June 10, 2025 • 13 mins
In today’s Spiritual Foundation Episode, I talk about Psalm 104: 24-34, 35 also Romans 8: 14-17 and, of course, Acts 2: 1-21. I share with you the joy of seeing the Spirit. I also talk about the invitation of Pentecost.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Thanks for joining me on episode 1548 of the Inspired Stewardship
Podcast. I'm Kevin Roth.
I challenge you to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
develop your influence and impact the world by using your time,
your talent and your treasures to live out your calling.
(00:22):
Having the ability to define and live your own dream life
is key and one way to be inspired to do that
is to listen to this the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my
friend Scott Mater.
(00:43):
We're called to stand in the midst of diversity and difference
and see God in each and every person to be called
to raise our eyes,
raise our horizon,
and look for the movement of the Spirit and from there
to speak out the great deeds of God.
(01:05):
Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship
Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God
wants you to be,
then you must learn to use your time,
your talent and your treasures for your true calling.
In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast,
you will learn to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
(01:25):
and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
In today's Spiritual foundation episode,
I talk with you about Psalm chapter 104,
2434 and verse 35.
(01:47):
I also share Romans chapter 8,
verses 14 through 17 and of course Acts 2:1 2:1.
In honor of Pentecost,
I share with you the joy of seeing the Spirit.
And I also talk about the invitation of Pentecost.
Psalm 104 says,
O Lord,
(02:07):
how manifold are your works.
In wisdom you have made them all.
The earth is full of your creatures.
There is the sea,
great and wide,
creeping things innumerable.
Are there living things,
both small and great.
There go the ships and the leviathan that you formed a
sport in it.
These all look to you to give them their food in
due season.
(02:27):
When you give to them,
they gather it up.
When you open your hand,
they are filled with good things.
When you hide your face,
they are dismayed.
When you take away their breath,
they die and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit,
they are created and you renew the face of the ground.
May the glory of the Lord endure forever.
May the Lord rejoice in his works who looks on the
(02:49):
earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.
I will sing praises to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing for him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
Bless the Lord,
O my soul.
Praise the lord.
Romans chapter 8 says,
for all who are led by the Spirit of God are
(03:11):
children of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall
back into fear,
but you received a spirit of adoption.
When we cry,
abba, Father,
it is that very spirit bearing witness with our spirit,
that we are children of God and if children,
then heirs of God,
and joint heirs with Christ,
if we in fact suffer with him,
(03:31):
so that we may also be glorified with him.
Acts 2:1 21 when the first day of Pentecost had come,
they were all together in one place,
and suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush
of a violent wind,
and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
Divided tongues as of fire appeared among them,
(03:52):
and a tongue rested on each of them.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit,
and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave
them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every people under heaven living
in Jerusalem,
and at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered,
because each one heard them speaking in the native language of
each. Amazed and astonished,
(04:12):
they asked,
are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
And how is it that we hear each of us in
our own native language?
Parthians, Medites,
Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia,
Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontius and Asia,
Figria and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to the Cyrene,
(04:33):
and visitors from Rome,
both Jews and Proselytes,
Cretians and Arabs.
In our own language we hear them speaking about God's deeds
of power.
All were amazed and perplexed,
saying to one another,
what does this mean?
But others sneered and said,
they are filled with new wine.
But Peter,
standing with the 11,
raised his voice and addressed them,
(04:53):
Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem,
let this be known to you,
and listen to what I say.
Indeed, these are not drunk as you suppose,
for it is only 9 o' clock in the morning.
No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel.
In the last days it will be God declares that I
will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and and your
sons and your daughters shall prophecy and your young men shall
(05:14):
see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams even upon my slaves,
both men and women.
In those days I will pour out my spirit,
and they shall prophesy,
and I will show portents in the heavens above and signs
on the earth below blood and fire and smoky mist the
sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
(05:36):
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall
be saved.
This last Sunday was pentecost Sunday and Acts 2 is the
text that is always read during Pentecost.
But I added the psalm in Romans as a bonus of
some of the moments that are describing the movement of the
(05:58):
Spirit. Psalm starts with,
there go the ships.
Early on,
the ships,
the leviathan moving through the water.
Hey, look at that.
Seems to be what the psalmist is saying.
And our breath is taken away by the vastness of the
sea. The leviathans that were formed to sport in it.
(06:20):
Look at it.
Do you see it?
And in fact,
that is one of the messages of Pentecost.
One of the underlying themes of Pentecost is,
did you see it when the Spirit moves,
Do you see it?
