Becoming Like Jesus - Spirit Led

Pray For This Nation

pray for Dylan

Introduction

Where are you going? Do you know where you are heading? Years ago, my grandfather had horses and one of the interesting things about animals is they have minds of their own.

We had a horse named Smokey Joe. And that horse definitely had a mind of his own. Many times I got saddled up on Smokey Joe and you just knew he was going to do what he wanted to do.

When you ride horses, a horse has what is called a bridle put into it’s mouth that are attached to reins. The idea is that the rider is supposed to determine where the horse is going by using the reins. You pull the rein to the right and the horse should turn right. You pull it to the left and the horse will turn to the left.

Now, some horses are better than others. The best of them, can feel just the slightest tug and they will know what the rider is wanting them to do. Other horses, like Smokey Joe, I had to really pull on those reins to get him to do right and sometimes, that wasn’t even enough.

Funny story. I was a kid riding the horse. And to a horse, a kid is kind of like a gnat. Just a tiny annoying thing sitting on its back. I didn’t weigh as much as the saddle did. Well Papa put me up on this horse and we were in the yard. And he was supposed to go and follow the other horses down the driveway, but Smokey Joe didn’t want to go where he was being led and he took off back toward the barn with me on him! I’m pulling back on the reins and yelling WOAH! But he’s got a mind of his own and that little gnat on his back wasn’t going to do nothing to change it.

We get to the barn and it was a small barn with a small doorway a foot or two taller than the horse and I literally had to do the limbo through the door in order to stay on his back. So I’m laying back on the horse, feet caught in the stirrups and waiting for my papa to come save me.

Now, I tell you all of this because today I want to talk about one of the ways that we become Like Jesus. We are in this sermon series talking about becoming Like Jesus and today we are looking at being Led by the Spirit.

Jesus, though he was God, when he became human, he put aside his godly powers and lived a spirit-filled, spirit empowered and most importantly a Spirit-Led life.

Today we are going to dive deeper into this important subject by looking at Luke 3 and 4 and recounting the story of Jesus’ baptism. The notes are loaded into the app.

Luke 3:21–22 ESV

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Luke 4:1–2 ESV

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.

Now, I want to focus in on the fact that Jesus was led by the Spirit, but I do want to draw attention to a couple of things first. First notice, this was after his baptism. Jesus was baptized in water by John and during that baptism, another baptism takes place, the Spirit descends on Him in bodily form like a dove.

Now, this is important. Jesus is modeling something for us. First off, you need to be baptized by water. If you here and you have not been baptized by water and you would like to be, please come talk to me. I would love to set up a baptism service later this summer.

Jesus was baptized, we should follow in his footsteps. In fact, I would argue, after salvation, this is your first real step of obedience in following God. Some of you still have not taken that first step. Do not wait any longer, do it. Obey the Lord’s command to be baptized. If you won’t be baptized, don’t expect to be spirit-led. You can’t be led by the Holy Spirit if you cannot obey the commands of our Lord.

Secondly, I want to point out the Spirit has a bodily form. We don’t believe in the Star Wars force. It’s not some impersonal power. It is a person. So one of the basic ideas I want to present here is that when we say Spirit Led, what the Scripture is asking you to do is follow a person. The Third Person of The Trinity, God Himself, is a person to be followed. He is to lead us. We are not talking about some new age spiritualism, we are talking about following the third person of the Trinity.

So let’s define this term, Spirit-Led, before we go much further. What does this mean? I like Timothy George’s definition as he seeks to define what the Apostle Paul meant by this term.

In Paul’s vocabulary, to walk in the Spirit or be led by the Spirit means to go where the Spirit is going, to listen to his voice, to discern his will, to follow his guidance.

Timothy George

In other words, what George is saying is the Holy Spirit was given to us for unique purposes. Here’s three that He mentions.

Leading or Guiding - Going where the Spirit is going or following his guidance. We follow the Spirit. He is the leader, We follow Him. He guides us to where He wants us.

