Led By Rhythms of Revelation - Renee Oduko

Ps Renee Oduko continues our series " A Spirit Led Life"  -  this week Renee is focusing on being led by Rhythms of Revelations. 

Ps Renee Oduko teaches from Acts 18 & Habakkuk 2. 

We pray you’re blessed by this message. We’d love to see you in person, our services are every Sunday at 10am—see you there.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Well, good morning, church. It's lovely to see everyone today. We are in a series called A Spirit-led Life here at Future Church. And just to give you a bit of a recap on what we've covered today, a few weeks ago, Pastor Luke spoke on wrestling with God, how to be close to God, permission to wrestle, and this incredible imagery about the invitation into wrestling with God. And then he spoke on discernment, which was an incredible message on understanding what Jesus is focused on and what our part to play in that is. And last week we had the incredible Tim speak from Acts 18 on the need for courage and how to action what we sense God is speaking to us about. And we pick it up again today in Acts 18, where we focus on rhythms of revelation. I'm going to share three thoughts from this key text in Acts 18, verse 18 to 28. And then I'm going to give some observations on this amazing team that's forming around all. Awesome. So has everyone got their Bibles this morning? Wave them up if you have them, whether that's your physical Bible or your app. That's totally okay. And if you don't have your Bible with you, you are more than welcome to follow along on the screen. Let's go. Acts chapter 18, verse 18 to 28. Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. Before he sailed, he had his hair cut off at Censeria because of a vow he had taken. So he stopped for a haircut, which is always wise. They arrived at Ephesus, where Paul left Priscilla and Aquila. He himself went to the synagogue, the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews. And when they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined. But as he left, he promised, I will come back if it is God's will. So there's that lovely theme throughout Acts of the Apostle Paul asking the Holy Spirit, what is it that you would have me do? And he's asking if it's God's will. Then he set sail from Ephesus. Verse 22. When he landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church and then went down to Antioch. After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phigra, strengthening all the disciples. And this is our key text today, verse 24 onwards. Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man with a thorough knowledge of the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor. I love that imagery. He spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. And when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. Let's highlight those words more adequately. Verse 27. On arriving, he was a great help to those who by grace had believed. For he vigorously refuted the Jews in public debate, proving from the scriptures that Jesus was Christ. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your presence here. We pray, come, Holy Spirit. Would you be the great revealer of truth today? Would you seed something in each and every one of our hearts? We welcome your presence, interrupt our thought, drop creativity and solution. And I pray that you would be honored here today. Amen. Awesome. So Acts 18, verse 18 to 28, just some observation on context to help us connect where we we got to with Tim last week with his um first half of Acts 18. Now we find Paul and his friends Priscilla and Aquila, they were actually together for some time, it says 18 months in Corinth, and then they went their separate ways, not because of a fallout, just because there was much to do in spreading the good news. And what I love about this, there's sort of a broader team forming. So Paul has amazing Priscilla and Aquila, just a reminder of who these people are. They are married couple and they are tent makers. You could say they're in construction if that helps you kind of connect to current day. But Priscilla and Aquila are tent makers similar to Paul. In fact, it mentions their vocation a number of times, which blesses my heart because I believe that the author, Luke, of Acts, wants us to have an appreciation not just for missionary work and not just vocation, but the marrying of the two. And I love that term, vocational missions. And that's what I believe Aquila and Priscilla are. So we've we've met Priscilla and Aquila earlier in the chapter. They've spent a lot of time with Paul, they're part of his core team. And then enters this new character, Apollos. Seems like he's welcome quite quickly into the into the crew. And he is described very, very clearly in the text that we read as a learned and knowledgeable man. So he has wisdom, he has understanding. But it feels like there's more for him to understand. There's more for him to have revelation of. And with the entry of Apollos into this team, it could feel like there's many competing voices. But Paul is super clear, and he talks more about this in the first uh book of Corinthians, his his first letter to the church in Corinth, that there is no confusion as to who is the leader of that team. And that leader is Holy Spirit. And what I love about Holy Spirit is that it's described in the word as he is a counselor, advocate, teacher, friend, and helper. And just like Paul and his team, Priscilla, Aquila, Apollos, and many more, they needed the help and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And I know that we definitely need that in our lives. We're in this series, and when we talk about the Holy Spirit as the leader, it means that we are the followers. And I think in current my day, you know, we read the word and we obviously get imagery from that time, but we also need to think about