CULTURE CLASH RELOADED SERMON: REAL OR FAKE


CULTURE CLASH RELOADED SERMON: REAL OR FAKE...

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CULTURE CLASH RELOADED  SERMON: REAL OR FAKE  How to know the difference between the truth and a lie with the  help of the Holy Spirit  1-3-21    Welcome online family!  A big Thank you!!!    BIG IDEA: As Christians we must rely on the guidance of the  Holy Spirit to discern truth from lies and grow in our ability to  hear God’s voice.    PRE-OPENER​:  2020 was not what we expected. There were many challenges  and hardships, but we have been extremely blessed by God! And  we have grown in our trust and in our relationship with God. I am  very proud of our church - leaders, ministry teams, givers, etc….  God has been very very good to us. We have experienced mighty  blessings of God. He has been faithful to us!    Tell 6 good things that happened this year!  -Innovation got accelerated  -People rallied around small and local  -The resistance around change crumbled  -More of a focus on giving, not getting  -More of a focus on righteousness - right and wrong  -Developed healthier habits - more time with family  -A greater value of Christian community    2020 and 2021 are years of transition. They are years of  transition to set up worldly powers to usher in the end times. But  they are also years of transition for the church - God is setting up 

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His church! He is readying and training His people to pour out  His power.   We are going to endure hardship, but we are going to  experience God’s glory and blessing!    We are going to see unbelievable changes in this world, but  we are going to experience the supernatural like we never have  before!      OPENER​:  ILLUSTRATION​:  My diamond necklace….. I get many compliments. But people  are fooled and think it’s the real thing. It’s not. It’s a fake!      BY SIGHT YOU CAN’T ALWAYS TELL WHAT IS REAL OR FAKE.    WE LIVE IN A DAY WHEN IT IS EASY TO BE FOOLED.  YOU CANNOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR - YOU  CANNOT BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU SEE.      SO HOW DO WE KNOW THAT WHAT WE ARE HEARING OR  WHAT WE ARE SEEING IS REAL?  WE MUST DEVELOP DISCERNMENT.    Discernment​ - spiritual understanding and good judgment    Philippians 1:9-10A ​ nd it is my prayer that your love may abound  more and more, w ​ ith knowledge and all discernment​, so that you  may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for  the day of Christ,    Hebrews 5:14​ But solid food is for the mature, for those who  have their powers of discernment trained ​by constant practice to  distinguish good from evil.   

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1 John 4:1​ Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but ​test the spirits  to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have  gone out into the world.  Test​ - inspect, evaluate, examine, study  ILLUSTRATION​:  In the world there is a lot of fake. In our culture, our media, our  government is full of lies. Can you tell the difference between  fake or real? Do you know the difference between a lie and the  truth? It is very easy to be fooled.     SO THAT WE CAN DISCERN BETWEEN THE REAL AND THE  FAKE - TO DISCERN BETWEEN THE TRUTH AND THE LIES WE  WILL NEED THE HELP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.    Romans 8:14 For a ​ s many as are led by the Spirit of God,​ these  are sons of God.    IF WE ARE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD THEN WE ARE LED  BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD.    More than anything, this year we need to grow in our ability to  hear God’s voice. These two things that need to be taught in our  churches today is how to hear God and how to be led by the Holy  Spirit.     

LET’S SET THE STAGE​: FIRST THING​: THE HOLY SPIRIT IS OUR PERSONAL GUIDE AND  TEACHER IN THIS LIFE  Jesus said this……..  John 16:12-15 There is so much more I want to tell you, but you  can’t bear it now. 13  ​ ​When the S ​ pirit of truth​ comes, ​he will guide  you into all truth.​ He will not speak on his own but ​will tell you  what he has heard.​ ​He will tell you about the future​. ​14 ​He will 

