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| Rev. Brent Russett |
Pastor in the Ottawa area for the last 28 years
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PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast -
Sunday, July 22nd, 2018:
PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast -
Sunday, July 22nd, 2018:
The Holy Spirit
Good
morning Welcome to good news in the morning. I am so glad that you have tuned
into the program today. My name is Brent Russett. I have been a pastor in
Ottawa for 28 years. One of the things I love to do is show how God’s word that
was written a long time ago, connects with our world right now.
I
know that some of you who are listening have been followers of Jesus for a long
time, and I know that others of you think of yourself as spiritual, but you are
not really sure of this Christian thing, and I know others of you just curious
how people of faith think. I trust that wherever you are on yours spiritual
journey, that you will find this program interesting and informative, and I
believe that for those of you desire it, God can use a program like this to
take you another step closer to Him.
This program is kept on the air by many faithful donors. I want to thank
this morning’s program sponsor Bruce Newman. Bruce would like to give a shout
out to Jericho Road Christian Ministries as a local registered charity, for
their outstanding service to the community.” Jericho road is a great ministry
in our area that works to see people’s lives changed. Thanks Bruce and thanks
Jericho Road.
This
morning I want to talk to you about the Holy Spirit. Christians believe in the
triune God, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We believe
they are there yet one. And I am going to let that mystery be for today. But if
you are a Christian and want to understand you faith, you need to know who the
God you believe in is. If you are not a Christian but are interested in
understanding the Christian faith then you need the same.
Let
me take you to acts 2. It is about 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus,
just the week before had ascended into heaven. Now we read,
Acts 2:1–4 (NIV)
When the day of
Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like
the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where
they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated
and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy
Spirit and began to speak in other tongues
as the Spirit enabled them.
You
may remember the story. Peter stands up and preaches to the crowd and 3000
people give their lives to Jesus. Pentecost marks the birth of the church.
Pentecost marks a change of how God would deal with his people. For the most
part, in the Old Testament, God was with his people but not in his people Now
there were a number of people, usually Kings or Prophets, where the Bible
records that they were filled with the Spirit. But for the most part God was
just with his people,
After
Pentecost God, by his Holy Spirit was in his people. All of them were filled
with the Holy Spirit. This is the definition of being a Christian, a Christ
follower, a believer now – A true Christian is one in whom Jesus lives by his
Spirit. You will sometime hear Christians talk about Jesus coming into their
life. This is what they mean by that.
If
you are a Christian, Christ lives in you by his Spirit. If the Spirit of God is
not in you, you do not belong to Christ. The way the Spirit of God comes into
your life is by faith. When you pray a prayer like, Jesus I give you my life,
come into my life, forgive me of my sin, I want to follow you. – if you pray a
prayer like that in believing that God will do what you are asking, the Spirit
of God does come into you life.
But just because the Spirit is in our life
does not mean that we know him all that well.
The
Holy Spirit is the least known member of the trinity. We get God the Father,
All powerful, All knowing, Everywhere present, and full of love. We get God the
Son. Jesus. We see how he demonstrated who God is. We see his love and his
sacrifice for us on the cross. But we don’t really get the Holy Spirit.
He is
the third member of the trinity. But after that things seem to get a little
confusing. So this morning I want to talk about the Holy Spirit. I want to do
that for a number of reasons. I want you to know this wonderful third person of
the trinity. But more that that, He is really important to your Christian walk.
In fact he is the member of the trinity that you are in touch with most
regularly, but you are probably unaware of it.
It is
the Spirit of God, who applies what Jesus did on the cross to your life. He is
the one who puts the life of Christ in you. He is the one who transforms you
into the image of Christ. He is the one who empowers you to live a new life. He
is the one who speaks to you both through the word of God, and in your spirit.
Although
he is the one who we are in touch with the most, He is the one we know the least
***
Whenever
we talk about God, we need to use metaphors because God is totally other than
what he has created. God is so far beyond our imagination that we use
comparisons to what we know to help us understand what we don’t know.
When
the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit, it uses metaphors, that give us insight
to what the Spirit does, but it can sometimes confuse us as to who the Spirit
is. So in the passage we read, the
believers were all filled with the Spirit. In that metaphor, it sounds like He
is a liquid filling a cup. We hear in Scripture about the Spirit moving in
power. It sort of conjures up visions of the
force in Star Wars. We hear the Spirit described as a fire, and in the
passage that we read, it describes tongues of fire that came to rest on
everyone in the room. With these kind of metaphors you kind of get the idea
that the Holy Spirit is a powerful,
untamed, wild force in our lives.
But
the first thing you know need to know about the Spirit of God, despite all those
metaphors, is that He is a person. Just like the other members of the Godhead
are persons. Persons, not in the sense that they are human, but they think,
they have unique personalities, they relate and are relatable.
