Led By The Spirit | Jason Martin

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We hope this message will light up your tea.

The title of my sermon today is led by the spirit. Okay,

why we possess the sauce but often miss the flow? Okay,

what do I mean by that? Okay, let me go

to the next slide. Okay, So I always had this question,

not always have this question. Usually when I'm preparing sermons,

then question. God speaks to me through questions because then

it helps me digest. So that that's just how it

works for me to some of you. God speaks through pictures,

through stories, through different things.

But God speaks to me through questions.

So one of the questions that I had was if

I have the Holy Spirit, why am I not living

with His power? So the same Holy Spirit that lives

in Acts one eight is the same Holy Spirit that lives.

In you and me.

And if you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord

and Savior, then the Holy Spirit lives in you.

Okay.

Don't get confused by speaking in tongues or not speaking

in tongues, because that's a different thing. You have to

be baptized in the Holy Spirit. But the fact that

you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and savior.

It means the Holy Spirit is living in you. And

you know the Holy Spirit they say, has Dunami's power,

which is dynamite. You know, a dynamite changes the whole environment.

It can You cannot have a dynamite and and explodes

and everything remains the same, right, it changes the whole environment.

So I had that question, is like, hey, if I

have the Holy Spirit living in me, and I have

that much power in me, why don't I have the

same experiences that the Book of Acts had?

Right?

And we all are having the same experiences that the

disciples had in the Book of Acts. You know what

some experiences they raised. They made the lame walk, the

race the dead, They healed the sick, uh, they provided

for everyone in their community.

There was no one who had need or lack.

That was just a few of the things that the

disciples had because they had the power of the Holy

Spirit living in them. So I was thinking that, Hey,

I got the same Holy Spirit living in me, how

come I don't have the same power? Right, Anya, We

all thought about that, how many of us want the

same power?

Right?

You do not want to have the form but not

the function. You know, the form but not the function.

Like sometimes you go to the handphone shops right and

then you pick up the iPhone right now looks like iPhone,

but it's not iPhone. It's a dummy seat. Have you

seen that. It looks exactly the same. It has the form,

but not the function. You know, And a lot of

us we may look Christian, we may speak the jargon,

we may speak the whole the language of the Holy Spirit,

but we don't have the power.

Now what's the point. What's the point?

So today on Pentecost Sunday, I hope that we will

get a fresh encounter with the Holy Spirit this morning.

We all have we have the prerecursis ready. We got

about rough one hundred and twenty. We are in the

Upper room. The Holy Spirit is here right now. It's

just whether we want to receive him. Right, So we

got all everything is ready. It's up to us, because

if it's up to God, God wants.

Uh it for us.

God wants to draw us closer to him. Okay, so

let's look at it. Let me one of the reasons

why we may not have the power of the Holy Spirit,

it's because there is a battle going on. Okay, next light,

and the battle is the flesh versus the spirit. So

let's read here from Galatians five. Walk in the spirit,

and you shall not fulfill the last of the flesh,

for the flesh flesh lusts against the spirit, and the

spirit against the flesh contrary to one another. So you

know there's a battle inside of you every single day.

Every single day, there's a battle. One side of you

has the flesh. The flesh is the same thing that

tells you to press noos when your alarm rings. This

flesh is the same thing that says that, hey, I

think I want to eat more instead of exercise. The

flesh is all about I need to be as comfortable

as I can. That is flesh, okay, and a lot

of us right now we live in a world where hey,

if it's happy, then do it.

You know your lo? What is your low? You only

live once? So you just do it every day? You yolo?

Then how you know you'll be like living a miserable

life eventually? Right?

You do not? Can you imagine this way?

If you allow your kids to live by the flesh, well,

any parent will allow your kids to live by the flesh.

That means right, they'll be like watching TV, eating can

be on the screen all the time and doing whatever

they want. And how many parents will allow our kids

to live by the flesh? No?

Right?

Then the question is then why are we living by

the flesh? If it's not if we do, if it's

not good for our kids to live by the flesh,

why is it okay for us to live by the flesh?

And this flesh is has.

Is, it's strong, it's strong, and it is battling with

us constantly. That's why when the spirit of God is

in us, God is a gentleman. He will not force

his way. It's not that God is not powerful and

God cannot defeat the flesh. No, He has given us

free will. We need to choose him. Can you imagine

a husband and wife? Right, he I force you to

love me. It's not love, it's not love. But God

loves us. He willingly chose us, so we have to

willingly choose him. But if we are not careful, this

battle their flesh and the spirit is a constant battle,

asking us who will we choose? Who will we choose?

