What are we asking when we ask God to lead us away from temptation?

Remove from my day opportunities I may have to sin

Lord, help me avoid tests and trials, though they may be good for me, could also be seen as Lord, don’t challenge me.

Why might we not want to be tested?

We have a real enemy.

The enemy is coming after our personalities in unique ways to keep us from being with God.

We also have an enemy within us. We are not starting with a clean slate due to our fallen nature.

Even reborn people have a lingering in dwelling sin inside of them.

Paul says in Romans that we are prisoners to sin.

We ask that God spare us from trials and tests because we might fail.

The trials and temptations will come, but Jesus says we should not look for it or ask for it.

How do we pray this sincerely?

Jesus tells us exactly what to do: Watch and pray

Am I watching and praying?

We should be watching for danger and temptation. We must stand guard and stay vigilant.

But how do we do this practically?

Maintain the ugliness of sin. Do we flee from sin or do we lean into moments of judgement, gossip, or anger?

We must have a sense that the ways of God are beautiful and the way of sin is ugly and destructive.

Watching is looking for threats, prayer is engaging with God and mutually exchanging love.

Love is part of the Christian story and who we are because we are united with Jesus in our faith.

We are loved by God whether we feel like it or not.

We need to be caught up in the delight of loving God to truly be take from temptation.

If you find yourself falling into temptation a lot, ask the question: Am I praying? Am I praying with a great loving exchange with God?

James 1:12-18
John 13:21-37

Sermon Notes

Temptation: Anything that comes into our life that leads us to disbelieve or disobey God; or provides an opportunity to walk in greater faith or obedience with God.

Biblical blessing is a deep sense of lasting happiness, not a situational happiness. That can only come to us from God.

God does not tempt us. It is our desire to sin that leads us to sin.

Our desire to sin drags us away from God.

It’s the action of a good father to know that a child will make mistakes and be ready with mercy and grace when we do.

God allows us to encounter temptation, but God does not cause the temptation to occur.

Sin Sequence
Desire > Conception > Birth > Full-Growth > Death

The full grown power of sin gets in start in a place that is small and innocent. Our small desires mean a lot over time.

Major moral failures begin with slow, small steps over time.

The Word of Truth brings us back toward the Father.

While sin drags us away, the Word of Truth brings us back toward the Father.

Jesus’ aim is to use James’ words to lead us out of darkness and shame and into light, life, and peace.

God the Father sends Jesus as the word of Truth.

Forgiveness > Obedience by the Holy Spirit > Reborn > Raised to Life

Confession is essential Christian worship.

Honest and humble confession interrupts the sin sequence and provides the way toward healing.

Let God’s word regularly preform surgery on us. Let it cut into us and removes the bad parts.

Hebrews 2:14-18
Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon Notes

Temptation: Anything that comes into our life that leads us to disbelieve or disobey God; or provides an opportunity to walk in greater faith or obedience with God.

The same thing that God would use to grow our faith, Satan uses to tear us down.

The Tempter is Real

The Bible assumes the Devil/Satan is real. The linguistical root of the word “Devil” comes from the idea of splitting. The Devil wants to split us from God.

What is not in this passage is a physical representation of a physical being.

In Matthew 4, the Tempter temps with words. The Tempter goes after our mind, affection, and will, with ideas.

The Tempter is Wise

In the first temptation the Tempter goes after Jesus’ stomach. The Tempter attacks Jesus at the point of his most obvious weakness.

When we are alone and/or tired, we are more vulnerable to temptation in our natural places of weakness.

In the second temptation, the Enemy appeals to Jesus’ love of scripture.

The Enemy will use Scripture to justify behavior that is clearly in contrast to the heart of Scripture. The Devil is wise enough to use Scripture against the people of God.

In the third temptation the Tempter goes after Jesus’ love for the Father’s world, his vocation.

The enemy will try and confuse our desire to love and serve God’s people, with the reality of God himself.

The enemy will exploit our desire to do good, for his own ends.

The Tempter is Weak

Even the biggest, strongest, scariest enemy is weak when we have the right weapon.

We have two weapons: Scripture & Our High Priest (Jesus).

