When The Holy Spirit Leads a Church - Pastor Daniel Batarseh

If you have your Bibles with me, and I hope you do, meet me in the book of Acts chapter one. Today, I just wanna speak from, a subject that I think is vital for us as we're gonna hear in a moment. And for the past few months, if you've been with us, you know that we've gone through a series in the book of first Timothy that focuses on the structure government mandate goals designed for the local church. And although we've heard so much already, prayfully, I wanna explore another vital component that will, for this church and any church for that matter, is in need of in order to thrive in the will of God. And what is gonna be presented today goes beyond the need to honor gender roles and the things that God has designed for men and women, which is important.

It goes deeper than how we should treat one another as Christians, though that is obviously needed. And it is much more crucial for us to grasp than a polished, constitution for a local church. Today, I wanna speak to you about the necessity for the local church to be led by the Holy Spirit. Many Christians, professing Christians, that have mistaken him to be some impersonal force. You have others who think he's some kind of property of God that he dispenses when he wants to do some supernatural things on the earth.

But the Holy Spirit is not like electricity. The Holy Spirit is not just some mist that God sprays when he desires to demonstrate his power. The Holy Spirit is God. He's a person. And we learned that he has emotions.

We learned that he has a mind. We learned that he has a will. We learned that he has the same omni attributes that the father and son possesses, though he holds a unique role within the godhead. And the holy spirit has been granted to the church for many reasons. And one of the core mandates of the Holy Spirit has been spelled out by the Lord Jesus Christ in Acts chapter one verse eight.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Now most professing Christians who grew up in the church memorize that verse. But I wanna tell you this morning that there's a great chasm between knowing this verse and knowing your need of it. Great difference. And what makes this truth even more profound is the immediate audience who received the instruction.

According to verse one, we know that Jesus, after he rose from the grave, spent forty days with his apostles, teaching them, revealing things to them. And at this point, he is commanding them before his ascension of their need to be patient and wait and tarry before they start their global ministry to receive assistance from heaven. And that is amazing because they walked with Jesus for three and a half years. They were given power for moments to see demons cast out of people, to see the sick recover, to see souls touched by the gospel. And after all that they knew, after an amazing resume, Jesus still looks at me and says, it's not enough.

It's not enough. You've touched me. You've you've heard me. You've ate with me. You witnessed what I had to do and what I said, but you need the Holy Spirit to clothe you with power.

You need the Holy Spirit to clothe you with my anointing. And so they were called to wait, and they did. But what I find so amazing is that when they head to Jerusalem to wait, we are told of a greater number. Are we not? What are we told here in verse if we come down?

Verse 15. In those days, Peter stood up among the brothers. The company of persons was in all about a 120. 120? Jesus spoke to his 11.

How did we get up to a 120? Bible doesn't tell us. But I can imagine that after they were told to wait, that the disciples did what they could to tell as many of the disciples that believed in Jesus in Jesus' day to join them. The Lord told us that we must tarry. The Lord told us that we must wait upon him.

Join us. Let's seek the Lord together. We We don't know when it's gonna happen, but he said wait, and we believe him. Come, and a few from here and a few from there. And it's a wonderful number to think that a 120 people in one large room were waiting upon the Lord, and we're clothed with power.

But it makes you think, doesn't it? It makes you wonder, doesn't it? Think about the amount of people that Jesus touched throughout his ministry. Think about those who have encountered him, were healed, delivered by him. Think about those who professed to believe in him.

I mean, what was the number do you think? Some would say, well, it's a 120, but we have another number according to another book. In first Corinthians chapter 15 verse six, what does Paul say? That the Lord in his resurrected state appeared to how many? 500, and not just people, brothers.

500 disciples at one time. Now we can't read too much into this thought that I'm about to present, but it's worth entertaining. If there was a number that we got, 500, and only a 120 waited for the power of the Holy Spirit, where were the other 380? Some would say, well, they didn't hear it. Some would say, well, it was just those in the local area.

Sure. But I like to think this. Is it possible that all of them heard about what Jesus told the 11, but only a 120 were interested in it? Makes you wonder if that is true, if that is a possibility, that's not dogmatic truth, but if that is a possibility, then it is a sad picture of among all those who believe in Jesus Christ, only a fraction are really interested in being empowered by the Holy Spirit. And many are willing to go on in their Christian life doing it in their own strength.

Many are willing to go on without out the need of the third person of the Godhead. Many believe in their own mind and in their own strategies, and people are leaning upon marketing skills and business tactics to how to run a church. And I wonder in this room this morning, if God were to reveal our hearts, how many of us in this place really want to know the Holy Spirit of God? You see, there is no question that the experience in Acts chapter two was unique to the early church, especially to this group of people. But there is no debate, no debate, no debate.

I don't care how you feel about the Holy Spirit and what weird things you've seen in your Christian experience. There is no debate in the fact that each believer is called to receive greater feelings of the Holy Spirit throughout their journey. That's not a suggestion. That's a command in the epistles. And though we are all sealed with the Holy Spirit by faith, we would be foolish to believe that every Christian is equally as controlled by the Holy Spirit.

But the Bible says every believer is called to know this filling, this continual perpetual filling because this wasn't a one time deal for the early church. You read on and you see that they continue to come before the Lord and saying, Lord, we need your Holy Spirit. We need you to help us here. We need you to really, really assist us in this moment. And he was faithful to meet them there.

And I wonder if in the average church meeting today, the reason why the prayer meeting is so thinned out and that the personal request to be filled with the Holy Spirit is so rare in the life of every believer is due to, one, we are not convinced our need of him, or two, we are not really concerned about our witness. For that is the reason that he was given. Some might think, well, listen. This whole business of being filled with the Holy Spirit, this is this is spiritual leadership stuff. You're you're about to preach a sermon for pastors and evangelists, and I say in response, that is a grave mistake, brother.