4 of 10  ​ bring me glory ​by telling you whatever he receives from me. 15  ​ All  that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘​The Spirit  will tell you whatever he receives from me.’     > ​Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as “He”  Part of the Trinity. He is a Person, not an impersonal force  like gravity.   Illustration:​Trinity    > ​He is called the Spirit of Truth  This is one of His names.    > He will guide us in all truth  Jesus knew that there would be darkness and lies and we  would need a guide.  Illustration​: Guide- Moshe in Israel    > He will tell us what the Father has told him  He will be God’s voice to us    > He will tell us about the future    > He will bring glory to God  His objective is to bring glory to God in our lives, by guiding us to  do God’s will, speak for God and give us the strength to obey  God so God can be glorified in our lives.    John 14:26 But when the Father sends the A ​ dvocate a ​ s my  representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—h ​ e will teach you  everything​ and will ​remind you of everything I have told you​.  

 

We see Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Advocate. Other  translations say Counselor, Consoler, or Comforter. Why so  many different translations of the same word? The word that our 

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Lord uses here - the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete. Each of them  gives us an idea of who the Holy Spirit is.    ILLUSTRATION​:  In many languages, the word “advocate” is the same as the  word for a lawyer. Like an attorney in court, the Holy Spirit  represents us before God. Unlike a lawyer in court, though, the  Holy Spirit does not only stand beside us but also dwells within  us, appealing to the Father on our behalf from within our souls.  In contrast to the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Bible speaks  of the Devil as “the accuser” who night and day accuses us  before God. Imagine a courtroom scene where you are the  defendant, the Holy Spirit is your attorney, and the prosecutor is  Satan. Satan is good at what he does, and he will produce as  evidence against you all of your sins, asking the judge for the  highest penalty – eternal condemnation with the Devil and all his  angels. The Holy Spirit then defends you not on the ground of any  merits you have, which surely will pale in comparison to the  mountain of evidence the Devil will be able to produce against  you, but instead He will point to Christ, whose sacrifice on the  Cross has won for you the mercy of God the Father.    > The Holy Spirit is our teacher.  You have your own personal Tudor to help you understand God’s  Word and how to walk as a Christians in this life!      Exactly how are we led by the Holy Spirit?    And exactly how does the Holy Spirit communicate to all of us in  this life?  FIVE WAYS TO FOLLOW THE SPIRIT’S LEADING  1.  ​TALK TO HIM DIRECTLY 

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I​f you want to learn how to be led by the Holy Spirit we need to  develop a direct personal relationship with Him.    If the Holy Spirit is going to supernaturally communicate with  you, then the first thing you are going to want to do is to make  direct personal contact with Him, since you are now going to be  working very closely with Him.    ILLUSTRATION​:  Boy comes home from school. Seems preoccupied. Is staring  off in the distance, like something is wrong. His Dad asks what’s  wrong Son. Did something happen at school today? The boy  says, there’s this girl. She’s the prettiest girl in school Dad. And  the smartest too! I wish she would be my girlfriend. The Dad  says, “have you ever talked to her?” ……. You will never get to  know her if you don’t talk to her!    WE WANT TO BE CLOSER TO GOD.  WE WANT TO BE STRONGER IN OUR CHRISTIAN WALK.    WE WANT MORE INSIGHT, MORE STRENGTH…. BUT WE NEVER  TALK TO GOD.    • I speak directly to each member of the Trinity​: the Father,  the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  They each occupy a role in my  life.  Every morning in prayer, I welcome Him into the role of  leadership in my life.   • As a leader, I consciously ask Him for help ​the moment I  face a decision, a crisis, or a difficulty. I verbally address  Him and immediately the situation begins to work itself out.    2.    ​LISTEN TO HIS VOICE  How do you hear the voice of God? How does God speak to us? 

