Jesus In Me | Anne Graham Lotz

if you'll turn in your Bibles if you have your Bible on your iPhone or your iPad or you have a hard copy like I do would you turn to the Gospel of John chapter 16 and just ten verses verses 5 through 15 and Jesus was talking to his disciples this was the evening that he was betrayed he was in that upstairs room with his disciples he had washed their feet including the feet of Judas remember they show them what a servant was and then he taught them about heaven he taught them about persecution he taught them that he was the vine they were the branches they could do nothing without him and he taught them about the Holy Spirit and that's the subject for the message today chapter 16 verse 5 now I'm going to him who sent me yet none of you asked me where are you going because I've said these things you're filled with grief but I'll tell you the truth it's for your good that I'm going away and I want you to just stop there for he said it's good that I'm going away how could that be and then he answers that unless I go away the counselor which is another name for the Holy Spirit will not come to you but if I go I will send him to you in other words it's better to have the Holy Spirit within us than it is to have Jesus with us that's astounding when he comes he will convict the world of guilt and regard the sin righteousness and judgment down in verse 12 I have much more to say to you more than you can now bear but when he the spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all truth he will not speak on his own he will speak only what he hears and he will tell you what is yet to come he will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you all that belongs to the father is mine that's why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you and a little while you will see me no more and then in a little while you will see me pray with me please so father we come before you this morning and we don't just want to be inspired or moved or brought to tears we want this to be an encounter with you and we know that's only possible if the spirit of a living God comes down and speaks to us through the word so we're asking now please as we open our hearts and minds that you would give us the mind to understand the scripture and we're asking this of the one that we believe is the creator the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the father of Jesus of Nazareth the one who has revealed himself as being three in one Father Son and Holy Spirit and it's in Jesus name and for his glory we asked for your blessing amen I was wondering while I was praying for you all this morning and thinking about coming here is there anybody here that's lonely and I thought that might not be a appropriate question to ask when you're living in a city and you're surrounded by millions of people but then I wondered you know you can be in a crowd and still feel alone and you feel sometimes that there's nobody who truly knows you who doesn't really understand you who is not there to walk beside you listen to you you know receive your trust and not betray your confidence --is and somebody who loves you without condition they don't withhold that if you please them or don't please him you know they just love you and loneliness is knocked on my door in the last four years with different times in my life but four years ago I found my husband unresponsive in our pool and EMS came we rushed him to the hospital put him on life support two days later he went to glory I buried him two days before our 49th wedding anniversary and so I was thrust suddenly into widowhood and I know many of you know what that's like and three years later my father whom I loved and adored he also went to heaven and both of those men not because they chose to of course but they left without saying goodbye so there was no chance to have a final I love you thank you you know to say all the things that you've said but you just want to say him at the last and and I became not only a widow but an orphan and then six months after my father went to heaven I was diagnosed with cancer and went through surgery chemo radiation you know the whole nine yards and I know many of you understand that and there was no husband to discuss things with no husband asked which doctor should I go see no father to run to and say you know help me can you set me up at Mayo Clinic or someplace you know just I was on my own and loneliness knocked at my door but I'm gonna tell you something and I mean this with all my heart and I'm sincere when I say loneliness never came in and the reason for that and then the reason for that is because of the constant companionship of the holy spirit and I want to tell you about it I was born and raised in a Christian home and we love Jesus obey Jesus serve Jesus told people about Jesus but nobody taught me about the Holy Spirit and I went to church every Sunday and you know the benediction was pronouncing the name of the father's son and they called him the Holy Ghost and at weddings and baptisms and it was in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost which was sort of off-putting for a little girl you know I didn't wasn't sure about the ghost part of the Trinity but it wasn't until I was a young adult and I was studying the Scriptures for myself that I came into an awareness more of an awareness of who the Holy Spirit is and in this passage in John's Gospel there are seven things I want to point out to you about the Holy Spirit this may be familiar to some of you it may be brand-new information for some of you I'm just going to share with you what I know alright just and I'll keep it very simple so in this first the first point in this or the first item I want to point out about the Holy Spirit