The Holy Spirit and Us (2)
Notes
Transcript
Last week we discussed that the primary purpose of the Holy Spirit in our life is to help us to spread the gospel. We understand that everything God does is to that extent, but God also desires for us to live a blessed, full, and free life.
As Americans we have this idea that living a free life is living a life on our terms. We have come to enjoy and expect certain freedoms and if anyone takes those away we will meet them with force. But there is this biblical concept of freedom that supersedes our American ideology of what freedom is.
God has given us the right to make choices. Everyone of us can make any choice we desire. That’s freedom God gives us, but ultimately we find out that we aren’t free from the consequences of our choices. I tell my kids all the time Consequences are neutral. They can be good and they can bad, but they will always be based off the choices we make.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
There are two ways of living this life. One giving into every desire we have or walking by the Spirit. If I honestly go through my life and dissect every instance where I allowed my immediate desires to take president over God’s desires I will trace it back to a scar in my life.
Short answer the desires of the flesh is sin. And what is sin?
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Sin=Death
Victory of that sin is in Christ.
Most of the wrong choices in my life, if not all the wrong choices in my life led to some sort of pain or trauma/death. I hear people say: Well my poor choices led me to who I am today so I am thankful for them.
What if I told you: You are equipped to become who are without all the pain you accumulated.
The secret to such a life is:
The Holy Spirit
But there is a trade off
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
As Humans we have a natural bend to get ourselves in trouble. We have a natural bend to hurt ourselves, to push the limits, to see how far we can go before chaos happens. Most people desire to live a dangerous life.
Look at the things we do: Text while driving-some of us it’s dangerous to text while walking. We make cars that go faster than anyone really needs to go. In history we have taken everything God has made and somehow made it dangerous. Even gravity.
None of us inherently desire to do good. Look around the world. Even when doing good people will say things like: It makes me happy. It makes me feel like I’m helping or am having a lasting affect. Even our good deeds derive from selfish ambition at times.
Why would I want to follow someone who limits my choices and freedoms?
Short answer because it would limit the number of scars you have-emotional and physical. God not only wants to heal you, but he wants to equip you with the power to stop hurting yourself.
It’s why sin is often likened to slavery in the bible. When we make any choice we want we become a slave to the consequence of that choice.
Racking up debt. It’s fun while your doing it, but then you realize you have to work 15 years to get free from the debt that you accumulated while you had 5 days of fun. You know stastically most of the things people buy with debt are useless years before the debt is paid off. So you paying for something still that broke years ago.
Some of us are still dealing with the affects of bad relationship that ended years ago. Jesus wants to set you free from those pains, but then through the power of the Holy Spirit he equips us to be able to counteract self inflicting harmful decisions in our life.
O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit.
From me comes your fruit. If God is your source of production then everything you do will be prosperous for eternity. You actions won’t just be good for 5 days and negative for 30, but the positive impact of a life produced and lead by God echoes into your eternal existence.
Matthew 13 tells us that The word of God is like a seed planted, when it finds good soil—that’s a person living by the Spirit. .It produces thirty, sixty, and a hundred times one action/ one righteous decision.
God desires us to bear good fruit and he gives us that ability through the equipping of the Holy Spirit.
Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
Bring fruit that brings out repentance. Why because good fruit will heal the old wounds of negative choices.
The truth is we are built to self destruct. For whatever reason we desire the most painful paths, but because of God’s love for us and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we are given the ability to overcome our self destructive ways.
Why is it important to bear the fruit of repentance?
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,
ADVERTISEMENT