I like Vance Havner's quote about the Holy
Spirit.
Havner said, Churches like Samson have gone to
sleep in the lap of Delilah, and though
they go forth Sunday after Sunday to shake
themselves, the Spirit of the Lord has departed.
Samson may have looked better after he had
his hair cut, but he lost his power.
I have a message on the Holy Spirit
today, friends, and you're not going to want
to miss it, and it's entitled, Beating Elevator
Christianity by Being Filled with the Holy Spirit.
I'll never forget the day in December many
years ago when I first sat under the
preaching ministry of Dr. Stephen F.
Olford in Memphis, Tennessee at his Institute for
Biblical Preaching.
And while Stephen Olford preached, God turned my
entire life upside down, and from that day,
my life has never been the same again.
Dr. Olford eventually became my homiletical mentor, and
he taught me expository preaching, but more importantly,
he taught me the principles he had learned
through the years on the victorious Christian life,
and I will teach you today, friends, what
he taught me.
And it is my prayer that this little
treatise on the doctrine of the fullness of
the Holy Spirit will both encourage and empower
the serious believer who longs for a life
of consistency and victory in his daily walk
with God.
Too many believers struggle with what I call
Elevator Christianity, where one day we're happily up
in the penthouse suite, feasting at the banquet
table of God, if I may so speak.
It is here, on the top floor of
our experience, that we encounter deeper revelations of
the Most High God and enjoy unbroken fellowship
with Him.
Then, incredibly, the very next day, we're down
in the basement of defeat because of rebellion
and sin.
How horrible are the feelings of guilt and
despair in disappointing our Lord by willful sin.
Unfortunately, the devil uses all his arsenal to
keep us down in the basement of defeat
and discouragement as we sit there sidelined like
an injured athlete who's not on the playing
field but who longs to be back in
the game.
And for a brief time, we rise back
up to that top floor once again to
enjoy God's fellowship and presence.
And then, wham, down we go again, and
our head reels from the up-and-down
life of an inconsistent walk with God.
God knows all about our ruined nature and
our bent toward sin.
And He also knows it is virtually impossible
to live the Christian life in the flesh.
It simply cannot be done.
And the result is some form of elevator
Christianity which differs from person to person.
This is why our Lord instructed His disciples
with the following promises seen in Luke 24,
29.
And behold, I send the promise of my
Father upon you, but tarry ye in the
city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with
power from on high.
I make you a promise, friend, that if
you take these principles from this message today
and appropriate them by faith and apply them
to your heart, then your life will never
be the same again.
What you've been longing for will be realized
in a life of consistency with our Lord
Jesus Christ.
I will break down our lesson today into
four segments as we study this important topic.
We will examine, first, the daily quiet time.
Secondly, the daily surrender to Christ's Lordship.
Thirdly, the daily submission to the Holy Spirit.
And lastly, the daily empowerment for prayer, preaching,
and witness.
Well, let's tackle these one by one.
Are you ready?
Here we go.
We will begin with the daily quiet time.
Stephen Offert has a little booklet he wrote
on the daily quiet time entitled, Manna in
the Morning, whereby he lays out his schedule
for meeting with his Lord each day, that
we must choose a place of quiet either
in our home or outside of it to
get away with God and Bible study and
prayer.
Jesus himself had a make time to get
away from the noise of the crowd and
the busyness of teaching his disciples.
We read in Mark 1.35, And in
the morning, rising up a great while before
day, he went out and departed into a
solitary place, and there prayed.
So we see, friends, that Christ had to
get away to get alone with the Father.
And if he did that, how much more
is it needed for us to be recharged,
so to speak, with the touch of heaven?
The priority of the daily quiet time is
not mere Bible study alone, but to meet
God in prayer where he can direct us
and speak to our hearts regarding our service
to him.
Whether you choose to do this early in
the morning or some other time of day,
it's up to you, friend.
But the discipline is what matters.
I found that the Lord's model of rising
a great while before day has worked best
for me through the years.
I used to live in a forest, and
it was my habit to go out early
each day before dawn for a morning walk
through the woods and often use this time
to speak to God in prayer.
And as the sun rose, my own heart
was aglow with his presence and purpose for
my life.
Establishing the daily quiet time is a priority
for the sincere believer who longs to get
serious with God.
I have learned that God gets serious with
those who get serious with him.
So as we establish our daily quiet time,
we can then come to the daily surrender
to Christ's Lordship.
The Lordship of Christ is a neglected teaching
today, but I submit to you, friends, you
cannot live for God in a life pleasing
to him without the daily surrender to the
Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Here is where everything breaks down and goes
to seed in our walk with God.
If we ignore the sovereignty and authority of
Christ's deity and rightful place in our life
as Lord, our Lord was crucified as a
sin substitute for us.
He suffered, died, and was buried.
He rose again and ascended back into heaven
where he now sits at the right hand
of the Father.
And he earned that right by way of
a bloody cross.
The cross and the life of the believer
was a main teaching of Jesus Christ.
In Luke 9.23 we read, And he
said to them all, and that means you,
friend, if any man will come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his
cross daily and follow me.
What this means is a crucified Christ must
have crucified followers.
In Galatians 2.20 we read, I am
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me.
In the life which I now live in
the flesh I live by the faith of
the Son of God who loved me and
gave himself for me.
The Christ life is the only life, friend,
that will result in the abundant life lived
unto God for his glory.
Christ reigns on a throne in glory, and
he must rule on the throne of your
heart, friend.
When we get saved, self is dethroned, and
another is enthroned there.
The Lord Jesus Christ, he must have first
place and first call in every area of
our daily living.
And this is only accomplished by a daily
surrender to his lordship.
Next we see the daily submission to the
Holy Spirit.
Stephen Ofer told me that we receive the
Holy Spirit at the time of our conversion,
but many of us do not properly understand
the meaning of the fullness of the Spirit.
It is possible, friends, for the Holy Spirit
to be present without being president, to be
dormant without being dominant, to be resident without
reigning.
The Holy Spirit can be quenched and grieved
in a believer's life.
But when sin is exposed and self is
executed, the Holy Spirit can feel to overflowing
and anoint with authority and power.
We see this principle in 2 Corinthians 3
.18 which states, Now the Lord is that
Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty.
This can be understood, where the Spirit is
Lord, that is, where he is given his
true deity and sovereignty, there is liberty.
And when this happened in my life, friends,
God set me free.
I had liberty, for he had all of
me.
R.
A.
Torrey wisely said, We can have as much
of the Holy Spirit we want so long
as he can have as much of us
as he wants.
So there must be this daily, this hourly
submission to the discipline of the Holy Spirit.
It is here, friends, where the rubber meets
the road and the Christian life begins to
soar to higher revelation.
And lastly, we see the daily empowerment for
prayer, preaching and witness.
The doctrine of being filled with the Spirit
is seen in Ephesians 5.18 where the
apostle Paul exhorts us to be filled with
the Spirit and be not drunk with wine
wherein is excess, but be filled with the
Spirit.
If a believer really wants to know how
to be filled with the Spirit, it is
found here in the doctrine of the fullness
of the Holy Spirit in the life of
a believer who is willing to bow daily
and hourly to the sovereignty of Christ and
to the authority of the Word.
Like I said earlier, friends, if you are
serious about beating elevator Christianity, the only way
is to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Well, I hope this little lesson has been
helpful to you as it has been to
me.
Let us pray.