Transcription
We are continuing in our series today, day to day. We have this week and we have next week. Pastor Phil is going to be sharing with you on our value of everyday generous.
But today I am talking to us about spirit-led, that where the spirit leads we follow. That we are people who want to be where the spirit of God is leading us and where the presence of God is guiding us in every season of our life. I'm excited about this message today. I think by the end of the message, some of us are going to be able to locate where we are and hopefully some of the frustrations that you've had in your life. I believe God is going to bring illumination to what he's doing and where in your journey and where in your process you are.
But before we jump into all of that, I want to take just a minute and talk about some things that spirit-led life is not. A spirit-led life is not chaotic. A spirit-led life is not a chaotic life. I don't know if you've ever had this experience, but if you have ever talked to someone who's like, "Well, I'm just following what the spirit of God is doing." And I'm like, "The spirit of God that you talk to must be so confused because it sounds to me like you use the excuse of spirit-led living for a lack of rootedness in your life. For I know we're just coming out heavy-hitting this morning." For in a lack of ability to follow through. Every time it becomes a little bit too challenging, all of a sudden the spirit of God in your life has a brand new plan for you. It's chaotic and it's unrooted and it's not what spirit-led living is about.
Spirit-led living is not weird. It's not weird living. Okay? You don't have to be standing up in the middle of places that nobody asked you to be standing up in talking in a voice that you never use anywhere else in your life talking about the Holy Spirit is on the inside of me and sent me here with a message. The spirit of God is not out of order and the spirit of God is not weird. Look, I've been church for a long, long time, and I'm just telling you, I can spot weird spiritual from a long way away. You start coming at me with those wide eyes and that airy voice, and I'm just telling you, the spirit of God ain't in that. And I'm I'm more tired than I am old, and I don't have time for it anymore. You can just keep on moving with your weird spirituality because the spirit of God is not weird. I tried to find a fancier word for it, but it's just a plain word for it. Spirit of God's not weird.
The spirit-led life is not a style of service. This is important. The style of service that we come to is an outworking of a people who are living in communion with the spirit of God in a way that they have said where you lead we will follow. I'm afraid sometimes that we are so product-driven in our culture that we think that living in a service or existing in a service the outworking is the evidence that we have a spirit-led life. That because we come somewhere on a Sunday and we say what God is doing is more important to us than the order of the service. That we're not going to be bound by just a time clock and just a timetable, but God, where you go, we want to follow that thing that we think that the style of our service is the evidence of a spirit-led life. But the style of the service is the outcome of people who have yielded their life to a lifestyle outside of this time slot. They are also living in a spirit-led way. And so when those people gather together in the presence of God, the natural byproduct of that is a service that is spirit-led. We're not spirit-led because of the way we do church. We're spirit-led because of the way we do life. Where the spirit leads, we will follow. That's where we want to live. That's where we want to be.
Turn with me to the book of Acts. Acts chapter 16. The book of Acts is sometimes called the acts of the apostles, sometimes called the acts of the spirit because it starts out with the Holy Spirit coming and then is Luke's account of the way the spirit of God led the early apostles in planting the church and an outworking of the spirit of God moving all throughout the early church. We're going to read a few verses of scripture together this morning. Starting in Acts 16 and verse 6, it says they went through the region of Friia and Galatia. They had been forbidden say forbidden forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they came to Mya, they tried to go into Bethnia, but the spirit of Jesus did not allow them. Say did not allow them. Passing by mya they went down to Trrowaz and during the night Paul had a vision in which a Macedonian man that's going to be important was standing and pleading with him cross over to Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen the vision we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia. That we is interesting because up until this point Luke has been writing the story about them and what they were doing but Luke joins the journey right here before they cross over into Macedonia and from this point forward Luke is part of the story it says we immediately made efforts to set out from Macedonia concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them from Trrowaz we put out to the sea and sailed straight for Samothrace. The next day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, a Roman colony and a leading city of the district of Macedonia. And we stayed in that city for several days. And on the Sabbath day, we went outside the city gate by the river where we expected to find a place of prayer. And we sat down and spoke with the women gathered there. And a god-fearing woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thotyia was listening.
