Holy Spirit Laboratory 2

Thursday Evening Bible Study

July 1, 2010

Introduction

Last week we focused on who the Holy Spirit is. He is a person, not a “thing”. In fact, He is God.

Illustration

An Act of Kindness

President Abraham Lincoln often visited hospitals to talk with wounded soldiers during the Civil War. Once, doctors pointed out a young soldier who was near death and Lincoln went over to his bedside. “Is there anything I can do for you?” asked the President. The soldier obviously didn’t recognize Lincoln, and with some effort he was able to whisper, “Would you please write a letter to my mother?” A pen and paper were provided and the President carefully began writing down what the young man was able to say: “My dearest mother, I was badly hurt while doing my duty. I’m afraid I’m not going to recover. Don’t grieve too much for me, please. Kiss Mary and John for me. May God bless you and father.” The soldier was too weak to continue, so Lincoln signed the letter for him and added, “Written for your son by Abraham Lincoln.” The young man asked to see the note and was astonished when he discovered who had written it. “Are you really the President?” he asked. “Yes I am,” Lincoln replied quietly. Then he asked if there was anything else he could do. “Would you please hold my hand?” the soldier asked. “It will help to see me through to the end.” In the hushed room, the tall gaunt President took the boy’s hand in his and spoke warm words of encouragement until death came.

A 3rd Serving of Chicken Soup for the Soul; Copyright 1996 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen

I think that in the same way we as Christians don’t often recognize the Holy Spirit.

We may have a correct understanding of God, in just how awesome, powerful, and amazing He is.

But sometimes when God works, it’s not in such flashy or amazing ways that we might expect.

What is the Holy Spirit like?

What does He do? It helps us recognize who He is when He starts working.

1. He glorifies Jesus

(Jn 15:26 NKJV) —26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.

His job is not to draw attention to Himself, His job is to be a witness about Jesus.

As we learn more and more about what the Holy Spirit wants to do in our lives, one of the traps we can fall into is to begin to think that we are going to become AWESOME, POWERFUL men and women.

That is so far from what the Holy Spirit wants to do in our lives, it’s not even funny.

God doesn’t want the attention drawn to you. He wants the attention drawn to Jesus.

A test of just how much you are allowing the Holy Spirit to work is to see “Who’s in the spotlight”.

How do we know when the Holy Spirit has been really at work during church?

Is it by the amount of teary eyes we see?

Is it when everybody starts swaying to the music, or lifting their hands during worship?

Some of these things may indeed be a work of the Holy Spirit, but one of the main tests of whether the Holy Spirit has been allowed to do His job, is whether or not people are talking about JESUS! Are you more in love with Jesus?

2. He helps us

(Jn 14:16–17 NKJV) —16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom 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.

another – allos – another of the same kind

Helper – parakletos – summoned, called to one’s side, one who pleads another’s cause; a helper, aide, assistant

Not the “parakeet”, but the “paraklete” or “parakletos”

Jesus is telling the disciples that He has been their Helper

Jesus has been that source of help and comfort to the disciples.

He has been the one there to pray for them.

(Jn 17:21 NLT) I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

He has been the one that was there to help them.

When they were about to sink in the storm, they woke Jesus up and He calmed the wind and the waves (Mark 4:37-41)

He’s the one who’s been there to answer all their questions.

(Jn 9:2 NKJV) —2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

(Mk 9:28 NKJV) —28 And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?”

Wouldn’t it have been incredible to have lived with Jesus for three years? Always be there to help you? Ask Him any question?

The Holy Spirit would be taking the place of Jesus in their lives.

Even though Jesus wouldn’t physically be there, the Holy Spirit WOULD be.

The Holy Spirit IS present in our lives. Almost like that story of Abraham Lincoln and the wounded soldier.

You are not alone.

3. He guides us

The Holy Spirit will teach us. He will give us fresh understanding of the Scriptures.

(Jn 14:26 NKJV) But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

It is so important that as men and women who want to be used by God, that we learn to immerse ourselves in God’s Word.

Teaching: He will give us fresh understanding into the Scriptures.

I am always amazed at the things the Holy Spirit will bring out of the Scriptures. It’s not uncommon for me to start preparing a message on a certain passage, wondering what in the world the passage even means. But after studying and studying, I am amazed at the things I learn. Sometimes I learn stuff through other teachers, like when I’m reading commentaries on the various passages. Sometimes I “relearn” stuff from my own notes, from times in the past that I’ve taught the passage. But sometimes the lessons come simply from reading the passage five or six times, and God speaks.

For example: Last Sunday, it was a blessing to me to see the connection between Jesus’ miracles and our faith. Jesus said,

(Jn 10:37–38 NKJV) —37 If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”

Jesus was challenging the skeptics to take a look at His works with the hope that they might start trusting Him when they look at what He’s doing.

