I have this herd coming by all the one place, you know, we're going to widen out the opportunity here.
! I'm glad you're here.
Take your Bibles and turn in them to John chapter 7.
I have to confess that I greatly appreciate those who work in the sound booth, particularly when it comes time to help me with putting things on the screen.
Because those who work in the sound booth know that while I print the sermon in advance, that doesn't always mean that I follow it explicitly.
And so they are, and it's always the start that's real hard.
You know, it's like, when do I do this?
So I appreciate that.
And Caleb, thank you.
Let's pray.
Our hearts this morning are mindful of the truth of the Scriptures.
Where the prophet Zechariah said this, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord.
And so this morning, as we take up the Word, we come with humility.
We come with a confessed dependence upon our own frailty and our lack of focus that is of eternal value and significance.
And we ask that you would work in us that we who know Christ would have our hearts strengthened and encouraged by the sweetness of the Scripture.
That we would be confident in the promises.
And that we would evidence the Spirit of God in us.
That to an unbelieving world, our lives would be atypical, unusual, different.
Not because of the way we comb our hair, but because of the hearts we have.
Because of the way in which we handle adversity and difficulty in relationships.
Because of the genuineness of our affection for one another and for lost mankind.
So that an unbelieving world, seeing those things is prompted to ask us a reason for the hope that lies within us.
Lord, I'm thankful for the blessing of salvation.
And for the indwelling Spirit that I rely upon this morning.
That Jesus Christ might be exalted.
And I pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
John chapter 7, verse 37.
Let me read it to you again and track it with me.
On the last day of the feast, that great day, Jesus stood up and cried out.
If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said,
out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
Now this he said about the Spirit.
Whom those who believed in him were to receive.
For as yet the Spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified.
By way of introduction, I have been involved as our search committee and you for two years in looking for the man that will eventually become our future senior pastor.
And we're still in the search.
I wish I could tell you other than that.
But we are still in the search.
And I am confident that God is in the process of touching the heart of someone who will love you in Christ's stead.
Who will have confidence in the Word of God and will preach it with authority and with passion and clarity.
And interestingly, in that two-year journey, one of the things that has happened a number of different times is I have ended up having to explain to a potential candidate,
So what are you like there?
That's hard.
I mean, you know, at the end of the day, talking to someone in, you know, in Illinois or in Virginia or in California or Texas and saying,
What are you like there is difficult.
Because the best thing to do is come and see.
But, you know, we're not paying for lots of tickets all over the place.
You know, it's like, okay, what are you like?
And so one of the things that I have ended up saying is that, well, I don't know how we're like, but let me try this.
We're kind of reformed in that we fully believe in the sovereignty of God and His work in salvation.
At the same time, we're incredibly passionate about seeing people come to Jesus.
And that's always, how do you do that?
You do.
I said we're a little Pentecostal, too.
If you want to know how we are, I mean, you know, and I understand.
Not all of us are the same way.
But what I mean when I say we're a little Pentecostal is I am absolutely dependent upon the Holy Spirit to be anything other than a jerk.
And we're Baptistic.
So it always confuses people when I put those things together.
It's like, what?
Can't you do this simpler?
No, that's who we are.
I understand.
That those who know Christ are absolutely dependent upon the Holy Spirit.
In John chapter 15, Jesus said this, without me, you can do nothing.
Nothing.
and truth of the matter is, is I'm convinced that there are a lot of people going about the spiritual life doing nothing.
I want us to look at this passage and understand something.
I'll put it out right in front so you can kind of get your arms around it.
If you are saved, you have the indwelling Spirit and other people have every reason to see the evidence.
Let me say that slowly.
If you are saved, you have the Holy Spirit in you and every reasonable issue, everybody should be able to see the evidence.
Agreed?
In theory.
I mean, go ahead and nod your head, kind of put yourself out there on a limb, but say this.
Other people should see the evidence of you being saved.
That's what this passage says.
I do want to take a minute and review because we need to get our arms around this matter.
Here's Jesus saying on the last great day of the feast, in essence, if you believe in me, you are going to have the indwelling Spirit who will help other people be blessed by virtue of your salvation.
So let's take a quick review.
We did see last week in John chapter 4 verse 14, the account of the woman at the well.
Remember that Jesus said to her, you believe in me and you will not be, what?
Thirsty.
You're going to be satisfied.
And here's the exact passage that we cited.
It says, whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.
The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
Second, salvation also brings the gift of the Spirit.
And that's very clear.
You look there in John chapter 7 verse 38, whoever believes in me, as the Scripture says, has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
I can't help but think just for a moment at this juncture of the passage in Ezekiel.
