A Church on Fire: Three Devotions That Keep the Flame Burning

Praise be to God. We're so grateful you're here today. Thank you for being here. Come on. Good morning. Come on. Let's give Jesus a hand. Come on. [cheering] Amen. You can be seated. Wow. What an amazing church. Good morning, our online community. Come on. Let's give it up for those guys as well. Whatever reason they're there today. Glad you're here with us. Well, man, it is a great honor to be here with you today. Before I get going at all, I got to talk about your pastors for a minute. Come on. You have some of the greatest pastors I have ever met. Come on, let's give some love. [cheering] You know, the Bible teaches us that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

He says, "If you humble yourself under [snorts] the mighty hand of God, he will lift you up in due time." Grace, due time. grace due time. That's a prophetic word for you today. The grace is coming in due time season is coming. And I believe with all of my heart that you have, the Lord is not only uh you were not only a humble person and humble people and humble in your heart, but also the Lord has had to humble you and it's been a good a hard season. It's been difficult. But you know, I believe a due season is coming for both of you. And I just believe when this morning when I walked in, the Lord spoke very clearly to me, uh, Pastor Keith about being a Caleb when he came into the promised land, he went back to to Joshua and said, "Hey,

I've been faithful to you. I I'm one of the only ones remaining of the 40. Remember the good report that I made?" And he said, "Give me the land that belongs to me." And I believe the Lord has given you a Caleb spirit. And Caleb said, "Hey, you know what? I know that there's giants in this land. I know that there's giants in those trees. I know that there's iron chariots and giants there. I'm gonna take those suckers out. And Joshua said to him, "Hey, you can have that land." And then there was a phrase at the end of Joshua. I think it's I have around my notes. I think it might be 14, but you you'll know where it is if you look it up. It says, "And then they rested from more." And I think that's a prophetic word for you. You're going to rest from war. And a season's coming where it's easy and it's light. this whole I didn't know you guys were doing land. I told you that in the green room that I just felt like God's going to tell you to cut down trees and you need more land. You're like, "Well, brother, we're getting land." So, I

didn't know that at all. I had no a clue. And so, that's a prophetic thought for you today. But, I want you to know that when those giants do come up and when those grasshoppers come and those things happen, you don't need to be afraid. You don't need to be afraid. You don't need to be afraid. You don't need to be afraid. Every giant will be slain. Every every little, you know, red tape from the city will be devoured. Come on. Every fund will every every amount of money will be raised. Come on. I heard about $35 million being raised here in in a church in the Northwest. Come on. I I believe that that there's a grace on you to raise money and church. Listen, we need money to reach more people, to build more churches, to do more things. And so, hey, this is just a part of being a part of a growing church. And so, I just believe that, you

know, some giants are, you know, you know, naysayers of people. Well, money, well, forget about that. God's going to bless you. And um Kara, I just believe when I walked in this morning, the Lord said that I don't know if you already have this, but I think it's coming where you're going to have dreams, like very, very prophetic dreams. And these dreams are going to be so stinking specific, like so real that when you wake up at night, you immediately will go to prayer. And as you pray, I believe that there's going to be things that are broken in this community. There's things that are going to be the demonic uh uh strategies around this church. I believe there's going to be de demonic schemes or things going on in the staff or in the church and the Lord's going to speak to you and you're going to wake up. It'll be good stuff too. Don't worry, babies being born and you know, all sorts of fun stuff too and prophetic things for your family and things for the church. But I just see it. I don't

know if you dream already, but I believe God's bringing a season of dreams and I see you getting up. It's like you put your feet out of bed and you just start like saying, "Okay, Lord, this was the dream. I break that in the name of Jesus and it's broken. Or Lord, this is the promise. I pray into that and it happens. Now, this is the problem with dreams, though. If you wake up from sleep, you're tired. I mean, just practically, you know, you've been carrying with the Lord for four hours, you know, giving you dreams. And so, the Lord gave me a scripture for you, and it's in uh Psalms chapter um 127 in the message paraphrase, and it says this, "If God doesn't build the house, the builders only build shacks. If God doesn't guard the city, the night watchmen might as well nap. It's useless to rise early and go to bed late and work your worried fingers to the bone.