what is the application to my life currently in this season, in this society. And I think about all the help that I have in my life. I have so much differing help. I have a naturopath, a nutritionist, a business mentor, a hairdresser, a mechanic, as sport coaches of the kids, amazing teachers at the school we attend. I have a psychologist who helps me with framing and correct growth mindsets. I have a number of amazing kingdom friends. I have an integrated GP. I have amazing pastors, Luke and Azumi. I have an amazing husband Form here on the front row, a prophetic mum and dad, an amazing prophetic grandma who's prayed for me for many years. I have all these incredible, amazing voices in my life. And they may not even know that I consider them on Team Oduko. They are a part of my helpers, a part of my team. But you know what? It is always so important to know, even though there are so many knowledgeable, wise voices in my life, the the leader of Team Oduko is the Holy Spirit. And I am so much more clear as I as I get older how precious that voice is in my life. And how much I need to intentionally seek that voice as the key voice that I'm checking in with, that I'm listening for, that I'm inviting into the layers of my life. And this team actually had a name. So I joke, the Avengers, they're not the Avengers. The name of this team is actually Followers of the Way. Followers of the Way. And I love that team name. I actually feel like that would merge really well. So if there's creatives in the room, I feel like that I can see it across the back of a, you know, I'll leave that to the great creators in the room. But the team name is Followers of the Way. And there's a great book that I know many of the team and leaders in the room have been reading by lovely John Mark Comer. And I thought Mark was his middle name. It's not. It's the first name. So if you're chatting with John Mark, please refer to him as John Mark. He has authored this amazing book called Practicing the Way. And I encourage you, if this is not in your library, grab this. If you want to borrow it from me afterwards, feel free. You can be on Team Educo as well. But a quote from John Mark Comer, Practicing the Way. I think we might have it on the screen. For those of us who desire to follow Jesus, here is the reality we must face and run and face. If we're not being intentionally formed by Jesus Himself, then it's highly likely we are being unintentionally formed by someone or something else. I'm going to read that one more time. For those of us who desire to follow Jesus, and I hope there's many of us in the room that we desire that. So today I just want to unpack the practice of followership, of designing rhythms of revelation. And I I am carefully included the word design. I love the word design. I'm seeing Laz nod, he's a designer. I love the word design because designing has a has an intentionality about it. It doesn't just happen. And I think sometimes when we think about being led by the spirit, it can kind of feel like we're just like floating and it's magical, and I'm just being led by the spirit. I actually truly believe to be led by the spirit has rigor, has intentionality, has a design to lean in to the things of God and to embed practices of fellowship into our daily life. And another way to frame this is being intentionally formed in Jesus by the help of the Holy Spirit. So our thought, thought one for today is we need, this is my encouragement, right? So it's not have to, it's my encouragement. My encouragement is that we could we recognize our deep need for his revelation. For his revelation. There it is, beautiful. In Acts 9, we see the introduction of this term, followers of the way. It's introduced, and it's it's a term that is mentioned to identify those who are following the way of Jesus. And let's be clear, there is a way. There is a way to follow Jesus. Um, in fact, Jesus himself describes himself as I am the way, the truth, and the life. And that's John 15, 6 for those playing at home. And if there is a Jesus way, and if I want to be one of those who follow the way, spirit-lededness, I don't know if that's actually a word. I typed it in and there's red everywhere. So ledness. If there's spirit-lededness in my life, then there is a need to continually listen and learn the way. And and and we mustn't we must realize that we have we we have a need for this. This is this is a need in our life. Um the the the truth is that we actually don't know everything. You I'm I'm sure you've come to church today to be reminded that I don't know everything. That's not the end of the message, thank goodness. But we actually don't know everything. And I think the older I get, how I'm 44? 40, 43. Thank you, Form. 43. I just got younger. Praise the Lord. Honestly, the the more I travel along this life, the my realization that what I don't know could fill a library. I don't know everything. I don't, I don't know um everything about him, right? I I actually don't know everything yet about God. I I don't know everything about how to love my family well. I don't, and that's the foundational of the Christian walk is how to love one another well. How do we do that? How do we learn the things that we don't know about each other and how the grace of how to adapt and learn each and learn and love each other well? We don't know everything about what's ahead, but we have a friend. We have a friend whose name is the Holy Spirit, who can reveal truth to us, and we need this revelation of truth. We need it in John 16, 12 to 16, and this is Jesus speaking, it says, I have much more to say to you. So he's talking to his disciples, it's getting near the end of his time on earth in human form. I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, he, that was holy, that breath, when he, I'm joking, the spirit of truth, so he refers to the Holy Spirit as the spirit of truth comes. He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own, which is incredible. That is the imagery of the Trinity, and we'll go into that another day. But the imagery of the Trinity is he doesn't speak on his own, he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. In a little while you will see no more, and after a little while you will see me. And the disciples after that are going, What does he mean? We're gonna see him and see him no more. Well, he's talking, Jesus is referring to the gift of the Holy Spirit that was poured out in Acts 2. And in fact, that's not the first time we know about the Holy Spirit. The first time we know about the Holy Spirit is Genesis 1, 1. 