December 30, 2024 • 30 mins
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Welcome to the Westside church’s special Monday Morning Coffee podcast with Mark Roberts. Mark is a disciple, a husband, father and grand dad, as well as a certified coffee geek, fan of CS Lewis’ writings and he loves his big red Jeep. He’s also the preacher for Westside church.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches
special Monday Morning Coffeepodcast on this podcast, our
preacher Mark Roberts will helpyou get your week started
right. With look back atyesterday's sermon so that we
can think through it furtherand better work the
applications into our dailylives . Mark will then look
(00:28):
forward into this week's Biblereading so that we can know
what to expect and watch for.
And, he may have some extrabonus thoughts from time to
time. So grab a cup of coffeeas we start the week together
on Monday Morning Coffee withMark.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday
Morning Coffee podcast forMonday December 30th. I'm Mark,
and I'm not holding sermonnotes or a daily Bible reading
schedule or even a cup ofcoffee because I'm holding
Tamiflu. Yep . On Saturday Iwoke up feeling pretty crummy,
and so I went and got testedand sure enough, I've got the
flu. That meant I didn't get topreach yesterday, so I don't
(01:13):
have preaching notes. And ournew Bible reading plan doesn't
start until Sunday, January5th. So we are off this week in
daily Bible reading. You canread whatever you would like,
make up something you missed orgo back over something that we
read previously this year thatyou wanted to read again, maybe
read a favorite part of God'sword. I want to encourage you
to stay in the word, but youdon't have anything specific
(01:36):
with our daily Bible readingPlan as a congregation for the
week. Now, as a bonus, we'regoing to give you a sermon by
one of our shepherds, BillyHarrington. He preached a
sermon earlier this month atWest Side . Alright , one last
note in the interest of fulldisclosure, of course, I have a
cup of coffee because coffeemakes everything better . Enjoy
Billy's sermon and I will seeyou next week on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Morning, glad you're here this morning, visiting
with us online. Also, glad thatyou're here going to , uh, ask
you this morning to think alongwith me. Those that are in my
Bible class will will know someof this material, but I want
you to think along with meabout whether you have received
the Holy Spirit or not, andwe'll begin that in , uh, acts
(02:24):
two. And in verse 38, in Actstwo and verse 38, it says, and
Peter said to them, repent andbe baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ forthe forgiveness of your sins,
and you'll receive the gift ofthe Holy Spirit. If I were to
(02:45):
ask you this morning, do youattend a Holy Spirit filled
church? How would you answerthat? If I were to ask you, do
you have the Holy Spirit? Whatwould you say? You know, we're,
we're pretty comfortable withActs 2 38. We go there all the
time and we, I should say we'repretty comfortable with the
(03:06):
first half of Acts 2 38. We gothere all the time, repent and
be baptized, and you shallreceived . The gift of the Holy
Spirit is a little bitdifferent. We , we wonder about
that. And many lessons havebeen taught on this. Some have
take it from the point of viewthat they believe that this is
referring to spiritual gifts.
When he says, you receive thegift of the Holy Spirit, there
(03:28):
are some who believe that thisis the ability to receive
spiritual gifts. I havepreached a lesson that this ,
uh, refers to salvation. Themore I look at it, the more I'm
convinced that it is indeed thegift of the Holy Spirit. Now,
(03:48):
all the approaches that aretaken for this verse have some
merit and should be considered.
However, I want us to approachit from a little different
point of view this morning. Iwant us to ask the question
according to scripture,according to Scripture, what
would, what would I not have ifthe Holy Spirit had not been
(04:15):
given to me ? Now, if you havequestions about this or
disagree with what I have tosay this morning, feel free to
come and talk to me. I'd behappy to talk with you about it
further. But I wanted to lookat scripture and see the things
that we would not have if theHoly Spirit if not been given
to us. And one of the firstthings I want to look at is
(04:38):
Galatians. And it is the, ifthe Holy Spirit had not been
given to us, we would not havethe fruit of the Spirit.
There's an interesting questionthat Paul asked in Galatians
three, and in verse two hesays, this is Paul talking to
the Galatians. In Galatiansthree and verse two, he says,
let me ask you this. Only didyou receive the Spirit by works
(05:03):
of law or by hearing withfaith? Isn't that question
quite interesting? Because Pauldoesn't say, did you receive
the Spirit? He assumes thatthey had received the spirit
and he assumes that they wouldknow that they had received the
spirit. What he asked them is,how did you receive it? Did you
receive it by the law or didyou receive it with hearing in
(05:26):
faith? Now hearing in faithgoes really well with Acts 2
38. You know, believe, repent,confess, be baptized. You've
heard you believe you , youhave faith. You , you follow
through, and then you receivethe gift of the Holy Spirit.
And Paul's making an argumenthere that they have the Spirit.
In fact, he's arguing thatthey, they need to let the
(05:48):
spirit override the flesh. Andin Galatians five, in verse 22,
he says, but the fruit of thespirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness,faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control against such.
