God the Holy Spirit

Good morning everyone, it is so great to see you all here this morning. I know for some of you this has been a really hard week, and for others its been a pretty long week. Either way I am so glad we get to come together to encourage each other and learn more about God so that we can grow together in our relationship with the Lord. Right now we get to welcome our kids to go and spend some time with a particularly amazing kids teacher so that they can learn and understand Scripture in a way that makes sense to them. I also want to welcome those of you that are joining us online as part of our extended spiritual family. I pray that today has been and will be encouraging to you as you seek to know more about the Lord.

Do you know what one of my favorite cartoons was when I was a little kid. I mean, like 5-6 years old, so I wasn’t super into Transformers and G.I.Joe yet…I used to love the Saturday morning cartoons and specifically I loved to watch Casper the friendly ghost. I loved that show because he had all the mean brothers and he was supposed to be mean, but he was always working against the plans of his mean brothers. He was always warning the people in the area or he was undoing whatever trick his older brothers were doing. It was just so much fun to watch that. You know, it really also kind of taught me about being kind I think. Actually, if you think about it…what we watch as kids really does affect what we think as kids and as adults. That is why it is so important for you as parents to pay attention to what your kids are watching and reading, especially online. and…listen…that doesn’t stop just because your kids are teenagers…you are still their guardian, meaning you still need to be aware and protect your kids from things that are out there with the culture that we live in today.

Anyway, right now we are in a series called I Believe. This is a series where we are talking about what we believe and why we believe it. It is so important to know what we believe as a church, and I would encourage you to adopt these beliefs as your own. Now as we are looking at what we believe we are looking at what is called Doctrine. Doctrine is the fancy word to describe what you believe. Actually I gave us a definition of doctrine to use as we go through this series so that we can all be on the same page. Specifically I said that, Doctrine is a set of guiding principles that helps us navigate the twists and turns of life. That’s not all though…You see, we also have seen that we are instructed in Scripture to be ready to answer questions about the hope we have in the Gospel. Remember the verse that I asked you all to memorize?

1 Peter 3:15 (ESV)

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

Now, I want you thinking about that section that says you should always be prepared to make a defense....another way to say that would be to always be prepared to answer questions, even the questions that you will have yourself. Well today I want us to gather a little information and be able to answer some of those questions you might be asked at some point....Join me this morning as we talk about the third person of the Godhead and look at the ...

The Doctrine of God the Holy Spirit

The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is kind of a difficult thing to think about because the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and it is the part of the Trinity that we never really see....I mean, we never really see God the Father either, but we kind of do when we see throughout the old Testament that God is literally leading the Israelites in various ways like a cloud of smoke or a pillar of fire. Then we see God interact with Moses in the Mountain, and so we do see God the Father in those ways…but God the Holy Spirit feels strange to alot of people and so we need to look at that together. In order to start us off though, we really need to see what we believe about the Holy Spirit so look at this with me.

We believe in the Holy Spirit who came forth from the Father and Son to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and to regenerate, sanctify, and empower all who believe in Jesus Christ. We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Christ, and that He is an abiding helper, teacher and guide. He imparts spiritual gifts for Christian service, and edification and the fruits of Spirit for a Christ-like life. — LRBC

So as a church this is what we believe about the Holy Spirit and just like the last few weeks, I want to kind of understand this a little bit more today. Actually what I am going to do is look at two things together with you so that we can understand together who the Holy Spirit is and what the Holy Spirit does…does that sound fair? Ok good…so to start us off this morning....let’s take a look at

Who the Holy Spirit is

Now, in order to know who the Holy Spirit is, we have to answer a couple of questions about who the Holy Spirit isn’t…First of all the Holy Spirit of God is not an “it”…Many times in speaking people will refer the Holy Spirit as an it, as if the Holy Spirit is a part of God and not God himself. Can you imagine introducing your spouse as “it”…well, maybe that is a bad example for some of you, I don’t know… :) You see, that is what it would be like if you refer to the Holy Spirit as an it and not a who…That’s not all though. The Holy Spirit is not a “ghost”…See this is a big deal because for many years we have called the Holy Spirit the Holy Ghost. Now, for some people that is not a big deal, however, for a kid who watched Casper the friendly ghost, that can really impact the way we view the Holy Spirit. You see, the Holy Spirit is not the dead version of God…the Holy Spirit is the personhood of God’s spirit, and that is an important distinction, especially when you are talking to a younger audience or a non churched audience.

