By His Spirit

Preached by Perry Tong on 8/11/24

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to the Kalamazoo church of Christ podcast. Thank you so much for listening. We're startup church. We just planted in September, 2020 and at the Kalamazoo church, we believe that Christianity is done best when it is done together. And so if you live in the Kalamazoo area, we would love to connect, be it coming to a Sunday service, one of our small groups, or even just grabbing coffee with a member to learn more. You can visit kalamazoo.church in order to do that. We pray that you are inspired by what you hear today. It's great to be here with you guys. Um, Jaron obviously mentioned, my name is Perry Tong, uh, my wife and my wife, Ronnie and I, you know, Ronnie, uh, we, um, we help lead the campus ministry at the university of Kansas. And I, if I can just be honest, I feel really thankful, um, and humbled to be here with you all this morning. Um, I, I want to extend just a special thank you to, um, my, you know, my in-laws and Jaron and Bianca, uh, Jaron Bianca, your guys' friendship means so much. Um, when Ronnie and I got married back in 2021, um, one of the, I don't know, one of the most exciting things about that for me other than getting married to Ronnie was, you know, they say you marry the family, right? And I, I'm so thankful to have Jaron and Bianca as my brothers and sisters and Cal and my, you know, my, and like, you guys are awesome. I'm so thankful for how generous you guys are, for how gracious you are, um, and for willingly hosting us every single time we come up to Kalamazoo, um, you know, for the past week and a half, Ronnie and I have been, um, we've been traveling a lot. This is our campus ministry, uh, that we lead back in Kansas at the University of Kansas, simple truth. Um, two weeks ago, we flew into Asheville, North Carolina with our ministry, uh, to connect with other ministries around the country and to worship God, uh, at the ICMC. And then we got into a Chrysler Pacifica minivan, um, which was being driven by Dugan. And as soon as we got in, Dugan put on Irish folk music and we weren't the only ones in there. Shout out Holly, Joshua, Bobby. We are bonded for life because of that car ride now. Uh, over 10 hours later, we showed up in Kalamazoo and I've got to be honest, I, I wasn't excited uh, for the car ride. Ten hours in a car is not fun, Irish folk music or not. Um, but the longer we were in that car, right, like I slowly, I started to feel humbled and honestly inspired because that, that car, it just reminded me so much of what God's church is all about. Um, it's not, it's not about, I mean that car, like the, I know I'm talking about the car a lot, but that was probably the most diverse different car that was on the road on the highway that afternoon. But it wasn't as much our differences that stuck out, but more so that we had the greatest thing in common. And I think that's a sign of the things that's going on here in Kalamazoo, not just the family you're building, but what you're building it on. It's special. And this past week, Ronnie and I, we traveled a lot. We've gone through Wisconsin. We visited with a lot of family. It's been awesome. I love the upper Midwest. It's so much more temperate than Kansas, Kansas weather is terrible. Uh, it's so humid and I sweat a lot. I love Wisconsin. I love Michigan. It's a different dialect when you're up here. Um, not to step on any toes, I've already done that. I love this stuff. Maybe ask me later. I love, I love, I love this region, but more importantly, I love you all because the church here gets it. Like you guys get what it's all about. And that's the reason why it's truly a privilege for me to be here with you all to fellowship with you and to just share the word of God this morning. When we get back to Kansas, we will begin to kick things off for the semester. And what I want to share with you all this morning is likely what I'm going to be sharing with our students before we head on to campus for the first time this fall. The title of my lesson this morning is By His Spirit. We'll be in Zechariah four this morning. You can turn over there. We will start in verse one. Zechariah four, verse one says, then the angel who talked with me returned and woke me up like someone awakened from sleep. He asked me, what do you see? I answered, I see a solid gold lamp stand with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it with seven channels to the lamps. Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left. I asked the angel who talked with me, what are these, my Lord? He answered, don't you know what these are? No, my Lord, I replied. So he said to me, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord Almighty. What are you mighty mountain before Zerubbabel? You will become like level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of God bless it. God bless it. Then the word of the Lord came to me, the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple. His hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you. Who dares despise the day of small things since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel. I love this passage because it exudes God's spirit. At the beginning of this book, Israel had returned to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon. And they had been given a task to rebuild the nation. The prophets Zechariah and Haggai and Ezra and Nehemiah are all leading this charge of rebuilding. And throughout this book, God gives multiple visions with different directives about what it will take to rebuild the nation. But in this scripture, we see the cornerstone of all directives. Before they build anything, before they do anything, they have to come to a reliance on God's spirit. Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit. By God's spirit, Israel would live. By God's spirit, Israel would build. And it's the same spirit we have access to this morning. But the question is, will we? Will we live according to God's spirit? I believe there's nothing that God desires more for our lives than to be led by His spirit. And the why is simply because God wants what's best for us. He wants for us to experience the fruits of a life with Him. But it's a life that's only truly experienced if we have His spirit. And so, my goal this morning, it's not to give a comprehensive lesson on the spirit. I think when it comes to God's spirit, though, we can become a little abstract in our understanding. What I want to talk about this morning are just three things. Three things from this text that stand out to me about a person with God's spirit. Can we dive into it? The first thing about a person with God's spirit is that they never go empty. You see this all throughout verses 1 through 6, right? The vision that God is giving Zechariah here, this is likely what Zechariah is seeing. And in this story, he talks about there's two olive trees who are pouring oil down into this lamp, and the lamp is never running out. The trees, they're symbols of Israel's leaders, of Zerubbabel and Joshua. And it's through their leadership that Israel endures as a nation. They're a never-ending flame. But the life source of that, the life source of the leadership, is God's spirit. And you know what this tells me? Is that when we live according to God's spirit, we never go empty either. In the same way the lamp would never run empty, we never go empty. In the last six years, I've experienced what this feels like. I became a disciple in April of 2018. I was a sophomore in college. I've experienced God's strength when I'm weak. I've experienced His peace when I'm distressed. I've experienced His grace when I'm guilty. But before I'd ever repented and been baptized, the only thing I experienced was the fruit of a life that was lived according, not to God's power and might, but to my own. Do you mind if I share personally this morning? I grew up in Lawrence, Kansas. I was born in Lawrence, Kansas. My dad graduated from the University of Kansas. I also graduated from the University of Kansas. And before I became a disciple, the first 19 years of my life, I was an arrogant agnostic. It meant that if I thought that if God did exist, it was ridiculous for any person to claim comprehension of His existence. And it sounds, you know, really heady, but really all it was was an excuse to live according to my own will and desires. I was a partier. I was a fornicator. I was a liar and a slanderer. For such a long time, I was distracted from how God was working in and around my life. But, you know, the funny thing about that is just because I was distracted and just because we can be distracted sometimes, it doesn't mean that God isn't still working. Amen. In 1997, when my parents moved in the house that I grew up in in Lawrence, the church in Lawrence was planted that same year. When I was about ready to start high school, my best friend and mentor Willie O'Quinn graduated college, and instead of going back to Dallas to coach football, went into the full-time ministry as a campus minister at the University of Kansas. While I was living my own life in high school, one of my best friends went to teen camp in our fellowship, and he got baptized as a junior. And these were things that in the moment, they held zero significance to me. But when I was a sophomore in college, I finally started to feel the emptiness of my sin. No matter how much money I made, no matter how many relationships I had, how many drugs I did, I couldn't escape the emptiness that was inside of me. At that time, I was a full-time student. My grades were terrible. I'd spent thousands of dollars on weed. I wish I could have it back so I could buy a car now, right? But I couldn't stop. My regular job wouldn't pay me enough, though, to get all the drugs I wanted, so I'd pick up extra shifts at night refereeing basketball games. And one night, after I'd finished refereeing, I was walking out to the parking lot on my way to go buy weed when I ran into the family of my friend who'd become a disciple in high school. And his family were disciples, and they were interested to talk to me. And we didn't talk much, but later on that night, I got a text asking if I'd want to meet up for a Bible study. And six months later, I was baptized into