Holy Spirit
September 13, 2015
A Last Sunday we learned how the Holy Spirit is 1/3 of the Holy Trinity; The Spirit is not an “it”, the Spirit is a person; He was present at creation, empowered Jesus’ ministry, birthed the Church at Pentecost, convicted you when you were lost & brought you to Jesus.
1 My last point was if the Holy Spirit is in you, the longer He is there, the more you begin to show. (Ms. Pam.)
2 I love to cook at the house, church . . . I do not own a hand held blender (I have one in my camper, not at the house) I do have a one old egg whisker . . . and black & decker drill that I’ll insert the old egg whisker into.
a It’s got power, fast, quick and . . . it’s a drill!
b God has given you the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of power.
aa When you set out to do something for Him, know that His Spirit is in you to empower you to do way more than you would ever be able to do on your own.
bb Don't be intimidated. You're not going in your own strength. You are going in the power of the Holy Spirit!
c If you go without the Spirit, you can expect weak results.
aa But with the Spirit, you can expect amazing, miraculous results.
bb "For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline" (2 Timothy 1:7).
B The Holy Spirit is power that is inscrutable, will be taken advantage of, will be used (in the bad sense.)
1 He is God, He is Holy, and He will be in the presence of sin.
a Those who believe they can live in sin and still flow in the power of the Holy Spirit are headed for disaster.
b When the Holy Spirit is flowing in your life, spirit . . . you are not in control . . .He is.
aa He will not be managed, fit into a human mold.
bb He will recalculate your steps so you go where He wants to lead you.
2 For some believers this sounds hard, loss of freedom, but that’s because they don’t understand, “. . . where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” -2 Cor. 3.17 (NASB.)
C The Holy Spirit is power that cannot be contained.
“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” -John 3.8 (NASB)
1 Trying to put the brakes on, steer, control the Holy Spirt is like trying to rope the wind . . . stand in the Mississippi and try to change it.
a Ezekiel the prophet said, (Ezekiel 47.1-12 NASB)
b Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” -John 7.37-38.
2 We have been told by our Savior that from the Temples/Tabernacles of our hearts there would be a river of living water . . . like a mighty fire . . . the Holy Spirit of God wants to set our lives on fire “for our God is a consuming fire.” -Heb. 12.29.
a He will break every dam of denomination, jump every fire line of traditionalism.
b He can’t be stopped . . . won’t be stopped however, . . .
we can sin against Him.
C When we sin against the Holy Spirit, there are consequences & how do we sin against Him, the Holy Spirit?
1 Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
a “blaspheme” means to speak disparaging of and to speak in an insulting way.
b Matt. 12.31; Hebrews 10.29
c Those who speak of the Holy Spirit that way are doomed for eternity.
2 Lying to the Holy Spirit
a Ananias & Sapphira made a pledge to the church that they did not perform.
b Acts 5.33
c Be careful about promising/pledging this & that to God & not following through: By the way, you promised to live for Him, gave Him your life.
3 Testing of the Holy Spirit
a Points to Sapphira because Peter speaks to her about “testing” the Holy Spirit (Acts 5.9).
aa Test is (peirazo), means to scrutinize.
bb root word means “to experiment.” (Our word for piracy comes from this word.)
b Ananias/Sapphira were trying to “pirate” what belonged to God.
4 Trafficking the Holy Spirit.
a A sorcerer Simon was found (Acts 8.18-20) to be trying to sell the Holy Spirit for money.
b The Holy Spirit cannot be bought or sold.
5 Resisting the Holy Spirit.
a Acts 7.51, Stephen blasted religious leaders for this very sin.
b Religion still resists the fresh work of the Spirit (Eph. 4.30).
6 Grieving of the Holy Spirit.
a The Holy Spirit has feelings and He can be grieved (feelings hurt.)
b He is grieved when believers cannot forgive each other/operate in unity.
c The result of grieving the Holy Spirit is having God fight against you.
d Isa. 63.10, God became the enemy of those who cause His Holy Spirit to grieve.
7 Quenching the Holy Spirit
a Paul had lots of correction to give Thessalonica and one of those (1 Thess. 5.19) is “Do not quench the Spirit.”
b Different translations treat this verse differently. . .
aa “quench” KJV, “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire” NIV
bb “do not smother the Holy Spirit” TLB
c “Quench” from GK. means “to extinguish a flame” or “to suppress or stifle.”
aa The tense could be better translated, “Do not ever put out the fire of the Holy Spirit.”
bb It requires continuous action, a continuous command.
d 1 Thess. 5.20, there were people who held prophetic words given by the Spirit to be contemptible.
aa Why? It’s not under your control.
bb Holy Spirit manifests tears, trembling, falling out, joy, singing, drunkeness, prayer language, word . . . not controlled by us and some people want things to go their way.
e It is possible to throw cold water on someone else’s passion for Christ.
f We are told never, under any circumstance, are we to suppress the genuine work of the Holy Spirit.
