The Side of Effects of the Holy Spirit
When I was younger there was a TV commercial that had a dramatization of an elderly woman on it who had apparently taken either the wrong medication or even just a bad side effect of a right medication. In either case she presses the button on her life alert bracelet and speaks the words "Help, I think I poisoned myself!". What I once thought was humorous no longer seems quite as funny. You know when your a teenager you don’t realize that if you live long enough you too will be considered old and have to take medication. I think about this commercial a lot now especially since I am getting older and at times I take large amount of medication. When something is wrong with us we go to the doctor because of a problem were having, he gives us a prescription, and we get the prescription filled we get a long list of all the possible side effects of what we are about to put into our body. This is important information but if your like me you may tend to focus on the bad side effects and not the good ones. I have actually seen on a prescription medication for sleep "Warning may cause excitability" and "Warning may cause drowsiness" Both side effects were possible but I always focused on the negative side effects instead of the positive ones. I had to realize that for my own peace of mind I needed to focus on the positive side effects not the negative ones. Well, Jesus Christ is the Master Physician and when we go to him for the sin problem we’re having, a problem by the way if left untreated will eventually end in eternal death. He prescribed for us the Holy Spirit. He fills it immediately after acceptance. We took it into our body. And as with anything that goes into our body we need to know what the side effects will be. He also gave us a list of the possible side effects of the Holy Spirit. The List or Warning Label is found in Galations Chapter 5 verses 16 through 23. It includes 9 possible side effects of the Holy Spirit. And Praise God none of them are bad. Turn with me to Galations Chapter 5 verses 16 through 23.
16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no Law. 1
Let us pray
Today we are going to focus on some of the possible side effects of the Holy Spirit.
The 1st is Love. Love is listed 1st because it is the greatest side effect of the Holy Spirit. When we allow our selves to be led by the Holy Spirit we will express love for God and love for others. These are the Greatest commandments and Paul said earlier in verse 14 that the entire law can be summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself". I do not believe that a person can truly love someone selflessly unless they know Jesus. Even after we come to know him as our Savior we will not truly know how to love until we allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit. When you express your love for the Lord and your fellow man you get a warm fuzzy feeling all over. You get those goose bumps and you never want the feeling to go away. We should be expressing our love for each other often. And we should start right now. Why don’t we take time to turn to those around us and offer them our hand as a token of our brotherly love. We need more of that. Turn the Holy Spirit loose and let your love flow. Blood isn’t the gift that keeps on giving Love is. Your Love for God and for others will be remembered long after your gone. Love is the all-purpose cure. It covers all wrongs. It is worth searching for. It should be expressed openly. Is the law leading your love or are you allowing the Holy Spirit to lead it. If not during the invitation come to the altar and relinquish control.
The next Side Effect is Joy. This is one we often forget. There are so many people in this world that have no Joy. They not only have no Joy of their own they try to steal yours. You know the ones I’m talking about. I call them Joy Sponges......They walk into a room and immediately try to soak up all the Joy. The world doesn’t need any more Joy Sponges. It needs Christians armed with Joy Super Soakers soaking everybody in our path with Joy. If we are being led by the spirit we will be Joyful. The Psalmist tells us to make a Joyful noise unto the Lord. He was so joyful that he danced until his clothes fell off. Sometimes we just sit in the pews and look like we just lost our best friend. We haven’t. He’s right here. We are commanded to be joyful.
In Philipians Paul tells us to;
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 2
He thought it was so important to rejoice in the Lord he said it twice.
Peter tells us that we should be filled with glorious joy because we believe in him and because our souls are saved. That’s something you should be jumping up and down about.
We are even told to be joyous under adversity. In Acts the apostles rejoiced because they had been found worthy of suffering .
In James we are told to
2Consider it pure joy, whenever we face trials of many kinds, 3because we know that the testing of our faith develops perseverance. 3
Joy is not something we should have it is something we do have and nothing can take it away from us. If you’ve accepted Jesus as your savior you have permanent, everlasting and eternal Joy. You just need to show it. The devil can’t really steal your Joy but he can stop you from expressing it. You can be Joyful whether you are an optimist or a pessimist. If your an optimist be joyful in the knowledge that you will spend eternity with Jesus in Heaven. If your a pessimist be Joyful in the knowledge that you wont spend eternity in Hell. In either case and in every situation be Joyful. Full of Joy. So full in fact that it overflows and gets all over everybody. If your Joy is not overflowing maybe during the invitation you need to come to the altar and get a refill.
The 3rd side effect of the Holy Spirit is Peace. If we know Jesus we should know peace. Webster’s Dictionary lists several different definitions for peace. The one I like best says that peace is a state of security or order within a community. Christ’s Church is a community and we should be living in a state of peace. We have security in the fact that our salvation can never be taken from us. That should give us peace. There are those who believe that you can be saved one minute and lost the next and you can tell in talking to them for any length of time that they have no peace. Satan wants us to doubt our salvation but God wants us to be assured of it so that we may know peace. Once saved always saved doesn’t come from the Baptist Doctrine. It is a promise from God. And He never breaks a promise. You don’t have to believe me just look in the Bible.
In Isaiah Chapter 54 verse 10 God says
10Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,"
says the LORD, who has compassion on You. 4
By sending His Son to die on the cross at Calvary God expressed his unfailing love and made a covenant of peace with us that will not be removed.