And this is for you. Don't you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves? It's a season of rest. You have more work coming than you've ever done in your entire life, but it'll be rest. It'll be easy. It'll be light. So, come on. I want you to extend your hands towards your pastors. Man, I feel like they're my pastors. I love these guys. Heavenly Father, we declare even right now, Lord, your yoke is easy and your burden is light. I pray the dreams that she has and the strategy that he has, the fight of Caleb that you put in him, the Lord, the scripture says he had a different attitude. And Lord, I pray for that different attitude over this couple. Lord, you promised them. You promised them. And so, we call that promise out. And we say, Lord, it belongs to them. And we pray that it

would be easy, that it would be light, that it would be fun, that it would be joyful. And Lord, the best is yet to come in Jesus name. Come on, everybody said amen. Come on, let's thank our pastors once again. [applause] Amen. Well, I know it's the middle of the summer. Thank you. You've done great. Let's give our piano. I love giving people's hands. [cheering and applause] Thank you. I told her that if her fingers start to bleed during my sermon, she can quit at any time. Well, hey, I know it's the middle of August, uh, but you came to church today and I got a word for you. And so, I I need you just to in the spirit buckle up [laughter] because I just feel the Lord gave me a word for you today. It's a prophetic word for many of you, prophetic word for

this church. And if you have your Bibles here today, you can turn to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. And uh you've been in a series called Kingdom Come. I know you took a little break, but over the last, you know, year, you've been kind of focusing on kingdom come, asking the question, what does it look like when the kingdom of God invades our world? What does it look like when the kingdom of God comes down and invades our life? And here's what we're going to see today. That uh the kingdom of God did come in Acts chapter 2. Kingdom of God came down. It recounts a powerful story of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the early church and the Holy Spirit descended and on in the upper room and the kingdom of God came down upon those people and he came in

something that looked like fire. The Holy Spirit set the church on fire. Set the followers of Jesus on fire for the Lord. But Acts two doesn't just show us how the fire started. It also tells us how to keep the fire burning. And so I'm going to be preaching from you today on the title Church on Fire. Come on. Church on Fire. Would you say that with me? Church on Fire. And I love your logo, too. I realize that's a little flame. So that's appropriate, right? Is that right? It's a little flame. Well, praise God. All right. Well, your church is on fire. Praise God. And that's what I'm going to talk to you about today. This book is written by Luke. Luke is was not present. Uh he wasn't a disciple. He wasn't there when

Jesus walked on the earth. He actually wasn't there in the book of Acts in the beginning portion of this. He actually was a doctor, very smart man. He was uh comrades, friends with Paul, the Apostle Paul. And so what Luke did was Luke went and he accounted. He he did uh eyewitness testimony of hundreds of people looking at the life of Jesus and trying to understand what did Jesus do and how did he live his life and man did tell me about the healings and I wasn't there for the death and the burial and the resurrection. But all of those things happened. So Luke was gathering data and then it happened in Acts chapter 2 and he was talking with Peter and James and John and hey man tell me what happened and how did this h how did this experience happen? And so that's how we got the the book of Acts through eyewitness testimony through Luke documenting all this reality. And after the Holy Spirit came down and the

disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, they begin to speak in other languages. And on that specific day was the day of Pentecost where L people from all over the world had come and languages had gathered in that place. Multiple multiple languages. And as the Holy Spirit came down upon them, they began to speak in languages in in n their people's native tongue. start to speak about the goodness of God, about the reality of Jesus. People were hearing about the gospel, hearing about Jesus in their native language. Many people thought that they were just drunk, you know, they were just having a party and just, you know, that's what we do when we party, right? We speak in different languages, so they must be drunk. You know, it's like, okay, it's weird. Well, they weren't doing anything weird. It was like they're speaking other languages. And the assumption was they're drunk. But, you know, Peter gets

up, stands out on the balcony, and says, "Hey, they're not drunk. They would be doing totally different things if they were drunk, and it's 9:00 a.m. And uh, no, no, no. This is the Holy Spirit." And Peter begins to tell about the gospel. He talks about Jesus, and he talks about how Jesus Christ was the prophesied Messiah and how this Messiah came and Jesus was a man, a human just like you. and he he walked and talked on the earth and he experienced the same challenges that you face. But the difference is he was perfect and that he was God and that he was 100% God and he was crucified and he was buried for three days and on that third day Jesus Christ rose from the dead and then he ascended to the right hand of the father and Peter's sharing [snorts] about hey listen I hate to break this to you those people who said hey I want you to know that you guys actually crucified this Jesus he was our lord and he was our

