Inland Empire: Riverside
Moved by the Spirit - Audio
Adrian Escamilla and Ann Ortega got married. That is something to celebrate. We're just talking about rejoicing and when we were standing at the front of the auditorium together and before she started down the aisle when the bridesmaids were coming down, you could hear Adrian shaking. I mean, he was so wrapped up, so nervous and excited that the anticipation was just palpable. I mean, it was so clear that he had been longing and waiting for that moment for a long time. And as the door opened and the music started, then she and her uncle came around the corner and you could just hear this audible gasp. And the moment that he took in that air, he began to tear up and cry. And I'm standing there crying with him because it was such a beautiful thing to see the anticipation of love fulfilled and to know that the struggle that they had to surrender doing their relationship the way they had been doing it, that had done nothing but produce trouble for them and issues. And then to finally get to a place where they literally could trust God enough that they said, whatever needs to happen, not our will, but your will be done. And as they're both standing out there and they just finished the vows, their sons had come out and poured the sand into the unity bowl to symbolize the joining of their families together to have both of them look at me and just tear up and say how grateful they were that they listened to the Spirit speaking through the Word and through the people that God had put in their life because it made that day perfect. It was a celebration to know that that's how God wants our lives to be a constant celebration of what an amazing thing it is to be in His presence, to be His people. Kathy Mary's here in the back, Kathy, can you hold your hand up there? We are so excited for you to be baptized too, have that relationship with God. And just as Adrian standing there watching Anna come in, saw the fulfillment of his dream, she has a bride of Christ experience that same thing when she was baptized. And it was God's way of saying he's tried your way long enough. Now let's do it my way no matter what your life circumstances are, no matter how difficult they are. She's probably in one of the more difficult circumstances in a sense because of her health and yet at the same time it is so clear to her what really matters. All these things that we think are so stinking and important just don't matter, but to have that door open up and to see the Son of God coming in to claim you and me is His bride. That is what the Holy Spirit longs for, so the Holy Spirit has dreamed of from the very beginning of time, we just finished singing one of my favorite songs, "Draw Me Close to You," that from the very beginning of creation that's what God's been doing. God has used everything in His disposal not to make you and I come to Him, but to cause us to desire to be with Him. Why? Because He wants to be with us. He knows that the closer we are to Him the more our life shines, the more our life reflects the glory that can only come by being in the life force presence of the Alpha, the Omega, the Creator of the Universe. God knows that with Him you and I are better than will I ever be separated from Him and yet there's something in our make-up that we just don't get it in the Garden of Eden, and Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the morning. They heard the voice of God clearly distinctly and specifically speaking to them, and yet Satan was able to take the beauty and the simplicity and the purity of that relationship and twist it into something that deprived them for the rest of their lives of being that close to God. Today, we are going to be watching the Super Bowl most of us. It is the single most watched event of the year in the entire world. Let that sink in, a football game. If Doug said it really doesn't matter that the Dallas Cowboys aren't in it, that's true. Who cares if they're not in it? God does it, but it's interesting because today there will be more food consumed on the planet than any other day with the exception of Thanksgiving. There will be more alcohol consumed today. There will be more money spent to convince you that you need Doritos or you will listen to a baby explaining why listening to him about investments is a wise thing to do. Somewhere in the back of your brain you go, "I've got to have a Dorito and call about my investments, and I need a Coke!" In the world knows how important the message and the packaging of that message is. They have launched a phenomenal campaign to target you and me today to persuade us about what will produce happiness in our lives. Will a corn chip keep your children happy and yet at the same time God is going all out to advertise to us today as well, to do everything he can to persuade us to draw close to him and that in drawing close to him we draw close to life and a life that continues to produce life without end. It was encouraging you here Rick get up here and share his delusions. I think as you get older and gravity compresses you closer and closer that your memories collide and get distorted it's like smashing a cupcake and in the end the product doesn't resemble what it started out to be but there are some similarities. I do want to say I am still wearing the same shoes I have 25 years ago. You say, "Well that doesn't surprise me, you're cheap!" They fit fine, they look nice, I take good care of them, I still have the boots I got married in 31 years ago because I believe that in Christ all things are being recreated. The new is gone, the old is come back! Right now at this moment through the music, through the fellowship, through the sharing of scripture, the sharing of good news, the sharing of tragic circumstances, God is trying to move in your life and in my life, to draw us back to the one and only thing that matters and that is to draw close to him. The name of the lesson is moved