Come
with me to John 15:26–27 (NIV)
26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you
from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will
testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from
the beginning. (Notice the personal pronouns)
John 16:8–15 (NIV)
8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in
the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 about sin, because people
do not believe in me; 10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father,
where you can see me no longer; 11 and about judgment, because the prince of
this world now stands condemned.
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can
now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into
all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears,
and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is
from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that
belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from
me what he will make known to you.”
Notice
all the way through Jesus use the personal pronoun “He”. The Spirit is not a
force like star Wars. The Spirit is not an impersonal power. We don’t refer to
the Spirit as an “it.” We use personal pronounces because he is, in fact, a
person. He is relatable. You can speak to Him. He has a personality.
And notice what the Spirit does – He acts as
go between, between the Father and us, Jesus and us. The Scripture we just read
says
(Don’t use verse)
Verse 26 – He will go out from the father and testify
about Jesus.
Chapter 16:8 – He is going to talk to the world about
sin and righteousness and judgement.
Verse 13 – He will guide you into truth
- He
will tell you what is to come
Verse 14 He will glorify Jesus
Verse 15 – He will tell us what Jesus told Him.
The
Spirit of God is not just some supernatural force, he is a person, who takes on
the roll of bring people to Christ, of glorifying Christ, of delivering the
words of Christ to us.
One
of the reasons that we don’t know the Spirit as well as we might is that He is
constantly saying, look at Jesus come. Come to Jesus. Hear the words of Jesus.
He doesn’t focus on himself, but points us towards Jesus. So he is little
tricky to get to know because he is like that person who doesn’t really talk
about themselves, they talk about what they love.
But
in spite of the fact that the Spirit is always pointing us towards Jesus, we
can still have a relationship with Him. In fact, if you are a follower of
Jesus, if Christ is in you, you do have a relationship with the Spirit. That
relationship can either be healthy or unhealthy.
****
MUSIC - Spirit
Thing – Newsboys 3:27
(Try to describe the what the Spirit does in song)
The
apostle Paul, in giving instruction to the church said,
Ephesians 4:30 (NIV)
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom
you were sealed for the day of redemption.
But
you can grieve the Spirit. He leads us into all truth and we reject it. He
works in our lives and we reject his work. Like a friend who see another friend
going in way that is self-destructive and there is nothing that she can do to
stop it, so the Spirit is grieved when we choose death rather than life. He is
grieved when He leads us one way and we go a different way.
Paul writes to the church in Thessalonica and says
1 Thessalonians 5:19 (NIV)
19 Do not quench the Spirit.
The
Holy Spirit is gentle. He does not force himself on us. He is at work in you,
but you can stop his work. He is calling you to be like Jesus – but you can
stop his work in your life. He will lead you but you can refuse to follow. He
will convict you, but you can ignore his conviction. But whenever we say no to
Spirit of God, we quench the work he wants to do inside of us. And that my friends
is a tragic loss.
Because
the Spirit of God wants the very best for you. When he is allowed to work in
your life, not only does he apply the work of Christ to your life in salvation,
not is he a deposit guaranteeing your inheritance in heaven, but he is causing
a change in you.
Galatians 5:22–25 (NIV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.
As
you put your hand in His, the Spirit of God is a work in your life producing
love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness
and gentleness and self-control. It is not like you have to work to make those
things happen, that is just what happens when the Spirit of God rubs off on
you.
You
see that is who he is. He is the Spirit of Love. He is the Spirit of Joy. He is
the Spirit of peace. He demonstrates Patience and Kindness and goodness to us.
He is incredibly faithful and gentle, and helps us to live the way we are
called.
So
Paul says -Verse 25
25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step
with the Spirit.
Since
he is producing these things in our lives, let’s keep in step with him.
There are so many other things I
could tell you about the Spirit. When the Spirit comes inside you, he gives you
spiritual gifts for building up the believers around you. As you use those
spiritual gifts you will see God glorified in your life.
I could tell you the power of the
Spirit. Paul writing to the Corinthian Church talked about all kinds of sinner,
swindlers, sexually immoral, the greedy, the idolaters – and then he says this
1 Corinthians
6:11 (NIV)
11 And that is
what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
God transforms people by His Spirit.
He has done it in many of your lives – you were that, by you were washed, you
were made holy, you have been forgiven in the name of Jesus by the work of the
Holy Spirit.
There are so many things upon which
we could focus, but I want to spend the rest of my time being very practical
about cooperating with the work of the Spirit in your life.
Galatians 5:25
25 Since we live
by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit
The
gospel is about life. Jesus came that we might have life and have it to the
full.
