June 26, 2025 • 57 mins
Have you ever been in such exquisite pain that you forgot how to breathe? That moment when something so natural becomes impossible reveals a profound spiritual truth about our relationship with the Holy Spirit.
This powerful message explores what happens when we forget the nearness of God during our darkest hours. Through a moving story about childbirth, Pastor Heather illustrates how sometimes we need another's presence to remind us of what we're designed to do naturally—breathe in God's spirit.
The Pentecost season invites us to reconsider our understanding of the Holy Spirit's role in our lives. Rather than thinking the church gives people the Spirit, we discover that God's Spirit is already present in everyone—our role is simply to help stir and awaken what's already there. It's the difference between providing oxygen and gently reminding someone, "You and me, we're breathing together."
Many Christians have elevated knowledge while diminishing spiritual experience, creating an imbalance that leaves us spiritually malnourished. Like having a marriage license without experiencing the relationship, we miss the vibrancy of authentic spiritual connection. This teaching challenges us to embrace both knowledge and experience as essential pillars of faith.
Perhaps most transformative is the revelation about hearing spiritually. The miracle of Pentecost wasn't just in the speaking but in the hearing—understanding what lies beneath angry words or defensive postures. When we truly hear others through the Spirit's insight, relationships that seemed broken can become pathways to healing.
Ready to rediscover the mystical dimension of Christianity that goes beyond doctrines to lived experience? Learn how silence becomes the doorway to hearing God's voice and how love serves as both the test of authentic spiritual insights and the path to deeper connection with the divine.
Subscribe now to continue this exploration of how the Holy Spirit transforms our hearing, our relationships, and our entire approach to spiritual growth.
This podcast is made possible, thanks to the generosity of our donors. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church you can donate at https://www.firstlovechurch.org/giving
In the service of LOVE,
Pastors Dennis and Heather Drake
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Heather Drake (00:01):
Welcome to the First Love Church Podcast.
This is a collection of Sundayteachings inspired by the
Revised Common Lectionary andrecorded weekly in Ocala Florida
.
Dennis Drake (00:11):
Here's my mom and dad.
Everybody, Goodbye.
Heather Drake (00:14):
Bless, bless, bless.
If you need to wrestle thismorning, this is the place.
I suspect.
Who taught you how to wrestlewith God?
I think there needs to be aplace this is more like a dojo
than it is like a theater or aclassroom where you do get to
wrestle it out.
But I want to remind you thatyour wrestling is not with
(00:35):
someone who is angry with you,who is upset with you.
Your wrestling comes like thewrestling of love.
To be able to say this is whatit looks like for love to be in
this place.
You are loved by God,completely and dearly as you are
right now.
The love of God does not changeand so, as you remind
(00:55):
yourselves this morning, as youcome into the house of the Lord,
you are loved and you arecherished.
And may the potter craft us allinto what we really are meant
to be the true belongings, andmay we be vessels of light and
vessels of love.
We're excited to be with youthis week, the second week of
Pentecost.
(01:16):
I'm glad Pentecost isn't justonly one week.
Thank you, david, forministering last week in
Pentecost.
I'm so grateful for that, andit is a joy to be able to have
children who are growing up inthe faith and turning into or
they are already men and womenfull of grace and full of God.
(01:36):
I'm one of the times as FirstLove Church is 25 years old, so
when we began this church, ourchildren were littles.
And one of the times we cameinto church and there's always a
lot of stuff for us to dobeforehand and we noticed David
had a stack of business cardsthat said First Love Church and
then had the address, and thiswas before the web.
(01:57):
The website wasn't on there.
There was a telephone numberand it said Pastor Dennis Drake,
and David had taken his littlepen and had crossed out Dennis
Drake and wrote David Drake inall these little cards.
And so how sweet, right, howbeautiful to be able to say
where's my place in the church,and so it was such a joy to be
able to have him minister theword, and I was thinking, oh, as
(02:18):
a little kid, when you came in,and on a regular basis we had
to re-clothe him because hewould be unclothed all the time,
and so there was a joy for allof us when there's a certain
point of maturity in someone whokeeps their clothes on, and for
you, you're welcomed inwhatever state of immaturity you
are, and we're gonna, together,remind you that there's a place
to grow and to breathe.
(02:38):
And so again, in thisparticular season in the
Christian calendar, and inreminding ourselves what we're
doing, we're listening to, we'relearning how, and we're
receiving the gift of God's ownspirit, the Holy Spirit, with us
.
Dennis Drake (02:53):
He went around handing those cards out to
people and saying I'm PastorDavid, if you need any help,
just let me know.
And I think that you knowsometimes we wink at that.
But from the time he was littlehe figured where could he find
his spot and he trusted that ifhe offered it would be useful.
(03:14):
And I remember one time therewas a couple that ran our
greeting.
We used to have greeters backthere and the couple was there
every week greeting uh, untilthe the week that, uh, the
husband johnny died and uh, wewent through the funeral that
week and then come sunday, uh,joan was standing in her spot.
(03:36):
But it was very obvious, it's,that uh, it wasn't right, and so
everybody kind of looked around.
We're gonna tell her she didn'thave to greet.
Are we going to say something?
What are we going to do?
And before we knew it, asix-year-old David just walked
up to her and said hey, I thinkI'm going to stand here and
greet with you today, and so forthe rest of the morning he did
(03:57):
that.
And there's something about usbeing able to just kind of be
innocent and be open in ourhearts to how God would use us,
because it's not all aboutgetting into the pulpit, it's
about all those little thingsthat you would do to kind of
prepare you to be the kind ofperson that we would want to
(04:18):
hear from you.
Follow me, you can just be goodat speaking or have something
to say, but it doesn't mean thatwe want to or need to hear it.
It's really from that place ofservice, and so I am grateful
for my sons and my daughter andtheir contribution to the church
and to all of you that make ithappen when we're here and when
(04:41):
we're not here.
But it's nice to be able to goaway and know that things are
handled well.
We preached at Pastor Wade'schurch and Julie's church in
Claremont and spent the weekendwith them and just kind of loved
on them and encouraged them.
That was their 15th anniversaryof the church.
(05:01):
And in November we'll becelebrating our 25th.
Heather Drake (05:06):
Yeah, that's exciting.
That's a real gift.
Again, we are grateful for yourpresence here with us and for
those of you who are online.
We're grateful for that as well, for everyone who brings their
gifts, for Amy, who brings usbeautiful flowers every week,
and I do hope that during theweek because this is something
that Pastor Dennis and I prayfor you, as we do pray for you
all the week, because this issomething that Pastor Dennis and
I pray for you, as we do prayfor you all the time is that
(05:27):
nature would testify to you ofthe goodness of your God, of
your place in the creation story, of the frequency of God's love
and how it is all around us,and the invitation to breathe
into the peace, to breathe intothe grace.
This Pentecost season westarted last week with Pentecost
(05:48):
and this will be a time wherewe will listen to each other's
stories.
We'll listen to the stories inscripture and we'll practice
learning how to listen to theHoly Spirit, to be with each
other and to be attuned intoGod's Holy Spirit.
What is it like for someone tohelp you to hear the Spirit for
yourself, for you to hear thegrace for yourself?
(06:10):
It was more than 30 years agothat I was in the hospital in
Tulsa, oklahoma, giving birth toThomas, and I was in such
exquisite pain that I forgot howto breathe and I mean,
breathing is something you don'tusually use your brain for.
But in my pain, I began to holdmy breath and in that pain, in
(06:33):
in that breath holding, I beganto not be able to breathe,
something that my body couldactually do.
I became in my anxiety to beunable to do something that I
was actually made to do.
And people were panickingaround me.
Someone was shouting, sayingget her some oxygen, and there
was all these things.
And a nurse walked in.
She wasn't my nurse and shelooked at me in that exquisite
(06:57):
pain and in my inability tobreathe and in everyone else's
chaos.
And she came right over to meand she put her hand right here
at the side of my jaw and shesaid you and me, we're breathing
together, breathe now.
And when I couldn't think tobreathe, she helped me breathe
and so I began.
She put her hand right here soI wouldn't be distracted with
(07:20):
the crazy that was happeningaround, with the pain that was
in me.
She said we're going to breathetogether, breathe now, breathe
now.
And I began to calm.
Even the pain didn't leave.
In fact, the baby was beingborn, the pain was essential,
and so we didn't want that tohappen.
But sometimes, as humans, we arein such exquisite pain that we
forget the nearness of God, andwhat I needed was some woman's
(07:44):
presence to come here and saytogether, we're going to do this
, together, you can do this.
She did not breathe for me, butshe gave me a remembrance, an
ancient knowing.
My body was made to be able tobreathe, and this is what we see
Jesus doing when he sees thedisciples in rooms, locked doors
, panicked that the same thingthat happened to their friend
(08:05):
was going to happen to them.
In their exquisite fear.
Jesus comes in and he sayspeace and he breathes on them
and he says receive the HolySpirit For each of us.
This morning, whatever pain youare in, I want you to hear me
say with me breathe, breathe inthe Holy Spirit, breathe in the
(08:31):
love, breathe in the goodness,because sometimes, when the
world around us is chaotic, weforget to take that big breath
of God.
This is how we're made, this isthe very beginning of us, this
is the remembrance of us whenGod made woman, when he made man
when he made mankind and hesaid he breathed into them,
(08:54):
received God's own spirit.
And so, during this season ofPentecost, together we remember
that ancient breath, that beautyin saying we are not alone.
Even in our pain we are notalone, we are together, the
breath and the power and thecreativity of god with us always
(09:17):
who is that nurse for you?
Dennis Drake (09:22):
it can be, uh, pastors, it can be the church,
it can be spiritual leaders andpeople that you have, and it's
probably not going to be somebook or some TV show you watch.
It's going to be someone thatknows you and can say to you,
can really look you in the face.
But I want that for you and Ibelieve that's what our church
really is.
I think one of the greatestthings happened to me not so
(09:47):
much Heather and the kids I'msorry that they had to
experience it with me but I waslet go from a church after six
years of working at a church andit was probably one of the
greatest things that happened tome because I was in the church
world and you kind of get thisidea that, boy, if you work at
the church, that's going to beheavenly, you know, know, get
away from the, the people, theworld, just be with christians,
and.
But I tell you what, when I waslet go from those, uh, those
(10:09):
claws and knives that were in myback, it was actually a pretty
good day, but uh, but I tell you, I went and I worked at at a.
I started selling pianos, amongother things.
I did a bunch of jobs in thatmeantime, but I was selling
pianos and I thought, well, youknow, I'm I'm at the church
anymore Now I'm among theheathens.
And as I was among the heathens,I began to see the spirit in
(10:36):
these people in a way that wasstronger than many Christians I
knew.
And I thought well, that'sfunny, because I was always
under the impression that thechurch gave these people the
spirit.
But it turns out they allalready have the spirit.
God gives us the spirit, and sowhen you decide to come in
(11:02):
relationship with God, he fillsyou with his spirit, he gives
you spirit.
And so I began to realize thatif we started church and that's
what we did instead of usthinking that we're going to
give the spirit, why don't wehelp the people that have the
spirit, stir it, or come to knowit and look at their faces and
(11:28):
remind them, breathe in the HolySpirit?
You understand what I'm saying,you understand where I'm going
with this, and I wonder if maybeyou have thought the church is
supposed to give you that spiritand then, consequently, you're
the one who's very disappointedwith church, because those
leaders failed you, they brokeyour heart, they betrayed you.
(11:50):
In some cases they, theyweren't less than than honorable
, uh, but maybe we put them in aplace and asked them to do
something they were never calledto do.
