My Spirit Will Not Always Strive

2. The same is true of each one of us. We each have a span of time in which God will deal with us. If we don’t respond within that time of grace, the door of opportunity will shut and will no longer be available.

3. Someone might say, “God doesn’t work like that; God won’t just cut people off!” What about the people of Sodom and Gomorrah? What about Noah’s generation? What about the Israelites that disobeyed God, both in the desert and in the promised land?

4. In every instance, there came a day when God said, “That’s it. I’m done dealing with them. Their judgment is come!” What about Nineveh under Jonah? They got 40 days to repent. Is that not a limited time?

5. God dealt with Samson until he told his secret to Delilah. He “sold his birthright” for sexual relations. Immediately afterward his eyes were gouged out and his

arms bound with fetters.

C. IGNORING GOD

1. The last danger is ignoring God. Noah’s generation saw the terrible consequences of ignoring God. The entire world died, except eight people. God’s Spirit attempted to turn that generation from their destructive course.

2. Another example is the nation of Israel, that rejected Christ as their Messiah. The Roman Gen. Titus marched in, destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem, and made it a gentile city, forbidden to any Jew to enter!

3. Brushing God off, individually, can have the same serious consequences. Jonah found himself in a storm and then swallowed by a huge fish. Samson found himself blind and strapped to a mill, turning it like an animal.

4. We dare not ignore God, but pay close attention to His Word and His Spirit. Hear God’s Word; “By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward” Ps. 19:11.1.

CONCLUSION

A. ILLUSTRATION

1. When you leave church on Sundays, you go home or out to a restaurant. You deplete the gasoline that's in your tank.

2. You don't have to be a bad person for your car to go from full to empty; you just have to use the car. If you drive it, I guarantee you it will deplete the gasoline.

3. Life has a way of draining the Holy Spirit out of us. If you're empty of God's presence, it doesn't mean you're bad, it just means you need to be refilled.

4. Just like you have to continually make trips to the gas station to fill up your car so it will run smoothly, Christians must continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit!

B. HUMOROUS POINT

1. There was a poor college student who was running out of gas. Her car was coughing on fumes as she coasted into a gas station.

2. All she had was $2, but she decided to try and get the attendant to give her a little gas anyway.

3. When she asked for 2 dollars worth, the attendant got a perfume cotton ball and dabbed some gas behind the student’s ears.

4. That’s the way a lot of Christians go to God; they don’t want a full tank of the Holy Spirit, but just enough to dab behind their ears! (give an aroma)

C. THE CALL

1. How many of you would say, "I need a refilling"? Remember that the Holy Spirit is like oxygen tanks to a diver. You can’t exist in this world without the Holy Spirit.