SPEAKER_00: Well, a sermon scripture reading comes this morning from John chapter 3, verses 5 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: John chapter 3, verses 5 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: Here now the reading of God's holy word.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.
SPEAKER_00: The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
SPEAKER_00: So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for the gift of your Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for his word to us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray, Holy Spirit, that we need you now to do a work within us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, fill us, mold us, shape us, empower us, draw near to us.
SPEAKER_00: Ever nearer.
SPEAKER_00: Give us a sense, Lord, this morning, that we sit at your feet this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And we'd be thankful.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll be changed.
SPEAKER_00: We pray these things in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So we're coming to our uh we're continuing our current sermon series on serving our city and our world in the name of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You'll see that again in your bulletin in the dismissal this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're new to us, and even those of you who have been with us for a while, I hope that's starting to sink in a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Siddling.
SPEAKER_00: Serving our city and our world in the name of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope that this part of our dismissal, but also our mission statement, is working its way in because we want to see God by God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be a people who are who are who are excited and energized and enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit to serve in these ways, to serve our city, to serve our world in the name of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so Pastor Tom, over the last few weeks, has been expounding on the scriptures which speak to how life in the kingdom involves bearing or has bearing on the city.
SPEAKER_00: And for us to be a faithful presence within the city.
SPEAKER_00: This morning I want to focus your attention on the necessity of the Holy Spirit to be in the work of furthering the gospel and how that truth shapes our service to the world as his people.
SPEAKER_00: The necessity of the Holy Spirit and furthering the gospel and how that truth shapes our service in the world as his people.
SPEAKER_00: What we believe shapes our service and it will also shape your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to see this primarily through the conversation that Jesus has with a man called Nicodemus.
SPEAKER_00: Nicodemus, Nicodemus was a leader, he was a Pharisee, he was a teacher, he was the one who was responsible for the indoctrination of many people, families, households, in such a way that the people of Israel took him at his word as speaking for God, as his representative.
SPEAKER_00: And so in this sense, he was a movement leader.
SPEAKER_00: He was someone who had given his life to serving and seeing this work go forward.
SPEAKER_00: And I think Nicodemus is a good example on this point of many good and well-meaning people today who give their lives to various causes, who give their lives to various movements for the sake of others.
SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of well-meaning people, well and good intentioned people who are engaged in philanthropy, who are engaged in humanitarian work, who are engaged because they want to see some good shown in this world.
SPEAKER_00: And I can only believe that Nicodemus was one of those people.
SPEAKER_00: He believed in his cause.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to see good happen in the world and for God to bless his nation.
SPEAKER_00: And we can thank God for his common grace in this way, moving people to give themselves to various works like these, serving the world.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful for that.
SPEAKER_00: There are people in this world that want to work towards achieving better health, who want to work toward better living conditions, who want to work toward the development of others and other nations.
SPEAKER_00: But what Jesus here is saying to Nicodemus is radical.
SPEAKER_00: If our service is to be carried out in the name of Christ, then one must be born again.
SPEAKER_00: Any other service is a working on the part, a seeking to improve that condition or this condition, to fix this problem or that problem, to address this moral evil or that moral evil, but that doesn't go far enough.
SPEAKER_00: It cannot.
SPEAKER_00: Within our own resources, within our own mental capacity, within our own emotional capacity, in the realm of our own ability.
SPEAKER_00: But God, by his grace, operates within us to give us a new heart.
SPEAKER_00: And in doing so, he gives us a new spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And what that means is that kingdom service and movements are begun by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It always begins with God.
SPEAKER_00: Without the Holy Spirit operating on us and coming to indwell us, we cannot see the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: No one can.
SPEAKER_00: The in the name of Christ printed in the dismissal that we say every week is speaking to that.
SPEAKER_00: His mission, his work, his glory.
SPEAKER_00: A new love, a new willingness is given to us.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first thing.
SPEAKER_00: But what is just as important is our continued need of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the disciples prior to Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: The door, you remember, is locked.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The meeting is taking place in secret, fearful, insecure, doubtful, no doubt feeling inadequate without Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you think about it, one of the greatest challenges, I think, to any form of service is this deep sense of inadequacy.
