GLADLY RECEIVED with Don Carpenter

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Gladly Received From Acts 2

0:13 SPEAKER_02: My message today, I'm going to call it gladly received. Let's read first of all out of Acts chapter 2, beginning at verse 37. And what we're reading about here is the great ingathering. The Holy Spirit's been poured out. Peter has preached a great message to thousands. And the power of God is moving the same way today. Never changes. It does not change. I'm going to read, beginning in verse 37 of Acts chapter 2. Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do?

1:06 SPEAKER_02: Peter said to them, Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself. And many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. So then those who had received his word were baptized, and that day there were added about three thousand souls.

2:02 SPEAKER_02: They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer, and everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. Tremendous event.

Jesus Ascends And Promises Power

2:26 SPEAKER_02: Thousands responding to the message. Thousands listened. Just like you, you respond. Now, how we got to this stage. Jesus Christ was sent by God manifested in the flesh, actually, ministered three years fully, openly, thirty-three years of age crucified, buried, rose again because death couldn't hold him down. And you know, after he rose from the grave, he ministered forty days upon the earth, approximately six weeks, two days short of six weeks. Great signs and great wonders took place. And he was caught up.

3:27 SPEAKER_02: He was taken up into a cloud and was gone. Two angels said this the same manner as you've seen him go, you shall see him come again. He is going to come out of the clouds and he's going to come again. That's tremendous. And he said, I want you to go to Jerusalem, just before he was taken up. And he said, There you're going to receive the Holy Ghost. People talk about all kinds of stuff in the church. Their past life. They will talk about how God saved them, set them free. They will talk about miracles, signs, and wonders.

4:09 SPEAKER_02: They will share with you their vision and their plans to work for God. They will tell you about answered prayer. They tell you about a lot of things.

4:20 SPEAKER_02: And Jesus is thankful, and we are thankful for all of that. But here's what he said. You are going to receive the Holy Spirit. And I want you to gather. They gathered in a house. 120 of them gathered in a house.

Wind Fire Tongues And Public Witness

4:37 SPEAKER_02: And in Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit visits them after 10 days. He was there all the time, but at the 10-day point, there was a sound that they didn't know how to explain it except to say it sounded like a mighty wind rushing. And in the midst of all of this, the sound, they can hear this. There's not necessarily an actual wind blowing, but suddenly in the room, there are these little tongues of fire came down. 120 set fire set down on 120 people. By nine o'clock in the morning, they were spilling out of the house after being in there for 10 days, filled with the Holy Spirit, couldn't speak English, and they get out on the streets and they're talking, and there's 120 people talking, who knows how many languages.

5:44 SPEAKER_02: Maybe 120 languages, maybe less, maybe more. But the thing is, there were people in Jerusalem at that time, and they were hearing them speak in their native tongue. This was phenomenal. Peter was out on the street preaching what had happened. He was explaining this. And he said, This Jesus you crucified, this is the one that's causing this to happen. And may I say this? When people know better, and they'll say, No, I don't want anything to do with that Jesus. And when they backslide, sometimes it's like they're crucifying afresh.

6:26 SPEAKER_02: And Jesus said, That Jesus, that's the one you crucified. He's the one that's making this all possible.

Positioning Ourselves To Hear God

6:35 SPEAKER_02: In verse 37, when they heard, I think it's a privilege to be able to hear the word of God. I think it is phenomenal when believers can hear the word of God. Some people say, I feel them in my spirit, and that's usually how it is, quite often. But there are reports, and we hear them all the time. I personally as well am one of those. I have heard the voice of the Lord. But in order to hear the voice of the Lord, you have to be positioned. You have to be in place. A lot of times people will just be running through life and they're so busy with the cares of life, and they've got all of their things they want to do, and they never position themselves to hear from God.

7:34 SPEAKER_02: When we come and gather together, we are positioning ourselves. We're literally taking the time from the cares of life, and we're positioning ourselves to hear from the Lord. There has to be a desire to hear. You have to want to hear the word of the Lord. When you go to church, do you desire to hear the word of the Lord? Do you desire? Is that why you're there? And when you come to church, and if you're thinking about everything else you're going to do, you have all week long to think about all the other stuff you're going to do.

