Rock Springs Reboot: Holy Spirit Power

You can live and love like Jesus.  That’s a bold statement but it’s true.  Do you want to know how I know it’s true?  It’s because Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to fill us and move us to live and love like Him.  In fact, in the upper room, just hours before Jesus was to be betrayed and handed over to be crucified, Jesus made an amazing statement about our potential to live and love like Him.  This is what he said: “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.  But if I go, I will send Him to you.” John 16:7 What Jesus promised those disciples then is why we can live and love like Jesus today.  The Helper is the name Jesus used to explain the role of the Holy Spirit in their lives and in ours.  For when Jesus fulfilled His promise of sending the Holy Spirit, that’s when everyday Christ followers like you and I began to turn the world upside down for God.  And the same thing that took place in the lives of ordinary believers then, can still take place today, when we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us.  For when we allow the Holy Spirit to control our lives, He will help us and empower us to live and love like Jesus.

You see, the Holy Spirit does not only manifest the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives, but He is the very power of God Jesus gives us to live and love like Him.  But what I am finding is that there is often some confusion and misunderstanding around the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  The Holy Spirit remains a mystery to most of us because we are not really familiar with who He is and what He does.   So today, as we continue our Rock Springs Reboot series, I want to reintroduce you to the Holy Spirit, and then share with you 3 ways the Holy Spirit works to our advantage to help us live and love like Jesus.

So let me begin with a reintroduction to this One of whom Jesus said is “to our advantage.”  The Holy Spirit is a Person.  He is not an indistinct power, force or thing.  The Holy Spirit is not an “it.”  He can be lied to (Acts 5:3-4).  He can be grieved by our bitterness and lack of forgiveness (Ephesians 4:30-32).  And every time Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit, He used the pronoun “him.” Listen to Jesus words: When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you.

John 16:13-14.  Jesus always referred to the Holy Spirit as a person, not an impersonal force.  But the Holy Spirit is more than just a person.

The Holy Spirit is Divine.  He is not less than or different than God the Father or God the Son.  The Holy Spirit took part in Creation:  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Genesis 1:1-2.  The Holy Spirit is all knowing:  The Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  1 Corinthians 2:10-11  This is a clear statement of His Divine knowledge.  The Holy Spirit is omnipresent:  As David was speaking of God, he said, ”Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!” Psalm 139:7-8.

And the Holy Spirit is eternal.  Jesus promised His disciples the Holy Spirit would be with them forever.  He is not just a flighty, whimsical or mystical phenomena who comes and goes like the wind.  He is an eternal being. He is divine.  And Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to help us live and love like Him.  Here are now are some of the ways the Holy Spirit Helps us… How the Holy Spirit Helps Us:

• He teaches us (John 14:26) He teaches us God’s Word.  He teaches us about Jesus.  He teaches us about things to come.
• He convicts us of sin (John 16:9) The Holy Spirit is the One who convicts us of sin and reveals to us our need of a Savior.
• He comforts us (Acts 9:31) The comforter is one of the Spirit’s names.  He encourages us and comforts us with the presence of God.
• He illuminates God’s Word for us (1 Corinthians 2:12) He helps us to see the truth of God’s Word, and helps us understand God’s truth.   Without His illuminating work, we would not be able to know God, believe in Jesus, or glorify God.
• He gives us life (Romans 8:10-11) Apart from the Holy Spirit the Bible says we are spiritually dead with no ability to know or please God.  But the Spirit gives us new life.  He regenerates us spiritually when we believe in Jesus.
• He confirms our relationship with the Father Let me read this Scripture for us: For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.  Romans 8:15-16
• He fills us with joy and peace (Romans 15:13)
• He gives us spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12:7)
• He produces His fruit in us (Galatians 5:22-23) He is the one who enables us to love like Jesus, to be kind like Jesus and be humble like Jesus.  This is why Jesus said, “It is to your advantage that I go away.”  For then He could send the Holy Spirit to help us live and love like Jesus.

Now, up to this point in the message, I’ve tried to reintroduce you to God’s amazing gift to us in the Holy Spirit.  Hopefully you have been reminded and encouraged as to how the Holy Spirit is such a blessing to us. But you may also be wondering, why hasn’t the Holy Spirit made much of a difference in how I am living?  Or how can the Holy Spirit help me to love others the way Jesus loved me?  How does He help me do that?

That’s what I want us to look at now: How the Holy Spirit Empowers Us   That’s what we see in the command Paul gives us in Ephesians, when he writes: “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.  Instead, be filled with the Spirit” Ephesians 5:18

This command tells us how the Holy Spirit empowers us to live and love like Jesus.  And Paul gives us a simple contrasting picture to teach us how the Holy Spirit is to work in our lives.  The contrasting picture is that of drunkenness.

