2819 Church - ACTS I & II | On This Day | Acts 2:37-41 | Lonnell Williams

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

In continuation of our powerful series, ACTS I & II, Lonnell Williams helps us understand Acts 2:37–41. It reveals what happens when the Word of God penetrates our hearts. Peter preached Christ, and the people were cut to the core. Truth confronted them, exposed them, and demanded a response: “What shall we do?”

Take your seat. My name is Lonnell Dawson Williams. I am the executive pastor here at 2819 Church. It's all good. Appreciate you. It's all good. Listen, I'm grateful for this amazing opportunity as we continue in the series of Acts chapters 1 and chapters 2. I have been given the amazing assignment on this day to continue in that process. But before I do, I want to kind of jump ahead of myself a little bit. And I want to share with you something that has been very near and dear to this house. In fact, at the beginning, at the change of the name to 2819 and the birth of the church, Pastor Philip was inspired and instructed by the Holy Spirit to preach out of the entire book of Matthew.

And how many people were blessed by that entire encounter to walk verse by verse line by line, word by word through the entire book of Matthew? We saw so much take place in the life of this church that it would be, it would be, I think, spiritual malpractice on our behalf not to commemorate what God has done is doing and will do in the life of the church. And so what we decided to do was look back over all of the sermons, every single sermon throughout the three-year period, and put together a book that we want you to be able to take home and keep. and it is the book of Matthew, and it is an amazing coffee table book that you'll be able to get. You can actually purchase it if you want. We're going to pre-order a few for the team,

but I really want you guys to lean into this because it's something as a keepsake. It's a tool of evangelism that when people come in your house and they sit on your on your couch, if you was like me growing up, my grandmama had the couch with the plastic. Did y'all have that? And then the spiders would get in there. The kid, you try to smat in their mind. That wasn't you. All right. In my house, that was. It was weird. But anyways, but it comes sit in your house in your living room that you can go ahead and share

the good news of what God is doing in 2819 church over the last three years. So really excited about that. Let's open up our Bibles if we can. We're going to go back to the book of Acts, Acts chapter two, as we kind of come to the summation of this particular message and series. And I'm excited. I was with Pastor Philip in New York just two days ago, or yesterday, excuse me, as he was finalizing the show.

street preachers tour, which is going to pick back up sometime in the fall. And they were recording, and we were just kind of walking and talking. He said, Lannell, I need you to preach, Doc. I said, all right, sir, I got you. I'm about to get up here and do what we got to do. So I'm excited to continue this message. We're going to go to Acts chapter 2 of verse number 37 through 41. I'm going to read the entire periccary here.

It's only four verses. And we're going to walk through this line by line. And the Bible reads as follows. He says, now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you 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 for your children and for all who are far off. Everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.

And with many other words, he bore witness and continue to exhort them saying, save yourselves this crooked generation. for those who received his words were baptized and they were added that day about 3,000 souls. For the purpose of this message, I am going to call this sermon on this day. On this day. In the Greco-Roman calendar that we follow here in the United States, today has been positioned and defined. as the day of Pentecost in the in the Christian calendar.

This is the day of Pentecost. When I grew up, this is the day you came to church and you're all white from head to toe. And boy, we went for broke on that day. You broke a sweat because that was the day that the Holy Spirit fell on the children there for the festival. And we have already talked about the day of Pentecost in this series. But that does not mean that the Holy Spirit can't still fall. on today. And we find ourselves at this moment where the Jewish community has come to this region for the festivals and to give homage to God. And on that day, you also have the 120 who are there,

who have received the gift of the spirit, who are speaking in native tongues where other groups and ethnicities can hear their language. And they all sit and they begin to mock at that moment the people who were speaking in tongues. So Peter stands up fervently and he begins to preach the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we see here that Pastor Philip has already walked us through this moment. But now we find ourselves at the very end of that sermon. And now that we have found ourselves at the very end of that sermon, we see the first response from the individuals who were in that space.