Remember the vision that Ezekiel had of the little stream that was coming from the temple steps?
And as he would go out a thousand feet, it would get deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper.
And the illustration was of the satisfaction of the blessing of the work of God in people's lives.
And here is Jesus making this statement in John chapter 7, in essence saying this,
Those who believe in me are satisfied and become satisfiers to other people.
Let me kind of press this together and just kind of check off the boxes in your own mind.
Let's kind of work our way through John kind of in a quick passage here.
Number one, faith in Jesus brings eternal life.
John chapter 3 verse 16, right?
Isn't that a common verse?
Jesus made it clear.
Whosoever believes in me has everlasting life.
And so there are those who are sitting here that have heard that verse from the time they are little boys and girls.
And they said the prayer and, well, I've got eternal life.
Let me ask you a question.
How easy is it to document and be absolutely certain about eternal life in this life apart from the Word of God?
It's not easy.
We have the promise.
But we don't have any documented evidence other than the promise of the Word of God.
Does that make sense?
In case you're wondering, don't send me an email saying,
You just denied the confidence of the saint in regards to the matter of eternal security.
That's not my point.
I'll get to the point.
Bear with me.
Faith in Jesus brings eternal life.
Promise.
Faith in Jesus brings satisfaction.
That's what we saw in John chapter 4 verse 14.
Jesus made it clear.
You believe in me and you're going to be satisfied.
Remember the girl at the well?
The woman said, hey, listen.
Give me some of this water so I don't have to keep on trucking down here to get more.
Third, faith in Jesus brings the indwelling spirit who makes the believer
a satisfier.
That is a very tangible truth.
Because it is saying that other people can see and appreciate what has happened in your life
as the result of salvation.
Everybody smile and say, I hear that.
I get it.
I understand that.
I couldn't help this morning as I sat down here to think about a passage in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10.
Remember Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 and 9 talks about salvation as a matter of the grace of God in our life.
And it talks about the fact that salvation has the objective of making us individuals who do good works.
I have debated back and forth about this and I'll launch and we'll see what happens.
Judith and I are remodeling.
And I want to go on record.
This is the last one.
Honey, you're back there.
It's the last one.
Okay.
And as a result of that, I have made...
I am a frequent flyer at Home Depot down there on West Broad.
They see me coming and here he is again.
I had to put the sink in last night and it actually was three trips.
Never, ever assume that plumbing is easy.
But last week I was on one of those...
It was actually towards the end of the evening, 10 o'clock Friday night.
Any of you know me, I turn into a pumpkin around that time.
But it was remodeling and so, you know, you break the rules.
And I was down there trying to get something to finish up the project before the end of the evening.
And it required getting a person to get a forklift because the product that I needed was on the third tier.
And one of the things in Home Depot is that in order to get a forklift, you have to have two people.
One is the flagger and the other is the forker, you know.
And so, not only that, but you have to block off both ends of the aisle.
You got that?
Now, I was thinking this is going to go on until, you know...
And they blocked off the one end.
But just as they were getting ready to pull the gate, in comes this girl.
You know, it's like...
And it was in the same aisle that I needed to be in.
And she was having one of those moments where she couldn't decide.
I mean, I'm thinking, let's get this done.
Get that forklift in there and get the product from way up there and down where I can get it and go home.
And I was watching her pick trim.
I mean, how many of you know that there's more than one profile?
And she was deciding between this and she pulled out about three or four pieces.
And she was walking down the aisle.
And the next thing I know, she goes back to the bin and puts that down and goes down and looks at the other trim.
And she gathered three or four pieces.
I don't know.
She didn't need very much.
And I'm sitting there.
Oh, Lord, please.
And I thought, you know, handling two is enough.
I mean, you know, left or right, just make the choice.
She put that down.
And she walked on further through the, and there were just all these choices of trim.
And I am standing there.
And the guy that was the forklift operator, he looked over at me.
He says, how are you doing?
I said, I'm fine.
And I was, actually.
I was thinking to myself, here's what I was thinking.
You know what?
This is not anything to get upset about.
That's what I was thinking.
And this guy said to me, in all my years of working here at Home Depot, I've never had someone with that kind of attitude.
I said to him, I've got to tell you, if it weren't for Jesus, I'd be a jerk.
That's the truth.
And it gave me an opportunity to talk to him about Jesus.
Do you follow that?
Where does that come from?
One of the things I said to him is, I'm not the hero in my story.
Jesus stands up, and he says, listen, whoever believes in me.
Out of his heart will come streams of living water.
