and thank you for all your prayers i want to say as i start out i have so much respect for our elders and looking forward to working closely with them we have an excellent staff grace an excellent staff and then in talking to you so many you are just you re ady to go for it and that is awesome and that's how i feel too but more than all that is the greatness of our god and it's what he wants to do and is going to do in this next season so here's the plan with the messages we're going to take four weeks and concentrate on the holy spirit and then we're going to take another four weeks as we head into christmas in our focus will be on jesus our lord and then we're going to take four weeks and this is new for church but we're going have a time of fasting to kick off the year fasting praying seeking god and we'll cover some psalms we're going to focus on god the father so i've kind of found out in life that if you focus on god life tends to be a whole lot better so that works not just for sermon series but for our everyday lives as well let's go ahead and pray as we get started today father we thank you for your goodness to us god we sing of it because it's so true and we've come to worship you and lord we also know that we're the followers and you lead us and we can trust you so we pray today that would be so evident and we would walk full of faith and full of love full of trust we pray in jesus name amen today's topic is the guidance of the holy spirit and i think it's one of the most significant topics in all of our relationships with god and i want to say this for me it didn't really happen till after seminary that i really fell in love with the holy spirit yes i knew all the facts about the holy spirit but that reliance that trusting that listening that empowering for me well i really grew a lot after seminary in this area so as we talk about the holy spirit yes there is some mystery but let's start with a real solid foundation so please turn in your bibles to genesis chapter one verse one and if you brought a bible excellent if we need some more house lights let's go ahead and turn those up a little bit so you can see your bible if you don't have  bible we have some in the hallway there grab one after the service i think it's a small fee if you don't have the money i don't know i haven't looked at the budget i'm new just go ahead talk to me we'll figure it out we'll get you a bible we just want everyone to have a bible here at the church so genesis chapter one verse one you know kind of a good place to start in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth now the earth was formless in empty darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of god was hovering over the waters what a description the holy spirit hovering darkness but the holy spirit preparing the holy spirit about to do a great work i like to in faith the holy spirit hovering in our lives hovering over grace ready to do a great work in so this work of creation by the spirit spirits guiding now let's look at the other end of the bible and this is the very end from cover to cover in revelation chapter twenty two verse seventeen we have the holy spirit again revelation twenty two seventeen the spirit and the bride we are the bride the bride of christ we're waiting he's coming back could be any time but we are the bride so the spirit and the bride say come in let him who hears say come whoever is thirsty that spiritually thirsty let him come in whoever wishes let him take the free gift of the water of life as we get close to jesus return the holy spirit is guiding people to jesus working through us guiding people all generations as many as possible that would say yes to heaven so from genesis to revelation guiding guiding guiding jesus said the spirit of truth will guide us into all truth and bring glory to jesus so here's the first principle the holy spirit guides from creation to consummation every single day in our lives the holy spirit is ready to guide us incredible way yes now here's the second principle god wants you to be continually filled with the holy spirit that's a command from the fusions five eighteen be filled with the holy spirit don't be drunk on wine don't let wine control you but let the holy spirit lead guide control you instead so be filled with the holy spirit and then god so generous in luke eleven thirteen he says how much more will the father give the holy spirit to those who ask and i ask this is there anything more important grace then if we are all filled with the holy spirit can you think of anything more important or wonderful that if all of us were filled with the holy spirit in so well that's the game plan but the truth is we all leak don't we we all leak in so what do you do when you leakin suddenly you realize you've got the steering wheel and you push the holy spirit out of the way what do you do confess crash someone says confess crash yes yield ask for the holy spirit say god i just messed up god will you forgive me god will you feel me again and in his it's with joy in the father's ears that he hears that he feels us again with the holy spirit so that's god's will that we will be filled with the holy spirit led by the holy spirit each day here's the third piece to the foundation humility is this knowing how much you need the holy spirit that's true humility pride is the one thing that blocks being filled with the holy spirit i don't need the holy spirit i'm self sufficient i can do it on my own that's what pride says humility says i need the holy spirit today by the way the holy spirit is not yet i hear so many christians saying that the holy spirit it it it no i know it rhymes with spirit but it's just not true theologically ok so we wouldn't call the father in it jesus in it we don't call the holy spirit in it personal relationship jesus says he guides you so the father equal to the son equal to the holy spirit different roles yes the son says your will be done father it doesn't make jesus any less than the father they are equal jesus always was god always will be god he wasn't created at one point he always existed so father son holy