Walking in the Spirit - God working in your life! Pt 1 - The Holy Spirit Speaks
Notes
Transcript
GREET EVERYONE-
If I have not had a chance to meet you; My name is Scott and I am a follower of Jesus and have the privilege of serving Him as the Lead Pastor among the people of Stonewater Fellowship.
Our Vision:
We Desire see every follower of Jesus well equipped and fully deployed on the mission of Jesus.
What mission? - This questions leads us to articulate His mission for His church in a simple way.
Our Mission:
Is to engage people into a multiplying relationship with Jesus!
WELCOME-
For some one here this morning this maybe the fist time you have ever been to a worship gathering of the Church, or this is your first time in a really long time and you feel a little uncomfortable and out of place and maybe that is becasue you think that church and the people just want something from you.
I hope to encourage you this morning.
First thing is that you are absolutely in the right place at the right time, as God orchestrated everything for us to all be together this morning, He left nothing to chance. - we are so glad you risked coming to church this morning.
2nd thing and probably most important - We don't actually want anything FROM you. But we so want something FOR you.
The thing that we want for you is that you would experience the deep and abiding peace that comes from making peace with God through a growing relationship with Jesus.
LETS GRAB OUR BIBLES IF YOU HAVE ONE AND
Open it to the Gospel of John chapter 14 today as we begin a new preaching series Called “Walking in the Spirit”
IN this series we will be exposing some of what the Bible tells us is the working of the Holy Spirit as we live our life IN the Spirit.
That is what the Bible means when it says to “Walk in the Spirit”
PRAYER FOR THE SERIES
My Prayer for this series and in fact all of the series of this year is that our relationship with the Holy Spirit would grow.
WE are in a relationship , an indwelling relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Loved ones it is the Spirit that lives in us.
My prayer is that through a growing relationship with the Holy Spirit we would grow in our relationship with Jesus and our service to Jesus as we either begin or continue to live out the mission of Jesus as we realize the great love of Jesus for us.
And through our growing obedience to Jesus by the very power and relationship we have with the Holy Spirit of God working in us, we would grow in our relationship with God and we would know and live the father even more.
PRAYER FOR THE MESSAGE
My prayer for this mornings message is that we would come to know or begin to know a few things.
1 - The the Holy Spirit Speaks.
2 - That not every Spiritual Experience you have is from GOD - Loved ones there are demonic experiences you can have that feel and look and are experienced with pleasure that are not of GOD.
The reason is that the devil is a liar - He sets out to disciple and even can disguise himself as an angel of light.
3 - That we would all know or begin to be able to know how to attune our ears to the Holy Spirit Speaking to us and to Him only.
TRUTH -
ENGAGEMENT –
Now a days in my house there seems to be a very old conversation that is resurfacing and I seem to hear this conversation more and more and more.
And that conversation is happening again with our youngest two kids, as most of you know we have 8 of them and the youngest turns 8 next week and the next one up just turned 13.
If you have kids you most probably have had this conversation.
Goes Something like this:
“Son what are you doing?”
“I don't know”
What are you supposed to be doing?
Making my bed”
Why are you not doing that?
I don't know!”
Did you listen to my instructions?
I heard you dad!
Ok Why aren’t you making your bed?
I don't know!
Please stop watching TV and go make your bed!
Yes Sir!
TV still on body in zombie mode standing there watching TV.
Son did you understand me?
Now you may not have kids!
But if your married I promise this conversation either has already happened, It will happen and probably happens at some level of frequency.
Wife - Honey will you come help me with something outside!
Yes dear I will be right there!
TV is on, your on Social media - Your watching sport recaps from the days games - You might even be playing poker on your phone or something.
Minutes later -
Honey I need your help out here this is really heavy and I am afraid i’m going to drop it.
I heard you honey I will be right there -
Screen time continues -
WIFE YELLING - HONEY!! Are you listening to me - This is heavy I need you there right now!!!
TENSION
Loved ones there are two things that are happening in conversations that go on our our homes, in our families, in our social life and in a lot of cases these kids of conversations happen in our work life as well.
The first thing that is happening is the significant difference between hearing someone and listening to what they are saying.
You see when we hear them - We hear the words and we understand the language that is used and we grasp the meaning.