God's the one who gives thespirit, and but we all can be
that nurse and come alongsideand say remember to breathe.
That nurse didn't breathe forHeather.
(12:11):
That nurse didn't put thebreath in her lungs.
The nurse didn't provide anymiracles other than remind her
of the gift you know.
And so I would really like andhope that as a church, we would
help you come into that, and Ibelieve that those people that I
was calling heathens wereliving outside of the best that
(12:34):
God had for them, but there wasstill a spark inside of them and
that spark could be fanned intoflames if we encourage them
with the love of god and withthe promises of god and not hand
them dogma and and doctrinesand that are cumbersome and
burdensome and and and try tolace them with the religious
(12:55):
things that hold us all back.
But if we were encouraging them, and that's what I believe
pentecost reminds us and when wecelebrate it every year.
So remember, wait a minutewe're not people of knowledge,
we're people of spirit.
Now I've seen people withspirit and no knowledge.
They're a nightmare.
But I come to the church and Ifind most people so filled with
(13:18):
knowledge and zero spirit andthey're in many cases a
nightmare, because it's the, thespirit that that we experience
god and we follow god and werespond.
You know, uh, and, and so I, Iwould challenge you that, while
(13:39):
it's good to get understanding,I think as a church of jesus
christ in general certainly inamerica, where I'm very familiar
we have exalted knowledge andalmost diminished experience,
and god really has asked, uh,those things to walk hand in
hand.
They're, they're both pillarsthat the church is built on and
(14:05):
so both are needful.
And I've heard people say youknow you can't base your
spirituality on your experiences, and I believe that, but in
that they have diminishedexperience to be something that
we've maybe fallen asleep onexpecting or looking for.
(14:25):
And I tell you that is thespice.
Heather Drake (14:28):
I mean, I have a marriage license but I really
enjoy experiencing my marriagewith Heather On days when we're
pleasant with each other.
There are other days when weremember that there are good
days.
Dennis Drake (14:45):
She enjoyed that.
Yesterday I apologized to herby saying I wasn't pleasant with
you and she goes.
That's what you call it.
Heather Drake (14:57):
That's cute.
That's a cute little word.
Wasn't Bless for all of us inall of the ways we are
unpleasant with the world, inall of the ways that we forgot
who we were or we forgot to beable to breathe?
This is the season of Pentecost.
It is our joy to be with youhere and to remind you of these
things.
I'm going to go.
If we could talk about all thescripture that reminds us of
what the spirit is, we would nothave the time, and so I am
going to give you a little bit,and then you are going to listen
(15:18):
to the spirit who is going tospeak to you Because one of the
things that Jesus said.
I'm going to go back and forth,back and forth here.
We're going to go to John.
For this reason, in fact, it'sbest for you that I go away.
I would have stopped Jesusright there.
Dennis Drake (15:32):
I think, it's not.
Heather Drake (15:33):
I think it's not.
I know you think that it is, orsomeone told you that it was,
but I would like to keep youhere with me always.
Dennis Drake (15:40):
Right.
Heather Drake (15:45):
But if I don't go , the advocate won't come.
So if I do go away, then I willsend him to you and when he
comes he will convict the worldof its sin and of God's
righteousness and of the comingjudgment.
Side note on this we have theHoly Spirit.
We have God's own spirit.
We have the spirit that iscapable of raising Jesus from
(16:06):
the dead.
This is the spirit of God thatis coming, that is living in
each one of us, and the spirit'sjob is to convict the world of
the illusion of sin, of thisseparation.
Convict the world and tell theworld how there is a restorative
judgment coming.
That is not our job.
That is the job of the HolySpirit.
(16:26):
Our job is to receive theSpirit.
Our job is to listen to theSpirit and our job is people who
will surrender our thoughts sothat the love of God that we're
going to read about in Romans,that is already shed abroad in
your heart through Christ Jesus.
That love that is already thereis something that we live on
(16:47):
and breathe out of.
The world's sin is that itrefuses to believe in me.
Righteousness is availablebecause I go to the Father and
you will see me.
No more Judgment will come,because the ruler of this world
has already been judged.
There is so much more I want totell you, but you can't bear it
(17:07):
now.
I would have been superdisappointed.
I really would have been.
I would have been like, but Iwant to know, and do you hear
the ego in that and not theprecious spirit who says I trust
you to tell me, when I can bearit, how gentle a shepherd we
(17:27):
have to be able to say I wouldgive you more to know, but it's
too much for you, how gentle ashepherd we have, how good a
father, how beautiful a holyparent we have who will not give
us too much.
You cannot bear it now.
Dennis Drake (17:47):
You know, this reminds us that.
You know, the revelation.
Knowledge is progressive, youknow, and it takes a lifetime, I
believe, for us.
You know, I know that when Ifirst became a Christian, you
know, certainty was what I waslooking for and I wanted to know
(18:12):
, like, what was right and whatwas wrong so I could do it, and
I wanted certainty.
And so, you know, I found thethings in Scripture that I
thought would give me.
That, you know, and I think youknow for us, and you know many
of us, you might have foundyourself there, you might still
find yourself there, but sincethat's not a thing that we're
(18:34):
promised, he said that you knowwhether abased or abound, and
all.
You know those things.
You can have peace, but itdoesn't mean that you're not
gonna.
In this world there will betribulations.
You know those things.
You can, you can have, uh,peace, but it doesn't mean that
you're not gonna.
In this world there will betribulations.
You know there is going to bestruggles and so, uh, I was
looking for that magic bullet oror whatever, and, and for a
while that that appeased me,that pursuit and the revelation
(18:58):
that I was getting.
But there came, there came apoint when, oh when, when I have
to, even when I can't see God'shand, I trust God's heart.
When you can't sink your teethinto certainty, when you can't
even seem to find a handle onyour faith, that God has not
(19:19):
left you.
And there's a progression in myfaith and there's a place where
that helps me turn loose of myillusion of control that I think
I can control my family.
I think I can control my future.
I think I can tell God what heneeds to do in my life.
How foolish of us.
(19:39):
All of us need to learn to letgo of that and really then trust
the God of the universe.
It sounds great in theory, butnone of us want to do it in
practice.
To really trust the God of theuniverse with your next breath,
yeah, that's great and all.
But I still got to put somemoney in the 401k.
And I'm not saying, don't dothat, but we tend to fall back
(20:02):
on our certainties, don't wetend to to to fall back on our
certainties, don't we?
And uh, there's, there's thisplace of, of, of true that I I
mean, I live in the natural andI'm called to this place of the
spirit.
There's no certainty in that,there's no, fully understanding
that there's no scripture thatyou're going to quote and all of
a sudden it's all going to fallin line.
There's always going to be thatplace of faith and trust.
(20:24):
Amen, and I think you mighteven find that to be.
There might be comfort in thatdiscomfort, there might be
knowing that I am growing, thatGod is revealing things to me
that maybe I didn't know before.
Amen, amen.
Heather Drake (20:41):
There are beautiful spiritual practices
that the church has given usthat help us learn how to hear
the Spirit.
When the Spirit comes, theSpirit of truth, he will guide
you into all truth.
He will not speak on his own,but he will tell you what he has
heard and he will tell youabout the future.
He will bring me glory bytelling you whatever he receives
(21:02):
from me, all that belongs tothe Father is mine.
So Jesus is saying it's betterthat I go.
You will receive a spirit andthe spirit will teach you.
The spirit will be your teacher, because you have a very
specific life that is differentthan mine, and the things that
(21:24):
help me may not be the samethings that help you, and my
path is different than yours.
But together, as a family ofGod, we learn how to hear the
Spirit, how to attune ourselvesto the whisper of the Spirit who
is leading us, who is with usalways, who is inviting us into
the co-creation that ishappening between the kingdom
(21:46):
that is coming and the one thatwe already have and so beloved.
It is a beautiful invitation tolearn how to hear the spirit of
God.
I will tell you one of myfavorite practices, and it's
recent, but it has brought mesuch awe and I just remind you
that awe is really what's neededfor worship.
But I'm not going to tell you,I'm going to rewind it.
(22:09):
I'm not going to say you should.
I'm going to invite you to signup for updates from the James
Webb Telescope and you should?
No, I'm going to rephrase that.
Help me.
It would behoove you to look atthe galaxies, to stand in awe of
(22:31):
the creation of God.
How incredible it is to look atthe heavens.
Beloved.
If you need to find that placein spirit that is quickening you
, that is reviving you, that isgiving you direction, step
outside, even into the Floridaheat.
I will tell you, the spiritwill meet you there in the fire.
(22:51):
I know this.
But go out in the cool of themorning or in the cool of the
evening and be able to watch thetrees and to be able to listen
to this and let God's owncreation witness and testify of
your place here and of God'scare for all the things that are
(23:13):
around us.
There is a holy witness to us.
The scriptures are a witness tous of Jesus, but the spirit we
have been given, god's ownspirit, each one of us, alive,
creation inside of us, offeringus comfort, guidance, truth.
This is the promise of Jesusand this is why Jesus said it's
(23:36):
better for you that I am nothere, because you will contain
me, the Spirit of God.
Dennis Drake (23:43):
Are you familiar with church history at all to
know anything about MartinLuther?
Martin Luther wrote a thesis of97 things that he thought were
wrong with the church and nailedit to the doors.
And he was saying I want tohave a discussion, but at that
(24:03):
time stuff like that got youbeheaded.
So you ever ask yourself, likewhat was going?
Or is he just a church historyperson?
Or do you ever think about whatwould cause him to stand up
against the entire church?
That's amazing.
It's the Holy Spirit.
But I mean, would anyone dothat today?
(24:23):
You know, and I was talking toa young lady that attends our
church and she was saying inschool she went to kind of like
a goofy um Christian school thathad some weird doctrine and
they would like say to her youknow, you have to believe this
doctrine, and as a little girlshe'd be like well, you know, I
appreciate what you're saying,but I disagree with it.
(24:46):
And do you ever think of this?
And it'd make the teachersteaming because they couldn't
answer her questions.
You went to that same school, Ithink.
So then these two that I'mspeaking of now all of a sudden
(25:07):
are made to feel like an outcastand begin to question
themselves.
But they're just, they have aknowing, you know.
Now, all of a sudden, are madeto feel like an outcast and
begin to question themselves.
But they're just, they have aknowing.
You know that I shouldn't stepin, that there's just a common
sense there.
And then, even when these peopleare preaching and they're like
you've got to believe this, andhere's what's happening, most
people will go along.
There's a study, a controlledstudy, and they'll go.
They'll have two lines a linethat stops here and a line that
(25:32):
stops here and 19 people are inon it and one person's not.
And they'll have the 19 peoplecome up and they'll say this
line is taller than this line.
And you can see it's not.
But 19 people will come up andsay this line is taller.
And then, when they come up tothe subject, they'll walk up and
almost always say line A wastaller, even when they know
(25:54):
beyond the shadow of a doubtline B was taller.
That's just how we are.
We don't want to be wrong, wedon't want to rock the boat, we
don't want to make peopleuncomfortable and I'm wondering
why it is that certain peoplejust have that ability to just
say this is not right and thosepeople need to help us and teach
(26:20):
us, and we need to be aroundpeople like that, otherwise we
become the people that willstand up and swear that a line
is not as tall as the other, youknow, just because we want to
get along.
And so there's something herethat I want you to kind of see
that the Spirit speaks to us,and sometimes we train ourselves
(26:42):
to ignore the Spirit and weneed to be trained to respond,
and that happens through usexperiencing other people and
watching their lives and forthem to encourage us and look us
in the face and remind us inthe toughest time breathe, we
(27:02):
can trust God.
