A Message For The Night Season Pt 5 | Pt 3

Guest (Male): 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 program financially or learn more about the ministry, visit us online at alpittmanministries.com. That's alpittmanministries.com. Thank you for partnering with us. Now here is Pastor Al.
Al Pittman: Expedient for him to leave, that we might know His presence. His presence. The presence of Jesus Christ is the source of the life, joy, and delight or pleasure of the church. The presence of Jesus. Oh, my friend, if we are gathered here today and His presence is not here, we have wasted our time. I don't want to be where His presence isn't, because His presence, as Nathan shared in the beginning of the service and I'm going to read the verse again, is the fullness of joy. It is our life. It is all we have going for us is the presence of Christ living within us. His Holy Spirit that he promised to pour out lives within every believer who places their faith in Jesus Christ. Psalm 16:11 says, "You will show me the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of joy. At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Oh, it's Your presence I love. David cried out, "Lord, take not Your Holy Spirit from me! Take my money, my riches, my clothes, my position, my fame, whatever, take it all, but don't take Your Holy Spirit from me! Your presence, oh God, is what I need more than life itself." His presence. And I believe that's why the companionship we share here at Calvary Worship Center or within the church is so important because of His presence. Not because of who's here, but it's His presence that is here that makes the difference. And His presence is what we fellowship around, the presence of God. That's why Paul exhorts the church of Ephesus, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit." Do not grieve the Holy Spirit. Look at Ephesians chapter 4. We'll read a portion of Scripture, words that Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus. And he speaks about grieving the Holy Spirit and kind of gives them a list of things here to watch out for and things that we should watch out for in our relationships as well. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 25: "Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another." When you lie to another believer, you're lying to yourself. You're hurting yourself. You lie to your wife, you're hurting your marriage, you're hurting yourself. He says stop lying to one another. Stop lying. "Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath," amen, "nor give place to the devil." Because you give place to the devil how? Through wrath, through unforgiveness, anger. Then verse 28: "Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need." I love that. Benevolence doesn't come from the church benevolence committee. Benevolence is one believer at a time. If you see a need, don't call the church, fill it, as God gives you the ability to do it. And then he says here, "Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers." Are my words imparting grace to people? If they're not, if it's just gossip and I'm just bad-mouthing somebody else, I should probably keep it to myself. Not probably, I would say you should. And then you should ask God for forgiveness. If your words are not imparting grace, keep it to yourself. Old rule from mom: if you can't say anything good about anybody, don't say anything at all. There you go. That's where mama got it from. Verse 30: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all ungodliness or all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, compassionate, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." Do not grieve His presence. And where you find fellowships where this word "do not grieve the Holy Spirit" or where the presence of Jesus is not valued, you'll find dissension and contention and division, even hatred among the people of God. If we have no respect for His presence, you'll have no respect for your brother or sister in Christ. And husbands, you'll have no respect for your wife. Let me drop this on you. I preach this word all the time. I read it, study it. I hope I'm getting better at it over the years. But it's amazing how God brings back some of the simplest lessons. I think in the book of Malachi where the priests were crying on the altar of God day and night, filling His altars with tears. And God wouldn't hear them. And they said, "Lord, why aren't You listening to us?" And He said, "Because you have dealt treacherously with the wife of your youth." Priests! God said, "I don't want to hear it. You can have no fellowship with Me because you've been dealing treacherously with your wife." And God just reminded me, "Al, remember your relationship with Me is reflected in your relationship with your wife." So he says, how's somebody doing with the Lord? Ask a man how he's doing with the Lord, go ask his wife. "I know that's not right. My relationship with Jesus and my relationship with my wife." Jesus and my wife, they're one and the same. Amen. I could go down the road on that one, but I better stick with the text. We'll never get out of here. But I just want to just a little tidbit. God is saying, you want to know how you're doing with Me, how are you doing with your wife? "She just don't understand." Uh-huh. Then I say something about loving her as I love the church. How many times didn't you understand and I kept loving you? Amen. Let's move on. All right. So do not grieve the Holy Spirit. His presence in your family, in your church. Have respect for the presence of God. It would be an advantage to you in your walk with Christ. Here's the second thing. The second advantage