Being Led by the Spirit: Surrender, Pray, and Risk
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
### Quotes for Outreach
1. "Sometimes life is difficult to navigate, and wouldn't it be nice if we had somebody who knew the way to show us the way? And that's what I want to talk about here this morning. I want to talk about the Spirit of God that God has sent us and given us, made available to us, so that we can navigate our way through the most difficult mazes that life has to offer. And this one that He wants to give us knows the beginning from the end, and He is not bound by time or space at all. And the good news is that He knows the beginning from the end, and He knows the beginning from the beginning. And the good news is this Holy Spirit is made available to each and every one of us." [45:53]
2. "We all like to be in control, but the bottom line is none of us are very good at being in control. If we're honest, the decisions that we make and the direction that we would go, it doesn't always line up with God's way. And it certainly doesn't end up well for us. And some of us have, we've recognized that and, and, and we've given God control maybe in the past maybe maybe we've had an experience where where we were you know maybe at a children's camp summer camp somewhere and and we were invited to respond and we responded we gave god our all we gave him everything that we had way back in 19 whatever and over time we've sort of taken control back of the day-to-day stuff right god will let you have control of heaven you know i want to go to heaven and so you can you can i'll let you control that one out but but i'll kind of run the day-to-day operations here i've kind of got it figured out and i i know what i want anyway that's not how it works though is it." [54:48]
3. "We have opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus over and over and over again. Watch and pray for those opportunities that we might respond. So how are we led by the Spirit? When we release control, when we watch and pray, and number three, when we take a risk. Some of us are sort of risk adverse, right? We avoid risky situations. Our prayers are, God keep us safe, God keep my family safe, keep my children safe, keep my grandkids safe. We want safety and security. But when you read the New Testament, you find Jesus promising just the opposite. It's not middle-class America with safety and security and comfort. Jesus says, if you're going to follow me, look at what they're doing to me. If you're going to follow me, look at what they're doing to me. Look at how they're persecuting me. You think you're going to escape it? Trial and trouble is going to come your way too. If they came after me, they're going to come after you, if you're my followers." [01:02:32]
4. "We have the story of the prodigal son whose disrespect to the father also went to the mother as well. We have women in diverse life circumstances right here in our midst. Some are thriving. Some are coping. Some are barely getting by. Some may be feeling like they're even going under even this morning. You're not alone. God sees you. God knows where you are. And He wants to come to you this very day. He wants to join you with His presence. And He wants you to experience His love even as we've gathered in this place to worship Him." [11:26]
5. "We can't find Jesus on our own. We're born separated from God. We're born cut off from him. We're born with a broken compass, so to speak. And we don't know our way to life. We can't find our way out of the maze. And so we need God to show us who Jesus is and show us the way of forgiveness and salvation. So He will lead us to Jesus. He will, number two, lead us to peace. And if you're looking for peace, if you've got anxiety that you're dealing with, and I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands for anxiety because we could all raise our hands probably. But there is a source of peace and the Holy Spirit wants to lead you to that source, which is Jesus." [50:27]
### Quotes for Members
1. "Without faith it's impossible to please God. It takes faith but it takes us being willing to risk and step out not watching by sight but by faith it takes faith to take the next step in your walk with God and some of you here you're following God from a distance and you're you're staying keeping your distance where it's safe you plan on going to heaven when you die but but don't get me too involved in the the muck of what we call Christianity today right it takes faith to join a church and make a commitment to say I'm gonna be here I'm gonna be a part of this church family warts and all it takes faith to get baptized it takes faith to join a small group and some of you've been burned by by being a part of a small group in the past and you were there and you exposed yourself you've made yourself vulnerable and you got hurt and you said I'm not going to do that again nope nope you can't make me do that it takes faith to find a place to serve in the church of Jesus Christ it takes faith to pay your tithe to give God the first 10% of an increase especially when you're struggling trying to make ends meet it takes faith to talk to somebody about spiritual things we have all these questions come to mind all the reasons not to to talk to somebody I might not have the right answers I might say the wrong thing what if what if what if what if it takes faith to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit it takes faith to respond to the leading to give maybe a single mom a word of encouragement maybe slipper a twenty dollar bill and say keep doing the right thing it takes faith from God from his Holy Spirit to live and to walk by faith to invite somebody to church or invite somebody to lunch it's risky what if they say no I'll feel stupid it takes faith risk your pride risk your ego." [01:05:59]
