Who Is He? | The Holy Spirit | Ryan Visconti

well hey it's great to be with you today and have the opportunity to bring you the Word of God can we just stop right now and celebrate all the good things that God did on Easter last Sunday we know that thousands of people around our community heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and God is already taking what the enemy meant for evil and using it for good I've heard so many stories of you guys inviting people to join you for online church you've hosted watch parties or shared links with friends and God's using you to reach people who are far from him we want to help people find the good news of Jesus Christ and so we're celebrating what happens on Easter and we're gonna pick up from there where we left off at the ends of our Easter message was talking about the Holy Spirit so today I'm starting a series called the Holy Spirit that's right and so I'm thinking about the resurrection of Jesus we celebrated that last Sunday and we talked about how the disciples by Sunday evening they were scared again they were scared and we read this passage but I wanna start out by reading this again it says in John chapter 20 verse 20 they were filled with joy when they saw the Lord so they were scared but Jesus showed up suddenly in their midst and then in verse 21 it says again he said peace be with you as the father has sent me so I am sending you and look at this it says then he breathed on them and said receive the Holy Spirit okay I think this is so interesting and powerful the disciples were scared and when Jesus showed up he knew exactly what they needed right it wasn't some of the things that we might think they would have needed he didn't say hey I've got something for you I know you're scared here is a book of theology he didn't say oh I know what you need you need a church building to go to he didn't say you need more stable finances it's so interesting to me that when they were scared and when they needed peace Jesus didn't remove danger from them but he added something else to them it was the Holy Spirit you need peace so receive the Holy Spirit that is so powerful now the Holy Spirit is awesome but what I'm excited about for this series is that a lot of people have a negative attitude towards the Holy Spirit and I want us to help fix that and address that negativity that a lot of people hold towards the Holy Spirit some people have had weird experiences with the Holy Spirit maybe you've seen people do crazy things you're honest or some of our staff here today you've seen people do crazy things and blame it on the Holy Spirit I've seen that and and maybe you've had no exposure to the Holy Spirit depending on what brand of Christianity you grew up in you might not have heard people talk about the Holy Spirit very much like you've heard he exists but he's not talked about other groups he's kind of treated like the crazy uncle of Christianity you know like he shows up once in a while and he does some things that embarrass us but you know we love him anyways growing up I had experiences where I was maybe kind of turned off by the Holy Spirit and then there were things that I didn't like and feel comfortable with and so I kind of put him at arm's length and I spent quite a bit of time that way with that kind of posture in my heart towards the Holy Spirit kind of like you know I know in theory you're good for me but I just don't know if I feel comfortable getting too close to you which this is really sad and this really burdens me that a lot of people still have this kind of attitude towards the Spirit of God how would you feel if someone you loved was getting talked bad about by other people oftentimes being lied about and misunderstood well I can tell you that I came to understand to the Holy Spirit he is a blessing to my life I need him I mean I found out when I became a pastor like I need the Holy Spirit to do what God has called me to do I'm not a good enough preacher in my own strength and giftings I don't have enough wisdom I don't have enough courage I need the Holy Spirit and so I want you to know the Spirit of God personally so I want to talk about this today starting this series who is he that's the question that I want to answer first who is he the holy spirit who is he that is the question for us well I want to ask the person who knows him best Jesus Christ that's who knows him we celebrated last week that Jesus rose from the grave but here's the thing he did not stick around very long he didn't stay on earth a super long time which would have been really disappointing if you asked me I would have been disappointed if I found out Jesus had resurrected from the grave and then he was planning to leave very suddenly that's not what I would have expected but Jesus had a better plan says in John 16 verse 7 Jesus says this nevertheless I tell you the truth it is to your advantage that I go away that's crazy you would never expect Jesus to say that but he said it's to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away the helper will not come to you but if I go I will send him to you and in verse 12 it says this I still have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now when the spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all the truth for he will not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come so Jesus Christ says it's actually to your benefit that I leave because then the Holy Spirit can come that is so powerful I'm gonna talk about who he is and many of you three things that the Holy Spirit who he really is this is who he is here's the first one he is my friends and I want you to know he's not weird the Holy Spirit is my friend and he is not weird I saw a poll that said one out of three people are weird okay so I know a lot of you were watching the sermon right now with friends do this just look around the room look to your right look to your left if none of those people are weird it's you you're the weird one what