[00:00:01] Welcome to the River Church podcast. We're all about bringing the life, hope and love of Jesus to everyone around us. For more information, check out our
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[00:00:13] thank you very much. I've got to say, it's a real privilege and a real responsibility to be standing here this morning. And I just know that God is already with us. He's already been speaking to us. And that always fills a preacher with confidence when the Holy Spirit has started to say the things that they're going to talk about.
[00:00:36] So we all love a story, don't we? We all love a good story.
[00:00:44] What is your favorite genre of stories?
[00:00:48] Is it romances?
[00:00:50] Who's for romance?
[00:00:52] Lil Wayne? Pete. Yeah, I'm sure.
[00:00:56] Is it adventure? Who's for adventure?
[00:00:59] Okay. And what about sci fi?
[00:01:03] Yeah, I know some of you are very fond of sci fi. Okay. We listened to stories as we were children. And I don't know about you, but I often used to imagine myself in the story. Okay. And one of my favorite stories was Robin Hood. You've probably seen. Some of you would have probably seen the film. If you're as old as me, you may have even read the book.
[00:01:24] And my heroine in that was Maid Marion. She was a beautiful lady. Robin Hood loved her. But the thing I liked best was that she was as good as Robin Hood at riding horses and shooting arrows. So she was my kind of heroine.
[00:01:39] Okay, what do you think is the most popular romance film? Let's have a guess about this. What do you think is the most popular romance film?
[00:01:50] Sorry?
[00:01:52] Pride and Prejudice.
[00:01:54] Titanic. Somebody got it there. Well done.
[00:02:00] Okay, what do you think is the most popular superhero? Who do you think? And some of you boys, I bet you've imagined yourselves as a superhero, haven't you? Who do you think is the most popular superhero?
[00:02:16] Superman.
[00:02:19] Spider Man. You're right. Atelio. Well done.
[00:02:23] Okay, and what do you think, which series or what film do you think is the most popular? Sci fi?
[00:02:33] Star Wars. You all got it in one, didn't you?
[00:02:37] Well, this morning we're actually going to see how we are all, in fact, part of a really amazing story. In fact, you could say it is the greatest story ever told. And we're part of that. But we're going to come to that a bit later.
[00:02:57] First of all, we're carrying on with Galatians, as Gary said, and we're going to be looking at chapter three, verse one to 14. So if you've got a Bible or if you've got a phone, look it up. On that, and we'll start reading oh, foolish Galatians.
[00:03:16] Whoops.
[00:03:19] How would you feel if the preacher stood up here this morning and said, oh, foolish River Church?
[00:03:29] I think if you're anything like me, it might have got your back up a bit. You might have thought, who does he think he is, talking to us like that? Don't you know? We're River Church. We're a good church.
[00:03:40] Actually, the thing that spoke to my heart, as I've been sort of just considering this, is.
[00:03:47] How teachable are we? How soft are our hearts? What if God, as Karen had already prayed, what if God convicts us this morning of something?
[00:03:56] How are you going to say, no, no, no, I'm not listening to that. I know what I think. No, let's just come before God now. Let's just pray.
[00:04:04] Lord, we want to have soft and open hearts this morning. We want to hear the things that you've got to say to us, and we don't want to have any preconceived ideas of what that might be. So, Lord, fill us. Continue filling us with the Holy Spirit and speak to us, we pray. Amen.
[00:04:22] So it carries on.
[00:04:25] If I can find it.
[00:04:29] Sorry. Who has cast an evil spell on you, for the meaning of Jesus Christ's death was made as clear to you as if you'd seen a picture of his death on the cross?
[00:04:40] Let me ask you this one question. Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not. You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ.
[00:04:52] Here he goes again. How foolish can you be after starting your new lives in the Spirit? Why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it? I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not. It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.
[00:05:17] So in the previous chapter, Paul talked about us being made right with God by faith in Jesus. And he carries on the same theme here. And he says to them, you clearly understood and the kind of translation you know, the actual. Not the translation, the actual words is more like before your very eyes. He's saying to the Galatians, you understood about Jesus being crucified? Well, they weren't people who'd been in Jerusalem at that time. Paul is writing here to the churches in the area of Galatia, and they were churches. There were places that he'd been and he'd preached the Gospel. And he saw for himself that they responded, that they understood that they had need to say sorry for the wrong things they did. They had understood that Jesus had died for them. And they'd understood that by putting their faith in him they'd become new, they'd become clean, they'd become different. As Paul says, in another place, they'd become new creations.