When the Spirit blows,
do you see it?
Because all kinds of things happen.
We often are conditioned to look at the world and look
(06:42):
at what's wrong with it.
And that's something that we're all raised and trained,
and our brains work that way.
And yet often we're so conditioned to look for the bad
that we overlook the good.
We overlook the activity of the Spirit acting in the world
around us.
We miss the beautiful sunrise,
(07:03):
the moments in nature,
the play of creatures both large and small,
or great and small,
as it says,
playing throughout the ocean waves,
playing in the air,
playing in the yard,
playing in the trees.
All of these things,
the very trees themselves owe their existence to,
and their presence and their exuberance to the Creator.
(07:26):
And the psalmist is calling upon that joy of seeing the
very life around us and the breath in their body,
and seeing that as an act and expression of praise.
At the end,
it's unclear,
is the psalmist praising,
or is it the leviathan calling out?
Or maybe it's both.
(07:48):
Maybe it's simply the act of life itself that is bringing
forth forth the movement of the Spirit and the praise of
God. It is human,
but it is also the voice of the world around us.
And Act 2 introduces language to this story.
There's four voices in there that are struggling with the words
(08:11):
of describing the event that happened at Pentecost.
But instead the effects is what becomes clear and what we
can see.
We can't really describe how the Spirit shows up.
The coming of the Spirit.
It's a sound like it's as if of wind,
as if of fire.
It's not fire,
(08:31):
it's not wind.
It's not any of these things exactly,
but it's like those.
The movement of Spirit is beyond words.
And yet what happens as the Spirit moves is words carry
the day as we move past the event which seems to
be indescribable or uncapturable.
(08:51):
We see the results because words are spoken.
Words not of confusion or uncertainty or hatred or separation,
but words that were unfamiliar to those who spoke,
but the sounds of home to those who were listening.
There were words of welcome and an acknowledgment in the very
(09:13):
language that those people spoke,
calling out that you matter,
you are important,
you are here to hear in your own tongue.
They're words of connection,
of adoption,
of belonging.
They're words of seeing someone.
(09:33):
The words are about God,
speaking of God's deeds and powers.
But they weren't words about the people that were speaking or
the people that were hearing.
They weren't words about their issues or concerns or hopes or
dreams. They were words about God.
But the act of translating those words showed that they cared
(09:56):
about the message being received by those that they hear.
Truth is,
when you travel or when you learn a language,
when you run into somebody who speaks a different language and
you go out of your way to learn it,
that is a form of hospitality,
a very meaningful form of hospitality.
Babel had been used to talk about how words were used
(10:20):
to separate,
but now,
in this moment,
words are used to bring together.
It was a divine approach,
a reverse of Babel language used to connect rather than confuse.
God's effort was here.
God's moving spirit was here.
(10:41):
And that sign was that these tools were used not to
separate, but to cross the divide and bring people together,
to actually adopt into the family.
Those who are different from us,
those who speak differently,
those who think differently,
those who live differently,
those who look differently.
(11:04):
Pentecost is a call for the crossing of boundaries,
for acknowledging differences not with hatred and fear,
but with grace and.
And hospitality,
for being truly interested in someone,
interested enough to go forth and learn something new,
to open your heart and your mind to them.
(11:25):
In the Romans text,
circling back to that,
there's a we word where it says that we are here
when we cry,
when we do this.
And we can read when the Bible shows up and says
we. A lot of times we read that as an insider
word. Those who have accepted Christ and live in community,
(11:47):
we are the heirs,
and we know the suffering and the glory,
and we this and we that.
But when you look at the message of Pentecost,
that we isn't just the insiders,
that we,
that family,
that call to we,
that the Spirit is calling for us to go,
(12:08):
is all people.
It's not just those that we recognize.
It's not just those that we like.
It's not just those that are like us.
We're called to stand in the midst of diversity and difference
and see God in each and every person.
To be called to raise our eyes,
(12:30):
raise our horizon,
and look for the movement of the Spirit and from there
to speak out the great deeds of God and to invite
all, all people into the family of we.
Thanks for Listening thanks so much for listening to the Inspired
(12:55):
Stewardship Podcast.
As a subscriber and listener,
we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen,
but act on what you've heard and find a way to
live your calling.
If you enjoyed this episode,
do me a favor,
go over to facebook.com
(13:16):
inspiredstewardship and like our Facebook page and mark it that you'd
like to get notifications from us so that we can connect
with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you
to the best of our abilities with time and tips there.