SPEAKER_00: Think about why you do some active service.
SPEAKER_00: Often you do it because you feel a sense of ability, right?
SPEAKER_00: And on the flip side, why do you stay away from certain forms of service?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you feel a lack of ability.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want, particularly Washingtonians, we tend to gravitate to the things that we're familiar with and we have experience with and that we feel like we're good at, we're able to do, we want to look proficient.
SPEAKER_00: So what accounts for the change from where the disciples are in this room, in this state, to where Peter is soon boldly proclaiming the gospel out in the open, hauling in thousands of new converts to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It can only be explained as the Holy Spirit powerfully working within them, bringing near the presence and love of Jesus Christ in their hearts, overcoming their inadequacies, overcoming and being more real to them than all of their fears, enabling them to walk in obedience to the light as it was revealed to them, and then and then taking that next step to walk in the light.
SPEAKER_00: And then again and again, and soon it becomes a path that is illumined to them.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't expect us to just run.
SPEAKER_00: He lets us take small steps and he illumines our way.
SPEAKER_00: He empowers us through his spirit, but we must take that next step to walk in his light.
SPEAKER_00: And he will lead us and he guides us in any form of service he would have for us.
SPEAKER_00: We mustn't lose sight of his willingness to work within us.
SPEAKER_00: That is vital for our service.
SPEAKER_00: I think we need to be reminded that come what may, whatever we undertake, Jesus gave us the promise, I will never leave you nor forsake you.
SPEAKER_00: Come what may, I will always, always be with you.
SPEAKER_00: That was the promise he gave.
SPEAKER_00: And yet I think Jesus' posture at this very moment is also a good reminder to us, a continual reminder of this need we have for the Holy Spirit to advance the gospel, to do any kind of service in his name.
SPEAKER_00: What did Jesus do when he ascended into heaven?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he went and he sat at the right hand of God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And we might ask, well, how can he be seated when there is so much work to be done?
SPEAKER_00: What does that posture signify?
SPEAKER_00: Well, for starters, we know that Jesus, by his sitting, is still very active.
SPEAKER_00: He is actively interceding for us.
SPEAKER_00: But his posture reveals to us the absolute necessity and power of the Holy Spirit to go forth and to reach the nations, to glorify the Son and the Father in individual hearts is how he uses his power and authority.
SPEAKER_00: And likewise, what do we see at Pentecost?
SPEAKER_00: Acts 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples are together, they're seated, right?
SPEAKER_00: Christ is seated, the disciples are seated, waiting for the promised Holy Spirit, and then what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Well, in comes this rushing wind.
SPEAKER_00: It comes to them, not from them.
SPEAKER_00: This rushing wind comes and the Spirit comes and fills the room and acts upon them, and they are moved to testify to the mighty works of God.
SPEAKER_00: Read through the Acts of the Apostles.
SPEAKER_00: Who is the primary actor?
SPEAKER_00: It's the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: God leads, we follow.
SPEAKER_00: We do not build the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: We preach it because we're given to see it.
SPEAKER_00: We proclaim it and we testify to it.
SPEAKER_00: And he adds to it.
SPEAKER_00: In this way, we are witnesses to what God has done.
SPEAKER_00: And in so doing, we participate in God's mission for the world in humility and reliance.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I take it to be a profoundly comforting truth that the Holy Spirit is not bound by our own activity or even our intentions.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes good, sometimes not.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is not bound by our intentions.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: He is sovereign and he is free.
SPEAKER_00: The wind blows where it will, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: And that ought to be an encouragement because what it means at a very practical level is that there is no anti-conversion law or government mandate that can overrule the sovereignty and work of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you have, maybe you have.
SPEAKER_00: Tried pushing against the wind.
SPEAKER_00: I know that if you've tried it, you didn't do it for very long.
SPEAKER_00: It's pointless.
SPEAKER_00: Governments may try to barricade and force the wind back all they like.