Christ. Ever since, I've experienced the power of God's Spirit in my life. God took a kid who was failing out of school, who was addicted to drugs, who had forgotten how to even blush at his sin, and he brought me before the cross. He took my heart of stone, and he gave me a heart of flesh. He took my spirit of destruction, and he gave me his Spirit. And ever since, I have never experienced the emptiness that used to define my life. And this is how God's Spirit works, amen? With God's Spirit, we never go empty. No matter the hardship, no matter the difficulty, the stress, we never go empty when we have God's Spirit. I want to ask, though, do you have God's Spirit this morning? Have you heard the good news? Have you believed it in faith? Have you repented and practiced Lordship and been baptized? If you're not living life according to this, you're living life according to your own power and might. And the only thing that that leads to, church, is emptiness. But if you never want to go empty, you need God's Spirit. But you also need to continue to rely on it, amen? It doesn't stop once we become disciples. Now that you have His Spirit, I want to ask, how's it going? Does the Spirit still lead your life? Are you still reading and living by His Word? The Spirit and the Word are one, right? They never contradict themselves. How big of a role does the Word play in your life now? Church, God's Spirit will always provide. With His Spirit, you will never go empty. If this church is going to continue to have the impact that God has planned here in Kalamazoo, that's to continue to rely on His Spirit. And trust me, I feel like I've watched this church grow from afar. There are so many encouraging stories that I have heard in the last few years that have come from here. But I want to urge you to continue. Continue to let God's Spirit lead. Continue to live in accordance with Him. And when you do, you will never go empty, amen? The second thing that I see about people who have God's Spirit is that they're mightier than a mountain. In verse 7, it says, What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel, you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shout, God bless you, God bless you, right? We just came from Nashville, North Carolina for the ICMC. And while we were there, we were at a retreat center that sits at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains. And they're some of the tallest peaks east of the Mississippi River. They don't compare to the peaks in Colorado. A little shout out. But some of the peaks, you know, we're more than 6,000 feet up. And if there's one thing that I don't do, it's hike. But I talked to so many people in our ministry who made the trek up, and there's so many pictures that just took my breath away. Here's one, right? Isn't that incredible? A college student took that picture. I never would have been able to do that. It's incredible, right? Can you imagine just sitting 6,000 feet up, looking out over God's creation, right? It's amazing. But what's more incredible is that God looks at a person who has His Spirit, and He looks at this mountain, and He says, What are you, mighty mountain? You're like level ground. And I think that this is a lot different than how we tend to view ourselves. But it doesn't matter what we see. It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters, or it should matter, is what God sees. And when God looks at you, He doesn't focus on the warts. He doesn't focus on the flaws. He looks at you, you people who have His Spirit, and He sees people who are mightier than a mountain. He sees people who stand at the base of this mountain, and He says, What are you, mighty mountain? You are like level ground. This makes me think about a guy in our ministry whose name is Jordan Finnell. Jordan joined our ministry as a freshman during COVID. And ever since, he's been constantly sharing his faith. During COVID, he would reach out to his online classes. After COVID, he would literally stand up in front of his lecture halls and invite the entire room out to the ministry. It's like, it was insane to watch him do. But the University of Kansas is built on a hill. But for Jordan, it's as though it's level ground. Because even though KU is in the middle of Kansas, we're kind of in the Bible belt, it's still a college town. When we're going around sharing our faith, we still get our fair share of persecution. We still get our fair share of weird looks when we're preaching Jesus. And it can be tempting to shrink back. But it's all level ground to Jordan. He doesn't care if people see him. He doesn't care what people say behind his back. Because of God's Spirit, he's mightier than a mountain. And what that tells me, church, is that with God's Spirit, there is no mountain high or no valley low for God's people. There's nothing too difficult. There's nothing too discouraging. If you have his Spirit, if you're living according to it, all the mountains of Satan are like level ground. We can walk in the valley and fear no evil. We can advance against any troop. We can scale any wall. If you have God's Spirit, you are mightier than a mountain. As