Acts Part 2: Let the Silence Speak (In the Upper Room)

Acts 1: 9-14

It's easy to forget that there was a significant period of time between Jesus' ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Probably 40 to 50 days. 

Have you ever had to wait for something? I don't know about you but many of us are really poor at waiting. We are impatient to get on with things, we have plans, we need to do something. Didn't the gospels say, "Go into all the world ..." 

They did. But the Bible also says, "Be still and know that I am God," and "Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly." (Psalm 37).

It is during this time that God is preparing the disciples to go out and do things. But he is using the space, using the time, to form, to mould, to strip away so that when the disciples go out, so when they go to do the work that has been set for them, they do it relying on Him and not on themselves.

Waiting on God often does three things in us:

• It refines us – exposing our fears, impatience, and self-reliance while shaping our character.
• It teaches us to listen – helping us become more attentive to God's voice through Scripture, conviction, peace, and prompting.
• It intertwines us with God – drawing us into deeper relationship with him, not merely giving us answers but renewing our strength through his presence.

The challenge is simple: don't substitute activity for dependence. The early Church understood that preaching, planning, serving, and mission all required the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.

Reflection

As we continue through Acts, may we become a people who pursue God's presence, wait expectantly, and make room for all that the Spirit wants to do among us.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

When he had said this, as they watched, he was lifted up, and a cloud removed him from their sight. As he was going, and as they were gazing intently into the sky, all at once there stood beside him two men in white, two said men of Galilee. Why stand there looking up into the sky? This Jesus, who's been taken away from you, up to heaven, will come in the same way as you've seen him again. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, no farther than a Sabbath day's journey. Entering the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were lodging. Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, son of Alpheus and Simon the son of, and Judah, son of James. All these were constantly at prayer together, and with them a group of women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. It's easy to forget that there was a significant period of time between Jesus' ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Probably 40 to 50 days. Have you ever had to wait for something? I don't know about you, but many of us are pretty poor at waiting. We're impatient to get on with things. We have plans. We need to do something. Didn't the gospel say go into all the world? They did. But the Bible also says, be still and know I am God. Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly. That's Psalm 37. It is during this time that God is preparing the disciples to go out and do things. But he's using the space, he's using the time to form, to mould, to strip away so that when the disciples go out, so when they go to do the work that has been set forth, they do it relying on him and not on themselves. Let's listen to Dean.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

