It was a blessing to come together with you this morning and to hear from Pastor Dale who continued our series about the “First Things” of the Christian Life, things we do together as a church. Last week we talked about Ministry and how each of us, as followers of Jesus, is in ministry. Today we talked about living inside the purpose and power of God. 

The birth of the church, the purpose of the church, is to live inside the purpose and power of God. To do so requires a deep inner posture that is turned towards God. When our hearts and spirit are turned toward God, we become able to see His face and feel His embrace. We are not distracted by the things of the world, but our attention is focused on Him. The stronger our love or attachment to whatever things of this world may be holding our attention, the more our posture is turned away from God.

To maintain an inner posture turned towards God, Pastor Dale made three observations from scripture:

1. We must receive from the Spirit. His purposes cannot be accomplished by what we provide, it has to come from his Spirit. 

2. We must rely on the Spirit. We will know the Holy Spirit is powerfully at work in the church when the mission of Jesus and His church becomes deeply personal. It is when each of us seeks Jesus for what He is doing, how He wants us to join Him, and then take action in those steps of partnership that His purpose and power can be at work within us.

3. We must relate to the Spirit. We are worshippers first, workers second. All of this flows from intimacy with the Father. If God is our first love, then we will love what He loves. His love fills us and is what is then poured out onto others.