There is no law. If the HolySpirit had not been given to
(06:11):
us, I submit to you that therewould be no fruit of the
Spirit. Now, you , you mighttake offense with that. You
say, well, there's people inthe world that have love and
there's people in the worldthat have joy and peace and
patience. And I would say,yeah, that's true. But they
don't have the fruit of thespirit. It's not the fruit of
the spirit. They don't havefaith in Jesus Christ. They
haven't been given the HolySpirit. Now, the second thing
(06:36):
that we would not have if theHoly Spirit had not been given
to us, is a way for God to pourlove into our hearts, at least
according to scripture. Noticeif , if you will, Romans
chapter five, there's a ,there's an amazing verse here
in Romans five, five. It says,and hope does not put us to
(06:57):
shame because God's love hasbeen poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who hasbeen given to us the imagery of
God pouring his love into ourhearts. I mean, it's like a ,
if you , if you think ofsomeone pouring something,
there's an abundance. God hasan abundance of love and he's
gonna pour it into our vessel,which , uh, probably has a
(07:20):
little trouble containing allthe love God pours upon us. And
we kinda get this image, youget the of the Holy Spirit,
kind of like a funnel where Godis pouring his holy his love
through us, through the HolySpirit and whom he has given to
us. If he hadn't given the HolySpirit to us, how is he gonna
pour his love into our hearts?
(07:41):
According to Scripture, theHoly Spirit is how he pours
love into our hearts. I findthat fascinating. I said that
for a person in the audiencewho knows who you are. Um, the
third thing we would not haveis help with our prayers. Now,
most of us, most of us readthis verse and we, we know that
(08:03):
it is there in Romans eight,verse 26, he says, likewise,
the Spirit helps us in ourweakness for we do not know
what to pray for as we ought.
But the Spirit himselfintercedes for us with
groanings too deep for words.
And he who searches the heartknows what is the mind of the
(08:23):
spirit, because the spiritintercedes for the saints
according to the will of God.
Do you need help with yourprayers? I know I do. There are
many times I, I , I seriouslydon't know what to pray for. I
hear of someone's situation andI think, what do I pray for? Do
I pray for healing? Do I prayfor him going on to meet the
(08:46):
Lord? Do I pray for somethingelse? And I don't know, but we
have help with our prayers. Maynot understand it, may not know
everything the Holy Spiritsays, may not know what the
Holy Spirit says, but herewe're told that we have help
with our prayers. He intercedesfor us with groanings too deep
for words, and he does itaccording to the will of God.
(09:09):
If the Holy Spirit had not beengiven to us, I submit to you we
wouldn't have help with ourprayers. If the Holy Spirit had
not been given to us, we wouldnot have the power to hope.
That's one that, that was alittle bit different to me. I
didn't think too much aboutthis power to hope. But in
(09:30):
Romans 15 and verse 13, itsays, may the God of hope fill
you with all joy and peace inbelieving so that, that by the
power of the Holy Spirit, youmay abound in hope, is your
hope from the Holy Spirit. Youmay not see that immediately
(09:53):
may not come to you obviously,but if you think about what the
Holy Spirit does for youoverall, it begins to become
more prevalent. That yeah, ourhope springs from eternal life,
which we're guaranteed by theHoly Spirit. So our hope does
indeed come from the HolySpirit. We abound in hope
(10:15):
through the Holy Spirit. If theHoly Spirit had not been given
to me, I would not besanctified. I would not have
sanctification, at leastaccording to what Paul says
here down a little lower inRomans 15, he's making an
argument that he's a ministerof Christ. He says, to be a
minister of Christ Jesus to theGentiles in the priestly
(10:36):
service of the Gospel of God,so that the offering of the
Gentiles may be acceptable,sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Now that verse could be read ,uh, the offering of the
Gentiles is sanctified or theGentiles themselves are
sanctified. Pretty good chance.
Most of us here today areGentiles. Um, and so our
(10:59):
sanctification we're set apartby the Holy Spirit, God living
with us. That's, that's, that'sone where we need to consider a
little bit. We're gonna , I'mgonna go to John , uh, the
gospel of John. And I know someof you out there are probably
(11:20):
nervous , uh, going to theGospel of John to talk about
the Holy Spirit, but the HolySpirit in the , in the gospels
many times and much is referredto as what God is doing for the
apostles, but I don't believeall of it is some of it.
There's some nuggets there forus in John 14, in verse 22,
Judas not a scar , it said tohim, Lord , how is it that you
(11:44):
will manifest yourself to usand not to the world? Jesus
answered him, if anyone lovesme, he will keep my word and my
father will love him and wewill come to him and make our
home with him. Kind of apromise. God is saying, I'll ,
I'll move in with you if youlove me and you keep my
, I'll move in withyou. And you say , well, that,
(12:06):
that's referring to theapostles. Well, Mike, go that
except Paul doesn't keep itthere. In uh , in First
Corinthians, Paul talks a lotabout the spirit. Paul Pro ,
out of all the writers of theNew Testament, Paul probably
talks about the spirit morethan any of them , though the
other writers do mention it.
But in First Corinthianschapter three and in verse 16,
(12:28):
Paul's making an argument tothe Corinthians and he says, do
you not know that you are God'stemple? That God's spirit
dwells in you? Do you not knowthat? And then in one
Corinthians six, and again,many times when he talks about
(12:48):
the Spirit, there's thiscontrast between the flesh and
the spirit and doing away withthe things of the flesh and
living with the things of thespirit. And in , in one
Corinthians six, in verse 18,he says, flee from sexual
immorality. Every other sin aperson commits is outside the
body, but the sexual immoralperson sins against his own
(13:09):
body. Or do you not know thatyour body is the temple of the
Holy Spirit within you, whomyou have from God? You are not
your own for you were boughtwith a price . So glorify God
in your body, God moved in withyou. Do you , do you think, you
(13:29):
know, if you knew that God wasgoing to move in with you
tomorrow morning when you gotout of church today, would you
not go home and clean thehouse, wash the dishes, maybe
sweep the floor, mop it, maybeeven wash the windows , maybe
do some dusting, God's movingin with you? And that's kind of
(13:51):
the argument of the NewTestament. God is moving in
with us, so we need to get ridof some things of the flesh,
sexual immorality, envy, hate,strife, lying, cheating,
stealing. That needs to bemoved out 'cause God is living
with us. So we need to put onthe fruits of the spirit, love,
(14:15):
joy, peace. So he is makingthat contrast. If the Holy
Spirit had not been given tous, God would not be living
with us. Another thing that wewould not have if the Holy
Spirit had not been given tous, is we would not have the
privilege of belonging toChrist. And Paul makes that
(14:36):
clear in Romans the eighthchapter in Romans chapter
eight, in Romans chapter eight.
