2 Faces of the Spirit-Filled Community

How many of you ever heard the proverb? I think it's a watched pot never boils. Well, a watched teaching never ticks. And it was like every day before the Lord, it was more of the same of Lord, in my heart there's a message, but I don't know how to get it out. I don't know what it is that you want to say. And it was a release as we came through the week and I saw people of God in ministry, I saw God's people going out and being effective where they were. And it was such an encouragement to me yesterday up in Elwood City to see the folks out there, just ordinary people laboring, literally sweating to get the gospel out to that community and to, you know, beloved, there are so many people and I don't know, but it just seems like every time we make an attempt, it's increasingly harder. You know, there's somewhere in Isaiah I think it says, and probably in the New Testament it affirms the prophets saying that we sang and danced, but they responded not. And yet God calls us just to take out that message, just to be faithful to it. The reason why one of these things this week for me was so difficult was because I knew I was going to be addressing an area that's sort of a long standing stranglehold of the enemy. And I find that when we talk about anything, remember when we had worship, we talked about participation in worship and that was such a. There was such a battle going on to get that message forth because people all were resistant to hear it. And we've talked about ministry and the participation of you in ministry and how that's so foreign to what we're used to thinking. Well, Satan lays on us the greatest battles in areas where he has had the greatest bondage because he wants to maintain that over us. The last five weeks or so we've been talking about the theme of the Holy Spirit in our house. But really technically it's been more of a study of the Holy Spirit in your life, hasn't it? It's been a study of personal application of the Holy Spirit's ministry to you. And how many of you believe that personal victory and personal growth and personal experience in the Holy Spirit guarantees that corporately we're going to go ahead, think about it a minute. Think about it a minute. Ain't necessarily so beloved. It's very possible for God to anoint many here with his Holy Spirit and power and they'll be like a shooting star across the skies, but they'll on their own go off and burnout for God. And I believe that any kind of study of the New Testament reveals that God's purpose in this generation, as it always has been since the New Testament era began, is to raise up a corporate man, a body of believers. Those, I believe, beloved, who will stand in heaven and receive great reward from God are those who gave themselves to his church because his church is his corporate expression, his bride. His bride, his living body. I don't know how long it's been. I don't know how long it's been since Harvey Haddocks. How many of you remember the name Harvey Haddocks? Anybody? I think it was 1960 or 61 when he pitched 12 perfect innings. Go ahead, Mama. We're going to keep praying for her, okay? Praise the Lord. 12 perfect innings. I remember getting up, I fell asleep. I walked in my dad's bedroom, and the next morning he told me that this had been the most remarkable game that anyone had ever pitched. And the Pirates lost one. To not remember when that was. But you may remember that game. And you know, there's a little. There's something in that that's possibly true of so many of us that we can have great personal victory and yet lose the war that we're in as manifested by the needs that are around us today. And as much as we want to encourage personal ministry and dynamic personal experience, beloved, it must point to a greater end. And that is the corporate life of the body of Jesus. God wants to raise up a lovely, lovely bride. And the bride isn't you and you and you alone, but it's all of us together. And I know what it's like when you start to compare yourselves to some of these people that have profound ministries. How many of you feel like, I could never be like that? And so because of that, you say, well, I'll just go ahead and let someone else rise to that place. But you see, that kind of discouragement is from the enemy. Because you are functioning in this body with a profound sense of life and a profound sense of purpose. If you'll simply function where God places you, would you turn to the person next to you and say, you're important? Hallelujah. That's true. Beloved. I thank the Lord that George took the minute to speak his word to us. Because he's right that there it was really, as you'll see, as I finished this teaching this morning, it was a. It was a 30 second nutshell prophecy of what I'm going to say. If you study the New Testament accounts And I want you to turn, just for the sake of a jumping off point, to Acts chapter two to finish out this morning. I have to cut back a little bit today, but that's all right. Acts 2. Reading, as we have in the past, about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, reception of the Holy Spirit, is it insignificant in your eyes? Is it unimportant to Northway Christian community to see that at the end of