Spirit Care 103 Series

Video Transition: Clay

Spirit Care 101-103

Thesis: Spirit care is the discipline of allowing the Holy Spirit to shape us, mold us, teach us and help us to mature in our spiritual faith. So, we in turn can help others come to Jesus and grow in Jesus.

Spiritual Care or Growth - is about us intentionally maturing our spirit with a plan and purpose! But we also need the help of Holy Spirit to grow and mature. It’s the Holy Spirit who is to be our teacher and guide in this wicked world we live in – did you hear that thought? We as Christians need to learn from Him and follow His direction in our lives. If we do, we can turn around and help others! If we do not do this, we will never be able to help others or impact our world!

Scripture Text:

Key - Romans 15:1-4: 1We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. 2Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”4For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

Hebrews 6:1: “Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God…”

Colossians 1:9-10: 9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God…

Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit and told us why He was sending Him to us – The following are Jesus’ own words:

Key – section - John 14:15-18:

15“If you love Me, keep My commandments.

16And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—

17the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

18I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

Introduction:

Quote from Richard Wafford from sermoncentral.com: A.B. Simpson says in his book "A Larger than Christian life" and I quote: “It is all connected with a living person. We are not filled with an influence; we are not filled with a sensation; we are not filled with a set of ideas and truths; we are not filled with a blessing, but we are filled with a person. This is very strange and striking. It is wholly different from all other teaching. Human systems of philosophy and religion all deal mainly with intellectual truths, moral conditions or external acts. Greek philosophy was a system of ideas; Confucianism is a system of morals; Judaism is a system of laws and ceremonies; Christianity all centers in a living person, and its very essence is the indwelling life of Christ himself.”

What Jesus describes above I can honestly say I have experienced in my own life – The Holy Spirit is a person who lives inside you!

Illustration from my own life: The School of the Holy Spirit.

I remember after accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior and being immersed in the Holy Spirit how I felt directed – really an inner passion arose within me. I had this urgency to grow in my knowledge of the Lord, His ways and His teachings. I choose to let the Holy Spirit teach me lessons from the Bible, from struggles and trials, from life’s failures, from pain and rejection, from books and messages and preachers.

So, the lessons I learned quickly from the School of Holy Spirit were to obey His voice, His Word and His instruction:

I see a dilemma today in Christianity in America: Christian’s do not want to die to their flesh and self, but instead they actually serve and worship themselves and in the wake of this idol worship, they cause destruction and division and call it the Lord’s doing.

But when we die to our self we grow spiritually, and God uses that to change communities and peoples lives!

This world needs more spiritually mature Christians who are willing to die to themselves so that they grow and serve others! God uses imperfect people “yes”, but wow does he use those who are mature in Him to impact others. The Lord is looking to use us, but we have to be willing to grow into spiritual mature Christian’s, He desires us to be mature – Why? So, we can help others mature spiritually in Jesus too!