Grave mistake. It's actually the calling of every Christian, and I wanna say this, the failure to believe so can set a local church back in drastic ways. Consider the old testament with me this morning, and consider the structure that was known as a tabernacle. Three main parts, the outer court, the holy place, the most holy place. And each part had a role.

Each part had a specific ministry to fulfill. But interestingly, there was no natural lighting within the holy place and the most holy place. What do I mean? When you're in the outer court, you had the natural light of the sun. But the moment you came into the tent, the most the holy place rather, it was so layered and covered.

There was no windows. There was no clear ceiling. There was no ability to see apart from one instrument that God ordained for the tabernacle to have. What was it? The lampstand.

The lampstand would be placed in the holy place, and that was the only illumination that the priest had. To do what? To minister in that place. There was other things they needed to do, and if there was no light on the lampstand, there was no ability to observe, calculate effectively, and do what they were called to do. Now that's interesting, isn't it?

And what's more interesting is this, that there is an instruction given so specific for the tabernacle to have that light burning night and day. You wanna hear it? In Exodus 27 verse 20. Listen to what God said to the nation of Israel. You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn.

Whose job was it to supply the oil for the lampstand? The priest? Does it say the priest? No. The common Israelite.

The worshiper that would come to the house of God. God says it's the responsibility of the congregation to come to the house of God and to bring their own oil. And when they bring the oil, the priest would have his own role to manage and to make sure that the lampstand was kept and protected. But ultimately, it was a partnership between the priest and the people to make sure that the lamp kept burning. Because if you have no lamp, you have no effective ministry in the holy place.

And you know what the oil represents, don't you? It's a symbolic picture of the Holy Spirit. And if that's true, then what a beautiful illustration of the responsibility of the believer in the current temple of God, which is the church of Jesus Christ. Every single one of us are supposed to bring their own oil. We don't depend upon the leadership only.

God calls each of us to cultivate and build and maintain a filling of the Holy Spirit, lest we see a ministry not succeed the way it can. What happened if the people got lazy and didn't bring oil? What would happen? Again, darkness would come, and it would begin to now influence the other things that the priests were supposed to do in the house of God. And I wanna make the case today that you and I have a personal responsibility being filled with the spirit of God and contributing to the light and the illumination and the warmth and the power of the Holy Spirit as we come together.

It's not just about you hearing a sermon every Sunday. See, we've turned the church into some kind of a restaurant almost. We come and every week, we give a review of what we liked and what we didn't like. I liked the worship this time. It was really good.

I liked that second song especially. It was it just made me feel a certain way. Sermon, it wasn't as passionate as the other time, and we begin to put Yelp reviews on our church services. When you're supposed to come and give, not just receive. Give your money, some would emphasize that.

I'm saying giving something more, and that's the Holy Spirit. Something of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit for the common good of the people. This is the call for the believer. This is the call for the church. And I'm sure you would like to know, well, how is it that I can know of greater feelings of the Holy Spirit?

I'm glad you're asking. But before we get there, let's get inspired a little bit. Let's see what happens according to the word of God when the Holy Spirit leads a church. What happens when the Holy Spirit of God really gets involved and is in partnership with a ministry? Well, we're encouraged to know that there's a whole book on it, and we have snapshots, and we have examples, not just to tell us how the early church functioned, but to give us inspiration to believe for the same effectiveness today.

Many people would argue against that and say, well, you're getting fanatical now, and you're getting subjective now, and you're gonna go and and if you teach this kind of stuff, you're gonna veer people off into weird manifestations and weird things. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the Holy Spirit of the Bible. I'm talking about a thing that you can point your finger to and say, this is what God is able to do. And let me encourage you with this just in case you have fallen to the opposite extreme and you think the Holy Spirit is some background idea of God and you're afraid of him more than encouraged to invite him.

If there's a counterfeit, that means that there's a real thing. You don't make counterfeits of something that is not valuable. Have you ever seen counterfeit toilet paper? I hope not. But what do people make counterfeits of?

Gold and precious jewels and different things that hold value. And the counterfeit testifies to the to the fact that there is a real thing out there. And I see a lot of counterfeit work of the Holy Spirit, But it shouldn't freak me out to the point where I even disobey the Bible and push the idea away from my own life. It actually caused me to say, Lord, I want the real thing. I want the real thing.

If you think you can do life without the Holy Spirit, good luck. Enjoy your Christian journey. But I learned from this Bible that even the disciples of old needed Him, needed Him. And I think we're trying to do it without him, and look at where we're at in America today. You go to many church growth conferences now, and what's the emphasis?

What kind of lights you need and what kind of colors that you need in your sanctuary to be more inviting and the way you should dress as a pastor to to be more relevant. That's what we've come down to. Where is the Holy Spirit? Where is the power of God from on high? Where is conviction that saves souls?

Do you think drug addicts are gonna care about what kind of lights you have in your church? You think people that are bound in sexual sin are gonna leave a church and be like, Wow. I really liked how comfortable the pews were. They need the power of God, and we need it too. And so I wanna look at a scene together in Acts chapter 13 so that our hearts would be inspired to be a church that knows how to be led by the Holy Spirit, and that includes you today, businessman.

