GRACE FOR ALL CHILDREN - July 1, 2012

ME

What if I told you today that the Holy Spirit has been revealing to the church both locally and worldwide the most fertile demographic to bring the grace of Jesus to? If we could tell you today which group, if you brought them the Kingdom, would respond the most favorably, would you get excited? If we told you today where your evangelism could be most effective, would you be inspired to action?

•          This group comprises 1.2 Billion people worldwide.

•          In Champaign County alone, there are approximately 27,000 people in this group alone.

•          According to the researcher George Barna, the “spiritual identity is set” during this group, so there is a perfect opportunity to both lead them to Jesus (evangelism) and teach them the truth of His gospel of grace (discipleship).

•          This group is so technologically savvy (and at home with technology) that worldwide they are allowing long-held strongholds of belief & tradition to be broken down… what an opportunity to destroy satan’s lies with the truth of the gospel of grace!

•          Finally, 85% of first time converts to the gospel happen during this time.

•          In fact, in my home alone 2 of the 5 of us fit this demographic.

We want to talk with you today about bringing the gospel of grace to the “4-14 Window”... which simply means this: How do we become a church that is focused on bringing the Kingdom to every child between the ages of 4 and 14?

Here at the Vineyard, we believe that all of the kids get to play. In Kingdom Kids and in my family, every week our children are learning to pray for each other, share Jesus with others, and be an extension of God’s Kingdom to a lost and broken world.

Prayer & Welcome

WE

We don’t want this to be guilt-driven experience today. We don’t want you to walk away feeling like you should have done more with your own kids or that you should be doing more now. Rather, we want to show you the incredible opportunity that we have both in our own lives and in our churches.

We’ve been trying to motivate our church to action all year long:

1)to extend God’s Kingdom in every area of your lives.

2)to be intentional and naturally supernatural with every person that you meet.

As a parent of 3, I know that I have windows of time that are best to train my kids in things. The first 6 months are about “sleep training,” the next 6 are about “eating & walking,” then teaching other boundaries, potty training and so on.

I am now given a blueprint of the best years (4-14) to do the spiritual training of my kids. To demonstrate and have them partner in Kingdom ministry with me now, so that they will be free and brave to do it on their own as they grow a little older.

You’d think it strange if I was still changing my kids’ diapers at 10 years old. You’d think, “didn’t someone tell him to stop doing that like 7 years ago and potty train his kids?!”

Well you and I have been given a plan of the best years to be “Funnels of God’s Grace to the Children.”

Matthew 19:14 But Jesus said, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.” 15 And he placed his hands on their heads and blessed them before he left.

In the Vineyard, we are Kingdom of God people! I’m excited today to think about the opportunity before us. We have:

•          The amazing message of the gospel (share the gospel message here).

•          A group of 27,000 people in Champaign County that are hungry and are the most likely to give their lives to the gospel.

•          The Holy Spirit within us to empower us to action as we funnel God’s grace to the children of our community.

GOD

Let’s take a few minutes to unpack what Jesus has to say about children and funneling the Kingdom towards them. Then, we will unpack some practical things that you can do individually and that we can do as a church.

Mathew 18

1 About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” 2 Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. 3 Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. 4 So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

A)        I think that Jesus understood the 4-14 Window better than anyone ever has. He understood that great fruit for the Kingdom would come through children. But, even beyond that, He seemed to grasp that when we are younger, we are more receptive to what the gospel of grace could do in and through us.

B)        So truth #1 for us from Jesus is this: Before you can funnel the Kingdom to children, you need to become like them!

C)        This is so important for us. We must put aside or past and be born anew in God’s grace so that when we funnel the Kingdom to children, they will receive only who Jesus is in us and not the dead person we used to be.

D)        We need to walk in our identity as kids of the King, so that we can funnel the King to the kids.

5 “And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me. 6 But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.

And verse 10 “Beware that you don’t look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father.

A)        The second truth that Jesus seems to be saying is this: I want you to make the most of your opportunities to funnel the Kingdom towards children.

