From the series The Holy Spirit 

Chip Ingram launches this series by explaining who the Holy Spirit is and why He matters to the Christian.

MESSAGE TRANSCRIPT

What did Jesus teach about the Holy Spirit? Who did He say He was? How does it really work? There’s a context, Jesus makes a promise, there’s a rationale, and there’s a command. If you will, turn to John chapter 14 and as you go there let me give you the context. The context is this: There is a handful of people, eleven in particular, and probably another hundred and nine at least that are scared to death.

It’s the night before His crucifixion. And He’s been telling them all kind of weird stuff. He just washed their feet, He took a symbol and an event that they’ve known since they were little boys called the Passover and He began to tell them things that He’s been telling them over and over and over about, “I’m the Passover Lamb and I’m going to die and then I’m going to rise from the dead.”

And they could … but they really didn’t have a clue of what that whole thing was about.

And they’re starting to get the idea that this Messiah, this Champion was not going to take over Rome, and they weren’t going to sit on thrones, and they weren’t going to take over the whole political system, and all of a sudden they’re seeing that where He’s going and what’s happening is not at all what their expectations are, and they’re afraid.

And so after He washes their feet in John chapter 14 He wants to reassure them. He says, “Do not let your heart be troubled, trust in God. Trust also in Me.”

And He starts to give them some hope, “In my Father’s house there’s many rooms. If it weren’t so I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I’ll come back and I’ll take you to be with Me that you may be there with Me also. You know the way to the place where I’m going.”

And then I love people like Thomas, you know? It’s kind of like he interrupts this little, “Excuse me, Lord? These other guys may get it but I really don’t.” Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where You’re going so how can we know the way?”

And then a passage we often quote and I believe He looked them dead in the eye. And you’ll notice there’s a definite article before each one. And He says to them, “I am the way. I am the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

If you skip down to verse 18 He makes this promise because they’re very afraid and He says, “I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.”

And then if you back up just a little bit He’s going to give them a promise. Now think about this. Sometimes we so get this into Bible stories in another day, in another time. Imagine yourself following and sacrificing, and believing He’s real, and you’ve seen the miracles, and you’ve actually been an eyewitness of people coming back from the dead, and you were one of the people that He gave you parts of the bread and parts of the fish, and you are aware that He is God incarnate but you can’t quite get your arms around the story and He’s telling you that He’s going to leave and you’re afraid and you just wonder, “How does it all fit together?”

They didn’t have what we have. They couldn’t look back. They were looking forward. And then He says, “Look, I won’t leave you as orphans. I’m not going to abandon you.”

And then notice His promise. Look at verse 16 of chapter 14. And He says, “And I will ask the Father and He will give you another counselor to be with you forever.” And then He describes this Counselor or Comforter, this Paraclete. “It’s the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him nor knows Him but you know Him for He lives with you,” and notice this promise, “and will be in you.”

He says He’ll give you another and in Greek there’s a couple key words for “another.” One is “heteros” we get the word like heterosexual. It means someone of a different kind. This word is one of the same kind.

There’s someone who will be called to do life alongside you, He’ll not just be with you as he has in the past, here’s the promise: He will be in you. He’s going to dwell in you. He’s promising them that the Spirit of God – He’s describing the new covenant and some of their minds are going, “Oh, I, what Ezekiel, what, where is this happening?” This was the promise. Could this be?

And He’s telling them that a new day is arriving and He’s going to leave. And the Spirit of the Living God is actually going to indwell inside of them.

Jesus goes on, verse 23, “If anyone loves Me he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him and we will come to him,” notice the plural now, “the Father and the Son. We will come to him and make our home,” or literally, “our abode, our dwelling place.

“We, the Father and the Son, will come to those who are followers who demonstrate their love through obedience, we will come and we will dwell with or make our home with them. He who does not love Me will not obey My teachings.

“These words you hear are not My own. They belong to the Father who sent Me. All of this I have spoken to you while still with you. But the Counselor, the Advocate, the Guide, the Holy Spirit, the Friend whom the Father will send in My name will teach you all things and will remind you of everything that I have said.”

He’s saying that the Spirit of the Living God, the third person of the Tri-unity is going to come and take up residence inside a human body and everything that I ever taught He’ll reveal and manifest the very presence of Jesus and the resurrected power of Jesus of the Father, did you notice the Trinity coming through here?

“The Father will send, the Father and I will dwell. The Spirit will actually take up residence in a human body and His abode will be with you and inside you.”

And then He talks about how it’s relational. “Those who love Me will obey Me, those who follow My teaching.” Those who the conduit of your heart and life, His promise is, “I’ll be in you, not just with you.”

His rationale is basically that what I’m about to do is better than staying.

Turn in your Bibles, if you will, just a couple chapters. He gives the great illustration about the Spirit and the relationship with the Father and the Son in chapter 15 and, “I’m the vine and My Father is the vinedresser.” And He gives this picture of abiding that they clearly understood.

And what He teaches them early on, it’s not about performance. What He teaches them early on, it’s about relationship. What He teaches them early on is, it’s the life-giving Spirit that brings transformation and your only real job is just to stay connected to the Father in the name of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And when you’re in relational connection that has to do with, yes, renewing your mind and obedience and the community of God’s people. But that relational connection, the Spirit of God will produce the fruit supernaturally and the fruit will be what He’s like.

And after He gives them that picture in John 15 then here’s His rationale. He says, “But I tell you the truth, it’s for your good or for your advantage that I’m going away. Unless I go away the Counselor will not come to you. But if I go away I will send Him to you.” That’s John 16 verse 7.

Skipping down to verse 12 He says, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can bear now.” But notice the promise. “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all 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. He will bring glory to Me by taking what is Mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is Mine and that is why I said the Spirit will take from what is Mine and make it known to you.”

Do you see what He’s saying? “Someone’s going to take up residence inside of you, disciples. And He’s going to take all the truth, anything you’ve ever heard, He’s going to guide you. Right now, Peter, John, James, you got in on the Mount of Transfiguration. That was pretty amazing, wasn’t it? And you were with Me when I raised Jarius’ daughter from the dead.

“And then remember when you had a big question, Peter, and the other guys were over there and, you know, you came over and you talked to Me and I worked through some of those issues with you? Well, while I was talking with you James and John couldn’t talk with Me. I want you to know it’s better because you, James, John, and every believer will have access to me 24/7, unlimited. I will be their Counselor, I will be the Truth, I will reveal the truth of God from His Word. I will speak to them in their heart.

“I will be available. I will live not just on the earth, I will live inside of you. And I’ll manifest the person, the presence, the power, and the reality of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit inside of you.”

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I’m not sure most Christians get that at all. I think most Christians, if you asked them, they think the Holy Spirit is a lot like the Force. “Luke! Luke! Obey the Force! Take your hands off the controls! Let the Force guide you!”

When I listen to Christians talk about the Holy Spirit I often hear, “Well it.” It’s not an “it.” It’s a He. It’s a person. Jesus told His early disciples in the midst of their fear and uncertainty that it is better for Him to go because they would have access to God, relationship with God, and intimacy with Himself like no one ever, ever before and we are of that clan. New Testament saints.  The story goes on in Acts, He gives them a command. He makes this promise but this isn’t like, “Well, you know, for those of you that are second milers and really want to experience God in an amazing way,” notice the command.

Acts chapter 1 if you want to turn in your Bibles there you may know the story already. I’ll pick it up in verse 4. It says, “On one occasion while He was eating with them He gave them this command, ‘Do not leave Jerusalem but wait for the gift,’” notice He’s speaking of the Holy Spirit, “‘that the Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’”

But the meaning of the word “to baptize” primarily means “to be identified with,” “connected with,” “a new identity.” That’s why when a couple of the disciples got their mother to see if they could get, you know, in the places of position Jesus turned to them and said, “Can you be baptized with the baptism that I will baptize with,” speaking of His death.

