What is Going on Here?-Pentecost June 8, 2025

Good Good morning. Look at you all in your red. It is wonderful. Welcome this Pentecost Sunday. And for those of you who may have forgotten to wear red, just remember you put all of the colors together and it will come out red. The sign, the symbol of the Holy Spirit working among us. It is so great to see you all. I welcome you this morning. I welcome those worshiping with us online as well. I hope that you have had a chance to take a look at your bulletin because in it you will find a lot of

very helpful information uh many of the things that are going on in the church during this summer season. And I hope that you will feel welcome to join in in every single one of them. Uh our book club is underway. had a wonderful response for their first get together and I know they would love to have you join them as well. Also, movie night has started and we have a patriotic concert coming up again at the end of the month. So, lots of things that you need to mark your calendar so that you will not

forget. We would love to have you join us with that. You will also note that in your bulletin, our denomination takes up a special offering, the Pentecost offering. So, this will tell you all about it. So, I hope that you will consider uh giving generously to that as well. Now, if you have not done so, I I need to go through the routine. In the inside of all of the pews, or perhaps in the middle of the pews, you will find a red friendship pad. Uh we would love to have you fill in your name so that we

know that you are with us this day and of course use that pad if you have any changes to your information, change in address, email address, phone number, what have you, please feel free to put that down as well so that we can make sure that we have the latest, greatest, up-to-date information getting in touch with you. Well, I'm so thrilled that we are here together. If you have not had a chance to greet one another, I saw some of you talking earlier, but I would love for you to please share the peace of

Christ with one another. With peace be with you and also with you. Let us share together. I would like to I was remiss in not thanking and welcoming my sister in the faith who is just about my size, Diane Wood. She's taller, serving as our liturgist today. So, thank you so much, Diane, for being here. Well, good morning you all. As she said, I'm Diane Wood. I'm your liturgist for today and it's so good to see each and every one of you. And if you'll follow along in your in your bulletin, they're called to

worship. Mighty wind of God, stir us to praise. Holy fire of God, our spirit. Heat up our compassion, our fear. Mighty wind and holy fire, set loose joy. Heat. Heat. There's a sweet sweet sp and I know it's the spirit of the Lord. Oh, there are sweet expressions of his father in the presence of the Lord. Holy Spirit, [Applause] sweet forless. We lift our hearts in praise. Lord, we have been shall our blessings to all you know for no to prophet Jesus all the [Applause] way. Stay right here with us.

Fill us with your love. We lift our hearts in praise. God help. If you'll be seated, please. And if you will open your Bible to John 7 37-39. It's on page 1522. On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within from within them. By this he meant the spirit whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time, the spirit had not been given

since Jesus had not yet been glorified. if you will refer to your bulletin. When we come together, we proclaim that we have all sinned and fall short of God's expectations for our lives. So, this is our opportunity to join together, confessing our sins together. That's all right. Oops. Oh well. Gracious God, you freely pour out the gift of your spirit on us. We confess before you and to each other that we have failed to recognize this most precious gift. We have been satisfied with ordinary things, suspicious of

unfamiliar things, and blind to spiritual things. Cleanse us with your celestial fire. Burn away any presumptuous self-sufficiency and open us in faith to receive the renewing touch of your hand. My friends, now hear what is absolutely fabulous news. Anyone who calls on the Lord shall be saved. So my friends, in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven. Praise be to God. And all God's people said, "Thanks be to [Music] God. Glor [Music] Please be seated. Come dwell among us. Come with us. Oh, give the church a

stronger vision. who show up on the earth foundation. Jesus Christ the cornerstone. Till the church is home to mission that God shall be made. We would praise our hallelujah for the grace of yesterday for tomorrow. Oh Lord our humble prayers in the churches journey. You have led us all the way still presence who us by day. spirit dwells. Give us words of fire and flame. Help our people to praise you. Glorify your holy name. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three in one. We would sing our host now and through

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] Thank you choir. One of the beauties and comforts of joining together to worship the Lord is that we may join our hearts in prayer together as well. Knowing that every one of us came here to church with special prayers in our heart which you will have the opportunity to offer to the Lord in silence. But it is also a chance for us to remember that we have been called by God to pray not only for ourselves and our family and friends, but also for others in the world in need of the

