#WeAreEmmanuel Values / 04. #WeAreEmmanuel 9 Stay Inspired Pt1

04. #WeAreEmmanuel 9 Stay Inspired Pt1

Originally filmed Sunday 4th March 2018. Visit http://weareemmanuel.com for more content. Speaker: Matt Carvel

This preach talks about following rules as humans and how much we generally love it as a society.

Currently, the number 1 best-selling book is titled ‘12 Rules for Life’ by Jordan B Peterson. The NY Times wrote that the author is the most influential public intellectual in the western world right now. Considering that we are told that as a society, the millennial generation at the moment are those who champion freedom, it seems strange that someone with a book titled as ’12 Rules for Life’ would have the most popular book that people are looking to for meaning in their life. We want to see ourselves as free, but yet what we observe what people actually do is gravitating toward things like this, where people are looking for some form of structure and steps to follow. We think we are completely free but actually we are following similar patterns to those around us. Even the person who says, they will never follow any rules is following the way of people in the past who have decided not to follow rules. Furthermore, living a life of not following the rules is incredibly restricting because you’ll be measuring every decision by ensuring you’re not following anyone else’s rules.

Part of the reason we tend to drift towards following rules is because we’ve been created to follow, but also because they are helpful, as they focus us to step forward. However, rules can turn from being a friend into an enemy and very easily crush us when there is a standard we can’t reach. This leads to the next point that we as well as rules, we also need power that helps us to live a life of purpose.

The Christian life is not about rule keeping. In fact, it is the end of rule keeping because of what Jesus accomplished on the Cross. We are free from rule keeping and free to be led and empowered by the Spirit who is God in us. (Romans 8: 1-4; Romans 8: 11; Romans 8: 14-17)

God’s rules are a high standard that we have fallen short of due to sin. However, we no longer have to worry about law keeping- not because God has lowered his standard in any way, but because Jesus came into the world to fulfil the law and God’s standard. So now, by faith, we can receive as a gift Jesus’ perfect record. Therefore, you don’t have to live a life of obligation because Jesus Has come.

Jesus has released us from the law but also to receive the power of God in you- The Holy Spirit. Staying inspired is having the spirit inside of us – its radical. Matthew 3:11 reads ‘…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’ Romans 8:16- The spirit bears witness with our own spirit.


After Jesus ascended to heaven, he sent his Holy spirit to his disciples and the impact of this was radically changing (Acts 2). We see in the Bible that The pattern of a believer coming to Christ is usually repenting, being filled with the spirit and water baptism.

When the spirit comes upon you it calls you to know God as your Father experientially. Our Christianity should be entirely found in The Bible, but by no means should the truth just be left on the page. Do you know the truth in your heart? Do you meet with God in prayer and experience the joy of it? When you cultivate a dependence on the Spirit, it changes you. The problem is we can drift into self-sufficiency, trying to put God in a box of your life. However, when the spirit comes into your life, he leads you to follow God completely.

How do we receive the power of God’s Spirit?

1. We reject the law and the view of God that comes with it. If you’re stuck in the place of seeing God as only the law giver, you will be forever wondering if He is happy with you and the performance of your daily life. God is full of love and life. He is happy. However, the rule keeping mentality will cause you to struggle as seeing Him as such. The spirit brings us into a deeper understanding of God as our Father.

2. We ask for Jesus to fill us with the Holy Spirit. There is an invitation to know more of the wSpirit and be led by him. (Luke 11:13) God loves to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.

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