The Spirit Guides

When we talk about following Jesus, it's literal.

Being a Christian means stepping into God's plan for your life.

A life that nobody can live and a plan that nobody can fulfil except for you and only you.

And when you step into that life and into that plan,

then biblically there is an assumption that you will be led and guided by God's Holy Spirit.

As we look at the words from Acts this morning,

we see how this plays out in the lives of some of the earliest followers of Jesus.

As they seek to spread the gospel throughout the world,

we see how the Spirit empowers and leads them into certain places,

but actually shuts off, closes other openings.

Opens doors, but also closes them.

And we're called to live our lives in such a way that expects the same Holy Spirit

to open doors for our lives and to close doors as well.

And I'm not going to suggest for one moment that there's an easy formulaic way

of putting that into practice this morning,

but we're going to think a bit about what it might mean.

I want to begin with a word of caution,

because there's always the danger that when we start to think about this

and talk about God's Holy Spirit opening doors in our lives

and closing doors,

that we can over-spiritualise things

and effectively come up with our own plan

and think,

OK, God, now bless it.

There were two friends,

and one of them said to the other,

you know, I'm going to give up doughnuts for Lent.

I believe God's Holy Spirit is telling me to do this.

I could do it with shedding a few pounds anyway,

and I know they're not good for me.

I eat too many doughnuts.

I'm giving them up for Lent.

And so he did.

About three weeks later,

his friend was out in the park

and walked past a bench

and saw him sat with a most enormous box of doughnuts,

and he was stuffing them right into his mouth.

He said,

I'm sorry, it is Lent, isn't it?

He said, yeah.

He said, I'm sure you told me the other day

that you sensed that the Holy Spirit was telling you

to give up doughnuts during Lent.

And he said, yeah, I know,

but this morning I felt that the Holy Spirit

was telling me something different.

His friend said, what do you mean?

He said, well, I just felt this craving.

The Holy Spirit's obviously telling me something here.

So I wrestled with it before the Lord.

I got in the car,

and I was driving towards the town centre

where that shop that sells these doughnuts is.

And I said, Lord,

if it is your Spirit that's speaking to me

that it's okay today to eat some doughnuts,

then when I arrive at that shop,

may there be a parking space provided by you right outside.

And on the eighth time driving around the box,

the block, there it was.

We've got to be so careful how we handle this kind of stuff.

Let's not think for one moment

that having this plan is actually basically just our own thinking,

and we just tag on some spiritual language alongside it.

That's not what we're talking about.

So how might we then

genuinely and authentically seek to live a life

that is led and guided by the Holy Spirit?

How can we know that it's God's Holy Spirit

and not just our own human thinking?

Like I say, there is no easy formula to this,

but I want to suggest to you

that a three-part process

that is recommended by Nicky Gumbel

is really, really, really helpful.

He says this,

the first part of the process is commit

whatever decision it is you're facing,

commit it to God in prayer.

And allow God to open the right doors

and to close the wrong doors.

One of my favourite passages in Scripture

is 1 Peter 5 verse 7,

1 Peter 5:7

which says,

cast all your anxieties on him,

or cast all your burdens,

or cast all your worries,

or cast all your cares on him,

depending on which translation you're reading.

Well, I love that image of casting.

I've never fished.

But I've watched people that have,

and not in any detail.

But there's the image that you kind of get a casting of,

I think I heard somebody once refer to it

as loading as you,

loading the reel as you kind of,

you know,

throw it back.

And then as you cast forward,

it's unloading.

That sense of throwing,

unloading,

casting your weight.

And I think that's probably the sort of dynamic

that is intended when we read in that verse.

Cast,

throw,

let go of your burdens

before the Lord.

So that's the first thing.

Commit the decision to God in prayer,

and ask him

to open doors,

and to close them.

The second part of the process

is thereafter,

trust that he is in control.

It's one thing to talk about that.

It's an entirely different thing

to really live by it,

and to believe it,

I think.

It's really,

really challenging.

But it's what we're called to do.

But once we have committed it to him in prayer,

to really trust that God is in control.

