Won't He do it.

James Byrd

won't he do it • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

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Good morning, CHURCH!

(Opening joke)

As I was gathering my sermon, I couldn’t help thinking about a story of a little girl who was home alone, and she got really sick.

She called her mother at work and told her, “Mom, I need you and I need you really bad.”

Of course, her mom left work and frantically rushed down to the corner drug store to bring home some medicine.

She noticed it was beginning to rain, but she thought she would just “run in and out” to get the medicine for her sick daughter.

When she came back to her car, she noticed something that she couldn’t believe.

She had locked her keys in the car.

She ran inside to get help from the employees but none of them seemed to know what to do and finally they gave her a clothes hanger and said, “good luck!”

She ran back to her can, frantically trying to get the door open.

The more she tried, the harder it rained and suddenly, it started pouring buckets of rain.

Out of desperation, she cried out “Lord, I need your help and I need you right now!”

Instantly, an old pickup truck pulled right next to her.

She looked up and saw this man approaching her. He was dirty and had a raggedy hat on top of his head with scars and tattoos all over his body.

This was the kind of guy in which you wouldn’t want to come across as a lady all alone.

Without thinking she embraced this man and said, “Sir, could you possibly help me. My daughter is sick at home, and I must get this medicine to her as soon as possible and I have locked my keys in the car.”

Within a minute or two, this man successfully unlocked her car.

Out of joy, she gave him a huge hug, and said, “you’re such a nice man.”

The man pushed her away and said, “no, ma’am, I’m not!

You see, I have just escaped from prison, and I steal cars for a living!”

Without any hesitation, this woman looked up toward heaven and said, “Thank you God, I asked for help to get my car unlocked and you sent me a professional!!!”

Won’t He do it.

Are you ready to be equipped today?

Let me see your Bibles.

Let’s go to the book of Matthew 11:28-30 ESV for this week’s wisdom Vaccination.

This Week’s Wisdom Vaccination

Matthew 11:28-30 ESV

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

“Are you weary, carrying a heavy burden? Come to me.

I will refresh your life, for I am your oasis.

God’s plan for us is not to weigh us down, but give us rest.

God has a purpose for you, but his purpose isn't an unbearable burden, it's an appropriate load.

All you need to do is simply join your life with His.

And you don't have to accomplish it alone, you can be yoked to Jesus.

Learn his ways and you’ll discover that He is gentle, humble, and easy to please.

You will find refreshment and rest in Him.

His requirements of you will be pleasant and easy too bear.”

If your load is too much to bear, you’re either doing it in your own strength or it’s not His load that your trying to fulfill.

Today’s message title is:

Won’t He do it

We’re going to continue in the arena of which I spoke from last week and that is talking about Holy Spirit.

We so need to be more familiar with Holy Spirit because he will make the difference between human wisdom and Godly wisdom.

We’re living in a time where you don’t know what’s going on in the minds of people.

You can be working with someone for years and suddenly they snap.

It almost seems as if no place is off limits for tragedy to strike.

We need a difference maker in this world for the believer.

We need someone to tilt the balance of favor in our direction.

As we talked about last week, we need a cheat sheet for life.

Point #1

He convicts

The world is a sinful place.

And one of the Holy Spirit’s tasks is to convict the world of its sin.

No amount of preaching, pleading, or pointing of fingers will bring about the conviction of sin, unless the Holy Spirit is at work in the sinner’s heart.

It is the Spirit’s job to convict. Not ours.

Question? What is the most basic sin of which the world is guilty?

Jesus specifies it as the sin of unbelief.

The convicting power of the Holy Spirit is at work in the world because they don’t believe in Christ.

Once a person responds to the Spirit’s conviction and turns to faith in Christ, the other sins he/she have practiced will be taken care of in time.

There is a righteousness that the world tries to deny and it is found demonstrated in Christ.

The only way to be in right standings with God the Father is through Christ.

Now, how do we assist Holy Spirit in convicting the world of sin?

First, let’s realize that Jesus was the first one to convict the world of its sin and of its unbelief.

The Holy Spirit is just continuing that work.

So, in a sense the Holy Spirit is assisting Jesus and we need to find out how Holy Spirit assists Jesus and do our best to assist him.

Let’s begin with Jesus throwing assists to God.

Everything Jesus ever said and did was the consummate expression of God the Father.

John 8:28 ESV

So, Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.

And then the Holy Spirit turns around and does the same thing concerning Jesus.

John 14:26 ESV

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

So, what do you think we should be doing?

How about saying and doing everything Holy Spirit tells us.

This is how we win the world over to God.

Not by doing and saying everything that we think we should do or say.

Point #2

He keeps us on track

John 15:26-27 ESV

But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

It is so important that we really know the Father through Jesus.

There are a lot of religions floating a lot of theories around these days.

And when you don’t really know the Father you can do a lot of things off base, thinking you’re doing what’s right.

If you read a little further in the passage, you’ll see Jesus warning of that very thing.

John 16:1-2 ESV

“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.

This is why having an intimate relationship with Holy Spirit is so important.

Left up to our own understanding, we can get off and I mean really get off.

(Dr A and I recently watched a documentary on Hulu of a well-known leader of a Christian University who got so far off it amazed us.)

And you like us may wonder how they could do such things.

How could Christian leaders get so far off the path?

John 16:3 ESV

And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.

And today we could say, they have not known the Father, Christ, nor Holy Spirit.

It is imperative that we know the Father.

And we only know Him through Jesus and we only know Jesus through Holy Spirit.

Point #3

He points us to truth

When you bring up the word truth in today’s time, it can spark some serious debates, depending on who you are talking to.

Society would have you to believe that truth is some ever-changing commodity on a spinning time wheel.

One of the reasons that truth seems to be ever-changing today is because of the phrase “My truth.”

This guy Tim Kight who is a leadership consultant wrote, “Truth exists independent of what someone believes.”

If I believe that ice on a lake is thick, when it is actually thin, my belief or my truth does not change the thickness of the ice. (So, If I go skating!!!)

Pontius Pilate questioned truth.

John 18:37-38a ESV

Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose, I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 38 Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

If you are still questioning truth, you’re not going to find it in philosophical debates in the barber shop.

The ultimate truth is that God created all of this and is smarter than all of us and we should submit to His way of doing things.

This is not an ever-changing truth.

This goes back to the beginning of creation.

The Bible says that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the light.

John 16:13-14 ESV

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

The Holy Spirit is just like Jesus in this way as well.

He is the truth.

(Closing illustration)

If you’re watching online or you’re live in the building, I have a very important question to ask you.