Sermons | FBC Boerne
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Sermons | FBC Boerne
Recharge | The Holy Spirit | Fall 2025: Week 5
Have you ever looked back at something from the past—like asbestos snow in The Wizard of Oz or radioactive children's toys—and wondered, "What were they thinking?" This moment of clarity about past mistakes perfectly illustrates how the Holy Spirit works in our lives as believers.
The Holy Spirit's role in conviction stands as one of the most misunderstood yet vital aspects of the Christian walk. When Tim Keller said, "If your God never disagrees with you, you might be worshiping an idolized version of yourself," he captured a profound truth about spiritual growth. The Spirit functions as both a warning system before sin and a restorer after we fall. Before temptation leads to action, He creates uneasiness and provides escape routes. After we stumble, He brings conviction—not to condemn but to heal.
Unlike Satan, who minimizes sin before we commit it then maximizes our shame afterward, the Holy Spirit maintains consistency. He brings necessary guilt without destructive shame. What many believers eventually discover is that this conviction, though uncomfortable, actually confirms our status as God's children. As Hebrews suggests, discipline isn't punishment but proof of sonship—evidence that God loves us too much to leave us wandering down destructive paths. The most frightening form of divine wrath isn't fiery judgment but simply being handed over to our own desires. When we feel that conviction stirring within, we're experiencing the voice of a Father who cares enough to correct us and the whisper of the Spirit confirming we belong to Him.
Have you recognized God's loving discipline in your own life? How might understanding the difference between conviction and shame transform your response to spiritual correction?
All right, good evening, happy Wednesday to you, welcome to Recharge. We're gonna start a little different this evening. I have a few products that I wanna show you, kind of a blast from the past, or just instances of. Well, this is a famous scene. Sorry about the quality, I stole the picture off the internet but this is the Wizard of Oz and this is the famous snow scene. But oh, I'm not sure what that is. Give me just a second. In this famous snow scene, are you aware that they used to use asbestos to produce snow scenes in movies? To produce snow scenes in movies? Yeah, no joke. Asbestos Probably not the best idea, right, jane? That's not a good idea. Okay, all right, how about this one? This is a Sears catalog little clip out. I don't have the date on it, okay, but it says this is a child harness for the front seat. Okay, you can tie your for $1.88,. You can tie your toddler down in the front seat and just keep them kind of stable, because until then I guess they could go wherever they wanted.
Speaker 1:All right, how about this next one? All right, this is a real toy, the Atomic Energy Lab. I think it was produced. It was either in the 60s or 70s. What you need to. Did anyone here have this toy? Oh, my goodness, all right. What you need to know about this toy? It literally had radioactive material in it. I mean it was encapsulated, but if they took a hammer to it, literal radioactive material, all right.
Speaker 1:How about this last one? All right, this is the Lard Be Gone weight loss program. Okay, lard Be Gone. Lose weight the easy way. You know how Swallow tapeworms this is. This is real Swallow tapeworms, all right, all of these products have been discontinued. Okay, believe it or not, they have Right.
Speaker 1:See, sometimes there's a little perspective in life when you can look back and you can say, my goodness, I sure am glad we corrected that, okay, and we can do that in our own lives, right, okay? So on Wednesday nights we've been walking through the role of the Holy Spirit, okay, and tonight we're going to talk about the Holy Spirit's role to convict us of sin. There are times in all of our lives when we look back and we say, my goodness, where was I? Then? I sure am glad the Spirit of God got a hold of me and transformed me and moved me forward. Check out this quote by Tim Keller If your God never disagrees with you, you might be worshiping an idolized version of yourself.
Speaker 1:Think about that for a second right You're not a finished product, are you? Then your God is going to disagree with you. Your God is going to challenge you and shape you, in fact greatly push you at times, because you're not a finished product. But if your God never does that, if your God never says the hard things to you, then you may just be worshiping yourself. Let's listen to Jesus.
Speaker 1:In John, chapter 16, verse eight, jesus is speaking about the Holy Spirit. He says and when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Okay, this is the role of the Holy Spirit of God. We've spoken previously in the sermon series about the role of the Spirit finding you that you were dead in your sin before you came to faith, and it was a work of the Spirit of God to awaken you from the dead and to begin to stir affections for Christ. Okay, well, but once you are saved, believer, because you have the permanent and dwelling Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God continues to convict you and to warn us of sin. So in James, chapter 1, verse 14, james is talking about how we get to sin and he actually says listen, first of all, god didn't tempt you, okay.
