THE POWER OF THE RIGHT STUFF Psalm 51 Recently, the Library of Congress voted to preserve a movie called The Right Stuff for it s historical account of part of aviation history. I never saw it, but I read that it chronicled the bravery and spirit of a group of experimental test pilots and the first astronauts of the Mercury 7 space program. It set the tone of the film right at the first when experimental test pilot Chuck Yeager was scheduled to pilot the first aircraft to break the sound barrier in a level flight. He broke his ribs in a horse riding accident, and was afraid he would be scrubbed from the flight because he couldn t bend over to latch the canopy of the X-1 experimental plane. Yeager confides in friend and fellow pilot Jack Ridley. Ridley cuts off part of a broomstick and tells Yeager to use it as a lever to help seal the hatch to the X-1. Yeager does, and Yeager becomes the first person to fly at supersonic speed, defeating the "demon in the sky". The narrater describes Yeager breaking the sound barrier for the first time ever in this way There was a demon that lived in the air. They said whoever challenged him would die. Their controls would freeze up, their planes would buffet wildly, and they would disintegrate. The demon lived at Mach 1 on the meter, seven hundred and fifty miles an hour, where the air could no longer move out of the way. The demon lived behind a barrier through which they said no man could ever pass. They called it the sound barrier. Yeager s spirit was demonstrated many times by the men immortalized in this film. Their spirit was called The Right Stuff. This morning, let s learn about the power of The Right Stuff The Power of the Right Spirit in a Christian! Our Scripture is Psalms 51, David s prayer of repentance where he gets thoroughly right with God following his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah. He understands and admits before God how filthy he has become and how undeserving he is of God s grace. In the midst of David s repentance and rejoicing, the is a renewal I want us to examine.a renewal of a RIGHT SPIRIT! Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Psa 51:11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. (I should mention here that the words holy spirit are not capitalized. That s because they are not referring to God s Holy Spirit. David is acknowledging that there is a spirit of holiness that is in a person that is walking closely with God and that spirit of holiness can be taken away was taken away from David when he was living in sin!) David was asking for the presence of God and a right spirit to be restored. He asks 12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. 13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. David is asking God for a Right Spirit the Right Stuff for Christians. I would like to talk to you about THE POWER OF A RIGHT SPIRIT!
> It is important to begin by reminding you that David is making his request from a heart that has been cleansed. 2 * We cannot have a right spirit with God if we knowingly harbor sin in our lives. So I. A CHRISTIAN CAN HAVE A WRONG SPIRIT AND NOT KNOW IT. 1. In Luke 9 Christ sent his disciples into Samaria to prepare his way, but the Samaritans wanted nothing to do with them. The disciples asked Luk 9:54 And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? Luk 9:55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. Luk 9:56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. > A CHRISTIAN CAN HAVE A WRONG SPIRIT AND NOT KNOW IT. 2. In the Book of Proverbs where Solomon is talking about his sin and regret, and is charging his two sons to live for God while confessing his own failure, he reveals time and again the different types of spirit he experienced in his life. A. 15:4 = breached spirit. breached birth of a baby means the baby is turned the wrong way. > Solomon is saying, There were times in my life where my spirit was going the wrong way with God. B. 15:13 = broken spirit. C. 16:18 = haughty spirit. D. 16:19 = humble spirit. E. 17:27 = excellent spirit. F. 18:14 = wounded spirit. G. 25:28 = unruly spirit. that s out of control. 3. So I guess the first question we need to ask ourselves this morning, is What kind of spirit do you have? 4. Now it s really hard to convince some people to get their spirit right with each other and right with God, because we can t see each other s spirit most of the time. A. Now outward sin in a person s life is much easier to recognize. > Long before me and my Dad became Christians, he could easily tell when I had been slipping down to the barn as a youngster and smoking. I didn t realize it makes a person smell like they were caught in a 3-alarm fire. Our little rat terrier followed me down to the barn one evening while I smoked. When I got back to the house, Dad asked, Have you been smoking down at the barn again?
He smelled it on me, so I said No sir, He immediately said, Then you better tell that dog to quit smoking down there. She s going to burn that barn down. 3 > You name it, our outward sin is usually pretty easy for others to recognize. B. But regarding sins of the spirit We can be in church, nodding at the preacher seemingly in full agreement, (In other churches, you might even hear an amen ) and yet those folks be guilty of multiple sins of the spirit! 5. So what I really want to do this morning is make it very clear how much power there is in having a right spirit before God THE RIGHT STUFF FOR CHRISTIANS! > You may have noticed in Psa 51, David knew that getting rid of his sin on the outside, had to begin with getting a right spirit on the inside! > Let s take a minute this morning and be reminded of a few things that can happen, and generally do happen, when a Christian gets a thoroughly right spirit before God II. IF YOU HAVE THE RIGHT SPIRIT, MANY PEOPLE WILL WANT WHAT YOU VE GOT. 1. Where we read, David promised God, if you will renew a right spirit in me, I ll see two things happen 13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. 2. What he is saying, is that If I will live for the Lord in the right spirit, somewhere down the road God is going to use that. Some will see over time, that I love God and that God has blessed me. Someone will be having a tough time, and they will see that I ve also had tough times, but I still rejoice in the Lord. There are people out there looking for some answers some relief that kind of peace! 3. Wouldn t we like to live in such a way that we could make someone thirsty for God in their lives? 4. When Phillip got saved in John chapter one, he immediately got concerned for his brother Nathaniel. > Nathaniel had never had a Bible. > Never had a longing for God in his life. > Never been a member of the synagogue. > Never even gone to hear Jesus speak. > While the others were getting excited about Jesus, Nathaniel was content to live in his depravity just sittin out under a fig tree. > But here comes Phillip and he is excited he has a different spirit he has an enthusiastic spirit he has an infectious spirit and he wants his brother to come to Jesus!