savior and you guys nailed him to a cross and the bible says that people across the place were stricken in the heart they were conscious were were were were grabbed. They experienced conviction. Praise God. And in that conviction moment, they said, "Lord, what do we do? What how do we respond?" And Peter said, "Well, repent of your sin. Turn away from your old way of life. Turn away from your way of doing things. Be water baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." That ain't just for you. It's for your children's children's children. And the Bible says that day that 3,000 people, not including women and children, were saved. and they were baptized and it was a powerful start. And in fact, the very reason you're sitting here today is because of that one moment. You sit in this room today because 2,000 years ago, the Holy Spirit poured out fire upon the people of God and they begin to serve the Lord. You are sitting

here today because God moved 2,000 years ago. You're not here today because of a good idea. You're here because God loves his church and his church will endure and the gates of hell will not prevail against the church of Jesus Christ. you're here today because of that moment. But Luke, Luke in his storytelling switches gears. He told this beautiful story that you and I understand and see and it's beautiful. It's amazing. But Luke changes how he talks. He goes from storytelling and then he shares one sentence and in this one sentence he describes something about the church. He starts with this this phrase that he uses that I want to read with you in a moment. But he wants to talk to them. Okay, Luke says, "Okay, the Holy Spirit poured out. There was fire. There was an outpouring of his spirit. God moved in a supernatural way.

But how did this or outpouring of God's spirit impact the daily lives of these people? How did they respond to it? What did their lives look like? What did they do to keep the fire going? I want to say that again because I want you to hear me. What did these people of God do to keep the fire of God burning in their life from the moment they experienced an encounter with Jesus? How did they keep the fire alive in their lives? And it's a powerful verse, very simple verse, very simple message, but he writes this very transitionary statement and it's a description, a description of what the people of God did in Acts chapter 2:42. It says this, "And they continuously devoted

themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and prayers." In one sentence, Luke defines what the early church did to stay on fire. What to keep the kingdom of God coming down in their church and in their lives? He uses this word devotion. And this word devotion means this steadfast to never quit. To never stop, to keep on going, to be faithfully committed, to addict yourself to something, to habitually and obsessively abandon to something. In other words, the early church totally and completely and fully immerse themselves even to the point of exclusion of everything else. They completely repprioritize their lives

in order to to to dedicate themselves to what they believe mattered most to God. This is what kept the fire burning. So, I'm going to share three things with you right there in scripture. How did Dr. Luke teach us the church of Jesus Christ kept that fire alive and kept the church on fire? Number one, we stay on fire when we are totally and completely devoted to Jesus. That seems very basic and simple. I could share that in our kids ministry today. This is too simple, Ryan. They are totally and completely dedicated to Jesus, to the apostles teaching. Well, what's the apostles teaching? Jesus. Jesus crucified. Jesus resurrected.

Jesus ascended. Jesus is king. Jesus is shepherd. Jesus will return. Jesus's power. Jesus's life. Jesus's death. Why is this so important? It's incredibly easy, especially in today's day and age, for you and I to get ourselves focused on so many other things other than Jesus Christ crucified. In fact, this is one of the quickest and easiest ways you and I can cause our fire to burn out and to fizzle and to lose our passion for the house of God and for the church is when we become devoted to something other than Jesus Christ. We live in an age where there is non-stop megaphone of opinions throwing noise at us. Whether it's Tik Tok or Instagram or the theologian on Tik Tok or the Instagram theologian who's read through the Bible one time and now knows

how to debunk the Trinity or now that you know they figured out that Jesus actually did sin and he he married Mary. So here we go. Well, they they they've read half the Bible. So they are the flea theologians and Tik Tok and Instagram and late night talk shows and the enemy loves to turn them into distractions that will pull us away from the primary mission that is called Jesus. And when we obsess over the secondary things at the expense of the main thing, Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ crucified, our spiritual fire begins to fizzle out. It's incredibly easy to get swept up by human philosophies that sound intellectual but leave our souls completely empty. And that's why we must

anchor ourselves deeply to the truth of Jesus Christ so we do not lose our footing in a shifting culture. Paul writes about this in Colossians. I need you to hear me today. Every single person in this room, I bet you didn't expect this when you came in today. That's okay. Every single person in this room has the capacity to be taken captive by the philosophies of this world. Look at Colossians chapter 2 vers 8 and 9. Don't let anyone capture you. That word is the only time this word is used in the New Testament. It's a very rare word. Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies or high sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world rather than from Christ. Empty philosophies, hollow, misleading ideas,

high sounding nonsense, per persuasive and enticing words that rhetoric that sounds like truth, but in reality it's false. This word captive actually means to be taken kidnap, to be taken prisoner, to be plundered and carried away. He's saying don't let anybody kidnap you. Don't let anyone take you captive by human thinking or human ideology. He was worried that the philosophies of this world would lead you away from Christ and lead you back into a place of bondage once again. Paul was reminding the Colossians that these empty philosophies aren't just innocent differences of opinion.

