June 6, 2010 - SpiritFire:

God's Holy Presence (Acts 2; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; John 14-16)

Key Question:  Why spend all this time and emphasis on the Holy Spirit?

Kernel Message:

1. God lives in us - we are His temples. We are inhabited, possessed and indwelled by the Creator of the Universe. More than making us holy, the gift of the Spirit testifies we are God's children and that we are never alone.
2. The Coming of the Holy Spirit is the beginning of the new era in God's work, the new covenant people of God's promise. The key difference between the old covenant and the new covenant.
3. The Holy Spirit is crucial if we are going to have the power to be all that God wants us to be and do all that God has made us, and re-made us, to do.

Practical Pieces of the Message:

• Scenario:  Locked, alone, in a dark room that is circular in shape. Your own footsteps and shouts for help echo around the circular, metallic walls. The room has no furniture and no reachable ceiling. You have been told that to get out of the room you have to solve 4 Rubik's cubes and insert each cube in the correct box at different points in the wall. You have to have blue face out in one box, red on the other, blue on the other, and yellow on the other. Each color cube has to be be placed into a specific box, and each cube has to be inserted in the correct order for the hidden escape passage to open and for you exit to safety. There voices that give you instructions on how to solve each Rubik's cube and they repeat their message over and over again for you. Food and water appear mysteriously, but you have no idea when or why or for how long it will last. And here's the problem: you have a very limited supply of air and absolutely no light in the room. You will die a failure, alone in the room, and not be able to exit to life, joy, and freedom without performing your tasks perfectly, in order, in a timely manner.
• This is the problem with people under law -- any law. Technically, you can live up to what you have to do to please and honor God. The problem is, the only person to have ever done that is Jesus! No human being has come close. And once you are guilty of breaking the law, any one bit of it, you are a lawbreaker and guilty. So you have two huge problems!
  1. You have to have a way of getting rid of your sin
  2. You have to have more power than your own insight and willpower to live a life that honors God.
• Unless you have an answer for these two problems, then you are stuck in the room with no way out to life, joy, and freedom!

Key Point:

• Without the Holy Spirit, there is no such thing as living by grace! We are left to our own strength and power. (Romans 8:1-4)

Key Scriptures:

• Romans 8:1-4
• Book of Ephesians
• John 14-16
• Book of Galatians

Drama, Media, & Connecting Pieces:

• Pre-video:
• Key Video:
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• God Story Videos:
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• Scripture Reading & Prayer: Use the first one for the closing prayer right after the sending and the first one for the Scripture (Daybreak) reading or the call to worship (Refresh)
• Ephesians 3:14-21
• Ephesians 1:15-20