The Spirit Talks

Sermon Transcript:

Morning everybody. Morning, invite you to take your Bibles. We’re gonna be looking at Acts chapter 21 this morning, uh, as we return to our series in the book of Acts, the Spirit at Work to the ends of the Earth while you’re turning there to the Book of Acts. Um, I wanna mention a couple of things. Uh, we had a prayer request last week that I wanted to mention.

I. I had mentioned the Amala family had been involved in a serious car accident. Um, I wanted to give you an update on that if you have not heard. Um, two of their two boys, three year old and eight year old, uh, with Esan being the one most seriously injured were, um, initially both in I C u, Sean was there longer.

Both have gotten out of I C U actually both have come home. And

so really, really grateful injuries to four of the family members, but the two boys’ biggest concern and doing well. The other one is relating to Pastor Ben. Uh, pastor Ben is on sabbatical and he and his family have been spending the last seven weeks in Columbia. They’re due to come home tomorrow and then have two more weeks here on sabbatical, then come back in the office.

Um, yesterday morning, uh, I got a call. I mean, Ben is my son, so it was natural. I got a call from my daughter-in-law at 4:00 AM and the call was, uh, telling me that Ben had been rushed to the hospital there in Columbia, uh, with what they assumed and turned out to be an appendicitis attack. Um, he, he had, uh, surgery, emergency surgery yesterday.

It was quite a thing because nobody in the family speaks Spanish. Nobody in the hospital speaks English. And, uh, it was a, a little bit stressful. They finally found an English speaking person. Um, the surgery went well. Ben is, uh, doing well. Um, they still hope I just talked to Adi. They still hope to. Get out and be able to make their flight tomorrow.

Um, which would be a real praise. Um, uh, there have been some amazing pieces of this whole story because Adi was adopted from Columbia many years ago through the providence of God in a, just an amazing redemptive story. Um, she found out not long ago, um, that her biological mother that had put her up for adoption, um, the circumstances there in the ensuing years, her mother has come to Christ.

Um, her sister has come to Christ, and so she’s down there, um, back in a family. It’s, I, it’s, it’s an amazing story. Um, and God’s just work well, the family was able to step in and help in the midst of all this because they do speak Spanish. My only other emotion than incredible relief, uh, and gratitude to God with how this worked out is disappointment because there is a video that Ben made from his hospital bed while still under the influence of medication.

And it’s a 56 minute, 6 56 second video that I wanted to share this morning. Um, but I was talked off the cliff on that with, by another staff member. Um, it is, I watched it 10 times. It’s, it’s, lemme just say this. We are all grateful that Ben never got into drugs. Okay. Alright. We’re looking at Acts chapter 21 verses one to 16.

And I, and, and let me. Yeah, I’m, I’m gonna pray for both families. After we read the scripture and when we had parted from them and set sail, we came by a straight course to cost and the next day to roads, and from there to Patara and having found a ship crossing to Venicia, we went abroad and set sail.

When we had come in sight of Cyprus leaving on the left, we sailed to Syria and landed a tire for there. The ship was to unload its cargo. And having sought out the disciples, we stayed there for seven days and through the spirit, they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem. When our days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey, and they all, with wives and children, accompanied us until we were outside the city and kneeling down on the bench.

We prayed and said Farewell to one another. Then we went on board the ship and they re, they returned home. When we had finished the voyage from Ty, from Tire, we arrived at Tomas. And we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for one day. On the next day, we departed and came to Caesarea and we entered the house of Philip, the evangelist, who was one of the seven and stayed with him.

He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied while we were staying. For many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea and coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, thus, says the Holy Spirit. This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hand of the Gentiles.

When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, what are you doing weeping and breaking my heart for I am ready not only to be in prison, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, let the will of the Lord be done.

After these days, we got ready and went up to Jerusalem and some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, bringing us to the house of nascent of, of Cyprus and early disciple with whom we should lodge. Lord, we come to you this morning. God, again, we thank you for the scriptures and trust and pray that out of this passage you would speak into our lives, encouragement as we seek to understand how to better listen to the voice of the Spirit speaking into us.

