8/1/2021 AM The Fire, the Wind, and the Dove
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Sermon in a Sentence: Like fire, wind, and the dove, the Holy Spirit will purge us of our sin, lead us into truth, bring us into unity, drive us into the harvest, and call us into a closer walk with God.
Sermon Purpose: That believers might be filled with the Spirit and understand the Spirit’s work in their lives.
Text: Luke 11:11-13
New Member
New Member
I. Membership
A. This morning we have the pleasure of receiving and welcoming a new member.
1. We are going to publicly welcome our newest member, Peggy Glass…
B. I have had opportunity to welcome many members over the 11 1/2 years that I have been pastor here.
1. Praise God!
C. I wish I could tell you all who have joined over the years are still here.
Obviously not — or we would have multiple every-chair-filled services
b. Unfortunately, some have quit attending church altogether.
c. Some decided to attend other churches.
d. Some have moved away.
e. Some died.
f. Church membership, like life in this fallen world, is full of ups and downs.
D.Even with all its seeming flaws, church membership is important to our spiritual growth in the same way that our natural family is important to our emotional and civic development.
1. Church membership is God’s design for the Christian life.
2. Anyone who would tell you they are a Christian but are NOT part of a local church whether formally or informally is NOT living out BIBLICAL Christianity.
E. Biblical Christians understand that God has placed them in the Body of Christ.
1. Whether or not you make the formal commitment of membership you recognize the truth of:
2. 1 Corinthians 12:18, 27 (NASB95) But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
F. Over the past several years I have repeatedly mentioned a 2009 book by Joseph Hellerman entitled: When the church was a family. In his book Hellerman says:
1. Spiritual formation occurs primarily in the context of community. (Repeat)
i. People who remain connected with their brothers and sisters in the local church almost invariably grow in self-understanding, and they mature in their ability to relate in healthy ways to God and to their fellow human beings.
2. Hellerman goes on to say:
i. Long-term interpersonal relationships are the crucible of genuine progress in the Christian life.
ii. People who stay … grow.
iii. People who leave do NOT grow.
3. All words to ponder and pray about!
G. This morning New Life Family Church has the privilege of welcoming and COVENENTING WITH Peggy Glass
1. 1 ADULT and 0 Junior member.
2. A woman who has elected to put down roots not only in Christ, but also in this local expression of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
H. Sister Peggy Glass, would come forward along with Elijah.
1. Please face the congregation.
2. Board, would you come and join Sister Peggy — standing behind her?
L. As New Life Family Church welcomes Peggy Glass, I want to remind us that we are not an orphanage but rather a Family.
1. Jesus said in John 14:18 (NIV) I will not leave you as orphans; …
M. In an orphanage:
1. Orphans are not related.
2. Their common bond is merely that they all reside at one location — the orphanage.
N. But, in A Family:
1. It’s NOT that way!
2. The family is BLOOD-related. The BLOOD of Jesus.
3. And here at New Life we don’t merely meet at a physical location, we are united by the blood of Jesus.
O. So it is our privilege to receive into the membership of this church family, __1__ Adult and 0 Junior members who have…
1. … made proper application and have been approved by the Official Board of the church and are now ready to receive the right hand of fellowship by this congregation.
P. Sister Peggy, as I mentioned in our New Member class a couple of months ago:
1. You as new members, and we as a church are going to remind each other of our responsibilities and privileges.
2. Our FAMILY COVENANT together.
Q. I will begin with our newest members:
1.Sister Peggy, I am going to read a statement and ask that if you agree with it that you say, “I do.”
R. Here goes:
Having been led by the Holy Spirit to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, and desiring fellowship with people of like precious faith, and now in the presence of God and this assembly you are entering into a covenantrelationship with these members of the Body of Christ.
T. So, do you promise that with the help of the Holy Spirit you will:
1. walk together with the other members of this church in Christian love?
2. work for the advancement of this church?
3. help it pursue holiness and a deeper knowledge of Jesus?
4. promote its prosperity and spirituality?
5. sustain its worship, doctrines and disciplines?
6. contribute regularly and cheerfully to the support of its ministries and activities?
7. If so answer: I do.
U. Do you promise to:
1. maintain your personal devotions?
2. seek the salvation of the lost?
