Kingdom of Right Relationships

1
Kingdom of Right Relationships

• Part 4
• Loving God the Spirit
• Matthew 2234-40
• Philippians 213
• Ephesians 518

2
Living in Four Relationships

• You cant escape the necessity of living in four
  relationships
• To God
• To Self
• To the significant others in life
• To the world
• The good news of the gospel
• Jesus Christ can enter into a human life and
  redeem it in all four of these relationships!

3
Love God
(Matthew 2237)
Worship
Love Others
Small Groups (Bible Study Classes) (House
Churches) (Personal Disciple-making)
(Matthew 2239)
Serve the World
(Matthew 2818-20 Acts 18)
Ministry/Missions (Local, Global)
4
God
Other believers
The World
The most important relationship in life God and
me!
The vertical relationship carries all the weight
of the horizontal relationships
Me
5
The Most Important Relationship

• The one between you and God
• There are 3 dimensions of this love
• Love of God the Father
• Love of God the Son
• Love of God the Holy Spirit
• They are One
• Deuteronomy 64 Hear, O Israel The Lord our
  God, the Lord is one!
• We show our love for each of them differently!
• We relate to each person in the Trinity
  differently!

6
The Commandment

• Matthew 2237-38
• Scribe Which is the great commandment in the
  law?
• Christs answer - Love the Lord your God
• Love God as your very own God, a personal
  relationship, not a distant relationship
• Love Commanded Is Controllable
• The greatest of all commandments
• Is it possible to command somebody to love?
• Yes, love is an act of the will
• We choose to love God no matter how we may feel

7
An All Encompassing LoveMatthew 2237-38

• Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
  with all your soul and with all your mind. This
  is the first and greatest commandment.
• Nothing must be held back
• God holds nothing back when He loves us
• A persons total being must be involved in loving
  God
• Heart - our emotional response
• Soul - the will, decision-making
• Mind - the reasoning component of our love

8
Agape Love

• Romans 55
• Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of
  God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy
  Spirit who was given to us
• love the distinctive Christian word - agapao
• Galatians 522-23
• 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
  peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness,
  faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control.
  Against such there is no law.
• Agapao is totally unselfish love
• A love of which we are capable only through the
  Holy Spirit
• A love which desires only the highest good for
  its object
• How do we love the Holy Spirit with this kind of
  love?
• If that love is part of the fruit of the Spirit?
• If it is the Holy Spirit that brings that love
  into our hearts to begin with?

9
The Person of the Holy Spirit

• A Definite Person - not an impersonal force or
  influence
• A Divine Person
• Co-equal, co-existent, and co-eternal with God
  the Father and God the Son
• A Dynamic Person
• The full power of the All-powerful God
• The full knowledge and wisdom of the All-knowing,
  All-wise God
• A Delightful Person
• As loving and Holy as God the Father and God the
  Son
• A perfect gentleman
• Gentle and sensitive to all things spiritual

10
Loving God

• The Fathers Highest Good
• To glorify Him - John 171-5
• The Sons Highest Good
• Philippians 29-11
• Exalt His name above every name
• Bow your knee to Him and worship Him
• Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
  of God the Father
• The Spirits Highest Good

11
Romans 89-11

1. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit,
   if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if
   anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is
   not His.
2. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because
   of sin, but the Spirit is life because of
   righteousness.
3. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from
   the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from
   the dead will also give life to your mortal
   bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

12
1 Corinthians 29-12

1. But as it is written Eye has not seen, nor ear
   heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The
   things which God has prepared for those who love
   Him.
2. But God has revealed them to us through His
   Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes,
   the deep things of God.
3. For what man knows the things of a man except the
   spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one
   knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
   
4. Now we have received, not the spirit of the
   world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we
   might know the things that have been freely given
   to us by God.

13
1 Corinthians 619-20

1. Or do you not know that your body is the temple
   of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have
   from God, and you are not your own?
2. For you were bought at a price therefore glorify
   God in your body and in your spirit, which are
   Gods.

14
The Spirits Highest Good

• Philippians 213
• for it is God who works in you both to will and
  to do for His good pleasure
• The highest good we can do for the Holy Spirit is
  to allow Him to do His work in our lives!
• How do we allow God the Spirit to work in our
  lives?

15
Do Not Resist the Spirit

• Acts 610
• And they were not able to resist the wisdom and
  the Spirit by which he spoke
• Acts 751
• You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and
  ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit as your
  fathers did, so do you

16
Do Not Resist the Spirit

• The power of the Holy Spirit transforms our lives
• He produces a new will, desire, and attitude deep
  within us
• We call that the love of God in us
• Romans 55 Now hope does not disappoint, because
  the love of God has been poured out in our hearts
  by the Holy Spirit who was given to us
• love agapao
• When you resist the Spirit, you prevent Gods
  power from working in your heart
• How then, do we resist the Spirit of God?
• By quenching the Spirit
• By grieving the Spirit

17
Do Not Quench the Spirit

• 1 Thessalonians 519
• Do not quench the Spirit
• This command is surrounded by a series of
  positive commands
• Quenching the Spirit is to not do what the Spirit
  prompts you to do
• The Holy Spirit is always working in the life of
  the believer to lead him to do Gods will
• We quench the Spirits work by
• Ignoring Him
• Neglecting Him
• Disobeying Him
• Procrastinating

18
Do Not Grieve the Spirit

• Ephesians 430
• Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you
  were sealed for the day of redemption
• This command is surrounded by a series of
  negative commands
• Grieving the Spirit is to do what the Holy Spirit
  tells you not to do!
• To grieve means to cause Him pain, to sadden Him
  by what you do
• The Holy Spirit is pure, holy, and righteous
• We grieve the Spirit when we
• Allow impure things to come into our life
• Behave immorally
• Act unjustly
• Allow anything unholy into our life

19
Be Filled with the Holy Spirit

• Ephesians 518
• And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess,
  but be filled with the Spirit
• Filled pleroo
• Also used in John 123 to describe the result of
  Marys breaking of the alabaster flask of costly
  perfume to pour it on the feet of Jesus
• The house was filled with the fragrance of the
  perfume
• The fragrance filled every nook and cranny of the
  house
• In the same way, our lives are to be filled with
  the Holy Spirit
• But the filling of the Holy Spirit is not
  automatic!

