Church Online: Sunday 19th September 2021 | LIFE Church

[Music] got a feeling deep inside my soul nothing in this world comes close i was driving i'll give you control this is love great love hit the bottom but your grace came through found me broken make me new [Music] all the praise i gave it all to you this is love great love [Music] this is love the greatest thing i've ever known this is love i just can't get enough i just can't get enough [Music] jesus i just can't get enough [Music] yes i know there's something found the dream of living in your grace [Music] [Music] [Music] this is [Music] this is better than the trends that i'd fade oh that happened lasting anyway and everything i'll follow you instead this is love great love [Music] [Applause] there's nothing like there's nothing like in love there's nothing like there's nothing like there's nothing like there's [Music] jesus [Music] i just can't get enough [Music] [Music] let there be peace [Music] everlasting overwhelming peace complicate i steal the raging seas holy spirit let it be on earth [Music] let there be grace [Music] perfect love as jesus has displayed [Music] [Music] [Applause] we pray [Music] [Music] let it be your [Music] let it be your name [Applause] [Music] over the city streets over our families in all of creation let your will be done every heart can hold [Music] heavenly father let your kingdom come [Music] over these city streets over our families [Music] [Music] every sorry heavenly father let your kingdom come over our enemies [Music] home [Music] father your kingdom god [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] here as in heaven [Music] [Music] let your kingdom come [Music] [Music] hey good morning good afternoon good evening to you wherever you're joining us from welcome to church online my name is israel and this is my beautiful wife yvonne good morning it's so good to have you all joining us today yeah it is i would say it's a beautiful day in bradford we've got a little bit of rain but you know the farmers are always thankful for the rain yeah absolutely that's good absolutely it is so good to have you join us this morning we meet here every sunday morning around this time just a few moments with izzy and i before we go live to the auditorium at the bradford side for worship word um some encouragement some prayers some praise reports and then back here with us to finish off um where we just let you know any announcements that we need to and pray for you as you go out into your week yeah stay stay right to the end it's almost like the marvel movies there's it's worth staying right there there's always a little teaser at the end don't disappear as soon as you hear the piano chords and stay stay stay engaged send someone else to put the kettle on but you stay on the couch yeah it's so good to have you all join us this morning it is um we have a great service this morning we always do but the reason we say that is because so much thought prayer preparation goes into running every sunday um we don't just get here and the studio looks this great and everything's happening somewhat a lot of people put a lot of time prayer and thought going to go into each sunday service so we've got worship this morning it's going to be fantastic if you don't know what worship is maybe this is the first time you're watching this worship is simply a time to sing songs i think you put it really well last last week i said last year last week sing love songs to our gods we're just going to sing songs just the same way if you were in concert you'd raise your hands and you'd like maybe you dance a little i mean you don't have to but you can you can you're at home you can do what you want exactly it's pajama friendly space to sing these love songs to god worship him you can dance you can chill you can sit down and just watch the lyrics whatever you want to do but the focus is on god so that's what worship is then followed by that we will have a word um which again is just a title kind of like a ted talk almost but centered around the bible and today we have our college principal matt harrison speaking he's going to give the talk so he is if you don't know we have a bible college here at life church based here in bradford and he is the college principal so he has incredible insight he has a theology degree um and he's just an all-around fantastic guy from south africa so we hope you're going to enjoy that i know you will i know he's put a lot of time and effort and prayer into writing this um and obviously he's a fantastic speaker so yes it's going to be a fantastic word yeah and then after that we'll just head back here and we'll give you a few more notifications and whatnot some great things stay stay today and as i said we'll pray for you so that you as you go into your week so that's what church is and it's all digital obviously but we also do have in-person gatherings in bradford leeds warsaw and belfast right i do yeah yeah so that's a little summary and wherever you're watching from as well that's in person you can watch us yeah invite people speaking of which you can invite people still now yeah via whatsapp or messenger or text them with the link on the youtube video just press the arrow and then send it to as many people as you can i think it's free to share still so share away the more the merrier um yeah and also as we're talking about um college we have a college and leader we have a bible and leadership college right here so if you want any information about that you'll find it on our website lifechurchhome.com or you just email us with the usual email address church online at lifechurchhome.com and we'll send you all the details yeah absolutely yeah and of course if you need any prayer or pray oh you have a praise report you can email us at church online at lifechurchhome.com as well we keep all of the emails that come in to our inbox confidential but we spend time as a team praying for those um throughout the week so know that whatever you send into us we're not going to share that with a wider church unless you ask us to um and we will we will definitely be praying for um for you with whatever request you've sent in definitely sounds good yeah yeah um and also just let us know in the chat today where you're joining us from and also just something that you're thankful for this week or today yeah i think that's a good a good standpoint to come into this time of worship getting to know a bit more about god with something that we're thankful for yeah absolutely i want to say hello to some people no because we've only got okay you can say to some people in a few moments but first i just need to remind you that last week we did say that we have a life group today after the service and this is an online live group so if you call um church online your home church um not if you're watching it but you go to other campuses but if this is your home church we do do an online um life group once a month or last sunday of each month we were originally going to do it today but we won't we'll do it next week so just letting you know that we won't have um life group after the service today it'll be next wednesday yeah yeah now you can say hello to some people so if you want the link for that email us we'll send that to you ready for next week yes church online at lifechurchhome.com and also use that same email address alpha is about to start this week and it's awesome it's an awesome course for people in every stage of their faith if you want any information on that we'll send that to you via the email there we've got a few people to say hello to let's say hello to laura i move at hampton chelsea and north yorkshire kayla in west yorkshire