Tag: Community

Why Do You Want the Spirit?

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Here are my notes for the fourth session of The Forgotten God, by Francis Chan, which includes questions for my Poster-TheForgottenGodsmall group, quotes from the book, and other observations. Remember these are notes, and not a complete article on the topic. Please purchase the book to support the author.

The first step in reversing the neglect of the Holy Spirit is to desire to see him at work in us. So ask, “Why do you want him?” We can’t assume our hearts are right in our motivation. Why does it matter?

What are a few possible motivations for desiring the Holy Spirit?

Can you detect any of these in your heart?

Read Acts 8:9-24

It appears that Simon was intrigued by the power of the Holy Spirit. Why did he want the Spirit?

What would Simon’s motivation look like if it were transferred into the American church today? Have you seen examples of this in your church experience?

Peter calls Simon’s motivation into question. Seeing the Spirit working is one thing, but your heart must be in the right place. What is the purpose of the Spirit working in a believer’s life?

  • The Spirit works to glorify God (John 16:14)
  • We work to glorify God (Matthew 5:16)

When was the last time you saw someone do something amazing, yet received all the glory for himself?

When was the last time you saw someone do something amazing, yet all the glory went to God?

Jesus was very clear that their mission could not be accomplished on their own, they needed the power of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 1-2)

We fixate on flashy manifestations of the Spirit, but when a proud person exhibits humility, is this any less supernatural?

What are some less glamorous ways the Holy Spirit’s power can be manifested in a person’s life.

Why are these expressions just as powerful?

Another trap we can fall into: we could be trying to lead the Spirit. We start with our dreams and desires then ask the Holy Spirit to accomplish our plans.

Practically, what does it look like to be led by the Spirit rather than trying to lead the Spirit for your purposes?

What is the right reason for desiring the Spirit?

  • 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, it is for the common good.
  • 1 Corinthians 12:31, there is a more excellent way: love people placed in our lives.

If we are open to the Spirit’s working in our lives, we must first let go of things that keep us from close fellowship with him.

Having the Spirit is not about being everything you want to be, but about God working through you to help people around you grow.

If the proper motivation for desiring the Spirit is love, ask yourself how much you love the people around you. Francis Chan challenged us in the room to speak the truth in love, and recognized how difficult this is for people to do this…

  • Are you willing and humble to do this for someone else?
  • Are you willing and humble enough to receive this from others?

Francis Chan Quotes from The Forgotten God:

