The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 23: The Helper

Episode Date: September 12, 2021

The spirit of God in you is greater than the circumstances around you. This world has trouble. God offers peace that transcends understanding. Visit coe22.com/john to download the journal, find series resources and more.

Amen and amen. Church, if you got your Bible, grab them. We're going to be in John chapter 15. We're going to pick it up where Pastor Britt and the campus pastors finished up last week. By the way, could we thank the campus pastors and Pastor Britt for bringing the word last week? Great job, right? As always. One of the things that, well, last week I got to attend church like a normal human.

It was weird. I went to one service and then went home. I didn't know what to do all day. But I came here to St. Pablo, heard Pastor Britt unpacked John chapter 15, one of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible because there's this invitation from Jesus to abide in me and I will abide in you. And one of the things that he said last week is every time we read that word abide, we should really think the word rest, that Jesus invites us to rest in him and that he would rest in us. And as he was talking about that, it reminded me of something that I need to

remind you of. I already told you this all the way back in January. But the elders are giving to me and my family a gift. And the gift that the elders are giving to me on behalf of you is a sabbatical. And so what that means is from saturated to Christmas Eve, I will be on a sabbatical. Let me just tell you what a sabbatical means. It comes from the word Sabbath, which means to rest, but in the Bible, you don't rest from, you rest for. And part of the reason I wanted to let you know this is so that you could be praying for me and my family. And I also wanted you to know this because nothing's wrong. And in the absence of facts, sometimes people just make it up on their own, okay? So don't make up crazy stuff because there's nothing crazy going on,

anything out of the ordinary crazy that's in here, that's here every week, okay? And so what this means is there's several trips and vacations that we're going to do, and I've told you before, those are different. We've got some playing with the kids. Those are trips. Some, just me and Gretchen, those are vacations, all right? But then there's also an aspect. Now I've spent a lot of time in the woods. Glory to God, deer season opened last week, or last weekend. And also, I'm going to be spending some time with three or three or three. or four pastors that are 20 years older than me or so that have pastored large churches very faithfully for a long time. And the reason that I'm doing this, it was the elder's idea

a long time ago and I pushed them off as long as I can. But the reason that I'm doing this is so that when I come back that I will be ready to pastor to this thing for several more decades. My hope and prayers that God would let me do this until I'm way too old to even preach. Okay? So my goal is is that I'm going to preach my own funeral, close to camp. and then you all can take it from there. All right, that's what I'm going to do. But, so I want to thank you, I want to thank you for the opportunity to do that. And through the miracle of technology somehow, even though my sabbatical starts next Sunday,

the following four weeks I will still be preaching so you can pray about how that happens. All right, so be in prayer for me and thank you, thank you, thank you. Now, John chapter 15, we're going to pick it up in verse 18. And it comes on the heels of, if you were paying attention last week, it comes on the heels of some really, really sweet words. Remember Jesus says that he calls us friends. The almighty king of kings calls us friends. And he says that we are to love one another. And then all of a sudden, it goes from real sweet to real bitter, real fast. So I just need to warn you, if you came here today looking for a warm, fuzzy, feel-good sermon, you were in the wrong place. Because this is going to be a theological

beat down. All right? So just come back next week. Saturate. It's going to be all right. It's going to be Awesome. Preach on John 17, the unity of the church. We're going to baptize 100 people. You'll be real happy next week. This week, just put on your big girl pants and let's roll. Ready for this? Here's how he starts. It's a gear shift, man. After he says that we are friends with Jesus, he says in verse 18, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. Let me ask you this. Does the world hate you? Does the world hate you? Because Jesus, Jesus says if you follow him, it hated him, so the world is going to hate you. And I'm just going to tell you, it's not fun when the world hates you.

It's not. Everybody thinks they're tough and all of that. But when the world turns on you and writes articles about you or podcasts about you or Twitter about you or whatever it is, it is not a lot of fun. And we live in a different world. Because of these stupid things, every opinion today is instant global permanent and unfiltered. just a few generations ago, a few decades ago, if you had an opinion about somebody, you would share it with your other three dumb friends and you would just have that opinion, no problem.

