The Holy Spirit & You, Part 1 | Empowered by the Spirit

A New Beginning presents a book about the greatest evangelist of the 20th century, Billy Graham, written by his friend, Pastor Greg Laurie. I bring insights that maybe other books have not really touched on. I also weave in a lot of my personal experiences, one-on-one with Billy, things he said to me, and things I gleaned by watching him. So if you want to learn more about this man that changed the world, get your copy of Billy Graham, The Man I Knew.

Yours for a gift of any amount at Harvest.org. When you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit seals you. What does that mean?

What difference does the Holy Spirit seal make in our lives? Pastor Greg Laurie explains. So here comes the devil. I'm going to wreak havoc in this life. I'm going to destroy this life. I'm at.... Wait, wait, wait.

There's an ID tag. Property of the Lord Jesus Christ. He backs off.

He backs off. That's what it means to be sealed by the Holy Spirit. We know our adversary is a powerful force, far more powerful than we are on our own.

But we also know that our God is omnipotent, all powerful. And when the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, takes up our cause, we're in good hands. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out the role the Spirit plays in the life of the believer.

Foundational insight from a practical series called Timeless, Unchanging Truths in a Changing Culture. This is the day, the day when life begins. Why did the Holy Spirit come? What is the purpose of the Holy Spirit? What does the Holy Spirit want to do in our lives? We'll read about that in just a moment.

But sort of to set the stage here. We're in John chapter 14. And it's open with these very familiar words of Jesus in verses 1 to 3.

Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house there are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself.

That where I am, you may be also. These words of Jesus have brought comfort, hope, and perspective to millions and millions of people for over 2,000 years. To people who are grieving. To people who are afraid. To people who are stressed out and are agitated.

To people, well, just like us. Jesus says, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. And we live in such troubled times right now. So these words of Christ are so relevant. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. But now Jesus continues on in verse 16 of John 14. And I pray the Father that He will give you another Helper. Underline those two words.

Another Helper. That He may abide with you forever. This Spirit of truth Him the world cannot receive.

Because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him for He dwells with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.

A little while longer and the world will see Him no more. But you will see Me because I live, you will live also. And at that day you will know that I am in the Father and you in Me and I in you. And He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is He who loves Me. And He who loves Me will be loved by My Father. And I will love Him and will manifest Myself to Him or reveal Myself to Him.

Judas, not as scary yet, said to Him, Lord, how is it that You manifest Yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered and said, If any man loves Me, he will keep My word. And My Father will love Him and we will come to Him and make our home with Him. He that does not love Me does not keep My words. And the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.

These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give you. Let not your heart be troubled.

Neither let it be afraid. Now there is a lot of misunderstanding concerning the role in working of the Holy Spirit in the lives of both believers and unbelievers. Remember I said the Holy Spirit is not an it.

It is a Him. For a being to be considered a person, he or she must possess certain characteristics. First among those is intelligence. Then there is will.

Then there is emotion. So to be a person or to be a personality you must have intelligence, you must have will, and you must have emotion. God is a person. He has a personality. So the Holy Spirit has a personality and the Holy Spirit has intelligence.

He has intelligence. 1 Corinthians 2.10 says, God has revealed these things to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. So the Holy Spirit knows the thoughts of God. Objects don't know things but the Holy Spirit knows things. Also the Holy Spirit has a will. He has a will because we read in 1 Corinthians 12, speaking of the gifts of the Spirit that God's Holy Spirit distributes, it says He gives to each one these gifts as He wills. It is the Holy Spirit who decides what kind of spiritual gifts each believer will receive. In Acts 15.28 the apostles were talking about different issues and they said it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. So the Holy Spirit had a will and the Holy Spirit expressed His will.

Listen to this. The Holy Spirit has emotion. I mentioned He can be grieved, quenched, resisted, even lied to.

A little bit more on that in a moment. But the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer seeks to convict them of their sin or a better translation would be convince them. There's nothing I can do to convince you that you're a sinner in need of a Savior. No clever analogy.

