Help Has Arrived! - John 14:15-18 - Skip Heitzig
[CHATTER]
God isn't really something to worship.
He's just waiting to destroy all of us.
I guess there's a God out there somewhere.
I hope there is a God.
God isn't really something to worship.
God, Allah, Buddha.
God is everywhere.
Morning. We have spaced you out a little bit more today. We want to go above and beyond to make sure everybody's safe and comfortable during the season, and yet we still get to meet together. Aren't we grateful for that?
A quick word about Operation Christmas Child. So the time of the year that we have, for decades, supported the collecting of gifts to give to children around the world. And I know COVID and we might tend to think, well, it's COVID-19 so we're just going to get a whole lot less gifts for kids around the world.
The way we look at it, the way I'm thinking about it is this is the time of the year where children around the globe are more desperate than ever before and I'd love to see many more gifts come in then less because of that. This is an opportunity in child evangelism that has been unparalleled, where we have seen millions of children come to know Christ around the world. So during this time, to let them know that God loves them, that people are thinking about them is something great, and just wanted to underscore that. Thank you for all the volunteers with OCC.
Now, would you turn in your Bibles, please, to the New Testament book of John, John chapter 14. John chapter 14. We glanced at it a couple of weeks ago when we were in John 16. We kind of read up to that text, but we're going to look at John chapter 14, a few verses out of there.
I distinctly remember the summer of 1965. I was a little kid and I was in my parents backyard. It was August and the song of the summer came over the radio, "Help. I need somebody. Help. Not just anybody. Help. You know I need someone. [GUITAR STRUMMING] Help."
I've always needed help. People that know me go, uh-huh. I needed help when I was a baby. I needed help to walk when I was a toddler. I needed help learning how to ride a bicycle. I needed help to figure out how to swim. My oldest brother and my dad helped me in that category.
I needed help in school. There were certain subjects that I was naturally good at, but many subjects I needed extra help to understand. I needed help to learn how to drive. It's called driver's ed. And to drive a car on the freeway in Southern California, believe me, takes help. I needed help in sports. Coaches would give me techniques to make my sporting experience in whatever it was a better experience.
So I've always needed help, but I haven't always been good at asking for help. My dad was sort of a self-made man, figured things out on his own, and I guess I inherited that from him. And when I should have asked for help, I just sort of weathered it on my own, and it has not served me well.
A classic example from my own life is when I was in grade school and I had forgotten an assignment paper at home. And so the class started and the teacher asked for the assignment papers, and it dawned on me that I had left mine at home. So the easy thing to do is go and say, I left it at home, go to the principal's office, call my parents, ask them for help. They would have driven it down.
Oh no, what I did is I decided at break, I would leave the school and walk home to get my paper, 4 and 1/2 miles one way, 4 and 1/2 miles back. So this is me not asking for help. I'm walking, walking, walking. The school calls my parents because now I'm missing in class and they think he ran away or he got abducted or something. So my dad is in his car looking for me, and he found me on my walk. And he picked me up and he held up my paper and he said, all you needed to do is call and ask for help.
Now, my experience as a child, sadly, is how many Christians live their Christian experience. Help is available, but they don't always ask for help. Many believers are unaware that there is a Helper, the Holy Spirit, that they can ask for help. In fact, many believers don't think much about the ministry of the Holy Spirit in their lives. A.W. Tozer said, "The idea of the Holy Spirit to the average church member is so vague as to be nonexistent."
I was reading an article this week in a source called The Federalist. And it was about what Christians believe in America. These articles always fascinate me, but especially this one because the title grabbed my attention. The title of the article was "Survey Finds Most American Christians are Actually Heretics." I go, I've got to read that article.
It basically began by saying, if you were to give American Christians a theology test, the only way they would pass it is if God grades on a curve. And it went on to talk about different beliefs that evangelical Christians have in America. And one of the things in the article that got my attention for this particular message is it said, "Most evangelical Christians say the Holy Spirit is a divine force or a symbol of God's power or presence."
Think about that. He's not a person to many evangelical Christians. He's just a symbol of God's power or presence. Last time I checked, symbols don't do much. Symbols are just there for you to look at and appreciate their symbolism. They don't actually do any work.
