Spiritual Gear

Tyler Porter

Goals, Gear, and Guidance • Sermon • Submitted 7 years ago

2 Timothy 3:16–17

Acts 2:42

Galatians 5:16

0 ratings

· 235 views

Notes

Transcript

Sermon Tone Analysis

Emotion

Language

Social

View more →

Intro

If you are going to go hiking up a mountain, not just a mountain but Mt. Everest, what do you need?

What if you didn’t have them what would happen? What if you had all your stuff but didn’t use it would that be wise? Would you make it to the top? No

If you goal is to bring glory to God we need to right gear. But not only do we need the right gear but we need to use it and trust it!

The Bible

First piece of gear we are going to look at is your Bible! Turn to again.

Do you think the Bible is a valuable piece of gear? Yes!

What all does the Bible do for us?

teaches, corrects, trains us, and equips us

Do we all need to be taught? Do we all need to be corrected sometimes? Do we all need training? Do you want to be equipped to bring glory to God? Then we must use our Bible and study it. How do we study? Read, review, and respond! But how often? I mean sometimes gear wears out right?

Look at . How much should we use the Bible? Everyday! It is gear that will never wear out.

Have you ever had shoes just blowout on you? There have been like three times in high school my shoes just blew out. Once in basketball and once in baseball the sides just exploded. Then in baseball the bottom of my shoe just came off. But the word of God the Bible will never wear out.

In fact says that it is living and active, sharper than any two edge sword and that it can penetrate bones and marrow down into your soul.

The way we glorify God is we become like Jesus, we can become only like Jesus if we use the Bible and allow the word of God to penetrate down into our soul and change us.

The Holy Spirit

Our next piece of gear we must use is the Holy Spirit. Turn to . What is the command? What is the promise? What is the truth?

To walk by means to be led by. With Easton when he walks in the parking lot or on the sidewalk he is supposed walk by us. He is supposed to be led by us, but does he always? No, and then we usually falls go does things he isn’t supposed to do.

That is like us with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s Spirit living inside of you if you have believed and trusted in Jesus Christ. He is there to lead you and guide you, but we must follow him. We must submit to him because when we don’t we hurt ourself. We do bad things; we sin against God. Now does that bring God honor? No, God hates sin, and he hates when he children, those whom he has saved sin. So just like with our Bible, we have the Holy Spirit but we must use him.

The last part of that verse says that if we walk by or are led by the Holy Spirit then we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. That means that we will not sin.

If the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God can he lead you into sin? No because God is holy and righteous. He cannot sin or be around sin which is why Jesus had to be punished for you sin before we could have a relationship with God. It is why when Adam and Eve sinned God kicked them out of the garden. He cannot be around sin. So his Spirit then cannot lead you to sin. Think of this. There is a small opening to a cave. I cannot fit. Not possible in any way for me to fit through this opening and go into the cave. Therefore, I cannot lead you into this cave. But because you are smaller than me you can crawl into it by yourself. I can’t lead you in and through the cave that leads to a bunch of bears who will eat you. But you can choose to go through the opening and be eaten.

If we submit and allow ourselves to led by the Holy Spirit then we will not sin. Our sin occurs when we decide to do things our way. When we pull away from the Holy Spirit.

How to do you know where the Holy Spirit is leading? It is that thing inside you that lets you know hey this is wrong. Hey you really should study your Bible. You really should be at church. You really shouldn’t disobey your parents. You really should be nice and respectful to your teachers. You really shouldn’t say that. The Holy Spirit communicates to you what you should and shouldn’t do and if you don’t know or can’t tell then go to God in prayer.

Prayer

Turn to . In this passage Jesus is praying to God. He is communicating to God.

Another piece of gear we must us is prayer. Through prayer we can tell God how thankful we are, we can confess to God and ask for forgiveness, we can praise God for who he is and what he has done, and we can ask God for the things we and others need.

When we pray we are recognizing our dependence upon God. That we cannot do things on our own, but that we desire God to give us and provide for us so that we may glorify him.

Paul tells us in that we should pray without ceasing meaning that we should throughout the day be communicating with God through prayer.

But not only can we communicate with God, but God communicates with us through prayer when he answers our prayers. It is not always a yes, but he always answers. It may be not, or not yet, or yes but he always answers.

For example when I was preparing our three studies for this weekend. I prayed for God to reveal to me what he wanted you guys to know and hear. I prayed that he would guide me as I prepared and give me the words to say. And he did because when I teach, if it wasn’t for God I wouldn’t be able to come up with the right things to say. I will be sitting there preparing and it is like a light bulb comes on! That is what I’m supposed to say. That is what that passage of the Bible means, or that is how it can apply! We must use prayer throughout our day everyday if we are going to truly bring God glory.

Church

Look at . There is a command in that verse can anybody pick it out?

Devote yourself to the teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayers.

This was when the church was just beginning. These were the founding members, the first members of God’s church, and they devoted themselves to being taught and fellowshipping with one another. Then as you continue in the book of Acts you see people from the church begin to lead out and be witness and servants for God.

We must be people that make church participation a top priority. Church is where God teaches you through other people. Church is where God trains you in how to live as a Christian. Church is where we gather together as believers to be encouraged and comforted. Church is where you use the gifts God has given you.

If you try living as a Christian apart from the church you will fail. We all need the church. We all need the church to teach us, to encourage us, but we also need to serve in the church. The church is talked about in the Bible as a body with each part having to serve the other or the body doesn’t work. If just one little part of your body is hurt and not working is your whole body sick? Yes! So if all the member of our church are not serving then our church isn’t working right.

We need be committed to church. Church is more important than sports, than fun, than relaxation, than band, more important than anything else. The church belongs to God and is something God commands us to be involved in. So if we are going to bring glory to God we must be involved and place church as a top priority in our life.

Closing

We have talk about four different pieces of gear that we must be using. God has given us all of them. He has equipped us with all the gear we need. We must use it. Spend some time now thinking about what you are not using. Pray to God and ask him to help you be led by the Holy Spirit, to help you study his word daily, to help you make church a prayer a priority in your life. Spend these next few moments responding to God as the Holy Spirit leads you to do.

Related Media

Related Sermons