Living From The Center — GOD AS OUR SOURCE
Acts 17:28—“For in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’”
John 10:10—“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
I. The Holy Spirit Is Not an Addition to Life — He Is the Source of Life
• Life from God has always come through His Spirit.
John 6:63— “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
• The Pattern of Creation
Genesis 2:7—And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils “The Breath of Life;” and man became a living being.
Genesis 1:28—Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
• Form = God formed man from the dust of the ground – Initially dead.
• Life = He breathed into his nostrils, “The Breath of Life”
• Placement = the Garden of Eden
• Purpose = Work – Tend and Keep the Garden
• Mission = Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, take dominion
• The Pattern of Re-Creation
2 Corinthians 5:17—Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
• Form = a Body
James 2:26—For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Ephesians 2:1— And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.
• Life = The Spirit of God
Romans 8:11—But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also GIVE LIFE to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
• Placement = The Body of Christ
1 Corinthians 12:13—For by one Spirit we were all baptized INTO ONE BODY— whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
• Purpose = Good works
Ephesians 2:10—For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
• Mission = World Redemption
Matthew 28:18-20—18And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Genesis 1:28—Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
II. The Holy Spirit is GOD – Present, Personal, and Powerful
• The Holy Spirit is a Person, not a force. Today, He has been reduced to a power, an influence, an emotional high, or occasional inspiration.
1 Corinthians 12:11—But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as HE wills.
John 16:7-8—7Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send “HIM” to you. 8And when HE has come, HE will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
• The Holy Spirit is God giving you Himself.
Romans 10:9—That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in you heart that GOD HAS RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD, you will be saved.
Romans 8:11—But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
• The Holy Spirit is a Helper.
John 14:16-17—16And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another HELPER, that He may abide with you forever—17the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
Genesis 2:18—And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
• The Holy Spirit is submissive to you.
Romans 8:14—For as many as are LED by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Acts 7:51—You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always RESIST the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.
1 Thessalonians 5:19—Do not QUENCH the Spirit.
• The Holy Spirit is More than you have been told.
Ephesians 3:20—“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that WE ASK or think, according to THE POWER THAT WORKS IN US.”