The Holy Spirit is far more than a symbol of God's power and God's presence. Truth is we couldn't do anything of an eternal value without the Holy Spirit's help. John Lloyd Ogilvie wrote these words, "Sadly, many Christians settle for 2/3 of God. God the Father is way up there somewhere, aloof and apart from their daily lives. Christ is out there somewhere between them and the Father. The Holy Spirit is some kind of vague force or impersonal power that they hear about but they do not know intimately."
It is my sincere hope and prayer that we will get to know the Holy Spirit more intimately. The truth is you need help. The good news is help has arrived. And we find that in the promise of Jesus and John 14, beginning in verse 15, where he said to his disciples in that upper room, "If you love me, keep My commandments.
And I will pray the Father and He will give you another helper, that He may abide with you forever, 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. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you."
Let's remind ourselves of the emotional state of the disciples at this moment. They're at the Last Supper. Throughout the evening in these chapters, Jesus has told them that He is leaving them. They are not too stoked about that. They're pretty depressed about that idea. They're starting to become unraveled emotionally.
They're starting to feel helpless. And Jesus, of course, knows that and makes, throughout the evening in these chapters, several promises of Someone who is coming to help them. What I want to show you in the verses that we just read, I want to drill down in them and I want to show you a five-fold function of the Holy Spirit in helping or assisting the believer, five traits.
First of all, the Spirit is an active helper. Now, I counted four times in this upper room discourse-- this last supper message that Jesus gives his disciples-- four times our Lord refers to the Person of the Holy Spirit by the title Helper. He's going to be a helper.
When the Helper comes, then the Helper will do this. Four times he calls him the helper. It is the designated term that Jesus chose to describe the Holy Spirit. Of course, he could have used many other terms, for He is given different titles throughout the Scripture.
The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of counsel, the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of might, the Spirit of knowledge. That's in Isaiah chapter 11. Jesus could have called him the Eternal Spirit, like in Hebrews chapter 9. The Holy Spirit is called God in Acts chapter 5, verse 4. He is referred to as the Good Spirit in Nehemiah chapter 9.
He is called the Lord by Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. He is designated as the Power of the Highest, Luke chapter 1. Paul again calls him the Spirit of Adoption, Romans chapter 8. And Peter gives him the title the Spirit of Glory in 1 Peter Chapter 4. None of those Jesus uses. He calls him the Helper, the Helper.
Now, the word "helper" is the Greek word paracleta. Some of you are familiar with the term paraclete because of the churches you grew up in. It's a term that was thrown around. Parakletos is a Greek word that means somebody who is called alongside to help, or one who contributes their assistance, a helper. It can be translated advocate, counselor, comforter, exhorter, intercessor, encourager, or in this case helper.
Oftentimes in ancient times, it was associated with the legal profession, the law courts. It would refer to somebody who was a counsel for the defense, or somebody who would help you plead your case, help you win your case. I love how the amplified Bible renders it in this verse. It says, "One called to stand constantly by us and who is ready to take part in everything in which His help is needed."
He is the helper. God knows you need all the help you can get, so He has provided for you and for me a Helper. Now, we don't always know that. We are often like the young Skip Heitzig walking home for his assignment paper. All we have to do is ask for help because there is a Helper available.
But do you ever feel, or have you ever felt, that you're at a breaking point, that if life throws you one more curveball in 2020, that's it? Or do you ever feel like the temptations in your life are too much, the trials are just so accumulating? Do you ever feel the pressure is too intense or sin is too powerful?
This is where the Helper comes in.
One of my all time favorite quotes of the relationship of the Holy Spirit to the Christian is written by a guy named Tim Downs. Tim Downs wrote this, "Watches, cars, and Christians can all look chromed and shiny. But watches don't tick, cars don't go, and Christians don't make a difference without insides." And then he says, "For a Christian, that's the Holy Spirit."
I've watched Christians struggle over the years. As a pastor, I've seen many a Christian marriage struggle. I've watched people struggle in choices that they make, addictions that they suffer or struggle with. I've seen them deal with purity issues and struggle in that area.
What's going on? Well, we're in a kingdom. It's called the Kingdom of God. Now, to get into this kingdom is pretty easy, pretty straightforward. All you need to do is believe in Jesus Christ and the Bible says you are adopted into the royal family. That's all it takes.
