hey this is pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA church in Houston texas thank you for listening to the message today i hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with god bless you it's been a tough week been a tough week as uh as as many of you know by now you know last week um we asked for prayer right we asked we stood up here we asked for prayer uh for ellie da who had been in the icu uh she was fighting off an infection and and uh just just to kind of give some details to those who don't know um friday night uh ellie delivered a a stillborn baby girl and you know melissa and i actually got to the hospital when they were saying goodbye to this baby girl of course as you can imagine it was very sad and uh we we visited with with jesse um ellie that's fiance we also visited with with mia and we prayed for them we believed um that the lord was going to bring healing over ellie does life right and and so the next morning jesse calls me on my way to church and and and he lets me know that her oxygen levels fell really low and that's when we brought it to the church and we um we lifted up ellie da you know together um in in faith that that god would heal her and uh of course later that same day she she went to be with the lord and um you know it rocked i think it rocked all of us it rocked many especially our youth ellie that was very much involved with our youth and and um you know she served for some time on the worship team uh she'd been a member of our church for probably 11 years she was loved very loved mia is loved and so today i just want to continue to ask you for prayer i don't i don't believe that the messages that that god brought through myself and through david pastor david uh were out of coincidence because they were the same message and the lord was sending a message to his church uh to many who are feeling hurt um that he just wants to embrace us with love and peace and comfort and i wish i could stand up here today and you know tell you that the healing that we were believing for and declaring for last sunday became a testimony uh but you know the lord is sovereign he's still sovereign he's still sovereign and and it's it's not and this is something that we have to say in moments like this we have to remind ourselves that it's not our jobs to control what god does we are simply to believe in him and believe in his power i truly believe that when genuine faith listen when genuine faith doesn't move the mountain it still moves the heart of god and so when we don't get what we were asking for god is still moved by genuine faith just because he didn't doesn't mean he couldn't and just because he didn't doesn't mean that he isn't a good loving and caring god and so you know we have to intentionally remind ourselves of that truth in moments like these amen so right now our prayers are that the lord would just continue to bring comfort and peace uh please pray for for jesse and mia who are much a part of this you know family um i also want to say thank you man i want to say thank you to the church for being the church i i man i love the body of christ man and and and many of you showed up the day of her of her passing just to be there and sometimes we don't have the words we have no words to bring comfort sometimes we don't even know if we should embrace somebody or if they just want some space like we just don't know sometimes but just through the the ministry of presence um that that's powerful and it speaks volumes i know that many of you i won't say names but you were there you showed up for for jesse for mia you walked alongside them during this time many of y'all gave towards the funeral costs and thank you thank you man thank you um amen you know a lot of elida's family showed up at the hospital many of us didn't know her uh her family very well but um you know they saw a church who cared right they saw a church that showed up and as we were all praying in the room together i was reminded of of John uh where jesus says by this everyone will know that you are my disciples by your love for one another so thank you once again for being in the church um tuesday morning uh is going to be her her memorial service at 10 o'clock um i can't remember the name of the funeral home but uh details are um we'll post the details um today is sunday and we still have to preach the word of god amen in the midst of of any situation good bad or tragic we continue to point to jesus as our source of joy and freedom right we worship him as christians in spirit and in truth in every season and today is a special day because it's it's not a holiday and it's not even really a a day that every church celebrates so it often gets overlooked but today is pentecost sunday any pentecostal christians in the room this morning the day of pentecost uh it it occurred about a few weeks after the crucifixion of jesus the year was probably uh 33 a.d and so it's been almost 2 000 years since the holy spirit descended upon the church in power in a mighty way power listen power not so that the church could have church you hear we you know what i'm saying that that's not the reason that the holy spirit descended upon the church so that we could have church man i man i attended some churches this service uh this this week i was uh about 50 pastors um from around the city and i was the only non-black pastor in that room we we we all took a picture at the end and you could easily find me but man man those brothers can get down man they took me to the presence of god uh just so soulful and passionate and i and i loved it you know as as pentecostals we know how to