Sermon Brief
Date Written: November 15, 2013
Date Preached: November 17, 2013
Where Preached: OPBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Series Title: Building a Foundation for a Thankful Life
Sermon Title: The 3rd Piling – Holy Spirit - Counselor
Sermon Text: John 16:5-15 [HCSB]
Essence of the Text: Jesus was stressing His promise of God’s Holy Spirit to comfort, guide and direct the disciples after He had returned to heaven.
Essence of the Sermon: Jesus’ words still stress God’s promise attitude toward the Holy Spirit and what He can and will do for us as believers!
Objective of the Sermon: KNOWING that the Holy Spirit is here to comfort, counsel, admonish, lead, guide and direct our steps is a great reason to live out our lives with a thankful foundation in our attitude and heart!
Introduction:
So far in our series on Building a foundation of thankfulness in our lives we have discussed the 2 main pilings that stabilize and strengthen the foundations of our life!
The 1st piling in our foundation is that God is God and we can know that the creator of the universe desires a personal and intimate relationship with us! He is God we must be thankful… we should LIVE our lives thankfully for Him, in obedience and submission!
The 2nd piling of this foundation of thankfulness in our lives is that Jesus is Savior! We saw that God loved us and wanted to have a relationship with us and so He sent Jesus to pave that way!
We have seen what Jesus has done and who Jesus is to us to us as believers and we have explored WHY it is that we should live THANKFULLY and serve God thru His Son, Jesus!
This morning we will be looking at the 3rd piling within this foundation of thankfulness… it is the Holy Spirit, our counselor and comforter! But let’s also review the underlying premise of our series…
In Phil 4:6 Paul wrote, “…Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and THANK Him [be thankful] for all He has done…”
We all know how easy it is to point the finger of blame when we have trouble in our lives! We all know how when we have trouble in our lives that we can go to God for guidance and deliverance, but in our foundational verse Paul tells us that EVEN though God wants us to bring all things to Him… BUT that we are to do so with a heart of thanksgiving!
So let me ask you, “Do you have ANYTHING in your life today that you are worried about, fretting over, or weighing heavy on your mind?” If so, you can take it to God, but do so with a heart filled with thanksgiving toward God!
God has said in his word that all we need to do is ask and he will provide for us, but Scripture tells us that what we ask MUST be tied to the focus of our lives… I said this last week; God is NOT a prayer vending machine with us putting in our prayers and Him dispensing out our hearts desires…
When we come to God in a heart of thanksgiving, Scripture tells us that God will answer us! When we SEEK HIM, our focus must NOT be on our problems, but focused on Him and what He has done for us!
As I have stated the past few weeks, God is a loving God, but when we approach Him in prayer it has to be with the right attitude & so I believe when Paul speaks about this here in our foundational verse -- the ‘right attitude’ in coming to God is coming to Him with an unashamed attitude of THANKFULNESS for what He has done!
How? How can I possibly have a thankful heart? Or a thankful attitude? You don’t know what is happening in my life… you don’t know what I am going thru? My world stinks! So I don’t understand when you say...
That you can be thankful when you are hurting! But in your pain you can know that God is there and that Jesus is Savior…
That you can be thankful when your heart aches! In your heartache God is present and desires to soothe your soul.
That you can be thankful when all seems lost! At the end of your rope, Jesus is standing with arms open wide… bidding you to surrender to Him!
You CAN live a life of thankfulness in this harsh world… It does NOT come easy! It takes an intentional effort and laser like focus within our hearts on God being God and Jesus being our Savior to help us live a thankful life! But God being God and Jesus being Savior are NOT the only reasons…
This morning I want to share a 3rd reason that believers can live a life of thankfulness… it is because our foundation has a 3rd piling that brings comfort and peace to our lives!
This morning I want us to focus in on the Holy Spirit! Yes I said it… I am standing in the middle of a Southern Baptist church and I am saying that we must focus in on the HOLY SPIRIT!
Baptist believers have difficulty with the 3rd person of the Trinity… we profess to believing in a Triune God… one God… three persons… Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
We pray like this… we baptize our new believers like this, but when it comes to the actual living out of our lives… So many of us simply overlook or ignore the Holy Spirit!
