Sermon

Four Reasons to Follow the Holy Spirit

Christ Church Blackpool

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  1. Thank you very much. I'm privileged to be here to

  2. speak to us again. And before I start, I'd like to

  3. play our worships from our church, which was recorded

  4. during our convention. This is the worship we are used

  5. to. None.

  6. The. The.

  7. Thank you. So you, you see, we really have

  8. to manage when we come here and you are having your worship.

  9. So you're welcome to our vibrant worship in Agus.

  10. Amen. All right.

  11. This morning I'd like to speak to us, and there are four

  12. reasons to follow the Holy Spirit.

  13. Amen. Let's pray.

  14. Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you for the opportunity to

  15. share your word with your church.

  16. I ask that you speak to our hearts and our minds as that you

  17. feel out of your spirit and your presence be with us.

  18. I established the dominion of Jesus and his presence here and

  19. let your name be glorified. We cast out any demonic presence

  20. in the name of Jesus. Let your spirit come upon us and

  21. bring times of refreshing to us. In Jesus name I have prayed,

  22. Amen. Yesterday our brother Segun took

  23. us, took us out and then we're going around the town and it's

  24. like this is Blackpool. So if you're going to live here,

  25. then you need a guide to live in Blackpool, or a personal guide,

  26. or you need a written manual that will show you how to live

  27. in Blackpool. Amen.

  28. And then my aim this morning is to tell us, brothers and

  29. sisters, that when we got saved, we have joined a holy fellowship

  30. in heaven and on earth. There's a fellowship among the

  31. Father, the Son and the Spirit. They are together, they respect

  32. one another, they work together with good understanding.

  33. But when we go save, we have joined this fellowship of the

  34. Father, the Son and the spirits, and we needed to know how they

  35. live and how they wake. So Jesus came to introduce the

  36. Father to us, introduce the Spirit to us, and through him we

  37. have joined this holy fellowship.

  38. And to know how they work, Jesus introduced them to us.

  39. Jesus taught us a lot about himself and what it came to do.

  40. But when he was leaving, he left us with the Holy Spirit to help

  41. guide us to be part of this holy fellowship and know how to live

  42. our life, this new life and lifestyle that came from heaven.

  43. Amen. So I have finished my sermon.

  44. So in in Hebrews chapter one verse one to four, we were told

  45. that in the past God spoke to our forefathers, to the prophets

  46. at many times and in various ways.

  47. But in this last days he has spoken to us by his son

  48. commentators who explained that to me, the language God used to

  49. speak to us is his son. He spoke in a language that we

  50. can understand. So he says God came to Blackpool

  51. and he spoke English. So God came into the world and

  52. he spoke Jesus, Amen, in a way that everybody can understand.

  53. So Jesus was the language God spoke when he came to have.

  54. So he revealed the Father to us. He is a way we can understand

  55. who the Father is. If you met Jesus.

  56. So he said the Son is the radiance of God's glory and the

  57. exact representation of His being sustaining all things by

  58. His powerful word. After he had provided purific,

  59. He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right

  60. hand of the majesty in heaven. And he also tells us in Matthew

    Matthew 6:8–11

  61. chapter 6, verse 8 to 11, when He was teaching the disciples

  62. how to pray that do not be like them, for your Father knows what

  63. you need before you ask him. Pray therefore like this, our

  64. Father who is in heaven. So Jesus introduced God to us as

  65. our Father and also asked us to call him Father.

  66. So Jerry Parker says this Father is the Christian name for God.

  67. Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better

  68. than our grasp of adoption. We have a father, but he said

  69. his name is Father. Amen.

  70. So Jesus was the one who introduced God the Father to us.

  71. He's a language God used to speak to us, and through him we

  72. join the holy fellowship of the Trinity when we give our life to

  73. Christ. So it says to us in Ephesians

  74. 2126, As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.

  75. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in

  76. mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our

  77. transgressions. It is by grace you have been

  78. saved, and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in

  79. the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.

  80. Amen. So where God the Father, God the

  81. Son is, by giving our life to Christ, we were raised to join

  82. them. So although we are here in this

  83. body, we have joined this fellowship of the Father, the

  84. Son and the Spirit. That must make us think again

  85. about how we live our lives and who we are on this earth.