That includes you today, student. That includes you today, mother. Acts chapter 13 is a turning point in the narrative of the book of Acts, but it gives us an insight into a local church. And we read in verse one, and I wanna draw three points out of this concerning what happens when a church is led by the Holy Spirit. Now there were in the church of Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off. You and I in this book get to zoom in in what's happening in the church at Antioch. And as we come, we realize a beautiful thing that this church here is serious about the gospel. Many churches are satisfied with insightful sermons.

They don't care about conviction. They don't care about being challenged. Just insightful sermons. Nice people that they can see and and chitchat with and and talk about the latest sport highlights and the latest movies and what's happening in politics and can't forget the monthly barbecues. Right?

You can't. And and various activities, and and they and they're satisfied just with that. And I am all for fellowship. If you, if you want to know, there's a deep joy in my heart when I see, as I announced earlier, people here till, till nighttime laughing and opening Bibles and playing and eating. I love it.

I think a church is a family. But if that's all the church is, I'm sorry to say it is not a church. It is not a church. The church is not just a family. The church is an army.

The church is an army, and the church has been given a mandate from heaven. You and I have a purpose on the earth, and the church has to be a place where there is strategy, prayer, seriousness about souls, about people who are going to an eternal hell. There needs to be a sense of that in a ministry for it to be a church. You come to Acts. Put away the books.

Put away what you like. Put away your ideas. Come to the book of Acts and get your description of a church from it, and you're gonna get a different church than what we see a lot in our day. And what we see here is a church in Antioch that is on mission. They're serious.

They're not playing games. They come to the point here where they have various people of various backgrounds, various personalities, cultures, and you have even different giftings. You have some prophets and some teachers, but they have one thing in common, a knowledge of their dependency on the Holy Spirit. They're coming and they're seeking the Lord, and we have a list of their names only to find out that in the list of the names, there is someone else added. Who is it?

The Holy Spirit. And the language of the verses is as though he's been there. It's like you have all these names in the verse two, and it's like the Holy Spirit said. Didn't say he rushed in like a mighty, mighty wind and says, this is what you need to do. Just said the Holy Spirit said.

And what was it that invited the Holy Spirit to speak up in such a profound way? Well, we're told they were worshiping and fasting. They were worshiping and fasting. They came together, and they said, we gotta seek God. We really need to seek the Lord.

And they began to worship the Lord, adore the Lord, praise the Lord. And the idea of fasting here shows the urgency of the matter. And there are times in our church, there are times in our own lives where things get so serious, we need to so seek God that it it's a greater priority than eating. And we put things aside, and we say, Lord, we're coming before you. It's not the idea of showing God that we're starving ourselves and this is how desperate we are.

No. It it's your own pull where you say, I need extra time with the Lord, and this church realizes that. And we don't know explicitly what they're asking God for. But by God's answer here in the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Spirit, we get an idea that it's quite possible that this church needed clarity on the next step for their ministry. How do we spread the gospel now?

Where do we go next? What are we supposed to do? And so they come together. Lord, we need you. Lord, you need to speak now.

What do we do from here? You could almost say that this church in a was in a place where they did not know what was next. And when the Holy Spirit saw their hunger, He saw their humility, He saw their willingness, He made His plan known. He revealed what it was that they were supposed to do. You're saying, how did he speak?

Did he speak audibly? And it's presumed that he spoke through one of the prophets. And I'm not here to say that the Holy Spirit will speak like that every single time or speak like that at all. He has different ways of making his will known. He is God.

He knows how to do it. A lot of people get confused. Did God tell me this? Did God tell me that? When God wants to reveal something, he will reveal it.

There won't be confusion about it. He speaks, and when he speaks, they know what to do now. You know what I love about this? Based on their praying, a ministry was born. It was born in the spirit.

A partnership was born. A team was born now. Saul and Barnabas were now collected together, and they knew we're supposed to work together now, and we're supposed to move in this direction. And that's what every church should strive for, to be in partnership with the Lord. Because we can get lazy in this, and we can be discouraged or we can be depending on other things.

And what do we do? We we start our own ministries and we come up with creative ideas, and we can even make the church really busy really busy with stuff. And dare I say, all we're doing are doing is birthing Ishmaels rather than Isaac's. Doing things in the flesh. And and listen, even if it's a good idea, if it's not God's idea, you won't have the grace of God on it.

There won't be a blessing behind it. And what's so amazing is that the Holy Spirit says something so simple. Set apart for me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I've called them. And then they they hear that. They sense that.

Then they they pray and fast forward this team, for this ministry. And then it says here, and sent them off. They sent them off. The church says, go. You're the new missionary team for the church of anti go now.

Move forward. But look at verse four. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit well, who sent them? Did the church send them or did the Holy Spirit send them? They both sent them.

The idea here is that the church was working with the Holy Spirit. So when the church sent them, it was really the Holy Spirit sending them. Should we not desire the same? Wouldn't it be an amazing thing to know that the things that we start, the ideas that we have, the things that we wanna do are backed up by the Holy Spirit of God? And God knows how to make that clear.

God knows how to reveal. And the first point I wanna make out of this verse is that when a holy when the Holy Spirit leads a church, we will have supernatural guidance. Supernatural guidance. And we will save ourselves from a lot of heartache. Because you see, yes, the will of God is made known in totality in the scriptures, but there are things that we have to do in life that we can't point chapter and verse to.

So we, as a church, need to expand. You know that if you've been part of this church for a while. Show me chapter and verse where it says how to get instructions on how to build a house. Show me the business plan. Show me what neighborhood you're supposed to be in.

I'm not attacking the sufficiency of scripture. I am actually exalting the point that we need the Holy Spirit, and that's found in scripture. We that's found in scripture. And so what does a church do? What does a what does a church well, I'll tell you, a Bible believing church will come before the Lord and say, God, we need you.