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He speaks to me through His Word.​ He is the author of the  Bible and knows it pretty well!  Hundreds of different verses  have stood out to me over the years as I faced major crises.  • He speaks to me in my impressions​. When I am asking Him  to help me, suddenly an impression will enter my conscious  mind.  When I inject that thought into the conversation,  everything changes.   • He speaks to me through the other pastors, and my peers​.  The Holy Spirit uses people who I have submitted to as  correction and encouragement when I’m going in the wrong  direction.  • SIDE NOTE - Some times we don’t feel like we’ve got a clear  answer from God. We are not totally settled about something.  This is what I do, this is what I have practiced my whole life. I  have never seen Him fail me. If I haven’t heard anything from  God I don’t do anything. If I don’t have clear direction from God  I don’t move forward. I sit still. Either God wants me to wait or  He has other direction.      3. ​FOLLOW HIS PEACE​   • The Holy Spirit lives in your spirit. When your heart is not at  peace, it is a signal 100% of the time that something is out  of order.  If you don’t feel peace about that purchase, that  move, or that person, don’t do it. Follow your peace.  • SIDE NOTE - If I have any red flag at all. Don’t do it! There  can be 50 things right about it, but if I have even one tiny red  flag I don’t do it.     4. ​DON’T QUENCH HIS LEADING IN YOUR LIFE  These next set of verses tell us that we are not to resist, quench,  rebel, or grieve the Holy Spirit.  Here are four key verses giving us these four specific words:   

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1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 19  ​ ​Do not ​quench t​ he Spirit. 20  ​ ​Do not  ​ treat prophecies with contempt ​21 but test them all; hold on to  22 ​ what is good, ​ reject every kind of evil.     ILLUSTRATION​:  Throw water on a fire. What happens when you throw water on a  fire? It goes out!  : to cool   : to cause something to lose it’s intensity  : to bring to an end or decrease  : to terminate or eliminate    Isaiah 63:10 But they ​rebelled a ​ gainst him and grieved his Holy  Spirit. So he became their enemy and fought against them.  Ephesians 4:30 ​ ​And do not ​grieve​ the Holy Spirit of God, with  whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.    YOU CAN TURN DOWN THE VOLUME AND TURN DOWN THE  INTENSITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN YOUR LIFE.    ILLUSTRATION​:  When you sin, when you do something wrong the Holy Spirit is  right there with a megaphone, yelling loudly “Don’t do it! Don’t  do it! I mean you can even consciously get sick at your stomach.  Even after you do it. “You shouldn’t have done that!” But the  more you do it, the more you repeat it. You reach back and turn  down the volume of the Holy Spirit’s voice and the quieter His  voice becomes and the less intense do you feel his conviction  fire. The more you resist His leading….Eventually you don’t heart  Him or feel Him. You even have reasons why you do something  and are convinced it is the right thing to do for you!    THE BIBLE IS VERY LOUD AND CLEAR!  DO NOT RESIST, QUENCH, REBEL OR GREIVE  

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THE HOLY SPIRIT.    IF YOU ARE REBELLING AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT YOU ARE  REBELLING AGAINST GOD.  AND THIS IS NOT A PLACE YOU WANT TO BE WITH GOD.    All 4 of these words are very strong words, once again showing  that the Holy Spirit i wants to become very active in our daily life  so He can help us complete our divine destiny with the Lord,    5.    ​FAST ABOUT MAJOR DECISIONS  • I knew you wouldn’t like this one! Paul and the other  disciples fasted, the early church fasted… when they  desperately needed to hear the voice of God.     • I never make a major decision without a brief time of  fasting.     FASTING MINIMIZES MY BODY AND MY MIND AND OPENS MY  HEART TO HEAR THE HOLY SPIRIT.    Part of our responsibility as a Christian is to develop  self-discipline. The fruit of the Spirit calls it “self-control”! Which  means you discipline yourself to walk with God. You can know  what is right, but if you don’t practice self-discipline to train  yourself to do it, you are going to struggle doing what’s right.    Discipline defined​:  restrain, correct, instruct and train    We had 3 corporate fasts this past year as a church and as  leaders we have started another 21 day fast. Please join us.     

 

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