The Great Experiment, Day 9 (night)

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

Transcript:

Thanks for spending some time today. Just getting to study the scriptures, dig in with Jesus. If you have a Bible, go to John chapter 7. I just want to look at a passage of Scripture where Jesus is speaking at a feast and He speaks specifically about the Holy Spirit. I just want to take a little time to meditate on the power of the Holy Spirit.

He says this, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

There is an interesting thing I want to meditate on today in this passage. The interesting thing that stands out to me probably most about this passage is that when Jesus stands up He says, "If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink." The assumption that we all make is, okay you are the water, you are going to give me a drink of water. Come to me and drink because I am the water. That's kind of the assumption of what we expect to hear. Instead of saying that, if you look at the passage, Jesus says, "If anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink," and then He says, "Whoever believes in me." He doesn't say I am the water, which He could have justifiably said, but instead He says, out of His heart will flow rivers of living water.

In other words, He is describing for us our relationship with God, the Holy Spirit. He is saying, when you believe in Christ, when you are regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit and you believe in Jesus, the Spirit of God takes up residence inside your heart. Between God and man there is fused an unbreakable, eternal, divine bond where you can now have relationship with God's Spirit. This is what Christians believe. We are one spirit with Jesus because of the unifying power of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. He regenerates us, makes us come alive. The Holy Spirit does this. We are united now with Jesus, but the wild thing is, what Jesus is saying is, “I'm not here to just give you a drink. Instead, I'm here to dig you a well. I'm here not to just give you a drink but I'm here to plant within you a source.”

Now every external condition, every external problem, every external fear, it's not that I have to go out to some external source and ask God for help. Instead what He is saying is, by the Holy Spirit I have put within you an internal source of life and joy and peace. In other words, every problem you might have, every fear you might have, every struggle you might have, the solution to that is not some external fix—we need more money, we need more of this, we need more of that...Sure, on the outside, things can look like externally we need this or that, but what He is saying is in a deeper way, in a more substantive way, the solution is always the internal river of God's Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience.

I just want you to think for a second about your life right now. Think about the biggest concern you have, think about the biggest fear, about the biggest struggle about the biggest worry about the future. Think about all those ways you are trying to fix it. I've got to get a new job. I've got to make more money. I've got to fix my car. Think about all of that and then pause and consider, maybe God is more interested in what He is doing in you then what He is doing through you. Maybe He in this instance is trying to develop in you patience or courage or love. Take a moment right now as you watch this video and ask the Holy Spirit, "Holy Spirit, what are you doing in me right now? How is the solution to my problem solved inwardly by the Spirit long before I ever outwardly see a manifestation?"

Would you open up your heart to that today and invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you about your current condition? In Jesus’ name, amen.

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

1. Read and Pray

Galatians 5:25 – If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Read Galatians 5:16–6:10 for more context.

This evening's Prayer Points

• Ask the Lord to keep you aligned with His Spirit.
• Pray through the fruit of the Spirit, asking for His grace to abound in each of those attributes.
• Confess any works of the flesh that have remained unconfessed until now.

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.