a church in this city, regardless of the mountains that Satan puts in front of you, you are mightier. No matter what you think or feel, God looks at you and he says, what are you, mighty mountain? Before my church, you are like level ground. But as individuals, I want to ask, what do you see when you look in the mirror? As people with the Spirit, guys, we have to view ourselves the way that God views us. Because there's a joy, there's a power that comes through God's Spirit that really does translate to our own self-perception. And this, I think this is a small aside, stick with me here, but if you hear that and you have no idea what that feels like, or if you're struggling with feeling that as you're living out your faith, I want to encourage you not to push that to the side. If you're visiting this morning, you're wondering about, man, how can I be more empowered by God's Spirit? Ask the person who invited you out. Ask someone who attends regularly. Sit down for a Bible study. Open up God's Word. If you have been living out your faith, but you're struggling right now, don't struggle alone. God has given us one another to help us live this out. Communicate, pray, be vulnerable. Amen? Doing these things are so important because they can be the difference between experiencing God's Spirit in our life. And as far as God is concerned, there should be no doubt, He deeply desires for you to feel empowered in your faith. It's not by our own power. It's not by our own might. Amen? It's by His Spirit. And can I be real? Too often I think we become convinced of things about ourselves that don't line up with what God thinks. God doesn't look at you the way the world does. God doesn't view you the way that Satan views you. But somewhere along the way, we can start to see different things other than what God sees. I believe one of Satan's biggest weapons is distorting our view of ourselves. Satan doesn't want you to see yourself as strong and mighty and powerful. He wants you to see yourself as weak and insignificant and small. Because if that's how you see yourself, then you'll never go after anything more, right? One of my favorite stories is the story of the chicken and the eagle. I don't know if anybody has heard this story. Some of you probably have. It goes like this. One day a chicken farmer was walking down a path. He always walked down. On that path, he found a lone egg. He took it home, and because it was an egg, he put it in the roost with his chickens. He figured, it's an egg. It belongs with all the other eggs. Eventually the egg hatched, and in it was revealed a baby eagle. It grew up with all the other chickens, and it lived as the chickens did. He'd cluck around the backyard, poke around in the dirt looking for worms and insects to eat, and he would fly a few feet into the air like chickens do. As time passed, that eagle grew very old, and one day he saw something above him. This thing glided gracefully and majestically through the cloud. What's that, the eagle said. Oh, that? That's an eagle, one chicken responds. He's the king of all birds, the master of the skies, but we belong to the ground because we're just chickens. And that eagle lived and died a chicken because that is what he thought he was. I think Satan is perfectly content for God's people to think of ourselves as just chickens, as weak and insignificant and small. But praise God that what he sees is different, amen. He sees people with his spirit as mighty. But some of us never see what God sees. We rock around and we desire more. We look up and say, what's that? But we never step out on faith. Some of us have reached higher heights in the past, but have forgotten what it means to fly now. But in Isaiah 40, verse 31, the Bible says, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. As God's people, we were never meant to just cluck around in the backyard and poke around in the dirt looking for a few worms, amen. We were meant to fly. Not by our own strength, our power or might, but by his spirit, by waiting on him. And when you do, God sees you as mightier than a mountain. It doesn't matter where you're at. It doesn't matter what you've been through, what you think about yourself. As people with the spirit, you are mightier than a mountain. God looks at the challenges, the difficulties, the mountains that Satan puts in your path, and he says, what are you, mighty mountain? Before my church, before my people, you are like level ground. Lastly, as people with God's spirit, we have a great promise that there's always greater things on the horizon. In verse 10, here God says to Zechariah, who dares despise the day of small things, right? He says, even though it's small now, why do you despise where you're at? Because with God's spirit, there's always something greater in store. God takes the small things, the insignificant things, and he makes them greater. And he says to any of us, with a critical perspective, who dare despise the day of small things? It doesn't matter if your life is great right now or if it's difficult. It doesn't matter if it's big or it's small. With God's spirit, something greater always awaits. In