The best you could do is write an editorial to the paper, but they had an editor, and they would either, you know, they would decide whether to print that or not. But today, now we have this constant, this constant criticism of almost everybody. The Greek word for that is Twitter. You understand what I'm saying? And Jesus says that the world is going to hate us. Now, here's why the world is. world hates us because the worldview of this world is antithetical to the gospel. I need you to

understand this. The way a believer sees this world and the way a non-believer sees this world are completely and totally different. You see, as a believer in Jesus Christ, we believe our MO is to love one another and the reason that we love one another is because every single person that you've ever come eyeball to eyeball with is an image bearer of the most high God. And sin fractured that relationship and so God loved us so much that he sent his son Jesus Christ on a rescue mission to reconcile us back unto God and the way God loved us we are to love one another. That's how we are to operate as believers. And yet the world that we live in right now believes that there is no God and that you and I are semi-advanced yet totally accidental primates and that I am the center

of my own morality and even though there is no truth I am crying out for my rights. These things are polar opposites. I tell you what's crazy. You tell a whole generation that they are nothing but purposeless animals for a generation, and then we act surprised when they act like who we said they are. Figure one person would say, amen, I need Frank here, okay? It's just true, man. And so Jesus is like, don't be surprised, this world's going to hate you. Verse 19, he goes on to say, if you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you were not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Church, does the world hate you?

And some of us are like, well, uh-oh, this would be a big fat warning. If you're looking around and you're like, I don't know, I feel like I get along in the world pretty good. It could be because you belong to the world. That's what Jesus is saying. You see, we do not live in a culture that is in neutral. There is a drift to this culture, and it does not drift towards godliness. It just drift towards Christ like this. And we, as believers, they live at the beach, we should know about the drift.

You know, like when you go to the beach and you paddle out or you swim out or whatever, you especially see this when you take your kids and you tell your kids, need you to stay right here in front of us. And then they just kept drifting along and your kids are like, why you keep moving? Be like, look here, Scooter, we ain't the ones moving. You are. And if you do not fight against the current of this culture, then you will just go with the flow and it does not flow towards life and godliness.

And if you don't get a bloody nose every once in a while from forcing yourself against this culture, then it could be that you are indistinguishable from this world. You see, Jesus says he chose us out of this world. Are you just going with the flow? Then he says, remember, the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. if they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

Now, he refers back to something that he's already said. A servant is not greater than his master. Now, I need to remind you of the context in which he said that. Because sometimes what happens is Christians will hate the world, and then when the world hates back, they're like, ha-ha. But Jesus does not say that we are to be hateful. There's a lot of jerks for Jesus, but that's not what he's calling us to do. What this, a servant is not greater than his master,

where that comes from is John chapter 13. I know you all know this and a reminder because you don't forget a word I say, but just in case somebody's new. Back in John chapter 13, they're at the last supper about to do communion. And the Bible says that Jesus knows that all authority in heaven and earth

has been given unto him. And in order to show to his disciples the full extent of his love, he gets up from the table, he dresses himself as a servant, and he washes his disciples' feet. And then when he sits back down at the table, he says to the disciple,

No servant is greater than his master. I have set for you an example. You will be blessed if you do likewise. So what Jesus is saying here is, the reason that the world is supposed to hate us is not because you're a jerk. The reason that the world is to hate you is because you love the people of this world unconditionally

and reject the systems of this world wholeheartedly. The problem is most of us, particularly American Christians, most of us love the systems of this world wholeheartedly, and we reject the people of this world. And here's what's crazy. You think I'm talking about somebody else. That's what's crazy about this.

And there is this drift that every single one of us can fall into. We are supposed to love every person we ever come eyeball to eyeball with and serve them the way Jesus serves us, and then reject the way this world says that we're supposed to do everything. and so many of us do this world the way this world says to do things and then categorize people and reject them because they're not like us. It is the exact opposite of what Jesus has called us to do. Still not computing? Let me give you three examples. Just really, you might want to take your shoes off so I can get up all on those toes. Ready for this? Let's just talk about the three biggies,

money, sex, and power. Money, sex, and power. So many people that claim to be followers of Jesus do money just like this world says to do money. The average Christian, the average Christian, in America gives 2% to charitable giving and yet feels like you're so generous. You're not. You're greedy. And you don't think you are. And listen, and this church is generous. But the bottom line, basement level, beginning of generosity, according to Jesus in the New

