Thursday
Evening Bible Study
July
15, 2010
Introduction
We’ve talked
about:
Who is the Holy
Spirit?
He is a person.
He is God.
What does the
Holy Spirit do?
He points to
Jesus. He leads,
guides, and teaches us.
He helps us to
pray
To pray in the
Spirit and to pray
with the mind
The Evidence
of the Holy Spirit
I thought of different ways to present my topic tonight:
The residue –
the soap scum left behind that proves you took a shower
The symptoms –
what shows you have a particular disease
I decided upon:
The evidence –
what proof do you have that the Holy Spirit was here.
Illustration
The Obvious
Some people would want to tell you that the
obvious evidence that the Holy Spirit is in you depends on whether or not you
speak with tongues.
I would suggest there are other tell-tale
clues that are a bit more obvious as to the Spirit’s work in your life.
Holiness
Some people look at “holiness” as being “better than other people.
Holiness is not based on being “better”
than someone else, or “At least I’m not as bad as so-and-so”.
The “holier than thou” attitude is what
leads to legalism, and we end up living our lives to please people rather than
God.
Play “Green Police” Audi car
commercial
We don’t need “Holiness Police”. This is what the Holy
Spirit can do all by Himself.
The definition of holiness:
Holiness =
Being set apart for God’s use
(1 Th 4:1–8 NKJV) —1 Finally then, brethren, we urge and
exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you
received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; 2 for you know what commandments we gave
you through the Lord Jesus. 3
For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should
abstain from sexual immorality;
sanctification
– hagiasmos – consecration
Comes from the word for “holy” (hagios),
being “set apart” for a special use.
It carries the idea of being good, pure, right.
sexual immorality
– porneia – illicit sexual
intercourse; adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with
animals etc.
Simply put, it’s “sex
outside of marriage”.
This is just one aspect of “sanctification”
Note that these
issues are labeled “the will of God”. These are not optional issues, but core
issues as to what a Christian is. This is what God wants for your life.
4 that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in
sanctification and honor,
Your “vessel”
is your own body. Use it with dignity and honor.
5 not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one should take
advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the
avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified.
You “defraud” your brother or sister if you should have intercourse with
his/her spouse instead of your own.
7 For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. 8 Therefore he who
rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.
Paul talks about not living in
immorality as an example of holiness. But holiness goes far beyond the issues
of immorality. Holiness is that place where you don’t feel like you have to
hide anything from God.
The issue of purity is at the core of who the Holy Spirit is.
If you have a struggle with the concept of purity, your struggle isn’t with
me or the church, it’s with the Holy Spirit.
He wants to be at work in your life to nudge you away from impurity and towards
purity.
This is why we call Him the “Holy” Spirit. He is “holy” and He makes us
“holy”.
When Jesus comes into your life, things
are supposed to change.
Illustration
“My Heart, Christ’s Home”
Years ago a
fellow named Bob Munger wrote a little tract about what it’s like to invite
Christ into your life – he described it like having Jesus as a guest in your
house. He writes…
One evening I invited Jesus Christ into my heart. What an entrance He made!
It was not a spectacular, emotional thing, but very real. Something happened at the
very center of my life. He came into the darkness of my heart and turned on the
light. He built a fire on the hearth and banished the chill. He started music
where there had been stillness, and He filled the emptiness with His own
loving, wonderful fellowship. I have never regretted opening the door to Christ
and I never will.
In the joy of this new relationship I said to Jesus Christ, “Lord, I want
this heart of mine to be Yours. I want to have You settle down here and be
perfectly at home. Everything I have belongs to You. Let me show You around.”
First, Bob takes Jesus into the “Study”, where he finds himself embarrassed as Jesus begins to
pick up the books and magazines that Bob has lying around. Bob learns that it’s
important to be careful about what kinds of things you put into your mind.
From there, Jesus walks through the various rooms of the house: in the Dining room they talk
about appetites and desires. It’s in the Living Room that Bob learns to spend time every
day with Jesus. In the Workroom
Bob learns to let Jesus do things through him, producing good works in his
life. In the Rec
Room Bob is challenged to allow Jesus to be a part of everything he does – the
friends he sees, the things he does to entertain himself, not just leaving
Jesus for a few days a week at church. And then they come to …
The Hall Closet
One day I found Him waiting for me at the front door. An arresting look was
in His eye. As I entered, He said to me, “There is a peculiar odor in the
house. Something must be dead around here. It’s upstairs. I think it is in the hall
closet.”
As soon as He said this, I knew what He was talking about. There was a
small closet up there on the hall landing, just a few feet square. In that
closet, behind lock and key, I had one or two little personal things that I did
not want anyone to know about. Certainly, I did not want Christ to see them. I
knew they were dead and rotting things left over from the old life. I wanted
them so much for myself that I was afraid to admit they were there.
