Big Trouble Ahead - Know the Right People [Person of the Holy Spirit]

[Music] it's good to be with you again our topic today is know the right people i bet you've heard the line it's not what you know but who you know and there's context i understand that's an important thing well i want to see if we can reduce this notion of our faith to its simplest common denominator you know when i don't know what i'm talking about i use bigger words and so i don't think our faith has to be complex in its simplest form the goal of my faith is to be jesus friend when my days are spent and my strength is gone and i'm about done under the sun i want to have lived my life as a friend of jesus not overly casual i don't want to presume upon it i want to know what brings him joy and i want to know what brings him frustration and i want to spend my life bringing joy to my friend if you'll adopt that little paradigm it will bring a lot of clarity to the clutter that often fills our theology and our bible discussions practice being jesus friend grab your bible get a notepad most of all open your heart let's see what god has for us today i'm excited about our topic we've been working on this general theme about big trouble ahead and it's really a play on a biblical word the biblical world is tribulation tribulation in the bible is a big trouble and it's in front of us now we can quibble about the timeline on that and we can even debate a little bit about the degree to which it will influence christians but if you're building your whole future planning on you're not going to have any trouble i think that's a very difficult message to cling to if you had to talk to the christians in iran today or the christians in china today or the christians in many many places in the world today it's it's almost a uniquely american idea and i'm not looking for any more trouble than i need to have you know if i can sign up for minimal trouble put my name on the list on the other hand i want to be prepared and so we've been taking some sessions to work on this and in light of that reality because i believe biblically it's a reality i would suggest one of the important components of flourishing is knowing the right people now you didn't need to get dressed up and come to church for that little nugget of wisdom if you are physically sick it helps if you know a good doctor and if you need a root canal it helps if you know somebody that's qualified to do that and not just a veterinarian amen is the word you're searching for and typically oftentimes we say rather derisively it's not what you know but who you know and we mean that in kind of a disparaging way as if people are getting unique opportunities by who they know but the reality is if you know people with ability and capability that can address the circumstances you're facing it's a tremendous advantage and in the trouble that is coming towards us you need to know the people that can secure your future because if you link your trust to those who will not stand and who cannot stand and who cannot provide assistance if you're trusting systems that will fail under stress you are making yourselves vulnerable needlessly so that's our topic in this session i want to start in john chapter 20 in verse 19. it's resurrection day memorable day in the history of humanity one of the most triumphant days that we know of it's a day we will celebrate all of our existence both in time and eternity on the first day first evening of that first day of the week when the disciples were together with the doors locked because they're afraid of the jews jesus came and stood among them can you get any imagination of the emotion in that room last time they saw him he was on a cross and some saw him being prepared for burial but the tomb is empty and they don't know where the body's gone and now they're hiding because they're afraid they're next and suddenly jesus is in the house i'm not sure they were excited i think there's got to be a lot of anxiety in the boat when they saw him walking on the water they were afraid it's a ghost they'd never seen anybody walk on the water they have never hung out with people that died on a roman cross before so i think there's got to be some anxiety in the room jesus came instead among them and he said peace be with you and after he said this he showed them his hands and his side he did that to establish that he wasn't a ghost it's me the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the lord i think there's a little understatement there and again jesus said peace be with you as the father has sent me i'm sending you you realize there is an assignment that comes with your birth into the kingdom of god it's not just self-directed towards a ticket to eternity there's an assignment that comes with it i'm sending you and with that he breathed on them and said receive the holy spirit now we all know by this point that context is important and we have read acts chapter one together before when just prior to jesus ascension he told him not to leave jerusalem but that they would receive power when the holy spirit came on them i think last words are of great significance don't you so that's 40 days ahead of them that's still a ways away but the first words he has to them the first instructions he has to them the first activity he has for them upon seeing them after his resurrection is to breathe on them and said receive