To get into the kingdom is easy, but to walk like royalty takes help. To walk as a son or daughter of the King takes the Helper, and Jesus said help is on the way. Now, would you like to know what kind of help He'll give you? Let's examine that. Let's drill down a little more.
Not only is He an active helper, but the Spirit is a similar helper. I want to explain that. Go back to verse 16 and notice the promise. "And I will pray the Father and He will give you"-- not just a Helper, but what's the word right before it? Another Helper.
Now, that word is very precise, another Helper. It means a Helper of exactly the same kind. A Helper of exactly the same kind, or from the same category. Now, in English we have one word for another, and that's the word-- what's the word? Another, that's it. There's only one word. Very good. Matt, you get an A on the test. So we have one word in English.
In the Greek word, if you want to say another, you have a choice between two different words. You can use the word allos, which means another of exactly the same kind, or you can use the word heteros, which means another of a different kind. How would this be used? Well, here's an example.
Let's say you go and order a hamburger at your favorite burger joint. And it looks like the one on the left, it's greasy. It tastes a lot like cardboard, seasoned cardboard. So you take a bite of that burger and you go, I'm not going to eat this thing. So you tell the guy who gave you the burger, I want another hamburger.
You don't mean I want one just like this bad one. You're not going to use the word allos, you're going to use the word heteros. I want another burger, but I want it to be different from the first. But if you like the hamburger that you ate because it's really juicy and good, like that-- look at that cheese, wow. I don't eat cheeseburgers, by the way, anymore, but it does look good.
So you look at that and you eat that and you say, that's so good. I think I can eat two. So now you go up to him and you say, I'd like another. You're going to use a different word. You're going to use the word allos. I want another exactly like the first one.
So when Jesus said the Father's going to give you another Helper, what He is meaning is, disciples, I've been a Helper to you. I'm leaving. But the Father's going to give you another Helper, exactly like I've been to you.
Everything that I have been to you the Holy Spirit will now be to you. Just like you've turned to Me in every situation, you can turn to the Holy Spirit in every situation. I have been a Helper to you. The Holy Spirit will now be your Helper.
Now let's just quickly examine that. How did Jesus help His disciples? I'll give you just two quick examples. Number one, he helped them pray. He helped them pray. They came to Him one day. And they saw that John had taught his disciples how to pray and they said, teach us to pray like John taught his disciples.
So Jesus said, OK, when you pray, come to the Father like this, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come-- you know the Lord's prayer, the disciple's prayer. He helped them pray. Likewise, the Holy Spirit helps us pray. Romans chapter 8, verse 26, "The Spirit also helps our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought."
Mark that. A lot of times you pray for stuff, you're way off base. The Lord knows that. So watch this. He helps us in our weaknesses. "For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."
Here's a silly illustration. You think you need a new car so you pray for it. God, please, in Jesus' name, I claim it. Give me a new car. The Holy Spirit might be saying, don't answer that prayer, Father. He does not need a new car. He needs patience. So keep that old car going. Give him a good mechanic to keep it going. So He knows that. He's going to help us in our prayers.
A second thing that Jesus helped His disciples with is instruction. He taught them for 3 and 1/2 years. They listened to the Sermon on the Mount. They listened to the Upper Room Discourse. They listen to the Olivet Discourse. They listened to all those parables he gave and all the life situations He instructed them in.
He taught them. He schooled them. He educated them. He matured them. In the same way, the Holy Spirit will do that. Look down in chapter 14 at verse 25, verse 25. "These things I have spoken to you while being present with you." I've taught you while I've lived among you.
"But the Helper"-- verse 26-- "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." So I've been a Helper to you. He's going to send you another Helper exactly like I have been to you.
This is important because I've heard throughout the years the sentiment of many believers, myself included, something like this, wouldn't it have been great to live during the time that Jesus lived, to actually be there, to hear His voice and watch His miracles and be there when you needed something? Every need you have He could fix.
Yes, that would be good. I'm not at all depreciating that. I would love that. But what Jesus wants you to realize is that the Holy Spirit is the perfect substitution for Himself when it comes to being a Helper. The Holy Spirit is a perfect substitution of Jesus Christ when it comes to being a Helper.
And just as the disciples learned to turn to Jesus for everything, you and I need to learn to turn to the Holy Spirit for help. Jesus told them, apart from Me you can do nothing. He wants us to know apart from the Holy Spirit, we can do nothing. The quicker you learn that, the happier you're going to be.
