Ineedsomehelp

Title: I need some help

Text: John 16:7-14

Introduction:  No matter how good, how smart or talented you are there will always be an area of your life that you need help in.  But if you are a believer, you can rejoice because no matter what difficulties life may bring, you will always have help.

Background: Here in the end of upper room discourse, Jesus is about to break the bad news to His disciples.  He understood that they were going to need some help for their time of sorrow.  He knew that they would suffer for His cause.  But He also knew that He was not going be around when this was going to happen.  Jesus in this text tells his disciples that it is imperative that he go away.  What do you mean Jesus, your about to leave? Imagine how these disciples were feeling when Jesus said these words?  The one who they left there families for, the one who that sat under for 3 years, the one who had been healing the sick, the one who raised the dead and cast out demons is about to leave.  Can you imagine the prick in their hearts and the void in their souls when they heard these words? You know how you felt when you some one who you were close to moved away.  You experienced that sense of loss and abandonment.  They did not die but it felt like it because all they were going to be left with were memories.  Jesus the Messiah, is now leaving.  The One who was going to saves the world from sin was leaving so they thought. But there are times in life it is always beneficial to leave so you can further yourself or your cause.  You never should stay to long.  When you hit the age of adulthood and maturity it is time to leave your parents house to further yourself and your cause.  You can stay at home but you will never become the man or woman that you are supposed to be.  Jesus could have stayed here on earth but He would never have overcame death and saved the world from sin.  But unlike a close friend leaving you only to have memories, Jesus might have left us but he did not leaves us with a void in our heart.  He left us someone that would not only honor him but will give us power.  Who is this special one?

I.               Who is the Holy Spirit? v. 7

He left us the Comfort, or Helper the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.  The Holy Spirit is not an “it”. It is not energy. It is person.  And people have personalities.  The Holy Spirit has intellect, emotions and will.  He performs actions.  He guides.  He convicts and convinces.  He restrains.  He commands.  He intercedes. In his personhood, He has certain ascriptions. He can be obeyed, reverenced, grieved, resisted and lied to.  Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to glorify him.  But some may ask the question, if Jesus is the Lord and He is almighty, why did he send the Holy Spirit?  Jesus is God in the flesh.  Flesh is limit by boundaries such as sickness and death.  Due to flesh, Jesus earthly ministry was limited to time and space. But it is now time for His fullness to be manifested.  And He could not do it in flesh so he sent the Holy Spirit who is not limited and has equal power that can be received by all who will to yield. 

In our text the Holy Spirit is referred as a Comforter or Helper.  This is nobody in here today that does not need some comfort in their life or some help in some kind of way.  In the original language it is the word parakletos, the Paraklete which means one who is summoned or called to one side or an advocate.  The disciples will now have the help the need to make it through.  Saints, isn’t it good to know that you got help on your side that you can summons in the time of need. It is nothing worse than needing some help and not getting it. It is like getting a flat tire on an old country road with nobody around.  It’s like having a project to be done at work for your department and you are the only one trying to get it done.  But I am glad that the Holy Spirit is there when I am in need. 

II.         The work of the Holy Spirit   v. 8

Here in verse 8, Jesus tells the disciple how the Spirit will work in their lives.  Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgment.  You don’t have to be a historian or a newscaster to realize the world we live in ain’t right.  It ain’t right to fight a war that we still don’t know what the real reason why we are fighting.  The world ain’t right that our young men want to be thugs and our daughters aspire to be video vixens more than they want to be doctors and lawyers.  It ain’t right that our elderly can’t get proper medicine because they can’t figure out Medicare part D. It aint right that we as African American still are treated sub par when we keep this countries economy going.  This is why we need the Holy Ghost. The Spirit will right the wrongs so God’s people can be helped in the times of despair. The Holy Spirit works in our lives to gently correct us from the wrong we do. 

In verse 9-11, Jesus breaks it down further in details on what the Holy Spirit will does.  First, He will reprove us in regard to sin because we don’t believe on Him.  In his reproof:

·       The Holy Spirit will convict us of our sin and makes us guilt that we miss the mark of Christ. 

·       The Holy Spirit convicts us when we transgress, that is when we wander of the right path. 