So every moment is actually a choice. Every moment is

a choice. You know, you make so many decisions a day. Right,

Whether you're in church this morning was a choice. Whether

you came for pre service prayer is a choice. Whether

you are paying attention right now is a choice. Oh,

what you do with what you hear today is a choice.

And then after service, what are you going to do?

Are you going to go back and hibernate? Usually, usually

that's what we do right Sunday. It's not a brad thing,

it's not right. There's a time for it as well.

But what I'm trying to say is there's a choice

for everything. There's a choice for everything. And if you

if you constantly choose towards the flesh, then you will

be drawn towards the flesh. But you constantly are choosing

choices that towards the spirit, then we will be drawn

towards the spirit.

Okay, So next slide, this.

Is a to summarize.

What I said just now.

So powerless Christianity is the result of a self inhabited life,

a spirit inhabited life governed by a self centered heart.

Okay, I let this digest a bit.

So powerless Christianity is the result of a spirit inhabited

life governed by a self centered heart.

So what does this mean? This morning?

I mentioned right that if all of us are believers

of Christ, we have the Spirit in us. So all

of us have the Spirit inhabited in us. But is

the Spirit in the driving seed or the passenger seat?

Because who is governing us? We might have the Spirit

of God living in us, but we don't give him

the control. Who is the government in our life? It

might be the flesh. Self centered heart is actually the flesh.

So it's like, Okay, thank you Holy Spirit for being

a passenger, but I'm getting my instructions from the flesh

because the flesh seems more in line with what I want,

you know, and like it or not, right, every moment

is a choice. Every choice that we take towards a

self centered choice leads us further and further from the Spirit.

Doesn't mean that the Spirit is not in us.

It is.

The Holy Spirit is living in us, but we are

not giving him the power to manifest in our lives.

We're not giving him the power to speak to us.

We're not giving him the power to tell us how

to live our lives. And that's what lives. That's the

answer to the question. If I have the Spirit of

God living in me. How come I do not have

the power of the spirit living the Spirit living in

you versus giving the spirit authority in your life is

two different things. And we need to give authority. We

need to give authority to the spirit. Okay, all right,

So next slide, So I might be going a bit fast,

but you tell me you slow down me too, because

it's no point that I go too fast and try

and cover the whole thing.

But I will just go as this. I will do

as my slide says. I will be led by the

spirit to see how this goes.

And yeah, because it's not about my words at the

end of the day, it's about the spirit. The spirit

min is there might be just one that you need

today that draws you closer to God.

And I go this and there as well.

Okay, but I just want to be sensitive as well.

So just let's go through this, okay. So lead by

the spirit. First of all, we have to know how

to hear the voice. We have to build our sensitivity

to the voice. And then once we are sensitive to

the voice of the Spirit, then we walk in the spirit.

Okay.

So that is the gist of my whole message. So

let me go into it. Okay, next line, So this

is from Romans eight fourteen. For as many as are

led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

So if you are led by the spirit of God,

then you are sons of God. That's you know, the

Israelites right just now, if you if you go back

once slide quite tell you a funny story. Yeah, so

I used the Ai to generate this picture.

You know, it's like, hey, give me a picture.

Of the Israelites following in the wilderness with a pillar

of clouds.

Okay, then he I generated the picture.

Right, All the Israelites were walking away from the cloud.

They were facing me and walking with I was like,

can you turn them around and walk towards the cloud?

You know. So that's just a funny side story. But anyway,

looking at this right we the Israelites. They were called

sons of God because they were led by the spirit.

They were led by the spirit, and that's what Romans

eight fourteen says. Next, next line, For as many are

led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

O gay, sons and daughters of God.

Okay, in case you want to be politically correct, his

sons and daughters God. Okay, So do we call ourselves

children of God? If yes, then we need to be

led by the spirit of God.

Okay.

So when we are led by the spirit of God,

it shows evidence that we are his children, because right,

you will not follow a stranger, you will follow your parents,

You'll follow your dad, You'll follow your parents' voice. So

if you are following the spirit, it shows that, hey, God,

you are my father. Spirit, you are my guide, and

it shows that he I belong to you.

Okay. So next line, what.

Do you think prevents us in our lives and in

our culture from genuinely hearing God? Anyone has a problem

hearing from God? All of y'all got no problem hearing

from God? Then I probably need to take notes from

your What do you think prevents us in our lives

and in our culture from genuinely hearing from God? Any thoughts, ourselves, distractions, phone, Ai,

anything else.

There's so many things, our kids, okay, there are so

many things that prevents us in our lives, in our

culture from genuinely hearing from God.

You know, Like just now, one of the answers, was

Ai right? You know?