Now it's great to say I trustGod in smooth sailing, but when
the storm is going and the boatlooks like it's gonna sink, can
you lay down on a pillow andfall asleep then?
Heather Drake (27:15):
We pause here for a moment to thank you for
joining us today.
If you're finding this episodemeaningful, would you take a
moment to share it with a friend?
This podcast is made possiblethanks to the generosity of
people just like you.
If you would like to supportthe ongoing work of First Love
Church and the continued work ofour podcast, visit us online at
(27:38):
firstlovechurchorg, remindingyou to like, follow and
subscribe.
I think one of the powers ofPentecost and one of the things
that we forget or don't rememberis that the miracle of
Pentecost is in the hearing.
Every time you hear someone andreally hear them, you hear
their heart.
You've experienced Pentecost.
(27:59):
Every time you are heard, youare participating in Pentecost,
and there is for us a practicein holy listening, for us to be
people who listen to the HolySpirit of God.
The Spirit makes our hearingpossible, not just the ability
to capture sounds, but to beable to really, truly understand
(28:20):
.
This is the message ofreconciliation.
This is the good news of thegospel.
In fact, all of the scripturesthat we will look at in this
time of Pentecost is of peoplewho have to go beyond their
natural borders.
In fact, peter, filled with theSpirit, says let me tell you,
these people are not drunk, asyou suppose.
This is what was prophesied bythe prophet Joel when he said in
(28:43):
the last days, I will pour outmy spirit upon all flesh.
Your sons and your daughterswill prophesy Again.
There is a distinction therebetween sons and daughters, who
we honor, who we elevate.
And Joel said, and Peter saysthe exact same thing no, in the
day that God's spirit is pouredout on everyone, all the
(29:04):
distinctions are gone.
And so Peter has to continue tohear these things because he
doesn't really believe it.
A little bit later in the story,he's on the rooftop praying and
an angel appears to him andvisions appear to him, and then
people come to the door and sayplease come.
And he has to go to the houseof a Gentile which is against
all the rules.
And he gets there and he'sgoing to save the Gentiles
(29:26):
because he has an idea that theyneed to be saved and they need
to hear this good news and theyneed to change from who they are
.
And he begins to talk and theHoly Spirit interrupts him.
And I want to tell you the HolySpirit, who is so good, is
readily to interrupt you andready to say you know where
(29:53):
you've placed those boundaries.
It's us and them.
The Holy Spirit's going to justabsolutely destroy those,
because love is a reconciliation.
God is love and God'sincredible, radical love, in the
power of the Holy Spirit, iswhat changes our way of being
heard and of hearing otherpeople.
And over and over again we'llsee this.
We'll see this Ethiopian eunuchwho is on the side of the road.
Here is a person outside of thenorm and because of this sexual
it's something that actuallyhappened to him.
Nobody makes themselves aeunuch.
Somebody had decided this hadhappened and he was changed and
(30:16):
because of that he was kept outof the temple.
He was not allowed to be in.
He's on the side of the road.
There's an actual miracle.
Philip, just absolutely likedrops in from outer space.
We were talking the other dayabout time travel.
I think Philip has alreadyexperienced that.
But he's there by the side ofthe road and this person is
already studying the scriptureand Philip sees it and says, oh,
(30:38):
I see that you're studying thisand do you want information?
And the eunuch just asks himand says, hey, is there any
reason why I can't be baptized?
Is there any reason why I can'tbe a part of this family.
Is there any reason why Icannot experience this life?
(31:01):
According to their culture,there was.
According to all the rules thatwere there, there absolutely
was.
And Philip said, by the HolySpirit, oh, I see no reason at
all.
Sometimes the Holy Spirit will,inspired by the Spirit, say
those lines that are between usabsolutely not.
They're not.
And miraculously by water inthe desert, and he's baptized.
And so, over and over again,through this time of Pentecost,
(31:24):
we will see the expansion oflove, the expansion of spirit,
the expansion of reconciliation,all God's people being redeemed
, being able to hear the messageand being loved and brought in.
Our faith in Jesus transfersGod's righteousness to us and he
declares us flawless in hiseyes.
(31:45):
Let me talk.
Dennis Drake (31:46):
I just want what I want to piggyback on what you
were saying, because I reallywant us to land on that idea.
Pentecost, one of the majormiracles is we talk about how
they stood up and they began tospeak and everyone that was in
the city heard, you know, withintheir hearing, heard them speak
in their native tongue, and soyou know, within their hearing,
heard them speak in their nativetongue, and so you know, a lot
(32:08):
of people will talk about youknow.
We kind of narrow it down.
Well then, there's only twoways for the Holy Spirit to move
.
It's like, you know, either inthe miracle of you speak and you
speak in a language that youdon't know but the people can
hear it, or you speak in anunknown language and you edify
(32:30):
yourself to God, and so then wekind of like, then we kind of
spin off into distraction, and Ithink Heather really brought up
a point that that's superprofound and I kind of want to
say it again, that the miraclecan be.
It was in the hearing that theyheard it, so could that miracle
already have happened to youbefore or be happening to you,
(32:50):
or could happen to you if youlearn to expect it.
I'll tell you something.
I had somebody come up to theto me and they just kind of tied
into me about how mad they wereof of what I did.
And they were just going toleave the church and they're
kind of insulting, you know, andpointing out my flaws and they
are many, and I don't like tothink about them and I don't
like to be listed to me.
(33:11):
But it was so weird that likeright in the middle of it, I
realized, oh man, what they'redoing is they're just trying to
reject me because they're afraidof being rejected.
And so, after all those hurtingthings, they said I wanted to
defend them all, but instead Ididn't defend any.
When they finished talking, Isaid I said that.
I said I think you're just, youknow, worried that that maybe
(33:34):
I'm going to reject you and soyou're just wanting to reject me
first.
And I want you to know I loveyou and I will always love you.
And that person just melted intears in my arms And've to this
day have an incrediblerelationship.
Well, what had happened was thatI heard what they said, but I
didn't.
I heard it in a differentlanguage.
(33:55):
I heard what was really beingsaid.
Do you understand what I meanNow, how many times has that
happened with your children?
Or how many times has that nothappened with your children?
And your wife said hey, dennis,your daughter's up in that room
crying.
And I said no, we had a greatexchange.
I'm sure I'm father of the yearand she goes.
If you go up there, that girl'sgoing to be crying.
(34:17):
And I go, I'm going to go proveyou wrong.
I knock on the door and herface is buried in the pillow Are
you sleeping?
Pulled back and it's wet withtears.
And she heard the voice, theinterpretation, that
understanding, the insight thatI needed, and it was revealed to
(34:39):
me that was a work of the holyspirit.
Thank god for pentecost, thankGod for our parenting, thank God
for your having theunderstanding at work.
How did you know that thosethings needed to be adjusted?
How did you know that this wassomething that would help in
your marriage, in yourrelationship?
How did you know that?
Well, the, the Spirit of Godspeaks.
(35:00):
And then I begin to train myselfand learn either to push away
those thoughts and those voicesyou know, or or to recognize oh,
that was the Holy Spirit.
I can trust the Holy Spirit.
And there's all kinds of baddoctors like well you know, if
you, you know, don't listen tothe Holy Spirit, that's it.
You're going to scar your heartand never be able to hear God
(35:22):
again.
God's going to wait until thenext time, because you are loved
.
He doesn't parent you that way,and for us it is important to
repent and to recognize oh, thatwas the Holy Spirit all day
yesterday telling me to put thatstuff in my car.
And now today I'm in thatproblem and I think to myself
(35:43):
three times.
God told me to put those jumpercables in the car.
I looked at them when I was inmy shop and I was walking by.
And now I'm standing out herewith my battery dead and people
saying I'd jump your car.
But I don't have jumper cables.
Neither do I because I listen.
Now God's not punishing me, butthat's a perfect opportunity to
(36:06):
go.
Next time, when I get thatnudge, I'm going to respond and
I'm going to train myself tohear, because it might not be
jumper cables next time.
It might be a life preserverthat saves someone's life, amen.
And so it is important for usto train and be around people
(36:27):
that believe this way and talkthis way, because, you know, if
we're just getting our headsfilled with knowledge and we're
not experiencing the god thatleads us in this fantastic
manner, we miss the glory andpower of being followers of
christ.
We do ourselves to just somestudent that's working on a book
.
Oh, we're followers of theliving God.
(36:51):
Amen.
Heather Drake (36:53):
Our faith in Jesus transfers God's
righteousness to us, and he nowdeclares us flawless in his eyes
.
Dennis Drake (37:03):
Read that again.
Heather Drake (37:04):
Intentional pause .
There's much to discuss thismorning morning, but I just want
to remind you this is the truthyou are flawless in God's eyes.
You might not even be flawlessin your own eyes, but in God's
eyes, flawless flawless.
This means we can now enjoytrue and lasting peace with God,
(37:26):
all because of what our LordJesus, the Anointed One, has
done for us.
Our faith guarantees uspermanent access into this
marvelous kindness that hasgiven us a perfect relationship
with God.
What incredible joy burstsforth within us as we keep on
celebrating our hope ofexperiencing God's glory.
(37:48):
But that's not all.
Even in times of trouble, wehave a joyful confidence,
knowing that our pressures willdevelop in us a patient
endurance.
And patient endurance willrefine our character.
And proven character leads usback to hope.
And this hope is not adisappointing fantasy, because
we can now experience theendless love of God cascading
(38:12):
into our hearts through the HolySpirit who lives in us.
You can experience this kind ofjoy, you can experience this
kind of peace.
This is the Holy Spirit holdingyour chin and saying breathe
with me.
Through this pain that you arein, through this situation that
you are in, there is hope for usthis morning in learning to
(38:36):
hear the Holy Spirit.
One of the ways I think thegreatest ways that we can learn
to hear the Spirit is stoptalking ways that we can learn
to hear the Spirit is stoptalking.
I will give you the keys to this.
And it is silence, and I justwant to tell you that silence is
(38:57):
uncomfortable and we know that.
But it is in that stillness, itis in that breath you take
between the torrent of wordsthat you want to pour out on
someone and you listen for theHoly Spirit.
Jesus, living fully human,fully divine, said I don't speak
(39:18):
anything that I don't hear theFather say.
I encourage you the next timeyou want to say something to
someone, ask the Holy Spirit isthis what the Father is saying
to them?
I'll tell you what he's sayingto them.
You're flawless in my eyes.
You are beloved, beloved,beloved.
(39:41):
You are beloved.
We get to speak words of truthand love.
We get to hear words of truthand love.
The Pentecost reminds us oftransformation, of the blessing
that comes with fire, of theblessing that comes with hearing
the Spirit, of learning to hearour own spirit testify to us of
(40:02):
the goodness of God that hasalready been shed abroad in our
hearts through Christ Jesus,according to Romans.
The love of God that hasalready been shed abroad in our
hearts through Christ Jesus,according to Romans.
The love of God is alreadythere.
That needs to be the source ofall of the things we do, our
source not in ourself, but oursource in the love that is
already there.
Returning to love, returning tothe good, reminding ourselves,
(40:24):
turning to the good, remindingourselves.
In that pain, I didn't stopbeing able to breathe.
I forgot, and when somebodyreminded me, and when someone
stayed with me in that reminder,I could do what I could not do
by myself.
This is what God is saying whenI'm making a new family, a new
community.
The things that you didn'tthink that you could do, you can
(40:46):
do because you do them together, because this is the glory of
what is happening here.
I'm so grateful this week forall of the ways that First Love
Church got to be real miraclesin people's lives, and we were
able to do that because everyoneparticipates.