  86. We are not just flesh and body, we are spirits and we are with

  87. Jesus. When I was thinking about this

  88. message, I asked myself, what if I'm doing something that the

  89. Father, the Son, and the Spirit do not like?

  90. How do they feel about it? Do I know them?

  91. Do I know what they want to achieve on this F?

  92. And I'm part of this fellowship now.

  93. What am I doing to achieve what they want to achieve on F?

  94. Maybe if you ask yourself that question, if you don't know, now

  95. you know you are part of a fellowship called the Trinity,

  96. the Father, Son and the Spirit. So Jesus, in order to help us to

  97. be part of this fellowship, left us with the Holy Spirit when he

  98. was leaving. So in John 14 verse 16 to 17,

    John 14:16–17

  99. the Amplified Bible said, I will ask the Father and He will give

  100. you another helper, comforter, advocate, intersexor,

  101. counsellor, strengthener. Somebody will stand by to be

  102. with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot

  103. receive and take to His heart because it does not see Him or

  104. know Him. But you know Him because He

  105. remains with you continually and will be in you.

  106. So if we want to know what the Father, the Son, and the Spirit

  107. are doing, Jesus has left us with the Holy Spirit.

  108. Let's follow him, He's in US, Let's listen to Him, let's work

  109. with Him. Then we will be living like

  110. them. We will be doing what they want

  111. to do. We will be part of what they

  112. want to achieve on this earth, and our lives will be blameless.

  113. Amen. So we need to be filled with the

  114. Spirit. That's what Jesus said we should

  115. do. So in his final moments, Jesus

  116. left his disciples with this powerful promise that he will

  117. not leave them alone. The Holy Spirit is another

  118. person sent from the Father like Jesus to be with us.

  119. So the Holy Spirit is our strengthener in these days until

  120. Jesus retains the evidences of the Holy Spirit in the Bible,

  121. where we were told that the presence of God filled the

  122. temple when the leaders prayed. So the Holy Spirit was in the

  123. Old Testament, came to do stuff, but was not on everybody.

  124. He specifically prove individuals with skills and

  125. power like Moses, David, Samson, Gideon to do great things, and

  126. they are great examples for us. But it was foretold by the

  127. prophets like Isaiah and Joel that the time is coming when the

  128. Spirit will be poured upon all flesh.

  129. And these encounters in the Old Testament were temporary and

  130. selective and symbolic of something greater to come.

  131. But the good news is that the something greater has not

  132. arrived, and it's with all of us which is the Holy Spirit.

  133. So brothers and sisters, let me tell you 4 reasons we should

  134. depend on the Holy Spirit. Some people may not like him,

  135. but I have to convince you to like him, Amen, And to work with

  136. him. The first reason is that we are

  137. in the age of the Spirit. Jesus left us with the Holy

  138. Spirit. You see Joel prophecy then?

  139. Then after doing all these things, I will pour out my

  140. Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will

  141. prophecy, your old men will dream dreams, and your young men

  142. will see visions. In those days I will pour out my

  143. Spirit even on servants, men and women alike.

  144. So Jesus is gone. The Spirit is here to lead us

  145. into this fellowship that we are part of now.

  146. If you ignore the Holy Spirit today, you'll be missing out of

  147. God's current method of leading and empowering His people.

  148. So you cannot be a Christian and not be working with the Holy

  149. Spirit and not be filled with the Holy Spirit.

  150. You would have been doing your own thing, doing what the

  151. fellowship of the Father and Son, the Spirit are not doing.

  152. To do what they are doing. To be part of them, you must

  153. follow the Holy Spirit. If you don't like him, please

  154. like him, because because we are left with him to as the first

  155. reason, you should follow the Spirit.

  156. The second reason is that we have a new temple enabled by

  157. this Spirit and Ezekiel. It says to us, So I will

  158. consecrate the tents of meeting and the altar and will

  159. consecrate Aaron as his sons to serve me as priests.

  160. Then I would dwell among the Israelites and be their God.

  161. They will know that I am the Lord their God who brought them

  162. out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them, and I am the

  163. Lord their God. So in the past God wanted them

  164. to create a Tabernacle became a building where humanity meets

  165. divinity. As some people who put it, you

  166. want to meet God, you go into the temple and consult the

  167. priests, and then you meet with God.

  168. So the temple at the time was a place where people go to meet

  169. with God. But then that changed Jesus.

  170. Death changed that for us. He tore the veil which separated

  171. the presence of God from men. So now God's presence with all

  172. of us He says to us in John chapter 4 verse 23 to 24.

    John 4:23–24

  173. But the time is coming. Indeed, it is here now when true

  174. worshippers who worship the Father in spirit and in truth,

  175. the Father is looking for those who worship him that way.

  176. For God is spirit, so that who worship him must worship in

  177. spirit and in truth. When Jesus was talking to the

  178. Samaritan woman said, oh, you say we worship God on this

  179. mountain and we worship God on that mountain, but when the

  180. Messiah comes, he will tell us the truth.

  181. Jesus said, well, I'm the Messiah.

  182. The truth is that you're no longer going to worship God on

  183. this mountain or that mountain, but God is going to be in you.