And they said, “Yes.” What he was saying is, “Can you identify with Me? I’m going to the cross and if you want to follow Me you’re going to have to go to the cross with Me.”

And now He’s saying John baptized with water, it was a baptism of repentance. It was an external thing, it was when people understood they were far from God and they turned from their sin and they found a Savior. “But I tell you what, I’m going to baptize with the Spirit.” And then He’s going to describe and tell them what that means.

Verse 6, “So when they met together they asked Him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?’ He said to them, ‘It’s not for you to know the time or the dates the Father has set by His own authority but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all of Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’”

Open your Bible, I want you to see something. Open it to Ezekiel chapter 36. And in verse 24 of chapter 36 he says, speaking to Israel, “For I will take you out of the nations,” because he says, “I promise because of your idols I’ll spread you around the earth. I’ll gather you back from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.”

And then listen to this, “I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurity and cleanse you from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws.”

That’s why they said when He said, “I’m going to baptize you with the Spirit,” the lights went on. “So you’re going to restore the kingdom, it’s all going to come together?”

And Jesus said, “Guys, that’s a good theological question but when I restore the kingdom isn’t the issue. The issue is you responding to what I’m telling you. You’re going to receive power.” God’s expectation of every believer who is a follower legitimately of Him is that you possess power. And the moment you receive Christ you will receive power and you’ll be His martyrs. That’s the Greek word. You’ll be His witnesses.

It’s not, you can be a good one or a bad one but you are one. The Spirit of the Living God lives inside of every single believer.

And so I just want to say this out loud. And you may know this theologically but my challenge will be for you to let it sink from your head to your heart and then let it soak in.

The promise of the Holy Spirit is that all believers would receive the indwelling presence and resurrection power of the glorified Christ within us forever. Think of that. Think of that. You’ve got a big problem. You’ve got a financial need. You’ve got an addiction. You’ve got a struggle in your marriage. You’ve got a problem with one of your kids.

How many of us believe, more than just at the intellectual level, that the power that raised Christ from the dead and the indwelling Christ actually  in this moment dwells inside of you?

And He longs to whisper in your ear, and He longs to comfort you, and He longs to comfort you in ways that are beyond what any person, or any book, or any pastor, or any counselor, or anyone. No one understands you like Him. No one feels your pain like Him.

But a lot of times we have this idea that there’s this invisible energy or force over there somewhere, somehow where the Spirit did that someday, some ways and we don’t live with that reality.

Well, let’s talk a little bit then, who exactly is the Holy Spirit? That’s what Jesus taught. That was just the teaching of Jesus about the Holy Spirit to the early disciples and to us.

Who is the Holy Spirit? Number one, He is a person not an influence. He’s a person. He’s not the Force, He’s not an energy, He’s not an “it.”

He’s a person first because He’s intelligent. 1 Corinthians 2:10 and 11 says, “No one knows the mind of a man except the spirit of a man. And no one knows the mind of God except the Spirit of God who searches all things.” The Holy Spirit has intelligence. Intellect.

He has feelings. Ephesians 4:30. We’re told, we’re commanded, “Don’t grieve the Spirit.”What’s grieving? It’s making a person feel sad. And we’re told not to grieve Him by let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor not be a part of your life anymore. It grieves, it makes God so sad when we’re unkind and harsh and unloving to one another.

When you begin to think that God lives in you and when you have that sort of check in your spirit, that’s a loss of peace, what if you started thinking, “That’s the Spirit shedding a tear for me. I’m breaking His heart. I’m disappointing God and He loves me.”

That will change, that will change how you live your life. He’s a person. He’s intelligent. He has feelings.

He has a will. 1 Corinthians 12:11 says, “Now all things,” it’s speaking of giving spiritual gifts to the Church, “all these things work from one and the same Spirit, and He distributes them just as He wills.” So who is He? First and foremost, He’s a person.

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Second, He possesses the attributes of God.

In Genesis 1, He’s omnipotent, He’s a part of, the Spirit hovers over the earth. He’s a part of creation.

He’s is all-knowing in 1 Corinthians 2. He has the very mind of Christ. He’s omnipresent, remember Psalm 139, “Where can I flee from Your presence? Where can I run from Your Spirit?” And finally, He’s truth – in 1 John chapter 5. It’s probably pretty obvious by now but He is God. The Holy Spirit is co-equal, co-existent, and co-eternal with the Father and the Son.

The two classic passages are Acts chapter 5 verses 3 through about 5 and then 2 Corinthians 3:17. And if you know the Acts passage it’s a just great picture. Remember Ananias and Sapphira? Remember the story?

You know, the church is growing and Barnabas gives this big gift and he’s generous and I think a lot of people were giving him a lot of strokes for this generous gift and so pretty soon they go, “Wow, you know, if Barnabas is getting all those strokes…”

So Ananias and Sapphira, their sin is not that they gave money and held some back. Their sin was the hypocrisy of saying the land was sold for this much so they could get the acclaim of people.

Peter said, “You know, when you sold it, the land, the money, it’s yours. You didn’t have to give anything. Why did you lie to the Holy Spirit?” Two verses later, “You haven’t lied to men, you’ve lied to God.”

And 2 Corinthians 3:17 the word “Lord” the New Testament word used for reference for Yahweh it says, “The Lord is the Spirit.” So He’s a person. He has the attributes of God and He is God. Now what I want to do is give you a brief overview of what exactly does the Holy Spirit do in a believer’s life?

But what exactly does the Holy Spirit do in a believer’s life?

First and foremost, He dwells inside of us. 1 Corinthians 6:19 and 20. Open your Bibles. I want you to look at this one, okay? 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 19 and 20, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is,” where? “Who is – in you.”

And he goes on to say, “Whom you’ve received from God. You are not your own, you were bought at a price, therefore, honor God with your body.” First and foremost the Holy Spirit dwells inside of us.

Okay. Jesus said that would happen. Paul says your body was bought. So your body and my body is called what? A temple. Now if you’ve been to any other parts of the world or been to a beautiful church or any world religion, temples have certain characteristics, correct?

What do people do in temples? They worship. And there’s usually some level of reverence or sacredness, right? In a temple and, you know, and different traditions do all kind of different things but a temple is a holy place where people worship, that’s set apart, and that is sacred.

What the apostle Paul is saying is in this day you are that temple. You know what real worship is? What we do is we gather together as the church for instruction and corporate worship but the real worship of the Living God is in temples not made with hands and the temples are His people, individually, and then His people gathered.

And so the question that always comes to my mind is, “Are you treating the temple that is made to worship even half as well as most people treat the buildings in the false religions that they worship in?”

Is it sacred? Is it holy? What goes into the mind of your temple? What comes out of the tongue of your temple? What do your hands do that represent that temple? Where do your feet go from that temple? See worship is offering your body as a what? A living sacrifice. You’re a living, walking, breathing, infiltrated, dwelt inside out of the Spirit of the Living God and that’s why Jesus would call us light and salt because we are moving temples that breathe and the Spirit of God dwells inside of us and He wants to renew our mind and produce in and through us the very life and personality and heart and love of Jesus so that progressively what comes out of your mouth is what Jesus would be saying in that situation through your personality and your heart and your life.

And your feet would go where Jesus would send you. And your hands would do what Jesus would do because you’re a living temple and he takes up residence in you. That’s a different picture than trying hard, need to read my Bible, make it to church three times this month, read the Bible three times this week, I gave a little bit more than normal. What do you think, God?

That totally misses the point! That’s called religion. That’s called performance orientation. That’s called a works-righteousness. And Paul takes the whole book of Romans to say, “That’s not Christianity.” Christianity is the Spirit of God manifesting the relationship of the Father and the Son inside of you in connection and abiding producing His life through you.

So what are the ministries? Well, how does it happen? Where does it start? How do you get connected to the Spirit?

