Only Babies Get Offended: Four Practices of Spirit-Filled Meetings

Sermon outline

Come to the Lord's table and to every meeting as a mature, joyful member of the body who is past offence, and take part boldly through Spirit-led preaching, praying in tongues, singing in the Spirit and prayer.

1. At the Lord's table: let a man examine himself

   Before the church eats and drinks he gives three things to check. Number one, do not be a murmurer and complainer: if you are, you have lost your joy and must pick it up. Number two, you cannot afford to walk in offence, which is the mark of a baby in Christ. Number three, walk in faith whatever your body, your finances or other people are saying, because God has already said what needs to be said about you: He loves you and has forgiven you. You are responsible for your own joy, so partake knowing that you are special to Him.

   Illustration: He picks up an imaginary crying baby: 'Do you want a sweet? No. Do you want a chocolate? No. What do you want?' People go to work every morning however they are treated because they want the money, but in church one wrong greeting and they say, 'I'm out of here.' A bigger test is waiting on the other side, so pass this one.

   “Only babies get offended.”

   • 1 Corinthians 11:23-30
   • Psalm 91:16
   • 2 Timothy 2:3-4
   • Philippians 4:19
   • Nehemiah 8:10
   • 1 Peter 5:9
   • Isaiah 49:16
   • Ephesians 3:16

2. You are a vital member of the body: don't forsake the assembling

   Whatever your background, the day you say yes to Jesus you are made to drink into one Spirit and become a member of the body of Christ, so you are important and the body misses something vital when you stay away. A born-again believer is found at church, at the prayer meeting and at the leaders' meeting, because there God speaks through the preacher, the teacher and the Holy Spirit, and the preached Word washes the mind. If you are struggling to come into God's presence something is condemning you, as it did Adam: deal with it, ask forgiveness and move on.

   Illustration: A finger or an arm that says, 'today I'll stay in bed', while the rest of the body gets up and goes to work. Adam and Eve hiding from God in the garden.

   “When you leave the church on a Sunday morning, you had a spiritual bath.”

   • 1 Corinthians 12:13
   • 1 Corinthians 12:27
   • Hebrews 10:25
   • 1 Corinthians 14:26
   • Ephesians 5:26
   • 1 Thessalonians 4:18
   • Hebrews 3:13
   • Genesis 3:8-11

3. Love one another fervently

   Believers are to love one another with a pure heart. Offended people avoid each other, but he tells the church to make it their duty to love: go after the person, greet them warmly and be kind, which heaps coals of fire on their head. That does not mean visiting with them all week, only being nice to them.

   Illustration: A Christian driving ahead of him sped up to avoid him and even ran a red robot, so he chased him until they were side by side, hooted and waved until the man had to greet him back. What if the person you avoid is given the house next door to you in heaven, with the Pickfords removal truck bringing your furniture?

   “People are ugly to you. Don't be ugly back to them. Just be nice to them.”

   • 1 Peter 1:22
   • Romans 12:20

4. 1. Preaching under the inspiration and influence of the Holy Ghost

   Whether at a cell meeting, at work or in church, the one who shares the Word does not depend on human wisdom or experience but on the Holy Ghost, who may stop you and turn you another way. The gospel comes in power, not in word only, and changes a life in a moment. Being a Christian does not mean you will not be afflicted, but the Holy Ghost inside you helps you overcome, and the angels desire to look into what believers have been given.

   Illustration: A pastor from Mandeni came on a Wednesday night with a blood sugar reading of 22. He had Pastor Johannes pray for him, then called him up and prayed himself. The next day the man sent an SMS from the doctor's: the reading was down to five without medication or insulin. 'Pastor, I'm healed.'

   “Our gospel did not come with just man's wisdom. It came with power.”

   • 1 Thessalonians 1:5
   • 1 Thessalonians 1:6
   • 1 Peter 1:12

5. 2. Praying in the Holy Ghost

   In a Spirit-filled meeting you must not be shy to pray in tongues: you speak mysteries to God and He gives the answers in your spirit. It charges your battery and saturates you with the anointing, so do it without waiting to be encouraged. He twice stops the church mid-prayer to get their whole body, mind and spirit into it, calls a row forward to show what the charged-up anointing does, and describes how he prays before every service. He then prays for the sick where they stand.

   Illustration: Do not stand stiff like a royal guard: in Pastor Chris's churches in Nigeria people put their whole body into praying in tongues. Before a service he walks about declaring his hands, feet and words anointed, prays in tongues for the people with outstretched arms for their increase, points at his mountains until he sees them as a pile of ashes, and thanks God that every bill will be paid. After he commands sickness and pain to go, people raise their hands to say the pain has left.

   “You cannot afford not to speak and pray in the Holy Ghost.”

   • 1 Corinthians 14:2
   • 1 John 4:4
   • Psalm 42:1

6. Singing with the Spirit and giving thanks

   As you pray with the spirit and with the understanding, you also sing with the spirit and with the understanding, even making up your own songs in the Holy Ghost. Praise is normal for a Spirit-filled Christian. When a challenge hits and you do not know what to do, give thanks, because all things are working together for your good. Endure hardness as a good soldier and your promotion will come.

   Illustration: Joseph in the pit and then in prison on a false charge: he interpreted things correctly, kept his spirit right and it promoted him. A baby has to be carried and bottle fed, but a full-grown believer goes to work with a conqueror's mentality.

   “He sleeps like a king. He gets up like a warrior. He roars like a lion.”

   • 1 Corinthians 14:15
   • Psalm 103:1
   • Ephesians 5:19-21
   • Romans 8:28
   • Genesis 37:24
   • Genesis 39:20
   • 2 Timothy 2:3
   • Revelation 12:11

7. 4. Individual prayer

   The early church lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and when believers pray they join the multitude in heaven and the Lord answers them back. Come to the meeting in an attitude of prayer and join the morning prayer meeting, praying over yourself, your family and your situations, so that when the Word comes you hear your solution in it. Break out of timidity: be God-conscious, not self-conscious, and never apologise for being a Christian.

   Illustration: He keeps a preaching ringtone on the loudest setting, so heads turn in the bank and in restaurants. Nobody expected him to apologise for his old life, so he will not apologise for being born again. He challenges people who switch off Christian music when someone gets into the car, or hide the Bible they were reading on a plane.

   “Break out of timidity.”

   • Acts 4:24
   • Revelation 19:6
   • Proverbs 28:1
   • John 10:30
   • John 8:23
   • Mark 11:23