"Dream Big"
Joshua 6:1-10
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Series: "The Circle Maker" by Mark Batterson

Introduction: I want to tell you of a story that happened in the first century, B.C. called The Legend of the Circle Maker. This story motivated minister Mark Batterson to write a book called The Circle Maker that we are going to look at over the next 4 weeks. I believe this story, and the material from this book, will challenge our prayer life, and forever change how we pray!

The story goes like this: In the first century there was this terrible drought that threatened to destroy a generation. This was the generation before Jesus. The last of the Jewish prophets had died off nearly four centuries before this. Many struggled to believe that God did miracles anymore. In the midst of the drought an eccentric sage name Honi believed that God could still hear them.

The people believed that Honi was there only hope as he was famous for his praying for rain. It was on this day, come to be known as The Day, that Honi would live up to what people believed about him.

Honi carried a six-foot staff, and as he walked within the walls of Jerusalem, to where the people were standing, he used his staff to draw a circle around him. Honi dropped to his knees and raised his hands to heaven. With the authority of the greatest of the prophets, Honi called out to God with these words:

“Lord of the universe, I swear before Your great name that I will not move from this circle until You have shown mercy upon Your children.”

The words of his prayer continued from the depth of his soul with confidence and yet humility.

Then it happened. The raindrops began to descend to the earth. An audible gasp went out from the people. The people rejoiced over each drop. But Honi wasn’t satisfied. Still kneeling within the circle, Honi lifted his voice over the sounds of the celebration, and said: “Not for such rain have I prayed, but for rain that will fill cisterns, pits, and caverns.”

The sprinkle turned into a torrential downpour. And Honi continued: “Not for such rain have I prayed, but for rain of Your favor, blessing, and graciousness.”

At this it began to rain calmly, peacefully. The rain was a tangible reminder of God’s grace. Because of this rain, it was impossible for people not to believe in God as a God of miracles; a God who hears the prayer of His people.

This prayer was deemed one of the most significant prayers in the history of Israel. This prayer stands as a testament to the power of a single prayer, and the ability for all to make a difference with their prayers!

I. Circle Makers-

The theme behind this book, behind this series is this: BOLD PRAYERS

HONOR GOD, AND GOD HONORS BOLD PRAYERS!

If your prayers don’t go beyond what you are capable of doing, then you are

not praying like you should! Why is this? Because anything that doesn’t require diving intervention is unnecessary to pray. If you can do it, why do you pray to God? Prayer is designed to connect us with God in a deep relationship, and then lead us to pray within God’s will. When we do this, God rejoices in our prayers, because God loves to keep His promises! God is a God who answers prayers, performs miracles, and fulfills dreams. That is who God is, and what God does.

God therefore wants us to draw circles around the impossible situations. God

is ready and waiting for us to do this. This is because God is for us, and God has created us as people who are to dream. If you don’t believe this, then your prayers will be small and timid. And this might be the way you are praying now!

Like Honi, we need to determine what God wants for us, draw a circle

around it, and then pray for this diligently, fervently, and with sincere faith. The key is that it all starts with what God wants; what God wills. Getting what you want isn’t the goal; the goal is glorifying God. That is where too many people falter in their prayers. Their prayers are not prayed with the purpose of glorifying God, but trying to get what they want.

As we are told in James, chapter 4, verses 2b-3, “You do not have because you

do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” So, one mistake we make is to not ask. The second mistake we make is to ask for our own pleasures. These both lead us to not experience answered prayer.

When we ask with the right motive, and faith, and trust in God, in the

context of wanting to see God’s will happen in our lives, and with the desire for it to glorify God, then we will see God answer our prayers. It takes faith, determination, and perseverance.

II. The Jericho Miracle- (Joshua 6:2-5)-

There is a book called The Book of Legends, that contains some teachings of

Jewish Rabbis. The story of Honi the Circle Maker is in this book. It is a reminder that people have been praying to God for centuries, and God has been answering their prayers. It is a reminder that we are a part of a great work all around us. It is a reminder that prayer is not something that we just do because we want something, or because all of a sudden we have a need.

Prayer comes out of our ongoing relationship with God. In this relationship we form a bond with God, so that we can begin to know the mind of God and the will of God. It is a connection that is made so that when we do pray something big, we not only believe God will do it, but we know why God will do it! Through this we

are inspired to pray big prayers because we know that we worship a big and powerful God who is able to answer these big prayers. We know that when we experience circumstances beyond our abilities or control, we have a God who can come alongside and take care of the need.

One great example of this is the story in the Bible of the Israelites circling Jericho for seven days. Imagine when the Israelites came upon Jericho! What they saw was a six-foot wide lower wall and a fifty-foot high upper wall that encircled the city. It appeared to be an impregnable fortress. God had promised Jericho to Israel, but God had promised the impossible, they must have thought.

Then God gave the Israelites the battle plan: “Then the LORD said to Joshua,

‘See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. ³ March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. ⁴ Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. ⁵ When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.’”

Have you ever wondered why they didn’t use a battering ram? Or cut off the water supply? The soldiers must have felt foolish doing this! By their obedience God answered a 400-year-old promise. He proved that what He promises to will true. He did it this way so that the people would know that it was God’s doing, and not theirs!

What is your Jericho? What is mine? I believe one of mine is the success of this church. We are facing a challenge with attendance, and with finances. But I believe if we pray to God, God will answer! The key will be to pray this prayer with the idea of glorifying God. We can’t pray a vague prayer, but a very concise and purposeful prayer: “Lord, help us to bring Your word of truth and life to those who are lost so that they might come to this church. Give us the finances we need to continue doing ministry for years to come, FOR YOUR GLORY!”

III. Praying through-

I’m sure you have heard the name Mother Teresa; a missionary of charity to the poorest of poor in Calcutta, India. But have you ever heard of Mother Dabney? In 1925, Elizabeth J. Dabney and her husband went to work for a mission in the City of Brotherly Love. The mission was in a literal hellhole. Her husband was called to preach. She was called to prayer. She didn’t just pray, she prayed through.

One afternoon as she was thinking about a bad situation in their North Philly neighborhood, she asked God if He would give them a spiritual victory if she covenanted with Him to pray. She felt strongly that God promised He would. She felt the Lord prompting her to meet with Him the next morning at the Schuylkill River at 7:30 a.m. sharp. The next morning she went down to the river outside the city walls, and the Lord said to her, “This is the place.” She said that the presence of God overshadowed her. She drew a circle in the sand and prayed this prayer:

“Lord, if You will bless my husband in the place You sent him to establish Your name, if You will break the bonds and destroy the middle wall of partition, if You will give him a church and congregation—a credit to Your people and all Christendom—I will walk with You for three years in prayer, both day and night. I will meet You every morning at 9:00 a.m. sharp... Furthermore, if You will listen to the voice of my supplication and break through in that wicked neighborhood and bless my husband, I will fast seventy-two hours each week for two years...