Lord's peace and hope and joy. So I invite you now to please join me in the prayers of the people of God. Let us pray. Oh holy God, you gather us together on this Pentecost Sunday. As the days here in Florida grow more humid and the sun blazes hot, grant us a cool breeze of relief, knowing that you are the one who leads our lives, knowing that you are right here with us, walking with us through this life. As we grow in faithfulness, we pray that we will be attuned to your word in our lives that we might worship with our

lives every single day. So Lord, we do lift up to you the prayers that we brought with us this morning. We lift them up to you in silence knowing that your Holy Spirit has already searched our hearts and our minds and is already praying for us on our behalf. We thank you for this Lord. We do come to you and pray that your Holy Spirit will bend the ark of the universe towards peace and justice. that you will inspire each of us with courage to resist evil in this world. That we might proclaim nothing

but love. That we might always speak with your voice as your servant leaders reaching out to root out the enemies of righteousness and to persist for peace and love in this world. Oh spirit of wisdom and understanding as you gather diverse peoples on Pentecost, we pray that you will embolden us with Christian hospitality for the stranger that we might be open to those who are different that we will seek to lift up the downtrodden. Lord, we do pray for peace in this world. We pray for guidance for

those who are in positions to make a difference in the lives of other people. Whether it is through legislation or sharing their riches that you have enabled them to have. Dear Lord, be with each of us. May we be signs of your Pentecost in our life. We thank you for this hope that we have. We thank you for this commission that you have given to each of us. And we pray all of this in Jesus' name. The one who taught us how to pray by saying, "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy

kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. My friends, it is always our privilege to be able to share the gifts that God has given to us. The gift of time, the gift of the talents that we have all received as well as the gift of our treasure. At this time, I would like to

invite Elizabeth Long to share with us a minute for mission as that is also a part of our giving of our gifts through this congregation. So, Elizabeth, we welcome you and look forward to hearing from you. Thank you. Good morning. I'm here from the mission committee to talk to you about Good News Global. That's the new name for Good News Jail and Prison Ministry. It was started in 1961 with the simple belief that everyone, no matter who they are or what they've done, has inherent worth in the eyes of God.

This belief has led them to spread the gospel in correctional facilities all over the world where they've had the privilege of witnessing its transformative power. Our church supports this ministry in Taris. There's a jail there and Chaplain Jim Cornell leads this ministry. Chaplain Jim is a dynamic and engaging leader and I wish all of you could meet him but he's a pastor of his own church. So that's why he does not is not able to attend our alternative Christmas market and be at his table. He

sent me a few statistics. This jail, I couldn't believe this, but this jail averages 900 inmates per day with an average of around 13,000 going through in a year. But this gives Good News great opportunities to share the gospel. In six months, they held 714 services and classes. The chaplain had 395 one- on-one meetings with inmates and staff. 2,53 inmates completed 28 units of the Good News Bible study lessons. 155 inmates made a commitment. Good News provides upon the inmate's request an average of 30 Bibles per week

as well as a wide variety of faith-based materials. They do all of this with 30 faithful volunteers. I'll close with a familiar verse from Matthew 25. When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The king will reply, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it to me." Thank you and God bless. Thank you, Elizabeth. My friends, God's spirit is among us, making all things new. So, let us participate in this new creation with the giving of our tithes and our

offerings. If the ushers will come [Music] forward moving in my heart, I will pray. Every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. Upon the mountain, my Lord spoke. Out of his mouth came and smoke. Looked all around me. Looked so fine. Till I asked my Lord if all was mine. Every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. Every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. Jordan River, chilly and cold. It chills the not ain't but upon this track. It runs to heaven

and right back. Every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. Every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. Oh, I have sorrows. I have low and I have heartache here below. But while God leads me. I'll not fear for I am sheltered by his care. Every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. Every moving in my heart, I will pray. Every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. Every time I feel the spirit moving in my heart, I will pray. [Applause]