I'll sum it up this way. It's a little simplistic, but I think it helps. We need God the Father for external life. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. We need God the Father for external life. We need God the Son Jesus for our eternal life. He died on the cross for our sins, gave us life eternal as a free gift.
But we need the Holy Spirit for our internal life. He's the source of our strength. He's the source of our comfort. He's the source of instruction. He is our Helper. He is another Helper, a similar Helper.
Here's the third trait I would like you to look at. The Spirit is a permanent Helper. He's permanent. He's not going to be here one day and then leave the next. He's in it for the long haul. Verse 16, "And I will pray the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever." Forever.
He's not going to be with you 3 and 1/2 years and leave. He's not going to be with you the first decade of your Christian life, until you get your own footing and you can pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and then leave and say, OK, you're on your own now. Grow up.
He's not going to be with you till you're 18 and then kick you out of the house, like my parents did. OK, get out. Do your thing. He's with you forever. He is with you forever. You have a 24/7 live-in Helper who will be comforting, maturing, counseling, and praying for you.
Yes, you can grieve the Holy Spirit, no question. Yes, you can resist and quench the Holy Spirit. But you need to know He's hanging around, and He's pretty committed to the process of growing you and I up. He is with you forever.
You see, the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is not like the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, you remember, the Spirit of God came upon individuals at different times for specific reasons and specific callings. And sometimes He would work powerfully and be upon them and then He would leave, and sometimes it was very disconcerting when He did.
For instance, King Saul. 1 Samuel chapter 16, we read, "The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul." That's not good. That's not good, because Saul is the King of the land, and if anybody needs help in ruling God's people, it's the king. And so the Spirit of God departed from Saul.
David watched it happen and it scared him to death, because he prayed later on in Psalm 51, do not cast me from Your Presence. Do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Don't let happen to me what happened to Saul.
Well, this is New Testament. It's not going to happen. That's Old Testament. In the New Testament, He is permanently in the believer. The Holy Spirit is with you forever, through every trial, through every heartache, through every decision you make, in the good times and in the bad times, from earth all the way to heaven. He's a permanent Helper.
Look at the 17th verse, "The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it either sees Him nor knows Him." And I'm going to get to that in a second. "But you know Him for He dwells with you and will be in you." Verse 18, "I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you."
So Jesus says in the 17th verse, He dwells with you and shall be in you. Now, think of these two relationships with Him, with, in. There's a third one later on, Acts chapter 1, verse 8. Jesus said, the Holy Spirit will come upon you.
So think of this threefold relationship, with, in, and upon. With, in, and upon. The Holy Spirit was with you before He was in you. The Holy Spirit was with you before you came to Christ.
A few weeks ago we talked about the hound of heaven, where the Lord said when the Spirit has come, He will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, of sin because they do not believe in me. That's how the Holy Spirit is with somebody.
But then once you throw up your hands and surrender and say, Jesus, come into my life. Be my Lord. He comes into your life and is your Lord, but He brings with him the Holy Spirit, who resides with you and abides in you. He is now not just with you, He's in you. 1 Corinthians chapter 3, "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you?"
But then later on He can come upon you to gift you to do His work in the world to be His witness. So I'll sum it up this way, the Holy Spirit comes after us to make us saved. He comes into us to make us sanctified. And then He comes upon us to make us supercharged. He empowers us to do His work.
That's why instead of saying, how can I get more of the Holy Spirit, we should be saying, how can the Holy Spirit get more of me? Because you, as a mortal, having all of that power at your disposal would be a dangerous thing. So it's not like how can you get more power? How about how can the all powerful one just get a hold of you and work through you? He's a permanent Helper.
The fourth trait I want you to notice in this text is the Spirit is a reliable helper, for Jesus calls Him in verse 17 the Spirit of what? Truth. He calls him the Helper. That's His designated term four times in the section, I mentioned, but at least three times he is called the Spirit of truth by Jesus.
The Spirit of truth and the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. So he's the Spirit of truth. He can't lie. He can't deceive. He won't lead you to lie. He won't lead you to deceive. He traffics in truth.