What are you waiting for? That's the question we're gonna try and answer today. We've just sung, let's just go back a couple of weeks. Easter, it seemed so long ago. Easter, he is risen. Okay? The cross was not the end. We were meant to, the women went to tender grave. We just sang about it, but we weren't made to tender grave. We were made for more. He rose from the dead. Last week we saw not only did he rise, but he ascended. Meaning he is not further from us, but he is closer to us. It's a paradox, but it's what the ascension is about. It's not that he's more distant, he is more present than ever before. We are not weaker because we're without him, we are stronger because he now dwells in our hearts. And this week we're going to look at what comes next. Now, I haven't got my clicker. Paul, have you got a clicker for me? Let me run up and grab in each of the gospels, and it ends in a particular way in three of the gospels and one and different in one of the others. As we get to it, we see in Matthew we're told, All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations. Go! That's Matthew's ending, the final closing line of his gospel. Mark, Jesus says to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. John does it slightly earlier, but he says this peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, I am sending you. Go. And Luke says, the Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance, for the forgiveness of sin will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I'm going to send you what my father has promised, but stay in the city until you've been clothed with power from on high. Go, go, go, wait. And that's how Acts starts. We said last week that we call it Act Two, because Act One is the Gospels. Act Two is what God continues to do by His Holy Spirit. And what they need to do is they need to wait for this power from on high, that the Spirit will fill them, the Spirit will equip them, the Spirit will go ahead, that they can be witnesses, that they can walk in this power, that they can know the joy of it, the strength of it, and they will receive it. And when it comes, the room filled with the sound of wind, flames alighting on their heads, this climax of the whole story of Scripture. God finally dwelling in the hearts of men and women, adult and child, all of them filled with the Spirit and praising his name. That spirit, as we as we just heard, hovering over the water in creation, bringing potential, new life, new hope, forming and organizing, strengthening that spirit that hovered, now hovers over the church, looking to land, that it might do it again. New life, new birth, new hope, new power. And we're gonna celebrate that, we're gonna come onto that, but I just want to focus on this part because if there's anything that we need to realize is that this gap, we've got to mind the gap here. That there's a go, go, go, wait. And then what why wait? What are we waiting for? Why do we have to linger before it happens? What else do they need to know? Jesus is is the Son of God sent? Well, they knew that. Jesus in his teaching and his wisdom, the authority he had, well, they knew that. Do they need some more advice? So they got the Sermon on the Mount and all the insights that are in there. Do they need some more miracles? Are they got plenty of them? Do they need to see him on the cross dying for their sin? No, they know that. Do they need to see the tomb empty and him risen from the grave, death conquered? No, they've seen that. Do they need to know him ascended to the right hand of God? No, no, no, they've seen that. So what else do they need? We have this idea and it's been going on for many years. It's called the deficit model. And it's the idea that the problem with humans is they don't know enough. And so if you tell them what they need to do, then they all go and do it. So you may remember back in the 70s and 80s there were a series of public information campaigns. Do you remember these on TV things? Things like don't play on the railway tracks and make sure you look after your children and know where they are, and all these things, because they thought, well, if people know this stuff, then they won't do it. Eat healthy. And was it Charlie says? Do you remember that? Charlie, there was these little Charlie characters. I've got one of the videos, we're just going to play it now. Um, because I think it's it's relevant for today, and it's a bit of information we we may have forgotten. Oh, here we go.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

To you, it's just a worn-out fridge. But to a child, it's a caravan, a ship, a castle, even a bed, and a death trap. Airtight and impossible to open from the inside. Don't let an old fridge be a new danger to children. Take off the door or smash the lock. Or better still, ask your local council to take it away or tell you how to dispose of it. Before it kills a child.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