There's an old story I love about somebody who was,

had a horse and cart,

a wagon,

going along the road,

a dusty track,

and he saw somebody who was walking along

carrying a really heavy-looking backpack.

So he slowed down,

and he said,

there is room right next to me here on my cart.

Why don't you just climb up,

and I'll give you a lift?

And this hiker said,

oh, I don't really know.

Have you really got,

can you really carry me?

He said, no, please.

He persuaded him eventually

to climb on board with this backpack.

So up he climbed,

and he sat next to this guy,

the front seat,

this cart behind him,

but they pulled off,

and he refused to take off this backpack,

and they were going along for several miles,

and all the while,

the guy that picked him up was thinking,

why does he not just take that off?

So he said, look,

you don't have to sit there

with that huge backpack on you right now.

He said, why don't you just take it off?

There's plenty of space.

You can just put it in the cart behind.

He thought about it for a moment.

He said, oh,

I couldn't possibly ask you to do that.

It's kind enough for you to carry me.

I couldn't possibly ask you

to carry my backpack as well.

When you're on board,

everything goes with you.

When you follow Jesus,

it's not just an abstract thing.

You don't just give him your name,

a signature.

Everything you're carrying,

every thought,

good, bad, and ugly,

is part of the whole package.

So when you make that prayer,

Lord, I commit this to you,

be careful what you're praying,

because you are casting

you and everything

that is part of you

and that goes with you,

past, present, and future,

into his hands.

I'm preaching to myself

as much as anyone else.

This is really challenging stuff.

Because it's one thing

to make a prayer.

It's another thing

to live that prayer

and to really trust

that he's got it.

Not just yourself,

but everything you're carrying,

all your thoughts,

all your concerns

about the future

and what that lies,

all the unknowns.

There is no easy formula,

but we can be clear of that.

The Bible is absolutely clear.

He calls us to cast it

and to leave it with him.

To trust that he is in control.

The third part of this process

that Nicky Cumble references

is that having committed

the decision in prayer,

trusting that God's in control,

to now to watch in faith

for him to act

as you continue on your way.

You get on with life.

And as you get on with life,

as you continue on your way,

do so in the expectation

that God will act.

I'm glad that God can and will

open doors and close doors.

This calls for courage

and boldness

to knock on doors.

Can I really do that?

Yes, ask him.

He may not allow that door to open.

But if you don't knock on it,

you will never find out.

And with that call

to courage and boldness

comes a call,

an invitation,

to also be ready

to accept pain,

frustration and disappointment

as doors that we long

to be opened are shut.

That hurts.

It hurts

when something

that we long to happen

does not pan out.

And that what we thought

was the plan

for our lives,

it seems is not.

Because that door

has been closed.

Sometimes it hurts

when God closes that door.

But he will never,

ever close it

in order to harm you.

In fact,

the very opposite,

and there are some times

in our lives

where we look back

and we think,

you know,

I longed for that thing

to happen in my life

back then.

I'm so,

so relieved

that that didn't happen.

I dodged a bullet there.

But there are some things

we will carry through

this side of eternity

that we will not know

exactly why

God didn't open that door.

And that's where that is,

that call to trust

that God knows

what he's doing.

But just maybe,

I put it to you,

just maybe,

that our perception,

our limited human understanding

of what we think

is going to be right for us

actually isn't at all.

There's a song

by Giordano Bryant

called

When God Closes Doors.

And there's this one line

in that song

that I think puts it

so well.

I might not be knocking

if I saw

what was on the other side.

So commit the decision

to God in prayer,

asking him to open

the right doors

and to close the wrong ones.

Thereafter,

trust he's in control.

And third,

watch in faith

expectantly

that he will open doors

and he will close doors.

So let's look at this story

now in Acts 16.

And let's ask ourselves,

what's going on here?

It's intriguing,

isn't it?

Because it's not really

explained,

it's just,

we're just told

from reading from verse 6

that Paul and his companions

travel throughout the region

of Phrygian,

Galatia,

having been kept

by the Holy Spirit

from preaching the word

in the province of Asia.