(13:36):
Until next time,
invest your time,
your talent and your treasures.
Develop your influence and impact the world.
Thanks for joining me on episode 1548 of the Inspired Stewardship
Podcast. I'm Kevin Roth.
I challenge you to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
develop your influence and impact the world by using your time,
your talent and your treasures to live out your calling.
(00:22):
Having the ability to define and live your own dream life
is key and one way to be inspired to do that
is to listen to this the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my
friend Scott Mater.
(00:43):
We're called to stand in the midst of diversity and difference
and see God in each and every person to be called
to raise our eyes,
raise our horizon,
and look for the movement of the Spirit and from there
to speak out the great deeds of God.
(01:05):
Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship
Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God
wants you to be,
then you must learn to use your time,
your talent and your treasures for your true calling.
In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast,
you will learn to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
(01:25):
and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
In today's Spiritual foundation episode,
I talk with you about Psalm chapter 104,
2434 and verse 35.
(01:47):
I also share Romans chapter 8,
verses 14 through 17 and of course Acts 2:1 2:1.
In honor of Pentecost,
I share with you the joy of seeing the Spirit.
And I also talk about the invitation of Pentecost.
Psalm 104 says,
O Lord,
(02:07):
how manifold are your works.
In wisdom you have made them all.
The earth is full of your creatures.
There is the sea,
great and wide,
creeping things innumerable.
Are there living things,
both small and great.
There go the ships and the leviathan that you formed a
sport in it.
These all look to you to give them their food in
due season.
(02:27):
When you give to them,
they gather it up.
When you open your hand,
they are filled with good things.
When you hide your face,
they are dismayed.
When you take away their breath,
they die and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit,
they are created and you renew the face of the ground.
May the glory of the Lord endure forever.
May the Lord rejoice in his works who looks on the
(02:49):
earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.
I will sing praises to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing for him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
Bless the Lord,
O my soul.
Praise the lord.
Romans chapter 8 says,
for all who are led by the Spirit of God are
(03:11):
children of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall
back into fear,
but you received a spirit of adoption.
When we cry,
abba, Father,
it is that very spirit bearing witness with our spirit,
that we are children of God and if children,
then heirs of God,
and joint heirs with Christ,
if we in fact suffer with him,
(03:31):
so that we may also be glorified with him.
Acts 2:1 21 when the first day of Pentecost had come,
they were all together in one place,
and suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush
of a violent wind,
and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
Divided tongues as of fire appeared among them,
(03:52):
and a tongue rested on each of them.
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit,
and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave
them ability.
Now there were devout Jews from every people under heaven living
in Jerusalem,
and at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered,
because each one heard them speaking in the native language of
each. Amazed and astonished,
(04:12):
they asked,
are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
And how is it that we hear each of us in
our own native language?
Parthians, Medites,
Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia,
Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontius and Asia,
Figria and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to the Cyrene,
(04:33):
and visitors from Rome,
both Jews and Proselytes,
Cretians and Arabs.
In our own language we hear them speaking about God's deeds
of power.
All were amazed and perplexed,
saying to one another,
what does this mean?
But others sneered and said,
they are filled with new wine.
But Peter,
standing with the 11,
raised his voice and addressed them,
(04:53):
Fellow Jews and all who live in Jerusalem,
let this be known to you,
and listen to what I say.
Indeed, these are not drunk as you suppose,
for it is only 9 o' clock in the morning.
No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel.
In the last days it will be God declares that I
will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and and your
sons and your daughters shall prophecy and your young men shall
(05:14):
see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams even upon my slaves,
both men and women.
In those days I will pour out my spirit,
and they shall prophesy,
and I will show portents in the heavens above and signs
on the earth below blood and fire and smoky mist the
sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day.
(05:36):
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall
be saved.
This last Sunday was pentecost Sunday and Acts 2 is the
text that is always read during Pentecost.
But I added the psalm in Romans as a bonus of
some of the moments that are describing the movement of the
(05:58):
Spirit. Psalm starts with,
there go the ships.
Early on,
the ships,
the leviathan moving through the water.
Hey, look at that.
Seems to be what the psalmist is saying.
And our breath is taken away by the vastness of the
sea. The leviathans that were formed to sport in it.
(06:20):
Look at it.
Do you see it?
And in fact,
that is one of the messages of Pentecost.
One of the underlying themes of Pentecost is,
did you see it when the Spirit moves,
Do you see it?
When the Spirit blows,
do you see it?
Because all kinds of things happen.
