The Holy Spirit & You, Part 2 | What Does the Holy Spirit Show Us?

You're listening to A New Beginning with Greg Laurie, a podcast made possible by Harvest Foundation. Few of us buy products to solve problems we don't have. Why would you buy a flea collar if you don't have a pet? But there are many people who have a problem they're not yet aware of. They're afflicted with the good enough syndrome. They're convinced that they're good enough to get to heaven. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie points out that the Holy Spirit shows us our sin, shows us its penalty, and shows us our need for a solution.

It's life-saving information. Alright, well we're back in the Gospel of John again, so turn there in your Bible if you would. John 16, and the title of my message is The Holy Spirit and You Part 2.

Or if you're French, part deux. Second part, we already did a little message on this earlier. So here's a quick review of what we already saw. And then we'll look at what we're going to see here in John 16. Number one, we already discovered together the Holy Spirit has come to indwell the believer and to seal us.

He's come to indwell us and seal us. Ephesians 1 13 says, in whom you trusted after you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, in whom having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who as a deposit guaranteed are an inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of His glory. So these things happen to us when we believe. I don't think we realize all the incredible things that transpired when we became a Christian. Because you didn't feel it necessarily.

But I'm telling you it was such a dramatic shift it's hard to even wrap your mind around. For starters you passed from darkness to light. For starters you became a citizen of heaven instead of a citizen effectively of hell. For starters all of your sin was forgiven and if that's not enough you were justified which means God took all of your sins and He forgave them and He put the righteousness of Christ into your account and then you were sealed with the Holy Spirit. You were signed, sealed, delivered by God Himself.

And the word sealed means that we have God's ID tag on us. You know when I travel I have ID tags on my bags. And I mentioned a while ago that I picked up one of my bags at an airport and I was wheeling it away and some lady came chasing me and she said, that's my suitcase. And I looked at it and it was my suitcase. Well sure enough it was hers. We had suitcases that were identical in the way we determined whose suitcase was whose by checking the ID tag.

And I had walked off with their suitcase. God has put His ID tag on you. You belong to God now. I heard the story of an older guy who was known for his godly life. And someone asked him once, old man what do you do when you get tempted? The old codger said, well I just look up to heaven and I say, Lord your property is in danger.

I like that. Because I belong to God. I am sealed by the Holy Spirit. I am His child.

I am one of His sheep. And I am one of His possessions. The Bible says, your body is not your own. In fact you are not your own. You belong to God who bought you with a price. And your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus bought me out of the slave auction and I now belong to Him.

But we can say things like that all day long. And God says, I want you to know I mean business. So I am going to drop a heavy down payment.

That is what it means when it says that there was a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. What it means is God is saying to let you know I mean business. To reassure you that you will go to heaven one day so you can be assured that everything I promised is true.

I am placing my Holy Spirit in your life as that down payment or that deposit. I am not going to back down. I am not going to change my mind. I am not going to abandon you or forsake you.

And I am never going to stop loving you. And when you become a Christian you have that inner testimony of the Holy Spirit. Here is what Romans 8 says in verse 15. You have not received a spirit of adoption like fearful slaves. Instead you have received God's Spirit who has adopted you.

Maybe one of His own children. Now we say Abba Father and His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children. Do you know what I am talking about right now? That inner conviction. You say Greg how do you know you are a Christian? I just know. I know because God's Holy Spirit lives inside of me and He confirms it to me.

And then hopefully there is fruit. A result of my life that would demonstrate that to others as well. Of course this is based on the promise of the Word of God. But there is that inner conviction of the Spirit. And if you don't know right now please do not leave this service tonight without knowing that you know.

And I will tell you how that can happen for you. What else does the Holy Spirit do in the life of the believer? He teaches us. Because Jesus said in John 14 the helper of the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I have said to you. You know you can read the Bible as a historical document.

It is historical. But you can also read it as God's living book. You know the Bible says of itself that it is alive and powerful.

Sharper than any two edged sword. I love what Martin Luther said about the Bible. He said the Bible has hands. It takes hold of me. It has feet.

It chases after me. And have you ever had a time where you open up the Word of God and ask for direction and ask for insight and it just came alive to you. That is the Holy Spirit teaching you. And then there were times when you were in a conversation with someone and a whole passage opened up that you started quoting that you don't even remember consciously memorizing. But there it was. That is the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Number three. The Holy Spirit helps us in our prayers and obedience to God. He helps me in my prayers and my obedience to God. Jesus said over there in John 14 if you love me and obey my commandments I will ask the Father and He will give you another advocate who will never leave you. And He is referring to the Holy Spirit. You may say well Greg I don't feel like I have the power to live the Christian life.

