Relate Community Church
Relate Community Church
The Holy Spirit | Week 3 | Spirit Led
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August 16, 2026 Week 3
While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” Acts 19:1-2
Depend on the power of the Holy Spirit.
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5:16 NIV
For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. Galatians 5:17
What you feed grows.
What you starve dies.
Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. Galatians 6:8
Whatever fills you, leads you.
You have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. Romans 8:12-13 NLT
Follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:24-25
If your faith isn’t challenging you, it’s not changing you.
God's best for you is found outside your comfort zone .
The Holy Spirit may not always make sense, but it will always make a difference .
Discussion Questions:
What stood out to you most from this week’s message? Why?
What do you think it practically means to “walk by the Spirit” in everyday life?
Galatians 5:17 describes a conflict between the flesh and the Spirit.
Where do you most commonly experience that internal tug-of-war?
Why is telling a trusted, mature believer about a struggle often such an important step toward freedom?
Where might God currently be asking you to move outside your comfort zone?
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Welcome And Series Direction
SPEAKER_00Everybody, good morning and welcome to church. Who's excited to be here in God's house today? Good, good, good. Beautiful. I am so glad that you're here. I want to say thank you for coming to church today. Uh, it's not it, it we're not oblivious to the fact that sometimes it's just hard. You decide I'm gonna get the kids to church, I'm gonna eat, we're all going, and then it feels like everything tries to stop you. I've been there so many times, but always when we show up, God shows up and he's doing great, great, great things. And so I want to dive right in this morning to week number three of the Holy Spirit. How many of you guys have been enjoying this series? I I it's one of my favorites of the year so far, and uh certainly we we started off the year to be bold. That was our word of the year. We're gonna just be exactly who he made us to be, and it's impossible to do without the Holy Spirit. It's impossible to live the life that he's created us for without him empowering us, without him filling us with his spirit. And so uh I want to take just one second to give you a little heads up that next week I'm kicking off a new series, and it's called Mind Games. And I thought this is a season where we need to not just follow the Holy Spirit, but one of the biggest things that gets in the way of us walking the walk and being led by the Holy Spirit is our own thoughts get in our in our way. Our um we we we have to be able to have peace in our thoughts, we have to settle the anxieties, the issues. So the series that we start next week will be exactly on that. And I know it's gonna help a lot of you because I've been praying with a lot of you and talking and just knowing, knowing where we all are as a people, as a community, God wants to take us into his peace. So we'll start that next week. Otherwise, are y'all ready? Say I'm ready. All right, good. Pull out your notes. We are a note-taking church. I'm gonna kick it off with Acts chapter 19, verse 1 and 2. This is a uh a quick uh snapshot into uh a moment where the church has Jesus ascended
Acts 19 And The Missing Spirit
SPEAKER_00already. We went through the timeline last week. Jesus already ascended, the the Holy Spirit, the day of Pentecost has already happened, the church is on the move. The disciples are out preaching and teaching and building and starting churches and uh discipling people. And this is a moment where Paul says he took the road through the interior and uh and arrived at at uh at Corinth. There he found some disciples. These were believers. This would be like him walking into uh a small group or a church. These are Jesus followers, they've already received, believed that they they are Jesus followers, and he asks them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Obvious question, maybe not, maybe so. He's trying to find out. I think there's something missing here. You believed, you're following Jesus, but there's did you believe did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? They answered, watch their answer, because I think this is where a lot of people are. No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. That's amazing. In fact, it's way more amazing than the amen, the one sound that I heard. It wasn't an amen. There's a bunch of people that live, you've been going to church, you've been reading your Bible, you you'll call yourself a believer, a follower of Jesus. You have been saved, you've been bought and paid for, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, saved by his grace, and yet when it comes to the Holy Spirit, like you have maybe have heard of the Holy Spirit, maybe you haven't, maybe you haven't really considered that the Holy Spirit is necessary. You gotta have, in fact, the very next part of this passage, you can go read it this week. Paul prays for them that they would receive the Holy Spirit right then and there. He lays hands on them. So I want today to talk a little bit about and unpack the idea that there a lot's been