There is a real spiritual undercurrent here in our world that wants to quietly draw our hearts away from the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's subtle pull towards human dependence trying to convince us that we don't need the authority of God's word. Actually, Matthew 16 tells us of this example. Jesus is walking along with his comrades, his disciples, and they're going on their next ministry journey. And all of a sudden, Jesus like, "Hey guys, you know, as we're walking, let me ask you a question. Like, what's the word on the street about me? Like, what's the scuttlebutt? What's what are people talking about the water cooler? What's Instagram t? What are they saying about me?" Like, well, Jesus, you know, here's the truth. They're saying you're you're a prophet. Some say you're John the Baptist, you reincarnated Elijah. I

mean, Jesus, the truth is like they don't know Jesus. Like, they don't know who you are, but they have all sorts of ideas. And they keep walking. And then he says, "Okay, well, what do you say about me? What do you claim about me?" And Peter's like, "Oh, Lord. Me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me." He says, "Uh, you're the Messiah. You're the King of Kings. You're the Lord of Lords. You are the the first and the last, the Alpha." And Peter starts getting all excited. He's like, "Get the Messiah. You're the coming king of kings. You're the son of David. Come on. You are come. You're coming and you're going to restore Israel." And he goes off and he's, "Oh, okay, Peter, chill out." He says, Peter, you need to understand, Simon, son of John, this has not been revealed to you by human thinking, but has been a revelation of our by the he by the your heavenly father.

The father revealed Jesus to you. It wasn't a man. It wasn't a program. It wasn't an organization. It wasn't even a church. It was Jesus. The father revealed Jesus to you. Powerful moment. Let me keep walking, having a good old time. And Jesus is like, "Hey, by the way, guys, I just want to fill you in on something. I'm actually going to be arrested and I'm going to be beaten and I'm going to be crucified, but don't chill out. I'm going to get rise from the dead." And Peter takes Jesus, Jesus, as they're walking. Jesus, can I just talk to you for a minute? Hey, this is kind of a buzzkill for the morale of our team. Could you keep the death talk out of this, Jesus? Like, and and just to remind you, Lord, I am jacked. I'm going to keep anybody from coming near you, Jesus.

He's like, what are you talking about? No way, Lord. This will never happen to you. And Jesus stops the crowd and he turns and looked Peter. Looks at Peter right in the eyes. And look what he says. He turned to Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan. You are a stone that could make me stumble, for you are not thinking God's thoughts, but human thoughts." He was just in church an hour ago declaring that holy, holy, holy. And two hours later, he's scrolling on TikTok with human thinking. He's listening to some other preacher because my pastor's food wasn't good enough. And so I'm going to listen to another preacher and man, he's feeding me all sorts of stuff that's making me feel good. In one moment, it went from a man understanding a revelation of Jesus and without realizing it, something crept

into his thinking. Now Jesus wasn't calling Peter Satan. He was speaking to the humanistic ideology and the humanistic thinking that Peter had allowed to capture his thoughts. What's crazy is Peter later he wrote two letters and dispersed it among the churches and he wrote this in second Peter chapter 3:17. You already know these things, dear friends. I know you know this guys, but be on guard. Then you will not be carried away. Peter talking. I've been there. He's saying, "Listen, I got rebuked by Jesus." He called me Satan. You will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people who are teaching false doctrine. Look at this.

And lose your own secure footing. Look what Peter says. Oh, baby. Here he goes. He's going back to Acts chapter 2. Rather, you must grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. Keep it about Jesus, boys. Keep it about Jesus, church. Keep it about Jesus, disciples. Keep it about Jesus and Jesus Christ crucified. Why? Because there's power in the name of Jesus that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Because Jesus saves and Jesus heals and Jesus transforms. in Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He is 100% 100% God and he came and created the world and he died for our sins. He is the Lord over all. He

created all things and in him and for him and through him. Jesus is our healer. [cheering] [applause] Jesus saved us. So don't get distracted. Don't get distracted because we could all be taken captive. All right? totally and completely devoted to Jesus. Here's the second thought. They kept the fire burning in their lives. We stay on fire when we are totally and completely devoted to others or devoted to people. Look what he says. And they devoted themselves to the fellowship. That word fellowship is coinia. Say coia. Say it like you're from Greece. I don't understand how to say that. Maybe you're from Greece and you can teach us. The word coinia speaks of a deep intimate relationship with one another that is centered on laying your lives down for each other. Luke explains it

continues to write defines it in Acts chapter 2. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They all sold property and possessions to give to anyone they had who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple court. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. a deep intimate relationship with one another that is centered on laying your lives down for each other. See, when you keep it about Jesus, you will naturally keep it about others. But this is another way in which we can cause our fire to fizzle. Our fire can go out. It starts with a beautiful devotion to Jesus and others. But if we're not careful over time, a subtle shift happens. It quietly becomes about us.