we've got kevin over in ireland um and we have 20 seconds left to say hello to eunice in singapore and stephanie in trinidad and tobago we'll be in the chat all the way through yeah any questions just you don't have to put your hand up just write it down capital letters lowercase doesn't matter we will be there and we'll be seeing you at the end have an awesome service bye guys all right good morning good morning good morning great to see you all this morning let's all stand to our feet i love you dude just take 10 20 seconds just high five a couple of people around you say hello let them know you're there warn them that you're about to sing really loud massive welcome to everybody watching online as well [Music] oh look i've started your chat in that one stop will you hey but it's so good to see you all this morning waiting for a great morning this morning we're here to give jesus all the glory and all the honor that he deserves amen are you ready to make some noise with jesus this morning come on let's do it let's pray come on father god we give you all the glory this morning we give you all the honor we turn our attention to you god we leave we leave our heart and our stuff at the dawn we just come boldly to you this morning we come to give you all the prayers to give you all the glory we lift up your name we lift up our eyes to you this morning jesus author and perfecter of our faith amen come on let's do it let's go [Music] you popped the seas and split the waters brought us to the promised a place of freedom without water come on [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] sing your place [Music] [Applause] [Music] we cross the grave is [Music] [Music] cause you are gone [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you are worthy [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] after thousands of years of praise you're still worthy you're still worthy and for a thousand yet to come we will sing we will sing [Music] years of [Music] [Music] we will [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] you are worthy [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we [Applause] [Music] [Applause] we [Music] [Music] we thank you lord that you're such a good father you're so kind you're so loving he just praise you in this playstore [Music] you are here is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] never [Music] you never stop you never stop [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] darkness [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] we follow who you are we hold on to who you are it's all because of who he is jesus christ come on oh i hope the play isn't who you are we've seen it before you've seen who you are oh come [Music] in this on i can trust who he is i can trust his goodness i can trust his faithfulness from age to a generation to generation he has [Music] we [Music] keep you stand as a testament to his faithfulness and i thank you for that so we're going to sing it together and declare the one we belong to that he is faithful amen blessed assurance jesus is mine oh what if of glory deep light air of salvation [Music] purchase of [Music] oh this is my story this is my song praising my savior [Music] this [Music] is my song for my savior all the days [Music] every day [Music] yes it is [Music] and watching it away [Music] filled with his goodness in his love [Music] my savior [Applause] [Music] this is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] every day [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] isn't he wondering [Music] hallelujah christ is [Music] [Applause] say hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] before he is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh what a savior we have isn't he wonderful come on who's thankful for jesus this morning i'd love us to if we can is to sing the second verse of that song is that okay you're not nodding second verse yeah here we go okay paul because the second verse talks about you know approaching the altar leaving behind your regrets and your mistakes just coming for god just as you are and i'm reminded the scripture in hebrews 4 says this it says therefore since we have a great high priest now let me just stop there for a second a priest is somebody who makes sacrifices on behalf of somebody else jesus is the ultimate high priest he the hebrews tells us he made the once for all sacrifice one time for all people for all time jesus is our high priest so it says since we have a great high priest he was ascended into heaven jesus the son of god let us hold firmly to the face the faith that we profess if we don't have a high priest who's unable to empathize with our weakness no but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are yet he did not sin let us then here it is let us then approach god's throne of grace with confidence every single person in here you can boldly approach with confidence you can walk into the throne room of heaven this morning not because of who you are but because of who jesus is it's all because of who he is and you don't need to be afraid you don't need to be in fear of god this morning you don't need to have it all sorted you don't need to have covered over every doubt you don't need to have factored through everything in your mind and reasoned everything away no no no you just need to come exactly how you are this morning you just need to come as you because it says let us then approach god's throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace when you go before god today that's what you're gonna find you're gonna find his mercy and his grace to help us in our time of need does anybody need help in a time of need this morning come on well we can boldly approach god so come on let's sing this together [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] the [Music] our own the precious blood of jesus christ [Music] [Music] the precious [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] come on let's lift up our savior this morning come on let's give him all the bread [Music] hey manny man well it's the promise is there when we come to him in our time of need and there are some needs here and i'm sure you've got needs in your life and i'm holding some prayer requests in my hand and we're going to gather now as a family just to pray around some of these things there's people here praying for mental health struggles there's people here praying for marriages needing prayer answered prayer in their marriages we've got people praying for all kinds of sickness somebody writing into to asking for prayer for cancer come on let's let's believe together because our goddesses we've sang it he's the miracle worker he's the promise keeper he's the one that makes aware this morning and we just read that we can boldly approach his throne so now just picture yourself before the throne before the person who has ultimate authority over everything in this world and now we're gonna ask so come on if you're comfortable lift your hands as we lift up these prayers maybe you've got your own family members and people in your world that you're praying for come on let's lift them up before god oh god we thank you for your son jesus because if because of you jesus we can stand before our father god and god we thank you that you are the ultimate authority in this world you are the ultimate truth god we thank you that you are all powerful there is nothing that is too difficult for you and so god we bring these prayers these petitions to you god we in the seed on behalf of those that can't for themselves god we bring these situations that need your healing power knowing that you can do it god we know these people that need