Make Room | Part 3: Be on the Move | Chris Vaught

♪ It's so good to see you ♪ ♪ If you're joining us online, welcome ♪ ♪ It's a good day in the house of the Lord today ♪ ♪ Let's dance to our feet ♪ ♪ Let's worship together ♪ ♪ Come on, let's sing our praise ♪ ♪ Our praise in the valley ♪ ♪ And our praise on the mountain ♪ ♪ Oh, praise when I'm sure ♪ ♪ And our praise when I'm dead ♪ ♪ Our praise when I'm numbered ♪ ♪ And our praise been surrounded ♪ ♪ Oh, 'cause praise is the water ♪ ♪ That my enemy's drowning ♪ ♪ Come on, everybody, let's sing ♪ ♪ As long as I'm breathing ♪ ♪ I've got a reason to praise ♪ ♪ Oh, my Lord ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, my Lord ♪ ♪ Sing our praise when I'm feeling ♪ ♪ And our praise when I don't ♪ ♪ Oh, our praise 'cause I know ♪ ♪ Oh, that you're still in control ♪ ♪ Yes, you are ♪ ♪ Oh, just praise me in the weapon ♪ ♪ Oh, it's more than a sound ♪ ♪ There's my praise, there's this child ♪ ♪ That brings Sherry, go down ♪ ♪ And as long as I'm breathing ♪

♪ I've got a reason to pray ♪ ♪ Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Oh, I won't be quiet, my God is a lot ♪ ♪ How could I keep it inside ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Amen, Sherry, we all have a reason to praise the Lord today ♪ ♪ He's been so good, He's been so faithful, amen ♪ ♪ Amen, let's sing it out, sing our praise ♪ ♪ I'll praise 'cause you're sovereign ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're reigned ♪ ♪ I'll praise 'cause you're rose and defeated ♪ ♪ Every boy, I'll praise 'cause you're faithful ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're true ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause there's nobody greater ♪ ♪ Come on, I'll praise 'cause you're sovereign ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're reigned ♪ ♪ I'll praise 'cause you're rose and defeated ♪ ♪ Degris, I'll praise 'cause you're faithful ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause you're true ♪ ♪ Praise 'cause there's nobody greater than you ♪ ♪ Oh, praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Oh, praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Oh, praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet, my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep the inside ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet, my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep the inside ♪

♪ I won't be quiet, I won't be quiet ♪ ♪ My God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep the inside ♪ ♪ Oh, praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Oh, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, praise the Lord, come on, church ♪ ♪ Lift us shout today ♪ ♪ Oh, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, praise the Lord, oh my soul ♪ ♪ Oh, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ I'm calling on the God of Jacob ♪ ♪ Whose love endures through generations ♪ ♪ I know that you will keep your covenant ♪ ♪ I'm calling on the God of Moses ♪ ♪ The one who opened up the ocean ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you. Oh God, my God, I need you now. How I need you now. Oh rock, rock, rock of ages, I'm standing on your faithfulness. On your faithfulness. I'm calling on the God of Mary, whose favor rests upon love. I'm calling on the God of David, made a shepherd boy courageous. I may not face the light, but I've got my own giants. Oh God, my God, I need you.

Oh God, my God, I need you now. How I need you now. Oh rock, rock, rock of ages, I'm standing on your faithfulness. On your faithfulness. Oh God, my God, I need you. Oh God, my God, I need you now. How I need you now. Oh rock, rock, rock of ages, I'm standing on your faithfulness. On your faithfulness. You heard your children. You hear your children now. You are the same God. You are the same God. You answered prayers back then. And you will answer now. You are the same God. You are the same God. You were providing when you are providing now. You are the same God. You are the same God. You moved in power then. God moved in power now. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are a healer then. You are a healer now. You are the same God. You are the same God. You are a Savior then. You are a Savior now.

You are the same God. You are the same God. Oh God, my God, I need you. Oh God, my God, I need you now. How I need you now. Oh God, rock, rock of ages. I'm standing on your people's hands. On your faithfulness. Oh God, my God, I need you. Oh God, my God, I need you now. How I need you now. Oh rock, rock, rock of ages. I'm standing on your people's hands. On your faithfulness. Because Jesus, you are the same. Yes, Your name is Jesus. One more time, oh God, my God. ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you ♪ ♪ Oh God, my God, I need you now ♪ ♪ How I need you now ♪ ♪ Oh rock, rock, rock of ages ♪ ♪ I'm standing on your faithfulness ♪ ♪ On your faithfulness ♪ - Let's give him some praise this morning. - Amen, he's just that good, amen. Amen, I wanna welcome you today. If you were a first-time guest with us this morning, we're gonna put a code on the screen. Feel free to take your phone out and get that QR code.

We just wanna get you some information about our church and ways that you can partner with us and help us be the hands and feet of Jesus. Maybe that's you today. The rest of you, I hope you grabbed your communion element on the way in, we wanna take communion together today. And it's so cool, in our hands, we hold the story of the gospel. And I wanna remind us today about that. So Jesus took the disciples to an upper room and he began to teach them and tell them about what was going to unfold in the next hours and days. And he got to the bread and he pulled out the bread and he broke it and he gave thanks. And he said, "This is my body. It's broken for you, given for you." You know, something that came to my mind this week as I was preparing for this is Jesus willingly gave his body. It wasn't an accident, didn't accidentally die on a cross. He willingly went. And he took scourge for us, took lashes for us. And he took a crown of thorns on his head and he was mocked. And he had to carry this cross through the streets. And when he gets to this moment in the upper room, I know that these things have to flash through his mind that are gonna be upcoming. He says, "This is my body. It's broken for you." When we break the bread, can we take it this morning? God, I give you this today.