There we go. Did you know that? Apparently, I don't know if there was rogue fridges roaming the countryside capturing children back then, but that was one of these bits of information. A lot of them are like that. The train one's horrific. It's really like a horror film. It's death stalking these kids before they play on the train track. But the idea behind it, don't show your kids that it's scary, but if you've got a fridge, get rid of it. But the idea, the idea behind it, and it's an idea that's been going on for years, is unless people know, they'll go on to it. If you don't know about fridges, you're gonna chuck it out and it's gonna cause a problem. If you don't know not to play on train tracks, if you don't know, if you don't know, then we need to tell you, and once we've told you, then you won't do it. The problem is that has been going on for a few thousand years, and it's been shown that the deficit model doesn't work. We know what we need to know. Most of us know more than we need to know. As Christians, we know far more than perhaps the early disciples did. We've read systematic theologies and we've studied, we've sat under sermons, we've read the books, we've got all this information. Information has never been the problem. Paul talks about this in the book of Romans, and he says this. I do not understand myself. I don't understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do. And if I do what I do not if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. But there is something in me. He says, I I know what to do and I don't do it, and I know what not to do, and that I do. And his answer is in the next chapter 8, he says, if we walk and step with the spirit, then we will know it. Then we will not just know it in our heads, but we will experience it. Pentecost is the answer to that question. We know what to do. We know Jesus is the Son of God, we know he died, we know he rose, we know he ascended, we know he's coming again, we know that he is for us. It is the Spirit that takes that knowing and gives it power. This idea of go, go, go, wait. The wait is to make sure that you know it, not just in your head, but you know it as an experience. I just noticed in that song it talked about the heart pounding. It is unique to Christianity that our claims are not just know something, but they are experience something. Taste and see the goodness of God. Know something. You can step into this. It is something, it it will affect you, it will change you, it will shift something in you, it will renew you, it will strengthen you, it will embolden you, it'll give you courage, it will give you power, it will take what you know and put it into practice. If there's anything that the church needs to know again and again, is that knowing is not enough. That experience of the Spirit and the way that we experience, there are three things we're told with the Spirit. We ask for Him, we wait for Him, and we receive Him. And often I find that we often miss out on each of those. Pentecost is that moment where the Spirit fills the church and the kingdom is unleashed. But we look at the early church and we say, why do we not see that? Why is there a gap, it seems, between their experience and ours? Now, many people say that that gathering in those rooms was the first prayer meeting, and if it is, then that's wonderful. But we also got to recognize that it's a slightly different kind of prayer meeting to the ones that we perhaps are familiar with. There are 40 days where Jesus meets with them, where he speaks to them and teaches them, and then he gives them this, and then there's 10 days, there's a 10-day countdown, and I wonder what's going through their heads as they they build up to this. Right, go, but wait in the city for my spirit, wait for the power to come on you. And they wait and they think, well, we're meant to be witnesses. I could speak to Gary next door, but he said the ends of the earth. How's that gonna how are we meant to do this? Day nine. Well, maybe we need a plan. Maybe we need to map out the area, maybe we need to get some tracks, maybe we need to figure out what we're gonna do. Day eight, still nothing happening. John, get your guitar, see if you can get something going. Come on, grab a tambourine, let's see if we can work something up. Day seven, maybe we missed something. Let's study the Bible. If you add up the animals on Noah's Ark and divide it by the number of colours and a rainbow and divide it by seven perfection, then the spirit should be here by Tuesday, so it's okay. Day six, this is getting a bit silly. There's nothing's gonna happen, surely. Day five, let's just do it. Let's just do it ourselves. Come on, we're just sitting around wasting our time. Let's just get going. Day four, there's no way we can do this. The ends of the earth. No one even knows who we are. No one knows who Jesus is. How can we go to the ends of the earth? Day three, there's nothing we can do. We can't do anything, we're at a loss to ourselves. Day two, Lord have mercy on us. Not our wills, but your be done. Day one, the Spirit comes. I wonder if it was something like that. And that those ten days aren't a build-up to a crescendo, but they are an emptying of self-reliance, a realization we cannot do this by ourselves. The task is too great, the distance is too far, the obstacles are too big, we are at an end of ourselves, God, you need to do something. And so he does. He gives the gift of his