Ezra 3, there's a story taking place parallel to that story that we're reading right now. And it shows us, it gives us a little bit of a different angle. It shows us how the people are feeling, the remnant of Israel's feeling as they're coming back in to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. And you would think it's excitement, but in all honesty, there's mixed emotions. Let's read it real quick. I'll read it here, Ezra 3, verse 10. It said, And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads who had seen the former temple wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping because the people made so much noise and the sound was heard from far away. On one hand, people, they're overjoyed, but on the other hand, they're distraught. On one hand, they're happy. They've waited decades to come back to this point, and they're finally rebuilding the temple of God. But on the other, there are people who had seen the temple before it was destroyed, and despite the joy of beginning to rebuild, couldn't shake the thought in the back of their head that what was will never be again. But neither of them really understood the great things God still planned to do. God still had greater things on the horizon. See, the temple, this story is all about rebuilding the temple, and the temple was always something that was revered throughout Israel. It was the closest you could possibly get to God in this kind of day, and it became an extension of God. And so the people who were overjoyed were because it meant they finally had God amongst them again. But the people who were saddened were because they saw the temple and felt God deserved so much more. You see kind of the difference here? All along, despite the joy, despite the heartache, though, God still had something greater in store. In other words, He had a greater temple in mind. And the temple wasn't a building, it was some body. In Ezekiel 36, 26, God says, I'll give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I'll remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, and I'll put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. See, God's temple wasn't meant to just be some building, it was always meant to be some body. And that somebody wasn't just one person, it was all men and women who would choose to follow Him. God had something greater in store. I imagine God is watching this whole scene in Ezra play out, He sees the joy, He sees the heartache, and He can't wait to reveal the greater things that He has on the horizon. Put yourself in these people's shoes. Can you imagine how encouraged you would be if you knew God's plans? Imagine that they knew this temple was only temporary. It's going to be torn down again, but it doesn't matter, because God has something greater on the horizon. Instead of His temple being some building, it was going to be some body. It was going to be us. It's incredible. Something tells me if they understood the great things that God had in store, there would be no tears of sorrow, only tears of joy. Amen? But when we're discouraged, it can be hard to remember this. Right? That God has greater things on the horizon. I imagine some of those who were weeping, saw the temple, and questioned whether coming all this way was really worth it. I imagine Satan was tempting them to give up. See, Satan doesn't want you to experience the greater things that God has planned for your life. With God's Spirit, there's always greater things on the horizon. There's going to be hardship along the way, because that's just how Satan works. He wants only a few of us to experience all the great plans of God. The challenge for us is to not give up in the midst of those. My best man at my wedding was a guy named Jason Tran. This is Jason. You probably see us together and you think, yeah, those guys are definitely friends. Not really. Jason is one of my best friends, though. I was at Jason's engagement. He was at my engagement. I was the best man at his wedding. He was the best man of mine. He joined our campus ministry right around the same time I did. He's the son of Vietnamese immigrants. He grew up Buddhist. When he came to KU, he had zero clue about who Jesus was. Jason got reached out to because his girlfriend, who's pictured here, was studying the Bible with our ministry. And she broke up with him. The reason she broke up with him was because she determined their relationship was an idol for her. She broke up with him. She became a disciple, but instead of just ghosting him or kind of just letting him go, she invited him to get connected to the ministry. Slowly but surely, Jason started coming out, not knowing anything about Jesus. Having no prior knowledge about who God was, what Christianity was. He grew up extremely sheltered in his, I don't know, his understanding of all these things. He started coming out. He studied the Bible. He got baptized. And about a year later, after his baptism, serious sin in our church was revealed to him. And it led to the church and our campus ministry being cut in half. And I think everybody was kind of at that time walking on eggshells. Man, who's going to leave? Who's