[00:06:23] So this is our first question because we're going to look at three questions this morning and this is our first one.
[00:06:30] Oh, that's not our first one.
[00:06:33] Oh, it's gone.
[00:06:35] That's very strange.
[00:06:37] Okay, never mind.
[00:06:39] Our first question, I'll just have to tell you is do you know?
[00:06:44] You're waiting for it now, aren't you? Because you haven't seen it. You know what the second one is? Do you know you're a Christian?
[00:06:51] You might say, Jane, you're preaching to the converted here. This is basic stuff, but there may be people who don't really know it.
[00:06:59] Perhaps you're a visitor here this morning and you've heard stuff in the worship that made you think, what is this all about? I want to know more about this.
[00:07:09] Or maybe you drift along to church because your family encourage you to. In fact, they like you to be here and you know about Jesus, you know about Jesus dying on the cross and you try and live a good Christian life and sometimes that works better than others, but you don't really know Jesus for yourself.
[00:07:33] I was like that for when I was really young. I made a commitment. I kind of believed Jesus and I invited him into my heart, but I didn't really go on growing in him. And by the time I was a teenager, Jesus was like bit of an insurance policy. Yeah, kind of knew him and I was a Christian and I went along to church because that's what you were supposed to do. And I kind of thought, you know, if you ticked all the boxes, if you did all those things and tried to live a Christian life, then, then you'd be alright. But that's exactly what the Galatians had begun to do. They thought if they did X, Y and Z, they would be acceptable to God. And actually Paul says later in the chapter, not only does that make you acceptable to God, but that's like being under a curse because however hard you try to tick all those boxes, you never feel good enough, do you? It's only when you come to know that Jesus has died on the cross. And you know what was so encouraging? This came out after the tongue that Paul brought, the different prayers that came just Brought out the fantastic message of the Gospel. How Jesus has died to clean up all the mess in our lives, to change us, to make us new people.
[00:08:51] If you're not absolutely sure this morning that you're a Christian, this is the time to do business with God.
[00:09:01] Give your whole life to him, get to know him.
[00:09:06] Understand what an amazing thing it is that not by our works, not by anything we do, but by his grace and his love, through faith in him, all the mess in our lives can be forgiven and we can be made into new creations. And there's going to be more of that transforming effect of the Gospel in later preaches in Galatians.
[00:09:30] But Paul goes on here and he asks them another question. And I have this question.
[00:09:37] It is, do you know you've received the Holy Spirit? In verse five, he says, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you kept the law?
[00:09:48] Whoa.
[00:09:49] Gives the Holy Spirit and works miracles.
[00:09:54] Yeah. Holy Spirit, yeah. Gives the Holy Spirit, yeah. That's kind of fair enough. I get that, like, when you become a Christian, you get the Holy Spirit, don't you? It's just one of those things that happens.
[00:10:03] But Paul here is talking about a whole lot more. He's talking about, you would know that you've received the Holy Spirit in the same way that, you know you've become a Christian.
[00:10:16] And then he.
[00:10:17] Then he goes on to say, it's almost like synonymous. It's like, well, if you receive the Holy Spirit and yet you have miracles.
[00:10:25] There's a lot of challenges here.
[00:10:28] Do we know for sure we've received the Holy Spirit?
[00:10:32] Are we aware that he's changing us, making us perfect? Even it says, do we see miracles amongst us? Are we even expecting miracles?
[00:10:43] Did you come this morning expecting a miracle?
[00:10:46] Hands up if you did.
[00:10:48] Oh, few of you, brilliant, I must admit. Most mornings, Sunday mornings or Sunday afternoons, when I go to church, I don't know that I am expecting a miracle. And so this passage was a challenge to me.
[00:11:02] Do I know? I know I'm filled with the Spirit. And we'll come more of that later. But do we really, really expect God to do these amazing things? So lots of challenges. I felt hugely challenged as I've been preparing this. And I've tried to feel kind of, you know, how aware of the Holy Spirit am I.
[00:11:22] But first of all, let's just have a little look at this. Who is the Holy Spirit?