And the very first thing that they say is this. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. They were stabbed. When we say cut to the heart, that doesn't necessarily mean that they were just pricked by the word. It does not necessarily mean that they felt some sort of unction as if this was a Sunday school message. It doesn't necessarily mean that they were just simply impressed by the message. The Bible says that they were cut to the heart. It means that they were stabbed,

that the word was so piercing that it literally ran through them like a sword. Now, watch us, the same crowd that mocked the spirit at 9 in the morning get stabbed by the same spirit that they mocked. The word itself is cutting. And here's the thing about being stabbed by the word. You do not argue with the blade. You do not intellectualize the wound. You ask the same question that they asked of Peter.

The very same question. What shall we? It's interesting because the same phrase in the Greek is also found in two other places, but specifically, it's found, I believe, in Luke chapter 3, verse 10. And this is where John the Baptist is saying, and he has professed and proclaimed that someone greater than I is coming. And he preaches the gospel. And all of a sudden, they say the same thing. What shall we do? And that's the language of people who just realized that they participated.

in the killing of the Messiah. It was a panic. It was a fretting. It was this complicity of catching up. It's like, it's like, I just realized that this whole time I've been on the wrong side. And now I need to know how to get on the right side. That question is not a question of curiosity.

It is a call for desperation. And the only people who ask that question, with that posture or that position are the people who the word has really cut. You cannot ask what shall we do sitting comfortably. You ask what we shall do on the floor when you come to the revelation of yourself in Christ. Now this is the thing. Peter's sermon does not end with an applause. It does not end with a celebration.

They don't say, great word preacher, you didn't imagine. amazing job. God bless you. They said, what shall we do? Peter did not preach until they liked him. He preached until they saw themselves. The response to the first proclamation post Christ's ascension was not admiration. It was a sermon and a revelation of desperation. That's why at this church, the pinnacles that we stand on are prayer, presence, and proclamation. Well, where do we get that from? Colossians 128. The Bible says, Him we proclaim. Warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. And that is the difference between inspirational preaching and biblical

Proclamation. Inspirational preaching makes you feel better where you are. Biblical proclamation makes it impossible to stay there. Okay. A dull heart can sit under a sharp word and still leave untouched. Watch this. The word didn't lose its edge. You lost your sensitivity. A word would do what a bottle of can't do. A word would do what pornography can't do. Okay, okay, it's 8 o'clock. A word would do with sex can't do. All I need is a word. A word will change a preacher in a heartbeat. It'll change a stripper into a woman of God. It'll change somebody that's been struggling their whole life into a follower of Jesus Christ. The word can change a Muslim into a preacher. The word, The Word contains the seven day of Venice to know that this is the day that we celebrate the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Word can change somebody. Is there anybody in here that's been changed by the Word? You ain't saying nothing to me. Is there anybody in here that says God only knows if it wasn't for the Word, I don't know where I'd be. If it wasn't for the Word, I'd be strung out, drugged out. Hold out. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Oh, that's my testimony. That's that's your, okay. All right. My bad. My bad. My bad. All right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So why doesn't the word cut some of us?

Because the word does not need help being powerful. It needs hearts willing to be pierced. The problem is not that the word stop cutting. The problem is, problem is that we learned how to bleed without changing. Help me, Holy Ghost. We learned how to bring out wounds to worship, but not our will to the altar. We learned how to cry under conviction, but still protect the thing that crucifies us. But Pentecost will not let you call at presence if there is no repentance.

And the same spirit who filled the room is the same spirit that will cut your heart. what shall we do that is the sound of conviction God does not cut you because he hates you God cuts you because the infection that's in you cannot be healed while it is being hidden that's why in Matthew 912 they call him the great physician watch this an infection help me is not just what you did And infection is what it started doing inside of you. It is the sin that lies beneath the surface.