Recently I was traveling down441 and I was at the stop light
(41:08):
right there on 27 and it was hotand a brother of mine had a
little cardboard sign and he wasstanding at the edge of the
road and that's a really busyintersection, you guys know that
, and so I motioned to him thatI had something to contribute to
my brother and I held the moneyout the window so he could see
(41:30):
it.
And he went in front of fourcars to be able to get the money
.
And he went to the window andhe was on that side of the car.
So I leaned all the way overand I gave him the money out the
window and he said God blessyou, I love you.
And then he said oh, no, no,I'm sorry, you know what, like,
sometimes we say things and wedidn't mean it.
I said did you just take backthe I love you?
I said don't take that back,because I love you too, because
(41:52):
we're family.
And he started laughing.
He goes yes, yes, okay, youcould have the I love you.
And I was like, yes, and youcan have my.
I'm like get out of the streetto this man we're having this
conversation.
He goes, spoken like a sister,and I'm like, yes, get here,
take your love, take this thing,but don't get yourself harmed.
And I started laughing and hewas laughing as we were leaving
(42:15):
this interaction.
That took about 30 seconds, ifit took that.
And here's someone who'sstanding on the side in the heat
, sweat pouring on the side ofthe road.
This is my brother, this isyour brother.
And in this quick moment ofrelease, when we remembered
we're not taking our love back.
I love you, you love me.
There's nothing weird aboutthat.
(42:35):
We're family and in ourreminder get out of the street.
Love tells me don't be standinghere talking when cars are
flying by, and then you justtake it.
You remember, yeah, my sister'sreminding me don't be standing
here talking when cars areflying by, and then you just
take it.
You remember, yeah, my sister'sreminding me get out of the
street.
But both of us were laughing atthe end of this exchange and I
was thinking look at joy, lookat God right there in the middle
(42:56):
.
Not every problem was solved,not everything was changed, but
joy, generosity and love wasthere.
Beloved love created the world.
God is love.
Love is the only thing that'salways going to remain.
When we give anyone love, wegive them the eternal, and that
(43:17):
is what we are all returning to.
What does it look like for usto know, to hear and to live in
the presence of the eternal?
There's two things I want totalk about and I want to get to
hear and to live in the presenceof the eternal.
Dennis Drake (43:26):
There's two things I want to talk about and I want
to get back to that.
But beforehand you hadmentioned prayer, maybe not
directly.
You said being quiet.
Heather Drake (43:35):
Yes.
Dennis Drake (43:37):
And I just wonder how many of us realize, in our
way of being trained to pray,that probably one of the biggest
parts of prayer is being quiet.
You're looking at me like maybeyou don't know, maybe we were
(43:57):
trained that prayer is that timefor you to give your wish list
to God, or to maybe impress Himwith the scriptures you know, or
try to repent hard enough tomake him like you.
All these things, I think, areamiss to that place of, and the
hardest thing to do for me is tojust sit down with intention to
(44:20):
pray and be quiet and empty mymind and let the spirit fill it.
Let the spirit give me ideasand we're not, and then
recognize the difference betweendistractions and stop and and
and let uh the spirit.
Maybe you might want to commenton that that kind of reflective
uh prayer, uh, but um, I really, you know, in the verse that we
(44:44):
were just looking at, I reallywant you to see, there's a
method to heathernize madnessevery week.
How is it possible that theypreach a message about love?
It's Pentecost week and we'retalking about love.
Well, you know, uh, I reallybelieve that that love makes way
(45:09):
for you to connect with thespirit, because if you wouldn't
love that man enough to havestopped and said something, uh,
you know, or provide, you know,or gave a gave generously, then
we wouldn't have seen the spiritdo what the spirit did and
bring back, you know, the spiritof gratitude and joy, you know.
(45:31):
And so there, there's, there's,you know, there's sort of like
yeah, the engine can run, butnot without fuel, not without
oil, it seizes up, you know.
And so there's, god has givenus the holy spirit and then,
through love is is how wemaintain our heart tender.
(45:51):
Uh, because, imagine, you know,uh, I just watched you look at
heather with a very interestinglook.
It said a million things thatI'm not going to repeat.
But when you, when you're aboutready to give somebody the
business at work, and then youask God, first, what do you
(46:14):
think about them Exactly?
And then there's, and then Godsaid I see them as innocent, I
see them as whole, as lovely.
And then what if we thenstarted repeating that versus
the thing we had queued up?
Now, I'm not just picking onrobert.
Every one of us have thesesituations, right, and love is
(46:35):
is what will prepare our heartto make that tremendous leap
that's.
That chasm is so great.
It takes love in order for us,to empower us to do that and for
us to even hear that voice,because isn't that the miracle
of Pentecost, that I heard thevoice.
In my understanding, I'll neverforget that the other day I was
(46:58):
sharing that story about beingin the tractor supply and the
lady started cursing and yellingat the lady at the desk and I
was in my good mood andeverything.
And boy, her yelling andcursing.
It changed the whole energy inthe whole tractor supply.
Everybody got quiet, everybodygot, you know, small, and it was
just so awkward to hear all thecursing and yelling and
(47:23):
immediately I thought, oh, Iacted like that lady.
I hate that.
I wish she'd just leave.
The lady was the bad lady andwhat had happened was the spirit
said do you see her?
No adult acts like that.
(47:45):
She's acting like a child.
Do you see?
That's not some adult lady thatyou despise.
That is a little girl that washurt by somebody and was trained
.
The only way she's going to getcare is if she gets loud and
gets violent, and so she's just.
(48:06):
That's a little girl just doingwhat she was trained to do.
But I didn't see it.
I heard mean person who I needto get away from and who needs
to get out of our world.
We don't need people like that,god, do we?
But the spirit of the Lordcaused me to hear a hurt sister
and all of a sudden I hadcompassion.
(48:27):
To hear a hurt sister, and allof a sudden I had compassion.
Oh then, all of a sudden, thespirit started to flow.
Everything I needed for thatsituation.
I was no longer unsafe anduncomfortable and now I can
understand what's going on.
God, I see, and now I can beused to help out, because I was
(48:47):
blind.
But now I see the Spiritrevealed that to me.
Don't you want to see past theangry face of your husband or
your wife, or the rejection ofyour you know, maybe your
parents or your children, or theway you've been treated by
somebody?
Don't you want to see past that?
See what God sees?
(49:09):
That's better.
Preaching your amen, and I'lltell you right now.
Heather Drake (49:17):
This hope is not a disappointing fantasy.
Sometimes hope is verydifficult, or what feels
difficult.
When I was little, someone toldme I hung on to it like truth.
(49:38):
I recently gave it up.
You're going to be proud of me.
When I was little, someone saiddon't get your hopes up.
Manage your expectations, don'tgive your hopes up.
So I did a really good job ofcreating suffering for myself
and not getting my hopes up.
(50:01):
The Holy Spirit is hope, not inthe expectations of others or in
their ability to change, buthope.
My hope is in Christ.
Not in the expectations ofothers or in their ability to
change, but hope.
My hope is in Christ.
My hope is in the power of love, love that created the worlds,
love that created the galaxiesnot just this one, the millions
(50:23):
of galaxies beyond this, lovethat is still creating.
My hope is in love beloved andthat will never be disappointed.
This hope is not a disappointingfantasy because we can now
experience the endless love ofGod cascading into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit wholives in us, the invitation into
(50:45):
this divine frequency, intothis flow of love that comes to
us and that we can give out tothe world.
It's an invitation to step intothat and to feel the holy and
to live into the holy and tolive in the presence of love, to
live in the presence of God, towalk with him.
(51:06):
We pray together, the prayerthat Jesus taught us to pray
your kingdom come, your will bedone on earth as it is in heaven
.
And Jesus said the kingdom isso close to you, it's in your
mouth.
It's not some far away thing,it's here within us.
God's good kingdom and theinvitation in the spirit is
learning how to attune ourhearts so we stay in the Spirit
(51:30):
and we hear the witness of God'sHoly Spirit.
Dennis Drake (51:33):
You know, isn't it amazing that right now there's
all kinds of songs flowingthrough the air.
There's country music, there'sclassic rock, there's even
Christian contemporary worship,but you don't have a radio and,
(51:53):
furthermore, you don't have itdialed in to the channel to that
frequency, and so you're nothearing it.
And I'm telling you somethingthat we have made being a
Christian, just your get out ofhell free card, just your ticket
to heaven, and that's it, andwe're, you know.
(52:14):
The rest of them they'll justfigure it out when we get there.
And just get them saved, getthem, you know.
And we have missed theopportunity and the beauty, the
true mystical part of being aChristian.
And so I hope that Pentecost,in these weeks that we talk
about, would remind you of thatmystical part.
(52:35):
And all of us have seen peoplethat are hyper-spiritual, and we
used to call them granolaChristians because they're
filled with nuts and flakes andfruits are filled with nuts and
flakes and fruits, and that mayor may not be your experience
with certain people, but I tellyou that there is a mystical
(52:59):
part of your Christianity, yourspirituality Even to say I have
spirituality and for us to notever surrender to the Spirit or
ever hear the voice of theSpirit or ever say I, I've
discerned this or I'm feelingthis.
Leading this way, we're missingout on such a big part of our
Christianity.
And one time I went to a bigdam and it had these big
(53:22):
openings and if the water gottoo much they would open these
openings.
And there was three of them andthey had one of them kind of
cracked open and a little bit ofwater was coming out.
And then another time I cameback and the thing was wide open
and that water wasn't justpouring out, it was shooting out
just, I mean, just like half afootball field.
That water was shooting out.
(53:42):
You know, and I think to myselfthat I'm this follower of God
and there's these opportunitiesthat I have to let God loose in
the world, and I trickle everyonce in a while and then
sometimes you guys get me riledup in this pulpit and I start
(54:04):
opening up that and it startspouring out.
But then I get a funny lookfrom somebody, so I back it back
off there and some people say,no, I have a flow and I have a
flow and I'll read the Word ofGod, but this whole spirit thing
, I'm closing it off and whatwe're talking about during this
(54:25):
time is learn how to open thatup without your granola bars.
How do you do that in a waythat now becomes fruitful for
your life and for the lives ofeverybody that's around you?
I think the path is love.
(54:46):
That is certain, and that wereally do open up our hope and
our expectation for God.
Could you leave this place witha hope that God would speak to
you, or is that only forsomebody that's more spiritual
(55:06):
than you?
Heather Drake (55:07):
I do want to say there is a cofete in learning
how to hear the Spirit.
If it's not loving, it's notthe Holy.
Dennis Drake (55:13):
Spirit.
Oh, thank you.
Heather Drake (55:13):
I just want to say that If it's unloving, it is
not God's Spirit, because itcannot come from God, because
God is love, oh that's a goodthing.
So if you were feelingsomething, a deep something, and
you felt prompted and it wasunloving.
hold that word and then, bringit to somebody else who hears
the Spirit too, and say this iswhat I heard, and how do we feel
(55:35):
about this?
Or how do we process this?
But if it's not loving, it isnot God.
God so loved the world that hegave his one and only son that
whoever believed in him wouldnot perish but have eternal life
.
God did not send Jesus into theworld to condemn the world, but
that the world, through Jesus,might be saved.
(55:57):
Reconciliation has always beenthe thing that God offers to the
whole world through Jesus andthrough us.
Would you bow your heads withus for a moment?
I'm going to pray over you andI'm going to speak peace over
you, the same way that Jesus did.
I am going to, but in the nameand in the authority of the
(56:19):
church and in the authority ofScripture that is given to us,
and in the authority of God'sown Spirit.
