Carry The Fire - Week 2

6 · Ricky's testimony illustrates the Spirit's illuminating work — not spectacular phenomena but vision of the cross as the central reality

At the end of the chapter, I'm going to go to the very last page, the very last paragraph, but Ricky recounts a night that stands out to him in his mind, and he says, 'But when I remember that night, what stands out the most isn't the amazing or unusual spirit stuff. Instead, it's a simple image: the cross of Jesus Christ. When I went forward to be prayed for, I felt as though I saw the cross of Jesus Christ powerfully impressed into my spiritual vision. The reality of Jesus, who he was and what he had done for me, filled my eyes. I was floored and amazed that God would save me. I wept at the truth. Jesus died for my sins. I wept at God's grace in revealing the gospel to me.' I mean, even in David's story we saw that, right? There was the work of the Spirit was followed by more of the kind of miraculous works of the Spirit was followed by the greatest miracle, which was David coming from death to life. That's— that is the greatest miracle that we see.

7 · Transitions from illustration to systematic definition by setting up the need to define gospel terms precisely using the Statement of Faith

So as, as we begin, let us not assume the gospel for a moment. In the, in the kids ministry, the easy, like, pocket gospel is Christ died for my sins, right? This is the The gospel in 5 fingers, you know, this is the easy way to say it, but there's another way to talk about it. We talk about the gospel being good news. So something that you can do with young kids is, 'What's the gospel?' And they respond, 'Good news.' 'What's the good news?' 'That Jesus died for my sins.' You ask, 'Why did Jesus have to die for your sins?' They respond, 'So I can have a relationship with him.' And then you say, 'Who loves you most?' God. 'Who loves you second most?' Mommy and Daddy. And what can you do with God's power and grace? Hard things. So it's just a little toddler version of that, but here is what the Sovereign Grace Statement of Faith— we're part of Sovereign Grace Churches, we have a statement of faith. It's very helpful in moments like this to help us define some terms.

8 · Defines the gospel from the Statement of Faith — objective divine achievement, not human action, centered on Christ's finished work

The gospel is directly from the statement of faith. The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ and all that he did in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension to accomplish salvation for humanity. Therefore, the gospel is not a human action or achievement but rather an objective, historical, divine achievement that remains true and unchanging regardless of human opinion or response. The gospel stands as the core message of the Bible, which in all its parts testifies to God's saving acts culminating in the person and work of Christ. This good news is the power of God for salvation for all who believe, providing hope for the lost and abiding comfort and strength for the believer. This is how this section ends. There is no salvation apart from Christ, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. It's a good summary of the scriptural categories of salvation, the kind of the things that are taking place why the gospel is good news.

9 · Defines regeneration within the ordo salutis — the Spirit regenerates the spiritually dead, opening eyes and enabling response to the gospel

So then we go to Larry's helpful question of what is regeneration. We have this in the process of salvation we are effectually called and then we are regenerated and then we have conversion. So if we look at this, the Statement of Faith says this in the section of the Statement of Faith, if you want to go look at it, is the gospel and the application of salvation by the Holy Spirit. Effectual calling, regeneration, and conversion. This is what it says. God commands the gospel to be proclaimed to all people everywhere, but all people are spiritually dead and unable to respond to this saving news. Therefore, God graciously and effectually calls to himself those who he chose to save in Christ. Through the proclamation of the gospel, the Holy Spirit regenerates the elect and brings them into a living union with Christ, bestowing new spiritual life, opening their eyes to see God's glory in Christ in enabling them to respond to the gospel in faith and repentance. With a renewed heart and mind, we receive Christ and rely fully on him for salvation, turning from our sinful, self-seeking way of life to love and follow Christ in joyful obedience. Only those who respond to the gospel in this way will be saved. Yet even this response is a gift of God's merciful grace. Ensuring that he alone receives the glory for our salvation.