  184. And so we become the new temple of God.

  185. So it says to us clearly in Corinthians, first Corinthians

  186. 316 to 17, don't you know that you yourself are God's temple

  187. and that God's spirit goes in your myths?

  188. If anyone destroyed God's temple, God will destroy that

  189. person. For God's temple is sacred and

  190. you together at that temple. So walking with the Holy Spirit

  191. is engaging with God in our daily life.

  192. So if you want to engage with God now, you don't have to go to

  193. a special place or a special tent or a special auditorium.

  194. You are a working temple of God. His spirit lives in you.

  195. So when you learn to walk with the Holy Spirit, that is how you

  196. are engaging with God. You're engaging with the Trinity

  197. living inside of you, this jar of clay, Amen.

  198. It's very difficult in our in our country to explain this to

  199. many people where people think that God is in the temple.

  200. And so if they pray and they are not praying in the temple or in

  201. the auditorium, then God is not going to hear them.

  202. It's not true. Now, are you with me?

  203. Wherever you pray, God will hear you.

  204. Even if you pray in the toilet, in the market, on the street,

  205. wherever you pray, God will hear you because God lives inside of

  206. you by His Spirit. So your body now carries this

  207. Holy Spirit. Are you still here?

  208. So we will pray here. God will hear us.

  209. You can pray in your car, God will hear, You can pray in the

  210. shopping mall. God will hear you.

  211. Wherever you need to need God's attention, just stand and pray

  212. and then He will listen to you and answer.

  213. I see is the Holy Spirit that has made this possible.

  214. So if you don't walk with the Spirit, if you are not baptising

  215. the Spirit, then you will think you have to go somewhere to pray

  216. for God to hear you. You have to go into a temple, go

  217. and hold an altar and pray for God to hear you.

  218. Please. You are the altar, you are the

  219. temple, the Spirit lives inside of you.

  220. So if you listen to the Holy Spirit, you are engaging with

  221. God. And the third reason we follow

  222. the Holy Spirit is we have a new life in the Spirit.

  223. Many of us, we get saved and then we ask the question, how

  224. can I live a righteous life without following the laws of

  225. God or performing sacrifices in the temple?

  226. Because God gave the Israelites laws in the past, many laws that

  227. help them to know the nature of God and to discover what sin is

  228. so they can live separate life from other nations.

  229. So same thing happens to people today when they give their life

  230. to Christ. Then they ask, so where should I

  231. start from? How do I know what is right from

  232. what is wrong? So that will be the 10

  233. commandments. And we say no, God has a new

  234. plan for you and that plan has nothing to do in following the

  235. 10 commandments or following all the Jewish laws.

  236. What His plan is now is that you will be filled with His Spirit

  237. and His Spirit will teach you how to live for Him.

  238. So when people get born again, we pray for them to be filled by

  239. Spirit and teach them how to walk with the Spirit.

  240. And when they do that, they're able to overcome sin and bear

  241. the fruit of the Spirit, which is God's character.

  242. So the Spirit in US help us to bear the fruit of the Holy

  243. Spirit, which is the character of God and the spirit that gives

  244. us abilities to save one another and the world with the power of

  245. God. Amen.

  246. I mean, some people teach that, say our present worship leader

  247. that I just show us in the picture of essential she was

  248. part of a church and the pastor taught them that the gift of the

  249. Holy Spirit, the baptism and the Spirit is like a reward that God

  250. gives you after you have lived a very good life.

  251. So it is not for people who have just given their life to Christ.

  252. So in that church, holy, the senior pastor speaks in tongues,

  253. not everybody else, because they have not lived good life to

  254. merit the Holy Spirit. The best thing that happened to

  255. that church is that the man listening to me preach on radio

  256. and when he got to 72 years, he invited me, said I've been

  257. listening to you preach on radio and I like what you say about

  258. Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

  259. I don't have anybody to take over three of my churches.

  260. I want to hand them over to you. Amen.

  261. Said you don't know what you have asked for because this is

  262. an elephant. You have to turn around that's

  263. just started salvation. Stop preaching on the Holy

  264. Spirit. Start preaching a baptism in the

  265. Spirit. Fortunately, he didn't say

  266. anything. Although I was saying things

  267. that He will not agree with. He allowed me to see everything.