have church so you know we know how to have church we know how to worship we know how to be excited in the presence of god we know how to make church service not boring and not quiet but powerful amen and so that's why it's a little awkward when in a pentecostal service there's no pentecostal praise but we know how to make it fun and exciting and you know i uh i hear it from people all the time they say pastor i used to go to a church where i felt like if i sang too loudly i would get judged and in here you know we judge you if you don't sing loudly right or i'll judge you if you sing badly but hey just the lord wants your praise uh i i hear from people and it's so good to hear people say man when i started coming to pneuma it it it was exciting to worship god just being surrounded with fellow believers and and and and shouting and praising and and and being able to move and dance in the presence of god is a beautiful thing and and i love to hear that but also you have to know that it's it's not really about the church it's it's about the experience that we as a church choose to have in the presence of god that's what makes a pentecostal church special but the holy spirit didn't come to give us power so that we could have church he came to give the church power so that the church could be the church to help transform lives when we're not at church it's not about a pentecostal church it's not about a pentecostal sermon it's not about pentecostal praise and worship it's about a pentecostal posture pentecostal spirit a pentecostal heart the apostles didn't demonstrate the power of the holy spirit at church services we never read that they weren't really at church when the holy spirit came down and all these miracles were happening they demonstrated the power of the holy spirit out in the world and so today what i want to do on this pentecost sunday i simply just want to remind you of the power of pentecost because i think that sometimes we forget about it a spirit-filled service is not as powerful as a spirit-filled christian because a service happens once a week at church right we need to flood the streets with christians who walk in the spirit who talk in the spirit who pray and believe in the spirit who are moved led and empowered by the spirit so go with me to acts chapter two i was going to try to be original today and not use acts chapter two but we've got to talk about the day of pentecost on pentecost sunday would you stand with me we're going to read 21 verses don't fall asleep on me amen i know there might be some of you who don't really know what the day of pentecost is and look it's right here this is it we're about to read it when jesus resurrected he promised the disciples that he was going to send the helper the helper to help them spread the gospel that's that's what the holy spirit is he is our helper he is our guide uh he guides the church in truth and fills up the church with power and and today the the power of the holy spirit it it brings conviction to the world he brings power upon the church in a variety of ways through a variety of gifts the holy spirit the bible says the holy spirit testifies about jesus that's what he does that that's his role and so without we're about to read it but without the holy spirit can i just tell you i'll be honest all of this is just emotional superficial stuff without the holy spirit we are nothing without the holy spirit there is no power behind the pulpit there is no power without the holy spirit when the church doesn't have a feeling of the spirit there's no power there's nothing that we can really do on our own and so we have to create space for the holy spirit in our lives and in the church the church needs the holy spirit and so jesus tells the disciples to wait for the coming of the holy spirit and here it is acts chapter 2 1 through 21 says when the day of pentecost arrived they were all together in one place and suddenly somebody say some suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each of them and they were all filled with the holy spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance now there were dwelling in jerusalem jews devout men from every nation under heaven and at the sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language and they were amazed and astonished saying are not all of these who are speaking galileans and how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language parthians and medes and elamites and residents of mesopotamia and judea and capas of capas of dia pontus and asia phrygia and pamphylia egypt and the parts of libya belonging to syrene and visitors from rome both jews and proselytes cretans and arabians i'm sorry arabians we hear them telling in our own language the mighty works of god and all were amazed saying to one another what does this mean but others mocking said they are all filled with new wine but peter standing with the eleven lifted up his voice and addressed them men of judea and all who dwell in jerusalem let this be known to you and give ear to my words for these people are not drunk as you suppose since it is only the third hour of the day but this is what was uttered through the prophet joel and in the last days it shall be god declares that i will pour out my spirit on all flesh somebody say all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall somebody say prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams even on my male servants and female servants in those days i will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy and i will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below blood and fire and