Testament, is the tithe, is the first 10%. And we tip God occasionally when we remember it and then pat ourselves on the back as if we're doing something awesome. and the reality is we're just greedy buying more crap for us, for our own desires, and then bragging about it. We do money just like the world. See how it's all quiet? Nobody wants to amen that, right? I knew he, all they want is your money. No, all you want is your money. God wants your heart, and he said, where your money is, your heart will be also, and he gave his blood for your heart. I'm just telling you, man. In case you're not offended yet,

let me go with this one. How about sex and sexuality? We live in a world that says, I do what I want with who I want when I want. Well, you can do whatever you want. You just can't claim that Jesus is your Lord, and then you set up your own rules. You see, when the Crusaders used to go and kill people in the name of Christianity, when they would get baptized,

they would get baptized with their sword out of the water and say, you're Lord of all of this, but you ain't Lord of this. In our current culture, we got two hands out. One's got your wallet, one's got your sexuality. And I'm telling you, if he ain't Lord of all, he ain't Lord at all.

Do you want to keep going? Power. the way the whole New Testament and Jesus is teaching and his example and the fact that the word became flesh and dwelt among us is that we are to humble ourselves and serve

one another and yet this world says no no no no no no it is all about building status and our own platform you see oftentimes we are indistinguishable from this world do you stick out in this world or are you just a part of it

This is what he's talking about here. He says, but all these things they will do to you on account of my name because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

1122, nor do we. We're going to do every word in the gospel of John. We have heard the truth. We will be held accountable for it. Then verse 23, he says this. whoever hates me hates my father also. In the world that we live in, people believe, you know, there's many ways to God, there's one God, many roads, and you just pick your path, and good luck, I'll see you there.

Jesus does not agree with your theology. Jesus says, whoever hates Jesus hates God the Father also. In fact, you could take that line, and you could take out the verbs, the hate verbs, and leave a blank there. And whatever you feel, think, believe about Jesus, that's what you're. you feel, think, believe about God the Father. If you hate Jesus, you hate God the Father. If you love Jesus, you love God the Father. If you reject Jesus, you reject God the Father.

If you ignore Jesus, you ignore God the Father. If you know Jesus, you know God the Father. Jesus will not allow himself to be divorced from God the Father. He says, if I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father, but the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled. They hated me without a cause. Jesus, this is like the last time he sits with his disciples.

It gets kind of intense, right? This is his intro. He said, it's going to get rough. This world is going to hate you. Which leads to the question, all right, Jesus. So then what is the solution to the pain that we are going to experience because of our faith? I feel like the disciples are looking at him, scratching their head like, well Jesus, if that's our future, we need some help

to which he's got really, really good news. Chapter 26. He says, I'm going to send you a helper. But when the helper comes, this word helper gets translated a bunch of different ways and a bunch of different translations. All of them are legit, okay? It gets translated.

Helper, counselor, advocate, comforter. Do you know why? Because we need help and we need an advocate and then we need counseling and we need a comforter. The Greek word here is paraclete. Say paraclete. All right, say it like you need a helper. Paraclete.

All right, I'm going to teach you some Greek here. Hang with me. When I was in seminary and had to memorize all these words, the way that I do it, it's kind of dumb and you're going to think less of me as a scholar. But I don't know why you laugh when I said I was a scholar. It kind of hurts my feeling a little bit. I have degrees, okay?

So anyway. So this word pericle, I always do like the word association thing. So 100 years ago when I was in high school, I played football. And you know what I needed. I needed help when I played football. And so what I needed was a pair of cleats. It's called paraclete.

I needed a pair of cleats. Why? Because when you're playing, what you've got to do, if you just play in your cowboy boots, they're too slick, you'll get pushed all over the place. And what a pair of cleats do is they keep you grounded. They keep your feet grounded and connected to a firm foundation so that when your enemy comes against you, then you can stand firm. That's what Paul means in Ephesiansiansiansians. It means that you get your feet rooted into the Word of God, the Solid Rock Foundation. So the enemy comes, like if you're a big lineman, you can stand firm against the enemy.

The other thing that a paracletes help you do because they're rooted into the ground is they help you change directions. If you run out there in your sneakers and you try to change directions, it made you slip and fall. But if you've got a paracletes hooked into the ground, then you can just change directions and go wherever you need to go. And as believers in Jesus Christ, not only do we need to stand firm against the enemy by being rooted in the Word of God because we've got the periclee helping us. But also the paraclete helps us change directions. and by faith go wherever God calls us to go. That's what a paraclet is. Now you know Greek, okay?