These guys are given

everything

to preach the gospel,

are kept by the Holy Spirit

from doing so.

We're not told

what or why,

we're just told.

And then it continues,

and then when they came

to the border of Mysia,

they tried to enter,

they tried to enter

Bethlehem.

But the Spirit of Jesus

would not allow them to.

What happened exactly,

we don't know.

But there's a possible clue

that lies in verse 10

of this story.

And it's so subtle

that it's easy not to spot.

But in verse 10,

it simply says that

after Paul had seen the vision,

we got ready at once.

to leave for Macedonia.

We got ready at once.

In verse 10

of the 16th chapter of Acts,

the narrative changes

from the third person

to the first person.

Up to this point,

the story is told.

Paul went and they did this

and he did that

and she did that

and then they went there

and that happened to them

and he did this

and suddenly it switches.

Now it's we.

The teller of the story

has now entered the story.

Now what's going on there?

Well, who is the teller

of that story?

Well, traditionally,

it's reckoned to be Luke.

We cannot know that for certain,

but everything points

in that direction.

When we look at Luke's gospel

and we look at the book of Acts,

they begin with the same kind of way.

There's a similarity

in the language

and therefore it has really

been accepted over the years

that it's Luke

that's telling the story.

The other thing,

again, we cannot know this,

we cannot prove it,

but it's generally reckoned

that Luke was a physician,

a doctor of medicine.

Again, how do we know that?

We can't demonstrate it categorically,

but it's generally reckoned.

There are references

in the language,

the terms that are used

that just lend themselves

to the suggestion

that this is somebody

who practiced medicine.

And the fact is even made

more explicit than that

in Colossians chapter 4

Colossians 4 · chapter mention

when at the end of that letter,

Paul refers to

our beloved friend Luke,

the doctor.

So we can't know for certain,

but joining the dots,

it seems that at this moment

in the story,

the moment when Luke,

when Paul and his friends

were prevented twice

from going on

what they thought

they were going to do,

carrying out their intentions,

that Luke, the doctor,

has joined them.

Why?

This is speculation,

but is it not beyond possibility

that maybe this thorn in the flesh

that Paul talks about,

and we know that there are,

there could be dozens

of different possibilities there

as to what he might have

been referring to,

but just maybe the thorn in the flesh,

some medical reason,

meant that Luke, the doctor,

had to be called for.

And therefore,

Luke, the doctor,

as he tells this story,

at this point,

says that from there on,

we,

and so the story's picked up

in the first person.

It's just a thought,

and we don't know.

But what we can know

is that as they were prevented

from carrying out what they intended

from their plans,

according to their human thinking,

and they were stopped

from doing so,

whether it was a medical reason

or something else,

they were clearly

must have been frustrated,

if not furious.

They couldn't enter this place.

They couldn't go and do that.

They couldn't preach the gospel.

That's the whole reason

they lived,

and yet they were stopped

by the Spirit of Jesus.

Instead of seeing resentment

and anger

and bitterness,

which I know

that I would be expressing

at that point,

they embrace it

and say,

the Spirit of God

has led us away from here

and closed that door

and is now leading in

that direction.

And what I want to suggest to you

is that next time

we are facing that frustration

and a door is closed

and it isn't aligning

with our own plans,

that we are at least open

to the possibility

that it may just be

the Spirit of God

that is caught up

within that,

as painful

and as difficult

as it may be.

I'm not suggesting

for a moment

that we give up

the moment we hit

a hurdle in something,

and I don't think

that's what this story

is telling here,

because as the story continues,

we don't see a group of people

who just give up.

They carry on,

but they carry on

in a different direction,

all the time open

to the ongoing presence

and guiding

of God's Holy Spirit

in the same way

that you can know

that the same Holy Spirit,

if you will trust Him,

will guide

and allow your life

to unfold

in the way

that only you

can allow it to unfold,

because only you are you.

And God,

in His sovereignty,

has that plan

for your life.

What we can say

is that,

and though we don't know

why,

and we can only speculate

as to why

the Spirit might have

stopped them

at this point,

it was temporary.

