Live Pentecost Praise from Brighton

Hi, and welcome to Brighton, my home town on this very special day

Pentecost Sunday. Brighton is a beautiful, vibrant, cosmopolitan

city with something for everyone, from the Pavilion, the peer and

bebled beaches to the quirky shops of North Laine. For three weeks in

May, the city streets come alive with creativity for the Brighton

Festival, England's largest arts festival, which draws to a close

today. I'm a member of Church of Christ the King with a founding

church for New Frontiers, a family of church that's started right here

in Brighton in 1978. We now have over 800 churches worldwide. Here

in brighten we have a congregation of over a thousand people across

three different sites in the city w. Over 200 children, even they have

their own church. So join us for Hello, huge welcome to Church of

Christ the King, especially if you're watching at home. Today is

Pentecost Sunday. We're going to celebrate the birth of church and

the ban John Smith's. We're going to sing some songs. The words glrb

and the man Jesus Christ. We're going to sing some songs. The words

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will be on the screen, join us. APPLAUSE

Let's take our seats. It is so good to see you here at Church of Christ

the King, especially if you're a new comer. My name's Joel. I'm one

of the leaders here. 2,000 years ago, the disciples of Jesus Christ

were gathered in Jerusalem after his -- after his death and

resurrection, awaiting the coming of the promised Holy Spirit. Here

on Pentecost Sunday, we're celebrating not the fact that

Sweden won the Eurovision, but the fact that the Holy Spirit has come,

sent from God, to empower his people to take the great message of

Jesus Christ all around the world. The church was born on that day and

here, in Brighton at Church of Christ the King, we're still living

by, teaching that same message of Jesus Christ. The way we're going

to celebrate today is we're singing songs of woreship and praise to God.

Later on, I'll bring teaching from the Bible. We'll celebrate

communion together, but we're also going to have a couple of stories

of people who are in this church, telling us a bit about how Jesus

has made such a dramatic difference in their lives. I'm going to

introduce you now to the first of them. This is from my friend, Ruth

Preston. Let's watch it together. I grew up in a Christian family. It

was a lovely childhood. I couldn't have asked for better. I was filled

with the Holy Spirit which was the most amazing experience, but when I

was about 16 years old, I started feeling very negative about the way

I looked. As a young girl, I think lots of girls feel like that. I

felt that I wasn't experiencing the world around me. I wasn't

experiencing the things that both my Christian friends and non-

Christian friends were experiencing. When I was 19, I left the church. I

wanted something from life. I wanted that relationship. I wanted

to feel like I was worth something, but I wasn't getting that from

church any more. I wanted to experience and that meant going out

drinking with my friends, doing drugs as well. During that time, I

felt empty, but I wasn't empty because I was constantly filling

myself with the next thing I was doing, the next thing I was trying.

All this time I really totally ignored God, because from my

experience, he hadn't fulfilled me in the way that I'd wanted and so,

I was trying to fill that up myself. I remember I'd been at a festival

and I'd be up like all weekend. I had been drinking a lot, doing a

lot of drugs. I felt that I'd gone too far. I felt like my mind had

actually, I felt a bit unbalanced in my mind. My dad picked me up and

was driving me back to Brighton. I just broke down crying and I said

"Dad, I really want to come back to God. This lifestyle isn't doing

what I wanted. It does do it in the moment, but it doesn't last." It

started ruining me. I decided to come back to church. It was this

longing in my heart. I really felt like I needed God. I thought,

actually, these things aren't working. I remember knowing God

when I was younger, that's what I want from my life. I don't want

this superficiality. I never regret coming back to the Lord. I feel so

much better now knowing that actually my life has purpose,

because I have a relationship with the Lord. I can built on that

relationship. There's things he wants me to do that's so much

better than drinking or doing drugs, which seem so ridiculous to me now.

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Would you like to take your seats? The story of Pentecost is described

in the Acts of the Apostles. I'll be reading from chapter two this

morning. On the day of Pentecost all the

believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a

sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it

filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like

flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And

everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking

in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. At

that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in

Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and

they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the

believers. They were completely amazed. "How can this be?" they

exclaimed. "These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them

speaking in our own native languages! Here we are - Parthians,

Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia,

Pontus, the province of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the

areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and

converts to Judaism, Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people

speaking in our own languages about That was the story of Pentecost.

Ever since 2000 years ago, the Holy spirit has been pouring himself out.

