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And this tonight is walking in the power, right, walking in the power of what God has given you. We talked last week about spiritual gifts. Did everybody in here take the spiritual gift test that was here? Did you learn anything about yourself? Anybody? Any shocking revelations of your spiritual gift that you have? Nobody? Everybody pretty squared away that makes sense once they took the test? Well, good. You're either just not talking tonight. All right, so walking in the power means depending on the Holy Spirit as we obey Jesus and serve people. That is what it's about. So anybody know what a sailboat is? Nobody in here know what a sailboat is? Okay, sailboat is a boat out here that most of them don't have a engine that runs it. And so it's got a big sail that they let up and the wind moves the boat, right? So imagine being out in the bay or in the Gulf and seeing a sailboat, beautiful boat, expensive boat. There's a good wind outside, plenty of wind blowing on the, from the Gulf, right? And you see some person leaning over the side of this sailboat and they're paddling with a little bit of plastic paddle. And they're sweating, arms are burning, and they keep saying, well, I guess I just need to get a little stronger and I could move this boat. Then they look, then you look up and you see that the sail's still tied up on the boat. And I don't know if you're like me, but the first thing I'll be thinking is like, bro, you know that, that's what that sail is for, right? You let that down, it catches wind and you ain't got a paddle with the little hand paddle you got. Well, the reality of it is some of us treat following Jesus the same way. See, we know what we should do, be patient, tell the truth, deal with that habit that we got, bad habit, whatever it is. Love the person who's difficult to love and I know everybody in here knows somebody who's difficult to love. Then we make another promise to ourselves and we put our head down and we try to get through the week and then when we fall short, our whole entire plan is done and we say, well, next time I'm going to try harder. Who's said that before? Who's tried to read the Bible for and you ain't got to bust yourself out, I'll tell you who's like, I'm going to read the Bible. Every day this week for such and such amount of time and then when you don't do it, you're like, oh, well, next week I'll just try harder. Well, let me ask you this, where does depending on the Holy Spirit actually show up in that plan that you make? Because a sailor has real work to do. If you're out on that sailboat, you got work to do. You got to raise the sail, you got to handle the lines, you got to steer the boat, but you can't manufacture the wind. You act while depending on the power from something far greater and that's God. And see, this is the part of this picture that I want you to hold on tonight. The Holy Spirit is God. We identified that week two, actually week one. It's a person who leads us. That's what the Holy Spirit does. He's not a force that we can control, but like a sailor, we have to learn the difference between taking responsibility and trying to supply all the power at the same time on our own. See, the truth is you can work hard at the right thing while depending on the wrong source. That should be on board. Yes, it's on the board. I know some of you like to take good notes and per your request, I'm trying to slow down a little bit because I know I talk fast and let you take notes. So tonight, we're talking about walking in the power, right? What does it look like to depend on the Holy Spirit when you leave this room and actually try to implement it into your everyday life and what you believe?

What does walking in power actually mean? Over the last few weeks, we've talked about the Holy Spirit, what it is, how we listen to God, the gifts of what He gives His people who've accepted Jesus. We're going to bring out what you do in everyday life. That's what we're going to identify. And we're going to start in Galatians 5, 25. And I want you to listen to Paul's language when he says this. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Well, walking involves movement. There's a step, then there's another step. Paul is talking about the ongoing life shaped by the Spirit of God. serving one another and growing in character that produces the spirit of God. So tonight, think about one place where obedience has become so difficult for you. Maybe it's a conversation, maybe it's a temptation, maybe it's a responsibility that you have. Keep that in mind while we walk through these passages. So point one tonight is you have to depend on the spirit and do the work. So we're gonna pick up here in Zechariah in just a minute, but give you a little context of what's going on. God's people had returned from exile in Jerusalem. The temple had already been destroyed and they began rebuilding things. But the opposition and discouragement had interrupted all the work that was going on at this time. Zara Babel was one of the leaders that was responsible for seeing it through. So he was in charge, leader of the, kind of like a mayor or something of that effect, and he's in charge of building everything back. And this is the setting for the word of God right here. This is a real leader with a real assignment and a task that looked bigger than the people that was actually doing it.

