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Special Pentecost Message
Filled in the Middle of the Fire
Pentecost Sunday, May 24, 2026
Rev. Julius Walls Jr., Pastor
Institutional African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
Scripture
Acts 2:1–4 (NIV)
"1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them."
Three Points
Point ONE
The Waiting Room
The ten days — and what God is doing in them
Point TWO
The Interruption
What it looks like when God suddenly moves
Point THREE
The Witness
What filled people do with the fire they have been given
Theme
God does not take us out of the fire. He meets us in it. All of us have lived “ten days” — not ten days on a calendar necessarily, but ten days as a season. A waiting room we did not choose and cannot leave. Pentecost is the answer to the question the resurrection was always building toward: if the resurrection changes everything, what happens when the One who rose is no longer visible? The Holy Spirit is what happens.