Sermon Tone Analysis

*I came across the following prayer:  "Dear Lord So far today, I've done all right.

I haven't gossiped; I haven't lost my temper; I haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent.

I'm very thankful.

But in a few moments, Lord, I'm going to get out of bed.

And from then on, I'm going to need a lot of help."

*

*The good news is that help is available.

If we desire it.

An increase of the Holy Spirit is possible.

*

*Sometimes we pray as if the Holy Spirit had never touched our lives .This is a sad mistake and I would imagine it is quite offensive to God.

The first thing to do is to be sensitive to the working of the Spirit in your life.

Do you believe in God ?

Do you go to church ?

Are you trying to live the Christian life ?

If you think about doing something wrong does a small voice inside your head tell you not to do it ?

If you fall into sin does that same voice tell you to repent and return to your Father ?

If you see someone suffering and you feel called to help .

Surpise surprise All this is the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.

When you pray do not ask for the Holy Spirit ask for an increase of the Holy Spirit.

Also ask to be able to recognize the Holy Spirit when he comes.

*

*The story is told of a young man who travels a great distance to meet a holy man, guru.

A great master of the spiritual life.

Unfortunately when he gets there he is told that this is the masters special day of silence.

He goes to the old man anyway and says I don’t want you to break your silence but I’ve traveled such a long way.

Could you write down something that would help me in my search for God.

The old smiles his agreement takes a slate and chalk and writes down.

Awareness of God.

The young man reads it, but says that’s a bit short could you elaborate.

The guru willingly takes back the slate and writes on it awareness, awareness, awareness.

And hands it back.

The young scatches his head and says yes but what does it mean ?

The old man smiles takes back the slate and write down awareness, awareness, awareness, means awareness of God.*

* *

 According to Jewish teaching the Holy Spirit had two main things to do: First , the Holy Spirit brought God’s truth to men and women.

Second , the Holy Spirit enabled men and women to recognize that  truth and to understand that truth when they saw it.

*There is in men and women a Spirit given ability , a gift from God ,that enables them to recognize goodness and truth when they see them*.

It is possible for men and women to lose that ability, that gift of the Spirit ?

It is possible to lose this God given gift.

Yes, Yes ,Yes.

Jesus taught us in the Gospels that if you don’t use your God given gifts you will lose your God given gifts.

The same is true in life.

If you do not use a skill that you learnt many years ago, if you do not practice that skill then you will surely lose it.

It is possible to lose the God given gift of recognizing Goodness and truth when they stand before us.

If you continually shut your ears and eyes to Gods ways, if you continually turn your back upon Gods message, if you continually prefer your own ideas, and the values of the world then in the end you will no longer be able to recognize God’s truth and Gods beauty and Gods goodness when they are put before you.

You will come to a stage when evil seems good to you and good evil.

(That’s the stage we are reaching in our society) That is the stage that the scribes and the Pharisees had come to.

They could look at Jesus, the Son of God, and say that he was son of the evil one.

When you have lost the ability to recognize Gods truth and Gods goodness then you cannot desire it.

If you’do not recognize evil as evil then you cannot be sorry for what you have done and wish to leave the evil behind you.

If you cannot even after failures, love the good and hate the evil then you cannot repent and if you cannot repent, you cannot be forgiven.

The only condition for forgiveness is repentance.

The sin against the Holy Spirit is not to know that you are a sinner .The sin against the Holy Spirit is the loss of all sense of sin.

The sin against the Holy Spirit begins with pride.

This pride grows into a stronghold so strong that it makes a person blind and deaf to the Holy Spirit who convinces us of our sinfulness and calls us to repentance.

There is a terrible warning here.

Make sure that you never lose the gift, the ability to recognize Gods truth and Gods goodness.

Make sure that your spiritual eyes never become spiritually blind and your spiritual hearing never becomes spiritual deafness.

*There is a story about an old African chief sitting before a flickering fire with his small grandson.

The little boy had broken a serious tribal taboo.

He had refused to share his food with his younger brother and had gone so far as to strike him when he kept asking .*

*His grandfather wanted to help the small boy understand what had made him do it.

*

*The old man said: It's as if we two have lions living inside us.

One of the lions is good, and one of the lions is bad.

Both of them are always demanding our attention and both of them are demanding that we obey them.*

*The little boy puzzled over this for a long time and finally asked the question.

"Well Which one of the lions will win?"

*

*The old man said these words.

He said : The lion  that wins is the one we keep feeding.

*

The question we should ask ourselves is:  Which Lion am I feeding ?

Do you desire an increase of the Holy Spirit in your life then feed the right lion.

*/ All of us can identify with that struggle.

We fight an ongoing battle with selfish and sinful desires.

They rise up within us and put incredible pressure on us to satisfy them.

They are like ravenous hungers and unquenchable thirsts.

First they are small "harmless" desires, but they grow stronger the more we feed them.

Ultimately they can completely control us and we loose our freedom (Romans 6:16).

/*

*/To resist we must believe two things.

!~/ We  must believe what the Bible tells us about temptation's power.

It is powerful.

2~/ We  must  believe that the Holy Spirit will help us to resist or to break free from its power.

/*

*/But then comes the hard part.

When an evil desire demands to be fed, we must say no—perhaps again and again and again.

/*

*/Remember, what we feed will control us.

It is easier to resist the first evil desire than to satisfy all the ones that follow./*

Jesus is sending us out on an impossible mission but he is  sending us the paraklētos, who will strenthen and guide us on our way and enable us to do the impossible.

The one who is called in to give witness on our behalf to defend us.

The history of the church is the history of people doing the impossible.

The Holy Spirit does not force entry into anyone’s heart; He waits to be received.

So when we think of the wonderful things which the Holy Spirit can do, surely we will set apart some time amidst the bustle and the rush of life to wait in silence for his coming.(

Give time to God )

The power of the Spirit made them witnesses for Christ.

First, a witness is someone  who says I know this is true.

In a court of law a man cannot give in evidence a carried story; it must be his own personal experience.

A witness does not say think so he says I know so.

(Camillion Christians) The power of the Spirit working in your life is directly related to how obedient you are to Gods word in your life.

No obedience no Holy Spirit.In Greek the word for /witness/ and the word for /martyr/ is the same (/martus/).

A witness had to be ready to become a martyr.

To be a witness is to spend our life for Christ, it means to be loyal no matter the cost.

* *

*  *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *

* *