10 · Bridges doctrine to evangelistic application — helping believers articulate total spiritual death and the Spirit's exclusive saving agency

So even in all these things, we're talking about what regeneration is. We're around this thing. It is the making new. To our friends who are unbelievers, how do I say this to our friends who are unbelievers? Regeneration starts with an understanding prompted by the Holy Spirit that there is nothing I can do to save myself. You are not— we're going to talk about this in a minute— mostly dead, in the words of one Princess Bride character. You are all dead. You're not even slightly alive. The Holy Spirit is the one who must do the saving work, and we must trust him to do that saving work. We're going to talk about that in an application in a moment.

11 · Brent traces the Spirit's life-giving work across redemptive history — creation, incarnation, regeneration — establishing pattern of divine agency

It's interesting with the discussion of the Trinity, this book, and with regeneration, when we think about the Holy Spirit, think about Genesis 2, the Father's always moved, right? Father declares to the Son, and the Spirit begins the work of bringing life out of chaos. And then you go to the visitation on Mary with the barren womb and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit shadows over her and brings our Redeemer in a miraculous way. And then we look at salvation. And so you can always see the place of the third person of the Trinity at work not to be separated from the work of the Father and the work of the Son. Their work is together, but unique in mission. And I just think of Genesis 2, and then I think of the incarnation, and then I think of regeneration. Yeah, that's really excellent, really excellent. The Spirit is present in every moment and does the work of regeneration.

12 · Pivots to the primary biblical text for the evening — Ezekiel 37

So we've come to this picture. Ricky gives the example of the dry bones, the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezekiel chapter 37. This is the famous dry bones passage.

13 · Establishes the severity of the human condition — total spiritual death, not sickness or weakness

This is the— he says, big picture, the big picture here of his illustration is we're not sick, we're dead. Not mostly dead, we're all dead. Not hurt, we're lifeless, right? We are dead cold. He's— Sean was reminding me of an analogy Ricky's used occasionally from the pulpit of like being lifeless at the bottom of the ocean, right? That dead. That's what we were outside of Christ and apart from Christ and what we are. And that is the plight of all humans, is that.

14 · Engages Ezekiel 37 — the Spirit alone has power to bring life to dead bones

And so Ricky helpfully points out God's Spirit in the Valley of Dry Bones and Rushing Wind section. God's Spirit does what we cannot do. He breathes life back into us.

15 · Transitions to extended engagement with Calvin on the Spirit's regenerating work, framing Calvin as guide to biblical doctrine

So here's where I was just— it's been a long time since I've spent lots of time in John Calvin's Institutes. It's a big old book. This is a newish edition of it, and it's like a doorstop or a weapon, and depending on how you use it. And, uh, but one of the things I was really appreciative of and maybe didn't realize the first time that I walk through it is how present the work of the Spirit is in Calvin's writings. Because as Brent was helping us see, you cannot read the Scriptures without seeing the work of the Spirit on display from Genesis chapter 2 on through, right, to John 16, what we read today. And you're going to have a little bit of time to do that later.

16 · Calvin exegetes Ezekiel 36 to refute semi-Pelagianism — God does not assist weak wills; He creates entirely new hearts

So I'm going to just read a couple of things from Calvin and Augustine that will hopefully help us move into our next exercise. In just a moment. Calvin says this: If anyone should quibble that goodness begins in us as a work of God who assists our weakened will, the Holy Spirit elsewhere shows what our will is good for when left to itself. 'I will give you,' he says, 'a new heart.' This is Ezekiel 36, so right before the valley of dry bones. 'I will create a new spirit.' See that? Create a new spirit within you. I will take away the heart of stone which is in you, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit, capital S, in you, and I will cause you to walk in my commandments. Calvin is quoting Ezekiel chapter 36 here.

17 · Calvin's stone-to-flesh analogy demolishes any notion of human contribution — regeneration is total divine replacement, not human cooperation

So what precedes the miracle of the skeletons coming to life is this prophecy. We see then that the human will must be wholly remade—this is Calvin saying this—and renewed. Who then will assert that being weak it is merely reinforced so that it may strive courageously to choose the good? If a stone were so soft that our hand might bend it into any shape we liked, I would concede that man's heart might have some readiness and inclination to obey God, provided its weakness could be corrected. When the Lord turns us to the side of goodness, it is like a stone being changed into flesh. It's thus clear that whatever is of our own will is swept away, and whatever takes its place is of God.