[00:11:27] What we're talking about? Some of you here might think, well, you know, Holy Spirit, I don't know who that is, the Holy Spirit, is God.
[00:11:37] And it's difficult to get your head around this, isn't it? Because there's God the Father, there's God the Son, that's Jesus, and then there's God the Holy Spirit.
[00:11:46] And Jesus said he'd send another comforter, one like himself to live in us.
[00:11:53] God in us?
[00:11:54] Is that what we're talking about?
[00:11:56] God in us, really?
[00:12:00] The God that we read about in the Old Testament, you know, when God came down to talk to Moses and they had to prepare themselves, the people weren't even allowed to set foot on the mountain where the presence of God came.
[00:12:17] And then later on, when the temple, Solomon's temple was being dedicated, it said that when the presence of God came, there was fire.
[00:12:29] And the people were so blown away by it, they fell on their faces.
[00:12:34] What, you mean that same God is going to come and live in us?
[00:12:41] That's huge, isn't it?
[00:12:43] Isn't that massive?
[00:12:45] And I just think we need to get our heads around it. And I think if we really did, wouldn't it reboot us?
[00:12:55] Wouldn't it reframe us?
[00:12:58] Wouldn't we be rewired?
[00:13:01] So hold that thought again. We're going to come back to that.
[00:13:06] But Paul continues to show that the only way we can receive the Holy Spirit, the only way this can happen, is through faith. And that. That's so encouraging, isn't it? Because we know we can't do the right things. We can't earn it. It doesn't work. It's so encouraging.
[00:13:24] Paul goes on to do what all good Bible teachers should do. He uses God's word, the Bible, the written word that he actually had at that time, to expound and explain his point.
[00:13:38] Excuse me a minute.
[00:13:42] So let's follow along and read what he says.
[00:13:47] Galatians 3, 6, 7. We are now in the same way Abraham believed God and God counted him as righteous because of his faith. The real children of Abraham then are those who put their faith in God.
[00:14:02] What's more, the scriptures look forward to this time when God would make the Gentiles right in his sight because of their faith.
[00:14:09] God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, all nations will be blessed through you.
[00:14:15] So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing that Abraham received because of his faith.
[00:14:23] Probably most of you know the story of Abraham, but some may not. And those of us who do, we need to be reminded, like the Galatians did, of how great this whole big story is. What an impact it should have on our lives.
[00:14:39] So let's get Abraham in context first. Okay, so God created Adam and Eve and he made them to be in relationship with himself. That's why he made mankind to have a relationship with them. But Adam and Eve messed up, didn't they? And they sinned and they were cast out of God's presence. And then as we read in early Genesis, mankind got even more and more evil. There was murder happening and things got really bad. But God hadn't given up on his plan and he chose a man, he chose a man called Abraham to continue to work out his plan, to have a people for himself.
[00:15:22] And Abraham lived in a wealthy city. It was called the city of Ur. And geologists, are they the right things? Yeah, no, archaeologists, archaeologists, they've discovered the remains of where Ur used to be. And they know that it was a center of trade. They know that it was an elaborate city that had quite amazing infrastructure. Probably two story houses and maybe some central heating. Well, not central heating, plumbing with heating in their homes. Heating in their homes, that's the right way of putting it. And some sort of plumbing and.
[00:15:58] But God told him to turn his back on all that, to leave that and to go out into the wilderness and to go to a promised land.
[00:16:07] Now, Abraham, when he first went, had no idea what this meant. He had no idea where God was taking him. But he believed God and he followed and he obeyed him. And then God made a promise to Abraham and it mentions it here, we've just read it. He said all nations, or again some translations will put family or tribes. So all people groups, in other words, all people groups will be blessed through you.
[00:16:39] He also told Abraham that his descendants would be as many as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore.
[00:16:47] And at that time, Abraham had no children.
[00:16:52] But Abraham believed God.
[00:16:54] Time went on and God carried on sort of emphasizing this promise that his descendants were going to bless the whole world, that he would have many descendants. And still he had none. And still he carried on believing God and trusting in God.
[00:17:11] And then finally, when he was 100 and Sarah was 99, his wife, who'd been barren all those years, gave birth to a boy who was Isaac. And then many, many generations later, from Isaac, from Abraham and from Isaac came Jesus.
