Sermons | FBC Boerne
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Sermons | FBC Boerne
Recharge | The Holy Spirit | Fall 2025: Week 2
The question haunts many believers: "How do I know when God is speaking to me?" This fundamental uncertainty about experiencing the Holy Spirit's presence forms the foundation of our exploration into what it means to be filled with God's Spirit.
Drawing from Jesus' surprising statement in John 16:7, we discover a profound truth that challenges our assumptions. Christ told His disciples—those who walked with Him physically—that they would be better off when He departed because they would receive the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This paradigm-shifting perspective reveals how the Spirit's presence within us surpasses even the experience of physically walking alongside Jesus.
Scripture repeatedly affirms that everyone who genuinely trusts in Christ has been "sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" (Ephesians 1). This indwelling isn't dependent on your spiritual maturity, emotional state, or perfect behavior. Even when correcting the morally compromised Corinthian church, Paul didn't question whether they possessed the Spirit but reminded them their bodies were temples of the Holy Spirit who was already in them. This truth provides tremendous comfort for believers struggling with doubt or inconsistency.
The apparent paradox of Scripture is resolved as we understand both the permanent indwelling of the Spirit and the command to be "continually filled" (Ephesians 5:18). Like a Tesla that needs regular charging despite having a permanent battery, believers need ongoing spiritual filling. Using this analogy, we identify spiritual disciplines as "charging stations" while emphasizing that the actual connection happens through active belief in the gospel. Romans 15:13 reveals this mechanism: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace by believing."
Whether you're feeling spiritually empty or seeking greater awareness of God's presence, remember that your confidence isn't built on feelings but on the unchangeable truth of Christ's work and the Spirit's presence. Take time today to reconnect with these foundational truths and experience the freedom that comes from knowing you are permanently indwelt by God's Spirit.
All right, good evening, happy Wednesday to you. Glad to see you Pray that your bellies are full, but not so full that you don't pay attention for a good 10 minutes, then after that you can doze off all you want. Okay, welcome to Wednesday Night Recharge. This fall we are gonna walk through just a bit by bit, step by step, looking at the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer and how we can know the Spirit is in us and active and moving. Okay, maybe you are like many Christians who ask the question right, how do I know when God is speaking? How do I sense the movement of God in my life? Okay, and so that's why we are studying the role of the Holy Spirit. So last week we looked at the fact that salvation is completely of God, that your response to the good news of Jesus Christ is a work of the Spirit of God, that unless the Spirit draws you and begins to stir in your heart, to work within your conscience and to become, to make you aware and give you eyes to see, the scripture says you are dead in your sin. That is a work of the Spirit, so that the affection that you have for Christ, that is a work of the Spirit, and tonight we're going to take the next step, and that is the filling of the Holy Spirit. Okay, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So first scripture passage that I want to draw your attention to is John, chapters 14, 15, and 16.
Speaker 1:In the Gospel of John, this is the section where Jesus is telling his disciples this is the night of the Last Supper, and Jesus is telling his disciples that he is about to leave, but they don't get it right. There's no real comprehension. Like, you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth, but you don't sort of deal, okay. And so as he sits them down and is telling them, he tells them all sorts of incredible things. He's like listen, I'm going to go and prepare a place for you. I'm going to come back and get you. The place is awesome, you'll have a special place in my father's house. So he tells them all these incredible things. But in John, chapter 16, verse seven I don't have the back monitor so that I can read these with them Look at what he says in John chapter 16.
Speaker 1:He says but because I have said these things to you, right, your heart is now full of sorrow, but then listen to what he says. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you, but if I go away I will send him to you. Now I want you to think about what he just said. Okay, believer, I know you read your Bible and you're like if I could only have been one of the 12 disciples, if I could have been there, if I could have seen right, if I could have tasted and touched. Okay, and Jesus looks at those 12 disciples and says listen, you know what's better when I go away and the Holy Spirit comes. Why? Because when I go away, you're going to get the permanent indwelling Holy Spirit who is going to change you from the inside out and be with you always.
Speaker 1:Okay, the promise of the believer of Scripture right for the believer is that anyone who has come to genuine faith in Jesus Christ, if you have put your hope and your trust in the gospel of Jesus Christ, hope and your trust in the gospel of Jesus Christ that you have the permanent indwelling Holy Spirit of God. That's exactly what Romans 8, 9 says. It says that if you are of Christ, you have the Spirit of God. Ephesians 1 puts it like this In him, that is in Christ, right After listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, right when you believed you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise. By the way, that Holy Spirit is given as a pledge for your inheritance, okay, it is God's mark, god's seal upon you. So, believer, you don't have to look any further than the simple fact. Do you trust in the gospel? Is your hope, is your trust in the finished work of what Jesus has done on the cross for you? Have you placed your faith in that? If you can say that with confidence, listen to me. According to God's word, the Spirit of God permanently indwells you and God has marked you as his own. You have the fullness of the Holy Spirit. There are lots of verses throughout the New Testament. You have the fullness of the Holy Spirit. There are lots of verses throughout the New Testament. You have the fullness of the Holy Spirit indwelling you. Now, here's a great passage, because you can say well, I don't always feel like I have the Holy Spirit in me.
