My Heart Needs His Spirit
2 Corinthians: Matters of the Heart • Sermon • Submitted
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Intro:
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Tonight, we will continue our series through the book of have titled this series, [Matters of the Heart], and the subject of my message is, [My Heart Needs His Spirit].
When I lived in Salem, I went hunting with a good friend. We got up early, drove to the woods, got in the tree stand, and waited. After a few hours, he heard a noise and turned around there it was, the monster buck he wanted for the season.
He turned around, shot his gun, and the twelve point buck dropped. We were beyond excited. We hurried down the tree stand, walked the couple hundred yards to the buck, and there he was, the trophy deer my friend wanted for years.
We were so excited we tied our rope to it and started to drag. The adrenaline of the kill eclipsed the weight of the buck. I asked first, do we need to gut it and make it lighter?
My friend said, no, we’ll be okay, we are strong and its not that far. (only nearly a mile into the woods). We were not in a field, we were in the middle of government land. We walked up hill for a ways and downhill for a ways.
The longer we walked, the less excited I was, the heavier I started to breathe, and the more irritable I became. I asked again, are you SURE we shouldn’t gut this thing, it would make it alot lighter.
Nope, we have enough strength. The farther we pulled I noticed he began to get tired. I remembered, your uncle told us to come and get him if we got one, should we go get him and get his help.
My friends pride would not allow that, we had to press on and keep dragging. Finally, we stopped and rested. Both exhausted, we heard someone walking our way. It was his uncle.
He looked at us, and said, “boys, why don’t you gut this thing, it’d be a lot easier to move?” My friend looked at his uncle and answered, “hmm, that is a good idea, we should have done that a while back...”
Then we began to pull, his uncle said, this had to have been heavy, why didn’t you come get me, I told you I would help. My friend answered, “hmm, that is a good idea, we should have done that a while back...”
By this point I was biting my tongue, choosing not to say what was really on my mind. Later when I talked to my friend, I asked him, why didn’t we make the job easier and get help? He indicated, he wanted to to do it alone, he felt he was strong enough without help!
Too often, this describes the mindset of many people. Internally, they realize they need help, but they refuse to call out to God. They realize the journey is hard, yet they continue to walk alone.
The reason for this mindset: PRIDE. Pride keeps people from acknowledging they need help. Pride keeps people from praying. Pride keeps people from depending on the Holy Spirit.
Pride is a dangerous place because:
18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.
And I think we both fell at least once pulling that deer.
In his letter to the church in Corinth, Paul removes any pride and speaks honestly and openly with a church he dearly loved. Whereas false teachers pridefully tried to undermine Paul, Paul chose to be honest and open with them.
He did not put on airs, he was not pretentious, instead, he was open and honest. Last chapter we studied how Paul emphasized how he could triumph through Christ.
Knowing that some would accuse Paul of pride and arrogance, he explained that the driving force of all he did was the power of God through the Holy Spirit.
As I read chapter three, I said, “My Heart Needs His Spirit!” If we are going to make it in these last days, we have to lay down and sense of pride or self-sufficiency and depend totally on the power of God!
I want to look at three areas where the Holy Spirit works with us, [His Spirit and Reputation], [His Spirit and Redemption], and [His Spirit and Revelation].
Let’s begin
1. His Spirit and Reputation
1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? 2 You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
1
Protecting our reputation is important. If a Christian has a tarnished reputation, then their testimony is limited. One of the ways that the false teachers attempted to discredit Paul is by claiming he did not have a good reputation.
How could they make such a claim? In those days, when an evangelist, pastor, and Christian leader came to a new area, they would bring a letter of recommendation with them. This letter would vouch for them and their ministry.
When I moved to Salem, Pastor Davis wrote a letter of recommendation for me. He told me, I can help you get into some places to preach, but your ministry will determine if you get invited back.
This letter would vouch for them and thier ministry.
Thankfully, I went back to most of the places I preached, and even went back to pastor one of the churches where I held revivals!
The false teachers questioned Paul’s ministry because they had not seen his letter of recommendation. Paul’s answer? If you want proof that the Spirit is at work through me, look at the church in Corinth.
They were the living epistle. Through the ministry of Paul and his associates, the Spirit of the Living God wrote on the hearts of people, transforming them, and building His church in Corinth.
Paul’s point, people wanted letters written by men, Paul had a reputation of supernatural power, written by God.
4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Paul hearkens back to his oft mentioned discussion on the law. Under the law, Pride was revealed in the hearts of people. They often trusted in self to keep up appearances and do the right thing.
But the law kills. Meaning, it is incapable of bring life, instead it leads to death. When I read the law, I realize the righteousness of God and my inability to live up to His standards.
Under the law, my reputation was that of an unrighteous, unholy, person. But because of the Spirit, we have life! Ours should be a reputation of total dependance on the Lord!
We should cry out, My Heart Needs His Spirit, without His Spirit, our reputation will not be as successful as it could.
