Worship Devotional LXXIV
Originally posted to the Facebook group on 5/22/2021.
Worship Devotional for 5/23/21
~ Pentecost Sunday ~
John 14:15-21:
"If you love Me, you will keep My commands. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive Him because it doesn't see Him or know Him. But you do know Him, because He remains with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.
In a little while the world will see Me no longer, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live too. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, you are in Me, and I am in you. The one who has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves Me. And the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father. I also will love him and will reveal Myself to him."
Our Lord Jesus Christ is risen and alive forevermore. After appearing to His disciples for a time, He ascended into heaven, where He sits at the right hand of God's throne, reigning with all authority on high. Yet we are not left alone here on earth, for His Holy Spirit now lives within us who believe in the name of Jesus and are therefore saved by God's grace through faith. This week is Pentecost Sunday, when we remember the arrival of the Holy Spirit and praise Him, for He is the Spirit of the living God who gives life and joy and peace and who leads us in truth.
Songs:
1) Fall Afresh by Jeremy Riddle
We know from both the Scriptures and from our experience as believers that when the Spirit of God comes down on people, He moves hearts to repent and to declare God's works and word. As we come under conviction and turn to the one true God, it is the Holy Spirit who reveals His word, who drives away darkness and sin and everything that is evil, and who breathes new life into our cold and hard hearts. With this song, we pray that the Holy Spirit would fall afresh on us, reminding us of the life and truth and love that we have in Christ, and that He would cause us to overflow with God's goodness so that God's glory would be made known to all the world through our lives.
2) Holy Spirit by Bryan & Katie Torwalt
There are so many distractions in the world arounds us, pulling our attention away from what is true and good and toward what is worthless and false. But the Holy Spirit — God's presence within us — awakens us and reminds us to keep our focus on what is true, on what is above, and on Christ. There is nothing that can compare to our God and to what we have in Him. May the Spirit tune our hearts to the love and goodness and glory of God, so that He may be the only One we pursue in love, for the glory of His name and for our eternal good. Praise God that His Spirit is with us to lead us and to guide us until we reach our heavenly home!
Though we must face storms and troubles and trials and temptations in this life, we do not have to face them alone nor depend on our own strength. The same Spirit that rose Jesus from the grave and who will also raise us, who can move mountains and calm raging seas, lives in us. Our enemy has been defeated, and now nothing can stand against us, for God Himself lives in us. Therefore let us stand in hope, strength, and victory, trusting in the power of our God and walking by His Spirit.
Zechariah 4:6b:
"'Not by strength or by might, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of Hosts."
1 John 4:4:
"You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."
Romans 15:13:
"Now may the God of hope fill you will all joy and peace as you believe in Him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."
4) Alive In Me by JJ Weeks Band
Romans 8:1-11:
"Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit's law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. What the law could not do since it was limited by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in flesh like ours under sin's domain, and as a sin offering, in order that the law's requirement would be accomplished in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh think about the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, about the things of the Spirit. For the mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God's law, for it is unable to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God lives in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, He does not belong to Him. Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through His Spirit who lives in you."
2 Corinthians 3:17-18:
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit."
No matter what we face in this life, we have hope and victory through the Holy Spirit. God's presence is always with us, moving us to be renewed deep within every day as we draw closer to Him and closer to the Day when we finally see His face and go to be with Him in glory. By the strength He gives us, let us hold onto that hope with confidence and faith.
Romans 5:1-5:
"Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have also obtained access through Him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."
Theme(s): The Holy Spirit, Presence of God, God Living In Us
Scripture references:
Genesis 1:1-2
Psalms 2, 16, 51, 104, 110
Isaiah 11:1-9, 61, 63:7-14
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Ezekiel 11:19-21, 36:24-30, 37:1-14
Joel 2 (esp. vv. 28-32)
Zechariah 4:6
Matthew 4:1-17, 5:1-12, 12:15-32, 28:18-20
Mark 16:14-20
Luke 4:1-21, 11:5-28, 24 (esp. vv. 44-53)
John 1:29-36, 3, 7:37-39, 14:15-26, 15:26-27, 16:5-15, 20:19-23
Acts (esp. 2, 4:23-37, 5-8, 9:31, 10:34-11:18, 13, 19)
Romans 5:1-5, 7:4-6, 8, 14:16-18, 15:13
1 Corinthians 2, 3:16-17, 6:19-20, 12
2 Corinthians 1:18-22, 3, 5:1-5, 13:13
Galatians 3, 4:1-7 & 28-31, 5, 6:1-10
Ephesians (esp. 1:3-14, 2:17-22, 3:14-21, 4, 5:15-21, 6:10-18)
Philippians 2:1-11
1 Thessalonians 1:2-10, 4:1-8, 5:16-24
1 Timothy 3:16
2 Timothy 1:13-14
Titus 3:4-7
Hebrews 2:1-4, 6:1-12, 9:11-14, 10:1-25
James 4:1-10
1 Peter 1:10-12, 4:14
2 Peter 1:20-21
1 John 3:16-24, 4-5
Jude 17-25
Revelation 1-5, 19:6-10, 22