And in verse nine he says, you,however are not in the flesh
but in the Spirit. If in factthe Spirit of God dwells in
you. Anyone who does not havethe spirit of Christ, does not
(15:02):
belong to him. The Spiritidentifies us, marks us as
belonging to Christ. You know,in the , in the Book of
Revelation, we talk about themark of the beast. Do you
belong to the beast? Well, theHoly Spirit has given to us to
mark us, to identify us asbelonging to Christ. Without
that gift, where would ouridentifying mark b , who would
(15:26):
we belong to? Paul says, if, ifthe Spirit is in us, then we
belong to Christ tricks you .
Didn't you ? You thought I wasoutta space . If the
Holy Spirit had not been givento me, I would not have God as
my father . In eight verse 14,it says, for all who are led by
(15:51):
the spirit of God are sons ofGod. For you did not receive
the spirit of slavery to fallback into fear. But you have
received the spirit of adoptionas sons by whom we cry. Alba
Father, what he's saying hereis because we are adopted sons
of God, God has given us theSpirit and through the spirit
(16:15):
we can call God our father. Doyou ever say our Father who art
in heaven? You do that becauseGod has given us the spirit to
be because we are his sons. Wedidn't get the spirit before we
became His sons. We are adoptedsons of God and he gave us the
(16:37):
gift of the Holy Spirit. So bythe Spirit we can call God our
Father. Holy Spirit hadn't beengiven to us, we wouldn't be
able to call God our Father.
The Holy Spirit hadn't beengiven to us. We would not be
(16:58):
God's son, we would not be inhis family and we would not
have an inheritance. That'sRomans eight, verse 16. The
Spirit himself bears witnesswith our spirit that we are
children of God. And ifchildren then heirs , heirs of
God and fellow heirs withChrist, provided we suffer with
him in order that we may alsobe glorified with him. If I did
(17:25):
not or had not been given theHoly Spirit, I would not be an
error of God. I would notreceive the things of God. But
because God has adopted me ashis son has made it clear that
I belong to Christ, has made itclear that I will receive an
inheritance. I receive the myinheritance from God because
(17:53):
I'm a son of God, because I'vebeen given the Holy Spirit to
mark me as belonging to Christ.
Wouldn't have that the HolySpirit hadn't been given to me.
And finally, if the Holy Spirithad not been given to me, I
(18:15):
would not have a guarantee ofeternal life. Paul makes a a a
really three different times Hemakes reference to this. It's ,
it's a powerful thing in theNew Testament. If you will turn
with me to two Corinthians intwo Corinthians, chapter one,
two Corinthians chapter one anddown on about verse 22, let's
(18:36):
back up to verse 22.
Corinthians one, verse 20. He'sspeaking about what we have in
Christ. For all the promises ofGod, find their yes in him.
That is in Christ. That is whyit is through him that we have
, that we utter our amen to Godfor his glory. And it is God
(18:58):
who establishes us with you inChrist and has anointed us and
who also has put his seal on usand given us His spirit in our
hearts as a guarantee. God whomade these promises to us,
gives us his spirit in ourhearts as a guarantee that he
(19:22):
will fulfill those promises. Intwo Corinthians five, in verse
four, actually let's pick up inverse two, he talks about what
that promise guarantees, whatwhat promise is guaranteed for.
In this tent we groan, longingto put on our heavenly
dwelling. If indeed by puttingit on we may not be found
(19:42):
naked. For while we are stillin this tent, we groan being
burdened. Not that we would beunclothed, but that we would be
further clothed. So that whatis mortal may be swallowed up
by life. He who has prepared usfor this very thing is God who
has given us the Spirit as aguarantee. Verse says , God has
(20:05):
given us a spirit as aguarantee that this mortal body
will put on immortality.
Someday it will change. And thetwinkling of an eye, it'll be
different. It will not be fleshand blood which cannot inherit
the kingdom of God, but it willbe changed into spirit. And
God's given us the Holy Spiritto guarantee his promise that
(20:30):
he will give us eternal life.
The one we're probably morefamiliar with is an Ephesians.
Ephesians one. And in verse 13it says In him, you also, when
you heard the word of truth,the gospel of your salvation
and believed in him, weresealed with the promised Holy
(20:51):
Spirit who is the guarantee ofour inheritance until we
acquire the possession of it tothe praise of His glory
guarantee. What do we do with aguarantee? You know, if you
ever buy something and you geta guarantee at at first week,
(21:13):
we sometimes have troubleseeing its value, don't we? Eh
, you know , this thing is new.
