(bright upbeat music)
- Hi, I'm Marshall.
- And I'm Seyi, and we're
so glad to be here today.
Marshall, have you noticed that with
so many different
Christians around the world,
our differences show sometimes.
We've got tall people, short
people, we've got people
with long hair, and short hair,
but we all have one
special thing in common,
and that's the Holy Spirit.
- That's right.
No matter the language you
speak, or where you live
in the world, when you accept
Christ into your heart,
you leave the power of sin, and welcome in
the power of the Holy Spirit.
- That's exactly right.
And we're gonna watch this God's story,
and you'll see exactly what we mean.
- So the letter of Romans
was an opportunity for Paul
to really click, bleh,
blah, blah, blach, clearly.
Hi everyone, Duann here.
So the other day, I was
cleaning out my room,
and I found a card, which is weird,
because I don't usually
keep things like that.
But when I opened the card,
there was a letter inside.
And when I opened the
letter, it was written to me
by a woman that is kind of
like a grandmother in life,
and the words in the
letter were so encouraging,
so comforting, and at the
time I guess it meant so much
to me that I kept it.
I was thinking about this letter,
because today we're starting
a new series that's based
on a letter that Paul wrote
to the church in Rome, Romans.
So Paul wrote a bunch of
letters, to different churches
and different places, and
the letters that he wrote
were to encourage them, to comfort them.
You know sometimes he'd hear
things about the church,
and he'd want to correct them.
Or the church may just
be asking him questions,
so he'd write letters in
response to these questions.
Paul's letter to the
Romans, was his opportunity
to really explain the
gospel message of Jesus,
and what made it a little bit different
is that he asked them for their support
with his missionary journey to Spain,
but we're gonna focus on a
small portion in the middle.
Romans 8, verses 1-17, and
there we find our big idea,
Paul starts out the
book by letting us know
as Christ-followers, we no
longer live under God's judgment,
and he lets us know that those
laws that they had before
that you had to live by or die,
those no longer apply either,
because we have the Holy
Spirit living in us,
and the Holy Spirit gives us life.
And the reason that happens
is because Jesus came and died
for us, he gave his life for
us, so that we might have life.
So that sin would not come between us
and separate us from God.
So the nice thing about no
longer being under the law,
is that we no longer have to
focus on that crummy stuff,
on the sin, because that makes us greedy,
that makes us envious,
that makes us angry.
Instead we can focus on the Holy Spirit,
and the Holy Spirit being active in us,
encouraging emotions
like love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control.
Let's read what Paul writes next.
So the quick version.
When we focus on the law
and sin, that controls us
the bad way.
What we want to do is focus
on Jesus and the Holy Spirit,
and allow him to give us
life and joy and peace.
Oh, and as Christ-followers,
because Christ is living in us,
and the Holy Spirit is
living in us, that means
that we get to live forever.
Let's read what Paul wrote next.
So seriously, the Spirit
of God that raised Jesus
from the dead, that same
Spirit, that same Holy Spirit
is living in all of us
as Christ followers,
and is active in us as Christ followers.
Now that is amazing.
So, Paul goes on to let us
know that as Christ followers,
we have a responsibility,
and that responsibility
is that we don't allow sin to control us.
Instead we allow
ourselves to be controlled
by the Holy Spirit.
When we allow ourselves to be
controlled by the Holy Spirit,
we become children of God.
We are adopted by God, and
because of the Holy Spirit
we are now able to call God our Father.
So what does all this mean?
This means that when you say yes to Jesus,
when you make him the Lord of your life,
the Holy Spirit joins with your spirit,
and you become a child of God.
And the Holy Spirit helps us to pull away
from all the sinful stuff,
that stuff that puts
a rift in our relationship
and tries to keep us separated
from God, but now with the
Holy Spirit we can live a life
of joy, of peace, and we're in a place
where we can receive
everything that God has for us.
When we follow Jesus, the same
Holy Spirit that raised Jesus
from the dead, is the same Holy Spirit
that is living within us.
That is so cool.
Also, the same Holy Spirit
that's active in you,
is active in me, and that
brings me to our big idea,
So that's it, that's the end of our story.
And I am so looking forward
to seeing you for another one.
- Turn to the person next to you
and see if you can answer these questions
before the time runs out.
- Tick, tock, tick, tock,
tick, tock, tick, tock.
(bright music)
(glass beakers breaking)
(warning alarm)
(goo explosion)
- Did you get that?
See the Holy Spirit
doesn't control our lives
in a negative way, but because
Jesus Christ lives in us
the Holy Spirit gives us life.
- That's right, and it
could look different
from person to person, but no matter what
we'll always see Jesus'
characteristics in those people.
- Exactly, so we did an
experiment, and we checked in
with some friends from different cities
and different countries,
and we wanted to see what
the Holy Spirit was doing in their lives.
And this is what they had to say.
- I don't know if you like to travel,
but I love traveling.
I love to go to a new place,
experience some amazing food,
and learn about a new culture.
But one thing I find is no
matter where I go in the world,
if I meet Christians they
all have the same love,
joy and heart for people.
I believe it's because
all Christ followers
have the Holy Spirit living within them.
To prove this, we reached out
to Christians around the world
and asked them to send us cellphone videos
to show how they're partnering
with the Holy Spirit.
Watch this.
- In 2018, we are so excited
about what young adults
are gonna be doing in our community.
- We're excited about
our compassion events.
- Like community dinners, and
fundraising opportunities.
- We can't wait to see what young adults
are gonna do in 2018.
- Hi, I'm Trinity, and this
is Andre, and we're pastors
at Westside King's Church
in Calgary, Alberta.
- This year we launch
our grade 4-5 program,
and it's just been so awesome to see
the spiritual maturity and
growth of the young kids
in our church, as they desire
to learn more about God.
- We also just launched a
brand new community piece
for parents and babies,
we're so excited to see
what God does in this
community as we provide space
for parents to receive care and support.
- Hi, we're from Forestview
Church, in Oakville, Canada,
and we feel called by God to go
into the Aldershot region of Burlington,
and serve a toonie
breakfast to the community.
- All the money we raise,
goes to local charities
like Food for Thought and The United Way.
- As well, as it empowers our students
to become leaders in our community.
- Our youth group made
goodie bags with quarters
and detergent to pay for people's laundry.
- Also, that same day
we went to a pizza place
and paid for people's meals,
so they'd feel blessed.
- And earlier this year, we
raised money and went on a walk
to combat world hunger.
- [Group] One less!
- That's so cool, they're all
doing something different,
but they all have one thing in common.
- Yes, the Holy Spirit
was partnering with them
to do different things
in their communities
that showed Christ's love.
From raising money for
world hunger to paying
for people's laundry,
and just reaching out
in different ways to show Christ's love.
It was really special to
see how the Holy Spirit
was working with them.
- That's right, and it
just totally confirms
our big idea of the day, that
the Holy Spirit is active
in all Christ followers.
- Yes, now let's break
into our small groups,
and see what that looks like in our lives.
- Peace.
(dove coos)
