 So good to be with you this weekend. You may not know this, but this weekend is actually Pentecost weekend. And because it's Pentecost weekend, the message that I'm gonna bring to you today is actually, it's somewhat tied in with what I've been teaching in the series Out of Egypt, but it's unique in this that we're gonna be talking specifically about Pentecost. And so I've entitled this message this weekend send the fire, send the fire. And I wanna invite you to turn with me to Acts chapter two in your Bibles. And while you're turning there, just wanna greet all of you, miss you. Obviously, we're looking forward to the time that we can re-gather and do it in a very safe and a very productive and celebratory way. We'll be communicating with you as the days and the weeks go on, but we're so grateful that you're joining us and many of you aren't even part of the Kalamazoo or West Michigan region, but yet you find yourself deeply connected with what God is doing here at Radiant Church. And so we just consider you extended family and we look forward every single weekend to being together in the spirit and studying God's Word and praying together. So let me just turn your attention to Acts chapter two. We're gonna read 21 verses, significant verses that are found here. This is the New King James beginning in verse number one. And it says, When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And then there appeared to them divided tongues of fire and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them the utterance. Verse five, And there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and they were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, Look, are not all those who speak Galileans? How is it that we hear each in our own language that place where we were born, Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs. We hear them speaking in our own tongues, the wonderful works of God. And so they were all amazed and perplexed saying to one another, whatever could this mean? Others mocked and said, They are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the 11, raised his voice and he said to them, Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, Let this be known to you and heed my words, for these are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day, but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last day, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. And all my men servants and all my maid servants, I will pour out my spirit in those days. And they shall prophesy and I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and vapor and fire of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and the awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. This is the birthday of the church. We look all the way back in church history to a beginning point, a genesis of the church. And it literally is Acts chapter two. We read a portion of Peter's sermon, but we didn't get to the altar call that he gave. When he gave the altar call, 3,000 souls were saved in that very beginning day, that first Pentecost of the church. Well, you and I today this weekend are actually celebrating Pentecost. And for many people, the idea of Pentecost or even that name or that word itself doesn't carry a lot of meaning, but yet it carries a lot of meaning for God. Pentecost actually means 50 days. 50 days from Passover when we celebrated Passover and the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus. From 50 days from Passover, all the way to this weekend leads us to Pentecost. Pentecost literally means 50 days and for the Jewish people who were gathered in Jerusalem at the time of Acts chapter two and the disciples who have just spent many, many weeks with Jesus post resurrection, have watched Jesus ascend into the heavens. They have been quarantined in an upper room, praying and waiting for what Jesus referred to as the promise of the Father. Jesus told them, go, stay in Jerusalem and wait for it. Wait for what? Well, wait for the promise of the Father that you've heard from me when I said to you, not many days from now, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And so on this very first Pentecost, it was not unusual to have people from every nation on the face of the earth, Jews and proselytes from all the surrounding nations who had made pilgrimage to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem. For the Jewish people was actually a commemoration of God giving the law to the Israelites at Mount Sinai. It would be the equivalent of Exodus chapter 19 and 20 where we literally are in our out of Egypt series where God told Moses, bring them back to the mountain of the Lord. And it's where God met the children of Israel. It's also referred to in the Old Testament as a feast of harvest. So in the Old Testament, at the original giving of the law, there was a powerful encounter that the children of Israel who had just come out of Egyptian bondage had with the presence of God. The Bible says in Exodus chapter 19 that God came in a supernatural thunderstorm on the horizons. He told the children of Israel by Moses. He says, tell them to consecrate themselves, clean themselves, set themselves apart for three days because I'm gonna come to them. And when God did come to them, he told them don't touch the mountain because I'm going to bring my physical manifest glory on this mountain. And so imagine off on the horizons, they saw a incoming storm, a dark storm that was coming that was supercharged with thunder and lightning but also trumpet sounds. Filled with angels and the literal manifest presence of God. God filled that storm, shrouded himself in these clouds and he came to them and he settled on the top of Mount Sinai. Literally the