spirit equal perfect unity how do we understand about unity we look to the godhead how do we understand about community we look to the godhead in so it's modeled right there for us in so god knows we can't alone have you ever wanted to do something really really great and big for god well god already knows you can't do that alone so i put a bunch of pressure on yourself you know why become perfectionistic about what you can't pull off we can't he can so the holy spirit comes into us works through us and who gets the glory god gives the glory and some people are quick to say it was all god it was  god i had one friend pastor who's kind of blunt in someone did a really mediocre job at something and then when around trumpeting it's all god it's all god it's all god in the pastor said well it wasn't that good  my son a little harsh but i think the point behind it is we all get in the way don't we we all have that tendency to say god i want to move faster than you're moving god i don't want to move as fast as you're moving so we need to be in step with the holy spirit in david prayed this and psalm one forty three to wrap up our foundation some one forty three verse ten what a great prayer he says this teach me to do your will for you are my god may your good spirit lead me in you know what i think is that the crux of that prayer david was someone who knew what life looks like when the spirit did not lead him and he knew what life looked like when the spirit led him can you think through your own life and certain times when you know that it was the flesh and not the holy spirit leading you and where did that get you and then think of other times in your life where you said leave me holy spirit and look what god did through that prayer so that david's prayer he sees that difference and praise lead me holy spirit so there is a quick but important foundation as we talk about the holy spirit now this next part one of the questions i've been asked the most the last several months is this what's the vision for grace community church what is the vision it's come so many times so i just want to talk for a minute about the vision as led by the holy spirit that would be our prayer all of us together led by the holy spirit fresh vision what's happening well some things in our church are not going to change this is a church that believes this is god's word and so we trust the word we love the word we teach the word and it's important that we walk out what we're teton so we want to apply the word but this is a church solid on the foundation of god's word we don't water it down with this is god's word and we receive it gladly this is a church foundation o the holy spirit this is a church with a foundation of prayer those things aren't changing that's not changing so may this be a season where the joy of the lord is strong grace community church and then may this be a season where we major on the majors in minor on the miners have you ever just gotten sidetracked and started majoring on the minors and some people get discouraged and disgruntled and pretty soon the miners become the majors let's major on what's eternal amen and with that here's three things to think about a lot of churches will emphasize the weekend experience and yes we want to connect with jesus during the weekend experience but there's a second thing here a grace that's core called life groups and in homes getting into the word forming community that's where we work through our faith we apply it we look out for and we pray for one another we're doing life together it's a second part that's important here but that's not a stopping point i think of a third leg which is so important in it's this our daily lives with jesus so we move from the weekend being a catalyst connecting with jesus life groups connecting with each other in the word and then keep going the goal doesn't stop there attend to things no the goal is walking with jesus every day that's an important part of the vision in so that's going to play out the vision here is multigenerational isn't that a blessing when every generation is represented well now is that an easy thing to do no it's not why because we all have preferences right so when it comes to multigenerational it takes some sack face to have unity in that area just like a marriage it takes sacrifice to have unity well multigenerational you get a few more e mails and things i haven't got them yet but you know hypothetically speaking saying this is not my preference and that's true sometimes but we need to have a big picture and say well what's really going to bring together all the different generations in our church in so that's going to be an intentional goal another one is multi ethnic looking at this area over to over one hundred nations represented within twenty miles of our church my prayer is that one hundred nations would be in our church not just around our church then our church would reflect our neighborhood and you say why because that reflects god's heart god love the nations so  multi ethnic wonderful leds bring in and love and welcome this is a church family many nations outstanding and then courageously yes people come and we say come in we welcome everybody but we're not just to wait for the pacific northwest to come in we want to go out we want to courageously love in serving get to know people around south puget sound in beyond in right in our neighborhoods and so these are some of the elements that i sense the holy spirit emphasizing as we move forward but it will be collaborative it'll be prayerful it will be shaved it'll be participation and it'll be together so having said all that what about the specific ways that the holy spirit leads in guides our lives i want to look at for here's the first one look at exit is second book in the bible so go past genesis to exit is chapter thirty one and this is such an interesting  little portion of scripture right here an exit is thirty one then the lord said to moses see i have chosen bezel else son of yury son of her of the tribe of judah and i have fi him with the spirit of god with skill ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts to make artistic designs for work in gold silver and bronze to cut and set stones to work in wood in to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship now as you read through the bible this is the first time that you read someone's filled with the holy spirit what would you expect preaching teaching leading worship counseling what would you expect what do we read arts and crafts i didn't see that coming and my wife loves arts and crafts praise the lord for people who are gifted in arts and crafts we now have a new cross above me because some people have just put that together so we can see that and think about the love of jesus christ more prominent in so we look at people with gifts of arts and crafts he that's what god says filled with the holy spirit i'm surprised how many people have gifts and think oh that would never work in the church really really i mean someone new came well i've got a gift in i'd probably not going to use that in the church really do you know how many staff people are praying for a good people who gives of id so my point is sometimes we say well god will never work that way how is the holy spirit work you have been given gifts you have been given tremendous gifts in here arts and crafts praise the lord don't ever say well all i have is a gift of arts and crafts that's all don't fall into that how is the holy spirit using you in so you know even as i think about the importance in our church we are the new website now have all staff listed before it was just the pastors and i just thought we've got to have hold all the staff are so valuable and important so all the staff will be on there but this is not just the staff church this is a church where everyone's important there are tiers or three tiers we're all together serving the lord we're all followers of jesus so again the ways you're serving that's the first area if you think about the spirit leading you one of the ways that you're serving here's the second one what are the words that you are speaking in march after thirteen we read about the holy spirit again mark chapter thirteen in verse eleven matthew you and mark luke and john in the new testament right hand side your bible those four gospels they walk through the life of jesus if you're here and your new with the faith and you just check in jesus take some time and read through the whole gospel of mark but for right now mark chapter thirteen versus eleven and this is what scripture says when ever you are arrested and you're brought to trial don't worry beforehand about what to say just say whatever is given you at that time for it is not used speaking but the holy spirit the disciples were going to be persecuted and they're going to be brought to trial and the battle here is fear boldness do you have that battle regarding speaking fear versus boldness sometimes it's not a question of the fear totally going away it's just having more boldness then fear don't let the fear win pray the prayer next for twenty nine got enable me to speak with great boldness i wrestle with that you wrestle with that boldness fear when it comes to speaking for the disciples the holy spirit was going to help them speak in the goal was not acquittal the goal is not smooth talk let me get out of the persecution no the goal was faithful in faithful didn't always mean acquittal it was more important to be faithful than to have an acquittal so when you think about speaking let the holy spirit have access to that part of your life don't expect a lot a man's there moses remember moses moses it's the thought about speaking in lord could you pick some someone else that can really speak in god made it clear and i gave you your mouth i'm going to speak through you moses you have a stuttering problem perfect to be evidence of the lord's power the lord spoke through a donkey in the bible right i think the door lord can do it ever so many ways the lord how is the lord want to speak through you through the holy spirit here the next one the locations you are going the spirit will lead you to different locations in acts chapter twenty we read about paul going to jerusalem in verse twenty two we read this he says in now compelled by the spirit have you ever had such a thrust from the holy spirit that you just knew you had to go somewhere you had to do something compelled by the spirit i am going to jerusalem not knowing what will happen to me there i only know that in every city the holy spirit warns me that prison in hardship is facing me however i consider my life worth nothing to me if only i may finish the race in complete the task the lord jesus has given to me the task of testifying to the gospel of grace a little preview from the holy spirit you must go to jerusalem there is going to be trouble there but you must go specific locations that god has for you i don't think it's an accident we're here today i don't think it's an accident where you work where you live the holy spirit leads and guides i just moved into a new neighborhood now i'm starting to get to know my neighbors i'm kind of extroverted in case you don't can't tell so i just are not going to endorse that so i do a new neighborhood and you know why wait a year to see someone when i can see them the first day right so i just are not going to a nice to meet you talk in next door ok let me cover there next door i talk to one guy after a half hour he said you talk to me more than the last native here for fifteen years  didn't ask if that was a good thing or not i do you know but but we went out to dinner the next night you know and had a great time he and his wife and just getting to know those people of course on the way home from dinner i got lost  smartphone map apps praise the lord for maps i'm not too proud to pull that thing out i've been doing that all week long i go somewhere and act like i know i'm going and then i just type in my home address and then i'm like that down and listen how to get home humble pie yes better than getting lost the whole place is new to me all right so i'm just figured out where to go and i think that's kind of a picture even