And in this life and age do you know that

right now there is more distractions and you know AI?

Right now, okay AI is here to stay.

And as a church, we have to open our eyes

wide as well, because we are here to preach the

word of God and make disciples right, and that's.

What we are called to do.

But we also have to be in this world, but

not of this world, so we have to know what's

going on and we have to equip ourselves. So just

to let you know, right, Ai, right? So do you

know that more and more people are looking to AI

pastors instead of their own spiritual leaders in church?

You know?

And you anytime you get a question, you just go

to AI.

You know.

Actually there was a I showed you all the picture.

It's a hilarious picture.

You know. This guy let me try and describe it

to you.

So this guy was he as took this mushroom, asked Ai,

is this mushroom poisonous? Then I say no, it's not poisonous,

it's it's good. So the guy ate it. Then the

next scene is the tombstone. Oh, you are right, this

is poisonous and you should not have consumed it.

AI said that, you know.

So AI also makes mistakes have you seen have you

used chat, GPT.

Or open AI or claude or whatever it is you know.

And a lot of times when we in homes we

have cowered waiting on the Lord, rejoicing in times of

toughness and stuff like that. All this seems to be

going away because right now, instead of waiting God on God,

we just want immediate answers and we ask Ai. You know, hey,

I need an answer to my prayer. I got all

these problems I'm facing. What is the best thing I

need to do?

You know?

And some of the answers are good answers, But my

question is is it God's answer? Good answer is not

necessarily God's answer for you. You know, what may be good

for you may not be good for someone else. But God,

we have to make sure that we are being led

by the spirit.

So that's why there are so many things.

That are preventing us from genuinely hearing from God.

So let's go to the next line.

So here in John ten twenty seven, my sheep hear

my voice, and I know them and they follow me. Okay,

how many have you all got a sheep? So you

cannot relate to this verse, right? But how many of y'all.

Got a dog.

You got a dog or a cat? A cat cannot lie?

Can can you call them?

Moody?

Hear your voice? I will be surprised, that is true.

I will be surprised. But you know, for a dog right,

or any pet, right, when you call his name and

here's your voice, it will come towards you. And and

that's the same thing as my sheep hear my voice

and I know them and they follow me. You know,

do we recognize God's voice? Do we recognize God's voice?

If we don't recognize God's voice, then how will we

know when he calls us? You can't recognize somebody's voice.

I mean, you can't respond to that person if you

cannot recognize it. You know, so voice recognition is learned.

So what I mean by this right is like, for example,

one day Albert gets a call.

Then it's like, hey, Albert, do you pick up the

kids yet?

Not?

Albert be like who is this? If he says who

is this? Who else could it be? Who else could

it be?

Right? Who else could it be? Only could be Rachel? Right,

then you'll be like, Rachel, wish Rachel is? You know,

he'll be probably sleeping with the cats. But the thing is,

as a husband and wife, right, you are able to

recognize the voice so clearly, you know, you just pick

up and like, Hey, where are we going for dinner?

Or what's the plan or whatever it is. You do

not even have to introduce yourself. You do not have

to give contacts. You can straight away go into a conversation.

And that only happens when you talk to that person

more and more, right, And that's the same with God,

if God. That's why sometimes were like when God speaks

to us, them like God, is that you? Or is

that the devil?

Or is that me? Or is that it's just just me?

You know, we have to get ourselves familiar with God's

voice and then suddenly right when he speaks to us,

we immediately get it. Like my kids they know my voice,

so when I call them, they will immediately they will Okay,

when they call them, they can't choose to answer arondlah.

Because they are kids, but they recognize it. They recognize it.

But if somebody else calls them, they'll be like, hey,

as this stranger, they will not respond, you know, in

the same way. So sometimes when God calls us, if

we if God's voice is as a stranger's voice to us.

We might miss what he's calling us to do. Okay,

all right, So which leads me to my next question.

I told you right, God speaks to me in questions.

So how do I know if it's God's voice, my

own voice, or the enemy's voice.

Have you had this question before? You've had right? You know?

In Klang, one of the one of the ex kids,

the kids, was sharing his testimony. God walked him up.

I think at two am in the morning. He's a

tenue old killer. God Walke came up at two am

in the morning, spoke to him six times. Spoke to

him six times. It's an incredible testimony, you know, it's

quite I mean, it's a real God encounter. One of

the things God told him to do is go and

take a shower. So he really went and took a

shower at three am in the morning.

Your mom's mom.

Said, are you if do you think God telling you

to take a shower?

Yes, okay, I'll go and take a shower. So he

went to a shower.

But he asked the mom this question, how do I

know if it's my voice or God's voice?