You are wrong. If you have asked Christ to come into your life you have all the power that you need. You just need to learn how to step on the accelerator and put the pedal to the metal. Because I am telling you the horse power is there. The Spirit power is there. So we need to unleash it in our lives.

And I am not suggesting we are waiting for an emotional experience. I don't know where we come up with this idea that whenever we ask God to fill us with the Spirit we have to feel something. Or ok let's pray for God to fill us with the Spirit. Turn the lights down.

Why? Is the Holy Spirit afraid of lights or something? You can do it with the lights on.

When you get up in the morning before you even put your feet on the ground say Lord fill me with the Holy Spirit. Do you have an emotional experience when you put gas in your car? Or if you have an electric car do you have an emotional experience when you plug it into the wall? If you are standing in water you might have an experience. No you just put gas in your car.

You plug in your car. Or whatever it is. And so the same thing is true of asking God to fill us. You might feel something. You might feel nothing.

It doesn't matter. Because Jesus says the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those that dim the lights and wait for an emotional experience. No. He said the Father will give the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him. So what do you need to do?

Ask Him. And then receive it. And He will give you the power you need. Romans 8 13 says, it says, through the power of the Spirit you can put to death the deeds of your sinful nature. For those that are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The power is there.

Number four. The Holy Spirit empowers me for service. Jesus said in John 14 17, the Spirit of truth and the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him but you know Him for He dwells with you and will be in you. Now you see these disciples when He was sharing these things didn't have the Spirit in them yet because Jesus was still there. But after Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead He appeared to them in the upper room.

Remember? And He said, peace be to you. And the reason He would say that is people always freaked out when they saw Him risen from the dead so He had to start with, hey peace guys.

It is cold. Chill. It is all right.

Ok. Don't have a heart attack. Peace be to you. And then He said, receive the Holy Spirit. And He breathed on them and the Holy Spirit came in them. But then in the day of Pentecost in Acts 1 8 we read that the Holy Spirit of God came upon them because the Bible says you will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you. So when you believe He comes in you then He will come upon you to give you the boldness you need to share the gospel. Ok so that is what the Spirit does in the life of the believer. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment.

Whenever you send us an email, letter or post a comment on social media we read every word. Pastor Greg I loved the movie Jesus Revolution. I am also thankful that you helped lead my mom to Jesus just two weeks before she suddenly died.

Through it all God is good. Has Pastor Greg heard from you? If not why not drop him an email and tell your story. Send it to Greg at Harvest.org. Again that is Greg at Harvest.org. Pastor Greg has been pointing out today what God's Spirit does in the life of the believer. It continues now with his message The Holy Spirit and You Part 2.

What does he want to do in the life of the non-believer? That brings us to John 16. Number one the Holy Spirit has come to convict us of our sin.

You could also just interchange the word convince with convict. He has come to convince us of our sin. Verse 8 John 16 when he has come he will convict or convince the world of sin of righteousness and of judgment. You see one's ignorance of sin righteousness and judgment can bring their destruction. So God has sent his Holy Spirit to make the non-believer aware of this. Before we can appreciate the solution we have to see the real problem so we need to be convicted by the Spirit.

Because there is no conversion without conviction. Being a Christian is not just living a better life. Jesus is not just helpful. He is our only hope. He has not come to improve our life. He comes to save our life.

And so we need to realize that only the Holy Spirit can show us our real need. You know it is interesting that the word convict means to cross-examine. To cross-examine. Have you ever been cross-examined? Maybe you have been arrested. Interrogated by an officer. Maybe you have a mother.

Which is similar to an officer. If you were out late. Where have you been? What have you been doing?

Empty your pockets. I am going to give you a polygraph test. Mom you have a polygraph test?

Yes I do. Look me in the eyes. Right? The Holy Spirit has come to cross-examine us with the purpose of convicting or refuting an opponent. He doesn't come to just convict the world in general but to specifically show them they are lacking in the righteousness they need to get to heaven.

This is a very important distinction. It is not just sins in general. The Holy Spirit has come to show you the biggest sin of all. The sin of self-righteousness. And in its place God wants to give you His righteousness. I bring this up because every time you turn around people are thinking that they get to heaven by good works. You know I guess I don't expect nonbelievers to know much about this. But when I hear Christians or at least professed believers still subscribing to an idea like this it just seems insane to me.

But people do still think this. That well you know if you live a good life you will get to heaven. And if you live a bad life then you will go to hell.

Listen use flash. There are good people that are going to go to hell and there are bad people that are going to go to heaven. You say well that makes no sense at all. Well it is biblical.

Let me explain. Being a good person will not get you to heaven. You can be a good person but if you think you are so good you don't know Jesus you can end up in hell. And you can be a bad person.

