INTRODUCTION:
We live in a world of high-tech communication. Many of us carry a cell phone with us everywhere we go. How many of you have ever found that as you drove down the highway you had inadvertently set your phone down, but you had either not ended the previous call or the phone made a call to the last person you talked to? My sister-in-law Carol and my Dad have been notorious at letting this happen. Their phone would be sending me every sound in their car. I could listen to them sing along with the radio, talk with the person riding with them or even funnier talk to themselves. It can be interesting to listen in on someone when they don’t know you’re there.
How differently would you live if you knew that everything you said was being heard by someone else? If you knew someone were listening would you be careful about what you said? Would you be careful not to gossip? Would not sneak in a lie to cover up but always tell the truth? Would you stay away from telling certain jokes if you knew certain people were listening in on your conversation? Well the Holy Spirit is always listening in. Your cell phone to God never disconnects; God not only hears every word you say, but the Holy Spirit also listens in on every thought you have. Your cell phone may not broadcast your thoughts and conversations to Pastor George or me to listen in on (and I for one am glad I don’t have to hear everything that you all say), but God is listening to every word.
This is our final week in our Back to SCHOOL series. We have been looking at some of the basic (and essential) doctrines or teachings of the church.
Salvation
Conversation with God
Holiness and Sanctification
One Source – The Authority of the Bible
One God – Three Persons
Living the Spirit Filled Life
• Galatians 5:25 (NIV)
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
This is where the rubber hits the road. It isn’t good enough for us to simply know the basics of our faith; we need to live the life. I have often said, “God isn’t like the public school system. God won’t push you into the next grade; you have to have a passing grade.” If you’re just starting out in your walk with Christ, if your spiritually in kindergarten, first or second grade, then God will leave you right were you are at until you learn the lessons He is teaching you. God will continue to give you the same test until you pass it; there is no pushing you ahead.
What then does it mean to “live by the Spirit?” Paul says living by the Spirit is to “keep in step with the Spirit.” Living by the Spirit is literally to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.
ILLUSTRATION: One way to picture what it is like to “keep in step with the Spirit” is to imagine a marching band or soldiers marching in a parade. Hundreds of individuals are marching in step with each other. When a marching band in “in step” all the members are as one. But what happens if one individual is out of step? They stand out like a sore thumb. Everyone can tell if you are out of step with the others in the band.
As we discover what it means to “keep in step with the Spirit” we will likewise “live by the Spirit.” We’ll use STEP to help us understand what it means to live by the Spirit. To keep in STEP with the Spirit:
we Surrender to the Spirit
we are a Temptation Overcomer
we have an Empowered Witness
and we Pray with the Spirit’s help
Someone has said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” Someone else said, “It’s important to start off on the right foot.” The first step is important, so we are going to spend the bulk of our time here.
Surrender to the Spirit
• Galatians 5:25 (MsgB)
Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.
It is not good enough that we can “talk the talk;” we must also learn to “walk the talk.” Or another way of saying it, “Our walk needs to line up with our talk.” We need to walk straight and keep in step with the Spirit and it all starts as we surrender control to the Spirit.
Notice what it says: living by the Spirit is more than an “idea” or a “sentimental thought.” Living by the Spirit requires that we work out the “implications in every detail of our lives.” In every thing we do and say we should ask ourselves, “How should I surrender to the Spirit so I can keep in step with the Spirit?”
To surrender to the Spirit requires that we do spiritual “CPR.” We must learn to surrender our Control, Pride and Rights.
Surrender our Control
ILLUSTRATION: We are born fully dependent upon our parents and other people to meet our needs. We are free from responsibility and choices. As we mature we learn more and more independence; gradually we can start doing things for ourselves. In the natural realm of things maturity is marked by greater independence with self control or determination.
However, spiritually it is the other way around! We are born sinners and are fully independent of God. We live for ourselves and take NO responsibility for our choices. Spiritual maturity is marked by learning dependence upon God which comes as we surrender control to God.
Who or what will control our lives? We will either try to control our lives or we will give the control of our lives to something or someone else.
• Ephesians 5:18 (NIV)
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Why do people drink alcohol? I’ve decided that it is not because it taste great (or is less filling); anyone who says they drink because they just like the way beer or wine tastes have developed a taste for it because I really don’t think it is all that good. (And isn’t that why many alcoholic drinks are served mixed with fruit juice to cover up how bad the stuff really is?) PEOPLE DRINK BECAUSE ALCOHOL GIVES THEM A BUZZ!