Well, the first ministry is what’s called “regeneration.” Titus 3:5 says, “Not by works of righteousness you have done but according to His mercy He has saved us; by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.”

You’re probably familiar with the very familiar passage of Nicodemus, John chapter 3, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “I tell you truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and of the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to the Spirit.”

“You’re a rabbi, you’re a leader in Israel, you should know this. Why are you surprised that I say, ‘You have to be born from above or born a second time?’ The wind blows wherever it pleases, you hear the sound but you can’t tell where it comes from or where it’s going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus, this isn’t rocket science. It’s not about all your goody stuff that you’re doing. It’s not about all the verses you’ve got down. It’s not that you fast on Tuesday and Friday. It’s not that you’re a leader in the temple. It’s not your external morality. You can’t have a relationship with God unless the Spirit dwells in you.”

1 John is going to tell us later, “This is the record, or the testimony, God has given us – grace gift, eternal life. He that has the Son has life. He that does not have the Son does not have life. These things I have spoken to you that you might know with certainty that you have eternal life.”

That’s a far cry from, “I go to church. I’m trying hard. Being a good Christian means I’m trying to be a good wife, trying to be a good husband, I hope I’m a better parent, I hope my kids don’t get in trouble.”

All those things may be logical byproducts. That is not the Christian life. There’s cults that have better morality than most Christians, I assure you. God says He wants to indwell. And that doesn’t come from religion. It comes when the Spirit of God gives you a spiritual birth.

And a spiritual birth occurs when I understand that I’ve offended a righteous and holy God and I will incur His righteous and just wrath because I deserve it because He is holy but He sent His Son, Jesus, to die upon a cross to cover or atone for all that sin, of all men, of all time, and in the empty hands of faith I can say, “Father, will you take my sin and appropriate it to your Son and would you take His righteousness and allow it to clothe me and will you forgive me and come into my life? Bam!Regeneration occurs.

Now the Spirit begins the journey called sanctification of, little by little, making me more like His Son. And, yes, I have the responsibility of renewing my mind and being in a fellowship with God’s people and, you know, confessing my sin when I struggle.

But the moment I’m regenerated, here’s what I want you to get. There’s certain non-experiential things that occur and there’s certain experiential things that occur and grow.

And these are the ministries of the Holy Spirit. So I can’t go through all the passages but I just want to give you an overview of what they are.

The non-experiential, in other words, the moment you trust Christ you’re baptized into the body of Christ. We’ll talk about, we’ll have a whole time on baptism and filling and the difference and why. But baptism’s identification, the moment you pray and receive Christ, having turned from your sin, the Spirit of God picks you up, takes you out of the kingdom of darkness, takes you over here, places you in the kingdom of light, and inserts you into this new family called the body of Christ. You may or may not feel anything. That’s what occurs. That’s what the baptism is.

Then you’re sealed. Ephesians 1 says that there’s this unilateral seal where the Spirit of God seals you.

And that’s like a down payment, like a guarantee, it’s like putting money down. It uses, it’s the same, it’s a financial term of the day. It’s like putting money down on a house. It’s the guarantee. The Spirit seals you. And it’s unilateral.

And then He anoints you for service and power.

And then He begins to pray for you. And you may not experience that. He’s praying for you. He’s praying for your righteousness. He’s praying for your protection.

And He deposits spiritual gifts in you.

Now if you’ve, two days, you pray to receive Christ, you’ve turned from your sin, the Spirit enters your life, you have those spiritual gifts. But you may not experience them. You have an anointing to begin to serve but you may not experience it yet.

Here’s the best picture I can give you. Because then we’ll look at the experiential ones. And some of them are both.

When my oldest boys were six years old I had an amazing, amazing opportunity. I got to adopt them. We went down to the Dallas courthouse and they were my wife’s children, biologically, and we got married and two years later God gave me the opportunity to adopt them.

When I went down to that courthouse their name changed and they became Ingrams. Eric and Jason Ingram. And it was legal. They were identified from one last name to another last name. They got baptized into Ingram-ness.

And then they were sealed because I had a legal document that said for all time they’re my boys as much as any other boys I ever got. Or my little girl. From the moment I adopted them, I don’t know if I’ll have anything to leave my kids, hope I do. Back then I wasn’t sure, believe me.

But they’ve got my name. They were going to be a part of my inheritance. And they didn’t do anything. Why? Because they belong to me.

That’s who you are at the moment you trust Christ. Whether you, many of those things you don’t experience. They’re true, you possess, and what you learn is how to live out of those.

The things you begin to experience, however, is the fruit of the Spirit. As you begin to abide in Christ and his life begins to take shape all of a sudden there’s a byproduct of love and joy and peace and patience and goodness and kindness and gentleness and self-control.

I still remember, I mean, it was one of the early signs. God does it for different people. Like, two weeks into my Christian life I stopped cussing unexplainably. I just, and that was, that was a major miracle, believe me. And for other people it might be something else. But it was just a fruit of the, I didn’t try. It was like, “Oh, oh, oh, oh.” It’s just, hm, it stopped. He’s the Holy Spirit.

And filling. We’re going to learn there’s one baptism and that sometimes it happens, we’ll look at all the Acts passages and, relax, we’re going to, you know, have a great time there. But there’s multiple fillings. The word “filling” has most to do with control. We’re commanded to be filled with the Spirit. It’s when he gets more of us. And you experience it and you experience His power and you have experiences with Him and He gives you boldness and courage and truth and things that happen in and through you think, “Whooooa, this isn’t me!” And guess what, you’re right.

It’s just like Peter and John. They stepped up against the authorities. Peter and John, “Silver and gold have I none.” All through the church when the Spirit of God fills His people, they’re courageous, they’re bold, they’re loving, they’re counter-culture, they’re winsome, they’re forgiving, and they’re pure.

And then you have Him, He teaches you. I remember as a kid I opened the Bible, like, twice and it was like, “Hither to… thine… somethin’.” I even tried a couple times, I couldn’t understand it. And then the Spirit begins to reveal what the Scriptures mean.

And then you pray and you sit quietly and the Spirit begins to pray with you and encourage you and help you and He gives you assurance. Something in your spirit cries, “Abba Father.”

And then He guides you. You learn, you actually learn to hear His voice. You have big decisions and you learn to live a life close to Him and in God’s Word and the counsel of wise people but you ask God, “I don’t know what to do.”

And people say, “Oh, I wish Jesus was here.” He’s not just here, He’s in you. What do you want to ask Him? Ask Him. We’d rather call the phone, call a talk show, or ask a counselor, or ask someone else, some expert. The Counselor of all counselors lives inside of you. He longs to tell you what to do.

But you probably have to turn off some of the media, close the refrigerator door, rent one less movie, not buy something every time you feel uptight, and realize maybe if you get real, real quiet you’re going to see some stuff you don’t like.

Because the Holy Spirit is always about producing two things: Holiness and Love. And sometimes we have to clean out some of our junk. And it’s very threatening to be quiet and to be alone with the Holy Spirit.

But I’ll tell you what, when you get real and honest and you do, whew. Short-term pain, long-term gain. Some of you know what I mean. When you see an ugliness about pride or arrogance or sin or an addiction and when you get out of all the games and all the denial and all the junk that we all do at some level and you bring that brokenness, all the ugliness, and you experience the Holy Spirit’s forgiveness and the sense that says, “I see all that and it is ugly. And I forgive you. And I still love you.”

So many of us are running away from God because the truth so threatens us. He’s the Spirit of truth. He convicts of sin… and righteousness and judgment… but His heart’s desire is always to draw us back.

The enemy? Condemnation. “You’re a terrible person. You’re a bad mom. You’re a bad dad. You’re an addict. You’ll never measure up to anything.” The Holy Spirit is, “You are taking that in your body… you are neglecting that…” And you agree with Him and wonderful things happen. And then He gives you spiritual gifts and He uses you and you realize, “Wow. This is amazing.” How does someone receive the Holy Spirit? I have shared John chapter 3. You have to be born again.