If you don't mind, go down to chapter 15, or go over one chapter, chapter 15 verse 26. "Bu when the helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth"-- there's that term-- who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me." In other words, he's going to tell you the truth about who I am. He'll reinforced the truth of my identity. He will testify of me.
Verse 27, "And you also will bear witness because you have been with Me from the beginning." Now go over to chapter 16, one more chapter. Same night, same message, same room. Chapter 16 verse 12, "I still have many things to say to you but you cannot bear them now."
You understand that, right? They're emotionally distraught. They're not hearing all the things Jesus is telling them because He told them He's leaving. Their head is spinning. Their hearts are pounding. And so He knows that. And He says, I have a lot of things to tell you but you guys cannot handle it.
However, here's the great part about that. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak and He will tell you things to come.
This accounts for how the disciples could write the New Testament. People say all the time, how could they remember all the things Jesus did and said? I mean, I forget what happened yesterday. The only way they could is by this promise. He's going to direct you into the truth. He's going to bring everything to your remembrance. He's going to enable you to do that.
Now, this brings up a very important point here. In this section that I'm reading out of John 16 verse 13, He's called the Spirit of truth. He's going to guide you into all truth. There is a word in the original Greek manuscript that is not in the translations, unfortunately. It's the article "the."
It actually reads, "When the Spirit of the truth has come, He will guide you into all the truth." It's a very specific kind of truth. It's not just like He's going to show you what's true and what's false. He's the Spirit of the truth. [NON-ENGLISH]-- the truth. He's referring to a specific body of truth centering on Jesus Christ, which is the New Testament. That's specifically what He's the spirit of, the truth about Jesus.
So when a person comes up to you and says, you know, the Lord gave me a vision about you. And you're going, OK, here it goes. I don't know what's coming next. Doesn't sound good. Or the Lord spoke to me. And I'm not saying the Lord cannot speak to you or the Lord cannot give you an impression of your heart, but follow me here.
When somebody says I've gotten a word from the Lord or a prophecy from the Lord or a vision from the Lord, the Lord spoke to me, I immediately go, well, maybe He did, maybe He didn't. Tell me what He told you and then I will match it up and see if it goes along with the revealed Word of God, "the truth."
If it does, then what you said is true. If it doesn't, then it's not true. So how can you tell if a person is filled with the Holy Spirit? Number 1, he's holy because he's the Holy Spirit. Number 2, he's filled with the truth, truthful. He's the Spirit of truth.
In Daniel chapter 10, verse 21-- you don't have to turn there-- he calls the Bible the Scripture of truth. I love that designation, the Scripture of truth. And that is always the consistent case throughout the Holy Scriptures, is that God reveals His Word and everything that people say must be compared to that to see if it lines up.
So there's an interesting text in Isaiah chapter 8-- we're going to throw it up on the screen-- where it says in Isaiah chapter 8-- there it is-- "And when they say to you, seek those who are mediums and wizards who whisper and mutter"-- stop right there. Now that's a false practice. They were telling people that you can consult a medium and find out what God's will is. They were having all sorts of weird spiritual practices.
But "when they say do you seek those who are mediums and wizards"-- listen to the response-- "should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?" Look at the next part. Here's the answer to all that, "to the law and to the testimony."
You know what the law is and the testimony? It's the Scripture. It's the law of Moses, the testimony of the prophets. "To the law and to the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." So if somebody says the Lord spoke to me but it happens to be the opposite of what the Bible says, it's because there is no light in them.
You always compare it. Always compare with the revealed "truth" of God, the Scriptures. And this is something that the Bereans did. Remember the Bereans in Acts chapter 17? They were commanded by Paul and by Luke, the author of the book of Acts. The Bereans, it says, received the words of Paul with all readiness of mind. They received his teaching, but they searched the Scriptures daily to see if these things be so. They were commended for that.
So even Paul the apostle got scrutiny. Hey, you know, Paul gave a sermon today. I'm going to go read my Bible and see if he's right. Paul said, I like that. That's what you should be doing with everybody. You should be matching what they say, what they teach, what they purport, according to the Scripture of truth.
Something else before I move on to the next and last. It's going to be a balanced truth. Somebody who traffics in the truth of God, or is filled with the Spirit, if you want to test it, is it balanced truth? They don't just emphasize one truth over the other truths. They take into consideration all of Scripture. It's balanced.