spirit to equip them to be witnesses. It's a type of prayer that I want to call waiting prayer. And it's a type of prayer that I think we need to cultivate or relearn or grow in as a church, as a people, as God's people in this day, a kind of prayer that waits on God. Something dramatic happens. Something dramatic happens when you stop asking God to join your plan and you start asking God, how can I join your plan? And I know my prayers often look more like, God, here's my plans, and would you bless them? And there's nothing wrong in starting in that place, but that's that's the type of prayer that we should engage with. But there's another type that says, God, I don't have a plan anymore. I don't have a strategy, I don't know how to do this. Would you show me what you are doing that I would join with you? Psalm 46 puts it like this come see what the Lord has done, the amazing things he has done on the earth. He stops wars, he breaks all bows and spears, he burns up the chariots with fire. God will do these amazing things. But the next line is so he says, Be still and know that I am God. I will be praised in all the nations, I will be praised throughout the earth. I will do these amazing things. You need to be still. Waiting prayer is first and foremost, it's listening prayer. It is listening to what God is doing. Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for him, Psalm 37 says. Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly. This beautiful phrase that says, there is not an empty silence. Waiting is not wasting time before God acts. Waiting is being silent and attentive. It's not switched off, it's expectant. It's not laid back, it's upright and alert, looking out. It's a posture that says, God, do you have anything that you want to say? We often start our prayers, God hears what I want to say, but it starts with, God, is there anything you want to say? Is there anything you want to bring to mind? Is there anything that you want to impress on my heart? Is there anything you want to work in me? Is there anything that I need to take a step in? Is there any courage that you need to give me? Is there someone that you want me to bless? Waiting teaches us to become spiritually alert, attentive. God, I'm aware, I'm listening out, I'm paying attention. So often we rush in prayer. We we ask quickly, we leave quickly, we move on quickly. Jim, what did you do yesterday? That's lovely, really nice to hear that. Peter, what are you doing tomorrow? That's great, thank you very much. That's that's how what we do with prayer. God, here's what I've got to say. Great, thanks, off I go, and we don't ever stop to listen to the answer. We don't stop to listen to what God has. Sorry, I'll I will ask again later. Um But we we rush in our prayer. We ask quickly, we we listen slowly, we'll listen quickly, and then we move on. And we don't ever give God the time to reply. We don't start with God, I've got nothing to say, let me listen to you. Sometimes God speaks in in what follows the asking. We have to ask, but then we need to pause. Or we need to stop asking and simply listen to what he's saying, speaking to us. Maybe a scripture arising afresh to us, a person who comes to mind, a conviction that settles in our hearts, a gentle correction, peace that lands and rests on us, a holy prompting to something we need to do. We often ask for power, but we're ignoring his voice. We ask for God to move, but we don't listen to what he has to say to make the move happen. The spirit is not merely a force. And the danger whenever we speak of the spirit is that we think of it as I'd like some of that power, I'd like some of that energy, I'd like some of that. That sounds good, but he is not a force, he is a person with a voice who speaks as a wonderful bid and axe. We may come to it where someone sees the power of the spirit, sees him work, sees his miracles, sees his wonders, and goes, How much? I would like to buy this, and gets rebuked because you cannot buy it, you cannot earn it. This is not something, this is someone. He leads, he convicts, he comforts, he speaks through scripture, he speaks to us and directs us. And we listen. The waiting, those 10 days, the 50 days from when Jesus dies, that that time is a time of listening, of listening to what he said. We listen. And the second thing is that we listen, we wait so that we can be listened, so we're listening, but that we may be refined. Something in the disciples still needs shaping. When they're waiting in this period, we we read about what they ask. They ask about the kingdom in terms of political terms. Will you restore the kingdom now? Will you get rid of these pesky Romans? Will you establish Israel again? They still lack that unity, they're divided, one of them has gone off, they aren't complete, and that dependence. They need to learn this prayerful expectation. God is refining them through this period. Those 50 days, they are there to strip away their meager excuses, their misguided excitement. Waiting often has a way of revealing of what's going on inside us. There's a bit in one of the Psalms, Psalm 105, and it's talking about Joseph, you know, Joseph and his coat and his brothers and being sold into Egypt. And it says, in that period in Egypt, it says, until the time came when he was raised up in Egypt and put in second command, it says, the Lord refined him. Joseph had a promise, but God is using a process to refine him, ready for that