The Great Experiment, Day 9 (day)

Sunday, June 9 (morning) - Day 9 of The Great Experiment, June 1-10, 2019

Transcript:

Hey, thanks for taking a few minutes to study the scriptures. Hope you're hungry for God. I hope that this little video finds you just passionate, hungry for Jesus, seeking Him every day for more.

I want to read a passage from Acts chapter 2 today, where the apostle Peter gets up and speaks to the many people that are gathered because tongues of fire had fallen on the people in the upper room. 120 people speaking in foreign languages. All these people gather, hear their own language, and then Peter gets up and says this in Acts 2:16. He says, "This is what was uttered through the prophet Joel." Now he's quoting from the prophet Joel, and he says this: "In the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh." Raise your hand, wherever you're sitting, if you're all flesh. Okay, so you've got flesh, right. "Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams, even on my male servants and female servants in those days will I pour out my Spirit and they shall prophesy." He goes on and on, talks about what the prophet Joel speaks of in that time.

We know that that's a passage for now. We know that we live in the age of the Holy Spirit, where you and I can have intimate communion with God through the Holy Spirit that dwells in us. In fact the scripture goes as far as to say that our spirit and Christ's Spirit have become one. Us and the Holy Spirit have become one, and now we have this unique fellowship with the godhead—with the trinity: Father, Son and Spirit—because of what Christ has done on the cross and the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Now the wild thing about this verse is that it talks about all different types of people. It ends an age where God would speak through one man only and the rest of the people would respond, and inaugurates an age in which every single person who's a follower of Jesus can experience a personal, life-giving, powerful relationship with their Creator, where they can speak and move in the power of the Holy Spirit, and so this new age is inaugurated, right. It's a new age that, interestingly enough, he says is for men and for women, it's for old and for young, it's for servants and for masters. All people—Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free—have the capacity and opportunity to receive the power of the Holy Spirit and live in relationship with God through the Spirit.

In Ephesians chapter 4 the apostle Paul talks about being eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit. I want to just kind of drive that point home there. It discusses in 1 Corinthians how God gives, by the Holy Spirit, different gifts. You have certain gifts, your brother has certain gifts, your sister has certain gifts. Individuals in Christ have different gifts. Some may prophesy…All these different things that you may do in the Spirit. Now what the scripture says is that we're interdependent on one another. One person is a foot, one person is a hand, one person is a knee. What the Holy Spirit does is He draws all people together, all dependent upon the Spirit, all moving by the Spirit, and he creates a unity. That's why it says “be eager to maintain this spirit of unity”, this bond of peace. The Holy Spirit enables us to unify because we're interdependent one on another.

Why am I saying all this today? I want to urge you as you're here, you're praying, you're taking time to seek God, is there anyone in your life, specifically, a brother or a sister in Christ, that you're not in unity with? Because I just want to encourage you. I believe the Holy Spirit, as you watch this video right now, in Jesus' name, will begin to speak to you about that individual. I want to encourage you, before you go to bed tonight, reach out to that person and maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Allow the Holy Spirit that gives gifts to all speak to your heart and empower you, encourage you, strengthen you to by His grace go and make peace with a brother or a sister or anybody else. I just want to urge you, by the Holy Spirit ... I believe one of the great things he's doing on the earth today is he's uniting the body of Christ so that we're not about self, we're not about our agenda, but instead we're about the purpose of Jesus, and one of the ways He does that is by making amends one to another. Be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit, and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you about reconnecting with any brother, any sister that there's tension with today. In Jesus's name, amen.

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Here is this morning's guide for the “Five Rs” of The Great Experiment, June 1-10, 2019.

1. Read and Pray

Psalm 105:3-4 – Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice! Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!

Read Psalm 105:1-45 for more context.

This Morning's Prayer Points

• Delight in the Lord. Worship Him. Honor Him. Bless Him with songs of praise from your heart.
• Seek the Lord for His help today and for His presence to be thick and heavy in your life.

2. Repent.
What sins do I need to repent of today? What hindrances to my devotion to Christ can I remove today?

3. Respond to the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit, what is the one thing you most want me to do today? (Write it down, and do it today).

4. Represent Christ. 
How will I bear witness to Christ today? With whom shall I share the Gospel today?

5. Raise Your Faith.
Be bold and courageous in living out your faith (Joshua 1:8,9). Choose from one of the following options for a “Joshua Faith Challenge”:

1. Host an all-night prayer meeting. Set a date during June 1-10 and invite friends to come and pray with you for revival in America.
2. Every day, pray for ten friends and family members to come to faith in Christ and look for opportunities to share the gospel with them.
3. Share an evangelistic post on social media every day from June 1-10.
4. Anything else the Lord burdens you to take on that will require courageous faith.