Sermon Tone Analysis

Unfinished Project?

The Holy Spirit, Part 3   |   Shaun LePage   |   March 19, 2006

 

 

I.

Introduction

A.   What projects have you left unfinished?

You know what I’m talking about!

You got started on it but never got back to it.

1.

You started redecorating a room and you just can’t seem to find the time or energy to get it finished.

You started a building project and it exhausts you to think of trying to finish it so there it sits—unfinished.

You decided you were going to learn a new skill so you invested some money on a new piano or a guitar, a pile of books, a set of CDs or DVDs, but it was a lot harder than you thought it was going to be and that investment just sits there on the shelf.

You know what I’m talking about.

I know what I’m talking about.

All of those things are vague descriptions of things I’ve done.

2.     At TradeMe – a New Zealand version of eBay mickd was at one time supposedly selling a time machine.

This is the description he put on the website: “Unfinished project.

Started making a machine to facilitate time travel, unfortunately I just don’t have the time to complete it.

Have had mixed results, so no guarantees.

Would consider swap for anti-gravity machine.”

Someone sent him this question: “Question: If I am successful with my bid, do you think there is sufficient grunt in the machine to go back to the beginning of this auction, wipe out all memory of it, so I don’t have to pay you?” mickd’s reply was: “If the auction doesn’t take place, you would never have the time machine, so you would be stuck in the past, with no machine to get back to the present.

Time is a dangerous thing to play with, and you really need to carefully consider the consequences, before you start mucking with the past and breaching time continuation.”

3.     A British web developer has figured out a way to capitalize on the human tendency to give up in the middle of a project.

He started “unfinishedproject.com”.

Discouraged consumers can try to sell their unfinished projects or get help in trying to finish them.

Most of the projects are unfinished attempts to rebuild cars.

But there are also building projects, real estate developments and various other unfinished projects listed.

The home page of that website asks a question all of us face with our unfinished projects: “Would you like to get rid of a project or find someone to help you finish it?”

In other words, do you want to give up or do you want to get help?

4.     I believe the same kind of discouragement—on a much larger scale—characterizes the spiritual lives of many Christians.

Sadly, too many Christians feel like unfinished projects.

They’ve just given up.

They still go to church.

They still participate in religious activity.

But the pursuit of God?

The excitement of reaching greater heights of maturity?

The determination to grow in their faith?

It’s gone.

They’ve tried—even given their very best effort—and failed.

Many times.

Maybe they didn’t consciously give up.

They’re just beaten down and not sure they can muster up the strength to try again.

All of us will be at this point sooner or later.

All of us will be discouraged from time to time in our spiritual life.

We will have to answer that question: “Would you like to give up or get help?”

5.     In Philippians 1:6, Paul told us, “*For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus*.”

This means God has no unfinished projects.

You and I will never be left unfinished.

No matter how bad we mess up.

No matter how discouraged we get.

God will finish what He started in you.

6.

Dr.

Bruce Wilkinson writes, “Think of Christian growth as a rope with two ends—and a hundred and fifty feet of vertical rock face between them.

On one end of the rope is you.

As you grasp the possibilities and strain toward maturity with all your might, you’ll fear failure, discomfort, opposition, the unknown.

Your head will spin.

Your knees will quake.

But here’s the great news: You never have to get up that rock face of change alone.

God is always at work on His end of the rope.

You can reach for change with full confidence in the Person above you…This is the part of personal change that never appears in most teaching.

‘Spirituality’ has never been more popular, even in secular circles.

But it seems to be taken up less and less with God and what He has said, and more and more with human-centered techniques.

But these approaches gloss over a big problem—the spiritual climber is trying to make a breakthrough alone.”

(/Experiencing Spiritual Breakthroughs/, pgs.

22,23).

B.    In our study of the gospel of Matthew, we’ve come to the Sermon on the Mount.

This sermon is a mountain.

If we try to climb this spiritual mountain alone, we will fail.

We may fall.

So, we are taking a few weeks to reintroduce ourselves to the Holy Spirit.

1.

We looked first of all at our need for grace.

The Sermon on the Mount is law—a higher law.

A law for those who have been ushered into the kingdom of Christ.

We cannot hope to obey these commands apart from the grace of Christ.

The grace of Christ provides the strength we need to live out the Sermon on the Mount.

Paul wrote to the young pastor Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:1, “*You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus*.”

As we trust Christ and follow Christ and obey Christ and abide with Christ, we are made strong in the grace in Christ Jesus.

We are empowered to live spiritual lives.

How does this work?

Faith.

As we abide with Christ, we trust Him more and ourselves less.

To be strong in the grace of Christ means we recognize our complete dependence upon Him and obey Him in faith that He will lead and guide and protect and provide.

2.

Not only do we need to be strong in the grace of Christ, we also need to walk in the Spirit.

a)    We began our refresher course on the Holy Spirit by looking at His nature.

He is a Person (not a force) and He is God.

Therefore, we can have a relationship with the Person who connects us with God at this time in history.

b)    Last week, we looked at the past work of the Holy Spirit—that which the Holy Spirit does the moment a person trusts Christ.

(i)   Before we became believers, the Holy Spirit convicted us—convinced us of our need for a Savior.

(ii) Then, when we trusted Christ for salvation, the Holy Spirit flooded us with supernatural work:

(a)  He regenerated us—caused us to be born again.

(b) He baptized us—united us with Christ.

(c)  He indwelt us—came to live within us permanently.

(d) He sealed us—guaranteeing that we will always belong to God.

(e)  Finally, He gifted us—supernaturally gave us a spiritual gift we are to use for the good of others.

(iii)    So we are forever changed by the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

We are new creations in Christ because of the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in our lives at the moment we believe.

*II.

*Body—That’s past tense for the believer.

All those things have happened and will never change.

But what about daily living?

What does the Holy Spirit continue to do in the believer’s life after salvation?

Latch onto that title Jesus gave the Holy Spirit in John 16:7: “Helper…Paraklete.”

The Holy Spirit is given to us as our Advocate, our Intercessor, our Comforter, our Helper.