done, and we we we've established the idea from week one of this series that the Holy Spirit's available, but it's not automatic. It's something that we there's part where there's a part where we have to take a step. The Holy Spirit wants to empower, he wants to take you and lead you. The the scripture calls him teacher, he's he's like a coach, he's a he's our director, and he can be a guide, he's called a guide, counselor, comforter. And there's a uh a moment in our lives as believers where Isaiah said that you'll hear a voice from behind you saying, Go left or go right. That's the Holy Spirit. And for a lot of us, we're just wandering. Maybe you showed up today and you thought, oh, maybe today will be a good day. I don't, I don't even know how I got here, but I'm here. Maybe that for some of you, you just uh maybe showed up at a small group one day, or you just saw something online, or today you may have clicked in and you just thought, let me check this out. I'll just reach over here and I'll push this. Or you're there are moments where we accidentally find ourselves in the right place at the right time, but what would it look like if we were always in the right place at the right time? What would it look like if we were listening to the Holy Spirit and we were living a life that we were led by the Holy Spirit? I hope by now, over these three weeks, I hope that you've put aside the preconceived notions and the stuff that you made, the weird stuff about the Holy Spirit, because beyond that, there's some places that the Holy Spirit wants to take you, and he wants to say, hey, go right, go left. No, no, no, no. Just pause here for a second. What if we could listen to the Spirit of God, the breath of God, the wind of God? What if we could let him lead us? That's what today's message is about. So before we dive all the way in and I give you some things you can write in your notes, I need to address, I think the wrong way. And that is sometimes when we think about getting our life right, or we think about, well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna just go all in with God. Here's what we do: we start making a list of all the things we should. I'm not gonna do this anymore. I'm not gonna do this anymore. I'm gonna cut this out of my list. We start making a list, like a a good, no, a naughty and a nice list almost. And then our focus a lot of times can happen. We just start focusing on all the negative things. We start focusing on what we're not gonna do. And here's the problem with focusing on the wrong thing. If I say I'm not gonna think about this and I'm not gonna do this, what do we inevitably do? You do exactly that. You if you're driving and you keep your eyes over here, you're going there. And so I want us to do a quick experiment just to prove a point here. Would you just sit right? Trust me enough, close your eyes. Everybody in
Stop Fixating On The Wrong Thing
SPEAKER_00the room, just close your eyes right where you are. And I want you to not think about a pink elephant, just all over, bright pink elephant. Don't think about that. What do you think about? You just immediately all right, you can open your eyes, and then what happens? You just see a pink elephant, right? Because when you're thinking about, don't sin, don't sin, don't don't think about that chocolate cake that's sitting in the kitchen. And then you throw it in the garbage. I'm not gonna eat chocolate cake today, but I saw I saw one on sale and I had to buy it. Don't think about it. Don't think about the ice cream that's in the freezer, don't think about a girl in a bikini, don't think about all the things we try to put blinders on, and yet what do we think about? That's the stuff. It's the very thing Paul said, I don't want to do the wrong thing, but I do the wrong thing. That's what we're talking about. So instead of not doing the wrong thing, because we can get so tied up in focusing on not doing the wrong thing that we do the wrong thing, here's the key. We're not gonna think about the wrong thing, we're gonna think about the right thing. And the things that we're trying to take, instead of trying to take things out of our life, if we'll just focus on the things that are supposed to be there, the scripture tells us to meditate on these things, then gives us a list of the things that are pure and just and righteous. We're gonna focus on so with the the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit's gonna lead us to the things that we need to do. But here's the here's the um first thing I want you to write in your notes, and that is that we we have to be dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit. If you don't know, if you haven't bought a hundred percent into the idea and the fact that I need the Holy Spirit leading my life, then here's what happens chocolate cake's gonna lead your life. Or any hundred other thousands of other things. Social media is gonna lead your life, or the person who said the loudest person near you is gonna lead your life, or the person who can dump the most guilt on you is gonna lead your life. But let's let the whole we we have to be dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5 says it this, Paul says, So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. This is that picture of whether or not I'm gonna take out the bad stuff or put in the good stuff, whether I'm gonna follow the right thing or try not to follow the wrong thing. This is the the battle that happens in all of us between the spirit that's going head to head with the flesh. Now, I'll just pause right here for a second to tell you most of you, about 99% of you know this already, but about four years ago, I started training in jujitsu because I decided I'm gonna get healthy, I want to live longer, I wanna uh I wanna be in shape, so I'm gonna start working out, I'm gonna lose weight, eat healthy. Here's what I learned. Oh, and by the way, the first thing that you learn about jujitsu or anybody who's in training with jujitsu is that that we have to tell everybody
