New Life

Living Life Guided By The Holy Spirit!

Discipleship Questions for Sunday July 1, 2007

Scripture Readings:

First Reading: 1Kings 19:15-16, 19-21

Psalm: 16

Second Reading: Galatians 5:1,13-25

Gospel: Luke 9:51-62

1 Kings 19:15-16,19-21 ¹⁵Then the LORD said to him: "Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. ¹⁶Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. ¹⁹So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. ²⁰And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, "Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you." And he said to him, "Go back again, for what have I done to you?" ²¹So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen's equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant. -- NKJV

Psalm 16 A Michtam of David.  ¹Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust.  ²O my soul, you have said to the LORD, "You are my Lord,  My goodness is nothing apart from You."  ³As for the saints who are on the earth, "They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight."   ⁴Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god; Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer,  Nor take up their names on my lips.   ⁵O LORD, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot.  ⁶The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Yes, I have a good inheritance.   ⁷I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel; My heart also instructs me in the night seasons.  ⁸I have set the LORD always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.   ⁹Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope.  ¹⁰For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.  ¹¹You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy;  At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. -- NKJV 

Galatians 5:1,13-25 ¹Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. ¹³For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. ¹⁴For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." ¹⁵But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! ¹⁶I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. ¹⁷For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, ²¹envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. ²⁴And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. -- NKJV

Luke 9:51-62 ⁵¹Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, ⁵²and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. ⁵³But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. ⁵⁴And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?" ⁵⁵But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. ⁵⁶For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them." And they went to another village. ⁵⁷Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go." ⁵⁸And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." ⁵⁹Then He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." ⁶⁰Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God." ⁶¹And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house." ⁶²But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." -- NKJV

Discipleship Questions:

Today our reflections are going to focus on what it means to live a life completely guided by the Holy Spirit.

This means living a life guided by the Holy Spirit and not by anything or anybody else. In other words, someone looking at our lives wouldn’t be able to say, “Typical American!”

One of the most haunting criticisms of Christians in America is that we look very very much like everyone else around us. I think of the old question “would there be enough evidence in your life to convict you of being a ?”

Ouch! That’s a tough one isn’t it?

How many of us have our feet squarely anchored both in the world and in the Kingdom of God? You know it can’t be done can it? But how many of us live our lives functionally in this impossible reality?

Today God wants us to revisit this question and decide to live our lives completely refocused on the leadings of God’s Holy Spirit. Is this something that you want and why? Please discuss.

How many of us are relying too heavily upon our savings accounts? Or life insurance policies? Or the security of our jobs? Or the conviction that we can survive given our skills and energy? How many of us are relying upon our scholastic educations or professional reputations?

Think of anything in your life upon which you lean too too heavily. Invariably it’s something that you know God is calling you away from.

You see, if you’re a Christian, then you have the Holy Spirit seeking to bring you into deeper and deeper conformity with your calling as a follower of Jesus Christ so when you aren’t doing this the Spirit is convicting you of this sin in your life.

O, you can ignore this conviction but not without a terrible cost – you begin to lose your spiritual vitality and sensitivity. Sooner than later you begin to sound, feel and act just like the world even though you call yourself a Christian you aren’t – you are in fact only a Christian in name – certainly not in spirit!

What then does it mean to live a life guided entirely by the Holy Spirit?

Let’s focus on our Scripture readings for today to give us some insights.

First let’s look at what it takes to leave what has become comfortable in our lives so that we can be lead by the Holy Spirit!

To do this we need to turn to our Old Testament reading from the first Book of Kings chapter 19 looking at verse 20:

In this reading we see God telling Elijah to pass along his prophetic mantle to Elisha and we heard Elisha asking if before he followed Elijah he could say good-bye to his father and mother. And Elijah’s response is very instructive to us. Please read these verses and discuss.

Now let’s focus on our New Testament Reading. In this reading from the Book of Galatians chapter 5 Paul is going to speak to us about what it takes walk day in and day out in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Let me read it again and see if you can discover what it takes to become a person completely lead by the Holy Spirit. Please read and discuss.
Now remember, we’re exploring what it means to be lead constantly and completely by God’s Holy Spirit. These verses give us a wonderful picture into this question.

Jesus is resolute – He’s committed to going to Jerusalem where the Cross awaits Him. And so it is for the committed Christian – we know that Crosses await us ahead BUT we face them resolutely!

What happened next to Jesus? He and the disciples came to a Samarian village but when they learned that they were committed to doing what was right regardless of the cost they refused them hospitality.

And so it is with the world again. When a Christian committed to following the leading of the Holy Spirit looks to the world for help they soon discover that the world wants nothing to do with them or their cause. And so the world quickly avoids them and often subtly or not so subtly marginalizes them.

So those of us who are committed to being led by the Holy Spirit often find ourselves rejected by all around us! There is no help offered from the world!

Do you remember what happened when the disciples James and John discovered how unfriendly the Samaritans were? They wanted to ask God to zap them with a lightening bolt!

I can relate to the “brothers of thunder” as they were known. I’m kin to James and John, I can’t count the number of times I have wanted God to declare Himself and rain down lightening and man-killing sized hail upon those who haven’t wanted to help my Christian cause! Can anyone here relate to this or is it just me?

But Jesus would have nothing of this. The Spirit-led Christian loves those who reject him. Offers mercy upon mercy to all who want nothing to do with him! Please discuss.

Have you been able to connect at any point in this sermon with any one of these characters?

If you have and if you have been honest you know that you need to do some work on being committed to being completely led by the Spirit!

Please bow your heads and pray for increased conviction and the formation of a faithful backbone in you! Amen and Amen!