In fact, Romans 8:9 is a great passage. If you don’t have the Holy Spirit, according to the apostle Paul, he says actually then you’re not in God’s family. This isn’t like a super charger for some Christians. It says, “You, however, controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ he doesn’t belong to Christ.”

And so, it would just be crazy to start a series together about the Holy Spirit and not ask a very basic question as we close. And this is for you. This isn’t for anybody else. Do you have the Holy Spirit?

I didn’t say, “Do you go to church?” I didn’t say if you’re a good husband. I didn’t say if you’re a nice wife. I didn’t say if you’re working hard to be a parent. Didn’t say if you give to the church. Didn’t say if you’ve been on a mission trip.

Do you have, possess, the Holy Spirit and do you know that for sure? Because he that has the Son has life, he that has not the Son of God does not have life. And the way you have the Son, according to Jesus, is what? The Spirit takes up residence inside of you. And the way you get the Son is a gift.

You bow your head, you confess your sin, you own your stuff, and you declare that, “Jesus, only what you have done on the cross to pay for my sin and your resurrection is my only hope. Will you forgive me and come into my life?” And in that moment the Spirit of God enters you.

How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit

MESSAGE TRANSCRIPT

I was a Christian two years, I have no Bible background, a lady walks up to me and asked a very nice, common question. And she says, “Excuse me?” I said, “Yes.” She goes, “Are you Spirit-filled?” I said, “What?” “Are you a Spirit-filled Christian?” I said, “What’s a Spirit-filled Christian?” Well, she went on to explain.

Well, that sent me on a little bit of a journey but if someone asked you that question they may be asking about five different things depending on their background.

And I won’t go into the whole background but I was being discipled with a group that had this unbelievable commitment to God’s Word. I mean super committed to God’s Word like if you weren’t memorizing three to five verses a week you were just not, like, even close to where you needed to be.

And then I would go home in the summer as a new Christian and there was another group of people that were really, really committed to the experience of life in the Spirit.

And so I don’t know anything and it’s like, it was like ping pong, you know? And I was just, like, trying to figure out, “So what’s the Bible say, what do these terms mean? I don’t know what it means to be filled, I don’t know what the baptism is, I don’t know what the…”

And I was just confused. And so I went on a two-year journey and I literally started from the beginning and if the word “Spirit” or “Holy Spirit” showed up in the Bible I studied it.

I want you to open your Bibles to Acts chapter 2. The Church is born and the Jews are going to receive the Holy Spirit. It’ll be birthed, they’ll be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and what you’re going to find is they will be filled with power.

Follow along, verse 1. “When the day of Pentecost came they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound like a blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in tongues as the Spirit enabled them. “Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. And when they heard this sound a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one of them heard them speaking in his own language.

“Amazed and perplexed,” skipping down to verse 12, “they asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’ Some, however, made fun of them and said, ‘They’ve had too much wine.’ But Peter stood up with the eleven and raised his voice and he addressed the crowd: ‘Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain to you, listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine o’clock in the morning! No, this is what was spoken of by the prophet Joel: “In the last days God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.”’”

And so Acts chapter 2, it’s the Jews. Did they speak in tongues? Yes. When did they receive it? After salvation. They were believing Old Testament followers of Jesus, they were waiting, they’ve now come to Christ, they believe in Him, the Church is born, and Peter’s role? He’s present when it’s received.

Turn to Acts 8. These are the only four passages that talk about the filling or the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 8, I want you to notice that now chapters 1 through 7 are the growth of the Church. The first decade or more. Some believe up to almost the first twenty years, apart from those who came to Christ, and then were dispersed and went to other places, the Church was primarily Jewish.

Remember the big command? “Go into all the world; make disciples.” That wasn’t going well. Remember when Jesus ascended, “You’ll be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, uttermost parts of the world.” That was not going well.

In other words, they didn’t go very far. And what you find is, in the sovereignty of God, He allows some persecution to come in chapter 8.
And so in chapter 8 the Church is persecuted and as they are persecuted they move out. They run for their lives, apart from the apostles. And as they go, guess what they start doing? It says they preached the Word. Samaritans, if you don’t know what they were, they were a half-breed. They were people that couldn’t show that they were fully Jews and they inter-married and so they were despised. Jews hated Samaritans.

And you need to know that because it helps explain what happens. Acts chapter 8, let’s pick up the story in verse 14. They’d been spread, they’re running for their lives, they’re persecuted. “When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the Word of God they sent Peter and John to them.”

So they went to Samaria, they started preaching, these Samaritans trust in Christ. Well now they got a problem. These people that we hate since we’ve been little boys and little girls believe in Jesus the way we do. So we’re going to send Peter and John from headquarters to find out what in the world happened. I mean what could God be up to? He certainly doesn’t love them.

“When they arrived they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them. They’d simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. “Now there’s a magician there named Simon. And when he saw that the Spirit was given by the laying on of hands of the apostles, he offered them money and said, ‘Give me also this ability that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.’ And Peter said to him, ‘May your money perish with you because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money. You have no part or share in this ministry because your heart is not right with God.’”

All I want to do is just get the facts down. Acts chapter 8 – Samaritans. So they’re, this is a mixed group. But speaking in tongues is not mentioned. It may be alluded to, there was some manifestation because this magician saw some manifestation of power that he thought he could buy by the laying on of hands. It occurs after salvation. And it’s, Peter again is present.

And what you need to understand is, what’s going to happen is if the Samaritans come to Christ, and it isn’t authenticated by headquarters and by Peter, we would have had two churches. Those people would have never stayed under the same umbrella.

And so they respond to the Word and Peter and the apostles come and they say, basically, this is legit. These people believe like we believe. They don’t need to go through Judaism. Salvation is by grace through faith, the free gift of God through Jesus, they received the same way we did.

And so he says this is for real and when he prays for them then God manifests in some manner, doesn’t say exactly how, that they are now a part of the body of Christ.

Skip to Acts chapter 10. The movement of the book of Acts, the outline is in verse 8 of chapter 1. “Where you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,” okay? “Judea,” that’s happened. “Samaria,” right? Well now we’re going to get to the Gentiles, chapter 10. Peter, who is the epitome, he’s, “Upon this rock your words, your faithfulness, your team, I’m going to build My church.” He’s the point person. They look to him and the other key elders there.

And so Peter is, in the book of Acts, the primary leader in the expansion of the gospel to the Jews. Later we’ll find Paul will be the primary personality in the expansion to the Gentiles.

Peter, little by little, is beginning to break the cultural rules and the cultural laws. He’s gone down to a tanner. You don’t, a tanner is a person that smelled. There was raw skins and hides that they used. And so a good, orthodox Jew would not only not go to a tanner but would never stay in his home.

But Peter is beginning to see some things differently and he’s beginning to realize that this gospel is beyond Judaism and he’s seeing it with the Samaritans and some of the things that were kosher he realizes God’s changing the rules. This gospel is to go beyond. And so little by little he’s, sort of, breaking some of the cultural rules and some of the traditions. And then something happens to him. Chapter 10 he goes down to meet with this tanner. And lunch is being prepared and so he goes up on the roof, most of the homes in that day are flat on top. And he goes up on the roof, kind of waiting. And he goes into a trance.

And God speaks to him and you, probably maybe many of you remember this story. And a sheet comes down with all the kind of animals that are unclean for a Jew. It comes down once, the Spirit of God speaks to him and says, “Kill and eat.” He says, “Never, Lord.” It comes down a second time. Same thing. A third time. And then the sheet goes away. And he has this vision. And at the end of the vision the Spirit of God says to him, “Don’t you call anything unclean that I call clean.” And this is going to set Peter up for what’s going to happen because something has happened elsewhere.

