Outsiders, Outcasts and Outlaws - Week 1

 

Today we are beginning a series of sermons that will take us through the gospel of Luke.  I want to encourage us as a church to read through the gospel together over the next 6 weeks.  Just a chapter a day, Monday - Friday, will get us through the gospel before Holy Week.  The reason it’s important for us to read the gospels, and I would say for us to read them over and over again, is that if we want our lives to reflect the life of Jesus, we need to know how he lived and how he loved.  Our relationships with others need to look like the relationships Jesus had with people, and the gospels are where we find this information.  

What we see in the gospel of Luke specifically is that Jesus often chooses and uses the people that others would pass over.  It’s the outcasts, the outsiders, and even a few outlaws that Jesus not only reached out to and loved but included them and used them in His ministry.  That all persons were going to have a place in the work of Jesus was made clear from the very beginning of Luke’s gospel.  

In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.  Luke 1:5-7

There has been a lot of conversation these days about what it means to be old - or past our prime.  Just a note to all the men listening, it is NEVER a good idea to tell a woman she is past her prime.  If you don’t believe me, just ask CNN’s Don Lemon.  But we do have certain biases about older people.  Maybe we think they are too out of touch or don’t understand all that is going on in the world to be useful.  Leaders often think older people aren’t capable of doing a job or helping an organization or business move forward, and too often we feel like their ideas are outdated and that a new generation of ideas (and people) is needed. 

But the very beginning of the Jesus movement, the very beginning of this new thing God was going to do in the world, stated when God chose and used two people who are described as very old.  While we don’t know the ages of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the same word for very old used here was also used in 2 Samuel to describe a man who was 80.  But I also heard this week that in Jewish tradition you were considered old when you hit 60.  As you might imagine, I wasn’t too happy to hear that.  I’m not ready to be considered old on Tuesday - although there are days I feel it.  

But Zechariah and Elizabeth were old and I think we can say that they were past their prime, at least when it came to having children.  That’s the other thing we learn about them, they had never had children, and that in itself made them a bit of an outcast.  In Jesus’ day, if couples were unable to have children, people believed they had done something wrong.  They weren’t being blessed by God so there must be some unresolved sin in their lives.  Elizabeth even says later that she had been living with disgrace among her own people.  But Luke makes sure we know that this wasn’t the case with Zechariah and Elizabeth.  They weren’t being punished for sin, they were righteous and blameless before God, which is why God chose them in their old age to begin the movement that would bring Jesus into the world.  

Zechariah and Elizabeth were old and childless. They were outcasts in the community, and yet God chose them to bring in the prophet who would  prepare people for a spiritual awakening and point people to the Messiah.  Over and over in the Bible we see that God chooses and uses those that many would have considered too old and past their prime.  

Abraham was 80 and Sarah was 70 when God chose them to leave their home and establish a new family in a new land.  It would be another 10 years before Sarah would have the promised child.  She was 80 and Abraham was 90 when Isaac was first born.  God chose an old and infertile couple to start a new movement.  

It was in his old age that Jacob had a child with his barren wife, Rachel, the one he loved most of all.  That child was Joseph.  Joseph was the one who was sold into slavery by his brothers but in time saved all of God’s people by becoming a leader in Egypt.  

A few generations later, Moses was 80 when God called him to lead the people of God out of Egypt.  The Apostle Paul would have been seen as an old man when he was writing to all the churches he had established during his life.  That means most of the New Testament was written by an old man.  Just when society might be ready to put someone out to pasture, God chooses and uses them for His purpose.  

There is a reason that God chooses and uses older people and it’s not just that they have more experience and wisdom to draw from, it’s because as we get older, our thinking often shifts from thinking about success in life to significance.  In his book, Half Time, Bob Buford talks about how many people in the first half of their life are searching for and chasing after success.  We go to college or tech school and then try to land that first job that will give us what we need to get bigger and better jobs in the future.  Maybe we get married and start a family and then want to move on to bigger houses and better opportunities for our children.  This doesn’t mean success is all we are focused on, but that is where we spend our time and energy.