Walk By The Spirit Daily
SPEAKER_00we meet, and every conversation has to lead to jujitsu. So that's why I know probably 99% of you have already had you're tired of this conversation. That's good. One thing I learned really quickly is that when I went to train, you show up and you walk in. I'm not the one that gets to design the training for the night. There's an instructor, and the instructor programs out the night. Hey guys, we're gonna work on this, we're gonna work on this, and we're gonna work on this. And you know what? Usually the thing that we're gonna work on, the thing that I need the most is the thing that I want the least. When I show up and they say, Okay, guys, we're gonna work on this, and then everybody just collectively goes, Oh. Why? Because the instructor can kind of take a step back and see, oh, we really need to work on this area if we're gonna get better. This the instructor can see our weaknesses and our strengths and knows where we need to work, and that's what the Holy Spirit does for us as our coach, as our trainer. He looks at our faith, he looks at our life, and he says, Okay, I want you to go right here, I want you to go left here. And often the thing, the direction that he wants to take us is like, oh no, this is not what I want at all. But often it's the thing I need the most. So today, during this message, during the scripture, as I'm reading the verse, at some point the Holy Spirit's gonna just whisper to you, and you're gonna say, Nope, that's not the Holy Spirit. That was just, I don't know what that. Well, Holy Spirit, are you there? But you know, and I know it's the thing we want the least. Often is the thing we want the least, is what we need. In the next verse, he says, For the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit. They're they're at odds. And the spirit, what is contrary to the flesh, they're in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. I want to go jogging, but it feels a little wet outside. I don't know. I don't want to buy anything, but oh, there's like five things in my shopping cart. I gotta, I just I need to I need to close out some things. We will figure out how to do the things that we've decided to do. We'll talk ourselves into the wrong thing. If we haven't determined and set ourselves that, no, I'm gonna do the right thing. So, what determines of the spirit and the flesh if they're if they are contrary to each other? What decides which one wins? I'll just give you it very simply, and I know you've heard this before, but what you feed grows. You want your spirit to be in charge. You want your if you if you've been feeding your flesh, your flesh has been growing. If you've been feeding your flesh every day, every time your flesh cries out and says, I want chocolate cake, you say, Okay, relax, here's a chocolate cake. Then the flesh, the flesh gets used to having its way. And then when you decide to tell it, oh no, no, no, we're not eating chocolate cake, your flesh says, I know you better than you know you, and if I'll keep if I'll keep complaining like a little kid just stomping his feet on the floor, I want cake. Okay, fine. Your flesh knows that your spirit's not in charge, even if you try to tell it it is. But when you start walking in the spirit, being led by the spirit, whenever you start getting into the habit, I like that. The habit of walking in the spirit, then your flesh becomes weaker. So what you feed grows, and what you starve dies. You've been starving your spirit, and listen, you might say, Well, I've been to church every week for months and months. I've been to church every I've been going to church on Sundays every week for years or decades. Let me tell you that going to church on Sunday morning is not enough. What if you just ate one time every week? Physically, what if you ate one meal every seven days? You'd be very weak. I was a little uh frustrated this week. I think sometimes we so belittle the actual presence of the Holy Spirit. I was listening to the radio, it was Christian radio station, I won't say which one, but we were traveling this week, so it could be a many different radio stations. And on the radio station it said something like uh it was like a listener's testimony that I just I I always know that if I just turn on the radio station, then the presence of God is in my house. And I thought, that's a great, that's a great sentiment. But just because you turn, just because you push a button, that does not mean that the presence of God is in your house. And just because you go to church on Sunday morning and listen to a message and take zero action, it doesn't mean that you're walking in the spirit. We got to take steps and we have to feed our spirit, and you have to open up your Bible and listen. Worship music is great. Turn on worship music. But if your heart and your uh