I'm asking God to cause the gospel to go further as a result of that persecution. Let them keep calling my name on their platforms and making me known to all their followers. They didn't know me before you called my name.
This is me shedding tears this week and driving here with tears and coming up on this platform with tears because of all the hell that I go through, especially this week. Y'all don't know the hell that I go through, man.
Y'all think this is. Y'all don't know the hell that I go through, man. Dealing with these crazy people and trying to protect my wife and my children. It ain't like living with death threats all the time.
Y'all don't know the hell that I go through and still got to be faithful.
"Lord, at this time, will you now restore the kingdom back to Israel?"
"No, Philip, but be faithful anyhow."
No, Brittany, be faithful anyhow. Be faithful even with tears in your eyes.
You're asking to be relieved from your frustration. He pivots away from that. Don't even focus on that. Focus on the Great Commission.
This is like single people that believing for husbands, and you be fasting all year believing for a spouse. You ain't see Ruth doing that. I don't care. You know where Ruth was when she was single? Being faithful.
And then during her faithfulness, God sent a godly man into her life to cover her with the borders of his garment. She was not preoccupied with a husband. She was preoccupied with faithfulness.
And she had every right to be preoccupied with her husband, because she was married for 10 years. Ever read that part of her story? Her husband died. She was married for a whole decade.
I'm trying to help us to be faithful even while you're hurting.
And just before last verse, notice the word. Watch this: fixed season. "Lord, I've been going through for a long time." Yes, he knows. But he knows when it's going to come to an end. The Lord knows every season. He knows the season you're in and when it's going to shift. He knows the hell you're going through and when it's going to change. He knows the tears you shed and when he's going to comfort that.
Every season is fixed. He knows the season you entered into and the season you're about to go out of.
And what we read next in this one of the most famous verses in the New Testament, listen to me. What I'm about to read to you next—listen to these words—are the final words ever spoken by Jesus when he was on the earth.
This is the time when we be in the streets and we say, "yo, lock in." Listen to me. I'm about to pray for you before I pray for you. What I'm about to read to you next are the final words Jesus ever spoke before he left. It is his final words on the earth.
And because they're his final words, they should be important to you and me. If you was in the hospital at the deathbed of someone you love, who told you their final words, it will be important to you.
If they said to you, "Baby, I know I'm not going to make it out this hospital. But when I leave, I want you to love your brothers and your sisters. I want you to forgive that person that hurt you. I want you to reconcile."—if that was their final words and then they left, it would mean something to you.
Verse eight, the final words of Jesus when he was on the earth:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
Finished. Final words of Jesus. He looks these men in the eyes. He says to them, "You will receive power."
Power to speak. Power to live. Power over sin. Power to post. Power to parent. Power to do ministry. Power to do business. Power to pray. Power to endure. Power to suffer. Power to come out. Power to go through trial. Power to live. Power to survive difficulty.
You will receive power to do everything you got to do in this life when the Holy Spirit has clothed you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem where it's hot. In Judea, in the surrounding villages and country. In Samaria, don't read past that.
He says, "You're going to be my witnesses in this city, in the surrounding areas, all safe places in Samaria."
You know who was in Samaria? A half-race of Jews. You know who hated them? The Jews. He's telling ethnic Jews, "You're even going to be my witness to people where there's hostility towards you."
Teaching us that the gospel mitigates all of our ethnic beefs. That in the gospel there is no ethnic beef.
There is no me as a Black man hating White people and you as a White person hating Black people. There is no ethnic beef in the kingdom. Ethnic beef—that's in the flesh. The gospel levels the playing field and watch. And makes us all one family.
That's Ephesians in Christ. That's why racism is an affront to God. And hating people who are different is an affront to God.
The world will be boring if we all look like me. Don't nobody buy a box of crayons with the same color. But instead of persecuting each other for our diversity, we should be celebrating the genius of God in making diversity. We should see diversity and it points to the glory of a Creator.
And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea, in places that are hostile, and even to the ends of the earth, which in that day was the ends of the Roman Empire.
These were the final commands of Jesus. Make disciples. Make followers of Christ. Your prayers should support that. Your giving should support that. Your life should support that. Make disciples and be my witness where you are and wherever you go.
Be my witness. You know what a witness is? A person that testifies to the life, death, resurrection of Christ in the way that they talk, in the way that they live. In the Greek, it can even be translated a martyr—that person who has died to themselves.
This is you being a representative of Jesus on your social media, being a representative of Jesus in your home to your children and to your spouse. This is you being a representative of Jesus at your job. This is you being a representative of Jesus on your college campus. This is you being a representative of Jesus on your social media.
This is you living like Christ is on the inside of you. That through your life and your words, people see Christ in you.
Man, last week I'm doing a business transaction with a man who did not believe what I believed. I'm a Christian. He was Islamic. And we have to do this transaction. And he said to me, "Man, no one has ever treated me this nice."
He goes on to Google my name. The next time I see him, he calls me Pastor.
That meant so much to me that this man who doesn't even believe what I believe saw something in me that he says, "I've never seen in anybody else." What am I being to that Muslim brother? I'm being to that brother a witness of the love of Jesus.
And maybe he'll figure it out in time that what's different about this man is the person he serves.
Does your spouse feel that coming off of you? Your children? Your employees? Your family? Your followers on social media? Your co-workers at your job? The members of your team?
If we ain't about making disciples and being witnesses in this final hour of the church age, then we are wasting our time and we're wasting God's time.
The Lord is calling every single one of you to care about the Great Commission—that it affects your life. And he's called you and me to be witnesses of him in our proclamation, in our posting, the way that you live, that people would see Jesus in you and be drawn to the God you said you serve.
It has to affect my attitude, the way I treat people, the way that I love, the way that I pray, the way that I handle my money, the way that I live, the way that I serve.
It has to govern every decision. Listen, man, if we don't do that, there's nobody coming behind us to do that. It is the fourth quarter and we must be on that field being witnesses for Christ.
Everywhere you go, remember you represent Jesus.
Now, Father, in the name of the Holy One, the one who chose us and redeemed us and saved us, we cannot make excuses for the nastiness that's in us. God, you've called us to care about the commission. You've called us to care about the winning of souls and the multiplying of disciples.
You've called us to be witnesses of you in our homes, in our jobs, in our cities, and in our nations, even if it cost us our lives.
I pray for my brothers and sisters in Atlanta, in America, and around the world that disciplemaking and making disciples would rise up in this hour. And that wherever we are, we will be faithful witnesses of you, our Savior.
In all our spheres of influence, we will represent you in how we talk, live, pray, serve, sacrifice, suffer, and die. Let that settle on my brothers and sisters and let it bring a change in the way that we see, in the way that we move, and the way that we govern our lives.
Let something shift in us today. We ask in the mighty and the majestic and the matchless name of our soon-coming King, the Lord Jesus Christ.