Lord, we come this morning with praise as a people. Thank you for Tim and Naomi’s family and the protection of their boys. And Sophia. God, we thank you for just the providential way as we’ve heard the circumstances you miraculously worked and, um, protecting them, caring for them, bringing. Healing both of body and mind.

Thank you also for your hand on Ben this morning. Lord, thank you for the right people and the right places to be there to give him good care. Thank you that they were staying this week in a place that was right near a major hospital where before that they had been out in the tool lease. We just praise you, Lord, and pray for safety for them as they try to get things together to still be able to come back.

Now, God teach us today as we open the word in Jesus’ name. Amen.

We’re at the last part of Paul’s missionary journeys. We know that Paul had three big missionary journeys, right? This map is depicting that and on the map we’re gonna, as we’ve been following this long journey that started back in. In, in, uh, Antioch and went all the way through here. They were an Ephesus up in the red section.

Ephesus is where most of this journey took place. He was there three years. The rest of the journey that shot him over to Greece or called Eiah, uh, was a quick tour. And then he went back and he came to this little town called Myelitis, which is again, is in the red and myelitis. And then the journey home over to tire in the area of Syria, in the yellow and down to Fi sisia are the three locations of import this morning to what we’re gonna look at.

Because at each of those locations, there was a particular impact that happened to Paul and to his followers that was caused by the Holy Spirits talking to them. It had major implications to the development of the church. The question might appropriately be asked, and maybe you’re asking as I was reading the passage, is this a travel log?

I mean just, okay, I get it. He traveled across the Mediterranean Sea, they got back, but there’s no preaching, there’s no discipling, there’s no miracles happening. I mean, it’s just we went from here, we went from here. They heard about the spirit saying he shouldn’t do this and, and a little bit more here.

What’s the unifying purpose of this passage? And I think there is clearly one. I believe this passage was recorded by Dr. Luke under the inspiration of the spirit in order to tell us about a unique moment in the history of the establishment of the church where they needed to hear the voice of the spirit directing them.

There is discord among the believers on what Paul should do. Paul is convinced he’s supposed to go to Jerusalem. The more that the other believers, including the guys on the boat with him, have heard, the less they agree. And there is this, this interplay where the spirit is involved. But there are, there, there is a, a lesson for us here, I think about listening to the spirit’s voice in our own lives.

So this morning what I want to talk about is about the spirits, talking about how he does and to whom he does. And so let’s look at the two things that are presented to us here in this passage. First, who the spirit talks to, and we find that he talks to people that belong to him. In Acts chapter 20, verse 22, this is when Paul was in myelitis where he is met with the Ephesian, uh, elders, uh, and overseers, as we talked about last week.

Here’s what we read that Paul heard. In verse 20 of, of Acts chapter, verse 22 of Acts 20. Here’s what Paul said, and now behold, I’m going to Jerusalem constrained by the Spirit and knowing what will happen to me there ex, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that the imprisonment and afflictions await me.

He says, the Holy Spirit is talking to me in every city. He keeps saying the same messaging to him. Pulse is the spirit. It’s been speaking into my life. We come to Tyre here and now I’m in our passage this morning. Acts chapter 21, verse four, and here’s what we read. And having sought out the disciples, we, the traveling companions with Paul and Paul stayed there for seven days.

And through the spirit, they were telling the people there. Were telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Them. Then we come to verse 21 of our passage, and this guy Agabus, who is a guy in, in the early part, OFID Pro, prophesied this big famine that was gonna take place and it came to fruition. I mean, he’s a, he’s a mucky muck prophet among the early church.

And here’s what he says, thus says the Holy Spirit. This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man Paul, who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. He even does this thing where he wraps Paul up in his own, you know, the belt that they wrapped around in the linen belt? And he wraps him up, ties him up and says, this is, this is what’s gonna happen to this guy if he goes to J when he goes to Jerusalem.

So the spirit’s speaking, he’s talking to people.