So let’s pick up the story. Cornelius is a centurion. And he has a household of all Gentiles. And he was one day praying and God hears his prayer. And an angel says, “I want you to send for this man, he’s down by the seaside staying with this tanner named Simon, his name is Peter. Go get him and bring him here. He has a message for you from me.”

So a couple of his cohorts go down. They now knock on the door shortly after Peter has the vision and the Lord says to Peter, “Invite these men in.”

So now he’s going to eat with Gentiles. God’s sort of given him baby steps, training wheels to do some things he’s never done before. He invites them in the house, can’t do that. He eats with Gentiles. Then he travels back with them and he takes a few Jews with him.

And what you’re going to find out, that’s going to be very important to authenticate what happens. Because if you think Jews and Samaritans hate one another, Jews hate Gentiles at a whole different level. A Gentile was called a “dog.” They thought, to a Jew a Gentile was subhuman. You wouldn’t eat with a Gentile, you wouldn’t walk into the house of a Gentile. They were unclean.

So now Peter is sort of scratching his head and he goes back, he takes this walk, and he goes to Cornelius’ house and in verse 30 of chapter 10 we’re going to pick up the story where Peter says to Cornelius, by the way, Peter doesn’t know what’s going on. I mean he’s thinking, “What’s the message? What am I supposed to say? I don’t get it.”

So he comes in and when he comes in the guy bows down and Peter says, “Look, I’m just a man too.” And so Cornelius explains beginning in verse 30. “Cornelius answered, ‘Four days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly, a man in shining clothes stood before me and said, “Cornelius, God has heard your prayers and remembered your gifts to the poor. Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner who lives by the sea.”’ “So I sent for you immediately and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here.” He fills his house with his relatives and his friends. “Hey! An angel came, sent for a guy, there’s a big message. You’ve got to come over.”

So Peter walks in, “Now we’re all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us. Then Peter began to speak.” The lights are coming on. “I now realize how true it is that God shows no favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear Him and do what is right. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ who is Lord of all.”

And then skip down to verse 44. At verse 44, “While Peter was still speaking these words,” he starts preaching the gospel, “the Holy Spirit came on all those who heard the message. The circumcised believers, who had come with Peter, were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, ‘Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.’”

Acts 2. The Church is born, baptism, filled, Peter, authentication, Acts chapter 8. Mixed group. They hear. They don’t have the Holy Spirit yet. They check it out. It’s legit. Now they’re under the umbrella of the mother Church. They pray for them. There’s a manifestation. Now they get the Holy Spirit.

Acts chapter 10. Cornelius. They don’t get to pray. They don’t get to talk. They don’t get to explain. While he’s preaching, boom! It happens. And the Jews are going, “Wait a second. This is just like Acts 2. They got what we got the same way we got it. I guess, I guess God loves Gentiles.” Now, notice there’s one other passage. Acts chapter 19. This is sort of one of those, “I wonder what’s going on?” passages. We’re now in the apostle Paul’s ministry. And there was a group of people, apparently, who were zealous and John the Baptist said, “Behold, I am the forerunner of the Messiah. And one is coming greater than me.”

And some of his disciples got so fired up about telling people about the Messiah they went on a missions trip. And while they were going on their missions trip to tell everyone about how the Messiah is going to come, the Messiah came. And He not only came but He died and He rose again. And not only He died and rose again but the Church has been born and they must have gone on a long missions trip so Paul meets them and when Paul meets them he has this dialogue, “Hey, where are you guys from and…” Well let’s pick up the story.

Chapter 19 verse 1, “When Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ ‘No, we have not even heard there is a Holy Spirit.’” Now that’s a good one, isn’t it? “So Paul asked, ‘Then what baptism did you receive?’ They said, ‘John’s baptism,’ they replied. Paul said, ‘John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the One coming after him, that is in Jesus.’ On hearing this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke in tongues and they prophesied. There were about twelve men in all.”

Now here’s what I want you to see. In the confusion about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the filling of the Holy Spirit, what it means, does it involve tongues, is it at salvation, is it after salvation – most of the theology will take one of these passages and say, “Look. This is how it happened in Acts 2 so this is how it should happen with us.”

My question would be: Which one of the churches in Acts do you want to be like? So do you pray and get the Spirit later? Does it happen at the same time? Do you believe and then get it?

See, you know why I put that there? You can’t build a theology out of Acts that’s prescriptive. It’s descriptive. It’s describing how the Church was birthed. And what I want you to see is the baptism of the Holy Spirit always includes the inclusion of a new people group. It’s the only time it ever happens.

It happens when the Jews are brought into the body of Christ and it’s created, it happens when the Samaritans are brought into the body of Christ, it happens when the Gentiles are brought into the body of Christ. And then you, kind of, have a group that never heard there was one. And so there’s no consistency. Like, when did they receive? After salvation, after salvation, at conversion, at conversion.

My only point is I want you to hear is there isn’t a consistent pattern in the New Testament in the book of Acts that says the baptism and filling and this is what it means.

The epistles are written, letters to give us instruction to say, “This is how the theology of God’s Church is to be directed and to be followed.” The book of Acts is a history of how it happened and how it laid out. So those are great experiences but the consistency is the authentication of people groups in the body of Christ. The book of Acts is descriptive not prescriptive.

If it was prescriptive and we want to be like the church in the book of Acts then we should all go and worship at synagogues. And only meet from house to house in churches. We should all have very important, some dietary laws that they were still keeping for a period of time. There are a number of things in the book of Acts that we might keep doing. Maybe we should all pool our resources.

God is describing, in the book of Acts, the birth, development, growth, maturity of His Church and the work of the Spirit in that. And so in summary here’s what I’d say: Baptism is not the same as filling, baptism doesn’t always occur after salvation, the baptism doesn’t necessarily require us to speak in tongues because in Acts 8 it doesn’t say. And then that the early church experience is not normative but the New Testament epistles tell us exactly how the filling of the Spirit works.

How to be Filled with the Holy Spirit – part 2

Let’s look at the clearest New Testament passage. And, by the way, here’s what I can tell you. In my personal journey, there’s a lot of things to argue about. This isn’t one of them. Man, I’ve done ministry here and all around the world with Reformed, Dispensationalists, Pentecostals, Baptists, Methodists. I’ll tell you what. The Bible is really, really clear that Jesus is God, salvation is by faith alone, there’s a virgin birth, He’s coming back, there’s the Trinity. There’s – the box that is absolutely clear for all of us Bible believing Christians is very clear and unmovable. There’s going to be different perspectives about how you grow spiritually and there’s going to be people that will look at the book of Acts through this lens or that lens. I will tell you what.

What we’re going to see is the real evidence of being filled by the Spirit will not be an experience. The real evidence of being filled by the Spirit will be fruit. It will be what happens in your life. Read through the book of Acts quickly and what you’ll find is it’s not an experience that anyone has that marks the Church when they’re filled. When they’re filled with the Spirit go through all those verses I listed for you. They are bold, they are courageous, they are pure, and they love lost people.

That’s what being filled with the Spirit always produces. It produces this amazing forgiveness of their enemies, this passion for people that are outside of Christ, this boldness that is supernatural, and they have all kind of different experiences. So with that let’s look at the New Testament passage that is crystal clear that commands us, tells us, what it means to be filled with the Spirit, how to know if we’re filled with the Spirit, and with that turn, if you will, in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians chapter 5 is going to give us first the context. In verse 1 he says, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children; and live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering, a sacrifice to God.”

And so in chapter 5 the first three chapters He’s given us the doctrine. Chapters 4 through 6 he’s going to say, “Since you now know who you are in Christ,” remember chapter 4 opens up, “now walk in a manner worthy of your calling.” And then it’ll teach us in chapter 4 who we are in Christ, teach us how we get equipped by the Church, teaches us how to put off the old, put on the new, have our mind renewed. And then cites five specific areas where we need to go into spiritual training with regard to truth, our emotions, our tongue, our relationships. And then chapter 5 opens up and notice the command is to walk in love, walk in love the same way Jesus is. Now skip down to verse 8. The walk continues. He says, “For you were once in darkness but now you are in the light; live or walk as children of the light. And so “walk” just means your habitual practice. How do you live? And so you’re to walk in love, you’re to walk in the light. He’s going to talk about purity and especially sexual purity.

