Dwelling Place

Al Pittman: Today on the Dwelling Place. The Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth. Your flesh wants to lie to itself and be comfortable, but the Holy Spirit, if He's leading you into truth, He is stretching you to love your husband, to love your wife, as Christ loved the church. He's stretching you to forgive and to love one another. He's stretching. Your flesh wants to stay here in bitterness and unforgiveness. Your flesh wants to stay here where it's comfortable and God is always stretching us. How does He do it? By that personal spiritual trainer, the Holy Ghost, who won't let you settle for anything less. Amen!

Announcer: Thank you for listening to the Dwelling Place, a radio ministry from Pastor Al Pittman of Al Pittman Ministries. The purpose of this radio program is to encourage you, strengthen your walk with the Lord, and grow. To support this ministry financially or learn more about the ministry, visit us online at AlPittmanMinistries.com. That's AlPittmanMinistries.com. Your donations keep this radio ministry going. Thank you for partnering with us. Now, here's Pastor Al.

Al Pittman: If you know anything about the churches in Europe, many of them, and some of you have been to Europe, you've seen these churches. A lot of them are dead. They turn them into discos, bars, hotels, or whatever. These great cathedrals that at one time were being used for worldly needs or what have you. There's no life there anymore, and people are coming to hear the Word of God. Many of the churches are just dead.

I read the title of this article. I thought, this is interesting. In this particular article, it reports the fact that many of the refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan are converting to Christianity, breathing new life into Europe's once-floundering Christian churches. Germany received nearly 900,000 asylum seekers in 2016. The majority was from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. According to published reports, churches in Berlin and Hamburg are faced with so many asylum seekers wanting to convert to Christianity that they have held baptisms in municipal swimming pools.

What the devil meant for evil, God is turning around for good. One Muslim person being interviewed was asked why this was happening among the Muslims. He said it was because the Europeans are too fat and too rich. They have no need of God. But they are fleeing persecution and running into the very arms of Jesus. They have a heart and a hunger for God that we know nothing about, and they're coming to Him in droves.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but the Kingdom of God, His Word, will remain forever. Look at Jesus. Who knew revival would come to Europe from the Middle East? Look at God. Amen. Somebody ought to be praising the Lord up in here. Whatever weapon is formed against you will not prosper. Whatever weapon the enemy has brought against you and your life will not prosper. What he means for evil, God will turn around and use for good.

I know you've been through some horrible things. You talk about horrible things, these people fleeing the Middle East have been through some horrible things. What Satan has meant for evil is turned around for good, and many of them are going to get saved and go back to their countries and evangelize their own nations. Look at God. The second aspect related to the world that Jesus addresses here is the liability of the world.

In verses 22 to 25, He says, "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin." No accountability. "But now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father also." Why? Because the Father and Son are one. If you've seen the Son, Jesus said you've seen the Father, and they are one.

In verse 24, He says, "If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both me and my Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated me without a cause.'"

The world is without excuse, Jesus says, for two reasons. Number one, they have My Word. They've heard My words. The world is without excuse. In other words, I turned the light on. My Word is like light. It is life that I spoke to them, yet they refuse to see. In John 6:63, Jesus said, "It is the spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life."

The world is without excuse. The light has been turned on. The Light of the World has come. Jesus' words bring life to that which is dead, and yet the world continues to reject Him. The second reason He says they're without excuse is because of His works. Jesus Christ says, and He says it Himself, testifying of Himself, no one has done what I've done.

Buddha, Mohammed, name them. No one has done what Jesus has done. What has He done? He's fed the 5,000. He's opened the eyes of the blind, which only the Jews knew that only God can give sight to blind people. Not to mention the fact that He raised a dead man from the ground. No one has done what Jesus has done. The world is without excuse.

Even Nicodemus acknowledged this very fact in John chapter 3, verse 2, when Nicodemus went to Jesus kind of on the down low. He snuck in and saw Jesus at night. Nicodemus said to Him, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher sent from God; for no one can do these things that you do unless God is with them." They knew that He was from God. What they missed is that He was the very express image of God in their midst.

Yet they refuse to see. Now, I know somebody's probably thinking, I hear the Word of Jesus, but I've never seen Jesus, and I've never seen Him do these things. But you're still without excuse. Look around you, and you can see people sitting right next to you, across from you, maybe in back of you, whose eyes were opened. They were once blind, now they can see.

You have people who can now walk who were once lame, in the right direction. All of us were dead, and now we're alive. Don't tell me that you haven't seen the works of Jesus. You refuse to see Him. You just refuse to see Him. You are without excuse. Jesus indicts the world. They are liable.

