Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. The founder and perfecter of our faith. The work of the Holy Spirit. It's been a source of controversy in the church for a long time. Today we begin a life-changing series that tells what happens when the Spirit has his way.
And wonderful things do happen when he has his way. Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, at the dawn of this series about the Spirit, give us a big picture overview of where we're headed.
Well, Dave, first of all, let me say I'm so excited about this series of messages. I hope that everyone who is listening will call their friends, invite them to listen, and I'll tell you why. Because as you mentioned in your intro, Dave, We're living at a time when still we have a great deal of conflict and controversy regarding the work of the Spirit. And what we intend to do in this series is to break things down in such a way that people will understand the blessing of the Holy Spirit, the personality of the Holy Spirit, and the comfort of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is to do in us what Jesus was to the disciples.
This is so exciting. And I hope that at the end of this message you stay tuned because I have some very exciting information. that you might be interested in, for now, let us listen. Yeah. Mm.
Well, what would happen if the Holy Spirit had his way among us? What would happen if the Holy Spirit were definitely alive here at the Moody Church? We know that he is alive because we do experience transformations, but what if we experienced many more? I can imagine that what would happen is couples with irreconcilable differences who are headed for divorce. would be reconciled.
and would be reconciled permanently if the Spirit had his way. Yes, there'd be confession of sin, there would be issues that need to be dealt with, but no issue is insurmountable if the Spirit. had his way. What would happen to us personally among the Moody Church if those with long-standing addictions were delivered? Unconquered sin would be triumphed over, if I can put it that way.
so that people can walk free in the joy of the Lord. I don't expect that it would happen in just one swoosh. Yes, there are struggles because the Bible says that the flesh and the spirit are at war, and too often we give in to the flesh. But there is spiritual power available for the most bound sinner. bound by his own chains.
There is help, and there is hope for deliverance, forgiveness. And restoration when the Spirit has his way. What would happen in the Moody Church corporately if the Spirit were to have his way? Wouldn't it be wonderful that we'd never have to ask for volunteers? Because each Sunday there'd be those lining up asking to be volunteers.
Because they would be so anxious to be able to help, so thrilled to have some small part in the kingdom. That they'd be willing to even extend themselves and sacrifice, if you please, sacrifice their time.
some of the things that they give their time to would no longer be that important. Even sports would take second place to God and to His Word and to His people. As it was even in the book of Acts when the church spontaneously gave itself. to the spirit. and to one another.
Could you imagine a time here at the Moody Church when we have to move prayer meeting into a larger room on Wednesday evening? Because there'd be so many answers to prayer. People would see God's hand in their finances. They'd see sons and daughters that were prodigals restored back to God. And there'd be so many answers to prayer that people would be excited to go to prayer meeting.
And we'd have to have it in a larger room all the time because people would actually believe that God answers prayer. And if you believe that God answers prayer, I tell you, you will pray. and you'll want to pray together. Imagine that. Imagine what would happen if all of the work of the Spirit were to spill over in our community and into our city.
And people would see these strange people. Who love one another, who are sometimes very hard to love, by the way, and yet they love one another, and they love others, and they care about other people. And while they live holy lives that repel many people in the world, at the same time, there's a quality of love and acceptance that draws them. That's what happened in the early church. The holiness of the church repelled people.
People said, we don't want to have anything to do with these people that have such high standards and believe that God's morality is really important. We don't want to have anything to do with them. And yet they were drawn to their love. and to their acceptance. Can you imagine that?
And then we can only visualize what would happen if the Spirit had his way and the Holy Spirit began to work mightily in this nation, in the churches of this nation, and then among our politicians and the whole nation would recognize its need for God and its need for the word of God and our national sins. Would suddenly become important and be addressed. Imagine if the Spirit had his way. Teaching on the Holy Spirit of God is oftentimes Risky, some people believe, because we have in our minds all the extremes. If you watch any television, you know there are those who supposedly touch others and they fall under the power of the Spirit.
And you've had some very bizarre things happening throughout the ages, especially in the last 30 or 40 years. And so people say: if that's the power of the Spirit, I don't want it. And the fact is that the Holy Spirit of God has been given to the church, and there is a wing of evangelicalism that avoids the Spirit. because of these extremes that are doing things that are unbiblical. But what we're going to do in this series of messages, of course, is to concentrate on those issues that the Holy Spirit of God has revealed in His Word that He'd like to do among us.
And he is available. What makes us think that the Spirit of God Who's done some wondrous things in the past can't do wondrous things now? Of course, he can. because he is the same, just like Jesus yesterday, today, and forever. Today's message introduces us to the Holy Spirit of God.
I'm going to be using many different passages. We won't look them all up. I will ask you near the end of the message to turn to one passage only because I want us to be able to grasp the full scriptural teaching of the Holy Spirit. First of all, the Holy Spirit is a person. He's a person I was shocked to discover.
That according to one opinion poll, even evangelicals thought of him only as being some kind of an influence. They thought he was something impersonal, something like electricity, some influence that he has. No, no, no. He's a person just as much as you are a person. The Holy Spirit has all the attributes of personality.
