The Holy Spirit and the Disciple-Making Mission

But I believe that when as a believer, when the Holy Spirit begins to, like, tap on you and go, hey. Doing this? Why are you still entertaining these thoughts? Why are you not spending more time with God? Why are you not going and participating and sharing Christ with others? I've encouraged you countless times to to go and to grab that other person that's in your life, that's in your circle, and you should be discipling them. That is the Holy Spirit. [00:29:19] (34 seconds)  #DiscipleYourCircle

And that's why disciple making is so essential. In Proverbs 2seven 17, it says, iron sharpens iron, one man sharpens another. And so that's why disciple making is essential. That's why we are so focused on it here at this church and talking about it and trying to encourage you to have those relationships, to step into them. When God provides them with that other person, it's important. Don't push it away. Don't make excuses. Don't say that that's for another time. Just step into the opportunity. [00:39:10] (36 seconds)  #IronSharpensIron

We talked about this aspect of head, heart, and hands over the last couple of weeks, and that's exactly what we see in this verse. Jesus said, come, follow me. I wanna give you a head knowledge. I wanna show you what it means to be a believer. I wanna show you what it means to follow God. The second part is he said, and I will make you. I will change you from the inside out. A heart change. He shows us. He teaches us. He creates this heart change in us, and then we become committed to the mission. [00:31:53] (35 seconds)  #HeadHeartHands

One of the other things the Holy Spirit enables us to do, if you haven't already picked up on is he enables us to follow Christ. The goal is not destruction of you, and sometimes that's the idea that we get in mind that God just wants to destroy everything that I love and everything that that I'm following and that I wanna be a part of. He just wants to destroy my life, and that sounds miserable. He's not here to destroy you, He's here to convict you. He wants you to change your heart and make that turn. [00:47:06] (35 seconds)  #ConvictNotDestroy

Things that are happening and the Holy Spirit is working around you and we need to recognize when the Holy Spirit is working. Lean into it. Listen a little bit harder. Pay attention a little bit stronger. Because when we submit and we follow that lead, we're gonna see those fruits of the spirit happen in our life. The Holy Spirit's a complicated thing, I get it. But it's one of those things that if we will honestly pay attention, it's an important element in our disciple making. Holy Spirit's already trying to work in you. We just need to tap into it a little bit harder. [00:58:02] (37 seconds)  #LeanIntoTheSpirit

And he's not asking you to work your way towards it. Ephesians two eight nine says, it's by grace you're saved, not of yourselves. It's not like you're having to keep a list or achieve certain markers in order to be received. The Holy Spirit guides you and receives you and leads you and accepts you just as you are, And it's a life's journey. [00:48:44] (29 seconds)  #GraceNotChecklist

That perseverance begins to develop character. And with that character that we're developing, we eventually, we have hope. We begin to see God working in us and working in the person maybe that we're discipling. So the next time you're pouring into someone and you see them make a mistake, we don't beat them up over it. We offer them the same grace and hope that God offers you and I. [00:38:34] (27 seconds)  #OfferGraceAndHope

And so if you feel like that you're in a place right now where there's no way that God would bring you back because you've just been going the wrong direction even as a believer, that you know Jesus Christ is in your heart, but you've just been going the wrong way. That verse right there says, guess what? Just ask. And the Holy Spirit will guide you right back to where you need to be, and he's gonna forgive, and he's gonna heal because God's ear is always attentive to that child. [00:46:08] (28 seconds)  #SpiritGuidesYouHome