Refreshment for the Worried – Part 1

We have something that the Old Testament had no clue about. What we have is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We're glad you've joined us today for Living in the Light with Bible teacher Anne Graham Lotz and her message, Activate the Power. Do you find yourself overwhelmed, even afraid? Afraid that you can't do what God has called you to do?

Maybe you're in pretend mode, covering up the worry and fear that is just below the surface. Anne's message today from John chapter 16 is for you. There's a story of a man who after a major storm went into the hardware store and he told the clerk that this big tree had fallen down in his yard and he wanted a saw to cut it up. And so the clerk went in the back room and he brought out a big chainsaw and he put it on the counter and he said, this will take care of your tree.

He said, it will cut through that tree like a knife through soft butter. And the guy said, that's exactly what I want. And so he paid his money. He took it home. Three days later, the same guy came back into the hardware store and he was stubbly, beard, sweaty, dirty. He dragged that saw and he put it on the counter. And he said, I thought you said this was the best saw that you had. And the clerk said, well, it is. And he said, well, he said, I've been sawing for three days and I've just gotten through one little limb. He said, something's wrong. It doesn't work. And the clerk said, well, he said, that's strange.

It worked when I sold it to you. And so he reached over and he pulled the little black cord and the saw went vroom, vroom, and the man's eyes got big. And he said, what's that noise? He had been sawing for three days without ever activating the power. And I think that man is like some Christians I know, even like me sometimes, where we're just working so hard and we're trying so hard to be good and trying so hard to serve the Lord and trying so hard to bring people to Christ and trying so hard to be what Jesus wants us to be and just trying so hard.

And if we were honest, would we want to take our Christian life and put it back up on that celestial counter at the celestial hardware store and say, you know something? It doesn't work. I've been trying and I'm worn out. I'm exhausted.

I am so weary. And now I'm worried because I call myself a Christian and I've committed my life to you, but I just can't live the Christian life. And deep down, I'm scared to death.

And I wonder how many of you are worried that there's something really wrong with you. You know what we do at that point? We start pretending, don't we? We just wear a mask and we all pretend to be these little spiritual people and church people and we get busy in activities and you're worried on the inside that whatever that is, you can't attain. And you're tired of trying, so you just keep on pretending.

We're going to stop pretending. I want to turn to a passage that Jesus taught his disciples when they were in that upstairs room on the night Jesus was betrayed. And you remember Jesus had washed their feet and that included the feet of Judas. And then he dismissed Judas and then he taught them about heaven, my Father's house, and he taught them about persecution.

He taught them if they would abide in the vine like the branches are in the vine that they would bear much fruit. And then he taught them about the Holy Spirit because these disciples were beginning to get the idea that Jesus was leaving. So they were starting to grieve. They felt like orphans who were going to be bereft of their beloved parent.

And not only that, but it was beginning to be communicated to them that they were going to be responsible for his ministry in his absence, in his visible absence. And so I think they were overwhelmed. I think they were afraid. They were grieving because they knew he was leaving. And deep down I think they were very scared. They were worried, we can't do this.

And he's been with us three years. He has more faith in us than he really ought to have. And we're just scared we can't do this when he's not here with us every moment of every day.

And I think there was a deep, maybe it's more than worry, maybe it's a fear that was gripping them. Because it was just at that moment that he taught them about the Holy Spirit. John chapter 16, I'm going to read verses 5 through 16.

And this is what he taught them. Now I'm going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, where are you going? Because I've said these things, you're filled with grief.

So they were grieving. I tell you the truth. It's for your good that I'm going away. Unless I go away the counselor will not come to you.

But if I go I will send them to you. Now look at what he's saying. He's saying that it would be better for me to go away so that you can have the counselor. That to have the counselor available to live in you is better than having me with you.

That's an astonishing statement isn't it? Verse 8, when he comes. He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin, righteousness and judgment. In regard to sin because men don't believe in me. In regard to righteousness because I'm going to the Father where you can see me no longer. In regard to judgment because the prince of this world now stands condemned. I have much more to say to you.

More than you can now bear. But when he, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears. And he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.

All that belongs to the Father is mine. That's why I said the spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. In a little while you'll see me no more.

And then after a little while you will see me. Jesus teaches his disciples about the Holy Spirit. And I want to remind you of seven characteristics of the Holy Spirit. Alright and most of them are in this passage.

We might tuck outside for a couple of them. But the first one is so obvious that sometimes we completely overlook it. And it's this. That the Holy Spirit is a person. Eleven times in these few verses, actually I think it's less than these verses, like five verses. He's referred to by the personal pronoun he or him.

So just to lay it right out there. The Holy Spirit, listen to me. He is not an it. He is not a dove. He is not a flame of fire. He's not an ecstatic experience. He's not an emotion. He's not an icon. He's not a ghost.

