Guiding light W3

so here is the recap of the last two weeks.

Week 1- The Holy Spirit is personal, powerful and is God.

Week 2- The Holy Spirt shows us truth and testifies about Jesus.

So with that in mind, here is the main point for tonight:

Main Point: The Holy Spirit deepens our understanding of what pleases God so that we can walk in wisdom in our path to become like Christ.

One of the things I realized that while I want, as your pastor, to teach you everything that I know about God, I want you to understand Him as I do, I physically cannot. We simply don’t spend enough time together and I do not have the bandwidth to give you every insight I have learned about God, but that is ok, because that is the role of the Spirit of God. I trust that He is working in your lives, like He is working in mine. I know he will revealed things about God’s character that will be you anchor for many years to come.

I remember learning that God’s character is to be good. I understand and believe that. So even when I see and hear things that do not make sense, I know the truth that God is good, so i’ve been able to reconcile a lot of questions I had, because the Sprit of God has deepen my understanding of God.

It is cool because Paul prayed this over the church in Colossae. In Colossians 1:9 he said “we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.”

Norman L. Geisler wrote this: Paul’s primary petition was that God would fill them with the knowledge of His will. Paul used two key words, “fill” and “knowledge.” The first suggests a filling out to completeness, and the latter suggests a full, deep understanding. Such knowledge of God’s will does not come from a fleshly mind, but from the Holy Spirit who enlightens a believer’s inner person.-

Illustration: Small cup versus big cup.

Student, I pray that you will not only know that God loves you, I pray that you not only know that God has a plan for you. I pray that you will begin to expand your knowledge of God’s love and plans for your life. You were created to do more than just get a good job and live an average kind of life.

God has a plan and a calling upon each of you. And we need the Holy Spirit to deepen our understanding of God, so that we can follow His plan.

Today I want to go over John 16:4-15 again. We covered this passage in the last two weeks but I want to re-iterate some of the truth found in this passage.

Can I get a volunteer to read this passage:

John 16:7–15 ESV

7 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. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 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. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

The Holy Spirit is a helper, but you need to ask what does the Holy Spirit help us with. This passage offers two principles that show us how the Holy Spirt helps us:

Principle #1: The Holy Spirit convicts us to change.

John 16:8 “8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:”

Now this is not a popular topic. The more that I hear people object against Christianity, it usually goes back to their convictions and desires. While I agree that the church may have done a poor job in sharing the truth in love, God still wants us to repent. Which means, our desires and plans do not always align with God. So how do we know that? The Holy Spirit is here to convict us, not guilt us.

Conviction and guilt are different things.

Conviction come for the Holy Spirit, guilt comes from Satan.

Conviction drives us to God, guilt drives us away from God.

Conviction results in hope, guilt result in isolation.

Conviction demands repentance, guilt demands silence.

Even when we don’t have guilt, we need to ask God for conviction.

I often hear students seeking to find happiness, but I’ll tell you that happiness and even better, fulfillment is found at the feet of Jesus.

This is very important, because sin is destructive. Sin has a track record for its hypocrisy. Sin promises good but always delivers brokenness.

Can I ask you, is there a sin in your life that the Holy Spirit is trying to convict you, yet you keep ignoring?

Could it be that the Holy Spirit actually wants you to be free, happy, fulfilled and more but we are still holding on to petty sin that over promises and under delivers?

Let’s go to principle #2 because the Holy Spirit is not here to guilt you into following Christ:

Principle #2: The Holy Spirit encourages us to grow.

John 16:12-13 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 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.”

You see Jesus proved that He was wort following. Jesus loved his disciples well but He also challenged them to grow. I believe the Spirit of God does the same for us. The Spirit of God will not only convict us of our sin, but He also encourage us, love us, and help us.

You probably know the fruit of the Spirt from VBS, Galatians 5:22-23 “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

I do not know if you caught those, but all of those are very positive attributes. God does not want you to be a bitter, angry and reckless Christian. He has given us the Spirit to encourage us to grow in our love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

I hope you have heard me say this but my goal is to teach you and show you that “Following Jesus is the best decision that you can ever make, because it brings fulfillment.”

Yes I am really tying to drive this point home. Because I don’t want you to have to go through a bunch of pain before realizing how much God cares for you and how much the Holy Spirit wants to guide you to the feet of Jesus.

John 16:14“14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

The Holy Spirit wants to deepens your understanding of what pleases God, by convicting and encouraging you, so that we can walk in wisdom in our path to become like Christ.

The reality is that salvation is a step that only required the confession of Jesus as savior and a repented heart, since it is not what you do but what Jesus did that saves you, however, there is a journey of sanctification that starts from there. We are justified immediately when we accept Christ but then..

The Spirit of God wants to help us and guide us because while we are saved by grace alone (Eph. 2:8-9)

What you do matters. Your actions have consequences, that’s why we need wisdom.

So I want to give you some practical thoughts as you allow the Spirit of God to convict you and encourage you this week:

o ASK THE SPIRIT FOR WISDOM. Ask God this week to convict you and encourage through the Holy Spirit.

o PAUSE. When you have a decision to make, wait ten extra minutes than you normally would for before you take action. Ask for the ability to know the difference between an impulse, an emotional reaction, and wisdom — and then wait for God's Spirit to respond.

o GET WISE MENTORS. Who around you seems wise? Who has a connection with God and could become a guiding light for you? Who are some people with different backgrounds who can share wisdom from different perspectives? Ask them a lot of questions, and listen every chance you get!

o PRACTICE REPENTANCE. You won't get it right every time, but when you're in a situation you've never been in before, remember it's an opportunity to practice wisdom. The more opportunities you have to practice, the more familiar you'll get with hearing the Spirit's voice.

Main Point: The Holy Spirit deepens our understanding of what pleases God so that we can walk in wisdom in our path to become like Christ.

Would you ask the Spirit of God to deepen you understanding of what pleases God? Would you ask him to convict you and encourage you this week as you seek to become like Christ?