THE HELPER

Tithe and Offering

It is time for us to give to God our tithe and offering. Giving to God brings glory and helps the local church advance the kingdom of God. As we give today, let’s give to God as a testament to our faith and love for God and His Son, Jesus Christ. Ushers, please pass around the offering plates as we collect our tithe and offering. . Please follow the instructions on the screen on how to give.

Welcome

We welcome everyone to our Sunday Worship Service. We are happy to have you with us today and we also welcome all who join us online. Please greet some folks around you and and welcome them to our worship service.

Announcement

Our church’s weekly WEDNESDAY NIGHT CONNECT BIBLE STUDY is the basis of our spiritual growth. We meet every Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. Please join us as we connect with God and each other through STUDYING THE WORD OF GOD.

Our weekly prayer time at the church is on Saturday at 8:00 a.m. And to all the men, our next Men’s Breakfast is Saturday, May 25th. That is the last Saturday of the month, and we will meet here at the church at 10:00 a.m. To all our leaders, our next leadership meeting is on Saturday, May 18th, at noon at the church. Today, all leaders, please stay after church so the church photographer can take your headshot photo. I think we have covered all the announcements for today.

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

LORD, You are holy and mighty, loving and forgiving. Help us see You for who You are by opening our eyes so that we may see the wondrous things from Your Word according to Psalm 119:18. Help us never confuse our ways with Your ways. I pray that You bless the tithe and the offering as we honor You with our giving. Help me to speak faithfully, and help us all to hear Your Word as it grows in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ to whom belongs the glory. Amen.

Declaration of Faith in God

Let us stand and say the Declaration of Faith in God together.

SERMON INTRODUCTION

Let’s start our message for today. One day, a man, along with other folks, was trapped in an elevator, and the immediate reaction of all the people was panic. They were afraid. They were trapped, stuck, and couldn’t get out. Some of the folks in the elevator were crying, “Help! Help! Help!” Other folks were banging on the door. Bam, bam, bam! No one was hearing all the noise for help, but the folks in the elevator didn’t care. Desperate people do desperate things, and they cry out loud for help. But there was one calm man in the elevator, and he went to the other side, pulled out a latch, picked up the telephone, and waited for a few minutes. Later on, a voice said, “Is there a problem?” “How can I help you?” The man responded and said we are trapped in the elevator between this floor and that floor. Can I get some help? And they responded and said, we will be right there. Everybody in the elevator forgot about the telephone, and they were so trapped that they forgot there was a phone link to the security department. All they had to do was to seek help by using the connection.

SERMON EXPOSITION

That leads us to the final name of the Holy Spirit as we conclude our sermon series today on the Names of the Holy Spirit. The name of the Holy Spirit I would like to discuss today is the “Helper.” The context of this message about the Holy Spirit, the most condensed discussion in the whole New Testament, comes a few hours before Jesus is on His way to be crucified in Jerusalem. So, Jesus gathers all His disciples (Twelve of them) into the upper room to give them final instructions and clarification on moving forward in His absence.

Please notice that, for three years, Jesus had personally and physically been with His disciples. In the good and bad times, stresses, and celebrations, they could always find Jesus in these three years of His public ministry. The disciples could feel and touch Jesus.

But now, Jesus is about to leave and wants to explain to His disciples how they will make it in His physical absence. What the disciples of Jesus were getting ready to face and deal with, you and I face all the time, is the physical absence of Jesus Christ.

If you are here today and you are a Christian, you know within your heart that Jesus is real. You know He has risen from the dead and is alive, but you also know you cannot see and touch Him, even though we know that Jesus is real and that He is the Son of God. In that context, as Jesus was about to leave after His death (crucifixion), resurrection, and ascension to heaven, He talked to the disciples about the Helper, the Holy Spirit.

First, I want to review (recapitulate) some salient (significant) points I have shared throughout this series about who the Holy Spirit is. The Holy Spirit is the third member of the Trinity. God is a triune being—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father has all the attributes of deity; the Son has all the attributes of deity and divine nature, and the Holy Spirit has all the attributes of deity. He is called the Holy Spirit because he is a nonmaterial being.