·       The Holy Spirit convicts when we violate God laws.   

Second, He will reprove us in regard to righteousness because He goes to the father.  Only Jesus is acceptable to God. And we are convicted because:

·       We are only self-righteous

·       But Jesus secures our righteousness

Third, He will reprove us in regard to judgment because the prince of this world, the devil will be judged.  That means all of his deeds and those who do evil.  Judgment is coming. Romans 14:12 states that “each of us will give an account of himself to God”.  So don’t you dare think that you are going to get away with the hell you raised! Do you think you really got over on people?  You will be judged for you mess not before man but before God himself.  The Holy Spirit will you bring you to judgment.  If knowing this not convict you, you are really going to need some help. 

III.    The problem of Spiritual ignorance

But the reason why we need the Holy Spirit’s reproof is because we are spiritually ignorant.  Jesus tells his disciples in verse 12 that He has many things to say but they cannot handle it all. Why?  It is because they did not have the Holy Spirit yet.  There are things God desire us to have and do.  But you don’t have the Holy Spirit to accomplish the task He has for.  And there is a reason for this. That is we don’t know or desire to know of the spiritual matters of the Lord.  We deny the power of the Holy Spirit.  We don’t believe in the miraculous signs of the Spirit.  Paul in I Cor. 2:14 tells us that “the natural man receives not the things from the Spirit because it is foolishness to him”.  You call the Spiritual things foolishness. You call dancing and praise foolishness.  You call having joy in the Lord foolishness.  But the fact of the matter is that you are fool if you deny the Third person of the Trinity. There are some things that only spiritual people will understand.  It is the spirit that helps you love and not curse. It is the Spirit that gives wisdom so you don’t say anything stupid. It is the spirit that helps you serve and not fight and fuss.  It is the Spirit that helps you praise and not complain.  Our problem is that we are ignorant of spiritual things. It is this ignorance that blocks us from being blessed. It is a barrier that does not allow God to move.  And if God can not move, there is not life.  And where there is not life there is death and darkness. Therefore, some of us are walk dead and in the darkness.  You are lifeless.  You have a dark cloud brooding all around.  This happens for two reasons. One reason is that you don’t have any good thing in you.  There is no good in mankind.  We need help to be good. And that help only comes from the Holy Spirit.  The second reason is that we have other things inside of us rather than the spirit of God.  We are full of other stuff. We are full of evil, frustration, and confusion and even self.  The Holy Spirit does not reside you in.  It was what is on the inside that dictates what going on in the outside.  How a person acts in public says a lot about how they act at home.  So I ask the question, what is going on in your house?  What is on the inside?  What I am trying to say is that you have to be full of the Holy Spirit in order to get the help you need to make it in this life.  In order to be full you have to be filled. Upon receiving Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you were baptized in the spirit.  That is only in position.  By being filled by Spirit results in power.  Baptism in the Spirit only happens once.  Being filled is an ongoing process.  You don’t have to do anything to baptized in the Spirit but have faith in Jesus. But to be filled, you have to be obedient and yield to the power! 

Transition:  Yielding leads to the Spirit leading

IV. The Leading of the Spirit

In verse 13, Jesus tells the disciples that when the Spirit of truth comes, it will guide them into all truth. 

The Holy Spirit guides us as believers in 3 different ways:

1      He guides us by speaking the truth

You need the Spirit speak to you.  The Spirit will not tell you anything that is contrary to the Word of God.  If somebody says something to you that the Spirit and it does not line up with the Word, run!

2      He guides us by leading us in all truth.

The Holy Spirit will never lead you to error. It won’t lead to steal or to lie

3      He guides us by showing us the things to come

The Holy Spirit gives you revelation about your situation.  Paul says in I Cor. 2:12 “eyes have not seen nor ears have heard neither enter in the hearts of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him”.

Transition:  Being filled with the Spirit will give the help you need 

The results of being Spirit filled: I got a:

·       Better attitude because the Spirit is control my emotions

·       More ambition because the Spirit gave me vision

·       More action in my life because the Spirit is bearing fruit in my life

Altar call:  Be not drunk with wine but be ye filled….