Outline

1. Graces of the Spirit confirm our conversion. (v. 5-6)

2. Graces of the Spirit keep our passion burning. (v. 7-8)

3. Graces of the Spirit bring us into a deeper communion with Christ. (v. 9)

Content

1. Dancing is a kind of movement that’s intimate, personal, and passionate.

2. There are many different kinds of churches, but they generally fit into one of four categories:

Liturgical (sacraments), Social Justice (issues), Charismatic (Spirit), Evangelical (Bible). No one group has all the truth, so Heritage tries to have a balance of them all in what we do. That’s why we observe Advent and Lent.

3. Heritage’s sermon series fall under one of those different categories, and this series would be under the Charismatic group, but it’s part of a balanced diet, part of what God is doing in the church.

4. The Corinthians were dancers, and some of it was dirty dancing. Paul wrote to correct what was off, not shut them down.

5. Often we want to avoid things that might have problems with them, but they might hold real potential and promise. Anything that’s good needs to be navigated, not avoided.

6. Paul began with two good principles:

a.) Appreciate what’s good … before you deal with what’s not.

b.) Affirm what’s true … even when it’s out of balance.

7. God had blessed the Corinthians with good gifts even though they mis-used them. In the same way, God gives us things because He loves us; this is His grace.

8. When we become a Christian, we believe something and receive Someone — take in a soul mate. We decide to live a certain way. The Christian faith is an encounter with the living God. See Eph. 1:13-14

9. We can know in part what the future holds because of the Spirit, Who is a deposit in us, a guarantee that what God promised will happen.

10. Passion is a part of commitment; it should deepen, not dampen or go out. Our ability to persevere is linked with our engagement with the Spirit; He contributes to our desire to continue and to remain committed. See 2 Tim. 1:6-7, Gal. 3:3

11. Everything the Spirit does is intended to promote Christ; He wants to strengthen our connection with Jesus. Because of this connection, our relationship with God is changed and we can have intimacy with Him and call Him, “Daddy.” See Gal. 4:6, 1 Cor. 2:9-10

12. God has many truths to share. The Spirit shares them to bring us closer to God.

Aim

We need to be open to what God wants to do with us and learn to move in a way that opens up a whole new way of life in our relationship with Jesus.

Application Questions

1. Could you relate to any parts of the video shown at the beginning of the message? Do you at times feel like your life is mundane and routine? How can you keep it from becoming mundane?

2. When you need to confront someone about something, how easy is it to begin by saying something positive first?

3. What helps you stay passionate toward Christ? Do you engage in these activities often enough to keep your flame burning?

4. Are you moving, dancing with Jesus? If not, why not? If so, how do you continue this relationship?

5. Are you open to what God wants to do with you? What do you think He wants to do? If you aren’t, why not?

SERMON NOTES (click arrow to the right to open)

Main Idea:

1. The real question: where is the salt and where is the light? That is us and how we witness to the world.

2. Jesus is saying what the world can’t live without…what this earth must have to survive is you…you are the light of the world and the salt of the earth…without you, it could be decay and darkness!

3. To hear God’s will for Heritage Christian Church in the decision whether to or not to purchase the land west of the church property to continue witnessing to the world.

Content:

This world that has no hope, that doesn’t believe let alone know God, is in search of purpose and meaning, and struggles with life in their own strength because that’s all they know and have.

God calls us to be the salt and the light to the world in our witness because we have hope in Jesus Christ.

Our connection with God provides the power in us that promises real change for the real issues of life.

In Jesus’ day, salt was used as a preservative, as an additive for flavor, and a preventative for decay.

Jesus’ point about life—that life can be bland, sometimes bitter; maybe even decay is a reality.

Darkness is a condition we have to contend with…it’s a reality…it’s a part of life in this world.

Like salt, I am to bring some added value…either to flavor or preserve the situation and like light, I’m to bring some clarity and perspective to what’s obscure or unseen.

Salt has such a potency about it…it can hold back decay, as well as change the flavor from bitter to something so much better.

You’re saltiness is critical. If you lose your flavor, your testimony, there is really more at stake than just your reputation.

That is Jesus’ concern…my character and conduct is critical to my witness.

All the good I might want to engage in falls short if my own personal life is in disarray. That is Jesus’ point…what good are we then?

Perfection isn’t necessary, but honesty and humility…following what you say you believe…being willing to extend the kind of love and acceptance, grace and forgiveness that you say you freely received…to give that to others, that is powerful, that is potent…that can change a school, a workplace, a community, a world.

Shortcomings and sin doesn’t have to be deterrent for people to come to Christ. Hypocrisy and denial taint our witness that dilutes our flavor.