Now you may be here and viewing this a bit cynically. Okay? The spirit speaks to people. I mean, I mean, what exactly does this mean? How dare people think they can actually hear God speaking to them individually? I’ve told this story before about Marian. I have permission to share it again. Basically, when she was a young girl, she was pretty serious about Jesus.

And, uh, she had a cousin who was more of a skeptic, whose name is Steve. They were, they were very close, almost like brother and sister. And he’s their same age. And one time she was out with Steve, uh, on the lakefront there where they lived. And she, she turned to him and said to Steve, Jesus speaks to me and Steve, who all of us in the family can hear him saying it in exactly this terminology.

He says, what? Jesus speaks to you. Yes, Jesus speaks to me. Jesus. Jesus. I don’t hear anything. Maybe you’re here and you’re saying, come on, Jesus, speaking to people through the spirit. I mean, what’s this about? Or maybe you’re here and you respond this way to this concept. I hear people talk this way about God speaking into them like, like it’s personal and, and I wish I knew God that way personally, intimately to each of you.

I would say this, the Spirit of God, the third member of the Triunity of God, does speak into the lives of people today, most commonly and consistently. He does it through God’s word, the Bible, because the Bible is different from any other book that’s ever been written, written. It actually calls itself a living book.

Here’s what it says in Hebrews chapter four, for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit of joints, and of mell and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. The word of God, the scriptures, acts as God himself. He speaks through the, the word that were written 2000 years ago.

God intimately does. He speaks personally specifically, he does it circumstantially. He does it in the quiet whispers of people’s minds. But usually he uses the scriptures. He speaks to those who have entered into a personal relationship with him. And just for a moment, I want to explain what I mean by that, because it’s foundational to everything I’m gonna say about the spirit speaking into us.

Every one of us is born. As a material person, we have a body and also an immaterial person. We have what is known as a, a soul and a spirit that are a part of us. Animals in the scripture are said to have souls. They have their living beings. They have an immaterial part. Our soulish part from which we, which is literally the word ska, which is actually the study of ska.

The study of psychology is the study of our, of our horizontal, immaterial part. It’s how we relate to other people. It’s how we relate to ourselves, how we process life, how we struggle with ourselves. That’s the ska part of life. But humans are not only ska, horizontal, we also have what is called the new moss.

The spirit is the word that is used. We have a vertical dimension. When we. As fallen creatures live out a life because of sin, there is a breach. In the vertical part of us, there is a disconnection that we are disconnected from God. It even talks about us being spiritually dead or separated. The wires are cut, the signal is lost.

Jesus came to provide a way for reconnection. It’s why an individual that has not been reconnected by with God through Christ, who has not had that vertical dimension restored, does not receive the messagings and the speaking of the spirit. In one Corinthians two 14, it says, the person without that connection cannot receive this, the, the, the messages from the spirit of God.

One Corinthians two 14. They’re not connected, they’re not paired with the transmitter. You’re not in pairing mode if you have not been restored to relationship with God through what Jesus Christ did in dying for your sins, in rising from the dead, to give you that newness of life and that life is the reconnection.

So when we’re talking about people that are hearing the Spirit speak, and those of you that are here in Mount Laurel or Collingswood or watching online and, and you’re thinking, I don’t have any idea what he’s talking about, I don’t sense it. I’m a religious person, but, but I don’t, I don’t, I don’t have that sense of God speaking into my life even when I read the Bible.

I don’t have that sense. It may be that God is prompting you this morning with the need of that reconnection, which is what being born again or receiving Christ as Savior provides. You then become, uh, in pairing mode, if you will, to be able to receive the messaging of the spirit in your life. It is not only to those that are a part of his family who have received Christ that belong to him, it’s also to those that are a part of that, that are listening, these people that are hearing from the spirit of God.

Paul Agabus, the prophet, all these folks there that have been listening, the guys on the boat that have been trying to listen to the spirit of God in their life are people that belong to Christ, but they’re also people. And in that sense, they’re paired, if you will, but they’re also people who were listening.

