We are saved by faith alone, but not a faith that is alone. That's Augustine. We are saved by faith alone, but not a faith that is alone, and that ties in perfectly to what we have been talking about, God's part and our part. What role does God play in our day-to-day lives and our decision-making and our businesses and our families, and what role do we play? God's part, which I'm now gonna switch and say the Holy Spirit's part, and our part. Have you thought about that? Where is the balance? What roles do we play? That's what we're gonna talk about today. I think it's gonna be very helpful. It's been very helpful for me to work through that this summer. Hi, I'm Sam Hunter. This is 721 Live, the video arm of 721 Ministries. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for being with us today. And by the way, you can subscribe to these podcasts and videos and get them as soon as they come out. So take that moment right now and hit that little subscription button, and then you'll have these the minute we produce them. our part and the Holy Spirit's part. I have friends, predominantly men because we do a men's ministry, who are always, I'll get it done. I'm the man. If I don't, it won't. If it's to be, it's up to me. I have some friends on the far end of that spectrum that think to themselves, I was saved by grace and grace is how I'm going to live. I'm going to float in a sea of grace, so to speak. Now, that's not a bad place to be for some different times in our lives, but is that really the way we live? Is that the balance between the Holy Spirit's part and our part? Now, the genesis of this Back in the spring I was reading Nehemiah and I got to the point where Nehemiah is They're building the wall the people that have lived around that area while the Jews were in exile They don't want that wall built for obvious reasons the wall then fortifies Jerusalem Nehemiah gets word that they are going to cause trouble try to stop the construction of the wall and he says this as he is speaking to us he said so, you know, we found out we had trouble coming we prayed to our Lord and And we posted a guard. We prayed to our Lord. And we posted a guard. And also, by the way, everyone who worked on the wall kept their spears handy and their swords handy. It intrigued me in that moment to see that perfect, he just captured it perfectly. We prayed to our Lord. Now, we could have stopped right there and said, and then we went back to work because we trusted him to take care of us. That would have seemed very biblical. That would have seemed very much like putting our trust in our Heavenly Father to take care of us. We prayed to the Lord and we went back to work. That's not what Nehemiah said, and that's not what the Holy Spirit prompted Nehemiah to do. We prayed to our Lord, but we posted a guard. At the same time, I'm teaching in Acts down in Charleston, and as I did these at the same time, I thought, Acts is a perfect example of Peter and John and James and Thomas and Matthew. Think about these men. Let's get back into their humanity. Jesus had been with them for three plus years. He's no longer there. We're post-Pentecost, so the Holy Spirit has come. He's shaking them to their core. They have a whole new life that they're trying, but they're trying to figure out, how do we live this life? We spoke in all these different languages back when we were Jesus. We did perform miracles for a Designated missionary trips, but what do we do now? They're trying to figure it out just like we're trying to figure it out And so today we'll we'll start with acts 3 and in our two previous videos. It was actually one of next two now We're next three But I want to start with Deuteronomy 8 and I want to tell you first that I printed I have printed out Deuteronomy 8 and I read it two to three times a morning I keep it by my Bible and my devotionals where I do my time in the morning and because it's a reminder that I have not done all this on my own. So let's just take a look at Deuteronomy 8 and let's read it together. Now, I encourage you to read the whole chapter of Deuteronomy 8, but here's where I think the thrust is. Now, let me back up. The Israelites are getting ready to move into the promised land. The entire book of Deuteronomy is Moses reminding them of all the things that they've been taught over these 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. And now God is warning them, when you get into the promised land, don't forget who I am and what I've done for you. So that's the backdrop. So now we'll come back to Deuteronomy 8, 17 through 18. And this is God talking to the Israelites. You may say to yourself, my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me. But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth. And so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors as it is today. God is warning them. You're going to get into the land of milk and honey. Things are going to be really, once you get it conquered, things are going to be wonderful. Do not forget who I am. Now my question to you, how quickly can you slip back to, I did this? I