18 · Personal pastoral exhortation warning against self-salvation — only the Creator can transform stone to flesh

Lord, help us when we believe we can change our own hearts. Our effectiveness at changing our own hearts is like us trying to bend a stone. It doesn't work. This is coming— our neighbor who we just met is a geologist, and our kids have started hanging out together. And you know what happens when you try to You put a lot of pressure on a rock to bend it, it breaks. Really interesting. But the Lord, the Creator, the one through whom all was created, as Brent so helpfully helped us see throughout, is the one who changes our heart of stone to a heart of flesh.

19 · Augustine and Calvin establish the priority of grace — grace precedes all human action; God removes the perverse will and creates a new one

So Augustine— Calvin is referencing Augustine here— says this. So Augustine writes that grace precedes every good work. And in doing good, the will is led by grace and does not lead it. It follows it. It does not precede. Now, I, Calvin, would argue that the prophet's words imply two things: that the Lord corrects, or rather does away with, our perverse will, and he gives us another from himself which is sound. Does away with our perverse will. And gives us another will which is sound.

20 · Lighthearted transition to the next major section addressing superstition about the Holy Spirit

We move from the valley of dry bones to the next section which is a familiar face. I'm going to— please forgive me, it was Father's Day and I'm a dad of young kids. Are you superstitious? Are you a little stitious?

21 · Addresses common distortions — cessationism and superstition — calling for biblical grounding in the Spirit's creative power

Might you be here like college John and even suited up first Sunday at Cross of Grace John or grad student John sitting across from Ricky saying, 'I am a cessationist. I am one who— there are things that the Holy Spirit does and there's a whole mess of stuff he doesn't.' You might be here tonight and you are that way. You're not even a little 'stitious. You're like, 'Miss me with that garbage.' That's okay. We're here to go to the Word together. Sometimes, as Ricky says in this chapter, we view the Spirit as this, like, 'Ooh.' This ghost, this big superstitious kind of ethereal thing. I was listening to an interview with somebody today and he was like, why do we always go, when we think about the Holy Spirit, maybe it was the King James saying the Holy Ghost, why do we always go to Casper first? Why do we not go to Genesis 2 first? The Creator, the one by whom everything was created.

22 · States the sermon's central application — the Spirit's miraculous work is not optional but necessary for Christian life

The Spirit's miraculous work, my, my, uh, what I would implore us to wrestle with tonight is that the Spirit's miraculous work is vital to the Christian life. In fact, without the miraculous work of the Spirit, the Christian life is in fact impossible. You cannot do the work of the Lord without the power of the Holy Spirit. Without the enabling of the Holy Spirit.

23 · Generator analogy illustrates total dependence on the Spirit's power — extended to show not just broken equipment but complete non-existence apart from the Spirit

To that point, you know, I don't think I've ever thought about regeneration this much as in the last 15 minutes, but I kind of break it down and I think, okay, regenerate. And so I think of a generator, and it takes me to my time deployed when we had a generator that didn't work consistently. And so we had to physically go and restart that generator. It couldn't start on its own. It sat there lifeless. But when that generator was working, it gave us light in the middle of nowhere. It gave us the ability to cook and feed ourselves and enable us to do our job. As intel Marines, we needed power to run our computers and stuff. And without it, there was nothing happening. And so, yeah, that's kind of like the point you were just making. Yeah, that's super helpful. And now I'm going to take that one step further. Now imagine that your generator didn't just stop working, but it didn't exist anymore, and neither did the lights or anything that was powered by the generator. And the Holy Spirit goes, there it is. Like, how much more even is that a helpful analogy of like Yeah, 100%, 100%. There's nothing possible without the Spirit.