Now I want you to think about that today while you watching football. Because Lord knows, Jacksonville, we need to help her, don't we? Praise God, let's go. But he's coming, I believe it. All right. So, but Jesus says when the helper comes,

whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness. because you have been with me from the beginning. So Jesus says, I am going to sin the Spirit of God to dwell in you. I'm going to send the pericles to dwell in you. And so today I want to talk about the role of the Holy Spirit on the earth and inside of the believer.

Now, I will tell you this, a lot of times, you know, maybe you haven't heard a whole lot of sermons on the Holy Spirit. I remember when I got saved in high school, the news came as a shocker to you. my high school. They weren't totally sure. So I leave for camp one summer and I come home and I am a Christian and I told people, hey, I'm a believer. And this one guy in my church, I mean, in my high school comes up to me and says, I understand you, you became a Christian. I said, yes, sir, I did. And he said this, do you believe in the full gospel? And see, that was code. I didn't know what it was code for. I was like, I think so. I don't remember any blackout dates on the thing that I signed up for. I think I'm all in. But what he was talking about was the

role of the Holy Spirit in your life. And so the question is then what is the primary evidence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer? And the way that you answer that has a lot to do with the kind of church you grew up in if you grew up in church. So what is the primary evidence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer? Well, do we have any Pentecostals, charismatic Pentecostals in the house, okay? All right, settle down. All right. Yeah, we ain't going to take a lap. You can keep your banner all folded up in your purse. No. problem. Glad you're here. Love it, man. Learned a lot from you. So charismatic penicastasals will often say that the primary evidence of the Holy Spirit is signs and tongues and do you want

to buy Honda and all that kind of stuff. So it's like bacon. And if you don't know what that is, God bless you. Go to our baptism class. I'm glad you're here, okay? But it's sad. It's like expressive worship. Now, what about Baptists? Any recovering Baptist in the house? Okay? I can tell you're recovered because you're just wooed it in church. Ha ha ha. It gets you kicked out in most places. So you know the primary evidence of the Holy Spirit and a Baptist? If you burn your CDs, that's it. That's like the high moment for you. When you know you take some of that secular music and burn it, then you know you're really walking by faith, all right? In fact, and if you don't realize, that's like a thing, or it used to be. When I was in youth group, that's how I got my first

copy of Guns and Roses appetite for destruction, all right? I'm standing next to a guy, and he threw a deaf leopard hysteria in, and I was like, what are you doing, man? What are you doing, man? He was like, man, you hear the demons? You can hear it. When you throw in it, the demons go, that's the demons leading. I'm like, you're probably right. How about handing that G&R? And I said, schoop, took that to the house.

All right. All right. Now, what about if you're a reformed Presbyterian? You ain't going to say nothing. Take a note real quick, okay? So how do they know when they have the presence of the Holy Spirit? They don't know. They don't know.

They don't know. They believe in him for sure. but it's kind of like your pituitary gland. You know what's in there, it's really, really important. You don't want to live life without it, but you're not sure what it does or anything like that. Okay, so, but what often happens when you talk about the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, what often happens is preachers like me

can immediately reduce the role of the Spirit's life in your life just to the giver of the gifts of the Spirit, which is crazy, because we're going to find out in a little while. All that the Holy Spirit wants to do is point people to do. Jesus, but when most people talk about the Holy Spirit, you point to yourself and what you get out of the deal. Now, understanding your spiritual gifts are very, very important. And I've got really good news for you. If you are a follower of Jesus, then you have at least one spiritual gift, and no Christian has all the spiritual gifts. And that's why we need one another, so we come together like one body with many

parts for the edification of the church and the advancement of God's kingdom. So here's what this means. If you're a believer in Jesus, congratulations, you're gifted. Some of you have never heard. heard that, right? Amen. I feel you. That's right. You remember back in, remember the gifted class back in middle school? We didn't have enough of those people in Dillon to make up a whole class, so we were kind of intermixed, kind of wheat and the tears. And on Thursdays, this smart lady from the high school would come into our middle school class and she would say, all right, will all the gifted kids please come with me. And all these kids would get up and leave. And then I remember being like, hey, what are we going to do? They're like, oh, we got some color and

from you don't just enjoy okay well guess what if you were in christ congratulations you're gifted that the holy spirit has given you certain gifts and i would encourage you to figure out what those are and we have an assessment tool online coe 22.com slash spiritual gifts now i would warn you i'm always a slightly hesitant on these assessments because this assessment is not the bible you should pay attention to what you're passionate about what you're good at and what other people say that you're good at and ultimately the only way to figure it out is you got to set sail and get to doing something and then you'll begin to figure out what part of the body you play. Because sometimes these assessments can throw you off a little bit.