For example, he has intellect. You know, the Bible says that the Spirit of God knows the things of God. The Spirit of God has emotions. One whole message in this series will be devoted to the fact that we can grieve the spirit. There are those who blaspheme the Spirit.
We can insult the Spirit, the New Testament says, because he's a person and he has feelings. He is not only has feelings and has an intellect, But also the blessed Holy Spirit of God has a will. One of the messages later is going to be on how spiritual gifts are distributed, the Bible says, by the Spirit as He wills. You have the gifts that you have today because the Spirit of God willed it. He is a person.
Whatever you do, don't miss the second message in this series. Because I'm going to speak about the companionship of the Spirit. I want you to develop a friendship with the Spirit. I want you to recognize that He is in you and He is beside you as a helper. And I want you to develop this relationship with this friend that Jesus said is given to those who believe in His name.
I want you to come to know the Spirit, to enjoy the Spirit of God, this person. whom God has given to us. He is, of course, also God. Need I even mention that? If you look at the Bible, he has all the attributes of deity, omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence.
All of those attributes belong to the Spirit. Why? Because the Spirit is God. One of the best verses, and we must hurry on here, is the Great Commission. The Great Commission says, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the name singular.
Not the names. But the name singular of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Because the Spirit is a part of what we call the Trinity. There's only one God, to be sure, but one God in three persons. Blessed Trinity.
So the Holy Spirit is God. You have God inside of you. The scripture makes that very clear. If you're a believer in Jesus, God resides within you and with you. Are you aware of that?
Or are all of the pressures of life so overwhelming that you've forgotten that God is in you. and with you. That's why the subtitle of these messages is Uh recapturing the wonder of God. within us.
Now, when you look at the Spirit, you also notice that He is the Holy Spirit. I've named this message This message is called A naming the Spirit, and if there would be a name that we would give the Spirit, it would be the name Holy. And holy isn't merely, you know, separate. Of course, he's separate because he's distinct as God is. But rather, it has that moral quality of purity, of holiness.
Complete absence of darkness, the Bible says regarding God, there is no darkness in him at all.
Now I have to warn you. Because this will separate some of you. I have to warn you that as you get to know the Spirit, One of the things that the Holy Spirit of God will work on in your life as He does in mine. is the matter of purity and holiness. You can't experience the companionship of the Spirit unless you deal with issues in your life.
Some of you have a conscience that troubles you because of things in your past. And God may have forgiven you if you have received Christ as Savior and maybe you've dealt with it, but maybe somebody needs to know about it. There have to be all kinds of things. What the Holy Spirit of God will do, and I'll just lay this out for you: He'll go into every closet of our life and He'll open those closets. And you see, unless there is some willingness of deep repentance and facing of issues.
The spirit will be stifled. But the result of deep repentance, I can promise you, will be such joy that you won't be able to contain it. I remember during a time of great revival in Canada when the Holy Spirit was working mightily. One woman said, I was so filled with joy, I said, Oh God, turn off the joy so that I can get some sleep. How long has it been since you've asked God to turn off the joy so that you could get some sleep?
That's the result of the Spirit. One of the messages is going to be on the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy. Because that's what happens, you see, but it can't happen with all of these. issues. And all of these sins that we have so confidently tucked.
In the secret part of our lives that we aren't willing to expose to God.
So the Holy Spirit is holy. He is going to birth holiness in us. He's going to move us toward holiness. And our lives are going to be changed because we'll be on a different trajectory.
Now, when you look at the Bible, the Holy Spirit of God has different figures of speech. He has different figures of speech in the scripture. For example, And I can see that we must hurry here. Oil, oil. It talks about the anointing of the Spirit.
Old Testament, the priests were anointed for ministry. And that represents The anointing that all of us now have. I just looked up the verse this morning. And it's in 1 John where it says, you also have an anointing. Imagine that.
You've married a Christian, good for you. He or she has an anointing from God. Because you've received the gift of the Spirit.
So there is an anointing. But there's another reason, I think, why oil represents the Spirit, and that is that in the tabernacle there was this oil lamp, and it was lighted, and it gave light. in worship. And the Holy Spirit of God always gives light and shines a spotlight on Jesus. Wherever the Holy Spirit of God is, Jesus is going to be exalted because the Spirit does not speak of Himself.
But he keeps pointing us to Jesus and gives us the light. To do so. Another figure of speech is water. cleansing. Old Testament references, I will pour clean water on you, and you shall be cleansed from your iniquity.
It's a figure of speech, but you do get the point. I remember a young woman involved in immorality told me, she says, as I look into my life and in my heart, it's like a sewer. You know, when you have Rain and the sewer backs up, you know how awful that can be. And then, after the rain subsides and the water goes down, what do you do? You take a hose, right?
And you go out into the street and you hose it down and you cleanse it. That's what the Spirit of God does. He is like water to cleanse the heart. You know, it's one blessed thing to be forgiven, but I know Christians who are forgiven, but they're not cleansed.
So they are hounded by their conscience, even over sins that they've confessed, because they don't understand the cleansing. of the Spirit. And then there are two other figures of speech, and for this I am going to invite you to take your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. where you have the birth of the church.