That passage talks about the Holy spirit as a rushing wind. Another

metaphor is that of rain on dry land. We will sing a song which is

a prayer to ask God to send the reign of his Holy spirit to our

thirsty souls, to flood our lives and this church. Let's sing this

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Please take your seats. We pick up the story of Pentecost

again back in Acts chapter two. Then Peter stepped forward with the

11 other apostles and shouted to the crowd, "People of Israel,

listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful

miracles, wonders, and signs through him, as you well know. But

God knew what would happen, and his prearranged plan was carried out

when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you

nailed him to a cross and killed him. But God released him from the

horrors of death and raised him back to life, for death could not

keep him in its grip. "God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all

witnesses of this. Now he is exalted to the place of highest

honor in heaven, at God's right hand. And the Father, as he had

promised, gave him the Holy Spirit to pour out upon us, just as you

see and hear today. "So let everyone in Israel know for certain

that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and

Messiah!" Peter's words pierced their hearts, and they said to him

and to the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?"

Peter replied, "Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God,

and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of

your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This

promise is to you, and to your children, and even to the Gentiles

- all who have been called by the Lord our God." Then Peter continued

preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, "Save

yourselves from this crooked generation!" Those who believed

what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day -

You'd be forgiven for asking, how is this relevant to any? Pentecost

happened 2000 years ago, what does the Holy spirit have to do with me

in the 21st century? I want to try my best to explain this, but I

think I will start by showing you another story from a friend of mine

whose experience of the Holy spirit has helped him to understand the

love of God. I would like you to watch this testimony from a friend

I've lived in Brighton all my life and I work for a bank. I have

worked in a training consultancy firm for three years. I've filled

my life with so many other things, if the tie was left with a deep

sense that something was missing, something was not quite right.

After a broken relationship, my life seemed to spiral a bit out of

control. I could not find where to go for what to do. It was almost

like I was really lost. I can remember, I was in a nightclub with

a whole load of friends and yet still felt a deep sense of

isolation, like I was on my own. I thought, I'm going to give prayer a

chance. None of my family were Christians, none of my friends were

Christians, I did not know any Christians. My only connection with

Christianity was the film of Jesus of Nazareth with Robert Powell. I

didn't know if I was praying to Robert Powell in this nightclub or

if I was praying to Jesus! I just made a simple prayer, Jesus help me,

I think I need you. My prayer got answered. Someone at the Bank

invited me to CCK in Brighton and I was amazed by the people's warmth

and friendliness and openness. Their faith in Jesus seemed to make

a real difference in their lives, how they lived their lives, how

they worked it through. They seemed to have something I didn't have and

I wanted to investigate more. I can remember praying a very simple

prayer this time, which was a prayer to receive Jesus, to receive

forgiveness and to make a new life. My future wife became a Christian,

we got together, and within a year we got married. We have had five

incredible children. Whereas I used to find meaning and significance in

relationships and my career, I found it in Jesus. Jesus has filled

this deep thirst and emptiness that I've heard Phil tell that story

many times. I still find it a moving example of God working in

somebody's life. Let me talk about love. It's at the heart of what it

means to be human. Decade after decade, we sing about love, we make

movies about love, write books about love, write poems about love.

It's at the heart of human experience, yet you have to ask the

question: What is the meaning of it? How do we explain its

existence? In a world without God, love is really just a random

accident. Love in a world without God, where there's no meaning or in

the words of the great -- great atheist Richard Dawkins, there's no

design, no purpose, no evil, no good, just blind, pittiless

indifference. In such a world love has to be reduced just to chemical

imbalances. The biochemists are good at explaining what's going on,

our Seratonin levels are out of whack. Dopamin, adrenaline levels,

it's like going temporarily insane when we do what we call "falling in

love". Some breakthrough scientists are getting into the idea that

pheromones play a role. Those are the chemicals that spread aroma

that our subconscious picks up. It might remind us of what our parents

smell like. You don't have to hold hands that the point. I'm not

saying the science is wrong, I'm saying I don't think that sells a

lot of Valentine's cards. I know when my wife asked me if I love her,

I didn't say "Well, you've certainly activated my Seratonin

levels". That's had an effect on my consciousness and you may

interested and encouraged to hear thaw smell like my mum. Last Shadow

I wouldn't have got anywhere that way. I'm talked about romantic love,

what about the more serious kinds of love, the self-giving,

sacrificial, heroic love that we need to take very seriously. Love

is very hard to explain from a Godless angle. But the Bible gives

an expansion, when it says "God is love" in 1 John chapter four.

That's a wonderful thought the requested that God is love.

Everyone would like a God of love. That's precious to us. But think

about it, it doesn't make sure, -- Sheffield Wednesday surely. How

You can't do love, marriage, without more than one person.