[Music] Praise [Music] God. Praise him. Glor [Music] Will you please join me in a prayer of dedication? Let us pray. Most generous God, you have blessed us with gifts to serve and share. May the offerings we present this day be used to further your kingdom and build your beloved community here in this place and in around the world. For we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Please be seated. Our scripture reading today is once again taken from the book of Acts chapter 2 verses 1- 21. You may find this in your pew Bibles as well if you

would like to read along. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a

crowd came together in bewilderment. Each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked, "Aren't all these speaking? Aren't they Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our own native language? Parththeians, me, Alummites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Capidosia, Pontis, and Asia, Cretans, Arabs. We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" Some, however, made fun of them

and said, "Ah, they've had too much wine." Peter addressed the crowd. Peter stood up with the 11, raised his voice, and addressed the crowd. Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you. Listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk as you suppose. It's only 9 in the morning. No, this is what was spoken of the prophet Joel. In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men

will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women. I will pour out my spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above, the signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This ends our reading of God's holy word. May God add to our understanding and application of its truth in each of

our lives. Will you join me in a prayer of preparation, please? Lord God, we do thank you for being able to hear this reading once again that it reminds us of the power of your Holy Spirit in our lives. that your Holy Spirit truly is what builds and creates the church in this world. So now, Lord, I do pray that the words of my mouth and that the meditations of all of our hearts and our minds will be acceptable in your sight. For you are our Lord and you are our redeemer. And it is in Jesus we pray these things.

Amen. Well, we read in Exodus, the book of Exodus in our Old Testament, Exodus 34:22, that there is the fe feast of the weeks. Now, the feast of the weeks for those of us who are not that familiar with Jewish history is 50 days after Passover. Therefore, Pentecost, the Pent meaning 50. It is also called the first fruits which we also read about in numbers 28:26. Pentecost was the anniversary of the giving of the law of God. You may remember this as the giving of the ten commandments on Mount Si. Pentecost is a com commemoration of

that, but it takes it God's plan even further. Last week I talked about God's elegant plan, God's simple and yet complete plan. Pentecost is a continuation of God's plan since the beginning, which by the way included all of us. Before time began, God had you written on the back of his hand. And so here we are at Pentecost, even today recognizing that God's plan continues in our lives. So what the Jews recognized as the anniversary of the giving of the law, the ten commandments on the two tablets at Mount Si is the various very

same day that God chose to give the world the Holy Spirit to help us all learn how we are to be the church. We read in our scripture, suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each one of them. And all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. This was so loud that the people in the streets heard their language,

heard their own languages, and began to wonder what was going on in there. This reminds me of when we had young children in our household and even now with our granddaughters. So often we'll send them upstairs to play and watch their shows while we adults talk downstairs. But occasionally things get a little rambunctious and we start hearing banging and screaming and chaos and one of us adults will say, "What's going on up there?" Now you know the answer, right? Say it with me. nothing. Every child knows that you

never you never admit to tearing up the upstairs or or throwing your sister or brother on the floor or throwing the pillows for that matter off of the bed. Nothing is going on up here. But what was going on in there? What was happening? Something was happening. And of course, there's always a skeptic in the crowd that said, "Ah, they're just filled with new wine." And Peter the fisher stood up and addressed the crowd and says, "My fellow Jews and all who live now in Jerusalem." Meaning that everyone from around the

world had come to Jerusalem for this very special occasion of Pentecost. These men are not filled with new wine as you suggest. After all, it's still morning. He goes on to say that this is a fulfillment of what the prophet Joel once told us, a fulfillment of the prophet Joel that also applies to us. And isn't it wonderful that this prophecy includes both men and women? It includes both young and old. That we all have been involved in what God is doing in this world. If someone were to come to you

and say, "What what do you all do on Pentecost at your church?" How would you answer that question? What would you say to this person? Well, first thing you probably would say is, "Well, we all wear red." Why do you wear red? Well, we wear red because it commemorates the action of the Holy Spirit, the passion of God in our lives. Well, it is interesting. We live in a world this day with a lot of people, fewer and fewer, who truly understand these special traditions of the church and why we gather, why we

wear red, why we do what we do here in this building. Nicholas Thomas Wright is a British New Testament scholar. He was an Anglican bishop and he recently posted on YouTube that there is a prediction that more than one million people will leave the church in the next 10 years. Another website that I consulted said that 40 million have already left the church in the last 25 years. And a 2020 survey across multiple denominations found that the median attendance at church on a weekly basis was 65 people, down from 137 people in