Pentecost is not great prophecy, but people loving people. Look at that. At the end of this terrific outpouring of the Holy Spirit and power, what do you see happening? All who believe, verse 44, were together and had all things in common. And they sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all as any had need. And day by day, standing, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food with glad and generous hearts, everyday things praising God and having favor with all the people. And if you study carefully, look in Acts chapter four, you'll see the same kind of thing happen. They were loving each other as the Holy Spirit was received in their midst. And you know something, beloved? God is always that practical. We want him to be spiritual. But he comes back and says, be practical. We want God to say, well, give me this and give me that revelation and let me have this insight into the Word. And God says, take the casserole over to your neighbor, help chop the firewood, help teach this person how to do their homework. He's just that way because you see, he knows that what it takes in us is a laying down of our lives to do those things. It somehow builds that ego in us to be able to bring the prophetic word out or to have a special ministry and hallelujah for those things. But it lowers us to cut the neighbor's grass or to spend a few hours babysitting a brother or sister's kids so they can have some free time and see, it all comes back to what we do with God in our minds, doesn't it? If we slide him into the spiritual compartment and let him remain there, then that's all. The things that we attend to God, they're going to be spiritual. But if we see God as being Lord, then he's going to express it through the everyday things of life. Now I want to say this. There's three things that a spirit filled community demonstrates to the world. Three characteristics. The first one is inspiration. A spirit filled community is a source of inspiration to the world and I might say at the same time is a challenge to Christians The Spirit filled community is an inspiration. What does inspiration mean in the New Testament? God breathes. Remember, all scripture is inspired by God. In some translations it says God breathed. To be inspired means that you are lifted by the breath of the Holy Spirit. And inspiration is very much a part of a spirit filled community. How many times have you left here at Northway and you felt really inspired, lifted up? And what is the principal thing that inspiration shatters to me anyhow? It shatters hopelessness. Inspiration brings hope and there's a precious need and a precious expression to meet that need in our body. What kind of hopelessness am I talking about? I'm talking about the kind of hopelessness that will cause a man to drive his car into an office building and shoot people because he couldn't understand the fact that he lost his job after so many years as being an executive. That's hopelessness, beloved. It's hopeless when you don't see any way out. And you know the inspiration of the Holy Spirit lifts the heaviness. It gives us the possibility to hang onto that. There is a way out of the weight that I'm feeling today. How many of you feel a weight today? Don't put your hand up, but you feel a weight. You came here with a weight and if I pressed it, I could say, how many of you feel that there's something hopeless that you're facing today, that you've tried everything and it seems like there's no answer? A spirit filled community brings inspiration. God's breath of His Holy Spirit moves and he says that that which is impossible with man is then possible with God. Put on the garment of praise for the Spirit of heaviness. That's what a Spirit filled community does. And the burdens that we bear drive us to God not to despair. Doesn't that make you rejoice that it's all right if you're a Christian today and you have a burden, beloved, but just decide where you're going to let it take you. Are you going to let it take you down to the bottom and let Satan wipe your face in it? Or are you going to let God draw you to himself and demonstrate his life in it? That's what he wants to do. And beloved, the world needs to see the community where this kind of hope, this, this kind of inspiration is possible. But I'll say this, there's a danger in it for us. There's a danger for Christians who look at the Spirit filled community as an inspiration. Only you know what it is. It becomes a spiritual fix. It becomes that which you look toward in order to make it through the next week. And the only real time you have with God is the time you spend here from 10 to 12. What time next week? 10 to 12. All right. You see, the Lord knows that we are susceptible to that. And I want to say, beloved, if all that Northway as a Spirit filled community means to you is a place where you can come and get excited, then you're missing out on God's full purpose. We can clap and sing and shout and say hallelujah and praise the Lord. There's a lot of smiles, and then we walk out. Boy, the donuts were bad today. And we're not even, you know, we're not even down to Wendy's before we're throwing things in the car at one another, right? I'm not confessing anything. Don't look over here. It