As many people get older, however, there is a shift from thinking about success to significance.  We find out that bigger isn’t always better.  Some people get burned out by the pace of life needed to sustain the pursuit of success.  We start asking ourselves, is there more to life than this?  Is there more I should be doing, or need to do?  Is there more God is asking from me?  It is often this shift in thinking that causes people to leave their jobs and pursue a different career.  The average age of people in seminary is 40 because suddenly people start looking to be part of something significant.  

Maybe it’s that shift in thinking that God is looking for, maybe it is the wealth of wisdom and experience that God needs to draw from, but what can’t be ignored is that God chooses and uses older people.  It was an older couple that God used to make some major changes in my first church. 

I was the pastor at Second Avenue UMC in Altoona and Flo and Bill Dickey were members at Trinity UMC.  Second Ave and Trinity had a combined youth group and many of the families were making the shift to our church which meant that Trinity was struggling with their future.  I had gotten to know Flo and Bill a little bit and they were well into their 80’s when they showed up at a meeting at Trinity where they were going to discuss their future.  After a lot of conversations, it was Flo who said, we have talked enough.  I make the motion that we sell our church and merge with Second Ave.  Her husband seconded the motion.  The vote passed overwhelmingly, in large part because Flo and Bill suggested it.  

Here at Faith Church, we just celebrated the life of Al Nestor.  Al was in his 80’s when he embraced being a greeter at the door and he said he did it because he saw young families with kids needing help and he could do something to make a difference.  Al helped set a tone of hospitality and service that has helped shape who we are.  

When we first started setting up some small groups here at the church, Louise Mundy offered to host a group and opened up her home.  I’m not going to tell you how old she was then, but I will tell you that Louise is still opening her home to groups and her Sunday School class eats there a few times a year and she is 97.  

If you are old or being told you are past your prime, what might God want to do in your life?  What is God calling you to embrace?  What ministry does God want you to start?  Now isn’t the time to think about giving up, now is the time to start gearing up for what God has for you.  

And the message for everyone under 60 is that we need to remember there are times when God specifically chooses those who are older to lead us into the future.  God chose Zechariah and Elizabeth to begin a new thing and usher the work of Jesus into the world.  But let’s be clear, God doesn’t just use those who are older, God also chooses the young, sometimes those very young.  We find this when we keep reading in Luke 1.

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.  The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.  But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”  Luke 1:26-33

The word virgin can also be translated as young girl and many believe Mary to have been a teenager, maybe as young as 14.  Mary was also from Nazareth, a town that was not well thought of.  She was a nobody from a hick town that most people thought would not amount to much in life and yet she was the one chosen by God to bring the Messiah into the world.  After choosing an older couple to begin a movement, God chooses a young girl to literally make it happen.  She will be the one to bring Jesus into the world.  

Just as God chooses and uses those seen as too old to be of use,  God also chooses and uses those seen as too young to be of any value.  We see this in other places in the Bible.  David’s brothers thought he was too young to be a soldier so they told him to go home and tend the sheep, and yet it was David who took down the giant Goliath.   

One of the reasons that God chooses and uses young people is because they possess a courage and trust that oftentimes no one else has.  David was not only courageous, he trusted that God could do in him something that other people thought was impossible.  None of the other soldiers thought God would fight with them if they went up against Goliath.  None of the other soldiers were even willing to try - but David did.  

There is something special about young people.  Many of them have a faith and vision that sees anything and everything as possible. It’s like they don’t know you can’t do things so they just go ahead and do it.  I was 20 years old when I hopped on a bus and took a long trip to Montana to work in Yellowstone National Park.  I’ll be honest, I don’t know that I could or would even want to do that today.  

