AUGUST 22, 2021 SUNDAY MESSAGE
JOIN US LIVE AT 10 AM TODAY!
Oxygen
Transcription
HEAT - Love for God and Others
FUEL - Our lives given to God in acts of obedience.
OXYGEN - The winds of Holy Spirit
<WIND BELLOW>
In the early years of my ministry I was working with youth and I was eager to set a good foundation for them so I started by teaching through a gospel.
I worked chapter by chapter through the book of John and came across a verse that had not stuck out before: John 3:8
“The wind blows wherever it wishes. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Jesus describes the attributes of the Holy Spirit -and someone led by the Spirit - by comparing it to the physical attributes of the wind. Jesus says:
First, the wind is an unseen power that’s perceived by the effect it has on the world around it and can be
Calm breeze
Violent wind
Second, it seems to move with puzzling inconsistency (swirling)...at least from our perspective.
Similarly, we can see the movement of the Holy Spirit, though an invisible being, can be detected through the effect it has on us and the things around us! It also seems:
unpredictable, mysterious,
It’s well known that Irish culture called the Holy Spirit a wild goose!
It’s difficult to contain within human wisdom or systematic theologies.
After I read John 3:8, I began to wonder if the way I had been living my life displayed the “windy” evidence of a person who was “born of the Spirit.”
It caused me to examine my life against the tendencies of the Spirit to determine if I was listening well or not.
We see it in Jesus’ life by the way He lived and operated on the earth…His life was definitely “windy!”
Jesus’ life was dynamically filled with unpredictability to the point that it was dangerous!
It looks chaotic or irresponsible to a western culture and, eventually,
...He was killed because of it but there’s beauty in the surrender.
My life, like most of our lives are, in contrast, very safe, very predictable, and moving towards a trajectory of (even safer) security, success, risk averse white middle-class norms. MOST of the decisions we make are based on accomplishing MORE predictability...we are discipled to do so!
When I read this verse, I was convicted and I decided my life needed to be more wind-blown and I pursued it in prayer and action. SO...
A friend and I decided that we were going to carve out time to listen to the Holy Spirit and do whatever we felt He was telling us to do.
We chose Friday because it was my day off and provided the flexibility we need to act on anything we heard.
We got up, jumped into the car, and prayed, “Holy Spirit, what do you want us to do right now? Where do you want us to go?” Then we just drove.
If we suspected the Spirit was saying “go right,” we went right when we felt an inkling to go in another direction, we went in a different direction.
It’s important to point out that we never knew with 100% certainty, that any of it was God. We just knew we had the Holy Spirit residing in us so we trusted.
The final destination was unclear because every decision we made was given to us one step at a time. We were intentionally trusting God, and following the whispers in obedience, until it came to a type of conclusion.
I can’t remember how many times we did this but every single time was a wild adventure.
We were creating space to hear from God these ventures led to:
authentic conversations with homeless people who became friends of ours,
we engaged prayer walks at the nearby college campus, and spontaneous gospel presentations to strangers,
praying with people on streets and in dorm rooms.
MISSION & EVANGELISM BECAME THE NATURAL OVERFLOW of LISTENING TO THE HOLY SPIRIT and EACH ENCOUNTER WAS UNIQUE.
It makes sense that listening to the Holy Spirit would lead to proclamations of the Good News and the moments of planting seeds, moments of watering, and moments of harvesting.
The Holy Spirit and Mission are inseparable and Jesus connected the two! In John 20:21-22 Jesus gives a kind of COMMISSION along with a deposit of the Spirit.
John 20:21
...Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has SENT me, I am SENDING you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
Jesus even told His followers he would be sending the Spirit to empower them to advance the Gospel!
Acts 1:3-8 says:
3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 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.”
What follows in the next chapters of Acts is a wildfire of Gospel expansion that carries Jesus’ followers throughout the entire region including J, J/S, and beyond as Paul reaches the epicenter of influence in Rome.
What I want you to see is that sharing the gospel:
SPARKS with HEAT or love for God and Love for others
It’s is FUELED by our lives of obedience to God
but OXYGEN flowing through the fire by the winds of the HS to blow upon it, is takes it to a whole new level &
...fans into flame a supernatural expansion event.