B)        In another passage, the apostles are actually trying to keep parents from bringing their kids to Jesus for Him to teach and bless them. Jesus strongly corrects the disciples and then spends significant time laying hands and blessing the kids.

C)        I think Jesus knew this might have been His one opportunity with those families. He laid aside His busy schedule of teaching and healing to extend the Father’s heart to those kids. In fact, you see Him over and over again going to the aid of children who need healing, who need the Kingdom to show up powerfully in their lives.

D)        Jesus wraps up this teaching with a very familiar parable that we’ve traditionally applied to all evangelism, but Jesus seems to be aiming it right at how we funnel the Kingdom towards children.

12 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? 13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! 14 In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.

A)        Our final truth from Jesus is this: When you have the Father’s heart, you will stop at nothing to funnel the Kingdom to every child.

B)        I don’t know about you, but when I read this parable in light of my own kids, it really motivated me. If one of my 3 kids wandered from the gospel, I would leave my 2 who were solid in a heartbeat to pursue the one who was lost.

C)        I would be on my knees every day in prayer for that child. I would talk to them every day about how much Jesus loves them and will never leave them. I would try and surround them with kids who know the truth of the gospel… and if they returned to faith in Jesus… I’d definitely throw a party!

D)        And there’s no getting around this: every child (all 1.2 billion around the world and all 27,000 in Champaign county) is our heavenly Father’s child. And He is excited to pursue them. He is excited to use us as His Kingdom Funnels to this generation.

YOU

Again, this gets me excited to think that we get to partner with the King to bring His Kingdom to a generation that is ready for the truth of the gospel of grace!

So, when we look at action steps, I think we need to focus on 2 areas: both local church initiatives and international partnerships.

Grace funneled LOCALLY to children

1)        Crescendo initiative – spend significant time talking about how one of our main focuses in the campaign is reaching the next generation.

2)        Kingdom Kids & middle school Revolution – how can you be involved?

3)        Your family – for those who are parents, reminder of the high calling on parents, the incredible opportunity, and how kids today still say mom and dad are their greatest influence. Doing the stuff of the Kingdom in your family is very important. Tell stories of kids praying for us & each other.

4)        Some of you may even decide to expand your influence to children as you invite more kids into your home… through your own kids, through doing a kid-focused small group, or even through foster-care and adoption.

Take a look at this VIDEO TESTIMONY (sorry no link here) by the Campions sharing how they decided to funnel God’s grace towards more children.

Quite a good testimony! Tom and Sherri were able to extend God’s grace & expand their family beyond what they’d even planned for their family. Let me share one more story of adoption:

My friend Jon Wallis and his wife have 5 children of their own. After they were done with their biological family, they began to feel the call to bless other kids with the grace of Jesus. They now have 15 more children they have adopted from several different countries. They truly are living out the call on their lives to funnel God’s grace to kids both locally and all over the world.

WE

Many of us will not adopt 15 more kids into our homes, but we can still partner with Jesus to funnel God’s grace all over the world to kids from many different countries. In fact, you’ll get a chance to begin that process today!

1)        Reminder of the 4-14 window (830,000+ of the 1.2 billion or ¾ are in the 10/40 missions window).

2)        World Vision

a)    Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with kids, families and communities to reach their full potential. Focused on poverty and injustice.

b)   100 million people in nearly 100 countries.

c)    Motivated by faith they serve alongside the poor and oppressed to demonstrate God’s unconditional love.

d)   Provide daily needs and partner with churches and individuals to encourage spiritual transformation.

e)    Global infrastructure enables them to quickly respond to survivors of hurricanes, earthquakes, famines, civil wars and outbreaks of disease.

3)        Compassion International

a)    Compassion International exists as a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty and enables them to become responsible, fulfilled Christian adults.

b)   Founded in 1952, Compassion began providing Korean War orphans with food, shelter, education and health care, as well as Christian training.

c)    Today, Compassion helps more than 1.2 million children in 26 countries

4)        Tell people about the opportunity to partner with both of these missions in the commons over the next 2 weekends.