got us to where we are, I'm the man, I'm the woman, I worked hard, my smarts, my business savvy, my common sense. How quickly can you revert to, I did this? because most of the men I know, including yours truly, like that. You see, I used to be in real estate, real estate and construction for many years before we started 721 Ministries 20 years ago. And I had some good fortune in real estate development. And if I'm not careful, I'll go back, you know, I'm pretty smart. I figured that thing out. I understand real estate development. Even today, my wife and I have done a couple of small real estate, we're getting ready to build a house. And Sam will quickly jump back in and say, you know, I'm, you know, you're a pretty smart guy. You figured that thing out. You know how to put all this together. And now where I am in my journey with my Heavenly Father, with Jesus, and with the Holy Spirit as giving me the energy, the clarity, the creativity to even do anything, I'm now appalled at myself when I think that way. And I quickly pull myself out and say you don't you even if you have any sense Which it could be questionable even if you have any sense and even if you have any business savvy It's the lord who gave you the brain. It's the lord who helped you. It's the lord who put you in these situations How quickly do we jump back into what god is warning the israelites not to do? Get to a place in life where things are going pretty well, you've accomplished some things, you've built up some material things, and you've got some value in your life, and you start thinking, you know, I'm pretty good, I did pretty well. This is not what we want to think in terms of he helped me. I did my part, but none of it would have happened had he not been helping me. I've asked businessmen over these years, I did it today in a meeting with several lawyers, and I said, have you ever tried a case? You went into the courtroom and you just knocked it out the park you presented the evidence you had the closing arguments you question you did everything just right and you still lost and They said yes, of course, and I experienced that in business myself Then I said have you ever kind of fumbled it and not really done your best And not and afterwards you thought I really didn't do very well today and still won the case and Yes, I did that in business there were times where there would be projects I was working on that I could just see the mistakes I made and things still worked out and then there were times where I did everything just right and Some other factor caused the project to be a failure Even when I'm talking to people about Jesus There are times when I feel like I have just laid out the gospel. I answered all their questions I was able to to relate to them perfectly and And it was like I was talking to a wall. And then there have been other times where I feel like I fumbled it, I didn't answer the question correctly, I didn't really know what to say, I didn't handle it well, whatever, and I go home thinking, God, you really blew that, Sam. And a week later, I get a phone call, Sam, I'm on my knees. I'm surrendering my life to Jesus. Even when we're successful, what we want is for our heart to go back and say, you helped me with that. I couldn't have done it without you. And then the next step is, I don't want to do it without you. So I came up with a little graph. If you're a visual, I wanted you to look at this because this is what we're trying to do. This is the spectrum in which we're all living. Now, if I do this again, I think I'm going to reverse it because most of us start out with a works mentality. If I don't, it won't. If this to be is up to me, I'm going to make it happen. Over on this side, we've got the grace where it's up to God, it's up to the Holy Spirit. They have to do it. I'm living in a sea of grace. I'm not putting forth any real effort. And of course, Peter said, Make every effort to add to your goodness to your faithfulness make every effort There's nothing Dallas Fuller had a great observation. God is not opposed to effort He is opposed to earning but God is not opposed to effort when you read Paul's letters when you read Peter's letters They will both tell you I worked harder than anybody else. I worked hard. I was not gonna sit by I put everything I had into it, but then in mid-sentence they stop and say but it is not I It was the Lord working in me. It wasn't me. I did my part. I worked hard, but it was not me. It was the Lord working with me. So we've got this spectrum. I'm living in a sea of grace. I don't really have to put forth any effort. All the way over to this spectrum, which is where most of us start with I've got to do it all. I've got to make it happen. What we want is this balance. This balance, and this is a Eugene Peterson, coming from Matthew 11, 28 through 30, where he talks about the unforced rhythms of grace. The unforced rhythms of grace. Unforced rhythms of grace. We are not forcing it. We're not white-knuckling it. We're not kicking the door in. We're doing our part. There is a rhythm. We're moving. We're taking action. But