After she ended her prayer it was like a cloudburst of God’s glory that fell from heaven. And so she faithfully prayed every morning at 9:00 a.m. Soon the mission was too small to accommodate the people. The more she prayed, the more God came through! Mother Dabney’s prayer legacy was published by The Pentecostal Evangel under the title ‘What it means to pray through.’

The truth is, most of us don’t get what we pray for because we quit circling. We give up too easily. We give up too soon. We don’t commit ourselves to what God wants to do in and through us, and we don’t PRAY THROUGH!! We don’t refuse to move from the circle until God moves.

IV. The Foolishness of Prayer-

We are called to pray before anything happens. It can look foolish to others because we are praying for something beyond ourselves! Think about Honi, drawing a circle, kneeling down, lifting his hands to heaven, and praying to God for rain. Drawing prayer circles can look like an exercise of foolishness. But it’s shows faith. Think about Noah, exercising his faith by building an ark in the middle of a desert. The Israelite army looking foolish marching around Jericho and blowing trumpets. A boy named David using a slingshot and some rocks to defeat a giant.

Jesus Himself exhibited this same faith when he took 5 loaves of bread, and 2 fish, and prayed that it would feed over 5,000 people! If you add it up, 5 + 2 = 7! But if you add God to the equation, 5 + 2 equals whatever God wants to do with it. God is in the business of multiplication. This is God’s economy. In fact, for God, 5 + 2 equals 5,000 plus 12 baskets left over.

The challenge for you and for me is to pray when we don’t understand; to trust when we don’t see a way out. We have to ask ourselves if we are willing to draw a circle and pray even when things don’t add up. Are you and I going to really add God to the equation, or will we fail to pray through, because we think it might look foolish? Will we carry on with the Lord at our side, or will we quit?

God isn’t offended by big dreams. However, big dreams require the foolishness of prayer. Actually, God is offended than less than big dreams, because we are selling God and ourselves short. Without big dreams, there is no need for God in our lives. The bigger the prayer circle, the more God can multiply.

V. The Surprise of Prayer-

There is a wonderful phrase in the book, in chapter 6. The phrase is this:

“VISION BEYOND YOUR RESOURCES.” Most people do not have vision beyond their resources. They look at what they have and try to come up with a plan using the resources they now possess. But you cannot dream big by only using the resources you have now. The whole idea of a dream is achieving something that doesn’t already exist. A dream is there to take you to where God wants you to go next.

I have a minister friend who is the minister of a church that has an abundance of money and resources. I told him about how a few years ago we did something called Return to Bethlehem, which required us to make back drops, and props, and costumes, and transform our Fellowship Hall into a first century market place. It also cost $1000 and took 55 people to pull off. We gave it to God, and God accomplished it for us! I could tell you many stories where this has happened in our church.

As I told him stories like this, he was amazed, because he said that their church never decides to do anything until they have first figured out if they could afford it. They don’t step out in faith in this way!!

When you circle a promise in prayer, the truth is, anything can happen. To presuppose what the Lord will do with your prayer, or to put expectations on God in the prayer, is not what praying is about. Prayer adds an element of surprise to your life. Once you have circled the need and prayed the prayer, the rest is up to God. The surprise comes in wondering what God will do with the prayer and how God will answer it. God is predictably unpredictable.

His timing is also a surprise. I have seen God answer prayers at the last minute so many times. I have had so many people tell me God waited until the last minute to answer their prayer. I believe that this enhances our trust and faith in God. We know, when the answer comes, that it was from God.

Conclusion: Sometimes when you hear the answers to prayer that others have experienced, it can be discouraging instead of encouraging because you wonder why God has answered their prayers but not yours. Let me help you to understand that the answer to their prayer, while seemingly happening shortly after they prayed it, is something that God was working on for them over much time.

Sometimes the power of prayer is the power to carry on. It doesn’t always change your circumstances, but it gives you the strength to walk through them. When you pray through, the burden is taken off of your shoulders and put on God’s. Don’t think that your dream or your prayer is too big. If it is in accordance with the will of God, for the purpose of giving glory to God, God’s answer will come for you. Amen.

"Becoming More Like Jesus"
Genesis 41:46-52; Galatians 5:16-23
Sunday, January 29, 2012

Introduction: As parents, we are constantly trying to make sure our kids stay safe. We also regularly teach them how to make good decisions. Not too long ago I was driving in the car with Tiffany when this teenager made a wild U-turn in front of me. I began to talk with her about being careful whom she rode with in a car. Or maybe we are watching a television show and something comes on the TV that we need to process together.

The truth is we live in a world that has all kinds of dangers and horrors around us. We pray that our kids will stay safe; that we will stay safe. But sometimes it can happen where we face some deep hurt. It might come from a relationship gone bad, or a bad investment, or even something happening in our families. We cannot completely control what we will experience. In these times of deep hurt it is good to know that the Holy Spirit is there for us.

Today we finish our series on the comfort of the Holy Spirit, understanding that the Holy Spirit can help us even when we are hurt deeply!

I. The Walking Wounded- (Genesis 41:46-52)

a. Parting with resentment- There are many people, many Christians,

who are ‘walking wounded.’ Meaning, that they have some deep hurt that they have experienced but have not been able to let go of. There are many people who don’t know how to get rid of these hurts in their lives! Part of the problem is that when we are hurt deeply, when experience resentment toward the person or event. This resentment can cause even further damage in our lives.

Often times we either try to mask the hurt or go through the motions in trying to find healing. However, because the hurt is so deep, we have trouble letting ourselves deal with it completely, and so the hurt stays in our lives. It might be dormant for a time, and then one day just pop up out of the blue. We think it is gone, but it is not… There is hope though.

Thanks be to God for the Holy Spirit, who comes to us to heal our deep hurts. Because the Holy Spirit can delve deep into our spirit, the Holy Spirit can do the work that needs to be done to rid us of this pain. However, for the Holy Spirit to be able to heal our deep hurts, we must be willing to part with the resentment that is in our hearts. When something deeply hurtful happens to us, more often than not we respond by feeling sorry for ourselves. We wonder, why me?

The only way to abandon the resentment is to give it to the Holy Spirit. We need to let the Holy Spirit completely remove the resentment from our lives! Only then can there be the deep healing that will help us to get past the hurt and live our lives again free from concern. The Holy Spirit can’t bring healing where there is bitterness. But once the bitterness and resentment are removed, then you will be amazed at how life will seem worth living again.

