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Complete Sermon Notes
How To Be “Led By The Spirit”
Memorial Day: On Jan. 13, 1947, U.S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall stated: “The choice before us is plain: Christ or chaos, conviction or compromise, discipline or disintegration. I am rather tired of hearing about our rights. … The time is come to hear about responsibilities….”
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Intro: Make Sure You Are Following God’s Lead – Led by, David said by, filled by, revealed by, taught by, moved by…
EXAMPLE: 1. Conor led by the wrong voice. 2. The Old Deluder Satan Act.
ACTS 12:20-24 Now Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon; but they came to him with one accord, and having made Blastus the king’s personal aide their friend, they asked for peace, because their country was supplied with food by the king’s country. So on a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died. But the word of God grew and multiplied.
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[Josephus in Antiquities 18.200] – he was immediately stricken with pain and carried to his bedchamber. He died five days later – “eaten by worms and died”.
1. Open your ears to hear to the leading: “Who has ears to hear.”
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We are bombarded with opportunities of self-exaltation.
This is why i speak of humility often – pride is the spirit behind self-exaltation:
TAKE-A-TEST: Excuses / Always right / Temper-tantrums / Doesn’t listen to others / Rebellious spirit.
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The tragedy is: they think they are led
25 Barnabas and Saul [led of the Spirit] returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry , and they also took with them John whose surname was Mark.
2. Always be moving in the right direction: Waited for power, then moved.
ACTS 13 Now in the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: [Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, and Saul.]
3. To hear we need both teaching and preaching.
Those who have been called to preach, much like the prophets in the Old Testament, will confront compromise, condemn moral digression, and powerfully denounce sin in the hope of reconciling man to God—
The teacher builds—the preacher tears. The teacher counsels—the preacher convicts. The teacher rejoices—the preacher weeps. The teacher plants—the preacher uproots. The teacher mends—the preacher breaks. The teacher is full of hope—the preacher is full of fire. The teacher loves to listen—the preacher needs to speak.
Leonard Ravenhill, in Why Revival Tarries, wrote, “God has always had His specialists whose chief concern has been the moral breakdown of the nation and the church. Such men were Elijah, Jeremiah, Malachi, and others of their kind who appeared at critical moments in history to reprove, rebuke, and exhort in the name of God and righteousness. Such a man is likely to be drastic and radical; the curious crowd that gathers to watch him will soon brand him as extreme, fanatical, and negative…and, in a sense, they are right…for he cannot turn off the burden of the Holy Ghost.”
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A preachers goal is to align the people to hear the heart of God.
TAKE-A-TEST: I love Jesus, but I’m not empowered. I love Jesus, but I don’t want people telling me what to do. I love Jesus, but i also love the things of the world.
NEXT POINT: 2 As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, “Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them away. 4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. 5 And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant.
How did they know what to do?
4. Follow God’s Road Map
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Not talking about these would be like not talking about Derek Jeter while describing the New York Yankees in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
In the same way that sound waves travel through the air to our ears, the Spirit speaks…
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THE KEY – waited, prayed, fasted, meditated on His word, and obeyed.
A] waiting – MY SPIRIT IS QUIET AND QUICKENED: i have a deep abiding sense of direction –
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If it’s uncomfortable to wait & quiet yourself, THE WRONG VOICE is leading you more than you think. BEGIN TODAY – Come early next week at 7:30am
B] prayer is changing and re-aligning; strengthening and confirming – “deep calls…”
C] fasting starves the voice of the flesh – it stops leading and submits.
D] meditate – you begin to think like God. Rom. 12: “transformed by renewing”.
E] obedience – Point to Ponder: “led by the Spirit” is obeying the Spirit
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Kids listen by obeying – so do we!
Psalm 111:10, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments…”
The Holy Spirit will not skip ahead in the book –
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“Quench” – suppressing fire – suppressing / withholding direction.
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“Grieve” – sad and without direction.
“God is more likely to direct me through wise teaching than through inner voices” (J.I. Packer).
Spiritual power follows
13:6 [paraphrase – a sorcerer withstood them] 9 Then Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “O full of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? 11 And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.” And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
CLOSING: WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU HEAR GOD’S WORD?
A spirit of rebellion or humility?
If you can’t listen you can’t apply – going here … always doing that … always busy.
How to get back on track
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