The Holy Spirit: His Power (Unleashing The Lion) Series

Holy Spirit: The Power of the Spirit, Unleashing The Lion Within

Romans 8:1-17 NLT

INTRO:

This morning we take a look into one of the most important passages in all of Scripture.

Its subject cannot be overemphasized: The power of God's Spirit in the life of the believer.

If the believer needs anything, he needs the power of God's Spirit.

We live in a world that is at best unsettling…

 We recoil in horror at the brutality of the crimes that are committed all around us.

 > Senseless murders: 80 Y/O woman in church.

 > People killing and abusing their own children.

 > Drug use and spouse abuse are rampant in our homes today.

 > Alcoholism and Gambling are taking food from the tables in the Land of Plenty.

 We enter into relations knowing that 50% of them are going to fail.

 We live in a society where we can’t let our kids out of our sight for a moment.

 We hold our breath every time the doctor comes into the room…waiting for the shoe to fall!

 We watch as our once stable and seemingly indestructible economy teeters on the brink of insolvency.

 We watch the news in sorrow at the deaths of those this week in the Ouachita mountains.

 We hide behind locked doors, fearing to even go out and to minister to those in need.

 Content to just take care of ourselves…

If there is anything the believer needs today, it is peace and security.

I don’t know about you, but I sure would feel better if I could just get a Lion to go everywhere with me???

Story of hearing the lions and tigers growling and roaring at the Big Cat Rescue Farm.

I’m pretty convinced that if I had one of them with me everywhere I went, no one would mess with me!!!

Scripture tell us that we have within us a power that is even greater than the lions.

Imagine if you will the difference that it would make in your lives to unleash that power…to be able to bring it to bear against every situation you face…would that change how you face each day??? Sure it would.

Scripture tells us in Rev 5:5 that Jesus is the Lion of Judah…and in Proverbs 28:1 we are told how to use this power in our own lives.

Proverbs 28:1 (NKJV) 1The wicked flee when no one pursues, But the righteous are bold as a lion.

Forcefully, Scripture spells out point by point what the power of the Holy Spirit is.

READ TEXT Romans 8:1-17

1. The Holy Spirit has the Power to Deliver us from Condemnation!

1. "No condemnation" (ouden katakrima PWS: 2664) means that the believer is not doomed and damned, but is freed from the penalty and condemnation of sin; he is not judged as a sinner, but is delivered from the condemnation of death and hell; he is not judged to be unrighteous, but is counted to be righteous.

2. Notice what the inverse of this scripture states…befor Jesus came…all men were condemned..

3. But since Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, the Holy Spirit has the power to deliver us from condemnation…IF…IF…we belong to Him!!!

4. But those who do not belong to Him…will die in their condemned state and spend eternity in hell.

2. The Holy Spirit has the Power to give us Life…

What do you mean by that? Very simply, life is in Jesus Christ and in Him alone. Whatever life is—energy, being, spirit, love, joy, peace—it is all in Jesus Christ and nowhere else. Within Christ, within His very being is the Spirit of life, the very energy and being of life.

John 1:4 (NKJV) 4In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

John 5:12 (NKJV) 12He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Now for the critical question. How does the Spirit give life? How does a person go about securing "the Spirit of life" so that he may not die but live forever?

1. The Spirit gives life by freeing the believer from sin and death, that is, from the "law of sin and death."

The Holy Spirit frees the believer to live as Christ lived, to actually live out the life which Christ lived.

2. The Spirit gives life by doing what the law could not do. The law could not make man righteous because man's flesh is too weak to keep the law. No man has ever been able to keep the law of God, not to perfection or even close to perfection. All flesh has miserably failed—come far short of God's glory and law. Consequently, all flesh dies physically and spiritually. Therefore, righteousness and life just cannot come by the law. But what the law could not do, the Spirit is able to do. He can provide righteousness and life.