We can use scripture to “talk to our selves” when we are tempted to sin.

Jesus was made like us in every way, yet was without sin. We can call upon him to help us in our temptation.

Jeremiah 2:13-19
Matthew 5:27-30

Sermon Notes

Jesus builds this passage on Old Testament sexual ethics. It all boils down to one simple idea: no sex outside of covenant.

Consumer relationships are defined by the meeting of needs & desire.

Consumer-relationships are relationships built on utility: if the relationship doesn’t meet your needs you simply upgrade.

Covenant-relationships are built on a different premise. They are built on faithfulness and loyalty.

Covenant-relationships bring safety for individuality.

What Sex Creates

God designed sex, not as a consumer good, but as a covenant good.

When sex takes place in a covenant environment it becomes sacramental.

A sacrament is an outward sign of an inward grace.

Sex outside of covenant is doing something with your body that you are not doing with the entirety of your life.

God designed sex to create a covenant bond, along the with life.

What Lust Destroys

The word that Jesus uses for “lustfully” in the passage is morally neutral word. This passage requires context to find the meaning behind Jesus’ words.

This passage could be read as, “He who covets a women…” or, “He who looks at a someone else greedily.”

Our desire for sex, or a sexual partner, can easily become an idol.

Two Ways Lust Destroys

Pornography

Sexual sin is different in the effect is has on ourselves. We are sinning against our own body.

Pornography instills crushingly unrealistic expectations.

The belief that you need a sexual partner to be happy

Anytime you say, “I need that thing to be happy,” and that thing is not God, you have encountered an idol.

Jesus does not condemn all types of anger. He condemns a specific kinda of anger. A ‘raca’ anger.

Raca is an empty, non-existence. Jesus is suggesting that there is a type of anger that diminishes. Diminishes the humanity of the person the anger is focused on.

There are a lot of moments in scripture where God get’s anger. But we never see God’s anger diminish us. It is rooted in, and stays in, love.

Our anger can often be a seedbed for something much more deadly- it can cross the line into a raca anger.

In order to prevent us from becoming raca angery, we must be patient, gracious, and kind. In Jesus’ eyes, this is sin and the first step of murder.

We must treat the people we are angry with like the precious, eternal beings that God created them to be.

We may be able forced ourselves not to lash out in anger, but we cannot force ourselves too will the good of someone who has made us raca anger.

What we can’t do…

The gospel is not only that our past sins are forgiven, or that out present and future sins are forgiven. The beautiful news of the gospel is that we are treated as if we had never sinned to begin with.

What we can do…

Micah 6:1-8
Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon Notes

The worlds vision of the good life: Our

Jesus’ vision of the good life:

Independence to Dependence

Jesus paints the picture of the good life as a life of dependence. Dependence, not in general, but upon Jesus.

To Interdependence

Interdependence is a life where you dependent on others and others are dependent on you.

Jesus points to the good life as a life full of meaning. He does not point us toward an easy life, but it is a good life.

A good life is a life full of Interdependent relationships.

Psalm 27:1, 5-13
Matthew 4:12-23

Sermon Notes

In our passage, Jesus does not withdraw in order to take refuge. He withdraws in order to advance; to move forward the mission of God.

Jesus’ priority for us is to move. To bring God’s heavenly kingdom to earth.

What is the Kingdom of Heaven?

The Kingdom of Heaven is God’s immediate and personal presence. Whenever and wherever we are in God’s presence, we are in heaven. And Jesus came to bring God’s personal presence to earth.

Heaven is far beyond reach, but Jesus is saying, “It’s here.” Heaven has come near.

To be in someone’s kingdom is to be under a particular rule. A place where a particular person’s priorities guide ours.

But God’s priorities are not the only one’s present on this earth. God planted the Kingdom’s flag in a war zone, a place where there is no neutral ground.

Most often when someone is surfing, they’re not actively surfing. They spend most of their time waiting. But when the wave finally does come, they move.

Jesus is less concerned with what we turn from, than he is with what we turn toward. But if we do not turn, we will miss the wave of God’s kingdom.

Repentance does not create the conditions for the Spirit to move, we respond to the Spirit’s invitations with movement.

