GOD’ S PROMISES

‘God’s promises”

God keeps his promises, and he always does. About 8 centuries before Christ, through the mouth of prophet Joel, God declared this: “ I will pour out my spirit upon all people – sons and daughters, men and women. God accomplished his promises the day of Pentecost to his Church. Did God ask people in the upper room at Jerusalem what is their race, their background? Nothing! He just poured out the power of the Holy Spirit upon all. What a generous God that we are serving. God is good all the time for all, and all the time God is good for all.

Today is the Festival of Pentecost. The name comes from the Greek word pentekoste which means fiftieth. Pentecost means 50 days after the Passover. The original Passover was a lamb that Israel had to shed the blood by making a cross on the door. When the Angel of death passes over, he will see the blood and death will not come inside the house.  Pentecost means 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It has the same meaning with the original Passover- Except in this Passover Jesus is the new Lamb who had shed his blood on the cross and those who believe in him will not die spiritually.

Pentecost also means, according to the second reading from the book of Acts, God comes down through the power of the Holy Spirit to be in contact with many nations who had gathered in Jerusalem for this festival. Today this Holy Spirit is also dwelling in us and dwell in us, male and female.

Go is generous to all.

God is so generous, all that we need to do is just to be there. He is not going to ask you where you come from,  what is your back ground, your ethnicity, no, nothing, just be there and open your hearts to receive the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, and he will revive our souls our minds, and show us how to be generous to one another.

We have been very grateful to continue to celebrate this festival Pentecost with multiple languages: English, Spanish, French, Creole and Zulu, South Africa language through the song called “Siyahamba”.

Certainly, it is a blessing to be together this morning. Wow, a variety of local congregations, Christ Church Easton, Christ Church Trumbull, St Mark Bridgeport, and St John’s Bridgeport gather to celebrate the Pentecost Festival. Since 2019 we have not had the chance to celebrate the Day of Pentecost the way we used to, because of the pandemic COVID-19.

This Pandemic was real; it was painful and horrible. Although it is not over, at least we can gather in person with masks and/or without masks.

From the beginning of this pandemic we were asking God  to give the scientists and the researchers enough knowledge to find a way to bring this pandemic to an end. God is so generous, He continues to pour out his Holy Spirit upon all of us. This is a time of relief for each of us.

Good is good all the time, and all the time God is good for all.

Let’s open our hearts to the Spirit of the generous God- Yes, we are serving a generous God who keeps his promise by showing his presence to many nations in the upper room at Jerusalem. He did it in a spectacular way- great wind and fire.

During the pandemic Covid-19, I wore a mask to protect you from me and you wore it to protect me from you with the virus within you. We all get protected and we all win and that is the power of love generated by the Spirit of the living God. With this power of love, you make room for me and I make room for you and be able to gather in this sacred place and form one body in Christ who went into heaven and asking his Father to pour out upon all believers his Spirit of love; and love will make a way out of no way.

In this festival of Pentecost, more than ever, we need the divine presence of God, we need his Spirit to fall afresh on us, to melt us, mold us, fill us and use us.

Generosity is contagious, follow God’s way, we will become more generous person willing to share what means to us with others, with our church without expecting any reward in return.

God has given the most precious gift, his Son Jesus and his Holy Spirit…

In this Festival of Pentecost, let the Spirit of the living God fall afresh on us in all humility we value others above ourselves and at the same time we look to the interests of others. What would our church be like if in all that we do we say it is not about us but it is about the well-being of God’s people and more importantly it is about the glory of God? We would build another upper room in which all people will speak one language, the language of love. Love conquers all, and love can make a way out of no way. The Holy Spirit is dwelling in us because God is love, God is generous, and God is good all the time, and all the time God is good.

My prayer for each of you, my prayer for all Christian churches is this: O lord, build in us the Spirit of generosity and love to make a difference in our family, our community and the world and be living witnesses for Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.