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Last Updated 1.10.10

 

January 17, 2010 - re:CREATE #3:

Alive in Me!

Core Ideas: Alive in Me -- 2 Corinthians 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 8, John 14-16 & Galatians 5:22-27 along with 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. Please notice the two key songs listed below: both are powerful prayer requests to God, one slow and introspective, the other upbeat.

Brief overview of the last two weeks to get folks connected: The last two weeks, we have looked at releasing the Holy Spirit into our lives individually and as a church. Confessing Christ as Lord and being baptized opens the door for God to give us His Spirit. We can now ask God to send us the Holy Spirit to help us in times we need Him most. In addition, we can pray for the Holy Spirit to fill, empower, and comfort those we love -- this is something Paul did and showed us how to do. We want to return this week to a focus on the Spirit of God alive in us!

  • The primary mark of a true follower of Jesus is the indwelling of the Spirit of God inside them. Romans 8 and Galatians 5 make this powerfully clear! But what does that really mean? What does the Spirit really do? How do I release the power of the Holy Spirit into my life? We will spend the next two weeks trying to get ourselves acquainted with what God promises us about this!
  • First, we need to recognize that the Holy Spirit's work is to cleanse us and make us the dwelling place of God through the Holy Spirit.
    • 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:2, 30; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 1:1-2)
    • 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
  • Second, we need to understand the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit's work is to transform us and conform us to the character and compassion of Jesus -- to have Christ formed in us!
    • 2 Corinthians 5:17
    • 2 Corinthians 3:18
    • Galatians 4:19
    • Galatians 5:22-27 (cf. Romans 8:1-14)
  • Third, the Holy Spirit is in us to lead and guide us, comfort us, gift us, and empower us. (This will be the focus of next week!)

Time in the Word Focus:

  • The last two weeks, we were challenged to begin praying for the Holy Spirit to come into our lives personally (Luke 11:13) and to begin praying for others in our family, church family, and those we love for the Holy Spirit to be present and strengthen them with might. We must keep doing this daily as a church family if we want to turn loose the Spirit's power among us.
  • But this week, we want to recognize the work of the Holy Spirit to transform us and conform us to Jesus. Praying the two prayers we just mentioned are vital, but we are told of another key ingredient to this process -- focusing on Jesus! 2 Corinthians 3:18 reminds us that we are transformed to be like Jesus and conformed to His character as we focus on Him.
    • When we focus on the things of the flesh, when we feed the sinful desire within us, we can quench the Spirit's work in us (1 Thessalonians 5:19) and grieve the Spirit of God (Ephesians 4:30) and actually oppose His work within us (Galatians 5:16-21). Paul reminds us in both Romans 8 and Galatians 5, that to try to be holy by own will power and keeping of rules is to rely on the flesh and will cause us to fail -- this is called legalism.
    • Instead, we want to be led by the Spirit by keeping in step with the Spirit. But if our goal is to be like Jesus (Galatians 4:19; Colossians 1:28-29), then we want to fix our eyes on Jesus, we want to fill our hearts with Jesus, we want to focus on Jesus. As we do this, the Holy Spirit helps us defeat the power of sin in our lives and begins to produce the fruit of the Spirit, the character qualities of Jesus -- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.

Key SoHills Emphasis:

We are building a strategy for bringing the vitality and power of the Holy Spirit back into our lives personally and individually.

    • We are going to emphasize the gift of the Holy Spirit that comes to us at baptism, knowing salvation is more than waiting for something to happen when we die, it is something we experience through the Holy Spirit when we come to Christ. (Acts 2:38-39; Titus 3:3-7)
    • The Luke 11:13 promise, that if we ask the Father for the Holy Spirit, He will give the Spirit to us
    • The Ephesians 3:14-21 prayer for our church, family, and each other expecting God to release His power in us!
    • The promise of 2 Corinthians 3:18 (and Galatians 5) is that as we focus on Jesus and seek to follow Him, the Holy Spirit conforms us to be like Him -- bringing His character qualities to maturity in us!

Key Passages:

To the experience of the Spirit's presence, we will focus this week on several key passages: 2 Corinthians 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 8 & Galatians 5:22-27 along with 1 Corinthians 6:19-20.

Suggested Songs:

  • Holy Spirit Dwell in Me
  • Spirit of the Living God, Fall Fresh on Me

Drama, Media, & Connecting Pieces:

  • Pre-video:
  • Video Piece: TBD
    • Direction
  • Scripture readings
    • Romans 8:1-14
  • Key focus of the Time in the Word
    • Key Ideas
      • Point

Daybreak Focus: (8:15 a.m. service)

Refresh Focus: (11:00 a.m. service)

Sundown Focus: (5:00 p.m. service)

We will be using Traveling Light by Max Lucado and Psalm 23 to be our study focus at Sundown this Spring.