though maybe our pride doesn't like it it's kind of a picture of how we walk the christian walk and i know we don't have a an app to punch in but holy spirit where do you want me to go holy spirit what's the next step holy spirit my taking a wrong turn holy spirit will you set the direction right here for me because i'm a pick that way when you want me to go that way in so locations are so important and we seek the holy spirit with that here's the next one the decisions you're making in acts chapter thirteen in by the way in our life groups there's questions in your bulletin today and leaders will get homework going to focus on acts thirteen in the life groups but i just want to read from acts thirteen verse one in the church antioch there were prophets and teachers barn for the work to which i have called them so after they had fasted and prayed they placed their hands on them in they sent them off the two of them sent on their way by the holy spirit what i notice here is that decisions are bathed in prayer how much prayer do you give to your decisions your big decisions bathed in prayer it was decisions instead of jerusalem for antioch to roosting was the mother church and now antioch is a new headquarters it was a decision to send paul in his first missionary journey by the holy and made a prayerful decision that i don't care about herod i am following jesus in a lot of you have had to make that decision in life that i know this person in my family or my friend isn't going to follow jesus but i'm going to follow jesus so these decisions lead again by the holy spirit so decisions locations words areas you're serving here's an update for us and for our family we have been in the process of adoption and many of you have known that and thank you for your prayers and there's been some curveballs a social worker that we worked with terminated finished her position near the you know just recently so we had that change we've had a lot of things that were unexpected in the process but praise god we signed the papers last week and we're set for a court date now in a couple weeks where the adoption will be finalized in so we thank god for that at the same time is that's been happening well you know new state new job new church new friends new you fill in the blank but i was here a month ago and during that trip i had a two hour window to look for housing as we were exploring buying a house and so with that see right before i came up our house was in escrow for a long time it looked like it's going to be sold just before i came up to look at houses that people pulled out is fell in so coming up here to look at houses last trip the real sage and said don't even bother i mean your house isn't even right now it's not even contingent you don't even have an offer like owners here they just want someone who's ready to buy the place i said ok thanks for the input i'm going to go ahead and look anyways you don't have to come with me and she said fine i'll come with you we looked at two places didn't quite look how they looked on the internet so we just kept looking and you can do great stuff with photoshop i guess but anyways look there and then it was two hours basically done i saw one more street i thought well let me just go down that one street and when i saw this house i just got kind of got that sense like i think this could be so very unprofessionally i do that sometimes called the real studies it myself and just started talking then connected to real estate agents and from there they accepted our offer they let me move in early where i am right now they said they wouldn't accept any higher offers they were going to guard the offer and they would give us five months to sell our home and so the real estate agent said this never happens and i said well with god it kind of does yeah it kind of does and then when i got home after that trip we received an offer and our house all that's me wrapped up in two days household and house purchased so praise the lord  the adoptions igs the house is small we have been out on a limb with a lot of details it's been a stretch for our whole family but what i want to highlight is this when the holy spirit is guiding you and if the holy spirit is in it just say yes it's ok if you're on a limb it's ok if you don't have all the answers just say yes because his leadership is so good so good so close that here we're going to look at this last section in how do we receive guidance these promptings of the holy spirit how does that work look at x sixteen verse six in acts sixteen verse six incredible passage where the apostle paul is trying to figure out what is the holy spirit want me to do in so we can really relate to this passage because it's kind of mysterious sometimes when we're following the holy spirit in so verse six paul and his companions they traveled throughout the region of phrygian having been kept by the holy spirit from preaching the word in the province of asia when they came to the boredom iesha they tried to enter bethenny but the spirit of jesus would not allow them to so they passed by my son went down to true as during the night paul had a vision of a man of macedonia standing in begging him to come over to macedonia and help us after paul had seen the vision we got ready at once to leave for macedonia concluding that god had called us to preach the gospel to them here's the first part listen for a communication from the holy spirit that is biblical personal in some time surprising the holy spirit's communication will always be biblical think of a railroad track the bible the holy spirit always go in the same people never contradict the bible so those two go together but then also personal personally guiding paul look at these places phrygia is that it is that we go no go lisa no mice no asia no but then you know have you ever done that with god where it's like this surely it must be this surely it must be this well it's got to be this and god keep saying not yet not yet those other places yes later on but right now different place when samuel go jesse's house sees seven boys this one is the next king all this one's