And then skip down, I put it in your notes, verse 15, “Be very careful, then, how you walk,” this is a warning, “not as unwise but as wise, making the most,” or literally, “bind up the opportunities because the days are evil.” And then here’s the warning: “Don’t walk as unwise people in this world but walk as wise people,” then notice the word, “therefore, do not be foolish but understand the will of the Lord.” In other words, this is God’s will. This is not an option. Here’s God’s will. “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery,” negative command. Positive command: “Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”

And then, well, how would you ever know if you’re filled with the Spirit? Here’s the evidence: “Speaking to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, sing and make music in your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

And so on your notes you’ll see the context, it’s be imitators of God, walk in love, walk in the light. And then you have the command. And the command to be filled literally means to be controlled. Substitute, get that word. To be filled means to be influenced to the point that the Spirit is in control.

The Spirit is in control of what comes out of your mouth. The Spirit is in control of your thinking. The Spirit is in control, influencing your behavior. The Spirit is in control of your priorities. The Spirit is in control in giving direction about your money. The Spirit is in control about forgiving people that have wounded you and hurt you.

And then notice as you look at this, the command to be filled is in the plural form so it’s for all believers. In other words, if we were in Texas it would say, “You all be filled.” It’s not just you. It’s you all. This is for everybody in the Church.

And then notice it’s in the passive voice. You can’t fill yourself. Grammatically here would be a good translation. “Allow yourself to be filled by the Spirit.” Allow yourself to be controlled by the Spirit. So only He can do it but you have a part and I have a part in that process. It’s in the present tense. That means what? Allow yourself to continually, habitually be filled or controlled by the Holy Spirit.

Now you might, in your notes, jot, if you will, Colossians chapter 3 verse 15 and following. It’s a very interesting passage. He says, “Let the Word of Christ richly dwell in you.”

And then it’ll go on to say, “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart, giving thanks for all things out of reverence for Christ. Whatever you do,” he’ll go on to say toward the end of that chapter, “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” When you are filled with God’s Word, when you are filled with the Spirit it has the same outcome. See the evidence of being filled with the Spirit, our experiences may be different. They may be very emotional or not very emotional. They may have some manifestation of the Spirit that’s visible or a manifestation that’s not visible. That’s what we learn from the book of Acts. It can look different for different people.

But here’s how you know if you’re filled with the Spirit. Here’s the evidences,

Number one, in your speaking. Jot in your notes, if you would also, Luke 6:45. Just from the lips of Jesus, “The good man out of the good treasure in his heart speaks forth what is good. The evil man out of his heart speaks forth what is evil. For that which fills the heart proceeds out of the mouth.” If you ever want to know what’s really in your heart, just listen to your speech. Listen to your tone of voice. See there’s a lot of people who would say, “There’s this experience or that experience; you’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do that.” I will tell you what, you want to really know whether you’re controlled by the Spirit or not? Just listen to your speech.

Your words are like an MRI telling you what’s going on in your heart before God. And so when the Spirit of God, using the raw material of the Word of God, is influencing your life, your speech, your tone of voice. All those verses that, you know, kind of, Christians today we really are, you know, we’ve got this list of four, or five, or six sins that we think are really, really bad and then God has this other list that we say, I mean, how bad can gossip be? Or being critical. Or disunity. Or putting people down. Or sarcasm. Or speaking evil of someone. Or passing on untested information.

When you’re wrestling with issues in your life that have to do with attitudes or heart issues you can actually begin to direct your life by going into discipline about how you speak about certain things. I’m going to be positive. “Let no unwholesome word,” Paul would say in Philippians 2, “proceed out of your mouth but only such a word as is good for edification.”

The second is singing. What? In your heart. Have you noticed that when you’re intimate with God have you found that, you know, there’s just a song in your heart?

There’s something about taking truth from your mind to your heart and your emotions that music does. Ask yourself what kind of music do you listen to? What comes out of your mouth? What do you sing?

The third test is thankful. When you’re filled with the Spirit, what’s it say? It says, “Giving thanks for all things.” You know what that really does? That forces you to a level of a picture of God’s goodness and sovereignty that’s off the charts. I’m going to, it doesn’t mean I say, “Praise the Lord, isn’t it wonderful, I just wrecked my car.” You know, “Praise the Lord, my best friend’s biopsy report came back positive.” It’s not this glad-handing, praise the Lord, speak something to existence.

This is saying, look, if God is good and He is sovereign, in a fallen world you can be like Job and tell Him how disappointed you are and you can be like the Psalmist who laments and you can tell Him how angry you are and how much it hurts. And then you work all that through and then you say, “And Father, in light of your sovereignty and goodness and faithfulness and power I want to thank you. I want to thank you that You will use this for my good. “I want to thank you that the evil of the world and the enemy and all the things that I don’t understand is I choose to give thanks in things and for all things because they don’t come to me randomly.

“Every issue that ever comes into my life is either ordained by You or it’s gone through the filter of Your grace. And You’re going to use this in me and through me or those I love.

And all of life isn’t about now. There is a heaven that is real and some scores will be only settled there. I trust You.” When you learn to say thanks in all things and for all things, by faith, you are saying you trust a good and kind and sovereign God. And I will tell you when you do that the only person that can give you that power is that holy, living, indwelling person that’s manifesting the love of God in your heart. And the holiness of God in your heart. And the power of God in your heart. And the Holy Spirit isn’t just some neutral, religious vapor. The Holy Spirit takes the written Word of God and as you renew your mind He takes the written Word and makes it the Living Word in your heart and it births inside of you the reality of His presence.

If you don’t have the raw material of God’s Word the Holy Spirit has little to work with to transform you. That’s why trying hard does not work. The Bible doesn’t say, “Don’t be conformed to this world but try really hard not to be.” Does it? What’s the Bible say? “Don’t be conformed to this world; be transformed, metamorphosised, from the inside out by the renewing of your mind.” Why? So you can be disciplined and legalistic and tell people how much you know? What’s it say? What’s the end of that verse? “So you can be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you might test or taste or prove or demonstrate what God’s will looks like, the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.”

And so when you’re controlled by the Holy Spirit it affects your speech, it affects your heart and your attitude and your joy level and your song. It develops this gratitude. 24/7. For all things. And then the last one, these, as you study them carefully, they’re harder to fake progressively. I mean I can say the right thing in my heart and not be doing so well, right?

Well it’s hard to sing, I can sort of try that one. To give thanks it gets tougher. But notice the last one. It’s submission. Submit to one another in love. It’s the Spirit of God. Jesus, “Not My will, Father, but Yours.” It’s giving preference to one another in honor. It’s treating others the way you would want to be treated. See the Spirit of God filling you and filling me dramatically changes us and makes us more and more like Jesus. At the end of the day being filled by the Spirit is just by His power, through His Word, in the context of community is just making you more and more like Jesus.

See, the issue in terms of principles to remember is not getting more of the Holy Spirit. It’s Him getting more of you. I have a picture and I want you to imagine with me just a house, the outline of a house, okay? And then put boxes inside the house of different rooms in the house. The play room, the living room, the hobby room, the bedroom, the kids’ room, your work room. Just you are the house and the just compartments of your life.

And then in the bottom left hand corner I want you to put, you scribble a little picture of a furnace. You know, a furnace in a house? And, you know, I put “H.S.” there. Holy Spirit.