But we do not take in into consideration at all - It has little or no impact on our trajectory and certainly does not move us towards action.
You see when we listen to someone - not only do we understand what they said - Not only do we understand the words and the language - Not only do we grasp the meaning -
The difference is we understand the WHY -
And I’M not talking about the WHY that was spoken
but the Why that is in the deepest part of what they were saying -
You see the why that was spoken was she was calling you becasue it was heavy.
The why that is at the deepest part of her plea was she wanted to be with you and for you to be her man for just a second.
HERE is the other thing that was happening while the screen time was happening and you were just hearing her.
There was Another voice that were speaking to you that was distracting you.
Remember - Distraction.= Dis attraction.
There were other voices Dis attracting you from her and those voices were not the voices that love you.
In fact those were the voices that if you listen to them long enough, you will leave the one you love for them and they never loved you and never will.
Here is the funny thing - This is not a message on biblica marriage between a husband and a wife.
IT is however a message on the marriage of Christ and the Assembly of the called out ones - IE His bride and that we all know is the Church.
You See when the Holy Spirit Speaks - Its Jesus Speaking and well if were going to have a great eternal relationship with Him He have to know how to hear what He is saying, grow in our listening and be mobilized by the deeper understanding of His words
TRUTH
The First thing I want us to unpack this morning is the fact that the Holy Spirit does actually Speak to us.
Here is the reason that I want us to begin here. and this is what I love about the people of Stonewater Fellowship.
Siting next to one another this very day you have people who think that some of the working of the Holy Spirit have stopped - Like Speaking in Tongues -
And other people who you are sitting next two believe and practice praying in tongues all the time.
And the beautiful thing is that we can all worship and serve Jesus together and not be divided on those kind of secondary things.
Now When the Scripture talks and affirms that the Holy Spirit does actually Speak to us we need to also understand that Scripture puts clear boundaries around not only what the Spirit speaks.
But the limits as to the topics the Spirit is actually going to talk about.
Here is why this is important -
We want to all be able to grow into the area of high probability that we know:
when the Holy Spirit is speaking,
It is our spirit Speaking,
our flesh speaking,
or something being spoken that is originated in the demonic.
2 key Passages of Scripture to begin with
ONE
John 14:26 (ESV)
26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Here Jesus is Speaking to his soon to be apostles and we REALLY need to understand the context in which Jesus is speaking these words so we don't go too far in thinking that the Holy Spirit does more than what the Holy Spirit actually does.
The Next passage is
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
In both of these passages of Text Jesus is Speaking to a very SMALL group of people.
He is Speaking to the 12 Disciples - 11 of which will be His Apostles and who will by the very power and influence of the Holy Spirit launch the disciple making movement called the Church some 50+ days after this conversation.
Jesus says - The Helper - The Holy Spirit Sent by the Father in Jesus Name.
So first thing - Sent by the Father in Jesus Name.
The Help will Teach, and remind -
Teach the Apostles ALL things and Remind them of All that Jesus has told them.
How will the Holy Spirit do this with the Apostles -
Jesus Addresses the How in John 16:13
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
Jesus - Again last supper Apostles Only - Spirit of Truth -
OK SO first boundary - Spirit of Trust - Means it cannot be a perverse Spirit or a Lying Spirit - It is THE Spirit of Truth - There is only One Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit.
This Spirit of Truth - Speaks - and what He speaks is truth -
as He Speaks truth He Guides in to ALL The Truth - as He teaches and Reminds.
This is the “How” that the Spirit will guide into all truth - Teach and remind - reminding people of all the things that Jesus said.
He will SPEAK.
Guiding us Into “ALL TRUTH”
According to your Bibles who is TRUTH?
Jesus says I am the way and the truth and the life - No one come to the father but through me.
Jesus is the Truth.
SO who does the Holy Spirit Lead us to? Jesus - The TRUTH
6 This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
The Spirit Testifies - The Spirit testifies what is true - Because the Sprit is truth!
There is the Second Boundary -
The Spirit leads into all truth by being the power behind the operation of Scripture being recorded for us -
19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Here is how all of this comes together -
What Jesus has told us - What we see and hear in the interactions of the Spirit when He is speaking are all contained in the collection of literature called the Bible - or a term that the Bible itself uses “The Scriptures.”