1, 2. The Spirit of the Lord was hovering over the deep. And then let there be light. So it's not a new spirit, but it's possibly new to the church back then, the followers of the way. So, what I love about the friendship group, let's bring it back to Priscilla, Aquila, and Apollos, is that as knowledgeable, the word says, as knowledgeable as they were, they were open to a fresh revelation. Apollos had to be open to not knowing fully the accuracy of what he was saying. So he knew in part, and the word of God says, we do prophesy and we know in part, but there is always more to know. Aquila and Priscilla, they're uh as I said, their husband and wife. Apollos is possibly an evangelist. Maybe you could give him that title and a teacher. And we read in 24 to 25 that he, as I said, he is a knowledgeable man with a thorough knowledge of the scriptures. And so possibly many of us here are on various journeys of knowledgeability of the way, but many here would have a knowledge of the scripture. But I am encouraging and inspiring us all to continue along the journey of the way, to seeking fresh revelation, a fresh now word from the spirit. And I'm gonna give you a really quick illustration of this in our lives. Um, when we lived in New York and I was pregnant with our second uh child, Ezekiel, who's upstairs, we have an 11-year-old, Ollie, and Ezeke is eight. And um, Ollie was born in London and Zeke in New York. And around four or five months into the pregnancy, I remember sitting on the L train from Manhattan to Tribeka, and I'd read the scriptures that morning, I'd read Ezekiel in the Bible, in the in the Old Testament. And I felt while I was sitting on the train a really strong sense call the baby Ezekiel. And as you do, everyone does, I quickly Googled what does Ezekiel mean? Quick as a flash. And then the meaning of Ezekiel means God will strengthen. And what I what I didn't realize was how much I would need to anchor myself to that word. That afternoon we had our normal scan, one of our scans, our four-month scan, and the sonographer's face changed very quickly. And some of you may have experienced that moment. It's it's it's a tough moment. And um the stenographer said, I can't give you any details, but I need to connect you with a specialist to talk through your next steps. We had um five days until that appointment. We needed a now word from the Holy Spirit. We needed an anchoring word to frame our theology, to frame our how we pray, and to frame our shared language. Because language matters. God, the creator, spoke the world into being with his voice. We are created in his DNA. Our language, what we speak over situations, matters. And so, a very long story short, we had an anchoring word, and that anchoring word will God will strengthen. Now, Zeke was sitting on the front row today, eight years old, and he is strong in every way. Now, the prayer is how to navigate and lead a very strong boy. But we needed an anchoring word, and we held on to that, and it framed how we prayed and the language we used. And I think all of us in the room, we need anchoring words. We need, but but more than that, we need time and places and rhythms to regularly weave in listening and learning from the Holy Spirit. So, my second thought, real quick, is to cultivate safe places and spaces to listen and learn. I use the word cultivate very specifically because we actually need to nurture this space in our life. It does, as John Mark Coma said, unintentionally we will drift into other ways. Intentionally, we need to be formed in Jesus. So, what does it look like to cultivate rhythms of listening and anchoring ourselves to words? Habakkuk 2-2, uh 2-1. I'll really quickly read this. I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts, and I will look to see what he will say to me and what answer I give to this complaint. Then the Lord replied, Write down the revelation. So write down in another version, it'll say, Write down the vision, but write down the revelation, what he's speaking, and make it plain on tablet. So write it in your journal, so that the herald may run with it, so that we can run with the anchored word. For the revelation awaits an appointed time, it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it. It will certainly come and will not delay. So questions that we can be asking ourselves for designing rhythms of revelation, intentionally putting them into our life. Question, how and when do I read his word? Now these are super foundational. So super foundational to our journey with God. But we've got to, as a company of amazing family of God, remind ourselves, stir each other up in when do we read? How do we read his word? How and when do I create space to listen and learn his word? How do I get above the noise? Now, Habakkuk II has this beautiful imagery. There's a word in there. You might have missed or it might have stood out to you, but it always stands out to me. The word is ramparts. A rampart is a fixture to a walled city where soldiers would get up high and be able to see the running messengers come. Not only could they see the message coming towards them, but they could also defend the world city. And the imagery of that that