In fact, in our worship experiences we find ourselves actually RUNNING away from the Holy Spirit because we don’t want to be branded as Charismatic or Pentecostal…
In fact in MANY Christian circles the Holy Spirit is severely misunderstood, neglected, or worse yet, totally forgotten! The Holy Spirit is the ONE given by to unite the body of Christ and we find it at the center of controversy today… a controversy stirred up and continued by THOSE He was sent to comfort, counsel and guide!
As a pastor, I have often witnessed that work in the church is so rigidly programmed that it seems as if believers no longer seek out or depend upon the Holy Spirit! We see this and yet Jesus said, "Without Me you can do nothing."
The late Christian author Dr. A. W. Tozer, made a comparison between the church of the New Testament and the church today, he said,
"If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we are doing would continue to be done and no one would know the difference…
BUT…
If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they were doing would have stopped, and everybody would have known the difference."
Brothers and sisters, this morning I want to tell you that it is NOT good and it does NOT help ANY believer to ignore or run from the Holy Spirit… The Holy Spirit is a crucial and critical part of WHO we are in Christ!
The HS was sent by God to be our comforter, counselor, and guide within our lives! The Holy Spirit is the 3rd piling of our foundation for a thankful life!
This morning I want to point out 3 perspectives that should help us to see the Holy Spirit as an ally and reason to live THANKFULLY for what God has done in our lives!
The 1st perspective for seeing the Holy Spirit as a reason for living thankfully in our walk with Christ is…
1. The Holy Spirit’s Presence – v5-7
5“But now I am going away to Him who sent Me, and not one of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ 6Yet, because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you.
In this passage Jesus is revealing the reality of His return to the Father. He is letting the disciples know that He is returning to Heaven… In John 14 He told them it was to go and prepare a place for them that when He came back… he would come and take them with Him to the place He had prepared FOR them…
Now, as believers, we ALL desire to be WITH Jesus… Paul wrote a great deal about being with Jesus saying that for him to be with Christ was a FAR better thing and he longed to go to be with His Savior!
However, he also understood that as believers and witnesses for Jesus here in this world that we have a purpose while here in this world! That purpose is for us to share the Gospel of Jesus to those who do NOT know Him.
The disciples were being groomed by Jesus to become the 1st set of disciples to share Jesus with the world, but they were terrified to face the world without their Master and Savior…and now He was telling them He was going back to heaven!
So Jesus wanted to comfort them and ease their fear… Jesus told them that YES He had to leave; but that He was going to send them a comforter to be there for them as He had been there for them… but this comforter would be in the form of the indwelling Holy Spirit!
We can look at Acts chapter 1 and see just how comforting the Holy Spirit became for the disciples and all who followed Jesus in His earthly ministry… It came, and filled them with peace, purpose and power!
The presence of the Holy Spirit shook the very room where they were praying… Scripture tells us that the Spirit announced its presence with a sound like a mighty rushing wind… It came and made its presence known by appearing like flames of fire over each believer!
But the presence of the Holy Spirit was NOT limited to the upper room where these disciples had been praying… He also revealed himself THRU the believers as they stepped OUT of the upper room… He revealed His presence through their proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus in the languages of ALL those who were in Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost!
These people heard the message about Jesus in their native tongue… The Holy Spirit made His presence known by spreading the news of Jesus thru these believers!
The presence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of these believers brought peace to their soul and a courage to their actions! Where they had been in fear of persecution… they NOW were stepping out into the public and PUBLICLY proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ…without fear!
Today we do NOT have Jesus physically here with us either… but what we do have is the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit brings power with His presence and calms our fears with his presence…
We must be thankful FOR the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives… We must LIVE out our lives with a thankful attitude and heart because God has provided HIS presence thru the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives!
The 2nd perspective for seeing the Holy Spirit as a reason for living thankfully in our walk with Christ is…
2. The Holy Spirit’s Purpose – v8-11
8When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: 9About sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me; 11 and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
The 1st purpose of the Holy Spirit is one that NOT one of us like… He is that still small voice that speaks to our heart and reveals the sin in our lives!
We don’t like that, we run from that voice, we try to hide from that voice, we try to rationalize WITH that voice, we try to bargain with that voice… but we find that NO matter what we do or say, that still small voice remains true in revealing where we fail God!