So Zechariah 4.6 says, "Then he said to me, this is the word of the Lord to Zara Babel, not by might, not by power, but my spirit says the Lord of Host." See, God is telling him through Zechariah where the decisive power for his work will come from. Human strength and resources will not be enough to accomplish what God has promised him. He must depend on God's spirit to complete this task. But look what God says just a few verses later in Zechariah 4.9, "The hands of Zara Babel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also complete it. So his hands shall start it. They laid the foundation and his hands will complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of Host has sent me to you. So whose hands are gonna finish the work?" Zara Babel's, right? He laid the foundation. But whose spirit is gonna make it possible? God's spirit. God doesn't tell him to abandon the assignment that he's got. He tells him to carry it out with dependence upon him. The promise in verse six and the working hands in verse nine belong together. They coincide with one another. The truth is depending on the spirit does not take your hands off the work. It takes the weight of being God off your shoulders. Now I want you to think about that sailboat for a minute.

Raising the sail is a real action. Somebody's gotta do it. The steering takes attention. Dependents doesn't mean doing anything. I'm just depending on God to lead me through this. For us, that may mean praying for strength and then having an honest conversation with someone, asking for help, then removing access to the thing that keeps pulling us back into sin. Seeking God's wisdom and then accepting correction from somebody who loves you. The reality of it is we cannot ask God to transform an area in our life while insisting that he leave every habit in that area untouched. And let me be clear about this original setting. This is a promise about rebuilding the temple. It's not a guarantee that every project that you take on will succeed. The lesson we carry into our lives is that God's people must depend on him while obeying what he actually called them to do. Some of you have been treating prayer like a last resort after you've exhausted everything that you can think of as a person to do. What would change if the pen that's on God became the starting point for every task that you do? Before the conversation, pray about it. Before you walk into work, pray. Ask him to help you love the people there, and that's hard.

Before you reach for the one thing that is hurting you, be honest with him and reach out for help. You can take the next fateful step without pretending you control the whole situation or the outcome. Point two, let us power shape your courage and character. Paul writes 2 Timothy as a prisoner. Later in this letter, and this is his last letter that he wrote, he's in prison, and he speaks about approaching death. This is a man who knows what following Jesus can cost him. He reminds Timothy that the gift of God gives him what it gives him and it urges him to keep being faithful. Second Timothy 1, 6 and 7 says, "For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on my hands. For God gave us a spirit, not a fear, but of power and love and self-control." Think about tending to a fire. Who's ever messed around with the fire outside? Brenda raise your hand. She always got to play in the fire. You don't make it stronger by staring at it and remembering how hot it used to be. You tend to it. Paul is telling Timothy here to nurture or an exercise, the gifts that he's received from God. We do not know every detail about what's going on with Timothy. We don't know his emotional state here

and the passage doesn't say that his gift had died, but we do know that Paul calls him to be active, to be faithful and use what God has entrusted him with. So that correct connects directly to last week. Discovering a gift is the beginning. A lot of you last week may have discovered that gift for the first time. Well, that's just the beginning of that. You still have to serve people with it. That's what God called us to do. We take the spiritual gift that he's blessed us with and we serve him with it. Maybe you've been waiting until you feel really confident. You want the fear to disappear before you agree to pray for someone, lead a group or talk to Jesus. But the truth is you don't have to be fearless to take a faithful step of obedience. Then notice what Paul adds into that scripture. He puts it all together. He says, "Power, love and self-control." Now I'm a firm believer, if it wasn't in there, I mean, if it's in the Bible, it's probably pretty important because I'm pretty sure there's some stuff in that happen that we don't know about, right? So power does not permit us to run over people. Love affects how we speak to them and self-control affects what we do when we're frustrated, offended or tempted. You can get emotional in worship.

You can celebrate loudly, but volume alone cannot tell us whether someone is walking in the spirit or not. We also have to look at how we treat people and how we respond when we don't get our way. See, I can stand up here on stage and I can preach to you every week about this and that and the other, but if you see me out here on social media or downtown in the clubs or wherever you might see me and I'm doing something real stupid, then what am I doing? Actions speak louder than words, right? So the truth is if I use spiritual language to excuse treating people badly, I have missed the spirits working me. The person who finally apologizes may be showing more courage than the person who always wins the argument. The person who asks for help with a hidden struggle may be taking a serious step of faith. The person who stays gentle when they could humiliate somebody is showing strength under control and now read that very next verse. This is the part we can't miss. Second Timothy 1, 8 says, "Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony "about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, "but share in suffering for the gospel "by the power of God." Now before I ran about Paul,