the holy spirit don't you know they've got a thousand questions there's all sorts of things they want to know they've been asking goofy questions for all the chapters through the gospels and i'm quite sure they've got a whole litany of questions written down on legal pads they're ready to ask the lord and he breathes on him and says receive the holy spirit now i would submit to you at this point they have experienced the new birth they've had a personal encounter with a resurrected christ and he's breathed on them and said receive the holy spirit i would i would accept them in the membership in the church would you i think they've checked the boxes i want to suggest to you that the person you need a relationship with to flourish in the trouble that is headed our way or that has begun around us is a relationship with the person of the holy spirit and i want to take our minutes together and see if we can unpack that in a little more detail the bible introduces us to a triune god in the opening verses of the bible the word forgot it was in the first chapter of the bible when it says in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth the word for god is elohim it's plural the ending i am in hebrew is the same as an s in english so we're invited into this notion that there's more to the story the bible introduces us to this triune god god the father the son and the holy spirit in acts chapter 10 and verse 38 all three are represented in a single verse it says god anointed jesus of nazareth god the father anointed jesus his son with the holy spirit in power and he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because god was with him can't remember who the author of the book of acts is it's not a trick question it's luke he wrote the gospel that bears his name in the book of acts it's intended to be a two-volume set the book of the the gospel of luke tells the story of jesus life and ministry and the book of acts tells the story of jesus closest friends and followers after he ascended back to heaven and one of the themes in the in luke's writings in both the gospel and the book of acts is that the holy spirit and the power of god go together and it's even here in this passage it's not our focus but it says god anointed jesus of nazareth with the holy spirit and power and then in acts chapter one jesus is saying to the disciples again luke's the author you'll receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you folks when there's trouble around you and trouble seems to have enveloped you you'll want to know there's a power greater than the trouble you face evil will only yield to a power greater than itself you can't negotiate with evil you can't you can't bargain with evil you can't barter with evil evil will only yield when there's a power greater than itself present and so when i talk to you about the person of the holy spirit what i'm really inviting you to is an imagination of the power of god at work in you through you and on your behalf and that's going to be an essential component for the season that we're walking through the way it's usually described the trinity is about three persons and one essence it just isn't a problem to me i can't explain it fully but it doesn't cause me into any intellectual grief and i don't think that makes me any more country than i already am there's a pretty simple analogy but with something that's a daily part of your existence and that's water water can exist as a liquid you drink it in fact i hope you do with some regularity it also exists as a solid in ice or as a vapor in steam excuse me the chemical formula for water is anybody remember what it is i took chemistry once upon a time h2o right what's the chemical formula for ice you're sure yeah it's h2o what about steam h it's the same whether it's a liquid or a solid or a vapor it's the same huh how confusing no matter which form it's in it's the same stuff it has very different properties it provides some insight into the character of god for us you often hear expressions something like this well i pastor i just can't believe that a god of love would pass judgment upon people well water provides very different experiences on a hot summer day a glass of cool water is not only refreshing it's essential right hot water on the other hand serves some very different purposes it's used for cooking or cleaning it's a it has a completely different set of functions well the god we worship is a god of grace and mercy but it's equally true that he's a god of justice and truth and if you only focus on one aspect of god's character you won't be prepared to trust him fully and you certainly won't be prepared to encounter him we've lived with a lot of sloppy grace and it's given us a church that has you know we've kind of negotiated the commandments well maybe there's ten but maybe there's only two or three that are important i hear church leaders and pastors saying they're evolving in their understanding of scripture well when god evolves we're free to move but until he changes he's given us the guidelines and and to focus on the grace and the mercy of god without focusing on the truth and the justice of god is to leave yourselves incredibly vulnerable it's not that one is more true or one is less true in romans chapter 1 and verse 4 it says who through the spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the son of god it's talking about