Let me give you a couple of examples….

b. Joseph being sold into slavery- You might be familiar with the story of

Joseph, in the book of Genesis. Joseph was given a gift from God. This gift enabled him to see the future. In one of his dreams he saw that he would be over his brothers (who were all older than him). When Joseph told the dream to them they got so incensed that they concocted a plan to sell Joseph into slavery. So, one day they staged his death, put blood on his coat, sold him to travelers, and then took the coat back to their father to tell him that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal.

How do you think Joseph felt having been sold into slavery? He was probably fearful about now being a slave. He was fearful having to live in a strange land; in Egypt, far away from his family! He was angry and bitter that his brothers would do such a horrible thing to him. How could they sell him as a slave? How could they hate him so much? He felt unloved and troubled by where he was now in his life. Deep pain. Deep bitterness. Deep resentment.

It took much time for Joseph to deal with this resentment. Joseph spent many days and nights praying to God. Joseph had to deal with the loneliness of being in a strange country. He had to deal with the humiliation of being a slave. But Joseph, with God’s help, sought to make the best of it. In time Joseph became a high ranking person in the Pharaoh’s land.

Joseph continued to use his gift and continued to live his life, instead of dwelling on his hurt and resentment. God gave Joseph a dream that there would be a famine. So Joseph began to store up extra food so that the people of the land would not starve. In time, this led Joseph’s family to have to come and buy grain from him (although they didn’t know it was Joseph at first). In this way Joes

We saw in our reading from Genesis 41 that Joseph also got married and had two sons. In Genesis 41:52 we see Joseph’s frame of mind, where he says: “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.” Joseph was able to give his resentment to God, and God’s Spirit was able to free his from his pain. Because of this Joseph led a prosperous life for the Lord. Because of this, Joseph wasn’t crippled by his pain. Because of this, Joseph wasn’t controlled by his bitterness!

c. Joni Eareckson- Have you heard of Joni Eareckson? As a teenager,

Joni loved life. She enjoyed riding horses, hiking, tennis, and loved to swim. But on a hot summer day in July 1967, that all changed. While on a beach with some friends, Joni dove into Chesapeake Bay not knowing how shallow the water was. She broke her neck—a fracture between the fourth and fifth cervical levels—and became a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the shoulders down. While her friends were preparing to go to college in the fall, Joni was fighting for her life and facing the fact that she would have to live the rest of her life in a wheelchair. Joni’s rehabilitation was not easy, and she struggled through it for the next two years. She was angry, struggled with depression, and had frequent thoughts of suicide. She wrote a book in which she questions how God could let this happen to her. She decided to immerse herself in the Bible to become spiritually strong.

When Joni became paralyzed, she had a choice to make. She could become bitter at God and at her circumstances. OR, she could seek out God and ask for His help. Joni chose to seek out God and God’s Spirit came to her and strengthened her in her spirit! Instead of holding onto bitterness, she took hold of God’s comfort. Instead of dwelling on why this happened, she sought God in how she could still live a full and meaningful life.

What became of Joni’s life? Despite her severe disability, she has led an adventurous life. She has written over forty books, recorded several musical albums, starred in a major autobiographical movie of her life and is actively involved as an advocate for disabled people. During her two years of rehabilitation, Joni learned how to paint with a brush between her teeth, and later began selling her artwork.

We do know that at first Joni was angry and bitter. That is natural and expected when something painful happens. It was how she chose to act after this anger and bitterness, that is so important. She didn’t let the bitterness and anger control her. She gave it to God, and let go of it. In doing this, she experienced inner healing. Outside she remained the same, but inside she was made anew.

We all have a choice when we experience hurtful things in our lives. We will probably experience bitterness, anger, and resentment in the beginning. But the question is, will we let the resentment win? Will we let the bitterness control us and confine us? OR, will we seek the Holy Spirit and let God’s Spirit give us inner healing? If we do, then we can be free of that hurt and pain and bitterness.

II. The Holy Spirit contributes to our Growth- (Rom. 8:29; Philippians 1:6; Galatians 5:16-23; James 3:9)

a. More like Jesus- In the midst of the 5 hurts that we experience

(rejection, false accusation, disappointment, failure, and deep hurt) there is another aspect where the Holy Spirit helps us: in helping us to become more like Jesus Christ. It is important for us to understand that part of our being Christians is that we are to be followers of Christ; disciples of Christ, so that we can become more like Christ.

I have said before that one of Jesus’ reasons for coming to this earth was to give us an example of how to live. Because of our sinful nature, we have a tendency to default to our sinfulness and not live as God created us to live. We love with conditions. We fail to forgive others. We are selfish and willful. We seek to be independent and not listen to God. And on and on it goes. We often don’t live like Christ, and therefore don’t live as God intended for us.

The good news is that the Holy Spirit comes alongside us in our lives and assists us in becoming more like Jesus. This is good news because on our own we would struggle to understand how we are to live, and not have the strength to carry it out once we do understand.

Have you ever considered what is God’s chief goal for your life? It is not to make you like some other person you admire. God’s chief goal is to mold us into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. We are told in Romans 8:29, “For from the very beginning God decided that those who came to Him…should become like His Son.” That is a very wonderful and telling verse! The Holy Spirit comes within us to order our lives and to contribute to this goal of being like Christ.

The apostle Paul encouraged us in this as well in many verses in the New Testament: In Philippians 1:6 we are told, “I am confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” The good work that was begun was our becoming Christians and asking Jesus to be our Savior and Lord. The work that continues is the work of becoming like Christ.

In Galatians 5:16-17 the apostle Paul instructs us how the Holy Spirit assists us in this good work: “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.” To even desire to be like Christ we must walk in the Spirit; we must let the Holy Spirit have control of our lives. Our natural tendency is to walk in the flesh, not the Spirit!

When we walk in the Spirit we are told of what becomes of our nature in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” When the Spirit is active in our lives, the result will be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather be living with these qualities, than to live with unforgiveness, and selfishness, and a willful spirit!

b. Understanding Christ’s nature- Galatians 5:22-23 helps us to

understand what the nature of Christ is. We need to understand that this is what we are trying to achieve. We are trying to develop these important qualities, fruit in our lives… If you were honest with yourself, you know, and I know, that we need to do better with how we love, how we experience joy, how we allow peace to reign in our lives, and so on!

The nine fruit of the Spirit were exemplified in the life of Jesus. The Holy Spirit wants to infuse them into our personalities. The reasons they are referred to as “fruit” is because they are to become a natural outcome of who we are. We are not to have these fruit forced upon us, but rather enhanced in our lives. We already know how to love, just not unconditionally. We already know how to enjoy life/ to an extent, but our enjoyment of life is based on the good experiences. God wants us to experience joy in all aspects of life.

Wouldn’t it be nice to experience true peace in life? Well, when the Holy Spirit comforts us from our hurts, and worries, and anxiety, and replaces them with hope, then we do experience peace. We have times when we are patient, but many times when we are not. With the Holy Spirit our patience will increase. We can be truly good people, doing good works, if we allow the Holy Spirit to come fully into our lives.