I've seen is that oftentimes the people who talk about the holy spirit a lot are weird listen I want you to know this this is true those people would be weird without the Holy Spirit you can actually be a normal person you can be a logical sane person and still believe in the Holy Spirit you don't have to be weird you don't have to be goofy but Satan our enemy he twists in he wants you to believe that if you believe in the Holy Spirit Satan wants you to think if you believe in the Holy Spirit people are gonna think you're crazy people are gonna look at you funny and roll their eyes at you no one will take you seriously but that is a lie from Satan who would want you to be afraid of the Spirit of God more than anyone else saying the enemy of God's people because when the first people the first Christians received the Holy Spirit we're gonna talk about this man thousands of people were saved thousands of people were healed demons were cast out the sick were healed a dead people were raised to life and the world was turned upside down so no wonder your enemy wants you to be afraid of the Holy Spirit and so Satan has created controversy around the Holy Spirit and he's used weird people to do that but then you should not be afraid of the Holy Spirit or think that he is weird he's your friends Jesus called him to help her in the word that he used to describe the Holy Spirit it has multiple meanings this word it talks about him as our comforter a lot of people need comfort right now he's our advocate he advocates on our behalf isn't it nice to have somebody who pleads your case the Holy Spirit is our intercessor so he prays for you he's her counselor he gives you good advice he's your strengthener gives you strength when you're tired and feeling weak doesn't that sound like the kind of friend you would want he really is truly your ride-or-die you know you think you've got good friends but you'll have any friend like the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit's trying to tell you today lead on mmm-hmm when you're not strong and I'll be your friend sing it with you where at wherever you're at I need your help right now sing it with me the Holy Spirit is the kind of friend you want that's why it's so important to understand this he's not the force like in Star Wars you can't have a personal relationship with the force he is a person you have to understand that to have a personal relationship with him with him some people I would say this maybe you're one of these people you've been dissatisfied with most of the relationships you've ever had in your life whether it was a girlfriend or a boyfriend parents people you work with you need to know that you're longing for an intimate relationship that only the Holy Spirit can provide you with the Holy Spirit is your friend and he is your friend with supernatural benefits okay we're gonna talk about these benefits but man acts tells us how he gives you power we read in Romans 5 that the Holy Spirit provides you with love Bible actually says that the love of God is poured into your heart by the Holy Spirit he provides you with fruit Galatians 5 plus about the fruit of the Spirit with gifts I love gifts who doesn't love gifts but it says in 1st Corinthians 12 and 14 that he has gifts for you so he's your friend he's your friend with supernatural benefits it's the kind of friends you want he's not weird he's the friends you need and because he's our friends now I want to encourage you in this that means that we should talk to him wouldn't it be weird to have a really good friends and never talk to that person your friend would call you up like what's up man why are you not why are you not talking to me I want you to know this even if you haven't been talking to him he's been trying to talk to you he's been trying to speak to you multiple ways one of the ways that he speaks to us through his word the word of God we call it the Bible often times but we know this as Christians that every word of the Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit and over the years has been translated into a language we can understand that's a good thing but man you go back to the original Greek in Hebrew that it was originally written and it was inspired Word forward by the Holy Spirit so he was speaking to you he speaks to us with his voice and I've had people ask me this some times how can I tell the Holy Spirit is talking to me because sometimes it just sounds like my own thoughts and that makes sense because his spirit speaks to our spirit and our spirit interprets that through our brain and it sounds like our thoughts but oftentimes he'll speak to you through your spirit and he'll guide you and you'll feel this prompting a leading he'll he'll say you know you should slow down or you should go over and talk to that person that's oftentimes the Holy Spirit trying to speak to you as a friend he wants to help you so hey wherever you're at today if you don't know that much about the Holy Spirit understand this right up front he's your friend and he's not weird here's the second thing I want to talk about he's my helper the Holy Spirit is my helper now when I first got married to Amy I learned a lot about living with a girl it's very different it's very different than when I was a single guy living on my own when you just do whatever you want you take clothes out of the dryer and you just throw them on the ground it changes changes when you live with a girl one of the things that really started to change was we started to have fancy things around the house nice things things that I found out I'm not allowed to use like there's a bathroom in my house you guys with towels I'm not allowed to touch there just for looks I found out they're not for use and they're a place in my house that I'm not allowed to eat food off of their fancy plates they're Amy's grandma's China I've never eaten off these plates in fact I think I'm gonna go home after this sermon and just eat cereal out of these fancy