Well, if you’ve got a Bible, now is a good time to get it out. If you don’t have a Bible, there should be one in the pew in front of you. If you don’t have one in front of you, look down the row and see if you can get your hands on a copy of God’s Word. It’s going to help us today because we have too much to get to. The title of the message is “My Relationship with the Holy Spirit”. Part II of the four part series on the person and work of the Holy Spirit – who He is, what He does. Today is what is our relationship with Him? What does it look like? How do we live being led by the Spirit of God? And then things that we can actually today to be filled with the Holy Spirit in a new and a fresh way.
The gospel of Jesus Christ (some people believe) is a set of moral principles that Jesus outlined by the way that he lived that if applied to our lives will make us better people; will make us morally better; and really affect all of the way that we live our life – a moral set of principles. Other people think that the gospel of Jesus – the Good News – (gospel means good news) is good news specifically for those who are experiencing injustice – for the orphan, for the poor, for the marginalized, for the widow. True, that is part of the gospel – the social aspect of the gospel.
Other people think that the good news that Jesus brought to the earth is a set of facts of the ministry and life of Jesus including his death and resurrection when believed will tip a person into the kingdom of God. So you believe in the facts that are on the page about Jesus (who He is, what He did for us) and when you believe them then that tips you into the kingdom of heaven and then basically you live your life (yes, you try to be like Jesus), but you essentially you live your life knowing that in the end you are in the kingdom. You are saved because you believed and are associated with the facts of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Well, all of those have some truth in them. The gospel of Jesus, the Good News – Jesus brought some great news for humanity – the Good News is more than all three of those. The Gospel is not merely a set of moral principles that we follow with our life (although we do); it’s not only a word for social justice for the oppressed and marginalized (although it is); and it’s not just a set of facts that we believe that get us into the kingdom (although it does). The gospel is a way of life. The gospel isn’t something that we encounter and then we move on to our life. The gospel – we live in the gospel truth. We live in the truth that Jesus died for us, died in our place for sin, and that affects everything that we do in our lives. It has to because of the fact that Jesus took my place. He took the wrath of God that was rightly deserving for me. He paid for it with His shed blood on the cross and now I am associated with Jesus, the Messiah.
Jesus came to earth and he was associated with people. Do you remember Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist? He got up to be baptized and John the Baptist said, “I can’t baptize you. I need to be baptized by you, Jesus.” Because John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance from sin – turning from sin and turning to God – to God’s way. And John recognized that and here Jesus is coming, the Son of God, the Messiah. He doesn’t need to be baptized. “I need to be baptized,” John says. But Jesus says no this is to fulfill all righteousness. What was that? What is Jesus talking about? Well, it’s that the Messiah would be associated with the people and so he is associated with the people in his baptism. He is identifying himself with the nation of Israel and greater we see as the New Testament unfolds, he is associated with humanity – with men and women. Jesus is associated as one of us and in that he is our Messiah so that now we can be like the song said, “Knowing You”, found in Jesus not having the righteousness of our own that comes from doing good things, but having the righteousness that is in Jesus Christ. So we are found in Jesus now and that is the gospel that changes our lives and affects the way that we live. It affects the way that we do our jobs. It affects the way that we live our lives. The gospel.
Now we can experience the saving power of God in Jesus and then we can fall into something that happened in the New Testament Church to the Galatian Christians. We can then go back to living our life in our own strength and in our own power. We know we’re not saved by anything that we do so we have to trust in God for that. We trust in Jesus for that. We know that we can’t get forgiveness of sins. We trust in Jesus for that, but how many people who then go back to living their life in their own strength and in their own power. I know that I’m saved. Now I know the good that I ought to do and therefore I seek to do the good that I ought to do. This leads to what I call the exhausting Christian life because it is one of ups and downs and failures. We can’t do that. We’re not designed to do that. There is no provision whatsoever in the Bible for men and women to live their Christian life on their own strength. Zero. None.
So then how do you live? Well, you live in the power led by the Holy Spirit of God. And the title of this message today is called, “My Relationship (meaning yours too) – Our relationship with the Holy Spirit.” Do you want to experience God? Do you want to experience God today maybe for the first time? You can. Do you want to experience God in a new and fresh way maybe? You look back and said, “Well, in high school that was my time when I really got fired up for God and I really served him.” Or “it was in college – at the end of college time – I went through a season in my life where I was wandering away from God and God intervened and he saved me and he did some wonderful, miraculous things, but I haven’t had those kinds of experiences in such a long time.” Maybe you want a fresh experience with the Holy Spirit today – with God and he wants to do that. So let’s ask him, if you want to, to move and do a work in our heart – maybe for the first time. Maybe you still have your doubts. Confess that to him and ask him to reveal himself to you. Or for refreshing. Maybe you need a refreshment and experience the goodness and greatness of God Almighty. So let’s ask him.