It is the bitterness that sits under that smile. It is the pride that sits under that anointing. It is the lust that sits under the discipline. It is the offense under the discernment. It is the pain that learned how to sound mature without becoming healed. Infection. My God, today I feel you. Infection is what sin between.

comes when it is protected instead of confessed. And the mercy of God is that he loves you too much to let what is killing you stay covered. Has anybody ever been in a season where it feels like God just keeps taking the cover off of your mess? Well, he just keeps revealing all of this stuff. You know, the Bible talks about ending down in the dark, we'll be brought to the light. But my question is, how many of us? Every time the light comes on, we run over and, no, not today. wait wait no no i today but god said i can't hear what you keep turning the lights on so i'm

expose you if i got to expose you to the world i will but i'm coming after you i'm running after you grand needs to say nine and nine and a half just won't do okay that's too old school for y'all i'm sorry all right all right all right a weapon can be used by two different people but the same way A criminal will use a sword to cut and to destroy. A surgeon can use the very same weapon to heal. The word cuts, but it does not cut like an enemy. It cuts like a physician. It opens what is infected so the healing can begin.

And some of us Christians have been using our weapon and walking around like this, hoping and praying that just because I have it means that it's going to work. Just because I walk around with it doesn't mean I'm actually using it. But it is not until I get into thy word. And I hide myself in thee. When I can read the word for myself, that is when change happens. Oh, God, but watch this, watch this, watch this, watch this. Some of us will walk around with a scaffold and refuse to use it.

We post it. we reference it but we don't let it perform surgery on us look at the crowd look at the crowd this is what they say they say they say they ask this question they say what shall we do the same ones who are mocking on Pentecost were the same ones asking to be saved that's why you have to be careful who you write off

because the spirit may be working where your patience has already run out Shata all right they went from mocking to being called brothers. Look at the text. Watch this. It says, brothers, what shall we do? They went from being ancillary, separated, to being encrafted into the family of Christ. Right? One genuine encounter with conviction can do what years of effort could not. And the same spirit who turned the mockers into brothers can turn.

the people in your house into brothers and sisters of Christ. You don't have to write the ending. You just have to keep telling the truth. And listen, someone here, there is a mother who has been convinced that your sons have been lost. There is, there's a father that has been convinced that your nieces and nephews are lost. But can I let you know that I promise you if you keep putting them at the feet of Jesus? If you keep praying over their lives, if you keep casting those demons out of your home, you have been carrying the burden of the outcome like it depends on you. But it has nothing to do with you. It's got to be God who does the cutting.

Look at verse number 38. Look at verse number 38. It says, repent and be baptized. Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now there is this interesting debate within Christianity around, am I baptized in the name of Jesus? Jesus Christ and the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Listen, did you make it? That's, listen.

If I see you there, you good. That's it. That's it. I don't want to get into that theological debate because oftentimes that allows us to go down wormholes. So we begin to debate and argue things that really truly are not up to us. Do you believe in him? Did he die on the cross for your sins? Are you saved and sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost?

is baptism not an external expression of an interim reality? It is telling the world that I am saved and that I am now under a new address that you can't find me where I used to be. I moved. If I was preaching about the resurrection and the moment where Mary and Mother, they ran to the tomb and the angels were there. And they said, where did it go? If I could give you my own translation, the angel of God just simply told him he moved.

He's not where he used to be. You're looking for him where he used to be, but he's gone. Now watch this, watch this, watch this. In the second temple of Judaism, when somebody acted in the terminology in the name of, it meant in Toonomati. Yeah, Google that when you get home. In Toonamati. They were identifying themselves with the person, and they said that they were belonging to them. I belong to him.

I belong to him. Not like a label that I put on my chest. Not like a new instruction that say, I'm his. I'm that person's. No, it's like a, it's like a deed. It's like a deed to a house. See, when you buy a house, the bank owns the deed. But when you have paid off the mortgage, they send the deed to you in the mail. I'm praying that some of y'all pay off your house and that you too get the deed in the mail. I've received that in the name of Jesus. But, but, but, but, but, But when the deed comes, it is a piece of paper that says you now own the thing that you paid for. I'm preaching and you ain't even said nothing. In other words, Jesus, because of the blood that was shed on Calvary, paid for your sins.

And has the deed to your heart. So when you get baptized, you're saying, I belong to him. The deed is with him. And when it's all setting down and he comes together. I'll be right there with him. It is, it is, it is saying that the signing of the deed is satisfaction that the mortgage has been paid. Now watch what he says.