5)        Share our experience with a Compassion child. Maybe share Thad’s story of running for WVision.

We have been given an amazing opportunity as a church and as Kingdom people. Whether you are like me and have 3 little lives to pour into every day OR you have to get intentional & seek out opportunities through the Vineyard and/or one of missions today, the harvest is plentiful!

Let’s get motivated today that the King wants to partner with each and every one of us to tell & demonstrate the Kingdom (Psalm 78:4 – “We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders.”) to the 4-14 Window. We get to be His funnels of grace to this generation.

ADAM: prayer & offering

MINISTRY TIME: 

1)        brokenness from your own childhood

2)        loss of grace for your own kids

3)        realized your giftings and callings today

CRESCENDO of MERCY & COMPASSION - March 17, 2012

WELCOME & Introduce Myself

Include that this is a unique opportunity to share at our campus alone.

In January of 2006, my wife Corrie and I’s lives changed forever. That month, her feet began to swell to twice their size, she couldn’t sleep and about every 4 days we were going up to Bethesda North hospital in Cincinnati asking “Is it time?” You see, we were the typical first time parents: excited, worried, hesitant, wondering if it will be a boy or a girl and thrilled to begin this new chapter of our marriage together.

Then, the night of January 18^th rolls around. Corrie’s water broke at 11pm. We go into the hospital and they admit Corrie. We’re up all night. The grandparents are driving in from Champaign and from Detroit. My kids’ pastors go to Taco Bell to bring me a midnight snack J. I get everything covered for the next few days at work. And on the 19th at 3pm EST, our firstborn Ezekiel Wesley was born.

What an amazing experience as my wife shouts outs “it’s a boy!” before the Dr. could even say anything. What emotion sweeps over you when you hold your kid for the first time! I can remember like it was yesterday, the compassion for that little life that we’d never met before.

Since then, we’ve had 2 girls (Ethne & Eydie) and the same kind of deep emotion, deep love, and deep compassion have flooded our hearts for each of them.

The day your child is born you give your whole heart to that little life. When you fall in love with your spouse, it will sometimes take years of courtship. It takes time to get to know each other and develop intimacy. With children, it’s like a lightning bolt.

And you are God’s child.

Which means: when He saw you in your mother’s womb before you were born, even then, He was completely in love with you. I think the dilemma for many of us is that we don’t always feel like we are loved, so it’s hard to extend mercy and compassion to others. Does God really have that kind of compassion & mercy for us?

Matthew 9: 35-38 Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”

There are a few key things that we can learn from this passage. First, that Jesus has deep feelings for us. In fact, the word “compassion” in this passage actually means that Jesus was actually FILLED WITH deep feeling for the crowds.

Now, I want to try something very bold today. I want you to close your eyes and put yourself in a state of receiving. For some this will mean, opening your arms or bowing your heads or just raising you palms (demonstrate also). I want to pray right now, that all of you will receive a touch from the Father’s heart. I think we all need to experience how God feels about us before we go forward. We all know in our heads that He was willing to send Jesus to earth… to become human… to live and experience our life… to go to the cross… to become sin so that we might be free… but I also want us to experience that deep compassion this morning. I want you to know how the Father feels about you!

PRAYER for the crowd to receive the compassion of the Father.

The second thing we can learn is that Jesus demonstrated His compassion and mercy everywhere He went.

The compassion that was in Jesus compelled Him to share God’s love wherever He went. And the same Holy Spirit that was in Jesus is in us. If that is true, then all we have to do is ask the Father for a “Crescendo of mercy and compassion” for those around us. You see, His heart is to extend His passion for His kids through us.

Currently at the Urbana campus of the Vineyard, we have a really strong compassion team and several great programs. But, through this message and this season of “Crescendo,” we want to see an increased intensity of mercy and compassion for the community around us… and we want YOU to jump in!

