Holy Spirit Power

Intro

"I've got it under control."

"I can handle this on my own."

"Thanks, but I'd rather do it myself."

"I appreciate the offer, but I'll figure it out."

"I don't want to bother you with this."

"I'm fine, really."

"It's not a big deal, I can manage."

"I don't want to be a burden."

"I prefer to work through it by myself."

"I don't need any help, but thanks."

Anyone know what this is? Its a lockbox - and why do people use lockboxes? To protect the most important things they have - whether its birth certificates, cash, any number of things if there is a fire, tornado or other disaster that could potentially destroy whats inside.

Who wants a crack at opening up this box? The ground rules are - no hitting it, no throwing it on the ground, no extra tools - just your bare hands trying to pry the lid open.

At first, you might think, but I don’t need help! And you’re not alone in feeling that way. But the truth is that we need it and God sent us the Holy Spirit to transform us because no matter how hard we try, we can't create Christ-like character through our own power. We see this through the progressive Revelation of God all through the Bible - In the beginning, God with us, Jesus was God in flesh living Among Us, And now the Holy Spirit is God Within Us

John 14:16–17 ESV

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 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.

PRAY

Who Is the Holy Spirit

First we need to have a foundational understanding of who the Holy Spirit is. To be clear, the Holy Spirit is not an it, a force or an energy. The Holy Spirit is a person of God, who was in the beginning just like Jesus and God the Father. Looking back at John 14:16 it states the Father will give another Helper. This another could have two meanings based on the the original greek. An additional person of the same kind, or one that is different from the original. Within the context of who God is, being one God, we know that the reference here is an additional person of the same kind, or in short - the Holy Spirit is a person of God just like Jesus is a person of God.

There could be teachings upon teachings on this one aspect, but let me give you just one passage of scripture to support John 14:16. 1 Corinthians 2:10 states: For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him?

Just like you have thoughts that no one else knows you have - maybe its a crush, maybe you sped on the way home to make curfew (DO NOT DO THIS), or maybe you trusted a fart when you shouldn’t have the point is, only you know certain things about you. Similarly - what this verse is saying - only the Holy Spirit can know and search the depths of God because He is God.

Pastor Josh Wheatley says “The Holy Sprit is God, nor your conscience. The Holy Spirit guides you to God’s will, the Holy Spirit empowers us and gives us boldness to embrace His will.”

While brief, we now have a foundation that the Holy Spirit is God. But there is another characteristic of the Holy Spirit we can glean from John 14:16. The Holy Spirit is personal - not some distant person of God that we only come into contact with at Church. Jesus says, “You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” So not only can we encounter the Holy Spirit at church, or working out in the world away from our personal being, He is dwelling within us. The Holy Spirit IS God and the Holy Spirit IS personal.

Last week Josh talked about how we can trust the promises of God, and that is important tonight as we visit Jesus promising the Holy Spirit to his disciples.

The Promise

It doesn’t take many conversations with me about studying the bible before you will hear: Repetition Matters. When we see things repeated in scripture it is a clue or a heads up to pay special attention to what is being said. Sometimes, repetition is grouped together and it makes it fairly simple to notice, other times, its woven throughout the story of scripture and picking up on it is a little more nuanced. We see Jesus promise the Holy Spirit to His disciples multiples times in scripture, we are going to take a look at two of those instances. Incidentally - Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit or Helper 93 times in the New Testament. 93 times - so it is evident that there are important things to know about the Holy Spirit.

John 16:7–11 ESV

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

Remember that the disciples were thinking that Jesus was going to re-establish the Kingdom of Israel and that would be their salvation from the Roman Empire. Time and again, they missed the big picture. Hindsight may be 20/20 here, but look at how obvious Jesus amkes it. The Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin and rightesousness and judgment. I think sometimes we maybe confuse the word convict when we are studying the Bible - its no wonder cause there are technically a minimum of four definitions for the greek word -----. In this context, convict means to bring a person or people to the point of recognizing wrongdoing. the end of verse 11 shows that the world will even be convicted concerning judgment, because the rule of this world is judged. Through the transformational power of the Holy Spirit, guys, we know when we are doing something that dishonors God. Sometimes we know we are sinning and still do it anyway. But there is hope!

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Jesus is on the verge of ascending to Heaven, and this is what he tells the disciples. He once again promises not only God’s Holy Spirit, but that the person Holy Spirit that will give them power. Don’t get the word power twisted here - though it is easy to do. And if we look around the world of teaching and preaching today, honestly, look outside of Christianity too, we can see this word power being abused and misapplied for personal gain. Power here is the God given ability to fulfill the divine purpose God has placed on our life.

What do you mean Power?

How can this be? How can I access this power that is seemingly dormant when I am struggling with sin, defeat or loneliness? In my opinion, Paul writes one of the most beautiful descriptions of the Holy Spirit in Romans 8:26.

Romans 8:26 ESV

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

There are times in our life where we don’t know what to do, what God’s purpose in our life is, or we don’t understand why we are struggling. But the Holy Spirit does, and intercedes on our behalf! Even when we feel like we have lost the battle, the Holy Spirit is on the front lines fighting the war for us. This doesn’t absolve us from responsibility, but it should give us hope to lay down the guilt, the shame, the burdens that hold us back from embracing the help of the Holy Spirit.

But HOW?!?

John 16:13 ESV

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Jesus promised that the Spirit of Truth will guide us into all the truth. As we are studying the Bible, pray for wisdom, pray for understanding so the application of scripture can be realized. The more you do this, the more you grow in discipleship, and the more in tune to the Holy Spirit you will be. Sometimes the only difference between us and demons are the actions that we take - be engaged with your study, then let the truth reside in every decision that you make.

One of the most amazing aspects of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us is that He ministers to us in different ways.

1 Corinthians 12:7–9 ESV

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,

1 Corinthians 12:11 ESV

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

We each have been uniquely created and uniquely gifted to live out our Christian walk discipling others.

You may be saying to yourself - this all sounds too good to be true. On your best days you may see glimpses of the Holy Spirit working in your life, but in general you feel stuck in neutral, or worse, going in reverse. James provides us with a bit of insight to what could be going on, and how we are vulnerable to the attack of the enemy.

The Warning

James 4:4–6 ESV

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

Whoa - context clues should tell us enmity is bad, but what is the actual definition? Easton’s Bible Dictionary defines enmity as a deep-rooted hatred. But Jason - I don’t love the world, I just love certain parts of it. I think the logic holds that if you love parts of the the world, you hold a deep rooted hatred for parts of God. As Christians, we have the indwelling Holy Spirit, which we have already established as a person of God right? So can God have a deep-rooted hatred of God? Of course not, so when we are loving the “things“ of this world, are we listening to the Holy Spirit, our flesh or even worse a different spirit all together?

Remember the lock box? No one could open it with their bare hands. But what the world will do is attempt to convince you it has all the tools it can muster to unlock it. You just need a little more self esteem, you need a few more friends who encourage your bad habits, just a little more sin, just a little more rebellion, listen to this song or watch that movie and you will be strong enough to unlock the calling only the Holy Spirit can. Doesn’t this sound awfully familiar to the serpent when he was talking to Eve in Genesis?

But let’s face it, sometimes we like to play this game of Christianity, where we look like the world most of the week, but we look like the Kingdom on Wednesdays and Sundays. Pastor Marcus Rogers calls it having one foot in the world and one foot in the Kingdom. The only way we can take hold of this grace that overcomes the desire to sin is to keep both feet, rooted in the Kingdom.

This most certainly will not be the popular decision with everyone in your life. You will likely be called lame, a loser, or whatever the slang you guys use these days. In fact, we see on the day of Pentecost that those who had received the Holy Spirit were mocked.

Acts 2:13 NIV

Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

Their own Jewish bretheren doubted and mocked them.

So we started on a promising note of hope, then we got to the warning and just how dire things are if we have friendship with the world lets wrap up on a note of hope and application that will hopefully carry you to a place where you hear the Holy Spirit so clearly in your life that all the other distractions fade into the background.

The Surrender

Thankfully James does not waste any time on how to avoid this deep-rooted hatred of God.

James 4:7–10 (ESV)

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Wow - we do not have time to exegete this whole passage but we have some clear take aways.

1. Surrender to God. Whether you have been a Christian for as long as you remember, or you still have not made the decisions - Surrender to God today and everyday. Repentance is not just a one time thing at salvation - its an ongoing practice.

2. Resist the devil. The world will come knocking on your door with flashy gifts and distractions that are designed to steal your focus from the daily surrender to the Holy Spirit working in your life.

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 ESV

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

3. In all you do, glorify God. If ever you don’t Glorify God, start back at 1 and work your way back down the list. Surrender to God, Resist the devil and glorify God because you were bought with a price. The more we Surrender to God, the more we resist the devil and the more we glorify God, the more in tune we will be with the Holy Spirit and letting Him unlock (unlock the box) the calling that God has placed in our hearts,

As we have a few minutes to reflect on the Promise and Power of the Holy Spirit - examine yourself for areas of your life you need to surrender to God. Maybe its your life for the first time, or a sin you have held onto for 10 times. I implore you to be honest with yourself and follow step one. If you feel the Holy Spirit calling you to step out and share that you are surrendering, come forward, go to your small group leader, go to Josh - allow us to celebrate and encourage you in this moment, cause surrender is not easy.