absolutely must be more than just a hi, how are you? Let's get charged up. Glory to God and praise the Lord. And on we go again. Inspiration is great, but if that's all it is, if that's all, the Spirit filled community means you're not into the fullness of God's purpose for us. Second Spirit filled community is a source of information, truth. The world looks. Believe it or not, I still absolutely am convinced that many in the world today look to the church of Jesus Christ to find the truth about life. What does Jesus mean when he says, you shall be the light of the world? What does a light do? It gives direction. It gives the clear pathway in darkness. And I believe even though there are many who would mock the church and all that we stand for, that the community of Jesus Christ stands for, many are still looking to us to find out what it's all about. Is it significant to you that more counseling is done in pastoral offices and churches than in all other forms of counseling combined? Why? Because people are looking to the church of Jesus Christ and I believe this. That doesn't anywhere get near talking about all the counseling that's done over your tables at home and in your backyards. How many of you in the last week have talked with somebody about a problem that they had just to be an encouragement and support? Anyone. Multiply those figures out, you see, and the Spirit filled community gives ultimate truth as well as everyday nitty gritty truth. There's a book that's been written recently and I'm sorry, I can't remember the name, but the author's name was Jastrow Paul. Do you have it off the top of Your head. Okay. Jastrow's book was written about origins and he was a, he's a PhD, a prominent astronomer, as far as I was told, who's worked at Cornell University and a couple other places. Is that right? Okay. Hallelujah. I've got the authority here. And in the book, Jastrow is responding to the critics who, who are hyper in their attacks against theological origins and explanations for ultimately where life came from. And he has a beautiful paragraph in the book where he says that the scientists and the philosophers and so on climb the craggy cliff intellectualism to get to the source of creation. And when they just get to the brink of the cliff and peer over it, they see this theologian sitting where he's always been dealing with God. And a spirit filled community has answers to ultimate questions. And we also have answers, beloved, to the everyday questions. And they're not easy answers. I don't stand here today and I don't believe anyone would, and say, well, it's easy to live the Christian life and it solves all your problems. I'll say this, though, I don't know how the world gets through their problems without Jesus. And I have a feeling that more than we probably know those of us who've walked in the Lord for a while, those without the Lord absolutely despair day after day as to why they're living on in the midst of it all. But there's a danger beloved too, for Christians if information becomes the focal point of why you're part of a spirit filled community like Northway. Because, you see, it's easy for us to begin to think that the reason why we have this community is that God would begin to pump us full of special knowledge and that we'd have some sort of a positive lock on the great deep truths of God. And that God's principal purpose for bringing you into a community is so that you can have your mind and spirit so blown full of little nifties about who God is and about what it means to be spiritual. Now listen, I say this as one who yearns for deeper truth and seeks God for it. But I want you to know that there's a deception. There's a deception. And you can begin to pursue knowledge and not even know that in thinking that you're going on deeper into God, you know what you're doing. Knowledge does what it puffs up. Someone has said that knowledge is folly unless grace is its guide. Knowledge is folly unless grace is its God. And what that's saying is unless grace is being applied in that knowledge to make it life to you, it's folly because it's going to trip you up and it's going to cause you to think that you're something when you're nothing. If you want to know something, if you want to get into knowledge, grab a hold of Philippians 3, 10. To know him and the power of his resurrection. That's what knowledge in the kingdom is about. Now I want to say to you, beloved, this quest for knowledge in the spirit filled community can be very, very subtle. We can begin to acquire incredible libraries. We begin to acquire enormous tape taping caches. We've got things just stored up. And I'm saying that this is a confession. I've got hundreds of tapes all over the place. I don't even know where they are anymore. Blaine has most of them. But we can so consume ourselves with watching this brother on television and listening to this tape and reading that book and going to this conference. These are all things that God has given. But beloved, I have to say, it's almost like it's in moderation. It's not in consumption. It's not in letting ourselves be so consumed by all this stuff. You know, sometimes I think that God would have to interrupt. You're driving along in your car and you're