who is here for rise up? Okay, I talked about the road to Damascus, right? But I want to read this verse again. "Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony "about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, "but share in suffering for the gospel "by the power of God. "Who in here is scared to invite somebody "because of rejection?" Who in here is lying about it? I appreciate it. 'Cause the few you raise your hand, right? Rejection would be suffering, right? Would you not agree with that? So Paul is telling Timothy here, maintain in the suffering, but do what God's called you to do. I watched last week as I asked people to pray for one another. And this is no shame on anybody. But listen, I didn't come up here to rub your heart, make you feel good every week. It's not what I'm here for. I'm here to teach you the word of God, what the word says, and I'm here to tell you what God called you to do. And if you want me to make you feel good every week, you're at the wrong place. I saw people, Now Paul's in prison about to be crucified,

yet he's still telling Timothy what he should be doing. That's the servant of God. I know I never live up them expectations and I never ever wanna compare myself to him. But those are the thoughts that go through my head when I walk past somebody and I don't invite them to church. Yes, church has got all kinds of issues. Yes, they do. They're a hospital for the sick and wicked. Right? Well, the club's a hospital for the sick and wicked too. So pick your poison. Paul says God gives power and then he tells Timothy to share in the suffering for the gospel by the power. And it takes me back every time I read verses like this and it's not in the notes, but Acts 9, 16, Jesus tells Ananias that for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. Paul knew on the road to Damascus that he would suffer in the name of Jesus. Yet, why did he stick with it? Well, when the Spirit of God approached him on the road and this is just my opinion now, there had to be a glory so great of what he saw and such a reassurance of he knew what was gonna happen on the flip side that he said, okay. And here he is in prison about to be crucified

and he's still sharing the same thing. He does not promise Timothy that courage will make his life comfortable. He tells him that God can sustain him when obedience is costly. Truth is the power of God can be present in a situation you're still praying to get out of. That matters when doing the right thing costs you approval. When being honest creates an uncomfortable conversation with someone. When faithfulness doesn't produce the quick results you hope for. God's presence is not measured by how easy the assignment feels. It's not easy. It's not gonna be easy to tell people by Jesus. You're gonna get rejected, you're gonna get talked about, you know, times not gonna be the most popular person. But do you have the courage to be obedient? Point three, use your courage to tell the truth with love. And here's where it gets, this is where it gets a little tricky in religion. Because we always wanna throw stones at everybody. Make no mistake about it. God's house is for everyone. It is not my job or your leader's job to change you. It's our job to present the gospel and to present the word of God. It's the Holy Spirit's job to change who you are.

And everybody's welcome in this house. But once again, I will preach to you the word what the true word says. You have to decide those things. And let's talk about that. Anybody read the book of Micah before? Micah spoke during a time of serious injustice among God's people. Leaders were abusing their positions. In chapter three, he confronts prophets whose message depended on whether people paid or fed them. They reassured the people who supported them and threatened the people who did not. They said, "You feed us, you'll be blessed. "You don't give anything to us, you're gonna be cursed." That is why Micah's next words matter so much here. He's describing a different source of power and a different reason for speaking in Micah 3.8. But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord and with justice in Micah to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel, his sin. Look at what the power is for that verse. Micah is empowered to confront sin and injustice among God's own people. That assignment requires courage because people don't always welcome the truth. Everybody says, "Tell me the truth." Then when you tell them, you know, I'm offended now. Truth is the truth. Put this besides Zechariah,

Zarebobo can depend on human strength to accomplish God's work. We see that. God supplies what his servants need for the work. He gives them. So when God calls you to do something, he will give you the strength for it. And when you don't feel the strength that he's given you, it's probably because you're not connected into what he's telling you. You're not in the Word. You're not in prayer. You're not in higher counsel. Because what I know to be true is God is a faithful God. He's a sovereign God. He's a God that backs his Word up. Now bring that into our relationships. A friend is going down the wrong road and it's hurting them and you see it. And you say you love them, but you know that saying something might make that next conversation a little awkward. You need courage, but you also need love and humility. Remember Timothy, those things belong together. They're in the verse together. Sometimes the faithful conversation sounds like, "Hey, I care about you too much to pretend that what you're doing is helping you." Can we talk about what's going on in your life? And sometimes the most necessary truth

is the one you need to admit about your own self. I've been lying about that. I need help with this. I owe you an apology. The truth is if I want the spirit to give me courage to confront sin, I got to let him start with mine. Michael was confronting injustice, not looking for a chance to win an argument. We should not use the passage to baptize our temper or make every personal opinion sound like a message from God. And I got this highlighted in my notes. Be wary of people that every time they speak God told me this. 'Cause Lord knows I hope to believe that the Lord speaks to me, but I'm very cautious about getting on stage or telling you that God told me this 'cause I'm still of sin and I'm still a flesh. So is it God telling me? So that's why I follow up and I hope that you would follow up with somebody and be like, "Hey, if you prayed about this, help me, let me know how I can pray with you about it." And have you been in scripture about this? 'Cause I got someone I wanna talk y'all down and I wrote about that I learned in school, but you're not ready for that. And I've been told by a wise counselor and not everybody, some of you in the room are ready for that. Not everybody is. We've got to learn the basics about what our relationship with Jesus is before we start digging off into theology. Check everything that's being told to you

