The Promise
Holy Spirit Series
CCCAG 8-13-23
-Scripture- Genesis 3:15, Joel 2
Introduction
Spiritual Lethargy
Starting of this morning with a question-
How many people feel spiritually exhausted lately?
Does your life seem like you are barely making it Sunday to Sunday to stay on track with your spiritual walk with God?
I was talking about this with some fellow pastors who also agreed with me that it seems like the attacks of the enemy are just coming and coming and coming and seemed to be unrelenting in our day.
In many Christians it's producing a spiritual lethargy. To me, it feels like when you are driving a long distance, and you run into a lot of traffic, car problems, or things outside of your control that are keeping you from making progress toward getting to your destination.
When Tammie and I were on our road trip a few years ago to Colorado during the wildfires, we weren’t able to go where we wanted, and then when we switched directions to go somewhere else in Colorado Springs, a wildfire broke out along the interstate stranding us for hours so we couldn’t make the last trip up Pike’s Peak. Then we were kept from doing it by a series of blizzards.
It was very frustrating.
Many today are dealing with that kind of frustration when it comes to the state of our nation and the world- that everything seems to be getting worse, yet God seems silent.
A few months ago, I spoke to the men on Father’s Day and quoted from Daniel that in the end times, the spirit of antichrist will wear out the saints of the Most High God.
That’s what it feels like today. However, we are not the only people who experience this type of spiritual lethargy or frustration as we wait for God to come and make all things right again on earth.
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew people lived in this spiritual condition of waiting for centuries. They were told for generations that that Messiah would come and make their lives better- restoring them to their rightful place as God’s people on earth, ruling over the other nations and living in prosperity.
That’s a pretty good thing to hope for!
They were trusting in a promise given to them right after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden.
You remember- God created them and told them to reign and rule over the creation He had made for them. Only one rule- you must not eat from one tree in the garden- the fruit of that tree will destroy your innocence and separate you from the source of all of your spiritual power, life, and relationship with the creator.
Well, we all know what happened- the deceiver came, disguised as a serpent, and led them into committing the first human sin.
And they immediately felt the presence, power, and spiritual life leave them. As the bible describes it- they immediately felt naked and ashamed.
The creator God comes, and pronounces judgment upon the serpent, but them makes Adam and Eve a promise-
Gen 3:15 NLT
From now on, you and the woman will be enemies, and your offspring and her offspring will be enemies. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
Prayer- promise delayed
There is a proverb that tell us that-
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick” Proverbs 13:12.
The word for Hope in the bible is founded in a word that means delayed expectation.
That really describes what should be in the heart of a Christian today- we are all looking forward to Christ returning to earth and restoring Eden to us again.
I want to assure you this morning-God fulfills His promises.
In fact, that is the promise spoken off in Genesis 3 - that someday someone would come and crush the head of the serpent and his lies. That person did come, and his name is Jesus.
Not only did Jesus crush the power of the Kingdom of Darkness, but He gave back to his followers what was taken from them in Eden- the power, the presence, and the Spiritual Life stripped from them as a consequence of the first human sin.
That is the fulfillment of that promise in Genesis 3:15.
Now, this isn’t just a bible lesson to impart knowledge to you- it has a practical applications.
God promised to restore us to our place in His Kingdom, with all of the privileges afforded to sons and daughter of the King. That is the true meaning and fulfillment of the promise given to us in Genesis 3:15.
I want to explore what that promise looks like, and how it can apply to use today.
Turn in your bibles to Joel Chapter 2.
Some background on Joel-
Joel was a prophet that existed in the time leading up to the Kingdom of Judah’s spiritual decline, and subsequent captivity in Babylon. In his writings, Joel is crying out for the people to repent as he can see the judgement of God coming. He has seen it coming in the near future, and is calling for the nation to turn from their sins and back to God.
He prophesies several judgments, beginning with a famine and locust plague that destroys the harvest.
But then Joel also predicts that God will restore them when they turn from their sin and come back to HIM.
I want to focus on the promise Joel is giving the people about how HE is going to restore them when they repent and turn back to following HIM-
Joel 2:23-25
Be glad, O people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness.
He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.
24 The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
25 'I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten — the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm — my great army that I sent among you.
Joel is describing the blessings of God that repentance will bring to them, and even promises them incredible prosperity.
That shows us the first promise I want to explore from Joel
I. The idea of restoration and repayment
We here a lot today about reparations toward those who may have been descendants of slaves here in America. Many people are demanding that the government pay them tens of thousands if not millions of dollars for the sins of the government over 100 years ago.
I’m not going to comment on that particular situation, but just use it as an example of how there is something within us that demands justice.
It’s part of our Imago Dei- the image of God stamped into each of us.
Because God is a God of justice, that part of His character is stamped into our spirits upon our creation.
We yearn for things like fairness, even when there isn’t much fairness to be seen in this world.
We yearn for justice, even as we witness more and more injustice.
We yearn for righteousness, even in the midst of the evil that in engulfing our nation and culture.
We yearn for peace, while it seems there is a spiritual attack that is determined to take all of the peace from the earth.