And when we do, the movement of the Spirit brings us into the heart of a God who loves, heals, sees, and is closer to us than we are to ourselves.

Isaiah 49:1-7
John 1:29-42

Sermon Notes

What does burn out mean? It’s more than fatigue, it’s the feeling of being powerless; like a battery without charge.

In Isaiah 49, Isaiah is speaking to a people who have been taken into slavery. He sings a song of hope over the captive people of Israel. A song about a servant who is called by God to save Israel.

Who is this servant? His mission is to be the voice of God, reconciling God’s people to God.

The servant will not be well-liked. He will be abhorred by the Kings and Princes of this world; but one day be vindicated by God.

The servant is Israel in the Hebrew Bible. The first Christians took this image and rightly applied it to the life of Jesus. He is the embodiment of all the things that are noble, good and true about Israel.

What we read in Isaiah 49 is a window into the inner life of Jesus. Through this window we see Jesus Christ as a man who was not immune to the hostility and futility he encountered in his life.

Could this be why Jesus continually withdrew from people and sought the God in solitude?

In Jesus we see a model of the practices needed to avoid this sense of burnout.

To escape burnout we need burned out place. For fire does not burn where it has burned before.

Jesus puts himself in our place and is able to sing hope over us.

2 Corinthians 4:13-15
Luke 1:57-79

Sermon Notes

Zachariah’s Silence

Zachariah has just won the priestly lottery. He gets to approach the Altar of Incense that sat outside the Holy of Holy in the Temple. When he approached the altar he saw the Angel Gabriel standing to its right hand.

There is a mysterious relationship between faith and speaking. This is why Zachariah was muted for the nine months of Elizabeth’s pregnancy.

Like Zachariah, we as the people of God have received incredible promises about God’s presence in us. That we are able to think God’s thoughts after God.

When Zachariah’s voice was set free, and began to praise God in the Benedictus.

Zachariah’s Song

The Horn of Salvation
God has redeemed us by raising up a horn of salvation. The horn is an Old Testament allusion to strength of a warrior. Zachariah is praising the coming King who is a worry who will rescue us.

The Rising Light
Like the sun, Jesus rises with healing in his wings.

The lingering darkness does not invalidate the promise, it makes us long for it more.

Micah 5:2-5a
Luke 1:39-55

Sermon Notes

Why did Mary sing?

Despite Mary’s lack of comprehension, she says yes to God’s invitation to her. She is surrendering to the mystery of God.

Mary is willing to say yes to God, knowing how much this consent will cost her.

Sometimes, like Mary, the best we can do is say yes, without knowing how God will work things out, and without having joy in God’s plan. This is not where we want to be, and this is not where God wants us to be.

The angel Gabriel prompts Mary to vist her cousin Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth sees Mary, she does two things:

1. Elizabeth shows Mary reverence.
2. Elizabeth shows Mary honor.

Only when Elizabeth confirms the angel’s message to Mary, does Mary breakout into a song of hope. Without Elizabeth there would be no Magnificat.

Mary got the angel but she also needed was Elizabeth to confirm and strengthen her.

We need people alongside us if we want to hear God’s voice.

In the last six years, there has been a 50% decrease in the amount of time Americans spend with each other. Most people are lonely.

Our faith is more than our horizontal relationships with each other but it is not less.

What Did Mary Sing?

Mary begins her song by singing about her uniqueness and similarity.

Mary sings about the transformation at the core of her being.

She spends most of her song singing about the work of the Lord.

When God comes, things shake. They do not stay the same.

The poor and humble will rejoice at the coming of God. But the arrogant, smug, and proud will be scattered.

Readings:

Revelation 19:1-9
Matthew 24:29-35

Sermon Notes

To pick up the things of Jesus we sometimes have to put down the things of the world.

Who is the great prostitute end what has she done to bring about her condemnation?

The prostitute is dressed in fine clothing and sitting on a beast. We soon learn that the women isn’t a women and the beast is not a beast.

This city wraps itself in wealth. The city values possessions above all others.

The city corrupts the earth with its adultery. The city not only builds itself on wealth and possessions, but it partners with the rest of the world to spread this anti-gospel across the world.