That's a hermeneutics principle. Hermeneutics is the study or the science of interpreting the text of the Bible. Some of it you don't even perhaps know, but you know hermeneutics, and here's why. When somebody brings out a text of the Bible and quotes you a text of Scripture, you immediately think, what is the context?
You say that all the time. What's the context? That's a hermeneutic principle, because every tax has to be examined by its context. If it's out of context, it might not mean what it really means in context.
There's another hermeneutical principle and that is called the unity of Scripture. That is where you balance all the truths of the Scripture and ask yourself, is this truth consistent all the way through the Scripture? So you never get Scriptural harmony if you play one string of the truth. You play all the strings together, and it's wonderful a harmony.
That takes us to the fifth and final trait of the Holy Spirit's help. The Spirit is an exclusive Helper. Not everybody gets His help. Not everybody gets His help. Only certain ones get His help. I want you to see who they are because you're going to like this.
Verse 17, "The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive"-- that is, the world of unbelievers-- "because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him for He dwells with you and will be in you." Every child of God, every child of God has the Holy Spirit. Every one.
The Holy Spirit comes inside, baptizes them into the body of Christ. Every child of God has the Holy Spirit. The people of the world do not. And why don't people in the world receive Him? Because He says the world cannot receive. Why don't they receive Him? This is what He says, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.
That's the worldview of nonbelievers. They say all the time, I won't believe it unless I can see it. I've never seen God. Prove to me God exists. I want to see something. Show me the science. I got to taste it, feel it, see it. The world cannot receive it. You can receive it. You can receive it.
Let me give you another illustration. And I hope my illustrations don't weigh on you. I always come up with these crazy illustrations. Oh, here's another illustration. But s really do try to connect God's truth and make it meaningful to you. But right now in this room there are sounds going on. You can't hear them right now, but they're here.
There are pictures in this room. There are movies in this room. You can't see or hear them, but if you had the right receiver, you could. If you put a radio up here, turned it on, put the antenna right, you get that music. Then you turn it, get a different channel.
Or you could get your phone hooked up to Wi-Fi or 4G and you can get those pictures or a TV. Those are receivers. Those are receivers. The Holy Spirit hooks you up to God's Wi-Fi, enables you to receive, and by receiving say, I get it. I apprehend it. I understand it.
1 Corinthians chapter 2, "The natural man"-- the unsaved person-- "The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, nor can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned." Have you ever shared the gospel with a person and you're explaining it to them and it makes such sense to you. And they're kind of going, I don't get it.
You're going, you don't get it? Can't you see this? And they're going, no. Because unless God opens the eyes of the blind, opens the heart, it's not going to work. He's got to hook them up.
It's like you taking a blind person and saying, you mean you can't see that sunset? No, they can't. They lack the capability to apprehend and enjoy and understand it. The world cannot receive. You can receive. You have received. The Holy Spirit is the exclusive resident Helper to every believer.
Now, I'm drawing this to an end here and we're going to pray soon. We have been given directions in Scripture as to our relationship with the Holy Spirit going forward. He's with us. He's in us. He comes upon us. We have been given direction in the Scripture as to our relationship, and the classic text is Ephesians chapter 5 in verse 17.
He says, "Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation"-- or debauchery, some translations say. In other words, you get drunk, it'll mess your life up. "Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit."
A lot of people have struggled. Why is there this comparison in the Scripture? Why the Holy Spirit Himself, since He's the original author of the Bible, that you compare being drunk with wine and being filled with the Spirit? Easy answer, control.
When a person drinks alcohol to the point of excess, that he's drunk, and he gets behind the wheel of a car and he gets written up for DUI, driving under the influence, it's because he is dangerous. That person has no control. So don't be drunk with wine. Don't lose control to that. Give control to the Holy Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit. It implies control.
I brought with me a glove. I want to show you another crazy Skip illustration. Let me get it. So here's my little work glove. Now, it's empty. See that? Let's fill it up.
So I'll put my keys in it. One set of keys, car keys. OK. Is it filled? Well, it's filling, but it's not filled. Let's put my mask in it. I'll need that for later. Let's put it in there. OK. That's pretty packed. Is it full? Not yet?
OK, wait. Don't give up on me. I got sunglasses. I'm going to stuff those in there. How about now? Is it filled? OK, wait, I think I can stick my phone somehow in there. Wow, that's pretty full. Is it full? Close.
