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When The Church Leaves The Building

Acts 3:1-9

February 28, 2021 • Dr. Delman Coates

Fifty days after Easter is the celebration of Pentecost in the Christian calendar. This day calls for us to observe and celebrate the miracle recorded in Acts chapter 2 of the Holy Spirit being poured out onto 120 followers of Jesus in the Upper Room, giving birth to the New Testament Church. Pentecost is fundamentally about God empowering the Church through His Spirit to restore what was dead, to revive what wasn’t alive, and to give purpose, meaning and value to people who seemed to have lost it. The point, purpose, and plan for Pentecost was for God to empower a group of Palestinian Jews, who spoke the same language, to speak multiple languages; to empower a group from this one cultural background to be relevant to people of various and different backgrounds. And that’s exactly what this group of 120 people did. They took what happened in the Upper Room and went out to the world below. They didn’t keep their faith to themselves but shared it with everyone they had the chance to speak to. They reached out to those outside of the Upper Room so that they might become part of the family of believers as well.

I Know What I Heard

March 24, 2024 • Dr. Delman Coates • Luke 2:25–35

Simeon was a man who received a promise from God that he would not see death without seeing the birth of the Lord’s Messiah. And it was that promise that moved him to get his life in order. That promise led him to get in the right position, to get to a place of peace, and to develop and maintain the right spiritual and moral posture to see Jesus. Take note of those three things I just mentioned: He had a promise, he gets in position, and he maintains the right posture. He hears God’s voice, he puts himself in an environment where there is peace and not confusion, and he is active in developing himself spiritually and in being a man of integrity. And by getting his life aligned with God, he’s able to see what God wants him to see. The same can happen for you too. If you open your heart and mind to hear God’s voice, if you position yourself in places and with people that produce peace, and if you order your steps to get in line with what God says, then you can see what God wants you to see, go where God wants you to go, be what God wants you to be, and do what God wants you to do. 

Oh I Want To See Him

March 17, 2024 • Dr. Delman Coates • Luke 2:25–28

I am fully confident that God wants each of us to experience the joy that comes from having our hopes realized. God wants us to experience the fulfillment that comes from having our dreams actualized. God wants us to experience the satisfaction of having our ambitions fulfilled and our aspirations achieved, and to express that joy by breaking out in spontaneous praise to God for all He has done. Simeon has that exact experience in today’s key text because his soul’s desire was to see Israel’s Messiah for himself, and it finally happened. He did not know when the Messiah was coming. He did not know how He would appear, and quite frankly he didn’t know exactly where, but his heart’s desire was to see the Messiah for himself. Every step he takes in this text epitomizes what he did and what we all should do if we want to have our dreams fulfilled and our hopes come to pass. 

Wrongly Dividing The Word Of Truth

March 10, 2024 • Dr. Delman Coates • Matthew 24:36–44

As followers of Christ, we have a very important responsibility to uphold the Word of God. Unfortunately, many people fall short in doing this all the time. It is absolutely possible to wrongly divide the word of truth. In today’s message, we’re going to look at the reasons why this happens so that we can be aware of how to avoid this danger ourselves.