We are not the answer but our witness is what Christ can do and is doing. His grace is real today and that keeps us salty!

This idea of us being the light of the world…what is Jesus’ concern here? It’s about good deeds, about doing the kind of stuff that conveys both the heart of God and the value of people. God cares and you matter.

Who are you showing the light to? Who is getting that message from you? Your kids…grandkids…friends and family—that is great, but that is really putting your light under a bowl, limiting your illumination to a select few. Meanwhile the rest of the world remains in darkness.

To continue our witness to the world as a church, we are looking at the Next Step Together initiative: 1st, to engage more kingdom investors in this work of God we call Heritage and 2nd, to be able to purchase the 15 acres west of the church property.

Without this land, we may be more limited to what we can do in our witness.

As a church, we are looking at the G.A.P.—God Appointed Potential to reach two groups or gaps that exist both in the church and society, who are facing challenges. Those 15 – 30 years old and those in the 50 – 65 years old age group.

Application Questions:

1. What comes to your mind when you hear these words…that you are the salt of the earth…the light of the world?

2. How often do you take the easier and more common way to complain and blame…to point the finger and say “You would not believe what it’s like in my family, or at my office, or in my school, or in my neighborhood?”

3. We say, what’s wrong with that meat, with the world, or with that house? Jesus says, where’s the salt…where’s the light?

4. That is the real issue: Where are you, Christian? Have you lost your saltiness? Have you covered up in some insulated bubble?

5. What kind of contact are you having with the world around you…are you helping anyone find their way in the dark?

6. When have you taken a conversation in a different direction so that the flavor changes or the erosion ends?

7. When have you reached out to someone different from you?

SERMON NOTES (click arrow to the right to open)

Main Idea:

Living by the Spirit is learning to listen and yield to Him and His wants and desires, to the God who now lives in you and to the prompting of the Spirit.

Content:

Inside each of us there is both profound good and repugnant evil. (v. 17) There is a conflict inside as we all deal with a measure of duplicity—our struggle with the flesh.

This struggle can be defeated, not by a set of rigid rules and restrictions, but by learning to follow an entirely different type of wants and desires. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh (v16).

This verse hinges on an implied ‘if’. It also contains the promise that if you walk by the Spirit you will not gratify the flesh.

The Christian’s struggle—becoming a Christian involves believing the Gospel and receiving the Holy Spirit. What before was never an issue now is because the Holy Spirit is living in the unholy me. This creates the internal turmoil between the wants of the flesh and the wants of the Spirit vying for attention.

Humanity’s struggle—We all have a predisposition toward dysfunctions. (Rom 3:23) But a disposition doesn’t have to mean a determination.

Choice—(v. 17b) “…so that you are not to do whatever you want.” Does that mean the good I want or the bad I do? It’s both; that’s why there’s a struggle. Christianity restores our dignity as human beings by giving us back our ability to choose.

John 8:34,36; Gal 5:1. A Christians are set fee from their bondage that made them yield to their fears and appetites. Part of maturing in Christ is learning how to handle and not abuse that freedom.

The acts of the flesh have become watered down and reworked to where they aren’t obvious anymore to some. Sexual sin: (sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery) Covers the range of inappropriate sexual behaviors from sex outside of a monogamous, heterosexual sacred union (marriage) to lewd and provocative dress.

Sex is something God invented. The reason God calls deviations sin is because they go against His intended design and they dehumanize us. When we blur our sexuality it erodes our image-bearing capability and reduces what gives us intrinsic worth and value.

Spiritual sins: Idolatry—making sacrifices and offering to a god who promises us the pleasures we seek. Witchcraft—drugs, chants, spells, potions to help us achieve higher levels of ecstasy and escape.

The attraction to these is that these gods could be controlled, bribed, and bargained with, which gives us a god who is manageable, predictable, and under our control.

Social sins: (hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like) How much do we call these out in ourselves? In each other?

My Faith: (v19) This verse is not only the future kingdom of God, but if I live by the deeds of the flesh I’m missing out on experiencing the kingdom of God in the here and now.

Fruit of the Spirit (v22-23) Have heard this list explained many times, and perhaps even worked on being more joyful or patient, but if the fruit coming from you is still a work of the flesh, that is exhausting and a limited resource.

v 24-26: When you walk by the Spirit you won’t gratify the flesh.

Living by the Spirit is learning to listen and yield to Him and His wants and desires, to the God who now lives in you and to the prompting of the Spirit.

Return to the Cross (v24): Return to the cross, surrender again, confess need for a Savior. I have a cross to remind me of two things:

My sins contributed to His crucifixion - sin always brings death to self, others, and ultimately contributed to the killing of Christ.

