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“Wow! Look at God!”
Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Braxton, Senior Pastor, Metropolitan AME Church
Sunday, May 23, 2010
www.metropolitanamec.org

Scripture Lesson, John 14:8-17, 25-27 and Acts 2: 1-4. 8Philip said, “Master, show us the Father; then we’ll be content.” 9-10″You’ve been with me all this time, Philip, and you still don’t understand? To see me is to see the Father. So how can you ask, ‘Where is the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you aren’t mere words. I don’t just make them up on my own. The Father who resides in me crafts each word into a divine act. 11-14″Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can’t believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I’ll do it. That’s how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I’ll do. The Spirit of Truth1 5-17″If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you! ***25-27″I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught. *** Acts 2: 1-4, A Sound Like a Strong Wind 1-4 When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them. The Message Bible translation

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This is Pentecost Sunday. I was moved by the prospect of the subject “Wow! Look at God!” Have you ever had a moment in your life when God just broke through every obstacle in your way, then delivered even MORE than what you had expected, so you knew it had to be God? Like receiving a diagnosis of inoperable cancer, but when you went back to the doctor, the doctor noticed that the cancer had shrunk and he was being scheduled for surgery.

A “wow” event is an answer to a long-desired prayer. Such as the deliverance of a wayward child; a breakthrough at just the right time; an unexpected blessing you never dreamed of. You know it was nothing but God.

There is a lot of truth to the hymn: “God moves in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.” I declare these “wonders” to be “wow” events.

In the scripture, it’s fifty days since Jesus’ resurrection; the disciples had come together in the place where they had last seen him. They were not expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen. There was a sound like a strong wind, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks. The powerful manifestation of the spirit of God filled the room. Wow! Look at God!!

After the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension into heaven, the final concern of the disciples was, what would happen when Jesus was no longer physically present? John 14 tells us Jesus had already answered this question: “The ones who believe in me will do greater works than these. From now on, whatever you ask in my name – whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing – I will do it.”

1. Don’t ever be afraid to ask God for anything. Seek God first for everything in your life. There is nothing too big or too trivial. When stuff happens, we turn to every other resource. The Bible says seek first God, and all other things will be added unto you. God will step in. When does God answer? How does God answer? Why does God answer? You gotta ask God those questions, but when your request lines up with the perfect will of God for your life, God always answers “Yes!”

2. There ought to be a door in your life that you can open and personally experience God’s touch. God has an uncanny way of opening a door in our lives that we alone have personal access to. That’s a “wow” moment, when God decides to enter. You ought to have a “secret closet” – some refer to it as a “sacred closet” – a private space in your life and your house in which you can sit and meditate and reflect. Sometimes the door opens through a scripture, sometimes through a familiar line of a hymn, causing you to look back on how the Lord brought you from where you used to be.

3. God will show up in those “wow” moments. God has entered into the space where you are. Sometimes there is the miraculous “wow” – the “God blows your mind” wow. The “out of the ordinary” wow.

God can defy all your logic. It’s not always a “big bang”, yet it is still compelling, exhilarating, surprising, shocking, startling. It comes in different forms. Like the sheer joy when you discover that you made an error in your bank account that worked out in your favor. When the doctor’s diagnosis turns out to be not as bad as you thought it was. When you look at the graduation of that child you never thought would get through high school.

When you think about the goodness of God, sometimes all you can say is: Wow!

Related posts:

1. Sermon Notes: When God Is Present
2. Sermon Notes: Living Above Transition and Change
3. Sermon Notes: When Mountains Loom Larger Than Faith
4. Sermon Notes: God Will Show Up in the Rubble Places
5. Sermon Notes: When God Goes to Work in a Life

Tags: Rev. Dr. Ronald E. Braxton, Sermon Notes