Here's the extraordinary thing about the Christian God, he is

actually Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, three persons,

three persons working together, loving one another, being a

friendship, fellowship, a community, before we even came along, God was

love and God is love. The Bible tells us the story of how this God

has worked through history together, conspiring to bring people like you

and me into this wonderful circle of love. The way he's done it is

astonishing and glorious. The Father originating the plan, the

Son, becoming a man and suffering and dying for the plan to bring us

back to God and the Holy Spirit, who comes to make the love of God

real in our lives. Real, so we can feel it. Becki's going to lead us

in a song now, which talks about the reality of God's love, known

through Jesus and the Holy Spirit in our lives.

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# Christ in me, my hope and my glory, my heart surrendered in

woreship to my God and king # Jesus, you're the holy promise

# Poured your blood out for us # Rose again

# And all my sins are now forgiven and my life is hidden

# Saved through Jesus Christ # Jesus, when I stand in glory,

I'll be finding you # Christ in me, my hope and my

glory # My certainty

# My heart surrender to your mercy, to my God and king

# My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' love and roichousness

# Christ in me my hope and my glory, my certainty

# My heart surrendered in woreship # My hope is built on nothing less

than Jesus' love and roichousness - - righteousness. #

Let's take our seats again. Becki was singing to us and I was talking

about how God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit are all

involved working together to bring this love of God to us and Jesus

talked a bit about this in John chapter 16, when he told his

disciples at the point at which he was departing from them, well I'll

read it, "In fact, it's best for you that I go away. Because if I

don't, the helper won't come. If I do go away, then I will send him to

you." He's talking about the Holy Spirit. Listen, if you were one of

those disciples at that time, you would have been shocked by what he

was saying, because these were people who had given up everything

to follow Jesus. They'd given up their careers, they'd said goodbye

to loved ones to be with Jesus. For years, they followed him. They

learned to love him and accept his teaching as the basis of their

lives. Suddenly, he's turning round to them and saying "Bye, from now

on I'm not going to be with you and it's better if I go." Which sounds

almost kolous. Imagine if your husband, -- callous, imagine if

your husband or wife said that to you. Imagine if a colleague turns

and says, it's best if I leave. You'd want to say, how is that best

for me? Jesus is saying to them, when the Holy Spirit comes to you,

it will be as though I'm here, as though I've never left. He will

take the things you love about me and make them known to you,

wherever you go. You'll take with you the presence of God. Now the

thing is, Jesus wasn't just saying that to those men in that room. He

was really offering it to the whole world. Earlier on in John's Gospel,

chapter seven, Jesus stood up in a public place and spoke out to the

crowds around him. "On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus

stood and shouted to the crowds." He didn't say this in a cathedral,

synagogue or temple. "Anyone who is thirsty may come to me. Anyone who

believes in me may come and drink, for the Scriptures declare rivers

of living water will flow from his heart. "These words were spoken to

the world. These words are spoken even to you. They should be heard

in the shopping Malz and town centres and through the media

outlets and in the concert halls and the football stadiums. They

should be heard around the world, because they're beckoning the world

to come and find their thirst quench in Jesus. Whoever you are,

whether you feem worthy or unworthy, whether -- feel worthy or unworthy,

whether you're rich, poor, black, white, young old, old. Whether

you've got all kinds of experience or whether you feel completely

innocent and naive about the world, Jesus asked the world to come and

drink. He says bring your thirst to me. Do you know what it is to feel

really thirsty? When I was a kid I used to play indoor football and

after I would spend ages at the cold tap. I had a friend who went

to a bottle that he thought was water, but it was mixed with bleach.

He had to have his stomach pumped. Right thirst, wrong drink. The

Bible never actually chields -- chides us for our thirst. It

doesn't say it's wrong to have desire for fulfilment and

satisfaction. That's the way God made you. This may a surprise to

you but you have no idea how happy God wants you to be. Maybe you've

never thought of it like that. Perhaps you've had an experience of

religion. Maybe you grew up going to Sunday school or something in

your early days which switched you away from Christianity. I would

call it like being vaccinated. So many people have been vaccinated

against Jesus. You get given a toothless version of a disease so

your immune system is alerted and armed against the real thing when

it comes to you. So many who've had some experience of religion, they

see Jesus coming and fend him off. Not realising he's the one able and

uniquely qualified to offer you the living water you so crave. All of

us will find ourselves thirsty and Jesus talked about this with a lady

in an early stage in John's Gospel. He said to her, verse 11, "Anyone

who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. Those who

drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a

fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving eternal life." That

expression that maroon sailors use, water, water everywhere, not a drop

to drink. Life can be like that, you can find yourself looking for

thing that's look like they'll satisfy, but they're not fresh

water. They're salt water. They make you more thirsty. We know a

lot about salt water. It's corrosive. In the previous days car

dealers used to say they knew which cars came from Brighton, because

the salt would cause rust. This was before the modern car paints, but

down at the seafront, the reedgeencey buildings that look so

elgant, have to be paintsed with special paint to stop the corrosion.

