E X H A L E / I N H A L E
Back to Life
Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. But—When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.[a] He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying.
Titus 3:3-8a
Whether we realize it our not, each moment of every day, we are practicing the act of breathing. In, out. In, out. Subconsciously or intentionally, we steep our lungs with oxygen, bringing essential fuel to every organ, fiber, and function of our being, and release carbon dioxide, a toxin to our system. We are created to rhythmically draw in life and release death.
But the world around us has contaminated the air. An invisible smog of greed, lust, and jealously encircles us; a slow, spiritual asphyxiation. But God offers a way out, a way into clear, crisp, rejuvenating truth that will saturate the mind, body, and soul with abundant life. It’s His invitation… are you ready to come back to life?
Mercy
Seeing the fate of His creation teetering on the edge of destruction, God made a move purely out of love and compassion that forever changed our course. Christ intervened and literally gave us his breath - the breath of life. That very breath that brought the world into existence, is offered to resuscitate the human race at the cost of Christ’s own life. It wasn’t deserved or merited, but rather given once for all. Mercy tipped the scale. Mercy brought us back.
Dead to Sin
Like shackles on our feet, or weights on our back, sin holds us down and steals from us the very freedom that God intended. Envy, anger, lust, and lies permeate our environments, inundating us with the foolish wisdom of the world. We succumb to this slow decay and eventually begin to wander around, missing entirely the essence of life. We become dead men walking, though the breath of life hangs right before us.
Abundant Life
Physiologically, few of us breath correctly. We rely on shallow, inconsistent breaths that don’t fuel us to properly, and leave us with minimal reserves to take on the world. Christ came to give us life to the fullest, but we need to inhale deeply and completely His transformative power. We need to retrain our minds and bodies to establish the steady rhythm of respiration that entirely exhales all that is toxic, and fully inhales all that which is true. When breathing life becomes our nature, we cannot possibly imagine going back. God wants to renew us in His Spirit that we may overflow with, and pour out, love, grace, and the message of salvation to all who need His breath of life.
Sanctification
As we choose to open our lives, truth begins to pump through our veins and we are awakened to God’s presence. One by one our systems are cleansed, healed, and renewed to see the world and ourselves as God intended. We sense his heartbeat for justice, his passion for purity, his deep, rich love for who He made us to be. Our spiritual lungs are washed clean of the tar and rot that has restricted us, and we emerge as new creations brimming with the Holy Spirit.
FREE RESOURCES
Spotify Playlists
Heiko from San Francisco has put together two amazing playlists on Spotify for you to use with your MA ministry. These are handpicked songs that relate to our theme and can help you set the tone for your ministry. The Party Playlist is optimized for fun and is perfect for the beginning of your sessions. The Worship Playlist has so many great songs that can help you set the scene for ministry times. Thanks to Heiko for putting these together. Click the photos above to access these free playlists!
Speaker Notes
A whole crew of amazing people worked very hard to bring you these amazing Speaker Notes. These documents are detailed, session-by-session breakdowns that can help you and your speakers bring the Exhale Inhale theme to life. Special thanks goes to Dan and Carolyn Buck, Ronnie Byrley, Tommy Lien, and Dallas Thom for doing all the heavy lifting on this project. Seriously, this is a lot of work, and they've done a stellar job!
Speaker Notes (112 KB PDF)
Ensenada Speaker Packet (857 KB PDF)