Why do I need a guarantee? I'mgonna take care of it. Things
are gonna be good, right? Andif we're asked to pay a little
extra for that guarantee, wemight even haggle over that and
say , you know, I , is theguarantee really necessary? Do
I really need that? Uh , Imean, do I have to have a
(21:34):
guarantee? And then we finallydecide, well, okay, I'll take
it. We get the guarantee, wetake it home. And if you're
like me, you hand it to yourwonderful wife who put you in a
magical place. And then when Iask for it, it magically comes
(21:54):
back to me. But most of uswithout that wonderful wife
would probably lose it or putit in a place we couldn't find
it. And then if it did comethat we needed it, we would
have trouble finding thatguarantee. And if we did find
it, we would wonder, is itstill valid? Is it any good?
Has the person who guaranteedthis, are they still in
(22:17):
business? So we, we strugglewith the idea of guarantee, but
our guarantee from God comeswith great value and a very
high cost. Think about this.
You buy a car, you have aguarantee of a hundred thousand
(22:38):
miles. You take it at 90,000miles, it just dies. So you
take it and say, Hey, Iguaranteed a hundred thousand
miles. And they say, did youchange the oil? And you say,
oil. What? Oil? You didn'tmaintain it, did you? Well,
God's taken care of that. He'sgiven us a maintenance program.
(23:01):
Galatians five, verse 22. Butthe fruit of the spirit is
love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness,self-control. What would you
(23:23):
pay to have those things inyour life? How much money would
you give to have the fruit ofthe spirit in your life? I'm
sorry, you cannot afford it.
You don't have the resources,you don't have the price, you
cannot have the fruit of thespirit. But I have good news.
(23:47):
Somebody else paid the cost ofthat warranty. Somebody else
paid the cost of thatguarantee. God himself sent his
son Jesus to die up on thecross To pay the price for
eternal life for each and everyone of us. And then he handed
(24:10):
us a guarantee. Here's theguarantee, the gift of the Holy
Spirit is a guarantee by Godthat he will give you
everything that he's promisedyou. Do you have doubts? Do you
(24:32):
sometimes wonder if God wantsyou to be with him? Do you
sometimes wonder if you'regonna make it to heaven? You
forgot about the guarantee. Youforgot about the fruit of the
Spirit. You forgot about whatGod has paid. You forgot about
the cost. You forgot about howvalid that guarantee is, that
(24:56):
you can have eternal life.
Sometimes we treat things witha little less value than they
deserve. And I think at least Ihave, I've treated the Holy
Spirit with a little lessvalue, actually a lot less
value than I should have. It isGod's promised , guaranteed to
(25:24):
me that I can have eternallife. Let us not grieve the
spirit. Ephesians four verse30, but let us be filled with
the spirit. Ephesians five andverse 18, we may never
understand all there is aboutwhat the Spirit does for us,
(25:45):
how he indwells in our hearts,What he accomplishes. But we
can know that we have the HolySpirit because God said, if
you'll repent, if you'll bebaptized for the remission of
(26:06):
your sins, you'll receive thegift of the Holy Spirit. The
guarantee that I will fulfillall of my promises. That I
promise you . You know, if youthink about it, we we argue
about what the Holy Spirit doesand how the Holy Spirit does it
and all those things, notnecessarily bad things to think
(26:27):
about, but sometimes we fail toaccept the very gift that God
gave us to give us assurancethat he's gonna fulfill all of
his promises. If I were to askyou, did God create the world,
(26:49):
you'd probably say yes. If Isaid, how did he create the
world? You might say, well, hespoke it into existence, which
is true.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
But
Speaker 3 (26:59):
How did that work?
Don't know . But I believe hecreated it. And you may wonder,
God gave us the Holy Spirit.
How did he do that? How is itin our heart? Don't know. But I
know he did it because Ibelieve what God said when he
(27:25):
said He created the world. Ibelieve him. And now he says,
if you'll repent, if you'll bebaptized for the mission of
sins, you'll receive the giftof the Holy Spirit. I believe
that I have received the giftof the Holy Spirit. 'cause God
said it. Don't understand it,don't understand everything
(27:47):
there is to know about it. Butthere's a lot of scriptures
that says, it does a lot ofthings for me, gives me the
power and the hope
Speaker 4 (27:53):
Gives,
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Makes me belong to Christ. It makes me marked as
the Son of God gives me aninheritance. So let's not
quibble about what the HolySpirit does or how the Holy
Spirit does all this stuff, butlet us listen to the word of
(28:14):
God and let us accept the giftof God and thank him for it.
Will you pray with me, ourFather? What a wonderful thing
it is to be able to come to youand say, our Father, Lord, you
(28:37):
have done so much for us. Yourwill to be our God and your
will for us to be your peopleis amazing. Your love for us,
your giving of your only son topay the price that we might
have. Eternal life is sometimeshard to understand. And then
(29:00):
Father, you say, here's my HolySpirit, which guarantees
everything that I promised youthrough Jesus Christ, that you
are indeed my son, and that youwill indeed inherit what I have
and that you will have eternallife. Father, sometimes that is
(29:20):
difficult to understand. Weknow Father, in the Gospel of
Luke that you said you wouldgive the Holy Spirit to those
who ask. And Father, we ask forthe Holy Spirit. We want to
cherish your gift of the HolySpirit. And we want to thank
you, father, for the guaranteethat all your promises will be
(29:45):
fulfilled. Father, help us todo your will and help us to
appreciate the gift that youhave given us for this is our
prayer through Jesus Christ oursavior. Amen.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ Podcast. Monday morningCoffee with Mark. For more
information about Westside, youcan connect with us through our
website, just christians.comand our Facebook page, our
music is from upbeat.io. That'supbeat with two P'S
U-P-P-B-E-A-T, where creatorscan get free music. Please
(30:33):
share our podcast with othersand we look forward to seeing
you again with a cup of coffee.