your comfort in their griefing in their pain god thank you that you are you are the peace that surpasses understanding you bring comfort like no others god we pray for these marriages we just lift them up to you that they would be a testament of your goodness and your power father god we pray for these people that are struggling with their mental health father god that you would just grant them sound mind god you would just meet them with wholeness and restoration god for every person and prayer we're lifting up today god thank you that you hear that you are more than able and so we turn our hearts and our eyes to you believing that we are going to see a breakthrough in the mighty name of jesus and everybody said a big amen amen fantastic well give somebody a high five and grab your seat i'm gonna invite isaac to jump up here it's a great time of life in the church because our life groups are kicking off so isaac why don't you jump up and tell us about them hey guys hey hey hey hey good to see y'all ah was it was worship just beautiful i just got so moved um by what uh eb shared about the like the cross-generational thing right i come from four generations of christians on both sides and i have that them to thank you you can give it up for them like but um i have them to thank for where i am today right so i am standing on shoulders of absolute giants and so i just love to say a massive thank you again just to the more mature generation can we give them a round of applause [Applause] we are we are standing on their shoulders and you know church is all about being connected right it's about like actually being seen being heard somebody knowing you feeling like somebody cares right so i've got a couple of life group leaders that are just going to jump up with me here i've got simon and fran if you can come jump up i've got uh lizzy and then dj should be somewhere if he's not on security he's doing everything today give him a round of applause yeah just grab that mic i just thought it'd be good for you guys to see some of the beautiful faces that lead life groups we have got life groups in every single age range so we've got like there's this um in thrive we've got life groups in youth we've got life groups today we've actually got life groups helping out youth life groups are helping out with our teams so if you see some young people around like give them a high five buy them a coffee maybe not they've got too much energy anyways but um er simon of frank could you start us off and tell us about why you do life groups when simon's finished you're on stage mate right it looks like i'm going first um yeah if you guys just come forward tell us what what life group you run and uh and what you do right it's ever so bright it is right isn't it it's a bit get you a cap yeah right so um yeah this this morning this is why we travel 85 miles to come to this church we live in a little town in the east coast filing and we come here to be with you guys and to worship the one true living god that's why we make the journey if you've got only half an hour 20 minutes you think i can't be able to go to church this morning forget it just remember us we're doing the ride and it's so worth it [Applause] so yeah so i'll try and be quick so we came here about 11 years ago and there was life groups then and we wanted to be a part of them but it meant doing that right again and there were bible-based life groups and we just didn't join uh eventually they changed the sort of main thrust of it and they turned live groups into uh interest-based groups and we thought oh right now what can we do what have we got in our hands to start a life group and of course what had we got in our hands we've got a house by the sea so we started to finally a beach walk life group and we started doing breakfast at half past 10 and people would come and gather and we started with small numbers and they have grown and grown and grown and so we walk the beach we talk we we don't have anything that's sort of too heavy um we just pray with those that need prayer and we find that people relate very well when they're just walking side by side in the beauty of god's creation uh and so that has continued um so yeah and more and more people have joined us during cove and obviously it was a little bit tricky we were in new zealand but a couple of our life group members decided that they would set up a zooming uh thing so they zoomed and we were included in that in new zealand sitting not pajamas in bed what time was it in new zealand where were you doing it no i think we were half of seven seven o'clock yeah seven o'clock yeah cause that you were eight yeah in the morning so i look presentable at the top but down below not so much [Laughter] but it kept the it kept the group together that's what i'm saying we've got a whatsapp channel um and on there we share all sorts of things share things off youtube we share needs prayer requests it's a fun channel and it keeps us all going there's quite a few in the life group um 20 well nearly 30 i think are signed up but we haven't seen everybody as yet and that was a concern to us and so we've now evolved and as from next sunday we are going to meet for the first time and do a lunch after church meeting so there's 20 of us going to an italian somewhere in bradford uh in order to incorporate everybody um so what i'm saying is that you know um you might think well i don't want to do the drive i can't you know all am i taking too long oh they'll keep going keep going keep going we probably skipped simon though and we'll go straight to lizzie but that's all right it's great this is not me i'm so shy and nervous really actually um we are going to get lizzy up thank you so much yeah that was awesome give her a round of applause and if you hand them my to lizzy um just it's on a side note if you ever get to get around them they're absolute legends simon and fran and so like like he sends me simon sends me a message like every single morning without fail and he's like what's up message hey good morning isaac the time is now 6 35 like whatever and then he's like have a blessed day or something he's so encouraging so i want to say that in front of everybody thank you all right lizzy let's go yeah yeah good um so it's actually when i was talking to benny and we've moved up here a year ago last week so technically it is our one year with life church anniversary but um from like moving up here we knew nobody at all like no connections nothing at all and i can honestly say like life groups is the main thing which has got us plugged into people and getting to know people people knowing us and it's just been so like great for us especially during covid when you can't couldn't have met people face to face um and being over zoom and stuff it is really important to get into a life group because for us like that just shifted our whole world and now we know so many people we know like where people live which is kind of cool but no honestly like god has used life groups so much for us and we got the privilege now of leading a y a life group um so our life group is a bible study life group and we lead it every week but god is just so good in giving us like a word to focus on every single week and we've we only started in april but we've been through theme and theme again like different series uh people getting blessed from this life group and it's currently on zoom because it has reached like across the uk and abroad and so um yeah it's just incredible that god is using us for this and like we're actually reaching people's lives and getting you know involved and getting into people's homes technically even though it's over zoom and so yeah i just