The Need For The Holy Spirit

Good morning, let's pray. Father in heaven, we come in Jesus' name, grateful for the many blessings you've bestowed upon us. We pray that you'd open our understanding, you'd open up our hearts to receive with meekness the word of God that it would be implanted within us, and that it would produce and would bear good fruit, in Jesus' name, amen. You know, there's a lot of people out there in search of answers, who don't understand why certain things are happening, who don't understand why God allows certain things in our life, or what he's doing, but one thing we know is that if we're believers, if we're Christians, if we've given our life wholeheartedly to Jesus, he is working all things together for our good, because we love God. And so we can trust him in the process, even though it looks like chaos is going on around us, and we don't understand his discipline or his dealings, right? But it's the kindness of the Lord that would lead us to repentance. And so sometimes he doesn't do it willingly, but he'll afflict us, he'll allow affliction to come to get our attention, so that we can sober up, spiritually speaking, because we've gone astray. He said, all my people have like sheep have gone astray, and he's our good shepherd, gathering us back to himself. So it's important for us not to despise the chastening of the Lord or his discipline, because whom the Lord loves, he disciplines. And so what we understand from even the psalmist David, the man that Sean shared about, who went against the Goliath, he said, it was good that I was afflicted. Can you say that it's good when you've gone through hard things? That it's turned your heart back to the Lord? Because before I was afflicted, I went astray. I was doing my own thing. But now, I keep your word. There's only one thing that's going to save us. It's obedience to the word of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. We can claim all kinds of promises while we're living like devils. That's not going to save you. You say, well, Jesus saved me from hell. He saved me to go to heaven. Jesus didn't save anybody from hell. Hell was not created for you. It says hell was created for the devil and for his angels, not for you, not for us. And when it says that his name shall be called Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, for he shall save his people from their sins. He's not going to save us in our sins. He's going to save us from our sins. And so I ask this question, what has Jesus saved you from? Has he saved you from lying? Has he saved you from cheating on your time card? Has he saved you from swearing? Has he saved you from bitterness or anger, unforgiveness? Has he saved you from sexual lust? What has Jesus actually saved you from? And this is an answer that we have to be able to answer because Jesus said he shall be called Jesus. That's his name. For he shall save his people from their sins. So when one repents, we say, Lord, I'm a sinner. Here I am. He accepts us as we are. He accepts us as we are. Wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked, I come. But then through the grace of God, what is the grace of God? The best way I can describe it is it teaches us from Titus 2.11 to say no to ungodly living and worldly lusts. That's what grace teaches us, how to say no to ungodly living and worldly lusts. We sang this song. And it also teaches us how to live good and pleasing to the one that we love. In a nutshell, you know what grace is? That a holy God can come in the form of the Father and the Son and indwell us uncleans who are fallen from sin because in Adam all died. But through Jesus Christ, all shall be made alive and he can come. This is the ultimate grace that the Holy Spirit can come and dwell inside of us through faith. That now I don't have to be some kind of a superhuman that is doing everything on my own strength. I now have a resource. You know, I have an excavator. We have some machines. And those machines, if they're not running properly, you're not going to get any work done. As soon as you put a load on them, they die out. If you don't have any diesel fuel, you're going nowhere. Everybody can show up to do the work and say, well, you know, the machines are frozen up. There's diesel's frozen up. We didn't put the gel in. Hand everybody a shovel. We're going to dig a ditch today. You put 10 men in a hole, let them dig, they get maybe five feet down. They work harder than they've worked all week. But what have they accomplished? Very, very, very little. That's how life is under the law without the power of the Holy Spirit. You can try hard, all white knuckle it and put your best shoulder into it. And at the end of the day, you still find yourself sitting exhausted, disillusioned. But then when the Holy Spirit takes over your life, he makes light work. It's still work. But he makes light work of a burden that is impossible with man. But not with God. That's the grace of God. We take grace and say, well, praise God for