To my Sunday School Class

Hey all,

Thank you for the awesome Sunday School class we had. Just in case I don’t make it abundantly clear, I love teaching this class. It’s actually one of my favourite times of the week (on par with preaching and working out!). And I’m especially grateful when you’re attentive and are engaged in the material.

As a review:
We’re talking about repentance and more specifically, how the Holy Spirit moves us to obey God. Even more specifically, we’re talking about how the Holy Spirit causes us to read the Bible.

We talked about how the Holy Spirit transforms our desires and makes us WANT to know Jesus Christ more. Those who are saved are compelled to read the Bible because the Bible is where God has promised to speak to us.

The Holy Spirit also softens our conscience, and allows us to recognize that it is right to read the Bible, and that it is wrong for us to neglect our relationship with Jesus Christ.

That was all review. The purpose of this post s to talk about how the Holy Spirit convicts us to read our Bibles, what His conviction feels like, and the result that His conviction ought to produce.

1. The Holy Spirit convicts, but does not condemn.
Romans 8:1 – There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The Holy Spirit will convict us, but He will never condemn us. If you feel as if you’re being pushed to read your Bible (or obey in any way shape or form) out of guilt, that is not the Holy Spirit. Sometimes you will hear voices in your head that go something along the lines of: “you’re not reading your Bible, you’re a terrible Christian. How can God love you? How do you think He can love someone that doesn’t read His Word? You better go read it now, or else He won’t bless you.” That’s not the Holy Spirit, that’s Satan disguised as the Spirit trying to guilt you into obeying, and thus robbing you of the joy in obedience. If you listen to this voice, thinking that this is God, your obedience will be joy-less. You will constantly feel guilty when you skip a devotional, and because we don’t really like feeling guilty, we’ll eventually just stop obeying.

Rather, the conviction of the Holy Spirit is sweet. He does not compel us by guilt, but by grace; He convicts us with the Gospel. When He speaks, you will hear something along the lines of: “Hey, I know it’s been a while, but I desire for you to hear My voice. I want you to know Me. I want you to experience the joy that comes from knowing Me. I know that you enjoy (fill in the blank), but just wait until you actually take a moment and rest in My word and My presence… I will give rest for your soul. I will fill you. I want to do these thing. I don’t want you to miss the grace that I have won for you on the cross.” The conviction of the Holy Spirit is sweet, and not driven with guilt.

2. The Holy Spirit does not want you to be clean before you come to Christ, but to come to Him so that you can be made clean.

Matthew 11:28 – Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

When Jesus is referring to those who are heavy-laden, He is referring to those who feel heavy with thier sin and do not know how to return to God. One of the biggest reasons I hear for people not spending time with God is because there is an overwhelming sense of dirtiness/guilt/sin in their lives and they feel as if they have sinned to greatly to go back to God and to read their Bibles. And so, they feel as if they cannot go back to God just yet. And they wait until they’re “clean” enough (either by obeying more rules, avoiding certain sins), and then they feel that they are adequate to go back to God.

The Holy Spirit will never say, “You’re not clean enough to read your Bible. You’ve sinned too much today. Why are you even coming to me? You’re not worthy to stand in My presence. Go clean yourself.” God will never say that to you. That is Satan trying to keep you away from God, while at the same time, trying to cultivate a spirit of guilt (again, refer to the first point), which will cause us to run from God instead of run towards Him.

Instead, God will say, “I know you’re a screw-up that screws up. I know you’re a sinner and that you’re prone to sin. That’s why I died on the cross for you. The cross is the proof that I know you’re a sinner, and that I WANT you to come to Me so that you can be clean. Come to me. Open My word so I can talk to you and tell you how much I desire you.”

I only want to give you two points because the major idea is that I want us to understand the a lot of what we think is the Holy Spirit is actually Satan trying to guilt us by pointing out our sin and short-comings, and as we know, guilt does not cause us to want to read our Bibles but rather, it makes us resent God for giving us the burden of obedience. The Holy Spirit does not guilt us, but propels us to read the Bible (and obey) by drawing our eyes to Jesus, the One who died on a cross because He so cherished you and desired for you to know Him.

And so this week, read your Bibles =). As well, be attentive to the voices in your heart. If you hear the voice that guilts you, rebuke it in the name of Jesus, claiming the Gospel as your firm foundation, that Christ has already died for you, and that you need not prove your righteousness by reading your Bible. Rather, proclaim that you are a sinner saved by grace alone, and that you will read your Bible because it is the word of the living God, who so cherishes you and wants to know You that He gave Himself for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to grant you a desire for the Bible but granting you a desire for Christ.

Our foundation for obedience is a love for Christ. I love what Erica said when she said that she reads the Bible because she wants to know Jesus. I couldn’t have said it better, and so I won’t.

Read your Bibles friends =)

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