Power Behind Progressing Through the Storm

‌Power Behind the Promised Gift

Introduction

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· The last 2 sermons can really be boiled down to 3 words, “Come to Me”

· The amazing invitation that Jesus offers us during times of crisis

· ‌“Come to Me” transforms us into new creation that values strong, genuine relationships with other believers which is one of God’s tools for helping us through trials

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· But the fact is that even with this knowledge, we still may have doubts or question the validity of this Biblical truth from time to time.

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· “Is this really true or is it just a hopeful thought to keep me positive?”

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· Or, “I’ve tried to reach up for Jesus and accept His invitation but it doesn’t seem to help”

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· If you’ve felt this way, know you’re not alone.

· It’s normal to go through times of doubt, especially if you just beginning your life of faith.

· Even people who have come to faith years ago, experience this.

· I have times where I’m fearful that He won’t be there to walk with me.

· Times where I feel like He is distant

· And it seems like the worse the crisis is, the more prone we become to have doubts

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· Many times our doubts or times we question these truths come as the result of our self-determination, and will power as we try to mentally ascend to Jesus.

· Like we have to go to Heaven to find Jesus

· The good news is that we are willing to come to Jesus

· Because willingness is essential, but it’s only the beginning step

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· If we follow up our willingness with self-determination and self-will, it means we are missing an essential ingredient to access all the fullness of Christ

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· We’re missingGod’s gift of the Holy Spirit.

· The Spirit is the one who provides the power to live a Christ-centered life, which includes power to progress through our storms,

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· Now we are going to dive into pretty deep waters today

· But it’s necessary to learn so we can love God and Love others.

· And regarding our series, it’s important to learn to be empowered as we face times of crisis with hope, peace, and joy

The Trinity or the Triune God – (Slide Change)

· Before we focus on the Holy Spirit, we’re going first build a solid foundation of who God is as revealed in the Bible

· We can’t start building the 2nd floor before this foundation is established

· Scripture is absolutely clear that there is only one true God who deserves all of our praise, our love, our worship, and our obedience

· Now here is where it gets complicated. Scripture is also clear that God is 1 and 3

· Called the Trinity or the Triune God

· 1 God and 3 agents: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit

· All 3 are co-equal, co-existent from before the foundation of the world

· They are inseparable working together to bring about salvation

· Now I would love to give you a concrete example to understand this concept.

· But there are no examples here on earth that can accurately describe this relationship.

· It’s impossible for our human mind to comprehend or explain this Biblical Truth.

· So rather than trying to comprehend it, I believe we should approach this truth with trust and faith

· To focus on the bigger picture of what the Triune God has accomplished, is accomplishing, and will accomplish in all of creation

· The best way I can explain it is in how God operates through each agent.

· God the Father is the One who initiates His will for all of creation. God the Son is the one who complies and fulfills this will. And God the Holy Spirit provides the power to execute it

Transition

· Well what do say about building the 2nd floor: Knowledge of the Holy Spirit

Illustration

The couple in the boat

· This describes the Holy Spirit. Like the wind in the sail, we can’t see the Spirit, yet we can see the results of His work

· Our goal today is to learn the foundational truths regarding the Holy Spirit that empowers us to live Christ-centered lives

· So, the key phrase to help us remember what we learn is “Power in the Promised Gift”

· Next week we will narrow our focus to learn how the Holy Spirit empowers us when we face the storms of life

Transition

Context

· During Jesus’ ministry on earth, He revealed to His disciples that He would be delivered over to the hands of men.

· That they will kill Him, but after 3 days, He would be raised to life

· Then He would ascend to be seated at the right hand of the Father

· He explained that this was to fulfill Old Testament Scripture to finish God’s plan of salvation once and for all

· Jesus knew sharing this with His disciples would make them anxious and fearful that they would be abandoned after spending the last 3 years with Him

· So, He comforts them saying He won’t leave them as orphans and He will come to them.

· Let’s turn to the Gospel of John for an in-depth look at what Jesus meant by this and all that it entails.

· We will also follow with 11 other Scripture versus to support the truth of the “Power Behind the Promised Gift” God’s work through the Holy Spirit

John 14:15–17 (ESV)

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

Exegesis

· During the 3 years of Jesus’ ministry on Earth, He was the disciple’s Helper - (Slide Change)

· But when He departs and ascends to the Father, they were left without the one who helped them

· Because of that, Jesus intercedes on the disciple’s behalf by asking the Father to send the Holy Spirit who would now become their Helper

· Now another Helper does not mean a different Helper. The Bible translates this as “another” of the same kind

· This Helper is the Holy Spirit. Jesus also refers to Him as the Spirit of truth. (Slide Change)

· What is meant by The Spirit of truth? The Bible tells us that the source of all truth is from God.

· But the truth referred to here is not an external reality like the sky is blue. It’s referring to truth as being a part of God’s essence or being

· Moving on, the text informs us of who can receive the Holy Spirit. - (Slide Change)

· It’s for those who “Know Him” and have come to faith in Jesus

· For those who love and obey His commandments.