Let’s take a look at some of the tremendous things that we already do (some details in the program):

·      Food pantry

·      Recovery Programs – HJ, GS, Dcare, freedom groups

·      Prison ministry – always need greeting card volunteers

·      Kindness outreach

·      RUM partnership – March 25^th @ 12:30pm – launching monthly outreaches

During this “Crescendo” season, we really want to highlight our new “Hope Center”:

·      Hope Center Vision: The Vineyard HC is a community outreach ministry where we serve men, women and children by providing them with spiritual and practical resources. In addition we want to connect them to other services in the community that may be able to support them in their daily lives. We are open to guests from the community and our church with a specific need. We begin by assessing their current situation and discovering their most critical needs in order to offer help. All of our services are free of charge to the participants.

·      What happens at our HC? Services vary on different evenings and from month to month. We are constantly adding and rotating services for our participants. Current services include haircuts, wellness appointments, oil changes, and home/ healthcare supplies. In addition to this, we also offer classes related to particular needs from month to month.

·      In the future we hope to add a number of other services. Some of these will include additional food resources, legal services, dental care, job preparation (making resumes, job training, etc.), English as a Second Language, reading classes, classes (finance, marriage, parenting, etc.), recovery classes (addictions, divorce, tragedy, etc.), and a number of others.

·      The Urbana campus HC started as a program monthly on Monday nights here at the church building. Over the past year, the HC team and the FP team worked to find a building where they could house both ministries.

·      We are pleased to announce that the HC and FP are now just a few blocks north of the Urbana campus. Next Sunday, we will be having an “open house” for any and all people to take a walk through and see their new facility.

·      Also, BAGS (have one for example) were placed on your chairs today. These were given out for the home and health care collection. (Explain in more detail) These are to be returned by Easter April 8.

All of this is to give the Urbana campus as many opportunities as possible to share God’s mercy and compassion with our city. If we are a “community of hope,” then we can’t keep it to ourselves. Christ’s compassion for us compels us to extend His compassion to our community around us.

This all sounds pretty good, but you may be asking what makes us different from other community organizations? What makes us unique in Champaign-Urbana? We think it’s simply this: that we come with the Good News of the Kingdom AND the demonstration of the Kingdom.

Let me share with you a story from our HC that also includes our pastoral care team:

Olivia Wills became a guest of the Hope Center in September of 2011. She shared her three main goals in coming to the Hope Center:

•          Improve mobility

•          Lost weight

•          Volunteer with senior needs as she has a Master’s Degree in Gerontology

In November she returned after having surgery on October 17th. It was discovered Olivia had uterine cancer and would have more surgery on November 25th. Her doctor was checking on healthcare after surgery thru Medicare as Olivia’s family and husband were unable to care for her.

The Life Encouragement interviewer referred her to cuvolunteer.com as a source of assistance and suggested she join one of The Vineyard’s small groups for folks over 50 for further prayer and assistance. Of course, the Life Encouragement interviewer prayed for her healing.

The interviewer asked if there was a prayer team available to pray with Olivia the day of her surgery. An email message was sent to Ricky Merriman to have his team pray with her the day of her surgery.

Olivia returned to the Hope Center in January. What a story she had to share with her Life Encouragement interviewer!! She was completely healed! A lot of blood was ordered for her but she shared she didn’t lose any blood during her surgery. She did not require the chemotherapy and radiation treatments, as there was no cancer. She was so happy; she patted her head and replied, “I didn’t lose any hair either!!” How did this happen?

Ricky’s prayer team did arrive on the day of her surgery and they prayed. Then her doctor came in and prayed with them. Olivia replied, “It was a done deal. God was with me and my doctor!”

When asked how this all made her feel? “I just want to work in this Hope Center! I will help in anything. You know I have a degree in Gerontology. Just put me to work, please! I am so grateful.” Tears formed in Olivia eyes and her interviewer appreciated the awesomeness of God’s goodness with her. Both Olivia and her interviewer walked out of the Hope Center on clouds of joy and grace!

