How Does The Holy Spirit Free Me From Sin? Series

My parents home in East Tennessee sits atop a beautiful hill that overlooks hay-fields & an old cattle barn. At the base of our driveway use to stand an Old White Oak Tree that dated back to the late 1800s. It had stood there long before my grandparents ever settled on the property. We never gave a 2nd thought to that Old Oak outliving all of us . One day my dad was burning leaves & his fire got out of control & went underneath the trunk sending the entire tree up in flames.

After the fire, my dad made an unusual discovery, “That old oak tree which had been a symbol of strength on the outside was instead weak & vulnerable on the inside. It was almost completely hollow @ the base of its huge trunk.

For years it had fooled all of us; that hollow tree still haunts me!

Mark Twain once wrote, “We’re all like the moon; we have a dark side we don’t want anyone to see”

The Bible refers to this dark side as Our SIN NATURE = battle with the flesh

Romans 8: 7 explains, “For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, & it never will.”

By our own efforts we will never be able to overcome our dark side; it’s humanly impossible!

SO This is where the HOLY SPIRIT COMES IN:

Jesus promised, “…when the Holy Spirit comes, He will convict the world of its’ sin, & of Gods’ righteousness, & the coming judgment.” John 16: 8

The Spirit’s job is to expose facts = plain truth about our dark side= sin nature that battles w-in us Holy Spirit convicts us of the precise sin (s) that may be keeping us from being intimate w-God!

Wizard of General Electric

There was an electrical genius in the early days of electrical companies & his name was Charles Steinmetz. His peers referred to him as the Wizard of Electricity.

In the early part of the 20th century, Charles Steinmetz retired. Periodically after his retirement, G.E. would call him back to help them solve a problem. Around 1919 G.E. had a very large system of complex machines that were broken down and their engineers simply didn’t know how to fix it, so they called Mr. Steinmetz.

He went down in front of the aisle of broken down machines and studied the problem, which had baffled the engineers. After a few minutes he went in front of one of one particular machine and did a couple of tests. Then he did something odd, he pulled out a piece of chalk and made a mark on the outside of the machine & then walked outside the plant.

Later the G.E. engineers disassembled the part and found that indeed this was the problem. A few days later G.E. received a bill for $10,000 for Steinmetz’s diagnostic help. Needless to say G.E. officials were not happy with this enormous bill for just a few minutes of help. They protested the bill and asked him to itemize it, for just walking around and looking.

Charles Steinmetz gladly sent them an itemized bill, 2 entries on his bill:

1) Making one chalk mark $1.00

2) Knowing where to put it $9,999.00 = $10,000 

You get the point!

Only God knows where the precise breakdown is presently occurring in your life, & is able & willing to help heal the problem. So where would the Holy Spirit mark an X in your life today – what sin (s) needs attention?

Bible tells us that SIN QUENCHES the power of God’s Holy Spirit in your life!

1. (R) Ephesians 4: 30 – 32 or p. 898 in pew Bible

2. It’s possible to have indwelling of Holy Spirit w-out experiencing its power b-c of sin

3. Remember King David as he repented of his adulterous affair he prayed,

“Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me” Psalm 51: 11

So, what sin is quenching the Holy Spirit’s power in your life today? Because we all sin - - many of us justify our sins (not hating the sin ~ actually tolerating it)

So, what’s quenching God’s Spirit within you today? = Maybe it’s…

• It’s an chemical addiction ~ that you’ve just nurtured along for some time= i.e. prescription pain-meds + maybe you still smoke weed + maybe you still get drunk

• Maybe it’s pornography + maybe it’s disrespect in your marriage + maybe it’s a spending issues (leveraged in debt) + just maybe you cheat in business

• Maybe it’s anger + maybe it’s your integrity (you lie before thinking)

• Maybe you have a cyber addiction ~ if you are the average church attendee you spend (7 minutes a day w-God) compared to 4.5 hrs a day watching television & you spend (15 – 30 minutes) a week in prayer = & we wonder why life doesn’t change for the better; comparison to the unlimited hrs on the internet + smart phones.