Jesus said to His disciples that would soon be His Apostles that the Spirit would reveal to them things that are going to happen.
This is not Something new - The Spirit of God the Holy Spirit had been doing that since the begging of time.
This is why the Spirit spoke to Peter when Peter writes in His Second letter to the People scattered away from Jerusalem -
19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.
Third Boundary - He will NOT speak on his own Authority -
So The Holy Spirit Never Speaks as an Independent Person of the God Head.
The Holy Spirit Never Surprises the Father and Never leaves the Son.
This is the Only Thing that the Holy Spirit will Speak - He will only Speak what he Hears.
Hears from who?
Sent by the Father - He speaks what the father tells him to speak.
What is that Subject -
again 4th boundary -
He will speak of things that are to come - What things?
Most believe - the end things - or the prophetic things or whether or not it will rain tomorrow.
That is not what Jesus is about to say.
Jesus says things that are to come. and here is what that looks like.
14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
He will Glorify me - Jesus has just said that the Spirit will only speak in such a way that will reveal Jesus - That is what the word Glorify means -
To reveal or to make known. In the Simplest Explanation.
Last boundary - Jesus says - He will take what is mine and declare it to you - He will take the things that are of Jesus and the Holy Spirit will SPEAK - Declare them to you.
How does that Look Like?
Well Part of that looks like CALLING -
Acts 13 -
Here is what is happening here - Every one is in Antioch - A place outside Jerusalem - Persecution and famine are in Jerusalem so they went to Antioch -
When in Antioch they (the Jesus followers) Lived in such a unique way that they Represented Christ and made Him known -
In other words they Made disciples and A church was planted -
Watch what happened -
While they were Worshiping AND Fasting the Holy Spirit SPOKE.
When the Spirit Spoke - Calling was made - Set apart these two for a specific work.
Here are is the environment by which calling was spoken.
In community - they were in the church in Antioch.
In worship AND Fasting -
THEN then Holy Spirit Spoke.
Here is also something the Spirit will do.
The Holy Spirit may also tell you NOT to do your calling while you are being faithful to your calling.
Later in acts just a couple of chapters later - The Holy Spirit “FORBIDS” the team from doing what is they were called to do.
And when He did that He moved them on to another place where they could live out their calling.
Now the Spirit may also Direct your calling by not allowing you to go to a certain place you think you need to Go - But here is the thing about all of that -
In the Bible those things only happen while you are in your God given, Gospel advancing, Jesus glorifying Calling.
Here is how we know this?
This is the only thing the Spirit influence of working is delineated for us in the Scripture.
Paul was a Tent maker by trade and from time to tim ewould have to make tents to fainacially support the calling he was called into when they were among the poor and the resources were not enough from among the poor becasue they were poor.
No where will you find that Paul wanted to sell a tent to someone and the Spirit said NO
No where will you find that Paul went to the merchants and the Spirit spoke into those circumstances.
But here in another interesting thing - Paul was so very familure with the Spirit and the things of the Spirit that when He wrote to the Church in Thessaloniki - He said that He wanted to come to them But Satan Hindered them -
Not the Holy Spirit -
You see the Holy Spirit may say NO -
But Satan will just Hinder.
This is why the writer in Hebrews says to Trow off everything that hinders AND the sin that entangles and run the race marked out before us with endurance.
SO the holy Spirit Speaks to the Calling into the work of Jesus. and will speak while in the service of Jesus.
He will also Speak into the life of a non-believer with the promptings to become a believer.
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
Paul - AS an Apostle Received while exercising His calling a word form the Spirit about things that “were to come”
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
But Here is the thing -
This was not the Spirit speaking something NEW -
This was the Spirit guiding Paul into all truth and reminding Paul what Jesus had already said -
Jesus had spoken of False prophets and teachers. and This was the Spirit simply revealing the words of Jesus in the context that Paul was in - Writing to timothy as Timothy Pastoring a local city wide Church in Ephesus were some really dark Spiritual stuff went on.
A lot of times we hear people say something like “The Spirit is speaking a new thing to me this morning”
John MacArthur would say “Run and make sure you take your check-book with you.”
RECAP
So as we have come to Understand a couple of things -
1- that The Holy Spirit Speaks -
2- He speaks only what He is told
3- He has already revealed “the things that are going to happen” as Jesus said he would,
and Those “Prophesies of Scripture” were written down by men who were driven by the Holy Spirit.