clouds covered the top of the mountain. And the Bible records that when God gave the children of Israel the law originally, he didn't give it to them on tablets of stone. We're all familiar with the image of Moses coming down off the mountain with two tablets of stone with the 10 commandments which are a summation of the 613 complete law that God gave Moses when Moses went up on the mountain. But originally that is not how God gave the law to the children of Israel, to the Jewish people. Originally when God gave the law, he spoke it. They heard the voice of God out of that manifestation of his presence that cloud, that glory cloud with trumpets and thunder. When Moses spoke to God, God answered with thunder and all of the children of Israel heard God's voice. The rabbinical tradition says that when God gave the original law when he originally gave it to them and they could literally hear the voice of God that he gave it to them not only just orally they heard his voice but God actually gave it to them in 70 different languages all at the same time. And the reason he did that is there was a belief among the Jewish people that was early on established that when God scattered all the nations after the Tower of Babel that there were 70 unique nations. And so therefore when God came to Israel and he came to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai he didn't just speak the law in their language, Hebrew but he spoke the law to them, his will, his desire, his perfect law, he spoke it to them in the language of every nation on the face of the earth. Why did he do that? He did it because there was a tradition that the echo of God's voice would be heard in every nation. But yet when the children of Israel heard the voice of God they were terrified. They were so afraid that they told Moses Moses don't let God speak to us anymore. His voice is too awesome. His presence is too holy. They were confronted with their slave reality and their identities and they told Moses Moses you go talk to God, tell God to write it all down. What he wants us to do, how he wants us to please him and we'll do it all but don't let God speak to us anymore. That's actually how we came, that's how we arrived at having the law written on tablets of stone. It was not God's intention. God's intention was that every one of the Israelites would actually have a unique personal relationship with God and the ability to hear his voice and to worship him uniquely. He says in Exodus chapter 19 he said you're gonna be a kingdom of priests unto me. What does that mean? It means it's not gonna be a special class of priests. You're all gonna be priests. I want all of you to hear my voice. I want all of you to know my presence but they did not wanna have it. And so Moses, when everybody backed up and drew away from the presence of God Moses actually drew near. That's how he went up on the mountain. That's how he came down with the tablets written and that's how Israel became captivated by religion instead of liberated by relationship. And the commemoration of that event became known as Pentecost because it took place 50 days after their Passover deliverance out of Egypt. So now here are these disciples gathered in an upper room in the city of Jerusalem. They have just spent many, many days with Jesus post resurrection, I can't imagine what that was like but he taught them everything that they needed to know pertaining to the kingdom of God. And then he told them, I'm about to depart. I'm about to go and be seated on the throne over the universe at the right hand of God the Father. I'm coming back but before you go and attempt to accomplish the great commission of going into all the nations of the world I want you to go to Jerusalem and I want you to stay there and I want you to pray and I want you to wait for the promise of my father. Well, what was the promise of the father? The promise of the father was that he was about to send the Holy Spirit upon the early church and saturate them with heavenly power and heavenly presence so that they would be empowered in fuel to go and to fulfill the great commission. And that's exactly what took place. We just read it in Acts chapter two. What took place was God filled their quarantined upper room with his rushing wind, with flames of fire and with supernatural gifts and when they began to speak who's all gathered there? People from every nation, all 70 nations and they all began to hear the praises of God and the works of God spoken to them in their own language. Going all the way back to Pentecost, God does it again except this time he pours his Holy Spirit out and he initiates and he actually gives birth to an entity called the church of which you and I are an extension of 2000 plus years later. We are still the people of God. We are still a people of prayer. We are still a people that have been commissioned to go into all the earth and preach the gospel. We are still the body of Christ and we are still the carriers of hope for a lost in a dying world. And because we are still that people, I want you to know that we are still a people who stand in need of what Jesus told the disciples in Acts chapter one that they needed more than anything if they were going to walk victoriously and fulfill their mission. And that is the Holy Spirit. I want you to hear me church, we need the Holy Spirit. If Jesus told them do not depart until you've received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the fire from heaven, then you and I are still in need of the same Holy Spirit to accomplish what Jesus has called us to. And that small group, that small band of huddled disciples who found themselves a lot like us in our particular day, huddled up in an upper room, in a living room, in our