promise. There was a word spoken into his life, but there was a waiting until that word could bear fruit. And in that waiting, God was preparing him to be someone who could carry that promise. In hurried seasons we can distract ourselves, in active seasons we can avoid ourselves, but when we're waiting before God, we have to reckon with ourselves. We finally come to a point where we're looking in the mirror and seeing impatience, that's surfacing, fear, control, the idols, the things that we want to have and we can't live without, the deeper desires that aren't from God, and God begins to refine us. Sometimes we want God to change our circumstances quickly, but in that waiting, God uses the delay to shape our character. And when we wait for the Spirit, motives are exposed just as they were with the disciples. They may want power, they may want results, they may want influence, but in waiting, God purifies us. He purifies us so that the thing we want, more than anything else, we may want the power and the courage and the boldness. We may want the equipping, but God refines us so that the thing we want is Him. I want you. God, I want your spirit. I want Him because He's you. And I know He brings good gifts. I know He blesses. I know He transforms. I know He changes. I know He equips. I know He brings new life and renewal. But if I don't if I have them and I don't have you, I have nothing. Would you refine me, God, so that I want you. In those ten days, they become a people ready to receive not something, but someone. And that delay, it's not a denial. It's not saying no, you can't have it. God will give the good gift. Jesus promised that. He promised if you ask for the Holy Spirit, he will give it. But sometimes he's preparing the vessel before he pours in the oil. And throughout scripture you see this David is promised something, anointed, but then it takes years for him to become king. Moses is chosen, but takes 40 years for him to walk in the power of it. Paul is anointed by God and chosen by him, but there are years, hidden years, where God works in his heart. That time is a preparing for the filling of the Spirit. Now I'm not saying you don't get the Spirit when you call on, you receive the Spirit when you call on the name of Jesus. But that filling, that empowering, that comes into those vessels that have been refined and are useful for God, prepared for him, for every good work that he has for us. Waiting is about listening, it's about being refined, and it's about being entwined with God. Now I don't have girls, I have two boys, so I'm not an expert on the braid. But I understand this is what it sometimes looks like. We've got God's will, and we've got our circumstances, and then we've got our will, and often that they're separate, and we're trying to go, well, God, what's your will? And here's what I want, but what do you want? And they all feel separate. And the waiting is about not just asking God to do something, but in the waiting, praying, seeking, wrestling even, questioning ourselves, searching scripture, searching our hearts, asking the Spirit to refine us and purify us so that we are not just wasting our time, but what we want becomes what God wants, or what God wants becomes what we want. That our will becomes his will, that all his desire for us and his purpose for us, we are entwined together. Now the Hebrew word for wait actually means just this: it means to be entwined, to be bound up with God. How much of your waiting on God feels like you're sat still doing nothing? Feels like you're just waiting for him to do something. The waiting of Scripture is not I'm passive and I'm waiting for God, it's I'm active waiting on God. And today, if there's anything to take away, it's this there's a difference on waiting for God and waiting on God. You can wait for God, here's what I want God, and I'm gonna wait for you to do it, and you could wait there for the rest of your life. But when you wait on God, you're saying, God, here's what I want you to do. But if that isn't the right thing to ask, would you shape me? If that's not what I should what I should be seeking, would you would you shape me? Would you entwine my heart? Would you bind me up with you? Would you help me see your desires, your plans, your thoughts of me? Would you help me to see your purposes, your options, your your work in the world around me? Would you help me to be aware? Would you open my eyes that I would be able to discern it and understand it? So that I begin to ask something different. If you've been waiting for God, one of the questions to ask yourself is, Am I still asking the same thing? May not be wrong, but it's worth asking. Paul talks about this. He says, I had this thorn in my flesh. We're not sure what it is. He says it's it was something Satan did, a messenger of Satan. It tormented me, it hindered me, it held me back. So I prayed, God, would you take this away? And I waited for an answer and it didn't come. So I prayed, God, would you take this away? And I waited for an answer and it didn't come. So I prayed, God, would you take this away? And I waited for an answer and it didn't come. And then God spoke and said, My grace is sufficient for you. Do you think Paul then went on and said, God, would you take this away? But do you think he started to change his prayers? God, would you help me to know your grace then? Would you help me to know your strength? Would you help me to know your comfort? Because