I almost thought I could get away without preaching this
morning because what's been said this morning during worship has
already laid the groundwork of what I was going to be speaking
about this morning. So we're continuing our our
value series. We're talking about a metaphor
about a lifeboat and about how it relates to the Christian life
and in particular to our values. So we have these five values
here. We love biblical truth.
We love having God's presence. We want to proclaim Christ, we
want to humbly serve both in here and out there, and we want
a community that's authentic, that's real with one another.
And so for a couple of times a year, we'll sort of go through
these values because we have people join us, but also it's
just good to re drum into us these things about what we stand
for. So last week Ben talked about
this amazing lifeboat and in them these days they come with
all these really expensive GPS systems and they come with the
most amazing digital charts that lay out the groundwork.
And we were relating that to how the Bible is just key to
Christians. So these lifeboats are just
amazing. You know, they've got sort of
this GPS system, they've got these powerful engines to cut
through the waves, they've got sleek hull that allows them to
just keep moving and so forth. And they're built to go out into
the chaos and to rescue those in trouble.
We're called to go out into the world by Jesus.
We're called to go and see people's lives rescued and
transformed. And people get to know about
that. They get to know about it.
And that's why Frank's testimony has such an impact that people
go something happened in the past.
And when Frank prays, when we pray, something happens and then
we reach out, holding on to these things.
As a church, we're pursuing Jesus, we're pursuing his
teachings, we're pursuing his presence.
We're looking to serve one another.
We're looking to share what we've lost.
Sorry, we're looking to share to a lost and broken world.
And it's not because we're any different from them.
It's not that we're better than them, but it's because we've
found a better way. We were once lost and broken,
but now we are whole and we are being made whole together.
Today we're looking at those beautiful engines and
particularly the fuel that feeds them.
Imagine with me that you're on the lifeboat, you're rolling
down the Causeway and off into the sea and we go out and we get
about a mile out and the engines cut out.
That's pretty serious. I'm you're now at the mercy of
the wind and of the waves. The risk of capsizing is huge
and OK, these boats self right, but it's not a pleasant
experience being capsized. I'm sure panic would set in.
In fact, the disciples experience something really akin
to this, Matthew records in Matthew 8.
Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves
swept over the boat, But Jesus was sleeping.
The disciples went and woke him up saying, Lord, save us, we're
going to drown. See, the reason the engines have
stopped probably is because somebody forgot to fill it with
fuel. You could just imagine if there
were diesel engines around when the disciples were around there,
they'd be bickering and sort of saying, Simon, you're the boss.
You were supposed to make sure that those engines got filled
with fuel. Perhaps Simon would say, Andrew,
I delegated that to you and Andrew goes, well, Judas has all
the money, it's easy to pass the buck, but suddenly that amazing
boat that has a specific purpose is awash at sea.
See, you can have the best, most steadfast boat with the most
amazing GPS and detailed charts with a clear goal, a vision and
the direction set out, but without being full of fuel, it's
almost worthless. See a Christian who knows his
Bible inside out those charts, but he lacks the Holy Spirit,
the fuel. He's technically correct, but
he's practically powerless. To live the life Christ has
called us to live, we must be filled and stay filled with the
power of the Holy Spirit in John.
John records Jesus speaking to his disciples in John 16, and
this is just before Jesus is going up to heaven.
And he says, but very truly I tell you, it is for your good
that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate,
that's the Holy Spirit will not come to you.
But if I go, I will send him to you a few verses later on.
But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into
all the truth. He will not speak on His own.
He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what
is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is
from me that he will receive what He will make known.
All that belongs to the Father is mine.
That is why I say that is why I said the Spirit will receive
from me what he will make known to you.
Isn't that amazing? Jesus says I will give you my
Spirit, I will send him with you.
It wouldn't be me if we didn't get into some theology and
thinking about these things. And why do we need the Holy
Spirit? Why do we need the fuel?
Well, we live in a chaotic world.
It's always been that way. Life is hard and being a
Christian doesn't make it any easier.
The waters, the sea, the ocean. They first mentioned in Genesis
1. And when you read the Bible you
talk about first mentions because quite often that's where
things are established and rooted.
And here in Genesis 1, it talks about the chaos of the natural
world, and it describes it as being empty and dark.
And yet, and yet, God's Spirit is present, hovering, ready to
bring order to the chaos. Culture here in the UK is
shifting to stay on course against the wind.
You don't need just good charts, you need propulsion.
Further on in Genesis, in Genesis 6 and 9A, flood comes to
the world. It's linked again with the chaos
coming back in to the world and it looks at God's judgement and
the consequence of destruction. And yet, and yet, God's Spirit
moves Noah to build an ark. In Exodus, we hear God's
deliverance of the Israelite nation through the parting of
the Red Sea. The chaotic seas, the chaotic
waters are parted, allowing Israel to pass from slavery,
from their life of chaos over to freedom.