2. His Spirit and Redemption
2 Corinthians
7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. 11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.
Knowing the Holy Spirit helps our reputation, Paul discussed the moment when everything changed. To make his point, he used Moses as an example.
Moses was the one who recieved the Law from God. God spoke to him, placed the law on tablets of stone. After forty days on the mountaintop, Moses walked down with the law in hand.
29 Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.
His face shined with the glory of God. The Lord told Moses He would not go with Israel anymore. They had sinned too much. Moses pleaded with the Lord and the Lord relented.
Moses asked to see the Glory of God and God hid him in the cleft of the rock. I love this story, but think of the context. He encountered the glory of God as he recieved the law.
The same law that brings death. Paul’s point? If receiving the law enabled Moses to experience the glory of God, how much more glorious will it be when we experience grace?
The law brings condemnation, but the Spirit brings life! No wonder Paul told the church in Rome:
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
When we were under the law of sin, the glory of God was present. But when entered grace, God’s glory increased. How did we enter grace?
Through our redemption. When we accepted Christ everything changed. If our hearts could make it on our own, the Law would have worked. But the Holy Spirit showed us there is a better way.
2 Corinthians
12 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech—13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
Now we can be bold in our testimony and in our witness! Moses had to put a veil over his face so that the children could not see God’s glory.
Because of their sins, an unfiltered encounter with God through the Holy Spirit would have consumed them. Their sin blinded them. But when Jesus came, the veil was torn, the glory was released, now we have been redeemed!
We must NEVER get to the point where we think we can make it without God’s help. His Spirit was pivotal at our redemption, now in all we say and in all we do, we need His Spirit.
Should we come to the point where we realize I need the Holy Spirit’s help with my reputation, redemption, then God will show us...
3. His Spirit and Revelation
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
I absolutely love verses 17-18. I am sure you all know this, but I love to preach about the Holy Spirit. I love to pray people through to the Holy Spirit baptism. I love to pray in the Holy Spirit.
Throughout my Christian experience, I have been fortunate to have recieved revelation from God. Because we are filled with His Spirit, we have liberty and freedom.
Paul understood the importance of freedom. I can almost imagine Paul looking back as he wrote these words. He remembered being blind to the truth. His eyes were covered by a veil. He was against the Christians, solely committed to strict adherence to the law.
Then one day Jesus pulled back the veil. He opened the sky, Paul’s physical sight was blinded, but his spiritual eyes were opened. For three days he could not see. He was led to the home of Ananias who prayed for him.
When he prayed for him, he was filled with the Holy Spirit and the veil was removed, scales fell from his eyes, and he began a new life with FREEDOM and LIBERTY in the Spirit!
Paul turned from past to present. He understood, Christians cannot get stuck on one experience. He explained God has so much more for us.
He wants to give us revelation. He wants to show Himself real and powerful to us! How does this happen? Now that the veil is removed, when we encounter His glory, we are transformed.
But notice his phrase, transformed from GLORY TO GLORY. When we encounter God through the Holy Spirit, He will give us revelaiton and transform us.
By the time Paul wrote this, he had recieved many revelations from the Lord. God spoke to Him. God gave him dreams and visions. God made the secrets of heaven known to him.
Why? Because within his heart, he cried, My heart needs His Spirit.
Close:
While people attempted to tarnish Paul’s reputation, Paul understood the Spirit’s work in him was all the reputation he needed.
He remembered how everything changed when he was redeemed from the curse of the law. So he wanted to show people by example, when we pray and seek the Lord, He will send His glory and transform us!
Since I first started preaching, I have had one desire: to be a vessel of the Holy Spirit. I want God to move through me, to speak through me, and to use me to see people encounter Jesus through the Holy Spirit.
When I was home last week, I got to spend about three hours with Pastor Tucker. Before I left, I asked to pray for him. Betty handed me a bottle of oil and I anointed my pastor.
As I prayed I thanked God for Pastor Tucker. I told the Lord how grateful I am for my Pentecostal heritage. I had a pastor who modeled and taught me to depend on the Holy Spirit. To never trade talent for anointing.
I told Bekah, it is an odd sensation, as I get a “Little” bit older, I see things changing. Now I am a pastor who prayed for my pastor. No longer am I in the pew hearing my pastor encourage me to depend on the Holy Spirit.
I am the pastor in the pulpit encouraging the people God called me to lead to depend on the Holy Spirit.
And I have decided, as long as God lets me pastor, as long as God gives me breath in my body, I want to mobilize His church to cry from the depths of their spirit, MY HEART NEEDS HIS SPIRIT!
I want the kids of our church to be raised in a Pentecostal Church.
I want the families of our church to know they have a Pentecostal pastor.
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and I want our church to experience a Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
If we are going to make it as a church and as individual Christians, we HAVE to have HIs Spirit.
We need the reputation of being Spirit-filled. We need always remember the Spirit’s work in our redemption. And we need to cry out to God, Lord give me revelation.
Transform me and make me more like you. My Heart needs His Spirit!