The Fundamentals
The Spirit: God Lives in Me
1 Corinthians 6:19; Romans 8:14; John 16:5-7, 14:6
Have you even been anywhere and felt so alone that you just wanted somebody with you? Maybe it was your mom or your dad during your first day of school. Maybe it was a friend when you walked into the first day of a new job. Maybe it was when you shipped out to go overseas in the military. Many of us know that feeling of just needing someone with us.
God understands that desire. He knows that we need him 24/7 to guide us, to strengthen us, to encourage us, to empower us and to direct us.
Understanding that need in our lives, God has sent to us the Holy Spirit. We have been in a series called "The Fundamentals." We started off by saying everything we believe as a church goes all the way back to the Bible where God speaks to us. Then we learn that Bible speaks of God in three Persons: God the Sovereign, God the Son and God the Spirit. Everything we do and believe as a church revolves around what is called the "Trinity."
We learn that as Sovereign God, He reigns over us. As Son, He is with us and now we are going to learn that as the Spirit He lives in us.
For three years, God as the Son, Jesus Christ, had lived with the disciples. He has literally been "God with them". Three years, 24/7, they had been in his presence.
They had the unprecedented opportunity to live with God in the flesh. But now, Jesus is leaving and he has told them he is about to leave. I am sure they felt, somewhat, the way i did when my mother, in effect, had to leave me at school. Listen to what Jesus said in john 16.
Verses 5-7
Though they could not understand it, at the time, it was to their advantage that Jesus, God's Son, would leave them. The reason why it was to their advantage was so that God the Spirit could live in them.
In fact, Jesus (speaking of the Holy Spirit) said in
John 14:16
You may have heard those American Express commercials that used to say, "don't leave home without it." God is even better than that! You can’t leave home without Him because if you are the child of God the Spirit of God lives within you.
And when the Spirit of God moves into a life he never moves out. Now with that I mind, there are two primary lessons I want you to get today. Here’s the first one:
1. As the Spirit, God Lives In Us
First Corinthians 6:19
For just a moment i want you to see your body the way God sees your body. When God looks at your body, he doesn't primarily see flesh and blood, hair and teeth, eyes, feet and hands, bones and blood vessels. Instead, God sees a temple where He lives.
And just like when you and I drive down the road and see a church building and think, “There is a place to worship and serve because it is a house of God”, God looks at us and sees a place where He is to be worshipped and served because it is a dwelling place of God as well.
Let me just take a moment to clarify something. I’m afraid too many of God’s people tend to think about the Holy Spirit primarily as a power or influence. But He is primarily not a power or or an influence, but a person.
Now the Person that He is has power and influence, but He is a “He” not an “it”. He is a Person that comes to live within every believer. It is important to have the power of the Holy Spirit with you so you can do whatever God wants you to do in his strength. It is important to yield to His influence so you can impact others for Christ. But before you can have the Spirit's power or influence, you have got to have the Spirit's presence.
There is a reason why our body is called a "temple of the Holy Spirit." In the bible, the temple was a place of worship. That means that every believer's body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and is therefore to also be a place of worship. The Holy Spirit lives in my temple twenty-four hours a day. That means that every waking moment of my life, my body is to be a place of worship.
One of the biggest lies of Satan that we’ve ever fell for is that we go to church to worship. He’s convinced us that we “worship” at 11:00 Sunday morning. After all, that is when the “worship service” is conducted. Therefore our worship is limited to one hour per week. And God forbid it should go over an hour! After all, that is almost unforgivable for most good Baptists!
But you and I don't are not to come to church and worship and leave it at that. According to our text, our body is a place of worship, because it is a temple of the Holy Spirit - 24/7.
Your body is not a hotel with check-out time at 12:00 on Sunday when church is over. Your body is a temple where the Spirit of God resides, every moment, every day.
And lest we misunderstand, let me just stop a moment and give you some practical implications of what that means for your body. If my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, then obviously I ought to take care of it.
It’s always kind of intrigued me for some fat busybody with a cigarette hanging out of their mouth to complain about children spilling kool-aid or tracking dirt in the building.
It is amazing to me how the physical temple called the church building in which God said He does not dwell becomes so much more important than the physical temple called the body where we are told He does dwell.
I’ve never bothered to pay too much attention to some pot-bellied pastor who can’t push away from a buffet yelling at His congregation about how they ought to live a life of self-control.
Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
One of the reasons why I don't smoke is because, first of all, I’ve never had any desire to, but secondly because my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Now, if you smoke i am not going to throw rocks at you and I am not up here trying to slam you and condemn you. I personally just don't think God's temple ought to be filled with smoke.
Do I believe that you will go to heaven if you smoke? I not only believe you can go heaven, I think you’ve got a pretty good shot at getting there a lot quicker!