24 · Returns to Ricky's claim — the Spirit is the active agent in every moment of salvation's beginning

Ricky says this somewhere in that Familiar Face section: the Spirit was there the moment your heart sparked to life. The Spirit did the sparking, in fact. The Spirit opened your eyes to see Jesus. The Spirit put the joy of your salvation in your heart.

25 · Issues personal reflection question to prepare for testimony sharing — identifying the Spirit's regenerating moment in individual lives

So here's our next exercise. I'm going to give you a couple more minutes for this because I think— so we're going to We're going to have time to break into groups, like, officially at the end and talk about the questions, but we're going to spend a little bit more time doing this. What my question is— my question is this for you: when were you brought from death to life? When did the Spirit bring life into your dry bones? Maybe I'll add, how were you brought from death to life? How did the Spirit breathe life into your dry bones? I'm gonna ask you to have another question in a moment, but think about that for 45 seconds. Now remember, I was a band director, so time is relative. Truth is objective, but time is relative. How and when did the Lord cause your eyes to go open? Has he?

26 · Directs congregational sharing of regeneration testimonies in small groups

Turn to a shoulder partner and you have 120 seconds. No, just take a few minutes. Take a couple minutes and I'll kind of be listening. Take a couple minutes. And it doesn't have to be 2, you can have 3, you can have 5. Just turn to the people around you and tell them your death to life story.

27 · Shifts from past conversion to present sanctification — identifying ongoing Spirit activity

Awesome. I have something about the Michael Reeves quote. Hopefully that kind of— As you're thinking and as you're going through that, I'm gonna ask you one more question. Where do you see the truth of the reanimating power of the Holy Spirit in your life right now? So you talked about— you're talking about when you're brought from death to life. Now where do you see the truth of the reanimating power of the Spirit in your life right now? Go.

28 · Models compact testimony format with three examples spanning childhood conversion, radical deliverance, and gradual awakening

Thank you. Never. So, 10-second testimonies, okay? I know it's hard. 10-second testimonies. I'll give 3 of them. I'll try to make them less than, less than 10 seconds each. 5 years old, miraculously, at my grandparents' house, uh, Charlie Brown special was on. Prayed with my mom, uh, noticed my sin. The Lord progressively helped me see my sin throughout my life, but that was the time. Vince Corpus, one of our former pastors— this is the second one— drug addicted, uh, bottom of the barrel, almost lost his family. The Lord saved him overnight. No withdrawals, nothing. Saw the gravity of his sin and the grace of his Savior, moved on. Tom Wilkins, a long time— he describes it as being a period of time around high school where he was— the Lord clearly brought him from running with the world to running for the Lord, recognizing his sin and seeing his Savior. That was 3 and 30 seconds. 10 seconds. Who wants to share their testimony? Death to life.

29 · Krista's testimony — certainty of conversion in October 2022 — met with celebration affirming the Spirit's miracle work

Krista, so my mom told me once that like there's a moment that she knew that she knew that she knew that she knew who she was living for and who she would serve forever because there's nothing else that would be better or could be better. And on October 20th, 2022, I knew that I knew that I knew that I knew what she was talking about. Amen. Let's clap for that. These are death to life stories, everybody. Come on, we got to get stoked about this. This is the reanimating power of the Holy Spirit. Krista was dead. I was dead, Vince was dead, Tom was dead, Christa was dead, and we are now alive by the reanimating power of the Holy Spirit. Who's next? Come on.

30 · Anonymous testimony — conversion at 59 after years of running, triggered by pastoral prayer and supernatural encounter

So, 59 years old, about a year or so ago, um, had been running from the Lord and hard, didn't even acknowledge, came to this church. You said, if there's anyone here feeling far from the Lord, raise your hand, and I raised my hand. Ricky prayed over me, and I was supernaturally hugged by the Lord. Or maybe it was the Holy Spirit, I'm finding now. And I was saved. Amen. Thank you for sharing that. I didn't know that story. It's amazing. Amazing. Who's next?

