Holy Spirit is a Person
Who is the Holy Spirit? • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewIn today’s message, we will introduce the new series on we are beginning and unpack how the Holy Spirit is a person just like the Father and Son.
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April 7th 2024
Series: Who is the Holy Spirit?
Sermon Title: Holy Spirit is a Person
Topic: Journey to help us learn who the Holy Spirit was, is, and will always be and how the Holy Spirit is active in our lives today.
Key Passages: 2 Corinthians 5: 1-10, 1 Corinthians 2: 9-15, 1 Corinthians 12:11, Romans 15:30
Sermon Blurb: In today’s message, we will introduce the new series on we are beginning and unpack how the Holy Spirit is a person just like the Father and Son.
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Sermon:
Hello Family Church!
Family Moment –
Start with something personal from your family life recently to help people get to know you.
PAUSE
Those of you who are new, or newer, to Family Church we are SUPER happy you are with us today!
Today, we launch into a whole new series at Family Church, so if today is your first day here… you picked a GREAT day to start!!!!!
But before we jump into that new series, I want to re-wind and give a little perspective on things….
Here at Family Church, we LOVE expository preaching, which means simply reading the Bible word for word and then just explaining what it says.
And a lot of you might think that is what most churches do…
But it really is not.
Most churches look at the calendar and say…
Ok, we have four weeks this month and want to teach about love, or marriage, or any other hot topic of the day.
Then, they go and find passages in the Bible to prove the points they want to make and craft the messages around that.
We don’t do that.
At Family Church, our model is to simply grab the Bible…
Read the Bible…
As the Bible makes points… we just point them out.
As the Bible makes applications to your life… we just point them out…
Because we believe at Family Church, God’s Word is always more powerful than any Pastor’s word or points.
PAUSE
That is why when God called Pastor Adam to go after this church plant back in 2017, he called him to preach through the life of Jesus.
That meant that from 2017 to 2021, we walked through Jesus' life chronologically in the Bible!
We invested almost four years into learning about who Jesus was, is, and will always be.
Then, in 2022, we began walking through the Book of Acts line by line and verse by verse…
That continued all the way through last month!
We have invested almost two years into learning about the church Jesus launched right after his resurrection.
How did the early church live out the things Jesus called them to do?
How did the early church effectively change a culture that was hostile to them?
And so much more….
PAUSE
And we did that because of the vision of our church...
Our vision here at Family Church is NOT to create some new creative church movement….
NOT to be the hip new church…
NOT to be the new culturally relevant church…
NOT to be the new socially relevant church…
NOT to be the biggest church in town…
Our goal is quite simple….
Our goal is to be a church that lives and operates like the church in the Bible….
That is, it.
We just want to get back to the basics that worked for the first church.
We want to teach the Bible like they did.
We want to teach people to live like Jesus… like the first church did.
We want to operate under the power of the Holy Spirit like the early church did.
PAUSE
And speaking of the Holy Spirit…..
That is the series we are picking up in today!!!!
Today, we are starting a new series dedicated to helping us all learn about Who the Holy Spirit is!
And it is going to be a Fun journey you are NOT going to want to miss!!!!
PAUSE
And let me start by saying this…
One of the things that most people LOVE about Family Church is how we are a church made up of people from literally every church tradition!
And how it is SOOOOOO amazing that we can all gather and worship God together and have different views on things but NOT fight!
If you are not aware, our church has a LOT of Pentecostal people who know A LOT about the Holy Spirit!!!
Because the Pentecostal church talks a LOT about the Holy Spirit!
We also have a LOT of other denominational folks who have varying levels of knowledge about the Holy Spirit because of what they are taught in those denominations….
Catholics do not learn the same things Wesleyans do.
Reformed people do not learn the same thing as Baptists.
E-Free people do not learn the same thing as Vinyard people.
Greek Orthodox do not learn the same thing as Christan Reformed people.
And I could go on and on with all the different denominations represented at Family Church….
We know….
In a room of this size…
There are a LOT of different opinions on the Holy Spirit.
And that is ok….
In this series we are simply going to open our Bibles and learn from God what God reveals to us about the PERSON of the Holy Spirit.
ADD YOUR PERSONAL BACKGROUND ON Holy Spirit
You can use me as an example….
Great parents raised me…
As my dad was promoted and we moved around, we always found a great church to attend…
And the cool part about that was it was usually a different denomination.
