This is not That week 3

Review

Last week we talked about the fact that The Holy Spirit does not condemn.

We evaluated the tone with which we hear the HOly Spirit.

We learned that He is of the exact nature of the Father and the Son.

If Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world than neither does he.

CONDEMNATION IS THE RESULT OF OUR CHOICES.

Today we are continuing even further down that thought process.

I’m preaching about the concept: The Holy Spirit does not condone

DISCLAIMER

I am going to offend a lot of people today who are walking in all kinds of sin.

We are calling sin sin...

YOU MAY BE PRACTICING ONE OF THE SINS THAT I NAME TODAY.

The good news is that Jesus died to save sinners.

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John 14:15–17 NKJV

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

John 16:13 NKJV

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

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Relatavism

We live in a society where relativism rules the day...

According to a 2020 study done by Answers in Genesis...58% of Americans say moral truth is up to each individual person.

The primary belief system of relativism is that my truth is up to me and your truth is up to you.

The reason people are drawn to this reality is because truth creates restrictions...

$1 the truth of this dollar bills value creates restrictions.

I can’t go tell the dealership that I believe this $1 is work $60,000 and should therefore buy me a Tahoe.

IT WILL NEVER WORK…BECAUSE TRUTH ISN’T RELATIVE.

This seems like bad news until you realize that what is a restriction in one sense is an opportunity in another.

You would be all for the dealership deciding this $1 was worth $60,000

but you would be pretty mad if your employer decided to employ the same logic.

I PUT IN 80 hours this week…and they had you a $1 and say we’ve decided this is actually worth several thousand.

THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH OF A DOLLAR BEING A DOLLAR IS A RESTRICTION IN ONE SENSE BUT AN OPPORTUNITY IN ANOTHER.

I want us to walk away from this message today knowing that the truth of God’s Word is more of an opportunity than a restriction.

I’m preaching about the concept: The Holy Spirit does not condone

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Opening Illustration: Thermostats

I am someone who invests in comfort.

We keep our thermostat on 68...

There are continually moments in which we are saying “I’m freezing...”

Because we don’t want to have the moment when we lay down to go to bed and say “I’m hot.”

We have smart thermostats in our home…so we can turn them down while we’re gone and turn them back up on our way back.

We always forget.

So we get home and it’s 80* in our house.

Not because the air conditioner is broken

The same thermostat that possesses the capacity to change the temperature simply reflects what the temperature is..

Without someone giving purpose and direction to the thermostat…it’s just a thermometer.

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The church has become to worldly

People tend to make incriminating statements that imply the belief that the church is a mirror of the world...

A primary complaint about the church at large is how worldly it has become.

But I want to submit to you that the church is not a reflection of the world…

The church was never intended to simply be a thermometer to the world around them but the church is a thermostat for the world.

Because this is the purpose of the church it will always be the power of the church.

As the church decreases in holiness…the world will increase in wickedness.

The wickedness of our culture will directly with the holiness of the church.

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The decline of the worlds view of marriage…mirrored the churches.

In the 1850’s the divorce rate was 0.3%

Our entire society held a biblical worldview and valued the teachings of scripture.

These rates doubled in the early 1900’s

They doubled again during WWII

They reached their peak in the early 80’s

Why would our nation continually devalue the concept of marriage in such a systematical way?

Because the church stopped valuing scripture in the way that it used to.

As the church lost it’s bearing on the word of God…We changed the temperature for the world.

The divorce rate of the world actually increased in perfect synchronization with the divorce rate in the church.

THE CHURCH IS A THERMOSTAT!

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A new flavor of cultural degradation

We have seen a further degradation societally in the last twenty years.

Transgenderism was the source of comedic movies in the early 2000’s

Now there are transgender individuals holding positions of power within the white house.

As recently as 2015 nearly every major christian denomination in the United States did not recognize same sex marriage as honorable in the eyes of God

Since that time there have been a number of mainline denominations that now ordain homosexual and transgender clergy.

With every concession of the church there is a further degradation in the world.

Percentages of increase in LGBTQ identification.

Traditionalists (before 1946) - 0.8%

1946-1964 - 2.6%

Generation X - 1965 - 1980 - 4.2%

Millennials - 1981 - 1996 - 10.5%

Gen Z - 1997 - 2013 - 20.0%

Gen Alpha - undetermined but estimated increase.

WE ARE A THERMOSTAT!

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There is still a standard

Last week we made a very important declaration that the Holy Spirit does not condemn us…we are the source of our condemnation.