We love your word. We preach verse by verse. We preach books at a time. But, Lord, in this moment, we need the Holy Spirit to guide us in this decision. And we will save ourselves from a lot of heartache, from a lot of disappointments, from a lot of turning around the same mountain over and over again.

And this is what this church does. The early church, they came before the Lord and they said, what's the next step for this church? What's the next step for this ministry? What do we do from this point on? And something was birthed in the spirit.

You know what I love? The instruction was so simple. Saul, Barnabas, unto me, go. He doesn't give this whole list of what's gonna happen. Do you wonder why?

I'll tell you why. Because the Holy Spirit reveals one step at a time. That's why. And he wanted this people, he wanted even the apostle Paul to continue on the journey one step at a time. Why does he do that?

Because he wants you to continue to depend on the Holy Spirit, to continue to remain in that state of humility and brokenness. Lord, I need you now. Here's another chapter, another challenge, another season. What do we do now? And this is God's wonderful way of keeping us at his feet so that we can fellowship and commune with him and never boast in our own strength or wisdom, which brings me to this point.

Go to Acts chapter 15 and look at something with me that happened with this ministry team. Who are the people that were brought together? Barnabas and who? Saul. Now look what happens not too far after.

In Acts 15 verse 37, now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark, but Paul thought best not to take them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose a sharp disagreement. Translation, there was an argument, a heated one. A sharp disagreement so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord.

Now many people draw encouragement from this text, and we should, by the providence of God in it. And here's how God's providence manifests. You have a very human mistake made here. There's a disagreement. There's frustration.

There's anger, and they split off. And God's work in this is that he took one missionary team and made two. And now the gospel spread even further as a result of what takes place here. And we should be encouraged to know that even in our mistakes, God can turn around things for his glory. Amen.

Nonetheless, this is not an example for us to act in the flesh with that end in mind. Well, we can just act up how we want and do and say what we think is right, and God will clean it all up. That is not why this text is given. In fact, I wanna look at it at a different light. What did the Holy Spirit say in Acts 13?

Who did he want to come together? Saul and who? Barnabas. Was that the team that he said he wanted? It was clear.

Right? Wouldn't he made it clear if he wanted something else down the road? Yes. But, unfortunately, you have a team that was brought together by the spirit, and because of a moment of the flesh, they severed what God had birthed in the spirit. Why am I bringing this up?

You and I have to be careful. You and I have to be very careful. The Holy Spirit can start a work, a marvelous work, a miraculous work in our lives in this local church. And it is our responsibility to remain in the spirit, lest we make decisions and do things in the flesh. Which brings us to the next point here.

That not only will we know supernatural guidance when a church is led by the Holy Spirit, but you better believe this. You will know point number two. Supernatural Opposition. Supernatural opposition. We come down to Acts 13, and come here down with me in verse six.

When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet named Bar Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. Isn't that beautiful? Listen to this. When you seek God as a church, as a believer serving in the ministry, you will know supernatural guidance.

And what does that guidance include? Open doors. Open doors, and what an open door here. They are summoned by a politician to hear the gospel. That is something that the Holy Spirit can do.

I remember when we were first saved, there was just a bunch of friends that came together with different backgrounds and those who grew up in Canada, and you know this to be true. And all of a sudden, somehow, someway, the Lord opened a door for us to go and share the gospel in Catholic high schools, multiple of them. And every time the we're we're invited to come into classrooms and preach the gospel, take up class time, and share our testimonies and what Christ has done for these lost souls. And we would leave one high school after another. We didn't have a ministry name.

We didn't have any webs, nothing of the sort. It's just a bunch of friends who came together and prayed, and then God would lead us to these schools, and we would leave every school. I remember one specific school. We sat in their chapel room, and they brought one class after the other the whole day. And we left there with, like, how is this happening?

How are they bringing a bunch of kids to preach the gospel, take up school time, and share our faith? Because the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can do stuff like that. When you seek God, he begins to open doors, and this door is open. But know this, supernatural guidance will meet supernatural opposition.

And what we see here is that there's a false prophet, a witch. Believe in witches that fit in your theology, evangelize long enough. There's a witch, a warlock. And he comes, and we read here in verse eight, but Elymas, the same person, the magician, for that is the meaning of his name, opposed them. Opposed them.

Supernatural opposition. Opposed them seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. Away from the faith. When a church is not satisfied to succumbing to picnics and says, we wanna be an army. When a church is serious about preaching the whole counsel of God, when a church actually takes time to pray and come together and say, we need to seek God, and it doesn't feel like you're pulling teeth for people to come and seek the Lord for specific matters.

When a church has strategy to evangelize their their area, their their city, you will be put on notice by the devil. And the more you advance in the will of God, the more you will meet the fury of hell. And that's what's happening here. And if you think that that is strange, you think that is extreme, what did Paul say to the Corinthian church? He said in first Corinthians sixteen:nine, for a wide door.

For a wide door, for effective work. What does that sound like? For effective work has opened to me. Paul says a huge door has opened to me, a wonderful door. We're gonna do great ministry, great harvest, great plans, but what does he say at the end of it?

And there are many adversaries. There are many adversaries. And in this case, in Acts 13, didn't take too long for the enemy to manifest his opposition to the gospel work. And Elymas, his puppet, is trying to cancel the efforts of this ministry team that was just birthed a few verses ago. So what happens?

Well, realize this. Evangelize consistently and long enough, and you'll realize that there will be opposition from the outside. Jesus loves souls. Our Lord adores souls. He died for souls.

And Christ, as we know, went after the one. He's willing to go after the one because of his great love. But have you ever thought that Satan himself is passionate for souls? Very passionate. And just like Christ is willing to go for the one, Satan himself is willing to go for the one.

