Message August 18, 2012

Were Not Konnyaku (a flavorless yam-like cake)

Were going to do Communion later on tonight. The primary meaning on of Communion is being one with Jesus. How can we be one with Jesus? We cant. We cant make ourselves one with Jesus. Only Holy Spirit can.

1 Corinthians 12:3 says no one can say Jesus is Lord except by Holy Spirit. John 16:13 says Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth.

Jesus is Gods truth. Holy Spirit will lead us to understand Jesus.

What is this? This is Konnyaku. But what is Konnyaku? It has no taste. It has no nutrition.

It doesnt really have any shape or color unless you add it.

What is Konnyaku? We really dont know. But you know, have you ever seen people line up around the block at a Konnyaku stand? No. Why not?

Because its tasteless. It has no nutrition. And most of all, its not even really there. Its like compressed air.

Thats what Christianity is like without Holy Spirit Its tasteless, it has no beautiful aroma. It doesnt have nutrition. Christianity without Holy Spirit is like Konnyaku.

There is a Ramen Museum in Yokohama. But there is probably not a Konnyaku museum anywhere.

Jesus doesnt want our lives to be tasteless and dull. Do you know why tabehodai (all you can eat) is called Bikingu? Its because at the Teikoku (Imperial) Hotel, there is a restaurant there called the Viking, and it was Japans first tabehodai. Lets say you go to the Teikoku Hotel and you take your family to this ichimanen expensive Viking meal.

There is prime rib, crab, lobster, awabi, unagi, toro, Toraya yokan, this great big chocolate fountain, spewing Godiva chocholate that you can dip bananas in. And your child sees all this, And goes straight for the Konnyaku. He piles it up on his plate. Its odorless, tasteless and basically compressed air. Everyone else is happy, but hes totally miserable.

Thats what Christianity is like without Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit helps us. He helps us know Jesus. He gives us spiritual fruit and spiritual gifts.

There might be some Christians with some joy, some fruit and some gifts,

And they dont know Holy Spirit. But they do, they just dont realize where those things are coming from.

And whatever they have, They could have so much more.

In John 8, Jesus tells the people that they cant even recognize who He is because they dont belong to Him. Their father is the Devil. The people are about to kill Him for saying this.

But thats not unusual. That is natural. The natural reaction of our flesh is to reject the things of God and to hate Jesus. That is because the darkness hates the light.

Our flesh resists the things of God. That is why we need Holy Spirit. Without him, without spiritual help, we cannot accept the things of God which are all spiritual.

In John 6:63 Jesus says the flesh profits nothing the Spirit gives life. In Acts 22 the Apostle Paul is telling how when he was saved he said he saw a bright light and heard a voice. it was Jesus

His companions only saw the light but did not hear the voice. why couldn't they hear Jesus is voice? it was because they were in the flesh Holy Spirit did not reveal Jesus to them

Knowing Jesus is not an intellectual goal if you try and know Jesus with your mind you will try and try and try and you will end up with nothing that is because Jesus is more real than our minds

And we need Holy Spirit to reveal Jesus to us without him we are blind it's worse to be blind and think you can see when you really can't

What is needed is humility to realize like the Bible says we need Holy Spirits help We need Holy Spirits help to know Jesus we need Holy Spirit not just to know Jesus we need Holy Spirit to live a spiritual life

If we don't have Holy Spirit filling us and leading us our lives are tasteless to God

we can try and try to become tasty but in our flesh no matter how hard we try we taste terrible to God

In Romans 7 Paul talks about living by our flesh we are failures if we think we can be pleasing to God just by keeping the law and following rules that is not good enough

We must be filled led and controlled by Holy Spirit that is the meaning of Romans 8 we are Konnyaku to God if we try to please him in our flesh

Romans 14:17 says for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit if we truly know Holy Spirit there will be righteousness peace and joy in our lives

Acts 6 says Stephen was full of faith and Holy Spirit if you want to be more full of faith don't just sit there and say I want more faith, I want more faith

get to know Holy Spirit and he will fill you with faith because faith is a spiritual thing

In fact it is a spiritual gift we don't give it to ourselves it must come from Holy Spirit

Jesus in John 7:37-38 says if you are thirsty come to me and drink he says if we drink from him we will have streams of living water flowing out of our hearts or bellies the Bible explains that he was referring to Holy Spirit

We need Jesus for salvation and we need Holy Spirit to live a spiritual life now

many Christians are saved but they are not living spiritual lives they are living fleshly lives but the label we put on it is spiritual

God wants and has so much more for us

We can be saved just by Jesus But we cannot live a spiritual life without Holy Spirit it is impossible to be saved without Jesus it is impossible to live a spiritual life without Holy Spirit

we are going to pray for people to receive filling by Holy Spirit tonight so you can start prepare your hearts and ask if that's what you want

But first let's go backwards a bit who is Holy Spirit how can God be one and be God the father Jesus and Holy Spirit? it is because that is God God is one God his father son and Holy Spirit that is who God is we can't understand it or explain it because God is higher than us

Billy Graham asked: how can a brown cow eat green grass and produce white milk? I don't know but I still drink the milk the milk is good it's real it's not fake milk

we can't know Jesus without Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit doesn't replace Jesus he connects us to Jesus without Holy Spirit we cannot understand heaven Jesus told Pilate my kingdom is not of this world I have a suggestion for you

This week go outside every night and just look up at the sky look at the stars and try to imagine and picture God's kingdom

Ask Holy Spirit to help you understand what heaven is just 10 minutes every night, look up at the starts and begin to wonder.

Jesus's body is spiritual as a church we must be spiritual because God created us all to be more than flesh

Lets close our eyes If you've never received Jesus before and you want to know Him raise your hand and well pray together to know him please raise it now