in scripture yourself in prayer. I'll say this a thousand times, everything I say from stage to you, go check it. Go look and see what the word of God says. Don't take any man, woman, or anybody that stands on stage and tells you something without going and verifying. And inspect what you expect, right? Check the motives of the person. Check your motives when you're talking to people. Where a private conversation is appropriate, have it privately, aim for the person's good in them. Walking in power can mean saying the hard thing with enough love to say, "Hey, I wanna stay and I wanna help you afterwards." I just don't wanna give you advice today. Tell you what I think the Lord said to me and then I just let you go on about your business. That's not what God called me to do nor did he call you to do that. And to see, that's much harder than posting something sharp and then walking away. It requires patience. It requires listening. It requires admitting that you also need grace. Scripture shows God's power through miracles, healings, bold witness, and change lives. We can pray for him to do extraordinary things while also obeying him in the conversation that's right in front of us. My last point, point four,

follow Jesus toward people who need him. Let's go to Luke four. Now look at Jesus and Luke four here. Before Luke describes his public ministry in Galilee, he tells us about the wilderness. Luke four one and Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the spirit in the wilderness. Jesus is full of the spirit here. He was anointed in baptism. Now let's not confuse that Jesus didn't have no power before he got here. But this was part of the process. We talked about a few weeks ago in the Old Testament. completed. Jesus is baptized. Now is the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit all in one. And so the first thing he does is he enters a place of testing now. His difficult circumstances didn't mean that the spirit had abandoned him. Luke does not say Jesus lacked power before the wilderness or that suffering automatically makes someone more spiritual. But this scene challenges the assumption that being led by God always means it's an easy road. This was God in human form. Tell me what was easy about his story. The truth is a hard season is not proof that the Holy Spirit has left you. Now listen what happens is Jesus returns the Galilee and visits his hometown. And this is Luke 4 14 through 21 and Jesus returned in the power of the spirit of Galilee and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country and he taught in their synagogues being glorified by all. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as was his custom he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. Verse 18 says the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind. To set at liberty those who are oppressed. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him and he began to say to them today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. And this is not in your notes but this is one of those moments for me was like oh man I love when the New Testament ties back to the Old Testament because so many times people have tried to well the New Testament came and it denounced it overrode the Old Testament. That's a lie. So let's go to Isaiah 61 real quick. The year of the Lord's favor the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. Jesus has just read a promise from Isaiah and told his whole hometown that is being fulfilled in him. Now this was written years before Jesus came and he's quoting what was already prophesied. He is the promised Messiah that people hearing him are being confronted with who he is at this time and look at the people his ministry reaches the poor the captives the blind the oppressed real people in need of good news freedom and restoration. Later in that chapter Luke shows Jesus healing people and delivering people from evil spirits. We should take the miraculous part seriously. We should also notice that his power serves his father's mission and reaches people in their need. The truth is if I keep asking for God's power I need to be willing to go toward the people he wants me to love. That includes people that are right here in this room. Somebody can look like it's all put together and still be carrying a heavy burden. It includes the person that you work with that you avoid. It may be the classmate that nobody notices and it may be the family member that you stop praying for. Now there was another important turn in this story a few verses later Jesus reminds his hometown about God showing mercy to a widow in Sidon and to name the Syrian those people were outsiders to the Israelites. The crowd becomes furious they try to throw him Jesus off a cliff at the edge of town but Jesus had something that they didn't have he had the spirit of God and he dipped on them they didn't get him and then the Bible goes on to tell us there was wrath all over town. See they wanted all the benefits of his presence but his words challenged their expectations about whom God really is and who God would help because religion would tell you only only God will do this. A relationship tells you God can do all of it. That should make Are you willing to love the people