SPEAKER_00: They can do it with all, they can do it all their lives, but good luck.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus laughs at that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_00: That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The wind blows where it wills.
SPEAKER_00: His work cannot be thwarted.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit is sovereign and free and is always exercising this freedom and his perfect wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to borrow from Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Spurgeon here, who testified to the Spirit's sovereignty in his day.
SPEAKER_00: One nation has been visited by the Holy Spirit and not another, who shall tell me why?
SPEAKER_00: Why do the unreached lands lie in the dense darkness while on Britain the light of God is concentrated?
SPEAKER_00: Why has the Reformation taken root in England and among the northern nations of Europe, while in Spain and Italy it has left scarce a trace?
SPEAKER_00: Why blows the Holy Spirit here, not there?
SPEAKER_00: Is it not that he does as he wills?
SPEAKER_00: So too it is with the blessing which rests upon ministries.
SPEAKER_00: One man wins souls to God, and as a joyous reaper returns with full sheaves, but another who goes forth with strong desires and seems at least to be as earnest as his fellow comes home with a scanty hand full of ears, which he has painfully gleaned.
SPEAKER_00: Why is one man's net full of fish and another's utterly empty?
SPEAKER_00: One servant of the Lord seems, whenever he stands up to preach the gospel, to attract men to Jesus, as though he had golden chains in his mouth, which he did not cast about men's hearts, to draw them in joyful captivity to his Lord.
SPEAKER_00: While another cries in bitterness of soul, who has believed our report?
SPEAKER_00: Truly the wind blows where it wills.
SPEAKER_00: These challenges, these changes happen, sorry, these changes, not challenges, these changes happen to each man differently.
SPEAKER_00: One day the preacher shall be all alive, his spirit shall be stirred within him, and he shall speak evidently with the Holy Ghost, sent down from heaven, and tomorrow he shall find himself dull and heavy, even to his own consciousness, and even more so to his people's experience.
SPEAKER_00: For the power rests not upon him.
SPEAKER_00: One day he speaks like the voice of God, and another day he is but a reed shaken of the wind.
SPEAKER_00: You see him come forth with the unction of the Lord upon him, and his face shining with the glory of the fellowship of the Most High.
SPEAKER_00: And tomorrow he shall say, Look not upon me, for I am black, but the glory shall have departed.
SPEAKER_00: That really ministered to me this week as I think about the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit, for his own wise reasons, his own good reasons, puts not forth an equal power upon any man at all times.
SPEAKER_00: The wind doesn't blow with the same force all the time on any one person, or even on any one per ministry or work.
SPEAKER_00: But there's wisdom in that.
SPEAKER_00: There's goodness in that.
SPEAKER_00: But the wind blows where it wills.
SPEAKER_00: I say all this because I the hope for service lies not in our own abilities, but in the sovereign, moving, and work of the Holy Spirit, living and active within us and in our midst.
SPEAKER_00: Like the great trade winds that blow all over the world, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like those big, great trade winds that blow.
SPEAKER_00: Or like the breeze that hits you in the face as you walk out the door in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: It comes with different pressures and forces and energy and life.
SPEAKER_00: But know this, the spirit always goes before us.
SPEAKER_00: I say that too because don't be surprised if the power for service isn't always equal in your service or in your ministry, or even in your own soul.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be surprised by that.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing if you're thinking at this point in time, great, that means I don't need to do anything.
SPEAKER_00: Alright?
SPEAKER_00: I'd remind you that although the Spirit is free, he's not aimless.
SPEAKER_00: He works with intention and purpose.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus commands us to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Pray earnestly for Christ's name to be exalted in the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Pray for laborers.
SPEAKER_00: Pray for more of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: For it, pray for more of his blowing energy and power in our lives and in our ministry and in our service.
SPEAKER_00: Ask for it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus speaks to us of a harvest mindset, not a drought mindset, right?
SPEAKER_00: A harvest mindset.
SPEAKER_00: So we pray and we ask that he would be pleased to do his influence, have his influence and power be at work and his operations to be at work within us.
SPEAKER_00: And through us.
