Rhythms of Endurance – Spirit with Craig Smee
Rhythms of Endurance 4
SPIRIT
Now more than ever, we need to stand/endure.
Stand for what God truly is
Not just stand against human character deterioration.
More than just another human argument or reasoning
Stand for something that this world has never seen.
A church that can truly unite
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Faith = Trust and Obedience
Hope = God focussed imagination.
Love = You Have Been Loved from the Beginning!
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What must I add to my faith, hope, and love so that I can endure?
We have drifted so far from the source of these three that we have begun to believe that they are sourced from our strengths and imaginations…
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When we have “fo” faith, we experience plastic endurance.
When we conjure up hope based on our own imagination, we die because the fire is too hot.
When we fake love, we are divorced before our first wedding anniversary
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Basing it on counterfeit faith, hope, and love.
Self conjured qualities.
Trying to walk through life without the real thing.
When we build our endurance on our own strengths, we will do life in a constant state of exhaustion.(natural)
Love, faith, and hope received and shaped from a divine source lift us from the mundane to the supernatural.
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We try to define it instead of receiving it.
We write beautiful stories about love, make movies about hope, and build religions with various expressions of faith.
A life of faith, hope, and love constructed on our own understanding never lift us to the expansive dream of God; it never inspires us behind what we can imagine and will never see us conquer that which is our greatest fears. But when we are willing to receive in humility a portion and definition of divine faith, hope, and love, our lives transcended the natural, and we are able to walk in an atmosphere of the supernatural.
Pride prevents us from enjoying the wonder of covenanting with a divine being we cannot see, let alone want to obey!
Our lack of supernatural surrender is caused by our inability to receive faith, hope, and love that we have not defined and can comprehend.
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LIFE IS FOUND IN THE PRESENCE OF AND IN RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR SUPERNATURAL GOD
A pathway that God lays out so we can transcend this human conjured quagmire.
John 14:16-17
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
“The born again experience results in a new heart and spirit that leads to a restored relation to God.” Joey Bishop
Ezekiel 36:26-27
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”
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WHY ARE MANY LIVING A SPIRIT-LESS LIFE?
SOME AREN’T AWARE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Acts 19:1-3
While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
SOME RESIST THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Acts 7:51
“You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!
Pride
Blessings and Obedience.
Human society seems to be hell-bent on operating in an authority they have no right to take.
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COUNSELOR HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit is here to help us get through (conqueror) but not just get through be victorious (more than conqueror). He does this by lifting our attention towards Jesus and pressing us to be obedient to the promises of God.
Hebrews 12:1-3
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. 3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.
The Holy Spirit presses you towards the pattern of the Christ!
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THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL…
COMFORT YOU.
John 14:16
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever…
COUNSEL YOU.
John 16:13
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.
Isaiah 30:21
“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’”
CONVICT YOU.
John 16:8-9 When (the Spirit) comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me
CONVICTS TO CONVERT
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THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Acts 1:4-5, 8
On one occasion, while (Jesus) was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit…”But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
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HOLY SPIRIT GIVES YOU THE POWER
1) TO SHARE CHRIST BOLDLY.
1 Corinthians 2:4-5
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
2) WHEN YOU ARE WEAK.
Romans 8:26
In the same way, 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 Corinthians 12:9-10
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me… For when I am weak, then I am strong.
3) TO HAVE HOPE IN A HOPELESS WORLD.
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
4) TO EXPERIENCE ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD.
Ephesians 3:16-19
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
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Now more than ever, the world needs a supernatural response. You are that response! Supernatural faith, supernatural hope, and supernatural love.
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Take Out
- Unfollow or leave a group on Facebook that keeps you in a state of exhaustion or argument.
- What one thing are you seeking God for a supernatural answer?
- Note one thing today where you felt you needed to be immediately obedient. Where you?
- Pray earnestly to have an open heart each day for the Holy Spirit to guide you to supernatural faith, hope, and love.