3. avoid sin by avoiding the very appearance of evil?
4. seek that love which thinks no evil?
5. If so answer: I do.
V. Do you further promise to:
1. watch over the other members of this church in Christian love?
2. to remember each other in prayer?
3. to aid each other in distress and sickness
4. to be courteous and forgiving to one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you?
5. If so answer: I do.
W. Church, please stand. Do you promise to:
1. watch over Sister Peggy Glass in Christian love?
2. to remember her in prayer?
3. to aid her in distress and sickness?
4. to be courteous and forgiving to her even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you?
5. If so answer: I do.
X. We therefore, as the Church of Jesus Christ and members of His Body, now receive Peggy Glass into our fellowship and communion, recognizing that God has already added you to His Church. And we pray that the blessing of the Lord be upon you always.
1. Prayer with the Board.
2. ALL who are comfortable with doing so, please come and welcome Peggy with a handshake of fellowship !
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
The Gift of the Holy Spirit
READ TEXT: Luke 11:11-13
A. In our text Jesus tells us that we should not be afraid to allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives.
That, indeed, The Spirit is a gift from the Father.
So many today ARE afraid of the Holy Spirit.
B. But WE should not be, because Jesus tells us quite plainly
God is our heavenly Father.
I’m sorry if the word “Father” does not help you adequately understand who God is because your earthly father tainted that word.
A father...
Is the One who caused us to be born
Who cares for us
Who protects us
Who nurtures and teaches us
Who provides for us
Just because we grown into adulthood doesn’t mean our Father abandons us. NO!
He continues to help us with wisdom and knowledge
He continues to pour into our lives
That what fathers do!
2. So, we should NOT be afraid of any gifts the Father gives us because as our text tells us…
a. … God, our Father will not give to us something harmful to us (like a stone snake, or a scorpion).
b. … Our Father will only give us things that are beneficial to us (like bread, a fish, or an egg).
c. … He gives us the Holy Spirit — when we ask
He loves giving good things to His children — to His children who ASK
We receive a measure of the Holy Spirit when we repent of sins and ask Jesus to be Lord of our lives
But when we ask, when we desire, when we seek — Our Father will fill us with the Spirit without limit
A baptism in the Holy Spirit evidenced by speaking in a language we have not learned — in tongues
16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; 17 the Helper 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 remains with you and will be in you.
3. And then the Holy Spirit gives us more of Jesus, the Bread of Life, the One who gives life to the world.
12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them at the present time. 13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take from Mine and will disclose it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine; this is why I said that He takes from Mine and will disclose it to you.
The Fire, the Wind, and the Dove
3. When the gift of the Spirit floods our lives, He will reveal Himself in many ways, but I would like to focus on these three ways:
as fire,
as wind,
and as a dove.
I. THE HOLY SPIRIT COMES LIKE A DEVOURING FIRE.
I. THE HOLY SPIRIT COMES LIKE A DEVOURING FIRE.
A. For a few months we have talked about the Holy Spirit revealing Himself as fire.
B.Several times in Scripture the Holy Spirit is depicted as a fire or a flame.
1. We see this in John the Baptist’s prediction of Jesus baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire (the fire of the Spirit) (Lk 3:16).
2. We also see the flame of the Spirit at Pentecost (tongues of fire came upon the 120) (Ac 2:3).
B. Like fire, when the Holy Spirit comes, He changes us and we are no longer the same.
1. The Spirit convicts us of our sins (Jn 16:8-11).
a. Like He did with the crowd that came to find out what had happened to the 120 on the Day of Pentecost (Ac 2:37).
2. The Spirit leads us in the path of divine truth.
a. He is the Spirit of Truth (Jn 14:7; 15:26; 16:13).
b. He reveals to us that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life (Jn 14:6).
3. He burns away those things not of Christ — He, the Holy Spirit, refines us into the image of Jesus.
C. So, we pray for the fire of the Holy Spirit to burn away anything not of God.
The Worldview Magazine today speaks of missions in Europe.
How amazing that missions there looks like missions here.
The same things are needed.
We need the fire of the Holy Spirit to burn away selfishness.
On page 15 we are asked:
What will it take to reach Europe today? Losing ourselves and our own desires in the purposes of God — placing it all in His hands.