jesus by his resurrection from the dead jesus christ our lord the phrase that captured my attention is the spirit of holiness it's capitalized in your english translations so it's a reference to the holy spirit but the title given him the spirit of holiness in hebrew it's ruach hakodesh ruach means spirit kodesh is holy so the holy spirit is referred to as the spirit of holiness i'll give you the simplest definition i know you want to know how to cooperate with the holy spirit holiness well i thought it was about being goofy i thought it was about making brash statements predicting the future delivering a thus saith the lord's statement moving in the gifts miracles i believe in all of those things i'm not in any way trying to diminish them but if you truly want to cooperate with the holy spirit give yourself to cultivating holiness how much sin is in the presence of god now let's take a minute and talk about some of the characteristics of the holy spirit of the godhead i think he's the least familiar to those of us in the church the one with whom we're the least comfortable you know we're having to make some distinctions these days between traditional christianity and christianity you can have a church with christians in it but not be a christian church and we're going to have to become a bit more aware we can have rhetoric and language and dialogue and words around the spirit of god without any intention of cooperating with him and what i'm asking you to imagine with me is the cultivation of a personal relationship with the spirit of god again not that you act in a bizarre fashion not that you behave in a way that makes you weird being weird is not the equivalent of spiritual you know those people they only talk in a whisper when they tell you what you know how they decided what to wear today it was because the lord told them by the time you spent 10 minutes with him you just feel like a complete failure because you just picked something out of the closet because it was clean and i i want you to under the best indicator of cooperation with the holy spirit over time is the presence of the fruit of the spirit it isn't weird so don't strive to be weird the most spiritual people i've ever known were some of the most practical normal human beings i've ever been around they were truth tellers to the point that it was awkward anyway i want to give you some characteristics it'll help you develop a relationship hopefully it starts with the recognition that the holy spirit is a person and i want to encourage you to think of him in those terms not as an it in the in the language of the new testament it's very capable of referring to the holy spirit as an it and it consistently refers to him with the pronoun so that he's a person genesis chapter one and verse one we've referred to it already in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth and the word for god there is plural elohim the earth was formless and void and darkness was over the surface of the deep and the spirit of god was moving over the surface of the waters it wasn't casper the friendly ghost the person of god was moving over the chaos that was in the earth the genesis doesn't tell us the story of original creation it doesn't tell us where the earth came from it certainly leads us to believe that god's the creator but it says in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth but by the time we're introduced into the story in genesis chapter 1 the earth is chaotic it's void it's without shape it's without order and god begins to speak order into the chaos it really suggests to us that something has happened that brought chaos and disorder to the earth and the god of restoration that we come to know as we move away from genesis 1 is restoring order to the earth but it's the spirit of god that is the power of god bringing that order so begin to think of the holy spirit as a person ask for his help in john 16 jesus is describing an exchange of persons it's an important passage it's frustrating and confusing to his disciples they're frightened he's telling him that he's leaving and that's not the bargain they've struck he said follow me and i'll make you fishers of men and for three years they followed him up the hills and down the valleys and into the crowds and into the lonely places and they've learned a great deal and experienced a great deal and and now they're in jerusalem and it seems to be they're right at the pinnacle of what they've followed him for there's been a big arrival into town and a celebration and there's some enthusiasm and privately jesus begins to say i'm going away and where i'm going you can't come and they're going no no lord you just tell us where you're going we're in doesn't matter we'll go and he said no you can't come. and they're frightened and they're frustrated and jesus begins to talk to them john 16 now i'm going to him who sent me and none of you asks me where are you going but because i've said these things sorrow has filled your heart but i tell you the truth you know now right when you read that buckle up i tell you the truth it's to your advantage that i go away can you think of any reason the disciples would believe that everything's better when jesus is there you can feed a multitude with a happy meal dead people come to life again blind eyes see he speaks to the storms and the demons and the demons leave i mean it's just better