Holy Spirit, we ask that you would come. You would come and invade people’s lives that even are here today and they have doubts even about you or your existence. We pray that you would come into their life and reveal to them the truth of Jesus. Lord, for somebody else who feels really dry today. Their spirit is down. They don’t feel close to you whatsoever. They feel like their prayers are bouncing off the ceilings. Would you reveal to them afresh today who you are and what you’ve done and what you think of them? We ask that you would do a good work here today. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
So your relationship with God, with the Holy Spirit, begins with your new birth. John 3. Here’s the true story of Jesus being questioned by one of the….let’s just go to the scriptures, all right, starting at verse 1. This is a description of where it all starts – the new birth:
1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
Here is Nick – Nicodemus. Nick comes and he’s a teacher of the law – a Pharisee. He’s a religious leader of the day. He knows the Old Testament through and through. In fact he memorized all of it by the time he was 15 years old. And he taught the law. He taught the scriptures. He was a man of God. Nicodemus, a Pharisee. He’s a ruler of the Jews.
2This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him."
So Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night time which is not surprising because some of his buddies, his Pharisee buddies don’t really like Jesus too much. In fact, they are plotting to kill Jesus which they ultimately do, but it’s not their plan. It’s God’s plan of salvation. So he comes under the cloak of darkness to get a little one-on-one time with this miracle man, Jesus. And the first thing he does is that he kind of plays the kiss-up game. You see that? “We know that you have to be from God, because we see all the miraculous things you do.” And Jesus doesn’t say, “Oh well, thank you. I’m glad…” Jesus goes right the heart of the matter. Verse 3 – the new birth:
3Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."
When you experience God, it starts with this phrase right here ‘you must be born again’. You have all been born. You’re all sitting here. You must, though, to seek the kingdom of heaven, be born again. Verse 4:
4Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?"
Come on Nicodemus. I mean that’s…you’re a learned man. You’re a Pharisee. You’re smarter than that. You know that Jesus isn’t talking about reentering your mother’s womb. So what is Jesus talking about? What is being born again mean? Well, Jesus gives us the answer in verse 5:
5Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ’You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
The new birth. So what is Jesus talking about? First, he says you must be born again. Now he says being born again equals being born of the Spirit. See that little phrase in verse 5: “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
There are different interpretations about what Jesus means by that statement: being born of the water and being born of the spirit. Some people see that as a reference to the physical birth, water. When you’re born, the mother’s womb – the water breaks – some people say and therefore Jesus is referring to being born physically and then being born spiritually. Other people see in this the reference to baptism. You are born of water (you’re baptized) and then you are born of the Spirit and that is connected. The way that you receive your new birth is in baptism. Now there are problems with both of those things.
The first view and the first problem with that view is that it would seem rather redundant for Jesus to say that someone must be born of water, physically, and then be born of the Spirit. Obviously everybody has to be born to experience new life, right? So why would Jesus say, unless somebody is born physically and then born of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. I mean, that’s redundant. Everybody who is here is born physically so that rules that one out.
The next one, being born of water, that would somehow talk about baptism would be very unfamiliar to Nicodemus who Jesus is talking to. Although John did a baptism for repentance, he wouldn’t be referring to some church practice that is some years down the road to come. That wouldn’t make any sense to Nicodemus to be talking about a church rite or an ordinance or a sacrament.
So what is he talking about and what would make sense in the mind of Nicodemus? I think it goes to Ezekiel 36. Flip back to Ezekiel. It’s in the Old Testament. It’s on page 725 in my Bible, but I don’t think any of you have it. I don’t know if that matters, but Ezekiel is in the Old Testament, chapter 36.
You’ve got to remember that Nicodemus is a teacher of the Law and a lot of what the Pharisees held in high regard was the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel. All was the Word of God, but time and time again, they would go to these prophets. Ezekiel 36:25:
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, (before we go any further…this is the New Covenant. This is the time when God’s Spirit will come and be in His people. It’s the change that Jesus brings in the New Covenant, the New Testament community. This is reference to that from the Old Testament). 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
So the New Covenant community is ones that will be cleansed and the reference here is by water and then is all throughout all the Old Testament the cleansing of water and then the Spirit of God will actually be in his people. This is what I think Jesus is saying in John 3. That the water and the Spirit is one reference to the same thing – being filled and cleansed by God Almighty and being filled with His Spirit. And Jesus says unless somebody doesn’t have that, if that doesn’t happen, they will not see the Kingdom of God. Well, then the natural question, “Well, how does this happen?” Okay, you must be born again. Being born again equals…it means you’re born of the Spirit. How does that happen? How is a person born of the Spirit? Verse 9: 9Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" 10Jesus answered him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
Verse 14 here’s what we’re going to focus on… 14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
Now Jesus basically chides Nicodemus a little bit to say how can you not understand this? This is in the scriptures. But you see the Pharisees and even the disciples misunderstood the scriptures concerning the Messiah. They didn’t know that Jesus had to come and die on the cross – a substitutionary atonement for sin. That wasn’t in their way of thinking although it is in the Old Testament.