· And the amazing thing about receiving the Holy Spirit is the fact He makes His home, or abides in all believers. (for he dwells with you and will be in you) – (Slide Change)

Transition

· Well, this information is all well and good, but, “Why do I need to know this information?”

· To know the answer, we need to take a deeper look in the Bible as we focus on the role of the Holy Spirit and what He does for believers?

· As I mentioned earlier, we are going to look at 11 different Scripture versus regarding the role of the Holy Spirit and the impact he has in our lives

· Now this will feel like drinking water from a fire hydrant.

· So in your bulletin, I have listed all the places in Scripture that reference what we are learning

From the broad perspective

The central role of the Holy Spirit is to glorify God, to reveal the Truth of who Jesus is and what He has accomplished, and to make us aware of who we are in Christ when we come to faith in Him

First, the Holy Spirit’s work begins when we first come to faith

Ephesians 1:13–14

· The Spirit opens our hearts and minds to the message of the Gospel before we are even aware of it. Ge then empowers us to come to faith in Jesus

· When we come to faith, the Father sends the Spirit to reside in us as His sealed promise that we have eternal life.

· Think of it as having a plane ticket that assures you have a seat on the plane

2 Corinthians 5:17

· The Spirit also immediately executes life transformation. Many refer this to being “Born Again”

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Now the Spirit’s work doesn’t stop after our initial belief, He continues to dwell in us as the driving force behind living out our Christian life

1 Corinthians 2:9-11

· The Spirit gives us spiritual wisdom to know God and His Christ-centered plan for all of history and for salvation

John 15:26

· He reveals all truth of God the Son, Jesus Christ. The Spirit bears witness to His life, death, resurrection, and ascension

Romans 8:15-16

· The Holy Spirit also affirms that we are adopted into God’s family

Acts 1:8-9 and John 14:12

· Before Jesus ascended to be with the Father, He tasked the disciples the Great Commission, which is to carry out what He began in His earthly ministry to go and spread the Gospel message to all the world.

· But Jesus told them they wait until they received power from on high to accomplish this commission

· This Great Commission is commanded for us as well. And to accomplish it, we too must be filled with the Holy Spirit and His power

· The Spirit is power. He fills us with power, knowledge, skills, and perseverance to carry out Jesus’ ministry until He returns

John 14:25–26

· The Holy Spirit is our Teacher.

· He teaches us all Jesus has taught in Scripture.

· And as our teacher, He enlightens Scripture to us. As we study our Bible, we receive the ability to understand, interpret, and apply what we’ve read

Ezekiel 36:27

· The Holy Spirit empowers us to be obedient to God’s commands

Romans 8:26–27

· He is also our advocate in our weakness

· The Spirit is our direct access to our Father as He intercedes on behalf

1 Corinthians 6:11

· We are sanctified by The Holy Spirit. Sanctification means He empowers us to grow in holiness and righteousness to be more and more like Jesus

· The Holy Spirit justifies us. Justification means that by grace through faith in Jesus, we are now in a right relationship with God through the forgiveness of our sin

Application

· What should we do to have a better grasp and understanding of the Holy Spirit as He impacts every aspect of our lives through the “Power of this Promised Gift?”

· Well let’s put it in terms with our human relationships. We have an intimate relationship with close friends, our spouse, our children because we purposely spend a lot of quality time with them

· The same is true when it comes to our vertical relationship with God.

· If we only learn about God once a week on a Sunday, it’s almost impossible to have a strong relationship with Him

· What if we if we spent time every day with Him?

- Time inprayer

- Time studying His Word

- Participating in Bible studies

- Spending time in our horizontal relationships with other believers

- And committed to serve God by loving Him and loving others

· One effective way to learn more about the Holy Spirit is to look for ways He is working in your life or the lives of others.

· This takes time and patience if you aren’t used to doing it

· It is also very hard to explain what that looks like so I’ll give you an example of one of my experiences

· Story about rest stop

· As for a specific application for what we’ve learned today, I highly encourage you to take time this week to read and contemplate on the Scripture versus in your bulletin.

· This is actually good practice after every sermon.

· As a pastor, a major part of my work is to study Scripture from all angles, put in the time to interpret what God is saying, and then present the Biblical truths and principals in a way that you will learn and then apply them for life transformation.

· But I also believe it is important for you to not trust what I teach just because I’m a pastor.

· Investigate it for yourselves by turning to the Bible to see if it’s true or discussing it with other believers who are well versed in Scripture.

Conclusion

· It’s interesting to me that something as complicated as understanding the Holy Spirit can be so impactful to our every day lives.

· If you are still having a hard time understanding what we’ve learned today or what you are reading from the Bible, please call and let me know

· I know that sometimes we can think, “I don’t want to bother him” or “He’s probably too busy

· But I would consider it a privilege to meet with you and help any way I can

· Going to Jesus seems like we must mentally ascend to Him as He is at the right hand of the Father.

· But the fact is, we have direct access to Him because He abides in us.

Prayer