The Holy Spirit is a living invisible person. He has a mind to think. He has emotions to feel.

He has a will to act and make decisions. We refer to him as the third person of the Trinity. And sometimes we think that means he's the least.

But it doesn't. It means that he's the third to be fully revealed in scripture. So in the Old Testament you have primarily God the Father who's revealed. In the Gospels you have primarily God the Son who is revealed. In the Acts and the Epistles it's primarily God the Holy Spirit who is revealed.

In fact the book of Acts is not the Acts of the early church of the disciples. It's the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the early church and the disciples. And so the Holy Spirit is a person. In scripture names were given to a person and the names revealed their character. For instance Jacob meant deceiver, manipulator and he was, wasn't he? Until he yielded his life to God and then God changed his name from Jacob to Israel.

A prince who has power with God because somebody who has power with God is somebody who is completely yielded to him. So his name changed and his character changed. And the New Testament example would be Peter. His name was Simon.

Wishy-washy, compulsive, impulsive. Then when God got hold of him and after Pentecost he was so filled with the Holy Spirit and he was transformed into the name Jesus gave him which is Peter, a rock. Someone that would be used to strengthen the faith of others. And our Lord Jesus himself. His very name means savior. He will save his people from their sins. And Emmanuel, God with us. So the names in scripture reveal the character of the person to whom they're given. So I just want us to look at just a few names of the Holy Spirit. But the one in the NIV in this passage is that he's our counselor.

And the dictionary's definition of that is that he gives advice and manages causes. So I thought if you're worried maybe it's something you're trying to figure out. Maybe it's something that you just don't understand. Maybe it's just an uneasy fear of the future. You're worried about your family. You're worried about your ministry.

Worried about what you're going to face when you get back. Worried about all sorts of decisions you've got to make and you would just love to have a counselor. Maybe somebody to help you with your marriage.

If you're in ministry perhaps you're afraid to go to somebody to tell them you have marriage problems, you need a counselor. That's who the Holy Spirit is. He's the counselor.

And you know something? Because he is the Holy Spirit he has all the wisdom of God. He never gives wrong advice. Never steers you in the wrong direction. He is the counselor.

Available to give you advice for whatever you're worried about. And not only is he the counselor but one of my favorite names for him is a very obscure name but it's in chapter 14 verse 16 when Jesus said I'm going to ask the Father and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever. And he uses the word another and the word means exactly the same as. So in other words Jesus is saying I'm a counselor here with you but I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit who is another counselor a counselor exactly the same as me. So the Holy Spirit is another Jesus. He is Jesus without the man's physical body. He's all that Jesus is in his personality, in his mind, his will, his emotions just without the skin that goes with it. He is the invisible Jesus. In fact I was sitting on my porch this afternoon and I looked at the other rocking chair and I thought you know I would just love to have Jesus come sit right there.

And I want to tell him some things and I want to ask him some things and I want to know that I have his full attention and I want to hear what he would say about tonight and tomorrow and some things I face next week and other things that we're planning and then it just washed all over me. He was sitting right there invisibly in the person of the Holy Spirit. In fact if I can skip down for a moment to verse 16 in chapter 16 when it says in a little while you'll see me and in a little while you won't. I think he was referring to after the crucifixion after the resurrection and remember Jesus suddenly appeared to the women at the tomb and then he disappeared. And then he suddenly appeared to the disciples on their mass road and he disappeared. And then he suddenly appeared to the disciples in the upstairs room and he disappeared. And he suddenly appeared to the disciples beside Galilee and all this coming and going. Suddenly they saw him then they didn't. Then they saw him then they didn't.

And you know what I think he was doing? He was teaching them about the Holy Spirit. That whether you can see me or not I'm with you. Jesus with us. The Holy Spirit is another Jesus. Just all that Jesus is without his man's physical body. And one of the more familiar names that he's given is that of the paraclete or the helper.

And I just tucked this one in because I love it. The dictionary defines it as someone who is available for regular use or emergencies. And the thing about emergencies we don't know when they're going to happen right? Because all of a sudden you've got a flat tire. All of a sudden you're in an accident. All of a sudden your child has some problem. All of a sudden your spouse walks out.

All of a sudden you lose your pension. You know crises, emergencies and that's where the Holy Spirit immediately is right there to help you. He's there with you. He's just so steady, so consistent, so available.

You need help. That's what he's there for. We could go on in his names but he's the helper. He's a strengthener. He's our advocate.

He's our counselor. He's Jesus in us. The invisible Jesus.

So when did he come? Jesus is telling them and he says I'm going to go back to the Father and I'm going to ask him to send down this Holy Spirit, this counselor. And so after Jesus died, rose up from the dead, ascended into heaven. Acts tells us that all the disciples and actually there were more than just the twelve.