It's human nature to drift towards comfort. And this is where the fire for God and for serving others and for reaching the lost starts to fade. If we aren't careful, our faith can quietly shift from being about Jesus and others to being about our preferences and about our comfort and about our needs and about the lights that I like and the songs I like to sing and why the coffee tastes like this and who took my parking spot. I paid for that with my tithe. Why don't they have different service times? And why don't they do this? Or what about me? Why don't they sell muffins in this joint? We forget that it it's actually not about you.

Paul actually wanted to nudge the early church towards this. In the book of Philippi, he wrote this to nudge them. And he said, "Hey guys, listen to the scripture. Philippians chapter 2. If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in community of the spirit means anything to you, if you actually have a heart, if you care, then do me a favor. Agree with each other. Love each other. Be deep-spirited friends." Verse three, don't be selfish. Don't try to impress others. Be humble thinking of others as better than yourselves. You don't look out only for your own interest but take an interest in others too. You must take have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. This is what Paul's saying. This is okay. How many of you have encountered

Jesus here in journey church? Come on somebody raise your hand. Praise God. Perfect. Then this is no longer about you. We don't show up early for you. We don't pray and fast only for you. I just looked at your research for Central Oregon. Seven out of 10 people don't have a local church. Seven out of 10. Don't go to church. That's a lot of people who need to experience the power of a holy God. Paul looked at the church and essentially said, "Hey, if the love of God has changed your life, then let that love change how you look at the person next to you."

He calls us to copy the humility of Jesus. And Jesus held the highest position in the universe. Yet, he chose to lay aside his comfort to serve us. And when we follow his lead, we naturally step out of our own way and start looking for ways to lift others up. Now, don't misunderstand me. If you're hurting and if your marriage needs help and your finances needs help and you're here today and you need breakthrough in your life from addiction or hardship, don't worry. We're here for you. Journey Church is here to pastor you and disciple you and love you. So, I want you to hear what I'm saying. Just because you got saved, you don't need to go find another church. That's not what I'm saying. Come on. We're here to serve you and love you and care for you and pastor you. We don't want you to live life. We want you to live the abundant life.

[cheering] So, of course, we are here for you. But the ultimate purpose of this house isn't just to serve our comfort. It's to equip us to pull in more chairs at the table for lost people. Here's the beautiful challenging truth of the kingdom. Once you find Jesus, your your focus shifts. Journey Church doesn't exist for us anymore. It's meant to move through us to reach a world that is hurting. The purpose of Journey Church is to lead people on a journey of transformation. A transformation in Jesus to bring a hope to everyone. Not just me, not just my family, not just my life, but the 70% of people in this city who need a church, the lost people who need to find Christ and need to experience transformation.

And I know early in my relationship with my wife, we had a lot of marital things going on and man, I was making some poor mistakes and I, you know, made some bad decisions and dealt with addiction in my life. And if it wasn't for the house of the Lord where I found restoration and hope and transformation, I wouldn't be standing here today, obviously, if it wasn't for the grace and love of my heavenly father, but the local church, the house of the Lord. When I stopped thinking it was about me, guess what happened? I actually started being used by God. He used me as an instrument to help others in the areas where I was broken and hurting, where I was lost and now I'm found. I can help others who are lost get found. Now, I'm not throwing stones at you here because I'm kind of preaching to myself, too. As Pastor Keith mentioned, I pastor

planted a church in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. And uh I remember in our first few years I was really focused on I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted everything to be like just I wanted guests to come in and be like wow look at the hospitality. It was so important to me. Maybe not to Lord but to me. And I remember in this little discover room, this little connection room, I wanted donuts. I wanted donuts. Nice donuts from like the doughnut shop. And I I I want donuts, guys. And so I remember man, I'm preaching with pip and drape everywhere. We had this little pipe and drape room where people would go in after church and they probably thought we were going to mug them because it was so dark and dingy. They're like, "What is happening?" You know, put on you was my wife. Sometimes I say things I shouldn't. So, I was looking at my wife. She was going to tell me not to say anything more.