My flesh was also crucified with Him - this must die so that I might live.

Following the Spirit’s lead (v25): Learning this is very much like a dance. It is beautiful when you yield and flow but it requires learning, paying attention, knowing your partner.

The process of learning to hear from the Spirit is so much better than a finger pointing in your face saying ‘you shall not..’ which only leads to acts, not fruits.

Keep a check on your heart (v26): Few things will plug up the flow of the Spirit’s promptings faster than pride. It will get you out of sync with the Spirit. The best check on the heart is to stay in community and give others permission to ask the hard questions and speak into your life.

Application Questions:

1. What does freedom look like to you? How has Christ set you free?

2. What (specifically) do you consider immoral? How can we act in a way that eliminates the grey areas?

3. When is the last time you identified any of the acts of the flesh in your life? Has someone ever pointed them out to you? How did you respond?

SERMON NOTES (click arrow to the right to open)

Main Idea:

Connection to the church is a glimmer/foretaste of what’s to come in eternity, where people of different backgrounds and countries come together in one faith. We need to foster our connection and not neglect it, to hunger for God so that He will nourish us.

Content:

1. For some people, church gets left behind in childhood.

2. Some people wonder why they should bother with church because their relationship with God is private.

3. Many people don’t want to be connected to an organization they perceive as judgmental and critical.

4. This passage explains the mystery of what God is up to in the world, His purpose: to unify the world and bring peace and love between people who would otherwise want to kill each other. He wants to reconcile us to others and put our hostility to death.

5. We need to learn to live together because we’ll all be together in God’s new creation.

6. Dr. King’s dream was God’s dream: that all God’s children will be able to join hands together, that the divisions of humanity would end and we’d all live with God forever.

7. We don’t have to love everything about the church, but we need to be a part of Christ’s church to be a part of Him.

8. Jesus is determined to build His church; we can’t stop Him, so we might as well join.

9. We get in on the work of God by believing in Christ, an internal decision. An external sign of this belief is being baptized. Gal. 3:26-28

10. When we are baptized, the world can see that God doesn’t play favorites because there is one baptism for everyone and Jesus makes us one; we’re all God’s children. Eph. 4:4-6

11. God wants to feed His children both physically and spiritually. One way He feeds us is with communion. That is how He nourishes our faith. In it we taste and see that God is good; He fills us.

12. Sin is when we try to satisfy our own needs and don’t look to God for nourishment. But the more we try to nourish ourselves, the hungrier we become.

13. The church is the most unifying and diverse body of people in the world, and what unites us is our need for God to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves — make peace with Him and each other.

Application Questions:

1. What kind of people do you prefer to avoid?

2. What kind of divisions do you see in our culture, workplace, church, neighborhood, etc?

3. What are some things people look to for nourishment rather than God?

4. Find some scripture passages where God/Jesus fed people.

5. What are some reasons that people feel wounded by a church?

6. Do you feel connected to the church? What has helped you feel connected? If you don’t, do you know why?

SERMON NOTES (click arrow to the right to open)

Main Idea:

This is the goal, that I am walking with God—believing in God, growing in and through obedience, humbled by my own disobedience, experiencing His love, extending His love, and being changed in His love.

Content:

My Faith series is intended to be more personal than preachy, more relational than even informational.

Faith is not only personal, it is also dynamic…it is rooted in a relationship between two living beings and even though God does not change, the other one certainly does and that fact dramatically impacts the interaction.

A starting point: I believe in Christianity as I believe in the sun, not because I see it, but by it I see all else. Our walk with God can start with an event, particular circumstance, we meet someone, hear something, go through some kind of crisis or challenge…a high or a low…it happens in a hundred different ways…and God wakes you up, opens your eyes, you see your need; see that something is missing, something is not right, you cannot fix it…and finally in honesty and humility you surrender…you open your mouth and your heart and call on the name of the Lord.

I begin with belief. So you take this step of belief in God and start seeing everything differently… 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Heb 11:6)

1Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me…. 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:1,6)

The initial step of our faith walk begins with reading the Bible. Start in the Gospels….Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, reading them devotionally….just a paragraph or two at a time. Read the Bible as a living book, in other words, listen to more than what it says—listen to what it says to you!

Praying is the other foot in walking with God. Reading the Bible is God talking to me and praying is me talking to God. Prayer can be a little unnatural for us. Talking to someone we cannot see is not a common occurrence. Yet without talking, the relationship won’t get very far.

Prayer can be grouped into two categories—spontaneous and structured. Both are important and useful. Jesus said we should pray like this…Our Father in heaven…(Matthew 6:9-13)

Spontaneous prayer can begin with saying scripture back to God as a prayer and use it to shape and deepen your own thoughts, concerns and prayer requests. Pray at set times and certain locations but also at anytime and anywhere. Praying is part of walking with God.

