Pastor Tony Ashmore continues the series "The Simple Life" with part four of "Small Tweaks to Giant Peaks: Holy Habits Batman!" in this Sunday morning celebration.
Small Tweaks to Giant Peaks: Holy Habits Batman!
Pastor Tony Ashmore
Sunday, January 29, 2012
www.mylifegatechurch.com
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Sermon Notes:
Small Tweaks to Giant Peaks:
Week 4: Holy Habits Batman! (Manners Matter)
(Small Things that make a huge difference)
1 John 4:20 “If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?”
Our habits in the way we treat other humans directly effects our treatment of God. God-honoring actions release God-honoring life. Manners matter. We show respect for God when we respect others. We honor God when we honor others. When we are full of His Spirit, “doing” is like riding a bike—you never forget it and it just happens when you get on the bike. “Doing” in the Kingdom is all about the Spirit-filled, Spirit-baptized life.
Points:
* Seeing Him:
John 5:19 “So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.”
- Jesus made sure his actions re-presented his Father. “Doing” was easy—he simply imitated what he saw his Father do. Doing is the result of relationship. I don’t “do” to get closer to God, or to get his approval, I “do” because I am in relationship with God. Note David’s description of his sin—“I have sinned against you.” How can I do anything to dishonor Him? How can I do anything that would dishonor my wife and kids? In the book “When Good Men Are Tempted”, the author challenges men to write a letter to their kids explaining the decision to commit adultery and destroy their life. When we value relationship with God, relationship with our inner circle, relationship with others, then we will find ourselves honoring those “valuable” relationships in our doing. His character, his personality, will become more and more evident in me—in my doing—as I simply hang out with him.
* Receiving Him:
John 20:2-22 “Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
- Jesus has sent us, empowered us, with the same assignment he was given. His “doing” is our “doing”. Acts 10:38 “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power to go about doing good and healing all that are oppressed of the devil.”
* Embracing Him:
John 14:12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.”
- Simply allowing the Holy Spirit, through God’s Word, to make small tweaks in the way we think, the things we know, and the words we speak, will result in the release of the power of Heaven in our actions. We pray and things happen. We do and miracles happen. Our doing becomes the release of heaven into earth and lives are transformed. We settle for an impotent ‘doing’—hoping and not really expecting. When we fill our heart, our mind and our mouth with His words, when we embrace His Holy Spirit and His ‘doing’ in us—we will see His ‘doing’ through us to others. Mark 16:17-18 “These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages. They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.”
* “Presence-ing Him”:
Exodus 3:13-14 ‘But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?” God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: I AM has sent me to you.”’
- “I AM” is the name of God. Everytime we start a sentence with “I am…” we are about to re-present God, either accurately or distorted. When I say, “I am angry,” do my actions in that anger represent what God does when He is angry? “I am going to discipline you”—am I about to represent to my children an accurate representation of the way God disciplines me? “I am going to love you”—do I love you the way God loves me? I AM is His name. From this day forward, “I am…going to seek to accurately represent YOU with my ‘doing’.” Not doing to please you, but doing because I please you. Not doing to be good, but doing because you have made me good. Not doing to gain righteousness, but doing because you have made me righteous. Doing because it is who “I AM” and because I know who you are.
So What:
2 Corinthians 3:18 “So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”
The Spirit-filled, Spirit-baptized life is not complicated. “Do-ing” becomes as natural as breathing. We become what we behold. (note the 2 types of knowledge: intuitive and cognitive and the effect of what we see and hear on the intuitive) We get in the Word, the Word gets in us. We fill our lives with the presence of the Holy Spirit—our helper, our friend, our stand-by, our advocate, our comforter, our strength—and He empowers the Word in us. What God has done “in us” now is what God is “doing through us.”
Matthew 11:28 (MESSAGE) "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
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