INTRO.- ILL.- AT&T fired President John Walter after nine months, saying he lacked "intellectual leadership". He received a $26 million severance package. Perhaps it’s not Walter who was lacking intelligence.
ILL.- A man walked in to a Topeka, Kansas Kwik Shop, and asked for all the money in the cash drawer. Apparently, the take was too small, so he tied up the store clerk and worked the counter himself for three hours until police showed up and grabbed him.
Some people do some mighty dumb things.
ILL.- February 10, 2006, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Myrlene Severe was returning from a trip in Haiti, when an alert Customs officer noticed there was something in her suitcase that she forgot to declare. Her head. Not hers but “a” head.
The skull was supposed to ward off evil spirits, she allegedly told shocked Customs officials. Severe, 30, told them she got the ’’package’’ from a Haitian man and planned to use it to ward off evil spirits as part of her Voodoo beliefs. But instead of protecting her, the head landed her in jail.
Severe, a native of Haiti, was arrested and charged with intentionally smuggling a human head into the United States and not having the proper paperwork, as well as bringing hazardous material on an airplane. Each count carries a five-year maximum sentence, meaning Severe could spend up to 15 years in federal prison if convicted.
Brothers and sisters, Myrlene Severe is severely committed to ward off evil spirits. But I also think she is severely mixed up! Not wanting any evil spirits to attack her is one thing, but acquiring some Haitian skull is not the way to keep them away!
We are not surprised, however, at anything some people do.
Many people are quite superstitious about things in life, but instead of seeking after the one, true living God, they do all kinds of crazy things. They believe in all kinds of crazy things, anywhere from witchcraft to scientology.
We believe, however, in the one true living God, His son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
Rom. 8:9 “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”
Acts 2:38 “Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 5:32 “We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him."
God gives us His Holy Spirit when we obey Him. If we take God at His Word then the Holy Spirit comes to live in a person when they obey Him in repentance and baptism.
PROP.- Since the Holy Spirit is the 3rd person of the Godhead we should be committed to Him as well as to the Father and the Son.
1- Committed to acquiring His help
2- Committed to allowing His transformation
I. COMMITTED TO ACQUIRING HIS HELP
ILL.- We all need help in life. Wall Street Journal, ‘Befuddled PC Users Flood Help Llines.’ AUSTIN, Texas - The exasperated help-line caller said she couldn’t get her new Dell computer to turn on. Jay Ablinger, a Dell Computer Corp. technician, made sure the computer was plugged in and then asked the woman what happened when she pushed the power button.
"I’ve pushed and pushed on this foot pedal and nothing happens," the woman replied. "Foot pedal?" the technician asked. "Yes," the woman said, "this little foot pedal with the on switch." The "foot pedal," it turned out, was the computer’s mouse, a hand-operated device that helps to control the computer’s operation. That lady was stomping on her computer mouse!
We all need help in life, whether it’s help with a computer, car, work, children or whatever.
ILL,- We tend to think that preachers have no problems. Listen to this note from a preacher friend. “We kept a kid last night (yes, another one) for some of our members who were going to be out of town and they called this afternoon asking if we could keep him again tonight.
“I guess I just don’t know how to say no, so we’ve got yet another teenager staying with us who isn’t ours. I felt like we just got dumped on. (It’s not the kid’s fault.) We have virtually no privacy as it is, and just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does. I’ve had to both drop him off at his school as well as pick him up yesterday and today and will have to take him tomorrow morning, and the school he attends is a good 20 miles from here.
“Just keep me in your prayers. I need a strength that is greater than my own to handle all that’s going on. I’m literally in tears right now, and I’m so very tired and feel like I’m beginning to suffer burnout, so please, please pray for me. God, help me! I feel like I’m drowning.”
Brothers and sisters, I am praying for this brother. There are other things that are trying his faith. I am praying that the Lord will be merciful to him and give him grace. And we all need to help one another in prayer. We need to give one another encouragement: sympathy, help in prayer, etc. BUT OUR GREATEST HELP IS OUT OF THIS WORLD!
ILL.- An American with an English gentleman was viewing the Niagara falls one time, when he said to his friend: “Come, and I’ll show you the greatest unused power in the world.” And taking him to the foot of Niagara Falls, “There,” he said, “is the greatest unused power in the world!”