8:09 SPEAKER_02: Here in church, we should have a desire to hear the word of the Lord. And it's not just hearing my voice or some other preacher preach, but when the preacher is preaching, the Holy Spirit is going to be able to apply those words to you, and you're going to see exactly where you are at. And we have to have the conviction of hearing. In other words, when we hear the word, yes, I'm going to do something about this. I'm going to change this. I told the story, or I've given the report. I had no intentions of giving my heart to the Lord or being involved in the church or anything until I was very old, maybe my age now.

8:57 SPEAKER_02: But I look back on it now and I began to hear the gospel as a teenager, and I realized that inside of me, I was always going to hear the word of the Lord, and I would not be able to resist. When we hear that word hearing, it's really a revelation. Like you're hearing it maybe for the first time.

9:21 SPEAKER_02: Suddenly it's so real to you. It's like, where was I all my life? How come I didn't see that before? The Lord just reveals it to you. That's what happened for thousands of them on the street that day in Jerusalem. And they asked this question. They said, What shall we do? There's something inside of us, like I feel like I need to do more. That's like it is we come to the Lord, and the Lord brings us into a new place, and we say to the preacher, what should we do? We know there's something inside of us, and we're going to say, What shall we do?

10:05 SPEAKER_02: Can you imagine three thousand people at least, maybe more, yelling, what shall we do? What are we doing? Maybe many of the people, maybe there was six thousand that should have done. What do we do?

Repent Be Baptized Receive The Spirit

10:27 SPEAKER_02: And without a moment of hesitation, Peter says, Repent. Ask God to forgive you of your sins. That's how we survive all through our Christian life. What do I do, Lord? I've really messed up. Some of you are with me today listening and watching, and you're going to say, What shall we do? Repent. You're going to say, but I've messed up so bad. Repent. And then he goes on to say, Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. This one that you rejected, because remember, Jesus is who they rejected. It was the same people that were yelling, crucify him, crucify him, be with him.

11:16 SPEAKER_02: And he's saying, Repent. And the same Jesus that they had crucified, that same Jesus, they were baptized in his name in water for the remission of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And when I look at this, you're going to say, Well, there, I'm going to get it all at once. I'm going to repent and get saved and get baptized and going to have the Holy Ghost. But you look at this and I see this and I feel what this is: that after you've done that, you will receive the Holy Ghost.

11:56 SPEAKER_02: Because there's a case where Peter was in, I think it was Caesarea. He went up there and they said, We were baptized into John's baptism. We've been in the water. And he said, We need to get baptized again. And then they laid their hands on them in other places and they got the Holy Ghost. And he said, they got it just like we did. I recommend that you move that way and just see what God's going to do for you. The promise is for you.

12:27 SPEAKER_02: I often hear people say, well, that's not for today, that's for Pentecostal people. That's for those kind of people. The promise is for you, every believer. Man makes denominations so that they can continue their legacy, keep on doing it the way they like it, and make it so that it can be unified and people know if they go to a certain denomination, they can expect certain things. Because it's that's how they plan it. That's how they preach it, that's how they teach it. But if you're going to go into a meeting where the Holy Spirit is moving, the only thing that you is going to remain consistent is the Holy Spirit is going to be moving.

13:12 SPEAKER_02: That's the difference. That's what you will expect. He said, This promise is for you and your children and for all those afar off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself. God called me, God called you, he's calling mankind, and he says, Come on to me, all you are weak and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Come to me, come. And with many other words, he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them. Peter preached a lot of stuff that day. And the thing he said was, Above all, you understand the time in which we are living.

13:59 SPEAKER_02: It is a terrible time. And I'm thinking, this is over 2,000 years ago. And he was telling them that this was, I think the word they used, was a an untoward.

Being Saved From A Perverse Age

14:13 SPEAKER_02: King James uses this big word, on toward. The new American says perverse generation. And everything's been perverted. Not doesn't just mean sexually. They pervert the truth. They've got it all out of whack. They make it to their own liking, their own itching ears, what they want to hear. They make it all to themselves. But we the only true standard that we can go by is the word of the Lord. I know that there are elements out there that are gonna say the Bible's outdated or it's no longer relevant and it's not for us.