by the Spirit. Appreciate you so much last week, Gordon, laying so much of the foundation for our study on the Holy Spirit and to recognize that the Holy Spirit is not just this fog that drifts around that is nebulous but it's an actual being with a purpose and a design and a desire that it is the same heart, the same desire, the same drive that God does, that God literally gave us the Spirit as a seal but more than that, as a living entity of being, living and dwelling inside of each one of us to remind us of how valuable that we are, how important to God we are. When he was asked what is the greatest commandment in Matthew chapter 22, Jesus replied to the teachers who were trying to trip him up, that the greatest commandment was very simply this, to love the Lord you're God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind and with all of your soul, with everything that you are, the most important thing in your life, the most important thing in my life is not who's going to be in the game, it's not where we're going to sit in the auditorium, it is literally to love God with everything we are and as much as that is God's desire, he goes on to say the second is like it, to love your brothers as yourself and then he says everything else, the entire totality of the scriptures is dependent on this, everything else in the Word is meant to draw us back to that one simple foundation of truth, that the most important thing in our lives is to love God. Jesus left the Spirit and he told his apostles it's better for you than I go away so that the Spirit can come because he will remind you and we're going to look at some of those passages and just as Jesus and the Spirit are one with God, God wants us to be one with him as well and so the Spirit moves and he is actively involved in every aspect of our life, every single day to one in alone and that is to draw us to a place where we love God, we're going to look at three specific things that the Spirit is trying to move us to do, to be, to get to today, number one is just simply to love God. In Luke chapter 2 and verse 25 it's interesting there's a story of Simon who the Bible says was religious and devout in verse 25, says he was waiting for the consolation of Israel. That little statement he was waiting for the consolation of Israel is really a reflection of the fact that the Israelites had for so long recognized that by turning away from God it had led them into bondage and slavery and so Simon is waiting in the temple and he's longing for the day when the Messiah would set them free, this was during the longest period of silence, between God and God's people, it's like God said okay, have it your way, do what you want, go ahead and follow your choices but see where it leads instead of leading you closer to life, closer to God, it led them away and so Simon is at the temple longing for the consolation for Israel if you brought home, it was the one thing that was consuming his mind and it says that the Holy Spirit was upon him in verse 26 said it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ, the Holy Spirit literally said you will not die before you will see the coming of the answer of all of your longing and dream, moved by the Spirit, you ever get that feeling man I gotta go over and talk to that person, the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and there's something you think, you shouldn't do this, you know this is wrong, that sometimes it's the Holy Spirit and what he was saying to Simon was go to the temple and he listened to the urging and when he got to the temple literally Joseph and Mary brought Jesus in, can you imagine the overwhelming impact of that, like Adrian having the doors open and Indiana come down, this was so much better, this was the hope of the entire world, I would be willing to bet that Simon had never thought about the fact that he might come in the form of a child, but the Holy Spirit moved him to the temple and he came in, Joseph the American and the Holy Spirit made it clear to him, this is what you have been waiting for, the overwhelming awareness that God moves in mysterious ways and sometimes what we think is nowhere near to what God thinks, but if we listen, the Spirit will draw us in and show us something more magnificent than we could have believed was even possible, John 14 verse 25, Jesus is talking to the apostles right before he's gonna be taken and he literally says that he's told them all of these things before, he says everything I'm telling you now, I've told you before, that the council or the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name by my authority to do my will as they are one, he wants us to be one with him and he will teach you all things and remind you of everything I've said to you, the Spirit is what works in us when we're reading the Bible and you read the same passage over and over again and all of a sudden it's like someone turns on the light and you're struck with this epiphany and you're going oh my gosh, I've never seen that before which is an expression of feeling but it's not true you have seen it you just didn't understand it until the Holy Spirit moved to open your eyes, God is working in every aspect of the service it may be in a worship song that for some reason the right melody, the right pitch, the right wording just moves your heart because he wants to draw us in, he wants us to really walk out of here like Moses did after having been with God on the mountain top to worship with our faces glowing because the Spirit has revealed us when the presence of the Messiah, when Simeon left that temple he was changed for ever that's what worship is supposed to do for us, that coming together in anticipation of the door opening in the presence of the Lord descending you and I can reflect on the glory of being with the Messiah and it's the Holy Spirit that's working through scriptures that works through even ordinary men to try to stir in us, to help