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AUSTIN—The Holy Spirit is essential, not optional, to the Christian life, but too many believers attempt to live in their own strength, speakers at this year’s SBTC Bible Conference told pastors and church members, Nov. 13-14. The theme for two-day conference at Great Hills Baptist Church in Austin was the Holy Spirit, a topic on which Southern Baptists are often silent.
“If you want to walk with the Lord in obedience in these evil days, and if you want to experience the presence and the power of God in your ministry, then you must be filled with the Holy Spirit,” Matt Carter, pastor of The Austin Stone Community Church, told conference attendees during his message from Ephesians 5:15-21.
Carter affirmed that every believer receives the fullness of the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation, but Scripture is clear that Christians must continually be filled with the Holy Spirit.
“Although the presence of the Holy Spirit is in us, the filling of the Holy Sprit is not always in us,” he said. “If left unattended in your life, the power of the Holy Sprit will leave your life.”
Rhys Stenner, pastor of New Hope Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Ga., encouraged participants to recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, adding, “The Spirit is not hiding from us.”
“The Spirit of God is a certainty for every Christian today. You and I can live a life filled with the Holy Spirit, no excuses,” said Stenner, who spoke during two sessions.
Stenner challenged Christians to include discussion of the Holy Spirit in their gospel presentations since no one can be saved apart from receiving the Holy Spirit, according to Acts 2:38.
But salvation is merely the beginning of the Holy Spirit’s work in a believer’s life, he said. The Spirit also empowers unity in the church.
“When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, some of our personal preferences just don’t matter so much because we are captivated with him and we look to him,” Stenner said.
Juan Sanchez, pastor of High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, expanded the theme of unity in Christ during his message from Ephesians 4:1-3.
“We’re all inclined toward our personal preferences, but instead we’re to deal with one another in humility, with gentleness and patience, bearing with one another, holding one another up in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Christians must fight for unity in the church, Sanchez said.
“You can’t fight for other people whom you don’t know. One of the tragedies in many of our churches today is that our membership does not know one another. You need to fight by getting to know the people you’re sitting with every Sunday morning.”
Sanchez explained that unity does not equal uniformity and that the Holy Spirit’s work in uniting a diverse group of people in the local church becomes a glorious display of God’s glory to the world.
“When the world looks at us, do they see a desperate people placing their hopes on temporary solutions that ultimately cannot solve their problems; do they see a divided people who are fighting against one another about mere human preferences; or do they see a diverse people unexplainably brought together by the gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit to display God’s glory?” Sanchez asked.
Dante Wright, pastor of Sweet Home Baptist Church in Round Rock, preached from Jeremiah 20:7-9 on the temptation to quit ministry. Disunity in the church, he said, is evident when there is “more fighting in the church than disciple-making in the church,” which leaves pastors discouraged.
“Even God’s greatest servants get discouraged,” Wright said, but he exhorted pastors not to quit.
“When you quit on God, remember you have forfeited the opportunity to win with God,” he said.
Wright said the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, brings strength and encouragement in ministry.
Southwestern Seminary preaching professor Steven Smith delivered a message from Luke 15 on the unrighteousness of the prodigal son and the self-righteousness of the older son. Jesus calls the unrighteous and the self-righteous to repentance, he explained.
“Heaven is not a celebration of your ability to get there; heaven is a perpetual celebration of God’s ability to get people there who could have never gotten there by themselves,” Smith said.
Churches become self-righteous when there is much activity but no presence of the power of the Holy Spirit, he said. “God can bless any church except the self-righteous church because they don’t see their need for God.”
Steve Gaines, SBC president and pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church near Memphis, Tenn., concluded the Bible Conference with a message on the role of the Holy Spirit in prayer.
“You’ll never be anointed by the Holy Spirit until you make prayer a priority in your life,” Gaines said. “God doesn’t fill people with the Holy Spirit who are prayerless.”
Prayerless is the worst form of pride, he explained.
“You can change the world if you pray,” Gaines said. “You can be a catalyst for spiritual awakening and revival, but you must pray.”