And in a house, what you know is that you have all the heat that’s generated comes from the furnace, correct? And there’s a duct system that goes into every room. Right? And there are little vents. You know? And if you’re like me, if you don’t use some of the rooms and you don’t want to heat them or you don’t want to cool them, what do you do? You go and you shut the vent. Correct?

Here’s what I want you to know. Here’s the word picture. If you’re a follower of Jesus and you’re born again the Holy Spirit lives in you. Okay? He dwells in you. The Father and Jesus make His abode by this indwelling person with this unlimited power that raised Christ from the dead. So you’ve got all the power you need.

Now what happens is “progressive sanctification” is that the duct system is already in your house. Your work life, your thought life, your sex life, your money life, your relational life, your hobby life. And the duct system is there.

And as God begins to speak to your life, pretty soon what you do is you, sort of, for some of us, it was pretty obvious, in some areas – work life or relationship life. We open the vent and the heat of the Holy Spirit, right? If you open the vent, takes what, about thirty or forty-five minutes that the influence of the heat that’s being generated in the furnace travels up the ducts and then it begins to influence the temperature of that room. And what many of us have is a very patchwork affair. And so God is working in some areas of your life and there’s some where the vent is closed. And for some it’s a secret. It’s a pornography issue, or it’s a thinking issue, or it’s a workaholic issue, or it’s an alcohol issue, or it’s a prescription drug issue, or it’s a bitterness, “I can’t forgive so and so” issue.

And that vent is closed. And there’s bitterness that happens in that. And so being filled with the Holy Spirit has to do with being yielded. Being, it’s recognizing where God wants to work and it’s that living sacrifice. It’s, “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, in view of God’s great mercy to offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Him.” That’s your reasonable service.

It’s that Romans 6, presenting your bodies. Recognizing you’re dead to sin but alive to God and presenting your members to Him. And so being filled with the Holy Spirit is primarily an issue of obedience, yieldedness, and surrender. Obedience to what you know. Yieldedness to open the vent and say, “Oh, Lord, I have carried around and when I sit really quietly and when I get really close to you…” And by the way, the reason that many of us struggle with prayer is that it’s very hard to pray when you want to hang on to stuff that when you know, if you’re really quiet and you’re really honest, the Holy Spirit keeps bringing it back up, right?

That’s why some of you are busy a lot. Silence is deathly painful. Because the only one in the room is you and God. And when you sit quietly, you’ve never forgiven him. He walked out nine years ago, you haven’t forgiven him. “Yeah but, yeah but, yeah…” You haven’t forgiven him. You’ve got to deal with this issue. You don’t eat because you’re hungry. You’re eating to medicate yourself. I don’t want that for you. You can keep taking that blood pressure medicine and doing this and doing this and doing that and doing that. I want to bring healing to your soul.

See we have a lot of, sort of, Christian-acceptable sins that are killing us in our relationships and in our bodies, in our hearts and in our souls. And Jesus wants to live in you more fully and part of it is just going through and opening the vent and saying, “Okay I want You to influence this area.” And surrender is just, “You tell me what it looks like to obey You and I’ll do it.” And I don’t know. And see that’s why everyone wants a formula, everyone wants, “Do these three things,” read so many chapters, pray a prayer, do this, take a walk, take a silent retreat.

You know what? I don’t know what God wants you to do. But He lives inside of you. Don’t you think He’d tell you if you asked Him? Don’t you think He wants to?

What if you believed He loved you so much that anything hard you’re supposed to face He’d be real gentle and He would do it for your good. And whatever embarrassment, or humiliation, or struggle that He’d be with you in it and that He’d want to make you whole.

Are You In Step with the Holy Spirit?, Part 1

From the series The Holy Spirit

MESSAGE TRANSCRIPT

On the very last night, Jesus wanted His followers to understand, “I’m leaving and going away but I don’t leave you as orphans. My presence, my power, the mission being accomplished, and my goal will be accomplished by the Holy Spirit in you, dwelling in you.” And if you’ll open your Bibles to John chapter 15, I just want to highlight one very specific verse. Because He describes the abiding relationship. That’s what the Holy Spirit is going to do, what He does in chapter 15 is, “This is your responsibility. This is the Father, what He’s going to do. I am the vine. I’m the source of life.”

But He says in chapter 15 verse 7, “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you can ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.” And then He goes on in verse 8 and says, “This is to My Father’s glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves, demonstrating, or proving to be My disciples.” And so right in the heart of all the talk about the Holy Spirit, He says, “Now this is to the Father’s glory that you bear much fruit.” I’m going to suggest Jesus is going to say the primary goal of the Holy Spirit is to bear fruit, in and through your life.

In fact, go to the Early Church. And just, if we looked at the first five chapters of Acts and you look at Peter before Pentecost, before the Holy Spirit: fearful, betrayer, right? Big mouth that doesn’t show up. They’re hiding. Peter after he receives the Holy Spirit: courage, proclaiming, clear, leads. You look at the Early Church before Pentecost, before the Holy Spirit comes they’re fearful, they’re hiding, they’re looking out for themselves. After the Holy Spirit comes: spiritual fruit. They love one another, they’re bold, they count it a privilege to suffer for Jesus, they are generous, they sell their possessions, they share with others, miraculous things happen.

What you see is, what’s the difference? It’s interesting chapter 4 even the unbelievers in verse 13 says, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John,” this is after they were brought in before the Sanhedrin, “and realized that they were unschooled, or uneducated and ordinary men they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

See, bearing much fruit – these men – what was different? Was it their pedigree? Was it their education? Hm-mm. When unbelievers saw the lives of early Christians they said, “We’re not sure where they’re coming from, and we don’t know about all this, but here’s what we know. We can tell they’re a lot like Jesus.” And I’m going to suggest that the Holy Spirit’s primary goal in all the world is to make you and to make me a lot like Jesus.

More than any spiritual experience you may have, more than any gift that you may have, more than any activity or ministry that you may have. All those things may be very important. But the priority, the main goal of the Holy Spirit, and the Father’s role, is to make you like His Son. In fact, it’s taught directly in the epistles by the apostles. In the writing in the apostles’ teaching the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is not necessarily to increase your knowledge, or impart a spiritual gift, or to improve your circumstances, but to transform your character to make you like Jesus.

Notice it’s taught directly in 2 Corinthians 3 verses 17 and 18. It says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. But we all, with unveiled faces reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” So it was a picture there, 2 Corinthians 3, He’s talking there about the old covenant and the new covenant. He says the old covenant, what it was like. “But we all, with an unveiled face, unlike Moses who had the veil. We all, with an unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being…” notice the tense of the verb. It’s a process. “…are being transformed from glory to glory just as from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

Interesting, James chapter 1, sometimes we get pretty uptight about our circumstances and you find that your house is upside down or sometimes you’re in a situation where one of your kids is going through a real struggle and no matter what you do you don’t seem to be able to fix it. Or you lose your job. And unconsciously what we tend to think is, “Oh God, how can You get my life right side up so it works for me?” And by the way, I think that’s pretty human.

But in James chapter 1 verses 2 through 4 on this theme of, “What’s the Holy Spirit’s goal?” See I think, unconsciously, we think the Holy Spirit’s job is to give us power so our life will work out well for us. And probably with sort of a nice idea that it would honor Him as well. But in James chapter 1, he says, “Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and allow or let endurance have its perfecting result that you might be perfect,” or literally the word is “mature,” telios, “and complete.”

He’s just saying that the actual goal of negative, painful circumstances is to, by faith, allow the Spirit of God to give you the perspective where you choose to rejoice, not because it’s easy, but because as you endure under difficult circumstances, the thing that will change for sure, if you’re filled and in step with the Spirit, is you.

I just want to remind you, the primary goal of the Holy Spirit, according to Jesus, according to the book of Acts, and according to the direct teaching of the apostles is to make you like Him. That’s the agenda. That’s the big agenda.