us understand things differently, you've studied about the Holy Spirit a thousand times but I am praying that through God's urging and through the Holy Spirit's working and moving that we will come away with a deeper understanding that helps us understand the presence of God in our life so much more Paul understood this, Paul was a very neat guy because he was so learned, he was so educated, he was a Pharisee and there was probably no one his age that had the book knowledge of God and yet it took him being struck blind on the road to Damascus and the Son of God literally speaking to get through to him and he describes that in Ephesians chapter three when he's talking to the church, every letter Paul wrote from that point on always talks about the revelation that came to him because the Spirit moved in his heart to redirect his life. In chapter three and verse one it says for this reason I Paul a prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles, that statement alone was an amazing thing because Paul would have had nothing to do with the Gentiles, they were dirty people to him, they were an abomination and yet because of that interaction with Jesus his life's mission now was to bring them the opportunity to draw close to God so the two people with such different life's and badness could collectively come together and stand in the presence of the Almighty. Surely you've heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, you've heard before what God did for me and how God used that, he used what he did for me to help you, that is the mystery made known to me by revelation as I have already written briefly. In reading this thing you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets this mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, shares together in the promise of Christ Jesus before that point they had been excluded, they were left out, they were part of the group but because of what God did in his life the Spirit moved Paul and changed and redirected him so that he literally became the herald to an entire generation and nation of people who had absolutely no hope before because if God could save Paul who was so sinful and self-righteous if he could soften his heart then maybe he could soften mine. Now when I became a Christian but today maybe today as I came in here the Holy Spirit can move in my life so that this can be one of those watershed moments that I will mark time from here on because I get the truth a little bit differently this spirit is longing to speak to us it's longing to direct us to draw us to God. Verse 70 says I became a servant of this gospel. I am in slaves to this good news and the good news is this world is not our home we're not bound in these tents of flesh and blood Doritos isn't all that we have to turn to but there's something more it's the Messiah it's the Godhead and God loves us so much but he also wants to use us so much because in us sinful human vessels God's glory can be revealed in amazing ways and we may not be the package of people anticipate but just as Simon experienced being in the presence of God people should be able to experience being in the presence of God when they're around us because the spirit moves in us to love God so I Paul reminded the flip is you have anything that you can be grateful for by being in Christ is there any good thing so I every Sunday someone gets up here and tries to remind us of the personal impact of the cross on our life because the spirit is moving to try to draw us to a place where we have a pure love for God the second thing the spirit tries to move us to do is to be changed to be like God we were created from the very beginning in God's nature we got his same spirit and design and yet by our choices by moving away from that we became less and less God like less and less godly and more and more like the world more more worldly until even in the church sometimes it's so hard to recognize Christians from non-Christians we walk like them we talk like them we act like them and yet the spirit is moving to try to change us back to what we were meant to be Ezekiel prophesied about this in Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 24 he says I will take you out of the nations I'm going to pull you out of the world I'm going to get you out now he's not being lizard literally but he's physically going to get him out but he's trying to draw their hearts out of the world I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land back where you belong I will sprinkle clean water on you and you'll be clean I will purify you I will clean you from all your iniquities from all your eyes all this stuff this seems so stupid and important to us if your life was demanded to you today this very hour it would clarify very quickly what matters that's what Ezekiel saying he said I'm trying to draw you back I will give you a new heart don't you want to be renewed don't we want a deeper love for God in the deeper relationship this is what Ezekiel saying he said if you'll just come out I'll draw you out of the nations I'll draw you out of the world I'll get you to stop thinking like they think and I will bring you back to where you were created to be and I will place in you a new heart a new heart for your marriage a new heart for your family a new heart for your coworkers a new belief that God can use you because God loves you and God is changing you to become more like him and I will put a new spirit in you I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh we become so hard hearted by our sins by our choices by our existing the urging of the spirit that sometimes it's like I don't know what it's going to take you through you and you God gives us the answers he's in the spirit is there it's pulling it's trying to massage us to soften us up why because he wants us to have a new heart and a new spirit and a new hope to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws to listen to what I've said