I’ve never tasted alcohol for the same reasons. God’s Word condemns it. I don’t think you can drink for the glory of God, and the Bible instructs me that whatever I do is to be done for the glory of God.
And I will tell you those two are pretty easy for me to go to town on. That smoking and drinking is wrong and I can clear off a spot and pitch a fit.
But those aren’t the only things that impact how we view our body as the temple of God. I am going to touch on a subject you hear very few people talked about, if ever, and that is also the problem with gluttony. I think it is just as wrong to stuff God's temple with food as it is to stuff God's temple with smoke or alcohol.
And yet gluttony seems to be a sin that Christians like to ignore. We are often quick to label smoking and drinking as sins, but for some reason gluttony is accepted or at least tolerated. Many of the arguments used against smoking and drinking, such as health and addiction, apply equally to overeating.
Many believers would not even consider having a glass of wine or smoking a cigarette but have no qualms about gorging themselves at the dinner table. In fact, many Bible references include both.
Proverbs 23:20-21 warns us, “Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.”
Proverbs 28:7 declares, “He who keeps the law is a discerning son, but a companion of gluttons disgraces his father.”
Proverbs 23:2 proclaims, “Put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony.”
And the truth of the matter is those physical appetites are an analogy of our ability to control ourselves. If we are unable to control our eating habits, we are probably also unable to control other habits, such as those of the mind (lust, covetousness, anger) and unable to keep our mouths from gossip or strife.
We are not to let our appetites control us, but we are to have control over our appetites. The ability to say “no” to anything in excess—self-control—is one of the fruits of the Spirit common to all believers in Galatians 5:22.
And God has blessed us by filling the earth with foods that are delicious, nutritious, and pleasurable. We should honor God's creation by enjoying these foods and by eating them in appropriate quantities. But God calls us to control our appetites, rather than allowing them to control us. And that is why this person called the Holy Spirit lives within us- to enable us to accomplish that.
Now, having said that, I don't believe we have to become a nut about it. There are a lot of people who run, pump iron, eat vitamins, wheat germs, bananas, drink smoothies and they are doing it all for the wrong reason. All they are trying to do is to live longer.
The fact of the matter is the reason we ought to keep our body healthy has nothing to do with how long we might live, but how we live. Our bodies should be presented to God daily as a temple of his Holy Spirit.
This is what i want you to understand. The building that we are in really is not the house of God; you and I are the house of God. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. It is where God lives every moment.
Why is this important? If you feel far from God it may be because you don't really know where God is. Through the Holy Spirit of God, God lives in you and you need to learn to practice his presence in your life.
There is a prayer that many of us pray, probably on a daily basis that really is a wrong prayer.
How many times have you ever said this, "God, please be with me." Think about this - "Why would you pray for someone to be with you who 24/7 lives in you?"
Where does God live? He lives in you. God's address is not 320 North Washington, Ardmore, OK. God's address is Terry Tolbert. God's address is Jimmy May. God's address is Jay Lynn Word. God's address is every single one of His children who know Him and have Him living in them.
Remember what we are told in John 14:16?
"i will ask the father, and he will give you another helper, that he may be with you forever."
How long? Say it with me: Forever!
Once God moves in God never moves out. He doesn't come to rent. He comes to buy and he comes to own. He never, ever leaves you. If that is true, what does that mean? There is no need to fear. God is in you. There is no need to worry. God is in you. There is no need to be anxious. God is in you.
So that’s the first thing: As the Spirit, God Lives in Me. Here’s the second thing:
2. Through the Spirit God Leads Me
Listen to Romans 8:14
Let me give you a great thought about God living in you.
First of all, you are not your own because you belong to God. But also, you are not on your own because through the Spirit He leads you.
Let me repeat that. You are not your own and you are not on your own.
Just as we love to give our children gifts God loves to give His children gifts. The very first gift God loves to give his children after the gift of salvation is the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Now God gives good gifts and His gifts are educational gifts. They have purpose. The primary reason God has given us the gift of the Spirit is leadership.
God has not left us on our own to try to decide what we ought to do to please Him and how we ought to do it. He has given the Holy Spirit to lead us, guide us, and direct us.
Now let me ask you a question. "How does he do that?" The spirit of God leads us through helping us understand the Word of God.
Listen to what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in
John 16:13
The truth He was talking about there was the Word of God. I don't know whether you realize this or not, but you cannot understand the Bible apart from the Holy Spirit.
Have you ever heard of the Rosetta stone? For centuries, Egyptian hieroglyphics remained nothing more than markings and scratching to the greatest scholars and archeologists in the world, until finally a soldier in Napoleon's army, discovered the Rosetta stone.
What was significant about the Rosetta stone? It contained the same text written in hieroglyphics, Egyptian, and Greek. And scholars were able to take that stone and compare the three texts in order to decode those hieroglyphics and be able to understand them.