I was driving on a trip recently and I, uh, had my phone paired with my Bluetooth to be able to play it through the radio while I’m driving on the road. Uh, I, I. I can see that I’m paired and, uh, my audible book is playing, but I don’t hear anything. I hear the rain on the roof. I, I hear, uh, the bumps on the road, but I don’t hear my book till I realized I had the volume down.

This is high tech stuff. And so I had to turn the volume up. Well, a lot of our lives aren’t hearing the spirit of God, even if we’re paired. Right. Even if we know Christ as our savior, even if we’re reconnected because the volume’s turned up. I mean, we don’t take time to listen. We’re not hearing the voice of the Lord because he who is ready to speak the time is speaking.

We’re not listening. I’m gonna Bible study each week a, a, a group together with guys from my community group, and we’ve been studying a book call of Robert Morley’s, the Christian man, and this past week, the chapter was on. Basically what causes us to spiritually grow. And morally, he’s done this for probably 40 years, working with men.

He’s, he’s written a number of books for Christian men, and in this one, he, this chapter, he just, he made the statement, I’m convinced that 90% of every person’s spiritual, uh, uh, lack of spiritual growth and the hindrance to spiritual growth would be resolved by three things. Here were the three things.

Number one, you gotta be listening to the scripture. Number two, you ought to be in a small group, and number three, you ought to find somebody some way that you are serving Christ. But the first one was a striking one. He said, you gotta be listening. You gotta be heeding, God’s voice speaking into your lives.

If we’re listening for the voice of the spirit, he will be speaking, he will be speaking to you if you’re paired in that spiritual relationship. And if you’re listening, if the volume’s up so you can hear ’em. Okay. When the spirit talks, here’s some principles we find. Number one, it will be clear. The messaging that comes to Paul and the other guys is straightforward of what they’re to hear.

Paul says it this way again, when he’s talking to the Ephesian elders in Acts 2024, he says, I’m going to Jerusalem constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment, afflictions await me. God is not trying to hide his will from you.

It’s really important to know if you, if, if you belong to the Lord, God does not have a secret code that you’ve gotta crack. This is not, you know, one of, one of the secret, the, the escape rooms where you gotta figure the whole thing out and follow all the clue. God is more interested in you knowing His will than you are in finding it.

If there’s some reason where if, if there’s a situation where you are wholeheartedly following the Lord and you are not hearing what was will, it is only because he is saying there’s a reason why I am restraining it to some degree. And that in itself is you hearing my voice. God will and does lead us through the spirit’s leading often through His word in it will be clear.

I quote the verse in Isaiah all the time, and I pray it over people. I pray it for myself. Uh, Isaiah says, this is the way walk in it. That’s my, and he says, here it is. And I said, Lord, just show us this is the way and we’ll walk in it. We’ll go. The second thing that’s true when the spirit speaks, is it may be questioned by others.

This was Paul. Paul had been told in every city, That he was supposed to go to Jerusalem and what was gonna happen to him was gonna be some kind of imprisonment. Something was gonna be dicey. There he arrives in tire, okay? Remember the, the map he’s left over there on the, on the far side of the, uh, Mediterranean Sea.

Now he’s come, they’ve landed in tire, which is near Jerusalem. Thank you. Um, so there they are in Jerusalem. They’re near Jerusalem. Here’s Jerusalem. The entire over here on the yellow part in Syria and their entire, this happens in verse four of our text this morning. And the p and through the spirit, the people there were telling Paul not to go to onto Jerusalem.

Okay? A little confusing. Was the spirit telling these guys to tell Paul not to go onto Jerusalem? I mean, is the spirit a schizophrenic? He says, Paul, go to Jerusalem. He’s telling me that in every city, And now these guys through the spirit, say, Paul, you can’t go to Jerusalem. I’ll come back that in a second.

In Acts 21, our text in verse 12, Agabus comes, and here was what Agabus says. Uh, he, he hears in the spirit and the people’s response. When we heard this, we, this is Luke talking. We and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. You see, everybody’s getting the same message. This is the same message Paul and everybody else is getting.