because it is the way of life you will live in the land I gave your forefathers you will be my people come home on Thursday in Cairo Egypt two American women were kidnapped and were held ransom can you imagine the absolute terror they must have felt in a country that is so tumultuous right now where people are being killed all over the place they are beheading people publicly to show their contempt for Western society and yet very quickly within two days they were set free they were ransomed somehow we don't have any idea how it all came about but the ransom was paid can you imagine what it must have felt like to them to hear that voice come home that's what he's saying to me and what he's saying to me come home I love you I long to be with you and we resist it and we fight it the apostles did too they were with Jesus this is one of the things that's always made me in my pride I think man if I got to go and hang out with Jesus I wouldn't have done any of the things they did and yet I do them every day on the night before he's crucified these guys just didn't get it but Jesus even said that had to happen why because the Holy Spirit would come and remind him of everything that he taught him and then it would be closed in grace because only then when they recognized the betrayal would the resurrection have the same hope for them to know that this isn't because of some righteousness you've done but it's because of the love of God that God loves you so much and he wants you to change and be different and Acts chapter 4 there's a story of Peter and they go into preach and teach about Jesus when just a few months before he was hiding from servants and it says literally in Acts chapter 4 verse 31 that when they were arrested the brothers and sisters got together and they started praying and the place where they were praying where they were meeting it was shaken that there was something in the power of the president I don't know the bill the billing physically was rocking but there was something that shook them up there was something that drew them in there was something that caused them to believe again they could do miracles and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly the Holy Spirit doesn't want us to shut up he doesn't want us to be politically correct he doesn't want us to be considered of what others in the workplace are going to think the Holy Spirit wants us to be a held that proclaims the good news of Jesus we've been given the charge the Paul was given to go to the Gentiles and he sends us to schools and to jazz and to markets and he's saying just tell them what you've experienced when was the last time you felt like you couldn't hold it in that you just had to share with them there are people all over this planet 7 billion people looking for hope in all the wrong places and you and I are all the right places because we've seen it we've been revealed the truth about God and God places within us the one product going marketing campaign that truly can satisfy the world John chapter 16 right before his prayer in the Garden of Yosemite in verse 5 Jesus is telling him I am going to him who sent me yet none of you asked me where you going they don't get it because I've said these things you're filled with grief but I tell you the truth it is good for you that I'm going away unless I go away the council will not come to you but if I go I will send him to you when he comes he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment in regard to sin because men do not believe in me how many times when someone comes up and they they tell us about some is our first response an explanation and yet that's us resisting the spirit because the spirit is speaking just he's not trying to hurt us he's put people in our lives that are trying to help us be better to better reflect God and we become so much like the world that the thought that you might think there's something I need to change that's offensive to me who do you think you are I mean are we equals are we pairs we're all sinners you know and we can get offended in lessons we can get offended one conversation rather than listening is the spirit speaking to you to change this week living I were going to be going back to the Middle East from being Cairo and I've had a number of people call me and ask me if I'm not a little concerned about growing I said no really and when they find out I'm taking Libby they're going are you sure you ought to do that I said absolutely I cannot run her this this is like chaff shot from a jet when a missile is fired at it no I'm teasing I absolutely am totally secure because I believe that the spirit works in us and I'm confident that God has numbered our days I'm not going to change that I don't have to worry I have to keep my heart my mind focused on what really matters what really matters is the message that you and I carry inside of us it is the hope for the Middle East it's not care packages it's none of those things it's the gospel and it has the power to transform our lives if we let it but we can resist it as chapter seven verse 51 he says you stiff neck people with uncircumcised hearts and ears whoa dudes a little harsh here you're just like your fathers wow you always resist the Holy Spirit are you resisting it now was there ever a prophet your fathers didn't first get there and killed those who predicted the coming of the righteous now you betrayed murder him you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it so many of us in here we know the good that we ought to do we just don't do it because we don't know that anybody's gonna hold us accountable and the very things we know we shouldn't do we jump into them we're resisting the spirit the spirits trying to change us and transform us to be like God to be godly two chapters later in chapter nine it says then the church throughout Judea Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace it was strengthened and encouraged by the Holy