really encourage everybody here i honestly do to get involved in the life group because you don't know what you're missing out on until you actually get in one and for us it has been the biggest shift in getting to know people so yeah thank you so much lizzy last but not least mr dj come on hey guys good morning [Music] behave yourself um so yeah i'm dj i've been studying here for four years i've just graduated now um yes and uh yeah i'm i'm actually going to be living in bradford for a year or two so this is my home now i'm just happy to call it home um and we've been leading a life group called uh you know it's just called a men's life group basically and it's just you know just uh you know all the young men i'm just coming together you know as one and one thing i believe over my years of just being in that in that life group is that a lot of men love to lead but not to lean um and what that simple meaning is like sometimes we need to be a brother's keeper we need to lean on each other and and that's something that we encourage that as men you know it's not easy to do a life by yourself um but it's for us to come together and just sharpen each other and have conversation that you probably won't have you know in in in the wider a church but just come together and just sharpen each other be vulnerable with each other um and just you know just allow each other to just grow in a way you've never grown before so if you're a young man in the house a young man in the house and you you felt like well you're one of the prodigals who just want to run away from responsibilities and accountability and vulnerability look can i just encourage you come home you know this life group is is for you to just come and just to be yourself uh you know to express parts of you you've never been allowed or given the opportunity to express uh so i'm just grateful honored uh to have this life group and i'm looking forward to the amazing things god's going to do so if you want to see me after i'm here god bless you that's awesome thank you dj thank you give these guys a round of applause you can pop down um and the reason why we take so much time for that is because we believe that life groups are not a a part of the church or something that we do it is the church that's where we grow that's where we find friendships that was where we find freedom right so if you want to be a part of a life group there are connect cards on your seats and you can write down and say you know name detail that kind of stuff and you can put like i want to get into a life i don't really know what but this is like kind of what i'm interested in or whatever it is sometimes you'll find a little bit of an awkward fit but that's when you're there to serve them right we our savior didn't come to be served but to serve so have that mindset as well that you can give something as well so sometimes it isn't just the perfect fit straight away but try and serve them and give what you've got and so at the reception afterwards you can come and talk to us we're going to be there at the reception or put in that connect card is that right great all right let's welcome jock back up thanks isaac so good so good echo everything he said so important that's why as he said that's why we take the time to do it because it is so important all right are you ready for the word okay good go well today we've got somebody uh that's kind of new to you bringing the word really and we've got matt harrison bringing the word today and uh just just by way of introduction i'm sure you've all seen matt around and many of you will know matt but just in case you don't know matt and his wife burns they moved here just over two years ago and joined the staff and the team you'll have heard burns's voice if you've ever phoned reception she does a great job on reception and a lot of administrative things behind the scenes making church run and uh matt was uh he study went to seminary in south africa as they moved from south africa that's where he was at seminary it was pastor in there and then since they've moved here let's say both join staff and ma heads up our college and we're really excited that actually next week will be the start of our new term of college so we're excited for that but he's a great man of god he's a great friend he's a great lover of people he's a great study of the word and i know you're going to be blessed by him today so come on let's welcome matt as he brings the word this morning [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hey good morning everybody good morning church it is great to be with you this morning and uh this is my first time up here preaching in fact in three years i have not preached to a church in three years so i've got a lot of something god's word in me and i don't know how much time you have but uh no i'm only drinking we won't be uh it's really an honor to be here guys and as drock says we're from south africa bernadine and i and uh i just want to say as we start that we love being in england and we love being in yorkshire especially i love yorkshire i love the yorkshire accent i think that is one of the best accents in this country we didn't know there was so many accents when we moved here we thought everybody sounded like londoners and then we met all these people that sounded yorkshire and lancashire and all these other places and it was a bit confusing for a while but we think we're figuring it out now so if you've ever had a conversation with me where i just laughed awkwardly and said that's great and walked away i apologize i probably didn't understand you but i understand you now hopefully and i want to say good morning to our online campus as well joining us online wherever you are joining us from welcome to church it's great to have you here we're in a series on re-center we're talking about re-censoring our lives as we go into the start of so many new things schools back and we're coming out of slowly lockdowns and the country is beginning to open up and we really are as a church exploring what it means to re-center after so much turmoil over the last few last couple of years it's important that we take stock of where we're at as christians and we kind of look at what it is that we're standing on and this morning i want to talk to you about the role of the spirit in that they're all the holy spirit and it's going to be some interesting territory for me i was raised in anglican and so much that that we know about the holy spirit um i was kind of raised to believe that he was just kind of there but he didn't have much to do and as i've gone through my christian journey i've discovered that without the holy spirit there's not much that we can do for god there's not much that we can do we need to have a relationship with him and so just to give you a bit of context what got me here over the last 18 months of staying at home and coming in and out of lockdowns and being away from people i've had a lot of thinking to do and i don't know if anybody else here is a thinker anybody else here a thinker yeah i don't mean like the deep thinking i don't do much of that about the deep things of life i mean things like you know looking at a pizza and kind of going why do we eat pizzas from the inside out right and you've got all this time in your hands you start to think about those things and reading the word and going what does god actually look like you know what what does god look like in trying to think about these things but all my thinking one thought leads to another and it got me to this really important question that i think many of us struggle with and it's this how do i know that i am a christian how do i know that i'm a christian or you might