But I think about us as believers. We are also without excuse. How often are we quick to use excuses why we can't do something for God or why we can't change? I think Jesus would say the same thing to us. You are without excuse. You have My words, you know My works, and you even have My Spirit living inside of you.

We're without excuse as believers. What excuses are we making up maybe this morning, sitting here in this congregation? We're making up excuses even now. I want you to know you're without excuse. Our excuses will not bear up when we stand before Him before the judgment seat of Christ when He judges our works. No excuses will hold up there.

Second Chronicles chapter 20, verse 20, is so true. As Jehoshaphat was facing three armies coming at him to destroy Israel, they didn't know what to do. But he said one thing, "I would keep my eyes on you." And the word of God was spoken by the prophet who said, "Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established." And he says, "Believe His prophets, and you shall prosper."

Believe in the Word of God, and you will be established. We're without excuse. The question is whether or not we will truly believe and put our trust in the Lord completely. And yet in relationship to the world, the world's liability, the world even though they've heard the words of Jesus, they've seen His works, they see them even to this very day, they still hate Him without cause.

But Jesus said that these things would happen because it was prophesied in Psalm 69, verse 4, as He quotes it in the latter part of verse 25, "They hated me without a cause." They hated me without cause. So people who are mad at Jesus, maybe somebody sitting here watching online and they're mad, you know sometimes people come to church that way, they're just mad at God.

They came because somebody bugged them or whatever, and they're mad at God. I'll show them. I'll be angry all the way through the message. I'll really show God. We shake our fist at God and all of that. Let me tell you what Jesus is saying here. When you do all that, you're just fulfilling prophecy. Even the wicked work according to His will. He doesn't inspire the wickedness, but the wickedness that the wicked do works out for His good and His glory.

He said they rejected Me, they hate Me, rejected Me and My Daddy. But this is all in fulfillment of what already has been said because God knows the end from the very beginning. So we don't have to sweat folks who hate us or sweat the world that hates us. God already said you were going to be stupid anyway. Amen. Don't tell them that, but I'm just saying you're just acting foolishly.

So with this revelation, the disciples on that night, you can imagine, I just try to put myself in their shoes. I'm thinking, man, triumphant entry, man, people are yelling Hosanna, it's going to be cool. Jesus is going to enthrone Himself as king, and we're going to take down the Romans. I'm a little bummed out right now. And then Jesus comforts them. I think understanding they were a little distraught.

In verses 26 and 27, He says, "But when the Holy Spirit, or when the Helper comes, who is the Holy Spirit, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me. And you also will bear witness because you have been with Me from the beginning." Now again, He's talking to His disciples, apostles, and they would bear witness of Him as a fulfillment of His promise in Acts chapter 1, verse 8.

After His resurrection, He says, "And you will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be witnesses of Me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world." And surely, surely that's come to pass. The promise of a Helper. Jesus tells them that in this world, this hostile world, you will never be alone. Sometimes we forget that, that we have a constant companion, the very presence of God with us.

He is our Helper. He is our personal spiritual trainer, if you will. You know what a physical trainer does? You know, they're the ones that get you out of bed in the morning, get you doing one more push-up, one more sit-up, and all that. They're yelling at you, "Come on, you can do it, you can do it, you can do it!" They're stretching you to go beyond the place your flesh says stop.

The Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth. Your flesh wants to lie to itself and be comfortable, but the Holy Spirit, if He's leading you into truth, He is stretching you to love your husband, to love your wife, as Christ loved the church. He's stretching you to forgive and to love one another. He's stretching. Your flesh wants to stay here in bitterness and unforgiveness. Your flesh wants to stay here where it's comfortable and God is always stretching us. How does He do it? By that personal spiritual trainer, the Holy Ghost, who won't let you settle for anything less.

He conforms us into the likeness of Jesus. Amen. It's uncomfortable, but boy is it necessary. Thank God He didn't leave me where He found me 20 years ago. I've been a Christian for over 40 years, but thank God He continues to stretch me and to stretch me even further. I'm like, Lord, go stretch somebody else. That brother looks like he needs stretching over there. But God's still working on me. Still working on me.

That personal spiritual trainer, the Holy Spirit, He is a Helper. He is the Spirit of Truth leading us in the pathway of truth. And He proceeds from the Father. Jesus said He would come from the Father. That's important, that word "from" in verse 26, and He says He comes from the Father, is in a genitive sense, and it means "of the Father."

Don't have it in your mind that the Holy Spirit's kind of out here somewhere and He's apart from the Father, and the Father sent the Holy Spirit and He wasn't a part of the Father, just kind of one of the Father's employees in heaven or something. No, He is of the Father as the Son is of the Father, and the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are one.

So the help I have this morning is the help of God. The help you have this morning is the help of God living in you. Question is how big will we let God be in our lives? He is our Helper. And Jesus said His primary job description is what? He will testify of Me. He will talk about Me. He will magnify Me in your life.