I grow through obedience. You are on a walk with God. Obedience, yielding and conforming to His will, is part of our walk.

Through Him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. (Romans 1:5 ) We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. (1 John 2:3) Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (John 14:23)

We are not walking by ourselves anymore or with the crowd. Now we are trying to walk with God, who is setting the pace and charting the course. We are not leading, but following, submitting, and yielding.

Careful of the “log in your own eye.” It is amazing how we do not have any problem seeing the speck in the other guy’s eye, but do we see our own sin—including gossip and greed, gluttony and lust, pride and prejudice? Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.” (Matt 21:31)

I am humbled by disobedience. Our faith and relationship with God are dynamic; in other words it is always moving. We are either moving toward God or moving away from God. There is really no neutrality, because with the gravitational pull of the world, the flesh, or the devil, you need to intentionally stay in a good place with a tender, responsive heart.

Left to the human self, you will drift, the heart will cool and harden, and faith will wane. Like Jesus said, these “sinners” are closer to the kingdom than you because they are seeking and looking to God, relying on Him. It is not about how far they are down the path, but it is about which direction you are moving in right now!

So many of us can relate to the story of the prodigal son. The son finally decides to humble himself and return, to take what he has coming. 20 So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. (Luke 15:20)

It is hard to receive such love when you know you do not deserve it and you cannot do anything to earn it. We are humbled by our disobedience.

28 The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I have been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends…’31 ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ (Luke 15:28-32)

Our generous Father, who gives to us knowing we would squander it, is the same Father who gave it again, in lavish measure, when we returned. He is also the same Father whose hand was always open to us, even when we thought His love was conditional, that obedience made Him love me more. It did not. It is my obedience that helps me love Him more.

I am changed in Love. 1Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Eph 5:1-2) And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. (2 John 1:6)

Application Questions:

1. How would you describe your walk with God?

2. How did God open your eyes to see your need for Him?

3. Is God your co-pilot or pilot?

4. In the story of the Prodigal Son, do you relate more to the prodigal son, to the older brother, or to the father?

5. How has your obedience possibly turned to pride, judgment, hypocrisy?

6. Does your outside match what is on the inside? In other words, are you congruent?

SERMON NOTES (click arrow to the right to open)

For six weeks, we walked through the realities of a personal faith in Jesus through teachings from God’s Word and by hearing testimonies from members of our own church family.

Main Idea: When my hope is in Jesus, my heart is at peace.

Content:

Talk about what faith in Jesus looks like in today’s world is the new series. Faith can be defined as the confidence I have in God in all that He says and does.

Hope is typically used to describe something people wish for, not something they’re certain of. Biblically however, hope is described as the confident expectation of good. (H.O.P.E –having optimistic personal expectations)

When our hope is in Jesus, our heart is at peace. When we set our hope on earthly things they can easily be taken away.

We can put our faith in Jesus because of who He is—fully God, fully man. (Rom 1:1-4) Paul says Jesus is both human, as a direct descendent of King David, and divine, ‘declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from death.’ v.4

When sin occurs, God doesn’t just overlook it. His justice requires there to be some consequence. (Rom 3:23-24; Is 59:2) But we are justified and pardoned, released from any punishment associated with our crime.

God has extended His grace to us, but it doesn’t do us any good if we don’t choose to accept it. Grace refers to God’s favor, freely given, even to those who don’t deserve it.

To be justified means both that God takes away our sins AND adds to us the gift of Christ’s righteousness.

Jesus not only paid our debt, but He was also purchasing you! (Rom 1: 5-6) We are called to belong to Christ.

We’re all born with the core longing to belong. Jesus wants to meet that as well as provide the safety, security, and significance associated with knowing Him.

Grace provides our entrance into the Christian life, but grace also provides the enablement to stand strong in the face of opposition, rejection, or spiritual attack.

No other religious leader, political head, or historical figure is qualified to bring God and mankind together the way Jesus has because of His perfect life, resurrection, and ascension.

Application Questions:

1. In what do you place your confidence? What are common deceptions we believe that take our confidence and hope away from Jesus and onto earthly things?

2. How has God transformed your losses and crosses (hard times) into something beneficial? What ways has He redeemed you? In what ways is He currently redeeming you?

3. Why is it hard to accept the grace of God that is freely given to us?

This series was recorded several years ago and goes deeper into Heritage's stance on human sexuality as God designed it.

This series was recorded several years ago and goes deeper into Heritage's stance on human sexuality as God designed it.

This series was recorded several years ago and goes deeper into Heritage's stance on human sexuality as God designed it.