A very bad person. But if you repent of your sin even if it is on your deathbed Christ will forgive you and let you into heaven. Because heaven is not for good people. It is for forgiven people.

You say well where do you get that. It is called the thief on the cross. Remember that guy. And by the way the word thief probably isn't even accurate. That is the word we use. But the word that is used in the original language implies a criminal guilty of a capital offense. He was probably a murderer.

An insurrectionist trying to bring about the overthrow of Rome. So this is a bad dude. And Jesus says to him today you will be with me in paradise because the man said Lord remember me when you come into your kingdom. So the Holy Spirit number two now has come to bring us to Jesus. He says in verse 9, I have come to convince them of sin because they do not believe in me. You know it is interesting sin. Not sins. Sometimes we I think in the church major on minors.

And by that I mean we sort of get the cart before the horse. We will kind of focus on lifestyle choices that are sinful and we will harp on those things. Here is my objective. I want to establish a dialogue with a person regardless of what sinful choice they have made. So if they are living with their boyfriend or girlfriend out of wedlock or if they are gay or if they are a liar or a thief or all of the above you know hey I want to first talk to them about their need for Jesus because this is the way I see it. If they will come to Jesus everything else will get sorted out. But if I focus on those things and never get around to telling them about Jesus I can in effect drive them away. And I think a lot of times people think of the church as being against everything. And we are going to speak out on what the Bible says and say what it says on whatever topic it is we are addressing. But our message is the gospel and we want people to believe. And then their lives will change as a result. So the Holy Spirit has come to show us that.

To bring us to Jesus. You know it would be like going to a doctor and saying, Doc I have headaches. My head hurts all the time. Well he can obviously say go buy some Advil. And that will help but then your headache will come back. So a good doctor isn't just going to deal with the symptom. He is going to deal with the cause. Right.

You know maybe you are dehydrated or maybe there is another medical issue and after a series of tests that will be determined. But better to get to the root of it than just merely treating the symptoms. And so that is what the Holy Spirit has come to do to show us our need for Him. Listen. Having said that the Holy Spirit will not force us to believe in Jesus. I do not believe in irresistible grace. That is taught by Calvinists. I reject it.

Why? Because the idea of irresistible grace says you are predestined to believe if you really want to or not. And that grace of God is irresistible so you are going to come to Jesus if you want to or not.

I beg to differ. I think you can resist the Holy Spirit of God. You say well why do you think that? Well because the Bible says so. Remember when Stephen was standing before the Sanhedrin. And he said, you stubborn people, you heathen at heart, you are deaf to the truth, must you forever resist the Holy Spirit. That is interesting because he was addressing a group of spiritual leaders that knew the Word of God. And the implication in the verse there is that they knew it was true and were rejecting it regardless of that fact. He says, you are resisting the Spirit. You know what I am saying is true but you are choosing to not believe it.

So it is resistible. Verse 13. When He the Spirit of truth has come He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak in His own. He will speak only what He hears. And He will tell you what is to come.

He will bring glory to me by taking what is mine and making it known to you. See if you refuse to believe in Jesus you are effectively calling the Holy Spirit a liar. Because 1 John 5 says, he that believes in the name of the Son of God has this witness in himself. He that does not believe has made him a liar because he does not believe the record that God has given of his Son. That is called insulting the Spirit. So the Holy Spirit comes and shows you you are a sinner. And you need Jesus and you say, I do not. I am a good person. I don't need Jesus. Oh so you are calling him a liar? No. You are putting words in my mouth then.

Actually I am not. Because if you are rejecting the work that the Holy Spirit has come to do to show you you are not righteous enough to get to heaven and show you that Jesus is the answer, you are effectively saying he is a liar. So God has sent His Holy Spirit to bring us to Jesus. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie with important insight on the role of the Holy Spirit, not only in the lives of believers but also in the hearts of unbelievers. You know Pastor Greg, maybe the Holy Spirit has been speaking to some just now.

Well they can respond right now, can't they? That's right. The Bible says whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So think of it this way. Maybe you are out in a riptide in the ocean and you can't get your footing and you are in trouble and you see a lifeguard call out for help. And the lifeguard will rescue you.

The same is true spiritually. You are drowning in your sin. You need help. Jesus will save you. He will rescue you but you must call out to Him.

And you know how you do that? You do it in prayer. So let me just lead you in a simple prayer and you can pray this prayer after me. You can pray it out loud if you like. And this is where you are calling out to Jesus to save you.