We exhibit kindness when we open the door for someone, or give someone a ride. But our kindness is tempered by our propensity for anger. And in our anger, our kindness disappears. It is one thing to be gentle with a baby, because we know the baby is fragile, or in our praise of God. We can be gentle when we encourage another person. But then we turn around and curse someone else. As James says in James 3:9, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness.”

We are faithful when we keep our commitments and do what we say we will do. Yet, how many times have we let someone down? How many times have we not kept our promises? One of the areas we all struggle with the most is self-control. This shows itself to be true differently for different people. For one it might be a tendency to eat too many desserts. For another it might be the inclination to gossip about another person. We have trouble exercising self-control in all areas of our lives! But with the Holy Spirit the fruit of the Spirit can be evident in our lives.

Someone once said, when we are in Christ, (through the power of the Holy Spirit), evil is alien, but goodness is natural.” Remember Adam and Eve, back before they sinned. They didn’t know evil, just good. It wasn’t until they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they knew evil. Once they ate, they knew they were naked, and their nakedness became evil. Because of this they covered themselves with fig leaves!

The nature of Christ is love. The nature of Christ is joy. The nature of Christ is kindness. The nature of Christ is self-control. That nature can be ours. The more we are able to let the Holy Spirit dwell in us, and work in us, and comfort us, and strengthen us, the more we will have the nature of Christ!

Conclusion: Our prayer to God should be one of praise and thanksgiving. If you would like, please pray this prayer with me. It is printed in the outline of your bulletin. “Holy God, we know that we are far from what we should be. Forgive us. We thank you that Your Holy Spirit is here, active in our lives. May we be open to Your Spirit. May we allow the Spirit to comfort us in our pain, and lift us up to become more like Christ. Help us to desire to take on the nature of Christ by allowing the Holy Spirit to cause the Fruit of the Spirit to blossom in our lives. Let our lives bring glory to You, O God, so that those around us will see the light we shine, and see that this light shines to You. We praise You for being a God who created us with great care and concern. We thank you for being a personal and loving God. We thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit to bring about the expression of the Fruit of the Spirit out of our lives. We commit ourselves to You in this, O God, this day, and every day. Amen.”

"Comfort in Disappointment"
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Psalm 43:1-5

Introduction: A number of years ago the army came up with the slogan “Be, all that you can be.” It is a slogan that is challenging, encouraging, and speaks to having a purpose. It is a positive statement that tells you that you can be special. It helps people to feel that they have something to live for. It speaks to people who have experienced disappointment and failure in life, offering them a chance to overcome those experiences.

Last week we looked at two of the top five hurts that people experience: rejection and false accusation. Today we look at two more: disappointment and failure. The truth is, when we experience failure and disappointment in our lives we can feel less than what we were created to be. These feelings can affect our self-esteem and our excitement for life. So let’s take some time to look at how the Holy Spirit comes to us in these times to offer us comfort and support!

I. Dealing with the hurt of Disappointment- (Psalm 43:1-5; James 1:2-4)

a. Expectations- I find it interesting that we are a people of expectations.

What I mean by this is that we expect certain things to happen in life. To name a few: we expect to not only be educated, but to have the best education we can have. We expect that we will be treated fairly in life. We expect that we should make a better living than our parents. And I on and on I could go.

I believe these expectations come from our sinfulness; the selfish part of us that only thinks about what we want. These expectations start from when we are young. If you notice how when a young baby wants something, that baby will be determined to get what he or she wants. She will cry until you give it to her. Or, she will continue to reach out and grab for it until she has gotten it. From our wants and desires we form our expectations.

The problem with expectations is that when they don’t happen, you will feel let down. To put it bluntly, you expect to get what you expect to get. An expectation is something you “hope” you get. So by the nature of the definition, there is great disappointment when it doesn’t come to you as you thought it would. It is something that you count on getting, but it is not something that is required for to have.

Let me give you an example: People can have the expectation that at the end of the month they will get a paycheck. If they don’t get their paycheck, they will be disappointed. But since it is something that is required that they get, since they worked for it, then it WILL come to them. But let’s say a parent expects that their child will respect them. If they don’t get respect from their child they will be disappointed. But it is not something that is required for children to do. It is beneficial for the family structure, but not necessarily required. Maybe the children don’t respect the parent because the parent is never there for the child. Maybe the parent is abusive. Maybe the parent withholds any kind of blessing. This can lead the child to stop respecting the parent. The parent needs to earn the child’s respect.

It is not good to live your life with expectations. This is because there are too many variables in life, and too many ways that things can change or not come to us as we think they should. There are not many guarantees in life, and so living with expectations just set us up for frustration and heartache. That doesn’t mean you live your life without goals or desires, but you do it with a humble spirit.

b. God letting you down- We also tend to put expectations on God. These

expectations again come from our sinfulness and selfishness. We believe that God should answer our prayers just the way we ask. We think that God should heal people every time we pray for healing. While we don’t expect people to live forever, we blame God if a loved one dies because God didn’t heal them. We think that we shouldn’t ever be in want, or have struggles in our lives. And when these things come about, we are disappointed in God, because we feel like God let us down!

As we just read the words from the psalmist in Psalm 43:1-2, “Vindicate me, my God, and plead my cause against an unfaithful nation. Rescue me from those who are deceitful and wicked. ² You are God my stronghold. Why have you rejected me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” The psalmist here is questioning why he and God’s people are having to experience oppression from their enemies. He has the expectation that God will always come and rescue them from the deceitful and the wicked. There is great disappointment here because God is not doing what is expected of Him.

We do the same thing. We are disappointed in God when He doesn’t do what we expect. We want a particular job, so we pray to God. We go for the interview but don’t get the job. Who do we blame? God. We are struggling in our finances and we are having trouble paying our bills. We are disappointed that God hasn’t taken care of our needs.

This is particularly hard because God should be the only One we can truly rely on. We know that God is powerful. We know that God is loving. We know that God promises to never leave us nor forsake us. The problem is that in our expectations we correlate God’s love with our never having any problems. We believe that God would never want us to experience hardship. And so when hardship and trial come, we are disappointed in God.

We forget that much of our hardship comes from our own poor choices. We forget that sometimes God allows us to experience trouble to make us stronger or to learn a lesson. In these times we have to remember James 1:2-4, which says: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

The problem is not God, but in our expectations of God!

c. Others letting you down- There is a third area of disappointment, and

that is with others around us. Because we have many relationships in our lives, and because our relationships are flawed, we will be let down by others. The let downs run the gamut from parents not showing up to a child’s event when the parent gave his or her promise. It happens when one spouse says they will do something and then they don’t follow through. It happens when you need your friend to be there for you but they are too busy.