No illustration is going to do it. Only the Holy Spirit can do that and I trust in the work of the Spirit when I present God's Word that He will touch a person's heart and show them their need for Christ. That's why we need to pray for people as we share the gospel. And once a person believes and is convinced of their need for Christ and asks Christ to come into their life, it's the Holy Spirit that gives them the inner assurance that they're a believer. Romans 8.18 says His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we're the children of God. How many of you are children of God?

Raise your hand up. I would just dare to say the reason you know you're a children of God is you have that inner witness. It's not just that the Bible says you are. You believe the Bible and what it says. But there's something deep inside of you that says, yes, I am a child of God. And I know I am a child of God.

You know where that came from? From the Holy Spirit. His Spirit is bearing witness with your spirit that you are a child of God. And not only can I sense that I'm a child of God, but I know it when I meet another child of God.

Maybe we've only known each other for five minutes, but boy, there's an immediate connection. Because they're a fellow believer and the same Holy Spirit that lives in me lives in them as well. Those are things that the Holy Spirit does. Here's something else the Holy Spirit does. When you become a Christian, He seals you. He seals you.

Ephesians 1 13 says, after you trusted and heard the word of truth and received the gospel, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise who as a deposit guaranteed our inheritance and the redemption of those who are God's possession. Now what does that even mean? Well, back in the old days, the days in which this is written, when goods were shipped from one place to another, they'd be stamped with a wax seal. This is before Amazon.com. Little drones flying around, dropping off packages, which they say they will do soon.

I just hope they don't weaponize them, right? So if you're delinquent in your payment, you have trouble with the little drone. I don't know. But in the old days, they would send documents from one place to another, and they would take these documents and they would seal them. And they would have this signet of the person who sent the documents. So let's say a document was sent by a king. It's like a scroll. A parchment with a wax seal and the king's signet ring was stamped in the wax. So if you saw that document, you dare not open it because that is a private correspondence from the king to someone else. So when the Bible says you're sealed with the Holy Spirit, it's as though God has put his mark on you.

Let's use a different illustration. It's like an ID tag, right? When I travel, I wait for my suitcase. And the problem is other people have suitcases that look like mine because most people have black suitcases. But I have a pink one with a smurf on it.

No, that's not true. No, I have a silver suitcase. So it comes down, but I always check my ID tag because the other day I picked up my bag. I'm walking out and some lady starts chasing me and says, you took my bag. I said, no, this is mine. And I checked the ID tag and sure enough it was her bag. Looked just like mine. That's why you check an ID tag.

So if someone wants to steal that bag, they'll think twice. So here comes the devil. I'm going to wreck havoc in this life.

I'm going to destroy this life. I'm at, whoa, whoa, wait. There's an ID tag.

Let me check the ID tag. Property of the Lord Jesus Christ. He backs off.

He backs off. That's what it means to be sealed by the Holy Spirit. But it's interesting because it also goes on to say He's a deposit guaranteeing your inheritance until the redemption of God's possession. He's a deposit. So when you go to buy something, you may put a deposit down. Maybe you see a car you want to buy. And you'll say, I want to buy this car, but I want you to hold it for me for a week.

Guys say, well, I really can't do that. Well, how about if I put a deposit down in good faith? Okay, and then so you put your deposit down. So that means that you're putting a certain amount of money down on that car or whatever it is you're buying. Maybe it's a home.

You say, well, I want to buy this home and I'm going to put a deposit down on it. So they'll hold it. Now, that won't go on forever, but they'll hold it for a period of time for you. So here's what God is saying. I want you to know I mean business. And when I say one day you'll join me in heaven, I mean it. And just so you know I mean business, I'm giving my Holy Spirit to you as a down payment, because that's what the word means, as a down payment to reassure you that I'm going to keep all of the promises I've made to you.

I think that's pretty amazing. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Pastor Greg, we're excited about your new project, The Greg Laurie Podcast. How is that different than what we do every day here on A New Beginning? Well, Dave, when you listen to A New Beginning, you're listening to my messages that I share from the pulpit. In my podcast, I'm not preaching. I'm just talking. I'm talking about life.