your spirit is not engaging in an act of surrender, because to me, worship it's not it's not just music. There's something happens in the music where worship is engaged, where your heart says, I surrender. Where you're where humility comes in and you realize, in fact, I think it happens this way. We walk into church service sometimes, we're just so full of ourselves, and we're like, I don't even deserve to be in this service and start worshiping. We start singing. I like the there's a line in one of the songs that says, I'm gonna sing until I feel it, I think, is the is the way it goes. Sometimes we don't feel it, but there's an act of surrender where my spirit bows down, and I'm like, God, I I I bow before you, God. If you can get your heart and you can be broken before the Lord, that's real worship. Watch this. Galatians 6 8 says, Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay. In other words, if you're feeding your spirit, what's gonna come back back is the spirit. If you're feeding your flesh, you're getting decay and rot and toxicity. But those who live to please the spirit will harvest everlasting life from the spirit. So, what what kind of fruit do you want in your life? What kind of a harvest do you want? Just like feeding a plant or feeding your body, your spirit is the same. And if you have never even considered where your spirit is, I will say that your spirit might be in ICU right now. But you can bring them back. Let's bring life back, let's follow the spirit, let's walk in the spirit, walk by the spirit, because what's inside of you really matters. What you've been feeding, what you've been putting in really matters. I got a couple of helpers that are gonna jump up and help me real quick on stage. There's y'all give it up for them. They're gonna help us
What Fills You Leads You
SPEAKER_00see this even better. Come on, ladies. All right. So each of them, they're gonna get right into position right over here. Each of them has a bottle. Are y'all ready? And hold up the bottles. Both of the bottles look similar, they're both full of clear liquid. And these bottles represent us and the difference between it might look the same on the outside. We may come to church and oh, I'm a Christian, I follow Jesus, I do all the stuff. I raise my hands, I do, and yet what's on the inside can be very different. And how you know what's on the inside is whenever life starts shaking. Whenever uh turmoil comes, and so y'all gotta, I'm not talking about little shaking. I need like because sometimes everything turns upside down and life feels like it's coming apart. Twist and shake, and it feels like people betray you, you lost your job, your bank accounts down, you don't know how you're gonna pay your bills, your kids are doing this, your kids. All of a sudden, everything that can go wrong does go wrong, and and what happens when you try to open things up, okay, they respond very differently, even though they look the same on the outside, even though it might be really difficult to tell, but when the shaking starts to happen, one of these is full of peace. It never, not a bubble, just still, just full of peace, full of patience, full of kindness. Everything is shaking, everything's turning upside down, and yet this one you can tell by the fruit, you can tell by the harvest when things go wrong. Maybe you haven't been getting the harvest that you maybe you turn around in life and you're here's where you are. You can't figure out why I did everything right. I tried to be wise, but we have to walk by the spirit. Thank you, ladies. Y'all give it up for them. Write this in your notes. Write this in your notes. Whatever fills you leads you. If you're feeding your spirit, if you're full of the spirit of God, then that's leading you in your life. If you're full of the flesh and everything that you consume, and it might not be that Netflix is sinful, it might not be that this is a bad show or a bad thing or a bad, it might be, well, this is not sin. I don't know why this even matters. Listen, if it fulfills and gratifies the desires of the flesh, you're feeding your flesh. Sometimes you just have to tell the flesh no just so it knows that there is a no. You ever seen a kid and you thought that kid has never heard no before? Your flesh may never have no, and sometimes it's an adult, and then they just don't fit whenever. I'm not talking about anyone in the room, I'm just saying sometimes we need to hear no. Sometimes your flesh needs to hear you say no, so they didn't know it's the spirit's in charge. That's why we do 21 days of prayer and fasting, and uh y'all are gonna like to hear this. This is the training moment where there are some things you need to do that you're not gonna like doing them. Well, I don't know why I need to fast. Christians fast. Maybe once a week, maybe once a month, start with once a year. But we should be routinely fasting, just so I can tell my flesh. No, no, you get a little full of yourself. All right, here we go. Romans chapter 8, verse 12. You have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. News to some of us. For if you live by its dictates, you will die. That's the harvest that comes out. If you if you're feeding the flesh, sinful nature, death comes. But if through the power of the spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. So, why does it matter? It matters because sin is fun. How many of y'all know sin is fun? Raise your hand if