Repentance is where you leave your old life. And baptism is where your old life loses the right to name you. But before Peter gets to the baptism, Peter says one word. he says repent. Repentance is a mind that comes after, not the mind that comes after I got caught. Okay. Eyes tight, but it's right. All right.

The mind that comes after God shows you what you actually did. But remember who Peter is preaching to. These are religious people. They were there for the Jewish festival. festival. So they were familiar with the language. So the word repent means to change the mind. It's, it's, it's almost like like a child, a coming home. It's like, I remember where I live. So I need to, I need to, you turn. I need to, I need to go a different direction than where I'm heading. And see, that is the danger. Modern day Christianity. They didn't argue. They came home. But repentance is not. remorse. Remorse feels bad. Repentance stops. Remorse cries over the consequences, but repentance ends the relationship. A simple way to think about this is as if you are doing a U-turn on 180, right? Repentance says that if I'm going in a certain direction, I have a revelation of what Jesus has done on Calvary. I recognize my sin and I

say, I am going to now make a complete U-turn, and I'm going to do whatever I can to go into the opposite direction. Does that make sense? So this is what I'm realizing, though. This is what I'm realizing this. A U-turn is not pulling over long enough to cry and then merging back into the lane of sin. A U-turn is stopping, turning completely around, and going in the opposite direction. and some of us the turn may not be as smooth the first time. You might have to correct the wheel. You might have to back up. You might have to try again.

Just like, you've got to turn the music down just a little bit, just to make sure you can concentrate. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But the evidence of repentance is not that you made the turn perfectly. The evidence is that you actually turned. Because God is not looking for people who just feel bad on the side of the road. He is calling for people who refuse to keep driving in the wrong direction. And the problem, help me, Holy Ghost, with the church is that we do not repent.

We live with conviction, but we do not change for repentance. Conviction without repentance is feeling the weight of the truth while still negotiating with sin. And the feeling is real. It's going nowhere. It has no destination. It has no prescribed outcome, no forwarding address, no direction. Conviction is the smoke alarm. Repentance is leaving the house while it's on fire. And some of us keep thanking God. The alarm still works while refusing to walk out of a burning house.

You are not delivered because you heard the alarm. You are delivered when you obey the warning. The alarm can wake you up. but it cannot carry you out. Conviction exposes the danger, but repentance moves your feet. Stop celebrating the sound of the conviction while deliberately sang inside of the fire. Yesterday, when I was in New York, I had to take an early flight home to make sure that I was prepared for this morning. And me, foolishly, I got in the bed and I forgot to plug my cell phone up to the charger.

How many people do that all the time? I did. I've done it twice this week for some reason. And when I looked at my phone before I went to sleep, my cell phone was at 90%. So me being lazy, I said, well, it's fine. I'll have enough. As long as my alarm goes off at 6 a.m., I will be okay. Now, normally during the week, I usually get up around 3.34 o'clock in the morning. I just get up, right? And so in my mind, I'm like, even if something happens, I'm still going to get up naturally because the alarm is just going to go off in my head. So when I woke up yesterday morning and I looked out the window, the sun was out.

You know that first moment when you wake up? You're like, man, did I? I'm not tripping. Is that the sun? No, I'm not tripping. I said, no, I must be going crazy. Maybe it's the light from the billboard. So I went back to sleep.

And then I rolled over again. I was like, oh, it must have been a minute because the sun's still out. And when I looked at my phone, my phone was dead. I said, oh, my God. I got a body ticket to go home. I didn't miss my flight. The sun is out. I'm tripping. I mean, I'm tripping big time. So the first thing I do is I don't grab the phone and plug it into the wall. I grab my laptop and I get my laptop on my back. I take the USBC cord. I plug it into my laptop and then I plug it into the phone.

Now watch this. For some reason, I didn't think to just open up my laptop and look at the time. I don't know if I was asleep. I don't know what it was. I didn't and I'm sitting here like, oh my God, I got to call my assistant. I got to get it. I'm going to shower real quick. Let me do what I got to do. And then something said, open up the computer. So I went back open to the computer and I opened up the computer and guess what time it was? 5.59. Now, I was supposed to get up at 6. I opened up my computer. It was 559.