Worldview: So today in the West, losing yourself for the sake of the gospel is being willing to be counter-cultural in order to identify with Jesus. Instead of building our own kingdoms, creating security, pursuing success, or arranging our lives for our maximum comfort and pleasure, Jesus is calling this generation to follow Him into the unknown for the sake of His love for the nations.
3. The fire of Spirit will brings revival to us and the church.
As He perfects Christ in us.
The fire purifies us to BE a witness to the nations.
8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.”
II. THE HOLY SPIRIT MOVES LIKE AN IMPETUOUS WIND.
II. THE HOLY SPIRIT MOVES LIKE AN IMPETUOUS WIND.
A. After the fire of the Spirit purifies us, the WIND of the Spirit PROPELS us into the nations.
We don’t always know where the Spirit will lead.
Jesus said in:
8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”
On page 11 of worldview you read about the Wests who were almost 30 years in Spain — then they went to Portugal.
I like what they say: We left a successful ministry ...
That’s the way it can be as the wind of the Holy Spirit blows through our lives.
He may well lead us to places we never knew we would go.
B. The Spirit came as a powerful wind at Pentecost (Ac 2:2) and tore down barriers.
In the crowds that gathered to ask what had happened were Jews from many different nations.
Jews who had different cultures
Jews who spoke different languages.
The wind of the Spirit blew away all the barriers and made them one people in Christ.
c. Like a powerful wind, the Spirit destroys all human barriers that hinder us from becoming one body in Christ.
1. Every nation has its own prejudices, customs, and traditions that cause division.
2. For instance, the Jews believed that they had a monopoly on God, but the Spirit showed Peter and the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem that God is the God of all peoples and nations (Ac 10:1-46).
3. Only the Holy Spirit can unite all people and remove all of the ethnic barriers that separate them.
C. Like a wind, the Spirit will drive us into the harvest.
1. The Spirit sent out Barnabas and Saul (Ac 13:1-4).
2. The Spirit will empower us to spread the knowledge of Jesus throughout the world so that all men can be saved (Ac 1:8).
III. THE HOLY SPIRIT DESCENDS LIKE A GENTLE DOVE.
III. THE HOLY SPIRIT DESCENDS LIKE A GENTLE DOVE.
A. Finally, the Holy Spirit as a dove empowers us to be HUMBLE witnesses of the hope that within us.
Come tonight as we look at how Jesus is our living Hope.
As we lift up our hearts to Him in prayer.
B. When Jesus was baptized in water, the Spirit descended upon Him as a dove (Lk 3:22-23).
1. The dove is a gentle creature.
2. Jesus told us:
16 “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.
3. Jesus doesn’t send us out to make war on wolves.
He send us to win them into the Kingdom.
4. So may we be gentle as doves in winning the lost — may we be like Jesus who recieved the Holy Spirit as a dove from heaven.
C. Consider something else way the dove symbolizes.
For Noah the dove was a sign that the water had decreased on the surface of the earth, and that soon a new earth would appear, an earth washed from its sin and violence (Ge 8:8-12).
1. The Spirit’s coming on Jesus as a dove was a sign that Jesus was bringing the hope of a new world, a new Kingdom (Lk 3:22; Ro 5:4-5).
D. Still another thought about the dove of the Holy Spirit is that the Spirit will lead us in a gentle way.
He doesn’t scream and shout and hit us in the head with a brick — though I would guess that we would often like for Him to be more direct with us
Instead it seems that many times the Spirit will come to us as a soft whisper, directing us and drawing us close to God — gently leading us.
1. As He did with Elijah (1Kings 9:19).
2. As Jesus did with Peter (Jn 21:15-17).
Holy Spirit, Come On Us!
Holy Spirit, Come On Us!
This morning, let’s ask the Holy Spirit to come on us:
Like a fire to burn up anything that keeps us from looking like Jesus
Like a wind to propel us into the nations
Like a dove so that we can humbly, gently win the lost.
Receiving the Holy Spirit starts with repenting of our sins and asking Jesus to be the Lord, the ruler of our lives.
Have you done that?
If you have been born again, then let’s ask the Holy Spirit to give us:
His freedom
His peace
His healing
Let’s pray for the power of the Spirit to come into our lives
Sing: Where the Spirit of the Lord Is