Not because of his great love, but because of his perfect hatred. And here's one soul, Surges Powless, that's about to escape deception and falsehood and embrace salvation. And Satan is pulling his hair, and he says, I'm not gonna let this one escape hell. And so he fights for that soul. And he'll fight you if you're gonna fight for that soul.

If you're intimidated by that, if you wanna step back, just don't don't pray, don't preach, don't care about the Holy Spirit using your work. Just just step back and and the devil will already win. But when you realize that this faith is a fight, it's a fight. Let me say it again. It's a fight.

What did Paul say at the end of his life when he described his Christian experience? That was a great time. He said, no. I fought the good fight. My whole Christian experience has been a long, long fight with principalities, with persecution, with the beast at Ephesus.

If you're fighting this morning, you're in the will of God. You're in the will of God. If you've never known the tension of fighting, if you've never known spiritual warfare, if you never know what it's like for people to come against you, you have some questions to ask. But there's a fight. And we should not be afraid when things from the outside attempt to restrain our influence on the world.

I know of a local church. They put up one teaching. They had one teaching on Islam. They put it up on their website. They put it up on their YouTube, and what happened?

They got one threat from a Muslim against their church. They took the video down. Who won? Who won? The enemy won.

In that case, the enemy won because they're afraid. And that's what Peter speaks about in first Peter in his first letter, that there is a devil that prowls around like what? A roaring lion. What does that mean? Listen.

If you walk anywhere, if I go to any park and I hear a lion roaring, I'm running the opposite way. The whole idea of that is intimidation. The whole idea of that is by the sound of his voice. Not it doesn't say that he he will clench you into his mouth. No.

It's just from his roar. Peter says, be careful. He'll just roar, and he can make Christian shake and quake and give up and pull back. I didn't sign up for this. Well, if you signed up to follow Christ, you did sign up for this.

You did. And I'm trying to tell you, you shouldn't be afraid. You should not be afraid. And what's amazing is that the schemes of the enemy are much more complex. Because not only does he come from the outside in, you know this, he's able to come within.

He's able to come within and do equal, if not more damage, if a church is not filled with the Holy Spirit. Look at Acts 13 verse 13. After they overcome this, and we'll revisit that, they overcome this, Sergius' palace actually gets saved. Look at verse 13. Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga and Pamphylia, And John left them and returned to Jerusalem.

Now you read that verse, and you think that's a wonderful transitional verse, holds no significance, no importance, until you visit chapter 15, as you and I read, and realize that whatever reason John left, for whatever purpose he had in leaving this team, it was enough for Paul to blame him. It was enough to agitate Paul, to disappoint Paul so severely that Paul would never want John Mark to be a part of the ministry team again. So John Mark let down Paul. And I'm not saying that what he did was satanic or influenced by Satan. Could have been just something of the flesh.

And people argue, why did he leave? Did he miss home? Was he afraid? We don't know. But it was enough to what?

Cause a stir within. Then you come to chapter 15, and you have a sharp disagreement. And what Elymas the magician couldn't do, this disappointment did to a certain extent. Church, gotta be careful now. Okay?

Gotta be very, very careful. You know what this proves to me? You can be a church that reaches great heights of spirituality, and it's still possible that there are people within that will not be in partnership with what the Spirit is doing. That's possible. And what you have is some people within a spirit led church.

You ready for this? That will cause problems. Within. I'm not talking about the roars outside. I'm talking about inside.

They'll cause problems. They'll raise protests. They'll leave for insignificant reasons. They'll bring up things that offended them that could be easily dealt with with a simple conversation. No.

And if the enemy can't make a people quake by his roars, he can even go to the extent, you ready, to slither in and even send some people in to do some work from the inside out. Don't believe me? So you just heard that Satan can operate as what? A lion. But that's not the only thing.

First Corinthians rather second Corinthians 11. Turn there with me, and I want you to see another manifestation of the enemy. Second Corinthians 11 verse three. But I'm afraid, Paul says, but I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from his sincere and pure devotion to Christ. He's not talking about what Peter said that there is a lion out there that's roaring.

He wants to devour you. He wants to scare you. He wants to keep you in place. He doesn't want you to advance the gospel through your minute. No.

He's saying there's some people inside your church, church of Corinth, and I'm scared because they made their way in. You didn't detect them, and now they are actually luring you. They're poisoning your minds to come away from Christ and away from each other. And this is the same chapter where we get look here now. We know this famous verse, verse 14.

And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Now look, so it is no surprise if his servants, the servants of who? Satan, also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. That's the work of Satan. That's the serpent manifestation of the devil.

So what does it look like? People coming within the church, and they look good. They look good. They come in, and they look like they're servants of righteousness, but inside they're snakes. They're snakes.

And they've actually come in whether their motive is directly influenced by a relationship with the devil himself or because they have a foothold to the devil because they're not in the spirit and they might not even be saved. And what happens now? They begin to poison people's minds. They begin to bring division, not just doctrinal issues. No.

No. No. They begin to pin people against one another. They begin to pull out faults from one person, and they try to put it on one another. That is satanic.

Because a person filled with the spirit, if there is an offense, they go to the person that's offended them. He says, I'm afraid. The lion, it's obvious. You get threats, emails. You get the city attacking you.

You get people saying, if you do this, we'll come and we'll bomb you and we'll shoot you and you okay. Roar all you want. But this, it's hard to detect. So what is it going to require of a church to be able to detect the serpents that come in filled with the spirit? That's what it's gonna take.