I want to pull one final truth from the Matthew 9 passage: Jesus wants to help us show compassion to our city. He doesn’t tell us that there’s a big job out there and not enough people …now have fun figuring it out. No! He tells us to ask Him for help. He wants to partner with us to see our city transformed through the compassion of the Father, through the demonstration of His Kingdom.

Let me share one final text with you from 1 Peter 4:7-11 (The MSG) “Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God's words; if help, let it be God's hearty help. That way, God's bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he'll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!”

We want you to be generous during this “Crescendo” season with God’s compassion that has been deposited in your life.

·      Be generous with love both in the church and outside it.

·      Be generous with your hospitality (meals & beds).

·      Be generous with the words of life God has given you.

·      Be generous with your hands to help a neighbor.

·      Be generous with Jesus so that He will shine in our city.

It doesn’t matter how you do it or where you jump in, what does matter is that we are moved to action. That we are moved to compassion in every area of our lives to the glory of God.

Prayer & Introduce Offering

WATER IS ALWAYS STRONGER THAN STONE -July 3, 2011

ME

(Sarcastically) Every year, over 5 million visitors go to Arizona to see the Colorado River. It’s quite an amazing river covering 1,450 miles, touching five states and parts of Mexico. What an amazing and powerful creation of God the Colorado River is!

Of course, most of those visitors get caught up by The Grand Canyon because of its immense size (277 miles long and 18 miles wide and over a mile deep). Now, the GC is amazing, but the Colorado has created 7 canyons and carved even more valleys. Not to mention that it’s banks have helped create some of our most beautiful lakes (Powell & Mead).

What makes the Colorado so amazing is it’s power over stone and rock. Water is always stronger than stone. If Happy & Di could’ve waited for a couple of hundred years looking out into the ocean on top of that cliff, eventually, the water would have made their choice for them as the edge of the cliff would have slowly eroded.

WE

But our brains don’t work that way, do they? When we look at our lives and analyze our struggles and our “mountains,” we are convinced that they are too hard to conquer… we are sure that our mountain cannot be moved.

For most of us, that mountain/struggle is something that we are personally dealing with that we cannot figure out how to avoid/ get around it …and no way it will never not be a struggle, right !?

·      An addiction.

·      A relationship.

·      A sin you can’t shake

·      An emotional issue.

·      A mental leap (of faith) that seems impossible.

No matter your struggles…

Water is stronger than stone. The Holy Spirit in you is stronger than anything you face in this life including sin & death.

PRAYER

Welcome & Campuses

 GOD – Look up Romans 8 in your Bibles.

Today, we want to teach you how to let go of your rock and embrace the waters

…how to really believe you are “advertisements for the future”

…how to embrace Romans 8:1-2

“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.” (This is the power of the gospel!)

Our major problem is our SARKS:

(What’s that?) Every once in awhile, the English translation of a Greek word in our Bibles is a little rough. Romans 8 has one of those words. Sarks/sarkos is translated many different ways:

·      NLT – sinful nature

·      MESSAGE – self

·      CEV – our desires

·      NIV/KJV– flesh or sinful flesh (probably the closest)

·      GREEK – the material of which the human is composed – your carcass J This expresses the frailty of the human creature.

·      NOTE: this is not about the physical weakness but sin… not cancer, disease or baldness, but disobedience of the king.

Our major problem with living a life of freedom in the power of the Spirit is that we believe stone is stronger than water. We believe our “sarks” can overpower the Holy Spirit.

Why is this?

Probably, because we are always trying to do things ourselves. Probably, because we haven’t been brave enough to jump off the cliffs. Probably, because we don’t understand the full power of the Holy Spirit to help us. Probably, because we don’t BELIEVE that water is stronger than stone.

So, how does the Holy Spirit, THE GIFT OF “live-in help,” show that strength in our lives?

 When we’re filled with the Spirit, the flesh cannot win. (already/not yet?)

·      “5 Those who are dominated by the SARKS think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your SARKS control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the SARKS is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their SARKS can never please God. (they are not believers!) 9 But you are not controlled by your SARKS. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) 10 And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.”

·      We have the same power in us that Jesus did when he conquered the grave!