That tells me that in every situation, every trial, every tribulation, every time, every rejoicing, happiness, or whatever, every pleasure in life, Jesus is in the midst of it where the Holy Spirit is there in the midst of it testifying and giving glory to Jesus. So when I find myself in a trial or situation, I should be looking around for the Holy Spirit's revelation of Christ in the midst of that trial or circumstances with me.

A lot of times I'm looking for the exit rather than looking for Jesus in the midst of the trial. But wherever you are, whatever season of life you're in right now, the Holy Spirit is there to do what? To testify of Jesus, to tell you about Jesus, to reveal Christ to you, whatever stage of life you're in.

Peter tells us in Second Peter chapter 3, verses 17 and 18, he says, "You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked." There's a lot of believers who have been led away by the error of the wicked. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior. God wants us to grow through the revelation of Christ. He doesn't want us just to survive in this hostile world, but to thrive as believers. How do we do that? Well, Peter also tells us in Second Peter chapter 1, verses 5 to 9, that this is how you grow, adding to your faith, that's the beginning part right there, adding to your faith virtue, virtue knowledge, knowledge self-control, self-control brotherly kindness, etc.

He said if these things are in you and they're abounding in you, you will neither be unfruitful or barren in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. But if you're not growing, you'll be fruitless and barren. And how are you fruitless and barren? Because you stop growing in the knowledge of Jesus. Is Christ to you just information or transformation?

And if He's transformation, I'm going to be growing in virtue and all of these different things. But if I'm not growing, maybe it's because I'm not listening to the Holy Spirit. Maybe I'm not looking for Jesus any longer. I'm just looking for a way out. Focus onto Jesus, the author and the finisher of your faith. Amen.

Now what is the application? Let's consider the application of this text for us today. I think the first thing I want to, if you didn't know it already, we live in an age of non-nonsensical truth. Nonsense. I remember years ago as a young Christian that you could reason with people. You could show them how God is in science and how the world was created, and you could use apologetics to reason with folks, and a lightbulb would go on.

But anymore, there's so much nonsensical truth, what I call nonsensical truth. If you say two plus two equals four, the world says no, it's seven because today I feel like it's seven. Tomorrow I may feel like it's eight. And they live by their feelings regardless of the facts, regardless of the truth, regardless of reality. People live by their feelings, and so that's why I call it nonsensical truth.

Situational ethics. And they've rejected the truth. And so what that tells me today is that if we're going to be, make an impact on a hostile Christian society, then it must be by the Spirit of God, the power of God, not by our own wisdom or just education. Education is wonderful. But no one can come to the Father unless the Holy Ghost draws them.

So what that tells me is that the work of salvation and impacting the world must be a work of the Holy Spirit. A work of the Holy Spirit. Listen, we live in an age today where you could literally say reasoning has left the building. Amen. People don't reason anymore. Walking by their feelings. So therefore we need desperately the work of the Holy Spirit.

We need desperately the work of the Holy Spirit at Calvary Worship Center. This church will not make it if we are not of the Spirit. If we're depending on the right sounding music or the decorated stage or looking at all these outward things in the church, we're not going to make it.

Zechariah said in Zechariah 4, verse 6, "It's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit," says the Lord. By the power of the Holy Spirit. It's by a people who are committed to being led by the Spirit of God, by the voice of God. This ain't that we were perfect, folks. Amen. There's no such thing as the perfect church. But if we're going to be effective and impact Colorado Springs, then we must be a people who are committed to listening to the voice of God and following His voice.

Being led by the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit in our relationship to one another. It's not the music or whatever. True worshipers, Jesus says, will worship Me in spirit and in truth. That's not country-western, rock, or R&B. We must be listening to His voice, or we're not going to make it.

When we were in Israel, one of the things, so many things, to share with you, but let me share this concerning the voice of God. How many have been to Israel? Have you gone to the Shepherd's Fields in Bethlehem? Maybe you were shocked as I was the first time I seen. One of the things that our guide was teaching about the Shepherd's Field and all this, and one of the things he brought up, he said, you know, when people think about the 23rd Psalm, "The Lord is my Shepherd," we always think about the green meadows of Ireland or England where you have fat sheep.

They just graze all the time. But when you look at the field when David said, "The Lord is my shepherd," the shepherd's fields of Israel are rocky, patchy places. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." And if the sheep is not listening to the shepherd's voice intently, the sheep can easily fall off a cliff or maybe even starve to death.

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want," because David knew that as he led the sheep, that he knew where the green pastures were. He knew where the water was. And the sheep had to follow his voice because it's a treacherous place, the shepherd's fields of Israel.

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