Now, an interesting fact about Lydia is that many scholars gather that her name may not have been given as Lydia, but Lydia may have been the name she came to be called by because it was the city that she was from. Have you ever had one of those friends where you're like, "Oh, this is my boy Atlanta." We call him Atlanta because he's from Atlanta. That's how they talked about Lydia. That Lydia was Lydia because she was from Lydia. And the work that they did in Lydia was the same work of dealing in cloth that she's doing here in Macedonia. But here's what's interesting. Lydia is in Asia where Paul has been prevented from going to. Yet he goes to Macedonia and finds a woman from the region he tried to go to. And her name is Lydia. And she is a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Theoria. And she was listening. And the Lord opened her heart to respond to what Paul was saying. And after she and her household were baptized, she urged us, "If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house." And she persuaded us. God, thank you for your holy word. Help it move in us today. Open our hearts and minds for the understanding of your scripture in Jesus name. Amen.
In 2014, Phil and I were sent to serve alongside one of the churches in Mexico under Pastor Ruben in the city of Ketro. We spent about a month there in the city serving alongside of the church. And the point of us going at the time was to explore the idea of moving there and serving at that church and being part of the work that they're doing there. And what you need to know about Phil and I is part of what knit our hearts together is a love for travel, a love for exploring the world, a love for going to distant and different places and expressing the lived out work of who God is in those places. This is before we had any kids. It was just the two of us. We were spending the best month serving and getting to be alongside these people that we love. We feel very drawn both to Latin culture. We were like, "This seems like an awesome deal." And we came to the end of our month there and both of us looked at each other and we were like, "We're not supposed to move here." The spirit of God on the inside of us said, "No." All the pieces made sense. All the timing to us made sense. All the steps made sense. All the things were there, all the availability there. Pastor Ruben was like, "Come on, I could always use more help. Let's do this." But on the inside, the spirit of God said, "No."
The place that the leading of the spirit often begins is with his restraint. I was listening to a parent talking to a kid a couple of weeks ago, and this kid was giving their parent a bunch of push back. And the parent said to the kid, "You're going to have to learn to accept my no before you're going to get my yes." And I was like, "And I think the spirit of God sometimes comes to us and he's like, I want to know, can you accept the no that I'm bringing into your life?"
That Paul was on his way in one direction. Now, what you need to understand about Paul is Paul is not new at this. Paul is an action starter. Paul is a way maker. Paul is a man of vision and strategy and direction. And he has been planting churches. He is on his second missionary journey. This is not his first go at any of this. Everything seems to be working and everything seems to be making sense in terms of where he's going and what he's trying to do. But while he's on his way, the spirit of God stops him. Prevents him from moving. Says, "I need to restrain you from going any further."
I want to show you. I think we have a map. If you can pull the map up, this is where Paul was going. Paul is down here and he's traveling up to Mya. And when he's up in my spirit of God says, "You can't go any farther over there into Asia." And while he's up there, he says, "Well, then maybe you see Bethnia up there at the very top." He's like, "Well, maybe I'll go that way." And the spirit of God says, "No, you can't go that way." And so now he's over here at the edge in Trrowaz. He's on this side of everything. And the spirit of God is saying to him, even though you're right here, I'm preventing you. I'm restraining you. It makes sense in your mind for you to do the plan that you have laid out. But there is a restraint from the spirit that Paul feels.
Now, this is what I need you to know is that eventually Paul does make it back to Asia. About three to five years later on his third missionary journey, Paul goes back and spends majority of his time in that same region planting churches and spreading the gospel and declaring the name of who Jesus is. It's not that the thing that Paul wanted to do was a bad thing. It's that the timing wasn't yet right. And a good thing outside of God's timing becomes a bad thing. Too often we have a good thing in our mind. We have a good plan in our mind. But just because it's a good plan, we forgot to consult God and say, "God, is it in your timing?" Because the good thing that you have and the good plan that you have outside of God's timing becomes a burden in your life instead of a blessing in your life. That thing that you're dealing with right now that you're going, "God, I thought this is what you had for me. God, I thought this was your plan for me. Aren't you a God who delights to give me good gifts?" That good gift, he's saying, "Yes, it's a good gift." But the reason it feels heavier than it ought to feel is because you're outside of my timing.