China Bulls just because I can but you know a lot of people think about the Holy Spirit this way like he is this mystical ethereal theological concept and he sits up on the shelf and he looks really pretty but don't mess with him cuz it'll it'll it would not work out the way that you want I want you to understand that's not right the Holy Spirit is not for looks he's for use he's her helper and he's meant to help you in a practical tangible way the word for our helper / aqua toss in Greek yeah that's someone who comes alongside you and helps you in the ways these are advocate he's your strengthener he's your counselor but he helps you men in so many ways sometimes it's what to say there's been times the Holy Spirit's just giving me the right words to say I didn't know what to say but he helps me there's been times he leaves me and what not to say and I feel like this has come up so many times you know like you know what I'm talking about you've texts someone something you're like writing out a text message and you're like real mad you're about to get something off your chest and then you feel this this tug in your heart and it's like this is prompting you know in your soul like ah I shouldn't say this like I want to say like I feel a lot better but the Holy Spirit's there like you better not don't say it and you delete that text message you're like thanks Holy Spirit you saved me again from embarrassing myself but he helps us and he he leads us into truth he teaches us is what Jesus says guides us into truth the Satan lies and is the father of lies but the Holy Spirit is the originator of truth and he leads us into truth so I mean if you want to understand the Bible stop waiting for a pastor to explain every part of the Bible to you the Holy Spirit is the one who helps you to understand Scripture the Holy Spirit tells us jesus said of things to come you know the spirit knows what's to come I think about how when this current situation started back in March a lot of chaos began with this coronavirus and pastors were talking to each other all my pastor friends we were talking like what are you doing what are you gonna do how are you gonna do how are you doing that and one day I was driving down the road here in Mesa down southern Avenue and I felt the Holy Spirit speak to me just like we're talking about I feel like he spoke to me and he said Ryan you're talking to all your friends you're calling these pastors who are mentors to you but have you stopped and asked me what to do the Holy Spirit knows exactly what's to come no no pastor friend I have or mentor has lived through a pandemic and led through that but the Holy Spirit has and he knows exactly what's going to happen and so I realized in that moment man I need to ask the Holy Spirit for advice maybe there's some of you today that you're struggling with the decision you need to stop googling answers you just stop calling people and ask the Holy Spirit what to do he's your help her and he knows what's going to come we all want to hear God speak but so many times we don't embrace the person of the Trinity whose job it is to speak to us I want you to know this a lot a lot of you would get more done if you would talk to your helper let your helper help you amen one of the ways that he really helps us I want to talk about is he convicts us he convicts us and this word conviction it really means convincing so if you've been convicted it means you've been convinced what does he convinced us about it says this in John chapter 16 verse 8 Jesus is talking he says and when he comes he will convict the world it's gonna convince the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment look what it says concerning sin because they do not believe in me concerning righteousness righteousness because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged okay so what is this passage mean you would read this and very easily be confused about how the Holy Spirit convicts us first it says he convicts us concerning sin sin the problem is if you don't believe you're a sinner you'll never understand your need for a savior so we need to be convicted of sin yes there have been people throughout history who have abused people they've guilt-tripped people they've used the Bible to beat you over the head and make you feel like the worst person who's ever lived but the Holy Spirit brings it fiction of sin that is to our benefit it's this acknowledgment it's in your spirit knowing I am a sinner I have broken God's laws I have fallen short of God's standard that comes from the Holy Spirit you cannot be saved unless the Holy Spirit first convinces you that you've sinned it says this in first Corinthians 12 verse 3 no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit if you've come to the place where you've called out on Jesus to save you you could not have done that without the Holy Spirit he's the one who convinced you and enabled you to recognize that Jesus is Lord so I mean it starts with being convinced I'm a sinner and I can tell you right now I'm a sinner like the Apostle Paul who wrote so much of the New Testament he called himself the chief of sinners that's not a negative thing to acknowledge that that allows you to call upon Jesus and accept him as Lord so man thankful Holy Spirit when he convinces you that you've sins and then here's the next thing he convinces us concerning righteousness and here's what this is about it's concerning your righteousness in Christ you need to be convinced that you have been made righteous in Christ Jesus that's why it says Jesus has gone to the Father he's seated at his right hand and he's sitting down why because the work is done and you've been made righteous in Christ it says in Romans chapter 8 verse 16 the Spirit Himself bears witness or testifies with our spirit that we are God's children so the Holy Spirit is the one who reminds you and tells you and he convinces you hey you're a child of God I know you might feel bad about some things that