I give you my whole heart. God, I ask that you bless this time together. God, that we remember how you sent your son, Jesus, a down of cross, a sacrifice that it was. I see you bless this time together. Send your name up right here, amen. Can you take the bread? In the same way, he took the cup. He said, "This is blood poured out for you, shed for you." And up until this moment, the sacrifice for our sins was to bring an altar, bring an offering to an altar. But Jesus is saying that he's gonna be the sacrifice for once and for all. You might have noticed that when you drove in today, that the crosses that are out there, the entrance, they're not standing up. They're laid over because they never have to be brought back up again for Jesus to be able to die on the cross again. He did it one time for you and for me. And he said, "This is my blood poured out for you. Take this cup," and I remember it to me. Can we take the cup today? (calm music) You know, I said that we helped the full gospel in our hands today. They took his body down, they wrapped him in grave clothes and they put him in a grave for three days. But after that third day, Jesus arose.

And he brought freedom out of that grave. And he brought healing out of that grave. He also brought victory. So today I want to remind us that there's no longer a body in that grave. And we can celebrate today. We can remember and we can celebrate what Jesus did for us on the cross. And we can remember that we serve in a life, God. Amen. I'm on this thing, let's worship today. Our altars are going to be open this morning. If you need prayer, you need somebody to believe with you. This is your time. (soft music) ♪ Beyond a limb ♪ ♪ A dead across ♪ ♪ Who takes away ♪ ♪ The sins of all ♪ ♪ Forgiveness flows ♪ ♪ From hands and feet ♪ ♪ As violence means ♪ ♪ The praise of our peace ♪ ♪ Behold the truth ♪ ♪ Out of the world ♪ ♪ Land that will stay ♪ ♪ Like the rose ♪ ♪ Mine it is free ♪ ♪ The fullness of God ♪ ♪ Won't be kept in a grave ♪

♪ And darkness your hour is over ♪ ♪ Behold the love ♪ ♪ Is dying to me ♪ ♪ Behold the grace ♪ ♪ Of Calvary ♪ ♪ That love it cross ♪ ♪ Should you be ♪ ♪ The aroma ♪ ♪ Of reason clean ♪ ♪ Behold the peace ♪ ♪ Night of the world ♪ ♪ Land that will stay ♪ ♪ And I am the rose ♪ ♪ Mine it is free ♪ ♪ The fullness of God ♪ ♪ Won't be kept in a grave ♪ ♪ And darkness your hour is over ♪ ♪ The light of the world ♪ ♪ Land that will stay ♪ ♪ Mine rose ♪ ♪ Mine it is free ♪ ♪ The fullness of God ♪ ♪ Won't be kept in a grave ♪ ♪ And darkness your hour is over ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ No way to me can hold you down ♪ ♪ 'Cause there's nobody in the grave now ♪ ♪ One hand gets to wear that crown ♪

♪ 'Cause there's nobody in the grave now ♪ ♪ No way to me can hold you down ♪ ♪ 'Cause there's nobody in the grave now ♪ ♪ One hand gets to wear that crown ♪ ♪ 'Cause there's nobody in the grave now ♪ ♪ No way to me can hold you down ♪ ♪ 'Cause there's nobody in the grave now ♪ ♪ One hand gets to wear that crown ♪ No enemy can hold you down 'Cause there's nobody in your brain now Or head into there that crowd 'Cause there's nobody in your brain A lot of the world They're not to stay Not in the world They're not to stay The poorness of God Will be left in a grave Talk me around with reason Not in the world They're not to stay Not in the world They're not to stay The poorness of God Will be left in a grave Talk me around with reason No enemy can hold you down 'Cause there's nobody in your brain now Or head into there that crowd 'Cause there's nobody in your brain now

No enemy can hold you down 'Cause there's nobody in your brain now Or head into there that crowd 'Cause there's nobody in your brain now Oh, we've got to change our heart Yeah, there's nobody in your brain now Oh, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart

No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart

No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart No, we've got to change our heart Hey, man, you may be seated Man wasn't worshiped wonderful today Nobody is in that grave Praise the Lord, praise the Lord

Well, I'm Lisa, and I want to welcome you here today If you were here early enough before this awesome crowd arrived You saw that the back of the pews or the chairs looked like they had polka dots It's a new thing that we have It's not new in technology But we just finally decided to tap in to a great tool We can use and it's just a tap So if you want to know what your next step is If you are new here and you want to register with us If you want to sign up for starting point Which is what you should do if you haven't been through it yet To find out about us Tap this or that QR code on your worship guide Works the same way Just go in there and see what is going on Let me tell you one of the things you can find there Is how to register for baptism service next Sunday If you have accepted Jesus as your Savior And you've never gone publicly before others In this act of baptism It's a public declaration Of the choice you've made We would love for you to join our baptism Sunday next Sunday So sign up there Now I want to just say how much we appreciate you Your worship time You surrender I had somebody in the lobby when they walk in here, and that part of that, and she even said it, it's the people who allow