you know sin is fun. Some of y'all, this is not a trick question. If your hand's not raised, you're lying because sin is fun. If you don't think it's fun, you're not doing it right because it's very fun when you're doing it. But but what's happening is you're sowing seeds into your sinful nature that are bringing back death into your life. And so, in the long run, it's not fun, but it's it's it's gratifying the flesh. Oh, it's still so good. Why didn't I do this before? It must be God if it feels as good. It must be God blessing me. This is what I've always wanted. No. You're twisting God's word. You need to know sin grows while left in the dark. It'll kill your marriage, it'll kill intimacy, your testimony, your finances, your health, and all the things that you just let fester in the background, and you say, I don't really need to worry about that because nobody knows about it. God knows about it. Your flesh knows about it, and it's growing. There may be some things that you need to cut off. Some things that you need to starve to death. I was uh we had a uh AA group in our in when I was growing up in my church, and we had celebrate recovery and AA, and they kind of worked side by side with different times during the week. And the AA group, if you've ever been a part of it, you know that they have uh steps and they have prayers that they pray, and the first two statements that they adopted are in
Powerless Alone And Made Whole
SPEAKER_00the the AA 12-step program is we had admitted we are powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable. And the second part says, we come to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. This is that even even though it is uh not a Christian organization, it it fully understands that I cannot do this on my own. And as believers, we have to be the ones that say, I can't, by sheer willpower, I can't become the person that God made me to be. I can't overcome addictions, I can't overcome the the draw and the attraction of sin and the world. I just can't decide I'm gonna have more willpower and I'm never gonna touch that again or do that again or go there again. It's not a matter of willpower, it's a matter of the power of the Holy Spirit in me. And so here's a uh a rephrasing in a way that I think I put this in your notes in your in your paper. I admit that I am powerless over and I left it blank because I want you to fill in the gap. And there might be something that you're you've been wrestling with, and you're thinking, I don't even have to say the name of it. I don't have to list out all the myriad things that it could be because you here's how you know if it's the thing. Because you're already defending. No, no, no, it's not that thing. Like anything but that. I believe that I am powerless over. And the second part, I believe that the power of the Holy Spirit will heal me and make me whole. It's his power. So what's in the blank for you? Food, stress, worry, anxiety, materialism, sexual addiction, substance addiction. Maybe it's dope. Math, weed, alcohol, something, a relationship, a person, your phone. There's some stuff. And not only do you need to admit it, but you need to tell someone. So just as a a plug for uh Angela and I are leading a small group in the fall. It's my favorite small group of all time, and we do it um on Tuesday nights called freedom. The whole point is that there's some things that I can't just overcome by willpower. Maybe it's letting go of fear, maybe it's uh letting go and and readjusting my mind to the to not believing lies that I believe for a long time. How to recognize those lies. Maybe it's uh understanding that I've picked up wounds and hurts in life and I've been carrying them and defending them. Maybe it is an addiction. Maybe there's all kinds of things that we need to settle so that we can become who we need to become. That's what freedom's about. If you this might be a thing that does that's not totally solved this moment, that you leave here and you make a strategy. I'm not gonna fight this thing for the rest of my life. And so I'm going into freedom because one of one of the deals that happens in freedom is we sit in small groups, maybe just two or three, four people, and share across the circle, maybe week two, three, four, five. Some point in the 12 weeks, you say, Hey, I really am struggling with this. I don't even know, I don't know what to do. I can't do it by myself. And then you've taken the mask off that says, I everything's okay. I'm fine. I'm just I'm gonna keep doing my thing. We have to get face-to-face with somebody. Why? Because you matter more, and the life that God has destined you for is more important than that thing that you're carrying. And your kids are more important. I care about you, but I also care about the next generation and five generations from now, because you decide that you're gonna walk in freedom, some lives will be changed. That's why freedom matters, that's why small groups matter, that's why this matters. So we're gonna depend on the power of the Holy Spirit, and the last thing is this that we're gonna follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit. We're gonna recognize that we need and depend, and we're dependent on him leading and guiding us because that's who he is. But then the way that we're gonna follow that, and this is a little bit this is the practical part. This is the part where you say, How do I follow the Holy Spirit?