have happened in your life recently but hey remember you're a child of God at the end of the day no matter what happened if you fell if you tripped up if you blew it a few made mistakes God still loves you you know why because you're a child of God the Holy Spirit he convinces us of this but yes we have sins but by faith in Jesus been saved and we now have right standing with God and then it said that he convicts us of judgment because the ruler of this world is judged so we need to understand who is the ruler of this world that Jesus was referring to I'll read John 12:31 to you it says the time for judging this world has come when who Satan the ruler of this world will be cast out so up until Jesus death and resurrection Satan was the ruler of this world now that Jesus has conquered sin and death he is the ruler of this world it's no longer Satan but Jesus is now the ruler so he can fix us the holy spirit of sin and righteousness and judgment and we understand what that means we oftentimes think of the Holy Spirit like he's our guilty conscience you know like hey you know you're a sinner you're a bad guy and you better start doing what's right or else God's gonna get you how many of you have a relationship with God that sounds a lot like that like the Holy Spirit you just think of measure guilty consciousness just follows you around and points out all the things that you've done wrong but that's not what he does in reality he's your friends and he helps you by first convincing you yes you have sinned so call the name of the Lord and then he convinces you because you call him the name of the Lord you've been made righteous and then he convinces you that Satan has no authority over you any longer but rather Jesus is the ruler of your life that's what he convicts you about here's the third thing I want to talk to you about the Holy Spirit he's my God he's my god now this is something believe it or not that some people struggle to accept they might have a negative reaction to this like it's easy to accept that the father is God it's easy to accept that Jesus the Son is God but I've met Christians who had this attitude toward the Holy Spirit like he's the sidekick to God that's not true he's not the Robin to Batman he's God and I'll just show you like one place in Scripture that proves this in Acts chapter 5 it says then Peter said Ananias how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you receive for the land it goes on to say you have not lied just to human beings but to God the Holy Spirit is God it's not Father Son and Holy Bible as some of you were led to believe groan I'll be my Baptist brothers right they grew up and they thought the Trinity who was Father Son and Holy Bible they didn't know I'm just playing I'm just playing I love you but it's Father Son and Holy Spirit there are three and one I know it's confusing but they're God in John 15 Jesus said when the helper comes whom I will send to you from the father the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the father he will bear witness about me okay so the Holy Spirit comes from the father just like Jesus said I come from the father and I'll return to the Father and then we see when Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit shows up Luke 3:22 and the Holy descended on him in bodily form like a dove I want to point this out real quick it was like a dove the Holy Spirit is not a dove but he's like he just said it like a dove and a voice came from heaven which said you are my beloved son with you I am well pleased so there we saw in Jesus's baptism all three show a Father Son Holy Spirit in this special moment and if you're struggling to understand as a Christian how God can be three-in-one welcome to the club it I don't understand it either honestly like it's hard to wrap my mind around fully but they exist in perfect relationship they defer to each other and love one another that's why we human beings are long the longing for relationship like right now I've heard from so many of you who have been socially distancing from other people and your longing for contacts with people you're feeling that distance and it's hard it's honestly kind of depressing it can be a real struggle and then we're doing our best as a church to stay right now is I'm grateful for this time with you but man we are longing for relationship because it is an intrinsic part of our nature to have relationship why because we were designed in God's image we were created in his likeness and God has always existed in perfect relationship Father Son and Holy Spirit God is relationship and we're longing for that kind of relationship and we need it without it man it hurts but God has always existed in perfect relationship and and the three persons of the Trinity they defer to each other like here the best no you're the best no you're the best and so if you've ever celebrated that Jesus saves you you need to know the Father Son and Holy Spirit worked together to save you it's not one of them but all of them the father he sent the son and glorifies the son the son does what the father says and shows us the father we can only understand God the Father through Jesus the physical manifestation of the Father's love the son told us the Holy Spirit was coming introduced us the Holy Spirit he came and then you know what he does he leads you to Jesus that's his role the Holy Spirit leads you to Jesus and so I want to say this one of the warning signs of Christians who don't handle this properly is they talk about the Holy Spirit a lot but they rarely talk about Jesus I know some churches write like this and I'm not trying to bash them but they're always talking about wind and fire and revival but they rarely talk about Jesus which is a misappropriation of the Holy Spirit because you see in Scripture that what the Holy Spirit does is he continuously draws people and pulls people towards Jesus he glorifies Jesus the Holy Spirit says to us isn't Jesus amazing Jesus is correct like