SPEAKER_00: William Carey, a missionary to India, knew how important the prayers of others were in the service to the world.
SPEAKER_00: At one point he said to those close to him that in being sent out, he felt as though he were going down a pit into a pit.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to those around him, he said, If I go down, I want you to hold the ropes.
SPEAKER_00: All go down if you hold the ropes.
SPEAKER_00: He knew that his mission would only succeed if many prayers were offered on his behalf.
SPEAKER_00: And if God is to do great things through us and through this church and through your own service in the world, then what we need is people who are willing to hold up the ropes.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you've gotten to know some of the people whom we have sent out to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: We've needed to hold the ropes for them, haven't we?
SPEAKER_00: But it's not just a few in a committee, it's all of us.
SPEAKER_00: All of us holding the ropes in our CFGs, in our prayer ministry, in our private and family devotions.
SPEAKER_00: Are you holding on to the ropes?
SPEAKER_00: That would be my question to you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Are you holding on to the ropes?
SPEAKER_00: For any of those whom have been sent out.
SPEAKER_00: That's a great place to start in your service to the world.
SPEAKER_00: And that lowering down, of course, can take different forms.
SPEAKER_00: We've heard from Nate just a few moments ago, being sent out, the Holy Spirit working within him.
SPEAKER_00: And his family, moving them to go out, to go out to India.
SPEAKER_00: One of the most remote and unreached people groups in all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Using the gifts that God has given him and the movement of the spirit within to send him out.
SPEAKER_00: To send them out.
SPEAKER_00: We heard of DDA shared a few weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: DDA, powerfully, God working in him, sending him out.
SPEAKER_00: And the grace of God in answering prayers, many prayers that were offered up.
SPEAKER_00: People holding the ropes.
SPEAKER_00: The wind is blowing.
SPEAKER_00: A desire of these children to pray and commune with their heavenly father, these orphan children.
SPEAKER_00: Bibles in their hands, the desire to know Jesus, being taught and discipled to obey everything that He commanded.
SPEAKER_00: The wind is blowing.
SPEAKER_00: We'll hear in a few weeks' time from the Kwaches.
SPEAKER_00: Earnest prayer has been made for Dorothy Taft and for the Market Project.
SPEAKER_00: I was talking with one of our missionaries, missionary partners recently, and he was sharing how he and this mission group that he was involved with were involved in broadcasting the gospel over cable TV in the Middle East.
SPEAKER_00: And he shared that it wasn't long afterward where this broadcast had gone out, where they began to receive hundreds of, if not thousands, I think, of phone calls from people calling to ask, who is this Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Some seeing dreams that led them to ask, what am I to do with him?
SPEAKER_00: What do I do?
SPEAKER_00: What does he want to say to me?
SPEAKER_00: And they were able to have and shear the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: What does this tell us but that the wind blows where it wills and that God uses the power of prayer?
SPEAKER_00: God has been pleased to work through you to serve the nations, his body here in Alexandria.
SPEAKER_00: But I believe that he has more.
SPEAKER_00: I believe he has more for us.
SPEAKER_00: The wind is still blowing.
SPEAKER_00: And it's an exciting thing for me to watch, to see how the wind is blowing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in our midst.
SPEAKER_00: Doing his renewing and convicting work amongst us so that we have this heart to serve the nations.
SPEAKER_00: What I've found in my own life is that the power for service doesn't come so much from fixing my eyes on the power itself, so much as by fixing my eyes on Jesus, risen from the dead, who has all authority and power given unto him.
SPEAKER_00: Because when my eyes are on him, when I know that he empowers me, and the Spirit moves me toward him by faith, my fears and my inadequacies, my failures are all eclipsed.
SPEAKER_00: I find myself strengthened and given the necessary power from heaven to walk in the light as he illumines my feet.
SPEAKER_00: I honestly don't know where the Spirit might take me this year.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know where it might take you in service to the world.
SPEAKER_00: I'm praying about that, and the missions committee is looking into ways in which they can come alongside you and where you might be able to participate and pray about that too.