So, Biblically speaking, there can be no doubt about the Holy Spirit’s existence because he is mentioned over 320 times. But is the Holy Spirit a person, like God the Father and God the Son? Well to answer that question we have to realize that personhood is not measured by physical elements such as body parts, flesh, blood, and bones. Rather, it is determined by the possession of three basic characteristics: (1) intellect, (2) will, and (3) emotion. The Bible provides more than enough evidence that the Holy Spirit possesses all three of these essentials of personhood. So, the Holy Spirit can be classified as the third person of the triune Godhead.

First of all I want to remind you that the Holy Spirit has been there from the beginning. Look at

Genesis 1:2 (ESV)

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

You may not have thought about that before, but this is the actions of the Holy Spirit during creation…How cool is that! Anyway, there are many Scripture that we can point to that in order to show you these three basic characteristics so I will show you today only a few passages in order to show you these characteristics.

First let’s look at the intellect of the Holy Spirit . Check out

Isaiah 11:2 (ESV)

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

Here we see the Holy Spirit counseling, giving wisdom, and knowing all about the Son of God and this prophecy is talking about how the Holy Spirit will interact with the Son of God. That shows intellect...

Second let’s look at the will of the Holy Spirit. Check out

1 Corinthians 12:11 (ESV)

All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

Here we see the Holy Spirit choosing when and how to gift Christians with various gifts of the Spirit. This is the will of the Spirit, not simply something that happens…Next let’s take a look at how the emotion of the Holy Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 1:6 (ESV)

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit,

The Holy Spirit experiences joy…Now as you continue to read the Scriptures you will see that the Holy Spirit also experiences grief, and anger, and love as well as many more emotions, because every person of the Godhead has and experiences emotions. We know that because we experience emotions and we were created in God’s image…in the image of the Trinity...

Now, that is a quick picture of who the Holy Spirit is, so let’s take a quick look at

What the Holy Spirit does

See in our statement of faith we said that the Holy Spirit indwells and empowers the believer, but where do we get that from, and what does it mean to say that the Holy Spirit does these things…Well in order to try and understand these things, we are just going to be able to scratch the surface this morning, but I will give your some resources to be able to further your own personal study.

Let’s start off together this morning by seeing the Holy Spirit helps the Christian. Look at

John 14:26 (ESV)

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Right here we see an incredibly valuable aspect of who the Holy Spirit is. Have you ever remembered something randomly from a sermon or from a Bible verse you read 10 years earlier…Or maybe you have worked to memorize Scripture, but then you forgot it and later it came to your mind at exactly the moment you needed it? That’s the Holy Spirit. Have you ever felt encouraged, inexplicably and you were just at peace? That’s the Holy Spirit. You see, one of the biggest jobs of the Holy Spirit is to help you and I as believers.

Do you know what else the Holy Spirit does? The Holy Spirit regenerates your dead spirit. You see, the moment that Adam sinned and allowed sin into the world, every human after that was born with a dead spirit. However, when you make the choice to believe and call on the name of the Lord, the Holy Spirit regenerates your dead spirit and brings you back to life…except this life is not your life…it is Christ life. Look at this passage

John 3:5–8 (ESV)

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

We have all used the terms, born again…well this is what that means. In order to be born again, it means that the Holy Spirit has brought back to life your spirit that was once dead in your own sins…That’s an amazing gift and amazing task of the Holy Spirit. You see, Jesus died for your sins, but the Holy Spirit revives your spirit to be joined together with Christ spirit…That is how we are all connected and how we are all family because we share the same spirit. Now, let me be clear for a moment, because many will confuse this thought…You are only joined in spirit if you have cried out to the Lord and repented of your own sin. If you have not done that, then you are simply playing Christian, kind of like you pretended to be in your favorite show as a kid...