When you go to Jerusalem, you’re gonna be imprisoned. You’re gonna be handed over to the Romans. The issue was they had different interpretations of what that message meant to everybody else. They said, this means don’t go to Jerusalem. Paul says, no, that’s not what the Lord is saying. He’s telling me this will be the circumstances, but I know I’m supposed to go.

This is hard, right? This is tough. Paul says, guys, you’re breaking my heart. This is heavy to me. I know I’m supposed to go to Jerusalem. And so he’s laboring and and, and he’s trying to process with them, but he’s intent on going. And so finally, Luke says in verse uh, 13, he says, we just affirmed this is the will of the Lord.

Paul is pretty much alone with what he hears from the spirit. The spirit’s message to you will sometimes be very personal. It’ll be so personal. There’ll be other voices that make it harder for you to hear it. This is why I love people with personal convictions from the Lord. Romans 14 says, there’s gonna be things in the Christian life where different Christians have different convictions about ’em.

I love people that have convictions. Whether they agree with my convictions or not, I don’t care. I love people that have some convictions that say, the Lord has said to me this, some of you’ll have convictions about schooling your children in public school, some in Christian school, some homeschool. The issue is not your method.

The issue is your motivation and why you’re doing what you’re doing. That my goal is to see my kids discipled growing in Christ, and I believe this environment, but there will be different convictions. In our church, everybody doesn’t have personal convictions about questionable things that are agreed.

We are not heard mentality. We are not completely oriented to group. Think God is personally connected to his people. And, and, and it’s hard sometimes you, I man, I just want to be with everybody that thinks about every, everybody votes the way I vote. Everybody thinks the way I think everybody’s united in everything.

Well then what the heck do we need the spirit of God for?

We have to go to the Lord. And I’m not talking biblical truth where there’s clarity of what we’re to believe, but that the very fact that there is variety of personal convictions in certain arenas of life is, is the sense that this person, that the spirit speaking to our lives is real stuff.

And I’ll pretty much guarantee to you that if you are wholehearted in following Christ, you’ll come. You’ll have some things he asks of you that he does not ask of everybody else. Doesn’t mean you’re more spiritual because they’ll probably have things that he doesn’t ask of you. But it does mean that there are gonna be some convictions that you’re gonna have that came from the spirit of God.

And he say others may, but not you. And to somebody else. He’s saying others may, but not you. Why is he doing that? Because he’s saying, I deal with people personally. I want them to follow me personally. I want them to understand this isn’t just a church movement, this is a personal movement. This isn’t just a religion where we agree not only about teaching and doctrine, but every single thing.

So we don’t really need the spirit of God in our lives. We just ask the preacher or the pastor and, and he tells us, everybody does it this way. I don’t believe that the glory is ultimately that the spirit of God speaks into our lives. Every missionary that has gone to do something for the Lord and leaving our country has had people that have questioned their motives, their manner.

I, I love this guy. John Patton served for 10 years. He’s a missionary of days going by, served for 10 years, the pastor of a church in Glasgow, Scotland. But God began to burden his heart with the people of New Herbert, the new Herbert’s Islands in the Pacific, where actually known for their cannibalism.

And 20 years before, uh, John Patton, two missionaries had gone to the new Heberty Island and they had been both cannibalized. Well, not surprisingly, there was not a major missionary movement for 20 years to the new Heberty Island. And here this gifted preacher, young man said, I believe God is leading me there.

He got opposition from everybody. His church tried to double his salary. I mean, everything. Nobody wanted to go, they didn’t want him to be the next dinner. And so basically, he finally had one older man really speaking into him. And here’s what, here’s what he said. Mr. Dixon, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave there to be eaten by worms.

I confess to you if I can, but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I’m eaten by cannibals or by worms. That’s a guy that was pretty confident in the voice of the spirit into his life, what he was to do. There’s gonna be times when we’ve gotta say, I, I just know the Lord has told me I’m supposed to do this or I’m not supposed to do this.

The third thing, when the Spirit talks to you, and this is a bonus one ’cause I missed it in the outline, it will be centered in the glory of Jesus Christ. Verse 13, Paul says this, Paul tells us what is motivating him. What are you guys doing weeping and breaking my heart for I’m ready to not only be in prison, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.