The Holy Spirit of God is the Rosetta stone of God. He can take the Word of God, lay it down beside human experience and make sense of it and bring understanding to it and apply it exactly where it needs to be.
Now if everything I told you about the Holy Spirit is true, then I want you to apply this to your life in this way.
Most of the world has no idea what true salvation is all about. They think there are many paths to God, and most of them would agree we are all trying to get to the same place. Therefore, it our good outweighs our bad and we try hard and do right we just might make it. After all, a loving God would never send anybody as good as us to hell.
But the Holy Spirit takes the truth of the Word of God and helps to understand what real salvation is all about.
Unlike most of the world that thinks salvation is about people trying to get into heaven, we now understand that salvation is really about God coming to this world to seek and save that which is lost.
Because of the clarity the Holy Spirit provides, we understand that you can go to church and be religious, do good things and all the things that are on the outside, and never have a relationship with God until he comes to live on the inside.
Furthermore, you can understand that you don't have to live by your mind and your will anymore. You don't have to try and figure things out on your own, God is living in you to guide you and direct you.
There is something else to think about. If it is true that through the Spirit, God lives in me, then I don't dress up on Sunday and go to church to meet God, because God lives in me. He is with me all the time.
That means that for me, every place is a holy place and every day is a holy day, because everywhere I go, He goes with me.
Finally, if it is true that God lives in me, I should never insult God by saying He can't use me. If God, through His Spirit, lives in me, then God through His Spirit can use me for His glory and for His honor.
Therefore, what I need to do every day is surrender to that Spirit every part of my life, so that God can live his life not only in me, but through me.
I don’t know if you recognize the name Walter Lewis Wilson, but he was an American doctor born towards the end of the 19th century.
He was a faithful Christian who often hosted visiting missionaries to his church.
In 1913, one of those visitors, a man named Levermore who had served as a missionary to France, came for a visit to the Wilson home.
He said to the doctor, “What is the Holy Spirit to you?” Wilson’s answer was doctrinally correct: “Well, He is One of the Persons of the Godhead.” “Yes”, said the missionary, “that is Who He is, but I asked you, what is He to you/”
Walter Wilson tried again. “He is a Teacher, a Guide, the Third Person of the Trinity.”
His fried corrected him. “He is the first two, but He is not the last you mentioned. To call Him the third Person is to give Him a place of insignificance and inferiority which He should not have. The Holy Spirit is just as precious, just as needful as the other two Persons of the Trinity. But you still have not answered my question. What is He to you?”
Wilson finally answered truthfully, “He is nothing to me. I have no contact with the Holy Spirit, no personal relationship and could get along quite well without him.”
“It is because of this that you life is so barren,” Mr. Levermore said. If you will seek to know the Holy Spirit personally, He will transform your life. Read John 14 and 16 and see whether you do really know the Spirit. If you find you do not, then come to Him immediately in faith and make Him Lord of your life.”
Wilson very eagerly began to study and search. A few weeks later, he was listening to a preacher named Dr. James Gray preaching on Romans 12:1 where we are commanded to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.
Dr. Gray said, “Have you noticed that this verse doesn’t tell us to whom we should give our bodies? It is not the Lord Jesus Who asks for it. He has his own body. It’s not the Father Who asks for it. He remains on his throne.
Another has come to earth without a body. God could have made a body for Him as He did for Jesus but He did not do so. God gives you the privilege and the indescribable honor of presenting your bodies to the Holy Spirit to be His dwelling place on the earth. If you have been washed by the blood of the Lamb, then yours is a holy body, washed whiter than snow. It will be accepted by the Spirit when you give it to Him. Will you do so now?
Dr. Wilson went home that evening, laid down in the floor, heartbroken over a fruitless life and for the first time in his life addressed the Holy Spirit in prayer.
“My lord, I have mistreated you all my Christian life. I have treated you like a servant. When I wanted you, I called for you. When I was about to engage in some work I beckoned You to come and help me perform my task. I have kept you in the place of a servant. I have sought to use You as a willing servant to help me in my self-appointed and chosen work. I shall do so no more.
Just now I give You this body of mine: from my head to my feet, I give it to You. I give you my hands, my limbs, my eyes my lips and my brain- all that I am within and without I had over to You for You to live in it the life that You please.
You may send this body to Africa, or lay it on a bed with cancer. You may blind the eyes or send me with Your message to Tibet. You may take this body to the Eskimos or send it to a hospital with pneumonia. It is your body from this moment on. Help yourself to it.”
What is the Holy Spirit to you? Maybe you need to come to the discovery of Dr. Wilson and this morning say, “Lord It’s your body from this moment on. Help yourself to it.”
Let’s pray.