I think it’s a pretty good challenge for us as well. Just looking at what kinds of things Jesus did is a huge boost to my faith.

Play “Miracles of Jesus” clip.

Remembrance: Sometimes it’s not a fresh understanding of Scripture that we need, it’s to remember something we’ve learned a long time ago.

This morning I was blessed by these verses:

(Ps 127:1–2 NKJV) —1 Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain. 2 It is vain for you to rise up early, To sit up late, To eat the bread of sorrows; For so He gives His beloved sleep.

I’ve been a bit stretched lately in my time. I complain a bit too much about doing too much.

It was good to remember that if God isn’t helping me with my work, I’m just spinning my wheels. And it’s okay to take a break every once in awhile and let God worry about things.

A note about remembering: You can’t remember what you haven’t ever learned. Get into the Word. Study the Word. Hide it in your heart.

The Spirit wants to guide us.

(Jn 16:13 NKJV) However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

The Holy Spirit is marked by truth, gives truth, and defends truth. (A.T. Robertson)

If we are going to get close to the Holy Spirit, we’re going to also be having a close encounter with the truth. There’s no need for telling stories. Don’t be afraid of the truth. Live in reality.

tell you – anaggello - to announce, make known; literally, “to be a messenger from God right in your midst”. NAS – “He will disclose to you what is to come”

How does this happen?

Future whispers

I think that sometimes God will whisper in your ears about something that’s coming in the future.

Illustration

“Early Edition” – an old TV show (circa 2000) about an ordinary guy who lives in Chicago and who gets this special newspaper every delivered by a mysterious cat. The paper is an “Early Edition”, it is actually the paper for the following day, it talks about things that are going to happen that day. The hero of the show, Gary, helps people out by just coincidentally being in the right place at the right time. Play clip.

We may not get anything as fancy and as concrete as a newspaper telling us what is going to happen the day ahead of us.

But when we learn to yield to the Holy Spirit on a regular basis, we are going to find ourselves in places by “accident” or by “coincidence”.

It might not seem like a “divine appointment” at first, in fact it might actually seem like some kind of interruption to your schedule. Stay open to what God might want to do in you.

Personal Example:

My wife and I met at church, and when we first started dating, I was kind of a mean guy, breaking up with her twice.

After the first time I broke up with her, and she was depressed and upset, she felt that the Lord was speaking to her that she would marry me one day, and that she would be a pastor’s wife. She wrote it down on a piece of paper, and tucked it away in her Bible.

It wasn’t until a year after we were married, that she thought about the paper, and showed it to me.

If she had told me this before we were married, I might have been scared off.

But the fact that it came true, without using it to twist my arm, showed me that it was from the Lord.

And to think, we almost didn’t get married, several times!

Coincidences and interruptions

Daniel’s car breaking down

A few months ago, my son’s car broke down while he was at school. The ignition switch broke and his car couldn’t be started. He was parked on the top level of a parking structure at school. It was a Tuesday, and it was something that fell on my plate to take care of. I was pretty frustrated. I was moping and complaining about how little time I have and then to have to stick something like this in my day, I was having a major pity party.

I found his car in the parking structure and one of the security guys tried to help me, but we couldn’t get it started. We ended up calling Auto Club and they decided we needed a locksmith, not a tow truck (the car couldn’t be towed from the parking structure in its condition). As I’m waiting for Auto Club to show up, a friend of my brother-in-law walks up, and he’s parked right next to my car. We end up having a great talk, and I have a chance to encourage him to go back to church. I’m feeling pretty excited about what seems to have been a “divine appointment”. And then the locksmith shows up, and he’s a Christian, a drummer who plays on Calvary LaHabra’s worship team. My son the drummer gets out of class, and we have a great time talking and fellowshipping. All because of one of those horrible interruptions.

The pool pump breaking down

Last week I was talking with a friend who said that he was concerned about a family who hadn’t been in church for awhile. We prayed for that friend. I got to thinking about the last time I had seen the fellow, it was when I hired him to do some work on our pool at home. About three days ago, our pool pump began to start making some horrible noises. I fiddled around with it a bit, but couldn’t fix it. I thought about it and began to wonder if it wasn’t another of those divine appointment/interruptions. I called our friend. His wife answers the phone and tells me that they were just talking about me the night before. The friend shows up to look at the pool pump, and we ended up having a great time talking and sharing. It was totally a “God-thing”. I’ll get to help another brother out with some extra work, our pump is going to get fixed, but even better, I got to be part of an answer to a particular situation that this much beloved family had been struggling with.

How can I grow in this?

Availability

How “available” are you to God using you? Are you willing to be interrupted? I don’t mean “distracted” – there is nothing particularly spiritual about “ADD”. But when you have a clear, important interruption, are you willing to consider that God might be behind it? He isn’t always.

Another word for “availability” is “yielding”.