They're lives of order. In lots of other places in the
Bible, in the Old Testament, we read about the sea and it's
personified, it's given these attributes of being a hostile
force, an enemy of God. And so you can find in the
Psalms about the Leviathan, if you thought that was just a old
Greek myth, it isn't. It's in there in the Bible.
In the New Testament, we read about how Jesus walks on the
water, about how he calms the storm.
See, He has sovereignty over the chaos, and it identifies him
with the Creator God, the creator God of Genesis.
Do you feel like you're living in a world that's a little
difficult to get a handle on? How life feels like being tossed
from one wave to another, like you're at risk of being capsized
at any moment? The Holy Spirit is here to help
you. He assists with the navigation
of the charts. He gives us the grit to stay out
in the storm. He changes the atmosphere was
blown away by this. He changes the atmosphere in
Galatians 5. Paul writes to the at church in
Galatia and he says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Against these things there is no law.
See in the middle of the storm we can experience Lovejoy peace.
Continuing on in the Bible, even the last book Revelation where
John is writing about a vision that he has and in one of the
last chapters, chapter 21, John describes a new world.
Listen to this Revelation 21 one.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the 1st heaven and
the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea,
no longer any chaos. God's rule becomes complete.
It's amazing what the Holy Spirit brings.
We were created to be dependent on God.
God always intended to live amongst his people.
We were designed to be led by the Holy Spirit.
The last couple of weeks I've been doing something new.
I've been I've installed an app on my phone, it's called Lectio
365 and what I'm trying to do is find space in my day to recenter
on God, to make space for the Holy Spirit to speak.
I'm trying to stop at lunch because too frequently I blast
through lunch eating it while I do things, try to recharge.
Now, you may think that sounds like I'm trying to be some super
Christian, but here's the thing. Maybe it sounds that way because
it's countercultural. Maybe we're taking things on
from our culture where it's get on, go, go, go, go, go, go.
And actually, God is saying, no, spend time with me.
See, there are jobs that I end up doing things like walking the
dog, mowing the lawn, washing the car.
And if I just focus on those jobs, they're a task to do.
But actually what I'm being challenged now to do is when I
take the dog out for a walk, spend time looking at God's
creation, let his Holy Spirit speak to me.
When I've got to mow the lawn, spend it talking with God.
It really effects how you view things.
You can either get stuck in doing the task or you can focus
and say this is an opportunity to spend time with God, bring
Jesus, bring the Holy Spirit into your life in the here and
now. See, when we submit our lives to
Jesus, to the Holy Spirit, effectively our lives are no
longer ours. We have choices that Jesus can
tell us how to live, when to go this way, when to speak out
about what Jesus has done healing wise to people, and
you're not even aware that they're really listening.
We can't go through a life and live it well enough.
Rowing. It's not going to be good enough
for God. We need the Holy Spirit in our
lives to drive us forward, to pitch into those waves.
It's so key that we have God's presence in our lives.
In Acts One we read again, just before Jesus is going back to
heaven, he's speaking to the disciples and he says, but you
will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you
will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and
Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
See, Jesus didn't say to his disciples, just try your best,
it'll be all right. It'll work out.
He didn't send them out with just their cloaks and their
shoes on their feet. No, he sent them the Holy
Spirit. And more than that, he said you
will not. If you asked 10 times, I might
consider giving you the Holy Spirit.
No, you will receive the power and that word Power.
The Greek word is dunamis, and from it we get the word dynamite
and we get the word dynamic. It's not a little inty bit of
power. It's not enabling you to crawl
forward. It's an explosion.
Sorry, I get carried away. Never mind.
But you get it. Yeah.
God's power, all of his power that he created the heavens and
the earth, it's yours. It's the power to allow you to
pitch into the waves to not get rolled by them, but to be on
point with where God is leading you to go.
I watch a lot of YouTube car videos when someone wants to
check an engine isn't seized when they are trying to get it
started. Sometimes they'll manually
inject fuel into the engine. If they're really crazy, they'll
inject ether into the air intake which creates a loud bang.
But the car was never designed to just run on that on that
small amount of fuel on that ether.
It was designed to have a fuel tank and a pump that takes the
fuel from the tank to the engine and a philtre to stop it getting
clogged up and checking the pipes that they are clear.
See, the Holy Spirit comes and he prepares a person's heart for
salvation, for being rescued. See, there's nothing we can do
to save someone's life. Yeah, all, all that we get to do
is to be a part of it. I forget who prayed that this
morning, but we get to help the Holy Spirit.
We get to be an audible voice. We get to be the hands and the
feet of God starting something. But that exposure that the Holy
Spirit provides was never meant to last a lifetime.
It shows that the engine will turn over.
It starts the process of the engine running, but the intent
was always that there would be fuel on tap in a tank.