is that he's a person and ten times in these eleven verses he's referred to by the personal pronoun he or him so as pastor Conlan read in that introduction the Holy Spirit is not a flame of fire he's not a dove he's not a ghost he's not an emotion he's not an ecstatic feeling the Holy Spirit is a living invisible person and he has the mind of thing and he has emotions to feel and he has a will to act and he's always been you find him in the second verse of the Bible the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the deep that's the Holy Spirit he's all the way through the Old Testament but Jesus referred to him in John chapter 14 verse 16 he said I'm going to ask the Father to give you another counselor and he speaks of himself as a counselor and the father would give another counselor and the word another means someone exactly the same as so he was saying that the Holy Spirit the counselor would be another Jesus someone exactly the same as Jesus and don't misunderstand me he's a distinct person in his own right but he's exactly like just as Jesus's exact representation of God the Father the Holy Spirit is the exact representation of Jesus so praise God and their names in Scripture that revealed the character of the person to whom they're given like Peter was you know called Simon because he's wishy-washy impulsive come and his name has changed to Peter because he was going to be so rocked like in his faith and strength than others so names in Scripture reveal character and the names that are given the Holy Spirit reveal his character and he's wonderful and I'm not going to go through his names because of the sake of time but he is a counselor and gives you was help me have wisdom to know which doctor to go to he's the comforter when my husband has gone to my father he has comforted me on the inside he's been a helper helping me you know manage the household and pay bills for the first time my husband always did it you know just helping me practically he's and so many names given to the Holy Spirit our intercessor our advocate our strengthen our stand by just praise God for the Holy Spirit he is a living amen a living invisible person so second thing I want to remind you of is his presence so when did he come and the Holy Spirit has always been because the Holy Spirit is God he is eternal so in Chapter 1 of Genesis verse 2 you find him hovering over the face of the deep and all the way through the Old Testament he's there but we see him were coming upon people to anoint them for you know a task to work with gold or linen or to equip them for leadership and the most familiar example perhaps his Saul of Kish he was the first king of Israel and when he was anointed king the Holy Spirit came upon saw and equipped them to lead the nation and he went from being a keeper of donkeys to being a leader of Israel and then when Saul sinned and disobeyed God the Holy Spirit was taken from Saul he was given to the King David the next king and when King David was anointed king the Holy Spirit came upon him equipping him to lead the nation and when David sinned against Bathsheba do you remember what he prayed in the Psalms Oh God take not your Holy Spirit from me because he knew the Holy Spirit could be given and the Holy Spirit could be taken so the Holy Spirit has always been but in the Old Testament he seemed to come and go in the New Testament we have a totally different experience starting at Pentecost Jesus said in verse 7 of this passage I'm going to send him to you and he sent the Holy Spirit down at Pentecost 50 days after the Ascension of Jesus excuse me after the crucifixion 10 days after the Ascension the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost let me just describe sort of the before and after if I can because in the Old Testament people meant were made right with God if I can use a New Testament term they were saved when and keeping it simple a sinner knew he had sinned he took a little lamb to the temple and he grasped the lamb with both of his hands and he confessed his sin it was as though the guilt of his sin the wrong things he had done before God that displease God were transferred to the little lamb the sinner took the knife the sinner killed the lamb the priest took the blood of the lamb and sprinkle it on the altar to make atonement for his sin and so think of all the rivers of blood the oceans of blood that were shed but Hebrews tells us that they never were sure that the Lamb of bulls and goats could take away sin but every time a sinner sacrificed with true faith it was as though God said I owe you forgiveness I owe you forgiveness so in the Old Testament all these people sacrificing receiving all of these IOU notes and when Jesus of Nazareth was walking beside the Jordan River John the Baptist said there goes the Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world and he paid up all of those IOU notes with his own blood so in the Old Testament they look forward to the cross they didn't know the name of Jesus but they exercise their faith through that sacrificial system okay in the New Testament after Pentecost you and I look back to the cross we exercise our faith you know I'm so thankful I don't have to go to a temple and slaughter a lamb and blood spurting everywhere and but I come by faith to the cross and I come to the Lamb of God and I grasp and with my hands of faith and I confess my sin and as though the guilt of my sin is transferred to the Lamb of God and the blood of Jesus makes atonement for my sin and Unforgiven Unforgiven but listen to me you and I have something the Old Testament Saints knew nothing about when we do that when we come to the cross by faith and we confess our sin and we ask God to forgive us and we open up our hearts and we ask him