When I was in college, I was at this college campus ministry thing, and they were super into the gifts, and they gave us a test that was a little more charismatic than the Bible. And so we were like trying to, you know, we got our results back. And I'm with my buddy, and he's like, bro, would you get? And I'm like, well, would you get? And he was like, you go first. I was like, I got martyred them, which is awesome.

You can use it one time, and then you're done, right? That's not cool. I was like, bro, what did you get? He's like, I got celibacy. I was like, I think I'd rather have martyrdom, man. That ain't good, right? So, be careful. Now, the question is, what is the primary evidence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer?

The answer according to the scripture, not signs and wonders, none of those things. The answer according to the scripture, I gave you a hint in verse 27, you will also bear witness. The primary evidence of the Spirit of God in the life of the believer is evangelism. it's sharing your faith. Because what the Spirit wants to do is point everybody to Jesus. And if the Spirit lives in you, then he will want you to point everybody to Jesus.

This is why it's what he says in verse 27. Also, chapter 14, verse 12, remember Jesus says, and greater works will you do than I? And then if you back up to verses, we know that the greater works are the words that he has spoken. In other words, when the Spirit of God

is in the life of the believer, then we use our mouth to declare the gospel. If you know Acts chapter 1, verse 8, Jesus says, and you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witness. Or in Acts chapter 2, when the Holy Spirit descends on every single believer, what happens when the apostles are full of the Holy Spirit and a crowd shows up, Peter preaches, and on that day, 3,000 people surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That's the primary evidence of the Holy Spirit is when we share our faith with our one more. chapter 16 Jesus keeps going he says I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling

away they will put you out of the synagogue this was a really big deal this isn't like if I said to you well you can't come to church anymore you'd be like fine I watch online anyway that's not what this is all of life centered around the relationships they had at the synagogue and he says they will put you out of the synagogue and listen this was costly costly costly when I read this I think about several years ago, Pastor Britt, Pastor Adam, and I were training pastors in East Africa. And one of us said something to them like, it must be really difficult to pastor in Africa. And they looked right back at us and said, it must be virtually impossible to be a Christian in America. And I was like, what are you talking about?

And they said, because it cost you virtually nothing. And the message of Jesus is that it would cost you everything. This is what Jesus is saying. If you follow me, it will be costly. Indeed, think about this verse in light of this week. you. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. Before 9-11, this was a verse that you think, well, that's a little antiquated. It can't be abical anymore, can it? And yet, on 9-11, there were some men that thought killing image-bearers of

God would make their God happy. And Jesus says, beware of that. That's what a Christless religion will lead people to. And the reality is, Jesus goes, on to say, and they will do these things because they have not known the father nor me. There is one God. There is one true God. He said his one and only son to make a way, and Jesus is the only way. We do not worship the same God. He says, but I have said these things to you that when their hour comes, you may remember

that I told them to you. I did not say these things to you from the beginning because I was with you, but now I am going to him who sent me. And none of you ask where are you going, but because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. You should underline that. Jesus is looking at his disciples and says, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper, the pericleet, will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. I told you two weeks ago we were going to talk about the Holy Spirit, that Jesus said, I'm going to send you a helper, and you will

do even greater works than I have done. And then he also says right here, I'm going to send you a helper, and it's to your advantage that I go away. Based on these verses, a friend of mine named J.D. Greer, he's preached here several times. He wrote a book called Jesus Continued. And the subtitle is this, why the spirit in you is better than Jesus beside you. And it's rooted in this verse. I mean, think about this. Jesus says, it's to your advantage that Jesus leaves and sends you the Holy spirit. And I think, I think that we would have a tendency that if, that if we had the option, and Jesus says, all right, you get choice A or B, either I can be with you, be your roommate forever, or I can leave and send the Spirit of God to live in you, which one would you choose?