when jesus is there and jesus looks at them he said i tell you the truth it's to your advantage that i go away we better read on for if i don't go away the helper will not come to you but if i go i'll send him to you you'll be better off when i'm gone because i'm going to send you a helper did they believe him no and i don't really think that we have believed him very well jesus goes back to the father it's the ascension acts chapter 1 and the holy spirit now is the personal representative of the godhead on earth jesus hasn't left us he hasn't abandoned us the holy spirit is lord in the church jesus is lord of the church he's the head of the church but the holy spirit is lord in the church in the earth second corinthians 3 17 now the lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty not where you join the right congregation or you believe the right doctrine or you read the right translation or you prayed the right prayer where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty we talk about liberty and freedom for all it will come when the church of jesus christ in a culture ours or someone else's has the courage to say jesus being lord will bring liberty to people more than a government or an ideology or a political party where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty you ought to say that together with me where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty we've got to decide we're going to welcome the holy spirit treat him as a person now understand to welcome him you'll have to be willing to take the nature of the lamb jesus laid down his life and the holy spirit will invite you to a similar behavior not to arrogance not to pride not to selfish ambition [Music] not to the pursuit of your pleasure but to lay down your life the holy spirit will invite you towards things like purity if you're not interested in purity stop the language about the spirit of god it's foolish to not have the desire and think you can manipulate vocabulary words and arrive at an outcome things like purity meekness gentleness those are all characteristics of where the spirit of god is not because he's weak never confuse meekness with weakness moses the bible says with the meek it was the meekest man on the face of the earth and he brought not only pharaoh but the armies of egypt the economy of egypt and the gods of egypt to a place of submission jesus demonstrated meekness like a lamb it says before his shearers and was silent so jesus was silent before his accusers not because he was out of options because he understood his words at that point were not necessary jesus used words when they were needed and the promise to us is when there are words that you need the holy the spirit of god will give you the words you need but there are also times to be silent it represents something else the holy spirit dwells in the church in the body of christ this is important both collectively and individually again we're talking about who you know one of the things that we have battled in these recent months is the value of being together collectively and there have been way too many voices amongst the church saying it really doesn't matter if we worship together it's not that important who said getting together for a sing-along matters not me but being with the people of god matters i will never forget those first days we gathered together last may outside of the parking lot the data wasn't clear yet the science being reported was not clear so there was a great deal of uncertainty we put our chairs on the stripes and the parking spaces we were more than 10 feet apart but we were so happy to be within 10 feet of one another we were given air bumps with the elbows and it was emotional well there's it's not just a theory in first corinthians chapter 3 and verse 16 if you look at the context is speaking of us collectively as a body do you not know that you're a temple of god unto the spirit of god dwells in you when we gather together his spirit is amongst us in a unique way and absent that you forfeit the presence of the holy spirit i can give you biblical examples far beyond the time we have to explore together in this session then in first corinthians 6 19 it invites us to a more personal understanding do you not know and you know by now when it begins with that rhetorical question the assumption is the reader doesn't know don't you know that your body is a temple of the holy spirit who's in you whom you have from god and that you're not your own think about the significance of that with me for just a moment you know enough biblical history to attach some value to that when they left egypt god gave moses the instructions for the tabernacle it was a tent structure a portable place of worship it needed to be portable because the people were nomadic they're moving they don't have a location yet so part of the design of it was how you could move it but in the innermost part of the tabernacle was the holy of holies it was the inner chamber and in the inner chamber was the ark of the covenant you know what that is because you've helped indiana jones look for it it's this wooden box overlaid with gold that has a lid on it that has the cherubim on the lid and it was above that mercy seat the top of the ark of the covenant where the presence of god would dwell the shekinah glory of god would illuminate that holy of holies the innermost part of the