listening to the 14th tape of the week, and hello, this is God interrupting this tape to speak to you today. It's almost the way it would have to be to get your attention. And I've had to from time to time, push my cassette button, stick the thing under my seat and leave it there for a few days so that my mind and my spirit could begin to hear from God himself. Now, I'm not on a crusade against tapes and conferences and books, but I am warning us all, including myself, that we need to be very, very suspect if all we ever do is have a tape on or a book in our hands and not this book and not God's voice, because it's deceptive. Now, the third mark, the third mark of the spirit filled community, It's not inspiration. Inspiration is important. In fact, I wouldn't be part of a community that wasn't inspiration. I'd be discouraged if we left here and felt like, well, we didn't really get lifted by the Holy Spirit today. And information is important and I want to be moving on in the things of God. And I know you do too. Without it, there's a shallowness. But the most important thing, beloved, is that a spirit filled community lives the incarnation, the incarnation of Jesus. And I Want you to mark this. Well, there is a significant bridge between inspiration and information on the one hand, and incarnation on the other. What does incarnation mean? Incarnation, if you're not familiar with the term, means God in the flesh. God in the flesh and what the Spirit filled community is to be above everything else. Beloved, is Jesus Christ here among us in the flesh, one to another? How is that possible? Well, most of you know the answer, but if you don't, it's by the life flow of His Holy Spirit through you, one to another. Now people, I want to say this. I know that many of you are hearing me up here, but you're not hearing me in here. It hasn't quite made the transition in your life yet. You don't really know what I'm talking about when I say that the main thing that God wants to do by His Holy Spirit is to cause Jesus to be incarnated through you. That's so much more profound than anything else that I could say. Because if he is, then everything else that's needful, everything else that's being called out for and cried out for here today is going to be met. Watched the tape yesterday of Jim Leckie in the concluding series on the YGI training, and he said very well, what I believe is so true. He talked about a neighbor who. Wanted to share with someone about who, who Jesus Christ was. And they kept talking to this friend of theirs and they couldn't get any way of communicating to him because it sounded so vague. And this person kept saying, I don't understand. It's too hard to put my mind around. And I don't understand it. And then the thought came to this person, well, come with me to my church and you can see it. And beloved, not only when we're gathered, as precious as this is, but every place two or three of us are gathered together, we should be able to say to the world, come and see. This is what it's like. This is what Jesus Christ is like. And we can do that by his Holy Spirit. This is why the Holy Spirit was given. This is what Jesus meant when he said, greater works shall you do than the ones I have done. Because you are going to be everywhere where Jesus could only be in a few spots. Now, beloved, I saw this so preciously demonstrated in the Scriptures. Why is God wanting to do this in his body? Why doesn't he just raise up a couple and bring everyone to them, to a few with certain gifts? And then the rest of us just kind of, let's bring our friends to Ray, or bring our friends to, to Gene or bring our friends to Rosalie or whatever it is, anyone in the body and there's a few that are raised up. He doesn't want to do it that way. He wants to do it through all of us because he wants the body to be mature. He wants us all, as George said, to be linked together so that when he needs the power to be directed against an enemy, it's there. And if it's just one or two of us, beloved, we wear out like that. I want to tell you, we wear out in a hurry. And it hasn't been long ago that I fell on my face and said, lord, I can't do it anymore. I can't do what. I can't meet all the needs that are here. I can't begin to answer all the phone calls. But you can and you can. And you can talk to this brother and you can talk to this non believer or that one. And that's what the grace of God in a spirit filled community is going to do. Now I want you to look at something with me to kind of trip you off to study the rest of the week. Turn to Ephesians, sort of in conclusion here, Turn to Ephesians. I want you to see, beloved, that this plan of God. Look what God says about his body, verse 22 and 23 of Ephesians 1. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body. His body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. All right, and then turn over to Ephesians 4. And his gifts were. Verse 11. 