That is, he is not physical. The Holy Spirit is invisible, alright? So he is a spirit. But even though he is a spirit, whenever he is mentioned, he is mentioned personally. In John chapter 14, verse 16, Jesus prayed and said, “My Father will give you another Helper, that he may be with you.” Again, Jesus is speaking about the person of the Holy Spirit.

So, why am I telling you all this? This is foundational, and I want you to stay with me. The Holy Spirit is a person to be known, not just a force to be used. This is very important. The Holy Spirit is not a friendly ghost. He is a person, and He is called the Holy Ghost.

Far too many Christians today want the Holy Spirit’s power and presence, but they do not want to relate to and hang out with the Spirit’s person. When you pursue his power and presence but do not want to deal with his person, you miss who the Holy Spirit is. Jesus says in John chapter 14, “I am going to ask the Father, and he will give you another helper.” Jesus was speaking about the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus says, “I am leaving, but I will send you somebody like me.” I will send you a replacement on earth because I am leaving, going to heaven, a replacement on earth for Me, and this replacement will be the helper in my absence.” When Jesus ascended into heaven, Jesus is seated on the right-hand side of the Father. When the disciples were with Jesus on earth, they always had help. The disciples had help in their struggles, pain, fears, and failures, and help in the storms because Jesus was always there to help.

And then Jesus comes to verse 17 and throws a zinger when He talks about the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth. In John 14:17, Jesus said, “That is the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him or know him. But you know him because he abides with you and will be in you.” Jesus tells them two things about the Holy Spirit that you need to know if you are a Christian. It says, “He will abide with you and will be in you.” Again, in this verse, Jesus speaks about the Helper, the Holy Spirit with you, and will be in you.

Jesus said, “Even though I am leaving, I will not let you live without help. And the help I send you will be of the same nature as Me. He is the help of the same kind or help of the same essence.” So, this parakletos, this helper, has been prescribed by Jesus to replace Jesus in His physical absence with His followers.

Jesus said, I am going to come to you, but the way I am going to come to you is not physically; I am leaving and going to be with my Father; I am going to come to you by means of the Holy Spirit. Aha. Aha. Aha. Jesus said I will come to you by means of the Holy Spirit. That raises a question. How do you get to Jesus? Here it is: The Holy Spirit is how you get to Jesus because the Holy Spirit is of the same essence as Jesus to replace physical Jesus until physical Jesus comes back at His second coming. When you remove the Holy Spirit, guess what? You block your way of coming to Jesus.

The Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity, is connected to you as a Christian in two ways. He will be with you while simultaneously being in you. Let me explain what “being with you” means. Being with you means having a companion beside you. The Holy Spirit will walk with you, roll with you, drive with you, go to work with you, and hang out with you. He is going to abide; abide means to hang out.

Not only will he be alongside you, but he will also be inside of you. He is alongside you while at the same time being inside of you. So the Holy Spirit is walking with you and inside of you. So, this Holy Spirit makes sure that you are not a child without a parent. That is why, as a Christian, you must remind yourself that you are never by yourself. You will never be left alone. You have the Holy Spirit. Alright. Don’t miss that.

The job of the Holy Spirit is to bring what Jesus would bring if Jesus were here today with you on earth. The way Jesus is with you, the way Jesus is in you, is through the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Another use of the word parakletos is advocate or lawyer in a courtroom. A lawyer pleads your case. Another benefit of the Holy Spirit is to plead your case or come to your defense as a lawyer would do in a courtroom. Jesus says the Holy Spirit is your parakletos. The Holy Spirit is your lawyer and advocate. He is the one who comes alongside you. The Bible talks about him being your guide. He will guide you into all truth.