We often are conditioned to look at the world and look
(06:42):
at what's wrong with it.
And that's something that we're all raised and trained,
and our brains work that way.
And yet often we're so conditioned to look for the bad
that we overlook the good.
We overlook the activity of the Spirit acting in the world
around us.
We miss the beautiful sunrise,
(07:03):
the moments in nature,
the play of creatures both large and small,
or great and small,
as it says,
playing throughout the ocean waves,
playing in the air,
playing in the yard,
playing in the trees.
All of these things,
the very trees themselves owe their existence to,
and their presence and their exuberance to the Creator.
(07:26):
And the psalmist is calling upon that joy of seeing the
very life around us and the breath in their body,
and seeing that as an act and expression of praise.
At the end,
it's unclear,
is the psalmist praising,
or is it the leviathan calling out?
Or maybe it's both.
(07:48):
Maybe it's simply the act of life itself that is bringing
forth forth the movement of the Spirit and the praise of
God. It is human,
but it is also the voice of the world around us.
And Act 2 introduces language to this story.
There's four voices in there that are struggling with the words
(08:11):
of describing the event that happened at Pentecost.
But instead the effects is what becomes clear and what we
can see.
We can't really describe how the Spirit shows up.
The coming of the Spirit.
It's a sound like it's as if of wind,
as if of fire.
It's not fire,
(08:31):
it's not wind.
It's not any of these things exactly,
but it's like those.
The movement of Spirit is beyond words.
And yet what happens as the Spirit moves is words carry
the day as we move past the event which seems to
be indescribable or uncapturable.
(08:51):
We see the results because words are spoken.
Words not of confusion or uncertainty or hatred or separation,
but words that were unfamiliar to those who spoke,
but the sounds of home to those who were listening.
There were words of welcome and an acknowledgment in the very
(09:13):
language that those people spoke,
calling out that you matter,
you are important,
you are here to hear in your own tongue.
They're words of connection,
of adoption,
of belonging.
They're words of seeing someone.
(09:33):
The words are about God,
speaking of God's deeds and powers.
But they weren't words about the people that were speaking or
the people that were hearing.
They weren't words about their issues or concerns or hopes or
dreams. They were words about God.
But the act of translating those words showed that they cared
(09:56):
about the message being received by those that they hear.
Truth is,
when you travel or when you learn a language,
when you run into somebody who speaks a different language and
you go out of your way to learn it,
that is a form of hospitality,
a very meaningful form of hospitality.
Babel had been used to talk about how words were used
(10:20):
to separate,
but now,
in this moment,
words are used to bring together.
It was a divine approach,
a reverse of Babel language used to connect rather than confuse.
God's effort was here.
God's moving spirit was here.
(10:41):
And that sign was that these tools were used not to
separate, but to cross the divide and bring people together,
to actually adopt into the family.
Those who are different from us,
those who speak differently,
those who think differently,
those who live differently,
those who look differently.
(11:04):
Pentecost is a call for the crossing of boundaries,
for acknowledging differences not with hatred and fear,
but with grace and.
And hospitality,
for being truly interested in someone,
interested enough to go forth and learn something new,
to open your heart and your mind to them.
(11:25):
In the Romans text,
circling back to that,
there's a we word where it says that we are here
when we cry,
when we do this.
And we can read when the Bible shows up and says
we. A lot of times we read that as an insider
word. Those who have accepted Christ and live in community,
(11:47):
we are the heirs,
and we know the suffering and the glory,
and we this and we that.
But when you look at the message of Pentecost,
that we isn't just the insiders,
that we,
that family,
that call to we,
that the Spirit is calling for us to go,
(12:08):
is all people.
It's not just those that we recognize.
It's not just those that we like.
It's not just those that are like us.
We're called to stand in the midst of diversity and difference
and see God in each and every person.
To be called to raise our eyes,
(12:30):
raise our horizon,
and look for the movement of the Spirit and from there
to speak out the great deeds of God and to invite
all, all people into the family of we.
Thanks for Listening thanks so much for listening to the Inspired
(12:55):
Stewardship Podcast.
As a subscriber and listener,
we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen,
but act on what you've heard and find a way to
live your calling.
If you enjoyed this episode,
do me a favor,
go over to facebook.com
(13:16):
inspiredstewardship and like our Facebook page and mark it that you'd
like to get notifications from us so that we can connect
with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you
to the best of our abilities with time and tips there.
(13:36):
Until next time,
invest your time,
your talent and your treasures.
Develop your influence and impact the world.
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