it's an unforced rhythms of grace. That's Eugene Peterson Dallas Willard says within our actions beyond our powers Within our actions beyond our powers. This is where we want to live where we are taking action. We are doing the next right thing and but we're doing it with the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit is working within us, it's within our actions, but it's so far beyond our powers. Have you ever experienced that? To where you've done something and you've put forth your best effort, you didn't phone it in, and yet the results were so far beyond what you could have expected. This is the balance in which we want to live. Unforced rhythms of grace within our actions, beyond our powers. We are doing our part. We're making every effort. We are stepping forward. We are ready to go. But it's the Lord working with us. Now, I'm gonna take us to Acts 3. In Acts 3, now, we've had Pentecost in Acts 2. I'm just gonna read from the scriptures because this is a great combination of the Holy Spirit's part and our part. Peter and John are going to the temple at three o'clock. That's one of the times that everyone in Jerusalem would go to the temple to have a worship service. Not a worship service, they'd go to the temple and worship. And every day at three o'clock, they're going. And that's where we pick it up in Acts 3, 1. One day, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer at three in the afternoon. Now, a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. All right, so let's stop there. Our part is to be ready. Peter and John are going to the temple. They go every day. This man, we are told, is at the gate every day. Did Peter and John not see them, see him all the time before? Were the crowds moving through to go to that three o'clock time? Were they crowded where they didn't see him? Were they just not looking? But today, they're aware. They're ready. Here's this man. He looked now Peter and John are they're not millionaires They probably don't have a nickel more than this man has they have a little bit more but not much They're not who he typically asking for money because they don't have any they don't even look like they have any Peter looked straight at him as as did John then Peter said look at us So the man gave them his attention expecting to get something from them They were they were ready and now they're willing they were ready and They were aware. They knew that the Holy Spirit could move at any moment, so they had their eyes open. They weren't walking with a cell phone and their eyes down. They were aware of what's going on around them. They make the eye connection. Then they are willing. How often do we have an opportunity? We sense the Holy Spirit moving in us to go speak to someone, to go help them, to reach out. But we're not willing. We're either afraid or we don't want to be bothered. We don't want our time and our schedule to be messed up. I was driving to Columbia, which I do on Wednesday nights. And I came to an intersection not far from my home, busy intersection, a lot of cars, a huge service station on the left, and a couple with a young teenage girl, clearly homeless, if not homeless, right on the verge of being homeless. They were working their way through the traffic, and they were in front of me, and I had a couple of 20s just happened to be sitting there right next to me in the car, and I thought, I'm gonna roll down the window and give them these 20s. I'm just gonna give them to them. But I couldn't get their attention because they were worried about the cars. So here comes the green light. I go through the intersection, and I'm going about 100 yards, 200 yards, and I keep hearing the Holy Spirit say, turn around and go give them that money. Well, I'm on my way. I'll have to do a big U-turn in a pretty busy area. I'll have to go back through the stoplight, go into that service station area, find them, give them the money. I'm just gonna keep going to Columbia. And he would not leave me alone. So 200 yards, 300 yards down. I turned the car around, I went back, there they were, I pulled up to them in my car, got out, and I said, I got these 220s here, and the Holy Spirit asked me to give these to you, so they're not coming from me, they're coming from Jesus. I don't want any credit for that, because I was trying to get out of it. Peter and John, they were willing to take the next step. Then Peter said, several a goal I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. He's been lame from birth. Imagine what his ankles and feet look like. But this miracle, boom, he's up. I love this part. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God. Can you just picture that? He's high-fiving, he's not content just to walk in with him. He's jumping around, he's having a great time, and people are noticing. So now, John and Peter were aware, they were ready, and they were willing. That's our part. But the Holy Spirit is the one who's going to do the real work. Peter looks at the onlookers. While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Columnade. When Peter saw this, he said to them, Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Listen to this now. Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we made this man walk? Why are you looking at us? We may be more godly than the next person, but it surely isn't our godliness that made this happen. It's not us that did it. It certainly wasn't our power. It was the Holy Spirit's power. We were ready. We were willing. But the Holy Spirit did something within our actions far beyond our powers. Within our actions far beyond our powers. I've been thinking about this a lot. I've been I have a couple of times had an opportunity someone has asked me to come pray over them and they kind of thought I might be the man that would they could pray over him and heal him and I shied away I went but I had no confidence that I could Heal that that the Lord would use me to heal them as a better way to say. Yeah, I certainly have no confidence I could do it But what is it? Am I afraid and do I not think that God will do it? Am I not willing to put myself out there? And as I thought about it It occurred to me, and this is not a rationale, I'm just moving on with this. It occurred to me, when we are willing to reach out, to just speak to someone, to just bring Jesus' name into the conversation, we don't know what lameness in that person the Holy Spirit will heal. We may not see it. They may not jump up and walk around and jump around and make a big commotion But if we're willing to just put ourselves out there and learn and train ourselves to bring Jesus into the conversation We have no idea what he can do what lameness he can heal in people When we are just willing to put ourselves out there our part and God's part it goes back to that chart that graph we looked at the spectrum the unforced rhythms of grace within our actions beyond our powers it's a perfect it's a perfect it just captures it perfectly that what we do and what he does As we started this video, Augustine said, we are saved by faith alone, but not a faith that is alone. He's responding to James, in the book of James, and here's Augustine's quotation. James says, what good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. Now this, by the way, it almost got James not included in the New Testament. This statement, because he's so focused on works that the people that were putting together the New Testament said, that doesn't belong. But thankfully, the Holy Spirit guided them to put that in. We are saved by faith alone, but not a faith that is alone. When we put our trust in Jesus, he is going to compel us to do things, our part. We really cannot do anything without him, and again, as I said earlier, I have now finally gotten to the point where I don't want to do anything without him. Because Sam can do some things in his own power, but I'd rather have him working within me so that it goes beyond my power, within my actions, beyond my power. I want the Holy Spirit. Let me ask you this. If you've been in business or you've been a school teacher, you've raised a family, whatever it is, haven't there been times in your life where something went well? You made a good decision and there was an immediate success, whatever the field. I think most often about business back when I was in real estate and if I made a good decision or Jumped into a project or and there was an immediate financial reward and the buzz that I got the thrill that I got from that well when you can see that you actually were used by the Holy Spirit God Almighty's Holy Spirit is in any type of action that you're involved in. When you can sense and see that the Holy Spirit worked with you, that is so far beyond any thrill, any buzz you would get from any monetary reward from anything in this world of ours. If you can learn to bring the Holy Spirit in, you're going to take the actions. You're going to do the next right thing. You're going to use your business acumen or the common sense or the experience that you've developed but to have the Holy Spirit. Just a few minutes ago, I was talking with a man who wants to have his wife seek some help in a certain situation, and he said, I'm not sure how to bring it up to her because she might be resistant because I'm her husband. And we all know that dynamic for both ways, ladies and men. But I said, well, let's take this opportunity to ask the Holy Spirit to move ahead of us, to work in her heart. And we prayed. I said, Holy Spirit, we think this is the next best step. We think this is the next right thing to do. We don't know, but we think it is. And so if it is, you help us. We'll take the steps, but you're the one who will have to move beyond our actions If we can learn to do that Then we're going to start living that rich life that Jesus had for us now as we learn to live with the Holy Spirit I wanted you I want to go back to the screen and I want to show you this what i call the process of bumping the trajectory and we find it in galatians as well as second peter will get that in a minute but glacians five sixteen paul writes the holy spirit through him tells us so i say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh so the first step and bumping our trajectory and learning to live with the power of the holy spirit is just to start walking with him Justice just to bring him in to the details of life See that he's around to see that he's that he's involved just walk with him verse 18 if you are led by the Spirit you're not under the law, so Let's just think about that for a moment We're learning to walk with the Holy Spirit. We're starting to take steps with him. But now we're realizing that he's leading us. Now if someone's going to lead me, where do I have to be? I have to be behind him. So I have to be willing to wait. I have to want the Holy Spirit to get out in front of us. I start the process by just bringing him in. You start the process by just bringing him in to the conversation. And just be aware that he's real. John and Peter are going into the temple. and they're aware that the Holy Spirit can do anything at any moment. The next thing that we see is we are led by the Spirit. He's out in front of us, and we're walking behind Him. We want Him to be ahead of us. Then we'll move to the next slide, and we'll see that in Galatians 5, still in chapter 5, verse 25, since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Now we've moved from being behind Him, being led by Him, to we're actually walking step by step with Him, because the process has now led us to the point where we're walking with Him step by step. And then Peter comes along and says, but prophets, though humans, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. Now, that's what I want you to think about this process. First, we bring the Holy Spirit into the details of our lives. I use these words, see, seek, want, wait. We see, we seek, we want, we wait. We see that the Holy Spirit is real. We start to live by him. We train ourselves. We practice. It is a process. Jesus said, put into practice the things that I teach you. Put it into practice. So we start to bring him into the details. And it's not easy at first. We're so channeled into, trained into just always doing things ourselves. But we start to see. And as we see and as we seek, we're being led by him. And now he's out in front of us, and we're moving behind him. As we mature, as we go through, go deeper into the kingdom, as the process unfolds, the next thing we find ourselves actually walking in step with the Holy Spirit. That's a glorious place to be. A glorious place to be. But then, the next step, as Peter says, is you start living with an energy you never had before. It's not a Shazam kind of thing, it's not a magical thing. You just have more energy, you have more clarity, you have more creativity than you ever had before. And it's almost as if you're living, you're walking six inches a foot, two feet off the ground. You're still moving. You're still doing your part. It's within your actions But it's so far beyond your powers and this is not for super Christians. This is not just for the the the Apostles or Famous people this is for all of us To live this way Holy Spirit's part our part You can follow this process. It just takes practice. It just takes learning to do it. As Jesus said, put into practice the things that I teach you. Start doing this a little bit at a time and watch how it unfolds. And the next thing you know, it'll take some time because it is a process. Your trajectory will be bumped to where you feel like the Holy Spirit is carrying you along. And it is a great place to live. And I'm living there right now. I have my faults. Nowhere near where I want to be but I'm so much further along where I used to be But I'm living this now because I started this process ten years ago And I feel like I'm being carried along by the Holy Spirit, but I'm still doing my part I never phone it in I always give it my best a-plus effort But I'm working with the Holy Spirit now and it's the it's the best thing I've ever experienced in my life and you can have that too and OK, now I want to go to Gideon and Judges and finish up that way. And we're going to turn back to Judges chapter 7. because this is a perfect example of our part in god's part and this is how we'll conclude today i want you to think about this while we're looking at this story from Gideon and and think if you see if this may have happened in your life you happen to be there right now or if it does happen you'll be able to come back to that because this is a perfect example of within our actions beyond our powers. That's exactly what we're going to see in this. Judges 7, 2 through 24. We're not going to read all of these, but it's a great example of what Dallas Fuller said. And I'm going to start. Now here's the setting. Gideon has 32,000 warriors with him. He's going up against 130,000 warriors. Now God comes to him and says, you have too many. And if I'm Gideon, I'm going, I don't think your math is really good, father, because there's 130,000 of them, and we've only got 32,000. Here's what God says. This is chapter 7 and Judges chapter 7. Early in the morning, Gideon and all his men camped at the spring of Herod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moriah. That's