Maybe we all know what it is to whitewash our souls, our dry,

craggy, cracked souls., with relationships, sexual experience,

like this woman that Jesus met, like people who look for drug

experiences, look for financial success, who look tone hapbs their

career, as a way of -- to enhance their career, as a way of trying to

replenish their thirsty souls. But you're still thirsty. These may be

gifts from God but they're not God. And Jesus is uniquely able to give

you this life, this living water from the Holy Spirit. We're talking

not about theory. I'm trying to give you stories and Phil is giving

stories and Ruth earlier gave her story of real change, real

experience of the love of God, not simply nice ideas. One of the

disciples of Jesus, who actually wrote the part of the Bible I've

been reading from, John's Gospel, was there when Jesus was cuetified.

One of the things he records -- crucified, one of the things he

records Jesus saying from the cross are the words "I'm thirsty". That

may seem a strange thing to record. But it's profound. Because Jesus

never really was thirsty in the way I'm talking about. He'd only ever

known perfect Frenchship with his father, God. -- friendship with his

father God. He never caused himself the grief and sorrow that you and I

have caused ourselves by turning away from God. Jesus has only ever

known a deep bond of friendship and joy, love, eternal love with the

Father. Listen on the cross, he changed places with us. So he

became stricken. He became cursed. He became dry. He became cracked.

He became thirsty. As he carried all of our shame, guilt, all of our

greed and selfishness and lust and wickedness, all the stuff that

makes us unhappy and even the people around us unhappy. Jesus

took it upon himself and voluntarily became thirsty upon the

cross, so that we could come and be refreshed. Do you hear what I'm

saying to you today? The Son Of God has opened up a river for the

nations of the world to come and drink freely of the mercy, the

forgiveness and the eternal joy The last words of the Bible, the

very last words, can be found in revelation 22. Let me read you a

verse from it. Let anyone who he is this a calm, let anyone who is

thirsty come, let anyone who desires, drink freely. Come freely,

drink from the water of life. This is God's offer to us. We are going

to take communion right now and Jesus said in Luke's gospel to "do

this in remembrance of me"' - so as you come forward to take the bread

and wine, let's remember Jesus on the cross, and all he's done for us.

While we're doing this, we're going to sing a song that speaks about

this big, open invitation to all humankind, to come let your thirsty

souls be satisfied in Jesus. So come forward and take the bread and

# Come on, you vagabonds, there are winners and losers. For # Come on,

you travellers, tired from the # Off come on, you questioners,

looking for answers and searching for reasons off and sense in it all.

# Come on you for them and come on you Brogan, strengthen your body

and drink for your soul. # At the wonder of love and the

power of grace. # Come those who worry about houses

and money. # From every station and

orientation, the helpless, the hopeless, the young and the old.

# Come at the feast, there's room at the table.

# With thinking of all kindness who welcomes us in with the wonder of

love and the power of grace. # At the wonder of love and the

#, all believers and dreamers and if come on you wrestlers just

#, all of those at the end of the road.

# You fiery debaters and religion haters, accusers and abusers, the

hurt and ignored. # Come to the feast, there's room

at the table. # With the king of or kindness who

welcomes us in with the wonder of love and the power of grace.

# The wonder of love and the power of grace.

# The wonder of love and the power You may say, how do I find this

living water of the Holy Spirit for my soul? Turn to Jesus in your own

heart today and choose his love over all the other things in your

life. Trust him, give your life over to him, put your faith in him

today and become his disciple. To cleanse you, to renew and to

refresh you with the wonder of his Holy spirit. Become his disciple.

You will find that even though it is a huge step to turn to Jesus

Christ, you will kind of which she may be years ago because of the

difference he makes. I will pray a prayer and I am going to read it

out. It is very simple, but it may be that you are thinking, I need to

put my trust in Jesus Christ, how can I do that? Why did you pray

this prayer with me. You don't have to say it out loud. Just let these

words be your words, as I read them out. Father, thank you for the love

you have for me in spite of what I deserve. Thank you for your son who

took the blame and the shame for all my selfishness, greed and

hostility to you, and for the fact that I had chosen other things

instead of you, and thank you for the Holy Spirit who makes your love

real in my life. I realise that I am broken and lost without you and

I confess that I need you today, to forgive me, to renew me with the