  • Recently, a man dying of cancer asked the church elders to anoint him with oil and pray for his healing. Before we prayed, however, I asked the man a question I don’t normally ask: “Why do you want to be healed? Why do you want to stay on this earth?” The man, as well as everyone else around, seemed a bit surprised that I would ask such a blunt question. The reason I probed like this is because in the epistle of James, we are reminded that we often don’t receive the answers to our prayers because we ask for the wrong reasons: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3). Our desire to live should be for the sake and glory of the God who put us on this earth in the first place.
  • Right now I want you to take a break from reading and spend some time asking yourself why you want the Holy Spirit. Is it for power? Is it for your own betterment and purposes? Or is it because you want to experience all that God has for you? Is it because you love the church and desire to be a better servant to your sisters and brothers?
  • First Corinthians 12 tells us that each follower of Christ is given a “manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7). As we’ve seen, these manifestations, or gifts, are “empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills” (1 Corinthians 12:11). So these reflections of the Spirit’s presence and activity in us have nothing to do with our natural abilities, and we have not received them because we have earned or somehow deserve them. Since these gifts come according to God’s will and not ours, it should be clear that they should not be used for our own boasting or entertainment.
  • The Holy Spirit has given you a supernatural ability to serve the people God has placed around you. If God cares enough about His church to give you this Spirit-empowered ability, shouldn’t you care enough about the church to use that gift for the same purpose?
  • The Holy Spirit works to glorify Christ (John 16:14), yet so many who emphasize the Holy Spirit seem to draw attention to themselves. The Corinthian church was notorious for this.
  • I have yet to meet someone who wouldn’t want to see a miracle. My concern is that I’ve met many people whose pursuit of miracles is greater than their pursuit of God. A lot of people want to talk about supernatural things like miracles, healing, or prophecy. But focusing inordinately on these things quickly becomes misguided. God calls us to pursue Him, not what He might do for us or even in our midst.
  • It used to be that if I had a great worship experience, I asked God to duplicate it the next time I came to worship. Like the kid impressed by a silly magic trick, I would pray, “Do it again!” One thing I’ve learned about God over the years, however, is that He rarely “does it again.” He’s the Creator, which means that He is (among other things) creative.
  • The Spirit is not a passive power that we can wield as we choose. The Spirit is God, a Being who requires that we submit ourselves to be led by Him. Do you really want to be led? Even people who are natural leaders don’t get to lead the Spirit. Everyone is called to be led by Him.
  • What if He asks you to give up something you’re not ready to give up? What if He leads you where you don’t want to go? What if he tells you to change jobs? To move? Are you willing to surrender to Him, no matter where He wants to take you? Am I?
  • The fact is that God is calling. The Spirit is beckoning. The real question is will you follow? Will you listen? I know I prefer a multiple-choice option for what God is asking me to do. That way, if I don’t like A or B, there are always options C and D. Sometimes, of course, this is exactly how the Spirit leads us. There can be two equally good choices that God lets us choose between.
  • My purpose in these questions is to get you to take 1 Corinthians 12 seriously, to believe that you have been given a manifestation of the Spirit and that your church, the worldwide body of Christ, and the world are crippled without your involvement. I write this because I love the church and want you to trust that you are more than just a helpful addition. You need to believe you are a vital member.
  • If you are still alive on this planet, it’s because He has something for you to do. He placed us on this earth for purposes that He orchestrated long before we were born (Ephesians 2:8–10).
  • When we submit to the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit, He helps us become more holy—more like Jesus. It is a lifelong journey of putting our flesh to death, or as Paul puts it in Galatians 5, of walking by the Spirit and not gratifying the desires of the flesh.
  • The phrase crucifying the flesh is not exactly a friendly, appealing group of words. I think this is because God wants us to be clear on what we are getting into. He wants us to know that His gift of the Holy Spirit is really not for our own pleasure or purposes. The Spirit is meant to lead us toward holiness. The Spirit is here with us to accomplish God’s purposes, not ours.

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How to Bless Others

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This is a very simple strategy to influence those around you. In community, we hold each other accountable to actually DO one of these five things every day.

B – Begin with Prayer.

L – Listen, to hear people’s hurts, dreams, hopes, fears, and desires.

E – Eat, share a meal with someone, creating community and conversation.

S – Serve, after listening and eating together, it is easy to discover ways to serve others.

S – Story, seek those opportunities to tell YOUR story (testimony) or HIS story (the gospel).

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What Kills Missional Community?

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“Just allow me for just a couple of minutes to discuss briefly what will kill your missional community before you even get it off the ground with all these great strategies and all these paradigm shifts and it is this: Consumerism. Consumerism is a cancer to missional community. It will destroy it from the inside out. There’s the obvious application here, in that attempting to build any outward facing faith community with believers who are intent on just getting their own needs met just is simply unsustainable. It’s just not going to work. But leaders before we point the finger at all these selfish believers who are stealing all our time and energy from being missionaries to our communities, let it be said: if we develop a church built on serving the saved, then the already blessed people will come wanting more blessings. It’s just that simple. You will draw the type of people who crave what you’re offering. Only Christians want forty Christian programs to chose from…If we’re positioned to reached Christians then Christians we will reach. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with programs, but the church has a very limited amount of resources, both human and financial. So, if we consume them all for saved people, then we cannot expect our folks to live on mission else where, because they have already spent all of there expendable time and energy on the church campus. So if we’re drowning in a sea of Christian consumers, we better take a hard look at the scaffolding we have built.”

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Church Membership

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Are you a member of a local church? Where? How active are you? Did you know that the church is really not a building? It is really made up of Christians all around the world. Jesus built the church (Matthew 16:18) and willingly died for the benefit of the church (Ephesians 5:25).

God has a Purpose: We can be part of God’s work through the church. “So in Christ we are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others” (Romans 12:5).

  • Fact – As part of the church, we can enjoy God with other Christians, in worship, Hebrews 10:25, Ephesians 5:19-20.
  • Fact – As part of the church, we should tell others about what Christ did for us, Acts 1:8, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20.
  • Fact – As part of the church, we should grow deeper in a relationship with Jesus and allow him to change our lives, 2 Peter 3:18.
  • Fact – As part of the church, we should help each other as Christians, 1 Corinthians 12:12-26.
  • Fact – As part of the church, we should fellowship, or hang out, with each other, Hebrews 10:24-25.