And as soon as I said, thank you Jesus. Beep, boop, the alarm went off. Some of us are operating like the alarm has not gone off in our life yet. The alarm is blaring and you still sleep. God sent me by here to let you know it is time to wake up. Stop playing around with your sin. The alarm is ringing. Jesus is coming back.

And if you don't get right, you will get left. Is there anybody in here says, not me? The devil is a liar. I will be right there. I'm not going to let that alarm go off for me. I'm going to be ready. come hell or hot water you best believe i don't need life to keep life and i'm gonna be all right and this is the problem some of us are not sorry we sinned we are sorry it surfaced

we we are not grieved that we offended god we are grieved that the consequences have found us regret says how do i get out of this but repentance is how do i get back to him See, pain can make you cry, but only repentance can make you come back home. Come home. And here's the thing about conviction and repentance. Conviction without repentance leaves you aware but unchanged. Repentance without conviction becomes behavior modification without surrender. So you can feel one without fully walking in the other, but you cannot have holiness without having both.

And then Peter says, and you will receive. the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, now, now, this is not referring to the gifts of the spiritual gifts, but the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The same spirit that fell on the 120 in the upper room is the same spirit that's going to to be promised to eventually the 3,000 that were congregated, right? So when the Holy Spirit falls, you just got to be ready.

When the indwelling of the Holy Spirit happens, you can't fight it. because the Holy Spirit will do something in you that other things cannot do. Watch this. Look at verse number 13 and then and Peter has something stunning that he says in verse 39. Watch this. For the promises is for you and for your children. And for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls for himself. Watch this. When the Jews were talking to those who are far off in their mind when they heard this,

they were referring to the Gentiles. the people that they thought God had written off already. The outsiders, the unclean, the ones who are not a part of his sanctified tribe. And here is where Peter standing in Jerusalem, 50 days after the resurrection, before any Gentile missions, before the church was even started. In this first few days, he is saying he looks at the Jewish people and he says to them, the promise is for them too. The one you thought God didn't see.

The ones you thought were too far gone. The ones that you wrote off. That means that the gospel does not stop with the people in the room. It reaches the people they forgot. It reaches the people that we judge. It reaches the people that we dismissed. And the people that we never imagine God would include. It reaches your haters.

It reaches to the people on. your job. It reaches to the people in your home. It reaches to the people that you see on the street corner. It reaches to everyone. And that should tell us if you are sitting here today, carrying the shame of feeling like you are far off from God, far off from your purpose, far off from your family, far off from where you thought God was going to take you and who you will become. The promise has your name on it as well. You are not too far from the Spirit. you are not stained too stained for his mercy you are not an afterthought in the plan of god you are the kind of person that this promise was been to reach now watch the rest of the verse

and i'm going to try my best to preach this and not get too happy it says for you and your children see the language echoes genesis 17 verse 7 directly where god tells abraham he says I will be God to you and your off springs after you. So somebody here needs to hear this. The promise is bigger than your bloodline, but it is not smaller than your household. God can reach farther than your family tree, but he still cares enough about what's growing in your house. And this is the critique buried right here in the text. because so many of us have not realized that our salvation has implications on the next generation.

Our children do not inherit what we provide. They inherit what we normalize. What you tolerate in private in your home can become what your children call normal. They inherit our prayers, but they also inherit our patterns. You cannot pray for your children to love a God that they never see you be with. They inherit your church attendance. but they also inherit your private appetites. Children learn their faith from your mouth,

but they learn their values from your habits. I wonder if there's anybody in this room that says, it's not my house, not my babies. The devil is a liar. I'll do whatever it takes. The generational curse will stop with me. Nobody else with my last name is going to go through the hell that I went through.

Disease stops with addiction. Stops with me. Lies stop with me. Welfare checks Stop with me. Sex and eight stops with Is there anybody in here?

We won't pick another weed, another bottle. I refuse to let and keep going. It stops with me. They might inherit your last name, but they will not inherit your chains. They may not, they may inherit your house, but they will not inherit your hidden bondages.