to come live inside of us the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us never to leave us never to forsake us praise God so the Holy Spirit is Jesus living inside of me now you understand he's the distinct person in his own right I just don't want there to be confusion there okay but he Jesus said he's another me and he's living inside of me so when I was a little girl can't remember the year I was seven eight or nine I remember it was Good Friday I was watching a picture about Jesus on TV came to the cross and I knew he had died for me and I told him I was sorry and I asked him to forgive me to cleanse me with his blood and I invited Jesus to come live inside of me and I believe he did I didn't know about the Holy Spirit so I just asked Jesus to come into my heart because you know something a little parenthetical message God doesn't have any grandchildren just because I'm Billy Graham's daughter doesn't mean I'm a child of God you know I I had to make that decision myself and I made it as a little girl and I invited Jesus into my heart and I believe he came into my heart I was born again into his family so that inside of me there was an the person you know I was my mind my will my emotions and and then came the Holy Spirit I became a new creation so inside of me now there are two people there's the and the old nature that's been infested and there's the new creation the life of the Holy Spirit with a mind to think the things of God in the heart to feel the things of God and to love people I don't even like and you know I will to do the right thing instead of the wrong thing and that's the holy split this way you remember the Virgin Mary when the angel came to her and said you're going to conceive a child and Mary said how can that be I've never known a man I've never had sexual intercourse and the angel said the Holy Spirit is going to come upon you and that which you conceived within you is going to be the life of the Son of God and Mary submitted to that and said be it unto me according to your will and she conceived within her the physical life of Jesus and when you and I come to the cross by faith we confess our sin we tell God we're sorry we ask him to forgive us we invite him to come in he comes in and we conceive the spiritual life of Jesus within us that's the Holy Spirit we have a new creation on the inside so this is my question when have you invited Jesus to come live inside of you when have you invited the Holy Spirit to come and pleased you know once again don't misunderstand me it's the same thing you invite Jesus into your heart he understands he can't come into you he's he's living in a man's body up in heaven I believe he's very soon to come back and rule and reign in this world so when we ask him to come in he comes in in the person of his spirits but you have to ask him to come in he's a gentleman he doesn't go where he's not invited you know so you have to open up your heart and invite him to come when have you done that and if you can never remember time when you've done it how do you know you have and I'm going to give you an opportunity at the end of this message to make that decision if you haven't and if there's somebody here that's unsure you know could you say and every time somebody gives a message like this I pray it all over again you know then maybe you've never prayed it once by faith because faith says God I've confessed my sin and your Word says if I confess my sin you'll forgive me so I believe I'm forgiven and faith says if you ask God to give you eternal life he will give you eternal life and so faith says God thank you and faith says God I've invited you to come into my heart and your word says if I open up the door and invite you to come in you will come in never to leave nor forsake me and so faith just says thank you and you get on with living the Christian life okay God doesn't mean you to live in doubt and not being assured of your salvation so he means for you to know that you know that you know praise God you're a child of God and you're going home one day where there's you know would be set free so the person of the Holy Spirit the presence of the Holy Spirit makes sure his presence is in you and you will never leave you never forsake you I couldn't have made it through the last four years without him thirdly his power his passage reminds us that it's his power to convince the world of sin and the need to get right with God and judgment to come if they don't and as a mother so often I've wanted to convict my children you know and when they're little we train them and you know but as they get older and even when they go off and get married have you ever wanted to be the Holy Spirit to your child and you know convict them of this and you we're so good at seeing the sin in other people's lives aren't we I mean I can see it in you you know it's hard to see it in myself but the wonderful thing about the Holy Spirit especially if whoever we're praying for has the Holy Spirit you just pray and the Holy Spirit can stir up in their lives and convict them of the very thing we see and that frees us up just to love them and I think that's true also of people who don't have the Holy Spirit we just pray and you know ask the Holy Spirit to come upon them and give them that spirit of conviction conviction of sin and the conviction of the need to get right with God and the judgment that they're under if they don't and we just pray and then we're free to love I don't think there's any room for pride and self-righteousness and a critical spirits because the ground is level at the foot of the cross isn't it and we've all come to the same place we're all sinners praise God I've been saved I've been forgiven I know that I'm going to have them but that's available