vapor of smoke the sun shall be turned to darkness and moon to blood before the day of the lord comes and great magnificent day and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the lord shall be saved you can take your seat if you didn't catch it by now the the title of my sermon is pentecostal posture and um a quick quick lesson on pentecostalism pentecostalism is not a church it's not a denomination it's a movement that's what pentecostalism is and it's uh it represents actually the largest and fastest growing movement in the evangelical church pentecostalism has its roots all the way back to the 18th century through a man named william seymour who was used by god to give birth to what's called the azusa street revivals in california you can look all of this up there's plenty of history on it and and these revivals i want you to i want you to get this the revivals brought back the lost idea that the church still has power of pentecost now prior prior to this it wasn't like the holy spirit wasn't working he absolutely was it wasn't like the holy spirit wasn't bringing power behind every sermon and people weren't getting saved no people were but the azusa street revival sparked a movement that made the church intentional about spirit baptism that through the power of the holy spirit people could still be divinely healed and prophetic word was still being spoken and that miracles were still happening and you know as you can imagine these revivals spark controversy and some people didn't know what to think of them and and the ministers that were involved in these revivals were criticized you know pentecostals are still criticized today i i uh i often hear of people who criticize worship music because it's it's it's too emotional i've i've heard people criticize pentecostal preaching because all we do is yell i i've heard people criticize other believers who speak in tongues and you know what the disciples were criticized the day of pentecost nothing's changed people think that pentecostals are crazy today they thought that they were crazy on the day of pentecost these men are drunk they even criticized jesus when jesus would do miracles saying that he only could do miracles by the by the power of satan and you know i i've come to find out that when people when whenever there's supernatural power involved criticism is bound to happen because natural people don't understand supernatural things and you know i'm not even talking about i'm not even talking about the world i'm talking about christians there are christians who criticize the pentecostal movement and i don't understand that because our very faith is supernatural we believe in a supernatural god i don't understand how christians can be surprised and doubtful when god heals somebody in a supernatural way i don't understand how christians can put so much faith in natural things but not so much faith and that god can do miraculous things i mean we claim to believe in a god who became flesh was born of a virgin lived a perfectly sinless life walked on water died and resurrected in three days by his very own power how is it that we have lost the posture of pentecost you with me today y'all quiet for pentecostal church now look i'm gonna get i'm gonna give some grace because i'm saying this and some of y'all are like look i understand people suck that's the best way i could say it people suck shame on the ministers who have abused the power of the holy spirit shame on the preachers who prophesy with no actual revelation shame on those who say they have word of god but really have word of opinion i'll even say this shame on those who call everything a miracle because you are diluting the supernatural element that makes a miracle a miracle it's a miracle that she got married that's not a miracle maybe it's almost a miracle but don't dilute the supernatural element that makes a miracle a miracle and it's this type of rhetoric from ministries uh ministers that believers have uh no longer have this pentecostal posture because of of rhetoric like this and i don't want you to forget though church that god still does miracles god still does miracles and we need to pray and we need to believe and we need to expect our miraculous god to draw glory from miracles that's that's what he did throughout scripture god would bring glory to himself through the divine through miraculous works and wonders all so that the world will see his glory and so whenever church you're out in the world and you see an opportunity for god to get some glory so that unbelievers would be drawn to him man pray for it and expect it we become so confident in the presence of believers all we pray with authority in the presence of the church but god wants to do miracles in the presence of unbelievers but first there's need there needs to be a a christian a holy spirit filled disciple of christ who would believe for the miracle that the believer doesn't even know to ask for so that whenever the miracle can happen the believer can say and testify that was my god that was my god who did it after after the day of pentecost uh the book of acts talks about this man uh who had been lame from birth he was unable to walk right and every single day somebody would have to uh bring him to bring him to the temple gate it's right there in acts uh chapter 3 verse 3 i'll read it real quick it says seeing peter and John about to go into the temple he asked to receive alms and peter directed his gaze at him as did John and said look at us and as he fixed his attention on them expecting to receive something from them but peter said i have no silver i have no gold but