Here
is what you need to know. If you want that true great, abundant life, that life comes by the Spirit. We are brought
from death to life by the Spirit. We live by the Spirit. The life of Jesus in
us, happens by the Spirit. You will experience the fullness of life that God
has intended for you, because the Spirit of God is at work in you. We live by
the Spirit.
So
Paul says, Verse 25
25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step
with the Spirit
The
question is how. How do you keep in step with the Spirit?
I am
a naturally slow walker. I am a tall person with short legs. When I am walking
with people I am aware of how fast they are walking and so I will make an extra
effort to walk faster for them. If I am going to keep in step with them then I
need to be aware of them..
It is
the same with the Spirit. If you are going to keep in step with the Spirit then
you are going to have to be aware of the Spirit.
So,
the general question to you, is what is the Spirit up to in your life right
now.
We
read a little earlier from John 16
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will
guide you into all the truth. -
So what truth is the Spirit of God teaching you right now? What truth
has he led you into in the last little while? If you are going to keep in step
with the Spirit, you will have to be aware of what the Spirit of God is up to.
Romans 8:14 (NIV)
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the
children of God.
How
has God been leading you lately? Has he been guiding you to do something, or
not do something? As you look back over the last week or two, have you seen how
he has led, even though you weren’t aware of it at the time? Often time it is
only in retrospect that I see what God was up to – but you see how he was
leading. If you are going to keep in step with the Spirit, you will have to be aware
of what the Spirit of God is up to.
The
first step to keeping in step with the Spirit is to becoming aware of the
Spirit’s work in your life. What is he up to in your life.
A
little earlier we looked at the fruit of the Spirit. We looked at how this
fruit is produced when you put his hand in his. But the reality is that there
are so many times when we want to pull away from him. Just before the fruit of
the Spirit it says this.
Galatians 5:16–17 (NIV)
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not
gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to
the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict
with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.
If
you are going to keep in step with the Spirit then it is important that you
keep your hand in his and not give into all the stuff your old nature wants. I like how the New Living translation
paraphrases these verses
Galatians 5:16–17
(NLT)
16 So I say, let
the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful
nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the
opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the
opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly
fighting each other.
Sometimes you feel that battle
keenly. The temptation will be real and it will be big. You don’t have to give
into it – but you feel its cravings.
If
you are going to keep in step with the Spirit, if the Spirit of God is going to
rub off on you in such a way where you see His fruit in your life, then keep
your hand in his. Choose to do what he desires rather than what you old nature
wants to do.
Romans 8:5–6 (NIV) puts this way
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their
minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the
Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by
the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
Set
you mind on what God wants, not on what your selfish old nature wants. Where
you set your mind eye will determine where your spiritual feet will go. If you
want life and peace, let the Spirt govern your mind.
He is
the Spirit of Love. He is the Spirit of Joy. He is the Spirit of peace. He
demonstrates Patience and Kindness and goodness to us. He is incredibly
faithful and gentle, and helps us to live the way we are called. He wants who
He is to become a part of who you are. Will you keep in step with Him.
Pentecost
was not just an event in history; God wants it to be a reality in your life.
The
third person of Trinity comes to us and fills us with himself. In doing so he applies
the work of the cross to our lives. Your are washed, you are sanctified, you
are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our
God.
If
you are a Christian, he has been at work in your life, he is at work in your
life, and he will be at work in your life. But your job is to become aware of him.
See what he is up to. Watch how he is leading you, if you are not a Christian,
then the Spirit is going to be at work urging you towards Jesus, so that you
can know him.
Put
your hands in his because he is the one who fills you with life, real life abundant
life. He is the one who transforms you and makes you into all that you are
created to be.
He is the one that will fill you
with Love and Joy and Peace. He will help you to live out of patience and
kindness goodness. You will become like him as you put your hand in his. Talk
to him. Focus in on what He is doing in your life. If you have grieved him,
apologize. If you have quenched his work, welcome him anew. He wants life for
you.
So I
say to you
25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step
with the Spirit
Lord, thank you so
much for this morning and for the chance to remember who you are and who your Spirit
is.
Spirit of the living
God, we would invite you to do your work you want to do in our lives.
For people who are
far away, I pray that they would come close. For people who are walking with you,
I pray that you would give them life and life to the full.
I pray this in Jesus’
name. AMEN
And thank you for listening to Good
News in the morning. And thanks again
Bruce Newman and your salute to Jericho Road ministries for sponsoring today’s
ministry. This program is on the air by the grace of God and donations of many
faithful people.
My name is Brent Russett, and it has
been a privilege to bring you Good News in the morning.
By Rev. Brent Russett
Pastor in the Ottawa area for 28-years:
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