for anybody so praise God for his power if he could transform planet Earth in Genesis chapter 1 from that dark fluid covered blob he can take anybody's life and transform it but work he works in conjunction with the words you remember in Genesis 1 the Spirit of God hovered over the face of deep and verse 3 then the word of God went forth let there be light so it was the conjunction of the holy spirit preparing it and the word of God going forth so the Holy Spirit works through the Word of God and you bring that person to church that you're praying for bring them to where they can hear the word of God share the scripture with them and then pray and pray that the Holy Spirit will hover over their hearts and minds and prepare them to be convicted of sin and righteousness and the judgment that they're saved from when they put their faith in Jesus so fourthly I want to remind you of his precepts and I was referring to that when I said the Holy Spirit works in conjunction with this book because this book says in second Timothy 3:18 that all Scripture is god-breathed useful for teaching correcting rebuking training and righteousness so the Holy Spirit has inspired your Bible from Genesis to Revelation and if we say that this book has eras or myths or mistakes then we're slurring the integrity of the spirit of truth that's one of his names he's the Spirit of Truth he doesn't lie he doesn't spin the truth he says what he means and he means what he says and so people who pick their way through Scripture and say well I can't believe an adman even who's ever heard of a talking snake and I can't believe in knowing the ark because all those analyst could never fit on that boat and I don't believe in Jonah in the fish because what fish has ever swallowed a man and I don't believe that a man can be from the dead and so you pick your way through and you just grasp the things and believe the things you can understand and you're on very shaky ground because there are many things in here I don't understand but this is God's Word and the Holy Spirit inspired it from cover to cover and I believe it the God speaks to me through his word and I don't want to digress too much but he I'll open my Bible and there be a phrase or verse and it just leaps up off the page and I know he's speaking to me and I remember after going through chemo I went through five sessions of chemo and it was awful I mean I had side-effects that even the doctor hadn't seen with my kind of chemo and I just said God I can't take this anymore and I was praying with my two daughters and I felt like the Lord just impressed on me that he had healed me and so I was thanking him in the next morning I said God if you've healed me do I have to keep going through chemo you know I had two more sessions to go and out I said I don't want to just an impression when I pray I want you to speak to me through your word so my youngest daughter Rachel Ruth came over to the house and she was sharing the message she was preparing for a Bible study it was second Kings chapter 5 when Nahum and the Syrian general came to Elijah and he wanted to be healed of his leprosy and Elijah said go dip in the Jordan 7 times and Naaman didn't want to do it because the Jordan River was dirty and he said we've got better rivers in that in Syria and but Elisha said you dip seven times and you'll be healed and I knew God was speaking to me and you don't want to go through chemo seven times but you go through seven times and you'll be healed and that's the way he speaks to me through the word okay so I went through my chemo seven times I believe I'm healed but I also felt God wanted me to do what the doctor said so I went through all the radiation and I just had my last infusion not the big bad chemo but the last infusion this past Tuesday so I just praised God because I believe he's keeping his words answering prayers and I know I expect many of you have prayed for me and and I believe God has healed me an answer to people's prayers and I want to thank you those of you who have interceded on my behalf so our God is a prayer hearing prayer answering miracle working covenant keeping God isn't they amen fifthly his purity this almost goes without saying but the Holy Spirit is holy and the be holy means to be separate from sin to be holy means to be like Jesus to be holy means to be pleasing to God in every aspect of your life so in the Holy Spirit there is no meanness no unkindness no selfishness no unforgiveness you know no prod fulness the whole there's no sinfulness at all the Holy Spirit is holy and when it comes into you and me one of the things he starts to do is to clean us up and to make us holy and he will begin convicting us of one sin after another just one at a time if if something comes to you and it's you know like a thought comes you're just a mess you'll never be right with God God can't ever you that's the enemy okay that's the devil the Holy Spirit comes and he'll do it an encouraging way and he'll convict you of one thing at a time and and you'll help you as you put it out of your life and get things sorted out and you and I live in a how do I describe it our culture in our nation is morally filthy and we're in a moral and spiritual freefall in our nation but God's standards haven't changed and God is still holy and you and I are called to be holy as he is holy so the Holy Spirit one of his can say job's is to clean us up to make us right before God and somebody once said that he's the most uncomfortable comforter they've ever had because he will convict you and when he does you just bring your sin to the cross you're already forgiven okay you're forgiven of all of your sin praise God all of your sin is under the blood but we come back every day to confess our sin that we might