[00:17:30] Yeah, through whom all people will be blessed.
[00:17:35] That's amazing, isn't it? That's amazing.
[00:17:39] And it says here that the scriptures looked forward to this time, the time of Jesus, the time that Paul was preaching in, when the Gentiles could be declared righteous. Because of their faith. So up to then, the people who were living under God's blessing, and some people joined them and were blessed as well. But the people who were living under God's blessing were the seed, the descendants of Abraham. But that wasn't God's total plan. His total plan was that all nations would be blessed.
[00:18:10] And it says here that the Gentiles could be declared righteous because of their faith.
[00:18:18] The Gentiles, that's everybody who wasn't a Jew. From the purposes of Paul writing, there were the Jews and there were the Gentiles.
[00:18:26] So we are the Gentiles. The rest of the world that weren't part of seed of Abraham were the Gentiles so that all nations could be blessed. And so this fulfillment that God promised ages ago to Abraham was coming to pass.
[00:18:43] And as a result of Jesus death on a cross, all nations can be blessed. It's open to everyone. Look at Galatians 3, verse 9. All who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.
[00:19:00] So what is this blessing? What's he actually talking about here? Let's read verse 14, chapter 3. Verse 14 goes on to say, through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.
[00:19:23] The Holy Spirit.
[00:19:25] The Holy Spirit is the blessing.
[00:19:28] The Holy Spirit, the presence of God. God himself living in us. The blessing that God originally intended us to live with. The reason he created Adam and Eve to dwell with us. That's what it means to have the Holy Spirit. That's the blessing that we live under.
[00:19:48] So this is the third question.
[00:19:50] Do you know your part in the big story? Do you know what your inheritance is? Do you know what it means to be a blessing to the nations?
[00:20:03] What an inheritance. And you know, this is why I started off with stories. Because we are part of this big story that we read about throughout the whole of the Bible, from Genesis right through. It's a story of God's plan to have men and women for himself. And what a story of good news. Through no work of our own effort, without keeping any laws, without achieving any standard, God has taken away any of that barriers between us and him.
[00:20:32] And when Jesus died in the temple where they worshiped, where the Jews worshiped in the temple was the holiest of holies. And, and only the high priest could go in, and only he could go in once a year. And shielding that holy of holies was a veil, was a curtain.
[00:20:56] And do you know, when Jesus died, the moment he died, that curtain was ripped from the top to the bottom.
[00:21:04] No man made thing, it was ripped from the top to the bottom. And God was saying, the way to me is open. My presence is open through the death son on the cross. Isn't that fantastic? Isn't that amazing? I just love the gospel.
[00:21:21] But you know, the big story hasn't ended yet.
[00:21:26] If we are followers of Jesus, inheritors of this blessing, we too are called to be a blessing to every nation, to every people group, to every family.
[00:21:39] This blessing, this blessing of the Holy Spirit isn't to keep in ourselves.
[00:21:44] It's so every nation can be blessed.
[00:21:47] And here's another story for you, just in case you're thinking, well, you haven't done many stories this morning you started talking about stories, here's another one. So if you drifted off to sleep, listen to this.
[00:21:57] I'm going to ask for the band to come back. We're going to finish in good time so that we can do something else. If the band just comes back now while I'm telling this story, and they can get themselves settled.
[00:22:08] So we're in 1739 on January 1st, right, this story, it's a bit of a thriller, it's a historical story. For those of you like history, you'll like this one. 1739, January 1st. The French Revolution was raging across the Channel. It was a bloodbath. And many people feared that that bloodbath would come to England.
[00:22:39] That same evening, 60 or so people gathered to pray. Now, they weren't praying for world peace.
[00:22:47] They were praying because they wanted to experience more of the presence of God.
[00:22:51] And two of the people in that prayer meeting were John and Charles Wesley.
[00:22:57] And it turned out to be one of the most influential prayer meetings in British history.
[00:23:04] But before this night, the Wesleys had spent years trying to please God through their own efforts.
[00:23:13] They knew about God. In fact, they were ordained Church of England ministers. But they hadn't got peace with God. And so they read their Bibles. They learned the original languages and studied the original manuscripts. They preached, they took communion, they prayed, they fasted, they even traveled to America.
[00:23:33] But nothing brought them the peace that they read about in the Bible.