D IL. Firework fire
1 Years ago, at a summer youth camp, there was an outbreak of the Holy Spirit fire.
a For a week, revival fires fell and the young people were touched.
b After the camp, the association had Saturday night services that lasted for hours.
2 Parents/adults began to complain, kids were becoming “too Christian.”
a The students fire began to spill into the churches (use to quieter, orderly services)
b Before too long the legalists prevailed, the meetings were taken over by the old guard . . . and the fire quickly burned out.
c A few months later, the same parents doing the complaining about late-night youth meetings were hosting all-night prom parties (beer drinking at some).
d How sad to see the fire of the Spirit quenched by the tepid waters of tradition!
E How does the Spirit get quenched? There are at least seven ways to do it!
1 By ignoring the things of God.
a Do you know what happens when you leave a fire alone? It dies.
aa Add more wood, fan the flames for the fire to stay alive.
bb You must personally attend to the fire to keep it going.
b You must pay attention to the things of the Spirit if your passion is to stay alive.
c It isn’t my job to keep your fire burning, it’s my job to teach you how to keep your fire burning.
d Nearly anything will die from lack of attention: you must be proactive toward the Holy Spirit.
2 The Spirit my be quenched by someone else’s influence in your life.
a Some people are spiritual fire extinguishers.
b Critical people quench the Spirit of God
c Their words, like sharp icicles, freeze out the fire of revival in a heart.
3 People with a spirit of performance may quench the Spirit.
a When there are manifestations of the Holy Spirit in a service and . . .
aa Some people try to imitate in the flesh or through their emotions what the Spirit is doing.
bb The service then loses its focus (Holy Spirit) and puts it on the flesh.
b The Spirit is then quenched.
4 Satan, if given place, can certainly quench the Spirit.
a His favorite two costumes are a critic & a counterfeiter. (2 Cor. 11.14)
b Satan’s demons may move someone to show a false manifestation.
aa This may look like someone shouting at inappropriate times in the service.
bb Interrupts worship/preaching.
5 Fear can quench the Spirit of God.
a 2 Tim. 1.6-7
b Stir up can be translated as “fan the flames of the charisma, which is in you.”
aa Fear had tried to rob Timothy of power, love, sound mind.
bb We should not allow the spirit of fear to put out the fire of God’s charisma given to us all.
6 Departure from the Bible can quench the Spirit. (I think the balance is between the divine Word of God and the divine Wind of the Spirit)
a Both truth & spirit are needed for God’s power to be released.
b John 4.23-24
7 An unwillingness to change can quench the Spirit of God.
a Matt. 15.19, Jesus gives a warning about methods/traditions being confused with Scripture. (NASB & TLB versions)
b When we get stuck in the past, long for the way things used to be before God’s power fell, then we strip the Word of its miracle-working power.
c The Word says of itself is that it is sharper than a two-edged sword.
aa Tired traditions, rusty religion, customs will dull the blade of the Word.
bb It no longer pierces as deeply into our hearts.
F How to rekindle the Flame
A Fires can be re-ignite.
1 Fall in love with Jesus again.
a Rejoice again at His birth! Thrilled again at His power! Weep at His crucifixion!
b Shout again over His resurrection! Live expecting His return.
c Hang out with Spirit-filled people. (Encourage you): Negative people will pull you down.
2 Strive for a Bible-based, praise-saturated, and prayer-empowered lifestyle.
a Make your home a place where God is worshiped.
b Car/Truck, praise music should be what is played the vast majority of the time.
3 Go to a church that is moving with the Spirit of God.
4 Learn to live and give by faith.
a Faith brings wonder back to your life.
aa Your looking, listening for God to do the supernatural.
bb You trust Him for your resources.
b God will use you in turn to be a channel of blessing to others.
c We want God to bring us to another level but He won’t until we are living at our full-faith capacity of the one were at now.
5 Find an outlet of ministry that you can serve others.
a Discover your spiritual gifts and go after it in the name of Jesus.
b Reach out to the lost, hurting, broken, addicted, rejected, discarded.
c Touch somebody else with the fire of God in your life.
aa Don’t quench the flame of the Spirit.
bb Critical people do that!
d You will watch the fire spread from one person to another . . . like wildfire!
Conclusion:
Notice to Sermon Central Users:
My name is Mike Fogerson, and I pastor a Southern Baptist Church in Chester, Illinois. I have been a long-time user of Sermon Central and truly appreciate its content and contributors. Some of the best sermons I’ve ever preached have been reworked material from this website. As you use the material from my sermon bank, understand that it is work that has been done from not just myself, but from hundreds of other pastors as well. If you see part of your message, or a bunch of your message with my name on it and this upsets you, please email me and I will quickly respond and cite you as the main source. My intent is not to claim someone’s work as my own. I am disclaiming up front that I use the resources from Sermon Central and appreciate the tool. I simply want all those who use my work to know that some of these messages were inspired by the Holy Spirit working through other pastors. Because I do use the messages of other pastors I waive all claims of originality or origin of creativity for the messages posted under my messages. I pray God blesses your preaching ministry for the glory of His Kingdom.
Respectfully,
Mike Fogerson