I hope you have heard about or read about the Asbury Univ. Revival.  On February 8, a group of college students felt called by God to keep their chapel service going, so they submitted to the Holy Spirit and kept worship going.  For 11 days those students led worship, shared testimonies, read scripture, prayed together and in silence, and allowed the Holy Spirit to fill them and use them.  We sang a hymn a few weeks ago that said, Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me.  Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me.  And that is exactly what the spirit of God did in a group of young people.  The Holy Spirit filled them and used them. 

For 11 days, 24 hours a day, people’s lives have been transformed by the power of God’s Spirit working through college students.  People from around the globe have visited the campus and while some might have come to just be part of the crowd, others were there to repent of their sins, ask for healing and wholeness, and to work at being reconciled to God and others.  

You may not be aware of it, but 53 years ago a similar revival took place at Asbury.  It was 1970 and a group of students felt called by God to keep their chapel service going.  They were also obedient to the Holy Spirit and a revival lasted for a week.  People from around the nation came to experience this awakening and their lives were changed.  What started at Asbury in 1970 spread to other colleges and churches and countries.  People’s lives were changed. 

We need to pray for revival and awakening among our young people.  We need to pray for a passion and courage and faith that will help them do all that the Holy Spirit calls them to do, and then we need to support them in doing it.  Sometimes supporting youth in their call from God might seem to us as foolishness.  Too many times our experience causes us to hold them back from doing what God might want done.  Ours might have been the voices that would have said to students at Asbury, “it’s time to go home now, it’s time to end the worship and praise and prayer and return to normal.”  

It can be easy for us to look down on those who are young as being too inexperienced, not fully developed, and they really don’t know what they are talking about - but God uses the young.  God used a young woman who was willing to say yes to bring the Messiah into the world.  God used young students who said yes to bring revival to their campus and the world.  

So to those of you who are young: youth, young adults, young families, what is God calling you to do?  How is God calling you to step out with faith and give birth to a movement that will change people’s lives?  How is God calling you to step out with courage and slay the giants of our time?  

I believe God is choosing and using our youth here at Faith Church because we see it every week.  Every week our broadcast room is filled with youth willing to serve to make sure our worship is online.  Sometimes it is ONLY youth back there serving to keep worship going.  Our youth go on mission trips, they seek God out at retreats and festivals and camps. They are already seeking God.  God is already calling them.  

To the youth today, I would say what Paul said to his young friend Timothy, a young man he put in charge of a church, 

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.  Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. 

Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.  Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.   1 Timothy 4:12-16

At the beginning of Luke’s gospel we see God choosing and using two groups of people that we often want to ignore and overlook, the young and the old.  Those that society still thinks are either not ready for prime time, or past their prime are the very people God used to bring Jesus into the world.  The message for all of us is that God wants to use all of us.  The young and the old and the middle aged.  If you are 13, or 53 or 83, what is God calling you to do?  How does God want to use you in the world.  Will you you let God move in you?  Will you let God use you?  

In a moment, Pastor David is going to come and encourage us to think about how we grow as a community.  As we do, I want to encourage us to think specifically about how we can help those who we might consider too old or too young to embrace the calling of God.  Think about how you can be an encouragement or source of inspiration to someone.  How can we form a community that will value the gifts and contributions of the young and the old - and all of us in between.  

Next Steps

Luke: Outcasts, Outsiders and Outlaws

Read Luke 1-5.  Note the times God welcomes, calls, chooses and uses those who might be considered outcasts.

Luke 1:5-25.  Why might Zecahariah and Elizabeth have been seen as outsiders and outcasts?  What does it say to you that God chose them to begin the story of Jesus?

What biases does our society have against older people?  What biases do you have against older people?  In what ways might we see them as “past their prime”?  

What examples of older people being called by God can you find in the Bible? In history? In the world today? In your life?

Encourage an older person in their life and ministry this week.

Luke 1:26-38.  Why might Mary have been seen as an outsider or outcast?  What does it say to you that God chose her to bring Jesus into the world?  

What biases does our society have against young people?

What biases do you have against young people?  In what ways might you see them as “not ready for prime time”?

What examples or young people being called by God can you find in the Bible? In history? In the world today? In your life?

