The Basics of Life - A New Worship (Part 1)

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A New Worship (Part 1)

John 4:5-24

5 So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

1.         Last week we talked about archeology, and the cool fact that not a single biblical reference has been disproved by archeology (pretty good record!)

a.    Well there’s another interesting fact that archeology has unearthed: Every ancient civilization that has been discovered/unearthed worshiped something.

b.    Whether its the Aztec’s worship of the sun God (Huitzilopochtli), the Roman gods, Stonehenge, apparently there were no atheists in the ancient world!

c.    Some would say the reason is that “humans have always needed a crutch,” they need something to explain the world around them, why it exists, how it come to be.

d.    (which I find to be interesting in that even ancient, supposedly “ignorant” people understood that our world couldn’t have just sprung up from nothing, there had to be a creator.  Apparently we needed to become much smarter to determine that there isn’t a creator!).

2.         Here’s my theory:   “Humans need a relationship with their creator,” which is why, in the absence of worshipping the true God, they will worship something.

The Basics of Life - The Bible

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THE BIBLE

2 Timothy 3:16-17

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. - 2 Tim 3:16-17

BIBLE = “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth”

1.         (Hold up) Most unique book - many written - spiritual, wisdom, truth, etc - and many of them can have a place in our lives, but none hold a candle to this book.

a.    This is the one book that not only changed the world, but it will change your life, even your eternal destiny.

b.    My objective is that after today you will have a new understanding, and a new passion for this book.

Where did the bible come from?

2.         When I was young - knew "of" - president takes oath on, sits on my dad’s shelf, that Pastor Clay is always bugging us to read.

a.    We consider the bible as one book, yet it is in reality it is made up of 66 different books, written by 40 different authors, 1600 years: Moses (1400 BC), the apostle John (90 AD);

b.    Penned by men, but inspired by the Holy Spirit

For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. – 2 Peter 1:21

3.         However, it’s not just a book of random writings that were slapped together:

a.    It is a panorama that spans the history of the physical universe, the history of man, and the main thesis is the ultimate plan that God has for mankind.

The Basics of Life - The New Spirit

The Basics of Life - Session 2

The New Spirit

Roman 8 / John 16

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But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 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. Romans 8:9-11

1.         If our church were a community that lived on a remote island, and were ignorant of spiritual things, we’d never heard the gospel.

a.    And say a missionary airplane flew over, and dropped bibles to us, and we read them and became Christians, what would our lives be like?

b.    I believe, based on reading our bibles, we would expect that the Holy Spirit of God would be an integral and powerful part of our lives!

c.    We would expect our lives to be radically different from how we were before we became Christians

2.         If we look at God’s word, there are very clear declarations regarding the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit

a.    So the question is "I have new life, but does my life reflect the new life of Christ that is now in me?”

The secret to breaking the power of sin - Romans 8:2

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. Romans 8:2

Sadly what many Christians don't realize is that sin enslaves you.  They’ll see sin as something that’ll be fun, it’ll feel good, and they’ll only do it for a little while.  But soon they discover that sin is like Rumpelstiltskin, the deal seems like a good one, until they enter it, then they discover they’ve been fooled!  Sin has captured them, and there will be a price to pay. There’s an old proverb that holds true:

Sin will take you take you farther than you want to go, 

keep you longer than you want to stay, 

and cost you more than you want to pay.

Sin seems cool and fun, but after a while you look down and there’s a chain around your ankle. You want to get out of it, but you’re stuck, and you realize the truth of Romans 6:18:

Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey?  Romans 6:18

But for the person who’s placed their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord, a new power is in play:

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. Romans 8:2 

In other words, the power of the cross destroyed the power that sin had over the Christian, the chains have been removed, the prison door has been thrown wide open! You’re free!

“But,” you ask, “what about the Christian that still sins? Why does that happen?” I’ll tell you why: Yes, the cross destroyed the power that sin had over us, but it didn’t destroy our free will.  So while a Christian is no longer controlled by the power of sin, they can still choose to sin.  And the cycle starts all over again.

So what do I do?

The key to defeating sin isn’t to try harder, the key to remaining free from the power of sin is to remain in the power of the Holy Spirit, who lives in us! 

One Word:  SURRENDER.  Each and every day, ask the Holy Spirit to fill you, to guide you, and then surrender to His leading. 

For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.  Romans 8:13-14

This Sunday, we’ll be taking a closer look at the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Don’t miss it!