Yates Pool is a famous oil field in West Texas. During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, this field was a sheep ranch owned by a man named Ira Yates. Because of Yates’ inability to make enough money on his ranching operation to make his mortgage payment, he was in danger of losing his ranch.
With little money for clothes or food, his family, like many others during the depression years, had to live on government subsidy. Day after day, Yates would watch his sheep as they grazed over those rolling West Texas hills. He would rack his brain trying to figure out some way to pay all his bills.
One day a crew of men from an oil company came into the area & convinced Yates there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat test well. Yates agreed & signed a lease contract.
At 1,115 ft, the drillers struck a huge oil reserve. The 1st well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. But that was only the beginning. Many more wells came in, some more than twice as productive as the first.
In the 60’s, after oil had been pumped for more than 30 yrs, a government test of just one of the wells showed that it still had a potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day. In the year 2000, Yates Field was still one of the top 10 producers of oil in the United States.
And to think, the one time sheep rancher Yates, owned it all!
When Yates purchased the ranch, he was more interested in grazing land for his sheep than he was in the oil & mineral rights. There he was, living on government subsidy, but sitting on a mammoth underground lake of incredibly valuable oil. He was a potential multimillionaire living in poverty. What was his problem? It was simply that he did not know the oil was there.
Perhaps, this story is not as removed from us as we might think.
Present we are doing a series of sermons titled: May I Introduce you to the H.S..
As believer, we have a great reservoir of wealth in the gift of the H.S.. Yet we sit idly by not even realizing that we have such a powerful gift. Our goal is to discover, perhaps for the first time, the H.S..
Last week: question: Who is the H.S.?
Today, in our search to discover more about the H.S. let us ask the question: WHAT DOES THE H.S. DO? We could go on for hours trying to answer this question. In our time together let us think about three basic responsibilities of the H.S..
I. THE H.S. IS TO LEAD PEOPLE TO JESUS
John 16:7-11 Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9about sin, because they do not believe in me; 10about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; 11about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.
You see it is not God’s will that anyone should perish but that all should come to know the love of God & be saved. In order to bring this about God has sent the H.S..
THE H.S. DOES 3 THINGS TO HELP LEAD PEOPLE TO JESUS
1. He convicts people of sin. Verse 8 (NIV…He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin)
---Plan of salvation, 1st questions:
"Are you a sinner?" "Done things God does not approve of?"
---Before becoming a Xian we must realize we are sinners
Well, how can we know this? It is the H.S. who touches our heart & opens our eyes to our own unworthiness.
---The age of accountability.
Parents: 12
Right & Wrong
H.S. does this
2. But the H.S. doesn’t stop here in attempting to lead someone to Jesus. The H.S. works to open our eyes to the fact that sin deserves punishment. It just makes common sense that a act brings about some type of response. When we sin against God, the H.S. allows us to see that if we remain in our present state there will be consequences us.
3. & finally, in attempting to lead persons to salvation, the H.S. helps us to see our need for a savior.
---Confirmation classes: What does a drowning man needs
II. Part of the good news is that the H.S. does not lead us to salvation only to leave us on our own. Christ does not save us & forget us. No, the second major responsibility of the H.S. is to strengthen the believer. The H.S. does this in several ways.
1. HE BECOMES OUR CONSTANT COMPANION.
---John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.
--The H.S. is with us at all times.
---He dwells in our bodies 1 Cor. 6:19-20
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.
When does the Xian receive the H.S.? When a person accepts Jesus as Lord & Savior the H.S. receives the Spirit at that moment. A common phrase today is, "Have you been baptized with H.S.," as if there was something extra you had to do. When we open our heart to Christ, we receive the H.S.. He is not something separate that you receive latter. He comes into our heart the moment we believe. Perhaps a more appropriate question would be, "Have we yielded our life to the full leading of the H.S.?" The Spirit strengthens the believer by indwelling he believers heart & body
2. HE HELPS US TO GROW INTO MATURE XIANS.
-- In doing this the Spirit opens our mind to the things of God.
---1 Cor. 2:9-10
The H.S. helps to open our mind to receive the things of God. He opens up the word to us that we might gain God’s truth.
3. Other ways the Spirit strengthens the believer. Most important thing the Spirit does to strengthen the believer is to give us assurance that we have been saved. We wouldn’t have much strength as Xians if we had to go through life wondering if we were going to make it through the pearly gates.
--Paul: Romans 8:15-16
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
A. John Wesley: father of Methodism; struggled with the topic of assurance. Priest 10 yrs; Aldersgate; journal:
About a quarter before nine, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; &
an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, & saved me from the law of sin & death.
B. Bishop Mack Stokes:
As life goes on, we know, with an ever deepening sense of assurance, that God is with us. Just as a child increasingly knows that he belongs to his earthly parents, so every Xian knows that he belongs to God. Now & then he may have doubts. But the continuing state of his soul is that of an unfaltering assurance.
Hymn: Blessed Assurance
What brings about this assurance? The H.S. working in the life of the believer to make him stronger.
III. Then it is the job of the H.S. to empower the Church for ministry.
1. The church could not exist without the H.S.. In fact the scriptures teach that it was the Spirit that brought the Church into being.
---1 Cor. 12:12-13
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
2. What is the church? It’s not a building. It’s a people. We are a part of the church as believers. The Spirit dwells in believers & when believers come together the church is present. It is the Spirit which empowers the Church for ministry. How does the Spirit empower the church for ministry? In several ways. By simply being present & working through the things being done. By giving special gifts to the people who make up the church.
Why is the church seemingly weak at times? Perhaps it is because we have not yielded our lives to the workings of the Spirit.
We are like Ira Yates. We are sitting on a gold mine of God’s power but we are simply not tapping into it.
