Growing through the Spirit
Shed Value Statement • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 3 viewsNotes
Transcript
Have the value statement and the discipleship path passed out.
Review Shed Value Statement Series we will cover for the next 3 weeks.
For the next 3 weeks, I want to answer the question, “Who are we at The Shed.”
If you’re new here and still trying to figure us out, this season will be integral to your understanding of the culture that fuels everything we do here at The Shed. I encourage you to go back and watch the the whole season through and stick with us for 3 more weeks.
We began by walking through our discipleship pathway together, leaning in on the fact that discipleship isn’t a class, it’s not a curriculum, it’s not a book…
Discipleship is life lived together, learning and growing into the image of Jesus on the earth.
The Shed is a greenhouse where disciples grow…
We grow disciples in here that embody Jesus out there.
And because Growth is the expected avenue that members should be traveling on, each of our six core values are an expression of how we grow…
You will notice, each begins with “Growing”…
Growing with… Growing through… Growing from…
All of these are intended to guide us in and propel us to GROWTH.
These are how we grow…
The expected result of what we do in here is growth.
So “We grow disciples in here that embody Jesus out there.”
And this is how we do it:
By…
Growing with Intention
Growing with Intention
Growing through Encouragement
Growing through Encouragement
Growing through Community
Growing through Community
and this week, we will talk about one of my favorites:
Growing through the Spirit
Growing through the Spirit
To understand how we are to grow through the Spirit, we must first recognize who the Holy Spirit is…
I can begin by saying this: The Holy Spirit is not a bird. He’s not wind, or water, or a mindless force like electricity or gravity.
He’s not an IT. He is a person. Distinct from the Father and Son, yet one with them all the same.
He’s not spooky, He’s not a poltergeist, He is not a demon or Beelzebul.
He is the third member of the Godhead, revealed throughout scripture, present in creation, and gifted to us as a deposit on the hope that is to come…
He’s the one who was upon Jesus, who anointed Him to do the work He did on the earth..
It was the instruction of Jesus to Baptize this way:
19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
Peter mentions all three persons in 1 Peter 1:2
2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.
Jude also mentions:
20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.
It amazes me how squirmy some people get the moment the Spirit is brought up…
Even when I started talking about the Spirit, some of you had that sinking feeling in your gut, thinking “Is this going to get weird?”
For some, images of people rolling on the floor or crying or speaking in tongues is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of the Holy Spirit…
But The Holy Spirit was not given to us for goosebumps and wild church services…
The Holy Spirit was given to us to be in us and work through us, guide us and shape us as we walk in Him..
That means the Holy Spirit should be just as active in your day to day life as He is in a church service…
If we distill the power of the Holy Spirit down to only being in operation when we are gathered together in the form of tongues and interpretation, we have negated the purpose of the Spirit’s indwelling the way the bible describes Him.
The Holy Spirit is not just for us to have some emotional experience while we are in a service…
The Holy Spirit is the one who works in us and through us, shaping us and guiding us to accomplish that which God has ordained us to do in the earth!
Look at the definition we gave to this core value:
We grow through prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit, responding in worship and seeking creative, bold ways to advance God’s kingdom.
We grow through prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit, responding in worship and seeking creative, bold ways to advance God’s kingdom.
(John 15:26, Prov. 9:10; John 4:23-24)
Prayerful dependence…
It is imperative that we spend time in prayer, connected to the Spirit of God, leaning and depending on Him for all He does…
The Holy Spirit’s power is to work in you and through you, not just one or the other.
This is what the bible says the Holy Spirit does:
1. He Purifies
1. He Purifies
5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
The Holy Spirit is the active agent in regeneration, which is what happens when you give your life over to the saving power found in Jesus…
The Holy Spirit comes in and washes you from the inside, setting in motion a process of transformation wherein you draw closer and closer to Him, looking more and more like Jesus as you grow…
As you grow in Him, the Spirit produces fruit in you…
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
These fruits are not disciplines you make yourself do, they are fruits that are produced from having the Holy Spirit’s guiding influence in your heart…
It’s no wonder so many people struggle with walking a Christian life when they deny the power of the Holy Spirit!
It’s the Holy Spirit that purifies and His influence that allows you to walk rightly…
It’s Him that transforms you and molds you and shapes you…
We are to go from Glory to Glory, but this is done by the Spirit…
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
This is what we call sanctification… It’s the process through which we grow more and more like Jesus and it is done through the Spirit!
2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.
13 But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.
So when we say we must walk in the Spirit, it is not optional, it is vital to our survival…
4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
So that by THE SPIRIT we are able to do what Romans 8:13 says,
13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
To put to death the deeds of the body, that is the work of flesh, we must live by the Spirit!
Good strategy isn’t enough… Strong will isn’t enough… Just good enough isn’t enough…
NO we need a reliance on the Holy Spirit that we might live!
He is the purifier!