Is that true for you?
Well, let's step from review to asking some very personal and practical questions that are pretty hard.
Did Jesus really offer himself as the answer to Old Testament prophecies, including those regarding the Holy Spirit?
Now, I want you to think with me just for a moment.
Do a little bit of review here.
And I am taking my watch off, which doesn't mean a thing.
In the Old Testament, and I'm fully persuaded that the Old Testament saints enjoyed the ministry of the Spirit, not as completely as we do.
But, hey, how does a person come to faith apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit, right?
I mean, how are you convicted about sin apart from the Holy Spirit?
But in the Old Testament, in particular, the Holy Spirit was engaged more periodically in special ways, in particular.
You'll remember that when the two men who were gifted by the Holy Spirit to help build the tabernacle, remember?
They had exceptional skill.
How many of you remember Samson?
The absolute model of Christian virtue, right?
But how do we know he had the Holy Spirit at work in him?
What were some of the things he did?
The things that Samson did had nothing to do with his body type or the weightlifting program or nutrition that he was involved in.
Do you understand that?
Because before he had his hair cut, remember his parents were told,
never cut his hair because he's a Nazarite from birth, blah, blah, blah.
And the evidence of the power of the Holy Spirit was that Samson did some pretty spectacular things.
Do you realize that he killed a thousand men with the jaw of a donkey?
That's very, very up close and personal.
You know what I'm saying?
And here is Samson, after he had his hair cut,
he prays and says,
I want your help doing one more spectacular demonstration of your power.
And here is Jesus saying,
let me tell you something.
Those who believe in me
will have the enabling of the Spirit of God.
They will have the Spirit of God in them.
Yes.
Those who believe in Jesus receive the Spirit.
I don't think there's any question.
The idea that we receive the Holy Spirit subsequent to our salvation
is something that cannot really be supported by Scripture.
Let me have you look at a couple passages in relationship to that.
You're there in John, but let's move forward.
Go to Romans chapter 8.
Romans chapter 8, verse 9 through 11.
You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, in fact,
if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.
How do I know that I'm saved?
Oh, I said the prayer.
Not good.
That's no guarantee.
I was baptized by immersion.
Reverend Kenoyer did it.
Not good.
How do you know?
It says here, the fact that the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Anyone who does not have the Spirit.
Let's think about that.
Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
Case closed.
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin,
the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies
through his Spirit which dwells in you.
How is it that Tim Kenoyer, who he is,
can do things that are above and beyond exceptional, unusual?
It's not through me or my upbringing.
It is through the work of the Spirit of God in my life.
Ephesians 1, verse 13.
We're talking about the issue of, is the Spirit in the believer?
And the answer is Ephesians 1, verse 13.
In him also, when you heard the truth, the gospel of your salvation,
believed in him, were sealed with the promise, the promised Holy Spirit,
who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.
So what is a down payment?
How many of you have ever received a down payment?
It is a tangible evidence of what you will have in the future.
Isn't that right?
It's something that you hang on to and have confidence.
The deal's sealed.
How do I know?
I've got this.
So let me ask another question.
Should we take Jesus literally?
Is it true that salvation in the presence of the Holy Spirit
turns the thirsty person into a satisfier of other people?
That's what Jesus said.
Go back to John chapter 7, if you would, just for a moment.
And here's what Jesus said.
If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
And what happens when we drink?
Look at the passage.
Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
Think about that.
How do you know when a hose is connected?
At the end of the day, I'm thinking about an illustration.
So I'm on one corner of the house,
and the hose is kind of draped around the house at the other end,
and I yell to someone and say,
Turn on the hose!
How do I know that the hose is connected?
I get water out of it, you know?
And if you're close, I may hose you down.
In other words, out of his heart comes evidence that is undeniable.
So let me follow up with yet another question.
Is the presence of the Holy Spirit a proof of genuine conversion?
Stop and think about this.
Is the presence of the Holy Spirit a proof of genuine conversion?
And the answer from the Scriptures undeniably is this,
Absolutely.
So let's apply what Jesus said.
Jesus made the statement that those who believe in him would receive the Holy Spirit
and that the Holy Spirit would be the helper through whom they would end up being a blessing to other people.
So the practical question that follows is,
Do I see the evidence of the Spirit's work in my life producing fruit and meeting the needs of others?
The Spirit lifts up Jesus and His Word.
And as a result of that, He is in the process of helping me grow to be different than I used to be.
One of the things that I love being able to say to people who I have an opportunity to share the gospel with,
I let them know that not only can they be completely forgiven for all of their sins,
but there's something else that's pretty exciting.