And I'm going to read and then I'm going to comment on. the two other figures of speech. That are used here in the famous chapter of Acts chapter two. Famous because. It's the beginning of the church, and it's the descent of the Holy Spirit.
You'll notice chapter 2, verse 1: when the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. Just that far. Notice the two figures of speech that are here.
The first is, of course, the figure of speech of wind.
Now it doesn't say that a wind blew. In the upper room here. A wind didn't blow, but it was a sound like wind. It doesn't say that there was fire, it says tongues. And you know that when you have a flame, it's sort of forked.
Uh these uh these uh forked Flames, as it were, rested upon each person. Symbolically speaking, because there wasn't fire, it looked like fire. But nonetheless, in the scriptures, these are two other figures of speech that are used for the Holy Spirit. The first is wind. Yesterday, I was trying to put some potted plants at the back of our house, and it wasn't supposed to be windy there, and yet gusts came and blew them over.
And I wondered about that. I thought to myself, why is wind gusty? Why doesn't it just go at the same speed all the time? You know, Jesus said the wind blows wherever it wishes and you see it, but you don't know exactly where it's coming from or where it's going. Maybe the meteorologist Tom Skilling does, but you and I don't know too much about it.
And it goes kind of wherever it wants. And I look at this and I say, you know, this means that there's a great deal of mystery connected with God and the Holy Spirit. And there really is. I don't understand why God saves some people and the minute they're saved, they get rid of drugs and all the other things and never touch them again, and others are saved and struggle with it. I don't know why it is that some people who seem to live rather self-centered lives, they pray to God and they get a rather miraculous answer, and then there are others who pray the same prayer and nothing happens.
I don't know. There's a great deal of mystery connected with the Holy Spirit. And we should embrace that mystery and not pretend that we know everything about the Spirit. This series of messages is not intended to teach you everything about the Spirit. It's intended to get you acquainted with the Spirit, to get you excited by the Spirit.
and to walk in the Spirit. As the Bible says, we're supposed to be doing. And so that's the intention. But wind also has a tremendous amount of power, doesn't it? I mean, you think of it being unpredictable, it is powerful.
Boy, if you get a wind, a storm, we know what hurricanes can do. and the like. But there's another figure of speech, and that is fire. Fire frequently represents the Holy Spirit in Scripture. And the reason for that is fire sometimes has various meanings.
Sometimes it represents the very presence of God. And people are brought into the presence of God. In fact, it says in the book of Hebrews, now speaking of fire as a judgment. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, for our God is a consuming fire. fire.
Wow. I say to those of you who are listening to this message: it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God unprepared because God is a consuming fire. I personally. would want to make sure that I'm shielded from that fire. And the only shield is Jesus Christ and his work on our behalf.
But now we see that fire represents the presence of God.
Sometimes it represents The approval of God. In the case, for example, of Elijah on Mount Carmel, it was the fire that represented God's approval. Mostly, though, in the scripture, Fire often represents the purifying effect of God. We all know what happens when there is wind and fire together, don't we? We think of what happened in Colorado when you have so many homes that were destroyed, and you can go through those areas.
And all that you'll find is a chimney and a basement and a few other things that survived the fire. That's a good way to look at a purifying fire. If the Holy Spirit of God had his way here at Moody Church, what he would do, symbolically speaking, Is go through the congregation, my life, everybody's life, and he would want to consume everything that isn't holy. He'd want to consume and to burn out all of our sins and our rationalizations that we bring to ourselves and we tell ourselves, and all of the things. And what he would do is to purify, to purify, to purify.
The Spirit always purifies, and a symbol of that purification. is fire.
Okay.
Well, my friend, this is Pastor Lutzer. I'm so excited about this series of messages. As I mentioned at the top of this broadcast, I hope that you call your friends, invite them to listen. Don't miss a single episode. The Holy Spirit of God is a person.
Who wants to not only indwell us, and he does indwell believers, but he also wants to help us. and we must understand him and depend upon his grace. But I have some very exciting news. Perhaps you have heard me already say that running to win is in fifty different countries in seven different languages. How can we do that?
It's because of our partners.
Some very generous partners have said that they are willing to double any gift given during the month of August. up to ninety thousand dollars. Think about that for a moment. Your gift of twenty-five dollars becomes fifty, a hundred dollars becomes two hundred.
Well, you can do the math. What a marvelous opportunity for you to become involved in this ministry because I have to tell you this, if you are blessed as a result of the ministry of running to win, it's because of other people just like you. Who have invested in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ? Would you pray about helping us? Would you like to become a partner or what I like to call a member of the running-to-win family?
I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy, because this is how you can communicate with us, this is how you can give. Go to rtwoffer dot com, That's rtwoffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Once again, go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. The gift that you give will be doubled. You can write to us at Running2Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614.
We learn about the Holy Spirit by seeing His work in terms of word pictures, oil, water, and wind. Each picture increases our understanding.
Next time, we'll learn about another word picture that speaks of the power and purity of the Spirit. Running to win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.
I'm going to use a bottle of the same method.