grace. I sinned all week. That's not grace. Grace is not a license to sin. It is the power of God to live free from sin. It teaches us how we ought to live because he teaches us how we ought to live. The ultimate grace is the Holy Spirit indwelling a man, indwelling a woman. That God could now once again come and live and have his abode, his home in us. This is the mystery of the gospel. It's Christ in you. The hope of glory. What glory? That I can preach up here and somebody can see me and say, that's a man of God. That's not the glory. The hope of glory is that I can have victory over sin with my right hand. That I can have victory over sin with these two eyes. That I can get victory over sin with these two feet and with this tongue. If a man can tame his tongue, he is a perfect man, blameless, it says in James. No man can tame the tongue, but the Holy Spirit can tame the tongue. When we're yielded to the spirit of God, you say, well, how do I become yielded? There's only one thing you can give to God. He doesn't want all the money that's in your pockets. He's not looking for your wallet. He's not looking for you to climb Mount Everest and do some great thing for him. He might just be asking you to go and dip in the Jordan River and go in seven times and wash that the leprosy might be cleansed from you. So foolish, Naaman said. This, I never, he got angry. Naaman wanted cleansing from leprosy, but what about Naaman's anger? He didn't have light on getting cleansed from anger, but he wanted cleansing from leprosy. And it took a bunch of his people to calm him down and say, listen, don't get angry. If my Lord would have calmed the prophet, Elijah, and said, listen, why don't you do something really extreme and then you will be healed from leprosy. Wouldn't you have done it if he asked you to climb some great mountain and done something that you could do because you were trained and fit for war? Wow. Yes, I would have. But he says, how much should you just humble yourself and just yield your will and just go in and just obey the word of the Lord through the prophet and just go in and dip in there and then come out and then go dip again and do it seven times. And he humbled himself and he submitted the only thing Naaman could do to help himself was yield his will. God has given every single one of you a will. And Jesus, when he was on the earth, he had a will. And I tell you, it was written in the volumes of the books, not only all the acts of the miracles that he did, but it says in the volume of the book, it was written to do thy will O God. I delight to do thy will O God. Do you delight to do the will of God? This is what we have to give God. You say, have thine own way God, have thine own way. You're almighty. I am vile. You are the potter. I'm just clay. Mold me and shape me after thy will. And while I'm waiting, you say, well, are you waiting? Get into the game. No, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. A lot of times we get running when we ought to be waiting. If we wait on the Lord and he goes with us, then great things will happen. Moses says, you know what? These people, I'm not going with them. You go with them. I'll send an angel with them, but I'm not going with them. And Moses said, if you're not going with them, I'm not going. Because if the Lord's not with us, what good can come? Even if an angel goes with us, what good can come if the Lord isn't with us? Brothers, sisters, it's not by might. It is not by power, but it's by his spirit. And we need the Holy Spirit. We have to ask for the Holy Spirit to come. You might have made a decision to accept Christ, but you don't have power over sin. You need the Holy Spirit to make you free from sin. Because that is what a Christian is. He is an overcomer. You know what? I don't stand up here and say I'm an overcomer and claim promises that are lies. I was at a meeting one time. A bunch of sex addicts. A bunch of guys who had trouble drinking. They were in bondage. And their wives told them if they didn't go to a meeting, they were going to divorce them. So most of those guys were guys that were either divorced or separated, or their wives sent them there. And they're sitting there with long faces. All Christians. All Christians by name. And they're just sitting there. The room is packed. And I went there to see what's going on. And so they started the meeting by reading the promises. Quote the promises of God. Because all the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ. And you're in Christ, brothers. And so they sat there. I am the righteousness of God in Christ. It's like they're eating lemons. Blessed with all spiritual blessings. Seated with Him in heavenly places. I am a product of His love. I have love. I have joy. I have peace. Well, the leader, he said, okay, guys. This is not working. This is not working. We have to say it with more exuberance. And then he went on to paint a picture. We live in the Vancouver area here. And we have these Canucks here. And he says, now, this is how we're going to say it. It's game 7 and it's overtime. And the Canucks just won the Stanley Cup. And there's so much joy now. Let's say it again with all this natural joy that we can muster up from our own souls. This is not the Holy Spirit, brothers. You can quote all the promises you want. But it's not a reality until you're filled with the Spirit of God. We can say by faith, we can say some things. But we have to believe. All things are possible to him who believes. You say, well, I know. God has a call on my life. If He can do anything. No. The Lord will rebuke you if you can believe. All things are possible to him who believes. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing by the Word of God. So God has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness. They're in Jesus Christ. But have you bought yourself a different Jesus? Do you have another gospel? Do you believe in a Jesus that has a small J that can't do much for you? He can save you maybe from hell is what you believe. But He can't save you from pornography. He can't save you from alcohol. He can't save you from lust or from masturbation. He can't do any of those things because He's not powerful enough for that. No. Let God be true and every man a liar. If I'm falling and stumbling into sin, it's because of my unbelief. And because of my unbelief, it's led me into a direction to trust in something that is not Christ. I've become discouraged, disillusioned with Jesus. So I need to repent. It's not on His part. It's on my part. I need to humble myself. I need to say, Lord, why did I stumble? Why did I fall? The Lord, do you humble the humble? No. He humbles the proud. But He gives grace to the humble. Grace is the power of God to get your hand off of your private. Grace is the power of God to be free from pornography. Grace is the power of God to do heroic things in Jesus' name. That is what the power of God is all about. You need to tap into the source. If you don't tap into the power of the Holy Spirit, then you'll be like a man in a ditch with ten of his buddies. Just confessing sins and always having accountability and just trying to dig a ditch so that you can lay some pipe. You'll be absolutely exhausted and tired and defeated and just want to quit and give up. That's because you set your hope in the wrong thing. We have to set our hope on Him who is invisible. Because He is the one who is able to perform it. The Holy Spirit is the one who is able to give us life. To make us holy. To make us God-be and God-fearing. And it never was us. It always is Him. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we ask. Have you asked? Lawrence, set me free. I shared about this man who the Holy Spirit prompted in the meeting. And he was sitting on the steps waiting for me. And he said, I'm going to be taking some of your time. And the brothers went to the car. He wasn't too concerned about the brothers going and sitting in the car. What he was concerned about is getting free from pornography. He said, I can't get free from pornography. The Holy Spirit spoke to me that perhaps you need to fast and get serious and start abstaining from fleshly lusts. And really get serious and start to cleanse yourself from all the filthiness of the flesh and in your spirit. And the Lord will set you free. If you set your heart to seek Him, He will give you the victory in Jesus' name. If you want the Holy Spirit, He's going to give the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him. And what should we obey? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in whom He has sent. Believe on Him. You say, well, I believe. If you believe, then prove by your works that you believe. Prove by what you do that your faith is genuine. Because genuine saving faith will produce fruit. Because genuine faith and fruit are inseparable. You can't separate faith from fruit. Show me a man who says he has faith without fruit, without works. You say, oh, you're preaching legalism. No, I'm preaching the power of God. We believe in a Jesus that was resurrected. Some people believe in a Jesus that's still in the tomb. This is not the hope that we have. We don't preach Buddha. We don't preach Muhammad. We preach Jesus Christ. We preach a living God. One who's seated in the heavens, interceding for us. And who's not left us as orphans. He's come to us in the form of the Holy Spirit. This is the resurrection. The first resurrection. I am the resurrection and the life, Jesus says. When Mary and Martha were there and their brother Lazarus had died. And Jesus comes and everybody's crying. And they have no hope and Jesus starts crying. Not because Lazarus was dead. But because these people were without hope. And they said, oh, they saw him crying. Oh, their discernment was off. Oh, how he loved him. No, he was weeping for them. Because they couldn't believe. And he said, oh, if you had been here, our brother would not have died. The one sister said, oh, you will see him again. I know