You guys hear that? This is what’s gonna happen. So your assumption is, God is telling me to this so I can protect myself. He says, I’m not oriented to that. You’re, you’re, you’re killing me here. He says, what I’m concerned about is the name of Jesus Christ. The name is the reputation, the glory. I want Jesus to be shown to be great.

I don’t know what that’s gonna look like. I’m ready to face anything that will bring glory to Jesus Christ. Well, that is the very thing that motivates the Holy Spirit. In John 14, Jesus is predicting this about when the Holy Spirit comes. Here’s what he says in verse 13 and 14. I’ll just read part of it.

Absolutely. John 16, verse 14, he says, when the Holy Spirit comes, he will glorify me. It will His be His job through the lives of his, of my people, to bring glory to my name, that I would be shown to be great and glorious. Whatever the spirit tells you to do, he will offer you joy and peace and satisfaction in whatever it is he asks you to do.

But he will only glorify one person, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He will not prompt you for your glory. He will bring joy and satisfaction in the process. But whatever he asks you to do, it will be because he believes this is the way your life can most manifest the glory of Christ. The fourth thing, when the Spirit talks to you, it may work out differently than you expect.

Paul had a plan here. I’m sorry. Is it hot in here? It’s not hot in here. Well, you need, I need to wear shorter shirts. Okay. Um, you tried being up here, stalking back and forth, so, alright, so Paul had a plan, right? Paul, at this point. Has brought it with him an amazing amount of money. That’s one of the reasons he has eight partners with him on the trip.

He has brought this large offering. He’s gathered from all the, the gentile churches to bring to the poor Jerusalem Saints in their poverty. It’s a major movement. Paul has an intention in this. It’s made clear in his epistles what he was doing. He is trying to bring together the, the discordant strands of Christianity at this moment between the Gentile Christians and the Jews.

It’s a big deal. We’ve talked about it. This was an amazing thing that God was asking these people to do, to do worship together with their backgrounds, their cultures, their way of looking at life. So Paul is bringing this gift and he is excited. He is left his missionary journeys in order to bring this to Jerusalem, and he’s beat it to, to the, uh, to Jerusalem to get there by the day of Pentecost, when, when tens of thousands of extra Jews will be there.

He wants to be there to make this presentation to the church. And so his thinking is, this is going to be a way, and he’s said this many times in his letters. Let, let’s emphasize the oneness of the body and guys give generously to your brothers and sisters in Jerusalem and he’s gonna bring it and it’s gonna be a way to, to bring the groups together.

Also, it is his plan that after leaving Jerusalem, he’s made it clear in his letters, book of Romans and others that he plans to leave Jerusalem on a fourth missionary journey this time to Rome. And maybe even he says maybe even to Spain, and he is salivating with the thought of starting churches in the center of the Roman Empire.

And so he goes to Jerusalem and he says, yeah, I’m gonna be in prison. I’ve been in prison in most of the cities I go to. I, I, I can handle this guy. I’ll be all right. That’s his plan. But it’s not God’s plan. God’s plan is that when he does give the gift, there is apparently no real response. We never hear about it.

He gives it to the Jerusalem churches. There’s no record of, of any fruit of it. There’s nothing, Luke doesn’t say anything about it in the Book of Acts

as he sought to be the bridge between the Gentiles and the Jewish Christians. It doesn’t seem to have the impact that he expected instead of a temporary imprisonment. Where he is then gonna be launched to his ministry to Rome and Spain starting churches. Paul’s thrown into prison in Jerusalem and then he is moved to Caesarea and after three years of imprisonment, he does go to Rome, but not as a church planner, bringing strategy to the churches.

He goes as a Roman prisoner to await the sentencing of Caesar. This doesn’t play how he thought. This doesn’t go at all what is expected. Paul will never again do his missionary enterprises. He will never be again that free agent. To the degree that he has been of starting churches, of making disciples, the disciple making he is gonna do is primarily gonna be, primarily be people that are allowed to come and visit him.