The great city only has two weapons: deception and destruction. That which the city can’t deceive, it is forced to destroy.

This song looks forward toward the feature, and back toward the past.

Jesus sends us, not the fine linens of this world, but the fine linens of the righteousness of God’s people.

How job as the Bride of Christ, is to fall in love with the fine linens of God’s people, and fall out of love with the fine linens of the world.

The reward of our lives is not in the short term. It is the wedding we are invited to in the long term.

2 Samuel 11:1-5, 14-17, 26-27
Luke 18:15-17

Sermon Notes

Our picture of Jesus is incomplete without these four women.
Bathsheba is not properly named in the genealogy
Her story is not so much what she did but what was done to her
This was an abuse of David’s power

What happened to Bathsheba?
The text is really about David but we will focus more on Bathsheba
David remained in Israel, which shows he is in the wrong place
David sees Bathsheba and does not look away
Eliam and Uriah are two of David’s mighty men
David knowingly takes a major risk
David’s plan ends in the deaths of Uriah and other soldiers
Bathsheba is only named once I’m the whole story
“The thing David had done displeased the Lord”
As a result of David’s sin the child that was conceived with Bathsheba died
Like David, we are all capable of horrible things
David shows our first instinct is to cover our sins up

What does this tell us about Jesus?
Jesus was indignant at the disciples for trying to send children away
Jesus builds His kingdom for those that are powerless and forgotten

Christ the King Sunday
What kind of king is He?
He is a king who takes the side of the weak and wants to bring in the forgotten, abused, and silenced.

Ruth 2:11-17, Ruth 4:13-17
Matthew 1:1-6; 16

Sermon Notes

Ruth is a Moabite, a people who have been condemned by the God of Israel. Ruth is an outsider to the people and story of God’s People.

The Hebrew word for “widow” can be translated, “One who is unable to speak.” This people group was one of the most vulnerable in the time of the Old Testament.

When we read the word “Kindness” at the beginning of Ruth it is the Hebrew word hesed. It is more than just kindness. It is a fierce love that rises up and defends. This love is the center point of God’s relationship to his people.

Because of Ruth and Naomi’s vulnerability, Ruth begins to glean the leftover grain from the fields around her home.

Boaz is a wealthy relative of Naomi. Boaz is probably either married, or a widow at this point. He is a man of faith in a time of faithlessness.

The Bible tells a different and better love story than we usually ascribe to this story.

The line, “under whose wings you have come to take refuge,” is calling on the imagery of God’s hesed love for his people. And sits at the center of Ruth and Boaz’s story.

Boaz prefigures the Gospel in his protective, defensive love of Ruth.

Ruth does not act out of a desire to save only herself. She is acting to save Naomi and Elimelek’s family. She is being bold and sacrificial in her invitation to Boaz.

Ruth mothers Obed, who fathers, David, who is a light in Israel’s dark time.

Ruth’s story still speaks to us today. Her mother in law, like a lot of us, often feel like we are forgotten or abandoned by God. And like Naomi, we are invited to look for God’s hesed love in ways that we don’t expect.

And like Ruth, those who are on the margins can image God to those in the majority, if we welcome them the hesed we have been given.

Genesis 38:11-29; 24-26
Mark 7:31-35

Sermon Notes

How She Proved Just

The past is a strange and foreign country, and people do things strangely there.

Tamar lived in patriarchal society.

There are three features of a patriarchal society:

1. Imbalance of power between men and women.
2. Imbalance of power between men and men.
3. Women contribute by having children.

Tamar, though no fault or choice of her own, suffered two marriages to two evil men.

Judah chose to mistreat Tamar, while saving face in the society.

Tamar knows Judah, and uses his immorality against him.

The staff, seal and cord were the ancient equivalent of a drivers license, and credit cards.

When Judah sees his staff and cord, he realizes how far he has fallen. And he calls Tamar’s actions just.

Tamar is proved just in her great faithfulness to God’s commands and blessing. Judah is proved guilty in his lack of obedience to the commands and blessings of God.

Psalm 68:5 and Isaiah 1:17 show us God’s heart for widows and calls us to care for them.