phrase it like this how do i know that i am saved how do i know that i am saved you can be in church for decades of your life you can be raised in church and still have days where you wonder how do i know that the salvation is true you might be here this morning and this might be something that's very new to you it may be your first time in church and maybe your first time after a very long time and you might be wondering what the salvation is all about and i want to try and help you with that this morning because if we're going to re-center ourselves in the season that is one of the foundational areas that we need to be censored on the knowledge and the sureness of our salvation and the holy spirit has a special role to play in that uh i want you to think of a person in your life who has inspired your faith is there somebody that you can think of who's inspired your faith it might be a parent growing up it might be a spouse a partner it might be a teacher or a pastor it might be somebody that you know really well or somebody that you don't know too well but they've invested in you and as you think of that person what is it about them that inspires your faith what was it about them that made you look at the christian faith and go that's something that i want something of it probably wasn't just what they said it was probably the life that they lived right and and you probably looked at this person or hopefully for you there may have been multiple people in your life and you saw the way that they were centered on something that was very different to what the world was centered on you could tell that there was something about them that perhaps at a season in your life you did not have but you knew that you needed and whether they said that to you or they showed it to you something about them drew you towards god for me that person the most important person in this role was a man named ross olivia in south africa he was a reverent doctor so you know that he's uh knows a lot about the bible and he knows a lot about god that's just a fancy way of saying pastor but he was he was a very wise man and he was the president of our seminary when i was at bible college we formed quite a close relationship and over a couple of years he invested heavily in me not so much in the classroom but simply by the way he lived his life the way that i saw him handle moments of conflict and difficulty the way that he responded to sometimes very difficult situations there was something about him that he was centered on that i knew was somebody learning 18 years old learning this whole way of christian life and what it meant to go into christian ministry and what it meant to go into christian leadership that i needed to center on that as well and it took me a long time because i'm quite slow at these things and i eventually realized that when i think of ross there's three thoughts and you probably would think these of the people or the person in your life who represents this there's three things that we can say with absolute confidence about them that if they were here today they could say these statements and you would know that they are entirely true the first one is this i have received the spirit these are people who know with absolute certainty that the spirit of god is in their lives and at work through them it gives them a confidence that they do not create on their own and that shines through them the second thing that they would say is i am reliant on the spirit these are people who don't rely on what they can do they don't rely on their own gifts and talents and strengths and wisdoms they don't rely on their own knowledge or qualifications but they have a total reliance on the holy spirit and then the third thing that they would say is i am redefined by the spirit i am redefined by the spirit because these are people who understand that when the spirit is at work within us we don't stay the same there is a work that he does that he produces within our lives and it is that which we see that has drawn us to them and through them to jesus and so this morning as we speak of this re-censoring those are the three thoughts that i want to give to you and i'll call this sermon if you're taking notes you can write this down simply living in the spirit what does it mean to live in the spirit i'm going to be using galatians paul's letter to the churches in galatia and we're going to look at some scriptures that paul wrote to this church and unpack them a little bit so the first statement i have received the spirit what does it actually mean to receive the spirit of god how many times have you found yourself hearing people talk about the spirit and sometimes it's a little bit unclear or perhaps there's an unknown element to it and you kind of find yourself going do i really do do i have that you seem to have it but but how do i know that i have got it to receive the spirit means that the holy spirit is living within you that he works through you and often brings about signs and wonders what we call in our christian language signs and wonders that means that really amazing stuff happens when the spirit is at work we see it in the bible when jesus opens the eyes of the blind and he brings hearing to the deaf and he raises the dead this is the work of the spirit and it wasn't just jesus who did that the apostles and the church after him carried on working out these miracles these are things that accompany the work of the spirits amongst his people that we can believe today for miracles to happen when the spirit is within us but i think that we need to be reminded that as christians we have the spirit you see the apostle paul really wanted the churches in galatia to understand this what was happening when he wrote the letter of galatians was that there was a teaching infiltrating the church there was something coming in that was different to what paul taught them paul presented the gospel to them and their response to the gospel was to believe in jesus that's what he did he went around he spoke the gospel people responded and believed in jesus and then what happened was these guys came into the church that we call them judaizers judaizers and what they wanted to do was they wanted to take the message that paul and the other apostles had given to the church and they wanted to add something to it for them that was the law of moses right the first five books of the bible they wanted to say it's great that you believe in jesus but in order to see jesus in your life the spirit of work in fact they used to preach and they used to teach that in order to get the spirit you had to follow the law and all those lists of things that we sometimes try to read anybody try to start reading something like deuteronomy and numbers and you get halfway and you just go there's no way i can do all of these i just i i'm just going to fall down straight away that's what they were calling people too and so paul writes this letter to remind the church this is what he says galatians chapter 3 verse 2 he says did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by believing what you heard what did they hear they heard the gospel of jesus christ their salvation and our salvation today if you're a christian and you have received salvation from jesus is a result of the spirit who is now in you there's nothing that you did and it's nothing that i did it is the spirit of god at work paul calls this a new creation in second corinthians 5 17 and he says this is the result of the holy spirit and paul is so committed to this idea that he says in first corinthians 12 3 that no one can say jesus is lord except by the spirit you want to know if you have the holy spirit in your