ILLUSTRATION: Alcohol will take control of how people live because it lowers our inhibitions. People do things drunk that they would never do sober! Many of us have heard of “the happy drunk” and “the mean drunk.” People will respond to alcohol’s effect differently.
Paul puts it pretty plainly: alcohol leads to every kind of sin and wickedness. THEREFORE DO NOT LET ALCOHOL CONTROL YOU!
Instead surrender control to the Spirit. Literally Paul says, “be continually filled with the Spirit.” Surrendering control is not a one time event in our lives, SURRENDERING CONTROL TO THE SPIRIT IS AN ONGOING PROCESS IN OUR LIVES. We have to surrender everyday.
Surrender our Pride
There is only one way to surrender control of your life to the Spirit; YOU MUST SURRENDER YOUR PRIDE. We have to stop saying, “I will do it myself” and let God direct my life.
We want to believe that we are strong enough and smart enough to do it on our own. However, pride will be our downfall.
• Obadiah 1:3 (NIV)
The pride of your heart has deceived you. . .
• Proverbs 16:18 (NIV)
Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
• Psalm 10:4 (NIV)
In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
ILLUSTRATION: In water-safety courses a cardinal rule is never to swim out to a drowning man and try to help him as long as he’s thrashing around; as long as someone is trying to save themselves leave them alone. As long as a drowning man thinks he can help himself, he’s dangerous to anyone who tries to help him. To do so is basically to commit suicide. The drowning man who is trying to save himself will tend to grab the lifeguard trying to help him and the result is that he ends up taking them both under the water in the process.
The correct way to rescue someone who’s drowning is to stay far enough away to where he can’t grab you. And then you wait. When he finally gives up and quits thrashing around, you make your move. At that point the drowning man won’t work against you. Instead he’ll let you help him.
As long as we pridefully think we can live our lives the way we want God will just stand back and wait. The Holy Spirit wants to help us, but as long as we want to do things our way He will let us go through life as we see fit and suffer the consequences. WE HAVE TO COME TO THE END OF OURSELVES AND SURRENDER OUR PRIDE.
Surrender our Rights
The only way to surrender control and surrender our pride to the Holy Spirit is to be willing to surrender our rights. As Americans we believe we are created with certain unalienable rights including “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” While these may be “American rights” the only one that is a “Biblical right” is life. God has not given us the guaranteed right of liberty and happiness; none of us have the God given right to fairness!”
Put simply, surrendering our rights is to agree with God about sin.
What is sin? It is disobedience to God; it is to miss the mark or fall short of God’s expectations. Yet at it’s core sin is simply the breaking or split of relationships. Sin separates us from God and sin separates us from one another.
David understood that sin was really against God. After David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah murdered to cover up his sin, David prayed, “Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” (See Psalm 51:4) Because of David’s sin Bathsheba was pregnant and Uriah was dead, but ultimately David knew His sin was between him and God. Only as David’s relationship with God would be restored could there be any hope of restoring relationships with others.
We must surrender our rights and agree with God about our sin! We also must learn to agree with God about the sin of others against us.
• John 20:22-23 (MsgB)
[22] Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. "Receive the Holy Spirit," he said. [23] "If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?"
This is one of those times that Jesus is definitely talking His native language of “God” and trying to squeeze it through the toothpaste tube of human language!” In the NIV verse 23 says, “If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Bible commentators generally agree that verse 23 is talking about church discipline; some state it is about the disciples’ commission to preach the good news of forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ shed blood on the cross. While both of these are solid biblical teaching, I still find myself asking, “What in the world is Jesus saying here?” I think the Message Bible comes closest to showing us what Jesus means when you look at the immediate context.
As Jesus tells the disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” they are at that moment born again and regenerated spiritually. The disciples had been dead in their sins, but now by their faith in the resurrected Christ Jesus breaths on them and the Holy Spirit comes to live within them. They are now alive in Christ and their sins are forgiven. With their sins forgiven their relationship with God is now restored. Instead sin fracturing their relationship or causing them to be separated from God, the disciples are now children of God.
Each of them have a restored relationship with God and their sins are forgiven, but what will they do with each others sins as they relate to each other? The disciples have one of two options. Either they surrender their rights and agree with God about sin and forgive one another, or they hold onto their rights and refuse to forgive, but then what will they do with the sin? Their refusal to forgive will not invalidate God’s forgiveness, so they are holding on to sin and bitterness that God has washed away!