Filled with the spirit so that you see past all the array of righteousness and the language and the pounding of the Bible. Amen, brother, God is good. You see past all of that. And that's why you need a leadership that is filled with the spirit. And guess what?

It can go beyond that. You can have a congregation filled with the spirit. So it doesn't even take very long for that snake serpent to slither in, and you already have 10 people like there's something off here. There's something off here. I don't know what it is, but there's something off.

So what do we do? This sounds fearful. Right? This sounds intimidating. Let me remind you again, we're in a war, but let me encourage you again with the truth that you and I can overcome the lion and the serpent.

Go to Psalm 91. Psalm 91. This is a conditional Psalm, by the way. It's not a Psalm that is promised to every professing Christian, and we learn that very clearly from verse nine. Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the most high who is my refuge.

You know what he's saying? Because you stick close to God. Because his presence is your address. That's where you live. From morning to night, you walk with the Lord.

You know the Lord. You seek the Lord. You take refuge in the Lord. You consult the Lord. Because you do that, look here in verse 13, you will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent, you will trample underfoot.

Amen and amen. So let the lion roar and let the serpents come in. If the Holy Spirit's on our side, we're safe. We're safe. We're safe.

When the Holy Spirit leads a church, there will be supernatural guidance, open doors, but there will also be supernatural oppositions. But lastly, there will be supernatural success. Verse nine of Acts chapter 13. So here's this opposition, satanic opposition, demonic opposition. But Saul, who is also called Paul, look at this, filled with the Holy Spirit.

Again, filled with the Holy Spirit. So here is an obstacle. Here is opposition. Here is resistance. What's the solution?

The Holy Spirit is saying, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit commissioned, and now the Holy Spirit is bringing a solution filled with the Holy Spirit. And what does Paul do? Only something you can do when you're filled with the Holy Spirit. Looked intently at him and said, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of deceit and villainy, Will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?

And now, now what's happening here, Paul is getting discernment. He's getting understanding of what's happening and what's about to happen to this man. It can only be revealed by the Spirit. And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time. And what happens?

Immediately, mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord. I love how he's astonished at the teaching and not the miracle. Isn't that awesome? He heard the gospel and he's like, this is this is true.

And then some guy just immediately made blind. He's like, what? This is the gospel? Don't be ashamed of the gospel. And don't think that a miracle will do everything.

God, in this moment, in this spontaneous scene, knew that this was necessary. And, yes, in the apostolic age, much miracles were performed in order to authenticate the message. But the principle is still true. When you're led by the Holy Spirit, God will give you supernatural success. And he'll he won't erase the hurdles, but he'll give you a way out.

He'll show you where to turn, and sometimes he'll tell you to do something, and oftentimes he'll tell you to do nothing. You stay put. What do we do, Lord? What do we do as a church? This is happening.

There's chaos happening. There's now arguments here. We see some division. People are going against each other, and sometimes the Lord would say, nothing. Just stay, and he'll take care of it.

We need the wisdom of God. We need the wisdom of God. And what's amazing is you go to Acts 16 and Paul wanted to go a certain place and the Holy Spirit said, no. He wanted to go here. No.

You stay put. And then a dream came and he knew where to go. And so that's what we need here. And here's the encouraging thing. We shouldn't be deflated.

We we shouldn't pound our heads against the wall and say, oh, how is this happening? Look, we have a magician now that's coming to our church and causing problems. What do we do? God, I thought you led us. I thought and this is what the enemy ultimately wants a church to do when they're spirit led, to give up.

Give up. Throw in the towel and just don't worry about prayer. Don't worry about fasting. Don't worry about planning. No.

No. No. Just stay put. But in those moments, we have to believe this. If the Holy Spirit has brought us thus far, He will continue His work, and He'll lead us.

If we really believe United Evangelical Church, especially if you've been here from the beginning, if you really believe that God did a work, God did a work many years ago to birth something so beautiful, do you think he's gonna just give us up? Do you think he's just gonna drop us and move on? God won't do that and the enemy can't do that. The only thing that can stop us from moving forward is us. Is us.

Supernatural fruit. Supernatural success. There has to be an awareness. And brothers and sisters, please, if you love souls, if you can remember every time we come into this place and we have a meeting where there's preaching that you would ask the Holy Spirit to be in the midst. The leadership is fully aware that when we come, no matter how prepared and how structured and what kind of things that we've conjured up and even sought counsel on, unless the spirit of God is in the midst, people won't be changed.

Entertained at best. Emotionally stirred? Probably better. But changed? We need the Spirit of God every time.

Would you make it a habit when you pull up here and you drive? Say, Lord, we need your presence. Maybe there's a lost person coming to the service today. Speak to their hearts, God. Maybe there's a witch that showed up at church.

Hold back the hand of the enemy. We need to start thinking like an army here, and we gotta get out of this consumer mentality and know this. Every single one of us has to bring oil to the house of God. Every single one of us. So here's the question.

How do I get oil? How do I get filled with the Holy Spirit? How do I make sure that this is a consistent experience in my life? Aren't you glad that it's very simple? I'm so glad that this is not something that I have to jump through hoops for and I have to stand under my head for and I have to lash myself and go up into some mountain for.

I'll give you three simple points. The one is obvious and the two may not be so common to our thinking. Number one, ask. Ask, ask, ask. Read call.

Ask. Ask. And not temporarily for a moment in a breath. That's not what Jesus said in Luke 11. When he said in that context that if you ask your heavenly father, how much more will he give the holy spirit to you?

He said it in a context that described desperation. A friend that left and came to his friend's house at night and says, I need some bread. That's desperation. It's not something that you can wait for the morning for. It's not something that you can schedule later on.