I'll see him again in the resurrection. But if you'd been here, my brother would not have died. Lazarus. What does Jesus say? I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me. Though he dies, yet shall he live. And though he lives, he shall never see death. In other words, we shall pass from this life and be translated into the next life. We shall not see death in Jesus' name. And Jesus goes to the tomb. And he says, roll away the reproach. Roll away the stone. And then they said, Lord, he's been in the tomb four days. He's been dead four whole days. By now he's starting to stink. You know what the Lord found me? I was not dead four days. I was dead probably for about 20 years. I was stinking. Very much stinking that even guys like Teagan were scared to be around me. That's how much I was stinking. My friends would stay away from me because that's how bad I had become. And you know what? The Lord is merciful and he's compassionate. He's slow to anger and he's rich in love. And he comes to all those who call upon him in sincerity. If you come to him, he'll by no means kick you out. And so he stands there at the tomb. And he says, Lazarus! Now, you will start to think logically to yourself. How can a dead man hear? How can a dead man hear? But he said, the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of Man and live. How can a dead man hear? You were dead in trespasses and sins. But then you heard a message. You heard something different. You heard something. You grabbed it. And your ears were open. He said, your ears are open. And our ears and our hearts have to be open to the voice of the Spirit of God. And so Lazarus, all of a sudden, he calls his name, Lazarus! And his ears are open. What a miracle that a dead man can hear. Come forth! And there was something that was required on Lazarus' part that he had to just get off of that tombstone where he was laying there on that spot, all bound up in grave clothes. And here comes Lazarus. He's hobbling out. And he says, release him and let him go. Get the grave clothes off of him. Some of us, we've been resurrected. We've heard the voice of the Son of Man. But we have grave clothes on. We need to be free from sin. Allow Jesus, listen to the voice of Jesus. Release him and let him go. And that's what the job is of the brothers today, to see those who are in prison houses freed, to see those who are bound in fetters loosed, those who have grave clothes on freed up, that they can walk in freedom and liberty and the joy of the Lord. May the Lord strengthen us with all power and might in the inner man that we might fulfill that purpose and call of God. So why are some of us hindered? Why does it seem as though we're not walking in the power and freedom of the Spirit? Well, it says in 2 Timothy in chapter 2 that it says, in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. There are precious things in a house, and there are carnal, worthless, useless things in the same house. And it says you are God's house. You are God's building. You are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them. I'll walk among them. I'll be their God and you shall be my people. So he calls us in 2 Corinthians 6, come out from among them and be separate. Who's them? Your ungodly friends that don't believe in Jesus. They're church-going people, some of them, but they don't believe, just like we didn't believe. But you cannot hang out with them anymore. You have to say, no, I'm going to have a change of direction. I am now going to walk with people who want to follow God. They might not be perfect people, but they are people who desire to change, and I'm going to associate with them. That is coming out from among them, the world, and being separate. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. And then there's a promise. If you come out from among the world, if you don't touch what is unclean, I'm going to receive you. I'll be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. That is in 2 Corinthians 6. Do not be unequally open. From chapter 14 right into chapter 7, or verse 14, right into chapter 7. So our desire is to cleanse ourselves from all the filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Cleanse ourselves from bad company. Cleanse ourselves from bad, filthy movies. Cleanse ourselves from filthy music. Cleanse ourselves from all uncleanness and worthlessness. Throwing off even every weight and some of those idols that we love to spend all of our time rubbing with diapers and things and wrenching on. Maybe it's time to throw off some of these things and put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Make no provision for the flesh to obey in its lust, and then might see the power of God. If we come out from among them, then we'll be set apart, and he'll be a father to us, and we will be his sons and daughters. In a great house, you're his house. If the spirit of God dwells in you, you're his house. But you want to see him pour out his spirit on all flesh in the last