Archive for the ‘The Holy Spirit’ Category

God Will Provide

Full


Scripture: Gen 22 , Heb 11


Summary and Goal:

The main message of the sermon is that we should have faith in God’s provision and trust in His plan for our lives. Pastor Andrews emphasizes the importance of recognizing that God is our ultimate Provider and that we should rely on Him for our needs even in difficult times. He cites examples from the Bible, such as the story of Elijah and the widow, to illustrate how God has provided for His people in the past. He encourages listeners to believe that God will continue to do so in the future. The sermon concludes with a call to action to trust in God’s provision and to seek His guidance in all aspects of our lives!

Who Is The Relational God Revealed In Jesus?, Pt. 2

Part 2A

Part 2B


Scripture: Acts 2:33, 2 Cor 13:14


Summary and Goal:

This Sunday, following Trinity Sunday, we continue proclaiming the relational God-Father-Son-Holy-Spirit Revealed in Jesus. This message is meant to help believers remember that the Father-Son-Holy-Spirit-God is not just an add-on doctrine of Christian faith, but that this God IS the Gospel! God the Trinity is “the root and nerve center” of all Christian belief. There could be no beliefs or doctrines apart from the Truth of Who God has revealed Himself to be in Jesus Christ. Indeed, there is no Christian faith apart from this relational God Who, in Love, sent Jesus Christ into our humanity to reveal Himself and share His Love and Life with us in the Holy Spirit. If you don’t get this basic understanding of the Gospel, you don’t get or understand Christianity. God’s primary revelation to us is the revelation of Himself! The scriptures are primarily about Him! We can only understand ourselves, and the scriptures in the Light of Who He is, or we cannot and do not understand either! Check it out!

Christ Connection:

Jesus alone reveals this God and, by becoming human, has given us human beings real knowledge of, and access to, God, through the Holy Spirit!

Photos compliments: trinityandhumanity.com (John Stonecypher)

Who Is The Relational God Revealed In Jesus?

Part 1A

Part 1B


Scripture: Acts 2:33, 2 Cor 13:14


Summary and Goal:

On this Trinity Sunday, we proclaim the relational God-Father-Son-Holy-Spirit Revealed in Jesus. This is an attempt to clarify further why this is so important to grasp, and what it means for our Christian faith. Indeed, there is no Christian faith apart from this relational God Who, in Love, sent Jesus Christ into our humanity to reveal Himself and share His Love and Life with us.

Christ Connection:

Jesus alone reveals this God and, by becoming human, has given us human beings real knowledge of, and access to, God!

Photos compliments: trinityandhumanity.com (John Stonecypher)

Pentecost And The Coming Of The Holy Spirit!

Part 1A

Part 1B


Scripture: Acts 1, 2


Introduction:

Summary and Goal:

Pentecost was the occasion following Jesus death, resurrection and
ascension when the Holy Spirit was sent as Jesus promised to his
disciples in Jerusalem. Peter proclaimed the fulfillment of the
prophecy of Joel 2:28-32.

Theological Theme:

Jesus Christ is the living Head of the Church, and to whom it looks and is
directed through the Holy Scriptures, by the indwelling Holy
Spirit.

Christ Connection:

Jesus lives in his followers through the presence of the Holy Spirit
indwelling and empowering them to fulfill the great commission of
proclaiming the good news of Jesus in the world.

Missional Application:

The Church, the body of Christ, is composed of people who trust in
Jesus and who are commissioned to make disciples of others in the world.

Photos compliments: pinterest.com

Who and Where Jesus Is, and What He’s Doing!

Part 1A

Part 1B


Scripture: Ephesians 1, 4


Introduction:

Summary and Goal:
On this Ascension Sunday, we ask, “Who is Jesus Christ?” And, “Who are you, Lord?” We get the incredible response and reminder that He is the Father’s Son in the Holy Spirit Who, as the God/Man, is The Way, The Truth, The Resurrection, The Life, and The Ascended One!