be cleansed that we might be filled with his spirit that we might be in a right relationship with God that nothing would come between us and the Father so what sin is there in your life that needs to be put out what sin is there a habit an attitude bitterness unforgiveness lusts prod fulness the nagging spirits self-righteous you know whatever it is as the Holy Spirit brings it to your mind and convicts you of it talk to him about it and put just crucifies Creuset just take it to the cross in your mind and it's that sin that nailed Jesus to the cross and you put it under the blood of Jesus and ask the Holy Spirit to set you free from the entanglements of that sin and he will and you may have to like me going to radiation I had to go every day for a month so you go back and back and back and back to the cross and the cross acts like radium on cancer radium on sin and it will break that hold of sin in your life so a Holy Spirit is pure and the Holy Spirit sixthly prays for you isn't that a wonderful thought Java yeah praise God and I need prayer and I've needed prayer desperately all my life but especially in the last four years and especially in the last year and to know that the Holy Spirit is praying for me Romans 8:26 says he prays without words he can pray with groanings because he lives inside of me he knows how I feel how I think my fears my hopes my dreams my apprehensions my questions and and he lives ever before the throne of God so he can translate my prayers and convey my prayers right before God the Father and he knows how to get answers to his prayers so I don't know if you have a prayer partner if you don't I suggest you count one maybe it's a spouse maybe it's a neighbor maybe it's somebody in this church come to the prayer meeting that the church offers but sometimes in a meeting like that we don't want to share you know some of our deepest thoughts and fears but the Holy Spirit is there you can pour out your heart to him he never breaks a confidence you can trust him with your feelings trust him with your fears trust him with your failures you know just let him have it and let him pray for you he's praying for you anyway so just talk to him about it and he prays for you this was my aha moment when I was studying about the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit loves you somehow I'd missed that and I came across it when it says don't grieve the Holy Spirit and grief I thought I agree for my mother because I love her and she's with Jesus and I grieve for my husband because I loved him and he's with Jesus now and I grieve for my daddy because he's in heaven he's and I agree for those that I love and that just stopped me because I thought if I agree for those that I love then the Holy Spirit grieves for me that means he loves me so when I do the right thing he rejoices when I do the wrong thing he grieves I had thought that when the whole when I asked Jesus in my heart the father said all right now Holy Spirit you go into an and she's your job to clean her up and make her right with me and then one day the Holy Spirit would present me to the Father and say well done the best I could with what I was given and and but then I'll discover the Holy Spirit loves me and he's emotionally caught up in my life and he loves for me to do the right thing of her choices and he grieves when I do the wrong thing and oh my goodness he prays for us with a heart of love and he wants the best for you and he knows knows you better than you know yourself and he understands you and he loves you and he will never leave you never forsake you never betray you so lastly his priority and in the end of this passage it says he takes the things of Jesus and makes them known to us yes one priority that's twofold and it's the written word of God he's written and inspired all of Scripture Genesis to Revelation that when we read our Bibles that we would see the Living Word of God who is Jesus so his priority is Jesus their written word it reveals the Living Word when I was a little girl my grandmother kept me when I was sick and she would have a big jigsaw puzzle on the table and you know we don't do jigsaw puzzles anymore at least I don't cuz I don't have time but it's a picture pace though on cardboard and then it's cut up in all these funny little shapes and you turned the little pieces over to see a bit of the picture but when you put them pieces together and replicate the picture on the box then the puzzle is solved okay a lot of people think the Bible is like a jigsaw puzzle all these funny little pieces and they don't quite know how they fit together and it's the Holy Spirit that comes along and turns over the puzzle pieces and shows us the picture of a man on the other side and the whole Bible is about Jesus so in Genesis 1 I've already told you the Spirit of God was in verse 2 but verse 3 says and God said let there be light and there was and all the way through Genesis 1 is that little phrase and God said and we would think that some nouns and pronouns coming out of the mouth of God until we come to the Gospel of John chapter 1 verse 1 and the Holy Spirit turns over the puzzle piece and it says in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the word became flesh as Jesus would beheld them full of grace and truth Jesus right there in Genesis chapter 1 verse 3 chapter 2 of Genesis when the Lord God is planning a garden in the in Eden and we see him grubbing in the dirt and planting trees and the Holy Spirit turns a puzzle piece over and shows us the pre-incarnate son I've got the first homemaker preparing a home for his children and forming Adam out of the dust of the ground and breathing his own life into Adam so that the puzzle piece has turned over and we found that Jesus pre-incarnate