We Believe: The Holy Spirit

Good morning and welcome to CCC. It is wonderful to see each of you here with us this morning and a warm welcome to those watching on our website via our live stream.

Let’s Pray

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This morning we continue on with our We Believe sermon series with The Holy Spirit. I pray you have either learned and are beginning to lay a solid foundation on God’s Word through this series or God has strengthened or sured up your foundation based upon His Word through this series. As always I pray those who do not know God, who have yet to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior are lead to that decision through God’s Word.

The Holy Spirit. Francis Chan wrote a wonderful book on the Holy Spirit called The Forgotten God and that is true. So many times, especially among those who have and are growing up in the church the Holy Spirit gets forgotten. Some religions and churches don’t forget the Holy Spirit they misunderstand Him and misapply Him. Others are afraid to misunderstand or misapply the Holy Spirit so they shy away from Him.

The Holy Spirit is God. He is a gift from God to us, His children. He is the Comforter, the Counselor. He is our guide. He is the one who reveals God to us. He is our teacher as He teaches us scripture. The Holy Spirit should be everything to a Christian, yet many can’t give you any scripture about the Holy Spirit let alone adequately define who He is and what He does. I pray by the end of our time together this morning that you are not one of those Christians as I pray the scripture given to you today and the word God will speak through me touches your soul.

I. Who Is He?

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1. The Holy Spirit is a Person

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As I said in the introduction to this message the Holy Spirit is a person. We know that because scripture paints a very clear picture of who He is. He has characteristics and actions that point to Him as a person

He Speaks

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Acts 13:2

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“As they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

Very clearly here in this scripture God wants us to know that the Holy Spirit speaks to His people.

Many people confuse the Holy Spirit and His speaking with your conscience. If you are saved you don’t have a conscience you have the Holy Spirit speaking to you about right and wrong about which direction to turn.

John 16:13

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“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.”

Here is the awesome thing about the Holy Spirit speaking to you as a Christian. He doesn’t speak of his own but he speaks what He hears. What does He hear.....better question is who does He hear.....God. He speaks what He hears when God speaks. Pretty cool to think that God is speaking to the Holy Spirit about YOU!

He Testifies

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John 15:26

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“When the Counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me.”

The Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus. In fact without the Holy Spirit opening your eyes you would never have been able to know about or accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

How many times have you been reading scripture or listening to someone preach God’s Word or teach God’s Word and you just feel in your soul, your Spirit that it is good. What is being said is true and you have an overwhelming urge to apply it? That is the Holy Spirit testifying to you that what you are hearing is God’s Word and He is leading you to believe and apply it.

I John 5:6-8

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“Jesus Christ—he is the one who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and by blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and these three are in agreement.”

This is a wonderful section of scripture that we could spend quite a bit of time on in and of itself but that is for another time but here in these 3 verses we see the water the blood and the Spirit all testifying to Jesus

The water represents Jesus’ baptism where God was pleased and the Holy Spirit landed on Jesus as a dove.

The blood represents Jesus blood shed on the cross. His death once for all mankind

The Spirit testifies to you on the inside about what God is doing on the outside.

All three working together to testify about Jesus!

He grieves

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Ephesians 4:30

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“And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption.”

The Holy Spirit grieves. What makes Him grieve. Sin. Rejection. Denying Christ. Following your flesh instead of following Him. How you live matters. We see this again in

I Thessalonians 5:19

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“Don’t stifle the Spirit.”

Again how we live our lives can stifle the Holy Spirit. This is the Christian maturation process. Sanctification. The process of growing from an infant in Christ, salvation to being perfect, fully mature in Christ. Moving from milk to meat. The Holy Spirit is the one who drives you along in that process but you can stifle that by choosing to live a life of sin, or following your fleshly desires and wants and lusts.

The Spirit can be stifled in your life if you come to church on Sunday but live for you and the world Monday through Saturday.

The Spirit is stifled in your life when the secret place is not a priority. When you refuse to spend time in God’s Word and prayer. Notice I said refuse because you always have a choice.

The Spirit is stifled in your life when you refuse to fellowship and gather with the saints. Again a choice.

Melody, God made this very clear to me after you and I talked last night. For the rest of you let me give you some backstory

I just thought I was busy before school started. Wow. My schedule is insane. I have been trying to transition into this new season of my life and the problem is I have been trying to do it and I have been failing miserably.

