Good morning!  I’m excited to hear what our Ecuador medical mission team will be sharing with us but before we bring them up; I need to share so things with you about the Holy Spirit.

 

Jesus told the disciples that it was to their benefit that he was going away because he was going to send the Holy Spirit who would live within them, be personally present in each one of them, guide them, teach them, convict them, comfort them, help them remember what he had said, and fill them with power to testify to Jesus in the world. Things Jesus couldn’t do if he remained confined within a physical body.

 

The Holy Spirit is not a power; the Holy Spirit is a person, the 3^rd member of the Trinity, who came to dwell in an intimate relationship within the heart and mind of every believer. Jesus promised every believer, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8

The Holy Spirit is not the power - the Holy Spirit is the empower-er!  Got it? You can’t have a relationship with a power, but you can have a relationship with the one who empowers. Jesus promised that he and his Father would come and dwell within the believer. This intimate, personal presence of Jesus dwelling within the heart of a believer is the Holy Spirit.

 

You cannot be a Christian without the Holy Spirit. You can go to church without the Holy Spirit.  You might claim to be a Christian without the Holy Spirit. You might agree with the historical tenets of the Christian faith, but you will never be truly converted until the Holy Spirit takes up residence in your heart.

 

Jesus told Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it wills, you don’t know where it comes from or where it goes, so it is with everyone born of the Spirit of God.” 

 

So how does someone know if they are a Christian or not?  Through the work of the Holy Spirit!  A Christian understands they are a sinner and their sin has separated them from God. A Christian is willing to confess their sin and ask God to help them change. Only the Holy Spirit can convict us of sin, call us to repentance and give us hearts that are willing to be changed.

 

A Christian knows that there is nothing we can do to merit God’s favor. Our salvation is totally dependent upon God’s grace and mercy.  Only the Holy Spirit can help us understand that salvation comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone and not our own efforts.

 

A Christian chooses to answer Jesus call to leave their old life behind and come and follow him.  Only the Holy Spirit can bring about this surrender and desire in a person’s live.

 

If the Holy Spirit has brought you to the place where you can say, Jesus is not just a model of a holy life and a good teacher, Jesus is my Lord and Savior and I want to follow him, then you are a Christian.  If you aren’t there yet, come and talk to Pastor Ralph or I about this.

 

I’m glad you asked that question. This is really important to understand!  Remember on that first Easter evening, the terrified disciples were gathered in the upper room. Suddenly Jesus showed up in their midst. He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”   

 

It was a repeat, a re-creation of what happened when God breathed into Adam the breath of life and Adam became a living being. When the Lord breathes the Holy Spirit into us, we become new a new creation, a new person, we are born again.  

 

So what happened on Pentecost Sunday?  Remember, Jesus told the disciples during the 40 days between his resurrection and ascension, “Wait in Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Now it’s 9 am on Sunday morning. 120 believers are gathered together in the upper room, praying, waiting. Suddenly a sound like the sound of a mighty wind fills the room, and flames of fire come and rest on the heads of each of the believers, and they are filled with the Holy Spirit and literally thrown, like a sower casting his seeds, or a woman sprinkling her garden, out into the streets of Jerusalem to proclaim the mighty works of God in languages everyone can understand.

 

To understand part of what’s going on here, I want to look at two verses in Ephesians. “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the (Holy) Spirit.”  Eph 5:18

Debauchery means depravity, wickedness, dishonesty, corruption.  The verb tense refers to a continuing action. “Do not keep filling yourself with evil stuff that leads to corruption, instead be continually being filled with the Holy Spirit.” 

 

God created you to leak.  We’ve talked a lot about being blessed to be a blessing. God created us in such a way that what flows into us, is to also flows out of us.  In the same way we decide what to fill our mouths with, we decide what to fill our souls with.

 

If we fill our mouths with junk, our bodies will be unhealthy, polluted. If we fill our souls with junk, our spirits will be unhealthy, and we will pollute the lives of others around us.

 

When Paul admonishes us to be filled with the Holy Spirit, he isn’t referring to the person of the Holy Spirit, but the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through us. We were created to leak the Holy Spirit like a soaker hose or watering can leaks water on a flower bed.

 

There are two lessons here. First, unless we are continually refilled, we will soon have nothing to pour out. We will dry up. Why? Because we leak! We need to be continually filled up.

 

The power of the Holy Spirit within us may sustain our life at a minimal level, but we will do nothing to nourish the life of others. Second, the drier we become, the more likely it will be that we will attempt to fill our emptiness with the spiritual corrupt junk food of the world.

 

Which brings us to the second verse. “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Eph 4:30  The greatest joy of the Holy Spirit is to point to Jesus, the greatest joy of Jesus is to glorify the Father. The greatest joy of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is to invite us into fellowship with God and to involve us in the salvation of the world. 

 

We aren’t filled with the Holy Spirit for our own sake, we are filled with the Holy Spirit so that we can do what the Holy Spirit does, point to Jesus with our words, our talents, our deeds. To settle for less is to grieve the Spirit of God. You can’t grieve a power. You grieve a person who loves you, who wants the best for you. Who, if you are a Christian, dwells within you!

 

The Bible tells us we are to resist the devil, not the Holy Spirit.

 

Invite him to fill you with the Holy Spirit so that his power flows through you for the sake of the salvation of the world!  You were created to be a leaky vessel, leaking the power of the Holy Spirit, revealed in God’s love, grace, mercy, truth all over dry and thirsty world around you!  Let’s pray…