Holy Spirit

I remember when my step-dad would come home, often times after he was drinking. He was a man who was out of control and he was not a man full of joy. He was a man full of rage and hate, which he took out on us kids and on his wife. Even when he was not drinking, he was a man who had a short fuse. Never did we want to leave one of his tools out of place, definitely not outside overnight, and never did we want to break something that he would have to fix, because then he would “break us.”

I share this not for sympathy’s sake, as the life the Lord has blessed me with has shaped and molded me into the man I am today, but as a small illustration as to what a man with no joy is. My first step-dad had no joy in his life. The raising of a family was a burden to him, and the things of the Lord were, shall we say, something my mother pushed on him. So what should a man find joyful? Or better question that we can ask is, what or who should fill us with joy, that we might find joy in the people things around us?

First off, let’s look at the who. Who should fill us? And the Sunday school answer here is “JESUS!!” And this is where we start; we cannot start from any other source. We must start with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. If we are not born-again Christians, washed clean by the blood of Christ, we will not be filled with true joy. Sure, we can have joy in other things or other people in this world but it is a fleeting joy that will ebb and flow as time goes by. Think of your favorite sports team. Now think of that great season they had, and that great game, and that one great play where they won the championship. That was a moment of great joy. That great joy didn’t last did it? It is not the same when they are losing or having a bad season. It is a fleeting joy.

When we have Christ, however, we see something more; we have something more. We have eternal joy that surpasses all earthly joy. The joy that we now possess can and will endure all things that will come to pass, even when those things that come to pass are worse than a losing season or a lost championship game. Scripture speaks of joy often and throughout both the Old and the New Testament. We can find any number of passages with joy or rejoice contained throughout, either as a description of what someone is doing because of what the Lord has done for them. We can find passages about being joyful or rejoicing as a command because of what the Lord has done, for instance look at 1 Thessalonians 5:16 “Rejoice always.” This is a command to be always rejoicing, or to be always filled with joy.

One of my favorite verses is Psalm 118:24, a familiar verse to many, “This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” It reminds me to rejoice and give thanks to God for today and what this day brings; the challenges, the opportunities, the struggles, the victories, and the accomplishments. Each day is a gift from God’s own hand and we come to the realization that even the breath that we take and the sun rising are gifts. Then we can begin to be joyful because we realize the gracious gifts our Heavenly Father has already showered us with.

So we must start with being born-again, but we are also not on our own. We are washed by the blood of Christ and imputed with Christ’s righteousness. The Father sees Christ in us when He looks upon us. Now, it is the Holy Spirit that indwells us and empowers us and enables us to do these things that we speak of. Ever hear of the fruits of the Spirit? They are named that way because they are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Joy is listed second in this list, and not by happenstance. If you have the Holy Spirit, He will fill you with joy. You will find joy and will be able to rejoice if you keep your focus on the things of the Lord. We have been commanded in Scripture to seek first the Kingdom of God and then these other things (the things of the world) will be added to us (Matthew 6:33). We will be able to rejoice even in the mist of trials, even when the darkness is overtaking us. We find that in James 1:2 ²Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials. There is a reason for this as well and we find that in verses 3 and 4, ³knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

As a man of God, the joy that we have begins with the joy that we find in Christ, our Lord and Savior. Not just us men, this is true of any and all who are the Redeemed. That is our true joy. But men, it is you that set the tone in your own homes. You are the physical and spiritual leaders in your homes for your families and examples for your friends and co-workers. What joy do you demonstrate? When you have a bad day at work or school, or wherever you come home from, do you let loose on your family? Or do you come in the door and let the joy of your heart fill the house and spread to the hearts of your wife and your children?

Let me ask you this question: does your wife or your children fear you when they make a mistake? I am not talking about when a child has broken a rule or has misbehaved and it comes time for discipline. That is a separate subject. Do they fear you when a child loads the dishwasher wrong, or your wife squeezes the toothpaste out of the tube incorrectly? Do they fear you when you come home from a tough day? Are they hesitant on any day that you come home? What would they say about you?

We will have bad days or rough days; these things will happen. I could share a multitude of bad days that I have had that I did not intend to have when I left for work, or left for school that morning. But that did not give me permission to first, get frustrated and second, take that frustration out on those that the Lord has given me responsibility over. I can thank the Lord for those events, knowing that one day I will not have to endure such things. But until that time, I can take my cares and concerns to Him in prayer, rejoicing in the fact that I have eternal life and an eternal reward far greater than any temporal matter.

The joyful man of God is not a happy-go-lucky guy, who is easy going and seems like nothing ever bothers him. The man who is happy-go-lucky is really someone who does not like to get into the deep end of the pool of anything. Said a different way, he has little conviction of anything, or anyone.