31 · Gilbert's testimony — Jesus' direct address interrupting sin — followed by pastoral affirmation that all regeneration is equally miraculous regardless of external circumstances

It's real brief. Many years ago, I was committing sin. I won't tell you what it is, but it wasn't good. And then God looked— Jesus looked down on me and said, Gilbert, what are you doing? And that's what turned me around. Awesome. Let's go. This is miracles. These are miracles. Look, my encouragement to you is don't stop sharing that. Don't stop trying to do it in 10 seconds. These are, these are miracle stories. It doesn't matter if I spent a long time in my life believing my testimony wasn't good enough because I was raised in a Christian home. I was 5 years old and I didn't do drugs then and I didn't do all the bad things, but I was dead in my trespasses and sins and I was made alive together with Christ. It was by grace I was saved at 5 years old after the Charlie Brown Christmas special. That had nothing to do with it. It was just on that night. It was the steady discipleship of my parents that allowed the Lord to— that the Lord used to open my eyes to saving faith, the faith of a child. And then progressively made it. That's a miracle, just like Vince's, just like any of these. That's— that is what it is.

32 · Establishes the Spirit's two-fold regenerating method — inward illumination and outward Word — both necessary for new creation

Now, truth, objective truth— this is my category, uh, before we get to the spotlight. Objective truth is under attack regularly, has been since a long time, uh, but it was under attack in the '60s and '70s. It's under attack now. It is just what the enemy does. Calvin says this: God is active in us in two ways: within, by His Spirit, and without, by His Word. With His Spirit enlightening the mind and training the heart to love righteousness and innocence, He makes man a new creature by regeneration. Through His Word, He moves and encourages man to desire and to look for this renewal. In both ways, He shows the power of His hand according to His mode of working.

33 · Establishes ordo salutis — regeneration necessarily precedes conversion because spiritual blindness prevents response until the Spirit opens eyes

Brent asked a question a minute ago, am I going to talk about how Regeneration precedes conversion. Yes, that's the start of it. We cannot come to Christ unless He first opens our eyes. And until He regenerates our hearts, then we see the truth of Scripture revealed. The truth of the Lord, the things of the Lord are folly to those who are perishing. The Lord renews our hearts, regenerates us, brings us from death to life. We respond. We see the things revealed in Scripture. We respond. Appropriately, and we are converted.

34 · Signals structural shift to final doctrinal section before application — the Spirit's illuminating work

Something in terms of an application in a minute, but I'm going to run through this real quick. The Spotlight, next section of Ricky's book. Regeneration is the effect of Christ's work on the cross. Through Christ's work we are saved. Through the Spirit we are regenerated, we are made alive. The Spirit illuminates the work of Christ. And I think this is— I just have two quick quotes from Calvin, and I think this will help us as we move to application and discussion.

35 · Calvin on 1 Corinthians 2:10 — the Spirit alone reveals divine secrets; human reason cannot access Christ's will apart from illumination

Accordingly, Calvin says, we need the power, we need the help of the Holy Spirit in these things, or rather His power alone prevails here. No man has known God's secrets or has been His counselor, but the Spirit searches all things, even things which are hidden. My heart feels, will I dance? I can't not sing that song. Anyway, squirrel, my meds are wearing off. 'The Spirit searches all things, even things which are hidden,' 1 Corinthians 2:10, 'and through him we know the will of Christ.' Through yourself you do not know the will of Christ.

36 · Applies illumination doctrine to evangelism — unbelievers hear the gospel but remain blind until the Spirit regenerates; prayer must focus on regeneration, not conversion

This is the stuff, when we say we're a one-song church, when we preach the gospel every week, and when we ask the Lord, let us not grow tired of the gospel, this is what we're talking about. We're saying, through him, through the Holy Spirit, we know the will of Christ. How many unbelievers this is. I'm jumping ahead to application for a second. Think of the unbelievers in your life. I'm thinking of somebody really close to me right now who we pray for regularly who has heard these things over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. He's heard these things. He grew up hearing these things. And the Spirit has not regenerated his heart, so he thinks they're faithful. foolishness. Lord, open his eyes, regenerate his heart, work the miracle, not so he's converted, but so that he is renewed. Think of the people in your life that need that miracle. Do you believe the Lord for that miracle?