4, 11. And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Now we've said this before, but we need to say it again. Beloved, we're here. Those of us that have a ministry up front here are here for one reason and that's to equip. Look what it says. To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. You see, beloved, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ is not seen in one person. I don't care how godly and holy they are. The measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ is seen in a body Hallelujah. That's what God wants to bring forth. Now look at Ephesians 1. I want to just mention this. If you have a pencil, jot this down and you can study on your own. Grace brings forth this body. First of all, God reveals his purpose. Ephesians 1:10, a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him. That's the first thing. That's what God's doing, uniting all things in Christ. And then he goes on in chapter two, the first 10 or 11 verses, he talks about the fact that we were dead to God, dead to and dead in our relationship to him. And he's made us alive in Christ. Grace brings us alive, alright? God gives the plan. He makes us alive. Then what's he do? In Ephesians 2:12 through the end of the chapter, he relates us to one another. That's the third thing. He gives us life toward God, then life to one another. He breaks down the dividing wall of iniquity. The third thing that he does, he reveals his mysteries. In chapter three, the grace of God in the body. Look, it's the church. It's not this pastor or this evangelist or this prophet. It's the church. Look at verse 10, 3, 10. That through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in heavenly places. You see, beloved, there's going to come a day when God Almighty is going to stand in heaven before Satan and the fallen angels. And he's going to say, as he shows forth this marvelous corporate bride, he's going to say, this is what I've been doing in the world. This is my pride and joy, as it were my body. And then he goes on and he talks about the mystery of it all in Ephesians 4, the end of the chapter. Well, first of all, the fourth thing is he's profound and yet practical. In Ephesians 4, 17, 6, 19, there's the mystery of the bride of Christ, and so on. Yet there's the practical thing of forgive one another in Ephesians 5. But look at this in conclusion. Here's what grace does. Six, ten. Finally, be strong in the Lord in the strength of his might and beloved. I won't read that part of the chapter. But how many of you have read and studied Ephesians 6? And because you've seen a picture of somebody standing like this with his armor plate on, right, You've seen, you know, we've all seen the commentaries and you know, they talk about the breastplate and they talk about the helmet of salvation. And they talk about. And you get a picture, right? And how many of you thought that that's what God. And you applied it to you. Anyone ever done that? The rest of you didn't apply it at all then. Right. All right. Well, but when you've read the chapter, the application has generally, in my own experience, been for me. And I've seen myself with the helmet of salvation. I've seen myself, my feet shod with the gospel of peace and so on, Right. But, beloved, it's the church, see? It's the church. And now I begin to realize. I begin to realize why I can't be all those things. I want to see myself as the great warrior with all the stuff on, but I'm not. But I might be able to have a pretty fair breastplate of righteousness on and then I can count on another brother to wield that sword of the spirit. I'm not saying there's no personal application, but I'm saying that if we see it's the church's warfare, that it makes it so much more believable to me that others can help by having the gospel of peace on their feet and so on. What does that mean? Well, it means to me that together we support and encourage and help one another in the struggles in the warfares. You see, that's what the Incarnation is. It's helping one another in the warfares of it all. And it's all a matter of the grace of God. It's all a matter of his gift. I quoted last week rather quickly from a man by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And I didn't want to get into a long explanation of who he is, but he was a man who lived during World War II, was a German theologian, and in the end of the war was put into a prison camp and executed. He was a martyr. But while there, he wrote some wonderful things. And I want to read a paragraph because I think it says something that's a possible danger to us. It is true, of course, that what is an unspeakable gift of God for the lonely individual that is the community of Christ is easily disregarded and trodden underfoot by those who have the gift. Every day you think about that. Those of us who have this body every day easily trodden under our feet. It is easily forgotten that the fellowship of Christian brethren is a gift of grace, a gift of the kingdom of God, that any day may be taken from us. If you saw the movie the Hiding Place and you saw Corrie 10 boom. Tending to the retarded children one day and the next day hauled off to a prison camp. Now you say, well, I'm not going to be put in prison, no, but you can get the message tomorrow that the boss is transferring you to Houston. And that which you've taken for granted and haven't really availed yourself of is all of a sudden in jeopardy. Therefore, let him who until now has had the privilege of living a common Christian life with other Christians, praise