But for some reason growing up in the various churches I did…
Even into adulthood and the various church I then attended….
I was taught Pentecostal people are weirdos….
Not to go to one of those kinds of churches…
And so I didn’t…
I will be honest….
I knew a LOT about Jesus…
I knew a LOT about God the Father….
But I was perfectly cool NOT knowing about the Holy Spirit…
Then one day it all changed because of God….
I kid you not; for us, it happened when we moved to Missouri…
Way before I was a pastor…
When I was still in the construction industry…
My wife woke up one morning and prayed for God to help her meet a friend…
She went to the park with our 2 kids at that time…and the whole day only met one grandmother…
Who, at the END of the day, said to my wife…
“My kids are a part of a church plant in the YMCA and I think you would like them…you should come to church Sunday and meet them.”
It's a weird thing to say to an adult….
But hey…..we were new to the area and my wife needed some friends…so we went to this church plant that Sunday….
We met her kids….and really did hit it off!
They were the kid's leaders, and we became friends!
Then we became friends with the guy who planted the church…
We joined their small group and fell in love with the church…
Then one day… in church… behind us I heard a guy speaking in some weird language and we learned we had fallen in love with a PENTECOSTAL church!!!!
That they were NOT weirdos!
That they were GREAT people!
Great people who Loved God the Son, God the Father, AND God the Spirit!
And we began a journey of learning about Holy Spirit and it changed our lives….
PAUSE
And it is our hope that as we all learn about the Holy Spirit in the months… or years… ahead, it will change our lives as well….
Anyone ready to get into this study together and see where God takes us???
I cannot wait to see where God takes us!
When we started the Jesus series, we were a church of less than 200 with one location and one service….
By the end of that, we were a church with three services and over 1,000 people in attendance.
With a BIG ministry God gave us in Kenya called as well!
We ended the Acts series; we had 7 services, 4 locations, and thousands who attended!
With a BIG ministry in Kenya, Brazil, and El Salvador!
So….who knows where we will end this journey!!!!
PAUSE
So…. Let’s begin!
And we need to begin by making sure we all understand the Holy Spirit is a person just like God the Father is and Jesus is.
In fact, write that down.
The Holy Spirit is a person.
Repeat
It is impossible to understand the work of the Holy Spirit until we get to know Him personally.
The problem is so many Christians discredit the Holy Spirit because we think of Him as just a force…
Just a spirit…
Just a part of God…
Just an impersonal influencer for God…
And if you are not sure if you are in that camp, think about this…
When you pray to God…
Do you ever pray to the Holy Spirit?
Or do you pray to the Father and Jesus?
When you ask God for help…
Do you ever ask the Holy Spirit to help?
Or do you only ask Jesus and the Father?
When you thank God…
Do you ever thank the Holy Spirit for guiding you?
Or do you thank Jesus and the Father only?
PAUSE
If you grew up in a traditional church… like I did… you grew up singing the Doxology…which says you believe in the Holy Spirit…put those words on the screen…
How does that end???
Father…son, and who church???
If you grew up Catholic, Orthodox, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist or Baptists you might remember singing the Gloria Patri which says this… look at the screen…
Glory to Father, Son, and who church?
A lot of churches taught us the Apostles Creed…which talks about the Holy Spirit in two places and Jesus and the Father in only 1 if you never noticed…. Let me read that to you…it is on the screens…
PAUSE
It is one thing to say we believe in someone or something, in theory vs practically.
It is one thing to sing words.
Or to read Creeds…
It is quite another thing to realize the meaning of what we read or sing.
PAUSE
See… When you think about the Holy Spirit as just a power or force for influence or help…
Then you will constantly be seeking to get a hold of the Holy Spirit to USE it…
To get more of it…
Because you want what it has for you…
When you think about the Holy Spirit as just a power or force for influence or help…
We need to just get a hold of the Holy Spirit to use it…
Which leads to self-confidence if we can…
Self-exaltation if we are more successful than other people…
And an endless parade of showing off how HOLY we are compared to others who are not as FILLED with the Holy Spirit as we are…
Then we can strut around thinking we are a superior class of Christians…
PAUSE
But when you think about the Holy Spirit as FULLY God, it changes everything…
Because when we come before God, we realize we are the one who needs to change….
We are the one who has to submit…
We don’t seek God to just take from him…
But to be changed by him…
And the Holy Spirit is God living inside us to do that!
