2022 Wk 26: Lesson 4 The Fellowship of the Spirit
Love in Action: Touching Our World with Jesus • Sermon • Submitted
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What does Love Look Like in your Life?
What does Love Look Like in your Life?
helping other
coffee and tough questions
taking on grief that isn’t your own
helping others stick it out through hard times.
writing a card of hope each week
laughing and helping others laugh too
Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out,
HOW ABOUT YOU?
Updates
Updates
Open each Sunday 10am
MidWeek
The Gospel of Luke Chapter 5
Dessert Auction July 10th
Camp registration is due
COMING SOON
Making Room: craving the fullness of God 1 Peter 2.2
Men’s Breakfast July 16
at the First Nazarene Church w/Pastor Dale and the guys
THANKS for a GREAT Father’s Day celebration last week and FriendDay!
MISSION SUNDAY next week
Generosity Moment
What Does Biblical Generosity Look Like?
What Does Biblical Generosity Look Like?
Generosity is commonly associated with financial giving—like an offering.
But what are Bible-centered Biblical Generosity Characteristics?
Biblical generosity is tangible.
Biblical generosity is tangible.
Instead of speaking about money in Matthew 25, Jesus mentions food, water, clothes, and love.
Biblical generosity is cheerful.
Biblical generosity is cheerful.
In 2 Corinthians 9:7 gives us freedom in our generosity. God doesn’t want gifts motivated by a sense of duty or obligation.
He wants us to give out of joy and compassion.
Our generosity should be founded in love, not duty.
Biblical generosity is also indiscriminate
Biblical generosity is also indiscriminate
When we give indiscriminately, we have the opportunity to reflect God’s love to people who may not have felt it before—and that’s exactly what God has called us to do.
To love the unlovely, the underdogs, those who have been marginalized in life. As we...
“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.
Biblical generosity is communal
Biblical generosity is communal
Communal is thinking BEYOND ourselves. It’s giving and seeing a whole COMMUNITY that’s giving.
In 1 Chronicles 29, David gives freely from the national reserves and from his own treasure stores. Ultimately his giving motivated other leaders of Israel to do the same.
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Those “good things” most-likely won’t be done from the couch.
Giving in community can inspire others’ generosity, and the ripple effect is endless.
You were created for GOOD!
Together we are stronger
INTRO
giving blood this week...
It is truly indiscriminate giving.
I don’t have any says so in who gets my blood.
From the Old Testament to the New Testament...
From the Old Testament to the New Testament...
we read of the prophetic words that foretold the Messiah birth— Jesus, and how he would come and deliver God’s people.
We also read how God the Holy Spirit would also be poured out upon "all flesh”.
Not as a doctrinal point, but as a unfolding, ever growing, and relational one.
HIS BLOOD WAS FOR ALL WHO WOULD CALL UPON HIM!
MY BLOOD IS THERE FOR THOSE WHO NEED IT, BUT HIS BLOOD BRINGS LIFE AND LIFE EVERMORE.
Investigate
Investigate
When Jesus was about to leave his disciples Jesus spoke of ANOTHER who would come and pickup where he left off—the Holy Spirit.
Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit in this way...
John 14:16–17 (NLT)
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.
17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.
and then later in the chapter
But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.
Jesus is saying—this isn’t suppose to be weird— and we don’t need to make it weird.
Receive my gift of peace—and receive my gift the Holy Spirit.
John 16:7–15 (NLT)
7 But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.
8 And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.
9 The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me.
10 Righteousness is available because I go to the Father, and you will see me no more.
11 Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.
12 “There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now.
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.
14 He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.
15 All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’
The Holy Spirit is gracious
He is not demanding his own way== he is directing us to who Jesus Is.
Thus, we live in community through the work of the Holy Spirit, by the blood of Jesus.
Check out this video bumper to set up our conversation this morning...
VIDEO BUMPER
Skit Guys
Application
Application
“By My Spirit” is always about Grace.
People have made the work of the Holy Spirit simply about their own experience and created their spiritual views based on mans ideas about God the Holy Spirit.
When in all actuality we need to get back to JESUS and God’s Word.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth
The Holy Spirit is our guide into all Truth
He comforts.
He protects.
He empowers...
God the Holy Spirit is for you and me today!
And because of the Holy Spirit we find a new way of living through the Fellowship of the Spirit.
This Fellowship of the Spirit was new to the early church.
Shared Experiences
It was out of this shared experience of the Spirit that the earliest Christian community grew and developed—for this is what “the fellowship (koinōnia) of the Spirit” properly means, common participation in the same Spirit .
The meaning of koinonia is near to ‘communion’, a relation between individual Christians or Christian communities resulting from their common participation in one and the same reality. ‘Κοινονια with one another is entailed by our koinonia with God in Christ.’
Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate?
All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.
I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Unifying Bond of the Churches
As it was the gift of the Spirit that brought those in Samaria, Caesarea, and elsewhere effectively into the community of the Spirit (Acts 8, 10), so it was the experience of the one Spirit that provided the unifying bond in the churches of Paul’s mission
Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.
Eph 4:3-4
Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.
Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.
Growing in Unity
Here we see the real importance of the divine manifestations of the Spirit for Paul: it is out of the diversity of these particular manifestations that the unity of the church emerges, that the body of Christ grows in unity.
Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.
In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.
For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all.
However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. That is why the Scriptures say,
“When he ascended to the heights,
he led a crowd of captives
and gave gifts to his people.”
Notice that it says “he ascended.” This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world. And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (The Fellowship of the Spirit)
Making it Personal
Making it Personal
Not every form of inspiration is self-authenticating.
Paul cautions that every move of the Spirit be submitted to the judgment of the Community.
What does not find an echo among those who have the Spirit and does not build up the Community of the Spirit is unlikely to be a gift of the Spirit.
Let two or three people prophesy, and let the others evaluate what is said.
Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. Do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil.
“Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.
“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’
Closing
Closing
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth
The Holy Spirit is our guide into all Truth
He comforts.
He protects.
He empowers...
God the Holy Spirit is for you and me today!
And because of the Holy Spirit we find a new way of living through the Fellowship of the Spirit.