2. "How do we find ourselves being led by the spirit starts with releasing control right secondly to watch and to pray and third to be willing to take a risk and that means not living the safe comfortable secure life so as we wrap up this message where's the gods speaking to you today where's he asking you to take the next step maybe maybe he's telling you that you need to surrender you've never surrendered you've always kind of held on to control but maybe today he's telling you you need to just release control Jesus said if you want to follow me you've got to take up your cross daily and come follow me and be my disciples you can't be a disciple you can't be a disciple you can't be a disciple you can't be a disciple unless you release control so where do you need to start surrendering to God today maybe you've been hurt in the past maybe you think your past is so so terrible that God would never forgive me that God would never want me to be a part of his family maybe you've been hurt maybe you've been afraid but let God have control trust in him God helped me to see the assignment that that you have around me every day every day he's got us on assignment help me to act on those opportunities that come before me help me to see them have my eyes open to see them and help me to have the faith to act on them without faith it's impossible to please God without the Holy Spirit leading us empowering us guiding us we can't live the Christian life we need God the line that I repeat over and over again I can't God can I think I'll let him I can't God can I think I'll let him." [01:09:14]
3. "So how are we led by the Spirit? When we release control, when we watch and pray, and number three, when we take a risk. Some of us are sort of risk adverse, right? We avoid risky situations. Our prayers are, God keep us safe, God keep my family safe, keep my children safe, keep my grandkids safe. We want safety and security. But when you read the New Testament, you find Jesus promising just the opposite. It's not middle-class America with safety and security and comfort. Jesus says, if you're going to follow me, look at what they're doing to me. If you're going to follow me, look at what they're doing to me. Look at how they're persecuting me. You think you're going to escape it? Trial and trouble is going to come your way too. If they came after me, they're going to come after you, if you're my followers. And so we shouldn't be surprised. We should be surprised if we're not being in trouble." [01:02:32]
4. "We all like to be in control, truth to be told, right? Even if we're not freakish about our control fetish. Stephanie and I, when we have the grandkids, it's always kind of fun. We'll have the grandkids with us and they'll spend maybe a day or two and they'll be playing and having fun. And then one of them will tell me, Paul, Paul, I'm getting hungry. What's for dinner? What can we eat? And I'm smart enough to know that I don't really care, but I don't give them a suggestion because I've got to clear it with grandma first. So I'm smart enough to know that. And so I'll go ask Stephanie, I said, well, what do you, what do you want to feed the kids today? And she'll say, oh, I don't care. You know, it doesn't matter. Why don't we go out and get something to eat? Okay. Where do you want to go? Oh, I don't care. Just let them choose. They can choose whatever they want. And I know how this is going to end because my grandkids, they're going to choose one of three places. It's Culver's, not because they like the food. It's because of the ice cream afterwards. Or it's Dairy Queen. Again, not because of the food, it's the ice cream afterwards. Or pizza. You know, it's just, and they know that grandpa and his heartburn is going to get ice cream afterwards. So they figured this stuff out. And, and so I know that those aren't Stephanie's first choices. So I said, are you, are you sure you want it up to them? And the control freak in her just kind of, well, let's try to tell them to go too. And, and that never really works. You know, you try, well, how about this restaurant? And no, let's go to Dairy Queen. Let's go to Culver's. We all like to be in control, but the, the bottom line is none of us are very good at being in control. If we're honest, the decisions that we make and the direction that we would go, it doesn't always line up with God's way. And it certainly doesn't end up well for us." [53:22]
5. "So how are we led by the Spirit? We number one, we release control number two we watch and pray so we need to pray with our eyes open god where are you leading me today you know sometimes i'll i'll pray that prayer in the morning and i i know i've got to go to the office and stephanie's giving me a list of things i got to go get at the store when i'm out she's always asking me to go to the store and i'm always asking when you're out running around like you know most of my running around has to do with you but anyway when i'm out running around could you go to the store could you do this and i said weren't you just there yesterday why well i forgot about that and okay all right so i i get this and i got a meeting in the afternoon another meeting in the evening and but i'm i'm praying god help me to see the opportunities that come before me when when i'm at walmart when when i'm when i'm shopping for stephanie when i'm at these meetings of course but i'm convinced that that sometimes we have our eyes closed and we miss these opportunities that are around us god's given us opportunities all the time and we miss them." [59:39]