God's grace from the bottom of his heart. Let him thank God on his knees and declare, it is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in community with Christian brethren. Beloved to me, we are precariously close from time to time of living only in the inspirational phase of community, and we're very close from time to time of getting charged up on the informational grace of all the teaching and so forth. But what God wants more than anything is for the incarnation of Jesus to be seen one to another, my hand to yours, my car making its way to your home, that we can spend time together, my talents and my abilities available to you and yours to this person and that brother and that sister. Because our glory and praise, as wonderful as it is, is incomplete without that. Our relationships are shallow without that. It's just smile, hug and go home. And our existence will be at best unfulfilling. Because if we grasp the truth that Jesus Christ is incarnated in our midst, Matthew 25:40 tells us that when we give to anyone here, we give to Jesus. And when we receive, we receive from Jesus. For he who extends a cup of cold water in Jesus name is extending it to Jesus himself. I believe that the Lord, sometime before the birth of Jesus, held a council in heaven. And he probably when I say I believe, let's just, just assume that it happened. I have absolutely no theological reason to prove it. I just want. Let's imagine this for a moment. But he brought the angelic councils together and he said, what can we do to prove our love? What can I do to prove my love to my creation? And one angel said, well, you can create something more beautiful. And God said, no, there's nothing more perfect than what I've created already. And another angel piped up and said, well, you can send a more powerful prophet. God the Father said, no, there's no one that's been anointed like Elijah and Elisha. And they ignored his message. Another one said, well, you can send a great teacher and you can write out the things that you want them to know. And God said there has never been one like Moses, who handed my very law, written by my own finger to the people and they dashed it to pieces. God the Father said, the only thing I can do is to send my son. And that is the way that God intended for his life to be communicated in the flesh. Beloved, it's not going to be by great messages or prophets. It's not going to be by great inspiration or information, but by incarnation that we will be the people God wants us to be. Next week I'm going to give you several very practical applications to this teaching which I believe will have a profound effect on our life together. Let's pray, Father. I know that in my heart, Lord, I yearn for this life to be filled, to be completed, to be worked out. And I believe that these that are here today, Lord, are here because they too want not something lesser, Lord, but something greater from your hand. And so, Father, we open ourselves and say to you, let Jesus be seen and felt and experienced in our midst. Let our hands be the hands of Christ to our brothers and sisters. Let our lives be his life to them that we might truly be a spirit filled community. Beloved, as we conclude in prayer this morning, your heads bowed and we're praying together, I know that God brings people to us every week for whom all of this is something that you have somehow, deep inside of you yearned to hear. You've wanted to know, how do I get right with God? How do I break away from what I've been into and find a new and living relationship? And I want to say to you today, beloved, as we conclude that the way to God is through his Son Jesus. And I don't know that if you've been here with an open heart and open eyes, you've seen and touched and sensed the presence of Jesus Christ. I want to conclude today by saying to you that the Lord has said to us each and every week that we're together, let people come to me. And I stand here not as one who has any particularly special understanding. I just make an invitation to you. Come to Jesus Christ today. The Bible says that if you confess Jesus with your lips and believe on him in your heart, you shall be saved. That's not my words. That's the words of God's word. Romans, chapter 10. And I want to say to you today, do you know the Lord? Have you given your life to him that your sins would be forgiven? If you want to do that today, pray this prayer with me right now. Heavenly Father, I see Myself for what I am. I recognize that I've not fooled you. And I've let down many around me. And today I ask you to forgive my sin. I ask you, Lord, to receive me as I now, in this moment, receive Jesus Christ as my Savior and my Lord. And in the midst of this place, I give myself to you. That you would change me and cause me to be the person that you want me to be. I can't do it on my own, God, but by your strength, I will be your son or your daughter. Now, if you believe that that was the prayer of your own heart, beloved, and you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, I want you to do the other part of that verse now. I want you to confess it with your lips. And here's all you need to do right now. As everyone else has their head bowed and their eyes closed