The frustration of the question of God, I wanted to go in that direction and God, I wanted to move in this way. God, the promotion seemed like a good thing. Why is it that I felt your restraint? Is because God's saying that the good thing outside of my timing becomes a burden instead of a blessing. And I want to walk you into blessing on blessing. But if you want to walk into blessing on blessing, you have to learn to trust his restraint. You don't know what's on the other side of his restraint. You don't know the plans that he's laying out and the plans that he's working out. But Paul has walked with God long enough that it doesn't say that he argues with God and he's like, "God, I'm already here. God, I'm already right here. We might as well go ahead and let me God. We could just jump over there real quick and let me spread. God, don't you want me to spread your good word everywhere? Don't you want me to talk about you?" Paul has walked with God long enough that he has learned that if God is sending restraint, then I better listen to that restraint.
And what he ends up in is a bit of a holding pattern. He's stuck in Trrowaz knowing which way to go. God, I know you said not to go that way, but now I don't know where to go, and I'm just waiting. I'm waiting in the midst of my restraint. Oh, we don't always do great in our waiting. Oh, we don't always love the in-between where I'm not sure what step I'm supposed to be taking. Now God, I know you said no to that relationship, but now I'm just waiting. Now I'm just holding on. God, I I know you said no to that move, but now I just feel stuck in the middle of my waiting. The middle uncertainty, the holding pattern of the waiting is what caused Sarah to go get Hagar to try and make a plan out of her own plan because she didn't think the plan was moving. The waiting in the middle is what caused Saul to go offer a sacrifice on an altar that he knew was out of his reach because the waiting seemed like it was too long. The waiting in the middle of the uncertainty is what caused the disciples to begin to doubt who Jesus was while he was buried in a grave. And they were waiting in the middle because he hadn't yet resurrected. In the waiting, we tend to turn to our doubts. In the waiting, we tend to turn to grabbing things back into our own control. In the waiting, we tend to forget the God who said he was always faithful. In the midst of the waiting, things get shaky. And in the midst of the waiting, things get uncertain.
But here's the thing is God's coming to find you in the last place. He told you to hold on. He came with a vision for Paul and Trrowaz. Where he left him, where he told him, "Don't go any farther from there." The issue is we get nervous in our waiting and we get moving in our waiting and we get deciding on our own in our waiting and then God comes to find you in Trrowaz where he left you and you're nowhere to be found cuz you've went and made a new plan all on your own. If you're going to be led by the spirit of God in the midst of restraint, you have to learn how to say, "God said no, and so I'm going to wait until I hear something new."
And there Paul is waiting in Trrowaz and he gets a vision. He gets a vision from God. Our kids like to play one of those games, that red light, green light game. You know the way it works is you get walking and someone says red light and you stop. Someone says green light, you move again. It's pretty basic kids game. Here's the thing about the game. It is dependent on someone saying green light after they've said red light. If you only say red light and red light and red light and red light, the game has no ability to move forward. We're stuck because we're only giving out red lights. The spirit of God will give you a green light when it's time to move forward. And he gives Paul a green light in the form of a vision where he speaks to him. And in the vision where he speaks to him, he's given redirection.
A spirit-led life has to be open to the redirection of the spirit of God. If you remember when we looked on the map, the direction that Paul was trying to go was east. And the side of the water that Paul was already on was the east side of everything. It's easier for me to stay in this way and I've made a plan to go in this way. But when the spirit of God speaks to him, he says, "Come over here to Macedonia, which is heading west on the other side. It's heading into the open ways into Europe." Macedonia at the time is what we now call Bulgaria, parts of Bulgaria, northern Macedonia, and Greece. This is where God is calling Paul to go to. The region he was wanting to go to is modern-day Turkey. God says, "I am redirecting the steps that you're taking. I am redirecting the path that you are taking." Sometimes we hear God stop. And when we hear his go again, we're expecting that his go is to go in the same direction I was planning to go before. But we have to listen accurately. We have to listen humbly because when God speaks and we want to lead, follow where the spirit leads, he redirects him and says, "I actually need you to move in a different direction than what you originally planned. I actually need you to move in a different direction than where you thought you were going. The way that you thought you were going is not the way that I'm leading."
Proverbs 19 and 21 says, "Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it's the Lord's decree that will prevail." A spirit-led life buries that scripture deep in their soul and says, "God, I may make all kinds of plans, but let it be your decrees. Let it be your ways. Let it be your words that prevail in my life. Don't let me be the barrier that keeps your decree from prevailing in my life. Don't let my own mindset, my own pride, my own planning be the thing that prevents your plans from prevailing in my life. I want the Lord's decrees to prevail in my life."