So, how do I experience the Holy Spirit rather than know who the Holy Spirit is? How do I connect with the Spirit so that Jesus' reality is being experienced by me since the job of the Spirit is to bring me the experience of the living and resurrected Jesus Christ in my life? Well, let me help you out. If you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit, and this is what you need to do. First, you must develop an intimate fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Don't just go for the Holy Spirit's power; Don’t go to church to only experience a little bit of the Holy Spirit on Sunday morning. That is not enough. Go for his person and for who he is. The Bible says, “The Holy Spirit will abide with you.”

Open your Bible to Galatians chapter 5, verse 16. Paul told the Galatian believers to “Walk by the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit does not work in a vacuum. The Holy Spirit uses the Word of God, prayer, worship, and the fellowship of believers to build us up in Christ Jesus. Let me share with you some secrets of the Holy Spirit. The believer who spends time daily in the Word of God and in prayer and submits to the Spirit’s work will enjoy freedom and help build up the church.

And as you move throughout life, walking has to do with the course of your life. What do you do when you walk? First of all, you are moving, you are going somewhere. Where do I need to be going if I want the Spirit of God to be activated in my life? You must be going to the will of God because that is where the Holy Spirit goes. So I want to walk in God's will, to please God, to do what is right to please God the Father, and then Jesus will be exalted and glorified. That is how believers are supposed to walk with the Holy Spirit.

The second thing that must be operational if you want to experience the work of the Holy Spirit is that you must not be ashamed to be identified with Jesus Christ. Look at John chapter 15, verse 26: “When the Helper comes, who I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father. He will testify about me.”

In John chapter 16, verse 14, Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit: “He will glorify me, for he will take of mine and disclose it to you.” The Holy Spirit will testify of Jesus and glorify Jesus. So, let's get this straight. If you are a Christian and you are not willing to testify about Jesus in public (in the open) or identify with Jesus Christ, you have restrained (stifled) the work of the Holy Spirit operating in your life.

It is not enough to be identified with God, to have the Holy Spirit, and to say, (yes, yes, yes) “I believe in God; I worship God on Sunday at my church." It is insufficient to activate the work of the Holy Spirit. Remember, the Holy Spirit replaces the Son of God. Jesus says, "The Spirit that I am going to send to you.”

We live in a world today where people are not ashamed to be identified with God because there is no conflict there. See, you can use the word God, and we don't know who you are talking about because that is very ambiguous. Because we have too many gods today. And so when you use the word “God,” I don’t know what God you are talking about.

The moment you are willing to be identified with Christ is your baptism. When you get baptized, you say, “I died with him, I rose with him, I am identified with Him.” This is about Christian identification. If you are not willing to be identified with Jesus Christ, you have now stifled the work of the Spirit because his goal is to testify of Jesus.

Paul’s words in Galatians 2:20 demonstrate the power of our faith in Christ Jesus. Paul declares, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

This profound statement illustrates the change that occurs when we identify with Christ. Far too many Christians today will identify with a political party or a belief system but refuse to identify with Jesus, the Son of the living God. We talked about our political party more than we talked about Jesus Christ. It is time for Christians, you and I, to go public and testify about our faith in Jesus Christ.

So unless Jesus comes through in your life, not God the Father, but Jesus the Son, then you have excluded (denied) the reason why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to testify of Him. So, in Matthew chapter 10, verses 32 and 33, Jesus says, “If you deny me before men, I will deny you before my Father. And if you acknowledge me before men, I will acknowledge you before my Father. But if you don't want people to know you are hooked up with me, don't bother talking to my Father because we have sent the Spirit, and he testifies of me.” So, if you are a Christian and ashamed of Christ, you will limit your experience of the Spirit's presence in your life.

1 John 4:1 to 6 talks about the anti-Christ, and the anti-Christ goal is to deny Christ. Satan wants you to deny Christ because he knows with that rejection, the power of the Spirit will dissipate, the presence of the Spirit will dissipate, and the authority of the Spirit will dissipate. It will all dissipate, not because the Spirit’s not there, but because you are working against what the Holy Spirit came to do. And that is to bring glory to the Son of God.