One thing that we can say

is that eventually,

later on,

Paul did take the Gospel

into Asia Minor,

and we read

of the church

in Ephesus

being planted

along with

all seven

that are mentioned

in the book of Revelation.

So it was only

a temporary thing,

but what the other thing

is that we can say

is that through Lydia,

we see Europe's

first convert,

as recorded

in Scripture,

at least.

And so,

whatever may not

have happened,

what we can say

did happen

as a consequence

is the Gospel

came to Europe.

When God

closes some doors,

He will always

open others.

We may just see

the thump

in our face

as that door

closes.

but that

closure

always represents

another opening.

Now,

that is painful,

and it's painful

because we don't

understand

what those reasons

are,

and we may carry

those things

around with us

throughout our whole lives,

not really knowing,

but we're called

to trust

that that same

Spirit

is with us.

for quite a few years,

Tamara and I

in our home

had stair gates

fitted at the top

and the bottom

of our stairs,

while our three children

were at the age

where it wasn't

safe for them

to not have

those stair gates

in place.

It was really

frustrating for us

every single time

we wanted to go

up or down,

it was click,

open,

click,

close,

get to the top,

click,

open,

click,

close,

and so on.

Eventually,

the day came

when we could

say goodbye

to those stair gates.

We were delighted

and our kids

were too.

Why were those

gates there?

Not to stop them

from having fun.

In fact,

it was a cause

of huge frustration

to us.

But those gates

were closed

and remained there

for their own

safety and protection.

And I'm not pretending

that this is an easy truth

for us to come

to terms with,

but doors close

for a reason.

We're not just here

by accident,

by some cosmic fluke.

But the creator

of the heavens

and the earth,

the whole cosmos,

has a plan for you

even if you don't

realise it.

And what I want

to finish off

by saying to you

today is that

simply don't

resist that plan.

You might be

sitting here thinking,

how could God

possibly be

interested in me?

Whether that's

to do with your

stage of life

or whether it's

how you perceive

yourself.

You know,

the gospel

challenges that.

You might not

believe in you,

but God does.

And don't ever

underestimate what

God might be

calling you to.

He put you on this

earth for a reason.

And it's a reason

that is you

shaped.

And nobody else

can fulfil it.

So don't,

don't resist

the Holy Spirit

when you sense

that he may be

saying something

to you.

Go with it.

Don't try to

walk against

the force

of the Holy

Spirit.

I'm going to

tell you one

last story

and then we're

going to pray.

I grew up,

as so many of

you will know,

on the Isle of

White.

And about

twice a year,

our mum and

dad would take

me and my

brothers over

to the mainland,

as we called it,

shopping.

Usually it was

Portsmouth,

occasionally it was

Southampton,

but we got really

excited about this.

Why?

Because the shops

were so much

bigger on the

mainland.

And I can

remember how

excited I was

about one

particular thing

about going to

the shops on

the mainland.

Escalators.

None of the

shops on the

Isle of

White had

escalators.

They weren't

big enough.

And I love

getting onto

these stairs

that would

carry you up

and will

carry you down.

And from

as long as I

can remember

these things,

I can remember

thinking,

wouldn't it be

so much fun

to try running

in the other

direction?

I don't know

what you call

the one that

comes down

because it

doesn't escalate.

It's a

de-escalator?

I don't know.

But I can

remember,

wouldn't it be

so much fun

to try running

up one of

those things?

It became

a lifelong

ambition.

And two

years ago,

I got to

try it out.

I was in

a big shop

and we

were all

there and

I realised

that the

rest of the

family were

on another

floor.

And without

really thinking,

I just got

on board

this de-escalator

and started

to ride

down.

Seconds

later,

I realised

I shouldn't

be going

down,

I should

be going

up from

the floor

that I

had just

left.

I looked

around,

I caught

a glimpse

of a sign

that said,

under no

circumstances

do you

try to

ascend

the

descending

stairs.

But there

was no

staff

there

and there

were no

other

customers

there

and I

thought,

this

is my

opportunity.

I spun

round

and I

started to

run.