I love telling people that salvation guarantees that you don't have to stay the way you are.
Why?
Because the Holy Spirit is at work in the life of the believer.
And as He is at work,
other people begin to see the evidence of the change in your life.
Do you see that?
Stop and ask yourself the question,
When I think back over my life,
do I see the evidence of progressive change in that I'm not who I used to be?
You were born grumpy.
You were.
You were born very easily irritated.
You were.
You were born incredibly self-focused.
Do you follow that?
Caleb and Charity were over at our home the other day,
and they were talking about how Ruth is,
at this moment,
not a tremendous parenting challenge.
I mean, you know,
you put it in one end,
it comes out the other end,
and you take care of the details in between,
and it's not real complicated.
But,
sooner or later,
she's going to begin to express not just a desire for food,
but also a desire to be in control.
And she's going to let all the other little irritations that her imperfect parents are contributing to her well-being.
It's like,
Hey,
I want it now.
And so,
I'm sure that Caleb and Charity have already started praying about Ruth being saved,
and that's because they care about her eternal soul,
but somewhere down the line,
they're probably going to begin praying,
and would you do that sooner than later?
Because we'd like help
in her being less of who she is and more of who she needs to be.
Is the Spirit of God at work in your life producing fruit that cannot be attributed to anybody else than the Spirit?
I want you to know that the Spirit produces unique fruit.
Turn in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 5.
Galatians chapter 5.
And look with me just for a moment at the fruit that the Apostle talks about here in relationship to the Spirit of God at work in our lives.
It says this,
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such there is no law.
I like that little statement.
Against such there is no law.
Do you know what it's saying?
No government has ever passed a law saying we don't like you to be peaceable.
Why?
Because everybody likes peaceable people.
How many of you work with people who are in a perpetual funk?
I mean, you know what I'm saying.
Monday is the normal day where people kind of come in a little moody.
They're worn out from watching too much football or whatever else.
And when they come in Monday, they kind of have an attitude.
Okay, it's the Monday blues.
But when the same person has that same attitude, even on Friday.
I mean, thank God it's Friday, right?
It's like party time.
No.
I'm still moody.
Can a believer stay that way?
Well, we'll get to that point later.
But here's the point.
The unbelieving world likes seeing the fruit of the Spirit.
And so I got to tell you, if you're a person who persists in those attitudes and reflects complete lack of the transforming power of the Spirit of God,
you need to ask yourself the question, am I not walking in the Spirit or am I not saved?
I think that's important.
The persistent absence of the fruit of the Spirit that invariably satisfies other people may be a signal that you've never come to faith.
Can I say that slowly so that you don't miss it?
Most of you here have sat under the gospel teaching for a number of years.
But the truth of the matter is there may be some of you here that in the quietness of your heart can really never put your finger on the evidence of the power of God
changing you from being who you really are to who you should be.
And so that brings up something else that I want you to think about here for a moment.
What might be contributing to my momentary waterlessness?
What might do that?
Well, for one, a believer may quench the Spirit.
A believer may quench the Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5, verse 19.
Do not quench the Spirit.
And the way in which we quench the Spirit is when the prompting of the Spirit of God brings Bible truth to mind,
we say, no, I don't want to do that.
About a week ago, I am the legs for our family.
Do you know what I mean by that?
How many of you know?
Men, what does it mean to be the legs for the family?
Would you go down to the basement and get this?
Would you go upstairs to the attic and get this?
And it's like, I'm the legs for the family.
Carry this.
Lift that.
It's part of my job.
Let me tell you, if I ever wrote you a check, the bank wouldn't know who signed it.
That just helps you know that there's another side to the story, right?
But I remember when I had made about the, who knows, 17th journey.
Let's just use that as a number.
Up and down the steps, and I was thinking to myself,
I hear, hey, honey, would you?
And I thought to myself, do you know what I was thinking to myself?
Go get it yourself.
I didn't say it.
Because that's when the Holy Spirit was prompting me, you know?
You follow what I'm saying?
And I decided, now here's the deal.
But one of the advantages of being 67 is that I've got a lot of experience at how dumb I can be and what the outcome is.
How many of you know, dumb doesn't work?
And I was actually coming up the steps from the basement, and I heard her voice, and I thought, okay.
You know, I have a choice to make right now to have a humble servant's heart or to be self-focused.
Next, a veteran of being self-focused, I decided, let's do the Holy Spirit prompting.
A believer may quench the Spirit.
And there's some of you here that are specialists in quenching the Spirit.
And then you wonder, what's the problem?
Well, a believer may grieve the Spirit.
Grieve the Spirit.