Reluctantly, I went up with Him, and as we mounted the stairs the odor
became stronger and stronger. He pointed to the door. I was angry. That’s the
only way I can put it. I had given Him access to the library, the dining room,
the living room, the workroom, the rec room, and now He was asking me about a
little two-by-four closet. I said to myself, “This is too much. I am not going
to give Him the key.”
“Well,” He said, reading my thoughts, “if you think I’m going to stay up
here on the second floor with this smell, you are mistaken. I will go out on
the porch.” Then I saw Him start down the stairs.
When one comes to know and love Christ, the worst thing that can happen is
to sense Him withdrawing His fellowship. I had to give in.
Together, Bob learns to let Jesus help him clean out the “closet”, the
hidden places in his heart.
That’s what happens when you cooperate
with the Holy Spirit and allow Him to actually work in your life. He cleans out
closets. He makes you more holy.
Let the Spirit do the work He wants to in your life.
Fruit
Jesus said you could tell a tree by the
kind of fruit it produces. An
olive tree produces olives. A
lemon tree produces lemons. An apple tree produces apples.
If the Holy Spirit is really at work in
your life, then He will produce certain kinds of thing in you. These aren’t
things that you have to work at to manufacture; they are things that happen
naturally because the Spirit is working in your life. We might define fruit as:
Fruit = result of relationship
(Jn 15:1–8 NKJV) —1 “I am the
true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He
takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more
fruit.
Branches that are bearing fruit are going to be cut back from time to time so they will
produce more fruit. If the branch gets too “leafy”, the life of the vine is
spread too thin and the fruit suffers.
Gardeners call these extra-leafy branches “suckers”
3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
Jesus “cleans” or “prunes” us through His Word.
From time to time you will see or hear things from God’s Word that will
bring conviction, it will feel like a sharp knife, and God is at work to remove
something worthless from your life.
I wonder if sometimes God “prunes” us in our difficult times as well.
4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are
the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without
Me you can do nothing.
The word “abide” simply means to “stay put”, “remain”, or
“stay connected”.
The “secret” to being a “fruitful” Christian is to simply stay connected to
Jesus. Don’t fight your connection with Jesus, just enjoy it.
6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered;
and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
Branches that
are severed from the trunk simply wither and die. They are useless, good as
dead.
7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you
desire, and it shall be done for you. 8 By this My Father is glorified, that
you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
The life connected to Jesus is a life
connected to God’s
Word. It’s one of the chief ways that God allows His life to flow into you.
Your connection with Jesus will affect
your prayer life. You’ll
grow in learning how to pray, and you will see God answering your prayers.
God desires that you bear much fruit.
What are you connected to?
Illustration
It used to be that the easiest way to steal
gasoline from a car was to siphon it from the other guy’s tank into your own. Stick
a rubber hose in his gas tank, suck on the other end of the rubber hose until
you get a mouth full of the gas, then spit it out. From then on the gasoline
will flow into your tank. A thief decided to siphon gas from Dennis Quiggley’s motor
home in Seattle.
When Dennis, inside the motor home, heard the noises outside he investigated
and discovered the thief curled up on the ground violently vomiting. Intending
to suck up the contents of the gas tank the thief had put his hose into the
wrong hole—and had sucked up the contents of the sewage tank instead. The
thief, a boy 14 will not be prosecuted, Dennis and the police agree that he has
suffered enough.
Associated
Press, 8/7/91
When we are connected to the Holy Spirit, He produces
fruit in our life:
(Gal
5:22-23 NLT) But when the Holy Spirit
controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, {23} gentleness, and self-control.
The Fruit:
Love: Placing a
high value on others unconditionally
Joy: Finding
gladness even in tough times
Peace: Calm in
the storm
Patience: Putting
up with difficult people
Kindness: Doing
good things for others
Goodness: Being
good
Faithfulness: Someone
others can count on
Gentleness:
Strength controlled by humility
Self-control: Controlling your self
The more we let the Holy Spirit work in our lives, the more of this He’ll
produce in us.
Is your life producing fruit?
In Living
Faith Jimmy Carter writes:
A group of Christian laymen involved in
missionary work approached a small
village near an Amish settlement. Seeking a possible convert, they confronted
an Amish farmer and
asked him, “Brother, are you a Christian?”
The farmer thought for a moment and
then said, “Wait just a few minutes.” He wrote down a list of names on a tablet
and handed it to
the lay evangelist. “Here is a list of people who know me best. Please ask them
if I am a Christian.”
Sometimes we’re not so honest about ourselves. What would others say about
your life? What would those who know you best say?
Lab ideas
Think about the teaching. Is there one area you would like to grow in? Write
it down on the 3x5 card. Write down one other prayer request for yourself.
Tongues survey – How many have the gift of tongues? How many would like be
prayed for to receive the gift of tongues?
Prayer in small groups
Groups of four – all guys and all gals.
Pray for one person at a time (like last week). Share their requests. Wait
for a minute in silence. Then pray just for that person.