Every year, since 1967, they’ve played the Super Bowl. In January of 2003, Super Bowl XXXVII was played between the Oakland Raiders and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. However, the real winner of Super Bowl XXXVII wasn’t Tampa Bay. Rather, it was FedEx…at least according to most post-game surveys on what was the best ad—which is the real contest of every Super Bowl! FedEx—the overnight delivery company—topped most of the surveys with their ad that was a spoof of the movie, Castaway. Do you remember it? You might recall, first of all, the movie starring Tom Hanks as a FedEx supervisor who survives a crash in the ocean, manages to work his way to a small, deserted island and lives on the island for several years before being miraculously found and returned home. One of the storylines in the movie involves some of the packages onboard the FedEx flight get washed ashore to the same island. Hanks dutifully gathers them up and makes use of some of them—the blades of ice skates, for example. You’ll recall "Wilson" the volleyball. Eventually, at the end of the movie, he delivers the packages—particularly one to an artist in the panhandle of Texas. Now, in the FedEx commercial, a person who looks like the bearded, long-haired, bedraggled Hanks’ character walks up to a house. He is carrying in his hands a battered, but still intact FedEx package. A woman answers the door and the disheveled FedEx employee hands her the package, explaining that he survived five years on a desert island and kept her package all that time in order to deliver it to her. The woman, somewhat stunned with all of this, takes the package and says, "That’s very admirable. Thank you." As she starts to shut her door, the man’s curiosity gets the best of him and he asks, "By the way, what’s in the package?" The woman opens the package and, showing him the contents, says, "Nothing really, just a satellite phone, GPS locator, fishing rod, water purifier, and some seeds. Just silly stuff." She shuts the door, leaving the man standing there, the stunned look now on his face.

On this Pentecost Sunday, we celebrate the beginning of the Christian Church through the unleashing of the Holy Spirit’s power upon a small group of disciples. By day’s end, about 3,000 newly baptized believers have joined the group. The remainder of the book of Acts continues the story of the growth of the Church through the power of the Holy Spirit in the followers of Jesus Christ.

Unfortunately, the landscape for much of the Church today, when it comes to the Holy Spirit, looks much like that FedEx package in the commercial—tremendous resources available, but left unopened, or untapped.

Nicky Gumbel, the founder of the Alpha program, in his teaching in the Alpha course on the Holy Spirit describes the situation as a furnace with the pilot light on. Every Christian has the Holy Spirit present and available to them. For many, however, the Spirit’s presence is like the pilot light—on, but not producing the full flame of power. Pentecost is the story of the furnace blasting away at full force. And it forever changed, and continues to change, the Church today—that is, wherever the Spirit is sought and received today. The goal is that there would be tongues of fire for everybody—that the power of Pentecost would be present in every Christian and every Christian Church today. Toward that goal, let’s understand some Pentecostal truths for us today.

To begin with, as I alluded to earlier, the Holy Spirit is present in every Christian. There is no separate experience of faith in Christ and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In fact, one cannot even come to Christ without the Holy Spirit. Early in his first letter to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul writes of the gospel message he proclaimed to the Corinthians. "God has revealed [the gift of Christ] to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹For who knows a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit within? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹²We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. ¹⁴The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them, because they are discerned only through the Spirit," (I Corinthians 2:10-14). The process of hearing, contemplating and accepting the truth of the gospel is possible only through the Holy Spirit. Anyone who has come to Christ, has done so through the work of the Holy Spirit in them. The Spirit is present with them and available to them from the very beginning. The precedent was set at that very first Pentecost. Our Scripture passage for today says of that event, "They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit," (Acts 2:3, 4a). Later, in this same chapter, Peter speaks of this event to those who have gathered, calling it the fulfillment of the words of the prophet Joel who said, "God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people." And Joel goes on to say that sons and daughters, both women and men, the young and the old would be the recipients of this outpouring of God’s Spirit. Each of us, every believer in Christ Jesus has available to him or her this outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

How then might we access this available presence, this outpouring of the Holy Spirit? An essential element is prayer. THE essential element is prayer. If we are not a people of prayer, if we are not a church of prayer, we are like a furnace with only the pilot light on. We are like a deserted FedEx employee with tremendous resources on hand, but left unopened.