I speak peace over you evenright now.
I pray that the spirit wouldfall upon your friendships, on
your families, on yourcommunities, on our nation, and
(56:40):
grant us the understanding, amiracle of hearing, hearing the
heart of God for all of us.
Hearing, hearing the heart ofGod for all of us.
A miracle of the sort ofhearing that reconciles siblings
and spouses, and friends andleaders, and brings us into holy
peace.
Lord in your mercy, heal ourears For the person who needs to
(57:09):
be heard from their heart, forthe person who needs to hear the
other from their heart, for themiracle of expansion and
understanding, for all of thegood that flows from the spirit
of understanding, the spirit oftruth.
(57:31):
We pray to you, lord, jesusChrist.
Have mercy on us, send yourspirit to us again.
We receive your peace.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's sermon.
If you would like moreinformation about us, visit us
(57:54):
online at firstlovechurchorg.
Welcome to the First Love Church Podcast.
This is a collection of Sundayteachings inspired by the
Revised Common Lectionary andrecorded weekly in Ocala Florida
.
Dennis Drake (00:11):
Here's my mom and dad.
Everybody, Goodbye.
Heather Drake (00:14):
Bless, bless, bless.
If you need to wrestle thismorning, this is the place.
I suspect.
Who taught you how to wrestlewith God?
I think there needs to be aplace this is more like a dojo
than it is like a theater or aclassroom where you do get to
wrestle it out.
But I want to remind you thatyour wrestling is not with
(00:35):
someone who is angry with you,who is upset with you.
Your wrestling comes like thewrestling of love.
To be able to say this is whatit looks like for love to be in
this place.
You are loved by God,completely and dearly as you are
right now.
The love of God does not changeand so, as you remind
(00:55):
yourselves this morning, as youcome into the house of the Lord,
you are loved and you arecherished.
And may the potter craft us allinto what we really are meant
to be the true belongings, andmay we be vessels of light and
vessels of love.
We're excited to be with youthis week, the second week of
Pentecost.
(01:16):
I'm glad Pentecost isn't justonly one week.
Thank you, david, forministering last week in
Pentecost.
I'm so grateful for that, andit is a joy to be able to have
children who are growing up inthe faith and turning into or
they are already men and womenfull of grace and full of God.
(01:36):
I'm one of the times as FirstLove Church is 25 years old, so
when we began this church, ourchildren were littles.
And one of the times we cameinto church and there's always a
lot of stuff for us to dobeforehand and we noticed David
had a stack of business cardsthat said First Love Church and
then had the address, and thiswas before the web.
(01:57):
The website wasn't on there.
There was a telephone numberand it said Pastor Dennis Drake,
and David had taken his littlepen and had crossed out Dennis
Drake and wrote David Drake inall these little cards.
And so how sweet, right, howbeautiful to be able to say
where's my place in the church,and so it was such a joy to be
able to have him minister theword, and I was thinking, oh, as
(02:18):
a little kid, when you came in,and on a regular basis we had
to re-clothe him because hewould be unclothed all the time,
and so there was a joy for allof us when there's a certain
point of maturity in someone whokeeps their clothes on, and for
you, you're welcomed inwhatever state of immaturity you
are, and we're gonna, together,remind you that there's a place
to grow and to breathe.
(02:38):
And so again, in thisparticular season in the
Christian calendar, and inreminding ourselves what we're
doing, we're listening to, we'relearning how, and we're
receiving the gift of God's ownspirit, the Holy Spirit, with us
.
Dennis Drake (02:53):
He went around handing those cards out to
people and saying I'm PastorDavid, if you need any help,
just let me know.
And I think that you knowsometimes we wink at that.
But from the time he was littlehe figured where could he find
his spot and he trusted that ifhe offered it would be useful.
(03:14):
And I remember one time therewas a couple that ran our
greeting.
We used to have greeters backthere and the couple was there
every week greeting uh, untilthe the week that, uh, the
husband johnny died and uh, wewent through the funeral that
week and then come sunday, uh,joan was standing in her spot.
(03:36):
But it was very obvious, it's,that uh, it wasn't right, and so
everybody kind of looked around.
We're gonna tell her she didn'thave to greet.
Are we going to say something?
What are we going to do?
And before we knew it, asix-year-old David just walked
up to her and said hey, I thinkI'm going to stand here and
greet with you today, and so forthe rest of the morning he did
(03:57):
that.
And there's something about usbeing able to just kind of be
innocent and be open in ourhearts to how God would use us,
because it's not all aboutgetting into the pulpit, it's
about all those little thingsthat you would do to kind of
prepare you to be the kind ofperson that we would want to
(04:18):
hear from you.
Follow me, you can just be goodat speaking or have something
to say, but it doesn't mean thatwe want to or need to hear it.
It's really from that place ofservice, and so I am grateful
for my sons and my daughter andtheir contribution to the church
and to all of you that make ithappen when we're here and when
(04:41):
we're not here.
But it's nice to be able to goaway and know that things are
handled well.
We preached at Pastor Wade'schurch and Julie's church in
Claremont and spent the weekendwith them and just kind of loved
on them and encouraged them.
That was their 15th anniversaryof the church.
(05:01):
And in November we'll becelebrating our 25th.
Heather Drake (05:06):
Yeah, that's exciting.
That's a real gift.
Again, we are grateful for yourpresence here with us and for
those of you who are online.
We're grateful for that as well, for everyone who brings their
gifts, for Amy, who brings usbeautiful flowers every week,
and I do hope that during theweek because this is something
that Pastor Dennis and I prayfor you, as we do pray for you
all the week, because this issomething that Pastor Dennis and
I pray for you, as we do prayfor you all the time is that
(05:27):
nature would testify to you ofthe goodness of your God, of
your place in the creation story, of the frequency of God's love
and how it is all around us,and the invitation to breathe
into the peace, to breathe intothe grace.
This Pentecost season westarted last week with Pentecost
(05:48):
and this will be a time wherewe will listen to each other's
stories.
We'll listen to the stories inscripture and we'll practice
learning how to listen to theHoly Spirit, to be with each
other and to be attuned intoGod's Holy Spirit.
What is it like for someone tohelp you to hear the Spirit for
yourself, for you to hear thegrace for yourself?
(06:10):
It was more than 30 years agothat I was in the hospital in
Tulsa, oklahoma, giving birth toThomas, and I was in such
exquisite pain that I forgot howto breathe and I mean,
breathing is something you don'tusually use your brain for.
But in my pain, I began to holdmy breath and in that pain, in
(06:33):
in that breath holding, I beganto not be able to breathe,
something that my body couldactually do.
I became in my anxiety to beunable to do something that I
was actually made to do.
And people were panickingaround me.
Someone was shouting, sayingget her some oxygen, and there
was all these things.
And a nurse walked in.
She wasn't my nurse and shelooked at me in that exquisite
(06:57):
pain and in my inability tobreathe and in everyone else's
chaos.
And she came right over to meand she put her hand right here
at the side of my jaw and shesaid you and me, we're breathing
together, breathe now.
And when I couldn't think tobreathe, she helped me breathe
and so I began.
She put her hand right here soI wouldn't be distracted with
(07:20):
the crazy that was happeningaround, with the pain that was
in me.
She said we're going to breathetogether, breathe now, breathe
now.
And I began to calm.
Even the pain didn't leave.
In fact, the baby was beingborn, the pain was essential,
and so we didn't want that tohappen.
But sometimes, as humans, we arein such exquisite pain that we
forget the nearness of God, andwhat I needed was some woman's
(07:44):
presence to come here and saytogether, we're going to do this
, together, you can do this.
She did not breathe for me, butshe gave me a remembrance, an
ancient knowing.
My body was made to be able tobreathe, and this is what we see
Jesus doing when he sees thedisciples in rooms, locked doors
, panicked that the same thingthat happened to their friend
(08:05):
was going to happen to them.
In their exquisite fear.
Jesus comes in and he sayspeace and he breathes on them
and he says receive the HolySpirit For each of us.
This morning, whatever pain youare in, I want you to hear me
say with me breathe, breathe inthe Holy Spirit, breathe in the
(08:31):
love, breathe in the goodness,because sometimes, when the
world around us is chaotic, weforget to take that big breath
of God.
This is how we're made, this isthe very beginning of us, this
is the remembrance of us whenGod made woman, when he made man
when he made mankind and hesaid he breathed into them,
(08:54):
received God's own spirit.
And so, during this season ofPentecost, together we remember
that ancient breath, that beautyin saying we are not alone.
Even in our pain we are notalone, we are together, the
breath and the power and thecreativity of god with us always
(09:17):
who is that nurse for you?
Dennis Drake (09:22):
it can be, uh, pastors, it can be the church,
it can be spiritual leaders andpeople that you have, and it's
probably not going to be somebook or some TV show you watch.
It's going to be someone thatknows you and can say to you,
can really look you in the face.
But I want that for you and Ibelieve that's what our church
really is.
I think one of the greatestthings happened to me not so
(09:47):
much Heather and the kids I'msorry that they had to
experience it with me but I waslet go from a church after six
years of working at a church andit was probably one of the
greatest things that happened tome because I was in the church
world and you kind of get thisidea that, boy, if you work at
the church, that's going to beheavenly, you know, know, get
away from the, the people, theworld, just be with christians,
and.
But I tell you what, when I waslet go from those, uh, those
(10:09):
claws and knives that were in myback, it was actually a pretty
good day, but uh, but I tell you, I went and I worked at at a.
I started selling pianos, amongother things.
I did a bunch of jobs in thatmeantime, but I was selling
pianos and I thought, well, youknow, I'm I'm at the church
anymore Now I'm among theheathens.
And as I was among the heathens,I began to see the spirit in
(10:36):
these people in a way that wasstronger than many Christians I
knew.
And I thought well, that'sfunny, because I was always
under the impression that thechurch gave these people the
spirit.
But it turns out they allalready have the spirit.
God gives us the spirit, and sowhen you decide to come in
(11:02):
relationship with God, he fillsyou with his spirit, he gives
you spirit.
And so I began to realize thatif we started church and that's
what we did instead of usthinking that we're going to
give the spirit, why don't wehelp the people that have the
spirit, stir it, or come to knowit and look at their faces and
(11:28):
remind them, breathe in the HolySpirit?
You understand what I'm saying,you understand where I'm going
with this, and I wonder if maybeyou have thought the church is
supposed to give you that spiritand then, consequently, you're
the one who's very disappointedwith church, because those
leaders failed you, they brokeyour heart, they betrayed you.
(11:50):
In some cases they, theyweren't less than than honorable
, uh, but maybe we put them in aplace and asked them to do
something they were never calledto do.
God's the one who gives thespirit, and but we all can be
that nurse and come alongsideand say remember to breathe.
That nurse didn't breathe forHeather.
(12:11):
That nurse didn't put thebreath in her lungs.
The nurse didn't provide anymiracles other than remind her
of the gift you know.
And so I would really like andhope that as a church, we would
help you come into that, and Ibelieve that those people that I
was calling heathens wereliving outside of the best that
(12:34):
God had for them, but there wasstill a spark inside of them and
that spark could be fanned intoflames if we encourage them
with the love of god and withthe promises of god and not hand
them dogma and and doctrinesand that are cumbersome and
burdensome and and and try tolace them with the religious
(12:55):
things that hold us all back.
But if we were encouraging them, and that's what I believe
pentecost reminds us and when wecelebrate it every year.
So remember, wait a minutewe're not people of knowledge,
we're people of spirit.
Now I've seen people withspirit and no knowledge.
They're a nightmare.