So, I got up and I I was preaching and guess what? People got saved. You're not excited about that? People got saved at our church. [cheering] We had two people come to Jesus. So exciting. And after the service, I went back in that little Discover Connection room and I'm so excited. I w and I look down and there's Walmart plastic cupcakes. I said I wanted donuts. So this guy, this leader is praying with these new believers and I grab him. Bro, what's up with the cupcake? I asked for donuts. There's a farmers market right there. I told you to go there. I gave you my credit card. Why didn't you get donuts? And he gives me this weird look. And I thought, how disrespectful. I'm the pastor. Turns away, does this thing?

And I called him later. Like, bro, I got to talk to you about your attitude, bro. And I wrote it down. This is what my this gentleman said to me. Well, pastor, we just saw two human beings accept Jesus Christ. We were standing there meeting them, listening to their stories, and praying for them. And all you were worried about was that we got cupcakes instead of donuts. You allowed a holy supernatural moment of rescue to be eclipsed by a cupcake. And I rebuked him. No, I'm just kidding. I still want donuts. No, I said, "Lord, would you forgive me?" I repented to him. I repented to the team. I repented of the whole church because I forgot this ain't about me and my donuts. This is about lost people coming to Jesus.

[applause] Church stays on fire when we make it about reaching others and no longer asking the question, "What can this church do for me?" But what team what what team can I serve? What team can I join? What group can I lead? How much money can I give to the house of the Lord? Third one here today. We stay on fire when we are totally and completely devoted to God's presence. It says Acts 2:42. They can they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread and prayers. Now, this isn't talking about your devotion life. This isn't talking about your prayer time. This is talking about the corporate gathering of believers like you're doing today. This is when people gathered together. They would have communion. They would pray. They would seek God. And so, listen, these early church folks didn't come to church because it was routine.

They didn't come to church because that's what mom and dad taught us. Or they didn't come to church because, well, I better make it to the 9:00 service cuz I need to get to lunch. I got lunch appointment and whatever. Like, and I get it. Hey, I'm the same way. I'm hungry now and I want to go, too. But it's okay. I'm just kidding. It's a joke. Thanks, Keith. You get it? Okay. They didn't gather because it was routine. They didn't gather because, well, I guess I'll just go to church. They gathered because they were hungry and desperate for a move of God. I know this because when they were hanging out in Acts chapter 1, after Jesus rose from the dead, he's having a meal with them. He says, "Hey guys, listen. I'm actually going to be leaving. I'm leaving you, but I want you to know I need you to I need you to go back to to the church in Jerusalem, the

upper room, and I need you to gather together, and I just need you to seek because guess what? I'm about to pour out my spirit. I'm about to move in such a powerful and a mighty way. I promise you, I just need you to go back. And so then Jesus walks outside and floats up into the sky, ascends through the clouds, and they're just like staring like, "Where's Jesus going?" These guys are just not really thick-headed. Where's Jesus going? And the angels, literally two robed angels are like, "What are you guys looking at?" They're like, "Well, Jesus is gone." He said, "Didn't you hear what he said? Go back to the church and press into God." So they got went back in. Canon. I mean, I don't know if they did a lot of this before because Jesus was generally with them. So, they just James grabs his guitar. Holy. No, I'm just kidding. That's a bad voice. Starts worshiping holy,

holy, holy, holy. They start leading worship and singing and pressing in because there was a deep understanding that if we gather together in the presence of the Lord and we seek his face, God promised to move in journey church. And so they gathered together and they prayed day one, day two. That would be like us in this room praying until the Tuesday after next being in this room day and night 24/7 pressing into God. Holy, holy God, you said you would move. Jesus, you promised to pour out your spirit upon this region. God, you promised to pour out your spirit upon Ben, upon sisters, upon Redmond all

throughout the region. God, you gave us a promise that you pour out your spirit and that you'd bring down your fire upon us, God. They were totally and completely devoted to the absolute presence of God. It was not routine for them. There was a fire that they knew was coming and they knew that God had a plan and a promise for them. And in the same way, God has a plan and a promise for Journey Church. But he needs the people of God to recommmit themselves to the presence of the Lord to believe that God's promises will be fulfilled in this place. In fact, if you look through the history of the book of Acts, you'll see that every single every single moment

preceded a moment like this as they were worshiping, seeking God's face, day nine, day 10, and the scripture says in Acts chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost, all the believers were meeting together in one place and suddenly suddenly Suddenly, God moved. The word suddenly is when God breaks into our natural world and causes something supernatural to happen. He suddenly heals. He suddenly delivers. He suddenly transforms. He suddenly makes new. He suddenly heals your marriage. He suddenly does something supernatural in your midst. Suddenly, every single scripture in the book of Acts that talked about a move of God was