Stanley Ott is the author of a small booklet entitled Vision for a Vital Church. In it, he lists seven signs that must be present in a church if it is to be a vital church, making a difference in the world for Jesus Christ. First and foremost among those signs is "Spirit-driven." And Ott adds that the essential ingredient for a church to be "Spirit-driven" is prayer. It is, he writes, "the non-negotiable requirement" for a vital church—words that we include every Sunday in our bulletin announcements. Don’t overlook those words. It is the essential starting point, the non-negotiable requirement for every Christian and for every church in order to be a Christian, or a church, that is infused with the Spirit’s power.

E.M. Bounds, the author of Power through Prayer, writes these words: "What the church needs today is not more machinery or better [machinery], not new organizations or more and novel methods, but [people] whom the Holy Spirit can use—people of prayer, mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through people. [The Holy Spirit] does not come on machinery, but on [people]. [The Holy Spirit] does not anoint plans, but [people]—[people] of prayer." To be a Christian, or a church, that is making use of all the resources available to us through the Holy Spirit, we must be a people of prayer.

Or, take Michael Foss and his book, Power Surge, a book that our Session has read and discussed. Of his "Six Marks of a Disciple," the first is "pray daily," and it is no accident that it is listed first. The staff and the officers of the church have signed a commitment sheet, pledging their diligent efforts to practice the six marks of a disciple. We’ve preached on the six marks of discipleship, and asked you also to diligently practice them, the first of which is "pray daily." For, in order to be a Christian, or a church, infused with the power of the Holy Spirit, we must be a people of prayer.

You’re probably saying by now, "Ok! Ok, Ron, I get the point! Prayer is important." But, do we really get the point? Do we get it here? (Pointing to head) Or, do we also get it here? (Pointing to heart) Do we get it to the point that we are moved to do something about it?

I am burdened in my heart on this Pentecost Sunday that we would be a people of prayer. I originally thought the sermon would go a different direction, but as I got into it more and more, it took a journey along this pathway of prayer. And I am beginning to understand why. Because the other directions we might go—the other directions I might go—are fruitless without prayer.

The former Music Minister at our church in Greeley had taped on his desk a large placard on which he had written the words, Have I Really Prayed About It? The sign professed the understanding that we might think we’ve prayed about it, but probably haven’t. Worrying about a concern is not prayer! Voicing an opinion is not prayer! Communion with God, focused communication with God is prayer.

So, have you really prayed about it? When you seek to offer praise to God, have you offered prayers of praise? When you celebrate joys in life, have you offered prayers of joy to God? When you acknowledge with confidence and thankfulness the mercy and love of the Lord, do you also offer with honesty and humility prayers of confession to God? When your heart is grieved by another person, or your heart is critical of another person, have you prayed for that person? Really prayed? As you’ve faced a difficulty in life, have you really prayed about it? As you’ve sought for effectiveness in your life as a Christian, or in the ministry and mission of this church, have you prayed about it? Really prayed about it, asking for the power of the Holy Spirit to be made manifest in your life and in the church? That’s what the first "church" did prior to that first Pentecost. Acts 1:14, "[The disciples] all joined together constantly in prayer." Constantly in prayer. That constant communion with God laid the foundation for the first Pentecost. And continuous, persistent prayer has been the starting point for every Pentecost that has followed. Prayer opens the package for people whose lives and for churches whose ministries seem stranded on a desert island—prayer opens a package of amazing, life-changing, God-given resources beyond our abilities and our imaginations. Prayer ignites the furnace from the pilot light. It is prayer that is the key to there being tongues of fire for everybody.

So, let us pray…really pray…consistently, daily, and persistently...let us pray.