Just pray this. Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner and I know You are the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. Now Lord, I turn from my sin and I put my faith in You. Be my Savior, my Lord, be my God and my friend. I choose to follow You from this moment forward. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen. Hey, if you just prayed that prayer, I want you to know that Christ Himself has come to live inside of you. And I have a resource I want to send you. It's called the New Believers Bible. So the New Believers Bible is the New Testament in the New Living Translation with hundreds of notes that I wrote that will encourage you in this commitment you are making to follow Christ. There's some other materials included as well in what we call the New Believers Growth Pack, but let me get this New Believers Bible into your hands as quickly as possible.

Here's Dave to tell you more. Yeah, we'll be glad to send it all your way free of any charge if you prayed along with Pastor Greg today. Just ask for the New Believers Bible when you call 1-800-821-3300. You can reach us anytime 24-7 at 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514.

Or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. Pastor Greg, we're excited about the new movie, Fame, talking about the dangers of fame and yet everybody wants to be rich and famous these days. You know, I've never taken one of those celebrity home tours like they have up in Beverly Hills.

You buy a map and you drive by the Star's Homes, but I've seen pictures of a few Star's Homes from the street and all you see really is a tall hedge or a wall. It may be a beautiful home, but it's closed off from the rest of the world. They're sort of under house arrest. They're prisoners of their own fame.

Yes. You know, it's been said, careful what you wish for, you might get it. And you know, so many think, oh, one day if I was rich and famous and et cetera, I'd be happy.

No, you won't be. I can just tell you right now, I could quote so many sources and I have a lot of them in my new book on fame that I'll tell you about in a moment, but I could quote so many sources to prove my point just from culture, just from the celebrities themselves. Then we go to the scripture. The Bible tells the story of Nicodemus. You all know that in John chapter three, Nicodemus was famous. He was the guy people went to for spiritual answers. But one day Nicodemus came to Jesus at night.

It was literally Nick at night. And why did he come at night? Because he didn't want anyone to see him because he's the famous dude who's supposed to know everything and he didn't. But he saw something in Jesus that attracted him. He knew Christ had the answers he was looking for.

And as the conversation begins, Christ actually says to Nicodemus, you are the teacher in Israel and you don't know these things. He was the teacher. He was the man. He was the rock star. He was the movie star.

He was the guy with more followers than social media, if we were to put it in today's terms. But he knew that something was missing. So he came to Jesus. And that's what so many people discover. It seems like they either try to go to the wrong things to fill that void after they've had a degree of fame like drugs or alcohol or just buying everything imaginable and getting themselves in financial trouble or whatever else they're pursuing. Or they turn to God. Many of them don't turn to God.

But some do. There's actually some well-known celebrities who are walking with Jesus Christ and talk about their faith publicly. People like Chris Pratt, Mark Wahlberg, and others. But I interview two very significant people for this new film.

The title of the film is Fame. And I interview Alice Cooper. He's a living legend. Even the rock stars look up to Alice Cooper. But he's one of the most down-to-earth guys. And he has a strong faith in Christ. And he's going to say things that I guarantee will surprise you. Well, let me just play something for you. Here's a scene from the Fame film where Alice Cooper answers my question, who is Jesus Christ to you?

Check this out. He's the core of everything. He's life itself. None of us deserve redemption. But Christ on the cross, he knew your name. He knew my name. And that made me go, how can I not believe that? If the Lord is knocking at your door, answer it. It's the best thing that you could ever do. So those are just some of the things you'll see in this brand-new film called Fame.

I also interview baseball great Daryl Strawberry. We have a lot of amazing stories and other things in this film that you're going to love. It's visually beautiful. And it's going to just show the emptiness of life without God. And ultimately, the answer is Jesus. And we also have a book that you can order right now. The book is called Fame.

And it deals with a lot of these things I've talked about and much more. And we'll send that to you for your gift of any size to keep our ministry on the air here at A New Beginning and continue to reach people with the gospel and make more films like this one you're going to see very soon called Fame. So Dave, tell them where they can see the film.

Yeah, you can watch the movie right now at our new Harvest Media platform at harvest.org and also other streaming platforms such as Roku, Apple TV, Samsung, Amazon Fire, and Google Play. And of course, the book called Fame is a provocative look at the dangers of fame and of pursuing the world's value system. It's a look at how to follow God's plan instead, the plan that offers real satisfaction and peace. We'll be glad to send a copy of the book your way to thank you for partnering with us so Pastor Greg can continue to bring the gospel through this radio program, through books and film, and so many other forms of outreach. So get in touch with your donation today by calling 1-800-821-3300. Call any time 24-7, 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514.

Or go online to harvest.org. Well, we've been talking about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And next time Pastor Greg points out that the Spirit shows us our sin and then brings us to the Savior. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher, Craig Laurie. A New Beginning is a podcast made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. If this show has impacted your life, share your story, leave a review on your favorite podcast app, and help others find hope.