Tamar was standing up, and trying to save her family’s name.

This story makes us ask who the people are in our society who are denied opportunities, access and resources. And we call called to stand beside them.

How She Bore the Image:

Genesis 1, tell us that men and women are created in the Image of God. Genesis 2, tell us that women is a “ezer” to man. A helper.

In the majority of the Bible “ezer” is used to describe God rescuing God’s people.

Tamar lives into the calling of the “ezer”, the Hebrew ally and rescuer.

Men and women bare the Image of God with perfect equality, and in beautiful diversity.

Joshua 2:1-7
Matthew 1:1-6;18

Sermon Notes

God is in the business of overturning our perceptions of value.

Fatih involves three verb:
• Believing - Count something to be true.
• Belonging - Relating to what you believe.
• Behaving - Acting according to what you belong too.

Believing
The first person in the land of Israel, to profess the God of Israel, was a Canaanite, female sex worker.

The quantity of our faith doesn’t save us: it’s the quality of our faith. It’s not the strength of our faith that saves us. It’s the strength of the one we put our faith in.

Belonging
The ultimate outsider comes into the fold of God.

Why is Rahab’s story included in the book of Joshua? It shows us that the most unlikely and immoral people can advance the purposes of God.

People of profound difference can be woven into the fabric of a community.

Christin community is not about uniformity, it’s about unity that overflows in Christ.

Behaving
Faith is in internal thing. But we cling to signs that reflect this inner reality.

They remind us of who we are, where we’re going, and who is toward us.

Isaiah 11:1 - 12
John 12:20 - 33

Sermon Notes

It grieves us when we see majestic things fallen.

The announcement of a good king to come is the shoot that comes from the stump of Jesse.

The new shoot from the root of Jose will make aggressive competitors benevolent friends.

This new king will make peace by raising a banner.

Jesus’ bloody body was raised for us as a banner to unite all people.

How do we see the coming King today?

Isaiah’s prophecy calls for humility.
• Isaiah calls us to be chopped down.

Isaiah’s words call us to unity.
• We as Christians have a unique picture for unity. The cross of Christ units us all, like no other banner on earth.

Isaiah’s words call us to ask what banner we live under.
• We all construct modern day idols.

Isaiah 9:8-17; 10:1-4
John 3:16-21

Sermon Notes

Amidst the wealth of Israel, God sent Isaiah to help the people of Israel see their situation from his prospective.

Our guiding question: how does this passage help us see?

This is a difficult passage to wrestle with.

Why God’s Anger is Appropriate

The people are arrogant. (9:8 - 12)
The leaders of the people are corrupt. (9:13 - 17)
The society is in turmoil. (9:18 - 21)
The poor are being oppressed. (10:1 - 4)

God’s wrath toward us is a just response to our anger toward him.

Regardless of whether we are deeply conservative or very progressive, there are things any the Bible that will cut against us.

Why God’s Anger is Atypical

When we hear a metaphor about Got we have to understand that it is partially true and partially untrue.

To be angry is to be against something. It’s oppositional.

The issue with human anger is that it rarely stays as anger. It can too easily turn to bitterness, violence, and hatred.

Unlike humanity, God’s anger is aroused by love, and never divorced from love.

How God’s Anger is absorbed

Isaiah 51:17

Love in the presence of opposition can often be experienced as anger.

In John 18:11, the cup comes from the Father.

God drinks his own cup. He absorbed the consequences of our sin, and his wrath.

Isaiah 5:1-7
Luke 13:6-9

Sermon Notes

Isaiah intentionally disorients us in his vineyard song.

He begins with a love song and ends in a torrent of judgments against Israel.

The Five Woes:

1. Greed (Isaiah 5:8-10)
2. Disinterest (Isaiah v1-12)
3. Cynicism (Isaiah v18-20)
4. Sophistry (Isaiah v20-21)
5. Injustice (Isaiah v22-23)

Israel forsook God, not by their inward relationship to God, but by their outward oppression of the most vulnerable.

There is a close connection between personal holiness and social justice.

Our desire for connection with God is worthwhile to the degree that it drives us toward the most vulnerable among us.

We love God by honoring his word and we love God by loving his world.