There were about 120 of them. They were gathered in an upstairs room and they were praying. And you know one of the things they were praying for was that Jesus would keep his promise.

Don't forget. You promised you would send down the Holy Spirit. We can't do this without you. We're desperate. We're so worried about things facing us and can you imagine the transition between Old and New Covenant and Old and New Testament and they're getting ready to establish the church and Jesus please send the Holy Spirit.

We've got a lot of responsibility here. And then I'm assuming they moved on the day of Pentecost to the temple because of the scene. But they're there on the day of Pentecost praising God and celebrating the feast when suddenly there's the sound of rushing wind. And the leaves weren't scuttling across the courtyard and the trees weren't moving.

There was just the sound of like a tornado. And Peter looks at John and he's got a little flame of fire in his head and John looks at Matthew. He's got a little flame of fire and Matthew looks at James and suddenly they're filled with this overwhelming sense of the presence of Jesus and their hearts are filled to burst and they open their mouths in this symphony of praise and they knew the Holy Spirit had come. Jesus had asked his Father and had sent down the Holy Spirit to come live inside of him. Jesus had told them in chapter 14 you know the Holy Spirit because he's with you. Because the Holy Spirit was in Jesus. They were with Jesus or they were with the Holy Spirit. But he says the Holy Spirit's going to be in you.

And that's a dramatic difference. At Pentecost the disciples received the Holy Spirit in them. So let me try to explain it this way. In the Old Testament people were saved. You know so disciples before Jesus, they would be saved. All the Old Testament saints when they looked to the cross but the way they expressed their faith in the cross was through their obedience to do those Old Testament sacrifices and ceremonies and every time they sacrificed the lamb it was like God gave them an I owe you note, I owe you forgiveness, I owe you forgiveness to all the oceans of blood, rivers of blood you know, shed in the Old Testament.

But all of it couldn't take away sin. It was pointing to the cross when Jesus would come as the lamb of God who would die to take away their sin. And so they were saved in an Old Testament sense when they put their faith in God's word that pointed them to the cross, pointing them to Jesus. Today you and I are saved in the same way but we look back, thank goodness we don't have to go to a temple and slaughter some animal and have the blood everywhere.

But we put our faith in Jesus as the lamb of God and it's like we grasp him with our hands, we confess our sin, our guilt is transferred to him and he takes our guilt and our sin and we put our faith in him and we're forgiven, we're cleansed. But from Jesus forward on this side of the cross we have something that the Old Testament had no clue about. What we have is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit would come on somebody. So like when they were building the temple.

The Holy Spirit would come upon somebody and equip them supernaturally, just gift them to work with gold or bronze or sew the linens or whatever. And then when the job was finished the Holy Spirit was taken away. Best example is Saul of Kish. Do you remember the first king of Israel? And when Samuel anointed him he was given the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit came upon him to anoint him to lead the people and when Saul of Kish sinned against God the Holy Spirit was removed.

Do you remember? So King David was anointed and David was anointed by the Holy Spirit. He had the Holy Spirit come upon him to equip him and enable him to rule Israel.

And then do you remember when King David sinned against God when he committed adultery with Bathsheba? And in Psalm 51 he cries out, Don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Because he knew the Holy Spirit could come upon you and then God could just remove the Holy Spirit from you. So they understood the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament like that but this was something different. From Pentecost on the Holy Spirit comes to live in us never to leave us, never to forsake us.

So let me explain it a little bit this way. When the Virgin Mary was visited by Gabriel the angel and the angel said, You're going to conceive the life of the Son of God. You're going to have a baby. And Mary said, How in the world can that be? Because I've never known a man.

I've never had sexual intercourse. And the angel said, The Holy Spirit is going to come upon you and within you you're going to conceive the life of the Son of God. And Mary put her faith in his word and she said, Be it unto me according to your word. And she conceived within her the physical life of Jesus. And the same thing happens to you and me when we put our faith in Jesus and we confess our sin. We tell God we're sorry. We believe Jesus died on the cross for our sin and we claim him as our Savior and invite him to come in.

He comes into us and within us we conceive the spiritual life of Jesus. So I made that decision when I was a little girl. Seven, eight or nine. I wish I could remember the year. I remember it was Good Friday. I'd been watching a picture about Jesus on TV and at the end when he died on the cross I knew he had died for me and I told him I was sorry. I asked him to forgive me to come into my heart and I believe he did. And I was born again into his family. So within me from that moment on it's like two people live inside of me. I have the person I was born as and but then I have a new creation, new person within me. It's a life of Jesus within me.

A new mind to think God's thoughts and new emotions to love people I don't even like and new will to make the right decisions. And it's Jesus inside of me but it's the Holy Spirit who lives inside of me making me a new creation. So Jesus said to Nicodemus a great religious leader in Israel when he walked down the street fathers would poke their sons I want you to be like that man.