“Ah, no, my brother, not so!” was the reply. “The greatest unused power in the world is the Holy Spirit of the living God.”
Brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit is a spirit of great power. Far more powerful than we all realize, but He is not to be USED by us like some kind of errand boy. He is, however, available to bless us and give us His strength for life’s trials.
Eph. 3:16 “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.”
When life gets tough at work, in the world, wherever, we should pray and ask the Lord to strengthen our weak human spirit by His powerful Holy Spirit. We should pray, “Father, strengthen me powerfully by your Spirit who lives within me….”
How does God do this? Well, how did God create the world? I don’t know. There are many things that we don’t understand about God. If we did, we would be His equal, but we’re far from it. Even though we don’t understand how God works at times, we must continue to pray and ask for His grace and strength.
ILL.- Cornelia (Corrie) ten Boom (April 15, 1892 – April 15, 1983) was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the youngest of three sisters and one brother. Her father was a watchmaker and she was raised in the Dutch Reformed Church. She never married.
In 1892 her family moved to Beje house in Haarlem. Corrie began training as a watchmaker in 1920 and in 1922 became the first female watchmaker licensed in the Netherlands.
Corrie was able to rescue many Jews from certain death at the hands of the Nazi SS during the Holocaust. In 1940 the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. By 1942 her family had become very active in the Dutch underground, hiding refugees.
The family’s work in saving Jews was motivated by their staunch Christian beliefs. They helped Jews unconditionally — regardless of whether they converted and even provided Kosher food and honored the Sabbath.
The Nazis arrested the entire ten Boom family in 1944; they were sent first to Dutch prisons, and finally to the notorious Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany in September 1944, where Corrie’s sister, Betsie died. Corrie was released in December 1944. In the movie The Hiding Place, Corrie narrates the section on her release from camp by saying that she later learned her release was a clerical error as prisoners of her age were normally put to death. She returned to the Netherlands to begin rehabilitation centers. She went to Germany in 1946, beginning many years of itinerant preaching in over sixty countries, a time during which she wrote many books.
Her preaching focused on the Christian Gospel, with emphasis on forgiveness. In her book Tramp for the Lord (1974), she tells the story of how, after she had been preaching in Germany in 1947, she was approached by one of the cruelest former Ravensbrück camp guards.
She was naturally reluctant to forgive him, but prayed that she would be able to. She wrote, “For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.”
Brothers and Sisters, how was Corrie Ten Boom able to endure that Nazi prison camp, the abuse of the guards, etc? And how did she eventually come out alive and even forgive her captors? It’s called the grace of God. It’s called the Spirit of Christ who apparently gave her the strength in life.
Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world! For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love and self-control! We can do all things through Him who strengthens us!
We all need the strength of the Holy Spirit for life’s trials. Let’s be committed to ask for the Spirit’s help and strength in life.
II. COMMITTED TO ALLOWING HIS TRANSFORMATION
ILL.- After being away on business, Tim thought it would be nice to bring his wife a little gift. "How about some perfume?" he asked the cosmetics clerk. She showed him a bottle costing $50.00.
"That’s a bit much," said Tim, so she returned with a smaller bottle for $30.00. "That’s still quite a bit," Tim said.
Growing annoyed, the clerk brought out a tiny $15.00 bottle. "What I mean," said Tim, "is I’d like to see something really cheap." And the clerk handed him a mirror.
Can a woman/a wife change a man from being a cheap skate? Can a woman change a man at all or in any form?
ILL.- Will she or will she not? Will he or will he not? Will Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes ever get married or not? If so, do you realize that Tom Cruise will give up his Church of Scientology and go back to his once former belief in Christ as Savior in the Catholic Church? I can hear some of you say right now, “Get real! No woman can change a man!”
ILL.- Someone said, “Don’t imagine you can change a man - unless he’s in diapers."
Even though we can’t truly change another person, we do influence one another.
Prov. 27:17 “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
ILL.- I preached at the First Christian Church in Iberia, MO, for over 10 years. We had one particular elder who did all he could for the church. He would lead the singing, teach a Sunday School class, lead a mid-week Bible study, and do any kind of manual labor around the church that he could. He was the President of a local bank but was not too proud to do manual labor at the church or whatever. He also had a great spirit. He loved the church, the people, and always spoke highly of the church. He was hardly ever negative about anything in regard to the church.