Jesus is still in the business of getting his hands dirty. He still goes to the most lowly and desolate places on in our life to bring resurrection.

Isaiah 3:8-9; 4:2-6

Sermon Notes

Isaiah is given the task of awakening the people of Israel to their infidelity to Yahweh.

Isaiah 3:8-9, 16: What were the sins of Sodom? We assume that it was sexual sin. But the prophet Ezekiel says that they were gluttons, arrogant, and uncaring to the poor. (Ezekiel 16)

How do we apply this passage? How do we persist in our wrong doing?

Baked into our souls is the longing for God’s work and restoration in all of us.

The Righteous Branch is a messianic reference pointing toward Christ. But here in Isaiah it points further, not to the first coming, but the second coming of Christ. Where Yahweh will forever be with his people.

Isaiah 2:6-21

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon Notes

Isaiah 1:1-9
Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon Notes

The Essence:

What sin is.

Isaiah calls sin dumb. It is folly.

Wisdom is not the same thing as intelligence in Scripture.

Sin is trying to swim upstream. It’s being at odds with how things work.

God comes into the story like a passionate mother who cares for her children. Why would you break faith with that God?

The Consequences:

What sin does.

Both of these images have the theme of comprehensiveness. We are totally corrupted by sin.

An individual’s sin affects the whole.

Unity means striving to be the best version of my self for the sake of my community.

Christians know how bad sin is because we know how it gets better.

The Healing:

What God has done.

Things may be at their worst. But God will not abandon us.

God saw us trying to swim up stream and stepped into the river.

Jude 17-25
Matthew 17:15-19

Sermon Notes

When scripture is talking about false teachers, it is not only talking about “cobras” it its talking about people who walk, and talk like Christians.

Scripture doesn’t only talk about good theology, but good actions.

Good orthodoxy (right teaching) ought to lead to good orthopraxy (right practice).

While good theology does not make us immune to sin, it is still deeply important.

Jude implores people to wait for the second coming, when God will enact justice on the false teachers. This period of waiting should lead us to trust God.

Good orthodoxy ought to lead to good worship.

Jude 3 - 14a
Luke 18:9 - 14

Sermon Notes

v5 - Jude introduces the false teachers he’s going to condemn.

The Nature of the Scam
These scam artists are preventing the grace of God and encouraging others to sin.

God’s law was mediated by the angels (Hebrews 2:2 & Galatians 3:19) and these false teachers were trying to prevent the freedom we have in Christ.

These false teachers, in the guise of teaching the Gospel, were teaching that we can do whatever we want, in the freedom of Christ.

Jesus freed us from the curse of the law, and the penalty of not living up to it. But Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.

The Mechanics of the Scam

Jude gives six examples of judgement in the OT. But in the text he does not use these examples against the people he is writing too.

Jude is trying to condemn the false teachers, not those who are following them.

How to Avoid the Scam

Depend on the grace of God, and rely on the church to guide you toward truth.

Jude 1-4
Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon Notes

The nature of our association to Jesus
Our association to Jesus is a personal relationship and meaningful connection to "The Faith"

Divine agency and human responsibility
Three words Jude uses to describe us: called, loved, kept.
Call:
Jude is ascribing to us the value the people of Israel (a people called by God) have in the Old Testament.

Loved:
Jude says we are loved in God, not loved by God. This is an even more intimate love.

Kept:
We are Jesus' treasure and spouse. God the Father is working you life to ensure that we love Jesus.

All these verbs are passive. We simply exists in these identities. But Jude still calls us to action. He holds the tension.

3 John 9-14
Mark 10:35-45

Sermon Notes

John's Warning
The ambition of Diotrephes led to his arrogance.
John is exercising decrement in his critique of Diotrephes.
People with seemingly noble intentions can, in reality, be evil.
People can be out of step with the sprit, even with Scripture is pouring form their lips.
A simple question to ask yourself: "Does this smell like Jesus?"

John's Blessing
John gives a deceptively simple blessing: "Peace to you."
Peace, in scripture is not a negative thing. It's not the absence of conflict, but the presence of flourish.