You know? And all of us have these questions as well.

We pray to God.

But when God speaks to us, if we cannot recognize

his voice, then you'll be like God, why damn answer God?

Like I answer? Really?

I answer, Really, you're not listening or you didn't recognize

or maybe God's voice to you was like white noise.

He's speaking. Are we listening? You know?

So this is this is how I put it. That

helps me to digest. Right, how do I know if

it's God's voice, my own or the enemies?

Thanks?

So God's voice, the spirit, the spirit of God, like

what a man should earlier. He's a gentleman. He's gentle,

he's consistent, and he's constructive.

He builds you up. He challenges you.

You know a lot of times right when you say that,

what's this, you suddenly have the nudging like, hey, you

need to serve more. I tell you that's the spirit

and that's not the devil. No, Because he's challenging you.

He's challenging you. It's causing you to grow, so it

sa easier.

Right. He's gentle and persistent. He's consistent with scripture.

He's consistent with scripture and always points back to Christ.

And he produces peace.

Sometimes right when you are asking God give me your direction,

then you suddenly he points you to this way, and

then people ask you why you chose this. Then you

just say, I don't know. I just have the peace.

Have you encountered that before. I just have the peace

of God to take between job A and job B.

Job B may be paying better, but I just have

the peace to take job A. I don't have the

peace to take job B. And when you're speaking to

the spirit, that's how he guides us. So that's the spirit.

The flesh is the opposite. The flesh is loud. The

flash is like me.

It's all about me. What's in it for me?

Me?

Myself and I.

It's loud, it's self focused, and it always justifies A.

I deserve it. I deserve it.

You know, I did so many things ready, I deserve it. It's loud,

it's urgent, and it insists. It's self focused. What about

the rest? Don't care about rest?

You know?

You just say that, Hey, take care of your self first,

and then you all always justify by reasoning.

You know.

Another word for reasoning is the rationalize. Have you rationalized

with yourself before?

You know?

You are a very good salesperson. You're always selling to

your cell phone. Why this is the better choice? And

then it's like rationalized. Actually it's okay. On if I

sleep in a bit, or if I was this, if

I cut corners a bit, it's okay. God understands, you know.

And then you try to rationalize to yourself. But you

know what, it's rationalized. Another word for rationalize is rational lies.

So all right, you're making excuses and then you're feeding

it to yourself and then you believe it. Ye, so

you're that's why you're the best salesperson. You can sell

to yourself, you know, And you're rationalizing lives and it

produces pride or shame because when you're pointing to yourself,

it's about me. Hey, if not, people won't see what

I have done. People won't see what uh the good things.

That I've done? You know?

And how about the enemy. So the enemy, right, sometimes

the enemy doesn't even step in. He just lets the

flesh settle. The enemy comes with the big guns. When

you have got your flesh in control, when you have

died to flesh, then the enemy comes in and the enemy, say,

creates fear. That's why he says, fear not, for I

am with you, and it contradricts the scripture, so right

it will choose. It will suddenly look through the Bible

and say, you choose the verses that apply to your

situation and then say, justify it and rationalize why this

scripture speaks to you.

But it actually is.

Taken out of context, you know, and it pushes towards isolation.

What does this mean?

Because when you're sinning or when you feel that you

have done something wrong, I feel that I have done

something wrong towards God, towards people. The first thing you

do is I think I need to stop coming to church,

you know, because God will I cannot forgive me, or

the people will not be able to understand and they

will look at me differently. And it pushes you into isolation,

pushes you further and further from the body of Christ,

and then he can take you out because you are alone.

And he accuses constantly accusing you. Hey, sure it's so good. Huh,

sure you say you need you Christian? You know, it

accuses you and this is the enemy. But that's why

we have to tune ourselves to the spirit.

So as I was.

Speaking this right, what is What are the thoughts that

are going through your mind? Are they thoughts of the flesh?

Are they thoughts of fear? Or are they thoughts of

the spirit? Because voices are speaking to you, wish one

is which one are you listening to? All these thoughts

are going through our minds. It's just some louder than others.

But which one are we listening to? Right?

So?

The yeah, when we want to listen to the voice

of God? Right, how does this work?

You know?

We have to recognize God's word voice? Let me show

you a cycle of SENSITIVT okay, next sounds very big,

but let me is it small?

Can see it? Kenna? Okay? All right?

So you say, okay, God, I want to listen to

your voice more. I want to recognize your voice more.