14:58 SPEAKER_02: No, listen to me. Be saved. I want you to be saved. I don't want this, in other words, I don't want this perverse generation to ruin you. You've come into the kingdom. You want to live for Jesus, but I don't want that world out there which you were brought out of. I don't want that world to contaminate your spirit. I don't want that society that devours one another, hates one another, steals from one another, kill others, lying, all of that thing. Believers that is not for us. Because God has a life for us, and in the life that He has for us is one of meekness, gentleness, peace, long-suffering, love, gentleness, kindness.

16:04 SPEAKER_02: It's that kind of a life. I often say, I don't know, but here in Canada, at least here in New Brunswick, where I live, where we live, and Christmas comes. Haven't you noticed a different spirit when you're around talking to people and in town? And you're thinking, why can't it be like this? Everybody's happy and parties and they go to church, the neighbors all go to church, the little kids do their programs. And I'm thinking, why can't it? It's like we kind of have a taste of Christianity at Christmas.

16:41 SPEAKER_02: And at Easter. Everybody gets religious at Easter. Go for the once-a-year blessing and forgiving of sins. Peter was saying to them, be saved from this perverse generation. Verse 41. So then those who had received his word were baptized, and that day there were added about three thousand souls. Those three thousand souls that got saved, they gladly did it.

Devotion Fellowship Prayer And Awe

17:16 SPEAKER_02: They weren't forced into it. They weren't tricked into it. They gladly did it. That's just the same. When we give our money, our time, our part of our life, our work, our labor, we gladly do it. And when you gladly do it, the blessings are phenomenal that come your way. Not because we have to. No, we gladly do this. It's not a problem. They gladly receive, they were baptized. They get baptized in water is a huge leap of faith. That is something. To be able to say, because we live here or we live, it's in the rural area.

18:05 SPEAKER_02: And if somebody here in the rural area gets saved, they talk about it, which is great. And if they get baptized in water, it sends chills all up and down their relatives and their friends who are not saved. And when you get baptized in water, that is one awesome act that you are taking and doing. And that alone in itself will have a major impact upon your life. By continually, did they stop doing their day jobs? Did they stop working at the market? Did they stop going to school? No. But it meant that in their daily life, they made time.

18:54 SPEAKER_02: And what they did was they devoted themselves to the teachings, whatever the ministers taught. They devoted themselves to that. We said, that's what we're going to walk out. That's what we're going to do. They devoted themselves to that. And I think that word devoted is quite interesting there. Because that tells me that you're serious. You can devote yourself to following the world for eight hours a day. And then you can devote time for yourself several hours a day. But I like that where it says they devoted themselves to the teaching.

19:35 SPEAKER_02: And we should be getting teaching that is balanced. I try to do balanced teaching. And if you stay with me long enough online, you will receive a lot from the balanced teaching. And to fellowship. I cannot say how important Christian fellowship is. If you've got friends, how many of them are devout Christians? And if you don't have too many and you got a lot of unsaved ones, you need to find out what's going on here. Because after a while, you will be comfortable with the ones you spend time with.

20:16 SPEAKER_02: And even you'll even become like them. I think it's fellowship as extremely important. That's why we do fellowship dinners and we talk after the meetings, and the breaking of bread, that is communion, and a prayer. And everybody was in total awe of what was happening. And King James says fear came upon them. He says everyone kept feeling a sense of awe. Like, this is amazing what's happening here. What was happening? Many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. Cripples were walking, blind were seeing.

21:04 SPEAKER_02: The power of God was moving. The gifts of the Spirit, I am confident, were already starting to move. When the Holy Spirit was given in the upper room, then these gifts were there and they were activated. But they didn't know. So Paul came along and taught us and showed us how to move in these gifts. You see, I've just gone over with you here today the basics. Now many of you know these already. I am trying to stir, fill in the spaces that need to be filled in, things that need yet to be taken place.

21:45 SPEAKER_02: You're maybe struggling in some areas. Take a look, see how you fit in to what the pattern is. The pattern has never changed. God doesn't change. Salvation is still the same, still for us today. And to be filled with the Spirit today. I want you to gladly receive the word that I spoke to you.

Do Something About It And Connect

22:08 SPEAKER_02: Do something about it and get in touch with me and let me know what's going on. Amen.

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