homes, they were filled with the power from heaven. They were like protons that without knowing it were about to be bombarded with the fire and the energy of heaven until there was an atomic reaction that took place because it reached critical mass and an explosion took place and these believers were propelled out from hiding in an upper room into the streets of Jerusalem and into the corridors of Samaria and beyond Judea and up into Europe and as far East as India and Northern Africa and many of them lost their lives, but they were those that the Bible describes as those who turned the world upside down. And listen, they did it without Google, they did it without Facebook, they did it without Twitter and Instagram, they did it without the printing press, they did it without boats, planes, trains and automobiles, they did it without seminary educations, they did it without the English language, they did it with the power of the Holy Spirit. And I just believe with all of my heart that we have all of these tools and we have all of these resources at our disposal, but maybe the one thing that we need more than anything is the very thing that Jesus said to wait for, which is the fire of the Holy Spirit. Church, we have everything in Western Christianity, we've got all kinds of things that we depend on and methodology that we lean into. We fancy ourselves to be trailblazers and innovators, but maybe the thing that God has scheduled in this hour for us, when all of those things have been yielded useless and when many of the things that are our creature comforts have been stripped away and we find ourselves like these early disciples hunkered down in our homes, like they were hunkered down in an upper room, where they were captivated by fear because of what might come upon them. And here we are, a lot of us are experiencing fear and anxiety about what the future holds while pastors and church leaders are wondering what church is gonna look like in the future. I think that God has us exactly where he wants us on this Pentecost weekend. I believe that he has us waiting in an upper room, waiting in an upper room of quarantine and stay safe, stay home, shelter in place. And it's not in order to take things away from us, but it's in order to put into us and get a realization on the inside of us of the one thing that we have discounted but the one thing that will propel us like an atomic machine out into the mission of Jesus and it is the fire of heaven, the Holy Spirit. It's exactly what we need. About 100 years ago, there was a revivalist in Great Britain who established a ministry that you're familiar with. It's called the Salvation Army. Salvation Army was founded by William and Catherine Booth. And when I say Salvation Army, you probably think of a thrift store or you might think of a rehab center or maybe even a church. But when the Salvation Army was founded, it was an evangelistic prophetic Holy Spirit ministry that was dedicated to taking care of the poor and the oppressed of helping those who could not help themselves. And the overflow of that became much of what you and I know today. But I love the story of the Salvation Army because William Booth who was its founder was a flame-throwing Jesus-loving revivalist. He was also a prolific songwriter, a hymnwriter. One of my favorite hymns of all time was written by William Booth. It's called Send the Fire. I wanna read the lyrics to you and I'm not gonna skip stanzas three and four and we're gonna, I'm gonna read all of it to you because there's a powerful message that I believe is relevant for the hour in which we live. It says this, Thou Christ of burning cleansing flame, send the fire. The blood bought gift today we claim, send the fire. Send the fire, send the fire. Look down and see this waiting host. Give us the promised Holy Ghost. We want another Pentecost, send the fire. God of Elijah hear our cry, send the fire. To make us fit to live or die, send the fire. To burn up every trace of sin, to bring the light and glory in, the revolution now begins. Send the fire, send the fire, send the fire. Tis fire we want, for fire we plead, send the fire. The fire will meet our every need, send the fire. For strength to ever do the right, for grace to conquer in the fight, for power to walk in the world in white. Send the fire, send the fire, send the fire. To make our weak hearts strong and brave, send the fire. To live a dying world to save, send the fire. Send the fire, send the fire. Oh, see us on thy altar lay. Our lives are all this very day. To crown the offering now we pray, send the fire, send the fire, send the fire. The only line out of this entire hymn that I would change is instead of saying we want another Pentecost, I would replace it in the day in which you and I live in with we need another Pentecost. Church, we need the power of the Holy Spirit. We need it in the generation we're living in with the challenges that you and I are facing in our world on a consistent basis, where darkness has covered the earth and grossed darkness to the people. We need the power of the Holy Spirit that burns away the fog of confusion and fear and separation and division and vitriol. We need another Pentecost. I'm so grateful that Jesus declared that if we would ask the Father for the Holy Spirit, he would be faithful and he would be true to give us the Holy Spirit because he's a good father. And when I say that we need another Pentecost, what I'm saying is we don't need to replay Acts chapter two exactly the way that Acts chapter two looked, but the characteristics of Acts chapter two that turned weak and fearful isolated believers and disciples in Acts one into revivalist, holy passion, followers and lovers of Jesus who were bold and uncompromising in