Holy Spirit - You Are Welcome In This Place.

Years ago they used to call car rally enthusiasts - "Car rally enthusiasts".

Today they’re simply called "petrol heads".

Well there has never been such a great time for petrol heads - Wow!!!!!!!

With Colin McRea - Carlos Saines or Richard Burns burning around corners at breakneck speed - with jumps over moguls that would have destroyed a car years ago and with on board cameras and incredible commentaries not to mention the computer generated backup images - Petrol heads have never had it so good.

But here’s an interesting technological fact for you. If the car runs out of oil it will still stop if the car runs out of Petrol it won’t go - and if the wheel nuts are loose you are likely to have the wheel fall off.

Petrol heads get really disappointed with that sort of thing.

We are in the middle of a series of sermons based on Romans chapter one from where I have been attempting to extract key elements that Paul reveals that help us to foster good Christian fellowship.

So far we have been looking at the numonic F.A.I.T.H

Faith.

Today I want to look at the letter ’H’ on that numonic which is the last letter of faith.

H is for Holy Spirit.

Our fellowship is to be in the character of the Holy Spirit who indwells Christians.

What I want to talk about today in particular relates more with Galations chapter 5 and verse 22 rather than Romans chapter 1.

In fact the thread which I am using to tie this into Romans chapter 1 is

RO 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God-- 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

as to his human nature was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Holy Spirit played a critical part in the life and ministry of Jesus -

If we want effective Christian relationships we can be assured that the Holy Spirit needs to be present in our relationships.

That is where the rally illustration comes in - Without petrol - oil or wheel nuts the rally simply wouldn’t happen - without the Holy spirit the church simply can not happen either.

Many years ago now we ran a series of seminars called the Life in the Spirit seminars.

It was a very carefully prepared seminar that helped Christians to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to grow in the Spirit.

But one of the concerns that I have subsequently had about these seminars is not about what it taught of the Holy Spirit but rather what we missed out - or rather neglected in emphasis.

What we emphasised was often the evidences of the Holy Spirit and also salvation.

But an equally important matter of far less exciting or of sensational interest is the fruit of the Spirit.

If we go back to the passage in Romans chapter 1 and verse 4 we read of Jesus

4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Spirit of holiness released Jesus in power - after Jesus’ baptism we find him being released in power into the world At his baptism we are told the spirit of god descended upon jesus like a dove.

Just as a rally car is able to move in power through the oil - fuel and wheels so the Christian is empowered to do the work of God through the Holy Spirit.

All the things I said in the last few weeks depend greatly on the Holy Spirit moving in power in our lives -

Let’s consider an example of the Holy Spirit moving in power in a believer -

Welshman, Ree’s Howells was a man greatly used of God throughout his whole life.

One night, Rees Howells and his friends were returning from the village, they passed a group of woman who never came to the meetings. They could tell by their voices that they had been drinking. One of the party exclaimed, "Where is the power to change these people?" There and then the spirit gave it to him that he was to pick out the ringleader of those woman, who was a notorious character and a confirmed drunkard, and pray her into the Kingdom by Christmas Day!