I have been easily irritated, frustrated, angered, my emotions have been all over the place and even last night I blamed it on being tired.

As I was typing this message this morning and focusing on these scriptures God spoke through the Holy Spirit and said you have forgotten me.

I have been so busy I have not been in the secret place to seek God and develop my relationship with God for about 2 or 3 weeks. I spend time with Him searching for a message each and every week but not searching for Him.

As a result I was falling apart because the only good in me is Jesus

Mark 10:18

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““Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “No one is good except God alone.”

This is one of the scriptures that tell me the only thing good in me is God. If jesus says Why do you call me good....Jesus the Son of God I for sure have no good in me except Jesus, God with Us

I was falling apart trying to do it on my own. I was trying to be all things to all people and I was failing. Only Jesus can be all things to all people. I am but a man who lost His focus and therefore stifled the Holy Spirit’s power in my life. No more.

II. The Holy Spirit Is God

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Luke 1:35

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“The angel replied to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”

Look at how the angel explained to Mary what was about to happen to her. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Who is the Most High....God....who has the power of the Most High....that is right only God. The Holy Spirit is God

I Corinthians 2:10-11

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“Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”

I love this section of scripture. You may say pastor Josh you love all sections of scripture. You would be correct because I do love all scripture because all scripture is God breathed and I love God!!!!!

How much more do you need to hear to believe that the Holy Spirit is God.

Who knows your thoughts....just your thoughts....you do. I don’t. Your spouse doesn’t. Would be easier if they did, sometimes anyway. The Holy Spirit knows God’s thoughts because HE is God!

Here is one of the multitudes of cool things about this truth because the Holy Spirit is God and knows God’s thoughts He can teach us God’s thoughts

III. The Holy Spirit is given to all believers

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John 7:37-39

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“On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.”

When you accept Christ Jesus....the nanosecond you accept Him you receive the Holy Spirit. Not part of the Holy Spirit all of the Holy Spirit.

Don’t get caught up in man’s religion or false teachings about this. You can’t do anything to earn more Holy Spirit. When you accept Jesus as your Savior you receive the Holy Spirit!

Joel 2:28

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“After this I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions.”

God prophesied about the Holy Spirit being given, poured out to man after Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension.

Ephesians 1:13-14

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“In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.”

Sealed with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not only given to all believers it seals all believers. It is the down payment of your inheritance a picture of your future relationship with God when you get promoted to heaven and walk and talk with God face to face. Cool Stuff!

IV. What is His Role?

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1. He glorifies Jesus

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John 16:13-15

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“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything the Father has is mine. This is why I told you that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.”

The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus by speaking the truth to you. All truth comes from the Truth which is Jesus. The Holy Spirit is also called truth many times in scripture because He takes what is Jesus’ and what is Jesus He is Truth

Any truth that you know comes from the Holy Spirit

John 15:26

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“When the Counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me.”

He is the Counselor. How many times have you had a very uneasy spirit. I had that these past few weeks and failed to realize what I needed. What I needed was the counselor....the Holy Spirit to ease my spirit. To calm my emotions to give me the peace I needed inside the chaos of life.

Jesus is peace and the Counselor, the Holy Spirit guides you to that peace and glorifies Jesus in the process

2. He offers help and intercedes

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Romans 8:26-27

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“In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

I don’t know if you have ever been here before....I pray you have and will again. A place where you don’t have a clue what to pray....you need to pray but just can’t find words then you feel the Holy Spirit intercede for you....He begins to pray and you don’t know what He is praying but you can feel it. Cool stuff. The Holy Spirit intercedes when you don’t have the answer!

3. He Leads and Convicts

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Acts 16:6-7

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“They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia; they had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. When they came to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.”

The Holy Spirit leading them to where God wants them to be. I don’t know why I have, sometimes do, and I am sure will again in the future fight the Holy Spirit’s leading.

You know the feeling, banging your head against the closed door. You wanted something so bad you lost sight that God only gives you what is best, that thing may have been good but not best.

It may also have been a wolf in sheep’s clothing and God through the Holy Spirit is leading you away from it.

The Holy Spirit leads us every moment of every day.

He also convicts us

John 16:8

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“When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment:”

God speaks very clearly about the fact He disciplines those He loves. Part of that love and discipline is conviction.