Notice the other passage I gave you. Ephesians 4:13, in verse 11 of chapter 4 it really, from 11 to 16, talks about the role of the body and leadership in the Church. And so as he’s unveiling what’s the church and the leadership of the Church and the goal of the Church he says, “He gave some as apostles and some as prophets,” this is verse 11 of chapter 4, “and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith of the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

He’s saying that apostles, and prophets, and evangelists, and pastors, and teachers are gifts to the body to equip us normal, ordinary, regular saints – just believers – to actually do the work of service so that in our relationships with one another, each and every one of us come to the fullness of Christ. Well what is that? That’s spiritual adulthood. That’s Christlikeness. That’s bearing fruit.

Final passage I gave you here is Romans 8:29. We quote this a lot in tragedies, which we should. Usually, we quote verse 28 and skip 29 to tell you the truth. And we know that all things work together, right? Verse 28? I mean when something happens and it’s just, “Oh my lands. Oh, God, where are You in this?”

Well, we know that God works all things together for the good for them that love Him, for those that are called according to His purpose. And we sort of chop off verse 29 and we unconsciously, in our American Christianity, know “He’s going to work it out for our good, here, in America, the way we want, we’re going to be happy, things are going to be upwardly mobile later, our kids are going to turn out right, our marriage is going to get more enriching, everything’s going to be great someday, someway, just keep trusting God.”

It’s really not what verse 29 says. Verse 29 says, “To them that are called and His purpose is to conform you to the image of His Son.” See, it changes your whole perspective. You begin to get an eternal perspective and you look at people, and stuff, and money, and things completely different when you understand the resurrected Christ lives inside of you in the person of the Holy Spirit and His number one agenda…

God says, “You are My light and you are My instruments, and you are My people, and My number one agenda is to make you like My Son. I want you to think like My Son, I want you to speak like My Son, I want you to be generous like My Son, I want you to love lost people like My Son, I want you to confront unrighteousness and injustice the way Jesus did. I want you to be My Body.”

When Jesus, you know, we hear that. The Body of Christ. We make that some sort of euphemism like, “I guess that’s all Christians everywhere.” Well there’s a reason for that metaphor. When Jesus was walking around in this physical body and He saw a need, what did He do in His physical body? He touched the little girl, He prayed for them, He gave them food, He confronted the Pharisees. Well you’re His Body! I’m His Body. And the Spirit of Jesus, the way we do greater works is there’s a lot more of us than there was of Jesus and He has us everywhere. But we are His Body. But the effectiveness of His Body is the more and more and more progressively we become like Him. That’s the agenda. And I think we lose sight of that.

The Spirit’s primary purpose is to, can you guess it? Transform me into the image of Christ. Transform me into the image of Christ. Well, if that’s it then what is Christlikeness or so what is spiritual fruit? Right? I mean, if that’s the deal what exactly is spiritual fruit? You might flip in your Bible, if you don’t have this one by heart, Galatians chapter 5 verses 22 and 23. It says, “But the fruit,” singular, “of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Now that’s, in many ways, that is simply the personality and the character of Jesus, laid out in a way that we can understand so we’re not just saying, “Christlikeness” or “spiritual fruit.” I mean, how do you get your arms around what’s it mean, and what will you look like, when the Spirit is bearing forth the fruit of the life of Christ through you? I see three triads here.

I think the first three have to do with our relationship with God: love, joy, and peace. The Holy Spirit puts God’s love, joy, and peace in our lives and when the Spirit is in control, or filling us, everything is conceived in love, undertaken in joy, and accomplished with peace.

And the love here is that agape love word. It’s that supernatural, others-centered, sacrificial, giving other people what they need the most, when they deserve it the least, at great personal cost. That’s love. And it’s a choice. And it’s supernatural.

You find yourself doing things for people, caring for people – choosing. By the way, don’t get this like, “Love is an ooey-gooey feeling.” Okay? If you wait to feel loving to do a lot of loving things you’ll never do it. I will guarantee you this: The greatest act of love that ever occurred was done by someone that did not feel like doing it. He was in a garden and He cried out, “If there’s any other way, Father.” He was fully human! There was no big “S” under His robe. He didn’t go to the cross as deity. He went to the cross being fully human and fully divine.

And because He was fully human He agonized. And He made a willful choice to love you and to love me and because He was fully divine, His purchase price paid for the sin of all people, of all time. But being loving doesn’t mean you feel ooey-gooey about people. Being loving is making very hard choices to love people in the power that God gives you when you take that step of faith. And so in our relationship with God joy is the byproduct of our relationship. It’s in His presence is fullness of joy. Joy isn’t circumstances are always great. Joy, again, is a choice. “Rejoice always and again I say,” the apostle Paul would say, writing from prison. Rejoice always. It’s a choice. It’s a mindset.

Peace is that sense of contentment in your heart. That sense of well-being and trusting, even when you just don’t know what’s going to happen. And so one of the ways to know if you’re becoming more Christlike: does that characterize your relationship with God? Do you find yourself choosing in ways that you probably wouldn’t ordinarily do? To give more of your time, or to give more of your money, or to give more of yourself, or to hang out with someone that just, candidly, you would rather not. But they have a need. And you choose to love them.

The second triad has to do with our relationship with others. Patience, kindness, and goodness. Patience is having a long temper versus a short temper. It’s bearing with the rudeness and the unkindness of others and refusing to retaliate. Kindness is that goes beyond the tolerance of what you wish other people weren’t doing and goes beyond to do what you wish others would do for you. There’s a sense of kindness, a winsomeness, a “doing for others.”

And then finally goodness is that concrete step of turning kindness into actions, and deeds that serve others and meet needs. The root word of goodness has to do with generosity. In the Old Testament when God, Moses says, “I want to know You. I want to see You. Show me who You really are!” You remember what He says? “No one can see Me but I’ll put you in the cleft of the rock and I’ll put My hand and it’ll bypass.” And as He goes by him what’s He say? He lets His goodness…

The most generous being in all the universe is our God. He’s generous. The reason a lot of us have trouble trusting Him is down deep in our hearts we don’t believe He’s good. We believe if we take a step of faith or commitment with one of our kids or in a relationship or with our money that, you know what? We’ll end up in Africa or we’ll end up…

If we’re single and we take a step of faith we’ll never get married or we always are thinking what’s not going to happen. I want you to know, especially some of you that are grandparents or, you know, you get it more as a grandparent because you’ve lived longer.

Is there anything that gives you greater joy as a grandparent than just getting to give one of your grandkids something and just watching them light up? In fact, most of us give too much, right? And the parents are going, “Would you knock it off? You never did that for me.” Right? Well where do you get that from? Where do you get that from? Is that how you think about God? Or down deep is the God that you serve arms crossed, toe tapping, kind of the bent finger, just kind of waiting for you to mess up? You know, you don’t measure up, you don’t measure up, you don’t measure up, get with the program, you’re not reading the Bible enough. You know, you don’t pray long enough. You know, I know you’re giving x percent, you ought to give x more percent. And by the way, how many people you led to Christ in the last twenty-four hours? Ah, not that many?”

Some of you have these pounding voices of, “You don’t measure up, you don’t measure up, you don’t measure up.” I just, let me just tell you, that’s not from God. That’s condemnation from the enemy. Even Jesus, in His humanness, needed to hear something and be reminded of God’s goodness. And so on two or three different occasions, pivotal occasions, when He was baptized, later on the Mount of Transfiguration, what did the Father say? “This is My dearly loved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

Do you feel that washing over you? Are you living a life? See, by the way. This transforms, this is how the Spirit is working. The flesh always wants to gravitate to rules, formulas, law, and performance. The Spirit is about trusting. And trusting has to do with in God’s character and in God’s promises. But it’s hard to trust someone that you don’t believe is for you.

If you could see, if you could imagine the ocean of opportunity and goodness and kindness that God longs to give for His children; He’s not down on you. He longs for you. But you access those things by faith. Without faith it’s impossible to please God.