that you would not naturally choose to love? Following Jesus can lead us beyond the circle where we feel comfortable and appreciated. Luke goes on to write Acts. Before Jesus ascends, he tells his apostles what the coming of the Spirit will equip them to do. I don't think this is up here either 'cause it got added in last minute. Acts 1-8 says, "But you will receive power "when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, "and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, "and in all Judea and Samaria, "and to the end of the earth." The promised power has a purpose, and the purpose is they will be his witnesses, and he's talking about you. Acts then shows the gospel moving outward through the Spirit's work. Jesus is the Savior. We bear witness to him. The Spirit enables his people to speak about him, to serve in his name, and to keep going when it costs them. Well, that's you, me, and everybody else in this room. It costs, it costs Jesus on the road to crucifixion. So I want you to think about the person that's paddling the sailboat. When I mentioned that while ago, somebody popped up in your head, either they crazy enough to just do that,

or I knew exactly who Adam's talking about. Who needs the love right now? Who needs the truth? And who needs to hear the good news of Jesus through your life this week? But raising the sail does not mean waiting around for a feeling. It means responding to God. We open his word. We pray honestly. We turn from sin and act on what he has made clear to us. We do that with his help alongside of his people. Galatians 5, 16 says, but I say, walk in the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Paul connects walking by the Spirit to how we respond to sinful desires. And I'm no theologian, but one goes hand in hand. When I'm not in the Word, when I'm not in prayer, the attacks are a lot worse. And the temptations come back. And that's what I want to resort back to, because guess what? In that moment, it's the sinful desires that will satisfy me for a moment. So name the next step for you and be specific about it. If you need to apologize to somebody, decide who you need to talk to. If you've been hiding a struggle or dealing with something that you don't know how to deal with, then you need to decide

what trusting leader we have here that you're going to ask for help from. Because I can tell you that there's not a leader on this team that I don't trust. And I hope that you trust them. If you've neglected a gift that God has given you, will look for a concrete way to serve God and use that gift. We just talked about it. Caleb, I'm gonna pick on you. Caleb was back on the sound board. Now he's on the drums. There's something to that. And somebody was blessed tonight from that. I know I was. I know Kyle was. 'Cause Kyle's on the drums all the time. Your next faithful step does not have to be impressive. It just has to be taken. And before we talk about what you're gonna do this week, I wanna speak to anyone in here who's never trusted Jesus. So if you'll bow your heads for a minute, close your eyes. Following Jesus begins with what he's done for us already. Our sin is real. It separates us from God. We can't erase it by working harder or becoming more religious. But here's the good news. Paul passed this on to the church. 1 Corinthians 15, 3 through 4 says, "For I have delivered you as a first importance

"what I also received. "That Christ died for our sins and accordance "with the Scripture. "That he was buried, "that he was raised on the third day "in accordance with the Scriptures. "Jesus died for our sins. "He was buried and on the third day in accordance "with what Scripture says he rose. "He offers forgiveness. "He gives you a new life. "He gives a new life to people who will just turn You ain't got to pretend like you got it all together. God knows I ain't got it all together. The words of prayer are not magic. What matters is that you choose to trust Him. And I want to ask you tonight, if you've never put your trust into Jesus and you want to take that step, I'm not gonna ask you to stand up, call you up front of you. I just want you to raise your hand up real quick, but heads down eyes closed. If you've got the courage and you just want to accept Jesus and help Him, help you on that walk, just raise your hand. And the only reason I ask you to raise your hand is, so one of the leaders can connect with you and talk about the next steps from here. And for everybody else, I want you to take out your phone before we close in prayer.

Sorry, close in worship. I want you to take that phone out. And I want you to think about that person that I talked about earlier. Who's that person right now that could use just a text message from you? Somebody that you maybe have not reached out to in a while, maybe you know they struggle, maybe you had to put up a guard reel and separate yourself from them because it was affecting your wall of sanctification. I want to ask you for a moment of boldness right here. I want you, I want to ask you to just send them a text right now and say, hey, you were on my mind tonight and I know the Lord put you on my mind because if you're thinking of that person, the Lord put it on your mind, I didn't. And I just want you to shoot them a text right now and just say, hey, you were on my heart. I was thinking about you. Is there any way I can pray for you? And I hope y'all see where I'm leading here. How can you be bold if you won't walk over and pray with somebody in this room or you won't even send a text behind a phone? And that's just pure obedience. I didn't put that person on your heart tonight. Clearly God put it on your heart 'cause you know who it is

and hey, if you don't want to do it right now, I encourage you to put that name down in your notes and when you go to your small group in a minute or will you leave here tonight, you shoot that text message out. What if I told you that tomorrow's not guaranteed and what if their salvation lies in the balance of that by you just being obedient? Make no mistake about it. God will use somebody else, he will, but why should God have to use somebody else when he already called you to do it? (gentle music) (gentle music) [BLANK_AUDIO]