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| Life through the power of the Spirit |
Life through the power of the Spirit
Ephes. 5:15-20 (NLT)
So be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise. [16] Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days. [17] Don't act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do. [18] Don't be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill and control you. [19] Then you will sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, making music to the Lord in your hearts. [20] And you will always give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I will give four examples of what it looks like when you live by the power of the spirit. You can only have power to live a life that pleases the Lord by the spirit. Are you filled with the spirit then there should be some evidence in your life to prove that you are.
1. Be careful-
a. Psalm 101:2 (NLT) I will be careful to live a blameless life— when will you come to my aid? I will lead a life of integrity in my own home.
b. How can you live a blameless life? It is by the power of the Holy Spirit.
c. Paul told the Ephesians not to live as fools, why did he say that? Well, because the days are evil and we need to take time to do good in these days that other might come to Christ.
d. I think about David how he was careful not to offer something that cost him nothing.
e. I read a story of a preacher who took over a church and the pervious pastor there had introduced secular entertainment for the church, dancing for the young people and bazaars to raise money. So they did not have a move of the Spirit of God in the church. After much prayer, he started preaching against compromise with the world and the use of worldly methods and insisted on scriptural and a prayer life for the people. So people started leaving the church, then the leaders went to the bishop and complained. The bishop’s wife came to the pastor and asked him why was he following methods that were detrimental to the increase of the church. He told her that the former ones were contrary to the word then kneeling. He started praying. He prayed that God would help him and as he was praying, she said, “pray no longer you are right and I am wrong.” There were only two people and they prayed all three of them for one hour and half. After a while, the people started coming back to church and the leaders got saved. They were doing the work of the Lord in the Spirit, in other lands, supporting missionaries and doing the work of the Lord in the apostolic format. -2 Volumes in 1 2400 outlines, notes, Quotes, and anecdotes for sermons by Archiblad Naismith.
2. Know what God wants of you
a. 2 Tim. 1:12 (NLT) And that is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.
b. You have to know where you are going and how you are going to get there.
c. If you do not stand for something then you will fall for anything
d. Psalm 1:2 (NLT) But they delight in doing everything the Lord wants; day and night they think about his law.
e. Paul again told the Ephesians not to act thoughtlessly as if well, I did not know I had to tithe, go to church, help out in the ministry, go to missions or share the word.
i. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has ordained that we should walk in them.- Eph. 2:10
f. I think about Elisha when the poison was put in the stew. He knew what to do and told his servant to put the flour in the stew and it was ok. 2 Kings 4:38-41.
g. A pardon refused.
i. In 1830, a man named George Wilson was sentenced to be hanged for robbery and murder. Andrew Jackson, at that time President of the U.S.A. granted him a pardon. Wilson refused to accept it, and insisted that unless he did so it was not a pardon. The Attorney General said the law was silent on the matter, and referred it to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Marshall gave the following decision: “A pardon is a paper the value of which depends on its acceptance by the person implicated. It is hardly to be supposed that one under sentence of death would refuse to accept a pardon, but if it is refused it is no pardon. George Wilson must be hanged.”- 2 Volumes in 1 2400 outlines, notes, Quotes, and anecdotes for sermons by Archiblad Naismith.
3. Let the spirit lead you
a. Psalm 143:10 (NLT) Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing.
i. Proverbs 20:24 (NLT) How can we understand the road we travel? It is the Lord who directs our steps.
b. Wine is a substitute for the spirit of God it leads you in the wrong direction
c. In this time in Asia, the cults taught that drinking wine gave them unity with the spirit.
d. Even today many Christians have been deceived in to thinking that they can drink a glass of wine and many have just kept on going into drinking many glasses becoming drunk.
e. Addictions operate in people that do not let the Spirit lead them.
f. I think about our Lord Jesus Christ how the Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Luke 4:1. Who leads you?
4. See God in everything
a. Psalm 24:1 (NLT) A psalm of David. The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him.
b. Do you see God in your pain, in your hurts, in your joy, in your blessings?
c. We see in the life of Job how God was in control of everything that the devil had permission to do to Job.
d. I see God bringing you to this church because I have been praying for some of you for years.
e. I think about Paul and Silas when they were in Jail they saw themselves as being led by the Spirit and they started praising the Lord. Act 16:25-33. Prayer and Praise are spiritual weapons that turn our hearts to God in expectancy that He alone is our help. Notice that they did not whine and complain.
When you live by the Spirit, and by the way there is only one way to live and that is by the Spirit, you understand that God knows everything that we go through. In fact He orders our steps as it says in Psalms 37:23.
1 John 3:19-20 (NLT)
It is by our actions that we know we are living in the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before the Lord, [20] even if our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
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Posted by pastoral on 2009-11-03 16:27:37 | Rating: | Views: 4
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