And he's trying to provoke a sense of I really need this. He says, when you pray like that, with that sense of awareness and that sense of desire and passion and a realization of your bankruptcy, only then will the Holy Spirit be given. But if you think it'd be nice to just have the Holy Spirit do things in my life, I'm sorry. It's not gonna cut it. And I'm not saying you have to perform before God.

I'm just saying there needs to be a deep awareness, a deep awareness. Lord, I am aware that if you don't help me, I'll give you in the context of preaching. If I come up from there to here and you're not with me, I'd rather not preach. I'd rather not preach at all. I I need to see your hand move, lord.

I need to trust that you're gonna take this word, and you're gonna actually penetrate in the hearts of people. If not, then put me on the shelf. Give me some other work to do. I'm not in this to just entertain people and impress them. I need your holy spirit.

When you pray with a sense of awareness that apart from the Holy Spirit, you can do nothing, that's when the Holy Spirit will be given. Ask. Ask. Always ask. Ask on your way to work.

Ask as your kids are coming home from school. Ask when you're coming to church and you are serving in a particular ministry, and even though you think you can figure out in your own mind, maybe the Holy Spirit has something else completely different in mind. Ask. Ask. But secondly, turn to Colossians.

There's more to it. There's more that we can do to contribute to the oil in our lives. I want you to see something quite interesting here. Colossians chapter three and look here in verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Give you thanks to God the father through him. Wives, submit to your husbands as fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything for this pleases the lord.

Fathers, do not provoke your children. And in verse 22, bondservants obey everything those who are in your who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart fearing the Lord. Now I'm reading all this for a reason. What was the first command? Let what?

The word of Christ dwell in you richly. Correct? Now keep in mind the things that followed that. Thanksgiving, singing, submission, the right attitudes for husbands, wives, bondservants, and children. Right?

Go to Ephesians now and notice something quite amazing. Ephesians chapter five. Verse 18. And do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit, addressing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always for everything to God the father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord.

And then he goes on in this teaching, as you know about husbands. Verse one of chapter six, children, obey your parents in the lord. Verse five of chapter six, bond servants, obey your earthly masters. Do you see what's happening here? Did you catch it?

The same things that followed being filled with the Word of God are the same things that followed being filled with the Holy Spirit. What am I trying to say? Immerse yourself in the Word of God, and you will be filled with the Holy Spirit. You know, you have people that say crazy stuff like, I'm more of a spirit person. I'm not really a word person.

What does that mean? Uh-uh. I'm a word person. I don't know, like, you know, that all that weird stuff of the Holy Spirit. What does that mean?

Paul equates both spiritual disciplines with the same results because Jesus said what? In John six sixty three. He said it clearly, If the spirit who gives life, the flesh is no help at all. The words that I've spoken to you are spirit and life. The words that I've spoken to you are spirit and life.

It is the spirit who gives life. Well, how do I get this life? The words that I've spoken to you are spirit and life. The more you soak your soul with the word of God, the more you study the word of God, the more you indulge in the word of God, the more you'll know something of being controlled by the author of the very word that you are studying. If you have no time for the word of God, if you don't if you're just gonna limit it to a verse every three days, I'm sorry, you are not gonna know the filling of the Holy Spirit.

You will be a hollow, effectiveness Christian. But when you get the word in you, the Holy Spirit begins to now control your thoughts and your emotions because the spirit doesn't work apart from the truth. I'm not promoting this morning that if you and I know what it's like to be led by the spirit, that's gonna be some things extra biblical that's gonna happen. No. He works with the word of God.

And when he sees a man, a woman, a church honoring the word of God, he'll honor them with his presence. He'll honor them with the power of God. If the Spirit has been sent to glorify Christ, here's the simple equation. The more we glorify Christ, the more the Spirit will come. Immerse yourself in the word of God.

And lastly, pursue a life that requires the filling of the Holy Spirit. Let's go back to Acts 13 in closing. Acts 13. And read verse nine with me again and read it carefully. Acts 13 verse nine.

But Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit. Now go to Acts chapter four and look at verse eight. This is another character, another disciple, another apostle. And we are told in Acts four verse eight, then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them. You know, what's amazing about these two instances is that we are informed by the Bible that in those moments, the Holy Spirit clothed Peter and Paul for the circumstance that they were facing.

If that wasn't an important detail, we wouldn't have been told that they were filled with the Holy Spirit. But what we're being informed was that there's a spontaneous sovereign work of the Spirit that happened in a specific moment, because this is what didn't happen. Paul didn't face Elymas. It says, Barnabas, stay here. And he ran to some kind of an alleyway and say, Lord, I need the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Fill me now. Fill me now. Fill me now. Peter didn't face the religious leaders and say, I know you're bringing up accusations, but I need, like, five minutes. And went somewhere and says, I need the feeling of the holy spirit.

I need the feeling of the holy spirit. There are separate times where we see Peter and Paul, like we just read, where they took the time to say, fill us with the spirit, Lord. Lead us by the spirit, Lord. But what we see here is apart from them requesting it in the moment, the spirit still sovereignly moved upon them. You say, well, why pray and why immerse myself in the word of God?

No. Those are the basis. But here's the other point. They were in situations that required the filling of the Holy Spirit. We're not asking for a church to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that we can have greater feelings during the worship time.

We're not asking to be a church that led by that's led by the Holy Spirit so that you can cry more during a sermon because I don't remember the last time I was really emotionally stirred by a sermon. The Holy Spirit has to work with something. And the work here that these two men are endeavoring in was obedience and the the advancement of the gospel. And when they were in positions where we are obeying the great commission, now the Holy Spirit can come and work with them. And so here's what I encourage you to do.