But I come to the church and Ifind most people so filled with
(13:18):
knowledge and zero spirit andthey're in many cases a
nightmare, because it's the, thespirit that that we experience
god and we follow god and werespond.
You know, uh, and, and so I, Iwould challenge you that, while
(13:39):
it's good to get understanding,I think as a church of jesus
christ in general certainly inamerica, where I'm very familiar
we have exalted knowledge andalmost diminished experience,
and god really has asked, uh,those things to walk hand in
hand.
They're, they're both pillarsthat the church is built on and
(14:05):
so both are needful.
And I've heard people say youknow you can't base your
spirituality on your experiences, and I believe that, but in
that they have diminishedexperience to be something that
we've maybe fallen asleep onexpecting or looking for.
(14:25):
And I tell you that is thespice.
Heather Drake (14:28):
I mean, I have a marriage license but I really
enjoy experiencing my marriagewith Heather On days when we're
pleasant with each other.
There are other days when weremember that there are good
days.
Dennis Drake (14:45):
She enjoyed that.
Yesterday I apologized to herby saying I wasn't pleasant with
you and she goes.
That's what you call it.
Heather Drake (14:57):
That's cute.
That's a cute little word.
Wasn't Bless for all of us inall of the ways we are
unpleasant with the world, inall of the ways that we forgot
who we were or we forgot to beable to breathe?
This is the season of Pentecost.
It is our joy to be with youhere and to remind you of these
things.
I'm going to go.
If we could talk about all thescripture that reminds us of
what the spirit is, we would nothave the time, and so I am
going to give you a little bit,and then you are going to listen
(15:18):
to the spirit who is going tospeak to you Because one of the
things that Jesus said.
I'm going to go back and forth,back and forth here.
We're going to go to John.
For this reason, in fact, it'sbest for you that I go away.
I would have stopped Jesusright there.
Dennis Drake (15:32):
I think, it's not.
Heather Drake (15:33):
I think it's not.
I know you think that it is, orsomeone told you that it was,
but I would like to keep youhere with me always.
Dennis Drake (15:40):
Right.
Heather Drake (15:45):
But if I don't go , the advocate won't come.
So if I do go away, then I willsend him to you and when he
comes he will convict the worldof its sin and of God's
righteousness and of the comingjudgment.
Side note on this we have theHoly Spirit.
We have God's own spirit.
We have the spirit that iscapable of raising Jesus from
(16:06):
the dead.
This is the spirit of God thatis coming, that is living in
each one of us, and the spirit'sjob is to convict the world of
the illusion of sin, of thisseparation.
Convict the world and tell theworld how there is a restorative
judgment coming.
That is not our job.
That is the job of the HolySpirit.
(16:26):
Our job is to receive theSpirit.
Our job is to listen to theSpirit and our job is people who
will surrender our thoughts sothat the love of God that we're
going to read about in Romans,that is already shed abroad in
your heart through Christ Jesus.
That love that is already thereis something that we live on
(16:47):
and breathe out of.
The world's sin is that itrefuses to believe in me.
Righteousness is availablebecause I go to the Father and
you will see me.
No more Judgment will come,because the ruler of this world
has already been judged.
There is so much more I want totell you, but you can't bear it
(17:07):
now.
I would have been superdisappointed.
I really would have been.
I would have been like, but Iwant to know, and do you hear
the ego in that and not theprecious spirit who says I trust
you to tell me, when I can bearit, how gentle a shepherd we
(17:27):
have to be able to say I wouldgive you more to know, but it's
too much for you, how gentle ashepherd we have, how good a
father, how beautiful a holyparent we have who will not give
us too much.
You cannot bear it now.
Dennis Drake (17:47):
You know, this reminds us that.
You know, the revelation.
Knowledge is progressive, youknow, and it takes a lifetime, I
believe, for us.
You know, I know that when Ifirst became a Christian, you
know, certainty was what I waslooking for and I wanted to know
(18:12):
, like, what was right and whatwas wrong so I could do it, and
I wanted certainty.
And so, you know, I found thethings in Scripture that I
thought would give me.
That, you know, and I think youknow for us, and you know many
of us, you might have foundyourself there, you might still
find yourself there, but sincethat's not a thing that we're
(18:34):
promised, he said that you knowwhether abased or abound, and
all.
You know those things.
You can have peace, but itdoesn't mean that you're not
gonna.
In this world there will betribulations.
You know those things.
You can, you can have, uh,peace, but it doesn't mean that
you're not gonna.
In this world there will betribulations.
You know there is going to bestruggles and so, uh, I was
looking for that magic bullet oror whatever, and, and for a
while that that appeased me,that pursuit and the revelation
(18:58):
that I was getting.
But there came, there came apoint when, oh when, when I have
to, even when I can't see God'shand, I trust God's heart.
When you can't sink your teethinto certainty, when you can't
even seem to find a handle onyour faith, that God has not
(19:19):
left you.
And there's a progression in myfaith and there's a place where
that helps me turn loose of myillusion of control that I think
I can control my family.
I think I can control my future.
I think I can tell God what heneeds to do in my life.
How foolish of us.
(19:39):
All of us need to learn to letgo of that and really then trust
the God of the universe.
It sounds great in theory, butnone of us want to do it in
practice.
To really trust the God of theuniverse with your next breath,
yeah, that's great and all.
But I still got to put somemoney in the 401k.
And I'm not saying, don't dothat, but we tend to fall back
(20:02):
on our certainties, don't wetend to to to fall back on our
certainties, don't we?
And uh, there's, there's thisplace of, of, of true that I I
mean, I live in the natural andI'm called to this place of the
spirit.
There's no certainty in that,there's no, fully understanding
that there's no scripture thatyou're going to quote and all of
a sudden it's all going to fallin line.
There's always going to be thatplace of faith and trust.
(20:24):
Amen, and I think you mighteven find that to be.
There might be comfort in thatdiscomfort, there might be
knowing that I am growing, thatGod is revealing things to me
that maybe I didn't know before.
Amen, amen.
Heather Drake (20:41):
There are beautiful spiritual practices
that the church has given usthat help us learn how to hear
the Spirit.
When the Spirit comes, theSpirit of truth, he will guide
you into all truth.
He will not speak on his own,but he will tell you what he has
heard and he will tell youabout the future.
He will bring me glory bytelling you whatever he receives
(21:02):
from me, all that belongs tothe Father is mine.
So Jesus is saying it's betterthat I go.
You will receive a spirit andthe spirit will teach you.
The spirit will be your teacher, because you have a very
specific life that is differentthan mine, and the things that
(21:24):
help me may not be the samethings that help you, and my
path is different than yours.
But together, as a family ofGod, we learn how to hear the
Spirit, how to attune ourselvesto the whisper of the Spirit who
is leading us, who is with usalways, who is inviting us into
the co-creation that ishappening between the kingdom
(21:46):
that is coming and the one thatwe already have and so beloved.
It is a beautiful invitation tolearn how to hear the spirit of
God.
I will tell you one of myfavorite practices, and it's
recent, but it has brought mesuch awe and I just remind you
that awe is really what's neededfor worship.
But I'm not going to tell you,I'm going to rewind it.
(22:09):
I'm not going to say you should.
I'm going to invite you to signup for updates from the James
Webb Telescope and you should?
No, I'm going to rephrase that.
Help me.
It would behoove you to look atthe galaxies, to stand in awe of
(22:31):
the creation of God.
How incredible it is to look atthe heavens.
Beloved.
If you need to find that placein spirit that is quickening you
, that is reviving you, that isgiving you direction, step
outside, even into the Floridaheat.
I will tell you, the spiritwill meet you there in the fire.
(22:51):
I know this.
But go out in the cool of themorning or in the cool of the
evening and be able to watch thetrees and to be able to listen
to this and let God's owncreation witness and testify of
your place here and of God'scare for all the things that are
(23:13):
around us.
There is a holy witness to us.
The scriptures are a witness tous of Jesus, but the spirit we
have been given, god's ownspirit, each one of us, alive,
creation inside of us, offeringus comfort, guidance, truth.
This is the promise of Jesusand this is why Jesus said it's
(23:36):
better for you that I am nothere, because you will contain
me, the Spirit of God.
Dennis Drake (23:43):
Are you familiar with church history at all to
know anything about MartinLuther?
Martin Luther wrote a thesis of97 things that he thought were
wrong with the church and nailedit to the doors.
And he was saying I want tohave a discussion, but at that
(24:03):
time stuff like that got youbeheaded.
So you ever ask yourself, likewhat was going?
Or is he just a church historyperson?
Or do you ever think about whatwould cause him to stand up
against the entire church?
That's amazing.
It's the Holy Spirit.
But I mean, would anyone dothat today?
(24:23):
You know, and I was talking toa young lady that attends our
church and she was saying inschool she went to kind of like
a goofy um Christian school thathad some weird doctrine and
they would like say to her youknow, you have to believe this
doctrine, and as a little girlshe'd be like well, you know, I
appreciate what you're saying,but I disagree with it.
(24:46):
And do you ever think of this?
And it'd make the teachersteaming because they couldn't
answer her questions.
You went to that same school, Ithink.
So then these two that I'mspeaking of now all of a sudden
(25:07):
are made to feel like an outcastand begin to question
themselves.
But they're just, they have aknowing, you know.
Now, all of a sudden, are madeto feel like an outcast and
begin to question themselves.
But they're just, they have aknowing.
You know that I shouldn't stepin, that there's just a common
sense there.
And then, even when these peopleare preaching and they're like
you've got to believe this, andhere's what's happening, most
people will go along.
There's a study, a controlledstudy, and they'll go.
They'll have two lines a linethat stops here and a line that
(25:32):
stops here and 19 people are inon it and one person's not.
And they'll have the 19 peoplecome up and they'll say this
line is taller than this line.
And you can see it's not.
But 19 people will come up andsay this line is taller.
And then, when they come up tothe subject, they'll walk up and
almost always say line A wastaller, even when they know
(25:54):
beyond the shadow of a doubtline B was taller.
That's just how we are.
We don't want to be wrong, wedon't want to rock the boat, we
don't want to make peopleuncomfortable and I'm wondering
why it is that certain peoplejust have that ability to just
say this is not right and thosepeople need to help us and teach
(26:20):
us, and we need to be aroundpeople like that, otherwise we
become the people that willstand up and swear that a line
is not as tall as the other, youknow, just because we want to
get along.
And so there's something herethat I want you to kind of see
that the Spirit speaks to us,and sometimes we train ourselves
(26:42):
to ignore the Spirit and weneed to be trained to respond,
and that happens through usexperiencing other people and
watching their lives and forthem to encourage us and look us
in the face and remind us inthe toughest time breathe, we
(27:02):
can trust God.
Now it's great to say I trustGod in smooth sailing, but when
the storm is going and the boatlooks like it's gonna sink, can
you lay down on a pillow andfall asleep then?
Heather Drake (27:15):
We pause here for a moment to thank you for
joining us today.
If you're finding this episodemeaningful, would you take a
moment to share it with a friend?
This podcast is made possiblethanks to the generosity of
people just like you.
If you would like to supportthe ongoing work of First Love
Church and the continued work ofour podcast, visit us online at
(27:38):
firstlovechurchorg, remindingyou to like, follow and
subscribe.
I think one of the powers ofPentecost and one of the things
that we forget or don't rememberis that the miracle of
Pentecost is in the hearing.
Every time you hear someone andreally hear them, you hear
their heart.
You've experienced Pentecost.
(27:59):
Every time you are heard, youare participating in Pentecost,
and there is for us a practicein holy listening, for us to be
people who listen to the HolySpirit of God.