2000. A 2023 NPR report article by Scott Newman said it was titled, "The faithful see both crisis and opportunity as churches close across the country. Churches close. Closing. I have heard 1,000 churches close each week. There are churches being put up, church buildings being put up for sale all over the world. But I have to ask, who is the church? It's not the building. Certainly, we call Pentecost the birthday of the church. They didn't rush out and start building a building. The Holy Spirit separated and landed and

touched each and every one of the disciples, enabling them, filling them with the Holy Spirit so much so that they could then speak and reach out to others in the world. Who needs the church? We do. The world does. Is God still at work in the church? Is the Holy Spirit still working? Yes, absolutely. I was so thrilled when recently a member of fa my family wrote to myself and to my sister letting us know that she has started to go to church. In fact, it happens to be a Presbyterian church, which was kind of

fun. She was so excited to hear the word read, so excited that she found a Bible that someone gave to her a long time ago and started to read it. She said, "This is wonderful. It answered my questions. It was just what I needed to hear." There was a young man who was wanted to be the apprentice of a uh stained glass maker. My I was taken with this. My father took up stained glass making one time and so he turned his entire lower level of our house into a stained glass factory. I did not realize how complicated and

intricate this art form was, but it was fascinating to watch as he took different colors and pieced them together to make a beautiful picture. Well, this young man wanted to apprentice with a master artist known for his beautiful stained glass windows. And he even went to the master and he asked if he could borrow some of his tools for making stained glass windows. But after several tries and several months, he came back to the master and said, "I don't know what's the problem. I try to do what you have

done, but I just can't make it turn out as beautiful as you did." And the master said, "Well, my my friend, you have to have the spirit of the master to make beautiful works of art." Jesus said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And scripture goes on to say that Jesus breathed the breath of the spirit onto his disciples and they were commissioned to go out into the world. And Jesus said, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

Now, this one takes a little bit of explanation because I think many of us who read this scripture think, "Where do I get the power to forgive sins?" Well, you don't. It is God through you. That we have good news for those who feel guilty, who feel like their life is useless, worthless, that they were not able to achieve what they had hoped. We have good news for them that God wants to forgive them their sin and enable them to fulfill their God-given purpose. We have been called just as those first disciples who were breathed

on by God. My friends, the Holy Spirit is here in this place. Just as the choir was singing so beautifully, the living word, the eternal word of God that we proclaimed in our scripture this morning, the very same word that you read about in John 1:1. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Now, one thing we need to know is that the Greeks understood word to be something alive, something living, something dynamic. In the beginning was the dynamic force of creation. That in him all things were

created. Without him, nothing would have been created. The word of God is what we carry. that very dynamic word when we leave this place today. The dynamic word of God goes with you by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, we're not talking about worshiping the Bible. We're talking about the dynamic God that the Bible tells us about that witnesses to us. It is the living word that is ex an example in our lives. the great giving away of the word, the gifts of God. That's what we have been called to do. Some might be surprised to

hear that we're not called to just fill the pews with with behinds. We're not called just to make our church a huge church. We are called to give away. We are called to give away the love of God. We are called to give to others those that are in need to help them. We have some marvelous ministries of giving away the spirit's gifts. For instance, Debbie Smith, one of our members, started a fabulous ministry. I know several of you have taken uh advantage of this. She works for the florist that provides our lovely flowers

that you see here. As these flowers are no longer in need and the extras that she has received, Debbie will put them in vases that are brought by the members of this congregation. Some of you might know that she puts them into smaller vases in our refrigerators and they are there for you to give away. a marvelous giving away ministry showing the love of Jesus as you bring someone flowers to let them know that God loves them and so do we. Our mission committee has many opportunities for us to give away. We

give away peanut butter and jelly. We give away canned goods. We give away school supplies. Periodically throughout the year, we have these wonderful opportunities to give away to give God's love to others. But what else? What else may we give away? I have some answers for you today. First of all, you may give away friendship. Loneliness has been declared a public health epidemic. In this nation, approximately one in five US adults report feeling lonely every day. And around 30% of adults say they feel

lonely at least once a week. And it's even more of an epidemic among young adults. You know, the very same adults that you can't get their nose out of their phones, even though they are constantly texting and reading the texts and the Instagrams and the Tik Toks, these are the very same young people who say that they are so lonely. Now, our deacons have a marvelous ministry. Many of you may have been the recipients of some of their notes that they write to people in our congregation who are re recovering from