The things of this world can bring us joy, but they cannot be the purpose of our joy. They cannot be the center or the source of our only joy. It must be Christ. There is nothing in itself wrong with enjoying sports, movies, boating, or whatever it is, but it must not distract, compete, or replace Jesus Christ. We invalidate the joy of Christ and the salvation He brought to us and the joy we find through the Holy Spirit if we have to go and fill our lives with joy in things of this world. Unbelievers see these things and will doubt our own profession of the transformative power that salvation is.

True joy is only found in Jesus and Him alone. We share that joy with one another when we share the gospel of Jesus Christ with unbelievers. We share the joy of Christ when we gather physically together as believers, whether that is for Sunday morning to worship our Great God, on a Sunday evening, a midweek bible study, small group bible study, a one-on-one study, a lunch, a coffee, or whatever it is. We share that joy when we are together, because we are in Christ and washed by Him. That very fact, being washed by the God who created the universe in the span of 6 days, should bring you great joy.

Every time you leave your house, every time you stand in line, every time you are late getting home, every time you get a flat tire, every time you end up in a place you did not think you would, rejoice, be filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit that dwells within you. You are in a position that so much of humanity is not. You are among the redeemed; you are part of a select few; you are part of the House of God; you are a child of God. Rejoice, for this is the day that the Lord has made, and you can tell anyone and everyone who hears about the amazing God that you have. Only He knows if they will also be adopted into the house just as you have. If they are, all heaven will rejoice just as that person that you shared the gospel with will. So again, I say rejoice.

It is a difficult thing in our culture to have a teachable spirit. We have an innate belief that we are smart and intelligent and are generally put off when told that we are wrong about something. This is not having a teachable spirit. I am, of course, not speaking of learning skills like accounting or plumbing or nursing, but am speaking specifically about those things that we believe. Although we do want to be teachable in whatever profession or hobby that we might have and enjoy.

A belief is something we hold true based on information that is not entirely conclusive to all. To believe in something is the same as saying we have faith in that thing being true. But it also requires a presupposition. We must have a preconceived notion that what we will eventually come to believe in is true. To illustrate this, let’s assume that humanity is basically good, that at the core we have a good heart or a good character. Overall, our good deeds or even just our good intentions will outweigh our mistakes, our misdeeds, and all of those mean-spirited thoughts.

There are several beliefs that someone who believes this way must bring to the table. Their belief is built on 2 major assumptions, the first being that we must know what good is. We have a standard of what good is and what good is not, that which is evil. The second assumption is that we know (without measuring and tracking) all the deeds, intentions, and thoughts (good and evil) that have been done throughout the world in all situations and in all history. This is an impossibility as no one can truly understand the intentions of the heart of another person, let alone all people that have ever lived.

In order to counter this belief, we must look to something other than ourselves to judge what is good and what is evil. Otherwise, we run the risk of good and evil being abstract. To the Biblically sound Christian, that standard is the living God and what He has declared in His Word. He is the very definition of good. Jesus says so in Matthew 19:17 when he responds to the man asking what he must do to inherit eternal life, “And He said to him, ‘Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’”

I will use a rough illustration to try to explain this. Instead of using a tape measure to measure something, we use our own feet. For me and my size 9 ½ shoes, the distance between two points might be the distance of 4 heel to toe feet. However, for someone who has size 14 shoes, their measurement of 4 heel to toe feet will actually be different. The measurement is only accurate if we are both using the same scale, such as a standard tape measure.

To be teachable, one must be willing to have their beliefs challenged. As Biblical evidence is given to a belief or as counter to a belief, one must be willing to submit to the authority of the teaching that Scripture is. To belief that mankind is basically good would fly in the face of the plain teaching of Scripture. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” If the heart is deceitful and sick and that is the center, the source of all that man is, how can he be good? If a piece of fruit is rotten in its middle how “good” is it in its entirety? Sure, there are “good” parts, but the whole is contaminated.

Another example that is prevalent today is that women can pastor and lead churches. Let me start this illustration first by declaring what proponents and opponents of this argument say and what Scripture declares as well. Men and women are of equal value, but here is where the difference begins – Scripture declares distinctive roles between men and women. God created them male and female, the male first as the head and the female from male to be his equal and his helpmate. Woman is not made to be a subject under the rule and authority of the man. With distinctive roles, we have different responsibilities. I am not saying that the role of women is to be responsible for the domestic care; men are equally capable.

The basic premise of the belief that women are able to pastor and lead churches is based on humanistic belief structures, not Biblical mandates. It is based on human value systems and not sound Biblical principles. Scripture again gives ample evidence that they are not to be pastors in the church. First Timothy 2:12 says “But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.” This does not mean that women are not to speak or that they could not teach or lead a women’s study, or teach a Sunday School children’s class. What this is speaking to is the fact that a woman is not to have teaching authority over a congregation. A pastor’s responsibility goes far beyond preaching duties. They include counselling, modeling, and living a Biblically sound life. There will be further discussion on this topic later, but I wanted to use this here as an illustration.