The first step to living by the Spirit is to SURRENDER to the Spirit; surrender your control, surrender your pride and surrender your rights.
Temptation Overcomer
• Galatians 5:16 (NIV)
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature [the flesh].
When we surrender control to the Spirit then we will be a TEMPTATION OVERCOMER! None of us need to give into the desires of the flesh and live a life of sin. We have been set free from sin, so let’s live like it. It’s time to “walk the walk!” Being a temptation overcomer is what the Holiness and Sanctification message dealt with in the Back to SCHOOL series.
Living by the Spirit does NOT mean you will be free from temptation, but it does mean you will be free from sin; you will be a temptation overcomer! Instead the opposite is true; if you live by the Spirit you will face MORE temptation, not less.
Satan wants to tempt you to destroy you; he wants to spoil your effectiveness for Christ by causing you to again be bound up in the chains of sin and death. But you are a temptation overcomer! God will allow temptation in your life to establish once and for all that you are free from the control of sin. You are free! You no longer give in to sin, but overcome temptation and the bondage of sin.
• 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NIV)
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
If we fail and fall into sin it’s because we’ve missed the first step. We need to again surrender to the control of the Spirit and stop trying to do it on our own. Surrender control, pride and rights to God and let the Spirit direct us. The Holy Spirit will empower us to be a temptation overcomer!
Empowered Witness
Living by the Spirit is to surrender to the Spirit; it is to be a temptation overcomer, and living by the Spirit gives us an empowered witness. Keeping in step with the Spirit means the things we say line up with the things we do. Our life is not a series of contradictions, but evidence of the Spirit at work in and through our lives!
• Acts 1:8 (NIV)
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Jesus said the Holy Spirit would come upon us, not just so we could speak in tongues and feel good. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit is given first and foremost so we can have an empowered witness.
Jesus not only wants us to have a lifestyle the lines up with the things we believe, but He also wants us to be empowered by the Spirit to share with others about the goodness of God.
• 1 Peter 3:15 (NIV)
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
The person who lives by the Spirit will keep in step with the Spirit as they, Surrender to the Spirit, become a Temptation Overcomer, share an Empowered Witness and finally they will:
Pray with the Spirit’s Help
Prayer is simply conversation with God, but how many of us would agree it can be hard to talk to God? Prayer is difficult for two reasons.
First, the devil will fight you every time you think about praying. Satan does not want us to pray, so he will make it as difficult as he can. That’s why we need to pray with the Spirit’s help. The Holy Spirit will enable us to overcome the enemy and spend time in prayer.
The second reason it can be hard to pray is because we have not learned how to pray. If you are having a hard time praying you need to listen again to the second message in this series “Conversation with God.” It will help you learn to pray.
• Romans 8:26 (NIV)
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
ILLUSTRATION: According to the Bureau of Standards in Washington, a dense fog covering seven city blocks to a depth of 100 feet is composed of less that one glass of water. (Now for those of us who aren’t city folks that would be like driving along a country road for about a mile with fog so thick that you can’t see anything in any direction.) In seven city blocks of fog, less than one glass of water is divided into about 60 billion tiny droplets. Yet when those minute particles settle over a city or the countryside, they can hide almost everything from your sight.
Many Christians today live their lives in a fog. Come on folks, surely I’m not the only one who sometimes has my head in the clouds? Aren’t there times that we just don’t see thing clearly? We can all allow a cupful of problems to cloud our vision and dampen their spirit. Anxiety, turmoil and fear can keep us from wanting to step out in faith.
But even when we don’t see clearly we can pray with the help of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit can see through the fog that blocks our vision. The clouds that seem to close in around us can be lifted by the wind of the Spirit and we can see clearly . . . EVEN WHEN THOSE AROUND US ARE STILL LOST IN THE FOG!
• Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
I may not be able to see clearly with natural eyesight, but I am not limited by my own understanding. I have the Holy Spirit to guide my footsteps and lead me in all I do. The Spirit will help me pray with confidence, because I can see what God is going to do by faith!
• 1 John 5:14 (NIV)
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
CONCLUSION:
• Galatians 5:25 (NIV)
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
We live by the Spirit as we keep in step with the Spirit. We keep in step with the spirit as:
we Surrender to the Spirit
we are a Temptation Overcomer
we have an Empowered Witness
and we Pray with the Spirit’s help
YOU CAN KEEP IN STEP WITH THE SPIRIT!