he waited on God, his body was bound up, his spirit was bound up, his will was bound up. And when God spoke something into his life, he doesn't carry on, he shapes his prayer. He binds it to God's, he links it to him so that his will becomes God's will. Isaiah 40 puts it like this: those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. As we bind ourselves with him, we are strengthened. We are built up, we are equipped. When we wait on God, we're not just waiting for something from him, we're being drawn closer to him. Strength comes not just from receiving an answer, but from a renewed connection. Sometimes we think prayer is only successful if we get a solution. But often prayer succeeds simply if we leave more united with God. You come anxious and you leave steady. You come scattered and you leave gathered. You come burdened and you leave relieved. You come alone and you leave aware that He is with you. Sometimes we I think we seek the Spirit like He's our cup of coffee in the morning, energy boost to pick us up and get us through the day. But the Spirit's deepest work is relational. He binds us to God, He unites us, He reveals Christ to us, He draws us to the Father, He makes us children who cry ABBA from our deepest being. He forms Christ in us. And that waiting intertwines your heart with his heart. This is what waiting does. This is why I believe they're told to wait. They wait so that they learn to listen. They wait because there's something that needs to be refined. They wait because in that their heart is being bound up as they're seeking God Himself. And then the moment comes and the Spirit fills them. The Spirit unleashes them. Go, go, go, wait. Now go. Now you have it. Now you know it. Not just as an idea, not just as a theory in your head, but you know it because you have experienced it. In 2 Timothy, Paul talks about certain type of people who says they are always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Always they know it all. And I imagine today if I asked you about the Holy Spirit, you'd say, yeah, we know. We know, we've heard. We know about him. We know about what he does, we know about the work, we've read Acts, we've heard the stories, we've heard about the missionaries, we know the testimonies. I can put you to the biographies of the wonderful thing. We know, we're always learning, we're always hearing about it. Okay, then do you have it? Do you have that knowledge of the truth, that knowledge that isn't head but heart, that knowledge that isn't out there but is an experience? Or are you just always learning and never arriving? It's like playing a game. Got a good game here, it's called Castle Panic, if anyone's played it. So it's a good game for boys who squabble a lot because you either win together or you lose together. And so let me read it to you. It says, the objective, Castle Panic is a cooperative game with a twist. The players work together as a group rather than competing against each other. Players use cards to hit and slay monsters as the monsters advance for the forest towards the castle. Players trade cards and plan strategies together to stop the monsters from smashing the castle towers. They either win or lose together, but only the player with the most victory points is declared the Master Slayer. To win, players must play through all 49 monster tokens, slaying all the monsters that are revealed. Players lose if the monsters destroy all the castle towers. That was fun, wasn't it? Did you enjoy that? It's a good game, wasn't it? You see, you can know the game, you can know the objective, you can know the plan, but unless you're playing, it's not much fun. And the same is true with God. You can know about him, you can sing about him, you can hear sermons about him, you can read stories about him, you can read the Bible, which is about him, but unless you know him, unless you're playing the game, unless you're walking in it, it's not much fun. And I can imagine that some we all get there at some point in our lives, where we start to realize I think I stopped playing the game. I'm reading the instructions, but I'm not playing the game. I know the rules, but I'm not playing the game. I know how it works, I know where everything goes, I know what I'm meant to do, but I'm not playing the game. And here we see in Acts God pouring out a spirit because he wants us to play the game. I want you to go. I want you to be witnesses. I want you to go to the ends of the earth. I want your sons and daughters to prophesy. I want your young men to see visions, I want your old men to dream dreams. I want you to go to the ends of the earth, I want you to see new life and new birth. I want you to be transformed. I want you to know that I am your Abba. Not because the preacher says so, because you know it, because I've told you. I want you to know that I love you. Not because someone told you that I love you, but because you know, because the Spirit of God is shed abroad in my heart, which confirms I'm loved by God. I want you to know that I am for you, that nothing can separate you, not because you read it in a book, but because the spirit witnesses to it in your heart. I want you to know that there is a strength and power. Can you imagine the things that we can do, the work that you can do, the sow seeds that you can sow, the fruit that you can bear? I want you to see yourself in a new way. I want you to have Holy Spirit imagination, a spirit community, living