I think we would have a tendency to think, well, we talk about Jesus a lot. Surely it would be better if Jesus was my roommate. I mean, imagine if Jesus was your roommate. This is how J.D.'s book starts. Imagine if Jesus was your roommate and you ran out of food. Be like Jesus, we got no food. He could get like two little chicken minis. And he did miracles on the Sabbath. He could get chick filet on Sunday. Praise God. Okay, you understand? He could feed the whole place, two little chicken minnies. And imagine this, imagine you're out of party and you run out of wine. Hear that, Baptist? That's shake you up a little bit. Jesus, we're out of wine. He's like, don't worry about it. Booy. Let the part.

already keep going, all right? Or if you dog died, Jesus got home and be like, hey, Jesus, my dog died. He's like, I got you, man, Lazarus, come forth. Bring your dog back to life. And for you cat people, you're like, Jesus, my cat died. He'd dig a hole, help you put in it. It may be real helpful. These are facts, man.

These are facts. All right. So, what I want to do here is I rarely teach it this way. We've got to go faster than you're listening right now. But I want to give, just based on John 14, 15, and 16, I'm going to give you 10 roles of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. Ten roles of the Holy Spirit. This is not exhaustive, but just according to John 14, 15, and 16.

Okay? So if you're a note taker, you'll love this, write this down. Number one, and this isn't like in order of a port, it's just the order I wrote them down. Number one is that the Spirit of God empowers you to share your faith. We just talked about that. Number two, according to John 14, 16, then the Spirit of God is God's presence with you. That the Holy Spirit in the believer is the fulfillment of Jesus.

is promised at the Great Commission when he says, and I will never leave you or forsake you. And let me tell you what happens when the presence of God is with you, then fear flees you. And the reason is because the Bible says perfect love drives out fear. Paul tells Timothy, God did not give you a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and of love and of self-control. And that spirit of power, love, and self-control comes from the spirit of God.

This is why God says to Joshua, be strong and courageous, strong and courageous, strong and courageous. Why? Because he's weak and afraid, weak and afraid, weak and afraid. But the reason he tells him he can be strong and courageous is he does not look at Josh and be like, hey, bro, come on, you got this, all right? You're smart enough, you're good enough, and doggone it. People like you.

Nope, he says, be strong and courageous. Do not tremble or be afraid, for I am with you. The Spirit of God drives away fear because God's present is with us. God's presence is with us. Number three, John 1426, Jesus told us that the Spirit of God would teach us and bring to remembrance the things that we had been taught. I sure do hope and brave. There have been times in your life where you face certain circumstances and a Bible verse pops up in your head that you did not even know that you knew. Maybe you heard it from a sermon or you read it on your own and that is

the Spirit of God teaching you. If you've ever learned anything here, I can't teach you anything. But the Spirit of God teaches us everything. Number four, according to John 14, Jesus said that the Spirit of God will bring us peace. Now we're going to come back to that one because that's how he ends. Okay? So those are four from Chapter 14 that he's already covered. Now we're going to pick it up in 16-8 and continue, all right? He is talking about why it is to our advantage that he leaves and sends the Spirit to us.

Chapter 80, I mean verse 80 says this. And when he comes, now notice every time in the New Testament when it talks about the Holy Spirit, it's not an it, he's a he. Because the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is not like a potion that you top up every weekend when you come to church. It says, and He comes, he will convict the world concerning sin

and righteousness and judgment. So there's three of them right there. That the Spirit of God will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. Concerning sin because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness because I go to. the Father and you will see me no longer concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judge. So number five, if you're writing it down, I would put 5A. 5A is this, that the Spirit

of God convicts the world concerning sin. That if you've ever been convicted of sin, it's because the Spirit of God is doing a work in you. If you've ever shown up here to church and then you realized, uh-oh, I think I got a problem. And I think I am the problem. Like, I just don't mismanage my money. I'm greedy. I don't just struggle telling the truth. I am a liar. I don't just have trouble with relationships. I have trouble with relationships because I want everybody to bow down at the idol of self. And you begin to be convicted of sin. That is a work of the spirit. Now, listen, I know, I know, especially the younger you are, the more applicable this is. I know your kindergarten teacher told you that you were a snowflake and a puppy's breath and a skittal.

Well, she is a liar and a false prophet. That's just a fact, okay? You're not every single one of us, by nature and nurture are wretched, wretched, crooked and depraved, blackhearted sinners, and it's worse than you think. And the defensiveness that you have right now is your own pride, and that's the granddaddy of all sins. And when we are convicted of sin, then it is the spirit of God that does that. That's 5A. 5B is that we are convicted of righteousness. Here's what this is. This means. When you begin to compare yourself, not to your own self-justification, because we can always win when we do that, but when we begin to see ourselves in light of the perfect righteous son of God, it is a work of the spirit in our life, which leads to, number six, judgment.