And as I

did to,

so,

first

realisation

yes,

this is

every bit

as fun

as I

always

thought

and hoped

it would

be.

And I

ran and

I ran

and I ran

and the

second

realisation

is this

is a

thousand

times

harder

than I

ever

thought

it

would

be.

But

eventually

I

got to

the

top

whereupon

I

made

the

third

realisation

which

my

brain

had

just

never

ever

ever

thought

about

and

that

is

that

there's

a

problem

when

one foot

that is

carrying you

relatively fast

and you're

running as

hard as

you possibly

can

one foot

is on a

moving surface

and the

other one

is not.

After

my 50

year old

body

had made

a rather

undignified

360

degree

spin

and I

landed

flat

on my

face

I

picked

myself

up

and to

this

day

I

will

be

I

am

so

grateful

and

remain

grateful

to

the

staff

member

of

Cardiff

City

central

branch

of

TK

Max

for

not

laughing

at

me

in the

way

that I

would

have

laughed

if I

hadn't

been me

in that

situation.

The point

of that

story

don't try

running

against

that

which is

trying to

carry you.

He is

trying to

carry you.

A lot

of the

time you

won't

realise

that.

the

very

fact

that

you're

sat

here

listening

to

this

right

now

is

no

accident.

God

wanted

you

here

today.

Or

if you're

listening

online

and you've

made it

this far

thank you

but I

really

believe

God

wants

you

to

know

that

he's

got a

plan

for

you

and

even

though

right

now

you

might

be

feeling

frustrated

you

might

be

hurting

with

some

sense

of

deep

disappointment

or

you

might

sense

when

is

the

door

going

to

open

you

don't

know

the

answer

to

those

questions

but

God

does

like

Paul

like

Luke

like

all

the

others

in

that

story

keep

on

keeping

on

we're

going to

pray

now

as

we pray

firstly

we're

going to

pray

and then

we're

going to

invite us

to join

in

saying

some

words

that are

from

one

of the

psalms

on

the

because

I

think

they

speak

so

powerfully

into

this

situation

and

I

would

like

to

invite

us

all

to

join

in

saying

those

words

as

an

expression

of

faith

in

his

guidance

and

those

words

they're

taken

from

Psalm

37

it's

not

the

whole

psalm

but

it's

some

words

from

Psalm

37

but

first

of

all

before

those

words

come

up

on

the

screen

let's

just

take

a

moment

to

pause

and to

pray

Holy

Spirit

we

thank

you

that

when

we

follow

Jesus

we

don't

do

so

alone

it's

not

just

a

decision

we

make

with

our

heads

with

our

minds

but

when

we

follow

Jesus

it's

a

supernatural

thing

and

we

move

into

your

zone

we

step

into

your

plan

Lord

help us

to

trust

in

you

Lord

as

we

pray

this

prayer

right

now

we

ask

your

Holy

Spirit

to

come

upon

us

and

to

move

among

us

here

in

this

moment

and

in

ahead

of

our

futures

whatever

those

look

like

and

there

will

be

as

many

different

futures

as

there

are

people

here

right

now

Lord

help us

to

trust

in

you

and

give

us

the

courage

and

the

boldness

to

knock

on

doors

and

the

readiness

to

accept

when

doors

are

not

opened

that

maybe

that's

your

desire

but

help

us

to

have

that

courage

not

to

give

up

close

the

wrong

doors

Lord

and

open

the

right

ones

Holy

Spirit

touch

our

lives

afresh

let's

say

together

do

not

fret

because

of

those

who

are

evil

or

envious

of

those

who

do

wrong

like

the

grass

they

will

soon

wither

like

green

plants

they

will

soon

die

away

trust

in

the

Lord

and

do

good

dwell

in

the

land

and

enjoy

safe

pasture

take

delight

in

the

Lord

and

he

will

give

you

the

desires

of

your

heart

commit

your

way

to

the

Lord

trust

in

him

and

he

will

do

this

he

will

make

your

righteous

reward

shine

like

the

dawn

your

vindication

like

the

noonday

sun

be

still

before

the

Lord

and

wait

patiently

for

him

amen