Nobody better than Nicodemus. Pharisee, ruler in Israel, teacher of the law absolutely splendid man and Jesus looked at him and he asked Jesus a few questions I want to know about heaven and some other things and Jesus said Nicodemus you're not even going to see heaven much less enter it unless you're born again. You must be born again. Because the Holy Spirit within us is God's seal of authenticity without him within you God doesn't recognize you as being his child and so you can go through the motions call yourself a Christian be involved in the church teach Sunday school you could be the pastor of your church and God looks at you and he doesn't see that seal of authenticity because the Holy Spirit's not within so let me ask you critical, critical, critical question when did you receive the Holy Spirit?

Please don't misunderstand me. If you ask Jesus to come into your heart and life he came in in the person of the Holy Spirit whether you named him that way or not. When I was a little girl and I asked Jesus to come into my heart I didn't know about the Holy Spirit I didn't understand that I just wanted Jesus to come live inside of me but you know something, Jesus is in a man's body he lives up in heaven he couldn't possibly come inside me when I ask him to come in he comes in in the person of his Holy Spirit so let me put it another way when have you asked Jesus to come into your heart? When have you deliberately with your adult conscious mind told them that you know you're a sinner and you're sorry and you ask for his forgiveness and you believe Jesus died on the cross as God sacrificed for your sin there's no other you put your faith in Jesus alone not Jesus plus your good works or Jesus plus your church stuff or Jesus plus any just Jesus you put your faith in Jesus and you ask him to forgive you cleanse you they come into your heart you surrender control to him when were you born again?

If you can't remember a point in time when you did that how do you know you did? Are you living your life in a very dangerous assumption because you're a member of a church and you've been that way since probably the day you were born I mean if you're from the south you know we're all raised in the church it's part of our culture and you can make the assumption that you're a Christian just because you're born in a garage doesn't mean you're a car you know you can be born and raised in the church that doesn't mean you're a Christian doesn't mean you've been born again so if you can never remember a point in time when you deliberately intentionally confessed your sin claimed Jesus as your savior opened up your heart invited him to come in surrendered your life to him then would you do that before you go to bed tonight? And you write down this date in your Bible maybe there's somebody here who's just not sure those of us who have received the Holy Spirit we know Jesus is living inside of us we know we know there's no doubts it's that blessed assurance Jesus is mine and I know there may be some things I struggle with but I don't struggle with that and so if you're struggling with it and if there's doubts then I suggest maybe even though you've invited Jesus into your life how many times? Every time you hear an invitation like this every time you hear it presented and you do it all over again then maybe you've never done it once by faith because faith says Jesus I confess my sin and your word says if I confess my sin then you'll be faithful and just to cleanse me and so I take you at your word thank you I've confessed my sin I believe I'm forgiven and faith says Jesus you said if I open up my heart's door and invite you to come in you would come in and I've done that so I believe you live inside of me and you just take him at his word and Jesus says if you ask him to give you eternal life he will so you ask him and then you say thank you I believe I have eternal life it has nothing to do with feelings and feelings may catch up and I pray God would give you a beautiful awareness of his presence and he can do that so listen just invite him in so don't go to bed tonight until you know for sure that Jesus and the person of the Holy Spirit lives in you he's come to indwell us ever since Pentecost there'll never be another Pentecost because that was a point in time just like Bethlehem was a point in history and the cross was a point in history the resurrection, the ascension Pentecost once and for all and ever since Pentecost anybody everybody who puts their faith in Jesus has the privilege of receiving him into their hearts the person of the Holy Spirit praise God he hasn't left us like orphans he's come to us come to live in us Now here's Ann with this final word Does the Holy Spirit live in you? Do you have the blessed assurance that he does? No? Then would you take a few moments right now to make sure don't let this broadcast end without inviting him to come from the outside to the inside of you pray with me now Dear God I now understand why the Christian life has been so hard such a struggle I have never activated the power so right now I confess to you that I'm a sinner the greatest sin of my life is that I've never done this before and I'm sorry I will turn away from my sin and my self-centeredness with your help I believe Jesus died as your sacrifice for my sin please forgive me and cleanse me with his blood and I believe he rose from the dead to give me eternal life I ask you to give me eternal life which is a right relationship with you now in heaven when I die and I open up my heart and I invite Jesus and the person of the Holy Spirit to come inside of me I surrender to his authority and will seek to live the rest of my life for him Amen Praise God you are no longer alone you are not a spiritual orphan anymore the Holy Spirit lives in you right now he will never leave or forsake you Welcome to God's Family You've been listening to Living in the Light and when you go to Ann Graham Lotz.org there are free resources to help you in your study of God's Word Ann's desire is that you embrace a God-filled life step by step, choice by choice Living in the Light