There's kind of a dispute if it's really full. I guess I could put sand in it or water in it. It could be full. But even if I did that, I could fill it with a lot of things, would it be useful if it's filled with any of these things? No, not really all that useful. I mean, yeah, it can hold my stuff, but it's not really intended for that. Really? Yeah, really.
OK, ready? Ready? Is it filled now? Now it's filled. It's like completely filled. Well, there maybe a little bit of air in there. Don't be tech. OK, so it's filled and it's useful, and it's filled with what it was intended to be filled with because the glove was made for the hand to fill it in order that work might be accomplished. Now work can get done.
So rather than me giving control to a substance and getting out of control, I'm going to give control to the Holy Spirit so that He can do His work in me and through me. That's the idea being filled with the Holy Spirit. When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, it's going to show up in your marriage. When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, it's going to show up in your occupation.
When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, it's going to show up in your singleness. When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, it's going to show up in your education. When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, it's going to show up in your social media. To show up everywhere. It's going to be thought by thought, choice by choice, act by act under the control of the Holy Spirit.
Something else about that text that I just read in Ephesians 5. It's not technically correct in English. When it says be filled with the Holy Spirit, that's not technically correct. The Greek language, it's in the present passive imperative. I'm not going to get into the weeds, but here's the most technical translation, "be being filled with the Holy Spirit." Be being filled. Be constantly filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now, you might say, why? I mean, I came to Christ. I've been filled with the Spirit. Isn't that enough? Why do I have to keep being filled with the Spirit? Here's why, because you leak. Can you relate to that? You leak. One baptism, many fillings. Be being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Charles Spurgeon said, "If there were one prayer I might pray before I die, it should be this, Lord, send thy church men filled with the Holy Ghost and with fire." Well, I've been filled. Get filled again and again and again and again.
What do you have to do to get filled with the Spirit? Ask. Ask. I don't know why we make the Holy Spirit so weird in church. OK, we're going to have a time of the Holy Spirit now. Let's dim the lights, because the Holy Spirit does not like bright lights.
And the music has to be soft music because he doesn't like loud music. It can be in the middle of bright sunlight playing "In A Gadda Da Vida." It does not matter. Who cares? Jesus said this, if you being evil by nature know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" Ask Him. Don't be Skip Heitzig going home for your stupid paper. I need somebody, help. You just ask for help. Be filled with the Spirit.
Last illustration, I promise. Thomas Edison was in his workshop with his assistant one day. His assistant was pretty discouraged. He looked at the work benches that were strewn before him and he said, it's too bad. He said to Edison, it's too bad that we've done all this work without any results.
They were trying to find the proper filament for an incandescent light bulb at the time. Too bad we have no results. Edison said, oh, we have lots of results. We have just discovered 700 things that won't work.
Maybe you've discovered lots of things that don't work. Your life doesn't work with a self-help book. Your life doesn't work with just one retreat away for your marriage. Your life doesn't work by trying this relationship or that substance. What will work is when you are filled with what you were intended to be filled with, and that is God Himself.
That is the power of the Holy Spirit living in you, but it begins by a relationship with God. And if you've never prayed to receive Christ, now's the day. Today's the day to do that. As we close, just say this, Lord, I need you.
I need your help. I admit I'm a sinner. I believe Jesus died for my sins. I believe you rose again. I turn from my past. I repent of my sin. I turn to Jesus as my Savior. I want to follow Him as my Lord. Help me. Help me to live for You. Fill me with Your Spirit, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
Let's all stand. If you prayed that prayer, I ask, would you see one of our leaders after the service? and we'll give you instructions of what to do, next steps. I pray that you'll enjoy God's peace this week. I know it's a crazy world, and we say that every week, and it's been crazy for months.
So the crazy is still happening. The crazy is all around us. It's in the political realm. It's in the social realm. It's in the physical realm. It's crazy. But God is not, and He wants to stabilize us and fill you with His peace, fill your life with His power and His control. And I pray you'll see the difference this week, that you'll enjoy Him. In Jesus' name, amen.
We hope you enjoyed this special service from Calvary Church. We'd love to know how this message impacted you. Email us at mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder, you can support this ministry with a financial gift at calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for this teaching from Calvary Church.