[00:23:37] Until they went to Germany and met the Moravian community.
[00:23:42] Now they were a group of Christians who really treasured the presence of God.
[00:23:48] And you could probably call them the first 247 prayer movement.
[00:23:53] They were known for their deep spirituality.
[00:23:57] And what stood out most of all was their authentic joy and their peace, their relationship with Jesus. And this is what deeply impacted John Wesley and helped lead to his own spiritual awakening. So pan back to our New Year's Eve prayer meeting. Okay, now you've got the history of John Wesley, and we're going to read from his journal as to what actually happened next. Okay.
[00:24:24] About three in the morning, as we were continuing in prayer, the power of God came mightily upon us, insomuch that many cried out for exceeding joy and many fell to the ground.
[00:24:36] As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of his majesty, we broke out with one voice. We praise thee, O God. We acknowledge thee to be Lord.
[00:24:50] But that wasn't it.
[00:24:52] Yeah, John Wesley was knocked to the floor in awe at the presence of God. But he didn't stay there.
[00:25:00] He got up and he got on his horse. And in the course of his lifetime, he traveled on his horse 250,000 miles, preaching the gospel, preaching the good news, preaching about this amazing power that he'd experienced, this amazing relationship that he'd experienced. And the Holy Spirit was with him. And historians reckon that the evangelical revival that happened in England at that time was the reason that the bloodbath across the channel never actually came to England. And many, many really good social reforms were put in place as a result of that revival. And some very well known social reformers became Christians through the work of Wesley. One of them was William Wilberforce.
[00:25:53] And I want to ask the question, is the Holy Spirit causing that same passion to burn in us?
[00:26:02] Is it motivating us to preach the gospel?
[00:26:05] Is it causing us to go out and do that?
[00:26:09] So just as we come to a bit more worship and this is just. It's going to be a time of receiving and a time of just stepping out and praying for one another, I want to ask those questions again.
[00:26:21] Do you know you're saved?
[00:26:24] Do you really know you're saved? If you've got any doubt this morning, there'll be people in that middle bit there. Come and speak to them, come and talk to them. It doesn't matter if you say, well, I think I am, but I'm not sure. It doesn't matter if you might have done it when you were a child, but you just want to do it again.
[00:26:41] It doesn't matter if you've never heard it before, but your heart is warming to this.
[00:26:46] Come down and get prayed for.
[00:26:48] If you're not sure whether you've received the Holy Spirit or not. That was our second question. If you're not sure if you've received the Holy Spirit or not, then come down and get prayed for.
[00:26:59] Because it's something we should be aware of. We should know whether we've received the Holy Spirit or not. And we should also know, and that will be a guide as to whether we know whether we've received the Holy Spirit or not. Are we aware of the Holy Spirit working and moving in us and amongst us and through us and in our lives?
[00:27:20] But if you're also just like me, and you know that you need a fresh filling, you know that you need a filling to be able to go out and preach the gospel, to be able to witness to your friends, to see people saved, if you feel you're lacking in power, I feel very often when I share the gospel, I'm lacking in power.
[00:27:41] If you need a miracle this morning, if you need healing, just ask the person next to you to pray.
[00:27:50] And I also felt this came out through a lot of our songs, that there are people today who need to be set free of fear.
[00:27:58] You see, we think about miracles of physical healing, but I think God wants to do miracles of emotional healing here this morning.
[00:28:06] And it may be things in your past that are still. You're dragging them along, you know, a bit like, oh, how can I get rid of this thing?
[00:28:14] God wants to do a miracle this morning. The power of His Holy Spirit. He wants to set you free from that.
[00:28:20] If you're somebody who struggles with fear, God wants to set you free from that.
[00:28:26] So in a minute we're going to stand and we're going to sing. But don't wait till the end of the song to get prayed for and listen everybody else as well. If you don't need praying for, ask the Holy Spirit to show you who to go and pray for. This is a time of body ministry. This isn't about certain people who are going to be praying for you. We're all open to the Holy Spirit and as we saw so powerfully in the beginning of this service, that the Holy Spirit is working amongst us. And he'll be putting words of knowledge into you. He'll putting a desire into you to just go and pray for, for somebody. So let's worship him. Let's just be open to the Holy Spirit and let's just see what he does. I'm just going to pray and then we'll sing.
