LFAC 1 - Portraits of a Change

In the 1730 the 13 colonies had an estimated population of just under 700,000 people. To put that in perspective, Houston has over 2 Million people in just this one city. During the 1730 in the colonies many people were troubled and bothered by the growing decadence, immorality and wickedness that spreading amongst the colonies. One writer said this:

Portrait 2 - The tabernacle

Description of MessageThe picture is not complete unless the Holy Spirit develops it.

Portrait 3 - The kingship

Alcoholism was at an all-time high, capital punishment was used routinely for trivial crimes, slavery was practiced throughout the British Empire, the churches were out of touch. - “Patterns of Spiritual Renewal,” Christian History Magazine-Issue 23: Spiritual Awakenings in North America (Worcester, PA: Christian History Institute, 1989).

Another said

Portrait 4 - The restoration

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Rev. Samuel Torrey of Weymouth lamented:

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… there hath been a vital Decay, a Decay upon the very Vitals of Religion, by a deep Declension in the Life, & Power of it; that there is already a great Death upon Religion, little more left than a name to live; that the things which remain are ready to die; and that we are in great Danger of dying together with it.… - “A Dawning in the New World,” Christian History Magazine-Issue 23: Spiritual Awakenings in North America (Worcester, PA: Christian History Institute, 1989).

Another Pastor from this period said: great laxity of manners prevailed throughout his charge, … that while horseracing, gambling, dissipation, and rudeness of various kinds were common, the congregation was attended at convenience, and religion consisted of the mere formal pursuit of the routine of duty. - “A Dawning in the New World,” Christian History Magazine-Issue 23: Spiritual Awakenings in North America (Worcester, PA: Christian History Institute, 1989).

What was the response to this spiritual decay and apathy? In the colonies, men and women began to pray for a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit. They began to cry out to God not for more prosperity but for more of God’s presence. They began to hunger for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This was the testimony of what happened next.

This Work of God, as … the Number of true Saints multiplied, soon made a glorious Alteration in the Town; so that in the spring and summer following, Anno 1735, the Town seemed to be full of the Presence of God; it was never so full of Love, nor of Joy, and yet so full of distress, as it was then. There were remarkable Tokens of God’s Presence in almost every House. It was a time of Joy in families on account of Salvation being brought unto them.…. “God’s Wonderful Working,” Christian History Magazine-Issue 23: Spiritual Awakenings in North America (Worcester, PA: Christian History Institute, 1989).

I am excited about this new series of messages called Living for a Change. We are going to grab hold of one of the least talked about but most important topics of all of the Scriptures: The Holy Spirit

Ha-Foke-Ba

De-Cola-Ba

Ha-Foke-Ba

Mashiach-Ba

Turn-it and turn-it, everything you need is in it. Turn-it and turn-it the Messiah is in it.

On Screen: , (TLV)

7But 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.

12“I still have much more to tell you, but you cannot handle it just now. 13But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; but whatever He hears, He will tell you. And He will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify Me, because He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you. 15Everything that the Father has is Mine. For this reason I said the Ruach will take from what is Mine and declare it to you.”

Sermon Introduction

1. We can not attain our God ordained destiny apart from the Holy Spirit.

2. We need the Holy Spirit operating upon the motivational core of our being and manifesting His gifts through us in order to have a life worth living. There is a kind of life that we can obtain by birth, education, talents, wealth and influences and as good as this life can get it is not as good as it can be.

a. Talents can take you far in life but they never give you results the Holy Spirit can.

b. Education can take you far in life but they never give you results the Holy Spirit can.

c. Money can take you far in life but they never give you results the Holy Spirit can.

d. Psychology can take you far in life but they never give you results the Holy Spirit can.

e. Religion can take you far in life but they never give you results the Holy Spirit can.

f. Heredity can take you far in life but they never give you results the Holy Spirit can.