a suddenly moment. In Acts chapter 4, we see a suddenly moment. The the they finished praying and were seeking God and suddenly the entire building began to shake and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. In Acts 12, the church began to earnestly pray because Peter was in prison and an angel of the Lord showed up and took the jail the the shackles off of Peter's hands and he came in and the church rejoiced and God moved in a supernatural way. In Acts chapter 16, at midnight, Paul and Silas turned their prison cell into a church room and began to worship and pray and press into the Lord. And the scripture says that suddenly a massive earthquake flung the prison doors wide open which led to the salvation of the jailer's family. Suddenly, in fact, did you know that all throughout history, the early the fir

the the first and second great awakening in the 18th 19th century, people gathered together and begin to pray, begin to seek God's face. And guess what? God poured out his spirit in a supernatural way. And they had a 247 prayer meeting. Listen, for 100 years, 1906, the Isuza Street Revival, 70 college students gathered together in a room and began to pray, believing God was going to move. And guess what? That was the birth of the Pentecostal movement where the Holy Spirit came and restored gifts to the church, to the baptism of the Holy Spirit by evidence of speaking in tongues. God moved in a supernatural way suddenly. Did you know there was a move of God in the early 1900s in the downtown Portland where they close their doors, businesses across all of Portland would close down

their doors between 11 and 2 p.m. to seek the face of God. 1950, the latter reign Movement. 1970s, the Jesus people movement. Every one of them is attached to a group of people who made a decision. You know what? We're going to realign our lives to Jesus, to people, and the presence of the Lord. We're not going to get distracted. We're not going to make it about weird things. We're not going to make it about theological things. We're not make it about anything else other than Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ Christ crucified about people in the house of God finding the Lord and about the presence of the living God. And guess what? Many years ago, your pastors had a suddenly moment and you're here today because many years ago, they got on their hands and knees and said, "Okay, Lord, here we are. Send us." And guess what? You're in this seat

today because they chose. But I believe this. There is another suddenly moment coming for Journey Church. Amen. He's calling you back. He's saying, "Will you come back? Come back to the beginning. Come back to the start when this whole thing started when God came upon a bunch of broken people who denied him, who abandoned him, who left him. They were broken in the challenges in their life. Yet the Holy Spirit was so faithful to come because their hearts were so earnest for a move of God. They wanted to see their city saved. They wanted your neighbors to be saved. They wanted their family members to be saved. Why? Because if they don't find Jesus, they will spend an eternity without God.

Spend a life living in the shadowland, the darkness, the confusion of this planet without Jesus. I believe many of you in this room today, your your your fires fizzled. It's burned out. Maybe it's burned out because maybe you got a little distracted with some things other than Jesus. And maybe it's not even a theological thing. Maybe it's just sports or your job is overwhelming or maybe your marriage isn't going well. Maybe you're facing a challenge in your life and it's just caused you to like, "Yeah, Jesus is important and I love him and he's good and I'm religious and I'm moral, but man, I really, you know, I'm really not quite like really allin, but I got too much stuff going on in my life." Or maybe you're here today and you've just kind of made the church about you

and you need to be reminding today that it's about people finding Jesus. And lastly, maybe you're here today and you just, man, I've been far from the presence of the Lord. I want to pray for you today. Would you close your eyes for a moment? I'm going to pray two prayers. Every eye closed. [music] I'm not going to call anybody out. I'm not going to embarrass anybody. Come on. If you would be bold today. The Bible teaches about acts of faith. The raising of your hand, I believe, is an act of faith. And you're in this room today and you say, "Ryan, I just feel like my fire's fizzled. My fire's fizzled. My fire's gone out. It's just just a little ember." And Ryan, I just need you to pray for me today. Again, I'm not going to call you. I just want to see who I'm praying for. Would you just put your hand in the answer? Yeah, that's me, Ryan. I want my fire to be lit again. Come on.