Speaking - God, through the Holy Spirit, still speaks to us today. Yes, the Bible is God’s word and Yes God still speaks. And no, this does not challenge Sola Scriptura as the Bible itself promises such. In fact, it would go against what the Bible says to believe that He doesn’t speak.

Discerning God’s Will - The Spirit helps us determine what God’s will is. The Bible we have the mind of Christ. The Spirit reveals what God’s will is, not just for us, but for many situations, if we seek to know it.

Now, he’s pulling these from various Scriptures, but first I need to address something. There are many people who do not believe the Holy Spirit is still active today. They believe He came in power with the Apostles, but left when they died off. I want to make it clear, that is not my position nor is it what I believe to be the position of the Scriptures.

The Holy Spirit is alive and active in the world today. He still speaks, he still leads, he still helps people discern God’s will and he will guide you into all truth, if you let Him.

So whatever background you are from, or whatever theology you subscribe to, I want to make one thing clear, any belief system, theology or background or denomination that believes the Holy Spirit was only around for the book of Acts is wrong. Jesus promised in John 14:8, that he would not leave us as orphans, that God would send the Holy Spirit and that he would be with us to guide us and teach us all things.

How Does The Holy Spirit Lead Us?

One of the big questions we need to tackle today is this, How does this happen? How does the Holy Spirit actually lead us? What does this look like practically?

Once you realize that one of the primary things the Holy Spirit does is lead us or guide us. Paul says in Romans 8:14

Romans 8:14 ESV

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

In other words, the Holy Spirit leads his children. This is as simple as it gets. If you are a child of God, that means God is leading you.

And truthfully, if you want to get down to the basics, you are being led by someone or something, you should let it be God and not something else.

It could be sin, the Bible says that before we are Christians it is our master, it tells us what to do.

It could be your flesh. Paul says in Galatians 5 that we are not to walk after or follow the flesh and its desires, but we are to walk by the Spirit and the Spirit will produce its fruit in our lives.

It could be our own minds. Some of us just think we know it all. We don’t need God, we’ve got us.

It could be “the science”, it could be the world, it could be the devil or any of his demons, it could be some man or woman who have set themselves up as some sort of guru.

So there are many things that could lead you. The key is to make sure you are being led by the Spirit. The Spirit will lead you in certain ways and I want to start with a word of warning:

There Is No Map

As it pertains to the walk of life, being led by the Spirit, God gives us no map. There is no GPS. There is no big picture, here it is all laid out for you map. Certainly God may make us aware of our ultimate destination or our calling, but how to get from Point A to Point B, he almost never draws a straight line.

In my own life, God called me to preach at 17 years old. I didn’t become a pastor until I was 39 years old. If God had drew me a map at 17 and shown me everything that I was going to go through over the course of 22 years, I would have never followed him. The pain would have been too much to bear.

But He is good and knows this. He guides us, but only one step at a time. Paul puts it like this.

Galatians 5:25 ESV

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Paul here is describing it not just as a lifestyle (living by the Spirit), but also a step by step journey (keeping in step with the Spirit). For many of us, this is the hard part. It needs to be both. We need a lifestyle that says, I am living by the Spirit. What the Spirit says and does, I am with Him, these are big picture things. And yet also, we need to have a daily step by step walk with the Spirit. Lord what are you wanting to accomplish in me and thru me today? There’s no map, but there is guidance.

What Does This Look Like Practically?

In this series called Like Jesus, we see that Jesus himself was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness. We are to be like Him. We are to be a people led by his Holy Spirit. Where the Spirit leads, we go.

So how does this work? What does this look like? Here are three ways and there are certainly more, but here are three ways the Spirit leads us today.

The Spirit Leads Through Prayer

First and foremost, the Holy Spirit leads us through prayer and into prayer. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he prayed and fasted for 40 days. When we want to determine where the Holy Spirit is leading us, it requires prayer.