timer there was no artificial light source no candlestick no candelabra no sunlight the shekinah glory of god the presence of god would illuminate that space so the people imagine that being your form of worship generation after generation only the high priest could go into the holy of holies he could only go one day of the year and then he could only go if he had the blood of the lamb in a basin to take with him as the covering of the atonement for their sins the ark went through lots of of life with the israelite people it would be captured by their enemies and their enemies would break out in tumors and their enemies would send it back and say we don't want this anymore please david would decide he's going to move the ark of the covenant to jerusalem because he's established jerusalem now as the capital of this nation and they have it on a cart and the oxen stumble and it looks like the ark might fall and the guys reach out to stabilize the ark and they're struck dead so the people have an imagination of the abiding presence of god it's not to be treated trivially or casually and now paul says don't you know that your body is the temple of the holy spirit what's your motivation for purity what's your motivation for modesty what's your motivation for telling the truth see all think of it it's easy to kind of find your your space on this think of the things that you think would be inappropriate to watch or see or talk about in a sanctuary and i i appreciate that respect you would give to a sanctuary i think there's a value in that i don't want to diminish that but i think if you imagine it's inappropriate here why would you subject the holy spirit to that anywhere so when the bible talks to us about coarse language or or inappropriate joking or it's not trying to monitor your vocabulary words it's trying to raise within us an awareness of the abiding presence of the spirit of god why because you're going to need the power that comes from knowing that abiding presence but if you treat him indifferently or casually or recklessly if you speak ill of him some of us need to repent we've made fun of people who talked about the holy spirit we've made fun of people that interacted with him in ways that we didn't understand what's the holy spirit here to do it's an important question we certainly can't fully explore that but we can begin i would submit to you he's here to complete the ministry of christ now don't misunderstand me the work of the cross is complete and entire there's nothing we can add do to add to it nor detract from it the redemptive work of jesus was an accomplished fact but the training of the disciples was far from complete the lord goes away and entrusts the disciples to the holy spirit you see the father had the faith that the son would do his job and it's very clear from scripture that jesus had complete trust that the holy spirit would take over and bring to fulfillment what he had initiated it's better for you if i go away john 14 and verse 3 you have it in your notes if i go and prepare a place for you i'll come again and receive you my to myself that where i am there you may be also i will ask the father and he will give you another helper that he may be with you forever that is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive it doesn't see him or know him but you know him because he abides with you and will be in you i will not leave you as orphans i will come to you [Music] trying to live the christian life without the person and the help of the holy spirit is to be orphaned it's just not a great way to be the the context of the new testament will help this is a radical idea this is a break from the rabbinic tradition that was filling the world when jesus was there and in many ways it's a it's a break from the traditional christian attitude that if you find the right group of people and you join them you're good to go you can forget it if you've repeated the right prayer you don't need to think about your faith anymore your relationship with god is secure [Music] if you've been through the right set of classes if your beverage list or your wardrobe you know we find these reasons so that we can withdraw from the relationship well in the in the first century when jesus was there the the the one who was called to prepare the way for the messiah who was that you remember his name john the baptist this is the smart group that came good john the baptist and what was the primary activity that john was engaged in it's not a trick question he wasn't john the auto dealer he was john the baptist he baptized a lot of people what you probably wouldn't have a reason to know is that all around the temple mount in jerusalem were places where you could immerse yourself in water for ritual purity in fact it was a requirement before you could go up onto the temple mount into certain segments of the temple mount if you were a religious jewish person so there was an abundance of places dozens and dozens and dozens of places right around the temple mount where john could have baptized people on the day of pentecost it's where the apostles would have baptized all those thousands of people but john invited the people to the jordan river now the jordan river is about a 20-mile journey at least from where they would have been in jerusalem you had to make a 20-mile journey one way into the desert and there's only two buses a day that ran