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1. "Sometimes life is difficult to navigate, and wouldn't it be nice if we had somebody who knew the way to show us the way? And that's what I want to talk about here this morning. I want to talk about the Spirit of God that God has sent us and given us, made available to us, so that we can navigate our way through the most difficult mazes that life has to offer. And this one that He wants to give us knows the beginning from the end, and He is not bound by time or space at all. And the good news is that He knows the beginning from the end, and He knows the beginning from the beginning. And the good news is this Holy Spirit is made available to each and every one of us." [45:53]
2. "We all like to be in control, but the bottom line is none of us are very good at being in control. If we're honest, the decisions that we make and the direction that we would go, it doesn't always line up with God's way. And it certainly doesn't end up well for us. And some of us have, we've recognized that and, and, and we've given God control maybe in the past maybe maybe we've had an experience where where we were you know maybe at a children's camp summer camp somewhere and and we were invited to respond and we responded we gave god our all we gave him everything that we had way back in 19 whatever and over time we've sort of taken control back of the day-to-day stuff right god will let you have control of heaven you know i want to go to heaven and so you can you can i'll let you control that one out but but i'll kind of run the day-to-day operations here i've kind of got it figured out and i i know what i want anyway that's not how it works though is it." [54:48]
3. "We have opportunities to be the hands and feet of Jesus over and over and over again. Watch and pray for those opportunities that we might respond. So how are we led by the Spirit? When we release control, when we watch and pray, and number three, when we take a risk. Some of us are sort of risk adverse, right? We avoid risky situations. Our prayers are, God keep us safe, God keep my family safe, keep my children safe, keep my grandkids safe. We want safety and security. But when you read the New Testament, you find Jesus promising just the opposite. It's not middle-class America with safety and security and comfort. Jesus says, if you're going to follow me, look at what they're doing to me. If you're going to follow me, look at what they're doing to me. Look at how they're persecuting me. You think you're going to escape it? Trial and trouble is going to come your way too. If they came after me, they're going to come after you, if you're my followers." [01:02:32]
4. "We have the story of the prodigal son whose disrespect to the father also went to the mother as well. We have women in diverse life circumstances right here in our midst. Some are thriving. Some are coping. Some are barely getting by. Some may be feeling like they're even going under even this morning. You're not alone. God sees you. God knows where you are. And He wants to come to you this very day. He wants to join you with His presence. And He wants you to experience His love even as we've gathered in this place to worship Him." [11:26]
5. "We can't find Jesus on our own. We're born separated from God. We're born cut off from him. We're born with a broken compass, so to speak. And we don't know our way to life. We can't find our way out of the maze. And so we need God to show us who Jesus is and show us the way of forgiveness and salvation. So He will lead us to Jesus. He will, number two, lead us to peace. And if you're looking for peace, if you've got anxiety that you're dealing with, and I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands for anxiety because we could all raise our hands probably. But there is a source of peace and the Holy Spirit wants to lead you to that source, which is Jesus." [50:27]
### Quotes for Members
1. "Without faith it's impossible to please God. It takes faith but it takes us being willing to risk and step out not watching by sight but by faith it takes faith to take the next step in your walk with God and some of you here you're following God from a distance and you're you're staying keeping your distance where it's safe you plan on going to heaven when you die but but don't get me too involved in the the muck of what we call Christianity today right it takes faith to join a church and make a commitment to say I'm gonna be here I'm gonna be a part of this church family warts and all it takes faith to get baptized it takes faith to join a small group and some of you've been burned by by being a part of a small group in the past and you were there and you exposed yourself you've made yourself vulnerable and you got hurt and you said I'm not going to do that again nope nope you can't make me do that it takes faith to find a place to serve in the church of Jesus Christ it takes faith to pay your tithe to give God the first 10% of an increase especially when you're struggling trying to make ends meet it takes faith to talk to somebody about spiritual things we have all these questions come to mind all the reasons not to to talk to somebody I might not have the right answers I might say the wrong thing what if what if what if what if it takes faith to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit it takes faith to respond to the leading to give maybe a single mom a word of encouragement maybe slipper a twenty dollar bill and say keep doing the right thing it takes faith from God from his Holy Spirit to live and to walk by faith to invite somebody to church or invite somebody to lunch it's risky what if they say no I'll feel stupid it takes faith risk your pride risk your ego." [01:05:59]