the Holy Spirit to work through you, so thank you for that. Thank you. We love to worship the Lord in everything that we do. We had wonderful worship in music today. We're gonna hear wonderful message from Pastor Chris, and we worship by listening to that, and by listening to the word when we're in it, and then we also worship with our giving, whether it's our time or talent or our treasures. Let me tell you what your generosity does around here. I know Pastor Jeremy talked about the kids' department last week, but I'm gonna continue that with just saying, it's the next generation that is impacted by your giving. Did you know that the kids' department, before they started this new series of the Paul's letters, they mailed out over a thousand letters to the children of kids' department, a thousand to let them know they were invited to the new series. That's because of your generosity that they could do that. Those children are not used to getting mail through the mail system, and they were so excited, and they've been growing because of that. Then the special needs department still needs help, if you've been working, thinking about that all week, and you thought, I really should have signed up for that. Go see the next step station and tell 'em you're interested. But the special needs program provides buddies so that the parents who don't get a lot of respite can be in here and worship.

And then we have the youth, the sixth through 12th grade, all this week, this altar was full, for 20 minutes after the message. They were on their face before God praying. How powerful is that? And you're investing in that next generation. And then with the young adults growing by leaps and bounds now that we have Pastor Jeremy back with us, thank you. It's not just dropping a coin or a dollar or a hundred dollars in a bucket. It's investing in the future, where we can share with the next generation that Jesus is the one that gives them life-giving purpose. Thank you for that. There are four easy ways that you can give. Actually, there's five now 'cause you can tap the back of that chair. But anyway, you can text the word give to 573-2826-670. You can go online. You can drop it in the boxes along the wall as you leave, or you can mail it to the address on the screen. But it's because of you, we get to make kingdom impact. So thank you. Would you go with me to the Lord in prayer this morning? And let's just ask Him to continue being with us today. Dear Lord, thank you. Thank you so very much for the opportunity to be in your presence day in and day out. But Lord, to fill your presence because the people bring your spirit with them

when they come. Thank you, Lord, for that resurrection. And the hope we have in that. And I thank you, Lord, for the sacrifice people give to be generous toward making an impact to our community and the next-generation Lord. Just bless this offering. Just use it for your kingdom. We just trust you this morning. Help us be people connecting people every day with the life-giving purpose that's found in you. In Jesus' name, amen. - Amen. Well, how many's glad to be in church on Labor Day weekend? Come on. You guys filling it up on a holiday weekend. So good to see you. Go ahead and fist bump two people right now until I'm so glad to have you here at CPC this weekend. Glad you got to come out. Hope you enjoy your weekend. Get some rest tomorrow. Hey, go ahead and put your hands together too. Let's welcome our online campus. God bless you. Thank you wherever you're watching from. Come on and be a part of this. You can download our message notes right now for any of the media outlets in-house. Grab yours and your Bible, your pen, your journal,

whatever you love to take notes with. We're gonna go together to Acts chapter 16 here in just a few moments. Now, for those of you who may be new to the church today, I would love a chance to meet you, just to hear your name and where you're coming from. So, hey, I'll be right outside these sets of doors in between services. If you would swing by and say hello, would love to meet you. And let me just tell you what we're doing right now. This year is a church. We're going through a reading plan. We're reading the New Testament and the book of Psalms. It's one chapter a day, five days a week. You can get a copy of that at the next step station or on our website. If you'd like to pick it up and just start reading along. from your reading plan. So you read Acts chapter 16 this past week. So today I'm preaching from Acts chapter 16. That's where we're gonna go here in just a few moments. I hope you're following right along with us in that. But before we do, we wanna go to Lord in prayer and then we'll dive into this 'cause we're in this little mini-series as we're reading through the book of Acts. And we're calling this little mini-series Make Room because we know this that when you read the book of Acts and for those of you who don't know this,

the book of Acts is actually 30 years of church history. It starts when Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father and for the next 30 years, then what you read here in the book of Acts could actually be the Acts of the Holy Spirit. That's what you're reading. You're reading how the Holy Spirit led these early believers for 30 years and how they followed the Lord and did the ministry. And we're learning from them. And we're gonna dive into that today as we talk about making room because God leads us to make room for others to meet Jesus, amen? So join me if you would in prayer. Father in Jesus' name, thank you for this morning for allowing us to worship you in song. Thank you for everyone who worshiped you by singing to you their praise. For those God, as we took communion and we took the bread and the cup and we remembered your sacrifice and we gave you thanks for that. Thank you for that moment of worship. Thank you for those who've worshiped today through serving, many have worshiped through volunteering today to help make this event happen so that we could be here and online or at the BOCO campus. And today, God, you're letting the gospel spread out. We're so thankful to you for that. And God, some have worshiped you through their giving

just a moment ago as we give our tithes and offerings to see all the great work you're doing through this church. God, how right now God, things are happening here and at the BOCO campus and online and all we can do God is set back and give you praise. But now God, we're gonna worship you through your word. Over the next few moments, God, we're gonna look into the scriptures and we pray you give us eyes to behold wondrous truths. Let our ears hear what the Holy Spirit has to say. God help our hearts receive and our minds comprehend these truths so that we look more like you and less like us and we can go out into our world where we live, work and play and shine the light of Jesus that we can bring some light into the darkness. So God, to get there, we pray you through your word today, give us a mind of truth. God, give us voices of hope. Let our hearts be full of compassion and love people the way you do. Let us live out lives with hands of service and feet of purpose. And we pray it all in Jesus' name and all God's people said. Amen, amen. Well, as we are making room, something I'm super excited to share with you, as you already know about the renovations across the road that we're doing for the next gin building that BOCO is about to launch three services mid-October that God is just moving mildly at both campuses.