We don’t like it when we are told we are wrong, but it is something we need! God gives us what we need by the Holy Spirit revealing sin… we may NOT like it, but we DO need it!
I compare it to being sick… when we were sick as children NONE of us liked the medicine we got… they may SAY it was grape flavored but I have never tasted grapes like that… it was HORRIBLE!
As a child, my mother worked at a children’s home and one year there was an outbreak of staff and it was causing boils on many of the children… I had 5 boils on the back of my neck and just about every child had some form or type of staff infection…
The leaders of the children’s home came up with brilliant idea to give us sulphur and they tried to mask its taste by mixing it with molasses. Now I am here to tell you that was the nastiest stuff I EVER tasted, but it DID work and the staff infections stopped!
None of us like to swallow the bitter pill of being told we are in the wrong! Even if we KNOW it is for our own spiritual good… we don’t like it because we want what WE want!
You see, humanity is sin sick… we are infected with a heart to sin… even to the point of spiritual death! We have NO ability to cure ourselves! But God has stepped in as our Heavenly Father and provided the Holy Spirit to reveal our sin and convict us so that we can come to repentance!
But here is what many people don’t understand, the Holy Spirit will NOT come and yank out the sin in our lives! He is not going to see the sin and rip it right out of our hearts because that is NOT his purpose, His main purpose toward us is to reveal and convict us of the sin in our lives so that we will turn to Christ, our Savior…
Peaching a revival one time, the evangelist, D.L. Moody held up a glass and asked the question, "How can I get all the air out of this glass?" One man shouted, "Suck it out with a pump!" Moody replied, "No that won’t work, it would create a vacuum and break the glass." After several other suggestions Dr Moody smiled, picked up a pitcher of water, and filled the glass to the top. He said, "There, all the air is now removed."
He then explained that salvation/redemption from sin is NOT found in the Holy Spirit tearing the sin from our lives… it is NOT about the Holy Spirit "sucking out a sin here and there," but salvation and the remission of our sin is found only by being filled with the Holy Spirit.
The conviction/revelation of sin by the Holy Spirit also reveals the judgment FOR that sin… The Holy Spirit reveals that those who are ‘in sin’ are lost and separated from God and helpless to change their spiritual status, but He also reveals that there is GOOD news…
So before you can ever KNOW you are a sinner, the Holy Spirit MUST reveal your sin to you… He must convict you of the sin in your life and reveal the coming judgment for those lost in sin… This leads us to turn to Christ and the salvation He made possible on the Cross of Calvary!
BUT, there is still another purpose FOR the Holy Spirit… and this other purpose is to bring righteousness into our lives! When the Holy Spirit FILLS us… He fills us with the righteousness of Christ!
AND… when we are FILLED with the righteousness of Christ; the sin of our past, present and future is driven out… replaced by the presence of God in our lives!
Conviction of sin and judgment are the purpose of the Holy Spirit, but we also find that God also uses the Holy Spirit as the ‘delivery mechanism’ for the saving righteousness of Christ in the life of the believer! Without the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit we are lost… without the driving purpose of the Holy Spirit we are hopelessly lost!
The Holy Spirit’s 1st perspective is that he is THERE… His presence and how He brings courage and faithful action when He is present in our lives!
The Holy Spirit’s 2nd perspective is that He has a definite purpose and He fills it! He convicts of sin, reveals coming judgment, but is also the delivery mechanism for the salvation Christ provided on the Cross.
BUT there is a 3rd perspective this morning on how we can live a thankful life… It is …
3. The Holy Spirit’s Provision – v12-15
12“I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. 14He will glorify Me, because He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you. 15Everything the Father has is Mine. This is why I told you that He takes from what is Mine and will declare it to you.
The Holy Spirit provides courage and enables us to step out on faith… Here Jesus reveals the provision of the Comforter who is to come! He is the One who guides our footsteps in the way of truth… guiding us according to the Will of God!
How many times are we faced with many options in this world and there is confusion in our lives on which way we should go… which path we should take… many look like the right way to go, but when we lean on the Holy Spirit, we are NEVER guided down the wrong path!