3 John 1 - 8
Luke 1 - 3

Sermon Notes

1. Good Elders love God's people in the truth.

They care for your entire being. Body, soul and spirit.

2. Good health keeps God's people walking in the truth.

God loves the bodies he has given us. It is through our bodies we interact with the world God made.

3. Good hospitality sustains the truth.

Jesus and his disciples were supported and sustained by the women that were with them.
For the Kingdom of Gos to grow we need to support kingdom work.

We all need elders in the faith. We are not meant to do this life alone.

2 John 1:7 - 13
Gospel Reading

Sermon Notes

Questions we consider from this passage:

1. What is the incarnation?
2. Why in the world is this so important to John?

What is the incarnation?
The Incarnation of Jesus is a holy mystery & holy revelation.
We must begin with a posture of humility when considering the Incarnation.
The Incarnation makes what is beyond our grasp, graspable.
It is a holy expression of God's love to all creation.

Why in the world is this so important to John?
This is a foundational teaching of Christianity.

2 John 1-6
John 14:1-6

Show Notes

While this letter may not be a title track of the New Testament, it is important to our life in Christ.
Truth is the foundation of our fellowship.
2 John 1:2
Not all truth can abide in our hearts.

Truth is a person, not just a set of facts.
Our confidence is not in knowing the truth, but in being known by the Truth

Truth must be paired with love.
We cannot be people of truth without being being people of love.
John 1:5-6
Love is to will or to desire the good of another person.

Matthew 10:1 - 15

Romans 15:17 - 19
Luke 11:14 - 23

Sermon Notes

Prophecy: Telling someone something that God spontaneously brings to mind.

Theology

Jesus declared the coming of the Kingdom of God.
But the Kingdom does not come into neutral territory, the Kingdom comes into occupied territory.
Jesus commissions and empowers his people to do what he did.
Our mission is no different from Jesus and the Apostles: we are to bring the Kingdom close to those who are hurting, broken and outcast.
The promise of spiritual gifts are downstream from the promise of Jesus, that we will receive power from the Holy Spirit to bring the Kingdom to hurting and vulnerable people.

Model

A way of serving people not on the basis of our own resources, but relying on God's resources.
A model for working in the gifts of the Spirit: Simple, Scriptural, Sensitivity
Jesus only did what he saw the Father doing. He was not only empowered by the Holy Spirit, he was also led by the Holy Spirit.

Practice

The more we ask God to do things, the more God is going to do them.
Pray: Holy Spirit, help me see what you see and feel what you feel."

Galatians 5:13 - 26
John 8:21 - 30

Sermon Notes

When Scripture speaks of the "flesh" it is speaking of the spiritual flesh. It is not a reference to our physical bodies. It is our carnal, selfish, and destructive desires.
Life in the flesh destroys the community.
Keeping in stride with the Spirit renews the community.
When we seek to live our days in awareness of the Spirit, the Spirit works to produce fruit within us.

Ephesians 5:15 - 21
John 2:1 - 11

Sermon Notes

Eph 5:18
Paul is casting a vision, painting a picture, of what the church will be like when it is filled with the Spirit.
Worship is not only vertical, there is a horizontal component that connects us to the people around us.
When we speak to God, we are also speaking to each other.

Invincible Gratitude
Eph 5:20
To speak in someone's name is to speak in light of who they are and what they have done.

Joyful Humility
When you are filled with the Spirit you find yourself putting your good below that of another.
When you are in a spirit-filled community, you submit yourselves to one another.

Final Thoughts
We are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Being filled with the Holy Spirit is a passive action. All we can do is put ourselves in the position to receive.
This command is a continuous command, we are exhorted to always be filled with Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:13
We are welcomed into the Christian life through baptism into the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 3:1, 3
You can be baptized into the Spirit, but not be full of the Spirit.

You can't come to Jesus sporadically and expected to be filled with the Spirit continually.

Titus 3:1-8

John 16:4-15

Notes

The Holy Spirit is a common gift!
The Holy Spirit is a trustworthy gift!
If you trust God the Father, trust God the Son, you can trust God the Holy Spirit.
Receiving the Holy Spirit is not about striving to know about the Spirit, it's about abiding in him.

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