Again, we have expectations in our relationships. These expectations aren’t necessarily bad. It isn’t wrong for a child to want his or her parent to come to the performance. It isn’t wrong to expect your spouse to do what they say they will do. It isn’t wrong to expect that your friend should be there for you when you are going through a trial. The problem is, because we are not perfect people, we will not be able to live up to the expectations put on us.

What makes a relationship strong is having appropriate expectations, and learning how to resolve the disappointment when it comes. If you realize that you will experience disappointment, then you can prepare yourself for it when it comes. Of course, some disappointment is greater than others, and some might end the relationship. This you have to put in proper perspective.

The key in all of this, is that when you are disappointed, know that the Holy Spirit can bring you comfort. Instead of trying to deal with it on your own, or push aside how you feel, bring it to God. God is not going to get angry if you are disappointed with Him. God is not going to ignore you if you are disappointed in one of your relationships. If you open yourself to God, God will bring the comfort of the divine Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and make you whole.

II. Dealing with the hurt of Failure-

Another area of hurt in our lives is that of failure. Many times when we feel we have failed, we want to give up. I’m sure you have heard the saying, “If you fall off a horse, get right back on.” The meaning is that if you don’t get back to trying, then your failure will not only be painful, but it will ultimately destroy you! We must understand that failure is part of living.

a. When what you try doesn’t work- Failure is when we try something,

and it doesn’t work. There is a great commercial where a dad is cooking some eggs for his son. As the son walks in the father says: “Son, would you like an omelet?” The son responds: “Yes, dad, that would be great!” The father then tries to flip the omelet over, only to have it completely break up. To which the father says: “I guess we’re having scrambled eggs!”

Our family just watched the Miss America pageant last week. Miss Wisconsin ended up winning. Miss Oklahoma took second. For many, second place would seem like a failure. Especially when we live in a society, which lifts up winners, and remembers winners. At one point in the show they brought out Miss America 2011. They didn’t bring out the second place finisher from 2011… We have to remember though that Miss Oklahoma won her city and state competitions!! In fact, every one of those women who made it to Miss America did not fail, because just competing in the event was success!

Or how about the Green Bay Packers? They were undefeated for most of the year. They only lost one football game during the season, and were picked by many to return to and win the Super bowl. Yet, they lost last week in the second round of the playoffs. For them it was a failure, because since they had already won the Super Bowl the year before, the only goal for them was to win it again. Anything less would be failure.

FAILURE. We have a warped view of what is success and what is failure!!

A few years ago I had a friend who was offered a promotion. The promotion would mean she would make more money. It was a recognition of her accomplishments and capabilities. However, it would mean she would have to take on new responsibilities. It would mean she would have different duties. In the end she decided to not take the promotion because it wouldn’t be what God wanted for her! She actually did what some would think of as a demotion, and took a lesser job, because that job fit more with her giftedness! Some would think that would look like failure in her career. But to her, and to God, it was fitting with what God would have her to do!

C. S. Lewis once said in his book The Screwtape Letters, where he was describing Satan’s strategy against Christians: “Satan gets Christians to become preoccupied with their failures; from then on, the battle is won.” The battle is won because when we think we have failed, we beginning to lose energy and enthusiasm for life. We stop trying as hard. We think that God doesn’t love us anymore, because no one loves a loser!

b. Believing a lie- If we were to use the criteria that the world uses for

success and failure, many would look at Jesus and say that He was a failure. Jesus was rejected by His nation and His life ended on a cross. He was crucified as a criminal. He had failed to meet the expectations of so many. Jesus didn’t turn Israel into a national power. Jesus didn’t take a leadership position. Jesus wasn’t respected by the religious leaders of His time. Jesus wasn’t even respected by the masses of people who shouted out at His trial for Him to be crucified.

But what can seem like failure can become success; especially in the hands of God. For three days later His failure turned into triumph as He rose from the dead and proved Himself victorious over all His enemies!

The truth is, to believe the statement “I am a failure” is to believe a lie. The fact that you have failed something does not make you a failure. Because you are a child of God and a joint heir with Christ, you have eternal life in Christ. Because of your faith in Christ, you will be forever be loved by God. There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God, as the apostle Paul says in Romans 8:38-39. How then can you say that you are a failure? Some things may have not worked out in your life as you might have liked them to, but that might not be all that terrible.

Success or failure is not so important, as being true to what God has asked you to do. We are not called to be “successful” as the world would consider success, but to be faithful to God in how we live. If we are living the way God calls us to live, and doing what God calls us to do, then even in those times where we fail at something, or when something doesn’t go right, we can still know that God will pick us up, put us back on the road, and get us going again!

Again, the Holy Spirit is there for you. Whatever you feel about the failures in your life, don’t feel like YOU are a failure. God has created you. God has created you to do good works. God has created you to be a blessing to others. As Jesus said, if we love God, and love others, then our lives will be a success.

Conclusion: Disappointment and failure will be a part of our world. But we can minimize its affect on our lives. We can change our expectations so that we aren’t disappointed. We can learn how to resolve our conflicts. We can look to God whenever these disappointments come. We can trust the Holy Spirit to comfort us and keep us strong. We can ask for God’s help to give us the right perspective on life.

Even more, we can understand that failure is a part of success. I read a great quote the other day on Facebook from one of my Facebook friends. The quote comes from Michael Jordan, where he says: “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

So, whatever pain you are experiencing from disappointment and failure, let the Holy Spirit comfort you. Let the Holy Spirit lift you up and strengthen you to keep moving forward in life. Let the Holy Spirit help you to live a life where at the end you will not be disappointed in what you accomplished and you won’t feel like a failure. Live in a way so that when you get to heaven, you will hear God say to you: “Well done my good and faithful servant.” Amen.

"Comforted in Rejection"
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Isaiah 53:1-12

Introduction: Today is our second week of a 4-week series we are doing on the Holy Spirit as our comforter. Last week we talked about how the Holy Spirit comforts us in many ways: He prays for us; He takes a hold of our problems and removes them; He counsels us when we are needing guidance; He brings guilty feelings upon us so that we realize we are doing wrong; and on and on it goes.

The Holy Spirit does this because He wants to make sure that we walk according to the will of God. The Holy Spirit wants us to live the best and most productive life we can live. The Holy Spirit wants to remind us that Jesus spoke the truth when He told us that He would not leave us nor forsake us. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence in our lives!

Over the next 3 weeks we are going to look at the five main hurts that people experience, and how the Holy Spirit is there to comfort us in the midst of these hurts. Today we will look at rejection and false accusation.

