Killer worship set this morning by the a2 team featuring three covers.
Jason Helms nailed, “All About Love” by Steven Curtis Chapman.
The team then jumped into two great worship numbers:
“Our God Is Love” by Hillsong
“How He Loves” by Various Artist.
Stephanie Thomas closed out the worship set in prayer, and Darrell Garrett shared an important announcement and creative video on giving. You can check out the video by clicking here. The video was created by a church in CA. Very, very good!
To set up our message, the team covered two item numbers back to back.
First up, Jessica Lamb killed an acoustic cover of “Everlasting Light” by The Black Keys.
The keyboard the segued into “In The Name of Love” by U2. Pure awesomeness.
Chris shared the morning message from 1 John 5:12-21. You can check out the podcast by clicking here or here.
We closed out our worship time by praying for one another as Janet led the song, “Healing Is In Your Hands” by Christy Nockels.
I love what Jesus is doing at a2 Church, and love being a small part. God is good and His Spirit is alive and well at a2! Yay, God! Big time!
LOVE TEST 3.0
PROOF OF LIFE – Part 1
July 17, 2011
Chris Goins
John 10:10 (NIV), The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
QUESTION: Are you experiencing that kind of life?
Factors That Put The “Squeeze” On Life and Joy:
• Relationships that are all “investment” with little, or no apparent return.
• A decreasing capacity to love.
• Chronic worry and hurry.
• Financial pressure. Way too much “month” and far too little “money.”
• A sense of stagnation or superficiality in my relationship with God.
Options:
• You can become brittle, dry, barren and lifeless… You’ll eventually just fall apart… It will happen… You can’t sustain that kind of life over the long haul…
• Or, you can stop relying on your own strength, ability and power to manage these factors, and start relying on the strength, ability, person and power of the Holy Spirit…
NOTES: 1 John 4:12-21 is all about the Holy Spirit ability to empower you to live and love TO THE MAX…
1 John 4:12 (NIV), No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
1 John 4:13-16a (NIV), This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
1 John 4:16b-18 (NIV), God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
1 John 4:19-21 (NIV), We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
How to Live and Love To The Max:
1. You were never meant to do life and love on your own, the Holy Spirit can live and love in you and through you!
1 John 4:12b (NIV), …God lives in us and His love is made complete in us…
1 John 4:13 (NIV), This is how we know that we live in him and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit…
1 John 4:15 (NIV), If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.
(AMP), Anyone who confesses (acknowledges, owns) that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides (lives, makes His home) in him and he [abides, lives, makes his home] in God.
1 John 4:16b (NIV), …God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
What “God Living In You” Means:
• The Holy Spirit is the source of life.
Genesis 1:2 (NIV), Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
Genesis 2:7 (NIV), Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
EXAMPLE: Ezekiel’s Valley of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37)
QUESTION; “Can these bones live? Can there be life where life has totally departed? Can strength, movement, energy, awareness and responsiveness somehow reappear in bones that are disconnected, bleached, lifeless and dry? Is a miracle possible?”
Ezekiel 37:9-10 (MSG), He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man. Tell the breath, ‘GOD, the Master, says, Come from the four winds. Come, breath. Breathe on these slain bodies. Breathe life!’”
10So I prophesied, just as he commanded me. The breath entered them and they came alive! They stood up on their feet, a huge army.
Ezekiel 37: 11-14 (NLT), Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone.’ 12Now give them this message from the Sovereign LORD: O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the LORD. 14I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live…
2 Corinthians 3:6 says, “The Spirit gives life…”
• The Holy Spirit is an internal sin detector.
John 16:8 (NLT), And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.
NOTES: The word convict means "to refute an adversary completely, to prove guilt so as to bring an acknowledgment of the truth of the charge. It implies a successful action against an opponent that results in establishing guilt."
• The Holy Spirit is the real extreme makeover artist.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (NIV), Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
• The Holy Spirit gives you power to be all that God created you to be.
Acts 1:8 (NIV), But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses…
1 Corinthians 12:7, 11 (NLT), A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other… 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.
• The Holy Spirit will pray for you and through you when you’re overwhelmed and in over your head.
Romans 8:26 (NIV84), …the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
2. The big goal of the Holy Spirit is to make you more and more like Jesus.
1 John 4:17 (ESV), By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
3. Insecurity and fear sabotage and undermine relationships, but the perfect love the Holy Spirit produces deals a death blow to them.
1 John 4:18a (NIV), There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear…
1 John 4:18a (AMP), There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror!
4. The Holy Spirit gives us the capacity to love beyond all reason.
Romans 5:5 (NIV), …God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
1 John 4:19-21 (NIV), We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
“Common, too common is the sin of forgetting the Holy Spirit. This is folly and ingratitude… As God, He is good essentially… He is good benevolently, tenderly, bearing with our waywardness, striving with our rebellious wills; quickening us from our death in sin, and then training us for the skies as a loving nurse fosters her child… He is good operatively. All His works are good in the most eminent degree: He suggests good thoughts, prompts good actions, reveals good truths, applies good promises, assists in good attainments, and leads to good results. There is no spiritual good in all the world of which He is not the author and sustainer… They who yield to His influence become good; they who obey His impulses do good, they who live under His power receive good… Let us revere His person, and adore Him as God over all, blessed for ever; let us hourly seek His aid, and never grieve Him; and let us speak to His praise whenever occasions occur. The church will never prosper until more reverently it believes in the Holy Spirit.” — Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Closing Story: The Seminary Student and a Lost Axhead
1 Kings 6:1-7 (NIV), The company of the prophets said to Elisha, “Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. 2 Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a place there for us to meet.”
And he said, “Go.”
3 Then one of them said, “Won’t you please come with your servants?”
“I will,” Elisha replied. 4 And he went with them.
They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees. 5 As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. “Oh no, my lord!” he cried out. “It was borrowed!”
6 The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. 7 “Lift it out,” he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.
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