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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If 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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