Guess what? He is also the Unifier!
2. He Unifies
2. He Unifies
Read through the book of acts, and what you will find is that every time the Spirit is poured out on believers, they draw closer together…
In Acts 2, 3000 people were saved in one sermon after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the bible records that after that they were together and had all things in common…
In Acts 4, when they were persecuted for the first time, they went back to prayer and the place where they were was shaken in the power of the Holy Spirit and they all spoke the word of God with boldness, then immediatly following is this line:
32 And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul...
Because the Holy Spirit purifies and He unifies…
Not only does He purify and Unify, but He also Reveals…
3. He Reveals
3. He Reveals
You often hear the word revelation spoken in charasmatic circles because the Holy Spirit reveals… He gives revelation…
He gave special revelation to the Prophets and Apostles who spoke and penned the words we now consider scripture…
2 Peter 1:21 says of the Old Testament scriptures:
21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
16 “Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.
The New Testament apostles and others who wrote the words of the New Testament were also guided “into all truth” by the Holy Spirit…
13 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
Paul says in Ephesians that this was “revealed”
5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;
Not only did the Holy Spirit give this special revelation to the Apostles and prophets, but he also reveals the presence of God to us through His works…
14 “He (the Spirit) will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.
26 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,
Throughout both the Old and New Testaments we are given event after event where the Holy Spirit shows up and reveals that God is there…
He reveals His presence to Us… And He reveals direction through His guidance…
14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
Throughout the book of Acts we see phrases that describe the early church listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit:
28 “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials:
6 They passed through the Phrygian and Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia;
22 “And now, behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there,
He revealed His word to the Prophets and Apostles.. He reveals God’s presence… He reveals direction and guidance to us… and He reveals His word to us…
Not in the way He revealed His word to the Prophets and Apostles, but He illuminates their words to us for our benefit…
I’ll say it simply… You need the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit to study the Word rightly…
He was active in it’s authorship and He is also active in its interpretation and application…
It’s the Holy Spirit who teaches and illuminates His word…
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,
13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
Natural wisdom will only get you so far.. You need the Spirit to teach you and illuminate the scriptures to you through spiritual thoughts and words…
The Holy Spirit Purifies, The Holy Spirit Unifies, and the Holy Spirit Reveals…
This is why we need a prayerful reliance on the Holy Spirit…
If the Holy Spirit is responsible for all this, how could we be so arrogant to think that we don’t need Him in our day to day walk?
It takes the Holy Spirit to purify! It takes the Holy Spirit to unify! It takes the Holy Spirit’s revelation to understand and be led day to day…
Without Him, how are we to live? WE CANT!
Before we can ever get to the second half of this core value, we must recognize our need to rely on the Spirit for all this…
We grow through prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit…
We grow through prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit…
And because of the impact this has, and the Majesty He reveals, the power He carries, the God He is…
The proper response to the revelation of God in the Spirit is…
We grow through prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit, responding in worship…
We grow through prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit, responding in worship…
And truth be told, we could have ended this right there, but there’s one more huge thing the Spirit does for Us…
4. He Empowers
4. He Empowers
Jesus said of the Spirit, quoting the prophet Isaiah:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
Similarly He told his disciples:
8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
Paul said…
4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
The Holy Spirit empowers for miracles, but He also empowers for preaching:
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people,
31 And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.
10 But they were unable to cope with the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.
The Holy Spirit empowers for miracles, and He empowers for preaching, he empowers with spiritual gifts…
11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.
He empowers us to pray…
26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
He empowers us for deliverance…
28 “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
9 But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him,
10 and said, “You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?
11 “Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time.” And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand.
He empowers us as ministers of a new covenant:
6 who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
And He empowers us to live holy lives:
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
It is because of this broad empowerment by the Spirit that we stated in the second half of this core value:
We grow through prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit, responding in worship and seeking creative, bold ways to advance God’s kingdom.
We grow through prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit, responding in worship and seeking creative, bold ways to advance God’s kingdom.
Because it’s the Spirit that empowers us to advance the kingdom, it’s the Spirit that empowers us to be creative…
It’s the Spirit that guides us and shapes us and transforms us and leads us and uses us as His ministers in the earth…
This is what it means to Grow through the Spirit…
We grow disciples in here that embody Jesus out there…
and we do that by:
Growing with Intention…
Growing through encouragement…
Growing in Community…
and Growing through the Spirit…
Call worship team
I want to ask you today: Do you rely on the Spirit of God, or do you find yourself relying on your own strength, your own ideas, and your own willpower…
Could it be that your struggle is not because sin is so strong, but because you have yet to rely on Him to empower you?
That’s what it is to seek His face, to go after Him, to give your life to Him…
It is trading all our control and determination for His leading and empowerment…
If you want me to pray with you, these altars are open…
But I ask you this: Will you give yourself fully to Him this morning?