In his prison in Rome,

three years of his prime are gonna be wasted in prisons in Palestine, three years at the apex of his church making career. It’s not what he thought. And Paul would be less than human if he didn’t wonder if maybe he’d missed the plan somewhere he envisioned not only that he was going to be imprisoned in Jerusalem, but he imprisoned what the fruit would be, but it will be a different future for him and a different outcome for his efforts.

Yet Paul was following the spirit of God. Some of you are here that have followed the spirit of God. Some of you have done it for a long, long time and some of it has not played out how you thought, right? Some of it has not played out in your marriage the way you thought it was going to. Some of it is played out different than you expected with your kids.

If you made these choices along the way, then it would turn out this way. Some of you, there’s not been as complete a financial security as you would expect that, oh, God’s got you through and he’s met your needs. But man, it’s tight. It’s tough. It’s really tough. So what do you do? Where do you go? Certainly the first question we asked, did I, did I screw this whole thing up?

Did I miss it? I thought I was following God. Was I wrong to make all those choices do the things I thought the Lord was telling me to do? Possibly, but more likely I would suggest this, you thought knowing what God wanted you to do gave you clarity of what God planned in response.

Now in Paul’s life, it didn’t play how he thought, right? I’m sure that was hard for him. This was a type a hard driving prime of life, church planner.

But God wasn’t done with Paul. Paul would now be in prison and he would write some of the most blessed books that have ever been written. He will write the book of Ephesians in a couple years from a Roman jail. He’ll write the book of Colossians there. He’ll write maybe the favorite book of many people just because of the positivity of it and the centrality of Christ.

He wrote the book of Philippians there. It’s striking as Paul writes that book, the book of Philippians, that he’ll say this from a Romans jail. He’ll say this in chapter four, I have learned in whatever state I’m in to be content. Was God done with Paul? Because it didn’t work out as Paul anticipated hardly, but it was different.

There were sorrows Paul had, there were losses. There were pains, there were things you’d say, God, there’s so much one things to play out this way in these people’s lives. I, I thought if I did my part, this is what you do. That, that, that two plus two would equal four. But I found that it doesn’t always work that math,

but it doesn’t mean you missed it. It just means even in responding to the spirit’s prompting, it doesn’t always play as you think it’s going to. It happened to Paul, and he’s among the best of us that have ever lived in the church.

What Paul learned is what God wants us to learn. I think that we can find contentment in the broken dreams that we can find contentment in the sorrows, in the disappointments, in the confusion, in the confusion, because we find more and more that when the Lord doesn’t give us our vision, maybe even our hearts cry all the time.

He always gives us himself. In the greatest

seasons of sorrow in my life, I have been awed by God in the seasons when I literally felt, as some of you have felt, I really would rather die than live with the sorrow and pain. I have found things about God that I know I would not have accessed. I’ve learned that he’s safer than anything else. I could depend in that he is stronger than anything that might come against me, that he was surrounding me against anything, the devil through that he was sufficient.

It’s what Paul found out. Paul found out Paul F If you had told me. Before I went to Jerusalem that I’d never again be out on the road. I’d never be doing what, what my heart calls it. That, that, that the rest of my life is gonna be focused on writing, and it’s gonna be focused on defending my, the gospel to a couple of different Roman leaders.

He said, I, I don’t know if I could’ve taken it well, God didn’t ask him to, but when he faced those disappointments, God graced him with himself. And so Paul could say, you know what I’ve learned, I’ve learned I can be content in any situation, even when it’s not the way I expected it to be. Responding to the spirit’s, talking in our lives doesn’t always play as you think, but the one counted on reality in our lives is God will make himself known there.

The last thing we learn about the spirit’s talking is this. When the spirit talks to you, it will be something you need to respond to. Paul’s goal was the glory of Jesus Christ. It didn’t play out as he intended, at least expected, but when the Spirit prompted him to make choices, he did so with faith and trust For Paul, one thing motivated his life that Jesus be glorified in him.