I. Rejection- (Isaiah 53:1-12; John 14:26-27)

Have you ever been rejected? I ask this question, and then think it is actually a foolish question, because I would be surprised if there is anyone in this room who hasn’t been rejected in some way, at some time in their life!

a. As a child- Probably the most common time for someone to be

rejected, is in their childhood. Children can be extremely cruel to other children. They use put downs to reject others children: such as telling them that they are fat, or ugly, or uncoordinated. They can use their name against them, often times rhyming the name with something hurtful: for example, they might call someone fat Pat. They can even reject others by making groups or clubs that exclude them.

However, rejection doesn’t just come from other children. Rejection can be experienced from a child’s parents. One of the greatest ways a parent is to be there for his or her child is to love them and help them feel accepted. A parent’s role is to train a child to become the wonderful person that God created that child to be. A child looks up to his parents and needs to be accepted by them. Whether it is by harsh words, or not giving approval to the child, or even by abandoning the child through drugs or divorce, the child can feel rejected.

Since childhood is that period where a child is learning how to love and give and trying to understand what it means to relate to others, rejection can cause great pain in the child’s life. Rejection is quite painful, because we have been created to be in relationship with others, and in this rejection the relationships are withheld. This, we will see, can affect our lives as we move into adulthood!

b. In your family or career- But even as adults rejection is experienced.

One of the hardest things for people to do,is to date. In dating you are putting yourself out there for the other person. You are giving your heart to someone else, and if they decide they no longer want to date you, then rejection is felt. You might wonder if you are worthy of being loved. You might question what is wrong with you because you were not fully received by that other person. Even though in dating there will be many break-ups before you find the person you will marry, these break-ups still hurt a great deal.

Someone once said: “I would rather love and be rejected, than to never have loved at all.” I would agree with this statement, but it doesn’t take away from the hurt of rejection. It doesn’t minimize the pain that is felt when a relationship doesn’t work out.

Or, getting back to the parent/child relationship, you can be rejected by your parents even when you are an adult. Maybe they don’t agree with whom you marry, or the career you choose. Maybe you feel judged or condemned by your parents. Again, this relationship that is suppose to be so vital in our lives has brought rejection to us, and it is painful.

A third way that rejection happens is in our career. I’m not sure what the statistic is, but I have heard that many college graduates end up getting a job that is outside of their major. Meaning, that they went to college to become an engineer, or a musician, or a lawyer, but they end up in a different career. This can feel like rejection because you chose the career that matched what you like to do, and end up doing something different.

Even more, is the fact that many college graduates find it hard to get a job. They work hard at completing their major and getting a degree, but then they are rejected by one company after another! They take the time to fill out the job application and then go for the interview. They get themselves mentally and emotionally ready for the job, only to be told ‘no thank you!’

The truth is, whenever we are rejected, it is as if every rejection we have ever experienced is remembered. The current rejection triggers the memories within us, and we play back all the feelings of rejection we felt in earlier years.

EX. Folding a towel- When Tami and I were first married it didn’t take long to realize that I like things a certain way, and so does Tami. One way I discovered this was after I had washed my hands, dried them on the towel, folded the towel, and then hung it up. Without even thinking, while we were still talking, Tami walked over to the towel, and refolded the towel! I actually got angry over this thinking that she thought I didn’t know how to fold a towel. The truth was, somehow I felt some rejection from this. As I analyzed it, I realized that it brought back feelings of when my dad would ask me to do something, but I didn’t do it the way he wanted, and he would come along behind me and redo it! These feelings of rejection resurfaced.

What are we to do with this hurt?

c. Jesus understands our pain- We need to understand that Jesus is

there for us; Jesus understands our pain. Jesus has experienced rejection Himself. Listen again to Isaiah 53:3-5, “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. ⁴ Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. ⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

Jesus was despised and rejected. Jesus had come to bring the love of God and presence of God into this world, and instead of receiving Him, they crucified Him! Through this crucifixion, Jesus took our pain, bore our suffering, and healed us from our hurts. Jesus did this so that our self-esteem, which is lowered by the rejection, would be lifted up in the fact that Jesus has such high esteem for us! Jesus also did this so that we can know that Jesus understands what we are feeling, and in understanding these feelings, can bring healing to our lives!

This is one of the main reasons that we have been given the Holy Spirit. Jesus gave us the Spirit so that we would not be left alone. As Jesus told us in John 14:26-27, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. ²⁷ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” The peace comes from the Holy Spirit being there for us in our times of trouble and pain. God’s Spirit can give us peace in the midst of the hurt we feel from rejection. So draw near to God. Receive the Holy Spirit’s help.

II. False Accusation- (Matthew 5:11-12; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

a. The accusation- From time to time in our lives we will face having a

false accusation made against us. This is a statement about us or against us, which is not true. However, when the statement goes out, and people hear it, they don’t know it isn’t true, and so it can affect what others think of us! This is where the hurt comes in.

EX. The Party for my Junior Higher- A number of years ago I was the Junior High Director at a church in Alta Loma, California. I had gotten close with this one particular family whose son was in my junior high school group. They regularly invited me over for dinner or even to hang out. Their son’s birthday was coming up, and so I planned with the parents, and the junior higher’s sister to have a party at my house. On the day of the party I picked up the sister (who was 16 years old at the time) about an hour before the party was to happen, and was going to take her to my house to decorate. On the way to my house I noticed that the church high school group was having a car wash, so to support the youth I stopped and had them wash my car. I then proceeded to my house, where we decorated, and then had the party. Everything went great.

Except one thing. The next day I heard that someone had started a rumor that they saw me kiss this girl!! This was false, of course, but the rumor could cause great problems for me. The one good thing is that it did not come from the girl, but from someone from the church. The girl knew it wasn’t true, and her parents knew it wasn’t true. So I got on the phone and called many people telling them the truth, and asking them to pass the word that this rumor was false. Fortunately, the rumor was squashed pretty quickly. Later I confronted the person who started this rumor and told them I didn’t appreciate what they had done!

When an accusation is made against you, especially one that isn’t true, it is hurtful. I was hurt that someone would think I would do something like that. I was hurt by what this rumor could do to my reputation and my job. It is not always easy to get others to believe that a false accusation is not true. It takes a lot of time and energy to deal with this false accusation.

b. The response- People have many ways in which they respond to false

accusations. These responses show the pain that false accusations can bring to people.

One way that people respond is to turn to alcohol or drugs. They want to dull the pain that they feel inside. Maybe they aren’t in a place to fight the accusation. Maybe they have tried to fight it, to tell the truth, and people didn’t believe them. So they take the easy way out and drown their pain in alcohol or drugs. But it doesn’t work, because when they wake up the next day, the pain is still there, and the false accusation still exists.

Another way that people respond, is through isolation. Because of the embarrassment they feel from what has been said, they might isolate themselves. They decide to not go out in public. They get lost in reading books, or watching television. The problem with this, is the longer they isolate themselves, the harder it is to face people. The accusation still exists. Isolation is not what God wants from us. God does not want us to close ourselves off from the world. God also doesn’t want us to avoid our problems.