But we must understand that

Just because HS does not condemn us based on our actions does not mean that he will affirm us in our error.

We will be judged according to the standards of God’s Word.

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We must call sin…sin

What do you mean by the Holy Spirit does not condone?

I mean that we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God.

If we want to entertain the presence and purpose of the Holy Spirit…we must adhere to the timeless truths that He has set in front of us.

So are you saying that homosexuality, transgenderism, etc are sins?

unequivocally …yes.

Homosexuality is sin and is not condoned by the Holy Spirit

Leviticus 18, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6, Jude 7.

Transgenderism is sin and is not condoned by the Holy Spirit

Genesis 1, Deuteronomy 22, 1 Corinthians 11.

Living together before marriage in a heterosexual relationship is sin and is not condoned by the Holy Spirit

1 Corinthians 5, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 7, (the cure is to have one’s own wife.)

Viewing pornography is sin and is not condoned by the Holy Spirit

Romans 1, Ephesians 4, 1 Thess 4, 2 Peter 2, 1 John 2,

Getting drunk is sin and is not condoned by the Holy Spirit

Luke 21, Romans 13, Galatians 5.

Not providing for your family as a man is a sin.

1 Timothy 5.

Gossiping amongst yourselves is a sin.

2 Corinthians 12, 1 Timothy 5.

Not submitting to authority is a sin.

1 John 2, John 14, 1 Peter 1.

All of these truths are not statements I make out of a sense of opinion…but rather they are declarative truths listed in God’s Word.

But because as a culture we have made truth relative…

we only accept truth when it is conducive to the agenda of our desires.

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Knowing the truth = walking in freedom.

Pastor, why are you being so blunt today…why don’t you try to put this pill in some peanut butter?

Scripture makes a direct correlation between bondage and living in partial truth.

John 8:31–32 NKJV

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Jesus did not make freedom something to be inherited based upon a level of action…It was based upon a level of belief.

When you come into a level of knowledge and submit yourself to a level of belief to something called absolute truth…YOU CAN BE FREE!

You cannot believe in absolute truth partially.

Part of the reason for an increase in counterfeit charisma is the fact that we have began surgically removing truths that are inconvenient.

Partial acceptance of truth has resulted in partial enactment of freedom.

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So what can we do?

There are three steps and a major action at the end.

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1. I must accept the truth for myself.

The Holy Spirit does not condone partial truth.

OUR TEXT: He leads into all truth.

If you want the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life you have to be willing to let him lead you into truth that is offensive.

Story of Three Rivers.

A part of the truth was that I got done wrong.

All the truth was that I had a bad attitude because of how I was treated.

To walk in an authentic relationship with the Holy Spirit, you must be willing to be offended.

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2. I must enact the truth in my life.

The first step is simply opening your heart up to the concept of possibly not being right 100% of the time.

But once you are confronted with the truth…you then have the choice as to whether you are going to walk it out or not.

How will you handle the Holy Spirit’s confrontation that you don’t spend enough time with your kids?

How will you handle the Holy Spirit’s confrontation that you watch Netflix too much?

How will you handle the Holy Spirit’s confrontation that you need to manage your money more wisely?

Becoming intimate with the Holy Spirit expands the spectrum of sin in your life.

The closer you get to Him the more he reveals to you..

The more he reveals to you the more responsibility you carry!

James 4:17 NKJV

Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

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3. I must instill the truth in my family

When we do not accept the truth of God’s Word not only do we stifle the movement of the Holy Spirit…but we also miss out on the purpose of this entire movement.

God never intended for my experience with Him to be about me.

He calls Abraham for the purpose of a nation of generations

He gives David a purpose that Solomon will enact

He bring Joseph to Egypt for the purpose of sustaining the next several hundred years after him.

God’s plans are generational

The danger with propagating a message wherein we imply that the Holy Spirit condones errant lifestyles is that we are passing that foundation on to our kids!

I am not commited to the truth of God’s Word for the sake of public opinion.

Preaching truth will most likely not grow our church.

but preaching and teaching the truth will protect my family!

Every week we have an opportunity to correct the issues of our society

We have dozens of kids right behind that wall every single week.

We can play a role in the cure of our cultural degradation.

I’m asking you to give me a quarter for the cure.

Would you serve in kids ministry at-least once a month for the next quarter?

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We must understand the fact that there are things that the Holy Spirit makes off limits.

Understanding there are restrictions is the only way to walk in freedom.