Everyone in Ephesus knew what Paul meant when he spoke of not getting drunk on wine. Getting drunk on wine was what you did to worship in the cult of Dionysus, a pagan deity.  Those who worshiped Dionysus believed that the more inebriated you got, the more you were indwelled and controlled by Dionysus.  And the idea was that you were to get so drunk hat you would lose control.  And as you lost control Dionysus would then give you special powers and abilities.  Of course, the worship of this pagan god was an elaborate lie that literally ruined the lives of those who worshiped him.

The contrast is clear.  Rather than lose control of your life to wine, you fill your life with the controlling power of the Holy Spirit. In other words, we are commanded to allow the Spirit of God to control our lives.

Let me break this down for us a bit.  First, this is a command to be obeyed.  Being filled with the Spirit doesn’t just happen because we want it to happen.  And being filled with the Spirit doesn’t happen simply because we ask God to make it happen, as if there is some kind of supernatural outpouring of the Spirit that happens every time we need to be filled.  Being filled with the Spirit simply does not work that way.

Second, the grammar of this command is passive.  What that means is that being filled by the Spirit is not something we do, but something that we allow to be done to us. The filling is entirely the work of the Spirit Himself, but He works only through our willing submission.  Our part is to surrender to His control; we are to yield to His influence; we are to allow Him to permeate our hearts, minds and will, so that we can allow Him to influence our words, our attitudes and our actions.

I love the illustration John MacArthur Jr, gives to help us get the picture. He says The Christian who is filled with the Holy Spirit can be compared to a glove.  Until it is filled by a hand, a glove is powerless and useless.  It is designed to do work, but it can do no work by itself.  It works only as the hand controls and uses it.  The glove’s only work is the hand’s work.

This reminds me of what Jesus said to his disciples in the upper room.  He said, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” John 15:5 The reason he said that, is that He was preparing his followers to learn how to depend on the Holy Spirit to live like Him. We are to do this too. We are to depend on the Holy Spirit to be thecontrolling influence behind every thought, every act, every choice we make in living our life. But it is up to us to allow this to happen.  It’s a choice of the will.  You choose to allow His thoughts to guide your thoughts; you choose to make His ways your ways; you choose to have His desires be your desires.  You decide to let the Spirit permeate your inner being – your will, your thoughts, your desires.

One way to picture this is to think of The Fizzie Principle.  Fizzies were popular in the early 70’s.  They resembled Alka Seltzer tablets and were used to make different flavored soft drinks.  You dropped the fizzie in the water and it transformed it into a flavored drink.  For instance a grape fizzie produced a grape soda.  So then, when you allow the Spirit of God to fill you, He will flavor your conversations, your actions and your attitudes so your life will take on the flavor of God.  But surrender is the key.  And the more you choose to allow the Spirit to influence your thoughts, attitudes and actions, the more you will begin to live and love like Jesus.

Now, there’s one more aspect of this command that is important for us to note.  Being filled by the Spirit is not a one-time act of obedience. Being filled by the Spirit is a command we are to obey continuously. We are to constantly submit ourselves to the Spirit’s controlling influence in our lives.  Why? Because it is too easy for us to allow the flesh to control everything about us.  So then being filled by the Spirit is an ongoing way of living.

Every morning when you wake up, you have a choice: will you allow God’s Spirit to permeate your every thought and action today or not?  But it’s more than just a choice you make first thing in the morning – How about when someone cuts you off in traffic?  Will you surrender to the Spirit’s control at that moment or will you react out of the flesh? Or how about when someone fails you, criticizes you, disappoints you or upsets you?  Do you tell yourself – well, this command doesn’t apply here?  No, you have a choice.  You can choose to allow the Spirit to empower you to be patient, gracious or merciful.  Or you can let your flesh control you and get angry, be argumentative or judgmental.  This is one area I’m learning to allow the Spirit of God to empower me.  My natural tendency when someone criticizes me is to let them get under my skin, so in my flesh I tend to react.  That’s not how Jesus wants to live through me.  No, I’m learning to allow the Spirit to empower me to react with patience and kindness.  And when I can do that, I’m allowing the Spirit to influence me to live like Jesus.

Think about your reactions in life.  What happens when things don’t go your own way?  How do you respond when someone fails to meet your expectations?  Do you get angry with them?  Do you judge them or tell them how they should act?

What happens when you are tired or frustrated with your spouse?  Do you let your exhaustion control you?  Do you let your anger get the best of you?  Here again, is where God would have you allow the Holy Spirit to control you, not your anger or exhaustion.  Are you starting to get the idea? This is how God made it possible for you to live a different kind of life.  This is how God makes it possible for you to live like Jesus.  You see, the more you allow the Spirit to control your attitudes and actions, the more His Spirit in you will help you live like Jesus.   Not in extraordinary miraculous ways – but in everyday ways of loving one another as Jesus loved us.

This is why God gave us the Holy Spirit.  God knows we cannot love like Jesus love out of the flesh because the flesh only lives for itself.  No, God gave you His Holy Spirit to fill you, so that He can help you love like Jesus.  And the more we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us, control us, influence us, the more the Holy Spirit will change us.  And that’s the last thing God wants us to see this morning:

How the Holy Spirit Transforms Us:   Let me read what God’s Word says will result in our lives as a result of being filled with His Spirit:  Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Ephesians 5:19-20 In these verses we see four ways the Holy Spirit changes us to make us more like Jesus.