to the jordan river when jesus was there so it wasn't an easy trip it was a hot trip and an expensive trip and a timely trip but you had to make the trip to the jordan river john was preaching repentance a change of heart and he wasn't inviting people towards the temple in jerusalem it was one of the wonders of the ancient world it was a point of nash a tremendous national pride and john separated the renewal that they needed from the building in jerusalem and said come into the wilderness to the jordan river and be baptized and enough people were responding that the religious leaders in jerusalem went to the jordan river to see what he was up to in fact jesus went there himself so it's not a real break of thought with what was happening when jesus was ministering when he begins to say to us don't you understand your body is a temple you need to begin to treat your body live your life not as if when you're in the specific place that there's an attitude and a vocabulary but 24 7. because what's coming on the earth you can't afford to have a 90 minute relationship with god you're going to need to know how to hear his voice to help you understand and discern and to walk in the strength you need john 14 and verse 25 jesus is speaking again to his disciples these things i've spoken to you while i'm abiding with you but the helper the holy spirit whom the father will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that i said to you listen to the value the importance that jesus keeps ascribing to the person of the holy spirit the accuracy of the new testament depends upon this completely jesus never wrote a word we have no record anywhere that suggests jesus wrote anything down now again if you were going to launch an entirely new movement if you were going to launch something to transform the destiny of humanity forever and you're going to send your incarnate son if you or i were going to how many of you think had been a good eye jesus if jesus just would have whipped out his biography right signed it with a big j boom right it makes perfect sense to me jesus didn't write anything down listen to what he said the helper the holy spirit whom my father will send he will teach you all things he'll bring to your remembrance all that i said to you do you hear the trust the confidence jesus has in the spirit of god remember what god would say this is my son with him i'm well pleased and we have jesus saying to these same disciples that have heard that voice when the helper comes he'll bring to your remembrance everything you need the new testament doesn't depend upon the accuracy of the apostles memory it was directed by the holy spirit jesus tells us that the holy spirit will be our guide he'll bring the revelation the insight revelation is not the the outcome of focused learning revelation is understanding that comes to you beyond that but my experience is the more i'm willing to study the more the lord brings revelation have you ever prayed for a test you didn't study for yeah me too it was a really big test and you really didn't study maybe you'd fast or something or promised you would fast or promise you'd make a gift right how many of you tried to bargain with god to get a better grade and the holy spirit brings revelation but i found the more i apply myself and the more i i pursue the lord the more i discover that he brings insight to me john 16 and verse 12 i have many more things to say to you but you can't bear them now but when he the spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all the truth for he'll not speak on his own initiative but whatever he hears he will speak and he'll disclose to you what is to come i i marvel at the wisdom of jesus not that it surprises me it's it's the magnitude of it that makes me just want to be quiet he's been talking to the disciples about his departure and his betrayal and his execution and their emotions are they're just shot they're on overload they're overwhelmed they're incapable of absorbing any more teaching and jesus says and there's many more things i need to say to you there's a lot more you need to know please don't get so puffed up and think you know it all because you hung out with me for a little while folks we have to humble ourselves we strive so diligently to convince people we're mature i'm quite willing to admit i'm a beginner i put training wheels on my bible or whatever is helpful but jesus listen to what he says he said the spirit of truth when he comes he will guide you into all the truth he will guide you this has to begin by us recognizing our need we don't know everything we need to know we have to build a relationship with the spirit of truth the holy spirit shares with us things we cannot know any other way so it's more than just finding the right group and reading two books guys have this bad habit tell me the book i need to read i don't want to read three give me the one all right i learned to catch bass i want to learn jesus so give me the book and we're not going to master the spirit of god he will the holy spirit will share the secrets of heaven with you he will he'll tell us of what's to come that's what jesus said he would do he will disclose to you what is to come if we're going to walk through a troubling time how many think it'd be helpful to have a friend that could tell you what's coming maybe you should get to know him we live in a very dangerous world