Of course, on next Monday.
Hello, and welcome to the Westside churches
special Monday Morning Coffeepodcast on this podcast, our
preacher Mark Roberts will helpyou get your week started
right. With look back atyesterday's sermon so that we
can think through it furtherand better work the
applications into our dailylives . Mark will then look
(00:28):
forward into this week's Biblereading so that we can know
what to expect and watch for.
And, he may have some extrabonus thoughts from time to
time. So grab a cup of coffeeas we start the week together
on Monday Morning Coffee withMark.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to the Monday
Morning Coffee podcast forMonday December 30th. I'm Mark,
and I'm not holding sermonnotes or a daily Bible reading
schedule or even a cup ofcoffee because I'm holding
Tamiflu. Yep . On Saturday Iwoke up feeling pretty crummy,
and so I went and got testedand sure enough, I've got the
flu. That meant I didn't get topreach yesterday, so I don't
(01:13):
have preaching notes. And ournew Bible reading plan doesn't
start until Sunday, January5th. So we are off this week in
daily Bible reading. You canread whatever you would like,
make up something you missed orgo back over something that we
read previously this year thatyou wanted to read again, maybe
read a favorite part of God'sword. I want to encourage you
to stay in the word, but youdon't have anything specific
(01:36):
with our daily Bible readingPlan as a congregation for the
week. Now, as a bonus, we'regoing to give you a sermon by
one of our shepherds, BillyHarrington. He preached a
sermon earlier this month atWest Side . Alright , one last
note in the interest of fulldisclosure, of course, I have a
cup of coffee because coffeemakes everything better . Enjoy
Billy's sermon and I will seeyou next week on the podcast.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Morning, glad you're here this morning, visiting
with us online. Also, glad thatyou're here going to , uh, ask
you this morning to think alongwith me. Those that are in my
Bible class will will know someof this material, but I want
you to think along with meabout whether you have received
the Holy Spirit or not, andwe'll begin that in , uh, acts
(02:24):
two. And in verse 38, in Actstwo and verse 38, it says, and
Peter said to them, repent andbe baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ forthe forgiveness of your sins,
and you'll receive the gift ofthe Holy Spirit. If I were to
(02:45):
ask you this morning, do youattend a Holy Spirit filled
church? How would you answerthat? If I were to ask you, do
you have the Holy Spirit? Whatwould you say? You know, we're,
we're pretty comfortable withActs 2 38. We go there all the
time and we, I should say we'repretty comfortable with the
(03:06):
first half of Acts 2 38. We gothere all the time, repent and
be baptized, and you shallreceived . The gift of the Holy
Spirit is a little bitdifferent. We , we wonder about
that. And many lessons havebeen taught on this. Some have
take it from the point of viewthat they believe that this is
referring to spiritual gifts.
When he says, you receive thegift of the Holy Spirit, there
(03:28):
are some who believe that thisis the ability to receive
spiritual gifts. I havepreached a lesson that this ,
uh, refers to salvation. Themore I look at it, the more I'm
convinced that it is indeed thegift of the Holy Spirit. Now,
(03:48):
all the approaches that aretaken for this verse have some
merit and should be considered.
However, I want us to approachit from a little different
point of view this morning. Iwant us to ask the question
according to scripture,according to Scripture, what
would, what would I not have ifthe Holy Spirit had not been
(04:15):
given to me ? Now, if you havequestions about this or
disagree with what I have tosay this morning, feel free to
come and talk to me. I'd behappy to talk with you about it
further. But I wanted to lookat scripture and see the things
that we would not have if theHoly Spirit if not been given
to us. And one of the firstthings I want to look at is
(04:38):
Galatians. And it is the, ifthe Holy Spirit had not been
given to us, we would not havethe fruit of the Spirit.
There's an interesting questionthat Paul asked in Galatians
three, and in verse two hesays, this is Paul talking to
the Galatians. In Galatiansthree and verse two, he says,
let me ask you this. Only didyou receive the Spirit by works
(05:03):
of law or by hearing withfaith? Isn't that question
quite interesting? Because Pauldoesn't say, did you receive
the Spirit? He assumes thatthey had received the spirit
and he assumes that they wouldknow that they had received the
spirit. What he asked them is,how did you receive it? Did you
receive it by the law or didyou receive it with hearing in
(05:26):
faith? Now hearing in faithgoes really well with Acts 2
38. You know, believe, repent,confess, be baptized. You've
heard you believe you , youhave faith. You , you follow
through, and then you receivethe gift of the Holy Spirit.
And Paul's making an argumenthere that they have the Spirit.
In fact, he's arguing thatthey, they need to let the
(05:48):
spirit override the flesh. Andin Galatians five, in verse 22,
he says, but the fruit of thespirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness,faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control against such.
There is no law. If the HolySpirit had not been given to
(06:11):
us, I submit to you that therewould be no fruit of the
Spirit. Now, you , you mighttake offense with that. You
say, well, there's people inthe world that have love and
there's people in the worldthat have joy and peace and
patience. And I would say,yeah, that's true. But they
don't have the fruit of thespirit. It's not the fruit of
the spirit. They don't havefaith in Jesus Christ. They
haven't been given the HolySpirit. Now, the second thing
(06:36):
that we would not have if theHoly Spirit had not been given
to us, is a way for God to pourlove into our hearts, at least
according to scripture. Noticeif , if you will, Romans
chapter five, there's a ,there's an amazing verse here
in Romans five, five. It says,and hope does not put us to
(06:57):
shame because God's love hasbeen poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who hasbeen given to us the imagery of
God pouring his love into ourhearts. I mean, it's like a ,
if you , if you think ofsomeone pouring something,
there's an abundance. God hasan abundance of love and he's
gonna pour it into our vessel,which , uh, probably has a
(07:20):
little trouble containing allthe love God pours upon us. And
we kinda get this image, youget the of the Holy Spirit,
kind of like a funnel where Godis pouring his holy his love
through us, through the HolySpirit and whom he has given to
us. If he hadn't given the HolySpirit to us, how is he gonna
pour his love into our hearts?