How do I start? Where do I start? How do

I do this? The first thing we have to do

is God is always speaking to us. So it starts

with the small things we obey his prompting and obeying

the prompting is God maybe just speaking to you and

say that, hey, go and pray for this person, or hey,

just go and talk to your colleague. You know, it

starts with the small things. Don't expect God to use

you for big things. If you're not faithful in the

small things. You know, then we obey the prompting. Once

we obey the prompting, then suddenly we recognize a bit

of God's voice. And then God starts speaking to us

more and more. When He starts speaking to us more

and more, we become more sensitive to his voice. Right,

so our sensitivity increases. The same example I gave just now, right,

Albert and Rachel when they started dating, you know, that

was they had to speak to each other more and more,

spend time with that little more and more, become more

sensitive towards each other's voice, and then you can differentiate

that voice from a crowd of voices. You might be

in a full room, but the moment Rachel speaks, Albert knows.

The moment Albert.

Speaks, Rachel knows because it's not just the tone, but

it's also the words that's being used. It's also the

heart behind the words, you know, And it's like, if

not right right now, in the world of deep fakes,

looks like Albert sounds like Albert, but not Albert or

Albert won't see something like this and This is how

we become sensitive the Holy Spirit. We obey his prompting

and then we listen and we catch his heart and

then we are able to recognize that God, you are

speaking to me. When you recognize that, then God will

start speaking to you more and more. Right, God will

start speaking to us more and more. And I think

we need to start speaking more and more. We are

living in an age of texting, right, so we are

lot lost the art of speaking in terms of it,

but we're just God will start speaking to us more

because he knows that we are listening and we are

will for we will obey him, so we will speak

to us more and more. And because of that, that

will lead us to live a powerful Christian life because

when we are following him, we are going where he

leads us. I want to go where he leads me.

I want to know your ways, help me to live

for your future. Spirit of God, come far on me.

That's the song that we sang. We sing the songs,

but are we walking the walk? And that's how how

we become. Why are we not living powerful Christian lives?

It's because it might be anything. It might be most

of the time is God, Spirit of God is prompting us,

and we stop with the flesh says, don't do it.

It's not comfortable.

You're gonna look like a fool, you know, it's a

it's scared your self will tell you to not step

out of your comfort zone. Spirit will force you out

of your comfort zone. And that's why the prompting of

the Holy Spirit. The battle starts there on. But we

have to die to flesh, follow the Holy Spirit, and

then he will speak to us more and more. Right,

So the opposite is the same, you know, the opposite.

I tell you that the opposite. When you ignore the

spirit of God speaking to you, you ignore, then it

becomes less. Can you imagine like Albert and Rachel, right,

Rachel talking to Albert, and then Albert keep on.

Ignoring, keep on ignoring, ignoring.

You know what happens then, because right, it's the same

thing that happens to kids when because right, the kids right,

like me and Jess with my kids. Right, So the

mom caller must call like ten times, cause SENSITIVVT very low.

Ready, you know, the volume must go.

But then I call one time firm okay, coming, you know,

but that's the same thing with us and with God

as well. When we ignore his prompting, we are losing

the sensitivity. You're telling yourself subconsciously tune out because it's

not comfortable. Tune out. It is going to give you

a lot of problem. If you listen to this. The

fear the flesh is speaking to you and telling you

to tune out. And you start tuning out, your sensitivity

towards the Holy Spirit reduces. Once that happens, then you're like, hey,

very dry er my Christian walk? Why why people like

rejoicing God tears? I come like, no feeling. It's not

about feeling, but you are not experiencing God. And then

what happens. You become a powerless Christian. You have the form,

but not the function. So this is if we want

to live be led by the Spirit of God, we

have to be sensitive to his word. Right so, I

think I will probably draw to us close right now.

I love other slights, but I just feel that right now,

this is what the Spirit wants to speak to us.

Are we listening to him? Are we listening to his calling?

Because I told you there is a battle going on

inside of us. Every time the Spirit of God speaks,

it's to draw us closer to Him, and the flesh

is the opposite. The flesh draws us away from Him.

So we need to be more and more sensitive to

the leading of the Holy Spirit.

Here we go to Slight eighteen.

So it says here in Galatians five, if we live

in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.

Let's not settle we just say the Spirit is living

in me, but he's a passenger. Let us walk with

the spirit, let him lead us. Just as the Israelites

followed the cloud, pillar of cloud by day, pillar of

fire by night. They depended on God for their daily

break and He provided for all their needs. Let's come

back to that place where we walk with the spirit.

The man.

So live is positional. What does that mean? Does a

spirit live in you?

Yes? But walking is a daily process that we have

to choose.

Every decision that we make is a choice whether we

want walk in the spirit.

Or walk in the flesh.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

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this week is going to be a good week. I

hit for you.

God bless