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Lawrence Kirby shared a message titled, 'Remain in My Love' Jesus invites us to build our lives and have security in His love. We as human beings are searching for love. God's love is whole, consistent and fully toward us. Jesus invites us to remain in His love. John 15:9-17 NIV “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other." Jesus experienced the love of the Father, and communicated that to his disciples. To remain or to abide means to make a place your home. If you choose to remain somewhere, you've got to be committed to that. Sometimes we encounter hard work or hurtful experiences... but in those times we must remain to what we've committed to, what God has called us to. In order to remain, we must deal with issues when they come up, not let them fester and grow. To remain in the love of Jesus requires us to change the way we think. If we struggle with insecurity in love eg; whether I'm accepted and loved by people, then surely this will undermine our ability to remain in God's love as it will lead to guilt, condemnation, and questioning if God really loves us and if He's still near us and for us. Insecurity can lead us to think, 'does God still love me?' Jesus invites us to remain in His love, to build our home in Him. You may choose to respond to one of the following categories... 1. You've never experienced the love of God and want to know connection with Him for the first time 2. You know God loves you, but at times you question it, and want to receive assurance that His love for you is true 3. You've already committed to remaining in love and desire this commitment to be strengthened --- You can watch the full message below:
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Lawrence shared a message titled, 'Still to be Spirit-Led: Part 2' Romans 8:14 NLT 'For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.' The title of the message holds double meaning. There is a challenge to be still in order to be Spirit-led, but we are also still to be, or yet to be, Spirit-led. We all have moments when we're better at that than at other times... At times we are not consciously carrying the Spirit, but it's not something that we are or we aren't. We are learning to be in every moment. 'It's one thing to be still, it's another thing to be led.' We can hear God's voice, but it's another step to actually be led by what we hear. 'We all want a Spiritual life... We just want to be in charge of it and have it unfold according to our schedule.' If you're a follower, then someone is leading you. If you're a follower of Jesus, then He's the one who is leading, not you! Galatians 5:16-26 NLT 'So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. 26 Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.' Let's all get better at being led by the Spirit of God. Key for all of us in the process is the idea that something is motivating you to be led. You can either be motivated by love, or by fear. There isn't a dichotomy of being all led by the Spirit or all not-led by the Spirit. We seek to increase the fruit of the Spirit in our lives and decrease the fruit of our sinful nature. The fruits of the Spirit are not gendered. Whether male or female we want to be growing in these things. John 14:15-21 NIV 15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever-- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” 1 John 5:1-5 NIV 'Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.' Jesus says if you love me (motivation), keep my commands. It's an invitation. We can have different imagination around obeying vs keeping. Rather than hearing "obey my commands because you're scared of me." we can hear "keep my commands because of your love for me." If I'm motivated by fear at some point I'm going to be measuring, 'When have I done enough?' If I'm motivated by love, I know that in all things God's got me. It's not a punishment or reward thing. It's about the best way to live! Love inspires, motivates, invites Fear intimidates, dominates, condemns & manipulates It is OK to say no to God. He will wrestle with you! He is gracious enough to journey with us in the process. The invitation is always to go back to God and experience deep connection with Him. Let us be people who are motivated, inspired and invited by Love into all God has for us. --- You can watch the full message below: Lawrence Kirby shared a message titled, 'Still to be Spirit-led' Galatians 5:16 NLT “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.” Romans 8:14 NLT “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.” If teaching doesn’t change how we live on a day to day basis, all we’re gaining is head knowledge. Transformation and peace come from being led by the Spirit of God! How does God lead you? Have you thought about what it looks and feels like when God is speaking to you? He speaks to us in an individual way. If you’re not sure how He’s leading you, how are you sure that He is leading you? Holy Spirit wants to give us a way through in every situation. John 16:13 NLT “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.” To still ourselves and find peace in His presence. "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." - Blaise Pascal Be still and know that He is God. One of the best ways to understand how we are led by the Spirit, is to get into spaces of stillness and silence. --- You can watch the full message below: |
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