their declaration of the gospel, who loved those who were different from themselves, who healed the sick and cast out demons, who carried a fire shut up in their bones. I'm saying we need that more than ever before. And we don't just need a few preachers in the pulpit, in a few cities across America who are filled with the fire from heaven. Listen, we need the church of Jesus Christ in all of its many expressions. Young and old, rich and poor, black and white, brown and red in every other color in between, we need another Pentecost. We need the fire of heaven because the fire that was divided over the heads of each one of the disciples is a, it's an image, it's a picture of what the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the church actually accomplishes. When John the Baptist was describing who Jesus would be in Matthew chapter three, verse 11, he said this, he says, I baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, who sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire, fire. Send the fire. You see, when the Holy Spirit really comes upon us, when the Holy Spirit really encounters us, when we encounter the Lord beyond just the form of religion, when we encounter the living God, when we're standing like the Israelites, we're at the base of Mount Sinai and we see that God is not just an idea, he's not distant, but yet he's close. Rabbis, when they give that encounter in Exodus chapter 19, they say that God came rushing to the mountain of Sinai, not as an angry judge, but as a ravished bridegroom who was coming, like walking down the aisle of his wedding day to the people he had betrothed himself to a bride. Well, can I tell you today, you, if you are a believer of Jesus, you are what the Bible describes as the bride of Christ, and you don't have to convince God to encounter you. God wants to encounter us more than we desire him to encounter us. He has, we don't have to convince God for more of him. He's ready to release it. Jesus said, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, will be filled, but yet, like little children, we've been filling up on junk food. And so therefore, our appetite for the Holy has been ruined. And much like the people that Jesus encountered in his earthly ministry, we've settled for a second hand relationship with the Holy Spirit instead of a first hand encounter with the living God. That's what John was saying. John says, look, I'm baptizing you, helping you find repentance, but there's coming one after me who's gonna come way closer to you than you just standing in the water and getting your heart right. There's more that he has for you. And he's coming and he's gonna baptize you, saturate you, endure you with the Holy Spirit. And when he comes, it's going to have the dynamic of fire because when the Holy Spirit comes, as he did on the day of Pentecost, he comes like fire. Just like William Booth said, send the fire. In my life, Lord, send the fire. In our nation, Jesus, send the fire. In your church, God, send the fire. In every denomination, God, send the fire. We need another Pentecost. We don't just want it, Lord, we want it, but Lord, we're beyond just wanting it. We're at a point where we need the Holy Spirit because in order for us to do what Jesus has called us to do, we need more than what we currently have. We need the fire of the Holy Spirit because it's the fire of the Holy Spirit that cleanses, purifies, and heals us. In 2 Timothy chapter two, it says, in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay and some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself, from the latter, he will be a vessel of honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work. We want to be vessels of honor. That's what we want to live our lives, right? We want to be useful for the master. At least that's the heart cry of every disciple who's truly encountered Jesus as savior. If all we've ever done is been inoculated by a American gospel vaccine that has built up our spiritual immunity enough so that we will never catch the real gospel if we ever encounter it, if all we've been contaminated with is the virus of an American gospel where we keep God at a distance and we don't want him to speak to us, but we just say, write it down and we'll be happy to live a good moral life and every once in a while, when we need it, we'll cry out to God because we need a therapy session with God. That is not going to heal us. That is not going to please the master and we will be relegated to being vessels of clay. But if we want to be vessels of honor that are useful to the master, and we've got to prepare ourselves and we've got to allow the fire in the kiln of the Holy Spirit to actually bring purity to us and cleansing to us and healing to us. When Isaiah encountered the Lord in chapter six, it says into the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. I want you to think about that. I saw the Lord and he was high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple. And when Isaiah encountered the Lord, the living God, it says, what was me? For I am an unclean man, come from an unclean people with unclean lips. It says that one of the angels, the seraphim went and took one of the coals off of the altar before God. And he flew to where Isaiah was and he touched his lips and he cleansed his lips. Why is that? It's because fire cleanses. When we are baptized with the Holy Spirit, when there is a true Pentecost, I'll tell you what it brings cleansing and it brings healing, not just to us individually, but to the church. Listen, in light of what has taken place over the last couple of weeks, where we've seen racism and man's inhumanity to man, take place and because we live in a technologically advanced era, it isn't