Preparing for Easter (2)

Preparing for Easter

Prayer

Welcome to round two of getting ourselves ready for Easter. Last week we looked at how we get closer to Easter we can waiver between what we say to each other and having the words we say to each other actually have inpack on our lives and hearts. We sometimes go through the motions of what we think our peers want us to say without having a real life change in ourselves. How can we take this event of ressurection and inbed it into our hearts so that we can live a life of change because of what Jesus did for us. We can waiver from knowing and walking a meaningful life and just going through the motions. We talked about how we can use the example of how Christ lived his life to pattern our own life to have real change. How we need to remind ourselves especially with Easter approachinng of how we have all experienced the transformative power of Jesus Christ.

So the first point was to examine your life. Prayerfully ask God to reveal to us where we have need to change. Allow the Holy Spirit to work in us to highlight where we need to adjust. We continued to look to Jesus’ life and how he was focused on teaching, healing and helping others. How does our present day compare to what He lived. How even if we think this can be hard how with the Holy spirit we can find where in our lives we have allowed other things to take over. Become idols in our lives without much thought. How that can be a source of us not living the remarkable life Christ died for us for. How we can through being stubborn to change can dull the life we are meant to be living.

We talked about the Holy Spirit showing us who we need to forgive in our lives so that we can live the life he calls us to show to the world. How sometimes it is easier to co-exist with our brothers and sisters, than to live a life with them. Christ calls us to be in each others lives not just smile politely at them. He loved the one who betrayed him to suffering and death. Because of relationships and our love is how we can have an abundant life. How small changes everyday will show the world that we are not perfect but we love each other and them. So that the world will see us as living differently and amazingly. That is the life of a follower of Jesus.

Finally we talked about the thing Christ used to prepare the disciples and us for the time between his sacrifice and victory until he comes again. Communion. We talked about taking communion but taking the time to think about the what he is actually calling us to remember. To understand what the communion means and with Easter approaching to understand the real call of doing this in rememberence of me means. Allow the Holy Spirit to give a deeper meaning to the act of communion.

Now might be a great time to put that into practice. If you are a Christ follower you are welcome to join us.

He took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to his disciples and said take this and eat it as this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in rememberance of me.

After the supper he took another cup of wine and said, This cup is the new covenant between God and his people-and agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you. Let us drink

As we have seen last week we have done some of the work to prepare for Easter and hopefully the Holy Spirit has revealed somethings to you. I would like to focus on what we can do practically to get ready for change, having idenitified some of the internal barriers that we have created for ourselves. Like I said last week it may not be something so bad that is our stumbling blocks keeping us from stepping out into this life we are meant to live. Sin is definately a stumbling block but is sin the only thing keeps us apart from the Christ’s example of life? What habits have we gotten into that keeps us stuck. We have the power to change the things that have kept us from living a life worthy of the sacrifice Jesus made.

John 10:17–18 “This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.””

The good shepherd. Jesus is giving the explaining on how to live as God commands through his sacrifice that he is making by his own decision. This is the thing that we must understand is the things that we gained because Jesus chose the cross for us. It will help us when we are trying to cope with life with our own strength.

Recognizing the benefits of his suffering, as hard as that sounds , will remind us of what personal gain we have because of the cross.

Salvation from hell

Forgiveness of sins

Removal of guilt

Deliverence from bondage

Healing of inner hurts

Restoration of relationship with God

Restoration of relationship with others

Victory over the devil

Presense of God throught the holy spirit

Desire to do God’s will

Power to do God’s will

Peace

Joy

Love

Hope

I think this is a pretty good list of why we need to prepare for Easter. The author of Hebrews was also reminding us of this when he wrote

Hebrews 10:24–26 “And let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works, not neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching. For if we deliberately go on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,”

WE need to remind each other of the gifts of the cross and hold each other accountable.To be in each others lives asking the hard questions of each other. Encouraging each other and being the support for a life worthy of sacrifice. Also asking question that are more than the easy answer questions. This means intentionally getting into deap realationship. Sometimes not the easiest thing as it requires both people to be open but an open heart is usually a really good invite.

We need to point out the things that this world calls out as all right or not that bad. We need to look at our lives and see where we have let the world view of acceptable into our view of acceptable. More and more the lines in sand are becoming blurry allowing us the chance to start to slip. Cross ing some lines and if we are not taking stock of our actions day to day we can find we have become comfortable with things that prevent us from having the life we want to live. These things draw us into ourselves. They cater to what we want keeping us self focused. We know that our vision should be outward and serving others. mindless Tik Toks eat up hours of time when there could be a conversation that needs to happen with someone in need.

Here is when the self assessment and the deep relationships with each other in the church give us a tool to combat this. We are called to be out in the world spreading the good news. But it is so much easier with these practises in our back pocket. Holy Spirit can point out when we need to re evaluate but having many people in our lives who also have the Holy Spirit speaking to them is a can make it so much easier.