It is not easy to have someone come along side and tell us that we might be in error in our thinking. That stings our pride, but just as Proverbs tells us in 12:1, “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.” If we truly love knowledge, then we must welcome the challenges to our thinking. We serve a living, gracious God who has provided to us all that we need for life and godliness, and one of those things is His Word. Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” We can and must allow the Word to teach us, to correct our wrong thinking, and we must use the pure unaltered Word of God. Not allowing the darkened reasoning of the world to filter the Word of God.

The greatest example is the creation account in Genesis. Did God really say that He created all things in 6 literal 24-hour days or is this an allegorical tale or poetic picture? The deception is that we look at modern science theory and interject that into the creation account. By doing this, we are, of course, using worldly views to filter Scripture. But if we stand on the fact that Scripture is inspired by God, who is infallible and immutable, does not lie, and understands who and what we are, it demands that we read and understand the creation account the way it is written.

We must have a high view of Scripture from the onset, that God has inspired it and that it is sufficient for all life, even today, and that it is without error. With regard to any belief system there will be some foundational presupposition. Now, what does this mean outside of Biblical Christianity? With regards to the belief system of evolution, that is being declared fact. The theory of evolution has no eye witnesses and cannot be repeated; it is not observable. Proponents of evolution do not belief that they hold a presupposition, but in fact they must. Since they have no account during all those years of evolution, they must assume certain things. They look at the fossil record and extrapolate out what must have occurred millions and billions of years ago.

Most scientists, and really most people who believe in the Theory of Evolution, will not even entertain the idea of belief in the Bible. This is because things that are spiritual cannot be tested by science, but on the flipside, there are things in the Biblical account that can be tested. The historicity can be measured up with what we know through non-biblical historians. However, most of these validations are not considered trustworthy because the accounts are recorded in the Bible and are spiritually based. I will counter that argument by stating the fact that non-spiritually based writings from the same time periods are seen as creditable, which demonstrates a clear presupposition.

Biblical Christians believe that Scripture is true in every regard and that each word – Old and New Testaments – are true and accurate and there is no error and that God the Holy Spirit was at work in the men who physically wrote the 66 books of the Bible. On the flip side to that belief is the belief that there is no such thing as God and everything can be explained by science.

To be teachable is to allow others to instruct us, to be able to have our thinking challenged with a humble spirit as we are not all-knowing creatures and can have incorrect thoughts and beliefs regarding some things. Now let me say this. Because someone might try and challenge our beliefs, we must be able to defend what we believe is truth. How do we challenge one’s beliefs and how do we defend our beliefs? It must always be done based on Scripture.

Again, 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us that Scripture will teach us and it will reprove and correct. Our beliefs, and therefore how we reprove and teach one another, cannot be based solely on feelings of truthfulness or even on life experiences. It must go beyond and above these things, although they can add to the applicability of Scripture. The danger of relying on life experiences and emotions is that they can be skewed and lead to a misinterpretation of Scripture.

I leave you with one final illustration of this. One major counter argument against Christianity or the authority and sufficiency of Scripture is the supposed ill-treatment of women. But if we search the Scriptures, we can find a plethora of women who are powerful and influential. Quite truthfully, women are honored in Scripture. How can I say all of this? Read through the Bible and see how many women are dignified through the pages: Esther, Ruth, Mary (Jesus’ mother), the Samaritan woman, and Lydia.

You may not recall who Lydia is, but I will say that she was financially well off as she was a trader in purple fabric and traveled all over the region. We may not think much of it, but during that time period, it would not be easy for a woman to lead such a successful business life. She did these things, not her husband, which suggests that she was not married. While Paul and his travelling companions where in Corinth, she supported them for an extended period of time. Meaning Lydia opened her home and provided for all the needs of these men until they left.

Allow the Word of God to instruct you and to change you where needed. Scripture is sufficient for every area of our lives and for all instances, circumstances, and scenarios that we come across. We must have a spirit that is willing to be taught and to even unlearn what may be incorrect. This, of course, takes humility. Earthly wisdom can cause us to puff ourselves up and become prideful. We must be wary of this and remain humble, knowing that wisdom is from the Lord.

Come to know and love Scripture. Seek its truth when you are challenging someone else’s views or beliefs, but also seek it when you are being challenged. See if what they say is true and that you are indeed in error. This is Proverbs 27:17, “Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” We are to sharpen one another, by teaching one another and having our wrong thoughts corrected so that we can grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). I will leave you with this question, are you teachable?

The Joyful Man of God

The Teachable Man of God