SPEAKER_00: But what I do know is if I keep my eyes on Jesus, he can use me.
SPEAKER_00: And whatever service he might ask me to do.
SPEAKER_00: The wind blows where it wills.
SPEAKER_00: Roy Hishan, the late evangelist with whom some of you are familiar with, tells a story of a powerful work of the Spirit and a man who had sought to serve the world in the name of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm going to share this story with you.
SPEAKER_00: I remember, he says, when a fellow worker and myself were taking part in a minister's conference in Brazil, a young American missionary flew in from his station in the mission aircraft.
SPEAKER_00: A great hunger of heart had brought him.
SPEAKER_00: In conversation, he told us of the barrenness on their station and the defeat in his own life.
SPEAKER_00: There had only been one professed conversion in their area in the whole year.
SPEAKER_00: The missionaries had got so cold that if one of them were to seek to talk seriously about the Lord, the others would say, He's talking like a missionary.
SPEAKER_00: He told us how recently the Lord had begun to work in his heart again, and had sought to show him things of which he must repent to get right with God.
SPEAKER_00: In some matters it meant putting things right with his fellow missionaries.
SPEAKER_00: He told us as a result, a new fellowship had begun to grow up between the missionaries, and there was a new touch of blessing on the work.
SPEAKER_00: We suggested that he might give his testimony in the meeting that day, and he did so.
SPEAKER_00: And as he concluded, what was an impressive story of the Lord humbling him and bringing him back to the cross, he said, However, I cannot say that I am filled with a spirit yet, but I am seeking.
SPEAKER_00: Afterwards, Heshin says, I drew him aside and I said, While I praise God for your testimony, I was disappointed to hear you say that you are not yet filled with the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: As we talked further, he began to see that he did not need to go any further than the cross to be filled with the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: In that place of brokenness where the blood was applied to his heart, Jesus was made to him all he needed.
SPEAKER_00: And in so much as he came to the cross, God did and indeed fill him with the Spirit because of the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If his faith would receive it, there he began to believe in the value of the blood of Jesus on his behalf.
SPEAKER_00: In those days, he could be seen in quiet corners, under the trees, and elsewhere, beheld in wonder and worship, believing it all, cleansed in the blood, therefore filled with the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus made to him all he needed.
SPEAKER_00: His righteousness with God and his holiness within.
SPEAKER_00: He returned to his station radiant, emancipated.
SPEAKER_00: As he humbly gave his testimony there, the Lord began to use his testimony to make others hungry.
SPEAKER_00: Christians began to repent, and others began to seek Christ for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote back, it's rivers of living water again.
SPEAKER_00: Rivers of living water.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Spirit can do.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Spirit is still doing.
SPEAKER_00: Are you in need of empowerment this morning, my friend?
SPEAKER_00: Are you in need of strength to serve the world?
SPEAKER_00: If it can happen in this man's heart, it can happen in yours.
SPEAKER_00: Take hold of the rope, yes.
SPEAKER_00: Be willing to serve and be sent, yes.
SPEAKER_00: But in all this, look to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because what is needed more than your service is your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Faith, as someone has said, is not asking for what you have, not God, but making use of what God says we have.
SPEAKER_00: And what do you have?
SPEAKER_00: You have a God who sent his son to die for you.
SPEAKER_00: You have a God who left the heavens for you, to redeem you, sparing no expense.
SPEAKER_00: You have a God who is risen and intercedes for you at this very moment.
SPEAKER_00: And you have a God who, because he desires to be with you, and because he desires to use you in service to the world, is pleased to indwell you and to empower you through his Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Truly, the wind blows where it wills.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Father, we praise you and we thank you for your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your presence within us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, uh, we might say at times, Lord, who is sufficient for these things?
SPEAKER_00: And yet, Lord, we know that you are sufficient.
SPEAKER_00: And that because you indwell us, Lord, you make us a people who can serve you and your kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: A people who can serve even the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, don't pass us by.
SPEAKER_00: Don't use us, we pray.
SPEAKER_00: For your glory and for your name's sake.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.