the the the that is becoming more obvious with every passing day the violence in our cities is exploding no matter how hard they try to hide it there are all sorts of evil violent things in our world we have somebody who will warn us who will show us how to be prepared and to respond you want to learn to recognize that still small voice you don't want god to have to shout at you there was a time in my life where i helped take care of horses they would bring to my father's veterinary clinic and some of them would stay with us for long periods of time and there were brood mares some of the horses stayed all the time and horses have personalities like dogs do and you'd get to know them and if you walk in the barn early in the morning and they know it's time to eat they'll talk to you i mean not with words talk to you but they'll make noises and stir around and they'll know you're there and they'll want you to know they're there because they don't want to be left out of breakfast and i was very accustomed to that experience and i've read the bible and i knew dale balaam's donkey talked to him so i got into the habit of saying one day one of my horses is going to talk to me why not and i said that one day there was a we had a friend visiting us who knew the lord in a way i hadn't even begun to know the lord and she said to me alan you might want to rethink that and i was more arrogant than i should have been and i said why would i want to rethink that and she said have you ever considered the position balaam was in when his donkey spoke up if you remember the story the angel of the lord was standing there ready to take his life the only thing between eternity and the prophet was a talking donkey the donkey had more discernment than the prophet and god the bible says loosened its tongue so it could speak so the question before me was would i rather have the horses in the barn have more discernment than me and i i maybe was arrogant but i was aware enough to say i retract that i'm happy for them to winnie and nay and stomp the ground we want to learn to hear his voice look at hebrews 11 7 by faith noah when warned about things not yet seen in holy fear built an ark to save his family what motivated noah to build the boat took him a long long time cost him everything he had a triple mortgage on his house but nobody was coming to collect he was motivated by holy fear he'd been warned by god to build an ark and by faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith luke 17 just as it was in the days of noah so will be in the days of the son of man i don't believe we will make it through the big trouble without being able to recognize the voice and direction of the holy spirit fourthly the holy spirit is the administrator of god's resources john 16 again verse 14 he will glorify me he'll take of mine and will disclose it to you all things that the father has are mine therefore i said that he takes he the holy spirit takes of mine and will disclose it to you there's some things you can do to help you recognize the spirit activity because people in our flesh and our carnality we will confuse it we're not going to use the holy spirit to to draw attention to ourselves he won't help with that so a question that you want to cultivate is does it glorify jesus is it clear that that's drawing honor to jesus if you want to attract the holy spirit in your life practice lifting up jesus i encourage you frequently to be an advocate for jesus wherever you go into any setting into every setting don't go someplace if you can't take jesus with you why would you want to go there well when the holy spirit can trust you to be an unrelenting advocate for jesus you will find his participation in your life increases again it won't make you strange or weird you'll look the same and smell the same you'll still do dumb things he won't fix us but he will help us everything the father has he is committed to the son everything the father and the son have have been entrusted to the holy spirit it's what we just read the holy spirit is the administer administrator of the total wealth of the godhead so if you want to share in that wealth and i don't mean just financial resources make friends with the holy spirit it's why luke puts the spirit of god and the power of god in an interchangeable relationship and i find within the church i spent my life around the church so i'm not throwing stones i've just had a lot of experience many of us have a very complete doctrine people want to see our our doctrinal position consistently they want to see it on the website they want to talk about it they want to talk to me after service do you what do you believe about this and that i perceive i'm okay with that i understand it but we have a very incomplete experience and as long as you separate your experience from truth it doesn't become your reality the one to the key of the treasuries of god is the person of the holy spirit if you want god's best in your life make friends with the spirit of god and finally the holy spirit is here to empower the body of christ jesus last words acts 1 8 you'll receive power when the holy spirit has come upon you then you'll be my witnesses both in jerusalem and in judea and samaria if you chart that on a map they are expanding concentric circles like ripples on a pond after a stone has been dropped it starts in jerusalem and the next region is judea and