Learning To Follow The Nudge
SPEAKER_00Growing up, I have been in church since I can remember, and one of the things that my mom would talk about, and my pastors and listening, even when I was four, five, six, eight, ten years old, I would hear them talk about the prompting of the Holy Spirit, the quickening of the Holy Spirit. Like the Holy Spirit is just nudging, he's not gonna slap you and punch you in the face. Hey, pay attention. He's not doing that, he's just gonna nudge you a little bit. Like Isaiah said, you'll hear a voice from behind you saying, Go left, go right, walk this way. That's the Holy Spirit. It's like the advanced version of your conscience saying, Hey, I got I got plans for you if you'll just listen. But it's a still small voice. So, my mom, when I was 12, 13, 14, when I was a teenager, my mom would tap past, I'd say, Mom, can I go hang out with so-and-so? Spend the night over here. Can we go to the mall? Can we do this? Can I have money for this? Can I and then sometimes she'd say yes, but sometimes she would say, You know what, I just don't feel good about it. I have a check in my spirit. I would say, we just need to go recheck your spirit because that this has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit. And it wasn't until I was like 20, until I was older, and I wasn't so invested in what I was doing on Friday night that I started realizing that my mom wasn't just trying to control me, but she was actually listening to the Holy Spirit. Parents, you got to wake up and realize that you can't see everything your parents your kids are dealing with. They're probably dealing with some things you can't even comprehend. But the Holy Spirit knows you're facing some financial things that you could never get your mind around. You can't see all the things that stand in front of you, the obstacles that you'll never that are they're gonna sideswipe you. But if you're listening to the Holy Spirit and following and letting him lead, then I know that all the things in my life are working together, even the bad stuff for my good. I want to close with this building. And I know this has been for so many of us coming from the theater and seeing that God has answered prayers, we prayed, God, God, give us a place to meet, give us a home. The building we found, and then you've seen it transformed. In fact, many of you in the room, you drove by and saw work happening, said, Hey, let's go check it out. That's how you got here because of the building. But
The Parking Lot Miracle Story
SPEAKER_00what you may not know is that when we first got here, we had about an acre where that's this building plus our north parking lot in concrete over here. That's all clean, but on the backside over here with the graveyard, it's actually three pieces of property. And so we're just parking in the dirt. If you hey how many of y'all had to have your car pulled out of the mud? That was fun, but thank God we're not there anymore. It's three pieces of property, and uh, we just started working, and from the day we got here, we were petitioning the city and hiring law uh real estate attorney. Let's help us figure out how do we buy this property so that we own all of it, so that we can create a real parking lot. That's been our goal from day one, and I've promised you, I've told you guys, I'm not lying, we're actually working on it. One day the parking lot will be done, and it will be. But we can't, there's some things that we can't do until we have all the paperwork in order, until we're there. So into our second year, we got a phone call from finally found the owner of the, I will call it the third acre, because the three acres are basically the three pieces of property. We owned one, and then the owner of the second reached out to us and said, Hey, I want to give you this property, looks like you're already using it. So we were excited, gave us the second piece of property, but we fought and fought and fought with the third acre, and that is basic the middle of between the building and then the one the two we own. And so we finally worked out the price, and uh we started the uh arrangement with okay, they wanted us to pay $600,000 for one acre, which was more than we paid for this building, and this was like, no, that's crazy. So we finally negotiated down to close to $300,000. We tried to purchase it, set up closing dates three times, multiple times. We set up the closing dates, canceled. We can't do it. There's issues, we're trying to work out the paperwork. Finally, long story short, June 30th of this year, we are finally set to close. And uh everything is in order. We think everything's in order. We we are the price was $248,000. We're gonna pay $248,000 and then we'll own the property. We can build our parking lot, we can do all the things we want to do. And there's no weird um so we get about a week before June 30th. And then we get the phone call from the from the uh realtor. Title Company says we're closing date is off, can't do it. And I just wanted to slap myself or someone. I'm like, this is crazy. Three years, come on, Lord. You said buy the property, you'd lead us here, you're gonna open the doors, you're gonna reveal the hidden property. That was our prophecy that we're gonna figure it out. The Lord's got a plan through this whole thing. So I I thought, you know what, this is crazy. They probably want to change the price. They they're not, I'm thinking they're gonna renegotiate the price. So I try to call them, they wouldn't talk over the phone. They said, let's meet in person. So I said, fine, we'll meet. They want