We have done the prep work but how do we put it into action. I myself can really drop the ball on this one especially when I try on my own power. This is where it gets tough. I can guarantee that given long enough or enough going on in my life. I will fail. Back slide or just forget how great I feel when I am living the life Christ wants me to live. Is it not increadable how we can have the greatest feeling in the world and walk away from it two minutes later. I sometimes wish that we still had what the Israelise had when they had the pillar of fire from God guiding them throught the night. Surely I would not forget not me, not with God visual reminder of his presense. But i am kidding myself if I am honest I would be just as bad as they were in forgetting at times. We don’t have the pillar of fire but we have something better. The Holy Spirit the presense of God with in us. A pillar of flame alway present within us. He also does so much more

He births us into God’s family. He gives us access to the Father, helps us in prayer, he helps us understand God’s word, Develops our character and empours us to minister. When He is involved our chance of changing how we live our lives is so much greater. One of the clearest ways of helping prepare us for Easter and the life Christ wants for us is to constantly refreshing our connection with the Holy Spirit

This is an action item. Write it down set your phone or put it on a calendar often.

We must desire the Holy Spirit. We have to want to hear from him, have Him as part of our decision making,

John 7:38 “The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.””

When Jesus said living waters, He was speaking of the Holy Spirit. So believe in Jesus and seek the Living Waters

We must ask for the Holy Spirit to be present in your life. I can’t tell you how often I need to ask for the Holy Spirit in my day. I could make it every minute of every day. Truth. But making time daily for prayer is a good start.

And we must recieve the Holy Spirit. what does that mean. Accepting what we are hearing from the Holy Spirit and acting on it. Jesus stated Recieve the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. It is a action because of recieveing the Holy Spirit. We can’t hear and not act.

Remember being filled with the Holy Spirit is an on going experience. We must continue to put these into action the Holy Spirit is there to empower our Ministry and take us closer to Christ’s example of the life he wants for us. And when we are week we have the power in us to make those changes throught the Holy Spirit.

In my experience the action items that we have discussed to this point have one way of leading to real change. It is the action item that allows us to be released from the things holding us back from the life promised. We have all cringed at the thought of the next item on the list. Have I built it up enough

James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.”

I can hear the mental cringe. I know I can’t hear the word confess without going back to my first experience with confession. It felt like being called into principals office and having to come up with a story that doesn’t sound that bad but you know you have been busted. But as in James there is and increadable release when we are able to confess our sins to one another and pray.

I have always felt because of my pastt experience that people would judge me and I would have to come up with the reasons or excuses for the sins. That was the only way that I could bare exposing my short comings in public. And still left feeling that I didn’t explain away the sin well enough. We as people do not like to be judged by others it is uncomfortable and takes away our power. life taught me that I had to control what people thought of me. That was the only way that people would like me, think highly of me.

That would leave me less vulnerable but I didn’t feel better about what I had done just more shame and worried that people may find out. It kept me in fear, fear of being outed, fear of never being the person that I betrayed to the world. For me confession, a true confession was a place that I chose not to do. I worked hard for the image that i betrayed, but it was a false image. Shattering that image was impossible. I was stuck. Stuck in a lie, stuck in feeling less than, because I knew the real me. I could never admit to anyone but to myself how actually broken I was.

Do you see how this is a trap created perfectly so that we never change. Never truely able to walk in a different direction. Never being able to repent of what we did because to admit it, even through changing what i was doing, was to open myself to judgement.

I attended a retreat that taught me the other way of confessing. After a time of reflection and prayer with the Holy Spirit that I could confess and repent with out judgement. I know that sound to good to be true. That the process of confession was between you and the Holy Spirit and it was a declaration of what was revealed. We found out that confession is to deal with our sins but also to recommit to things that we have already had victory over. It was the strangest thing to stand up and make a declaration of sin but we also were to confess to vows or curses we laid upon ourselves. What does that mean. We confessed what lies we convinced ourselves of that were holding us in our tomb. The curse of note being good enough. The curse of distraction. The curse of busy ness.

This was a game changer for me to be able to speak it out and declare it freed me to be able to turn the other direction from what was holding me hostage. The feeling after was powerful. I have read the self help books that tell you to write down what you desire or shout it out, declare it before others so that you have momentum to achieving the thing you desire. But this is the same but the reward is so much greater than gaining what ever material thing you put down on your wish list. And the best part is that there is no judgement we confess and declare before each other without explaination and receive the power prayer that allows us to change.

We are going to end differently today. I invite you to come to the front and if you have a sin or curse that the Holy Spirit has spoken to you. I would like to pray for you in this way. As we approach Easter the best way of being prepared is to be released from the bondage of sins and self curses. This throws the doors open to the life that Jesus wants for each of you and allows the Holy Spirit to give us that strength to change our lives.

Personal Sin: Heavenly Father, I confess ___________ as my sin. I repent of it and ask you to forgive me. Curses/Vows: In the name of Jesus, I break the vow/curse of _____________ that I made against myself. I declare it null and void in the name of Jesus

In the name of Jesus, I cut you free from all attachments to _________ and I cast away every spirit of _________.