is our Creator that our very breath comes from him chapter 3 when Adam and Eve sinned they were removed from God's presence but before he removed them from the garden he killed an animal and he covered them in skins and you wonder if tears were coming down this the pre-incarnate son the Lord God and tears coming down his face because he knew that he would cover their shameful nakedness with a you know skin of an animal but one day he would be the lamb slain to cover us with his blood and the puzzle piece turns that the Holy Spirit turns that puzzle piece over and we see the Lamb of God clothing his children so they would be covered in their nakedness and next time we get a good look at him is in Genesis 18 Abraham's in the heat of the day he's sitting in the door of his tent three men come up and one of them says Abram I'm going to come back next year and you and Sarah are going to have a son and Abraham was ninety nine years of age and Sarah was eighty nine years of age and had never had a son and next year they had a son named Isaac because that was the pre-incarnate son of God the Holy Spirit turns over the puzzle piece showing us that God keeps his word and Jacob Abraham's grandson had gone off the Exile gone because it's stolen the birthright and so it had to run away from his brother he comes back to claim his birthright after 20-some years and goes to cross the Jabbok River to claim everything that was his and he met a man there and the man wrestled with him all night he wasn't going to let Jacob claim his inheritance in his own strength and the Holy Spirit turns over the puzzle pieces you see the pre Incarnate son of God blocking Jacobs way until he was broken of his own strength and went in in dependence upon God and we keep on going Joshua outside of Jericho and he bumps into the captain of the Lord's hosts he says take off your shoes you're on holy ground and then he tells him how to take Jericho and the Holy Spirit turns over the puzzle piece and we see the captain of the Lord's house is the pre-incarnate son of God and the victory had nothing to do with military strategy everything about obedience to God and and we can just you know we can keep on going can't we through the Old Testament meshach Shadrach and Abednego refused to bow down to that statue of gold and Nebuchadnezzar threw them in into the fiery furnace and Nebuchadnezzar then rubs his eyes and said I threw three in there how can I see four in the fourth is like the Son of God the pre-incarnate plan showing up in the fire with his children Zico sitting in a refugee camp beside a dirty irrigation canal and there's a storm that comes into his life and all the wings of the storm is a sapphire thrown on the throne is someone like the Son of Man coming to speak to his child Ezekiel and the Holy Spirit turns over the puzzle piece and shows that even someone at a refugee camp can be a prophet you know be used of God and Isaiah who talked about the Lamb whose stripes would be healed the one whose name would be wonderful counts are Almighty God everlasting father Prince of Peace and he turns over those puzzle pieces until we come with the Shepherds in Bethlehem and they run to that stable and they look into the manger and there's a little baby who's just been born and the Holy Spirit turns over the puzzle piece and we find ourselves looking into the face of God and the pre-incarnate son is no longer pre-incarnate he has become carded he is in the flesh and we see him hanging on a cross and the Holy Spirit turns over the puzzle piece and we know that's not just a crucified man by the Romans you know not somebody just murdered that's the Lamb of God being sacrificed for the sin of the world three days later we see an empty tomb and the Holy Spirit turns over the puzzle piece and we see Jesus has the risen Lord and he's ascended into heaven until he turns over that ultimate puzzle piece and we see the scon fold and a white horses rider is faithful and true coming back to reign and rule in this world and it's Jesus listen to me over everything under everything around everything at the beginning of everything at the end of everything it's Jesus it's all about Jesus amen amen amen hallelujah praise God that's the Holy Spirit's priority what is yours what's the priority of your life my challenge to you make Jesus the number-one priority of your life and for some of you the first thing you need to do is come by faith to the cross and confess your sin and tell him you're sorry and ask him to apply his blood to your sin to forgive you and to come into your heart and you establish him as your Savior and your Lord you establish a personal relationship listen God is not inviting you into a religion or into a denomination or into a tradition or into a church or God is inviting you into a personal relationship with himself you can't get more personal than Jesus in me the Holy Spirit is Jesus in me so you make Jesus the first priority by making sure you've established a personal relationship with him through faith in Jesus Christ at the cross and the second thing you do if you've done that then you make him the first priority and the way you spend your time when you spend time with him you've spent time you know even through all the stuff that lasts for years my cancer treatments are some days I couldn't get out of bed till noon some days I couldn't get out of bed but made time every day to read my Bible and to pray that's the core of who I am you can't let go of that okay he's the first priority first prior to the way you spent spend your money your time who you're with where you go what you do and you just surrender everything to his authority he is now Lord he's in control he's in charge and you give him the control of your life and if you don't if