HUMILITY, HARMONY, HOLINESS

Ecclesiastes 4:12

Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him.
And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Friends, in and of ourselves we don’t have the capability to obtain humility, harmony, or holiness and even if we did, it would only be momentary because our sin separates us from all three of them. No not humility, not harmony, and neither can holiness be sustained in darkness! It’s the Holy Spirit that draws us and guides us into that place with God where humility, harmony, and holiness are sustained and held together! That place where we are wrapped up in the spirit of God!!! Jesus makes several indications of this place saying, the wedding party is full, a sponge being full of water, boats being full of disciples, wine skins being full of new wine, all being figurative leading to the reality of being filled with the holy spirit!!! In Acts chapter 2, the disciples realized that whatever filled them controlled them! This goes for each one of us; “what we fill ourselves with, will in turn control us”! We must be intentional to not be filled with anger, unforgiveness, jealousy, fear, and all those things that the enemy tries to influence us with and separate us from God.

We are called to have that which we are filled with to be controlled by the Holy Spirit.

  There's another idea of the filling in  Habakkuk 2:14 which says, For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea.

 It's the wonder and awe of God. The knowledge of God Fills the Earth( say that with me) “THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD FILLS THE EARTH”. Can you imagine today if all people understood that the knowledge of God is All Around Us? If all people had that awe of God of Jesus Christ in their lives, We would truly know what it means to love God first and love our neighbors as ourselves--- if we truly knew that awe, that feeling of God's love within our lives.

The apostle Paul said in Ephesians 5:18, And do not be drunk with wine, in which dissipates; but be filled with the Spirit, instead, be filled up with the Holy Spirit,

We should be wholly completely controlled by the Holy Spirit.”

If we read Acts 2 right now, we would see that when the disciples went out and they started sharing, when they started speaking in the tongues of the people who were in the temple and sharing about Jesus, and the people said, are you guys drunk, have you had too much to drink already ---it's only nine o'clock in the morning you're not drinking already. And they

said no we are not filled with alcohol--we are filled, we are totally sold out –we are controlled by the Holy Spirit.

 That which we allow to fill us is that which controls us and as the Holy Spirit lives within us the Holy Spirit brings life-changing behaviors, there are life changing results in our lives.  We realize that we really are controlled by consent…. We are not God’s puppet. God does not say, Bobby I want you to jump when I say jump, pray when He say pray or praise Him when He says praise Him! We are not puppets on a string, we act by consent. We say lord please may your Spirit come and totally indwell within me and I give you my life. Please don’t go out those doors today believing or saying that I said we get to decide what we want or don’t want to do of that which God requires or asks of us, I didn’t say that! It's controlling by consent. Its loving Him so much that we naturally want to please Him and be a part of what He’s doing; wanting to please Him in every way! We agreed with Him when we responded to His call for salvation!

 There are five points I want you to look at with me and ask the lord about this week. The first one is in John 3 where Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, and he says to Jesus, “what do i need to do?” and Jesus says--- “you must be born again.”

The first aspect of being filled by the Holy Spirit is to realize that we are dead in our sin, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God there is none of us that are righteous. There is a common statement made by both believers and non-believers saying “I’m a good person and most Americans are good people… Well no, that’s the furthest from the truth. Who in here thinks you are a good person? We are all sinners, and we can only be saved by grace for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And Jesus says that the only way that we can be saved --the only way we can move from death to life is through the power of the holy Spirit… the infilling of the Holy Spirit …as the Spirit takes over our lives.

In Titus chapter 3 it says, “Jesus saves us through the washing of rebirth and the renewal of the holy Spirit in our lives.” Our lives become brand new, we are reborn when we accepted Christ within our lives ….that's the first aspect of Holy Spirit indwelling in my life in your life. We were once dead but now we are alive in Christ.

 The second aspect deals with inheritance, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit confirms to us that we belong to Jesus --- we are heirs

in the kingdom of God. Isn’t that amazing, we are heirs in the kingdom of God. We are written in the will of the inheritance of the king of kings and the lord of lords.

Romans 8:15 says we have received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba father.

We’ve been adopted by God and the  Holy Spirit bears witness that we are children of God and if we are a child of God then we are heirs --heirs with God and we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ. To be filled by the Holy Spirit means number one that we move from death to life---number two that we gain in the Inheritance of eternal life but it also means we now have love, true love. When Jesus says love the lord your God with your heart soul mind and strength love your neighbor as yourself we can truly not know what love is until we give our life to Jesus Christ, until the Holy Spirit comes in and dwells in us, the Holy Spirit pours his love into our lives—Until the love of God is poured into us we only know attraction and infatuation.  

Romans 5:5 says, 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. Who knows why hope does not disappoint us?  It's because God has poured out his love, poured out His love like rushing waters! Take that in for a moment, God’s love, the love that gave His only Son so that we might know love like rushing waters over us!!! We have God's love through the holy Spirit being poured out on us in our hearts. That amazing, that love that God had for us by sending his son Jesus to give us eternal life is that same love that the Holy Spirit puts into us-- so, we can put our hands out to others and during these trying times that’s what we are called to do put our hands out to everyone we meet!

 The fourth point is simply that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit brings us into the family of God, Christ’s universal church. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

 When we become a Christian when

the Holy Spirit comes down and resides within us, we become part of that body of Christ.

 The last point is that the indwelling of the Spirit gives Spiritual gifts to each of us. Paul says in 1Corinthians, but one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. We need to realize that the giving of the Spiritual gifts within our lives is not for self-fulfillment, but the gifts that the Spirits given to Me --- given to you are given for two purposes,

- first to worship and Glorify God, making much of Jesus Christ,

- and then for the building up of the body of Christ which also means reaching out and drawing others into that body who are not in the body the family.

Yes, the gifts that God has given to us through the holy Spirit are to be used to glorify God, to build up his body of believers and to reach out and draw

others into new life.

If you have accepted Christ as your lord and savior, the Holy Spirit desires to indwell within you.

Remember, what fills you is what controls you. Friends we have to give up fear, jealousies, anger, unforgiveness, all pettiness, and the pointing fingers, we must be controlled by consent in the Holy Spirit --for loving God first loving our neighbors as we love Ourselves.

We cannot fill ourselves; it is got to come through the holy Spirit and the evidence of the Spirit's filling is that

- though we were dead in sin we are now alive in Christ

- we have the inheritance ---we are co-heirs with Christ

- and that love that the Holy Spirit pours out into our lives is also given to others \- we are part of the universal body of Christ

- and the gifts that He gives to us…the Spiritual gifts are used to worship and praise and to build up the body and draw other people in.

Remember what Paul says in Ephesians 5, do not get drunk on wine which leads to debauchery--- instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

 Is there anyone here today that has not accepted Christ and doesn’t recognize the Holy Spirit indwelling in you???

 I pray each one here today be filled overflowing with the Holy Spirit like rushing waters, lord bless you and keep you, may he lift up his grace upon you, may he grant you grace and peace, may you open up your heart and consent to be controlled by the Holy Spirit for that which fills you controls you, Amen.