Jesus mentions has to do with conviction. Verses 8 to 11. He says, "And when He comes," that is the Holy Spirit, "He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged." Amen. Conviction. The Holy Spirit comes to convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. The advantage that I find here is that the Holy Spirit does the work of conviction. I don't have to be the Holy Spirit or try to convict people. The Holy Spirit does the work. First Corinthians 3:7 says, "So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God gives the increase." What is Paul speaking about there? Well, he's talking to a bunch of carnal believers in the city of Corinth in Greece. And the church in Corinth was full of all kind of carnality and division and all of this. And Paul reminded them, listen, it doesn't matter who plants and who waters, it's only God can give the increase. It doesn't matter who's doing the work, God is the one who gets the glory. And so he reminded them of that very fact that we are, if you will, holy farmers. "Pastor Al preached that message, Pastor Al had a great message." Pastor Al didn't have anything to do with it, the increase. I may be watering this morning, I may be planting some seeds this morning, but I'm just a holy farmer. But God will give the increase. I don't have to go around convicting people. You ever try to convict people? Drop a line of guilt on them or something, try to straighten them out. The Holy Spirit doesn't need our help. No one can come to the Father unless He draws them anyway. They can't come. So somehow I'm going to trick them into heaven? If you can trick them in, the devil can trick them out. The Holy Spirit does the work. He does the work. It's only by His Spirit. We are called to be witnesses for Jesus Christ, and the result of our witness is totally in His hands. We are never called to take on the role of convicting other people. Simply speak the truth in love. Leave the judgment up to God. We are never to judge. You can never look at somebody and say that person can never be saved. That's judgment. Who are you to say that? It's God who saves. It's Christ who will judge. We need to have discernment as believers, yes, have discernment between good and evil. We need to have discernment, the word of God will give us discernment. But we are not to judge anyone.
Guest (Male): Amen. We hope you're enjoying today's message so far. We wanted to take a quick break to thank you for supporting the Dwelling Place. Because of you, this message and many more will reach the whole world. If you'd like to support this ministry, please visit us at alpittmanministries.com or mail a check to P.O. Box 50594, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80949. That's P.O. Box 50594, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80949. Again, thank you for supporting the Dwelling Place. Now, let's get back into the message.
Al Pittman: Someone once said we need to get out of the judgment seat and get into the witness stand. Amen. There's only one judge, and that is Christ. And then in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 1 to 5, we don't have time to go back there and read it, but check it out later. Paul says basically, I don't care if you judge me. In fact, my judgment of myself, even if I judge myself, it's no matter to me because it is God who judges. It is God who judges. It doesn't matter what my opinion is about me or your opinion is about me, Paul is saying. It's God's opinion that really matters. And God judges. And he says then Paul goes on to say, judge nothing until the Lord returns, and the Lord will give to each one their reward. Because He's the final judge. So if I spend my time judging people instead of loving people, I'm wasting my time. Judge nothing. God will give the increase. God is in charge. The Holy Spirit convicts hearts. Pray for people. And Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would come into the world to convict of sin, that is rebellion against God. In particular, as He says in verse 9, it is the rejection of God's forgiveness through faith in Christ. It's that person who sits there and hears the love of God and hears the pathway to forgiveness and they reject it. That's sin. And the other things that we commit in our lives, things that we do in our lives as believers that the Holy Spirit convicts us of, He will convict us of sin. But I love the fact that God doesn't convict us to condemn us or to destroy us. He convicts us to heal us. Like a surgeon cuts to heal, the Holy Spirit convicts to heal us, to deliver us, to expose things that we might be healed. I know the world thinks, well, there's no sin, Pastor Al. Sin, you use that word to keep these weak people under your control. I'm educated, I'm a wealthy person or whatever, and that sin thing, that's all made up. That's how rich successful people laugh. You gotta throw the head back. And you can laugh about sin, people can say, oh, you're just trying to—you're peddling guilt or whatever. But sin is real. You can laugh now, but when you get alone with God, it becomes really real. I was struck by the tragic story of Aaron Hernandez, the former NFL football player with the Patriots. And he was cleared of two murders here about a week or so ago and he was doing time for another murder. Murdered a man the year that he was assigned a $40 million contract with the Patriots, just to catch a football in the end zone. And he commits this murder, ends up in jail anyway. Many of you already know but a few days ago that he was found dead in his cell. He hung himself. All the money, all the fame, ends up hanging himself. And on his forehead he had written John 3:16. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever will believe in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. When you get alone in a cell and the weight of sin comes to bear down upon you, what will be your hope? Maybe it's not a cell, maybe it's your office, maybe it's your home. But the Holy Spirit has come to convict you of sin, because it's not something to be laughed at. It is a reality that Jesus came and died on a cross and rose on the third day to deal with that you might be free. He's come into the world to convict of sin. He's come into the world to convict us of righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. What does that mean? Well, basically in verse 10, Jesus is saying I'm going to the Father. In other words, the Holy Spirit comes to the world to convict the world of the fact that the only righteousness that the Father will accept is the righteousness of Christ. Righteousness. Because our righteousness is but a filthy rag, the Bible says, in the sight of God. The best you can do, because we are all flawed, we have all sinned and come short of God's glory. But the righteousness of Christ is the only righteousness that the Father will accept. Acts chapter 4, verse 12 says, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." It is only in the name of Jesus. And then He came to convict the world of judgment. To convict the world of judgment. To remind us that the prince of this world, the king of this world, the ruler of this world is already defeated! Amen. The Holy Spirit needs to remind us of that each and every day as believers that the enemy, Satan, is already defeated. In fact, in Colossians chapter 2, verses 11 to 15, speaks of the very fact that Jesus Christ defeated every principality and power of darkness and even the devil himself by triumphing over the enemy of our soul through the cross. Amen. Making a mockery of them through the cross. The devil is already defeated. Amen. Somebody ought to give him praise and glory for what he's done! He's already defeated. And so the devil is in essence, he's really sitting on death row. He's sentenced, he's already condemned, he's already judged by Christ because Christ is risen from the dead. His final judgment will occur, you can read ahead and find out in Revelation chapter 20, verse 10. The last advantage that we find here is Holy Spirit consecrates us, leads us into all truth, and guides us. He's come in the world to convict. He's come in the world for our companionship with the Lord, and lastly, He comes in the world for our consecration. Consecration that He leads us into all truth. Verses 12 to 15, Jesus said, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them." That's a whole sermon in itself. It's a lot of things the Lord has to say to you and me, but we can't bear it all right now. We need to trust Him. And so He sent us a personal trainer to lead us, to guide us through the lies and the deceitfulness of our flesh and sin and of the devil, to lead us into all truth. To consecrate us unto Himself. So He says, there's a lot of things I want to say to you, but you guys can't bear them right now because they didn't get it. They didn't get it. They wouldn't really fully understand it until after His resurrection and He appeared to them. He says, "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you." And by the way, Jesus says in verse 15, "All things that the Father has are Mine." Everything that the Father has belongs to the Son. Here's your advantage. "Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you." Consecration. Holy Spirit leading and guiding us. And how does He lead and guide us around the lies and the deceitfulness of the world? It's through the knowledge of Christ. "He will glorify Me," Jesus says. He will glorify Me. And He will do it according to what He hears, that is according to the word of God. In other words, the Holy Spirit will never contradict the word of God. And I sometimes, we get a lot of spiritism in the church. "God told me." Did He really? A lot of folks got in trouble in the book of Jeremiah for doing that. A lot of so-called prophets, "Thus saith the Lord." No, the Lord had not spoken. Be careful when you tack God's name onto your own desires and carnal affections and say, "I heard from the Lord." Be careful. Because when you get to heaven, God might say, "You said I said..." Amen. I remember years ago when I was a young assistant pastor at a church and a guy came here, it was here in Colorado, and a guy came all the way up from Florida. And we were in a conversation, he tells me, "Yeah, God told me to come to Colorado. He told me to leave my wife and to come to Colorado." I said, I don't know what kind of Jesus you're talking about. That totally contradicts God's word. Loving your wife as Christ loved the church. The two becoming one flesh. What do you mean you left your wife because you gotta follow God? Huh? Anyway, he didn't like what I had to say. So He will never contradict the word of God. The Holy Spirit will not. The things that belong to the Father belong to the Son. Isn't that glorious? What an advantage. That's why I say to you folks, we are never at a disadvantage. As we abound in the knowledge of Christ, the resources of God are available to us. Whatever I need, He provides. He don't do it the way I want Him to. Amen. And He will use people that I didn't think He would ever use. I mean, He does it different than I—His ways are above my ways as the heavens are above the earth. But oh, He provides all of my needs according to His riches in Christ. The Bible tells us in Philippians 4:19 and 20, "And my God will supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen."