Have you ever wished you could just know the thoughts of God? Know what God's thinking?
Know what's going on up there in heaven? Well, according to Scripture, you can to a certain extent through the Holy Spirit. When we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we can to a certain extent know the thoughts of God because the Holy Spirit knows the thoughts of God. The Holy Spirit seems mysterious to a lot of people.
But today on Connect with Skip Heitzing, Skip's son Nate explains what the Bible itself has to say about the Holy Spirit. The desire to fit in, to be thought of as normal, is a basic human instinct. But would you believe that children as young as three years old already want to follow the crowd and fit in with the group? That's what researchers found in a Duke University study. Yet in the Bible, we learn that some of the people who've made the most impact have done so by defying normal.
Here's Skip Heitzing. I think the Bible calls us to a holy defiance of the status quo. Paul the Apostle said, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
So what does it take to go from conformed to transformed? Find out in Pastor Skip's book, Defying Normal. Our thanks to you when you give $35 or more to help expand this Bible teaching ministry. And when you give today, we'll also include the booklet, What Unearthed in the Bible. The booklet, What Unearthed Am I Here For? by Rick Warren.
Get your copies of these two bold resources when you call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, we're in John chapter 16 as we join Nate Heitzig for today's study. There's no better place to start in our study of doctrine and the fundamentals of the Christian faith than with God himself.
Because after all, theology is the study of God. And according to scripture, there is a single God who manifests himself in three distinct personalities, the Trinity. And we've been discussing for the past several weeks in this series as we continue in 2020 who God is.
And we've looked at in depth the Father and the Son. And now we're looking at the mysterious and often misunderstood member of the Holy Trinity. And that is the Holy Spirit. I find the Holy Spirit is so misunderstood.
He's so misrepresented. We have so many weird and false ideas about who the Holy Spirit is, what his role is. So today, we're going to be looking at the person of the Holy Spirit, not looking so much at the gifts of the Spirit or the power of the Spirit.
Because usually when you hear somebody's going to do a message on the Holy Spirit, you think they're going to be talking about miracles and speaking in tongues and the power of the Spirit. But today, we're looking at the person of the Spirit. That is to say, who is he? Who is the Holy Spirit? What are his attributes? What is his character like?
What is his role? What is his job within the Trinity? We're going to be discussing that this morning for our message, who is the Holy Spirit? And the first point that we see is the person of the Holy Spirit. You know, some people have wrongly thought that the Spirit is more of an it rather than a him, right? When you think of the Holy Spirit, we tend to get really mystical about it, like it's this weird energy. Or perhaps we think of like the apostles in Pentecost, it's fire and it's this flame that just kind of floats above you.
Or we conjure up these ideas about this power, like the force in Star Wars or something. That's what we tend to think of the Holy Spirit as. And that's probably due in part because of the descriptions of him in Scripture as being like the wind, the fire, or coming on Jesus in the form of a dove. But I want to challenge you because that also has to be balanced with how Jesus refers to himself. Jesus refers to himself as the bread of life. He refers to himself as the door, the good shepherd. In the same way, God the Father is referred to as a refuge. He's referred to as one who will protect us under his wings. He's also referred to as a consuming fire. So, does this mean that Jesus is a loaf of bread?
No. Does this mean that Jesus is a literal door? Does this mean that God the Father is a pile of rocks or a giant blast furnace or some kind of giant bird floating in the sky?
Of course not. In the same way, this doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit is some kind of a force or a power. I told you to turn to John chapter 16. If you look at verses 7 through 8 with me, if you don't have a Bible it will be on the back screen behind me. It says this starting in verse 7, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away.
For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you. And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Look at verse 8 again. It says, When he is come, he will convict. Not when it has come or when the power has come, but it's a definite person with a personality.
When he has come, he will convict. You know, sometimes certain things in our lives seem to have a mind of their own, don't they? Like there's some maybe appliances you have in your house that you're like, it has a mind of its own. It doesn't do what I want it to do. My washer never does what I want it to do, it just does what it wants to do. My toaster oven, my car, my truck has got a mind of its own.
Especially in our day and age with computers. Computers seem to get smarter and smarter every single day, right? And now they kind of have a mind of their own. You can even talk to them and they have names. Siri and Alexa and sometimes they talk to you even when you didn't want to talk to them.
They just hear your conversations and start talking to you and giving you random facts that you didn't even know you wanted. But that doesn't mean that they're a person, right? Siri, Alexa, it's not a person.
It doesn't have a personality. For a being to be considered a person, he or she has to possess certain characteristics. And there's three important ones that I believe really define what a person is. Number one, you have to have intelligence.
Number two is will. You have to have the ability to make decisions on your own. And third is emotion. All three of these are required if personality is to exist. Now human beings, you and I, we possess all three of these attributes. Therefore we can be considered persons with personality.
But trees, plants, rocks, cars, and yes even Siri, I don't care how funny her jokes are. Do not possess those three attributes and so therefore they cannot be considered persons. So let's examine each one of these and we look at the person of the Holy Spirit to see how the Holy Spirit possesses these attributes. Number one, the Holy Spirit has intelligence.
1 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 10, it's going to be on the back screen here, says this. But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. This really conveys that the Spirit has intelligence, he knows things. Not only does he know things, he knows the thoughts of God. Have you ever wished you could just know the thoughts of God?
Know what God's thinking, know what's going on up there in heaven? Well according to scripture, you can to a certain extent through the Holy Spirit. When we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we can to a certain extent know the thoughts of God because the Holy Spirit knows the thoughts of God. Only a person with intelligence can know things, a fire doesn't know things, a plant or a tree doesn't know things. But the Holy Spirit knows things.
Number two, the Holy Spirit has a will. Speaking of the gifts of the Spirit, Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 11 that the Holy Spirit distributes to each one individually as he wills. That is to say the decision on what gifts you've been given, that decision is made by the Holy Spirit. We don't get to pick and choose what gifts we have, right? We don't get to say, you know, I'll take miracles because that sounds really great and I think I could make a great practice as a doctor if I could just heal people.
I'll take that one, but words of wisdom, I don't need that one. No, the Holy Spirit decides with his will, he dictates which gifts each person receives. Also in Acts chapter 15 verse 28, the disciples answered a question of church doctrine by saying, it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us. And I find that God often works in this way. As he reveals truth, he often does so as he speaks to us and then we can then speak and share to others. See, God has the power that if he wanted to, he could individually teach every single person exactly what they wanted instantly.
He could just talk to you and tell you exactly what he wants to tell you, but he doesn't do that. Rather, God has chosen to use us to work in and through us to be part of his tools and vessels in accomplishing his plan. And we're going to get to that in a little bit as we look at the profession of the Holy Spirit and how he works and what he does in this world today. Showing his will, the Holy Spirit also set apart certain people for service. Acts chapter 13 verse 2 says, while they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.
Set them apart. He chose them specifically for the task that he had. Just a note as we're on that, I believe that the Holy Spirit has chosen each and every one of us for a task. This is part of the reason why he chooses what gifts he gives to some and not to others. Because he gives us the gifts that we need to accomplish the task for which he has called us out to. And I would challenge you, do you know what God has called you to? Do you know what the Holy Spirit has called you to? Do you know the giftings that the Holy Spirit has given to you? I find the best way to tell what you're called to is to start with your giftings. Because I could say all day that I'm called to do something but if I'm not gifted to do it, then I'm probably not called to it. So I challenge you, learn the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given you. Matt mentioned Life Track and one of the things we do in Life Track is we take a spiritual gifts assessment. So you can discover what gifts the Holy Spirit has naturally given you. You can learn how to hone those gifts and then you can begin to find out and discover specifically what God has called you to within his kingdom.
But it's so important that we learn what the Holy Spirit has called us to. Third and finally, the last thing that dictates emotion and this one might surprise you. The Holy Spirit has emotion. He has emotion. There's things that make him sad. There's things that make him angry. There's things that make him joyful.
He has emotion. In the Bible, there's certain offenses against the Holy Spirit that are mentioned in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit can be grieved. The Holy Spirit can be quenched. The Holy Spirit can be resisted. He can be blasphemed and the Holy Spirit can even be lied to. In the story of Ananias and Sapphira, we find that their sin was lying to the Spirit.
Some of these sins apply specifically to unbelievers and others apply specifically to believers and for some there might be a little overlapping either way. One of the sins that a believer can commit against the Holy Spirit which shows his emotion is grieving him. To grieve means to make sad or sorrowful. We read in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30 to 31 exactly what it is that makes God sad. It says, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander along with every form of malice. Can I just ask us to look a little introspectively for a second? In this very divided season that we're in, in this current state of the United States of America, can I just ask you personally for the church if the Holy Spirit might be grieved because of the way that we're treating our brothers and sisters in Christ's time?
If the Holy Spirit were to look at your social media comment sections and some of the things that you're saying or believers are saying to one another, do you think he would be grieved because of the bitterness, the rage, the anger, the brawling, the slander, the malice that exists in this world today? And I remember as a kid when I would do something wrong, oftentimes, most times I would get disciplined for it. When I was younger, I'd get a spanking. As I got older, I'd be grounded.
I'd have things taken away. But I remember a few times when I did something so bad, when I did something that was so deserving of punishment, I remember my dad would come into the room only a couple times that I can remember and he would look at me and he would pause for a second. He would say, I just want you to know that you broke my heart. You made me sad. You hurt me. And that was the worst thing you could ever hear, wasn't it? In that moment, you're like, just hit me, spank me, take my car away, ground me, do something because I want to feel the physical pain for the thing that I've done.
I don't want to know that I've hurt you. In the same way that's true with God, I wonder how hurt God is at times, just looking at the state of the church today, looking at the divisiveness and the bitterness, I wonder how that grieves the Spirit of God. When we allow bitterness to poison our lives or slander others, we are grieving the Holy Spirit. The second thing we see about the Holy Spirit, we've seen the person of the Holy Spirit, now let's look and examine the profession of the Holy Spirit. That is to say, what is the job of the Holy Spirit in this day and age?
What is he doing here on earth? One of the aspects of the Holy Spirit is that he has a job which is keeping a lid on things. His job is to keep a lid on the things that are ultimately going to happen and erupt within our society. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 7 says, for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Or as the NIV says, but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way and then the lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. Part of the profession of the Holy Spirit is to keep the wholesale spread of destruction and evil within the world. And if you're like me, you might look around at society today and say, I'm not sure he's doing that great of a job.
Like, can we be honest? It's okay to doubt God sometimes and when we read certain scriptures, we're like, man, if this is keeping a lid on things, I don't want to know what it's like when the lid is off. And that's exactly the point. My challenge to you is if this is keeping a lid on things, can you imagine what the world is going to look like when the Holy Spirit removes himself, when he allows the fullness of sin, destruction, lust, greed, anger, violence to erupt upon this world? Can you imagine what that will look like if this is what this looks like right now?
It's terrifying, isn't it? To think about what will ultimately become of the world. The work of the Holy Spirit through the church is a restraining force in the world today.
And we're going to talk about this. The primary way that the Holy Spirit restrains the forces of darkness and evil within this world is through the church. It is through us being salt and light. It is through us being indwelled and filled with the Holy Spirit, standing against evil, standing against what is wrong, standing against what is untrue.
We are a preservative nature within this world through the power of the Holy Spirit. Now as we look at the world today in 2020, just this year, it's crazy to think about what has happened. We see senseless violence and disregard for human life that is truly unprecedented and terrifying. Just this year in 2020, we saw the murder of George Floyd and so many others and the ensuing polarization and violence that broke out because of it. We saw a blast in Beirut, Lebanon that took many people's lives and displaced even many more. We hear of terrorism continuing in places like Israel.
We saw how fragile our own cities were when riots broke out within our streets. And on top of all of that, we have the legalized murder of 125,000 babies every single day. And some even want to extend that timeline all the way to the very moment of birth. Now these are not inanimate objects.
These are babies that cry, babies that move, babies that feel pain, babies that have souls and plans and purposes for their lives that have been given to them by their Creator. And that doesn't even begin to discuss the natural disasters we're seeing today. When we look around again at 2020, we have a pandemic that's running rampant through the world. We have wildfires and earthquakes. We have hurricanes. We literally have birds falling out of the sky. We have locust swarms.
I'm not reading the plagues of Exodus to you. This happened this year. In 2020, all of that happened this year. I have some good news and I have some bad news. First, the bad news. It's going to get worse. It's going to get worse. You know, I think it's good that we have hope. We talk a lot about hope and every one of us always looks at the next year. Next year's got to be better.
2021 has got to be better than 2020. You know, maybe, maybe it will. We have ebbs and flows. It might get a little bit better.
But understand this. Ultimately, it's just going to get worse. Ultimately, everything is just trending downwards, not upwards. Ultimately, things aren't going to get that much better. And when the Holy Spirit finally removes himself, things are really going to get bad.
Things are really going to start this downward spiral. As we read of life in this world in the book of Revelation, we know that the worst days are ahead with the emergence of the Antichrist and demonic powers running amok. It's bad news.
Now the good news. Jesus Christ will come back for his church. Jesus Christ will come back for you and for me. And not only that, he will remove us from this earth before the worst happens. Now, that should cause you and me to look at the state of the world today and say, man, this feels pretty bad. This feels like the worst that I've ever seen America.
This feels like the worst I've ever seen the world. That should cause us to say, if this isn't the worst, then I can't imagine anybody that I know having to live through the worst. That should cause us as Christians to want to preach the gospel with such a fervency and a desire so as to not have to have anybody, no matter how bad they are, live through the worst and then ultimately, after the worst, be punished and judged for their sin and spend an eternity in hell. That should cause us as Christians to rise up and preach the gospel, recognizing that the gospel is the only thing that can change the world, that the love and the blood of Christ is the only thing that can purify sins and make people righteous. It should cause us to rise up as the church, be filled with the Holy Spirit, be the salt and light in this world, and realize that we're not home, but we're headed there. The Holy Spirit is the one restraining the complete outbreak of the mystery of lawlessness.
He's holding the lid on this world's boiling keg of violence, and once he's removed and no longer restrains evil, the power of darkness will take over. I mentioned this before, but one of the ways the Holy Spirit does this is through you and me. Again, God has chosen to use us as his vessels to accomplish his will, so if the Holy Spirit's job on this earth is to keep things from boiling over in bitterness and anger and malice and discord, it means that one of the ways he has chosen to do that is through you and through me. Jesus has told us as his children to act as both salt and light within this world.
Salt in ancient times was a preservative. That is to say, God uses us to preserve what is righteous and true. He uses us to stand against what is unrighteous, to stand against sin, and he uses us as a preservative nature to stop the ultimate decay and spread of the disease of sin within this world. We are to be salt within this world. He uses us to stand up and preserve what is right and true, to stop the wholesale spread of evil within our culture. But he's also called us to be light, and to be light means that we are to let others know of our faith in Christ. Jesus said, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. We're to be salt and light, preserving, stand against the evil, stand against what is untrue, but also be light and love one another. The Bible says that we are to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and the second commandment is like it, and that is love your neighbor as yourself. Who's your neighbor?
Everyone. Your neighbor is the people in this room. Your neighbor is your physical neighbors at home. Your neighbor is the person on Fox News or CNN that you just can't stand hearing talk because it just grades you. Your neighbor is the president or the presidential candidate that you just can't imagine having to live under. Your neighbor is all of us, and the first and greatest commandment is to love God, and the second is to love your neighbor, to be salt and light. How are we doing at Loving Our Neighbor?
That's Nate Heitzig with a message from the series 2020. Now, here's Skip to tell you about how you can keep encouraging messages like this one coming your way as you help connect others to God's truths. Did you know that Christianity is all about redemption? God redeemed us. He bought us out of slavery.
He took us from our sins, and He sent Jesus to pay for those sins on the cross. Now, that's good news, and we want to share that with as many people as possible. And you can be a part of letting others know about this abounding love of God. Here's how you can give today to reach others with the gospel. You can give online at connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Or call 800-922-1888.
800-922-1888. Thank you. Tune in tomorrow as Skip's son Nate Heitzig shares some extra insight how the Holy Spirit works in your life. Once God has converted you, once the Holy Spirit has converted you, He has a mark and a seal upon your life that, again, as I said before, this is not your home, but you have an address pointing somewhere else. And that until that day comes, He is a seal that you do not belong here, but you belong there. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, a connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-05-10 01:51:37 / 2023-05-10 02:01:34 / 10