> And suddenly Nathaniel comes and follows Jesus because of his brother s spirit brought him there! 4 5. Would our spirit make others want what we ve got? 6. James and Billye Hammett lost 8 year old.huge number of family and friends came to the house. One or the other of them met every car that came, and along with one of our staff, would talk to them about their soul. Many were saved that day when they saw the spirit of this heartbroken couple. III. IF WE HAVE THE RIGHT SPIRIT, WE CAN ENCOURAGE PEOPLE WHO ARE BURDENED DOWN WITH THE CARES OF LIFE. 1. In I Samuel 16 Now I m aware that Saul had problems and made a lot of mistakes but can you imagine being the first king of Israel? > Talk about all the changes that came in his life? He was the 1 st king Israel ever had. It was his 1 st time to be king anywhere! > Change in his routine! setting up his court and his administration for the 1 st time! (At least Donald Trump had procedures set by prior presidents.) > Sometimes he was literally overwhelmed with the task. 2. So in I Sam. 16, he called for a little fresh-faced shepherd boy to play happy tunes on his harp! A. David s spirit was so right with God, the Bible says that when he played for Saul, it refreshed the king s spirit! 3. Here it is IF WE HAVE THE RIGHT SPIRIT, WE CAN ENCOURAGE PEOPLE WHO ARE BURDENED DOWN WITH THE CARES OF LIFE. A. It doesn t take much to be a blessing.. > bake some cookies > make a phone call > send a card (Many times Betsy and I get cards from our ladies just to encourage us but a few weeks ago, I got a card to me from a man MAYBE FIRST TIME EVER just encouraging I wake up some mornings thinking about that and I always pray for him when I do.) > It doesn t take much. 4. I read that one split second of the total energy released by the sun one second is more energy than has been utilized by the earth since the beginning of Creation. > That means you and I don t have to invest every moment of our lives into every moment of someone else s life to be a blessing and an encouragement. Just a moment of your right spirit might be all it takes to make a difference in someone s life that is struggling!
IV. HAVING THE RIGHT SPIRIT CAN EVEN INFLUNCE SOME PEOPLE TO REDEDICATE THEIR LIVES BACK TO GOD. 5 1. Luke 24 Two disciples headed home to Emmaus Bummed out discouraged Bible says they were sad.trying to follow Jesus, now he s dead. Need to get their jobs back, etc. 2 This stranger joins them and asks them why they are so sad? They dump all their woes 7 verses worth! 3. Jesus doesn t rebuke them doesn t mock them and He sure doesn t dismiss them. 27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. 4. And two men who were discouraged, defeated, and ready to throw in the towel, met this stranger with an excellent spirit, and wound up ncouraged to keep on keepin on! 32 And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? 5. David took food to his brothers in I Samuel You know the story. > No one wanted to fight Goliath They saw the handwriting on the wall.. We re dead meat! > Is there not a cause? You can t let this uncircumcised hethen talk about our God like that. I ll go! (Laughter) > Saul said, Put on my armor. David said No. I don t need to serve the Lord because of another s identity. I ll do this myself. > 5 stones and a sling, one sunk into head and Goliath said??? (Nothing like that ever entered my mind before). > David climbed up on top to cut Goliath s head off but he didn t have a sword! > Saul and the armies of Israel watched as David took Goliath s own sword and cut the giant s head clean off. > And the Bible says: 1Sa 17:52 And the men of Israel and of Judah arose, and shouted, and pursued the Philistines! > I think those soldiers said, If God can help this little shepherd boy, I know He can help us! > This boy with the right spirit caused a lot of people that had quit and dropped their swords pick them up again and get back in the battle! Some years ago in a little country church in East Texas.Had a Saturday workday to pull stumps for parking lot. We pulled them, stacked them, an set them on fire all day long.
We are good Baptists.so that evening some of our ladies at the workday ran to town for hot dog fixin s. We decided as long as we had a bonfire going we ought to put it to good use! 6 I swear when it came time to eat that we had twice as many there as when we were pulling stumps. We were bone-tired and it was nice to just sit around that fire and eat and talk and eat and talk and eat You know the routine. As that beautiful fire burnt down, those logs were reduced to glowing embers Now you ve seen this. I took a stick and poked around those embers while we were fellowshipping, and one of those big square-looking embers popped out of the burning log and out of the fire. It took maybe 30 seconds for it to go out and begin to darken. Finally, it died. I fooled around with that stick until I got that dead chunk of wood back with the bed of embers. You know what happened don t you? Oh preacher, I bet it began to smoke and maybe even turned red again. No Mr Boy Scout, it didn t. It sat there on those red hot embers now get this within seconds it burst into flame! Those other embers set that sucker on fire! Church on any given Sunday we have one or more dying embers come through these doors ready to quit and give up. Wouldn t it be something if we were a church with so many folks with a right spirit with God, that just by being around us for a little while, their flame would burst forth again and they would leave this placed encouraged to get back in the fight To renew their strength mount up with wings as eagles to run, and not be weary to walk, and not faint. THAT S THE POWER OF THE RIGHT STUFF!