The best way to deal with it, is to respond to it. The way I tried to respond to it was to go first to the people who knew me and who knew my character. These people then became ally’s for me. In this way I wasn’t fighting the accusation alone, but had the help of trusted friends.

c. Let the Holy Spirit heal you- In the end, there will be some pain

experienced. If you are able to bring the truth to light about the false accusation, there is still the hurt of the accusation being made in the first place. There is the pain of having others believe what is said. There is the negative affect on your reputation, because you can never really undo what some people will think.

If you aren’t able to get others to believe the truth, then there is the pain of having to deal with the outcome of this false accusation. Again, there is the pain of what others now think of you. There is the fallout of how this negative accusation affects what you are able to do. It might limit where you can work or who your friends will be.

Either way, healing is needed. The best place for healing is the Holy Spirit. As we talked about last week, one of the great roles of the Holy Spirit is to be a comforter to us. The Comforter can come alongside us and soothe our hurt. The Comforter can come alongside and give us strength. The Comforter can minister to the deep parts of our being, and give us peace, even in the midst of the uncertainty and turmoil.

The Holy Spirit, the Comforter can make things right again. The Holy Spirit, being the Spirit of God, can exercise power beyond our capabilities. The Holy Spirit can lead you to a new job, or a new relationship. The Holy Spirit can help you to restore your name. The Holy Spirit can give you the confidence you need to believe in yourself again. The Holy Spirit can lead you to others who will believe in you, and help you, and love you through the pain!

As Matthew 5:11-12 says, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

The Holy Spirit can use this experience in our lives so that ultimately we can have a purpose for helping others. We are told in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble, with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” We are comforted in this experience, and by our being comforted, we can comfort others who will go through similar experiences!

Conclusion: I don’t know what kind of rejection you have experienced in your life, but I do know that we all have experienced rejection. Some of the hurt from those rejections is probably lying dormant in your life. You haven’t allowed yourself to deal with it and overcome the pain and hurt. I encourage you to give it over to the Holy Spirit, and allow the comfort of the Spirit to come into your life and bless you.

I don’t know if you have had false accusations made against you. The odds are that in some way, at some time there have been. Again, these accusations cause hurt and pain. More often than not the pain has been masked over and not dealt with. Give it away to God! Let God give you peace where there is turmoil. Love where there is emptiness. Strength where there is weakness.

Let God comfort you through your experiences of rejection and false accusations. Be blessed because you hold fast to the Lord, this day and every day. Amen.

"Counselor and Comforter"

Sunday, January 8, 2012; John 14:15-18

Introduction: There is a poem called “Slowdance,” by Dr. David L. Weatherford that says: Have you ever watched kids on a merry-go-round?

Or listened to the rain slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight? Or gazed at the sun into the fading night? You better slow down Don’t dance so fast Time is short The music won’t last

Do you run through each day On the fly

When you ask “How are you?” Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed

With the next hundred chores running through your head?

You’d better slow down Don’t dance so fast

Time is short The music won’t last

Ever told your child,We’ll do it tomorrow?

And in your haste, not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch, Let a good friendship die

‘Cause you never had time To call and say “Hi”?

You’d better slow down Don’t dance so fast

Time is short The music won’t last

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift….Thrown away…

Life is not a race. Do take it slower

Hear the music Before the song is over.

Today we start a 4-week series on the Holy Spirit as our comforter. It is too easy to speed through life and not do what we need to do and experience what we need to experience. As we start 2012, I want us to slow down enough so that we can allow the Holy Spirit to comfort us when we need comforting, and counsel us when we need counseling.

I. Another Comforter- (John 14:15-18; 2 Corinthians 4:7-9)

a. Penetrate our being- The Bible talks about learning how to live a

‘Spirit filled life.’ What the Bible is talking about here is allowing the Holy Spirit to live within us, not as a guest, but as our guide. It is about believing that the power of the Holy Spirit can not only fill us, but flow through us and out of us. Our self is still there, but now it is not a self-centered self, but a God-centered self.

So living a Spirit-filled life means that the Holy Spirit helps to guide how we function. If we are faced with temptation, the Holy Spirit helps us to resist and see a way out before we give in to the temptation. If we are led to be angry with someone, the Holy Spirit helps to temper our anger and use it in an appropriate way. If we become unfocused in our life and start to make decisions outside of God’s will, the Holy Spirit emits guilt into our being and reminds us that we are making wrong choices.

In essence, we allow the Holy Spirit to penetrate our personalities. Our personalities are still our own, but directed by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. The inner conflicts we might have between our sinful desires and our desires to please God subside.

Hearing again from John 14:15-17, “If you love me, keep my commands. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be^] in you.” As we live according to God’s commands, we are given an advocate, the Holy Spirit, who comes alongside and helps us.

How does the Holy Spirit help us? By directing our thoughts to God. By directing our actions outward towards others. By empowering us to believe in ourselves. By giving us the wisdom we need to make good decisions. By helping us to desire to follow God more than the world. By leading us down the path that God has ordained for us. By giving us the faith we need to trust and follow.

The Holy Spirit coordinates our inner forces and directs our lives toward one great purpose and end: to be a faithful servant of the Lord. There is no greater way to live our lives than to be a servant of God. We even see Jesus teach this and live this. Jesus was constantly reminding the disciples that the greatest way to live life was to be God’s servant. With the Holy Spirit’s presence in our being, this is possible for us to achieve!

b. Ministry of comforting- A second way that the Holy Spirit is there for

us, is to give us comfort. The Holy Spirit offers to us the ministry of comforting. He seeks to apply in our lives the ministry of comforting. One of the Greek words that Jesus used to describe the Holy Spirit is the word ‘paraclete.’ This is actually two Greek words put together: para, which means alongside, and kaleo, which means call. It is used to describe one who comforts another, or one who ‘comes alongside.’

Illustration: I don’t know if you have seen this on the internet, but there is a story of a woman who found a lion in the forest, injured and on the verge of death. This lion was very malnourished. So the woman took the lion home and for many days nursed the lion back to health. This woman loved the lion and comforted the lion as he was going through a very weak time. Once the lion had been restored to health the woman couldn’t keep him because he was far too big, so she gave him to the zoo where he would have a place to live, and would continue to be well cared for. The woman wanted the lion to get acclimated to his new home, so she didn’t visit him for a while. After some time the woman went to the zoo to see the lion. I saw a short video of what happened, which I will describe to you. As soon as the woman walked up to the cage the lion put his paws out of the cage bars and around the woman’s neck and pulled the woman toward him. The lion then gave the woman a kiss and a hug! This lion remember the care and comfort the woman had given him, and had formed a deep, loving bond with this woman!

