Mike Erre – God is our source
Scripture –
John 14:11-18
11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Jn 14:11–18). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
We confuse professing faith and actually having faith.
[Tweet “The greatest hindrance to believing something is thinking you already do.”]
If God is our source why do we rely so heavily on marketing.
God is going to send us another person of the same kind. The Holy Spirit is a person. The spirit will be with you and in you.
One of the reasons I believe the Bible is the unflattering characteristics therein.
Acts 1:1-3
We don’t believe the source is the source if we did what we do would be fundamentally different.
Galatians 5 – Are the fruit of the Spirit true of you?
The biggest objection people have to faith is that the Spirit of God seems to do nothing.
How do we foster a spirit filled life?
3 Soils
1. Obedience – Doing what we know to be right.
2. Weakness – Do we admit welcome weakness or do we bow the god of polish and excellence. “[Tweet “God does the best stuff at the end of our rope” – Dallas Willard”]
3. Risk – I hope that losing the culture war will bring us back to the place of weakness and risk.
Good teaching shouldn’t leave you full but hungry.
– My Thoughts –
Mike hit on something that is so key to us in leading the church. We need to be empowered and filled with the Holy Spirit. We say God is our source but is he really?
The problem with us and our ministry is the closed fistted way in which we lead it. We fear losing it because we spent so much building often times on our own. We must do what Mike is calling us to. Return to a place of dependence that leads to hope.
His main points of Obedience, Weakness and Risk are well taken. We as a church must embrace these over our endless purist of polish and excellence. We are in frustration that is mostly because of our own making. Excellence is an allusive and often abuse master. We must be a people who take risks, walk in obedience and embrace weakness.
If God is our source it changes everything. Everything we do depends on him. Our hard work is all about the Glorification of a Triune God not the personal preferences or anything that brings glory to ourselves.
We wonder why kids are growing up and leaving the church behind I would contend that is happening because Christ is not our source. He is “A” source but not “The” source of our life our ministry.
John 15 tells us that He is the vine we are the branch. Apart from him we can do nothing. Not things of lesser quality but nothing.
When Christ is our source it will change how we lead, parent, pastor, pray and live.
He is our source He is our hope He is our Joy. To Him be the Glory!