All of this yearning we have is the Holy Spirit within us calling us to the heart of God.
What we see in these prophecies is that during times of trouble, God is keeping a ledger. He is keeping track of every injustice, every pain, and every evil ever done to you.
And His promise to us-
He WILL restore. We might not see it this side of eternity, but rest assured, we will be paid back for everything bad thing that this life is throwing at you.
As God says here in Joel- you will receive both the former, and latter rains. Your vats and crops will overflow with abundance, and you will experience the fullness of God in your life.
But there is also a double meaning here-
That leads us to the next promise-
I. The restoration of intimacy with God.
These verses are quoted by Peter in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit was poured out on believers.
Acts 2 is the record of the Holy Spirit being poured out on the believers in the upper room. It is the fulfillment of this scripture. Acts 2 was the later rain.
The former rain came right after Jesus rose from the dead-
In John 20:21, Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
This is the Holy Spirit coming back into us, and Acts 2 was the Holy Spirit coming upon us- covering us in the power, glory, and holiness of God.
We were no longer spiritually naked.
This is God restoring the most important thing taken from us in the original sin- the direct connection with God the Father through the Holy Spirit.
That connection comes with some practical benefits. The first is-
II. The promise of the restoration of power
And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. 29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
Joel goes onto describe what this newfound power would do for people- give them intimate closeness and communication with God.
And that is a good thing. But like all good things from God, satan comes in and tries to ruin it with a counterfeit.
I’m a bit of a student of church history, and over my time as a Christian I’ve seen an interesting dynamic come into the church.
I came to follow Jesus through a Pentecostal church two years before Brownsville and Toronto revivals.
During that time in history church was good. We have powerful worship, life changing experiences with God, and strong Bible teaching coming from the pulpits. The Holy Spirit flowed in the services, and people were changed forever.
In 1995, when the Brownsville Revival kicked off on Father's Day, there was a subtle change in the focus of the services.
Now, much of what came out of the 90’s revivals was good, but there was an unforeseen consequence that came with them.
Before the revivals of the 1990’s, we invited the Holy Spirit in to do what Jesus said the Holy Spirit’s ministry was to us-
Which was to encourage us, to teach us what Jesus taught, to heal us, to change us, and to soften our hearts so that God could mature us into serving Him in a specific way.
For that, we created an atmosphere in our services that attracted God’s presence- humility, hunger, and need for HIM. We just needed HIM to show up. We craved that the power of God would come and make us more like Jesus.
After the experiences of Brownsville and Toronto, there was a subtle shift in the church’s focus to the Holy Spirit’s ministry.
Instead of seeking the Holy Spirit as God, many in the church, and especially the church leadership started seeking an experience.
Pause
It changed the way we do church. Instead of creating an atmosphere that courted the presence of God, we traded that in for a production every Sunday that includes lights, smoke machines, and a highly polished speaker.
You might ask, what is the difference.
One is the product of the world and has little chance of saving anyone, and the other is the only thing that brings sinners and saint closer to the savior.
You saw the reaction in the pews- people who would be standing and worshipping in spirit and in truth instead sat and watched the show instead of being moved to follow Jesus in their lives.
There is a huge difference
I think many in the church, and even the leadership have chosen the production instead of the intimacy with God when it comes to the Holy Spirit- we want a quick fix in our service, but we don’t want to tarry in prayer, or fast, or really work out our salvation.
It really fits in to how we as a society and culture deal with all relationships today- We want the quickie, but not the relationship.
Pause
This is the exact opposite of what God wants.
You can’t court the Holy Spirit for an experience. You can’t beg him for visions, for power, or for signs and wonders unless you are willing to let God show up.
God isn’t into experience; He is into relationship and that brings an experience.
If you don’t start with God, keep God in the center of all things, and then end with something that glorifies HIM and HIM alone,
You’ve fallen into accepting satan’s counterfeit.
The time for part time Christianity ended a long time ago- in fact, it never really existed. As we barrel toward the end times, we all will need HIM to be in HIS proper place in our hearts and minds.
That leads us to the last point of today’s message-
III. The promise of restoration of our rightful position
I said this earlier, but I’ll repeat this again- all of the history of the bible, and all of human history for that matter, is God working out HIS plan of salvation for you and for me. He is restoring us to our rightful place that he created us for.
I want you to remember this- Jesus was not plan B. Our sin and salvation were part of God’s plan A. There is only God’s plan- no other.
There isn’t a thing we can do, satan or his kingdom can do, or anything else in all creation that can happen that will wreck God’s plan.
What is that plan?
The restoration of Eden- paradise on earth in which we are the rulers. That’s what humanity was created for.
Isaiah 11 describes it like this-
Isa 11:6-9
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.
The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest.
They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
NIV
God’s plan is the earth being restored to that very condition when Jesus returns as KING. We will be reigning and ruling with Him during that time- filled with the Holy Spirit and power.
But we don’t have to wait for that to experience God the Holy Spirit
All rise
Landing strip-
Trust in the promise of God. Let the Holy Spirit refresh, renew, and empower you to stand in these last days- filling you and coming upon you in power.
“Holy Spirit Rain Down”