Here's something I'm super excited to tell you. This just came to us on Friday. And so hopefully next week I'll be able to say it's verified, but we were told on Friday that next Sunday CPC should be live in every prison across America on the PENDO app. We've been waiting on this. We've bought the equipment. We've got it all up. And they said next week it should be live. We'll be in every prison in America. Come on, to God be the glory, amen. Exciting days, thank you for being here this morning. Let's dive into the word this morning as we're gonna continue talking about making room. And today, listen, the first week we talked about, to make room for others to meet Jesus, we first got to make room in our hearts for them. We got to care about people and want them to meet Jesus. Last week, when we share the gospel and we talked about this, we got to make room by not making it difficult for them to get to Jesus. Let's don't put up any of our preferences in traditions as walls. Let's just get them to the simple gospel. Today, I believe could be the most important element thus far. If you and I are going to effectively help make room for others to meet Jesus and live out the plans and purposes God has for us individually or for us as a church. So I pray in this room and online,

you'll lean in close for just a moment. To set that up, let me just ask you this question. How many of you are amazed at those mountain hikers you can climb Mount Everest? Have you ever thought about it? Have you ever watched a documentary on them or read an article or like on YouTube, like watching? These folks are absolutely out of their mind. This is the highest peak on planet earth. And I don't know if you know this or not, but 90% of the people who tried to climb to the summit 90% never make it to the top of Mount Everest. In fact, since 1953, 165 climbers lost their lives trying to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Well, let me introduce you today to Eric Winenheimer. Eric reached the pinnacle of Mount Everest. He's one of the 10% who actually made it to the top. But here's why Eric's story is so amazing and why I want to lead in with this today. Eric made it to the top of Mount Everest. He isn't that top 10% and he did so blind. Eric Winenheimer has been blind since the age of 13 when he had a degenerative eye disease that took his sight. So it begs the question, how in the world did this blind man reach the summit of Mount Everest, the tallest peak on our planet? Lean in close and grab ahold of this. He made it to the pinnacle because he was really good at listening. In fact, the story goes that the climber in front of Eric

wore a bail around his waist and Eric climbed Mount Everest listening for the bail in front of him and he went in the direction of the bail. The other climbers who were with him also kind of help call out instructions to him from time to time. You imagine, you're thousands of feet in the air climbing up an icy rock, and all of a sudden you hear one of your teammates holler out something that sounded like this. Death, two feet to the right. I mean, no, in that moment, you wanted to go left. And that's literally one of the commands they would haul, they would say, "Death fall just to your right, two feet." And Eric would know I gotta move toward the left. Eric also became very good at listening to the sound of the ice when he stuck his pick in it and he began to learn quickly on if the sound of the ice was gonna be thick enough to hold his weight or not. Eric Meinehire climbed to the summit because it became good at listening. Listen to me congregation as I share with you this morning. If you and I are gonna fulfill the plans that God has for us individually, if we as a church are gonna accomplish the plans and purposes God has for us, if we're gonna see God do anything in our lives or in our church, we must. It is imperative that we become good at listening. But who are we to listen to?

I shared with you a moment ago that the book of Acts is called The Acts of the Apostles. And it's a 30 year history book. But if you've caught on by now, as you've read two thirds of the book of Acts in our reading plan, it really isn't about Paul and it really isn't about Silas or Barnabas or James or Peter, these are just men, men. It's not even just about the ladies, right? Either we got Lydia and we got Aquila and Priscilla, his wife and we got other ladies who God is using greatly in the book of the Acts of the Apostles. It's not about men or women, it's about the Holy Spirit. The book can be better titled Acts of the Holy Spirit. And that's why I pray that we get across today and we understand if we, it is imperative, we begin to be good listeners to the Holy Spirit. Today I got two insights that I wanna share with you. The first one is about recognizing his voice, his direction and secondly how we respond to it. That's our outline for the day, which is gonna be really easy. We're gonna dive right into this, amen? Jesus at the beginning of the book of Acts is also where the Gospels close. And at the end of the Gospels, we have Jesus right before he ascends and tell him the disciples, you're gonna be in due with power to be my witnesses. We go back to the end of the Gospels and we find out why Jesus said you needed the power

of the Holy Spirit to be my witness. It's because Jesus gave them a commission and Jesus is given every follower of his, a commission. And by the way, by the way, by the way, some of you are probably thinking, yes, that was great for the first century. Lean in close, let me tell you something. The commission began at his ascension. It doesn't end until his return and he hasn't come back yet. Which means you and I as followers of Jesus are still under the same commission that Jesus gave Peter, James and John and Mary and Martha and the ladies. And we're all under the same commission. And I know you know it, Matthew 19, or 28, 19, 20, you can quote, doesn't matter what translation you memorize it. It all sounds pretty much the same. In-house and online, let's all practice, you ready? Here are the words of Jesus. If you've ever heard it, you'll be able to pick up on it, ready to go. Jesus says, go therefore and make disciples in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have taught you and I'm with you always, even to win the end of the age. And by the way, we're gonna be doing that next weekend with some new disciples. We're gonna have baptism Sunday next weekend, amen? Here's what I want you to capture. If you were in the first century