life can you say jesus is lord can you say jesus is lord and can you mean it then the spirit's in you nobody can say jesus is lord but by the spirit i have received the spirit and anyone who believes receives we start with the spirit so that we can continue and finish with the spirit you start with this place of god's power at work in you and your entire faith journey is dependent on that power but what was happening in galatia is that they were beginning to do things differently they started with the power of the spirit but then they began to rely on their own works and they replaced what the spirit had done with human wisdom and human tradition and all the things that we like to do to complicate life and so paul's calling them back and he says listen galatians chapter 3 3 are you so foolish i love the bible because there is a lot of rhetorical questions in the bible like this sometimes paul just looks at them and goes are you so foolish after beginning by means of the spirit are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh and i think that's a great question if we're going to re-center on the spirit that's not just for a group of christians 2000 years ago that is a question for us we began our salvation by means of the spirit are we now trying to finish by means of the flesh can we say i have received the spirit friend you have received the spirit and you can grow in the spirit there is so much that you can do to grow in the spirit but let's live from that place the second point the second comment that somebody who is this person in your life would say is i am reliant on the spirit what do you rely on in your faith journey if you're honest with yourself when you're a christian sitting here this morning and you've you've been on this journey for a month for a week for six months for 10 years however long this has been part of your life what is it that you rely on what keeps you going in your faith to be re-centered means re-censoring why we do what we do on the holy spirit so some questions that we can ask is why do i go to church on sunday why do i do this why are we here this morning all through lockdown why do we show up in our living rooms and in our offices on on zoom why do we gather online why do i do it why do i give generously or try to do that right why do i pray for others why do i read my bible if we do what we do in order to keep our salvation in order to become a super christian of some kind who's more powerful than everybody else and can do all these cool things if that is why we do what we do then it is not the spirit we're relying on it is now ourselves and we are just like the people in galatia this is what paul was coming against we need to be re-centered if that's us we need to come back to a place of total reliance on the spirit remembering that what he did for us he will sustain reliance on the spirit breeds joy in pursuing god i don't know if you've ever noticed that that often a good litmus test for us is that when our faith becomes burdensome and going to church now becomes like a chore it's something that you you're just getting overwhelmed by the thought of it it's just another thing another task to add to our lives we don't have kids so i'm really you know i can say things like this because i know that people with kids life gets a lot more complicated right and you gotta run people around and i often phone most of my friends now have kids and often phone them and they'll be like no taking the kids here at like 7 p.m at night and taking the kids here and they're just you know running around really busy and yet when you look at their lives for a lot of them church is something that is as important as their commitment to their family to their children when it becomes a burden that's when we know we need to be resented if giving generously is something that i'm doing so that i can impress somebody else that i can earn something from god not because the spirit is leading me in that and because i know that the christian faith is one of generosity i need to be resented if i read my bible because that's just what i've been told to do and there is nothing no joy in it there's nothing that it is bringing to me no that's not imparting anything to me we need to be re-centered if you're not finding joy in these things perhaps perhaps that means that you need to rely on the spirit instead of what you do you see that comes about by us looking at why we do what we do we leave the what and the how to jesus he sorts that out but if we start from the place of this is why i am doing it and i'm standing on the spirit i'm going to re-center my life and everything that comes out of me is because of this spirit at work there is joy in that there's joy for us there's joy for others it's a simple message from paul really where he says rely on the spirit and see the fruit which is produced your responsibility is in that why you want to see the fruit coming out just rely on the spirit galatians 5 5 paul says this to the church for through the spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope how many times in lockdown were you able to say i am eagerly awaiting what god is doing in this season you know after those first three weeks and we all thought it was going to be three weeks and we were inside and every it was a bit fun at the start and then we realized this was going to go on for another two years right how many of us were able to say i don't know what's going on around me and there is concern there's anxiety there's fear these are real things they're real emotions but i am eagerly awaiting the fullness of what god is doing in the season is the only only reliance on the spirit can breed that eagerness in the middle of difficulty and trial it's the fruit that the spirit is producing in our lives and we have to remember that fruit is determined by root fruit is determined by roots i'm pretty sure that a lot of people in a lot of churches have said that over the years but it is so important for us to realize we know that if we go into our gardens if you have a garden or you've got an allotment or something you plant an apple tree what are you going to get apples right you go and you plant a pear tree i think they grow pears growing trees there might be bushes but you plant one of those right what do you get you get pears right you plant a lemon tree you get lemons plant a grapefruit tree you definitely get a grapefruit tree you get grapefruits and no amount of me going along to my allotment or my garden and planting this beautiful little apple tree thingy in the ground i know nothing about garden gardening so this would be awful but i put it in the ground and i tend it and i look after it and i take care of it and the roots go deep no amount of me wishing for that apple tree to produce grapefruits is going to change the fact that the root which is an apple tree produces the apples and so often we as christians fall into the trap of focusing too much on the fruit that is being produced not realizing that we need to address the root right because we have to realize that if we're rooted in the spirit we will produce the fruit of that spirit but if we are rooted in what paul calls the flesh which is taking control for ourselves living out our faith by our own wisdom and understanding we will produce the fruit of the flesh and no matter how much we work to change that fruit it's not going to change that's when you just get exhausted just doing that even just thinking of it is exhausting it's like i'm going to try my best today i'm going to be more generous more loving more patient more kind have you ever tried to be patient with people that you know you need god's help to be patient with and and