Speaker 1:1 Corinthians, chapter 6. That whole section there Paul is correcting and rebuking the Corinthian church for a lot of sexual immorality Okay, stuff that would make your grandmother blush that you don't want your pastor to even mention. That's what he lists there in 1 Corinthians, chapter 6. Now notice that when Paul corrects them, he doesn't say listen up, you guys. Yeah, I know, when you got saved you got that half portion of the Holy Spirit. But the reason that you guys are acting so foolish all the time and you're still in so much sin is the fact that you need the second dose of the Spirit. That's your problem. You need the full Holy right.
Speaker 1:He doesn't speak that way. He doesn't say that the Spirit of God obviously left you. Because you guys are a bunch of clowns who are monkeying around with a bunch of sexual immorality, the Spirit of God could not be in you. No, that's not how he argues. It's an incredible statement that should actually give us comfort. Never do we want to sin, but we all know we are sinners. So when you read sin in someone else's life that's pretty messy, gossip page, front news sort of stuff, and you can see the way that the scripture corrects them. It can actually give you some comfort.
Speaker 1:Because look at what he says here. He says believer. Do you not understand that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit of God, who is in you? I don't care if you can feel him or not, he is in you. You believe in Jesus Christ. He is in you. You are not your own. He pleads with them to see and to understand this reality, that if you've been saved, you have the permanent and dwelling Holy Spirit of God. You have the permanent and dwelling Holy Spirit of God. Now I need to add to this, and that is the fact you have be continually filled with the Spirit.
Speaker 1:Okay, in Ephesians 5, 18, okay, look, it says do not get drunk but instead be filled with the Spirit. That verb is an ongoing active, a continual command for you. Okay, such as the same way that you get drunk is when't do that with wine, instead, do that with the Spirit of God. Ephesians is the same book that in chapter one I referenced. You are sealed with the Holy Spirit. So the same book, paul, saying talking to the same audience at one point, can say you are permanently sealed with the Spirit of God and say to the believer you need to be continually filled with the Spirit of God. You must understand that the Bible speaks in these categories and says the same thing to you. So, in one sense, you have the Spirit of God, you are a child of God. He calls you His own, he has marked you, he has sealed you. But at the same time, he says to you do you not understand that you need to abide in Me and you need to feast, and you need to, the same way that you would drink to get intoxicated is how you need to continually abide in the Spirit of God.
Speaker 1:Okay, so imagine with me that you own a Tesla. All right, I don't want to know your political thoughts of Elon Musk and all of that. Just imagine with me, for illustration, that you own a Tesla and if you own a Tesla, you would probably know all around town where the Tesla charging stations are right. You would have those marked out, and if you were going on a long road trip, you would probably get on some website that would tell you we're going to go this far, we're going to stop, we're going to charge, we're going to stop, we're going to charge, okay. So in that, okay, that's a helpful, practical way of looking at things.
Speaker 1:Paul is telling us and as we go through this series, there are spots where the Spirit of God promises to meet with us and will fill us up. One of those is God's Word. Okay, we'll get to that. So we're going to be practical along the way. But I need you to understand something very, very, very important that, even though, as we go through and we talk about something like reading God's word, is a spot is a Tesla charging station where you can get filled up.
Speaker 1:I need you to understand that religious practice is not actually how you get filled up, okay, actually how you get filled up. Okay. So the Pharisees proved over and over again that just by knowing God's word like you can still miss God himself. Okay, there's a difference between going to a Tesla station and then actually plugging in your car. So if you want to ask, pastor, how do you actually fill up with the Spirit of God, I'm going to show you a scripture passage that shows us exactly how. Are you ready for this? Look at Romans 15, 13. Excuse me, listen to what he says.
Speaker 1:Now, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace by believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. You want to know how you actually fill up with the Spirit Right, you can go to church. Church is a good thing, it's a great thing. I think you will interact with other people and the Spirit of God will encourage you. You can read your Bible, you can pray, you can do lots of things. We're going to get to a lot of those things, and the Bible teaches you to go to those spots.
Speaker 1:But listen to me with absolute clarity the how you actually fill up is by believing, and by believing the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of what he has done for you, of who you are in him. Without faith, it is impossible to believe, it is impossible to please him. And and you fill up your tank on a regular basis by believing, by believing the good. That's how you remain in the Spirit of God. Okay, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for this evening and we thank you for the permanent and dwelling Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:Father, I pray that everyone in this room has a confidence and assurance that they have placed their faith in you, that they know the gospel and that they therefore know that your spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, permanently indwells them. God, I pray that you would lift their head right now. I pray that they would sense that, that their tank would be full in a way that they sense you because they believe, because they know what Christ has done for them. Spirit of God, we do not chase feelings. We know that we're going to have good days and bad days. What we know with certainty is that Jesus Christ has died for our sin. God, we love when we feel you and when we sense you and when we know that you're moving and working. Those are really good moments for us and we do pray for those and ask for those. But, father, we are not led by feelings. Help us in this room to know and to understand that and to believe your promises, to believe your word to us. In Jesus' name, we pray amen. God bless you guys.