This being born of water and the Spirit – being born again is in the Old Testament, but how could you not see this Nicodemus? And then here Jesus gives us the “how” this happens in verse 14. He references a story from the Old Testament of Moses and it happens back in Numbers 21. So take your Bibles and go back to Numbers 21. I told you that we had a lot to do today. We’re just in the introduction…I’m kidding. Not quite that bad!
Numbers 21:4 - 4From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 5And the people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food." 6 Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 And the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. 8And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live." 9So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
Jesus says you want to know how to be born again – to be born of the Spirit? Here it is. Moses lifted up the serpent. Everyone who looked at that serpent lived. Now anyone that looks to me I will be lifted up and he was lifted up on the cross. So the nation of Israel – they’re complaining and they’re sinning against God and “Why don’t we go back to Egypt?” and “Moses you’re a rotten leader.” And God punishes them to bring them back to himself and sent serpents in there that killed a bunch a people. Then they repent. Oh, we’re sorry God. We’re sorry. And the way that the people who were bit were healed, were saved, where they looked up upon the serpent that was lifted up. And Jesus says now anyone who looks at the Son of Man (that’s Jesus who was lifted up) will be saved. Jesus died for sin.
And then the famous verse comes, verse 16:
16"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
There it is. Salvation. Being born again. So the relationship with God, you’re relationship with Him, begins with your new birth. You must be born again. You must look to Jesus as the only source of your salvation or you will never see the Kingdom of heaven.
So the new birth happens and then what happens? Well, now you have to live your life as a Christian. The new life begins. II Corinthians 5:17 says that if anyone be in Christ he is a new creation. The old has passed; behold, the new has come. You have a new life. You have new affections. You have new desires and wants. It’s hopefully what Jesus wants for you. And so sanctification begins. Sanctification is the big Christian term that means becoming more holy, becoming more like Jesus and really being led by the Spirit of God. That is called sanctification. That begins in your life. You’re led by the Spirit of God.
Now one passage that we’re going to be at here and then also next week is from Galatians. So go to Galatians 5. This is…more towards the beginning of the message, this is the church that came to faith in Jesus, but then after they come to faith in Jesus, then they’re going back to following the law thinking that that pleases God. Paul has some strong words to say about that. Galatians 5:16: This is the new life.
16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
So Paul says live by the Spirit; walk by the Spirit; be led by the Spirit of God. What does that practically look like? It practically looks like not doing the sinful things that your flesh desires to do. This is what it means essentially. That you are going away from what your sinful nature, your sinful flesh, wants to do and instead you are being led by the Holy Spirit of God in you. Then he goes on in verse 19. He gives us some examples:
19Now the works of the flesh… (when you are led by the Spirit you are going away from these things. You’re not practicing them are these) …sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Now we could just go through each one of these, but I’m not going to do that this morning. The key is that the person that is led by the Spirit of God becoming sanctified is not pursuing the stuff that naturally they would want to pursue in their sinful nature. Somebody catches you. They catch you doing something wrong. It’s so much easier for you to lie about that – to save face, to look better – than to tell the truth. Why is that? Because it’s the sinful nature. But those who are led by the Spirit, they actually tell the truth because that is being led by the Spirit. I’ve been saved by Jesus; I’ve been forgiven by Him; I am now to live in the truth, to walk in the truth. Therefore, I have a choice before me. I choose to be led by the Spirit, to speak the truth. That is being led by the Spirit – not doing the things that the sinful nature would like to do. And you can pick your list. Pick which one and you can find many different areas. You can expound on this list.
Now next week we’re going to see the positive side of this. Being led by the Spirit of God, you actually start begin to bear fruit. This is called the fruit of the Holy Spirit and that’s next week’s message. It is the next few verses there in Galatians 5. We’re going to see what are the positive things that come out of our lives. Not just the things that we abstain from, but what are the things that we do; things that we bear in our life that comes from the Spirit of God living inside of us. But that’s next week.