Finally, I quizzed him one time as to why he did so much for the church. And he told me that there had been elder before him who was a great worker in the church and did all he could. And that man had been such a great example that he inspired him to serve as well.
ISN’T THAT GREAT? Isn’t that the way it should be? We should inspire and encourage one another with our good example rather than discourage one another by our bad example or bad attitude.
I Cor. 15:33 “Do not be misled: "Bad company corrupts good character." But can people change from evil to good? From non-Christian to Christian? Is there any hope of change? Re-creation is only possible through Him who created us in the first place.
ILL.- Yes, Peter the fisherman became a powerful preacher. Saul, the zealous, persecutor Jew, became a fervent follower of Christ. John, the hothead, son of Thunder, became the apostle of love. Yes, change is possible but it’s not easy. If anyone can change a person’s heart and life, it’s Christ and His Spirit.
ILL.- Probably 40 years ago I heard a gospel singer named Wesley Tuttle at the Fairview Christian Church in Carthage, MO, give a testimony. I’m not sure how old he was at that time, maybe 50, but he stated that he’d never been in a church until he was 40 years of age. For many years he sang, but it wasn’t in churches. It was in night clubs, as I recall. And he was a very good night club singer. Somehow he came to Christ.
Someone witnessed to him and led him to Christ. How could this be? How could a man change from worldliness to a Christ-like life, to a Christ-serving life? It’s called the power of God in a person’s life.
Now what about us who have been in the church for years? Does God transform us? Can He still transform us into better people with more faith and a faith that wants to share Christ with others?
II Cor. 3:18 “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
The Lord is in transformation business. How does this happen? Max Lucado put it this way. He wrote: “Transformation isn’t easy. But our Lord is up to the task. He loves to change the faces of his children. By his fingers, wrinkles of worry are rubbed away. Shadows of shame and doubt become portraits of grace and trust. He relaxes clenched jaws and smoothes furrowed brows. “His touch can remove the bags of exhaustion from beneath the eyes and turn tears of despair into tears of peace. How? Through worship. We’d expect something more complicated, more demanding. A forty-day fast or the memorization of Leviticus perhaps. No. God’s plan is simpler. He changes our faces through worship.”
As we behold Jesus in worship, Scripture study, and prayer, the Holy Spirit who lives within us goes to work on us to change us.
CONCLUSION------------------------------
II Cor. 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
ILL.- I attended the Ozark Christian College Preaching and Teaching Convention last week in Joplin, MO. I heard many good sermons that were well prepared, interesting and inspirational.
One of the main speakers was Dave Ferguson from the Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL. Dave and four friends started the church in 1989 in the west suburbs of Chicago. They were and are very passionate about helping people find their way to God. The church runs 3,700 in attendance, but at six different sites every weekend. Essentially, we’re saying six different churches but with the same name, same Sr. Minister, etc. It’s like a college with six different campuses. I don’t know how all of it works, but it’s working! The church is growing! It’s a multi-sited church.
Dave preached a great sermon but the most interesting thing he did was to conclude his message with a video tape of a young man in his church who came to know the Lord. I don’t recall the young man’s name but his story was an amazing story of transformation. He was a handsome young man and had a job that enabled him to buy cocaine every day. He was spending hundreds of dollars on cocaine and drinking whiskey. He was doing so much that I don’t know he even kept a job. He became so depressed and soured on life that this is how he tried to overcome the difficulties of life. Finally, a friend who was a Christian helped to lead him to Christ. This young man formerly thought the idea of knowing God through Jesus was crazy.
He said he thought it was wrong BUT HE FOUND OUT DIFFERENTLY. Now that he is in Christ and Christ is in him through His Spirit all he wants to do is minister to other people who are going through what he experienced. He wants them to know God through Christ. He wants them to find a life of peace and joy in Christ.
That’s transformation! And it does happen to people when they come to know Christ and surrender to Him. God’s Spirit is at work in people’s lives and we need to let Him work in us. We need His strength and the transformation that only He can perform.