3. At some point, what we can do naturally is not enough. We need the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. In the Talmud, this is recorded rulings and teachings of the Rabbis, there is a great section where the Rabbis ask “who recited the Hallel psalms of ?”

a. Every generation faced a battle beyond their ability.

b. Each generation sang “not unto us, not unto us”

c. In every generation that recognizes the limits of their talents, education, money, power and even religion the Holy Spirit responded with , “For my own sake I will do it.”

4. There is a kind of living that we can do that can take us only so far.

a. It can great temporary successes financially, relationally, morally and even societally but ultimately it is a life that is fleeting, like a vapor, like a breath that is here today and gone tomorrow. Because of sin’s influence and Satan’s work in this world it seems like this is the only kind of life that is available.

b. If you want to start living for a change you need the Holy Spirit. We can not attain our God ordained destiny apart from the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, operating upon the motivational core of our being and manifesting His gifts through us.

5. Today is kind of an introduction to this series so I think it is important that we firmly establish the important role of the Holy Spirit in the TaNaK. Today we are going to look at some Portraits for a Change.

What He Can Do

1. The Power to do what God requires resides in the Holy Spirit

A. His Unlimited Power perfects formless Creation: ; ;

Genesis 1:2 TLV

Now the earth was chaos and waste, darkness was on the surface of the deep, and the Ruach Elohim was hovering upon the surface of the water.

i. I know that from one quote of Yeshua has come a multitude of messages about the gentile blowing Holy Spirit. Yes, he can be gentile but the term ruach when used to speak of the Holy Spirit conveys the idea of a being with unlimited power.

ii. ;

Micah 3:8 TLV

Nevertheless I myself am filled with power— with the Ruach Adonai— with judgment, and with might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin.

iii. “The emphasis is on his overwhelming energy; indeed one might almost speak about the awe-fearing power of God when speaking of the ruach. – The Holy Spirit, Sinclair Fergeuson, p. 17

iv. He created the hosts of heaven ()

Psalm 33:6 TLV

By Adonai’s word were the heavens made, and all their host by the breath of His mouth.

1. The sun's rays can reach 4.5 billion light years. Pluto is only three light hours from the sun.

2. Solar flares are explosions produced by twisted magnetic fields in the sun's atmosphere. They produce the energy equivalent of about 1 million megatons of TNT.

3. The sun is 5,770 degree Kelvin or about 10,000 degrees F at the surface, but it has temperatures of tens of millions of degrees in its core where hydrogen is being converted into helium.

4. Every second the same amount of energy those large power plants would put out every yea about 5,000 megawats---that's over two billion megawatts a second!

5. Our sun is a relatively small star compared to the great giants in our universe that He also formed.

B. He Unlimited Power takes People beyond their natural abilities.

i. Statesmanship of Daniel and Jospeh – led to Kings respecting the God of Israel

ii. Leadership of Moses & Joshua & Judges – led to the founding of a nation in a land.

iii. Craftsmanship of Bezalel and Oholiab, of David and Solomoon to make the Tabernacle and Temple to see the Beauty and Spledour of the God of Israel

Psalm 96:5–10 TLV

For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but Adonai made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are in His Sanctuary. Ascribe to Adonai, O families of peoples. Ascribe to Adonai glory and strength. Ascribe to Adonai the glory of His Name. Bring an offering and come into His courts. Bow down to Adonai in holy splendor. Tremble before Him, all the earth. Say among the nations: “Adonai reigns!” The world is firmly established— it will not move. He will judge the peoples with fairness.

C. His Unlimited Power Takes a weak nation to great heights

i. It was the Ruach that gave the People rest

Isaiah 63:12–15 TLV

Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses? Who divided the waters before them— to make Himself a Name forever? Who led them through the depths? Like a horse in the desert, they did not stumble. Like cattle that go down into a valley, the Ruach Adonai gave them rest. So You led Your people, to make Yourself a glorious Name. Look down from heaven and see from Your holy, glorious, lofty abode. Where are Your zeal and mighty deeds? Are the yearnings of Your heart, Your compassions, withheld from me?

and will give us rest again

ii. It was the Spirit that gave the King his ability to rule .

