Sermon Central
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Part 2 - Spiritual Renewal Series
Contributed by Pastor Bruce A. Shields on Oct 4, 2006 (message contributor)
Summary: How Spiritual Renewal is essential for Spiritual Growth within the Body of Christ.
Grieving the Holy Spirit
Part 2 – Spiritual Revival
Rev. Bruce A. Shields
First Baptist Church Tawas City Michigan
www.TawasBaptist.org
WELCOME
Welcome to the First Baptist Church of Tawas City Michigan.
We are glad you are here this beautiful morning, joining us in our worship and praise of our Lord Jesus Christ.
INTRODUCTION
We began our series last week on Grieving the Holy Spirit, and we talked about three ‘Do Nots’, which were do not resist the Holy Spirit, do not grieve the Holy Spirit and do not quench the Holy Spirit.
This week we are going to continue our series, and we will be talking about Spiritual Revival, and how important it is for us to constantly examine and renew our relationship with the Holy Spirit so that He can do His good work in us.
Remember, it is the Holy Spirits purpose to regenerate, indwell and equip us to do the ministry which Christ Jesus has commissioned each one of us to do.
And we can only fulfill that calling through the Holy Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit begins by regeneration.
When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, He makes it possible for us to receive the promise of the Father, which is the Holy Spirit.
It is when we receive the Holy Spirit that the work of regeneration begins within us.
First through our conviction when the Holy Spirit causes us to compare ourselves to the 10 qualities of God listed in His commandments.
We can not measure up to God’s standards.
We are told in Psalm 19:7;
“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul…”
This conviction of our own sin by the Holy Spirit makes clear to us the need for conversion which can only come by atonement to God for that sin.
This only comes by Jesus Christ.
Once we accept Jesus Christ as out Lord and Savior, confessing our recognized sin shown to us by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, we repent of that sin and the second part of our regeneration begins.
A work is begun in us.
Regeneration from the inside out.
He begins His good work in us.
“being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
When will our conversion be completed? On the Day Christ returns!
How does the Holy Spirit do this good work in us?
By indwelling within us.
The Holy Spirit fills our Spiritual void that was caused by the fall.
We lost our ability to commune with God at the fall, and until we accept Christ and receive a new Spirit from God, we cannot have a relationship with the Father in Heaven.
This indwelling of the Holy Spirit, because of Christ and the Cross, our accepting Him, confessing our sin and repenting, mends our relationship with the Father, and makes possible for us, the ability to worship God once again.
Last week we read in John 4:23 – “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.”
The true worshippers worship in Spirit and in Truth, the Spirit is the Holy Spirit, and the Truth is Jesus Christ.
Jesus said in John 14:6 – “Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
It is through accepting Jesus Christ, the Truth, that we receive the Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
It is then and only then, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we may come to the Father.
So after the Holy Spirits regeneration and indwelling, He equips us.
Equipping us is done by giving us the Character of God, which is the Fruits of the Spirit.
Fruits that can only come by the Holy Spirit, and reflect the Character of God in our lives.
“Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.”
We are known by our fruit, and what kingdom we belong.
Are we of the Good Kingdom of God, or the corrupt kingdom of the devil?
Our fruit shows this.
The Holy Spirit also equips us, not just with the Characteristics of God through the Fruit, but with the abilities of God, through the Gifts of the Spirit.
Spiritual Gifts are God’s abilities manifested through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us.
Not our natural talents enhanced, but abilities of God, from God’s Holy Spirit.
These are to equip us for the maintaining and building up of the Body of Christ, of which we who have accepted Jesus, belong to.