Theological Theme:

As the Ascended One, Jesus is ruling over all things with his Father and the Holy Spirit as the God/Man! Though He is living with the limitations of our glorified human nature, he is also living with the unlimited nature of his God Being, as one Person with two natures! Ruling over the earth was always Jesus’ destiny, even if we hadn’t sinned, for God alone can rule over all things within creation and outside of creation! God alone can rule over the visible as well as the invisible! Apart from Christ, no one can do anything! This is not just a statement coming from the fact that we have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory! Only the Father Son and Holy Spirit God can pull off Their real, full, and final goal inside their creation; the goal of the adoption of mankind into Their relationship!

Christ Connection:

In Jesus’ being conceived by the Holy Spirit, he has started something fresh and new right here in the middle of our broken humanity (for he was not born of the will of fallen man but of God). In his fleshly life as a baby, a child, a teenager, a young adult, and a full-grown man, he has completely undone every obstacle and all sin between the Father and us. We can relate with him and the Father and come before his throne of grace boldly to receive mercy in time of need! In his suffering and crucifixion, and his ascension to heaven as a fully glorified Man before the Father, Jesus is sharing everything He is and has with our human nature in the Holy Spirit.

Missional Application:

In the grace and power of the Holy Spirit Who is with us, and through whom Jesus knocks on the door of our hearts to live inside us, you can now turn and come to the Father! Through Jesus the Son you can live a life that glorifies God—great things Jesus has done! You are called to live in unity with Jesus and the Father by receiving the Holy Spirit, a relationship that is offered to you freely! You are summoned in Jesus by the Spirit to embrace and stop rejecting the Father! You are called to understand Jesus and stop putting off understanding Him! You are called to enjoy the Holy Spirit and stop grieving Him! You are called to receive and share this Good news with others!

Photos compliments: youtube.com

“Jesus: ‘Look, I Am Making Everything New!'”, Part 2

Scripture: Revelation 21:1-8


Introduction:

The Lord Jesus Christ Is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! So, “Who is Jesus Christ?” “Who are you Lord? And the answer he gives is that He himself is the Resurrection and the Life! The scriptures themselves testify to Jesus Christ as the person around whom all things revolve and the One to Whom we should all turn and be directed.

Theological Theme:

Holding this two all together we can say that the Gospel is the Good News about Jesus Our Resurrection, and therefore the Resurrection is primarily about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ (personal doesn’t mean individual! It means sharing in Jesus relationship with his Father, the Spirit and all things!) It IS also about a glorified body! But it must be clarified in our day that Easter/Resurrection is a proclamation of the Fact that: You’re not just going to rise from the dead, you’re going to rise before, and accountable to Jesus Christ!

Christ Connection:

Relationship with Jesus is a priority ahead of receiving a new and glorified body! Because Jesus is not only the Resurrection but the Father’s Son, He is God and therefore present to us now in the Holy Spirit! He is Not first far off, but up close! He is “The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth— [and he] does not live in [things] made by hands. 25 Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. 26 From one man[e] he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 27 He did this so that [we] might seek God, and perhaps [we] might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 For in [the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit] we live and move and have our being,” – Colossians 1:24-28a

The picture you should have in your head about God is one where the Father embraces and seeks to embrace you through his arms of Jesus and the Holy Spirit! And Jesus is central because he is the one who takes us to the Father and sends us the Holy Spirit, so…

We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29 I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me.” (Col 1:28-29)

Missional Application:

In participation with Jesus Christ, by the Spirit, and to the Glory of the Father, we continue to proclaim Jesus to all and encourage all to place their faith in Him and enter a trust relationship with Him!

“the ministry of the Holy Spirit is personal and personally transforming—it is dynamic and interactive, bringing about receptivity, responsiveness and participation. And the result is that we are on a journey towards spiritual maturity and full sanctification, being changed into the likeness of Christ. But this journey is not automatic, causal, or impersonal. It is not mechanically imposed on all believers…receptivity and participation do make a difference, [and so] the New Testament indicates the differences it makes and encourages, exhorts and even commands us to be receptive to the Word of God and the ministry of the Spirit out of trust in God’s faithfulness through the Son and in the Spirit. As Paul exhorts in Eph. 5:18, we are to be “filled with the Spirit.”