How do you know what is sin....the Holy Spirit convicts you of it.

As you grow in Christ things that used to not be sins in your life may grow to become sin. Let me explain. I do not believe having a beer or a drink of alcohol is a sin however God made it very clear to me in my life it was a sin.

There was a time in my life, when I was chasing me and money and worldly things that I turned to alcohol for comfort, to drown the pain I felt, to numb the conviction through the Holy Spirit in my life.

God delivered me from that and made it clear to me that the path He called me to could not include alcohol because as I minister to people if I also drank alcohol that could lead them down a terrible path of addiction. I don’t drink because God made it clear to me that it is sin for me. The Holy Spirit is who convicted me of that and who taught me that. Praise God for His love and conviction through the Holy Spirit!

4. He Brings Rebirth

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John 3:5-6

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“Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior you are born of the Spirit. When you follow Jesus in baptism you are born of the water.

This is a rebirth, dying to the old you, the flesh, the sin and death of the world and being reborn into a child of God. A spiritual being. A new you!

6. He Reveals things to us

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I Corinthians 2:10-16

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“Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually. The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. For who has known the Lord’s mind, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

As I have said many times before today and many times today God teaches us, reveals His Truth to us through the Holy Spirit.

When you hear the Word preached or taught you are hearing the Holy Spirit if you are learning the things of God. Man can’t teach the Word of God. Man can’t understand the Word of God. It is the Holy Spirit that reveals those things to us

V. Why do you have the Holy Spirit?

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Acts 1:8

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“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.””

Power. God’s power. If you are a child of God. If you have truly accepted Jesus. You are saying to satan and the world that you are now their enemy and you need God’s power to survive. If you are a child of God you have the power of God inside of you allowing you to live from Him not the world!

Romans 14:17-19

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“for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever serves Christ in this way is acceptable to God and receives human approval. So then, let us pursue what promotes peace and what builds up one another.”

You are able to have a Spirit focused mindset and life. You see when you accept Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit He begins to teach you that the things of this world are not important. Chasing material things should have no power in your life. You shouldn’t be living for the temporary but the eternal

You live from God and do the things of God and live with an eternal focus and that only happens through the Holy Spirit!

VI. How do you know if you are filled with the Holy Spirit?

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Galatians 5:22-23

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“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.”

You see the fruit of the Spirit in your life. Notice I didn’t say your produce this fruit because you don’t HE does.

This is the fruit of the Spirit not the fruit of man. Also notice it is singular fruit not plural fruits. That is not a typo or misuse of grammar. These 9 things are one fruit. You should see all 9 of these things in your life if you are truly saved because the Holy Spirit lives inside of true Christians, the Holy Spirit is God so therefore He WILL produce this fruit.

If you don’t see this fruit in your life you better get to your knees, hit the altar and start praying to God to reveal why there is no fruit in your life.

VII. If you have the Holy Spirit how should you live?

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I want to close here. What does a Spirit filled life look like? What do you need to look for in your life to ensure you are truly saved? What should you look for in others lives to see if they are truly saved?

Galatians 5:16-18

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“I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

Walking by the Spirit. Now pastor what is that. That sounds like another one of those fancy Christian phrases that is thrown around but not understood

Walking by the Spirit means living a life of full surrender. Ignoring the loud, screaming voice of satan, and flesh, and sin, and death, and the world and truly listening for and following the still, small voice of God through the Holy Spirit.

We will all be tempted and will fall to the temptations of this world and our flesh and fail in this but we have a God who is so loving when we confess that He forgives and restores us to righteousness.

A Spirit filled Christian is far from perfect but is very quick to confess and let go of worldly things.

A Spirit filled Christian is eternally focused. They spread joy and peace and love. Their life is marked by the faith, hope and love we talked about last week.

A Spirit filled Christian says no to the world so they can say yes to the kingdom. You never have to search for the Spirit filled Christian because they are always here doing kingdom work.

A Spirit filled Christian sees each day as an opportunity to present the gospel to the lost around them. Sees each day as an opportunity to grow closer to the Christians around them in fellowship. Most importantly a Spirit filled Christian sees every moment as a moment to grow closer to God.

As this song plays ask God to show you your heart. The altar is open to respond in confession or praise whichever is appropriate.