37 · Calvin asserts divine initiative — the Spirit's drawing work transcends human comprehension

We cannot therefore approach Christ unless God's Spirit draws us. So being drawn, we are totally transported beyond our understanding. Superstitious? A little stitious? The Spirit transports us beyond our own understanding. That was Calvin, if you didn't know. He's, you know, just kidding.

38 · The Spirit grants new spiritual vision — enabling the soul to behold and savor divine realities previously invisible

For the soul enlightened by the Spirit is given, as it were, new sight in order to behold the heavenly secrets whose brilliance had formerly dazzled it. In this way, the human mind illumined by the light of the Holy Spirit now begins to savor the things concerning God's kingdom of which it had no inkling before. The Spirit is the one who allows us to see the dazzling beauty of the things of the Lord.

39 · Sun analogy — the Word shines on all, but only the Spirit can open blind eyes to receive its light

God's Word is like the sun. It sheds its light on all to whom it is proclaimed, but it has no effect on the blind. Now in this respect we are all naturally blind, which is why it can only enter our minds if the Spirit of God, who is the inner teacher, allows its entry through his illumination.

40 · Direct pastoral address — thanksgiving for believers, prayer template for unbelievers

That should make us really thankful if we're in Christ. That gives us a prayer if you're not in Christ and you're here tonight, you've not responded to the gospel. That's the prayer: Lord, illumine my heart so that I would desire the things of your Word.

41 · Calvin links the Apostles' Creed to pneumatology — faith in the Spirit is necessary because Christ's benefits must be imparted by the Spirit

The Apostles' Creed talks about the Holy Spirit. Calvin talks about it. He says, next comes faith in the Holy Spirit, which is most necessary for the fulfillment of our salvation. For as it has been said, our need to seek washing and sanctification in Christ can only be realized if He is imparted to us by the Holy Spirit.

42 · Calvin's comprehensive catalog of the Spirit's work — calling, justifying, sanctifying, gifting, strengthening, illumining — culminating in the key metaphor opening the kingdom's treasures

This is what we pray for unbelieving friends. Lord, impart Your wisdom. Call them. Help them seek washing and sanctification. Impart that to them. Through His Spirit, He calls and draws us to Himself, draws to Himself all faithful believers, justifies them, sanctifies them to a new life, enriches them with different kinds of gifts, and strengthens them with his heavenly power until they reach their goal. Hence, the Holy Spirit, when indwelling us in this way, is the one who illumines us with his light so that we may grasp how generous is God's goodness which we have in Christ. Thus, he may be justly called a key by which the treasures of the heavenly kingdom are opened to us, and his illumination the eye of our mind which allows us to gaze on them.

43 · Pivots from exposition to application — setting up evangelistic implications

So, the question is this then before I send you to some groups to discuss. How then might we apply this in our lives and discussions with unbelievers?

44 · Michael Reeves' provocative claim — the goal is not conversionism but regeneration — reframes evangelistic priorities

Michael Reeves, if you have not read the book Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeves, may I just recommend it to you? The Trinity is always this hard, like, confusing doctrine a lot of times, but if you've not read it, it's this big. I mean, it's like this big, but it's like that thick. Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity, excellent, excellent, excellent. But he says, not in that book, but in some— he said this in a lecture that I was listening to— conversionism isn't the goal, regeneration is.

45 · Parental wrestling with conversion vs

I'm wrestling through this as a parent. My parents— or my kids— I'm teaching my kids the gospel, my wife is teaching the gospel, faithful kids ministry people are teaching them the gospel, and they could convert to Christianity, they could convert. That person I was telling you about before converted but was not regenerated. The prayer for my heart for my kids is, Lord, regenerate their hearts. I could convince them to love Christ. I could convince them that the things of the Lord are real, but until he illuminates their mind, until he regenerates their heart, I cannot convince them into the kingdom of God. So should we give the ask? Absolutely we should. It is imperative. It is our job as Christians to preach the gospel to all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey the things that I've commanded, even to the end of the age. That is our job as Christians. But it is not our job to win converts. It is our job to allow the Holy Spirit to wake people up.