I had in worship was almost this ladder being put against that wall, and Jesus beckoning us to come up the ladder with him. Beckoning us, like almost just like helping us up the ladder to where he's sitting in heavenly places, and so that we can get up above all of the noise. Now it might be great noise. I've got great helpers in my life, but sometimes it's too many opinions, too many thoughts. And God wants us to get up high with him and to sit and figure this out with him, wrestle it out, discern it out with him. So really practically, I'll raise through this and then we're gonna share communion together. But I want to get super practical and just share a bit about and my practices. Because I think sometimes it's I don't know about you, but sometimes I go, well, how do you do it? I kind of want to just know, and then I'll get some ideas and then design it for myself. So this is not you need to do this. This is seed for inspiration of how you want to design. So at 5 a.m. 5 a.m. Um, we I read the Bible in one year. So I have a Bible, I've purchased a uh a physical copy of a Bible in one year. The reason I do this is because I'm a bit haphazard. I would just be like, um, what are we reading today? And you know, and open the book and kind of what are we reading? But the Bible in one year just helps me kind of have a tracking system for myself, and it helps me understand where I am and what I'm reading next. It also helps me understand the story of the Bible chronologically. So this morning we're in Chronicles. Now that's that's a tough read, okay? It's like we've got some nods, it's a tough read, and I'm like, okay, Chronicles. I'm gonna preach today, Lord. Like, can you give me a cool psalm? Like an encouraging psalm? No, we're in Chronicles 1. And it's a chronological account of who is um who is in the sequence of who's born after who, and it was a tough read. But I asked the Holy Spirit before I read, what do you want to reveal to me in this? And I was really inspired about the fact that Obed was the uncle of David and Ruth and Boaz, and just reminded of that story. And so even if they're a bit of a tough read, I asked the Holy Spirit, what do you want to reveal to me in these scriptures? Then I sit in silence for 10 minutes. I practice silence, I practice listening and learning. And then I get a perspective from the Holy Spirit and I say, What am I not seeing, Holy Spirit? What do I need to repent of? Thanks, hosts, for handing out. In what ways am I neglecting those I love? I ask tough questions. You know, because if we're not intentional, we can drift into neglect. What do what don't I understand about my kids, my friends, my colleagues? What isn't necessary in today? Right? That's a good one. Then it goes. Then after we drop the kids off, Fum and I pray together. I give him a call for five minutes and we pray together. And we invite the Holy Spirit. We say, Come, Holy Spirit. So I phone him in the car, it's in a rhythm of my day, and we put it in as a rock. And we say, Come, Holy Spirit. We come under the Lordship and the leadership of you. That is how we start our day, to then go out and be ambassadors of Christ. We need the Holy Spirit. Then weekly, we make church a priority. We gather corporately together and worship and hear God. And I read the Bible with a friend called Natalie and we unpack the word of God together. Monthly, we've made this the prayer meeting here a priority. And I know some other guys pray here each week as well. And so, in that thought number three, as we all have our emblems, thank you, Brett, beautiful. Thought number three, we humbly present our plans to the Lord. We humbly present our plans to the Lord. Proverbs, Proverbs 16, 9 says, In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps. What I read from that is it's it's a it's expected from the Lord that we make plans. He wants us to have a big, beautiful, actionable life. Thank you, Lockie. Beautiful. But in accordance to his lordship and leadership over our lives, we present our plans to him. And we say, Come, Holy Spirit, do I need to adjust? Aquila needed to adjust. Sorry, Apollos needed to adjust. Aquila and Priscilla took them respectfully into their home and said, We love you, Apollos, but there's a more adequate way to just to unpack this. They didn't shame him publicly, they didn't write on his Instagram. They took him aside as a friend and say, let's adjust this. Let's present the plans and adjust. And as we um walk out this life as followers of the way, there will be times to adjust. Maybe to stop things, maybe to start things, maybe to take the risk, the courage Tim talked about last week. But there also might be times where God goes, yes, yes, take the risk. Or we've found in our lives we just sense the Holy Spirit say, you choose. Because you're wise, and I add my wisdom on that, but you choose, and I'm with you. Yeah. Amen. The spirit-led life is a beautiful life, it's a beautiful life, and it's all made possible because of what Jesus did on the cross for us. He he did what none of us could do. He made a way. He made the way for us. His death on the cross enables us to become followers of him, enables us to come close, enables us to have every inheritance in him on earth now. The fullness of Christ. We get access to that. We we he holds our hands and walks us on a journey. But it all started with the cross. It's made possible with a cross. And so we have our communion emblems here. And I'll just ask everyone to stand. In our hands, we have the bread that represents Jesus' body that was broken for us. We also have the juice or wine. It's not wine, it's juice, just to just to be clear, that represents the precious blood of Jesus that was shed for us. In John, we are encouraged to take eat in remembrance of him, in revelation of him, in revelation of what he's done. So let's take and eat, and then I'm gonna pray.