what i do have i give to you in the name of jesus christ rise up and walk understand this the man didn't know to ask for the supernatural thing maybe if it was jesus walking by maybe he would have asked for healing but but this man just sees two guys going into the temple maybe they have some money so maybe i'm gonna ask him and maybe they'll be able to give me a little bit of a blessing but but what this man didn't know was that while they had no money they had something much more powerful and church you might not have money you might not have solutions and you might not have answers but the same essence that was of jesus is the same power that is in you today and as a church we are called to represent the power of christ to people who don't even know him and i'm not saying that you're gonna go out and god's gonna use you every single time to to deliver a healing to somebody but i'm saying that that we need spirit-filled christians out in the world who who believe that if god can do a miracle maybe he actually might do the miracle we need the expectation that the holy spirit is still moving in the life of the church and that our proclamation of the gospel still has power to bring people to the feet of jesus god is not impressed with the pentecostal service he's not i don't care how much how crazy you worship him when we go out there and there's no power what what are we what are we doing what are we doing we gather in here to worship we gather in here to be filled and and and to learn the word of god but then we disperse and that's where it matters i think we've lost we've lost that pentecostal posture we know how to be pentecostal christians we know how to be we know how to go to pentecostal church but the power of pentecost was always meant for the world to see the power of god and so we can't lose the confidence that the disciples had man the disciples they went out in confidence man when the spirit fell upon them in that upper room they went out with certainty peter brought a word not even really knowing how to preach he didn't even prepare it probably he probably didn't take any notes but he went out there by the power of the spirit and testified of everything that jesus did and what jesus is going to continue to do and we need to be able to have that level of confidence whenever we walk out of this out of this church and go out into the world because let me tell you something god did not take away the power of the spirit he hasn't taken it away the holy spirit didn't stop moving the spiritual gifts did not cease if anything has ceased it is the pentecostal posture it is our expectation that god still does miracles am i speaking to anybody today now we're a pentecostal church but again we're talking about a posture of pentecost it's got little to do with what church you attend you can come into a pentecostal church but if the spirit of god doesn't move in you there's a difference between the spirit moving in you and the spirit moving you there's a difference the spirit of god moves in every christian the spirit of god is what sanctifies us he's what transforms us he's what convicts us he's what directs us and gives us wisdom but not every christian is moved by the same spirit listen the holy spirit has been trying to move your mouth among your peers among your family members some of you among places of influence he's trying to move your mouth because he's moving in you but you don't let him move your mouth you shut up the mouth in rooms where you should be prophesying in rooms where you should be preaching in rooms where you should be pointing people to jesus you say holy spirit what if they judge me what if they think i'm crazy what if they think i'm just drunk he's trying to move you the holy spirit has been trying to move your faith come on he's been trying to move your faith in the midst of faithless people when nobody you're the only person that believes like you do but you are too afraid that if you speak with too much faith you won't get the result that you hope for and it's gonna make you look bad and he's just trying to move your faith he's not trying to get you to control the results we don't control the results but we do control our faith and that spirit that is moving in you is trying to move your faith out there the holy spirit has been trying to move some of y'all's feet come on he's trying to send you places he's trying to elevate your ministry in the world but you haven't moved i don't care how well you jump in the presence of other churches your feet are planted when they should be moving the holy spirit is trying to move your hands to pray over people because god knows that everything you touch is anointed but you are keeping your hands in your pocket you pray for people at church but you don't pray for people who don't even believe let me tell you something i love it when somebody prays for me but i don't really need to be prayed for when i'm at the altar i'm trying to have a moment with god trying to have a moment with god unless i come and ask you to pray for me this is just a personal thing don't pray for me i'm good i'm good here in my spot i'm worshiping god but but but christians we have this thing where we feel like oh well i'm gonna pray for everybody i'm gonna pray for everybody that's what you do at the altars you just start laying hands but god wants you to lay hands out there where it matters where people are really hurting people are broken people are in need of salvation he's trying to move you that is what the power of pentecost does it moved the disciples to go out and disperse into all the world they didn't stay right there