and you heard Jesus give that command, you would have picked up because you would have understood the Greek, you would have understood the tense of the verb. We read it in English, go and make disciples, but that's not how they heard it. The better translation in Greek is this, as you are going make disciples. Meaning it's not like a one-time command. It's not just what we do on Sundays. How many thank God the gospel is not reserved to Sunday mornings? This is every day as you go wherever you live, wherever you work, wherever you play. When you get to the break room tomorrow on your job, when you go sit in class with your classmates or your friends, when you go play on your traveling sports team, that arena, that ballpark, every place we go becomes an environment where if we're sensitive enough to the Holy Spirit, he might just open the door for a gospel conversation. We may just lead you to fulfill whatever that next part of the plan is God has for your life. That's what we wanna lean in today and notice as the apostle Paul is right here in this moment where he's trying to be obedient to God and God actually does something that doesn't make any sense to Paul. How many of you have been following Jesus long enough to know that sometimes God will give you directions that you don't understand in the moment?

And it forces you to ask the question, "Do I trust God right here or right now?" Let's look at it together in Acts chapter six, two insights from this passage we're gonna get into. The Bible says this is Paul and his companions. They went through the region of Fergia and Galatia, that's modern day Turkey. And watch how it gets interesting here. They had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. When they came to Missia, they tried to go into Bithnia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. Passing by Missia, they went down to Troas. Now stop for a moment before you read any further. Is there anything that seems out of place with the passage so far? Is there anyone that would have thought, man, I think God wants us to go share the gospel anywhere, anytime we have an opportunity. I mean, is anybody like, I think God always will say yes when I say Jesus, do you want me to go preach and tell somebody about Jesus, right? And here's what's so crazy is twice on this one journey. The door for preaching the gospel was closed for Paul. And here's what I want you to capture. It wasn't closed by the politicians. It wasn't closed by the culture. It wasn't closed by people who were refusing the gospel. Notice the first time he was forbidden by who? The Holy Spirit.

And then when they went to Missia and they wanted to go to Bithnia, you're gonna see this name again here in a moment, they wanted to go to Bithnia, but what did Paul say? It was the spirit of Jesus who did not allow them to go. Does that seem hot to anyone? Can you just see the apostle Paul? I mean, this man who's been saved by the grace of God, he's willing to go, he's willing to die. He's gonna preach for Jesus anywhere. Jesus wants him to go and Jesus is going through the land of Turkey and he's like, I'm gonna go preach. I think I'll go over here. And the spirit says, nope. And they said, whoa, wait, I'll go over here. And the Holy Spirit says, nope. You think Paul struck, was scratching his head a little bit? I do, it doesn't seem like God knows what he's doing right now. Why in the world with the Holy Spirit tell him not to us, keep reading, during the night when he goes to Troas, Paul had a vision in which a Macedonian man was standing and he's pleading with him, cross over to Macedonia and help us. Now, when everyone in housing online to pick up the reading with me, ready to go, after he had seen the vision, we immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia. What was their conclusion? Concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Here's the first insight I wanna make sure

that we grab a hold of today for us to understand this in context. And that is this, if we're gonna follow Jesus, God wants us to go and our personal walk with him or as a church, listen to me, listen to me, is we've got to be really good at seeking the Holy Spirit and listening to his voice. Because just imagine, here's Paul, won't go preach and two times the Holy Spirit says no, no, and then all of a sudden in the night he gets a vision, I want you to go west young man. I want you to go to a totally different direction, a totally opposite of where you thought your life was going to take you and it was exactly what the Holy Spirit meant for him to have in that moment. The only way you and I can grab a hold of this is if you and I get really good at seeking and listening to the Holy Spirit. By the way, let's just set some standards right on the ground, let's just lay some perimeters right down right now that we all can agree on and understand some foundational truths. How many know that the Bible says that the moment you gave your life to Jesus Christ, you were bought at a price, you're not your own, you've been purchased by the blood of Jesus, we celebrate that in communion today, your life no longer belongs to you, you now belong to Christ. Will you agree with that? We are bought at a price, it's no longer us who gets to make all of our decisions, now we are surrendered. The whole idea of being a Christian is to be surrendered, a disciple of Jesus. And here is Paul and he's saying we need to recognize his direction. This is what Paul is learning on his way up through this journey. In fact, let's look at it on a map. Here's what it kind of looked like. Paul is down here, he's preached at Listra where they stoned him, left him for dead, he traveled 60 miles to Derby after he woke up and preached the gospel there, then he came back to Listra and encouraged the Christians and then he starts this long journey up this country. Now everything you see here, this is modern day, the land of Turkey. And as he traveled about halfway up the country, he decided he wanted to go over to the coastline to preach the gospel and the Holy Spirit said no. So he continued up here to Missia and then he wanted to go to Bithnia. And here's what you need to understand about Bithnia up in the northeast coast. The direct path after you left Bithnia would have led him to East Asia, the Orient. And if Paul had have went to the east, most likely he would have ended in East Asia preaching the gospel. But when he gets here to Missia, the Holy Spirit closes that door and the Holy Spirit says no, I don't want you going east. And so he stops overnight at Troas and that's where the