If we want to see a similar movement of God in our day…
We are going to need to practice the art of Hearing God’s voice and moving IN STEP when He speaks.
We are going to have to live our lives in a way that resembles the wind described in John 3:8.
SO, the overarching question for today is “HOW WINDY IS YOUR LIFE??”
When I received that conviction, after reading John 3:8, the Wind Blown days became an incubator for learning to listen and learning to move:
They became exciting (every Friday was a mini adventure with the Holy Spirit) and, eventually, I was looking forward to it throughout the week and LOOKING for more opportunities every day!
I have gone through seasons of being on and off.
There are TWO assumptions I want you to work on in your heart and minds to cultivate this type of windy-ness in your life:
First, assume the Spirit is present within you and
Second, assume God is always working.
1. ASSUME the Spirit is present within you.
We often understand that, theologically, we have the Holy Spirit - INDWELLED BY HIM - but ARE WE operating under the assumption that God
enlivens our thoughts,
directs our paths, and
animates our imaginations?
So your thoughts may be infused at times with directives, assignments, words, and thoughts that are not your own but DIVINE!
How do you know which is which?
You need to know God’s word to the extent that you can adequately discern, “that’s God, that’s not.”
Do you read to get to know God and His nature so that you can anticipate it later?
All of your thoughts should be vetted through the filter of scripture.
Megan “DONUT” in the airport.
Does this square with scripture?
Cornelius/Peter Vision.
God uses personalized symbolism at times to advance the gospel!
If you believe you have the MIND of Christ and the Spirit is in you, I think it’s worth the consideration!
We tend to assume the opposite:
It’s usually just ME going about MY own business, doing MY own things, doing to MY job, running MY errands, getting MY kids ready for school or soccer practice or whatever and
MAYBE EVERY ONCE IN A BLUE MOON, the Holy Spirit has something to say to me.
THAT'S NOT INDWELLING!! That’s not Corinthians 3 which reminds us: “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
Again in 6:19: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”
The scripture assumes the Spirit is present WITHIN you, DO YOU MAKE THE SAME ASSUMPTION?
2. SECOND, ASSUME that God is ALWAYS working.
If this is true then YOUR JOB is to discover what He is doing in a given moment/situation wherever you are present.
Ed Waken writes: “It is also important to train and discipline ourselves to go through our days asking Jesus to give us His eyes for what is happening around us. We may feel a nudge to pray for a co–worker who looks stressed, or to ask the person in front of us in a line how their day is going. This may end up encouraging a person or be the beginning to a new friendship. God uses these small adjustments in our attitudes and actions to help us align more with His heart or to start spiritual wildfires when we connect with people God leads across our path.”
As you go about your day-to-day:
LOOK around you for opportunities to Plant Seeds, to Water the seeds, and have spiritual conversations when they are available.
LOOK for the leading of God to direct you where he is already working.
In Luke 10, we learned that sometimes God sends us to prepare the way for HIM BUT, at other times, HE paves the way for us and asks us to discover where he is already working and an assumption that the LORD is connecting you to what he is already doing, puts you on alert for discovery.
In the book of Acts, Paul has a dream of the macedionian man so he goes there is instead of south into Asia.
This one time... <Story of Robert at Cafe Flora>
The point is that, when we assume God is working, we are searching for it and attempting to participate as well!!
Not all encounters become conversations and not all things are going to derail your day but YOUR SPIRITUAL ALERT-NESS is what is required if we want to see a Gospel Wildfire in our day. Maybe you simply pray for those you see and ask God to make himself known.
BUT, when you open your life up to God like this, I do think we come alive to something in us and it’s fun to see the connections!
Again, Waken writes:
“Being aware and alert to the promptings of the Spirit is something you would not want to miss. It brings adventure into your faith. I find myself driving down the street, talking to the Spirit. I ask Him if I need to stop and talk to anyone in particular, or if I should stop and help a person fixing a flat tire...It is not every time, nor all the time, that He nudges me. But when it is the time to speak, it is a joy to know that I was obedient and God was working out His eternal purpose in that interaction
“1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1-3)
BUT, of course, we tend to assume the opposite:
God operates between the hours of 9-11 am Sunday morning and that’s it!!