So let me give us five steps from scripture that would help us to live by the Spirit. Five things that we can do and I like to be pragmatic when we can, although I know that it breaks down at certain points, but five things, five steps, that can help us live by the Spirit of God.
First, you have to be born again. If you’re not born again, this part isn’t for you because you must be born again to see the kingdom of heaven, to receive the Spirit of God. Then when you have received the Spirit of God, then you can do this. Then you can live this way – this living by the Spirit.
1. Acknowledge from our hearts first that we are helpless to please God without the Holy Spirit’s enablement. Jesus said this in John 15:5: I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. So apart from Jesus you can’t do anything good.
In Romans 7:18 Paul writes to the Romans: 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” First acknowledge that you cannot do anything good thing in your own strength. “But wait a second. I can do good things. I’m not even a Christian. I can do good things. I can help the poor. I can give an old lady my parking space when I pull up and I see she’s going to pull in. Isn’t that a good thing?” Yes, all sorts of people can do good things. But no one can do a good thing that matters for eternity without the Spirit of God enabling him. All the goodness that you can do apart from God, other places in scripture, God calls it a bloody menstrual rag. So you think about all that goodness that people can do apart from God…it’s worthless. Only what’s done in God’s power has matter, has impact for eternity. So first acknowledge that. “God, I can do no good thing in myself without you, without the Spirit of God.” You start there. You have to start there. You start there in salvation too – that there’s no good thing I can do to earn my righteousness with you; to earn my spot in heaven. No. So the same way in living the life by the Spirit. We acknowledge this.
2. Then secondly we ask the Holy Spirit to lead you. Here would be a great prayer. It’s always good to pray God’s Word to Him. He knows it already, but it’s good to use it right? Hebrews 13:20 and 21. Pray this:
20Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
So pray that prayer. “God, you say in your Word in Hebrews that you will give us your Spirit to work in us, to do good for you, to equip us for every good work. We ask that you would come and fill us for this work.” Ask the Holy Spirit.
3. Then believe that sin will no longer have power over you. Believe that. In Galatians 2:20 it says:
20I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
There’s the difference. I am crucified with Christ. I no longer live. Jesus is living me. Now I’m dead to sin and sin’s power has no authority or control over me. Believe it.
I don’t know if this is true or not, but it works for this illustration. I read that if you have an elephant that’s a baby elephant and you tether that elephant to a fence post, it will just stay where it is tied and walk around and it will go to the end of the chain or the rope and it will pull and feel the tension. It can’t pull that fence post out because it’s still a little elephant. Then this elephant grows and grows and now it’s an adult elephant, it will still remain tethered to that little fence post. Because that’s the way it’s been trained all of its life and it will get to the end of the chain and it won’t go any further. Now I don’t know if that’s true or not. It was on the internet so it must be true. But that’s kind of the way that we, as Christians, sometimes look at sin. That this sin is so big, this addiction is so strong, my feelings are so large, that I can’t get over them. Meanwhile the Spirit of the Living God lives inside of you – the same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead. Do you think He can overcome the sin in your life? Believe it.
One more thing about that. Don’t judge the timing of the Spirit of God – His work in your life or another’s. Here’s what I mean by that. There are some people who come to Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit does such a work in their life that they turn around. It’s like a night and day difference. Big sins…gone! Bad desires…gone! It’s just like WOW! But then there are other times when the Holy Spirit’s work in a person’s life is a gradual progression. It’s one battle after another. One victory here. One victory there. A couple of steps back. Don’t question the Holy Spirit’s timing. He knows what’s best and he has a purpose in it.
4. Act. Do now what you know to be right. Do it. Now if this was #1 this could very easily become a work of the flesh. This could very easily become like a Pharisaical thing to do – to be a Pharisee. To right away, here’s my Christian life…Act, do it! But when you go through those first steps, then it doesn’t become that. Now it becomes a work of the will, yes, but a work of the Holy Spirit in you. This is wonderful what Paul says. You don’t have to look to it, but in I Corinthians 15:10 Paul says this about himself comparing to other apostles. He says:
10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
Paul can say I worked harder than all the rest, but it wasn’t me. It was the grace of God in me. It was the Holy Spirit in me. You see, there is an aspect of our life where we have to do; we have to act; we have to pursue; we have to abstain. But in the end the glory goes to God because it’s His grace that is working in us.
5. Then fifthly, thanking God for what He has done and is doing through you. Don’t be afraid and don’t forget to be a thankful follower of Christ.