First, as we are filled with the Spirit, He transforms our conversations   The tone and nature of our words to one another will change.  And the result of a spirit filled life will be conversations filled with praise to God.  In other words, when you are controlled by the Spirit your conversations will become less and less about you, and more and more about who God is and what He is doing in your life.  There will be no discontent in your conversations, no despair over the current affairs of our world.  You won’t be filled with complaints and criticisms, but praise and hope.

Second, as we are filled with the Spirit, He transforms our worship The disposition of your heart will change. There’ll be a new song in your heart.  You will awaken to the beauty of the Lord in your life, and He will fill you with joy. Joy will begin to dominate your life because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of joy!  You wont’ just sing praises to God on Sunday mornings, but you’ll make music in your heart to the Lord all day long.

Thirdly, as we are filled with the Spirit, He transforms our attitudes!  Being filled by the Spirit produces a thankful heart. When you are under the influence of the Spirit, you won’t have to think of things to be thankful for –  you’ll begin to be thankful for simple everyday things,  and you’ll be thankful for God’s grace.  You’ll begin to see His grace to you in everything.  Everything in your life will take on new meaning… as all of it will be seen as a gift from God.  His presence in your life will change you. Things that previously frustrated you will lose their grip on you.  That’s what happens when let the Spirit fill you.  He will transform your attitudes and make you a thankful person.

And finally, as we are filled with the Spirit, He transforms our relationships!   When you are under the influence of the Spirit, you’ll start seeing everyone as someone Jesus wants you to serve.  You will start seeing them as someone created in the image and likeness of God.  You’ll start seeing everyone as someone Jesus died for.  The Spirit will move you to submit to people out of reverence for Christ.  You will see them as equals at the foot of the cross.  You will see them as beloved children of God.  And you will want to put their needs above your own because that’s how Jesus treated you.

That’s the power of the Holy Spirit.  That’s the advantage Jesus was talking about to His disciples in the Upper Room.  When we learn to live surrendered to the controlling influence of the Holy Spirit, we CAN live and love like Jesus.

We are not to be like the rest of the world who are controlled by their flesh.  We are not to be controlled by our feelings, our experiences, or our passions. When we are being controlled by our feelings, we will only love those we feel like loving.  When we are being controlled by our circumstances, we will only love when it might benefit us.  And when we are controlled by our passions, we don’t love at all, because our passions keep us from seeing those who need the love of Christ. No, we are to be different from the world.  And we can live differently from the world. That’s why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit: so we might let Him help us live and love like Jesus.

So then, what is God calling us to do? We are to develop the habit of surrendering to the power of the Holy Spirit.  And this is not a mysterious thing.  It’s an obedience thing.  It’s choosing to live a different way – It’s choosing to allow the Spirit to have His way in you.  But developing a new habit is a hard thing to do.

For some of us here today, this means changing how you live.  Many of us have spent our lives developing the habit of controlling of everything.  We’ve controlled our plans, our relationships, our finances and our schedules.  So then, giving up control to the Holy Spirit –  feels a lot like losing control.  But it’s not.  For the Holy Spirit is the One who produces the fruit of self-control.  If that’s you, remember that God gave His Spirit to help you.  So trust Him to help you.  Ask Him to permeate your thoughts.  Ask Him to help you surrender.  Then trust Him to live through you.  Giving control to God in your life is a matter of trust. The Holy Spirit will never force Himself to fill you.  You’ve got to trust Him enough to allow Him to lead you.  Trust Him to change you.  Relinquish your control and give the Holy Spirit control. Like that Carrie Underwood song, Jesus take the wheel, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to guide our steps.

For others of us here today, this means changing your awareness of the Spirit’s presence in your life.  If you believe in Jesus, then you need to be aware of that the Holy Spirit is there to help you. Believe you are not meant to live the Christian life alone, or out of your own strength.  Believe the Holy Spirit wants to help you.  And then let Him.  So then, whenever you’re tempted to react negatively to the people or circumstances in your life, remember Who is in you.  Let Him help you.  Let Him fill you the patience of Jesus. Let Him fill you the kindness of Jesus.  Let Him fill you with the joy of Jesus.  Surrender to His leading and let Him fill you with the love of Jesus.  God gave you His Spirit to empower you to live like Jesus.  So let Him help you.

I began this morning making this bold claim: You can live and love like Jesus.  And the reason you and I can actually live and love like Jesus, is because Jesus sent His Holy Spirit to live in every believer.  He is the Helper who has come to help us, empower us, and change us to live and love like Jesus.  Now, it is up to us, to let Him do what He came do, when we allow Him to have His way in us every moment of everyday.

May we take advantage of the greatest advantage ever given us by God, so that we might truly become a people who live and love like Jesus.