no matter how hard you try patience just does not come naturally certainly to somebody like me i struggle with patience right and yet if i rely on the spirit that patience comes it flows because the root produces the fruit the third thing that we can say about this person in your life after knowing that they have received the spirits that they have uh that they are reliance on the spirit forgot my second point uh is that they could say with confidence i am redefined by the spirit i am redefined by the spirit you see the role of the holy spirit is not just to bring us to a place where we say jesus is lord and we go on living our lives the way that we've always lived them god has a purpose for each of us he created us and the redefinition what paul calls new creation in scripture is the work of the spirit it's not the work of you or me now don't get me wrong there are things that we need to take responsibility for but we can run the risk being so focused on changing ourselves redefining ourselves to conform to some scriptural picture i want to be more like david i want to be more like job i want to be more like isaiah i want to be more like peter i want to be more like mary i want to be more like fill in the blank right and we can take that responsibility from ourselves without realizing that it is the holy spirit who drives the redefinition of who you are your very character begins to change when we stop concerning ourselves with producing fruit of righteousness through our own wisdom and ability and we start to rely on the root of the spirit we will see redefinition flow at no point does paul ever make the claim that we get to just walk away and not do anything but the problem is that like the judaizers in this galatian story many of us today believe that this redefinition is only the result of our good works and we enter into what paul calls a battle the battle between flesh and spirit this is galatians chapter 5 and he launches into this definition of what it means to live by the flesh and what it means to live by the spirit posing the question to these christians where do you stand what are you rooted in he says this galatians 5 16 18 so i say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh for the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh they are in conflict with each other so that you are not to do whatever you want but if you are led by the spirit you are not under the law in other words you are not then under the flesh if the spirit leads you you are free from these constraints remember that for paul the law gratifies the flesh it takes what god has done and it replaces the responsibility that is his with our responsibility it puts everything onto us and we have to earn it we have to keep it we have to work hard to make it going if the flesh is a root it will bear fruit in our lives galatians 5 19 to 21 paul tells us what the flesh looks like he calls it the axe of the flesh and he says this the acts of the flesh are obvious sexual immorality impurity and debauchery idolatry and witchcraft hatred discord jealousy fits of rage selfish ambition dissensions factions and envy drunkenness orgies and the like i warn you as i did before that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of god and everybody went whoa that's heavy paul's not giving us a list of things and saying the people who do this are excluded what he's doing is he's writing to a church in which that is what was happening this list is contextual to the galatian churches and it was very common in the first century to write lists this is how they communicated what they were talking about were categorical behaviors not just giving us a list that we should avoid you don't do these things and you'll be okay what's that saying to us it is putting the power in our hands and the reliance on ourselves so what's paul doing i went to a great commentary by a man named dr scott mcknight who wrote a commentary on galatians and he identifies four categories of sin that paul addresses here so this is a me this is scot there are sexual sins religious sins social sins and drinking sins in other words the fruit of the root of the flesh these are things that don't just impact us they impact the people around us they hurt people they bring disruption they bring disunity they bring brokenness instead of healing wholeness and unity the fruit of the flesh paul's not telling us to work as hard as we can to change that fruit remember he's telling us to address the root because fruit indicates root dictates the root will dictate what is happening in your life and where that is going so how do we get redefined by the spirit we need to be rooted in the spirit galatians chapter 5 22 23 after giving us the ax of the flesh or the fruit of the flesh paul then gives us the fruit of the spirit and he says this the fruit of the spirit is love joy forbearance peace patience kindness goodness gentleness and self-control against such things there is no law again these are amazing things for us to pursue but paul's not trying to give us a list of things and say right now you're on your own off you go and grow in your love grow in your peace go and set yourself challenges to become better at what you're doing what he's saying is that if the spirit is the root of your life and your faith this is what you will see and it's what those around you will see that person that you thought of at the beginning could probably be summed up by galatians 5 22-23 somebody who carries the fruit of the spirit in them and as we look at our world today i think you would agree that is what we need to be taking into the world there is so much disunity there's so much pain there's so much hurt there's so much suffering what can we bring when you don't have the answer you have got the fruit that the spirit is bearing in your life and for every one of us that fruit will sometimes look a bit different taste a bit different it's going to develop at a different pace but your job is not to wake up every morning get yourself ready hype yourself up go into life and say today i'm carrying the love of the spirit and god please help me to do that no your job is to cultivate the root of that spirit it's to live in relationship with the holy spirit in such a way that when he leads you to a situation and the only response that you can bring is love but you really don't want to you rely on the spirit love that person your forgiveness is a great example of that be honest how enjoyable is forgiving somebody who has hurt you afterwards it's great in the moment let's just be real not so easy right left to our own devices a lot of people will not be forgiven but there's a fruit of the spirit i'm not relying on my strengths to forgive this person no matter what they did what they said what they took from me it is the spirit of god in me i am rooted in the spirit and forgiveness is the work of jesus on the cross so i can take what he's given me and i can give it to somebody else i can walk in freedom from the heaviness and the weightiness of having to figure this all out on my own i'm going to stop trying to get the fruit right and i'm going to cultivate that root as we come to an end paul says this to the church he says since we live by the spirit let us keep in step with the spirit galatians 5 25 and that is what he means what does it mean to keep in step with the spirit it means to give up your desires for what jesus and the spirit are doing through you to keep in step with the spirit means putting aside our standards of holiness well that person's not holy because they didn't do that and that person can't be forgiven because they don't look like me and that person can't be who god is calling them