They may inherit your story, but they will not inherit your surrendered sin. Is there anybody in here that says, God, do what you got to do? If you got to cut me, cut me. But don't cut them. do what you ask for me and my house and as a matter of fact I promise you that you got to be grateful that somebody with your last name was a generational chain breaker somebody held on one end for you so that you wouldn't have to have to experience what they experienced and now here you are holding on to the next chain saying we're about to break this thing my grandmama used to sing a song somebody prayed for me, kept me on their mind, took the time to pray for, I'm so glad they, I'm so glad they prayed, I'm so glad they prayed for me. Is there anybody glad they prayed? I'm almost done. Look, look at, look at this. Look at this. Look at this. After the promises,

Peter does something the pastors today are very afraid of doing. Look at the verse. And with many other words, he bore witness. And he continued to exhort them. Save yourselves from this crooked generation. They said, Lord, I'm ready to be saved. And he said, all right, I'm going. You're wrong. With a lot of words, he bore witness.

Peter is doing in verse 40, he is exhorting. He is refusing to soften the language in his sermon. He is willing to keep preaching. past their comfort and their desires and their applause. Now watch this. In the Greek, it is a passive imperative, all right? So I'm giving you all the Greek language, Greek lesson really quickly. It says when Peter says, save yourselves, the Greek word for that is so fete. All right. It is a passive imperative. That means that Peter is commanding them to receive something that only God can do. So the literal phrase is not rescue yourselves.

It is be saved. Be saved by God. Be saved by the Spirit. Be saved by the same word that just cuts you. Because the same word that wounds you in conviction is the word of God he uses to rescue you in salvation. You cannot save yourself. but you can refuse to be saved. You cannot rescue yourself,

but you can keep fighting the rescuer. You cannot raise yourself, but you can refuse to come out of the grave when mercy calls your name. So when Peter says, save yourself, he is not putting salvation into their hands. He's putting the responsibility into their lap.

So it's not self-help. It's a separation command. Peter is not saying, fix yourself. He is saying, come out of what has been killing you. Come out of that thinking. Come out of that systems. Come out of that process. Come out of that rebellion.

Come out of that sim. It says, come out of the crookedness that made you religious enough to attend Pentecost, but blind enough to crucify God. And this is why that phrase matter. Peter says, be saved from the crooked generation. In other words, what does that mean? Religious people. Now, this is heavy because Peter, he's not preaching this in Rome.

He's not standing in a pagan temple. He's not talking. He's talking to people who actually have read the Torah. They understood the covenants. They understood the sacrifice. They understood the power of sin. They even understood worship. They understood the language.

They had religious history. They were there for the festival. They were there to have church. But just because your present doesn't mean you're not going to hill. They were in the right city at the right time, the right feast with the right language, and they still needed to be saved. You can be at the festival and still miss the father. And he says, a crooked generation, a crooked generation is dangerous because it does not really understand how to manage it.

It bends the ruler you use to measure behavior. And after a while, when the ruler is crooked, everything crooked starts to look straight. If I walk around like this all day long, eventually, this is going to look straight and this is going to look wrong. You can be saved from the world and still be disciplined by its measurements. In an American church, it has produced common section prophets and keyboard apostles and thread theologians. I'm going to just read this so I don't say that in crazy. People with a public pulpit, but no private altar.

It lets people critique the church publicly while avoiding repentance privately. It rewards heat more than holiness and speed more than wisdom and reactions more than revelation. It is somehow Bible fingers have turned into TikTok fingers. And the very same hands that used to highlight scriptures now throw stones in comment sections. See, a platform with altered altar will eventually make you opinions seem like their prophecies. Y'all get that when you get home. A church does not need louder opinions from unsubmitted hearts.

And some of you guys don't need bigger microphones. Some of you need deeper altars. And because this is an equal opportunity church, I'm not just going to talk about the people who talk about the church. I'm going to talk about the church too. There was a critique of the believer against the church, and I'm going to start that critique with pastors. I'm going to speak directly to you, and I hope you hear me. What has the church become? It has become a place for self-help groups and fashion shows.