20
How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit

• The General Conditions for Being Filled
• You must acknowledge the need to be filled, and
  realize that God wants to fill you
• God has commanded you to be filled
• He is intensely interested in your fullness
• God knows that we cannot serve Him according to
  His will, unless we are filled with the Holy
  Spirit

21
How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit

• The General Conditions for Being Filled
• You must acknowledge the need to be filled, and
  realize that God wants to fill you
• You must check your motive for seeking the
  fullness
• Many Christians seek only the experience of their
  own pleasure instead of the pleasure of God

22
How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit

• The General Conditions for Being Filled
• You must acknowledge the need to be filled, and
  realize that God wants to fill you
• You must check your motive for seeking the
  fullness
• You must confess and repent of all known sin
• He is the Holy Spirit - a definite bias against
  un-holiness
• Psalm 6618 - If I regard iniquity in my heart,
  the Lord will not hear me
• 1 John 19 - God is faithful and just to forgive
  us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness when we
  confess our sin

23
How to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit

• The General Conditions for Being Filled
• You must acknowledge the need to be filled, and
  realize that God wants to fill you
• You must check your motive for seeking the
  fullness
• You must confess and repent of all known sin
• Ask God to fill you and trust Him to do it!

24
The Specific Conditions

• John 737-39 - Both the requirements and the
  results of the fullness of the Spirit in a
  believers life
• On the last day, that great day of the feast,
  Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone
  thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
• He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said,
  out of his heart will flow rivers of living
  water.
• But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom
  those believing in Him would receive for the
  Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was
  not yet glorified.

25
The Specific Conditions

• If anyone thirsts
• Step one - there must be a consuming recognition
  of need for the fullness of the Spirit
• There is a big difference between emptiness and
  thirst
• No lost person is thirsty for the fullness of the
  Holy Spirit
• But he is certainly empty!
• thirsts is a present active subjunctive Greek
  verb
• The present tense it continually applies
• The active voice the thirst is your
  responsibility
• The subjunctive mood potential
• This is not an automatic occurrence in your life

26
The Specific Conditions

• If anyone thirsts
• Let him come to Me
• Jesus is always the focus of the Holy Spirits
  fullness.
• The Holy Spirit never focuses on Himself
• John 1614-15 Jesus said of the Holy Spirit
• 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what
  is Mine and declare it to you.
• 15 All things that the Father has are Mine.
  Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and
  declare it to you.
• Let him come to Me and drink
• We must receive His gift of the Spirits fullness
• Charles Howard, We are to drink, not just
  gargle. We are to drink, not just sip a taste.
• Keep on drinking

27
How do we know that we really love the Holy
Spirit?

• There will be results from being filled with the
  Holy Spirit
• There will be a flow from your life to others!
• The quickest way to stop the filling is to stop
  finding and using outlets for the Spirits flow
• Sea of Galilee vs. The Dead Sea!

28
Sea of Galilee vs. The Dead Sea

• Jordan River flows into both
• Sea of Galilee
• Beautiful
• Lush green
• Full of fish
• Full of life
• The Dead Sea
• Desert
• Everything Dead!

29
How do we know that we really love the Holy
Spirit?

• There will be results from being filled with the
  Holy Spirit
• There will be a flow from your life to others!
• The flow of the Holy Spirit will produce rivers
  of living water
• Ezekiel 47
• It is rivers of living water
• Not trickles, or brooks, or streams of
  living water
• It is not even a river, but rivers

30
How do we know that we really love the Holy
Spirit?

• There will be results from being filled with the
  Holy Spirit
• You will walk in the Spirit and the Fruit of the
  Spirit will be in your life
• Galatians 522-25
• But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
  longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
• gentleness, self-control. Against such there is
  no law.
• And those who are Christs have crucified the
  flesh with its passions and desires.
• If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the
  Spirit.

31
How do we know that we really love the Holy
Spirit?

• There will be results from being filled with the
  Holy Spirit
• You will walk in the Spirit and the Fruit of the
  Spirit will be in your life
• You will see God at work in your life - Acts
  132-4
• As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the
  Holy Spirit said, Now separate to Me Barnabas
  and Saul for the work to which I have called
  them.
• Then, having fasted and prayed, and laid hands on
  them, they sent them away.
• So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went
  down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to
  Cyprus.

32
How do we know that we really love the Holy
Spirit?

• There will be results from being filled with the
  Holy Spirit
• You will walk in the Spirit and the Fruit of the
  Spirit will be in your life
• You will see God at work in your life - Acts
  132-4
• If you are loving God the Holy Spirit
• With all your heart, soul, and mind
• Then you will allow Him to do His mighty work of
  Gods will in and through your life
• And God will be pleased!

33
How do you know when God is pleased?

• Chariots of Fire - Eric Liddell 1924 Olympics
• I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also
  made me fast, and when I run, I feel His
  pleasure.
• When you please God in your life, you will know
  it! You will feel His pleasure!
• When the Holy Spirit is at work in your life
• He points others toward Jesus so they can worship
  Him and call Jesus Lord
• He always glorifies God the Father through His
  Son!
• He works to do Gods will, for Gods pleasure
• I can assure you, you will know this when it
  happens!