Macedonian vision comes and God is pointing him to come over to Macedonia. This is modern day Greece. And here's where the gospel was to go with the Apostle Paul. Listen to me, closed doors aren't always God's opposition. Most of the time they are God's redirection. Closed doors is just God closed them one direction. So he will force you to look at another way and you say, well, God do that to me as a believer. Lean in close and let me tell you something, ladies and gentlemen, it is the Holy Spirit, not your personal plan, not your personal preference, not your opinions that has the right to direct your life once you have been purchased by the blood of Christ. In fact, it is the Holy Spirit who actually has the right right now to tell us to stop or to go. The Holy Spirit has the right to say yes or no. The Holy Spirit can say, go here, not there. The Holy Spirit can say, speak up now or he may say, stay silent a little longer. The Holy Spirit can say do, he can also say don't. He can say now, he can say wait. And the imperative for you and I is to get really good at listening to the Holy Spirit at whatever he's whispering in your ear or prompting in your heart. This is what God's been trying to teach his disciples for a long time. In fact, you go 700 years before Pentecost. You go 700 years before the Holy Spirit's given to Christians there on the day of Pentecost after the resurrection and God actually gives an allusion to this. He alludes to this through the prophet Isaiah. Listen to Isaiah 30 verse 21. God says, whenever you turn to the right or to the left, your ears were here And what he's doing there, 700 years before Jesus is even born in Bethlehem, he is letting the people of God know there's coming a day when the Spirit of God will be so close to you. The Spirit of God can whisper. And if you're listening, you'll hear this whisper in your ear and the Holy Spirit is so personal that he'll guide you in the decisions you need to make or the direction you need to go. In fact, here's what Jesus said. Jesus said in John 14 verse 26, the counselor, the Holy Spirit, in fact, this is why he said it's better that he goes back to the right hand

of the Father so the Holy Spirit could come down and live within us as Christians. He says, the Holy Spirit, the comforter, the counselor, he will teach you all things, watch this, watch this, and remind you of everything I have said. So question, why did we give you a Bible reading plan this year, why am I preaching through it? Every week before I preach, you hear me pray in my pastoral prayer, God give us ears to hear what the who, who, what the Spirit has to say. Why is this so important, ladies and gentlemen, 'cause watch this, watch this, watch this, watch this. The Holy Spirit, to bring back to your remembrance, to speak to you and to tell you what God has said, you must get the word on the inside of you. Now there are some today who say all you need is the word and they act as if the Holy Spirit has ceased in all his workings, he has not. There's not one verse in all the Bible that says the Holy Spirit is any less powerful today than he was when what you're reading in the Acts of the Apostles. Can I hear somebody say, amen. What I can tell you is you got to be with Jesus to get a word from Jesus and then the Holy Spirit, you got to be sizzled the Holy Spirit 'cause he will bring back to your remembrance whatsoever the Lord has said to you. You don't need either or you got to have both ends. We need to be people of the word

and we need to be people of the Spirit at the same time. We got to be sensitive to hear what the Holy Spirit has to say and so the Lord speaks to his word. Now the question comes down to what kind of Christian do we want to be? What kind of church do we want to be? Do we want to be robots or speedboats for Jesus? You do know there's a big difference, don't you? There's a huge difference between a rowboat and a speedboat. A rowboat and a speedboat may be going in the same direction but their power source comes from two totally different places. A rowboat's gonna go at the speed and the ability and the length of the one who is determining to get there by their own power and their own strength. But a speedboat Christian is one who knows they can't get there in their own power. They have to rely on a totally different power source. These are the ones who are sensitive to the Holy Spirit 'cause it's the Holy Spirit that can empower us to get where, listen, we need him to propel us to get where we are supposed to go in God's plan. Amen? You want to be a rowboat or you want to be a speedboat? So let me ask you this question. Are you right now sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit in your life? Are you listening for Him to speak? Are you getting up on Monday morning and inviting Him to guide you through the week? Not just Monday, I think it'll be a daily prayer,

don't you? Get up and invite the Holy Spirit to have control. When you're reading your Bible, are you asking them to open your eyes and enlighten your mind so you can see and hear what He's wanting to show you through the Word? Are you asking Him God? Don't just help me make big decisions. Help me in those every little beating moments of life. All those little moments as I go throughout my day, as I go, guide me. Put your thoughts in my mind. Put your words on my lips. Let my heart care for people the way you care for people. I want to tell you something, ladies and gentlemen, we should be praying specifically to seek the Holy Spirit and to surrender to His influence in our lives. You can, I know this is going to rock some of you. You, listen, the moment you surrender your life to Jesus, you are born again and it's a spiritual rebirth. The Holy Spirit comes in and He brings you, He baptizes you into the family of God, the moment you call on Jesus and repent of your sins and salvation. But you can be saved and have the Holy Spirit, with the Holy Spirit at the same time. To be filled with the Holy Spirit means to be under His control, under His influence. You may only receive the Holy Spirit once at salvation,