Come on. We'll pray in just a moment for salvation call in just a moment. Holy Spirit, will you see these hands, God? You see these hands all across the room today, Father. Just like in Acts chapter 2, it says that their hearts were convicted. And what do we do? Well, Lord, we just return to you. We come back to you, Father. We say, "Lord, sorry that we've made this about us or sorry we've gotten distracted, Father. Would you forgive us?" And right now, Lord, we say, would you relight this fire in our heart, God? We want to come back to where we first started. Would you restore the joy of our salvation, Lord? We want to come back to our first love, God. We want to come back to you. So, I pray even right now for every hand lifted. And those in the room who didn't. I pray for a fresh fire. I pray for a fresh wind. I pray for a fresh oil. I pray for a fresh passion, a fresh desire. Lord, restore

to them the joy of the salvation of God in their lives. That even right now, they would sense it in their heart. They would sense the fire burning up. They would sense it like they felt it the first time, God. They would go back to their first love. Lord, and they would make a fresh commitment to serve you, Lord, in Jesus name. Come on, keep your eyes closed just for one more moment. Maybe you're in the room today and you don't know Jesus. you've never invited him to be the Lord and Savior of your life. He loves you so much today. It doesn't matter where you've been or what you've done. He loves you. And maybe you're here today and you would like to make a commitment. Say, "Man, I'd like to invite Jesus Christ to be my savior and my Lord.

He walked the earth sinless, perfect, died a brutal death for you. And three days later, he rose from the dead. And now he wants a relationship with you because one day when you die and you will die, he wants you to spend an eternity with him forever. Come on. I want to give you a chance. I'm not going to pull call you out. I'm not going to call you forward, but this is a meaningful moment for your eternal salvation. You're in the room today and you'd like to just accept Jesus Christ into your life. Just put your hand up real quick so I can see it and then you can put it right back down. I'm going to count to three. One, two, three. Come on. Come on. Anybody in the room today? Look across the room. That's awesome. Thank you, sir. Come on. Anybody else?

As I look across this room, want to join this gentleman today. Come on. Right in the back. Thank you, ma'am. That's awesome. Come on. Anybody else? Just so I can see it one more time. Just put it up real quick so I can see it. Come on. Come on, little buddy. That's awesome. Praise the Lord. All right, church. We're going to join with the several folks who've just chosen to follow Jesus today. Come on. Would you repeat after me as I pray this prayer? Come on, everyone in the room, come on, close your eyes for a few more moments. Dear Jesus, Dear Jesus, I come to you today. I come to you today. I'm broken and in need. I'm broken. I need you. I need you. I invite you. I invite you to be the Lord and Savior of my life. be the Lord and Forgive me of my sin. Forgive me of my s. I declare that you are God. I declare that you are God.

And I want to follow you all the days of my life. I will follow you until I see you face to face in Jesus name. Amen. Come on, put your hands together for these folks who accepted Jesus Christ today. Amen. Come on, be blessed today. Come on. Can we thank Pastor Ryan? Come on, thank Pastor Ryan. That was a great word. Praise be to God. You can stand to your feet. We've just been called to action to be devoted to Jesus, devoted to each other, and devoted to God's presence. I'm going to give you two ways that you can do that. God's put it on my heart that we need to be a church that prays and fasts. And we have five Fridays before Church in the Park. Are you believing for a movement of God? That's going to come with prayer and fasting. So, I'm just going to ask, would you pray and fast for the next [music] five Fridays?

Just fast from breakfast and lunch. And during that time, can you pray for a movement of God? Just every Friday between now and church in the park, can you just pray during the lunch hour and the breakfast hour for people to be saved, for people to be set free from addiction, families to be restored? I mean, a real move of God that marks Central Oregon like never before. It's going to start with prayer and fasting. The next five Fridays, I'm asking you pray and fast. Join with me. Let's see a move of God. Secondly, we've got kingdom conference coming November. We've got early bird pricing right now. It's going to go away and I don't want you to miss this. We've invited some speakers just like Pastor Ryan that are on fire. And if you want to grow in your faith, here's what it looks like. Some people might be confused. It's Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It's only

Thursday night, Friday night, all day Saturday and Saturday night, and then Sunday. This is worth investing in. We're inviting God's kingdom. Come. And I want you to be a part of what God's doing here. It's going to start at Church in the Park and then we're going to continue it in November. But you're you're called to to action here. I'm so blessed and grateful you came to church today. We've got a prayer team right up front. If you need prayer for anything, a healing miracle, a financial miracle, you you just want to see God work in your life, uh would you come forward and receive that prayer today? Don't forget, we're pressing pause on Pursuit Night just in the month of August. It's going to continue in September. So just in the month of August, we're pressing pause on Pursuit Night. By the way, Pursuit Night has been more fire than ever. So, if you've missed it, you should mark your

calendars for September. It's been absolutely awesome. God bless you. Thank you for coming to church today. We'll see you next Sunday. God bless you. If you need prayer, come forward.