Jack Graham - Spirit-Filled Living

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The key to abundant life, the key to a victorious life is to know the Holy Spirit. And we introduced the subject last week, reminding everyone, as Peter told us: «Put into remembrance the gifts that are in you». So we’re reminding you as Christians some of these basic biblical truths of Christian living: What we believe, why we believe it and how to live the Christian life; what we should know. And so the Holy Spirit is a Person. We described Him as the Third Person of the Spirit as the Scripture describes Him.

And I ask you a question. I begin this message today with a question: Are you right now personally experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit in your life? I’m told it’s not polite to ask personal questions, but this is very personal and you don’t have to answer it out loud. But ask yourself: Am I right now consciously, conspicuously, continually filled with God’s Spirit? Because this is the command of Scripture: «Don’t be drunk with wine», Ephesians 5:18, «but be filled with the Holy Spirit». We’re going to talk about what that means in just a moment. There are two great needs in your life. One is the need for forgiveness. And God sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross so that we can be forgiven of all of our sins and that we could have eternal life. We need to be forgiven.

Every person has broken God’s commandments, has sinned against God, and therefore, Christ died for you. He went to the cross voluntarily, laid down His life. And God sent His Son Jesus to give you eternal life, the forgiveness of all your sin. But there’s a second need in every person’s life according to Dr. Billy Graham, and that is not only forgiveness, but it is goodness. And there is a cry in the heart of every person and a demand from God Himself for goodness, and yet man is not good. But in Christ we can be made good because our great God, our good God lives in us. And so He gave us, God sent His Son to save us and God sent His Spirit to fill us. To give us not only forgiveness, but goodness; to give us eternal life but to also give us abundant life, victorious life.

You know, the Bible says that when Christ rose and He ascended, He gave gifts to men: the gift of the Holy Spirit and those gifts that come with God’s Spirit. And therefore, the work of the Holy Spirit is to reproduce the life of Christ in us, Christ’s likeness, and God works in us and through us by His Spirit. God works for us by His Son Jesus, and He works in us and through us by His Spirit. Got that? Say, «Got it». Jesus promised His Spirit and He delivered big time on the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. He said, «But ye shall receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world».

It all starts; it’s all going to finish in Jerusalem. It’s where the Gospel was launched. And ultimately Christ is returning to the holy city, to Jerusalem, and when you see all these wars and rumors of wars surrounding Jerusalem, you know, the devil hates God, he hates His Son, he hates His church, and therefore, he hates the people that God loves. Satan hates the people that God loves. And so it began in Jerusalem and we all then have in Christ the Holy Spirit. So here’s another question: You have the Holy Spirit in your life if you are a Christian. The question is does the Holy Spirit have you? Does He have all of you? Does He have more and more of you?

I’ve learned as a Christian over the years, and I’ve been walking with the Lord a long time now, there’s always more. We’re satisfied with Jesus and what Christ has done for us, but we’re not satisfied with where we are, are we? There’s always more. More people to tell about Jesus. There’s always more people who need my love. There’s always more for me, there’s more victory, more power, more strength, more glory. The Scripture says we move from glory to glory and faith to faith.

And so in the Christian life there is something more for you. You don’t have to live where you’re living. You don’t have to stay where you are spiritually. You can experience more in your Christian life. When we walk in the Spirit, we live in His victory. We’re empowered by the Holy Spirit and the fullness and the freshness of every day is greater because of what Christ has done for us. It’s Christmas and Easter, it’s Easter and Christmas every day. And I’m not talking about the holidays; I’m talking about the incarnation at Christmas; I’m talking about the resurrection at Easter. Because of Easter and what happened then, because of what happened when God became a human being in Christ.

What happened then, happens now! We have the Holy Spirit in our lives! And when the Spirit came down on the church that day at Pentecost, the church went out and it changed the world, the world was changed. And what God has called us to do as His people, as His church is to be full of the Holy Spirit. Have you made the discovery that the Christian life is not hard; it’s impossible in your own strength! I can’t do this. He never said I would; He never said I should, on my own. But He’s promised me His Spirit to do what only He can do in my life. So many people, I believe, think the Christian life is just carried out by grim determination. «I’m going to live this Christian life if it kills me»! And most often it does kill you, living like that. You can’t. But the Scripture says «I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me».

So the Christian life is not determination; it is dependence upon Christ to live His life in me. And I’ve often illustrated it with a glove. That’s why I brought my bat. This is actually a Jack Graham Hardin-Simmons University. A bat similar to one I used — 34 ounces. Seems like it’s a lot heavier these days than it was then, but let’s just say, you know, I said to this glove (brought a batting glove), and I said to this glove, «All right, glove. What I want you to do is pick up that bat. Just pick it up. Go ahead». And the glove is inanimate; it just lays there. I said, «Come on,» I decide to preach to the glove, and I just talk louder. «Pick up the bat! Do it! I command you to pick up that bat»!