just swept under the rug anymore, it's now caught on video and in social media, it's not filtered by the elites anymore. We're seeing it raw and unedited and it leaves a lot of questions, but it also stirs up a lot of anger and it reveals to us the struggle that we have in our nation that isn't going to be fixed necessarily with just legislation. It's not just going to be fixed because somebody makes it go viral. There has to be an answer from heaven. One of the unique things in history that took place was in the early 1900s, there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that took place in California called the Azusa Street Outpouring. It took place at a little mission, a little storefront mission with a one-eyed African-American pastor named William Seymour who had such a passion for Jesus and a hunger for the Holy Spirit that as he began to pray and do a Bible study in this little storefront, this little mission, God sovereignly poured out his Holy Spirit. The Fire of Pentecost was released and it literally went around the world. People at that time traveled from around the world to come to Southern California, to Anaheim, to come to this little storefront and to experience the power of heaven because here's what took place. In the early 1900s, America was still segregated. Blacks and whites did not spend time worshiping together. You think it's segregated now, it was officially segregated then, but yet in one building, there were black and there were white. There were men and there were women. There were people from sometimes up to 80 different nations that were together worshiping Jesus and it was a sign and a wonder. It made the headlines of the newspapers. You know what that reminds me of? It reminds me of the reality that when heaven comes, when the power of heaven comes to bear on the church, we become a house of prayer for all nations because it's not something that we try to do. The Holy Spirit comes and He purifies us from our sin. He cleanses us and He also heals us. Healing occurs when the Holy Spirit comes and He comes upon His people. I think that one of the things that is gonna bring about a miracle of the healing of the race issues in our culture can be the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon God's church. We can be the prophetic forerunners that demonstrate in the church what it is like to worship together, to honor one another, to not erase color, but to actually celebrate diversity in color. It's our responsibility though and we're not gonna do it in our own strength or in our own power. We're gonna do it when we say send a fire. God send a fire, heal us, cleanse us. If there's ever been a time that the church needs to arise and shine, it's right now. And in order for us to do that, we need God to send the fire. We need Him to send the fire that fuels and empowers us so that we can accomplish the mission that Jesus gave us. In Acts chapter one, verse eight, it says, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea, Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the world. Jesus said, when you receive the Holy Spirit, you're gonna receive power, dynamite, dynamic, dunamis power and it's going to propel you to be witnesses of me to take this gospel to the four corners of the world. And we know that in the first generation in the first century, the church took the gospel and literally it went from zero to hundreds of thousands in the first hundred years. Today on planet Earth, there's 1.6 billion believers on the earth, but yet there's eight billion people on the planet that Jesus died for. Our work is not done. And it's not gonna happen just because the world is gonna get desperate enough to come to us. They've gotta see something in us that's attractive enough that they would come and ask questions. But Jesus didn't say, stand Jerusalem so that when the world needs answers, they can come to you and know where to find you. That's not what Jesus called us to do. He said, no, I want you to go and I want you to preach and I want you to be witnesses, starting here in your own city, make your way to the outer rings of your region, to the neighboring cities and communities and states and even to the ends of the earth. Can I just tell you? It's not gonna happen without the fire of the Holy Spirit. One of the things that concerns me in our current hour, where we're in the middle of a pandemic and much of the world has found themselves staying at home, wondering when things are going to reopen. And listen, I put myself in that same boat. I'm like, let's reopen. I can't wait for restaurants to reopen. I can't wait and some of you are living in states where it's already reopened. Pray for us in Michigan because we're not there yet. But here's my concern. My concern is that the church of Jesus Christ in the middle of this hour is more concerned about what the media is saying about where we're at than we do about what heaven is saying about where we are at. Are we more concerned about the economy opening up than we are about the windows of heaven opening up? Are we more concerned about our favorite business or restaurant opening up or the doors for the gospel on foreign fields opening up? Are we more concerned about the doors of the gym that we're used to frequently opening up more than we are about the hearts of the skeptics and the prodigals and the lost opening up? What's going to change our heart? Send the fire. Are we more committed to getting our lives back in this hour than we are saying, Jesus, I'll lay my life down in this hour. Here we are, we're trying to get our life back and Jesus is saying, lay your life down. If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. If we're going to be people alight with the fire of heaven, fueled