to meet at the Mexican restaurant. We go to the Mexican restaurant and have lunch. Angela and I are there, and I'm like, why am I even here? Three years later. We get there, we're talking, pretending like everything is fun and fine. I'm not, but he gets to the table after half an hour, 45 minutes of talking and eating, and he says, Listen, we don't, we've decided uh our board, we don't want to sell the property to you. And at that point, I deflated. I'm like, Lord, I'm upset. I was so frustrated. And all of a sudden, just he began to cry and just weep at the table. All of a sudden, everybody's kind of crying because he says, Listen, we don't want to sell you the property. I feel like God wants us to give you the property. And hold on, not only that, but he had a check. He says, Not only do you want to give you the property, but want to give you a check and give you an offering to help build the parking lot. So I was like, Needless, needless to say, I had to apologize to the Holy Spirit. After that, I thought, okay, God, you're right. You were right. You had a plan this whole time, and I was just getting in the way and frustrated, and the whole time it wasn't in my time, but it's his time, right? And so I'll also apologize to all of the um the building committee guys who have been meeting with, we discuss about how are we gonna do this. God, what do you do? We're all praying, Lord. You said, He did say. So thank God he has a plan, and that happens so often that we just get in our own way. God wants to do something in your life and in mine. So last thing to write in your notes is this the Holy Spirit may not always make sense, but it will always make a difference. Sometimes He says, Go right, go left, the band's gonna join me, we're gonna close in worship and prayer. Some of you may have wandered in today, or maybe you just feel like you've been wandering through life. You feel like you have inadvertently
A Prayer To Walk In Step
SPEAKER_00or by accident, you've just somehow managed to build a family, a life, and finances, and things are kind of going in a generally good way, maybe not. You've had good fruit, bad fruit. Can I just invite you to follow the Holy Spirit today? Can I ask you to start depending on the power of the Holy Spirit and following his prompting? Just those two things. If we're followers of Jesus, Jesus said, I have to go because there's someone better that so that God can send another. The Holy Spirit's still here today, the Holy The Holy Spirit's still moving, still acting, and whether we acknowledge or whether we have whether we ever depend on him, he's still there, he's still ready to help. Like the prodigal son going home. The father's just there with his arms open. I think the Holy Spirit says, Yeah, I'm ready. I'm still still waiting on you. I'm ready to lead, I'm ready to do what I do. But we have to be the ones that say, Okay, I'm yielded, I'm following the prompting, I'm listening and feeling for the the quickening, that little nudge. I want us to close today with just that in our in our prayer. Just decide that you're going to start following his leading and be a person, be a Christian, be a believer that is led by the Spirit. Because I think any other life is not worth it, it's not producing the kind of fruit that we want, leading us where he wants us to be. So would you just close your eyes right where you are? And I'm gonna pray for you, then we're gonna worship, then we'll come back and dismiss. Father, I thank you that you send another, that you gave us your Holy Spirit, that you have a uh a voice that will lead, that your spirit directs us. Help us to put aside the desires to gratify the flesh. God, let us not be people who stand up for the things of this world or the things of our flesh or the desires of our flesh, but God, let us be people who want to satisfy and please your spirit because you love you, God, and we want to go wherever you lead us in your name. Amen. Would you stand on your feet and let's worship for a moment and dedicate ourselves to walking by the spirit? If you've never surrendered your life to Jesus, let this be that moment. The Bible says whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And the first step in this journey that God wants to take all of us on is that we surrender our lives and make Him our Lord and our Savior because all of the salvation, the redemption, the price
Surrendering Your Life To Jesus
SPEAKER_00that was paid for our sin has to be accepted, it has to be received. You have to receive the gift of life. It's free, it's available, and so I would invite you, if you've never said that prayer, would you say this prayer with me? Just every with every head bowed, every eye closed. I would invite every person to say this prayer with me. Would you just say this out loud? God, today I give you my life. Jesus be my Lord, be my Savior. I receive the gift of life that you paid for on Calvary when you hung on a cross and died for my sin. So forgive me. Make me new, make me whole. And from this day forward, I choose to follow you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Put your hands together. I'm proud of you if you said that prayer, and I'm so thankful for what God's doing in this place, in our lives, in our community. I'm gonna invite the prayer team to join me at the front. If you want to stand with someone in agreement, let someone pray with you before you go for any issue, any weight or struggle or anything that you'd just like to leave here today. Walk down, let them pray with you. Otherwise, God bless you. We'll see you next week.