but being filled with the Holy Spirit can happen every single day. Every day we can be filled with Him. It's not about you getting more of Him. Well, I tell you what, the Holy Spirit's one. He's wanting to get more of you. He's wanting to get more of me. He wants us to get up every day and surrender more of ourselves to Him and being tuned to His voice and tuned to His power and let Him work and flow through us like the power source that He is, instead of restricting Him and holding Him back and not allowing Him to do the work He wants to do in our lives. We can have the Holy Spirit and be powerless because we're not allowing Him complete control of our lives. Are you surrendering to the power of the Holy Spirit? The disciples, we see this all through the book of Acts. You've read it, you've read 15, 16 chapters. Here's what you've read this past week in Acts 13. In a moment where the disciples were rejected and kicked out of one of the cities, they didn't leave there with their heads hung down saying, "Oh my goodness, if I didn't use that illustration, they would have loved my sermon." Here's what the Bible says, and they left that city, shook the dust off actually, and the disciples were filled with joy and filled with the Holy Spirit. How many of you know by now

the Holy Spirit can feel you to overflow? It's about you being under His influence and it's a daily surrender to the power of the Holy Spirit. God, I need you. God, I need you to take over. I need you to guide me. In fact, this is what Paul is saying in Acts, or Ephesians 5, 18, and don't get drunk with wine. Why? Because it takes over your thoughts. It takes over your actions. Whenever you're intoxicated, it's that spirit of that alcohol that is running your life. It's what's controlling your mind. It's what's coming out of your actions. Look at the parallel that Paul brings. Don't get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled with the Spirit. In other words, allow the Holy Spirit to be what controls your mind. Be what comes out of your mouth. What overflows out of your heart? Let it be the Holy Spirit of God that changes you from the inside out. Amen? (congregation applauding) So our challenge is this. To always be seeking and listening to the Holy Spirit. And when we do, we can understand the second initiative here, or insight, and that is then we prepare ourselves

to respond to his direction. This is meaning when you can respond to him and you're filled with him, you can trust and go wherever he leads. Amen? I love this. Look at verse 10. In verse 10, it says, "And after he had seen the vision, and I love the next two words, will you say I'm in-house and online with me?" Paul says, "We immediately made efforts to set out for Macedonia." And here's the conclusion they came to, concluding what that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. Now here, I want you to catch some things here. First of all, here Dr. Luke goes from them to we. So Dr. Luke says he joined them at this moment and he says this was our decision. We came to this moment. We immediately, here's what I want you to capture. Paul and Luke and his companions did not throw a tantrum. No, I don't want to go to Macedonia. I want to go to Bithnea. They didn't linger back and throw us and say, "I think we need more confirmation. Let's put out a fleece." They did not debate it, they did not argue with it. The moment the Holy Spirit said,

"Don't go to Bithnea, go to Macedonia." Instead, immediately they did what? They obeyed. You know why they obeyed? They trusted God knew what he was doing. I pray someone in this room and online, here's that right now. To be obedient to the Holy Spirit, to seek him, to live your life under his influence, I promise you there's going to be moments that God is going to close one door, to hold you in a spot until he opens the other door and you're going to sit there in a spirit of confusion waiting for him to say go. But when he speaks, you must be ready and trust and obey. How many know there is no other way like the O'Him, right? To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Bye bye. He wanted to go to Bithnia. He would have probably ended up in the East Orient. Instead, he had to go West. He had to go to Macedonia. Why? God knew why. Greece was the number one language on the planet. It was the one language everybody was speaking. They were speaking Greek because of the Empire. It would go from Greece up through the Roman Empire. The gospel would spread all the way through Europe. In fact, what you read in Acts 16 is the first European convert in the Scriptures. The gospel would go up to Europe, and then one day it was going to cross an ocean

and land in the Western Hemisphere and to the Americas. And look at me in this room and online. Let me say something to you. You and I are the spiritual descendants of Paul's obedience to the Holy Spirit. Had he not went to Greece, you and I may have never heard the gospel. We are here today because Paul said yes to the Holy Spirit, even when he didn't understand the Holy Spirit. And you say, "But wait a minute. Why about Bithnia? Why about East Asia? Doesn't God love them?" Yes, he does. I'm so glad you asked. One day you're going to open your Bibles and read 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 1. And here's what your eyes are going to behold when you read 1 Peter chapter 1, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen, living his exiles, dispersing abroad in Pontius, in Galatia, in Capaldecia, in Asia, and in Bithnia. Oh yeah, God got the gospel to Bithnia. God got the gospel to East Asia. It just wasn't Paul to do it. God had someone else chosen to go there, but both still received the gospel. It's not about it all being up to you. It's about you and I being obedient to do our part, however the Holy Spirit leads. Amen? I wonder what God's going to do with you next. I wonder what God's going to do in our church next. Here's what I know. If we're going to see God fulfill his plans and purposes in your life or mine, we've got to be very good at recognizing the voice of the Holy Spirit, and then trusting and obeying it when he speaks. It's going to get an amen.