And not only does it require you to seek Him in prayer, one of the primary places that He will lead you is into pray. God has a desire for you to pray and spend time with Him. We’ve talked about this alot, but the Christian walk is about Being With Jesus. It’s about time in prayer. It’s about spending time with Him.

Luke 5:16 NIV

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

I told you lonely places is the same Greek word for wilderness. Jesus didn’t just go to the wilderness by the leading of the Spirit this one time, He OFTEN went to the wilderness to pray.

To be LIKE HIM, I can promise you the Spirit will lead you to prayer. He will lead you to a place of prayer and through prayer He will lead you to do for Him. Our doing for God must flow from our being with God, not the other way around.

The Spirit Leads Through God’s Word

The Spirit also guides us through the Holy Scriptures. God speaks to us through his word and illuminates his word to us. Now what this means practically is you need to study His Word!

I don’t know why we as Christians avoid the Bible with such zeal. We have the very words of God written down for us and some us will never crack the cover!

We want to hear God speak, but we ignore his Words. And listen, I don’t want this to become a “oh the preacher is giving something else I gotta do.” Listen, I want you to love God’s word. I want you to have a burning desire to be in His Word and seeking his Word. His words are life!

Listen to a couple of Scriptures on this subject.

Psalm 119:103 ESV

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

God’s word are sweet! Some of us crave sweets. Especially after dinner. We check to see what the flavor of the day is at Culvers this time of year. We love sweet things. The Psalmist says God word is sweet. Sweeter than honey!

Do you feel that way? Do you crave His Word?

Jeremiah 15:16 ESV

Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts.

The Prophet Jeremiah gives us a good picture. He found His Words. It gives us the indication that he had to look for them. He searched carefully for God’s Words. And when he found them, He ATE them! He consumed His Word! And it became a joy.

At first it may be tough. At first, you might struggle to study the Bible, but as you consume his word, it becomes a joy and delight in your heart to read it.

The Spirit Leads Through Nudges

The third way that I want to highlight here today is what I call the “nudges” or the promptings of the Holy Spirit. A lot of you know what I mean, but let me remind you of how I started this sermon.

When you are riding a horse, you might pull on the reins. For the younger horses, who are not mature, you have to pull hard. For the more mature horses, the better trained horses, you can simply nudge the reins in one direction and they know where to go.

I have found that this is a good way to describe what it is like to follow the Holy Spirit. When I first started following him, the Holy Spirit would speak something to me and my heart would start pounding and it was loud, like someone jerking on my reins.

As I’ve tried to mature, I’ve noticed that God will sometimes give me these simple nudges. He still speaks but my heart doesn’t typically pound as much. I have to listen a little closer now.

Now sometimes this nudge is for us to go and do something for Him. Other times and I think more commonly this nudge is that we need to do some work on our own heart. J.I. Packer puts it this way.

When we say we have a “vision” or “burden” about something, we are referring to an impression. When our concern is biblically proper, we are right to regard our impression as a nudge from the Holy Spirit.

JI Packer

In other words, if you seek the Lord in prayer, if the Bible agrees with the vision or burden or impression that you get, then you should obey what the Lord is asking you to do.

Conclusion

What’s the alternative? You keep doing what you’ve always done, the definition of insanity. You keep being led by our culture, by your flesh, by some guru on the internet, someone else other than Jesus. If that’s you, that’s sin.

Isaiah 30:1 NIV

“Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the Lord, “to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin;

It’s time to repent. It’s time to become Spirit-Led children of God. So what is God asking you to do today? Many of you are looking for guidance in your life. You are looking for God to lead you in a certain situation. You are looking for confirmation. One of the other ways he may do that is through the prayers others.

So I want to open up the altar today and invite those who are seeking, those that need prayer, or are looking for the Lord to speak this morning. I want you to come. Autumn and I will be up front to pray with you as David sings.