You know what is really cool…besides giving life to believers like we just read about, the Holy Spirit is also working int he lives of those who do not yet believe in order to reveal to them the saving power of Christ. Look at

John 16:8 (ESV)

And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

The Holy Spirit convicts you and me of our sins…but this says convicts the world, which means the Holy Spirit is also convicting those who do not yet believe…The Holy Spirit is working in your life. Remember last week I mentioned that for some people you may be feeling this lump in your throat, or feeling the urge to cry for some reason that you simply cannot explain when you are reading Scripture, or when you are hearing a sermon like today…that is the Holy Spirit attempting to get your attention so that you will cry out to the Lord and experience the life that God has for you.

I’ll tell you my own experience…I was like 18 years old and I was sitting alone in my shed in the backyard and I had no idea why everything was going so horribly in my life. My girlfriends weren’t lasting, my jobs weren’t lasting, I was getting high and drunk in order to feel alive…I didn’t know what was wrong and I would occasionally feel this way like something was missing, like there was more to life that I should be experiencing, but I wasn’t…Eventually, after many months of feeling this way regularly, I was sitting in a church service and during the music I went running out of church because I was about to burst out in tears, and that was uncharacteristic of me. So I ran away from church, I ran up to my balcony and I started smoking pack after pack after pack sitting there…I honestly smoked an entire pack of cigarettes in under 20 minutes, within an hour I had smoked 5 packs…those of you that smoke know that is not easy…That is how hard I was fighting the Holy Spirit working in my life. However, the Holy Spirit didn’t give up…no, I fought, but the Holy Spirit never gave up, and eventually about an hour later I broke down and asked the Lord to fix my very broken life…I cried out and told the Lord that I had dug myself such a huge pit in my life that there was no way I could ever get out on my own…Well, do you know what the Holy Spirit did…The Holy Spirit dug me out of that pit. But that’s not all. Within a year, I had met Bethany and within 2 years I had a completely new life with a wife and son. You see, when I finally stopped fighting the Holy Spirit the Lord was able to work in my life so rapidly that everything changed in what seems like overnight.

Now, I know that not everyone has the same story, but I also know that some of you here have been fighting the Holy Spirit for a while. You may not fully understand that you are fighting the Holy Spirit, but you are. You feel that you have dug yourself such a pit that you don’t know if you can get out on your own. Maybe you even feel ashamed because you are supposed to be a Christian already and you have been pretending for a while. Listen…I pretended I was a Christian from the time I was 5 years old to the time I was 18 years old....it is never to late to come to the Lord, and you have nothing to be ashamed of. Here’s the thing though…don’t let your pride cause you to miss out of the life that the Lord has for you. Not just the life that you can experience today…but the life you can experience for eternity.

Listen, this morning we are closing out our little mini series on the Trinity, but we are going to continue looking at the doctrine of LRBC. Don’t let the day end without you relenting to the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit is convicting you. Hey, that goes to those of you that are Christians as well. You see, the Holy Spirit is actively convicting you of sin every single day…are you paying attention to that conviction, or are you so focused on yourself that you don’t see God? Don’t let today end without you repenting of your wrong focus and returning your eyes to the Lord instead of being focused on yourself, then make sure your actions reflect your focus. Next week we are going to talk about what it means to experience this new life. The exact word that we are going to look at next week is called “regeneration”, which basically is the act of the Holy Spirit bringing your dead spirit back to life again and joining you with Chrsit. So don’t miss next week so that you can understand a bit more about what it means to have new life in Christ. For now...

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