got to be i know this one samuel's in touch with god but he's trying to figure out what is the whole i'm just saying this sometimes you can be faithful love god and you're still trying to figure out you don't know what god's going to do that's ok if people come along side you put all this pressure on you if you are super spiritual you know exactly what god's going to the next five years really so there's some static on the line for the apostle paul but he's listening and that's the key in our busy noisy culture listen in desire to listen to what is god's prompting what is the holy spirit doing in the comfort in all this revelation three seven eight when god opens a door no one can shut it and when god shuts the door no one can open it so trust him here is the second aspect walk by faith when the next step is very clear mostly clear or barely clear sometimes in our walk the next step is going to be barely clear you might need to wait but sometimes you can need to make a decision it's barely clear in the prayer is this god i'm going to step this direction but if i'm off base please redirect me because i'm not sure i think you're going this way god so i'm going to step there other times it's going to be so clear and you just pray for courage because as god ever shown you in it's very clear but you're little bit scared but it's very clear courage after discernment pray for courage so there's going to be a range of situations as it was for the apostle paul same with us walk by faith that's the key and here's the third part your role is to have a willingness in eagerness to follow can i can i share the gospel there can i share the gospel in asia can i share the gospel but the anea a willingness in eagerness god might not say yes to every desire you have in serving him and making a difference in this world but in eagerness to say god is this is it in god i'm already in what do you have for me i was reading luke five again this week where it says the disciples at once left everything  followed him in some you might be thinking all the ads for our i p s that's for international partners that verse they leave everything they leave the states they go overseas they fall no no that's not what the bible says that's for all of us at once leave whatever god wants you to leave sometimes for my family it's been leave a church that we love in california i'm glad to be here i'm thrilled to be here i also had months of goodbyes not easy i love the people there it's new state it's so god might be asked to leave everything drop everything follow him and nothing compares to that now if you're not going to get anything greater than following jesus being led by the spirit so we trust him eagerness willingness to do that i have had to go to home depot countless times this week and i think yesterday i was in there three times and third time it was just like well i'm seeing the same people three times i'm starting by going to church you know if i'm go times let's get some church going and so i got these little cards and i don't know if anyone's going to come but i just sense that you know why not i'm supposed to keep that invitation come and see so i'm going to close with this story and it's a couple in sacramento that was preparing for their wedding it's go the weekend monday they called off the whole thing that takes a lot of guts to call off a wedding when it's all planned paid for the week of but will you agree with me that the holy spirit will sometimes say don't marry that person don't date that person and then expect a man's there and some you are saying well i'm already married but if you've been dating bitterness dating resentment dating and forgiveness when you shouldn't be in your marriage and used to be loved what's the holy spirit saying the holy spirit isn't he isn't just guiding us to great things he's also saying no to certain things so anyways this couple on their wedding week canceled in what do you do when you've paid so many thousands of dollars for the whole thing well mom dad of the bride and her name is carrie at the citizen hotel in sacramento they decided instead of it all going to waste let's find homeless people in our community invite them in and have an incredible party and awesome yeah it's just awesome and the people came and they enjoyed it it was festive and  you know i want to say about ministry it's not always going to be neat cute in tidy with a ribbon on top sometimes the greatest things are going to happen unplanned interruptions even in the midst of what feels like a tragedy  so there they go with the change of plans mom in daughter went to billy's the honeymoon was supposed to be the bride and groom mom and daughter says let's go let's not rip up the tickets let's go and their point was out of something so difficult let's have something good and the holy spirit we know brings good even out of the worst situations in so let's continue to trust him paul change of plans asia thought that's  go in god where do you want me to go the apostle paul very spiritual steadicam like god what do you do where do you want me to go it's a great place to be because then you're teachable you're available and god says macedonia right over there paul says i didn't see that one come in macedonia here's the take home what's your macedonia think about that the people for this season who you're going to serve the place you're going to go the role the gifts you have i don't want you to write that down i want you to take that home talk about it with friends or family what is your macedonia where is the holy spirit leading you for this season prayer in my prayer this week be god how do you want to lead me by your holy spirit how do you want to leave me because i'll say this there's nothing more fulfilling then doing saying in being right where god wants you and it's powerful when you're fielding lead with the holy spirit let's pray father god we thank you for how you personally leading guide us how you're so intimate with us god that when we put our trust in jesus you come into well  side of us and we thank you for the gift of the holy spirit we worship you father son