they didn't stay in the upper room peter didn't say you know what we're gonna plant this church called upper room ministries he didn't do that they went out into the world with the power of the holy spirit moving their every step and you know we look at i think about men like samson in the bible samson is not a great example but when the holy spirit got a hold of him that man moved and things happened out in the world we hear about elijah who went up against 450 prophets of baal the spirit of god was in him and also moved him to call fire from heaven in the presence of pagans we know the spirit was over the disciples regular men moved to spread the gospel listen in the most hostile environment of the world at that time we're not even asking we're not even being asked to go out into a hostile environment everybody's a christian out there all of this movement happened in the world and i just want to i'm not mad i'm just passionate about this stuff man and i want to tell you man that the spirit that moves you to tears in here that moves you to respond to the word that moves you to run to the altars that moves you to lift up your hands that spirit that puts you on your knees never meant for your movement to stop here it's when you walk out the door that you really need to get moving it's it's when you drive out of the parking lot that your christianity matters a lot more than it does in here i love having church don't get me wrong i love it i love having the the movement of the spirit of god in here but i really want to hear testimonies about what god is doing out there you know we talk a lot about the the last days pastor damaris yesterday i i kind of smiled when she said it she said it during prayer she said that the lord had been impressing on her on her life recently this urgency because we're living in the last days the return of christ can be at any minute any minute and she said that the lord had been trying to to to bring the church into alignment because we're kind of all everybody's all over the place i'm not talking about this church i'm talking about the church in general everybody's kind of out there doing their own thing and and we're focused on our ministries and and and we're focusing on all these things which is good but we can't lose the eminence of the return of christ because he is coming back and he's coming back soon and it's good that we have a food pantry and it's good that we have a closet and it's good that we're doing all of the outreach stuff but we cannot forget to preach the gospel we cannot forget to point people to jesus because without jesus it's just charity and so he's bringing people into alignment when i think about the church it's easy to be critical man you know the body of christ we know doesn't always look pretty but jesus loves her and i would never talk bad about a church that jesus loves and when we look at the church yes there's a lot of division there's a lot of division in the church there's been division for centuries there's churches that got different agendas there's churches that disagree with us maybe we don't see eye to eye on every theological element but you know what acts chapter 2 shows us is that you can be different and still be united you can clap for that you can clap for that you can be different and still be united you can disagree and still be united and acts chapter 2 you know what there was a lot of men from different nationalities there were jews there were non-jews there were people from all parts of the world and when the holy spirit came upon the apostles they started to speak in different languages they were speaking in different languages but speaking the same message it's like god was saying you don't have to be the same to be united you just need the right spirit because back in back in genesis 11 the tower of babel when when men came together and they came in one spirit they came united to glorify man they were all speaking the bible says there was one language they were all speaking one language and the bible says that god came down to confuse their language causing them to disperse and divide see those men didn't have the right spirit they had the same spirit but it wasn't the right one and so god caused differences upon them to manifest to divide them and disrupt them but they but here in acts god does the opposite he brings men in the room from all over the world who spoke different languages to bring unity through the right spirit and you know why he did that why did he do that because when jesus ascended into heaven suddenly the world was living in the last days jesus said i'm coming back and it's not our job to know when it's simply our job to be ready and get as many people ready as we can and we can't do that on our own we can't just look at somebody and tell you hey you might go to hell if you don't get right we need a pentecostal posture we need we need power of the spirit we need passion when we're talking about the things of god and there's too many christians though that i believe have become relaxed to relax with the last days we have lost the urgency that god can come back for his church today maybe this is why we've also lost the pentecostal posture that would otherwise move us boldly to proclaim the gospel to people who are different than us so instead of what do we do we come to church we we we worship with the church we have conferences with the believers and we have nights of worship with the believers and it's the church that we run to to see the power where people think like us and and and pray like us and and believe like us we're pentecostal that church but in the