And, of course, the glove is incapable. It’s impossible. You see where this is going, right? Maybe I give the glove an example. I say, «Hey, glove. What you do is it’s like this: you pick it up, put your thumb here, your fingers around it, hold it tight and you’re ready to go. Go ahead. Go, thou, and do likewise». And the glove can do nothing. But if I put my hand in this glove and I say, «Glove, what I want you to do is to pick up that bat». And now the glove can do anything that my hand can do. The dexterity in my hand and fingers becomes the dexterity of this glove. The strength of my hand becomes the strength of the glove, because now life is in the glove and I pick up the bat.

And I give you that almost child-like illustration to remind you how important it is that you not attempt to live this Christian life on your own. But that you allow the Spirit of God to infill you, to do what only God can do in you. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. And, oh, how we need this in the church today. I was reading so statistics about evangelism going on world-wide and it appears by all the good data that we have that nearly 100,000 people a day are coming to faith in Jesus Christ around the world. 100,000 a day! And so millions of people are coming to faith in Christ around the world. That’s the good news. But the sad part, the sad news is that in North America and in Western Europe of these 100,000 who are coming to faith in Christ, in North America and Western Europe it’s about 5,000 a day. And we’re losing the culture.

You know, when revival comes, it happens in the church, it happens in the Christian. When spiritual awakening comes, it happens in the culture. God changes the Christian in revival. God changes the church in revival. But God changes the culture when there’s spiritual awakening, when revival spreads. And we are praying for revival in these Last Days, that one more time God will pour out His Spirit upon His church and that there will be a spiritual awakening. That’s the only solution for the problems we face in this country. And we’ve got plenty of them! And I was just reading some things about America. Did you know that in America, we spend a lot more money on porn than we do professional sports. And that doesn’t even include the free porn that people are getting online.

The U. S. leads the industrial world in teenage pregnancies. One out of three teens become pregnant in America, 81 percent out of wedlock. And, of course, we are meeting young women and their families at their point of need through our pregnancy centers, overcoming evil with good. Providing hope and opportunity and salvation in Christ, and helping women to choose life. Life in Christ and life for their child. But it’s a major problem and because of the secularization of our culture and the immorality that results. America, same-sex marriage is now the law of the land. You know that probably. Which is an ominous thing to contemplate; it is an ominous implication for your religious freedom going forward, in many ways. But God is not done with us. His Spirit is alive in us.

So why would we be weak when He is so strong? Why would we fail when we have the promise of His Spirit? The New Testament church, they changed the world. They turned it upside down. They had so little. We have so much! What did they have? The power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. And the same Spirit, think about the greatest Christian you’ve ever known. Who would that be for you? Could be a parent, could be a grandparent, could be a teacher, could be a pastor, could be a friend, a co-worker. Just maybe think about the greatest Christian I have ever known and they were really special. Let me remind you, the same Spirit of Jesus, the same Holy Spirit that lived in them, lives in you. What’s keeping you from living a victorious Christian life? If you will yield to the Holy Spirit, you will receive His Spirit.

When Jesus said in Acts 1:8: «But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you». It’s a personal you, second person, plural. It means you and you and you and you and you and you, and every you. All of you! Now here’s the thing about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We often think of the spiritual power as being a great cataclysmic event in our life, and it can happen that way. There are people who testify it was just God’s Spirit overwhelming them and God’s Spirit moving in in a momentous, miraculous way. There are powerful testimonies to that effect. But for most of us it doesn’t happen that way.

I was reading a message from one of my heroes in life and ministry, Dr. W. A. Criswell, and he was saying, «A Christian living a normal life of yieldedness to God experiences a moment-by-moment fullness of the Spirit». He said, «Some people experience a spectacular, miraculous, unique fullness that stands out over all the other fillings». And he mentions a few people like John Wesley or Dwight Moody or R. A. Torrey, some great Christians of yesteryear. They had one great filling of the Spirit that stood out above all others. But most of us, he said, experience the filling of the Spirit in repeated succession. That’s why the Scripture says it’s like walking in the Spirit. It’s a step at a time. Not some big event, but an experience that is daily. «And each work,» Criswell says, «brings its measure of endowment and inspiration».

The filling of the Holy Spirt means that we live under the influence of the Holy Spirit, under the control of the Holy Spirit, under the dominion and domination and dynamic of the Holy Spirit. And so Dr. Criswell said this: «Under dominion of the Holy Spirit, we are also changed persons. We are doing what we never thought of doing. We are saying what we never thought of saying. We are attempting what we never thought of attempting. And the unique glory in this remarkable confidence and praiseworthy achievement is that in God we are different, changed people». This is the work of the Holy Spirit in you. It changes us, the way we think, the way we talk, our morals, our mouth, our mentality. We’re now living not under the control of the flesh, but we’re living under the control of the freshness and the fullness of the Spirit. Not the flesh but the fresh work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

So how are we filled with the Holy Spirit? How can you walk in the Spirit day by day? Let me mention three ways that I ask and invite God’s Spirit to fill me, and I believe it’s God’s way that He will fill you. Number one is that we each one of us would experience and a desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You know, maybe yesterday some of these halftime speeches of the coaches of these football teams, coach might have said something like, «Guys, you got to want it! Where’s your heart? Come on! You got to want this»!