Ephesians 4, verse 30, you can grieve the Spirit.
And that is to be in conscious and willing, deliberate sin against Him.
There are some of you sitting here that have a bitter, unforgiving spirit towards members of the body of Christ or towards a family member.
And you are consumed with your self-justification.
And you're grieving Him.
You know, how many of you have had children who have been persistent in their willing disobedience for a period of time?
How does that affect you as a parent?
It breaks your heart.
And there are some of you here that are grieving the Holy Spirit.
A believer may not be walking in the Spirit.
Over in Galatians 5, verse 16, there's a passage that has really just deeply affected me as I've grown older in the Lord.
It says, walk by the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
Walk by the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
Does anybody know why I would have that verse kind of front and center in my life?
Just guess.
Walk by the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
The reason that verse is front and center in Tim Kenoyer's life is because I know what it is to walk in the flesh.
I remember thinking to myself at an earlier juncture in my life that walking in the flesh was primarily the matter of lust, anger.
You know, and it is.
Those are bad things, right?
But let's try this.
Is moodiness walking in the flesh?
What do you think?
Yeah, it is.
Is being an unforgiving and embittered person walking in the flesh?
What do you think?
Huh?
Is being a person who's obsessed with covetousness...
I mean, you fire up their computer and look at their history and all you see is they've either been on Amazon or Craigslist or Pinterest or Zillow or whatever.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what?
Is that living in the flesh?
What's the answer?
Hmm?
We may be believers that are not enjoying the sweetness of being the conduit for His blessings.
So what must I do?
I want you to think about this carefully.
I am persuaded that the vast majority of you who are here today have complete confidence in your salvation.
If I were to ask you, so if you were to die tonight, why should God let you into heaven?
Well, because I said the prayer.
Hmm?
I said the prayer.
But you cannot put your finger on any illustration in your life where you have been a persistent source of blessing and encouragement and strength for anybody else because I'm not sure.
I'm not sure.
And so I want to ask you this.
What do you do?
Ask yourself if you've been moved from being a dissatisfied soul to one who's satisfied in Jesus and is satisfying others.
Is that a fair question?
Okay, let me think here.
If there is no satisfaction in your life and there's no blessing that other peoples are receiving,
then I would plead with you to seriously consider the authenticity, the truthfulness of your profession of faith.
Hmm?
Ask yourself another question because I think this can be a contributor.
Ask yourself if you're overly persuaded of your own strength to the point that you are just not relying on the Holy Spirit.
You know, one of the verses that we know so well is Proverbs 3, verse 5 through 7,
Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Don't lean on your own understanding.
And guess what we do?
What do we do?
Problem comes up.
Someone asks us a question.
Instead of being one who resonates with the sweetness of the Scripture,
now you don't have to Bible verse people to death, right?
Well, that made me think about Proverbs chapter 7 and it says this.
But no.
Don't tell you.
Well, that reminds me of the time my uncle threw a stone at me, hit me in the back of the head,
and I picked up a bigger stone and hit him.
You know, that's not what I'm thinking about.
So, do you display a person who is saved but so affected by your own interests and confidence that you're missing your absolute dependence upon him?
And so, what must I do?
I want you to think about this seriously.
Am I a satisfier of other people?
That's proof of the dwelling, indwelling ministry of the Spirit of God.
And it fits together with being satisfied as a proof of your salvation.
Can I tell you?
A pastor who has a heart for Jesus and a heart for people is always interested in whether or not people know Christ as their personal Savior.
Does that make sense?
And so, if this is the only time and the last time that I ever get to preach to you, I want you to answer the question,
do I know Christ as my personal Savior?
Or is my relationship kind of a professional?
I picked up the baggage.
I went to the right school.
I've done the right things.
But there's no evidence of the power of the cross.
Not only in forgiving you of all of your sins,
but making you someone different than you would be by your own nature.
Let's close in prayer.
Holy Father,
I am so thankful that you sent Jesus to be our Savior,
that He came to pay the penalty for our sins.
He died upon the cross to satisfy the righteous judgment and wrath of God.
Against our rebellious and arrogant hearts.
And I'm thankful that one of the proofs of our salvation
is not just merely remembering a time when we trusted in Christ,
but seeing the evidence, the supernatural power of the Spirit of God in our life.
I pray for those who are here today that can't identify the day and the time
or any string of illustrations of where they have moved from being a profoundly dissatisfied person
into being satisfied in Jesus
and being a satisfier of others.
Work to draw people to the cross
and to make us people who radiate the power of the Holy Spirit
because of Christ and for His glory.
Amen.