Encourage a young person in their life and ministry this week.

For further study:  Read Luke 1:39-56.  

What aspects of Christian community are seen here?  How can you help create and nurture this kind of community during the season of Lent?  

A Way Out - Walking By The Spirit

Pastor David has been doing a great job leading us through this series on overcoming temptation and our key verse has been:

1 Corinthians 10:13. No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.  

This verse tells us that temptation is common to everyone.  We are all tempted to say or do things that we know we shouldn’t say or do.  No one is above temptation, even Jesus was tempted.  At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus was tempted openly when Satan told Him that He could choose paths that would bring Him worldly fame and fortune.  Jesus didn’t give in to that temptation but relied upon the word and will of God to help Him stand firm.  At the end of His ministry, in the Garden of Gethsemane, facing the agonizing pain of dying on a cross, Jesus was again tempted to find a way other than the cross to accomplish God’s will.  Once again, Jesus didn’t give in but stood strong.  

The Bible says Jesus was tempted in every way that we are, but was without sin.  Jesus was tempted but never followed through on those thoughts and actions which tells us that Jesus was perfect, but we are not.  We are not perfect because many times, too many times, we give in to temptation.  

I don’t know how you have been feeling through this series but there are times I have felt kind of hopeless.  Not that David’s words haven’t provided wisdom and direction on how to fight temptation, they have, but as much as I try to stand strong in the face of temptation, I find myself giving in over and over again.  The words of the Apostle Paul keep coming to my mind:

I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 

So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?  Romans 7:18-19, 21-24

I don’t want to give in to temptation.  I try to stop the cycle of thought, imagination, and justification that leads to the choice of giving in to the temptation, but I never seem to fully overcome it.  I might succeed once or twice, but then I stumble and fall.  I never seem to find true victory, the temptation never seems to go away.  Can anyone else relate to this?  Overcoming temptation in the long haul is not easy, but I believe it is possible - not because we have the power to make it happen, but because God has the power to make us new!  

Last week, Pastor David did a great job talking about how our thoughts are often what first lead us into temptation.  We start to think about that juicy piece of gossip, and then we imagine telling it to someone and the thrill we will get in sharing it, and then we justify doing it by saying “well, they need to know” and then the next thing we know we are on the phone engaging in gossip. 

Or we think about how easy it would be to cut a few corners on our taxes.  Then we imagine having that extra money and all we could do with it.  Then we justify cheating by saying the government gets enough of our money anyway and they aren’t going to know, and then we do it.  Our thoughts are often our first step into temptation, but fighting temptation is a lot more than just stopping ourselves from thinking about certain things.  In fact, telling ourselves to stop thinking about all the things that tempt us usually just gets us thinking about those very things.  

Let’s try an experiment. Close your eyes.  Clear your mind.  Now…. Don’t think about… dirt cake.  

What are you thinking about?  

The more we try to not think about certain things, the more we seem to focus on those very things.  So instead of trying to stop thinking about the wrong things, those things that tempt us that we want to avoid, let’s start thinking about the right things, the good things, the Godly things that need to be our focus.  

When I first moved into the parsonage in Altoona, there was a large patch of lawn in the front yard where a tree had recently been removed. There was very little grass growing but lots of weeds.  I spent that first summer trying to kill the weeds.  I pulled up thistle, only to have to go back in a few weeks.  I kept focusing on getting rid of the weeds but the weeds kept coming.  

The next summer I decided to get a lawn service to fertilize the grass.  I wanted the entire lawn to look nice so I paid for them to come and fertilize the grass on a regular basis.  It didn’t take long for me to notice that the area in the front yard that had been full of weeds was no longer full of weeds.  The thistle was gone.  In a few more weeks the entire area was just green grass.  When I started to feed the good healthy grass, it helped choke out the weeds.  When we feed the spirit of God in us, it begins to choke out the desires of our flesh and the temptations we face.  

Paul, who understood that focusing on the good I want to do and the evil we don’t want to do is a losing battle, went on to say this: 

Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  Galatians 5:16.