to life to the full, signs and wonders, love for neighbor, hospitality, sacrifice. I want you not just to read about it and know the rules of it. I want you to be playing the game. And it's only possible if I am with you. And so this waiting, this wait is not a punishment, it's not my delay. It's just making sure that you want what I want. It's making sure that you're ready for God to fill you with what he wants to fill you with. Because he doesn't want you to give you second best. And sometimes what we ask for is second best. We don't want merely songs about the Father, we want to sing to him. We don't want sermons about God, we want to hear him. We don't want to do things for God, we want to walk with him. And every church, every heart needs this upper room, this place where we've learnt a posture, a posture that waits. So that Sunday isn't a thing that we attend, it's somewhere where we come to seek. We want preaching, but we need spirit first. We want planning and programs, but we need spirit first. We want serving and hospitality, but we need spirit first. We want faithfulness and resilience, but we want the spirit first. And that when that comes, it bursts. It bursts its bags, because that's what Jesus said it would do. You can't put old wine, new wine in old wineskins, it bursts it and it spreads everywhere. But you put it in new wineskins, something flexible, something with room to grow, something that can expand, and you see what God will do. But as we wait, God does something. Waiting is not wasted. Waiting time is not wasted time. Waiting is where God teaches you to listen. Are you listening to Him? When was the last time your prayer was filled with God? Would you speak? God, I'm silent and expectant before you. Would you show me? Waiting is where we are refined. When was the last time, God, if there is anything in the way? If what I'm asking for isn't what I'm meant to be asking for, if what I'm seeking isn't, if I'm substituting your power for you, if I'm trying to get something from you, not trying to get you yourself, would you refine me? Waiting is where we are entwined with God. God, I don't want your will here and my will here. May we be entwined, may we be one. Would you show me where you're at work? And then would you fill me? Jesus promised this. A child who asks for good things for their parents, if they ask for a cupcake, you're not gonna give them a snake. If they ask for some sweets, you aren't gonna hit them on the head with a bat. That's the kind of illustration GE uses, scorpions and other things in his illustration, which might be worse, but he's saying that that isn't what your father's gonna do. He gives good gifts and then he says this how much more will he give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? How much more will he give it to those who are willing to wait for this good gift expectantly, knowing that he longs to give it and he's ready to give it? How much more will he give it to those who come ready to be filled? Those who have come to a point, they've counted down from ten and they realize they are empty. But having realized they are empty, they are in the perfect position to be filled with what God wants. There is a Holy Spirit, just as there is a Father and there is a Son, and He is with us, He's given to us. When you call on His name, you receive Him. So don't hear that. I know there's all sorts of squabbles about this. When you call on His name, you receive the Spirit, but then we are encouraged to walk and step with the Spirit, to go on being filled with the Spirit. And the question is, when was the last time that happened? Have you stopped waiting for it? Have you stopped seeking that? Have you stopped looking for that? Because we're really good at going, I've got a plan now, thank you, God, off I go. I've got it. Juice and Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth, got it in my head, see you later, off I go. But we're called to wait so that we can receive the gift that he promises and then go in a completely different way, dependent on him, filled with him, equipped by him, and doing things that we didn't believe possible, but become possible because of the work of the Spirit. He is the breath of God, he is the life of God, he is the wind of God, he is the power of God, he is the presence of God, he is Jesus' spirit who dwells in our hearts, he is God's gift to you, the gift of himself. Just as he gave himself in the Son on the cross, he gives himself in the Spirit that he would dwell in your heart. And as we go, having waited as we go, we start to see. We see just as the early disciples saw, people were different. And they see the man lying aside the temple, they don't see someone who needs pity, they need a they saw the potential of God's work in their life. They didn't just see the people questioning is there a God or not, they saw an opportunity to proclaim the gospel. They didn't just see sick to be to be looked at and dismissed, they saw opportunities for God's power to be put on display. They go on independence on God. It's not that we get the spirit, then become independent, we get the spirit and remain dependent. If we want to see that, if you want to see those around you in a different way, if you want to see, and I think I've said this before, if you want to go walk over to the Grange and see about 7.30 in the morning the guy who sits there with a beer can in his hand, if you want to see in him the