going to stay? And as Jason and I, I think I was wondering if Jason was going to leave. I'm probably sure Jason was wondering if I was going to leave. We both stuck around. But more importantly, Jason stuck around. And that next summer, we moved in together. He became my best friend. And we lived together for the rest of college. And right around the same time we moved in, though, Jason and this girl, Grace, who had broke up with him, they started dating again, but with God at the center of their relationship. In early 2021, Jason and Grace got engaged, and they were married that summer. And now they're some of our best friends. And I think about Jason's story and how much of a testament it is that with God, there's always greater things on the horizon. And the same is true for us. But it's in those moments when we're discouraged, when we've just gotten broken up with, when we've lost the job, when things didn't go how we planned, that we have to remember this. God is not defined by circumstance. With God's Spirit, there are always greater things on the horizon. I think about the Israelites coming back into Jerusalem. Hey, I know you're excited, I know you're disappointed, but just wait. I have a greater temple in mind. I think about Jason. Hey, I know you just got broken up with, but just wait. I have a greater plan in mind. I want you and Grace to be together, but I want to save your soul as well. With God's Spirit, there are always greater things on the horizon. I mentioned this a little earlier. Five years ago, Church in Lawrence was cut in half. At the same time, we didn't have any solid campus leadership. Church was dealing with a lot of hurt from something so big taking place. But ever since, we've seen great things happening. In January, some of Ronnie and I's best friends, Turner and Lindsay Glissman, they moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, to plant the campus ministry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Around the same time, Blake Hatcher, whom you all know, took their spot and went into the full-time ministry and he helps us lead at KU. And just this year, we've seen God do amazing things in the hearts of our students. Ten people have been baptized and restored in the campus. Young people are dreaming of going into ministry, and it's such an exciting time. But at the end of the day, I still believe that God has something greater in store. And I believe that for all of our churches and all of our campus ministries around the world. Because at the end of the day, it's not by our power or our might, it's by God's spirit. And with God's spirit, there is always something greater in store. He always has something greater for your ministry. He always has something greater for your marriage. He always has something greater for your life. He always has something greater, period. But I think the challenge that we have to reconcile is not giving up along the way. In a lot of ways, this church has experienced some of the greater things that God has in store. I want to urge you, don't give up. Continue to fight. Don't compromise. Keep going. God has something greater in store here. And he's going to do it as long as you continue to rely on his spirit. As long as we as disciples rely on God's spirit, we'll never go empty. You'll be mightier than any mountain, and you'll see the greater things that God has in store for your life. Amen? Not by power, not by might, but by his spirit. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you. Thank you God that you're mindful of us. I think about how in Psalm 18, God says that you stoop down from on high to make us great. Father, God, thank you that you care for us. God, that you are a good father. God, that we can have such a unique and impactful but purposeful relationship with you, Father. God, I pray that you would empower us through your spirit. I pray that we would never go empty. I pray that we would see ourselves the way that you see us as mightier than any mountain, than any difficulty, than any challenge that Satan throws our way because we love and want to follow you. God, I pray that we could dream for the greater things that you have in store. That we could dream about how you would use us through your spirit to experience those greater things and to play a part in them, God. God, it is so true. You always have something greater in store, God. I pray that we would see how you want us to play a part in that. God, we love you. We pray for just the continued faith. I really pray that, God, that you would continue to inspire the church here in Kalamazoo, God. Thank you so much for their faith. Thank you so much for their generosity and just their hospitality, God. We love you, God. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. You guys are dismissed. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for listening to the Kalamazoo Church of Christ podcast. If you're in the Kalamazoo area, we'd love to get connected. Please go to kalamazoo.church and fill in your information to come to a Sunday service or any other event that we have going on. In any case, you'll be hearing from us next week.