days? You want to see the power of what? Then you have a responsibility to deal with your will. In submitting your will, and when conviction comes from the spirit, start to make room for him in the end. You say, well, what are you talking about? His name shall be called Jesus. He shall be born in a manger. He wasn't born in the hotel. There was no room for him in the hotel. He was born in a manger. Why was he born in a manger? Because when he comes, and he comes into your heart, you want to know how stinky it is in there? You want to know it's all full of uncleanness and garbages and animals and everything else that's been going on? He's not ashamed to be born in a barn. Praise God for that, or where would we be? But he doesn't leave it that way. He doesn't leave us that way. He comes to us that way, but he won't leave us that way. He's going to clean us up. He's going to make us righteous. He's going to make us pure. He's going to cause us to walk worthy of the calling of God. We are going to become more than conquerors over sin in Christ Jesus who gives us strength. So when we say cleanse ourselves of all the carnality, all of the wood, the hay, and the stubble, it says if we cleanse ourselves from the latter, being those carnal things and those earthly sins and all that stuff that we know are wrong, then he can fill us to the full with the power of the Holy Spirit. Will you make room for him? Will you make room for Jesus today? Will you allow Jesus to have his own way? Or will you keep him in a closet and say, you have control in this dark place over here, and all the rest of the dark places over here, I'm in control? Or will you surrender your will completely to the Lord Jesus so that you can become a vessel of honor, sanctified and useful for the Master? May the Lord give us this kind of a heart to go further with God. Yes, you have. But ask for more. Seek and you shall find. Knock, my friends, and the door shall be opened unto you. Everyone who asks receives. Everyone who seeks finds. To him who knocks, it shall be opened. How many of you have children? I have children. And my son says, Dad, we need eggs. Well, man, I don't feel like going and getting more eggs. They're eating so many eggs. But it's my son. It's my sons and my daughters. They want eggs. Okay, I will go and get eggs. We'll go and find some eggs. We're not going to give them scorpions. If they ask for a fish, we're not going to give them. If they ask for bread, we're not going to give them a stone. And if we, being evil by nature, apart from the nature of Christ, know how to do good things and give good gifts to our children, how much more, if you ask for the Holy Spirit, are you going to get the right spirit? If you ask for the Holy Spirit, he's going to give you the Holy Spirit. That's what it says in the passage. Say, Father, I need the Holy Spirit. Please, Father, you're a good father. He is a good father. He's going to give you the Holy Spirit. Why is he going to give it to you? Because you need the Holy Spirit to live this life. Without the Holy Spirit, you can't live this life. You say, well, I accepted Christ. I have a Holy Spirit. You know, when Jesus was resurrected and he showed up in that room, they were all shaking and for fear. He breathed on them and said, receive you the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost came into them. And they became living beings. But then he said, go and wait in Jerusalem. And he said, you're going to receive power. It was a separate thing that happened there. And so they all went and were waiting up to 120 of them were up there. I don't know how many started, but that's how many were up there. When the Holy Spirit came 10 days later after he had left, he said, I must go so he can come. And ye shall receive this power. And so the Holy Spirit came and they all spoke in different languages. So that people who could hear the wonderful works of God in their own language. And so God was manifested and glorified. And you know what? No brother could take glory for preaching a wonderful sermon that day. Because none of them knew what they were saying. Only Jesus could be glorified that day. And that's why he did it. So that no man could say, I did it. Some people didn't understand it. They didn't know the languages. They thought that they were drunk. And you know what? When you become a Christian, people are going to think that you're crazy. People are going to say you've gone too far. People are going to say you're a radical. People are going to say, oh, you're a Randy Krohn follower. You know what? It doesn't matter what people say. What matters is what Jesus says. And so we want to follow Jesus. We are just ministers and nobody's through whom we come to faith. And so how will they hear without a preacher? Not everyone is a preacher. God has some who are destined to be preachers of the word of God. But them are going to suffer more so that they don't become proud. God does not share his glory with no flesh. He don't give 