Holy Spirit: Living a Spirit Driven Life

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Introduction

We have started a new series for the month of October! Holy Spirit…

To get you caught up last week, talked about:

The Holy Spirit is God Himself.

He’s not a force or energy field, He’s a person. He’s the 3rd Person of the trinity (1 God with 3 members who eternally co-exist).

Your relationship with the Holy Spirit is vital for your Christian walk. He leads us on this lifelong journey.

God communicates with us by His Word and by His Spirit that dwells within us.

2 primary functions of the Holy Spirit: transformation and empowerment.

[EXAMPLES OF TRANSFORMATION AND EMPOWERMENT]

Why do we live a Spirit driven life?

1 Corinthians 6:19 (NIV)

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

Because it’s the Holy Spirit that empowers us to live and become Christ-like.

The Holy Spirit empowers us for service. God’s children, you and I, are endorsed by His Spirit.

I said last week that we are eternally marked by God with His Spirit when we are saved.

God promises all Christians the gift of the Holy Spirit.

References for what we talked about last week came from JOHN 14:15-20 and JOHN 16:4-15.

So tonight, we are going to look at when the Holy Spirit actually fell. Or when God sent His Spirit to His people.

Body

Acts 2:1 (NIV)

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.

“pente” means “5”; “cost” or “to the 10th power”

Pentecost — Jewish festival that takes place 50 days after the resurrection:

Acts 2:5–11 (NIV)

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”

Do you guys remember the story of the Tower of Babel?

Summary of (Genesis 11): At the time, the whole world spoke one language. People moved and settled in Shinar, or Babylonia. Build a huge tower that toward heaven. But God comes down and disapproves of what they’re doing. Then He judges them by scattering them all over the Earth with different languages. ‘Babel’ means confusion in Hebrew.

Why is this important?

Pentecost is the reversal of the cursed judgment of Babel.

God’s judgement at Babel scattered people, but God’s blessing at Pentecost united believers in the Spirit. All the different tribes and tongues were praising God.

The Tower of Babel was an act of rebellion and pride, but Pentecost was an act of submission and humility.

Submitted and humbled to what? The work of the Holy Spirit. From this moment on in history, every person who would call themself a follower of Christ would be pressed into and empowered by the Spirit.

We are being called into salvation through Jesus and then we’re being called into submission and humility through the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:1–4 (NIV)

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

I’ll talk a little more in the next few weeks, about speaking in tongues but tonight we have to keep it moving.

The 120 people present at Pentecost were forever marked by God’s Spirit.

The Holy Spirit’s presence manifested in the lives of the people in the early Church, giving them a fresh understanding of the Gospel, empowering them for service, granting them supernatural boldness to be witnesses in Jerusalem and beyond, and enabling them to endure the harshest of persecutions.

Closing

As I was preparing this week, I got hit with this question…

When did Christians become dependent on anything other than the Holy Spirit?

I believe that God is calling His Church back to dependency on Him and that happens by His Spirit.

I want to encourage you, that tonight you can experience Pentecost. You can be filled with the Holy Spirit and begin living the Spirit driven life.

A life of empowerment.

If you’re already saved, I want to ask you…

Are you relying on anything other than the Spirit in this life? What is it?

God wants to take that area or thing in your life and make you fully dependent on Him.

Every head bowed. In your seat begin to ask God, what areas or things in your life do you need to give to God so that you can rely on Him?

Prayer