potential of God, then you need the spirit to help you see him differently. If you want to see the guys who wander from the pub here to the pub up the road to down to the pub here each week, and you want to see in them the power of God that could deliver them from that, then you need the spirit. If you want to see in our young people, those in our schools who feel hurt and lost, those I overheard a conversation this week, a young lad in one of the groups that meets here talking about how he he he was coming to this church, but he's he's hurt by church. He talked about PTSD from the way he was treated at other churches and not wanted to be here. And so far from God, if you want to see in that the potential of God, the Father, reaching out to his child to heal what the church has damaged in him, then you need the spirit. If you want to see beyond these walls and beyond our limits, if you want to see your friends and your neighbors and those who are lost finding something, if you want to see those hearts that are hardened and say, I don't want to know, don't want anything to do with it, see them softened and drawn into God, then you need the spirit. This is why he's given. Because only God can change the world. And the Spirit is God in you to equip you. Because we don't wait for God, we are to wait on God. As we said last week, Jesus doesn't, they come to Jesus saying, Will you, will you, will you? And Jesus' answer is no, you will. When you receive the Spirit, you will. You will be my witnesses, you will be my hands and feet, you will be my messengers, you will be the place where heaven meets earth and expands into the world. You will be the means by which lives will be transformed. You will. And so this week I just encourage you to adopt a posture. I don't know how it looks. Jesus puts it very simply: you can do this. Go to your room, close the door, and speak to your God. That's how Jesus puts it. I could complicate it and make it add a bit more to that, but I think that's probably enough. Find a space, close the door, wait on your father. Listen. Let him refine you. Bound your heart with him and open yourself up, Lord. I need your spirit. I've got good ideas and plans, but I need your spirit. I've got good programs, we've got a good ministry going on, but I need your spirit. We've got good people and good resources, we've got wonderful buildings, but we need your spirit. I've got a good job, I've got good money, I've got good income, but I need your spirit. I've got a good home, I've got good opportunities, but I need your spirit. And wait. Don't settle for anything less than him by his spirit in your heart. I know many a good 30-minute sermon is ruined by going on to 50 minutes. So we've just reached 30. I'll stop there. But we're going to just pray, and then we're going to sing as we pray. One of the oldest prayers in the church, in the Latin, if you want to learn it, it says Veni creator spiritus. It simply means come, creator spirit. It's one of the oldest things we have recorded outside of the Bible that they prayed regarding God. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. It's been the prayer that's featured in nearly every revival that you will ever read about in history. Come, Holy Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit. And so we're going to pray that, and then I'm going to invite the music group to lead us as we respond and sing to that same spirit. As we wait on him, as we seek him, as we make space, and we ask God, Lord, would you work that we might be ready to receive this wonderful gift? This gift that you've already given. We've received him, but now we want to be filled with him. We want to give him full control. We want to give him full reign. We want to give him all the say. He is Lord. And so we pray, Father, come, Holy Spirit. Come into the hidden places and bring light. Where we are tired, give us strength. Where we are distracted, gather my thoughts. Where we are proud, would you humble us? Where we are wounded, would you heal us? Where we are fearful, would you steady us? Lord, would you help us to hear your voice, to listen, to press into you? Would you refine us and remove any obstacle to your will in our lives? Lord, would you entwine my heart with the Father? Would you fix my eyes on Jesus? Would you make me sensitive to your voice and obedient to your leading? Would you make me joyful in your presence? Father, would you by your spirit blow away all that is dead? Would you ignite in us what is holy? Would you grow in us what is good? Would you reveal in us what is true and is of you? Come, Holy Spirit. Fill what is empty, wake up what is sleeping, renew anything that is weary. Lord, would you make my life a place where you, Lord Jesus, by your spirit are seen and known and experienced and loved. And may I go on, may we go on walking in step with the Spirit. Come, Holy Spirit, we need you. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 38:46

We hope that you've enjoyed listening to Dean's thoughts today. If anything that he has said has challenged you or raised questions that you'd like answers to, please don't hesitate to contact us and elsewhere chat. You can find our details on our website which is leobc.co.uk, as well as on the information that we have posted with this podcast. Alternatively, if you live in our area, you're very welcome to join us on Sunday morning at 10 30 to hear things first hand. We'd love to see you there.