2. "How do we find ourselves being led by the spirit starts with releasing control right secondly to watch and to pray and third to be willing to take a risk and that means not living the safe comfortable secure life so as we wrap up this message where's the gods speaking to you today where's he asking you to take the next step maybe maybe he's telling you that you need to surrender you've never surrendered you've always kind of held on to control but maybe today he's telling you you need to just release control Jesus said if you want to follow me you've got to take up your cross daily and come follow me and be my disciples you can't be a disciple you can't be a disciple you can't be a disciple you can't be a disciple unless you release control so where do you need to start surrendering to God today maybe you've been hurt in the past maybe you think your past is so so terrible that God would never forgive me that God would never want me to be a part of his family maybe you've been hurt maybe you've been afraid but let God have control trust in him God helped me to see the assignment that that you have around me every day every day he's got us on assignment help me to act on those opportunities that come before me help me to see them have my eyes open to see them and help me to have the faith to act on them without faith it's impossible to please God without the Holy Spirit leading us empowering us guiding us we can't live the Christian life we need God the line that I repeat over and over again I can't God can I think I'll let him I can't God can I think I'll let him." [01:09:14]
3. "So how are we led by the Spirit? When we release control, when we watch and pray, and number three, when we take a risk. Some of us are sort of risk adverse, right? We avoid risky situations. Our prayers are, God keep us safe, God keep my family safe, keep my children safe, keep my grandkids safe. We want safety and security. But when you read the New Testament, you find Jesus promising just the opposite. It's not middle-class America with safety and security and comfort. Jesus says, if you're going to follow me, look at what they're doing to me. If you're going to follow me, look at what they're doing to me. Look at how they're persecuting me. You think you're going to escape it? Trial and trouble is going to come your way too. If they came after me, they're going to come after you, if you're my followers. And so we shouldn't be surprised. We should be surprised if we're not being in trouble." [01:02:32]
4. "We all like to be in control, truth to be told, right? Even if we're not freakish about our control fetish. Stephanie and I, when we have the grandkids, it's always kind of fun. We'll have the grandkids with us and they'll spend maybe a day or two and they'll be playing and having fun. And then one of them will tell me, Paul, Paul, I'm getting hungry. What's for dinner? What can we eat? And I'm smart enough to know that I don't really care, but I don't give them a suggestion because I've got to clear it with grandma first. So I'm smart enough to know that. And so I'll go ask Stephanie, I said, well, what do you, what do you want to feed the kids today? And she'll say, oh, I don't care. You know, it doesn't matter. Why don't we go out and get something to eat? Okay. Where do you want to go? Oh, I don't care. Just let them choose. They can choose whatever they want. And I know how this is going to end because my grandkids, they're going to choose one of three places. It's Culver's, not because they like the food. It's because of the ice cream afterwards. Or it's Dairy Queen. Again, not because of the food, it's the ice cream afterwards. Or pizza. You know, it's just, and they know that grandpa and his heartburn is going to get ice cream afterwards. So they figured this stuff out. And, and so I know that those aren't Stephanie's first choices. So I said, are you, are you sure you want it up to them? And the control freak in her just kind of, well, let's try to tell them to go too. And, and that never really works. You know, you try, well, how about this restaurant? And no, let's go to Dairy Queen. Let's go to Culver's. We all like to be in control, but the, the bottom line is none of us are very good at being in control. If we're honest, the decisions that we make and the direction that we would go, it doesn't always line up with God's way. And it certainly doesn't end up well for us." [53:22]
5. "So how are we led by the Spirit? We number one, we release control number two we watch and pray so we need to pray with our eyes open god where are you leading me today you know sometimes i'll i'll pray that prayer in the morning and i i know i've got to go to the office and stephanie's giving me a list of things i got to go get at the store when i'm out she's always asking me to go to the store and i'm always asking when you're out running around like you know most of my running around has to do with you but anyway when i'm out running around could you go to the store could you do this and i said weren't you just there yesterday why well i forgot about that and okay all right so i i get this and i got a meeting in the afternoon another meeting in the evening and but i'm i'm praying god help me to see the opportunities that come before me when when i'm at walmart when when i'm when i'm shopping for stephanie when i'm at these meetings of course but i'm convinced that that sometimes we have our eyes closed and we miss these opportunities that are around us god's given us opportunities all the time and we miss them." [59:39]
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