your priority is anything other than Jesus first anything more than Jesus first anything less than Jesus first then you're out of sync with the Holy Spirit so I'm challenging you today would you get in sync with the Holy Spirit would you by faith come to the cross receive him as your Savior and if you've done that then I'm challenging you to surrender everything to him to put him first and ask him to fill your life the Holy Spirit we prayed or we sang that song I want more of Jesus more of Jesus more of Jesus listen to me the Holy Spirit is a person you're not gonna get him in pieces so when you invited Jesus to come into your heart when you ask the Holy Spirit to come in you go he comes in and you you have all of the Holy Spirit you were ever going to get okay so the newest believer here if you just received Jesus by faith today last week you have as much of the Holy Spirit as I have and I've known him you know 60 some years but this is the key if you want more of Jesus if you want more of the Holy Spirit you make sure he has all of you so [Applause] because we're very good at inviting Jesus to come in and we say you can have Sunday morning at church but not Monday morning when I go to the office or go to work you can have Wednesday night prayer meeting but you can't have Saturday night when I'm with my friends you know we sort of sort out our lives and we we choose what we give him and we choose what we release and we choose what we hang on to and you can't do that not if you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit and can I tell you something I know the devil will whisper in your ear that if you surrender everything then God's going to ask you to do something embarrassing he's gonna do something you don't like you know I don't know what all the devil's whispering in your ear but when you surrender everything and you ask the Holy Spirit to fill your life and you just let let him in every little nook and cranny that's where the fullness of blessing is that's where the victory is that's where the joy is that's where the power is so don't let the devil come telling you don't surrender don't give him everything are you going to come up short I can tell you from the testimony of my own life God had much more in mind for me than I ever dreamed possible and when I surrendered everything to him gave him everything that's when life took off and I'll answer another question I think you're going to answer at 3 o'clock when why does God let bad things happen to good people why doesn't God stop the storms so I'm just gonna give you my answer okay because why is it it's when the storms come and the bad things happen that's when we tend to look up and I think we always need God but for some reason we don't we're not consciously aware of it until something bad happens and I can tell you that when bad things happen even to good people God is there you God has carried me through praise God I have never lost my piece I have never lost my joy there been tears don't misunderstand me you know and I've grieved but never lost my strong sense of purpose but I'll look back over the last four years last year I don't see the I don't remember the pain and the suffering and the grief what I remember is one blessing after another and our God is a God from whom all blessings flow so I want to issue that invitation if I could and I'm going to remind you the invitation stands for those of you have never been to the cross you want to come to faith by faith to Jesus today and know that your sins are forgiven that you've grabbed him with your hands of faith your guilt has been transferred to Jesus he takes your sin and guilt he takes the judgment that should have been yours and you're under his blood you're forgiven and if you've made that decision but you want to surrender everything to him and let the Holy Spirit take control I'm just going to ask everybody to stand and then those who want to make that decision if you'll come down front or we'll pray for you and I believe those who are in overflow you can go to the front of your room or you can join us here and the ones online I expect the Holy Spirit is right there with you and you can come to the screen whatever you're watching on and just make that decision yourself so and we're just going to take a few moments and I don't know what your custom is I haven't been in this church but as people come down it's okay if you see somebody near you coming down you can applaud and just your way of encouraging them that they're making the best decision they've ever made [Applause] we're just going to take a few moments because especially those of you coming for the first time barriers of a lifetime can take a few moments to come down can't they and if someone feels the Holy Spirit is drawing you and your heart is beating and you're just scared to come down scared to what it's going to cost you just reach over to the person next you ask them to come down with you come down with a friend come down with a buddy just come down with a stranger just come down and come to Jesus I'm going to pray for a moment and then I'm gonna pray with you but I'm just going to pray to myself just asking the Holy Spirit move on the hearts of those convicting of seeing the need to get right with God judgment to come if you don't want and there is judgment for sin that's the message of the Cross isn't it God would never have sent Jesus to the cross that there was any other way to take away your sin he took the judgment for us but if you don't claim Jesus as your Savior than that judgment that falls on your sin is going to fall on you so come down we're just going to wait for a few moments I'm going to pray with those who have come and if you're coming you just can pray in your spirit as you come and I