where the enemy is. The Lord said to Gideon, you have too many men for me to deliver Midian into your hands in order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her. See, what God is going to do is he's going to whittle down Gideon's forces. Because 32,000 against 130,000, those are steep odds. But if they won, there's no way they could not think, look at us. Look what we did. Have you ever been in a process in your life where God is whittling you down? He's taking, he's closing doors. Things aren't working. You feel like you're being beat up, you're being beat down. It's almost like you're just, everything's going against you and you're saying, Heavenly Father, what is going on? Help me. And he may be saying, not yet, because you're still operating in your own power. It's like Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 when he said, I had this thorn. I asked God to take it away three times. He said, no, I'm not going to do it, Paul. I know you. He said, in my power, in your weakness, my power is made perfect. I know you, Paul. You're type A. If I take this thorn away, you'll go right back to your own power. I'm going to leave it in there as a reminder to you that without me, you cannot do anything. So the next step is he tells them, anybody that wants to go home, anybody that's afraid, go. 22,000 leave. Leaves 10,000. God says, that's still too many. Go down to the river and let them drink water. And most of, almost all of the 10,000, with the exception of 300, Went down to the river they dropped their swords and their spears and they dropped down their knees and they started lapping water into their face totally defenseless 300 however kneel down held their weapon and cupped water into their mouth our part God's part They knew that they were under the power and control of God Almighty. But they still held on to their spears. They still held on to their swords. And those are the 300 men that God used. Have you ever been in that situation where it just felt like God was whittling you down? Maybe you're in that right now. And you think, what? Stop! Help me! I cannot take this any longer. And God may be speaking in your heart and saying, I'm not finished working on you yet. There's still things that you have to let go of. There's still things that you're holding on to as an idol. There's still things that are too important to you. Or you still think that you've got so much power and I've got to show you. I've got to take you down to the point where you know that you had nothing to do with this. That's what he did in my life. He took me down to the point where when he started to turn things around in my life, which took a long time because Sam is hard-headed, and Sam was one of those, if this is up to me, if this to be is up to me, if I don't it won't, one of those type A, and he stripped me down to where when he started to bring me back, it's no way that I could come back and say, look what I did. Look how I brought myself back. If he's doing that in your life, thank him and say to him I want to thank you now before I see how you work this out because I know I'll be thanking you later I'm going to thank you now before I see how you work this out because I know I'll be thanking you later and you may also add and do not stop the process until you get me where you want me because this has been difficult this has been terrible but I've now come to the point where instead of saying fix this change it make it okay I want to learn what it is you want me to learn. Or I want to unlearn. I want to let go of whatever it is that's holding me back. That's the process that Gideon had to learn, Gideon and his men. Think about those 300 men against 130,000. And God went in before them and routed the Midians, cleared the way for them. They still had to go in and fight, though. But the 300 could never say, look what we did. It had to be the Lord. So let's go back to our spectrum. Let's look one more time at where we're trying to find ourselves, where we're trying to live. Yes, we live in a world of grace, but it's not a grace that is alone. We live in a world of works, but it's not all works. And some people I know say, okay, well, I will do all the work in life in my own power and I'll bring God into the spiritual stuff. But that's not the balance. What we want is to find this balance, the unforced rhythms of grace. Not forced, but we're moving. Unforced rhythms of grace within our actions, beyond our powers. That's where we want to live. I hope that this has been a helpful series for you, this three-part look at our part, the Holy Spirit's part. I hope this has been something that has helped you to see we play a role. But we don't want to play that role by ourselves. We take action. But we want to learn to live with the power of the Holy Spirit so that we do our part and then He goes so far beyond our actions that it moves into another whole realm of power. And the reason we want you to know that is because there is more. And you know there's more. Follow Jesus, learn to live with the power of the Holy Spirit, and find Him.