Responding to the Spirit

Our Theme for 2023 is “Life in the Spirit”

It is more than just recognizing the work of the Holy Spirit.

It is understanding that we live in two realities - natural reality and spiritual reality.

We live at the intersection of heaven and earth.

We are an altar where heaven’s business is transacted on earth.

Our vision at SCF is to “Encounter God’s Transforming Love.”

How do we do that? (Four R’s)

Respond

Restore

Release

Relate

That describes who we are and what we are about.

Over the next 4 weeks we are going to review the 4R’s just as a reminder of what we have committed to do as a church, but we will be doing so in light of our life in the Spirit.

Repond is represented by the crosses on the logo.

The cross is where God showed His great love for us.

John 3:16 ESV

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

The question for us is, “How will you respond?”

We respond to God by obedience and expect that God helps us when we do.

The resulting recognition is described as an encounter.

A divine encounter is when you recognize who Jesus is.

Before John 3:16, Jesus says this:

John 3:5–8 ESV

5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

A divine encounter is just that - an encounter which takes you beyond your natural existence and makes you spiritually alive.

It’s hard to imagine how this happens, but some people have a supernatural encounter and manage to go back to living as if they had not.

The mind had an encounter, but the heart was never changed.

Respond means change.

Change is transformation.

The biggest problem with Christianity in our society is that people join a religion, but fail to be transformed by it.

Keith Green used to say that going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to McDonald’s makes you a hamburger.

Is a person saved by their profession of faith or by the transforming work of the Holy Spirit?

Titus 3:5 ESV

5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

Respond is more that just saying, “I like the idea of being a Christian.

It is more than just agreeing with the basic principles of Christianity.

It is more than ‘self-identifying’ as a Christian.

It’s not your Christian t-shirt or your Facebook meme that makes you a Christian.

It’s all about the change!

Your testimony is evidence of change.

I, like most people, usually assume that when someone tells me they are a Christian, a believer in Jesus Christ, that it means that some change has occured because of that belief and that they are a new person.

We are sharing testimonies during the Adult Bible Study hour.

Our testimony is the story of the difference that Jesus Christ makes in our lives.

The Chosen Season One features the quote from Mary Magdalene, “I was one way and now I am completely different …and the thing that happened in between was him.”

You don’t have to be Mary Magdalene to have that testimony.

Anyone whose life is transformed by Christ can relate to those words.

I used to be angry, depressed, proud and arrogant...

You fill in the words that describe you before Christ.

Better yet, turn to the person next to you and they will help you remember....

And just because you are changed doesn’t mean you are perfect.

It doesn’t mean that you never slip back into old habits or patterns.

It means that you don’t stay there - those are the old ways - they are not who you are anymore.

Nobody expects you to be able to do it on your own - if you could change yourself - you wouldn’t need Jesus!

This change is supernatural.

Some people treat Christianity as if it were just another self-help trend.

And sometimes churches make it sound like their program is the process of spiritual transformation.

We love Elijah House here, but EH is a tool to guide people.

The transformation is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual transformation is supernatural - you can’t do it on your own.

God does it in you - all you have to do is allow it!

Thinking that what you are doing is more important than what God is doing is actually an obstacle to transformation.

You do your part, but know that it is God doing His part that is making it happen.

God is even helping you do your part.

This is what is mean to respond to the Spirit.

You recognize that it is the Spirit working in you and through you that is changing you and the world around you.

When you realize this, you are recognizing spiritual reality.

When you start to live into that reality and cooperate with the Spirit, then you are connecting heaven and earth.

Respond means listening to and keeping in step with the Spirit.

Rather than preaching through this section, I want to hear from you.

We just finished a week of prayer and fasting.

The point of fasting is to tune out some or our physical reality to better attune to spiritual reality.

I would like to know what you heard the Spirit saying over the course of this week?

What is your greatest insight from our time of corporate prayer and fasting?

How are you going to respond to what you have heard?

Now remember to obey what you hear - keep in step with the Spirit.

Galatians 5:25 NLT

25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

Responding to the Spirit is not just hearing the Spirit, but applying what you hear.

Maybe the Spirit is prompting you to change something, then remember that the Spirit will also help you to change.

Sometimes we listen to the Spirit and then try to do it on our own.

Galatians 3:3 CSB

3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by the Spirit, are you now finishing by the flesh?

Partnering with the Spirit means continuing to respond to the Spirit.

Our response is measured not by what we have done, but by what we are doing.

In evaluating our own response to the Spirit, we don’t look to the past, but to the present to see how we are continuing to hear and follow the Spirit.

Your testimony begins with the change that happened when you first received Christ, but it continues right up to the present time.

How many have a testimony about what God did this week?

How about today?

