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Talk 1: God's Love The Life in the Spirit Seminar ____________________________________________________________________________________ Talk 1: God’s Love I. God is not beyond our contact, but someone who loves us and wants to be in a personal relationship with us, and who wants to give us a better life. A. Our misconceptions of Christianity can be an obstacle to our finding this better life through Christ: 1. Christianity as a restrictive morality (Christianity as rules to keep so we can go to heaven); 2. Christianity only as loving your neighbor (“as long as I live a good life it doesn’t matter what I believe”); 3. God as someone whom we cannot contact, who does not do anything that we can experience or know to be his work. B. The truth is: 1. God loves us; 2. He wants to make contact with us and have a personal relationship with us 3. He wants to give us a new and better life; 4. For this reason, he sent his only Son Jesus (John 14:15-27) C. Personal testimony… D. We can experience a better life as a result of authentic Christianity: 1. The knowledge of the power to live the Christian life; 2. Happiness, peace and joy; better personal relationships; healing; 3. Genuine community II. In the Life in the Spirit Seminars, you can take steps which will allow Jesus Christ to establish or restore or deepen a relationship with you. A. Everyone can experience change: 1. Those who have not been Christians or have been nominal or fallen-away Christians: during this seminar Jesus will come into your life in a new way so that you will know that you can find or recover a genuine relationship with him (be baptized in the Spirit and experience spiritual gifts). 2. Those who have been trying to live a Christian life in some way but who have found it difficult or who have not experienced much contact with God: During this seminar, Jesus will give you an experiential contact with him so that you will know that you know him, and he will give you a new power to live © Copyright 2016, The Sword of the Spirit the Christian life (he will baptize you in the Spirit, let you experience spiritual gifts). 3. For Christians who have already experienced a personal contact with Christ, during this seminar, Jesus will give you a new and fuller relationship with himself (prayer “in the Spirit”, spiritual gifts). 4. For those of you who are already baptized the Spirit, the Lord will teach you more during this time about what it means to be baptized in the Spirit and he will lead you into a deeper life in the Spirit. A. But the Life in the Spirit Seminar is only the beginning: 1. To experience the better life Christ offers, you need to grow to maturity in your relationship with him. 2. In the next three weeks (sessions) we will help you to understand and take first steps 3. In the fifth week (session) we will pray with you to enter into the fullness of God’s life that He has for you 4. In the last two weeks (sessions) we will explain to you how to continue growing in the new life God has for you 5. After that, there are other opportunities and helps which will make it possible for you to grow in what you have begun here. III. You can begin today to turn to the Lord A. The Lord will reach out to you, but you must reach out to him. “When you call to me and come to me, I will listen to you. When you seek me, you shall find me.” (Jeremiah 29:12-13) B. Starting today: 1. Begin praying every day to the Lord (even if only a few minutes) 2. Meditate on God’s words (use the list of passages) 3. Read some of the recommended articles and books Page 2 Talk 2: Our Need for Salvation I. There is something seriously wrong with the world (with society as a whole and individual lives) – something major is needed. A. God made the world a place of peace and justice and happiness, a place in which he would reign. He still wants the world that way. (Isaiah 2:1-5) B. But everyone agrees that there is something seriously wrong with the way the world is now (war, poverty, riots, racial conflict, abortion, greed, etc.) C. It is more than just a number of individual problems – society as a whole, the system as a whole, has something wrong with it. D. Individuals suffer from the situation and from lack of help, and they experience many problems (loneliness, isolation, depression, anxiety, insecurities, lack of direction, meaninglessness, personal relationships characterized by fear, suspicion, mistrust, exploitation). E. Something major is needed to correct the situation in the world. II. Since the cause of what is wrong with society is something bigger than man can handle on his own, men need God to find the new life they want. A. Men make various efforts to improve the world: 1. There are a variety of secular efforts, but they are not succeeding Even the most educated men in our universities are having a hard time making a go of their own lives, work, and relationships Even the most highly placed executives in our modern business corporations are having a hard time making a go of their lives, work, and relationships 2. Religions which men have developed try to achieve a solution Buddhism, yoga, transcendental meditation, etc. 3. Human government always holds promise but consistently falls short. God offers a new government in Jesus. (Isaiah 9:6, Psalm 2) B. God tells us that: 1. We are not just confronted with particular wrongs in society or ourselves, behind the particular things that are wrong there is something bigger than most men can handle. This is why there is evil in the world. Page 3 The pervasive power of sin (Romans 3:9,23) A kingdom, the dominion of darkness (Colossians 1:13) A force in rebellion against God, at enmity with him (Ephesians 6:12) Satan is behind it (I John 5:19-21) We are not free, nor is society (people are in spiritual bondage, under oppression of evil) (Ephesians 2:1-3, Ephesians 6:12-18) 2. Man was created to need God to achieve true peace, justice, and truth: The spiritual realm is not an optional extra (John 15:5c) Only in God’s kingdom (under his rule) are these things possible (Isaiah 2:1-5, Isaiah 45:22) Under God’s rule, life can be changed now (Isaiah 48:17-18, Mark 1:14- 15) 3. There is a choice before us: to live under the dominion of darkness or in the kingdom of God. III. God sent his son Jesus to break the hold of Satan and give us a new life through his death and resurrection. Jesus is the Lord and Savior – we need to be saved from sin, Satan, and a system impacted by them significantly. A. God sent his son to free us from darkness and Satan. Jesus is the Christ (the messiah, the one God sent) (Colossians1:13, John 11:21-27, Matthew 16:3-17) B. Jesus died for our sins and rose to give us new life (Romans 4:25, Titus 3:3-7, Colossians 1:18-20) If he had not died, we would not have been freed from our sins (Isaiah 53:4- 6, Hebrews 9:11-28) He broke the hold of Satan (John 12:31, John 3:8) Salvation is more than just going to heaven; it is a whole new way of life on earth as well (John 10:10b, John 4:14, I John 5:12) C. Jesus is Lord (God gave full power and authority to Jesus to bring freedom and new life to those who accept him) (Matthew 28:18, Philippians 2:5-11) D. Next week (session): we will discuss what the new life is and what a person can expect from being baptized in the Spirit. Page 4 Talk 3: New Life in the Power of the Holy Spirit I. The Father wants all men and women to have new life and to have spiritual power. He sent his son Jesus into the world so that we could be given the source of new life and the power of the Holy Spirit. A. Often the Christianity which we come in contact with has not been spiritually alive, but today God is renewing his Church by a fresh outpouring of his Holy Spirit, restoring power from heaven (Acts 2:17-18) B. The Father sent his son into the world to bring us new life and spiritual power: 1. Jesus is Lord; if we accept his lordship, we can experience a new freedom and a new life. 2. In him all our sins can be forgiven (no matter what we have done), and every barrier between us and the Father can be taken away. 3. After Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to the Father, he sent the Holy Spirit to bring us new life and power (Acts 1:1-5) II. When the Holy Spirit comes to someone, they become a changed person. (Acts 2 or Acts 19:1-7) A. We come to know God by experience: We come to know God as our Father who loves us and cares for us personally. We experience God’s love and presence in a new way We experience God speaking in our heart, teaching us, guiding us We come to know Jesus as our Lord The Lordship of Jesus begins to be the basic principle for our way of life B.
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