we should worship Jesus right now and the Holy Spirit is our friends he's our helper he's God and he helps us to understand God and because he's with you right now those of you who are Christians you need to know this the presence of God is with you the Holy Spirit dwells in all Christians that means that God is always with you the Bible says so much about the Holy Spirit and we're gonna unpack it more in the weeks to come we're gonna talk about his benefits more and how to have a healthy relationship with him how to understand him I mean the Bible says so many powerful things about the Holy Spirit that he intercedes through us on earth that the Holy Spirit he calls and qualifies every minister for their work so for any of you who can called into ministry by God the Holy Spirit is the one who anoints you and qualifies you for that the Holy Spirit he hears from God and he speaks on behalf of God he teaches and guides us into all truth he glorifies Christ and he tells us what he receives from Christ he reveals Jesus to us and brings all of Jesus's words to our remembrance you know that means anytime you remember something that Jesus said the Holy Spirit minded you of that he shows us things to come he knows the deep things of God he searches all things and reveals all things and he thought anytime truth comes to light the Holy Spirit reveal revealed that the writers of the Bible spoke and were moved by him we're wards not to grieve him or quench him unless were born of the Spirit the Bible says we cannot receive the kingdom of God the Bible says is where he is there is freedom the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom so that means that we're convicted by him born again by him led by him filled by him and sealed by him aren't you grateful for the Holy Spirit so I want to say this to you today he is a kind and compassionate and loving person and what I want for you is to have a relationship with let me just ask you today I'm just challenging you asking as a friend have you had negative feelings towards the holy spirit have you maybe been a little bit afraid of him have you been hesitant to fully embrace what he has for you maybe you have seen some bad examples people misrepresenting the Holy Spirit abusing him or misusing him and so that's caused you to keep your heart closed to all the fullness of relationship that comes through the Spirit of God maybe it's caused you to shrink back from his presence or his leading he's tried to guide you but you've dismissed it and said oh that's just my own imagination and and maybe you recognize that right now if so I want to close just by encouraging you today in these three truths the Holy Spirit wants to be your intimate friend he wants to help you and he is your God that's what makes the first two things so amazing is that he's actually God and he wants to be your friend and help you and so I'll close with this remember you cannot receive the Holy Spirit until you first put your faith in Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit is the one that convinces us of our sin and our need for a savior and so maybe he's drawing some of you today possibly calling you to in relationship with Jesus he's inviting you to enter in to a relationship with Jesus and right now he's just pushing and and he's pleading with you like hey accept him accept invite him into your life surrender to him stop trying to do it yourself let Jesus save you and lead you okay so the Holy Spirit right now is working on some of your hearts and so maybe you need to accept Jesus today and what you can do is you can start a conversation with one of our pastors online will pray with you will lead you in the salvation prayer you can maybe just let us know that you're praying and accepting God right now you can click that link that says I want to accept Jesus I want to be saved wherever you're I just want to pray with you right now if you're ready to accept Jesus pray with me and just say God I need you I know that I'm a sinner I want to be saved I believe that Jesus died for my sins and rose again I want to follow you from this day forward fill me with your spirit in Jesus name Amen amen and hey for those of you church family that you've already been saved you've already received the Holy Spirit living inside of you I believe this is the beginning of a new season for you as a person who's a part of this church right as a follower of Jesus this is an opportunity for you to grow in to a deeper level of relationship with the Holy Spirit he wants to fill you up he wants to use you he has greater things for you and so wherever you're at today right now just open your heart to God and say Lord I want all that you have for me Holy Spirit I invite you into my life I invite you to fill me up to change me to use me I thank you that you're my friend I thank you that you're my helper and I worship you as my god Lord we love you we praise you today we honor you in this place we thank you that even though we are distance we're not divided God we know that you're near to us you're close to us you're comforting us across the valley and the nation even right now as your people Lord we are hungry for you and we know that in this weird season you're gonna take with the enemy men for evil and continue using it for good Lord I pray that our longing for relationship would lead us into a deeper relationship with your spirit so God right now in living rooms in cars wherever we're at fill that place up with your presence in Jesus name we pray everyone said amen amen come on give God praise forever you're at

Channel: Generation Church

Views: 615

Rating: 4.6923075 out of 5

Keywords: Minister, Prayers, Love, Jesus, Christian, Spirituality, Faith, Pastor, Christ, Powerful sermon, Purpose of life, Purpose, Life, Service, Speaker, Sunday, Fellowship, Christ's, Church, Spiritual, The Holy Spirit, Holy, Spirit, Trinity

Id: 88yR8hMWvQE

Length: 31min 42sec (1902 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 20 2020