Spirit I want the Holy Spirit to encourage us I want it to strengthen us and it says and the numbers grew living in fear of the Lord literally means standing in the presence of God and being in a sense of awe this is my father's house and he's doing miracles if you don't believe that ask Adriana ask Kathy but you ought to be able to look to yourself and see what has God done for me and through me Paul got it that it wasn't him he was simply the vessel the message was being brought in third and finally the spirit is moving us to speak to honor God I pray a prayer all the time that whatever we do in this worship service when appointments I'm in will be done in a way that brings honor and glory to God because I want to remind myself that I am representing him I am standing before people as his living physical presence a representation of him in March chapter 13 verse 9 Jesus told the apostles he must be on your guard you'll be handed over local councils and flogged in synagogues on academy you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to him he's saying lonely you got to get ready because because of me because of your belief for me because of how you feel about me you're going to be brought to those in authority when was the last time we were brought to our boss at work because we were just talking about Jesus too much I can't even remember hearing a story where someone said boy they told me work I got to stop preaching they don't have to tell us to stop we stopped and yet the spirit is working it's moving in us to get us to stand up to step out and to speak out about what God's done you don't have to be perfect you don't have to be a theologian just share what it was to be blind and what it is to be able to see share what it is to have friends that are not perfect that as simple as they are struggle against their sinful nature to be godly friends share what it is to know that no matter what you've done or where you've been the blood of Jesus has set you free he's telling them that because of him and what he's done to them the influences out on their life they are going to be given opportunity and just like you we're all going to know what to say that's why he says the next thing he says literally the gospel must first be preached to all nations whenever you're rested and brought through don't worry before and about what to say just say whatever is given you at the time when our hearts are open the spirits move and we're changing and drawing closer to God we'll have something to share it may not be eloquent it may not be the most of the craziest thing that you could share but it'll be yours it's your story it's your gospel it's literally what the blind man who is given sight said to the Pharisees that we're trying to persecute him I don't know how he did it all I know is I was born now I see do you want to be like Jesus to in Acts chapter four talking about Peter says Peter filled with all his spirit said to them rulers and elders of the people he's now standing up to kings and the leaders of the people when simply about six weeks before he was hiding from a woman and a fire pit at night why because he had stopped resisting the Holy Spirit and it reminded him of everything that Jesus said and he just couldn't help but speak the truth and it changed the world when I came into the church one of the things that drew me was that the people that I was seeing there had a vision to turn the world upside down they were revolutionary in a way that I'd never experienced before there was a confidence and a power that surpassed human understanding it was the light of the spirit being reflected in their lives so Rick shared about it communion it's what moved me as godless and worldly as I was to hunger and thirst to understand what set them apart it's the same spirit that moved Phillip in Acts chapter eight to go up and speak to an Ethiopian official and the spirit said that he would give him utterance and whatever he said worked because tradition tells us that Ethiopian was probably the foundation for the church that reached out to all of Ethiopia. Acts 16 says Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of frigid in Galatia and sometimes the spirit would allow him to speak and sometimes it would the spirit moved him when and where and who to go to just as the spirit is moving in you and in me urging us to tell our story because it is the most beautiful and powerful story the world has ever known you don't need to go to a movie to get inspiration it's in the auditorium. What is God want God wants to honor him is God it's what he tried to get through to the priests and the book of Malachi saying if you would just honor me and treat me as God if I'm God if I'm really God then where's the honor where's the honor do to me in the letter of the church at Rome Paul says in Romans 8 26 in the same way the spirit helps us in our weakness and all my flaws and all the garbage it's just the human sinful part of me the spirit still works we do not know what we ought to pray for but the spirit himself intercedes when we don't know what to do the spirit will tell us it'll move us and he searches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will and I love this and we know that in all things it's tragic that Kathy got cancer but maybe that was the only way the spirit would be able to soften her heart and now no matter what the days hold for her physically the promise is eternity like a bride seeing the doors open seeing or groom standing up on the stage approaching no one they were meant to be one God is calling the spirit is moving because from the very beginning this has been about a relationship between you and God and God has left not only is the seal but as a reminder the spirit to urge us to love him to be willing to change and be willing to speak out about what he's done in our lives and in that move by the spirit we become the reflections of God amen [BLANK_AUDIO]
Sunday lesson by Mike Rock.