Paul gets a vision of a Macedonian man. Now, this is interesting because the picture, the idea, the phrasing of a Macedonian man kind of goes straight over our heads. We're like, "Sure, a guy from Macedonia." Okay. But the idea of a Macedonian man culturally for Paul carried with it the connotations of someone of great strength, someone of great bravery. Alexander the Great was from the region of Macedonia. And by Paul's time, Alexander the Great had become a man of great lore and of great reputation. And people from this region were seen to be those who were of stature, were of strength, were of bravery. And it was an outpost where the Romans allowed their military leaders to retire. This is where the men's men go, who are standing members of society. And God gives Paul a vision of one of these Macedonian men saying, "Paul, I need you to come help me."
Now, here's the thing. You've read the end of the story. Does Paul meet a man when he gets to Philippi? No. He meets a group of women praying by a stream and converts a woman named Lydia who is of high stature but is not the great military leader that Paul had envisioned in his picture. He gives Paul what Paul needs to move in the direction of what God is doing in his life. Now this is just my conjecture. This part is not in scripture, but it is my conjecture that Paul knows like all of us that God knows that Paul like all of us has just a little bit of an ego. And the idea of a great Macedonian man calling on Paul to come over and get some help is going to get Paul moving in that direction quite quickly. That's just my summing about what I think about Paul and who I imagine him to be. What is clear in the scripture is that God sends a message to Paul. That is what Paul needs to hear. That is what will get Paul moving. That is the thing that calls Paul to the place that he needs Paul to be. Even though the thing on the other side of it is not exactly what Paul saw in the vision. God will speak to you in a way he can speak to you to get you to hear. But what I want to encourage you in is don't get so attached to the first thing you hear that in your redirecting, you don't realize that God might be redirecting again and bringing you to something that was different than the reason that you thought you went there in the first place. Paul thought he went there to go find this Macedonian man. But when he got there, he found Lydia by a stream and she and her whole household were saved. And she becomes the first church leader in Philippi. This is why Paul went there. But he was open enough to the leading of the spirit of God to say, "This is why I came, even though this isn't what I saw."
When I first moved to Australia, I moved to Australia to do a creative arts dance program. Then I started doing their leadership and church ministry program. And then I met a very handsome Australian named Philip Ryburn. The reason I thought I was going there was what God needed to speak to me to get me where he needed me. But the ultimate reason that he positioned me wasn't the reason I thought I went there for in the first place. When you get where God's leading you, continue to be led by his spirit in a way that you are able to do what he's calling you to do in this moment because the last thing that comes is his revealing. He restrains and he redirects and then he reveals. We want our revealing at the beginning. God starts giving us directions and we're like, "Well, where are we going? How are we getting there? Who else is coming? What's going on along the way? Will there be food? Will there be finances for this adventure? Jesus, will there be friends on the other side? How much opposition are we going to face?" And God's like, "I'm not telling you any of that. This is the direction we're moving in. Is it going to be worth it in the end? This is the direction we're moving in. Is it going to work? This is the direction we're moving in. Will it be a success? This is the direction we're moving in. Will I feel good about it in the end? This is the direction we're moving in." And the revealing doesn't come until the end.
It after Phil and I decided not to move to Mexico, came back here. It was almost three years later that our founding pastors came to us and asked us if we would consider stepping into the role of lead pastor. Three years where we were here like, God, what are we doing here? Why are we here still? And the revealing, the full revealing of that is still being unfolded. God, why us? Why this season? Why this moment? Just keep moving, God. Is it still us? Just keep moving, God. You got to tell us if it's not us, just keep moving. Because he reveals things in layers. And some of us are stuck in our redirection because we're asking God, "What's going to happen on the other side?" And he's like, "I gave you directions. Go to Macedonia." And you're like, "Who's going to be there? And what's going to happen?" And God's like, "I just said go to Macedonia. That's what I'm telling you next." And we want the revelation and we want the instruction and we want the detail on the other side of it. But Paul didn't get any of that upfront. He just got a direction to follow.