the hospital or are just at home lonely. Many times they will give them a call just to check in to say we love you. We care about you. But this should not be relegated only to our deacon ministry. This is something that every one of us can do. In fact, if you don't have a directory for the church, please pick one up on your way out today. Go through the list of names and give someone a call just because just because you you want to talk to them. How are things going? Just want you to know we had a

wonderful service at church. If you'd like to join us, check in through Facebook or YouTube. Or maybe better than that, could I pick you up next Sunday and bring you with me? How can we share the love of Christ with one another? There's one more way. Sometimes it's easier when you have something to give to someone, such as flowers or a note card or perhaps a Bible. We were very blessed in this congregation. And you will note that the Bibles that we have in our pews were a gift from one of our our

congregants. They're fabulous Bibles. We're thrilled to have them. However, when we replaced our old Bibles, that meant we had a large number of Bibles to give away. We have looked at giving them to some of our partner ministries, which we have done, but we have even more to give away. This is where you come in. We have put these Bibles on a rack in our concierge area at the entrance of the church. They are there for you to take. Not just for you. I know we we gave all of our members a chance to take

a Bible when they were first available. And most of you have Bibles, so you didn't need one. But there are people out there who do not have them, who have not picked up the word of God. Take a Bible with you. Give it away. They're free. Say, "This is from my church, and I thought you might like to have one because God loves you, and so do I. Let me share with you my favorite verse in the Bible and go to what your favorite chapter and verse is and share that with someone. make it easy for them to also open up the Bible. An easy one

is John 3:16. They've seen it at every single baseball game that they've ever tuned into. For God so loved the world. You might tell them that includes you, that he gave his only son, our lord Jesus, so that whoever trusts in him will not perish but will have everlasting life. These are things that we can do and invite these individuals to join you at the book club, at movie night, at the patriotic concert that we have coming up. invite them to come to join in the fellowship that we have here at this

church. How wonderful it is that God will use each of us to reach out to the hurting, the lonely, those who God wants to bring into the family. There's a story about a young boy who wanted to be a concert pianist when he grew up. His mother, thinking that that was really a very sweet goal, took him to hear a an actual uh concert pianist, Pedaroski. And as she was sitting there, they were sitting there waiting on the concert to begin, she saw one of her friends down the row. And so she said, "I'll be right back." She went down to

say hi to her friend. Well, her son got a little antsy sitting there. and he got up and he made his way up onto the stage so that when the concert was ready to begin, the mother came back to find the seat empty. The lights came on the stage and there was her son seated at the grand piano playing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Pedroski came out from behind the curtain and went over to the piano and leaned over to the boy and said, "Keep playing." So, as the little boy kept playing, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,

Federoski reached around him with his arms and started adding a base and then a treble. And soon before their eyes, this twinkle twinkle little star became a beautiful concert piece. So that once they finished, the crowd roared in appreciation for what they were able to create. My friends, we may only be able to etch out twinkle twinkle little star in our lives. But by the power of God's Holy Spirit that will come and surround us, envelop us, God will fill in the rest of the beauty of what needs to take place so

that our life, our efforts might be every bit as wonderful as that concert was for that audience that day. Let's trust that the Holy Spirit is with us. After all, it is a part of God's elegant plan. Will you join me in a prayer? Lord God, we do thank you that you have chosen to build your church by using us, even us, the sinful, flawed people that we are. that by the power of your Holy Spirit, you can take each of our lives. You can shape us, mold us, and use us to be your masterpiece. We thank you for this,

Lord, and we pray with love in our hearts that Jesus will be a part of each of our lives this day and ever more. Amen. Amen. Spirit of gentl. Glory [Music] of us from the sea. You are the water he want to make your name. Spirit, spirit of gentle situ. [Music] still with the sun and your people and they love You are all you [Music] are [Music] here to I am free of on the sea. [Music] of the king. They whisper and bless you once again to [Music] your spirit of gentleness. of [Music] Christmas forever. I

have my heart [Music] before spirit [Music] Now, now we get a chance to allow the Holy Spirit to create that masterpiece with each of our lives. As we leave this place, let us thank God for choosing us to be a part of his family. For trusting that we will listen to the Holy Spirit in our lives. So as we go out this day, let us thank God. Let us thank God for using even us this day and every day. Let us go in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.