Are You FILLED With the Holy Spirit? Part 3

Hindrances to Being Filled with God’s Holy Spirit

Ephesians 5:18

Pastor Craig Ledbetter

Oct 12, 2014   PM

Bible Baptist Church, Ballincollig, Cork, Ireland

www.biblebc.com

 

I.       Introduction (Ephesians 5:18)

 

A.     The Holy Spirit is the VERY presence of GOD in you and around you!

B.     What a thought! The filling of the Holy Spirit!

 

II.    Review

 

A.     You GET the Holy Spirit at Salvation

B.     You CANNOT Lose the Holy Spirit’s Presence – not in total

C.     His Presence is Important Because…

 

1.      He seals you – maybe that is not very important to you, but it is almost as good as being saved!

 

a.       He secures you for heaven! Without Him you have no assurance, no security

 

2.      He helps you pray – don’t forget just how important HE is to your and my praying! Without Him, our prayers are dead!!!

3.      He strengthens you (Eph 3:16,17)

4.      He comforts (John 14:16-18; Acts 9:31)

5.      He teaches you (John 14:26) – talks to you, through the words on this page, explaining, connecting the dots so to speak.

6.      He gives you joy!

 

a.       Rom_14:17  For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

b.      Rom_15:13  Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

c.       1Th_1:6  And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost:

 

7.      He rebukes you, holds you back from sinning! THANK God!

8.      And He enables you, so that you can be holy! Your best efforts will never make you holy – but God’s Spirit in you, living through you, make you holy!

9.      You just CANNOT live without Him – any more than…

 

a.       An oil-wick candle can burn without oil

b.      Or a car engine could run without oil

c.       You may be able for a little while, but after that, you are crocked!

 

D.     Amazingly, He wants to FILL us! (Eph 5:18) – overflowing!

E.     But you CAN LIMIT His work in your life, and limit His fullness in your life (Psalm 78:41).

 

1.      We usually only are aware of ourselves being grieved, saddened, hurt, but forget about the God who experiences the very same emotions that we do!

2.      People worry about “sinning against the Holy Spirit”, and “blaspheming the Holy Ghost.”

3.      Well, here are the REAL things to worry about!

4.      By GRIEVING, SADDENING HIM!

 

a.       Gen 6:6  And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

b.      Psa 78:40  How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

c.       Psa 95:10  Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:

d.      Eph 4:30  And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

 

5.      By QUENCHING HIS POWER – throwing water on it!

 

a.       1Th 5:19  Quench not the Spirit. It is a command and a warning!

b.      Don’t STOP the Holy Spirit from cutting, piercing, humbling, changing you!!!

 

6.      By FRUSTRATING Him

 

a.       To frustrate is to “tie the hands of Him” so that He can not work what HE thinks should be done

b.      This happens when we try and force God to do things OUR way!

c.       Gal 2:21  I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

d.      Have you ever been frustrated? Lifeguards get frustrated trying to save someone who won’t YIELD!

 

7.      HINDER, or BLOCK HIS HAND

 

a.       Maybe the worst thing to do against the Holy Spirit of all – actually putting up roadblocks so that the Holy Spirit is stopped from working totally in your heart and life!

b.      Luk 11:52  Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.

c.       Rom 15:22  For which cause also I have been much hindered from coming to you.

d.      Gal 5:7  Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?

e.       1Th 2:18  Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.

f.       1Pe 3:7  Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

 

8.      It is possible to RESIST the work of the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51)

 

F.      I showed you last week some ways to TEST to see if you are FULL of Him, or FULL of YOURSELF!

G.    This week, let’s look at things we do without thinking that stop God from filling us

 

III. Background – Two Examples of Hindering the Holy Spirit

 

A.     King Saul

 

1.      He KNEW the blessings of being filled with the Holy Spirit of God (1Sam 10:10-12; 11:4-7)

 

a.       New purpose, calling by God – to be KING of Israel

b.      Power against his enemies

c.       Used by God, when before he could do nothing

 

2.      But Saul exchanged the Spirit of God for another spirit (2Cor 11:4) – a wrong spirit (1Sam 15:10,11)

 

a.       He chose to disobey God’s direct command

b.      He chose to LIE and cover up his sin

c.       He worried about what people would think instead of God

d.      And the Holy Spirit left him (1Sam 16:1)

e.       And he never missed it

f.       He only got worse and worse (1Sam 16:14) – tried to kill David out of envy

 

3.      Saul KEPT the wrong spirit, instead of missing God’s spirit and desperately seeking it again!

4.      Even when king Saul was rebuked, he didn’t care!

5.      Is that how any of US are?

 

B.     King David

 

1.      A man after God’s own heart – walked in the Spirit, full of the Spirit of God

2.      Yet, one gross sin quenched the Holy Spirit in his life – sin with Bathsheba, which led to lying, murder, and cover-up

3.      And for 9 months, king David, who had known and lived under the influence of the precious Holy Spirit of God, he did not have the still small voice of the Spirit of God at work in him

4.      And the worst of it all is that he NEVER missed it!!!

5.      Thankfully, just before the baby was born, the prophet Nathan faced David and rebuked him, and David crumbled and realised what he had done, and what he had been missing

6.      David wrote Psalm 51:1-12 at this time

7.      David became VERY afraid of the wrong spirit that had taken over his heart, and the insensitivity that he had developed!

8.      He was afraid of losing the presence of the holy Spirit!

9.      And he humbled himself and repented, and begged God for a RIGHT Spirit in him,

10.  And THEN God started to work again with him!

 

C.     You will NEVER appreciate this truth I am teaching you until you start to MISS the Spirit of God’s work in your heart!!!