Jesus said it Himself in John Chapter 6 verse 37
. 37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away5
He also said it in John Chapter 10 verses 28 and 29
28I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than allD; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s Hand. 6
No one can take you out of God’s Hand!
No One!
That’s worth repeating!
No one!
That includes the Devil!
It also includes you!
Once you place your life in the nail scarred hands of Jesus Christ you are there to stay. And you should be at peace. Do you doubt your salvation? Are you letting your doubt cause a disturbance of the peace? If so during the invitation come to the altar and let the Prince of Peace reassure you.
The next side effect seems elusive but its worth waiting for. Patience. God is patient with us and we should be patient with Him. God waited patiently while Noah built the ark. He waited patiently for all of us who are believers to accept His Son as our personal Savior. For some He is still waiting. Waiting patiently. He waited patiently for me to answer His call to preach. Aren’t you Glad that He is patient with us. I know I am. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. If he wasn’t patient I would have been dead long ago. We would all be dead. He would have taken us out the instant we first sinned against Him. This church would be empty right now. Not just this Church but every Church. Patience is not just commended it is commanded.
The Psalmist said
7Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; 7
In James we are told to be patient until the Lord’s coming.
He tells us in the book of Ecclesiastes that
8The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than Pride. 8
And in Lamentations
26it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. 9
We are also to be as patient with others as He is with us.
In 2nd Timothy we are told to;
correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience 10
He didn’t strike me down when I wasn’t as close to him as He thought I should be so why should I strike you down because your not as close to Him as I think you should be. He has lightning bolts at His disposal and I only have words but both can be devastating. We shouldn’t measure someone else’s progress by ours. For all we know the person that we think just isn’t where he should be. Is right where God wants him to be. Patience shows not only our wisdom but also our understanding. I don’t know about you but I have to continually remind myself that this life is an exercise in patience. Is this an area you need help in? If it is. Come to the altar during the invitation and pray for patience.
The last possible side effect of the Holy Spirit I want to talk about today is the one that means the most to me. Self-Control. When people ask me if I have evidence of being baptized by the Holy Spirit I go no further than right here. For me it is the sweetest fruit of the Holy Spirit. But for me and maybe for some of you The word self control is an oxymoron. A word that contradicts itself. Because In and of myself I have no control. But greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world. It is only through the Power of the Holy Spirit that my sinful nature is controlled. I cannot by myself avoid giving in to my sinful nature. The acts that are mentioned in verses 19 through 21 are all a part of my testimony. And I love to tell the story of what Jesus has done in my life. The readers digest condensed version of my life is that
I became like Proverbs says
a city whose walls are broken down 11
I was constantly tempted by Satan due to my lack of self control.
And I lived in conflict with the Spirit. I was miserable.
In the book of Isaiah we see why I was miserable
Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against Them. 12I
I had grieved the Holy Spirit and He Himself fought against me. I tell the men at the Jail "If you want to see some miserable people......Find some Christians who are living outside of the will of God. You have never seen such misery. Maybe you’ve experienced it yourself. The lost people don’t really know that what they are doing is wrong. But the Christians do. When we sin the Holy Spirit convicts of that sin and we can either repent or resist. If we resist we live in conflict and are miserable. Only when we ask for forgiveness and repent do we find peace. I know we didn’t focus too much on the negative side effects of a giving into our sinful nature but I didn’t feel it was necessary because as Paul said "they are obvious" and if nothing else most of us have a tremendous grasp on the obvious. What we don’t always focus on are the positives things about knowing Jesus. The Love, The Peace, The Joy, The Self Control and all the rest of the Fruits of the Spirit mentioned in this passage.
Remember that earlier I said that these were the possible side effects of the Holy Spirit. Possible in that in order to experience them you must allow yourself to be Led by the Spirit.
You know as I was driving by the airport the other night I watched the spotlight circling. I looked at the runway lights and I thought about how these lights help the pilots land in one piece. The lights reminded me of the power of the Holy Spirit and how it Helps us to land in one piece. Can you imagine if the pilot were to radio to the airport at night, during a storm and tell them to dim the lights. He would still land but He probably wouldn’t be in one piece. Sounds ridiculous. Doesn’t it? Yet so many times during the darkness of this world and the storms of this life we dim the guiding power of the Holy Spirit. We tell God thanks for the Help but No thanks. I’ll take it from here. We will still land but we won’t be in one piece either. Sound familiar? It does to me. For most of my life I was flying around in the dark. Only when I let the Holy Spirit lead me did the lights come on. During the invitation if you feel the Holy Spirit leading you to come to the altar. Come. Crucify your flesh and start walking and living in the Spirit.
A few months ago the whole country was talking about a book written by Rick Warren called the Purpose Driven Life. The book made the best seller list and Christians all over the world read the book. I even read it. There were things that I liked about it and things I didn’t but the point I want to make is that before you can start living a
Purpose Driven Life
you have to start living a
Spirit Led Life.
You can start right now. Right Here.
The altar could be your starting point. You might not know the Love, The Joy, the Peace or The Self Control that comes with accepting Jesus Christ as your Personal Savior if not come, accept him now and experience life in a whole new way.
Maybe you have accepted Him but have never followed Him in Believers Baptism. If so come.
Or maybe today the Holy Spirit led you to your new Church Home. If so, come and associate with the Body of Believers here at Bala Chitto Baptist Church.....where the Bible is Preached and Lives are being Changed.
Let us Pray