Every Sunday you got on a brand new outfit. $1,000 plus, but can't preach nobody in the heaven. It has become a position of self-promotion. It has become a concert with a spring. Preakal of Jesus and people and pastors are afraid to preach repentance, afraid to preach hell, afraid to preach Jesus is coming back because you are more concerned with butts in your seat and money in your pocket than salvation. Help me, Holy Ghost. So you water down the gospel and you turn church into therapy sessions. You read one scripture and then you give them this pericope of all.

the things you know. But you don't crack open that word. And you don't tell people that you will go to hell if you don't get right. You don't tell people that Jesus will return. You don't say Maranatha. Lord, come. Because you know that if he came, well, let me not say that. You have people more in love with the color of their skin than the Jesus that they serve.

I'm going to get in trouble for this. Now, I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to give me. I'm going to say this. I'm going to say it. I'm going to say it kindly. My wife looking at me, Lonell. I see. I see. I'm going to be careful. See, when I was in Princeton, one of my focuses was on the African American church history. Right? I went in initially to get a Ph.D. in African American church history. That was my intent. My goal was to write a dissertation on the power of the heart. Harlem Renaissance and it's impact on the black church. That was my focus. So I'm well, well versed in the black church experience. Very well versed. I understand the power and the significance of the black church, right?

But there are also so many different types of churches, right? There's so many different types of groups and ethnicities, right? So there is no black side of heaven. There is no white side of heaven. There is no Mexican or Latin side of heaven. There is no Asian side of heaven. It's called heaven. We're all of God's children.

white, black, Asian, Latin American, Polynesian, Vietnamese, Konizua, Watasiwa Lanel Sandes. I don't know how you say Jesus in Japanese, but when I hear it, I'm going to run. Jesus de Christo. That's why we do our, that's why we do sermons in different languages, because it is until all have heard. Not just until my people here or your people here or your people here. It is until all have heard.

So you can hate on this church if you want to. Now, I'm a pray that you make it there. But if I don't see you, I will not be surprised. We may not be able to put this one up. I don't know. I don't think they're going to put this one up. All right. All right.

If all preachers and pastors are doing is helping you live a better. life, get rich and love your race more than you love Jesus, they are bringing you closer to a thing that is not repentance and not Jesus. They are not communicators. They are life coaches with a sound system. If we do not return back to our first love rather than chasing after our own loves, we will build a church that looks nothing like Jesus. Some preachers have been so consumed with building that they forgot how to bow. You got to bow before you build and not build before you bow. Preachers have forgotten how to pray, how to go inside your prayer closet. Is there anybody in here that says, oh, oh, we got some hell going on? I'll be right back. Let me go inside my prayer closet.

Oh, you're acting a nut? Oh, hold on. Let me go inside my prayer closet. I will sit at the feet of Jesus and say, Lord, I don't know what to do. But, Lord, I don't know what to do. But, Lord, knows I trust you. Oh, it knows I trust you. Look at the last verse. Next first, next verse. So those who received his words were baptized. They were added that day about 3,000.

Now this is what's interesting. I saw this yesterday. Look at the text. It says, so those who received his words were baptized. It didn't say everybody received it. Not everybody got it. There were people that heard the words. word and still walked away unchanged. That means some heard the same sermon, felt the same conviction,

stood under the same truth, and still walked away unchanged. The difference was not the word. The difference was their response. The word did not become powerful when they received it. The word was already powerful. Reception was the moment they stopped resisting what they already knew was true. The word has been received, has not been received until it can enter into the rooms inside of you that used to be locked. And the miracle found in Acts 2 is not just the 3,000 came in. It is that 3,000 received the word that accused them. And the proof that you've received the word is not that you heard it. It's that you obeyed it. Some people hear the word and say, good sermon. Ooh, that was good. I'm going to write that down. I'm about to tweet that right there.

You only, you have not truly received the word until the word receives permission to change you. The word is not received when it enters into your ears. It is received when it wins the will of your heart. And if the word never changes your direction, you may have heard it, but you did not receive it. Now look what the text says. The Bible says that the church grew by 3,000. So that means, thank you, thank you, Dee. I'd rather me kneel right there. Wow. I love it. I keep it coming, man. Church grew by 3,000. That means they went from 120 to 3,120. Imagine if you will, after this gathering, we open up the doors and everybody goes outside and there are 10,000 people outside. Imagine. And they say, what shall we do?

