Sermon Tone Analysis

Revive: The Role of the Holy Spirit

March 17, 2019

Introduction

This morning, we are continuing our series, “Revive.”

This series is meant to prepare our hearts for our upcoming revival which is April 7-10.

We want God to revive and renew us.

We want the lost saved.

We want to see revival spread into our city and uplift our city.

God can bring revival.

But it starts here.

Revival starts with prayer and repentance.

Revival starts with a movement of the Holy Spirit.

Today, we are to focus on the Holy Spirit’s role and work in revival.

If you want to see the role of the Holy Spirit in revival, read the first few chapters of Acts.

Francis Chan: You would know that the Spirit led the first Christians to do unexplainable things, to live lives that didn’t make sense to the culture around them, and ultimately to spread the story of God’s grace around the world.

But in the church today, we have neglected, all but forgotten the Holy Spirit.

Illustration: Forgetting Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

We have neglected, all but forgotten the Holy Spirit.

That’s ashame.

For revival to happen, we need a movement of the Holy Spirit.

In fact, Jesus said in our passage for today that it’s to our advantage, benefit that the Holy Spirit comes.

Read Text

This passage gives us great insight as to the role of the Holy Spirit in revival.

In this passage, we see the role and work of the Holy Spirit.

1. Holy Spirit’s Ministry to the Lost

Our desire is to see lost people saved during our revival.

God’s desire is to see lost people saved during our revival.

We have publicized this revival more than any event that we have at SABC in the last 15 years.

We have banners up all over town.

We are in the process of putting up posters all over town.

We have sent letters to every church in Bogalusa that we have an address for.

We are sending a follow up packet to every church in Bogalusa next week.

We will be advertising in the newspaper and radio in the coming weeks.

We will be ramping up publicity on social media as we get closer to the revival.

All this publicity is important and will help.

But the greatest publicity is word of mouth.

You and I inviting people: our neighbors, family members, co-workers, friends, associates to come to our revival service.

Next week, we are going to talk more about how God has unleashed us to go into our communities to share the Gospel and invite people to church, revival.

We have a job to do.

Invite people to our revival.

Wes Putnam has job to do.

Wes is our evangelist for the revival.

His teaching is unique.

You will be laughing to your belly hurts one moment, then toes stepped on the next.

Let’s watch a short clip of Wes’s teaching.

In this clip, Wes is telling the story of Elijah as a Bronx cop.

We have a job to do.

Wes has a job to do.

The Holy Spirit has a job to do during our revival.

Look at verse 8.

No matter how compelling our invitation is someone to come to our revival; we can’t do the convicting.

No matter how entertaining and powerful Wes’s message are; We can’t do the convicting.

That’s the job of the Holy Spirit.

That word convict means to convict or convince, to bring a person to the point of wrong doing, to express strong disapproval of a person’s actions.

It’s the Holy Spirit that does the convicting not us.

It’s the Holy Spirit that does the convicting.

God uses us to share and invite.

God will use Wes to preach and teach.

But it’s the Holy Spirit that does the convicting.

In verse 8, we see the Holy Spirit’s ministry to the lost.

He convicts the world.

The “world” refers to those outside of the church.

The world refers to the lost.

The Holy Spirit convicts the lost of their sins.

The Holy Spirit convicts the lost that they are sinners in need of God’s grace and mercy.

It’s the Holy Spirit that convicts the lost of righteousness.

The word “righteousness” refers to the standard of righteousness set forth by Christ.

Christ set the standard night.

It’s the Holy Spirit that convicts the lobster person that they are far below God’s standard.

It’s the Holy Spirit that convicts the lost person of God’s judgement.

God’s judgement is not a popular message in our culture.

But the Bible shows that God’s judgement is an essential part of the Gospel.

It’s the Holy Spirit that convicts the lost person of God’s judgement for the sinner and their eternal destiny in Hell.

Look we can talk to lost person till we are blue in the face about sin, salvation, judgement, and Hell, but our words will never penetrate the heart and soul of a person.

Only the Holy Spirit can penetrate a person’s heart.

Only the Holy Spirit can truly fix a person.

Illustration: Car Trouble, Mechanic does the fix.

Cardiologist vs Cardio Vascular surgeon

Only Holy Spirit can fix a person.

It’s the Holy Spirit that convicts the lost person.

That’s His ministry to the lost.

That is why the Holy Spirit has an essential role in revival.

2. Holy Spirit’s Ministry to Believers

V. 13,

I want you to underline the word “guide” in verse 13.

The word means to assist in reaching a desired destination.

The word means to assist in acquiring information or knowledge.

God has a desire destination for us as Christian.

That is desired destination is to take the truth of the Bible and apply it our lives.

That is desired destination is to honor and glorify God by the way that we live our lives.

That desired destination is to be obedient to God and His Word.

It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to guide us to that desired destination.

Maybe, we are not getting there because we have neglected, forgotten about the Holy Spirit.

Illustration: Destination without map or gps

Imagine over her is the desired destination.

Sometimes, we end up like Jonah going in the opposite direction of where God wants us.

Sometimes, we make a wrong turn and end up way off track.

Sometimes, we just get stuck.

Why?

We are not sensitive to the Holy Spirit.