We know what those desires of the flesh are, it’s all those things that promise satisfaction at the cost of obedience to God.  It’s lust and greed.  It’s thinking we can find lasting pleasure or peace in shopping, eating, or drinking.  It’s looking for recognition and reward in this world by being the first to post to social media, the first to share the latest “news”, or simply striving to be the first.  All the temptations we face are focused on making us feel better and look good.  They feed the desires of the flesh, and Paul says, don’t feed the flesh, feed the spirit instead.  Walk by the Spirit. 

What Paul says here is really profound because he doesn’t tell us to first stop feeding the desires of our flesh, he tells us to first walk by the Spirit of God. In fact, what Paul says is that if we feed the Spirit first, if we walk by the Spirit first, then we simply will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  The temptation might still be a battle, but it will be a battle we can win because we aren’t fighting it on our own, we have the Holy Spirit fighting with us.  

Fully understanding the Holy Spirit can be confusing.  It’s easy to think about God as the Father of all things, and it’s easy to picture Jesus as the Son of God and the fullness of God who walked the earth in human form, but the Holy Spirit is hard to see and understand, and yet it is the greatest gift we have ever received.  To put it simply, the Holy Spirit is the spirit of God working in our lives. It is the power and spirit of Jesus dwelling in us.  

Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would bring us comfort. So in times of fear, grief, or uncertainty, when we suddenly feel a sense of peace, or know we aren’t alone, that’s the work of the Holy Spirit.  When we are convicted of sin, that’s the Holy Spirit working within us.   It’s the Holy Spirit that points out areas of temptation for us to consider so we can avoid them.  The Holy Spirit gives us words when we don’t know what to say, it gives us strength when we are weak, it guides us into the path God has for us when we are lost, and it gives us the desire to be more like Jesus.  

The Holy Spirit is the spirit of God which means it really is not an “it” but a person.  We talk about God in three persons, the Trinity, because each person of the Trinity is able to develop a unique relationship with us.  It’s one God, but each person, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, wants to strengthen us and shape us in different ways.  But before we can walk by the Spirit, we need to invite the Holy Spirit to be part of our lives.  

Last week, Jeff Pilger, our youth director, shared with us that the theme of their youth retreat last week was storymaker.  We make and write the story of our lives but with the help and input of God.  One character in the drama they saw always came to God talking.  He never stopped to listen.  When he finally came asking God why he hadn’t heard God’s voice, God said it was because he had written his own story and only reached out to God for approval.  God wants to work with us to write the story of our lives.  He wants to be the storymaker with us.  The same is true of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the power of God, but we can’t tap into that power or lean into God's Spirit and use it in our lives until we stop trying to live by our own power.  As long as we try to fight temptation on our own, we will come up short, but when we start using the power of the Holy Spirit, when we realize that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us, then we can  start experiencing true strength and victory.  

Next to the church, maybe the greatest organization that helps transform people's lives so they can find real freedom from temptation is Alcoholics Anonymous.  AA is a 12-step program and their first three steps are what we need to learn from today.  

1. Admit that we are powerless over alcohol and that our lives have become unmanageable.

2. Believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity.

3. Make the decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him.

This is exactly how the Holy Spirit will start working in us.  We need to admit that we are powerless over temptation and sin.  We need to admit that on our own, the good we want to do we won’t do and the evil we don’t want to do we will always do.  

Then we need to acknowledge that the power of God, the Holy Spirit, is available to help us. It is actually dwelling in us.   

Then we need to make the decision to turn our will and lives over to the Holy Spirit.  

I want to invite us all to do this right now.  My guess is that no matter how long we have been following Jesus, there are still areas of temptations that we give in to. So let’s take a moment and ask the Holy Spirit to give us the power we need to live a new life.  Take a moment and think about this statement and fill in this blank:

I admit that I’m powerless over _______________________.  

Now simply ask the Holy Spirit to work in you with these words:

Holy Spirit. Enter my life and do what I can’t do.  