to be because there's something missing in them and simply trusting that the god who saved us can redefine us it's letting go of human wisdom that presents itself as holy but takes us back to the flesh our good works become the fruit of our salvation i want to encourage you this morning that as you go through this christian life there will be moments there will be seasons of difficulty seasons where you have no idea what god is doing where it seems like what god is asking you is too much for you to handle and that's because it is but you don't rely on yourself he has given you a helper the holy spirit and if we recenter on him we have no idea what lies ahead for weeks and months and years to come we don't know what the world is going to look like or be like but if we stand centered on the holy spirit and we cultivate that root the fruit that is being produced will bring about the work of god's kingdom take the responsibility off of ourselves and just start walking with the spirit i'll give you this quote and then we'll close dr scott mcknight in his commentary says it is life in the spirit the life of a person who is surrendered to letting the spirit have complete control but we see here also that one does not gain this life by discipline or by mustering up the energy that's just exhausting one does not huddle with oneself in the morning gather together his or her forces and charge onto the field of life full of self-determined direction rather the christian life is a life of consistent surrender to the spirit let's surrender re-center and remember the proof of our christian faith is in the fruit that we bear what surrender is god calling you to today what surrender is the spirit leading you in and as we worship why don't we worship from a place of surrender see god move among us and miracles happen let's stand together [Music] amen thank you so much why don't you stand up we're going to respond to this message by singing together [Music] [Music] so i will walk in your peace your spirit lives within me my village and my victory your spirit lives within me your spirit lives within me you're my victory you're my victory your spirit lives within your spirit lives within me you're my victory [Music] your spirit is within your spirit lives within me you're my picture your mind [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] my [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] he's [Music] amen just as we're in this moment of atmosphere of worship i just want to take this opportunity to ask maybe you're in here today or maybe you're watching at home online and you've not made that first step that matt talked about that just to receive the spirit and you might think we'd be thinking well how do i even do that well matt said it's so it's so simple it's just an openness of heart and it's that decision to say jesus i i want to call you lord i want to put you first and it's a step of faith it's a it's a holy mystery to be honest we just step into it there's something amazing that happens because as man just said it's the spirit that then comes to live inside of us to give us that new start to make us the new creation the bible talks about to bring us that forgiveness to to lead us towards the wholeness that he has for us but it starts with a simple decision and so i'm just going to ask everybody to close their eyes in this room now just to give people privacy and if that's you you want to say hey i want to make that step i want to get to know this god that created me i want to take a step i want to receive what jesus has done for me in this i want to receive the holy spirit today i want to start this new journey with god it's just a prayer away and i just would love to pray for you to this i'm just going to ask you to do something really simple and that's put your hand in the air just so that i know that it's you that i'm praying over that's awesome i see your hand come on hands straight up brilliant i see your hand as well come on anybody else all across the room or up in the balcony wherever you stand join these two amazing people is there anybody else oh awesome i see your hands fantastic come on anybody else today i see your hand that's amazing i see your hand that's awesome come on thank you jesus anybody else gonna join these amazing people so good you're making the best decision you could ever make so good so good come on let's all pray this prayer together just read after me and maybe you wanted to lift a hand but you didn't weren't quite brave enough in the moment you said this prayer as well and receive him did it father god i come to you now i thank you for your son jesus i receive you now i receive the holy spirit i receive your forgiveness i receive your acceptance and i receive your love i turn away from the life i have been living and i run towards you and i call you lord in jesus name amen amen come on give it up for all these people so many this morning they raise their hand that's awesome listen if you just want to encourage you if you raised your hand this morning like i said that is the best decision you could ever make but we want to help you get off to a strong start in that fifth so if that that was you this morning somebody will either come and talk to you or if nobody quite gets to you we'd love to just meet you at the reception when we finish in just a few minutes time just to just have a quick chat with you maybe give you a bible if you need one and i just get to know you a little bit why don't you grab your seats for a minute that's so good can we thank matt for that word this morning so good so good lovelies i've got pages of notes fantastic we're gonna come to the end of our service but just a couple of things to do before we close as a sort of final act of worship this morning we're gonna receive our offering the way that we do that is we don't pass containers along you can do that online there are envelopes on your seat though that you can fill in and there's places to put those on the way out so we'd encourage you and thank you to do that thank you so much church for your continued faithfulness and consistency in your giving it allows us to do so much so if you need to do that now's a good time to do that and while you're doing that i just want to give you a heads up about what is happening next sunday everybody say next sunday okay now everybody everybody say next sunday okay oh sorry i should say goodbye to online um you can see you later great to see you it's a secret it's not really uh next week what's gonna happen here on the bradford campus we're going to have a i kind of want to call it recenter sunday all right but i'm not hey guys welcome back hope you enjoyed today's service it's been really really good right yeah it's been fantastic first time that we've heard as an online campus from um matt who is our principal of the life college yeah and as you said before if you want any more information about life college it's bible and leadership college you can access that on our website life lifechurchhome.com or you can email us church online at lifechurchhome.com and we'll send the information to you yeah but absolutely i think it's like a lot lots to think about in terms of being back online now i think it's all right yeah let's keep going yeah all right so yeah as we said before if you've um prayed that prayer today do let us know yeah uh give us a thumbs up in the chat and send us an email church online at lifechurchhome.com um we just want to get to know you and just take these next few steps with you yeah and if that's the first

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Length: 93min 38sec (5618 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021