The Holy Spirit wants to come alongside us and helps us in our times of weakness, and distress, and discomfort, and struggle, and trouble. The Holy Spirit wants to nurse us back to health and make sure we are healthy and strong. The Holy Spirit wants to minister to our hurts and bind-up our wounds. But we have to let the Holy Spirit do this. We have to humble ourselves and get past our willful spirit. We have to be thankful for the many times the Holy Spirit has helped us, and allow the Spirit to continue to do this for us!

c. Ministry of counseling- Even more, the Holy Spirit comforts us by

giving us counseling. One of the best ways to counsel someone is to be there for them and offer them some comfort. Good counsel and advice can bring great comfort to someone who is struggling along in their life. Good counsel and advice can make a great different in helping someone overcome their problems. And who better to offer us this counsel than the Holy Spirit? God’s Spirit come to give us the wisdom we need to live this life God has given us.

The truth is, this life we are called to live is not an easy life. We have many responsibilities. There are many pitfalls along the way. We create many problems for ourselves by making poor decisions. We live in a world that is challenging to navigate through: we have to make choices of college, and career, choices of spouse, and lifestyle. We have to live with the responsibility of having children, of what we will possess, of where we will live, and on and on the choices go.

People don’t like to admit that they can be overwhelmed by this world, but the truth is, many are! It is important to know that when we hit the rough times of life the divine paraclete comes alongside to advise. Someone once said: “Now that I am fully in the hands of the Holy Spirit, I know that I may be shaken, but I cannot be shattered.”

The apostle Paul said it this way in 2 Corinthians 4:7-9, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. ⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” The all-surpassing power of God is given to us by the Holy Spirit! Because of this we will prevail!

Don’t think that you are better off going it alone. To dismiss the help of the Holy Spirit would be like stopping your schooling when you were just a child. We cannot think that we have all wisdom and knowledge. We should not seek to live this life without the help of God. Jesus has promised us the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are foolish if we don’t receive this generous gift.

II. The Help We Need- (Romans 8:18-27; John 14:16)

a. Accepting help- I know that you are either going through problems in

your life now, or have gone through some big problems, and will face big problems again. A text that is very comforting in these times is Romans 8:18-27. Let me read it for you….

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that^] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. ²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. ²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”

There are 4 phrases I want to look at deeper:

1.“Present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” While it is true we regularly have times of suffering, if you looked at these times as you gave yourself over to God, and saw the blessings that came out of these sufferings, you would understand that God’s glory is revealed through our times of weakness. God’s Spirit can come and bring glory into our lives. In fact, a little later in this chapter, in verse 28 the apostle Paul says: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…” A few years ago we did our Focused Living training, and in this training we were asked to make a time line of our life. On this timeline we were to put yellow post-it notes for the “good” times and pink post-it notes for the times of struggle. Then it was pointed out that almost always there was a yellow post-it note right after a pink one! The next phrase we read is…

2. “The Spirit helps us in our weakness.” There is nothing wrong with receiving help. If you are sick you go to the doctor. If you have a legal issue you get a lawyer. We have people in this world whose job it is, to help us. So in the spiritual realm we have the Holy Spirit who is there to help us in times of weakness. Embrace this wonderful truth and let the Spirit help you when you are weak! The third phrase is..

3. “The Spirit intercedes for God’s people.” How many times have you wanted to pray, but didn’t know how to pray for the situation? Maybe you asked me to pray for you because you were at a loss. Well, even better than having me pray for you is to have the Holy Spirit pray for you! Isn’t this a wonderful thought? The Spirit of God will intercede for you and pray what needs to be prayed when you don’t know what to pray! As hope sustains believers in their time of suffering, the hope that is received through the presence of God’s Spirit, so the Holy Spirit offers us a prayer in our time of need. The last phrase is…

4. “In accordance with the will of God.” If God created us, then to live in the will of God is by far the best way to live. However, because of being unfocused, or willful, or lost in our own ways, or led astray by the world, we often do not live in accordance with the will of God. With the Holy Spirit at our side we have the Spirit praying for us to know and follow the will of God! This is very important for our lives. When we receive the help of the Holy Spirit, we can live more fully according to the will of God.

b. Where do we receive it?- Where do we receive this help? The answer

to that question is ‘the Holy Spirit.’ We receive help from the Holy Spirit. And yet, even as I have talked about what we receive and the benefits that come from receiving the help from the Holy Spirit, you still might be confused about how to put that into practice. If I were to offer you a hand, you would see me standing there in front of you and could verbalize that you want my help and then experience my help. But how does this work with the Holy Spirit?

Listen again to Jesus’ words in John 14:16, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate (helper) to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth.” We might paraphrase it like this: ‘I will send you a Helper who comes alongside when you call and who will take hold of any burden or problem and carry it with you.’ Instead of physically taking hold of your hand, the Holy Spirit takes hold of your problems, infirmities, weaknesses, and heavy loads, and gives you the help and comfort you need.

The Holy Spirit is doing the action for us, even though we cannot visibly see it. As we cooperate with the Holy Spirit by our call for help, the Holy Spirit continuously does the action of taking hold of our problems. As I was writing this sermon I had to go online to get one of the scriptures, and my security system, Fix-It asked if I wanted to run a virus check. I said “yes,” and while I was continuing to write my sermon, it did the action of checking for viruses. If it had found any it would have deleted them.

In a similar way the Holy Spirit is always there checking for problems. When a problem arises, the Holy Spirit prompts our mind and asks if we want help. If and when we say yes, the Holy Spirit goes to work on the problem. It might call for the Spirit to pray for us, or give us extra strength, or a dose of wisdom, or some extra faith.

The key is for us to recognize where our help comes from. Instead of thinking first about doing it ourselves, or even asking someone else, first go to prayer and call on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will hear your call and come to your aid. Through the aid of the Holy Spirit you will be able to receive the help you need at the time you need it. You won’t have to make an appointment, like you do with the doctor. You won’t have to clear your schedule, as if you were making a lunch appointment. You just call, and the Holy Spirit is there!

Conclusion: In my life I have people with whom I can share my troubles. It is nice to have them listen, and in this way comfort me. They might even give me some advice. But they are all human, and they do not always know how to help me in my struggles. It is good to know that God allows us the blessing of having the Holy Spirit as a part of our lives. God has set it up so that the Holy Spirit is there to comfort us in time of grief and heartache.

Even more, God has designed it so that He can dwell within us through His Spirit! We don’t have to think that God is far away, because He is not. God dwells within us through His Spirit, and is there to give us counsel and guidance. With this truth, I hope you leave here today all the more encouraged and prepared to face 2012, as you allow the helper, the comforter, the counselor, the Holy Spirit to assist you each and every day or your life. Amen.