I'm talking about culture. There's a lot of interviews with people I've gotten to know over the years, like Michael Franzese and Daryl Strawberry and Alice Cooper and Jay Warner Wallace and Joel Rosenberg and Levi Lusko, and the list just goes on and on. Insightful conversations and just thoughts on life from a biblical perspective. So the best place to see or listen to my new podcast is go to Harvest Plus. Now, that is our new app that has all kinds of resources on it, our radio broadcast, our TV show, the movies we've produced over the years, and much, much more, and now we have my new long-form podcast that you can watch on demand, and I hope you'll enjoy it. And again, you'll find The Greg Laurie Podcast on the Harvest Plus app. Well, today Pastor Greg is presenting a message called The Holy Spirit and You, Part 1.

Let's continue. Get Scripture or listen to Scripture, but get Scripture in you. You can't just hold the Bible up to your head and pray that it just jumps in there somehow. You've got to read it and process it, but then the Holy Spirit can bring it to life. A passage can just jump off the page.

Have you ever had that happen? And it's so relevant, or someone sends you a verse, and it's just so appropriate for what you're facing. And sometimes you're in church and you're listening to a message, and it's like it was written for you. And you're thinking, he's the greatest preacher I've ever heard. I'm not referring to me, of course, but whoever might be preaching. But it's not that he is the greatest preacher you've ever heard. It's that the Holy Spirit is taking the Word of God, and he's bringing it home to your heart, because that's part of the work he does in the life of the believer.

It's not some great preacher. It's a great God, whose Holy Spirit is illuminating the Word. And that's one of the things that the Holy Spirit does.

He sheds more light on the original light. 1 Corinthians 2, 9 says, It's written, eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed these things to us by his Spirit, because no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. So that's the Holy Spirit doing that for you.

Listen to this. The Holy Spirit helps us in our prayers and our obedience to God. He helps us in our prayers and our obedience to God. Look at verse 15. Jesus says, If you love Me, obey My commandments, and I'll ask the Father, and He'll give you another advocate who will never leave you.

This is the key that unlocks the treasures of heaven. In the Old Testament, the law of God was given. And effectively the law of God said, Don't do those things. Thou shalt not have any graven images before Me. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain. Thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not covet. A lot of nots.

A lot of nos. And so as an Old Testament believer, you would try to not do those things that were wrong before God and keep His commandments. But in the New Testament it's different because now those commandments are written in our heart. And we do them out of love.

We do them because we want to, not because we have to. And if you're a Christian that's living in a law-like relationship with God and you see the Christian life as a bunch of restrictions, you're missing what it's all about. Because if you really love God with all of your heart, soul, and mind, you will not want to do those things that displease Him. And that's exactly what Jesus is saying right here. He's saying, If you love Me, obey My commandments. You know, I love My wife so I will be faithful to My wife.

I love My wife so I will not lie to My wife. So it's not fear of what will happen if I do the wrong thing, but rather it's a love causing me to want to do the right thing. You say, Yeah, but what if I'm torn between two lovers?

Well, then you're an idiot for starters. And the fact is you don't love either. You just love yourself. So if you really love someone, you'll want to please them. And if you really love Jesus, you'll keep His commandments.

Let me flip it over. If I don't keep His commandments, do I really love Jesus? You know, a lot of people say, Oh, I love the Lord.

Oh, I just love the Lord. Let's get drunk. Wait, hold on.

What? The Bible says, Don't be drunk with wine. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Yeah, whatever.

Let's get drunk. You know, you're just obeying God. Oh, I really love Jesus, but I'm going to slander that person over there.

Just tell a flat out lie about him because I don't like him. Oh, I really love Jesus, but I'm going to look at porn now. Oh, I really love Jesus, but it's fill in blank here. Do you really love Jesus? You say you love Him, but if you go out and deliberately do things His word says you should not do, do you love Him?

It would be questionable, wouldn't it, at best? You know what else the Holy Spirit does? He empowers you for service.

He gives you power. Look at verse 17. The Spirit of truth in the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor does it know Him, but you know Him for He dwells with you and will be in you. You see, for a believer at this time, and they were still effectively living in the old covenant until Christ died and rose. It's still the old covenant. And so the Holy Spirit wasn't in them yet. So here's what Jesus is saying. He's going to come in you.