IN FACT, unless an ANGEL of the LORD flies right into the co-pilot seat of my car, calls me by my first middle and last name, and goes FULL ANGEL IN THE OUTFIELDS...I am going to assume this isn’t the right time to be all “churchy.”
We do a disservice to our own walk with God and we undercut the mission of God when we don’t see how God is operating ALL THE TIME!!
ARE YOU WILLING TO COME ALONGSIDE GOD IN THAT ASSUMPTION and be a PARTICIPANT in the Kingdom MOVEMENT?!
A few weeks ago, I challenged you to prayer walk your neighborhoods (Some of you all thought I was joking) I want to re-engage that challenge again and expand on it!
As we re-enter another busy Fall schedule (school, seasonal shifts, holidays, commitments) do so with THESE TWO assumptions in mind!!
the Spirit is PRESENT within you &
God is ALWAYS working!
Now, in order to be intentional, you may need to CLAIM SOME time to exercise this WINDY LIFE or you may need to MAKE time?
Some of us need to CLAIM TIME
There are things in your life that you’re already doing & you just need to recognize Jesus in it!!
You need to put your mind on alert as you do them and be willing to engage with spiritual things during it.
BUT, some need to MAKE TIME
IF you have packed your world so full of events and things to do that you can’t engage God in it, you need to reprioritize or get rid of somethings to MAKE time for Evangelistic Opportunities.
There are times and seasons where we need to make God the sole focus on what we are doing so that it becomes natural to you to bring God into everything you do!!
WHICH IS THE ultimate goal...you begin to have an unceasing interaction with God who is PRESENT and WORKING wherever YOU are present.
A prayer walk in your neighborhood is a natural way to engage this. The weather has been nice and it should be easy to pull off right?
Take a 15 min break in your day a couple times a week and do a focused “God, what do you want me to do and where do you want me to go, who do you want me to encourage or talk to right now?”
House Churches pray in each others’ neighborhoods and help each discern the movement of the Spirit for that area and find people of peace!
One more thing: tell someone the story of what happened. It is good for the community of believers to hear the way God is moving in your life. It encourages us in our own walk with God!
Pastor Rush will be with us next week giving HIS perspective on evangelism and we will bring the series to a conclusion the following week as we look at what makes the WILDFIRE “WILD.” We have focused on the FIRE (with heat, fuel, and oxygen) but what makes the evangelistic fires WILD in their spread and perpetual expansion? Until then, let’s focus on allowing the winds of the Spirit to fan into flame our love and surrendered lives for Jesus!
COMMUNION:
(1 COR. 11:23B-26)
“The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
PRAYER REQUESTS:
We are hosting prayer team meetings for both the congregation at large and individuals to sign up for individual prayer.
SUGGESTIONS FOR WORSHIP:
“Praise & Worship” Spotify playlist and “Praise & Worship” YouTube playlist (slightly different from each other), both of diverse music that are being constantly updated!
Bethel Music :
Bethel Music’s hours of live music YouTube Playlist, also being constantly updated
Bethel provides chords to most (if not all) of their songs here (just have to register email, but free!)
Live worship moments from the Upper Room YouTube Playlist
Journal writing! (I’m a writer too, so sometimes creative writing and writing my thoughts to God is my form of worship.)
Declare and worship with truth by singing and praying scriptures.
WORSHIP NIGHT! Dedicate a night to worship with friends and family, your house church or neighbors, those who need prayer, love worship, or just enjoy music through a video chat platform like Zoom. You can have one person leading at a time (switching off to whoever else wants to lead) while others sing along, pray, or prophesy, etc.
Serving your community, both online, in person, or both, is a great way to worship God, from spreading encouragement and God’s Word online to physically serving food to others. If you are able to go out and serve, click here for opportunities.
COMMISSIONING:
As Jesus said in John 20:21,
"Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
Go, be the Church!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.