D. His Unlimited Power Rested on the Greatest Son of David – ;

2. Illustration: One of the greatest moments as a dad of a young son is playing Baseball.

A. I love the sport and I love the kind of teamwork and sportsmanship that baseball requires. Now could you imagine taking a boy who has never played baseball out in the backyard and giving him a bat and a glove and saying, “Swing! Swing!” It is good correct but unhelpful because he does not what it even means to swing. Or what he is to swing at. He needs his dad or mom or a coach to show him how to hold a bat, when to swing, where to swing…A lot of times with my son I have to “wrap myself around him” to help discover the right swing, and grip on the bat.

B. The Holy Spirit does even more than that for us. He alone has the power to do what God requires.

What He Will Purge

1. He Will Purge us of Sin:

A. The Holy Spirit antagonizes sin and restores Shalom:

i. His calling is to annihilates sin wherever it shows up, and despite its opposition to cause the elect children of God and the entire creation to reach their God ordained end.

ii. In this series, I want to define sin for us this way: Sin is anything that unwinds the shalom state of affairs that the Holy Spirit creates according to the will of God. God hates sin not just because it violates his law but, more substantively, because it violates God’s shalom, because it breaks the peace, because it interferes with the way things are supposed to be.

iii. In fact, we may safely describe sin as any spoiling of God’s shalom, whether physically (e.g., by disease), morally, spiritually, or otherwise. - Plantinga Jr., Cornelius (2010-05-13). Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin (p. 14). Eerdmans Publishing Co - A. Kindle Edition.

B. The Holy Spirit restores shalom

2. Illustration: During the Great Awakening, when the Spirit of God revived much of our nation’s early faith, Jonathan Edwards was presiding over a massive prayer meeting.

A. Eight hundred men prayed with him. Into that meeting a woman sent a message asking the men to pray for her husband. The note described a man who in spiritual pride had become unloving, prideful, and difficult. Edwards read the message in private and then, thinking that perhaps the man described was present, the great preacher made a bold request. Edwards first read the note to the eight hundred men. Then he asked if the man who had been described would raise his hand, so that the whole assembly could pray for him.

B. Three hundred men raised their hands. Each had been convicted by the Spirit of their sin, and now they longed to confess. A repentant life is so characterized. Rather than hiding sin, or minimizing it, or blaming others, the repentant heart longs to confess.

What He Regenerates -

1. The Holy Spirit puts in man what by nature, talent, education he cannot achieve. Sin does not merely remove you from God’s shalom, into which the Spirit fights to bring you back, but the Holy Spirit effects a radical re-structuring in man as man, creating a difference between him and the unregenerate so great that finally it leads to live a life directly opposite of sin and towards shalom.

2. Illustration: Lawrence Selensky had big beautiful black berries and all I had was thorns.

a. And so it is here. The new, ingrafted life may lie dormant for a season, like a grain of wheat in the earth; but when it begins to work it will be according to the nature of the new life.

b. Hence regeneration implants the life-germ of the new man, whom it contains in all his completeness, and from which it will proceed as surely as the wheat contained in the seed proceeds from it.

Application

1. I want to ask you to do one thing to start living for a change on the basis of what you have heard today. You need to break free from a belief that your talents, your education, your money, your power, your heritage can get you to God’s ordained destiny for your life.

a. We have seen today that

i. The Holy Spirit has the power to do what God requires.

ii. The Holy Spirit attacks any thing that tries to unwind God’s shalom.

iii. The Holy Spirit puts in man what by heredity, nature, talent, education, etc. he cannot achieve.

b. There is a life you can live that will take you so far and from the outside looking in it might appear to be the dream life: house(s), car(s), money in the bank, etc. But there is another kind of living that can take place where yes you have a car, money in the bank, etc. but you are being driven along by the Holy Spirit’s power and not your own talents.