To change us!!!!
PAUSE
And you can say…
Pastor all that is good…
And I get it….
But none of that proves the Holy Spirit is a person…
So, what are the distinctive marks of personhood?
I would say three things:
1. Knowledge
2. Feeling
3. Willpower
Anyone who knows, feels and has will power is a person.
It is not about a physical body…
And that is a GOOD thing because one day we will ALL die and our physical bodies will cease to exist!!!
BUT our SOUL…
Our personhood will not cease to exist!!!!
2 Corinthians talks about this…
Let me show you….
2 Corinthians 5: 1-10 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
Stop there…
This earthly tent…meaning your physical body…
One day, it will be destroyed…one day, your body will be gone…
But that is OK…we have a new body built by God.
That is designed for heaven….
We don’t cease to be…when we no longer have our earthly bodies…
Verse 2
2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.
4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling,
so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God,
who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
Did you hear that church?
God gave us the Spirit as a deposit…
The Holy Spirit to live inside us…
To guarantee for us what IS to come in the future!!!!
When the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, lives inside you and me we have a guarantee that we are getting into heaven when we die!!!
That is some REALLY GOOD NEWS!!!!
The Bible even says that….look at verse 6…
6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.
7 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Church…one day we will all stand before God’s throne in heaven to stand accountable for what we did in this life….
The Good…
AND the bad…
But there is GOOD NEWS!!!
If you have a relationship with the Holy Spirit…
You have God literally living inside you!!!
You will slowly…over the course of your life look more and more like God…
The Holy Spirit will help you overcome your sins, addictions, bad habits, wrong priories and so on!
The Holy Spirit will change you….IF…you allow Him to…
PAUSE
But there is more GOOD NEWS….
If you have a relationship with Jesus…you will have Jesus there to stand before you and present you as a pure and spotless person to God the Father!!!!
Because of the sacrifice of Jesus you will be accepted into heaven!
PAUSE
Let me show you another passage that will help you see the personhood of the Holy Spirit…
1 Corinthians 2: 9-15 However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” the things God has prepared for those who love him.
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them?
In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.
13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.
14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness,
and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,
1 Corinthians 12:11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
As HE…
As the Holy Spirit determines…
As HE wills…
The Holy Spirit exhibits…knowledge…will…feeling… clearly in the Bible…
And you can see very clearly how the Holy Spirit can work in your life in this passage…
The Holy Spirit will teach you things.
The Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see things from God’s perspective.
I mean if you ever look around at culture and think, “How do they NOT see how messed up this is.”
The answer is quite simple….
They do NOT HAVE the Holy Spirit living inside them.
They are blinded by the spirit of this world…aka the devil…
And yes…
People can call themselves Christians and not really be Christians!
People can say they have accepted Jesus but not really have accepted Jesus!
People might think they are destined for heaven and not be!
PAUSE
Let me end with one more verse…
The Apostle Paul, who we learned a lot about in our Acts series, said this in another book he wrote…
Romans 15:30 I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.
I want you to note the words
By the LOVE of the Spirit.
Write that down….
To Paul the Holy Spirit was not some impersonal force or power…
He was the Divine person of God living inside him..
Who he LOVED…
Who he wanted his disciples to LOVE…
Because the Holy Spirit was the one with Paul through all his struggles!
And the Holy Spirit can be there for you through all your struggles as well!
PAUSE
And if you want to learn more about this…
Well…simply come back next week and we will continue this journey with you to learn more about WHO the Holy Spirit really is!
PAUSE
Let me share your life application with you today….
For those of you who are new, or newer, to Family Church.
We end our messages with a Life Application.
It is simply something to help you go home and process this message with someone else.
Something to help you continue to ponder how you can apply today's message into your life.
So here is what I want you all to spend some time processing and talking with someone about.
Life Application: What place do the Holy Spirit have in your life? How could you elevate the place of the Holy Spirit in your life?
As a result of today’s message I will _________________________.
Prayer:
Make sure to do salvation call!
Offering:
Thank you all for being here today!
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Just open our app.
Click the give icon in the bottom right corner and it will walk you through the process.
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It is as simple as texting FamilyChurchGive to 888-364-4483
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We have lots of people who have added Family Church to their will to leave 10% to their church.
It is a great way to show your family that leaving a Godly legacy was important to you.
Have a great week!!!
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