Now there are things then as we start to live by the Spirit that we see in our relationship with Him that can hinder us in our walk with the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is a person and the Holy Spirit has feelings. Do you know that? That he has emotions. He does and that’s one of the ways that we are created in the image of God is we have emotions and God has emotions. Here are some things that we can do to hurt, to hinder, the work that the Holy Spirit is seeking to do in our hearts and in our lives.
First is grieving the Spirit. Ephesians 4:30 says “do not grieve the Holy Spirit.” He was given to you. Given to you to live. Do not grieve Him. Grieving the Holy Spirit literally means to cause pain or sorrow to. Oswald Sanders said that this is a love word – to grieve. This is what happens in a love relationship. You can grieve the other person. This time it’s us grieving the Spirit of God and this doesn’t make us as strong as God because we can grieve Him. It just shows the great love that he has for us that when we do the things that we ought not to do, it actually grieves the Spirit of God. When we do the things that were listed in Galatians 5…all those things, it grieves Him. It grieves Him – the sin in our life. This hinders our relationship with Him. It hinders the strength that he gives and the ability that he gives for us to be witnesses for Him. It affects it.
The second one is called quenching the Spirit. I Thessalonians 5:19 says, “Do not quench the Spirit.” Grieving the Spirit is doing things that we ought not to do. Quenching the Spirit is not doing the things that he asks us to do. See the difference. Quenching Him. The Holy Spirit is asking you to do some things and you say no. You’re on an airplane. Talk to the person next to you about Me. No. No. No. Quench. Quenching. Quenching. Go over to that person at church. They’re all alone and talk with them. No. I have a donut here. Come on, God. No. Quenching the Spirit.
The last one is really serious. It’s called rejecting the Spirit. In I Thessalonians 4:3-8 Paul is giving some instructions to the Thessalonican Christians and he’s asking them to do some things and he says this is the will of God for you. This is your sanctification – becoming more like Jesus. Being led by the Spirit and he lists a bunch of things. And then at the end he says, verse 8:
8Therefore whoever disregards this, (disregards what I just taught you) disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.
If you are disregarding the instruction of God’s Word, you are rejecting really the Holy Spirit. Rejection of the Holy Spirit. This is very serious. This comes from, yes, grieving the Spirit; yes, quenching the Spirit; and then rejecting His work totally in your life. That is not a path that a child of God wants to go down. Very bad.
So as we close today, let’s just talk about three things that we can do today to be filled with the Spirit of God.
1. Confess all known sin. If you’re a Christian, you’ve received the new birth. Confess your sin to God, to the Holy Spirit. Do this when you get home today, this afternoon, and remember this. I’m being serious. Do this. Get alone by yourself and just tell the Lord… “Lord God, Holy Spirit, reveal to me anything in my life that is not right; any sin in my life that is grieving you, that is quenching your Spirit, maybe even rejecting you in some areas. Reveal that to me now.” And have a pen and paper ready. Because he’s real. He’s a person. This is not a fairy tale. He’ll reveal things to do in your life that you need to confess to him as sin. Confess all known sin. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It’s the truth of God’s Word.
2. And after you confess all known sin, ask the Holy Spirit to fill you. Ask the Holy Spirit of God to come and fill me. Fill me that I might live for you and be a witness in my life to your glory and to the wonderful work of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Luke 11 Jesus says, “ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
So go ahead and ask. You have not because you’ve asked not, scripture says. Jesus goes onto say, 11What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
How many of you dads would do that to your kid? “Man, I’m so hungry, Dad.” “Oh, come over here. I’ve got a candy bar,” and it’s a scorpion. Would you do that? No. You wouldn’t do that. Then in verse 13, Jesus says:
13If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
So ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit and do you think that you’re Father will give you anything else?
3. And then the last thing: Believe. Believe that He will fill you. In Mark 11:24 Jesus says that when you ask it matters what you believe about that asking. He says this:
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Believe that you have received it.
So confess all known sin to the Lord.
Ask Him to fill you.
Then believe that He will.
Believe that He will fill you and just see what God will do.
So at the beginning I said, “Do you want an experience with God Almighty?” You can ask him for it. It has to start, maybe for some of you here today, at the new birth – to be born again. The words to Nicodemus were Jesus’ words to you right now, this morning, here at this place. And you need to come to Him and you need to be born of the Spirit – meaning that you need to believe in Jesus that he died on the cross for your sin so you can be forgiven and restored to a right relationship with him. And then the living begins.
Maybe you are here and you’ve had an experience with God. You’ve been forgiven, but you want to have a renewal, or a refreshing. Ask the Holy Spirit to come and fill you. And he will do it because He is good. His love and His mercy endure forever and they’re for you.
Let’s pray.