(07:41):
According to Scripture, theHoly Spirit is how he pours
love into our hearts. I findthat fascinating. I said that
for a person in the audiencewho knows who you are. Um, the
third thing we would not haveis help with our prayers. Now,
most of us, most of us readthis verse and we, we know that
(08:03):
it is there in Romans eight,verse 26, he says, likewise,
the Spirit helps us in ourweakness for we do not know
what to pray for as we ought.
But the Spirit himselfintercedes for us with
groanings too deep for words.
And he who searches the heartknows what is the mind of the
(08:23):
spirit, because the spiritintercedes for the saints
according to the will of God.
Do you need help with yourprayers? I know I do. There are
many times I, I , I seriouslydon't know what to pray for. I
hear of someone's situation andI think, what do I pray for? Do
I pray for healing? Do I prayfor him going on to meet the
(08:46):
Lord? Do I pray for somethingelse? And I don't know, but we
have help with our prayers. Maynot understand it, may not know
everything the Holy Spiritsays, may not know what the
Holy Spirit says, but herewe're told that we have help
with our prayers. He intercedesfor us with groanings too deep
for words, and he does itaccording to the will of God.
(09:09):
If the Holy Spirit had not beengiven to us, I submit to you we
wouldn't have help with ourprayers. If the Holy Spirit had
not been given to us, we wouldnot have the power to hope.
That's one that, that was alittle bit different to me. I
didn't think too much aboutthis power to hope. But in
(09:30):
Romans 15 and verse 13, itsays, may the God of hope fill
you with all joy and peace inbelieving so that, that by the
power of the Holy Spirit, youmay abound in hope, is your
hope from the Holy Spirit. Youmay not see that immediately
(09:53):
may not come to you obviously,but if you think about what the
Holy Spirit does for youoverall, it begins to become
more prevalent. That yeah, ourhope springs from eternal life,
which we're guaranteed by theHoly Spirit. So our hope does
indeed come from the HolySpirit. We abound in hope
(10:15):
through the Holy Spirit. If theHoly Spirit had not been given
to me, I would not besanctified. I would not have
sanctification, at leastaccording to what Paul says
here down a little lower inRomans 15, he's making an
argument that he's a ministerof Christ. He says, to be a
minister of Christ Jesus to theGentiles in the priestly
(10:36):
service of the Gospel of God,so that the offering of the
Gentiles may be acceptable,sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Now that verse could be read ,uh, the offering of the
Gentiles is sanctified or theGentiles themselves are
sanctified. Pretty good chance.
Most of us here today areGentiles. Um, and so our
(10:59):
sanctification we're set apartby the Holy Spirit, God living
with us. That's, that's, that'sone where we need to consider a
little bit. We're gonna , I'mgonna go to John , uh, the
gospel of John. And I know someof you out there are probably
(11:20):
nervous , uh, going to theGospel of John to talk about
the Holy Spirit, but the HolySpirit in the , in the gospels
many times and much is referredto as what God is doing for the
apostles, but I don't believeall of it is some of it.
There's some nuggets there forus in John 14, in verse 22,
Judas not a scar , it said tohim, Lord , how is it that you
(11:44):
will manifest yourself to usand not to the world? Jesus
answered him, if anyone lovesme, he will keep my word and my
father will love him and wewill come to him and make our
home with him. Kind of apromise. God is saying, I'll ,
I'll move in with you if youlove me and you keep my
(12:06):
that's referring to theapostles. Well, Mike, go that
except Paul doesn't keep itthere. In uh , in First
Corinthians, Paul talks a lotabout the spirit. Paul Pro ,
out of all the writers of theNew Testament, Paul probably
talks about the spirit morethan any of them , though the
other writers do mention it.
But in First Corinthianschapter three and in verse 16,
(12:28):
Paul's making an argument tothe Corinthians and he says, do
you not know that you are God'stemple? That God's spirit
dwells in you? Do you not knowthat? And then in one
Corinthians six, and again,many times when he talks about
(12:48):
the Spirit, there's thiscontrast between the flesh and
the spirit and doing away withthe things of the flesh and
living with the things of thespirit. And in , in one
Corinthians six, in verse 18,he says, flee from sexual
immorality. Every other sin aperson commits is outside the
body, but the sexual immoralperson sins against his own
(13:09):
body. Or do you not know thatyour body is the temple of the
Holy Spirit within you, whomyou have from God? You are not
your own for you were boughtwith a price . So glorify God
in your body, God moved in withyou. Do you , do you think, you
(13:29):
know, if you knew that God wasgoing to move in with you
tomorrow morning when you gotout of church today, would you
not go home and clean thehouse, wash the dishes, maybe
sweep the floor, mop it, maybeeven wash the windows , maybe
do some dusting, God's movingin with you? And that's kind of
(13:51):
the argument of the NewTestament. God is moving in
with us, so we need to get ridof some things of the flesh,
sexual immorality, envy, hate,strife, lying, cheating,
stealing. That needs to bemoved out 'cause God is living
with us. So we need to put onthe fruits of the spirit, love,
(14:15):
joy, peace. So he is makingthat contrast. If the Holy
Spirit had not been given tous, God would not be living
with us. Another thing that wewould not have if the Holy
Spirit had not been given tous, is we would not have the
privilege of belonging toChrist. And Paul makes that
(14:36):
clear in Romans the eighthchapter in Romans chapter
eight, in Romans chapter eight.
