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The Church Is…
Equipped
Sunday 27 September 2020
VLC Brownwood – Ps Craig Smee
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The Church is the collective average of its members.
If we want a church that embraces, lives from, worships within, and promotes the story of Jesus, then we have to be doing the same.
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The collective average is not where Jesus needs His church to be or He would have returned. (Matthew 224:14)
To truly transform we need to grow and develop individually as much as we grow and develop corporately.
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2 PETER 1:3 (NLT)
By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.
We have been equipped already…We have everything we need in our hand.
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The church has become, for the large part, ineffective, irrelevant, and mediocre because it waits on God to move. All the while God has equipped, completed and activated all that is needed for us to move.
We have become, for the large part, ineffective, irrelevant, and mediocre because we wait on God to move. All the while God has equipped, completed and activated all that is needed for us to move.
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If the Church was one person… Let’s call him Mr Church
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MR CHURCH ACCEPTS JESUS
2 PETER 1:3 (NLT)
By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.
Jesus came to restore the relationship (by coming to know Him) between man and the Father. He came to establish a group of people that would identify the power that already existed in them because of what the Father HAS done in them.
He called that group of people the chosen ones (ecclesia) and that group is known as the Church.
He then declared that after His departure back to Heaven a new era would occur – we know that as the church era (man-made) but Jesus gave us a different take on this era.……………………………………………………………………………
JOHN 16:7
But in fact, it is best for you that I go away because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you.
JOHN14:15-17
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and 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[a] in you.
Jesus was an advocate of the Fathers work
The Holy Spirit was an advocate of Jesus’ work
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MR CHURCH IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT
Instead of this new era being one where the church would form up rules and traditions and hoops to jump through, he intended Mr. Church to die to the flesh and to man-made thinking and become born again in the Spirit.
If the church is the average of its members and all members need to be born of the Spirit, surely the Church would be behaving like they were truly born again. I can believe in Jesus but not be truly born again.
JOHN 3:5-8
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
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BUT MR CHURCH IS STILL CAMPING AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS
MARK 16:19
When the Lord Jesus had finished talking with them, he was taken up into heaven and sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.
You need to be able to see by the Spirit to see where Jesus is now. You need to be able to see by the Spirit to see what Jesus HAS ALREADY accomplished in you.
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The church is stuck in the Jesus only age because he appeared in the flesh and we have not transitioned (transformed) to being a collective of people truly equipped and living by the Holy Spirit
Mr. Church needs to stop living by his flesh, by what he can see, what he can understand, what he can control and start living in the freedom of faith.
Stop trying to define everything according to our understanding. LIVING by the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) is getting over everything your flesh will tell you is normal.
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THE FLESH IS CONTRARY TO THE SPIRIT
We often reshape our perception of Him into what WE want to believe or how WE want to feel about others, BUT Jesus came to bring us the SPIRIT OF TRUTH about God and His plan for us, and it doesn’t always sound like what you may think.
Hating your enemies is normal
Receiving is better than giving
You don’t need to forgive
Go do what makes you happy
You won’t have bad days
You will always get what you deserve
Anything that presses our flesh towards the Spirit and Truth is us in fact walking out the supernatural.
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ROMANS 8:13
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
ROMANS 8:5
Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.
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The Church HAS BEEN Equipped
Jesus wanted Mr. Church to reach his full redemptive potential. So when Mr. Church was willing and ready to submit completely not just to Jesus but also to the counsel of the Holy Spirit, he would begin to see the equipping through special spiritual gifts for others and not just Jesus induced life improvements program.
Believing in Jesus gets you to know that you are good enough to be loved by Him. (Belonging)
Working with the Holy Spirit gets you equipped to show that love to others. (Testimony)
The Church will only press on to its full redemptive potential when it moves past its self-improvement phase and presses into the Holy Spirit age of being equipped and ready right where we are.
Moses eg.
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Most Christians believe that God can do anything, but many of them believe He hasn’t done very much. They live in a constant state of trying to get God to do something. They are begging God to move through a revival, healing, prosperity, etc. They run from meeting to meeting, trying to get something from God.
When times are tough, sickness is rampant, finances scarce or relationships rocky instead of being guided by the Spirit the look to the miracles of Jesus.
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EQUIPPED THROUGH PREPARATION
Ecclesiastes 9:11 – Things will happen to us. But the Holy Spirit has gifts of wisdom and foresight that if we allow Him to prepare us and train us to use, may help us to avoid worse consequences to our decisions, or help us make better decisions in the first place.
This kind of life keeps us on a spiritual equilibrium. No desperation just preparation!
No preparation time with God is wasted time.
“Huh? Why am I reading this scripture?”
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CARED FOR BY INTERVENTION
The Holy Spirit will intervene, miracles do happen! If we find ourselves becoming miracle hunters, it is time to check if we are listening and being counseled by the Holy Spirit.
You have already been given everything you need, every gift and spiritual ability has been made whole in you through faith (which was also given to you) but that needs to be yearned (faith) for not learned for (human understanding)
He will care for you through the trauma but He is just as dedicated to prepare you to powerfully walk through difficulties. Cared For by the Holy Spirit
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WALKING IN A STATE OF BEING EQUIPPED
Upping the collective average
Prayerful Vigilance
Focussed Diligence
Faithful Resilience
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A Spirit-filled, Spirit-led church (Equipped Church):
…will be a collection of people that don’t just believe in Jesus but seek their full redemptive potential by pressing into the wonder of being born again in the Spirit.
…will be alive with change and crackling with energy and passion without extremism that chases after miracles but simply celebrates them.
…will focus on the balance the Spirit brings in their lives and not only on ecstatic experiences.
…revels in the grace and glory of Jesus Christ.
…will come to worship and other meetings with excited expectation and not out of a sense of duty
… In a truly Spirit-filled and Spirit-led church visitors will come to see what God is doing among them. They will testify that “God is busy” there. Lives will be transformed in noticeable ways.
…will see the manifestation the fruit of the Spirit, including joy, and the gifts of the Spirit, including many of the gifts like prophecy, words from God
…will be open to the unpredictability of the Spirit in the midst of honoring past and future generations.
…will leave space for the Spirit to move and work in ways that transcend traditional forms.
…will believe in and pray for supernatural interventions of the Spirit in delivering people from bondage to sin and sickness AND at the same time helping others be guided by the Spirit towards a lifestyle that honors God.
…will include testimonies of both the preparing and caring of the Holy Spirit. Testimonies that give all the credit and glory to God alone. (No great spotlight will be shining down on the pastor or evangelist or “prayer warrior,” etc.)
…will lay all decisions before God for guidance and direction.
…will be outwardly-focused with a strong sense of participation in the community. It will expend energy and resources on meeting the spiritual and material needs of the communities outside the church.