The Spirit makes our hearingpossible, not just the ability
to capture sounds, but to beable to really, truly understand
(28:20):
.
This is the message ofreconciliation.
This is the good news of thegospel.
In fact, all of the scripturesthat we will look at in this
time of Pentecost is of peoplewho have to go beyond their
natural borders.
In fact, peter, filled with theSpirit, says let me tell you,
these people are not drunk, asyou suppose.
This is what was prophesied bythe prophet Joel when he said in
(28:43):
the last days, I will pour outmy spirit upon all flesh.
Your sons and your daughterswill prophesy Again.
There is a distinction therebetween sons and daughters, who
we honor, who we elevate.
And Joel said, and Peter saysthe exact same thing no, in the
day that God's spirit is pouredout on everyone, all the
(29:04):
distinctions are gone.
And so Peter has to continue tohear these things because he
doesn't really believe it.
A little bit later in the story,he's on the rooftop praying and
an angel appears to him andvisions appear to him, and then
people come to the door and sayplease come.
And he has to go to the houseof a Gentile which is against
all the rules.
And he gets there and he'sgoing to save the Gentiles
(29:26):
because he has an idea that theyneed to be saved and they need
to hear this good news and theyneed to change from who they are
.
And he begins to talk and theHoly Spirit interrupts him.
And I want to tell you the HolySpirit, who is so good, is
readily to interrupt you andready to say you know where
(29:53):
you've placed those boundaries.
It's us and them.
The Holy Spirit's going to justabsolutely destroy those,
because love is a reconciliation.
God is love and God'sincredible, radical love, in the
power of the Holy Spirit, iswhat changes our way of being
heard and of hearing otherpeople.
And over and over again we'llsee this.
We'll see this Ethiopian eunuchwho is on the side of the road.
Here is a person outside of thenorm and because of this sexual
it's something that actuallyhappened to him.
Nobody makes themselves aeunuch.
Somebody had decided this hadhappened and he was changed and
(30:16):
because of that he was kept outof the temple.
He was not allowed to be in.
He's on the side of the road.
There's an actual miracle.
Philip, just absolutely likedrops in from outer space.
We were talking the other dayabout time travel.
I think Philip has alreadyexperienced that.
But he's there by the side ofthe road and this person is
already studying the scriptureand Philip sees it and says, oh,
(30:38):
I see that you're studying thisand do you want information?
And the eunuch just asks himand says, hey, is there any
reason why I can't be baptized?
Is there any reason why I can'tbe a part of this family.
Is there any reason why Icannot experience this life?
(31:01):
According to their culture,there was.
According to all the rules thatwere there, there absolutely
was.
And Philip said, by the HolySpirit, oh, I see no reason at
all.
Sometimes the Holy Spirit will,inspired by the Spirit, say
those lines that are between usabsolutely not.
They're not.
And miraculously by water inthe desert, and he's baptized.
And so, over and over again,through this time of Pentecost,
(31:24):
we will see the expansion oflove, the expansion of spirit,
the expansion of reconciliation,all God's people being redeemed
, being able to hear the messageand being loved and brought in.
Our faith in Jesus transfersGod's righteousness to us and he
declares us flawless in hiseyes.
(31:45):
Let me talk.
Dennis Drake (31:46):
I just want what I want to piggyback on what you
were saying, because I reallywant us to land on that idea.
Pentecost, one of the majormiracles is we talk about how
they stood up and they began tospeak and everyone that was in
the city heard, you know, withintheir hearing, heard them speak
in their native tongue, and soyou know, within their hearing,
heard them speak in their nativetongue, and so you know, a lot
(32:08):
of people will talk about youknow.
We kind of narrow it down.
Well then, there's only twoways for the Holy Spirit to move
.
It's like, you know, either inthe miracle of you speak and you
speak in a language that youdon't know but the people can
hear it, or you speak in anunknown language and you edify
(32:30):
yourself to God, and so then wekind of like, then we kind of
spin off into distraction, and Ithink Heather really brought up
a point that that's superprofound and I kind of want to
say it again, that the miraclecan be.
It was in the hearing that theyheard it, so could that miracle
already have happened to youbefore or be happening to you,
(32:50):
or could happen to you if youlearn to expect it.
I'll tell you something.
I had somebody come up to theto me and they just kind of tied
into me about how mad they wereof of what I did.
And they were just going toleave the church and they're
kind of insulting, you know, andpointing out my flaws and they
are many, and I don't like tothink about them and I don't
like to be listed to me.
(33:11):
But it was so weird that likeright in the middle of it, I
realized, oh man, what they'redoing is they're just trying to
reject me because they're afraidof being rejected.
And so, after all those hurtingthings, they said I wanted to
defend them all, but instead Ididn't defend any.
When they finished talking, Isaid I said that.
I said I think you're just, youknow, worried that that maybe
(33:34):
I'm going to reject you and soyou're just wanting to reject me
first.
And I want you to know I loveyou and I will always love you.
And that person just melted intears in my arms And've to this
day have an incrediblerelationship.
Well, what had happened was thatI heard what they said, but I
didn't.
I heard it in a differentlanguage.
(33:55):
I heard what was really beingsaid.
Do you understand what I meanNow, how many times has that
happened with your children?
Or how many times has that nothappened with your children?
And your wife said hey, dennis,your daughter's up in that room
crying.
And I said no, we had a greatexchange.
I'm sure I'm father of the yearand she goes.
If you go up there, that girl'sgoing to be crying.
(34:17):
And I go, I'm going to go proveyou wrong.
I knock on the door and herface is buried in the pillow Are
you sleeping?
Pulled back and it's wet withtears.
And she heard the voice, theinterpretation, that
understanding, the insight thatI needed, and it was revealed to
(34:39):
me that was a work of the holyspirit.
Thank god for pentecost, thankGod for our parenting, thank God
for your having theunderstanding at work.
How did you know that thosethings needed to be adjusted?
How did you know that this wassomething that would help in
your marriage, in yourrelationship?
How did you know that?
Well, the, the Spirit of Godspeaks.
(35:00):
And then I begin to train myselfand learn either to push away
those thoughts and those voicesyou know, or or to recognize oh,
that was the Holy Spirit.
I can trust the Holy Spirit.
And there's all kinds of baddoctors like well you know, if
you, you know, don't listen tothe Holy Spirit, that's it.
You're going to scar your heartand never be able to hear God
(35:22):
again.
God's going to wait until thenext time, because you are loved
.
He doesn't parent you that way,and for us it is important to
repent and to recognize oh, thatwas the Holy Spirit all day
yesterday telling me to put thatstuff in my car.
And now today I'm in thatproblem and I think to myself
(35:43):
three times.
God told me to put those jumpercables in the car.
I looked at them when I was inmy shop and I was walking by.
And now I'm standing out herewith my battery dead and people
saying I'd jump your car.
But I don't have jumper cables.
Neither do I because I listen.
Now God's not punishing me, butthat's a perfect opportunity to
(36:06):
go.
Next time, when I get thatnudge, I'm going to respond and
I'm going to train myself tohear, because it might not be
jumper cables next time.
It might be a life preserverthat saves someone's life, amen.
And so it is important for usto train and be around people
(36:27):
that believe this way and talkthis way, because, you know, if
we're just getting our headsfilled with knowledge and we're
not experiencing the god thatleads us in this fantastic
manner, we miss the glory andpower of being followers of
christ.
We do ourselves to just somestudent that's working on a book
.
Oh, we're followers of theliving God.
(36:51):
Amen.
Heather Drake (36:53):
Our faith in Jesus transfers God's
righteousness to us, and he nowdeclares us flawless in his eyes
.
Dennis Drake (37:03):
Read that again.
Heather Drake (37:04):
Intentional pause .
There's much to discuss thismorning morning, but I just want
to remind you this is the truthyou are flawless in God's eyes.
You might not even be flawlessin your own eyes, but in God's
eyes, flawless flawless.
This means we can now enjoytrue and lasting peace with God,
(37:26):
all because of what our LordJesus, the Anointed One, has
done for us.
Our faith guarantees uspermanent access into this
marvelous kindness that hasgiven us a perfect relationship
with God.
What incredible joy burstsforth within us as we keep on
celebrating our hope ofexperiencing God's glory.
(37:48):
But that's not all.
Even in times of trouble, wehave a joyful confidence,
knowing that our pressures willdevelop in us a patient
endurance.
And patient endurance willrefine our character.
And proven character leads usback to hope.
And this hope is not adisappointing fantasy, because
we can now experience theendless love of God cascading
(38:12):
into our hearts through the HolySpirit who lives in us.
You can experience this kind ofjoy, you can experience this
kind of peace.
This is the Holy Spirit holdingyour chin and saying breathe
with me.
Through this pain that you arein, through this situation that
you are in, there is hope for usthis morning in learning to
(38:36):
hear the Holy Spirit.
One of the ways I think thegreatest ways that we can learn
to hear the Spirit is stoptalking ways that we can learn
to hear the Spirit is stoptalking.
I will give you the keys to this.
And it is silence, and I justwant to tell you that silence is
(38:57):
uncomfortable and we know that.
But it is in that stillness, itis in that breath you take
between the torrent of wordsthat you want to pour out on
someone and you listen for theHoly Spirit.
Jesus, living fully human,fully divine, said I don't speak
(39:18):
anything that I don't hear theFather say.
I encourage you the next timeyou want to say something to
someone, ask the Holy Spirit isthis what the Father is saying
to them?
I'll tell you what he's sayingto them.
You're flawless in my eyes.
You are beloved, beloved,beloved.
(39:41):
You are beloved.
We get to speak words of truthand love.
We get to hear words of truthand love.
The Pentecost reminds us oftransformation, of the blessing
that comes with fire, of theblessing that comes with hearing
the Spirit, of learning to hearour own spirit testify to us of
(40:02):
the goodness of God that hasalready been shed abroad in our
hearts through Christ Jesus,according to Romans.
The love of God that hasalready been shed abroad in our
hearts through Christ Jesus,according to Romans.
The love of God is alreadythere.
That needs to be the source ofall of the things we do, our
source not in ourself, but oursource in the love that is
already there.
Returning to love, returning tothe good, reminding ourselves,
(40:24):
turning to the good, remindingourselves.
In that pain, I didn't stopbeing able to breathe.
I forgot, and when somebodyreminded me, and when someone
stayed with me in that reminder,I could do what I could not do
by myself.
This is what God is saying whenI'm making a new family, a new
community.
The things that you didn'tthink that you could do, you can
(40:46):
do because you do them together, because this is the glory of
what is happening here.
I'm so grateful this week forall of the ways that First Love
Church got to be real miraclesin people's lives, and we were
able to do that because everyoneparticipates.
Recently I was traveling down441 and I was at the stop light
(41:08):
right there on 27 and it was hotand a brother of mine had a
little cardboard sign and he wasstanding at the edge of the
road and that's a really busyintersection, you guys know that
, and so I motioned to him thatI had something to contribute to
my brother and I held the moneyout the window so he could see
(41:30):
it.
And he went in front of fourcars to be able to get the money
.
And he went to the window andhe was on that side of the car.
So I leaned all the way overand I gave him the money out the
window and he said God blessyou, I love you.
And then he said oh, no, no,I'm sorry, you know what, like,
sometimes we say things and wedidn't mean it.
I said did you just take backthe I love you?
I said don't take that back,because I love you too, because
(41:52):
we're family.
And he started laughing.
He goes yes, yes, okay, youcould have the I love you.
And I was like, yes, and youcan have my.
I'm like get out of the streetto this man we're having this
conversation.
