Live Ready #3 - Jesus Gives Us Peace
John 14:23-27 – Victory Fellowship
May 9, 2021 - Rev. Roderick Grabski
Mother’s Day – Fill Sanctuary with LOVE
I. Introduction: Live Ready Series
a. We were never promised a life without pain, suffering, tragedy or trials. We will all experience hard times while we exist on this earth. (4-part series)
i. The good news is that Jesus did promise us that he had overcome the world.
ii. We were promised that he would never leave or forsake us.
iii. Because of Jesus’ presence with us, we can live ready to face whatever life may throw at us.
iv. God gives us guidance to help us live ready and we would be wise to follow it.
II. Today, I want to remind us of Jesus’ promise to give us peace, not as the world gives, but through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Because of Jesus’ presence with us, we can live ready to face whatever life may throw at us.
a. How many of you have ever seriously considered what the Holy Spirit does for us? It is interesting to note that this text falls in line with Mother's Day. Like the Holy Spirit, our mothers have taught us things that we are to remember.
b. How many of you can remember something that your mother has taught you that you remember even to this day? The Holy Spirit is at work in godly mothers who strive to raise their children the way that they are to go so that they will not depart from it. The Holy Spirit’s work continues even after mothers have raised their children to adulthood.
c. The Holy Spirit helps to stay on track at keeping the word of Jesus and staying true to the word of Jesus. If we do not follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit, then we will stumble.
III. KEEP FROM STUMBLING BY STAYING IN STEP WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.
a. Though our mothers helped us learn how to walk our first physical steps, it is the Holy Spirit who helps us to stay in step spiritually.
b. Enoch was a man who walked closely with God. His walking with God which did not happen by default. Enoch walked closely with God. Enoch did not win the approval of God accidentally or incidentally, for it was under the most unfavorable circumstances that Enoch walked with God.
i. What were his “unfavorable circumstances”? He was Cain's oldest son (Genesis 4:17). Cain had killed Abel because he was jealous of how God found favor with Abel's offering (Genesis 4:8). There is a saying that the “apple does not fall far from the tree”. There is no doubt that Enoch was an exception to this rule because he “walked with God” (Genesis 5:24).
c. The Holy Spirit helps us walk with God and stay in step as God’s children. One of the things that the Holy Spirit does is to lead godly mothers in how to raise their children to know right from wrong.
Just recently I read where George Foreman wrote about his mother’s role in his life. George Foreman’s mother was a godly woman who set an example that one day later have an impact on George’s life. (George Foreman. God In My Corner. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007).
George Foreman had a nephew who was ill. At that time in his boxing career, George thought that his influence and money could buy his nephew's way back to health. (This was a time before George Foreman was a Christian.) While growing up, George had seen his mother pray. But, he did not put much stock in God or prayer. Having gone from rags to riches as a boxer, he had the ability to have anything that money could buy. Unfortunately for him, George found that money was useless where God's intervention was needed. So now it seemed as if George found himself backed in a corner without a solution. It is one thing to be a boxer, boxing an opponent you can see eye to eye. It is another thing to face an opponent that you cannot see. George finally gave up and prayed for his nephew and he was healed! (pp. 17 -18).
Following his conversion, George was seeking forgiveness from anyone whom he had wronged.
George's mother raised George from birth to his adulthood. She kept George in line. She was not one to spare the rod and spoil the child. George's mother had planted the seeds of the gospel that others began to water until George eventually became a Christian himself. (p. 29).
Being born again and baptized of God's Holy Spirit had changed George inwardly in his heart and outwardly in his behavior. He said that God had taken all that hate and anger away as he became a Christian. (p. 30).
It was obvious to those who knew the old George that something was different about him. The old George would flip through the pages of the Bible and tell lie to his mother that he had read the Bible. (p. 7).
The new George was quoting scriptures that he had never memorized. George had gone from being someone who wanted to make his own name great to making God's name great! As a new creature in Christ, George had had quit seeking to gratify the nature of the flesh as he began to live by the Spirit! This should be true of all of us.
IV. Mother’s day reminds us of love. Jesus is telling the disciples that they will benefit from having the Holy Spirit to remind them of God's love.
a. Jesus was giving His disciples some much needed words of encouragement as He was preparing them for His departure from them.
b. Jesus was previously sharing with them how the legacy of His love continues through their loving one another as His disciples (John 13:34-35).
c. We know from the words of Paul that there is faith, hope and love and that love is the greatest of these (I Corinthians 13:13).
d. It is through love that we keep His commandments (John 14:15). Those who love Jesus and keep His commandments will be loved by our Father in Heaven (John 14:21).
e. We cannot be separated from God's love (Romans 8:35).
V. It is through God's never ending love that we experience the Lord's indwelling in our lives. The Holy Spirit helps us to remember who we are as God's children!
a. The Holy Spirit continues to help us and teach us daily.
b. Just as Jesus gives us the peace that the world cannot give, Jesus gives to us the gift of salvation.
c. Satan will always fail because he cannot snatch those who are in the hands of Jesus (John 10:29). He has no power over Jesus Christ (John 14:30) who has conquered sin, death and the fear of death!
d. Therefore, God's love for us makes us more than conquerors (Romans 8:37) because no form of adversity … death, rulers, things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth shall be able to separate us from love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 8:37-39).
e. Those who were raised by godly mothers and grandmothers know what a blessing it is in their lives. Likewise, we cannot walk and stay in step without the Holy Spirit - who not only teaches us - but also reminds of our victory in Jesus Christ!
Prayer
Song: Pass it On
John 14:23-27 HCSB
23 Jesus answered, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 The one who doesn’t love Me will not keep My words. The word that you hear is not Mine but is from the Father who sent Me 25 “I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit—the Father will send Him in My name—will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you. 27 “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Your heart must not be troubled or fearful.