If God wants to do something, will I “yield” to Him.

Another word in the Bible that speaks of this is “the fear of the Lord”

We read this morning:

(Ps 128:1 NKJV) Blessed is every one who fears the Lord, Who walks in His ways.

We often think of this as being “afraid” or “cowering in fear”.

I think it’s more the idea of having such an “awe” and “respect” for Him, that I am willing to do whatever He says.

God spoke to young Samuel because he learned to say these words:

(1 Sa 3:10 NKJV) Now the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel answered, “Speak, for Your servant hears.”

Introduction

Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision

Last week we focused on who the Holy Spirit is. He is a person, not a “thing”. In fact, He is God.

Illustration

An Act of Kindness

A 3rd Serving of Chicken Soup for the Soul; Copyright 1996 by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen

I think that in the same way we as Christians don’t often recognize the Holy Spirit.

We may have a correct understanding of God, in just how awesome, powerful, and amazing He is.

But sometimes when God works, it’s not in such flashy or amazing ways that we might expect.

What is the Holy Spirit like?

What does He do? It helps us recognize who He is when He starts working.

1. He glorifies Jesus

(Jn 15:26 NKJV) —26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.

His job is not to draw attention to Himself, His job is to be a witness about Jesus.

As we learn more and more about what the Holy Spirit wants to do in our lives, one of the traps we can fall into is to begin to think that we are going to become AWESOME, POWERFUL men and women.

That is so far from what the Holy Spirit wants to do in our lives, it’s not even funny.

God doesn’t want the attention drawn to you. He wants the attention drawn to Jesus.

A test of just how much you are allowing the Holy Spirit to work is to see “Who’s in the spotlight”.

How do we know when the Holy Spirit has been really at work during church?

Is it by the amount of teary eyes we see?

Is it when everybody starts swaying to the music, or lifting their hands during worship?

Some of these things may indeed be a work of the Holy Spirit, but one of the main tests of whether the Holy Spirit has been allowed to do His job, is whether or not people are talking about JESUS! Are you more in love with Jesus?

2. He helps us

(Jn 14:16–17 NKJV) —16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom 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.

another – allos – another of the same kind

Helper – parakletos – summoned, called to one’s side, one who pleads another’s cause; a helper, aide, assistant

Not the “parakeet”, but the “paraklete” or “parakletos”

Jesus is telling the disciples that He has been their Helper

Jesus has been that source of help and comfort to the disciples.

He has been the one there to pray for them.

He has been the one that was there to help them.

He’s the one who’s been there to answer all their questions.

Wouldn’t it have been incredible to have lived with Jesus for three years? Always be there to help you? Ask Him any question?

The Holy Spirit would be taking the place of Jesus in their lives.

Even though Jesus wouldn’t physically be there, the Holy Spirit WOULD be.

The Holy Spirit IS present in our lives. Almost like that story of Abraham Lincoln and the wounded soldier.

You are not alone.

3. He guides us

The Holy Spirit will teach us. He will give us fresh understanding of the Scriptures.

(Jn 14:26 NKJV) But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

It is so important that as men and women who want to be used by God, that we learn to immerse ourselves in God’s Word.

Teaching: He will give us fresh understanding into the Scriptures.

For example: Last Sunday, it was a blessing to me to see the connection between Jesus’ miracles and our faith. Jesus said,

(Jn 10:37–38 NKJV) —37 If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.”

Remembrance: Sometimes it’s not a fresh understanding of Scripture that we need, it’s to remember something we’ve learned a long time ago.

This morning I was blessed by these verses:

(Ps 127:1–2 NKJV) —1 Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain. 2 It is vain for you to rise up early, To sit up late, To eat the bread of sorrows; For so He gives His beloved sleep.

A note about remembering: You can’t remember what you haven’t ever learned. Get into the Word. Study the Word. Hide it in your heart.

The Spirit wants to guide us.

(Jn 16:13 NKJV) However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

The Holy Spirit is marked by truth, gives truth, and defends truth. (A.T. Robertson)

If we are going to get close to the Holy Spirit, we’re going to also be having a close encounter with the truth. There’s no need for telling stories. Don’t be afraid of the truth. Live in reality.

tell you – anaggello - to announce, make known; literally, “to be a messenger from God right in your midst”. NAS – “He will disclose to you what is to come”

How does this happen?

Future whispers

I think that sometimes God will whisper in your ears about something that’s coming in the future.

Illustration

Personal Example:

Coincidences and interruptions

Daniel’s car breaking down

The pool pump breaking down

How can I grow in this?

Availability

Another word for “availability” is “yielding”.

If God wants to do something, will I “yield” to Him.

Another word in the Bible that speaks of this is “the fear of the Lord”

We read this morning:

We often think of this as being “afraid” or “cowering in fear”.

Lab

Waiting on the Lord

Praying for others without sharing first