46 · David's story as model — listening obedience to the Spirit's prompting in evangelism

It's to listen like the small Brazilian man, I can't remember his name, well, I know David's name, I just don't know the other guy's name. That like you listening to the Lord going, no, I need to say this to David. Lord, help me do that. Help me not to ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit telling me to go talk to that guy.

47 · Corrects prosperity gospel — the reward of regeneration is not improved circumstances but God Himself

That's number 1. Number 2, when we preach the gospel, we don't preach a better life. We don't preach riches. We don't preach blessing. We don't preach anything but God as the reward. The reward of regeneration is God himself. No matter the circumstance, no matter the area of the world, no matter what's going on in anybody's life, God himself is the reward.

48 · Provocative reframing — salvation's telos is not destination (heaven) but relationship (God Himself)

And I think this is a really interesting one. This punched me in the gut. 'Cause how many times have I believed this? God didn't save us primarily to heaven, he saved us to himself.

49 · Closing prayer integrating all major themes — God as reward, Spirit as illuminator and regenerator, evangelistic confidence grounded in divine agency

Lord, help us believe that. Lord, help us live not for a different existence, but for relationship, unending relationship with you. Lord, you are the illuminator. Holy Spirit, you are the regenerator. Holy Spirit, you are the one working miracles. Physical miracles, financial miracles, health miracles, family miracles, relational miracles, but no miracle— all those miracles pale in comparison to you bringing dead people to life. Lord, let us be on fire for preaching the gospel. Let us, when we walk out into the world, not see a combat zone, but a field ripe for the harvest, trusting that you are illuminating hearts. Lord, you've told us to preach the gospel, and Lord, we know you're going to do the work. So Lord, as we walk out these doors, as we go into our conversations, as we discuss how to apply this in our life, Lord, would you encourage us to see the world as a harvest ripe? Help us to become workers excited and empowered and not worrying about making converts, but providing the truth that you will illuminate to bring dead souls to life by the power of your word. Lord, we thank you for this time together. Bless our conversations now, in Jesus' name, amen.

50 · Logistical transition to small group discussion time

For the next 10 to 12 minutes, let's say 10 minutes-ish, you can stay where you are and just keep talking to your groups, or you can just kind of go we realized that the circles were really good for discussions but not great for the kind of this part of it. So we're going to try this. And thank you, Sean. He set those circles up last week and did a great job doing it and had to put all— oh, you're right there. You are the tallest man in the church, and I missed you. I'm so sorry. No, I think he might have Steve. So thank you, Sean, for setting that up, and thank you for setting this up. We really appreciate it.

51 · Final instructions for small group discussion focusing on question 2 from the book and prayer around Isaiah 53

And so what I would say is this: question number 1, do on your own. Question number 2 at the back of the book, how does it change our relationship with God to understand that he sought us before we sought him and that he restarted our hearts before we ever loved him? Let's focus on that question right now. So focus on that question in your discussion groups. Take about 10 minutes. And then spend just a couple minutes praying around Isaiah 53 and question 3. Okay, so discuss question 2. Question 2, it's in the back of the Carry the Fire book. It's how does— what page is it? Page 50. How does it change our relationship with God to understand that he sought us before we sought him and that he restarted our hearts before we ever loved him? So talk about that, and then if the Spirit helps shine a spotlight on the work of Christ, make room in your life for this work. Pray into that. Maybe share how you're wanting to pray into that, how you're desiring the Spirit for question 3. Talk for a few minutes, like 10 minutes, and then we'll come back. Yeah, yeah, you guys can go use this whole area. You can go for it. 10 minutes. Find a place and go. Go chat.