OUTLINE FOR OPEN CELLS

(Week of 7 /4 – 7/10, 2010)

The Church And The Coming Kingdom (5)

"Elusive Enthusiasm"

Subject - As the Kingdom of heaven continues to emerge in the earth, the enthusiasm (entheos/god inside) quality of individuals and congregations should be on the increase, keeping pace with Kingdom expansion. However, we often find the converse to be true. Why is that and how can it be reversed? How can we hold our ground and take new ground enthusiastically while so many pressures seem to be crushing the life from us?

I. Enthusiasm; what is it?

A. entheos/having a god within; eagerness, warmth, fervor, zeal, ardor, passion, (antonym/indifference)

B. It is the fullness of God on the inside, usually associated with intense emotionalism and a break with orthodoxy. ("These are not drunk as you suppose." - Acts 2:15)

C. It is the fullness of God intimately connected to purpose. (Acts 1:8 - "But you shall receive power . . .  and you shall be witnesses unto Me . . . to the ends of the earth.")

D. It is primarily granted in response to a deeper cry for and deeper revelation of the love of Christ, and then expressed in equal measure. (Eph. 3:14-19) This expression becomes uniquely corporate!

1. (Eph. 3:20) Enthusiasm carries us to new realms of possibility, creativity and power. ("Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us . . . ")

E. Enthusiasm (the God-inside lifestyle) will be severely tested in all of our lives.

1. (John 16:33) "In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." (tribulation/thlipsis/pressure) Daniel and his friends had a greater pressure within!

2. (Luke 21:26) " . . . men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth . . . " (This is the very definition of anxiety!)

I. Three stages of an enthusiastic life.

A. Enthusiasm; I never had it!

1. (Acts 2:1-22) Rather average men, scattered just days earlier in fear, hit the streets having freshly breathed in and drunken of the atmosphere of heaven. They were enthused!

2. (John 15:9-13) This infilling was predicated upon a three year experience of Christ's love. Fruit bearing (externally) was promised in the context of disciples continuing to love one another as Jesus had loved them. (Rom. 5:5) "The Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts . . . "

B. Enthusiasm; I'm fighting to keep it!

1. (Eph. 5:15-21) The fullness of God in our lives must be constantly cultivated and is most stabilized within a community of like-minded individuals. (submitting to one another - v. 21) "Speaking to one another" in the NKJV is speaking to "yourselves" in the KJV.

2. (Jude 20-21) "But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God . . . "

3. (Heb. 3:13) " . . . exhort (encourage) one another daily, while it is called Today . . . "

C. Enthusiasm; Please help me, I've lost it!

1. (Prov. 13:12) "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life." (There is not a person who hasn't experience hope deferred. Therefore there is not a heart on Earth that is completely well.)

a. deferred/ma-shak'/drag along, march, draw out, prolong, continue, be postponed

b. sick/kha-la'/weak, sick, diseased, grieved, ill, sore, wounded

c. desire/tah-av-a'/with, longings of one's heart, object of one's desire