"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.