I don’t know what the spirit’s asking you this morning or what he’s talking into you. I don’t know what he’s gonna speak into you this week as you listen, but at that moment, that is the moment where the child of God says yes. It says in Titus two it says, the grace of God teaches us to say yes. That’s a literal translation, not let me, let me think about it or gimme some time, or, Yes.

I don’t understand it. One of the most amazing things that most Christians can record is how God used somebody just coming alongside of ’em and just calling them and say, look, I, I just felt prompted to pray for you. I just, is there anything I can pray about? Or a Christian that just says, I just felt prompted to send this verse to you.

If you’ve been on the receiving end of that, you know the power of that. Well, I want to talk to the senders for a moment. How many times has the Lord maybe prompted you to do something like that and you haven’t? You? Ah, I just can’t. But remember the power of that little thing that God used in your life.

We have the story. I, I and I, I, I’ve shared this a couple of times. The guy in our church, he’s on our church board going through incredible struggles in their life, career, everything financially concerned. And a guy from our church just felt prompted to write a little note. And the note was this, be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted and just flipped it in the mail.

And that husband and wife told me, they’ve mentioned a few times over the years when they went to their mailbox and they got their mail and they didn’t even see who it was from. They just saw the postcard side and they saw it. It was as if God had thundered it from the heavens little thing, right? But God uses such things.

What God prompts us to do, we do. This is from Luciano Papa. He makes this statement, he said, when I was a boy, my father, a baker, introduced me to the wonders of song. Of course, he’s the great, uh, operatic tenor. Here’s what he said. He urged me to work very hard to develop my voice. A Rigo Pola, a professional tenor in my hometown of me, Medina, Italy took me as a pupil.

I also enrolled in a teacher’s college. On graduating from the college, I asked my father, shall I be a teacher or a singer? Luciano, my father replied, if you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them for life. You must choose one chair. I chose one. It took seven years of study and frustration before I made my first pub professional appearance.

It took another seven years to reach the Metropolitan Opera. And now I’ve come to believe, whether it’s laying bricks or writing a book, whatever we choose, we should give ourselves to it. Commitment. That’s the key. Choose one chair, your one chair as the child of God is the will of God. It is listening to the prompting of the spirit saying, Lord, I don’t know what else to do.

I’m gonna listen. If you don’t tell me how to go to here, then I’m gonna wait and I’m gonna go to here. But what you tell me to do, I will do. And what you will find as you respond in the little things, it’s not hard to discern the big things, which of course are all minuscule things to a sovereign God, but we must heeded the voice.

Paul had found God to be great worthy of his trust and deserving of his surrender. It’s the beauty and loveliness of God that drove his desire to. Listen to the talking of the spirit into his life. He had learned, it didn’t always turn out as he thought he had learned. It didn’t always get affirmed by other people, but he learned that he could trust.

That still quiet voice are we doing that we’re invited to, and the greatness of God and the beauty of God and the majesty of the love of God is what compels us to say, I want to be one who, who has the volume up. I want to be one who is listening to God’s spirit, speak to me this week that I’m a responder in the little stuff he prompts me to do, but I’m also trusting him to be talking into me in the big stuff as well.

Lord,

I pray first of all for people that. Need to be paired to the transmitter of the spirit by being born again for people who your spirit right now is prompting with their need of receiving Jesus Christ in their life of having the vertical, their spirit reconnected with you. That has been lost by sin. I also pray, Lord, for brothers and sisters that are listening this morning that.

Or living in the season of confusion and sorrow and bewilderment of why things haven’t played, how they thought, Lord, it’s been my prayer. This message would just encourage them, that

it doesn’t mean we’ve missed it.

It just means what your greatest burden and desire for us is that we drink at the well of your greatness and your beauty. Encourage them towards that today, Lord, and do God show them signs of your favor.

And Lord, for brothers and sisters that are here that have been struggling to respond to the prompting of the spirit, maybe in a relationship, maybe in a decision, maybe with the use of their money, maybe a habit in their life.

Lord called them to that beautiful safe place,

being a listener and then a responder to the spirit of God that they can open the flood tides of your love and mercy and grace and blessing upon them. Lord, we love you. You are our great glorious God in Jesus’ name. Amen.