These personal distinctions related to personal participation should not be taken to mean that God is faithful to some but not to all. The difference our personal responsiveness makes does not condition God into changing his purpose and aim for us and all humanity. It does not make God for some and against others, and it certainly does not lead him to want to see those who are unresponsive perish.

Our personal response (or lack thereof) to God cannot undo the fact that Jesus is and remains Lord and Savior of all. The character and purpose, mind and heart of God remain just as they have been revealed in Christ. The finished work of Christ is never undone—God remains, in Christ, reconciled to all people, no matter their response. He has and holds out forgiveness for them, is ready to receive them back into fellowship with him, and in that sense accepts them. However, while God accepts them, he does not accept their rejection, their sin, their rebellion, but accepts them in order to do away with what is against them and against their participation in the reconciliation accomplished for them in Christ. Nothing changes that reconciliation (with all it means), not even a person’s complete or partial rejection of God’s gift. However, our personal response (participation) does affect the quality of our lived relationship with God and thus our personal experiencing of the benefits of Christ.”

-Dr. Gary Deddo

Photos compliments: etsy.com

Sin and God’s Good News!


Scripture: Gen 3:1 – 4:8


Introduction:

Summary and Goal:
In the previous two sessions, we saw that God created everything good, including people as the pinnacle of creation. Adam and Eve were made in God’s image and instructed to rule over the world and worship God through their work, rest, and relationships with one another and with Him. As we will see in this session, that didn’t last. Adam and Eve chose to sin against God in open defiance of His goodness and loving provision for them. Their sin had drastic consequences as it brought death to all humanity and ruptured our created purpose. But as dark as that moment was, we will see that it was pregnant with hope—hope that could only come from God in His promise to one day send Someone who would make everything right again.

Theological Theme:

People sinned against God and ruptured our created purpose, but God has provided
forgiveness in Christ Jesus.

Christ Connection:

God promised that one of Eve’s offspring would crush the head of the serpent. Jesus

is the promised One who defeated sin and death once and for all.

“ There is more mercy in

Christ than sin in us.”

–Richard Sibbes (1577-1635)

Missional Application:

Because we have been forgiven through faith in Christ and given His righteousness,
we trust in God and His grace as we fight against sin in our lives and proclaim the
reason for our hope found in Christ Jesus.

Photos compliments: youtube.com

No One Can (Except The Lord Jesus!), Part 2

Part 2A

Part 2B


Scripture: Galatians 2:20


Introduction:

On this Palm Sunday before Easter, we’re walking with the historic Jesus as he follows through and is victorious in righteousness and over our sin in every part of our humanity! He is truly the Lord Who Saves in what he does and in Who He is.

Theological Theme:

In Jesus’ conception, life, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension we see the great mercy of God to be with us in our humanity forever so that there is only one real true word about our humanity: I, yet not I, but Christ in me!

Christ Connection:

I, yet not I, but Christ in me!

Missional Application:

This is what we invite others to take most seriously and forever: I, yet not I, but Christ in me!

Photos compliments: http://www.pinterest.com

No One Can – Except The Lord Jesus!

Part 1A

Part 1B


Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:16


Introduction:

We’re in the season of Lent, biblically, walking with the historic Jesus as he fights for us against everything that is against us, including the evil that exists in this present evil age! And rather than just focusing on “giving something up” or even “taking something in”, we proclaim to you the Gospel of Someone, namely Jesus, and the Father-Son-Holy-Spirit-God revealed in Him. We proclaim not ideas to you but Someone Who loves you, meets you, and acts on your behalf that you might know Him, call on Him and participate in His action with Him! And in announcing Him we announce His Kingdom that is breaking in now and that will take over everything fully someday! And we do it with him as a source of your encouragement, and reorientation, and warning! We keep calling on you in participation with him to repent and believe this Good News and to enter, by grace through faith, this active relationship with Jesus and the Father you were created for!