·      You don’t have to give in to your body.

·      “Nowhere does Paul describe Christian life, life in the Spirit, as one of constant struggle with the flesh.” G Fee

·      The Holy Spirit is sufficient/grace is sufficient for our weaknesses.

·      This does not mean that temptation (or the occasional action) will not take place, but it does mean “no condemnation.”

·      SARX is before Jesus changed us… Spirit life is after conversion.

TRANSITION: Jesus came in the very thing we battle (sarx)! We don’t view Jesus as hindered or controlled by sarx, so why should we live in that place? (8:37) We are “more than conquerors” as we partner with the Spirit!

When we’re filled with the Spirit, our sonship cannot be removed.

·      Do you believe you are a son/daughter of God? That you are adopted into the family?

·      “14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.”

·      We who follow Jesus have been born of water and Spirit… Our adoption ceremony is over… you are in the family!

·      In “Slavery to Sonship,” author Jack Frost discusses our troubles with this “adoption/sonship principle” arise from our lack of basic trust. And, that basic trust needs to be restored daily by the Holy Spirit so that we are able to receive the love of the Father.

·      So we need to understand: “You are not alone. From the moment you were conceived in your mother’s womb, God has not left nor forsaken you. He has promised not to leave you feeling like an orphan. He will come to you. There has never been a moment in time when God has not pursued you with His love and sought to purify, cleanse and restore you.”

Which leads us to our 3^rd gift from our “live in help”:

When we’re filled with the Spirit, we cannot be separated from God’s love! (Important to share grace and gospel here!)

·      (8:35) Can anything separate us?

·      “38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

·      The Holy Spirit is our teacher that God’s love is always near.

·      He leads and empowers us through all things: times of success and times of weakness.

·      God’s love is discovered through the story of Jesus & guaranteed by the Holy Spirit (reference?).

YOU – Focus on the PERSON of the Holy Spirit in this section!

Now that you are confident in your identity J and because we have already won, it’s time to invade the kingdom of darkness with the Kingdom of Light… and become the advertisements of the future that God has made you to be.

·      When facing mountains, the Holy Spirit helps us pray. “26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.”

·      When facing mountains, the Holy Spirit will use everything to your advantage. “28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

·      When facing mountains, the Holy Spirit will fight for us. “31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?”

·      8:4 in the Message says to, “Simply embrace what the Holy Spirit is doing!”

WE – Where do we go from here?

George Hunter writes in THE CELTIC WAY OF EVANGELISM that, “A tiger will defeat a lion in battle; but five lions will defeat five tigers because the lions fight together and the tigers do not, so the five lions take on one tiger at a time. Each Celtic tribe was a formidable tiger in battle, greatly respected and feared. The Romans, with legendary strength in organization and coordination, were the lions in the lengthy series of battles against the specific tribes…”

You see as Spirit filled followers of Jesus, our greatness against the kingdom of darkness is truly unleashed in the context of community. When we move together, God is most perfectly revealed in us. Although the force of one person fully committed to God is awesome, it’s nothing compared to all of us moving together.

What do I mean by this?

1.     Corporate Prayer/Worship (staff praying together)

2.     Small groups

3.     Power evangelism teams

4.     Doing life together/ Accountability

5.     United service

Life in the Spirit is not passive and not for a passive people…

We need to become RHINOS!

We all know that a group of fish is a school, birds are flocks, cattle are herds, etc. But, a group of Rhinos is called a “crash.” This is a great name for several reasons:

1)they weigh a lot,

2)they have large horns,

3)they can run over 30mph (squirrels can only reach 26mph), and

4)most importantly, they can only see 30 feet in front of them.

You’d think their poor eyesight would make them fearful, but it doesn’t. As children of God, filled with the Holy Spirit and united in purpose, we need to become a “crash.” Who cares that we can only see 30 feet away? Whatever’s at 31 feet needs to start caring that WE ARE headed their way…

…for water is stronger than stone.

…the Spirit is more powerful than our struggles.

…light is more powerful than darkness.

PRAYER