Brother, sister, I'm not saying you're gonna be a full time ministry. I'm not saying you're gonna be a pastor. I'm saying you can be whatever you are that God's called you to be, but you still need the filling of the Holy Spirit. And if you just set your heart to say, Lord, I wanna live in obedience, you might have to make steps of obedience before you sense any feeling of the Holy Spirit. And in that place like Peter, when you step out of the boat by faith and put your foot on the ocean, then you will see the supernatural come in to help.

So what does it look like? It looks like me willing to open my mouth during that lunch break and be willing to share the gospel knowing that in that moment, the Holy Spirit will help me present the gospel. Right? So the Holy Spirit, he's called the comforter, but if I if I'm not gonna be in an uncomfortable situation, how is he gonna comfort me? We're not asking for sensation here.

We're not asking for tingly tinglies. We're asking for power. And why give power if we're not in need of it? And so what point I'm making here is that we have to be consciously saying, Lord, I wanna live in obedience. Lord, open a door for me.

And when he opens a door, as as scared as you are, as as much as you might be intimidated, you make that step and there's the Holy Spirit. There's the Holy Spirit to meet you and to help you. Supernatural fruit is what we can expect, and I'll end in this verse. When you and I, when you and I choose to be a church that's led by the Holy Spirit, and you make it your ambition, your personal responsibility, say, Lord, I will ask. Lord, I will know your word.

And, Lord, by your grace and by your wisdom, my heart is set to obey you. However you want me to obey you, you will be able to bring oil. And what happens when a church when a church chooses to be led by the spirit? Not just the leadership, when the church Acts nine verse 31, and here's our final verse. So the church did it say the missionary team?

Did it say the leadership team? When the Bible says church, it means the collective people of God. Collective people of God. So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up and walking. The church was walking.

The church was walking in the fear of the Lord, and in what? The comfort of the Holy Spirit, It multiplied. It multiplied. It multiplied. Why?

Because there was a church, the early church that made a decision. We're gonna walk in the fear of God and we're gonna walk in relationship with the Holy Spirit. And when you have the Holy Spirit, he will bring supernatural success. Souls will begin to be saved. The saints will be able to be deepened in their walk with the Lord.

People will be healed of trauma and things that only God can heal them from. We need God. And so here's my question. If presumably, hypothetically, the 500 at one time saw the resurrected Lord, if the 500 heard that they were to wait and only a 120 waited, which side are you on this morning? I'll ask it this way.

When was the last time in your personal life you said, Lord, I need the Holy Spirit. I need the Holy Spirit like what Ephesians five and Colossians three says, to be a husband. I need the Holy Spirit. Lord, I need the Holy Spirit to be a good bond servant, a good employee, a a good a good boss, a Christ like I need the Holy Spirit. You need to fill me today.

I can't survive off of last week. Today is a new day. Help me. When's the last time you've prayed like that? I'll tell you why.

One of two reasons. Either one, you're convinced that you don't need him, or two, you're not concerned about your witness. If today you were not stirred, I would be stirred because I'm not stirred. I would say, what is going on with this? Hello?

Lord, give your Holy Spirit to show me my need for the Holy Spirit. That's how gracious God is. I need an understanding of my need of the Holy Spirit. And you know what God might do? Be careful if you pray that because this is what he might do.

He might show you. He might have to show you because when sermons don't work, he has to show you by example. He might show you how weak you are. And only then will you say, I need God. I need God to tie my shoes in the morning.

United Evangelical Church, my prayer over this message is that it would be a turning point only to go higher in God and to say we will be a church filled with the Holy Spirit. We will be a church that will be desperate to be led by the Holy Spirit. And this is a mandate, not just for the leadership, but for every single one of you because when we bring the oil, there'll be a greater light. There'll be a greater light on all our ministries. Just like in the tabernacle, that light would shine on all the other things in the holy place.

That's what we can do as a people who are filled with the Holy Spirit. Let's pray. There's no question what we're asking the Lord for this morning. There is no question. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.

Spirit of the living God. Supernatural guidance, supernatural opposition, supernatural success. How can we not ask him? Lord Jesus, you gave us your word. We heard your heart today To know the power of the Holy Spirit is not your suggestion, but your demand because you know what we need more than what we know.

And you know for the journey ahead that apart from the Comforter, the advocate, the gift of the Holy Spirit, we will not know guidance. We will not know opposition, which is not a good thing, and we will not know true fruit. Ministries open doors, solutions, birth from the mind of God. Lord, forgive us if we've allowed offenses concerning the doctrine and the person of the holy spirit to keep us from asking and believing for fillings of the Holy Spirit. Thank you that when we're saved, we have all of the Holy Spirit.

But, thank you for reminding us that that doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit has all of us. And, Lord, as a church, we want more of the Holy Spirit to have more of us. Lord, would you provide supernatural guidance to United Evangelical Church in the decisions and the steps that we need to make and the planning of how to reach this city, this nation with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord, would you prepare us for the roars of the lion and even the snakes that would be sent by the enemy to have spiritual strength and discernment to trample underfoot the young lion and the adder. Lord, we ask that we would, in those moments, not be frustrated when we feel that there is attacks and feel like there is onslaughts, that we would stand firm and know that the only solution, like Paul, is to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to know that you will provide a way out and that we will overcome what the enemy throws at us.

Thank you, Lord. We confess that we can't do this without you. We confess that we need the Holy Spirit, and we say, Lord, please, may we see more of his work and his power in our midst. This is our longing and our cry and our desire, and we know in faith that you will answer these desperate cries. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen and amen. Amen.