I want to be saved. And everybody here looking like, Lord, I don't know where are we going to fit these people. But that's literally what happened. He preached. And they looked up and 3,000 were added to the church. One sermon. 3,000 added. Now, they didn't have a system or a process.

They didn't have a church office. They didn't have growth tracks. They didn't have productions. They didn't have a worship team. They literally had one sermon and boom, the church grew. And then you complain because your email wasn't responded to. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You got to give us grace. Grace. Because the goal of Peter was not to grow a large church. The goal was to be faithful to the word. And the consequence of that, what's growth. Now, we as a church, our intention is not to grow. Now, there are some churches who attempt to fabricate the experience so that they can grow. Some people will, in some churches

will intentionally do things so that you can come and they can attract you to be a part of it. So that's why they keep putting on events every single week. Because they're trying to get as many people into the room. And as long as I can get you into the room and I can get you hooked, you'd rather have the event than you rather have the word. So I got to keep coming and keep giving and keep doing and keep doing. And then eventually you say, well, when's the next thing? So you'd be more ready for the next event than you are for the next sermon. A system can carry the harvest, but only God can actually create it. 3,000 people overnight. One sermon. The church grew. Here they are. On this day, on this moment, in this hour,

they were given one message to get right. One message to get right. One message to receive truth. One message to connect conviction and repentance. One message to say, Lord, what shall we do? Shall we do? And maybe God brought you in here on this Pentecost Sunday. Not so that you could give a good word or a Sunday school lesson.

but maybe he brought you in here so that you can hear the gospel truth to hear that repentance is necessary and that God wants you to make a U-turn and not parallel part that God wants you to turn around and not look back to come home to capture your heart

return back to your first love in New York we had a powerful experience we were sitting down we were preparing for the next, I don't want to tell you what we don't do, but we were preparing for something massive, something world-changing, world-changing. And as we're sitting there, the Holy Spirit fell in this room, and everyone was crying and weeping, and Mr. Philip gave us a mandate. He gave us a focus, and he said, going forward, I don't care what happens. Our job is to tell the world. Jesus is coming back.

war cry. But we are called, this church was called to tell the world, hit right. No man knows the day nor the hour, but he is coming. And if you don't believe that, I don't know what to tell you. So maybe you walked in here assuming that you have more time. I promise you as good as I'm standing here, you do not. The alarm clock, is going off. God is trying to get your attention to say, wake up on this day, your life can change. On this day, you say, I will follow you. Where you go, I go, on this day, I will give you my heart. On this day, I'll put away sin, on this day, turn from darkness into the marvelous light on this day. if I'm talking to you

we don't need a lot of hoopla we don't we don't need all that I'm not here to give you all that I'm gonna give you just one opportunity to say you know what I'm not playing this game no more I've been running for too long I've been playing for too long I've been in sin for too long I've been acting a fool for too long I will not allow this to go forward the sin stops with me the generational curse

generational curse stops with me the opportunity for failure stops with me I will be the armor bearer in my home and I will protect my family from the sin of death. I will be the example. I will no longer be a slave to sin. If I'm talking to you, raise your hand right now, right now all over this building. Hallelujah. Raise your hand.

High, raise your hand. Don't be afraid. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. On this day, on Pentecost Sunday, your life will change. you can put your hands down. I ask you of this, of this only, if you believe that he is coming to your life. There's no such thing as a sinner's prayer. That's not the case. That's not real. Jesus was talking to Nicodemus when he gave John 316. I'm telling you that what you need to do is keep coming back.

Believe in your heart, confess with your mouth, and keep coming back. And over time, discipleship will happen. Go to growth track. Get inside of a squad. Serve in ministry. Get plugged in. And over time, your life will change. And you know the best way to do that? Because you have now verbally and internally said, my life will change. I believe that God is going to do it. That I am saved on this day.