And in verse nine he says, you,however are not in the flesh
but in the Spirit. If in factthe Spirit of God dwells in
you. Anyone who does not havethe spirit of Christ, does not
(15:02):
belong to him. The Spiritidentifies us, marks us as
belonging to Christ. You know,in the , in the Book of
Revelation, we talk about themark of the beast. Do you
belong to the beast? Well, theHoly Spirit has given to us to
mark us, to identify us asbelonging to Christ. Without
that gift, where would ouridentifying mark b , who would
(15:26):
we belong to? Paul says, if, ifthe Spirit is in us, then we
belong to Christ tricks you .
Didn't you ? You thought I wasoutta space
Holy Spirit had not been givento me, I would not have God as
my father . In eight verse 14,it says, for all who are led by
(15:51):
the spirit of God are sons ofGod. For you did not receive
the spirit of slavery to fallback into fear. But you have
received the spirit of adoptionas sons by whom we cry. Alba
Father, what he's saying hereis because we are adopted sons
of God, God has given us theSpirit and through the spirit
(16:15):
we can call God our father. Doyou ever say our Father who art
in heaven? You do that becauseGod has given us the spirit to
be because we are his sons. Wedidn't get the spirit before we
became His sons. We are adoptedsons of God and he gave us the
(16:37):
gift of the Holy Spirit. So bythe Spirit we can call God our
Father. Holy Spirit hadn't beengiven to us, we wouldn't be
able to call God our Father.
The Holy Spirit hadn't beengiven to us. We would not be
(16:58):
God's son, we would not be inhis family and we would not
have an inheritance. That'sRomans eight, verse 16. The
Spirit himself bears witnesswith our spirit that we are
children of God. And ifchildren then heirs , heirs of
God and fellow heirs withChrist, provided we suffer with
him in order that we may alsobe glorified with him. If I did
(17:25):
not or had not been given theHoly Spirit, I would not be an
error of God. I would notreceive the things of God. But
because God has adopted me ashis son has made it clear that
I belong to Christ, has made itclear that I will receive an
inheritance. I receive the myinheritance from God because
(17:53):
I'm a son of God, because I'vebeen given the Holy Spirit to
mark me as belonging to Christ.
Wouldn't have that the HolySpirit hadn't been given to me.
And finally, if the Holy Spirithad not been given to me, I
(18:15):
would not have a guarantee ofeternal life. Paul makes a a a
really three different times Hemakes reference to this. It's ,
it's a powerful thing in theNew Testament. If you will turn
with me to two Corinthians intwo Corinthians, chapter one,
two Corinthians chapter one anddown on about verse 22, let's
(18:36):
back up to verse 22.
Corinthians one, verse 20. He'sspeaking about what we have in
Christ. For all the promises ofGod, find their yes in him.
That is in Christ. That is whyit is through him that we have
, that we utter our amen to Godfor his glory. And it is God
(18:58):
who establishes us with you inChrist and has anointed us and
who also has put his seal on usand given us His spirit in our
hearts as a guarantee. God whomade these promises to us,
gives us his spirit in ourhearts as a guarantee that he
(19:22):
will fulfill those promises. Intwo Corinthians five, in verse
four, actually let's pick up inverse two, he talks about what
that promise guarantees, whatwhat promise is guaranteed for.
In this tent we groan, longingto put on our heavenly
dwelling. If indeed by puttingit on we may not be found
(19:42):
naked. For while we are stillin this tent, we groan being
burdened. Not that we would beunclothed, but that we would be
further clothed. So that whatis mortal may be swallowed up
by life. He who has prepared usfor this very thing is God who
has given us the Spirit as aguarantee. Verse says , God has
(20:05):
given us a spirit as aguarantee that this mortal body
will put on immortality.
Someday it will change. And thetwinkling of an eye, it'll be
different. It will not be fleshand blood which cannot inherit
the kingdom of God, but it willbe changed into spirit. And
God's given us the Holy Spiritto guarantee his promise that
(20:30):
he will give us eternal life.
The one we're probably morefamiliar with is an Ephesians.
Ephesians one. And in verse 13it says In him, you also, when
you heard the word of truth,the gospel of your salvation
and believed in him, weresealed with the promised Holy
(20:51):
Spirit who is the guarantee ofour inheritance until we
acquire the possession of it tothe praise of His glory
guarantee. What do we do with aguarantee? You know, if you
ever buy something and you geta guarantee at at first week,
(21:13):
we sometimes have troubleseeing its value, don't we? Eh
, you know , this thing is new.
Why do I need a guarantee? I'mgonna take care of it. Things
are gonna be good, right? Andif we're asked to pay a little
extra for that guarantee, wemight even haggle over that and
say , you know, I , is theguarantee really necessary? Do
I really need that? Uh , Imean, do I have to have a
(21:34):
guarantee? And then we finallydecide, well, okay, I'll take
it. We get the guarantee, wetake it home. And if you're
like me, you hand it to yourwonderful wife who put you in a
magical place. And then when Iask for it, it magically comes
(21:54):
back to me. But most of uswithout that wonderful wife
would probably lose it or putit in a place we couldn't find
it. And then if it did comethat we needed it, we would
have trouble finding thatguarantee. And if we did find
it, we would wonder, is itstill valid? Is it any good?