The third and final thing you must do to experience the Holy Spirit and for the Spirit to operate in your life is to hang out with him as a lifestyle. Jesus Christ must be glorified, announced, and accentuated in your life. You must also function consistently with the Word of God. Please notice in John chapter 14 verse 17: “That is the Spirit of truth.” And then, in verse 26, Jesus says, “The Holy Spirit will come, and when he comes, he is going to cause you to remember all things." And chapter John 15, verse 26, “When the helper comes, that is the Spirit of truth.”

Illustration

So, if you are lying, the holy Spirit can't help you. Or if you are not consistent with Scripture, with the Word of God, the Holy Spirit can't help you. Satan is a liar, and we are told that “Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus said I will send you the Spirit of truth, which means you must deal with me faithfully.

One of the reasons why far too many Christians today don't get through with their prayer is because they lie in their prayers. We don't come clean with God. We don't come clean before God. And so, we make it seem like everything is all right when we know it is not all right. We don't bring before God the truth about our attitudes, our actions, our relationships, our failures, our setbacks, as well as our successes. We camouflage (disguise) it with theological, religious, and Christianese language that even God doesn't want to listen to because we are not authentic (real); The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.

Conclusion

In closing, we must say what God says about ourselves, our world, our situation, and everything else. Don’t leave God’s Word out of your life. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth in your marriage, your singleness, and your circumstances, and you will only get his presence if you are hanging out with the truth that is consistent with what he says.

Now, he makes one other major point here. In chapter 16, verse 7, he says, “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. If I do not go away, the helper will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you.” He says, “It is to your advantage that I leave.”

You see, when Jesus was on earth, He limited the exercise of His deity to the location of His humanity. I am going to say that again. When Jesus was physically here on earth, He limited the exercise of His deity to the location of His humanity because Jesus poured His deity into the limitations of the human flesh. So Jesus was born as a baby and lived a physical life.

Faith Appeal and Call to Action

Now, Jesus did all that God asked Him to do (all that God's stuff, alright), but He did God's stuff where He was located at the time. According to the Bible, Jesus never traveled more than 300 miles from the place of His birth. So, Jesus’ location was limited during the three years of His preaching ministry.

So, you saw the limitation as you read the Bible in the expression of His deity. Jesus said, “I go away to your advantage.” He says, “It is to your advantage that I go away because the Spirit who is with you and who is in you can be everywhere at the same time.” And so today, if you take advantage of the helper, the Holy Spirit, you will find him sufficient no matter the need to come alongside you. And the Holy Spirit will be your parakletos. The Holy Spirit will be your helper, advocate, and lawyer. God bless you.

Altar Call

To experience the Holy Spirit we discussed in our sermon today, you must accept Jesus into your heart to be a part of the Kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit was given to the church and not the world. This means that the Holy Spirit works in and through the church and in the life of a believer. And there is only one way to be a part of God's Kingdom and to experience the Holy Spirit: to come to Jesus and accept Him as your sins bearer and your Lord and Savior. Come to Jesus by faith and ask Him to forgive your sins, and you will receive the gift of eternal life. It is free, and it would cost you nothing.

Will you come to Jesus right now, simply by act of faith and with a simple prayer, and say, Lord Jesus, I need a Savior because I am a sinner. And so today, I choose You to be that Savior and entrust my eternal destiny to You.

For those who are already Christians, I urge you to reaffirm your commitment to Jesus Christ. Today, I invite you to recommit to Jesus and make Him the center of your life again.

Let’s Pray.

Benediction

Heavenly Father, my prayer for us today is that we will consistently abide in Your presence so we can experience the power of the Holy Spirit. This week, may we seek You, and may Your Holy Spirit fill every empty space in our hearts, minds, and souls. We thank You and glorify You for Your Word and Your worship. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen.

Thank you so much for spending time with us. We will see you next week at 10:30 a.m. Until then, have a great week, and God bless you.