Theological Theme:

In Jesus’ conception, life, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension we see the great mercy of God to give us all time to see him, to learn of him, accept him, know him, rethink/act, and join sides with him before he returns for His final judgment! There is coming a point-of-no-return for everyone, including you, at some point! And the questions stand before you: 1.) Who do you say Jesus is? And Whose are you? and Whose world/creation is this?

Christ Connection:

In the light of Who Jesus is Revealed to be, and what he has accomplished on our behalf that
every person might share in his relationship with his Father by the Spirit (John 17:3, John 16:13-
15), you must not underestimate the priority of the Who question. As “Christ”ians we don’t
believe that just anyone could be and do who Jesus is and what he did in his birth, life, suffering
and death, resurrection, ascension and coming again. We don’t believe that just anyone
could achieve the same outcome/s. Jesus is the unique and only Begotten of the Father
(John 3:16). He is the only human Mediator between God and man (1 Tim 2:5). He is the only
one to whom every knee will bow and tongue confess that he is Lord (Phil 2:9-11) This
“Who” is in contrast to the popular “What?”, “How?”, “When?”, “Where?” and “Why?
questions that often claim priority in our lives. (You know what we mean: What will be done about these
troubling political and social issues!? How long will the world continue to suffer racial
discrimination and injustice!? When will this physical, mental or emotional pain end!? Where is that stimulus check??? Where is the man or woman with the real leadership solution to this COVID mess, and why is it taking so long to get understood, organized and solved!? (this year we especially felt the pressure of those questions and issues.)

Missional Application:

Because this is the Son’s world, the Father’s world, and the world of the Holy Spirit, and They, in Christ have done everything to give us life and godliness – and have done everything to pull off every good thing for us, we share this Good News with everyone we can, inviting them to place their trust in God and be his fully devoted son or daughter by the Spirit, in participation with Jesus!

Photos compliments: quotesbeste.blogspot.com, Dr. Gary Deddo,

I, Yet Not I, But Christ In Me!

I, Yet Not I, But Christ In Me!, Part 1A, 03-07-2021
I, Yet Not I, But Christ In Me!, Part 1B, 03-07-2021

Bible Verse: Galatians 2:20


Introduction:

The primary goal of God, Father, Son and Spirit is that you share in His Divine nature and relationship as a GIFT! This time of Lent can help you remember this basic point and foundation of the Christian Faith. We remember the gift Jesus gave us of giving up so many things and becoming poor in the desert that we might become rich in his victory over evil’s temptations! He now shares with us the gift of participation in his victory over temptation and sin that we might share in the unobstacled and rich relationship he shares with his Father!

Theological Theme:

“You, yet not you, but Christ in you” is the only Christian Gospel we have!

Christ Connection:

In the light of Who Jesus is Revealed to be, and what he has accomplished on our behalf that
every person might share in his relationship with his Father by the Spirit (John 17:3, John 16:13-
15), we must not underestimate the priority of the Who question! As CHRIST-ians we don’t
believe that just anyone could be and do Who Jesus is and what he did in his birth, life, suffering
and death, resurrection, ascension and coming again! We don’t believe that just anyone
could achieve the same outcome/s! Jesus is the unique and only Begotten of the Father
(John 3:16). He is the only human Mediator between God and man (1 Tim 2:5). He is the only
one to whom every knee will bow and tongue confess that he is Lord! (Phil 2:9-11)

Knowing Who Jesus IS, do you see the qualitative difference the Who question can have on your faith, hope, and love? Regarding the politics and social issues of this world, Whose world is it? Regarding
all physical, mental and emotional pain, Whose body and soul is it? With regard to COVID and
the disturbance of death it has brought to far too many in this world, Whose Resurrection from
death was it that makes all alive? Jesus! Which means there is nothing Jesus has allowed that he can’t redeem!

Missional Application:

In the Holy Spirit Jesus sends to us, we seek to proclaim this Good News of the transformation of the world to all who will hear and receive it by grace through faith:

Rev 21:1-7 CSB: “1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first
earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will
live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their
God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and
pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.
5 Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said,
“Write, because these words are faithful and true.”6 Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the
Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring
of the water of life. 7 The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and
he will be my son.”

Photo Compliments: pinterest.com

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