See in Ephesians 5. Paul writes to the church in
Ephesus and he says do not get drunk on wine, which leads to
debauchery. Instead, be filled with the
Spirit. Now firstly, we recognise that
we need fuel. Yeah, we eat food, we drink wine
and in Paul's case he's drawing attention to it and saying don't
drink too much. Perhaps your issue is don't eat
too much chocolate. Saying nothing and but the point
is that we are physical beings, yes, but we have a spiritual
part to us as well. And it's just as important if
not more important that that gets fed.
The second thing is from what Paul is telling the church, he
says be filled. Now that is a slight miss.
Well, it leads to confusion in our translation because that's
kind of a one off event, right? But actually in the Greek, it's
written in present imperative. All of that is it's a posh way
of saying it's a ongoing thing. Be filled and keep being filled.
Be filled. Keep being filled.
It's ongoing. We were intended to have a
continuous filling from the Holy Spirit In Luke 5, Luke records
that Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
See, we're called Christians. We're called to imitate Christ.
We're called to follow him and do what he did.
So we should be seeking to find time to withdraw, to pray, to
replenish our fuel. I was listening earlier to this
earlier this week to my Bible app and it was the session of
the Garden of Gethsemane. And I really feel for the
disciples who just kept falling asleep and Jesus goes, can you
even just stay awake and pray with me, See all too often late
at night. Last thing, I intend to speak
with God and tend to set time aside to refuel to finish the
day appropriately and before I know it I've fallen asleep and
it's the morning. I feel for the disciples, but
because it's me, the answer to that is don't do it.
Last thing, keep being filled. Ben mentioned last night last
week about the ability of burnout, the risk of it, and
about when we try to do church, when we try to do life, when we
live on just the fumes. We don't just slow down, we
stop. We burnout.
Legalism is trying to sail without fuel.
Exhaustion is the result. I put in a picture here of a
fuel lid on fuel tank, and it's closed.
And The thing is, make sure the lid's open.
Now, that might seem like a duh, really, but it's easy to forget
that this is all a metaphor. Yeah.
And when we translate that into our Christian lives, we need to
be open to God refuelling us. John 15.
Jesus is speaking with his disciples and he says I am the
vine, you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in
you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do
nothing. We must open our lives daily.
The other thing to say is refuelling takes time.
Sometimes that means being patient.
In Psalms 27, the writer says, wait for the Lord.
Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
In our culture, we race. Waiting is a dying art.
The lifeboat isn't out at sea all the time.
It's got to return to its base. It's got to return to the
source. If we neglect refuelling, we'll
end up being stranded. We'll fail our mission.
We can't rescue anyone if we're drifting.
Are you feeling exhausted? Are you feeling overwhelmed?
Are you running on fumes? Spend time in God's presence.
Refuel. That's my encouragement to you.
Find those around you who can help you, who can encourage you.
Proverbs 27 says as iron sharpens iron, so one person
sharpens another. The other thing I want to say,
and you'll hear this reflected again and again, that the
lifeboat lifeboat has a purpose. There aren't any passengers on
board the lifeboat. Everyone on board has a job to
do, serving together so that together we can be effective for
God's Kingdom. Imagine now that the church is a
fleet of lifeboats, all fully fuelled, engine drawing charts
at the ready, ready to head out into the dark to find the lost.
Let me just finish and encourage you, Romans 15 says.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you
trust in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power
of the Holy Spirit. These are things that Frank and
Bev are demonstrating. We're all demonstrating when
we're out there that we overflow with the hope that the Holy
Spirit has given us. Again, I was reminded of Exodus
37, sorry, not Exodus, Ezekiel 37.
Exodus would lead us somewhere different, no doubt.
Ezekiel 37 tells us of a vision that Ezekiel had a valley of dry
bones that came to life because the four winds the Holy Spirit
blows on them. There are amazing things coming
when we are soaked in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
My prayer is that we will go from strength to strength in our
experience of the Holy Spirit, that we will know His presence
tangibly, and that when people come amongst us, they will
experience God's presence. I'm going to pray the last bit
of my prayer. I'm just going to add 3 lines
from this lectio wrap because they really struck me and they
just keep coming every evening. These three lines are just
repeated again and again, so I'll finish my prayer with that.
Lord. God, you're an amazing God.
Lord, you deserve all the glory. Lord, that you would know each
one of us and put us together. It's just amazing, Lord, that
you delight in each one of us. Lord that you know the storms
we're going through, but Lord, that you would send your Holy
Spirit hovering, waiting, ready to bring order.
Lord, we thank you for that. Lord, you're amazing.
Lord, may your presence amongst us be known to Blackpool, to the
files and to the world. Lord, come Holy Spirit, to my
mind, I receive your comfort. Come, Holy Spirit, to my heart,
I receive your peace. Come, Holy Spirit to my soul, I
receive the Father's love for me.