Heal me, strengthen me, and make me whole.  

This needs to be a daily prayer for all of us. Admit that we are powerless and then ask the Holy Spirit to at work in our lives.  This is what it means for us to depend upon the Spirit, this is what it means for us to lean on the power of God and begin to walk by the Spirit: admit we need God’s power and ask God’s Spirit to work in us.

But Paul doesn’t tell us to just ask the Spirit in and then sit back and do nothing - he says we need to walk with the Spirit.  While walking with the Spirit is a great analogy, I think we can learn a lot more if we think of our relationship with the Holy Spirit as a dance.  

Now for me, dancing means disco.  Yes, I grew up in the late 70’s and 80’s with Saturday Night Fever, ABBA’s Dancing Queen and Disco Inferno by the Trammps.  Dancing was more what you did on your own and not in step with someone else. So don’t think about disco, think about ballroom dancing, and not the dancing with the stars ballroom dancing, but simple ballroom dancing like a fox trot or waltz.  

There are three things you need to do when you do a simple dance.  You need to be close to each other.

You need to spend time with each other.

You need to follow the promptings and nudges you are given.

If we are going to dance with the Holy Spirit, we need to allow ourselves to get close to the Spirit and ask the Spirit into our lives.  

Then we need to spend time feeding and nurturing this relationship and Pastor David is going to talk more about growing closer to the Spirit next week and you will want to be here for that.  

So let’s look at the third thing needed for good dancing: follow the promptings and nudges you are given. In dancing, the lead will guide and direct their partner by a nudge in the back or a pull of the hand.  The Holy Spirit, when we allow it to lead in our lives, will guide and direct us every day by nudges and promptings.  When a worship song / hymn we sing on Sunday pops into our minds during the week, it is a prompt by the Spirit to remember a promise or a truth of God.  It might be just what we need to hear at that moment.  When someone comes to our mind it is prompt to pray for them or reach out to them to offer words of encouragement.  

Every day, the Spirit prompts us and nudges us in many ways.  Start a list on your phone, keep a pad by your table, or in your car, or at your desk and every time you think the Spirit has prompted or nudged you in some way, write it down.  At the end of the day, identify all the times you sensed the Spirit prompting you and speaking to you and guiding your life.  The more we can see these promptings and feel these nudges, the more receptive we will be to them, and the more we will be able to keep in step with them.  And the more we walk by the Spirit - the more we will find ourselves walking further and further from temptation.  

The more we walk by the Spirit, the more we will hear the voice of the Spirit and the more we hear the words of the Spirit the less we will hear the words of temptation.  When we walk by the Spirit, we won’t have to tell ourselves to stop thinking about those things that lead us into temptation because we won’t be thinking about them at all.  It is when we start walking by the Spirit and trusting in the power of God at work in our lives that we begin to find victory and freedom and new life.  

Next Steps

A Way Out - Walking in the Spirit

It’s not enough to stop thinking about the wrong things, we need to start thinking about the right things.  Read Philippians 4:8. What new things can you focus on this week?

Read Galatians 5:16-25.  What does it mean for you to walk by the Spirit?  

Walking by the Spirit begins by:

1. Admitting that we are powerless over temptation and sin.  

● Where do you feel powerless in your life?  

● Take time to admit this to God:

● I admit that I am powerless over______________.

2. Asking the Holy Spirit to enter your life with power.  Pray: Holy Spirit. Enter my life and do what I can’t do.  

Heal me, strengthen me, and make me whole.  AMEN

When walking by the Spirit is a dance, we need to:

1. Be close to each other.

● Ask the Holy Spirit into your life.

2. Spend time with each other.

● What is one thing you can do to spend time with the Spirit?  Dig deeper into this next Sunday.

3. Follow the promptings and nudges you experience.  

● Identify and list all the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  

● Review the list each day to begin to learn how the Spirit speaks to you and wants to guide you.  

● Look for the ways the Spirit can lead you so you can follow the Spirit into freedom, strength, and new life.