How far back do you need to remember to find a testimony of God’s work in your life?

Respond is the first step in a sequence, but it is also ongoing.

Restore doesn’t usually happen until you respond.

Release normally follows Restore.

Relate is not sequential, it encompasses the whole process.

But we never stop responding, restoring, releasing or relating.

The 4R’s have also been incorporated into our membership agreement.

For those who became members within the last two years, you may remember seeing this.

The rest of you should remember that this was presented when we affirmed the vision statement in 2021.

The membership agreement is not to say that we have arrived, but it is agreeing on what our goals are as followers of Christ.

I would like to review these points, but not just to check a box. - I want to examine these in light of life in the Spirit.

How are we doing?

Is this true on a just a natural level, or are we living this out in spiritual reality?

Is life in the Spirit taking it to a new level?

1. I have committed my life to Christ having received Him as Savior and Lord.

This is basic - it usually means that we have prayed a prayer of salvation.

But life in the Spirit says that a supernatural transformation has occurred - is that true?

If Jesus is both Savior and Lord that implies an ongoing relationship - have you talked to Jesus lately?

Jesus is Lord is a statement of unconditional obedience - I can’t do that on my own, but the Spirit in me can!

I think what we wanted to capture by this statement was a fully surrendered commitment to Christ - but beyond that is the fact that Christ is fully committed to you.

He gave you His Holy Spirit to live inside you!

You can ask anything you want or need and it’s yours for the mission that God has sent you to fulfill.

But that’s just it - it’s our life for His - all of me for all of Him!

This isn’t just a box that you can check - it’s a lifetime of growing and living into the commitment you have already made.

2. I have sealed my covenant through baptism as a believer and renew it regularly through communion.

On the surface this means that you are baptized and you take communion.

But do you understand the spiritual reality of what these thing mean?

When you were baptized you were initiated into a whole new way of being.

When you take communion, you are participating in the very life and death of Christ.

It’s like crossing the Red Sea or eating manna in the wilderness, you don’t forget those things - you are changed by them.

1 Corinthians 10:1–4 NLT

1 I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. 2 In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptized as followers of Moses. 3 All of them ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that traveled with them, and that rock was Christ.

Like Israel, this is our Promised Land - spiritual reality - heaven on earth.

Baptism is how we enter it - we enter into covenant with God.

Communion is where we renew it - we renew the covenant each time we remember the body and blood of Christ.

These are symbol, but they are more than symbolic they are real.

For centuries Christians have argued over whether or not they should be called symbols or sacraments.

It’s not really about whether or not the bread and the cup actually become the body and blood of Christ.

A sacrament means that a physical thing can become a means of spiritual reality - that there is a real divine impartation in what is otherwise a symbolic act.

I believe there is - or at least there should be.

3. I accept the Bible as my authority and seek to both hear and obey God’s direction for my life.

We are evangelical believers, the Bible is our rule book - it’s how most of us hear God, or how we know that what we heard is from God.

I can’t say enough abut the importance of reading and studying the Bible.

But it isn’t enough....

You can’t understand the Word of God without the Spirit of God.

Even if you could understand it, you don’t have what it takes to do it without the Spirit helping you.

I’m a scholar myself, I love to get into the scripture and find the rich treasures of revelation that are buried there.

But scholars don’t transform the world - disciples do!

It’s the daily application of the scriptures that brings life, and for that we rely on the Spirit.

So yes, do read your Bible.

But to obey it, rely on the Spirit.

The Spirit and the Word help us to live in both realities at the same time.

4. I participate in worship, not just publicly, but also privately and from my heart.

One of the most obvious ways to show that your a Christian is to come to church.

As a pastor, I can’t help but use attendance as one of my measurements for spiritual care.

But showing up at church is really only a small part of the picture.

Do you participate? Do you worship or are you just here?

Are you connecting with God or just other people?

Does your worship continue when you walk out these doors?

Is your Sunday morning experience part of a larger pattern of cultivating your spiritual life?

Worship can be a box that we check - “I worshipped this week.”

Or it can become a lifestyle - “I am always worshipping.”

Worship is like prayer - we do it without ceasing.

1 Thessalonians 5:16–19 NLT

16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. 19 Do not stifle the Holy Spirit.

Joy, prayer and thanksgiving are the substance of our worship and it never stops.

Why? - because its like breathing in spiritual reality.

It’s both feeding and exercising our spiritual life.

it’s making any space that we inhabit sacred space.

As we launch into this new year of life in the Spirit, let’s begin by responding to the Spirit.

Check your spiritual pulse. Are you alive spiritually?

Is transformation happening in your life and through your life?

Are you listening to and keeping in step with the Spirit?

And is your spiritual life measured by your ongoing growth and commitment, not just by what you have done in the past?