10% to the flesh. He don't give 1%. And when you see preachers taking glory that belongs to God, the fire is being stoked hotter for them. It's being stoked hotter. We don't get in on the glory. He does not share his glory. There's no partiality with God. Let God be true and every man a liar. We just ambassadors of Christ. We shared this story about being ambassadors. You know, there's how many hundreds of countries around the world, and our country could send to certain individual number of countries ambassadors to represent our country. We are ambassadors of heaven. Seated with him in heavenly places and he and us. And so when you go to a certain place, you go to your workplace. You go to your school. You go to another country. You go to another city. You are an ambassador of Jesus Christ. We represent Jesus. And an ambassador has to act and behave in a certain way. And so it is important that we represent Christ well. That can only happen if we have the Holy Spirit indwelling in us. You know, there's another thing I read this morning. He says, you are a kingdom of priests unto our God. A kingdom of priests. Can you imagine that we are a royal priesthood? A holy nation? A peculiar people? God, there is one high priest. His name is Jesus. Yet, he has made us a kingdom of priests unto God. We are there ministering spiritual sacrifices. And imparting gifts to people. Because Jesus has sent us. We are part of the heavenly priesthood under the new covenant. Those who are full of the Holy Spirit. Walking in faith in the power of God. Ministering the gifts and the call of God. Speaking life into people. Praying for people. Loving on people. Because love is of God. And everyone who is full of love is born of God and knows God. But we need to understand the difference between worldly love and Godly love. A lot of times we have camaraderie and we have gangs and we have all this loyalty. That's not the love of God. The love of God which is shed abroad from heaven. It's amazing. And it's first patient. You know, you say, Lord, fill me with your love. You want to know what's going to happen? You're going to be dealing with just the most craziest people at your work. Who are just trying to rub you the wrong way. And you're saying, Lord, give me patience with these people. Help me with these people. Love is patient. He has to work patience in us. In order to work his character in us. Lord, make me kind. Oh, I want to give him a piece of my mind. No, you've asked for love. He's bringing unkind people to deal with you. And you are now being tested. And tried as gold is refined in the furnace. To become kind. Gentle. Oh, I'm a bit of a roughneck. I'm a bit rugged around the edges. You know, I'm not a gentle person. But Jesus is gentle. He said, come to me, all you are weary and heavy laden. And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. And learn of me. For I am gentle and humble in heart. Oh, we want to see Jesus as a lion of the tribe of Judah. But he's never seen as a lion. He says, and I looked and I saw a lamb as though it had been slain. The lion of the tribe of Judah. And I looked and as I saw, it was a lamb. Never seen as a lion. Only seen as a lamb. Brothers, you want to be like Jesus? Then you need love. And the only way you're going to get love is you're going to have to ask for it. It comes from the Holy Spirit. He has to change our character. So to be conformed into the exact image of his son. Sounds like a heresy, doesn't it? Do you want to become like Jesus? Do you want to follow him and be conformed into his image? Then you're going to have to suffer with him. In order that you can be glorified with him. That Jesus' name be lifted up. Brothers, sisters, let's go all the way with Jesus. We have, but we need more. This little church needs revival. We need to see God move among us. We need to become humble. We're not humble. We're very proud. We want to become little in our own opinions. We want to see Jesus high and lifted up. And when we see Jesus, like Isaiah in 6 saw Jesus high and lifted up. He said, oh, it's me, for I'm a man of unclean lips. Do you think that he was swearing? I don't think he was swearing. I think he saw that he was dwelling among a people of unclean lips. And that he was a man of unclean lips compared to the holiness of God. When Job got a revelation of the Lord, he said, you are holy and I am. Job was the most righteous man on the face of the earth at that time. And he was vile when he saw the Lord. How much more we. We do not understand the Lord's ways as of yet. We see in part, but we ask for more. May the Lord finish the work that he's begun in us as he promised. To do exceedingly and abundant more. So that we can see the power and the glory of God manifested. In our children. Among the people that we rub shoulders with. In our communities. Among the lost. Up at the creek. That we would see Jesus do greater and mightier things. Because he said that's what would happen. May God be glorified. In Jesus' name, amen.