And so when it comes to our walk and our win in the Holy Spirit, you got to want it. I don’t know how much of God you have, but let me tell you something, you have all you want. Because He’s in you. All of Him is in you. Is He in all of you? Every part, every heart given to Him! Are you willing to say, «Lord, more than anything in my life I want You to live Your life through me»! Too many Christians don’t have that desire. And even God cannot, will not fill what is already filled with self, self-pursuits and self-indulgence and fleshy behavior and all the rest. So I have to be willing to empty myself and say, «Lord, less of me and more of You; all of You, none of me»! It’s a desire. What did Jesus say? «Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled». «Like a deer pants for the water, my soul pants for You, O God».

Don’t chase some experience if you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Chase God! Desire Him! And secondly, if you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, denounce all sin in your life. I’m talking to Christians now. Because we deal with temptation and sin and we fail and the flesh gets the best of us. And so what I need to do and what I’m reminding you to do is to ask the Lord to search your heart «and to see if there’s any wicked way in me». «God, is there something in me that is corroding the power of the Spirit in my life when…»

I got my first car when I was sixteen. I bought it for $75. It was a Rambler with a hole in the fender. It had a hole in the floorboard; it had a hole in the front fender. It was rusted out. It would barely drive, but it did drive. It got me to school and back. Wasn’t necessarily a chick magnet but it… My buddies were driving GTO’s and Camaros and I’m driving a Rambler. But I was okay with that. It was a car. But here’s the thing, that car wouldn’t start half the time. I couldn’t never figure out. And my dad wasn’t a mechanic. You know, he was a lumber guy and a hardware store guy.

You know, he didn’t know much about cars. But we opened up the hood and we looked at the battery and there was all kinds of corrosion, rust and corrosion. Just stuff all over the battery cables. So we did figure out, we were pouring stuff on there to get all the corrosion off. And once we got the corroded battery working, the car would start. So in my life, what I have to do is to look under the hood and to ask God to search me and know me, to show me, convict me, if there’s anything in my life that is quenching the Holy Spirit or grieving the Holy Spirit, that I would deal with it; that God would reveal it, that I would repent of it. And you know, when I’ve asked God… Don’t ask God to show you some sin in your life. Be careful. If you say, «God, show me if there’s anything in my life that is displeasing or dishonoring to You».

If you pray that, get ready because 100 percent of the time He’s going to show you. And then you have to be ready to say, «Lord, I confess my sin». If we’re cherishing sin, if we’re holding on some habit that we know displeases God, that is disobedient to God, I tell you what this does. This quenches the Holy Spirit. This is a sin for Christians against the Holy Spirit to quench the Holy Spirit. Do you know what that means? To quench the Holy Spirit, it’s like quenching a thirst or dousing a fire. So the Holy Spirit is moving, the Holy Spirit is working in my life and I quench the Holy Spirit, how? By not doing what the Holy Spirit is calling or commanding me to do. That’s quenching the Spirit. God is calling you to witness to your neighbor. God is calling you to pray for a friend. God is calling you to be bold in your convictions. God is convicting you of His will in a certain matter in your life.

So you say, «Well, no, I’m not doing that». That’s quenching the Spirit and that’s a sin against the Holy Spirit. So to quench the Spirit is to not do what God is telling you to do. But in Ephesians 5, it says that we can grieve the Spirit and it mentions grieving the Spirit by anger. So many of the sins against the Spirit are not sins of dissipation like immorality or fleshly sins. It can be that, of course. But so often the sins of disposition of attitude, toxic thinking and running your mouth in a way that doesn’t honor God, and all those things. And so to grieve the Holy Spirit is to do what God tells you not to do. You see?

So, on both ends, I can quench the Spirit by not doing what God tells me to do, the Spirit has prompted me to do; I can grieve the Holy Spirit and sin against the Holy Spirit. Another reason we say the Holy Spirit is not an it, an influence but a Person. You cannot grieve that bat; you can’t grieve this pulpit, but you can grieve another human being and grieve a person. Your children can grieve you because you love them. And so when we grieve the Holy Spirit, that’s the thing that, for me, the sin or not to sin is a question of whether I want to disappoint God or not.

I remember when I was a young person that my primary motivation in not being a fool at school or wherever was I didn’t want to disappoint my parents. I wanted to honor my parents. And I didn’t always do that. But that was my motivation. My parents loved me. They gave enough, so I didn’t want to disappoint my dad. I didn’t want to disappoint my mom because I knew they loved me; wanted the best for me. Now in a big, big, much bigger way, I want to live so that I’m not dishonoring God, disappointing God in any way. Not that God is going to take His hand and strike me, but that He would take His hand off me and not use me. Because the purpose of the Holy Spirit in our lives to fill us is that He might use us to be His witnesses. So it’s not about me and it’s not about you; it’s all about loving and serving Him, and making a difference in the world. And we can do it in the power of the Holy Spirit.