SPEAKER_00 31:21

Come, Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

Once you've taken, if you feel comfortable, pop pop your cup on the ground. And let's just if you feel comfortable, hold your hands out like you're receiving. Come, Holy Spirit. We need you, Lord. We invite you in. The word says you inhabit the praises of our people. So and you walk with us. We know you're here, but sometimes we need to remind ourselves of you. We need to be slow and still and listen and learn your way. So we say, Come, Holy Spirit. And I pray over all everyone in this building and everyone that is represented in the room. And I speak the name of Jesus over every family. I speak the name of Jesus over every family. We apply the blood of Jesus to every family, the healing blood of Jesus, the way-making blood of Jesus, the transformation that comes from receiving and living out of the word of God. And I speak that over everybody represented in the name of Jesus. We commission them into more of you, more of your revelation, more of your revelation. And so we're gonna we're gonna um invite whoever wants to come to receive prayer. Because I sense God has a now word for many of us in the room, He has an anchoring word for those in the room, and so I want to invite some of the key team. Chris can come, beautiful Chris, our prayer warrior, some of the core team. And let's just stay in this atmosphere of receiving. But if you want, you feel I need to, I need to get an anchoring word, come. Come.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

The team are gonna play it, pray over, play. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Thank you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

So we're just gonna we're just gonna be silent and wait on him for a couple of moments, and then we'll close the service. So just reach your hands out, and I just encourage you to receive from him. Receive a now word.

SPEAKER_00 35:07

Thank you, Jesus. Now, for those who you felt like God highlighted something to you today, he's a helper. Holy Spirit the helper.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

And so if he highlighted some help, I encourage you to write it in your phone, write it in your journal, capture that moment. Habakkuk says, write the revelation, make it plain. If you've received help from the Holy Spirit, capture it today.

unknown 37:00

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

We're gonna now have coffee together. But our prayer team is gonna remain. So if you feel like you just there's more that you want, there's more that you want to lean into, you want to pray with someone, please come. Everyone's welcome. And when you feel comfortable, head off for some caffeine. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 37:20

Thank you, church.