I'm going to ask you a very spiritual question right now. Are you ready? I've been talking about a hard topic today. I've been talking about being sensitive to the Holy Spirit. I can tell by the looks on some of y'all's faces. This was rough, but you're going to make it. Look at your neighbor and say, "Breathe." We've got to be in tune to the Holy Spirit, amen? So I'm going to ask you a very spiritual question. Are you ready for it? How many of you have ever watched the karate kid movie? That's my spiritual question, all right? The movie is not spiritual, don't call me a heretic, all right? But if you've ever watched the karate kid, the movie is not a spiritual movie at all, but there's a very good lesson in here that we need to grab hold of. Here comes a moment when the main character Daniel is tired of getting beaten up by the bullies and he wants to learn karate. He comes across a Mr. Miyagi who the dude is just flat dab, a karate expert, right? And so Daniel begins the relationship with Mr. Miyagi and he comes to me and he says, "Will you teach me how to fight karate? Will you teach me karate?" Mr. Miyagi says, "Yes, Daniel, son. I teach you karate." And then the very next thing, okay, he shows up to learn karate and here is what Mr. Miyagi does. "I want you, go wax my cars," and he's got a lot of them, right? He says, "Go wax my cars." And when Daniel goes out to wax the cars, he says, "No, no, no, no. Do it like this. Wax on, wax off, wax on, and wax off."

And so here's Daniel out there and the whole time he's waxing the cars, he has to go wax on and wax off. And he gets through all the cars and he thinks, "Now I'm going to learn karate." And Mr. Miyagi comes, "Okay, Daniel, son, now you go paint my fence, paint fence like this." And so he's like, "Paint the fence, paint the fence, paint the fence." He gets done painting the fence and he says, "Now, send the floor. Send the floor." When you send the floor, you got to send it like this, "Send the floor, send the floor." You can't do, now, "Send the floor." And then he goes, "Paint my house." He's like, "Paint the house, paint the house." And at this time, Daniel, who wants to learn karate, and he trusts his and he believes in Mr. Miyagi, but he actually does so confused, he has a temper tantrum on Mr. Miyagi and He believes Mr. Miyagi is just using I wish I was as smart as Mr. Miyagi when people asked me to disciple him. I'd get a whole lot of that list done from Miss Lisa if I was as smart as Mr. Miyagi. And when Daniel has this temper tantrum, Mr. Miyagi says, "Show me, send the floor." And Daniel's throwing a fit, didn't want to do it. I said, "Show me, send the floor." About that time Daniel shows him, "Send the floor." And the time his hand gets up, Mr. Miyagi throws a punch. And then he says, "Show me, send the floor," and he throws another punch. He says, "Show me, wax on, wax off." And as his hand comes down, Mr. Miyagi throws a kick, and then he throws another kick. He says, "Show me, paint the fence." And as his hand goes up and his hand goes down, he catches another punch from Mr. Miyagi, and he says, "Show me, paint the fence," or paint the house. And here is what Daniel learned. When he thought he was being stuck in mindless chores, it was actually training ground for

his future defense. And I need to tell someone here this morning that sometimes following Jesus feels like doing chores. Sometimes it doesn't make sense. You show up, you're reading the Bible, you're praying, you're doing everything you believe God wants you to do, and sometimes it just feels like you're doing the chores for Jesus. But here's what I need you to know. There's going to come a moment when God's going to let you know your faithfulness over the chores is actually preparation for your future. He's just got to listen and obey and trust he knows what he's doing. Amen? In fact, here's your big takeaway. Here's what I want you to take home with you. This is our challenge as Christians. If we're going to fulfill God's plan in our heart and for the Kingdom of God, and how many remember that the goal of the Kingdom is that as we're going, we're making disciples, we're making room for people to meet Jesus. Now we're living out the individual plans and purposes God has for our lives and for our church. Here's the goal. We need to be really good to listen to his voice, move at his direction, and here's what we can trust. God will make room for someone else to enter the Kingdom of God. Can I get an amen from somebody? Amen? Paul didn't need a full map. He just needed to be sensitive enough to the Holy Spirit. To know when the Spirit said no and obedient enough to move when God said go. And I don't know about you, but I want to be a lot more like Paul and a lot less like Chris of all.

Amen? Amen? Would you bag your heads with me? We're going to go in a moment of prayer, in room, and online. And I just want to challenge you as you're going to the Lord in prayer. Let me ask you a couple of questions. Are you right now seeking to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit? In fact, is the Holy Spirit already speaking to you? And are you trusting him enough to say yes to whatever the Holy Spirit says? Are you trusting him even if you don't understand the plan? Are you praying right now for the Holy Spirit to speak to your life? And are you obedient to say yes when he speaks? If you would, stand with me all over this room watching online. Lord, that's our prayer today, that God as you make room for others to know you through the Kingdom, but God that we as individuals are living out the plans and purposes you have for us and as a church, God is so imperative that we be in tune to the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, help us to hear your voice, help us to hear your whisper, help us to see you when we read Scripture, help us to be in tune to you when we pray and worship. Help us to hear that whisper as we go throughout our days at any of those moments that you want to prompt us, but you want to fill us and lead us and God has let us be able to say yes Lord, let us follow you even if we don't have all the answers, let us be obedient, let us be that type of people so that we truly can continue on the book of Acts in our day that we can be men and women led by the Spirit and you will make God, we thank you and we love you in Jesus' name. Head, stay bowed. Maybe there's someone in this room right now that feels the Holy Spirit drawing you unto salvation. To trust Jesus for the first time or to come out of religion and into a relationship with Christ. If that's you, my friend, would you pray this prayer with me?

Lord Jesus, today I believe in you. Today I put my trust in you. Jesus, come into my heart and forgive me of my sin. Feel me with your Holy Spirit. Lord, let me be born again today. And from this day forward, I pledge to follow you, to listen for your voice. And I receive you now in Jesus' mighty name. And all, God's people said--