Has the person who guaranteedthis, are they still in
(22:17):
business? So we, we strugglewith the idea of guarantee, but
our guarantee from God comeswith great value and a very
high cost. Think about this.
You buy a car, you have aguarantee of a hundred thousand
(22:38):
miles. You take it at 90,000miles, it just dies. So you
take it and say, Hey, Iguaranteed a hundred thousand
miles. And they say, did youchange the oil? And you say,
oil. What? Oil? You didn'tmaintain it, did you? Well,
God's taken care of that. He'sgiven us a maintenance program.
(23:01):
Galatians five, verse 22. Butthe fruit of the spirit is
love, joy, peace, patience,kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness,self-control. What would you
(23:23):
pay to have those things inyour life? How much money would
you give to have the fruit ofthe spirit in your life? I'm
sorry, you cannot afford it.
You don't have the resources,you don't have the price, you
cannot have the fruit of thespirit. But I have good news.
(23:47):
Somebody else paid the cost ofthat warranty. Somebody else
paid the cost of thatguarantee. God himself sent his
son Jesus to die up on thecross To pay the price for
eternal life for each and everyone of us. And then he handed
(24:10):
us a guarantee. Here's theguarantee, the gift of the Holy
Spirit is a guarantee by Godthat he will give you
everything that he's promisedyou. Do you have doubts? Do you
(24:32):
sometimes wonder if God wantsyou to be with him? Do you
sometimes wonder if you'regonna make it to heaven? You
forgot about the guarantee. Youforgot about the fruit of the
Spirit. You forgot about whatGod has paid. You forgot about
the cost. You forgot about howvalid that guarantee is, that
(24:56):
you can have eternal life.
Sometimes we treat things witha little less value than they
deserve. And I think at least Ihave, I've treated the Holy
Spirit with a little lessvalue, actually a lot less
value than I should have. It isGod's promised , guaranteed to
(25:24):
me that I can have eternallife. Let us not grieve the
spirit. Ephesians four verse30, but let us be filled with
the spirit. Ephesians five andverse 18, we may never
understand all there is aboutwhat the Spirit does for us,
(25:45):
how he indwells in our hearts,What he accomplishes. But we
can know that we have the HolySpirit because God said, if
you'll repent, if you'll bebaptized for the remission of
(26:06):
your sins, you'll receive thegift of the Holy Spirit. The
guarantee that I will fulfillall of my promises. That I
promise you . You know, if youthink about it, we we argue
about what the Holy Spirit doesand how the Holy Spirit does it
and all those things, notnecessarily bad things to think
(26:27):
about, but sometimes we fail toaccept the very gift that God
gave us to give us assurancethat he's gonna fulfill all of
his promises. If I were to askyou, did God create the world,
(26:49):
you'd probably say yes. If Isaid, how did he create the
world? You might say, well, hespoke it into existence, which
is true.
Speaker 4 (26:59):
But
Speaker 3 (26:59):
How did that work?
Don't know . But I believe hecreated it. And you may wonder,
God gave us the Holy Spirit.
How did he do that? How is itin our heart? Don't know. But I
know he did it because Ibelieve what God said when he
(27:25):
said He created the world. Ibelieve him. And now he says,
if you'll repent, if you'll bebaptized for the mission of
sins, you'll receive the giftof the Holy Spirit. I believe
that I have received the giftof the Holy Spirit. 'cause God
said it. Don't understand it,don't understand everything
(27:47):
there is to know about it. Butthere's a lot of scriptures
that says, it does a lot ofthings for me, gives me the
power and the hope
Speaker 4 (27:53):
Gives,
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Makes me belong to Christ. It makes me marked as
the Son of God gives me aninheritance. So let's not
quibble about what the HolySpirit does or how the Holy
Spirit does all this stuff, butlet us listen to the word of
(28:14):
God and let us accept the giftof God and thank him for it.
Will you pray with me, ourFather? What a wonderful thing
it is to be able to come to youand say, our Father, Lord, you
(28:37):
have done so much for us. Yourwill to be our God and your
will for us to be your peopleis amazing. Your love for us,
your giving of your only son topay the price that we might
have. Eternal life is sometimeshard to understand. And then
(29:00):
Father, you say, here's my HolySpirit, which guarantees
everything that I promised youthrough Jesus Christ, that you
are indeed my son, and that youwill indeed inherit what I have
and that you will have eternallife. Father, sometimes that is
(29:20):
difficult to understand. Weknow Father, in the Gospel of
Luke that you said you wouldgive the Holy Spirit to those
who ask. And Father, we ask forthe Holy Spirit. We want to
cherish your gift of the HolySpirit. And we want to thank
you, father, for the guaranteethat all your promises will be
(29:45):
fulfilled. Father, help us todo your will and help us to
appreciate the gift that youhave given us for this is our
prayer through Jesus Christ oursavior. Amen.
Speaker 1 (30:08):
Thanks for listening to the Westside Church of
Christ Podcast. Monday morningCoffee with Mark. For more
information about Westside, youcan connect with us through our
website, just christians.comand our Facebook page, our
music is from upbeat.io. That'supbeat with two P'S
U-P-P-B-E-A-T, where creatorscan get free music. Please
(30:33):
share our podcast with othersand we look forward to seeing
you again with a cup of coffee.
Of course, on next Monday.
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