Our Need:

  • Fact – We need to identify ourselves with the church, Acts 2:41-42.
  • Fact – We need strength for daily living, which can come through fellowship with other Christians, Hebrews 3:13.
  • Fact – We need to help the church by using our personal talents and spiritual gifts, Romans 12:4-8.

God’s Provision:

  • Fact – God established the church as the body of Christ, Ephesians 4:4, Colossians 1:18.
  • Fact – God wants our church membership to be in the total church, Revelation 22:17.
  • Fact – God wants every Christian to participate in church membership, Hebrews 10:25.
  • Fact – Jesus showed us how important was by his regular attendance at synagogue, Luke 4:16.

Our Response:

  • Act – You can become a member of a local church by telling of your faith in Christ and being baptized, Acts 2:41, 47.
  • Act – You can share in the Fellowship of the local church by becoming a member.
  • Act – Your participation in the local church is crucial for your life to be what God wants it to be.

My Commitment:

If you are already to make the commitment to join a local church, you can do so by stopping by King’s Grant Baptist Church. Pray about your decision and commitment with a sample prayer like this:

“God, thank you for the church and for allowing me to become a part of it. Help me to be faithful and to support my new family at church.” Amen

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The Blessing of Weakness

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It has been said, never show your weaknesses, mainly because it will be used against you. The fact is, everybody has weaknesses. We have physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual weaknesses, so the question is, what do you do with your weaknesses?

While most people deny, defend, or excuse their weaknesses, Christians can embrace them and ask God to use them! When God works through weak people, His power is shown more clearly (2 Corinthians 12:5, 9, 1 Corinthians 9:22, Hebrews 4:15, 11:34).

When I use the word weakness, I’m not talking about a character flaw that can and should be changed. A weakness is any limitation in my life I inherited or can’t change. How do you lead your small group through weaknesses that you didn’t ask for and don’t have the ability to change?

1. Admit Your Weaknesses: In other words, stop pretending to have it all together, stop hoping the weaknesses will go away, stop ignoring them, and stop making excuses and blaming others (which only hurts my credibility in the end).

2. Be Grateful for Your Weaknesses: The limitations God allows in our lives are actually blessings in disguise (remember that Laura Story song on K-Love). Our limitations guarantee that God will show up to help. If I can do things in my own strength, the ultimate conclusion is, “Who needs God?”

Weaknesses also prevent me from becoming arrogant, and nothing will limit my effectiveness in leading a small group more than arrogance.

3. Openly Share Your Weaknesses: This is what is called being vulnerable. By sharing my weaknesses I am admitting that there are limits to my knowledge, my ability, and my energy.

Being open is also very risky (which is why we seek to avoid it at all cost). There will be people in your small group or the church at large who don’t want you to be human. They think a teacher is some super Christian and can’t handle knowing about any weaknesses. They’d rather put a halo on you and pretend you are never tempted and that you’re above the negative realities of life.

Refusing to be vulnerable is dishonest and hypocritical, but even worse, it sets up a scenario in which people become disillusioned with Christians when one’s humanness eventually shows – and it always will.

Why is it so important to reveal your feelings? Here are seven reasons:

  1. It liberates you from the stress of keeping up a false image.
  2. Some faults won’t be dealt with until you confess them to others.
  3. You can’t experience grace without weaknesses and you can’t minister and teach others without grace.
  4. It’s the fastest way to endear yourself to others. People will seek to support you and pray for you.
  5. Honesty supports your credibility, and people only follow leaders they trust.
  6. It’s good for the group. It encourages others to throw away their masks, deal with their own weaknesses.
  7. It helps your teaching to speak to others with transparency.

When you share your strengths, you create competition.
When you share your weaknesses, you create community.

So what do you share? As you think about how you will relate and communicate to others this week, think about how you will share these five things:

  • Failures.
  • Feelings.
  • Faults.
  • Frustrations.
  • Fears.

Your humanity is actually one of your greatest assets in your teaching ministry. To deny your humanity is not only dumb, it decreases your effectiveness. Do you want to be used by God? Do you want his blessing on your ministry? Do you want people to give the glory to God? Walk in total dependence on God and embrace your weaknesses!

[print_link] [email_link] Modified from Rick Warren

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