Often we find that we want to go our own way and we try to get God to bless OUR direction, OUR choices, OUR decisions… but the Holy Spirit will guide us to all truth… He will reveal the way we need to go and what we should be doing!
So often our choices leave us wanting… our choices leave us suffering… AND that is NOT limited to ourselves, but our choices affect other people! The Holy Spirit guides us to the right way… the HS reveals the TRUTH of where we need to go… but He does not just reveal truth but He gives us the courage to step out in faith to live out the truth He has revealed!
Do you realize that when we don’t listen to the Holy Spirit that we go without the TRUTH we need to live as we should? Do you realize that the Holy Spirit can and will lead us to boundless resources for service to God if we will seek Him and allow Him to guide us?
Far too often we want to do things our way… we cannot see any other way to do it and we settle in our minds that we know the best way and we don’t listen to the Holy Spirit and His guidance…
During the Great Depression in our nation’s history there was a sheep ranch who owned a lot of land, but his ranch was NOT making him any money! It was so bad that he was in danger of losing his ranch.
He had little or NO money for clothes or food, and finally he made the decision that there was only one way he and his family could make it… that there was only ONE way for him and his family to survive… like many other families in our nation at that time, they resorted to taking a government subsidy. They began to live on the government check, but thing were still hard and things were getting worse by the month…
Day after day, as he watched his family grow more and more desperate and as he watched his ranch spread out over those rolling West Texas hills, he was worried about how he would pay his bills.
Then one day a man showed up and asked if he could check his land for oil. He did NOT believe it could hurt, after all he was sinking fast. So he let this man with a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and check out his land. After they checked it out they were optimistic and so they asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and this man signed a lease contract.
The oil company struck a HUGE oil reserve at 1,115 feet on the first well they drilled. The first well began to produce 80,000 barrels of oil per day. They began to drill more wells and those wells were more than twice as large.
Almost overnight this man went from pauper about to lose all he had to a multi-millionaire… and here is how this applies to us! You see this man was only able to see what his eyes would let him… he could only see farming sheep and it was failing and he could see NO hope…
You see, this land was HIS and had been for many years, passed down in his family… HE owned it all... The day he inherited the land he had inherited ALL the oil and mineral rights. AND YET this man had been living on gov’t assistance…and fearing that he was going to lose it all!
Here was a man who had VAST wealth under his feet… He had ALWAYS been a multimillionaire who was living in poverty. Why? Well, he didn’t know the oil was there even though he owned it.
Think about it people… we are endowed by our Savior with the Holy Spirit, who brings with Him the resources and power of the God of the Universe… and yet many of us choose to only see what we can see… trusting ONLY in our own eyes and in doing so we live in spiritual poverty.
Do you realize that when you are saved and the Holy Spirit comes to indwell your life that you are entitled to ALL His gifts and energizing power… But sadly MOST believers NEVER become aware of their birthright in Christ!
We must CLAIM that birthright as believers… we must STOP seeing and seeking spiritual things with our carnal/human eyes and hearts! We must begin to place our trust and faith into the Holy Spirit who indwells our hearts!
Can you imagine what God would do with this church if we were to begin to see things thru the eyes of the Holy Spirit? Trusting in His guidance, allowing Him to encourage, embolden and enlighten us, allowing Him to provide ALL resources we need to serve God in our community! Can you imagine what God could DO?
Well we DO have Holy Spirit and we need to begin living out our lives relying upon this GREAT gift God has blessed us with… the presence of the Holy Spirit, the position of the Holy Spirit and finally the provision of the Holy Spirit… YOU ARE BLESSED with all you need to change this world…
To live a life of thankfulness we must recognize that we stand on a firm foundation… a foundation made up of God the Father who loves us… Jesus, the Son who died and was raised for us… and the Holy Spirit who is present with us, gives us position in God’s kingdom and provides what we need to live a victorious life in Christ!
So what are you doing today? Where is your heart? Are you living a life of thankfulness… knowing that you are standing such a solid foundation? OR are you trying to build your OWN foundation to make it thru this life?
Believers… we cannot be afraid or ashamed of the Holy Spirit… we must welcome Him and exalt Him just as we do God the Father and Jesus our Savior… Let us embrace the Holy Spirit today… and allow God to work THRU Him in our lives to reach this community for Him!
Offer invitation here…