  268. So now all the three churches are ours.

  269. We have turned them around by grace.

  270. Amen. So he says to us in Ezekiel 36,

    Ezekiel 36:26–27

  271. verse 26 to 27, and I will give you a new heart and I'll put a

  272. new spirit in you. I'll take out your Stony,

  273. stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.

  274. And I'll put my spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees

  275. and be careful to obey my regulations.

  276. And in Galatians says to us, So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide

  277. your lives. Then you won't be doing what

  278. your sinful nature desires. So how do I live a righteous

  279. life? Follow the Holy Spirit, be

  280. filled with the Holy Spirit, learn how to work with the Holy

  281. Spirit, learn how to listen to Him and let Him guide you in

  282. your daily lives. So a new life in crisis,

  283. impossible without the Holy Spirit following Him, is how we

  284. grow, overcome sin, and live with purpose.

  285. Amen. Are you still here?

  286. OK now, so let me make the last point.

  287. We have a new certainty of our salvation.

  288. How can I be sure of my salvation and God's protection?

  289. So after the debate still goes on, can I lose my salvation?

  290. Can I not lose my salvation? How do I know I'm a Christian?

  291. When I first got born again, that was my big problem.

  292. And I think one time I had a dream and the devil said to me

  293. in the dream, oh, everybody who is safe, they've already gone to

  294. heaven. Those of you on earth, you are

  295. not going to heaven, you're going to hell.

  296. So I went to my apostle and I asked him, is Christianity still

  297. real or is a past tense 10 And I saw it's still real.

  298. I said somebody told me in a dream that those who are saved,

  299. they've already gone to heaven. We, those who are here now,

  300. we've wasted time, not so. And our certainty that we are

  301. saved, we belong to God and will be protected by God comes from

  302. the Holy Spirit who lives in US. So the Holy Spirit does not only

  303. empower us and transforms us. He also reassures us that we are

  304. the children of God. So he says to us in Ephesians

    Ephesians 4:30

  305. chapter 4 verse 30 best visions of the four So God has creature

  306. wrong and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were

  307. sealed for the day of redemption.

  308. Romans 815 tells our God Spirit doesn't make us slaves who are

  309. afraid of him. Instead we become his children

  310. and call him our Father. God's Spirit make us sure that

  311. we are his children, Amen. So from the inside of us he

  312. assures us that we are God's children and he helps us to call

  313. him Father, Amen. We need the Holy Spirit, we

  314. cannot do without him. He is God's seal over us, is God

  315. stamp on us that we belong to Him and when Jesus returns He

  316. will come for us who are His elites?

  317. So we are currently living in the age of the Holy Spirit and

  318. not under the law. A time where God's Spirit is no

  319. longer reserved for a few, but growth in every believer,

  320. empowering, guiding, teaching and sealing us until the day of

  321. redemption. This age began without pouring

  322. of the Holy Spirit of pentacles and will continue until Jesus

  323. returns in glory. And we leave you with this quote

  324. from Terry. Virgo says the wonder of

  325. Christianity is that it is not based on external rules that we

  326. have to check up and obey. New appetites, ambitions and

  327. desires are put inside of us. We are actually given a new

  328. responsive heart to replace our old Stony one.

  329. The Holy Spirit changes us from inside.

  330. Without the Holy Spirit, you can't be sure of your salvation,

  331. you wouldn't know what the Trinity is doing, and you don't

  332. even know how to live your life to please God.

  333. So I encourage you ask for the Holy Spirit if you have given

  334. your life to Christ, learn to work with the Spirit and you

  335. will please God. You will be part of this

  336. fellowship world with the Trinity and you will achieve

  337. what the Trinity is doing on FI mean.

  338. Thank you very much. I like to pray with us.

  339. If you've not been filled with the Holy Spirit, please just ask

  340. Jesus Amen. So can I ask us to if you can

  341. stand those who can stand, please.

  342. And Ben, sorry Ben, I don't know if it's good to ask those who

  343. still want to be filled with the Spirit if they can just raise up

  344. their hands and those who are filled with the Spirit can just

  345. go near them, lay hands on them and pray for them.

  346. So, but we need continuous feeling of the Holy Spirit.

  347. So you have filled the Holy Spirit.

  348. You speak in tongues. But there are issues in life

  349. that makes us, some people don't even know the last time they

  350. spoke in tongues because you're thinking about your children,

  351. thinking about life, thinking about this one.

  352. But we need continuous feeling of God's love, God's hope, God's

  353. trust. So if you think you need help,

  354. please just raise up your hand and let somebody close to you

  355. come and pray for you. Pray that the Holy Spirit will

  356. come upon you and empower you with his gifts.

  357. Amen. Can we just do that quickly and

  358. then?