Well, when did that happen? That happened in the upper room. Remember, we read in John 20, after Jesus died and rose again, Christ appeared to them in the room, and He said, receive the Holy Spirit, and He breathed on them, and the Holy Spirit came and lived inside of them. So now when you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. But there's even another dimension of power you can experience because over in Acts 1, 8, it says, you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you to be witnesses unto Me and Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth. So the Spirit comes in you when you become a Christian. But then the Spirit can come upon you with the dimension of power, giving you a boldness or a courage to be a witness for Christ or to share your faith. And that happened on the day of Pentecost, when all those believers who had the Holy Spirit in them were waiting for power from on high, and God's Spirit came on them.

Remember that story? And listen to this. After that happened, Peter said, this promise of the Holy Spirit is to you, and it's to your children, and it's to your children's children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as we'll call on the name of the Lord our God. So here's what Peter is saying. This promise of what happened on Pentecost is available to believers today. We don't need another Pentecost any more than we need another Calvary. What happened at the first Calvary is sufficient.

What happened at the first Pentecost is sufficient. I just need to take hold of it and ask the Holy Spirit to empower me and fill me again and again and again. And you refill. Some people, you know, you need to get more refills than others do, but we all need a refill of the Spirit. Pastor Greg Laurie, with important thoughts about the way the Holy Spirit helps us in our daily walk with the Lord. And there's more to come as this message continues here on A New Beginning. But listen, if you're unsure about your relationship with the Lord, you don't know if you have the Holy Spirit inside you.

You don't know if your sins have been forgiven. Well, Pastor Greg has something important to share with you in just a few moments, so please stay tuned. And then thank you for partnering with us to help these daily studies continue.

Your investments have eternal benefits. Why not make this a part of your personal ministry, to partner in an effort that's making a real difference with the gospel of Jesus Christ? Thank you for your prayers and for prayerfully considering how God might lead you to help tangibly. Online, you'll find us at harvest.org, and there you'll see the way we'd like to thank you for your donation right now.

That's harvest.org. Or write us at A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or call us at 1-800-821-3300. We're here around the clock to take your call, again at 1-800-821-3300. Well Pastor Greg, you spoke today about a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit. But some may need to come to the Lord for the first time. If somebody listening right now wants to do that, could you help them? Yeah, I can do that, Dave.

I'd be happy to. In the book of Isaiah, we read these words. Seek the Lord while he may be found.

Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways, and the unrighteous men their thoughts. Let them return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them.

And to our God, for he will freely pardon. Listen, that's God's word to you. And let me address this to the person who has never asked Jesus Christ to come into their life.

Why don't you do it now? That verse says, seek the Lord while he may be found. God has touched your heart today, perhaps. And you've thought, I need this relationship with the Lord. One of these days I'm going to make the commitment to Christ. No, don't wait for one of these days. This is the day.

This is your moment. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he's near. Listen, God is near to you, wherever you are.

In your home, in your car, and you're out walking, perhaps. I don't know where you are, but God is near, and he is ready to come into your life. And there's another part of this verse when it says, let us return to the Lord.

I want to also extend an invitation to you that have fallen away from your faith. You've fallen away from the Lord, and you need to make a recommitment. So, if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life, if you want your sin forgiven, if you want to go to heaven when you die, or if you've fallen away from the Lord and you want to return to him, pray this prayer with me.

In fact, you can even pray it out loud. But just pray this after me, right now. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner. But I also know that you are a savior, and I need your help. I need your forgiveness. Come into my life, and forgive me of all of my sins.

I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Be my savior, be my Lord, be my God, and be my friend. Thank you for hearing this prayer. Thank you for answering this prayer. In Jesus' name, I pray.

Amen. Hey, I want you to know, on the authority of Scripture, if you just prayed that prayer and meant it, Christ has heard you, and he has forgiven you. So, God bless you. Yeah, and we want to help you as you begin to walk with the Lord. Pastor Greg would like to send you his New Believers Bible.

It's full of practical helps to get you on your way in your journey of faith. And we'll send it free of charge when you call us at 1-800-821-3300. You can reach us anytime at 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514. Or just go online to harvest.org and click Know God. Well, next time, important information about the dangers of resisting the Spirit and insulting God's Spirit. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Greg Laurie.