But when he gets to Macedonia, when he gets to Philippi in, which is in Macedonia, he's there. I don't want you to miss that. He's there for days before he meets Lydia. I don't know how many times we've bailed early because we get where God has us and then we're like, "Well, it doesn't seem like anything's happening here." And God's like, "Will you just give it a minute? I'm just lining up the people. I'm lining up the places. I'm lining up what I'm doing here. I'm walking you in a direction." And he finds himself down by a river. He's like, "We might as well go to the river. Go pray there." The reason they would have been by a river praying at a house of prayer was because there would not have been enough Jewish men. The law required for them to be to be 10 Jewish men in order to establish a synagogue in a city region. Which means that because Paul didn't go to the synagogue to proclaim the gospel of who Jesus was like he had done in so many other cities that there weren't enough Jewish men standing in that city for there to even be a synagogue. So they go to a place of prayer on the outskirts of the town and there they find a group of women praying and they find a woman named Lydia who's a dealer and purple cloth. It means that Lydia is among the elites of the city. It tells us that she has an entire household which means she probably has servants who live and work for her and under her and live under her covering. And they proclaim the message to Lydia. And Lydia becomes the first convert in Philippi. And because of her strength and her leadership and her authority, her entire household follows her. And she invites them into her house.
Just a few verses later, we didn't read it together today. I encourage you to read it throughout this week. They find a slave girl who's bound and who's demon-possessed. She represents not the elite of society but the bottom of society. The oppressed, the disenfranchised, the disconnected. She is literally owned by someone else. And the power of God, frees this girl, and she comes in to the new church. Just a few chapters later, Paul and Silas find themselves trapped in jail. Through that whole situation. God frees them and they're able to minister to the jailer who's getting ready to fall on his own sword and he and his whole household becomes saved into what God is doing. And the church in Philippi is born. A church that's ready to become established. Paul didn't know why he was going, but the church was born that 10 years later he would write the book of Philippians 2 and he would read to them and write to them like this. Look what it says in Philippians 1 starting verse three. It says, "I give thanks to my God for you in every remembrance of you. Always praying with all joy for all of you in every prayer because of your partnership in the gospel." That word means your financial support in the gospel from the first day until now. I am sure of this that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Paul allowed himself to be restrained and he allowed himself to be redirected without full realization of what the revelation of this action would be. And where the spirit was guiding. But I think that it is a very likely outcome that the need for the church in Philippi was there because the resources, the support, the ability for them to financially fund the work that Paul was doing was going to enable what he needed to do all throughout throughout Asia. Philippi was a wealthy region where those who had served faithfully retired. It was a wealthy port where those who traded and goods came. God needed what was inside of Philippi and able to do what God what Paul had planned to do throughout Asia. It was about the timing and it was about the need to bring someone else in to be part of the journey on the way.
This is what I want you to hear. You feel like God's stopping you sometimes and you're like, "God, why can't I go after the good things that I have planned? God, I know that I have a space. God, I was moving in this direction." And he wants to redirect the plans that he has for you, and you don't get to see it yet. But trust in his hand that is always faithful. Trust in his leading that is always true. That there is a resource on the other side of what he's doing. There is a plan on the other side of what he's doing. That the spirit of God on the inside of you is wanting to do exceedingly abundantly more than you could have ever asked or thought according to his riches in Christ Jesus. Stop settling for what we can do in our own hands. Stop settling for the plan that you put together and get committed to running after a spirit-led life. God, we want to be found in you. God, we want to be found in you. Come on. If that's your surrender today, if that's your cry today that I want to live a life led by the spirit, will you just stand to your feet and lift your hands in the air?
Spirit of God moving across this room. Spirit of God, fill this room right now. For those who are being restrained, God, give them patience. The fruit of the spirit is patience in the waiting. Fill them with your spirit. Fill them with your power. Fill them with fresh vision. God, for those who are waiting for their redirection, God, I say give them ears to hear. Give them a willingness to respond. Give them the ability to move when you say move. Spirit of God, move in this place. Spirit of God, fill this room. Fill your people. Let there be a fresh outpouring, God. Let there be a fresh move of your spirit. God, we need you. We don't want our good plans, God. We want your plans, God. We need you. Come on. If you know that you need him, God, we need you. We need you. Jesus. Jesus. Fill your people, God. Thank you, Jesus.