the next region is samaria then after that it's the remotest parts of the earth i had a class at hebrew university with a brilliant professor he did a lecture on the the historic jesus and he read that verse and i'll never forget he said i promise you that the authors of the new testament thought that jerusalem judea and samaria was the remotest part of the earth they didn't imagine god cared about anybody beyond samaria because they were the covenant people of god if you know the gospels and i think many of you do the disciples were in the temple every day after jesus ascension they'd been in jerusalem many times with jesus present but the rest of jerusalem for the most part was unaware uninvolved unengaged after the holy spirit comes in acts chapter 2 on the day of pentecost the entire city is stirred the scripture says they were made aware of jesus thousands of them in the same streets where they'd shouted a few days earlier crucify him said what must we do to be saved and we're willing to publicly confess jesus as messiah and submit to christian baptism and within a matter of weeks and months the surrounding communities were experiencing the same thing we need the help of the holy spirit we're not going to out-think evil or out-work evil or out-give evil or out-organize evil we need the power of god to help us overcome and we need it in increasing measure because the world before us is going to become increasingly troubled not a negative confession it's the the admonition of scripture lawlessness is going to increase but we don't have to be afraid we have a helper he has access access to all the resources of heaven don't begin your imagination of the holy spirit by telling him what you don't want well you're welcome in my life but i'm not going to be one of those people or i'll cooperate with you but don't ask me just wait until you don't have to tag the statement wait until you're desperate enough or hungry enough my parents had this little line we were kids i used to have this bizarre evil idea it really i think it was birthed before they were christians that if they put it on our plate we should eat it did any of you teach your children like that yeah and when you would balk they would say well it's not going to taste better cold i can tell you from personal experience neither does it taste better in the dark because you sat there until they turned out the lights i didn't arrive at stubborn late in life but to learn to cooperate we want to cooperate with the holy spirit don't tell him what you won't do tell him he's welcome in your life when you get desperate they used to say when you're hungry enough you'll eat it you should bring animals to the vet clinic maybe they weren't used to the food that we fed the animals in the vet clinic so for they would skip their first meal then i remember the veterinarian saying don't worry they won't starve to death when they're hungry they'll eat you see don't wait until the pressure's so great that you begin to say what was it pastor said about the holy spirit you want to be more like david when he heard goliath bellow his challenge he said we got this because i've been watching sheep and had time to pray and worship and when the lion and the bear came i watched god deliver them and this goofball's no worse than they are and watch this what's the prize for whoever takes him down i'm ready let's go begin to welcome the holy spirit into your life now remember what that's about purity holiness meekness being willing to be an advocate for jesus not obnoxious not condemning not criticizing big trouble ahead who you know matters there is nobody on your contact list as significant as you knowing the voice of the holy spirit and him knowing you and your character can you be trusted everybody's worried if god is trustworthy folks are you can god trust you what can he trust you with cultivate that say lord i don't have much strength right now but i'd like to gain some he will help you i brought you a prayer why don't we stand together it's really an invitation if you don't mean it i wouldn't read it if you do mean it i would read it routinely for a while let's let's pray together come holy spirit you are welcome in my life give me eyes to see and ears to hear i choose to cooperate with you grant me a revelation of the living god help me to honor jesus of nazareth in my life bring understanding of god's provision for my life his love his great power expressed towards me and through me may the hope of the living god surround my life today in jesus name amen hallelujah god bless you hey this is pastor alan thank you for watching this video if you enjoyed it like it and most importantly share it with your friends if you want to be notified when there's new content when we post new material if you'll just subscribe to my channel and hit the bell you'll get the notification most of all i pray god blesses you as you continue on your spiritual journey and open your heart to the lord god bless you

Channel: Allen Jackson Ministries

Views: 10,810

Rating: 4.9491096 out of 5

Keywords: Pastor Allen Jackson, allen jackson ministries, world outreach church, alan jackson, sermons, preachers, how to be saved, Finding Jesus, pastor allen jackson sermons, Big Trouble Ahead, The Path of the Storm, Seeing Whats Shaken

Id: fFZ7Wn3HeB0

Length: 50min 34sec (3034 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 04 2021