to go into the world, to fulfill the great commission and to send missionaries and to witness to our neighbors and to speak bold in the midst of a generation that sometimes is very critical and very skeptical or thinks that they know what Christianity and what Jesus is all about. Are we gonna be bold enough to stand up to the criticism and to the judgment? Are we gonna witness to our neighbors and to our friends or are we just going to let hell take this generation because of our cowardice? No, we need the fire of heaven. Send the fire. We need the fire that rekindles our passion for Jesus. In Revelation chapter two, verse two through four, Jesus speaking to the apostle John on the island of Patmos, it's about the year 90 AD. John is the last apostle who's alive. He was there in Acts two. He was there when the gospel began to be propelled into all the nations of the earth. He's watched all of his friends lose their lives for the gospel, lay their lives down, but he's seen the fruit. And he has an encounter with Jesus, the resurrected Jesus. Can you imagine? Jesus speaks to John and says, John, I want you to write seven letters to seven churches. One of the letters was to the church at Ephesus. And Jesus said, dictate this letter. And Jesus said to the church at Ephesus, I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. You've tested those who say that they are apostles and are not, and you've found them to be liars and you've persevered and have patience, and you've labored for my namesake and you've not become weary. Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. What's a first love? First love means priority. It's based out of relationship. You see, they had, they were doing all the right things. They were serving, they were going to church, they were giving, they were witnessing, they were doing all the things. Jesus said, this is the one thing that I have against you. You've left your first love. You don't love me like you used to. See, God wants our first love to become our last love. He doesn't want it to be a love that was once upon a time. He wants it to be the first and the last. Jesus is the first and the last. We can allow ourselves to fall into relational distancing from God, to say, no Moses, you go up on the mountain. You talk to God. Tell him, we'll do whatever he says, but just don't let him speak to us anymore. Pentecost, the very first Pentecost and every Pentecost after is God demonstrating. I'm not willing to leave you alone. You can reject me time and time and time again. You can say, just give me the letter of the law. Just give me a list. God says, I'm going to keep coming after you. Because I want to be your first love. I want to be your last love. I want all of you. I wonder if we've sometimes become consumers of God instead of consumed by God. See, that's what fire does. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 29 says, our God is a consuming fire. You can't get close to God without catching fire. You can't pursue God without the flames of heaven, alighting onto your soul and engulfing you just like the flames of God's presence did the burning bush when Moses turned aside to it. It was consumed, but the fire never went out. God wants you and I to be filled with the fire of heaven, a flame that never goes out. And today you may be listening to me and all you've ever had in relationship with God is a belief in God. You've had a tablet of stone relationship with God. God, I'm doing my best. I'm trying really hard. I'm a moral person. I believe in your existence. I acknowledge Jesus that he was a real person, but you've never had a moment where you surrendered and said, Jesus, I want you to be my first love. I repent of my sin. I don't want to keep you at a distance. I want to know you. I want to walk with you. I want you to be my first love. You may be someone who right now the guilt and the shame of years of sin has produced on the inside of you a performance mentality. I'm going to get right with God once I figure this part of my life out. Listen, you'll never do it on your own. You need the fire of heaven. You need Jesus. And today, whoever you are, wherever you are, if you find yourself far from God, and you know that you need to get right with God, today is the day, today is the day. We read it in Acts two. And everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Today, if you will call on his name and ask him to save you, you can be forgiven. You can be cleansed and the fire of heaven, all consuming fire of the presence of God can be yours, can be with you. Today, I want to lead you in a prayer. So whoever you are, wherever you are, if you say, I know I'm not right with God. I know I'm not right with Jesus. Today, I need God's forgiveness. I need his nearness. I'm not settling any longer for religion from a distance. I want relationship. I want the real, the living God. I want the fire, the reality of his presence in my life. Jesus, I need a Pentecost. If you need to get right with God today, I want you to pray this prayer with me out loud wherever you are. Say, Heavenly Father, I need you. I acknowledge that I've sinned, I'm far from you. But today, I'm asking for mercy. I believe in Jesus. Jesus, I believe you went to the cross for me. You were raised from the dead. And now, Lord, I want you to come and live in me. Sit on the throne of my heart, be my Lord and my savior. From this day forward, I'm not gonna settle for secondhand relationship. Somebody else, I want to know you personally. Fill me with the fire of heaven. Cleanse me, make me a vessel of honor so that I might be useful to you, Master. From this day forward, I am not who I used to be. I'm a new creation in Christ Jesus. Thank you for loving me in Jesus' name. Amen.