Speaker 1:No one is to say that God tempted you. Here's where sin comes from. Each one of us is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. So the truth of the matter is is you got saved? The Spirit of God indwells you, but you still have your flesh. You got saved, the Spirit of God indwells you, but you still have your flesh. You still have your fallen nature, okay, and when you are tempted, it is because of that fallen nature, it is because of you. Now, the reason I bring this up is what is the Spirit's role at this point, before you've ever sinned? Right here, at this moment, as your flesh becomes tempted, it is the Spirit's role to warn us, to give us uneasiness, right Like a warning siren that begins to go off, okay, helping us to stop and not to continue to move forward as we are tempted. In fact, paul says in 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, that you will be provided a way of escape. No one is tempted beyond anything that they can bear. You will be provided a way of escape In the Spirit of God, working as a warning system telling you you are being God is not happy with this. Find the escape route and he will equip you through that escape route. So the Spirit of God works before we sin. But what happens after we sin? Right After you sin, it is a work of the Holy Spirit of God to bring conviction to your heart, to your soul, to your life, to convict you that it's not that you've just done something wrong, but you've sinned against your personal Savior.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's personal. You've sinned against God, first and foremost, and the Spirit stirs up in you and begins to work and begins to expose your heart and your motives as to why you sinned. Okay, and the Spirit brings the guilt of conviction. Now I want you to understand the Spirit does not bring shame. There's a difference between guilt and shame. Guilt is necessary for you to understand that what I've done is wrong, it is sinful. I've walked away from my God. What I've done is wrong, it is sinful. I've walked away from my God. Okay, that is guilt, that's the burden. But shame is that you would sit in it and shame would be of the enemy, and the enemy would tell you that's who you are. The reality is, is that's not who you are. That's just what you did. Okay. The Holy Spirit of God always leads you to repentance, leads you to repentance.
Speaker 1:I want you to listen to David in Psalm 32. Psalm 32, he says "'When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away'". Through my groaning all day long, for day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. That's the Spirit of God. My vitality was drained away, as with the fever heat of the summer. Have you ever felt this conviction? You know you sinned and you may think you got away with it externally, but you can't get away with it internally, because the Spirit of God sees and he knows. Have you ever felt this sort of burden? That is the Spirit of God inside of you. But listen to David. He says but then I acknowledged my sin to you and my iniquity I did not hide. I said I will confess my transgression to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin. There is freedom. There is bondage.
Speaker 1:Breaking this is what the Spirit of God does. He convicts us of sin, but he doesn't leave us in our sin. He moves us forward, always pointing us to the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. You see, the Spirit of God is a two-edged sword he convicts but he always heals the enemy before you sin. The enemy will tell you there's nothing wrong with that. You should go ahead and do that. You know God's just a party pooper, he's holding out on you. But then the second that you sin, the enemy completely changes his tune. And you know what he says. He says that's it. You're a sinner, god's done with you. God's so mad at you, he's forsaken you. He will never come back to you. He lies to you. Okay, he lies to you. But the Spirit of God.
Speaker 1:We're going into all of this step by step in the sermon series so that you, believer, will understand and know and realize when the Spirit of God is talking to you and the way that he functions in your life. So, as I'm talking about the conviction of sin, you should have moments in your life. So, as I'm talking about the conviction of sin, you should have moments in your life when you realize oh, my goodness, yeah, yeah, of course I've felt that. Listen to me. That's the Spirit of God who indwells you and is stirring inside of you. Even so much. So. Hebrews 12, verse 8 says Even so much. So. Hebrews 12, verse 8 says okay.
Speaker 1:Right before this, he says listen, no child likes discipline. Every child hates discipline in the moment. All right, but your child's not going to die. Okay, Listen, he's not going to. He may think he's going to, but he's not going to. But the reason a parent disciplines a child is because it's actually out of love. Okay, so here he says but if you are without discipline in your life, you may be an illegitimate child. In fact, you are an illegitimate child and I would tell you pastorally, as you look and as you examine your life and I'm pressing here I'm like listen, one of the key roles of the Holy Spirit of God is to bring conviction in your life. So when you walk into sin, the Spirit of God is going to convict you, is going to stir that up.
Speaker 1:And there's this incredible thing that happens as you mature, as you walk in faith, you actually begin to realize that is the loving hand of my father. My father disciplines me because he loves me. Did you know that wrath, genuine wrath, is not getting a fierceness, but genuine wrath is being turned over to your desires? The ultimate wrath is when someone says I don't care what they do, but a father to his children. Have you matured to the point where you look through life and you actually realize. You know what my father was disciplining me there. He loves me too much to leave me alone and allow me to wander too far. That is his hand of correction and love. Have you gotten to that point? That is the Spirit of God speaking and confessing to your spirit that you are his son or daughter.
Speaker 1:Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, we do. Thank you that you are a good father. Father, I pray across this room that every one of your children right now would know with certainty that they have felt your hand of correction and, father, that they would understand that that hand is a hand of discipline and love. Because you love us too much to leave us alone, because you are our Father, our corrective Father, you convict us of sin and you do not want to leave us in sin, but you call us forward into eternal life, into everlasting abundant life, and so, god, I pray that we, as we mature, would be able to discern more and more the voice of your Spirit. In Jesus' name, we pray amen. God bless you.