want to pray first for those of you have come for the first time okay you're coming to the cross for the very first time the confess your sin to claim Jesus as your Savior so I'm going to pray slowly out loud and I'd like for you to pray after me would you do that and you pray out loud in fact everybody can pray out loud if you want but I'm after the ones who've never done this before and so you pray a prayer something like this dear God I confess to you that I'm a sinner and I'm so sorry and I believe Jesus died for me I grasped him right now with my hands of faith and I believe he's taken the judgment for my sin cleanse me with his blood forgive me of all of my sin and I believe Jesus rose up from the dead to give me eternal life and I ask that you give me eternal life in his name and I open up my heart and I invite Jesus to come live inside of me and I know he comes in the person of the Holy Spirit never to leave me never to forsake me from this day forward I choose to live my life for him all right so for those of you who prayed that prayer for the first time the words aren't so important it's the faith in your heart okay it's your sincerity and when you come and you confess your sin the Bible says God will forgive you of all of your sin so right now whoever you are you're forgiven you're forgiven [Applause] small medium large whatever category you're forgiven praise God and if you invite him to come in your heart the Bible says he will come in right now you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you and you need to let him loose let him have full control of your life and the blessings will beginning he will help you I know some of you have just made a tangled web you know just sin is so complicated isn't it he will help you you don't embarrass him you don't shame and he knows what you've done he knows where you're been he will help you one step at a time sort things out and the people in this church will come around and help you - so you just praise God and I know afterwards they're pastors here and people who can answer your questions you come back at one for that question-and-answer time and and just begin to grow in your relationship I'm married my husband Danny lots I was 18 years of age I thought I was in love and I was but I didn't know him like I did after 49 years and so right now you you in a sense entering into a relationship of the Holy Spirit ends you know as much as you need to know to make this commitment but then you every day you need to spend time with him every day you grow into relationship as you read the word apply it live it out and it's that sense that this presence will get stronger and stronger but I want to go back to that sin for a moment because you know my computer have a little trash can when I take something and drag it into the trash and I hit delete it's gone and God has just taken all of your sin and he's put it in the celestial trashcan he's hit delete okay so we rejoice with you but I want to pray for the rest of us maybe some of you didn't come down those of you who are surrendering your life to the control of the Holy Spirit to be spirit fill the best definition I've ever heard is moment by moment surrender to the moment by moment control of the Holy Spirit and you just surrender everything and let him take over and ask him to fill you so I want to pray a prayer of surrender for those of you who are making that decision so Lord Jesus we come to you now with praise and thanksgiving for those who have received you for the first time but those of us Lord who have received you but you're not in control of everything we come right now and we kneel at the foot of the cross and we give you everything you can help yourself to anything everything I mean practical things we give you our eating we give you our exercise or a lack of it we give you our entertainment we give you our marriage we give you our memories we give you our miseries we give you our sickness and our success and our failures and our future and our family and our children and our career and Lord we just invite you to take over oh it's such a freeing thing to put that responsibility on your broad strong shoulders so I asked now please as we confess that we're sinners and we're asking to be filled with your spirit we know we're forgiven but we want we want more of Jesus by giving him all of us we ask that you and that you revive us that you send this out into this great city lights in the darkness and that you would use us to bring your glory wherever we go Lord that that river of living water would flow into us and through us into a city that's thirsty for you and they don't even know it so we ask that you would use the sphere of glory so we pray your blessing on each one and the decisions they're making ask that you seal it in their hearts until they can get a loan and talk to you about it and talk to somebody else to ask their questions and just begin to grow in this wonderful personal relationship that you gave your life to give us and we pray these things in the name of the Father who loved us so much that he gave us the Son and we pray in the name of the son who loved us so much when the father sent him to earth to die he came down and died if it'd been for nobody else just for me rose up from the dead ascended into heaven and we pray in the name of the Holy Spirit but when the father sent him came down to live inside of us never to leave us never to forsake us one day to see us safely home we pray in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

Channel: Times Square Church

Views: 68,766

Rating: 4.830832 out of 5

Keywords: Anne Graham Lotz, Sermon, Times Square Church

Id: LJxBWl-N82Y

Length: 50min 35sec (3035 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 04 2019