4 - He will only speak what He has heard not on His own -
One of those areas is in the area of calling -
while in that calling the Spirit will say - Go here - Don’t go there -
So with these 4 things that the Holy Spirit speaking we are left with a big question?
How do you know?
how can we begin to know if it is the Holy Spirit Speaking to us - or if it is something or someone else?
How do we listen and not Jesus hear the voice of God and Him only?
CONCLUSION: AS BRIAN AND THE WORSHIP TEAM COME TO LEAD US TO THE TABLE OF JESUS
Lets talk about HOW and then lets Imagine some things.
1 - The first and primary way that the Holy Spirit of God will speak to us, Guide us into all truth, Remind us of every thing that Jesus said. Tell us of the things to come - IS through the Pages the Bible - Old Testament and New.
He spoke it to the writers - They Wrote it down for us . And the Spirit Reveal it to us through the Pages of Scripture.
This leaves us to the inevitable conclusion, in order for us to be able to hear the Holy Spirit Speak - We need to Know what He has and is speaking to us through the words and pages of Scripture.
Remember this is also how we know truth!! The Spirit of Trust will lead us into all truth -
Well Here is the deal - The Scriptures are Alive - They are Active -
Every time we open the bible we are reading words of Life - Those words are Powered by the Life Giving Power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Giver of Life.
Loved ones there is not a single word of God that is trying to steal or take anything away from you.
2- As we know our Bibles we also We need a very important Gift of the Holy Spirit so that we will greatly reduce the probability of being deceived by the Devil and that is the gift of Discerning of Spirits. This is found in Exikial 44 and Romans 12 and in 1 Corinthians 12.
Now you might say - Pastor if we get that gift why do we need to know our Bibles.
Here is the problem - If you don't know your bibles you don't have a filter or better yet an interpreter.
You see we will all have spiritual experiences, Spiritual promptings - what seems to be spiritual difficulties and Spiritual highs and lows.
And the Mistake a lot of people make in our modern western culture is we use these experiences - Some of which are very powerful - We use these to interpret the Bible.
What end up happening is we miss apply the Scriptures.
You see the Scriptures give us the Knowledge and it separates thing for us becasue it is alive and active and The Scriptures will tell us ow to interpret the experiences we have.
3rd One Big way the Spirit will speak to us is in the company of Spirit filled community. In other words the Church.
AS you are connected and in relationship and living life on life with you brothers and sisters in small groups community - AS wou guys Worship together and fast together and live on mission together and open the word together. Just like the people we can read about in Acts.
The Spirit WILL Speak.
4- Way the Spirit will Speak to us in through a constant state of prayer.
REquierment
There is one thing that is required above all this -
Here is the reality loved ones - None of this happens without God saving you.
In order for you and me to be able to even have the possibility of hearing the Holy Spirit when He speaks we must be saved by grace through faith - We must be regenerated to new life by the Holy Spirit. We must be brought from dead in our trespasses and sin against God to new life in Christ - We must be God’s workmanship, Created in Christ JEsus for the Good works He had planned for us in advance.
The invitation of Jesus is open wide -
Who so ever trusts in Him and His finished work on the Cross as the Only means of forgiveness and reconciliation to the Father -
and Trust that He was physically and bodily raised, in the death defeating act of being raised from the dead.
How do we respond to such love?
We turn our life over to Jesus - We chose Him as our master This is why the Scriptures call Him Lord.
We choose to die to self and let Him Live his life through us. An Act the Bible calls repentance - And we live a life of repentance in a constant life of increasing surrender to the One who is the lover of our Soul.
And we are Saved from the Wrath of God - Adopted by His spirit as Children of God into His family.
When That journey begins - We are filled with the Holy Spirit - We come to His word to know Him and Abide in him with an unsatiable desire for Him and His presence and His power to be evident in our life.
IF you have never surreendered your life to the lord ship of Jesus. I cannot imagine what you are waiting for - He has a life for you that is more beautiful that you can possible imagine.
He very well might wreck the one you currently have - But he will rebuild it into something more beautiful that you could ever build yourself.
Lets come to the Table of Jesus!
PRAYER TEAM