He goes, spoken like a sister,and I'm like, yes, get here,
take your love, take this thing,but don't get yourself harmed.
And I started laughing and hewas laughing as we were leaving
(42:15):
this interaction.
That took about 30 seconds, ifit took that.
And here's someone who'sstanding on the side in the heat
, sweat pouring on the side ofthe road.
This is my brother, this isyour brother.
And in this quick moment ofrelease, when we remembered
we're not taking our love back.
I love you, you love me.
There's nothing weird aboutthat.
(42:35):
We're family and in ourreminder get out of the street.
Love tells me don't be standinghere talking when cars are
flying by, and then you justtake it.
You remember, yeah, my sister'sreminding me don't be standing
here talking when cars areflying by, and then you just
take it.
You remember, yeah, my sister'sreminding me get out of the
street.
But both of us were laughing atthe end of this exchange and I
was thinking look at joy, lookat God right there in the middle
(42:56):
.
Not every problem was solved,not everything was changed, but
joy, generosity and love wasthere.
Beloved love created the world.
God is love.
Love is the only thing that'salways going to remain.
When we give anyone love, wegive them the eternal, and that
(43:17):
is what we are all returning to.
What does it look like for usto know, to hear and to live in
the presence of the eternal?
There's two things I want totalk about and I want to get to
hear and to live in the presenceof the eternal.
Dennis Drake (43:26):
There's two things I want to talk about and I want
to get back to that.
But beforehand you hadmentioned prayer, maybe not
directly.
You said being quiet.
Heather Drake (43:35):
Yes.
Dennis Drake (43:37):
And I just wonder how many of us realize, in our
way of being trained to pray,that probably one of the biggest
parts of prayer is being quiet.
You're looking at me like maybeyou don't know, maybe we were
(43:57):
trained that prayer is that timefor you to give your wish list
to God, or to maybe impress Himwith the scriptures you know, or
try to repent hard enough tomake him like you.
All these things, I think, areamiss to that place of, and the
hardest thing to do for me is tojust sit down with intention to
(44:20):
pray and be quiet and empty mymind and let the spirit fill it.
Let the spirit give me ideasand we're not, and then
recognize the difference betweendistractions and stop and and
and let uh the spirit.
Maybe you might want to commenton that that kind of reflective
uh prayer, uh, but um, I really, you know, in the verse that we
(44:44):
were just looking at, I reallywant you to see, there's a
method to heathernize madnessevery week.
How is it possible that theypreach a message about love?
It's Pentecost week and we'retalking about love.
Well, you know, uh, I reallybelieve that that love makes way
(45:09):
for you to connect with thespirit, because if you wouldn't
love that man enough to havestopped and said something, uh,
you know, or provide, you know,or gave a gave generously, then
we wouldn't have seen the spiritdo what the spirit did and
bring back, you know, the spiritof gratitude and joy, you know.
(45:31):
And so there, there's, there's,you know, there's sort of like
yeah, the engine can run, butnot without fuel, not without
oil, it seizes up, you know.
And so there's, god has givenus the holy spirit and then,
through love is is how wemaintain our heart tender.
(45:51):
Uh, because, imagine, you know,uh, I just watched you look at
heather with a very interestinglook.
It said a million things thatI'm not going to repeat.
But when you, when you're aboutready to give somebody the
business at work, and then youask God, first, what do you
(46:14):
think about them Exactly?
And then there's, and then Godsaid I see them as innocent, I
see them as whole, as lovely.
And then what if we thenstarted repeating that versus
the thing we had queued up?
Now, I'm not just picking onrobert.
Every one of us have thesesituations, right, and love is
(46:35):
is what will prepare our heartto make that tremendous leap
that's.
That chasm is so great.
It takes love in order for us,to empower us to do that and for
us to even hear that voice,because isn't that the miracle
of Pentecost, that I heard thevoice.
In my understanding, I'll neverforget that the other day I was
(46:58):
sharing that story about beingin the tractor supply and the
lady started cursing and yellingat the lady at the desk and I
was in my good mood andeverything.
And boy, her yelling andcursing.
It changed the whole energy inthe whole tractor supply.
Everybody got quiet, everybodygot, you know, small, and it was
just so awkward to hear all thecursing and yelling and
(47:23):
immediately I thought, oh, Iacted like that lady.
I hate that.
I wish she'd just leave.
The lady was the bad lady andwhat had happened was the spirit
said do you see her?
No adult acts like that.
(47:45):
She's acting like a child.
Do you see?
That's not some adult lady thatyou despise.
That is a little girl that washurt by somebody and was trained
.
The only way she's going to getcare is if she gets loud and
gets violent, and so she's just.
(48:06):
That's a little girl just doingwhat she was trained to do.
But I didn't see it.
I heard mean person who I needto get away from and who needs
to get out of our world.
We don't need people like that,god, do we?
But the spirit of the Lordcaused me to hear a hurt sister
and all of a sudden I hadcompassion.
(48:27):
To hear a hurt sister, and allof a sudden I had compassion.
Oh then, all of a sudden, thespirit started to flow.
Everything I needed for thatsituation.
I was no longer unsafe anduncomfortable and now I can
understand what's going on.
God, I see, and now I can beused to help out, because I was
(48:47):
blind.
But now I see the Spiritrevealed that to me.
Don't you want to see past theangry face of your husband or
your wife, or the rejection ofyour you know, maybe your
parents or your children, or theway you've been treated by
somebody?
Don't you want to see past that?
See what God sees?
(49:09):
That's better.
Preaching your amen, and I'lltell you right now.
Heather Drake (49:17):
This hope is not a disappointing fantasy.
Sometimes hope is verydifficult, or what feels
difficult.
When I was little, someone toldme I hung on to it like truth.
(49:38):
I recently gave it up.
You're going to be proud of me.
When I was little, someone saiddon't get your hopes up.
Manage your expectations, don'tgive your hopes up.
So I did a really good job ofcreating suffering for myself
and not getting my hopes up.
(50:01):
The Holy Spirit is hope, not inthe expectations of others or in
their ability to change, buthope.
My hope is in Christ.
Not in the expectations ofothers or in their ability to
change, but hope.
My hope is in Christ.
My hope is in the power of love, love that created the worlds,
love that created the galaxiesnot just this one, the millions
(50:23):
of galaxies beyond this, lovethat is still creating.
My hope is in love beloved andthat will never be disappointed.
This hope is not a disappointingfantasy because we can now
experience the endless love ofGod cascading into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit wholives in us, the invitation into
(50:45):
this divine frequency, intothis flow of love that comes to
us and that we can give out tothe world.
It's an invitation to step intothat and to feel the holy and
to live into the holy and tolive in the presence of love, to
live in the presence of God, towalk with him.
(51:06):
We pray together, the prayerthat Jesus taught us to pray
your kingdom come, your will bedone on earth as it is in heaven
.
And Jesus said the kingdom isso close to you, it's in your
mouth.
It's not some far away thing,it's here within us.
God's good kingdom and theinvitation in the spirit is
learning how to attune ourhearts so we stay in the Spirit
(51:30):
and we hear the witness of God'sHoly Spirit.
Dennis Drake (51:33):
You know, isn't it amazing that right now there's
all kinds of songs flowingthrough the air.
There's country music, there'sclassic rock, there's even
Christian contemporary worship,but you don't have a radio and,
(51:53):
furthermore, you don't have itdialed in to the channel to that
frequency, and so you're nothearing it.
And I'm telling you somethingthat we have made being a
Christian, just your get out ofhell free card, just your ticket
to heaven, and that's it, andwe're, you know.
(52:14):
The rest of them they'll justfigure it out when we get there.
And just get them saved, getthem, you know.
And we have missed theopportunity and the beauty, the
true mystical part of being aChristian.
And so I hope that Pentecost,in these weeks that we talk
about, would remind you of thatmystical part.
(52:35):
And all of us have seen peoplethat are hyper-spiritual, and we
used to call them granolaChristians because they're
filled with nuts and flakes andfruits are filled with nuts and
flakes and fruits, and that mayor may not be your experience
with certain people, but I tellyou that there is a mystical
(52:59):
part of your Christianity, yourspirituality Even to say I have
spirituality and for us to notever surrender to the Spirit or
ever hear the voice of theSpirit or ever say I, I've
discerned this or I'm feelingthis.
Leading this way, we're missingout on such a big part of our
Christianity.
And one time I went to a bigdam and it had these big
(53:22):
openings and if the water gottoo much they would open these
openings.
And there was three of them andthey had one of them kind of
cracked open and a little bit ofwater was coming out.
And then another time I cameback and the thing was wide open
and that water wasn't justpouring out, it was shooting out
just, I mean, just like half afootball field.
That water was shooting out.
(53:42):
You know, and I think to myselfthat I'm this follower of God
and there's these opportunitiesthat I have to let God loose in
the world, and I trickle everyonce in a while and then
sometimes you guys get me riledup in this pulpit and I start
(54:04):
opening up that and it startspouring out.
But then I get a funny lookfrom somebody, so I back it back
off there and some people say,no, I have a flow and I have a
flow and I'll read the Word ofGod, but this whole spirit thing
, I'm closing it off and whatwe're talking about during this
(54:25):
time is learn how to open thatup without your granola bars.
How do you do that in a waythat now becomes fruitful for
your life and for the lives ofeverybody that's around you?
I think the path is love.
(54:46):
That is certain, and that wereally do open up our hope and
our expectation for God.
Could you leave this place witha hope that God would speak to
you, or is that only forsomebody that's more spiritual
(55:06):
than you?
Heather Drake (55:07):
I do want to say there is a cofete in learning
how to hear the Spirit.
If it's not loving, it's notthe Holy.
Dennis Drake (55:13):
Spirit.
Oh, thank you.
Heather Drake (55:13):
I just want to say that If it's unloving, it is
not God's Spirit, because itcannot come from God, because
God is love, oh that's a goodthing.
So if you were feelingsomething, a deep something, and
you felt prompted and it wasunloving.
hold that word and then, bringit to somebody else who hears
the Spirit too, and say this iswhat I heard, and how do we feel
(55:35):
about this?
Or how do we process this?
But if it's not loving, it isnot God.
God so loved the world that hegave his one and only son that
whoever believed in him wouldnot perish but have eternal life
.
God did not send Jesus into theworld to condemn the world, but
that the world, through Jesus,might be saved.
(55:57):
Reconciliation has always beenthe thing that God offers to the
whole world through Jesus andthrough us.
Would you bow your heads withus for a moment?
I'm going to pray over you andI'm going to speak peace over
you, the same way that Jesus did.
I am going to, but in the nameand in the authority of the
(56:19):
church and in the authority ofScripture that is given to us,
and in the authority of God'sown Spirit.
I speak peace over you evenright now.
I pray that the spirit wouldfall upon your friendships, on
your families, on yourcommunities, on our nation, and
(56:40):
grant us the understanding, amiracle of hearing, hearing the
heart of God for all of us.
Hearing, hearing the heart ofGod for all of us.
A miracle of the sort ofhearing that reconciles siblings
and spouses, and friends andleaders, and brings us into holy
peace.
Lord in your mercy, heal ourears For the person who needs to
(57:09):
be heard from their heart, forthe person who needs to hear the
other from their heart, for themiracle of expansion and
understanding, for all of thegood that flows from the spirit
of understanding, the spirit oftruth.
(57:31):
We pray to you, lord, jesusChrist.
Have mercy on us, send yourspirit to us again.
We receive your peace.
We hope you've enjoyed thisweek's sermon.
If you would like moreinformation about us, visit us
(57:54):
online at firstlovechurchorg.
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