world that's where it matters holy spirit gave power to the church not so that we could have church but so that we could be the church i really think that uh i really think that the disciples thought that jesus was coming back like within a few weeks i really do jesus like all right i'll be back peter was probably like tuesday i really think because because they went on to preach the word with so much urgency risking their lives not asking any questions and and when there were other needs that popped up in the church like when there was a need to to care for the orphan to the widows the apostle said okay this is really important let's let's put some structure to this but we still have to preach the word we can't stop everything that we're doing to tend to the to real need there's a bigger need there's a world out there that has not heard the good news of jesus christ there's a world out there that that doesn't know that they can have access to salvation they can have access to the throne room of god again we need to continue to preach the word why because we're living in the last days and so what does scripture say about the last days what does scripture say about the last days that peter said we are now in he says in the last days it shall be god declares i will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams and on every male and female servant in those days i will pour out my spirit the spirit of god has been poured out upon each of you every single one of you once you have declared jesus as lord and savior the holy spirit is in you and there is power to be poured out all over you verse 19 says and i will show wonders in the heavens above and the signs on earth below flood and fire and vapor of the sun shall be turned to darkness listen this is really important he says the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the lord comes the great and magnificent day several centuries before peter quotes this passage the prophet joel prophesied it and and do you know what peter is doing here in verse 20 he's alluding to just a few weeks earlier when jesus died on that cross and the sun did turn to darkness and the moon did turn as the blood peter is saying look the last days have officially commenced on that day that jesus died and the confirmation of that is a spirit being poured out upon all flesh all these men are speaking in language that they don't even speak and people are hearing the good news of jesus christ through through foreign lips the spirit of god has been poured out and that's that spirit is still upon the church man there is still power in the church and and this morning i just i wonder if we could just seek the manifestation of the holy spirit over our lives i wonder if we could just seek the baptism of the holy spirit in our lives because what what god has done before church he can do again god has done some amazing things when we open up the scriptures god has done some amazing miracles i believe that if the same spirit is alive in the church today those same things can begin to happen but we have to have that posture of pentecost i want you to stand with me i want to i want to make a just a special call this morning and i don't i don't want anybody can i be honest with you this morning is is a little rough for me it's a little rough for me this morning nah and i i just i i sense i don't know and it might not be like a spirit in the room or anything i'm not gonna make it super spiritual but right right in my life right now in this moment i'm feeling i'm feeling a disconnect i'll be i'll be honest with you i'm i'm feeling a spiritual disconnect where i feel like man and you you know how i can tell i'm sweating i only sweat when i'm preaching when i'm like okay this is a little bit too much me and less and not enough spirit and maybe the holy spirit is saying Ryan you need to just shut up already and let the spirit of god do what the spirit of god is going to do and so i'm simply going to make one invitation to you because i do believe that the power of pentecost is in this room and it doesn't matter if you're in an emotional state right now i don't think the holy spirit even wants you in an emotional state right now i think the holy spirit wants you clear and and level-headed to to ask and seek for the presence of god more in your life so that you would truly be empowered by the holy spirit because you have already been anointed and so maybe you feel like man i'm there's there's no power i've got no power in my lips i've got no power in my hands i i maybe i have the anointing but when i when i get in front of people i don't know what to say when i'm when i'm being asked to pray for somebody i don't know what to pray i don't know how to minister to people i don't know how to lead people i don't know enough scripture i i don't know but god is saying look the spirit of god is in you man the spirit of god will give you power when you have nothing and so i'm gonna open up these altars to anybody who wants to truly seek the spirit of god over their life who say holy spirit i need more of you i need more power because i know that i've been anointed lord i pray that you would move me because i haven't been moving much if that's you this morning i want you to come forward and let the holy spirit fill your life thank you jesus thanks for listening if you'd like some more information on PNEUMA church visit us on our website at my PNEUMA church dot o-r-g if you enjoyed the podcast you can subscribe or share it with your friends on social media and tag us at my PNEUMA church thanks again and god bless you you you you you you you you you you you you