The role of the spirit is judgment, and this world will be judged. Every single one of us one day will stand before a holy and just God and give an account of our lives. And when we do, we will not have time to explain how we're a pretty good guy and we're not as bad as some other people. But when we come into the very presence of God, we will do what anyone does and fall on our face. This is what Isaiah, pretty godly guy, when he encounters the glory of God, he says this, woe is me, for I am lost, I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of Host. Apart from Jesus Christ, you will be judged for eternity, and you will have to give an account

for your sin. We call that hell. For the Christian, listen to me, if you're a follower of Jesus, this life is as close to hell as you will ever be. If you were not a follower of Jesus, this experience right here is as close to heaven as you will ever be. And I know what some of you're like, are you trying to scare me? Look bro, you should be terrified.

You should sleep with a bike helmet and a cup and one eye open. I'm telling you, judgment is coming. And the crazy thing is, okay, I'm 48 years old. So 100 years ago when I was like trained in evangelism, here's what we were taught to do. We were taught to just go up to absolute strangers and ask them this question. If you were to die tonight, would you go to heaven?

And I remember thinking, it's a little aggressive question. I think it's a little aggressive. I don't think you should bring up death to strangers because it sounds like you're going to murder them. That's what it sounds like, right? Do you know something? All right. I think these days seems to be more of a legit question.

We did seven funerals here in the last two weeks. Are you prepared to stand before your maker and give an account for your life? Now, here's what's crazy. Here's what's crazy. I hope and I pray, if you've never surrendered your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, I am begging you, repent, trust Jesus, and be saved. And here's what's crazy. And even though all these things are true, that we will stand before a holy and just God,

it's still the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. I can't lead you to repentance. No matter how much I yell at you, I can't do that. But it's the kindness of God and the conviction of your sin and the conviction of the righteousness and God's judgment is God's warm invitation to you to say, listen, listen, listen. Don't even think about sin as just doing something wrong, though it is. I want you to think about sin as if it is a sickness and judgment. Jesus is inviting you into himself for you to be cured.

He's inviting you into his family. That's what the conviction of the Holy Spirit does. He woos you into this eternal relationship with Jesus Christ. That's what he does. Verse 12, he keeps going. I still have many things to say to you. But you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of Truth comes,

he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority. but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. Number seven, the Spirit of God will guide you in all truth. The Spirit of God will guide you in all truth. The Greek word for this is meek. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus says,

Blessed are the meek. And what meek, meek rhymes with weak, so we think it's not that awesome. But it's not. The Greek word for meek means like a horse with a bit in its mouth. So it's a powerful animal, but the master of the animal

has an easy time with the reins directing which way that horse should go. That's the role the Spirit of God plays. Listen, I'm just going to tell you straight up. That's the kind of man I want to be. When I put Acts 1124 on my arm and he was a good man full of the Holy Spirit and faith that a great number of people

were brought to the Lord, that's the kind of man I want to be. I want to be easily led and guided by the truth of the Lord. the Holy Spirit. In a world that's whispering lies to us all the time. If you've ever been on a really well-trained horse, and all you've got to do, they don't fight against you. If you've been on a really well-trained horse, all you do is you just, with the slightest little tug of the reins in one way or the other, it goes in the direction that you direct him. That's the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. That he just says, hey, why don't you go this way? Every single

time some famous Pastor falls, our staff, many people are our staff, they're like, Pastor, what happened. I'm going to tell you what happened. It's the spirit of God said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, don't go that way, go this way. And a person said, get off me, I got this. Three of the most dangerous words you'll ever hear, I got this. I don't want to be in, I got this guy. I want to be like, you got this, you tell me what to do, and that's what I'll do. The spirit guides us in all truth. We live in a world with a whole bunch of information and almost no wisdom. And wisdom is the applied truth of the Word of God in our current circumstances. Verse 14. He will glorify me. The Holy Spirit will glorify Jesus.

For he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. Therefore, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. The eight thing that the Spirit of God does is he leads us to worship Jesus. The Spirit of God leads us to worship Jesus. Every single time I preach on the Holy Spirit, somebody always says, we don't talk about the Spirit enough. And I just wanted you to know, the Spirit doesn't want us to talk about the spirit that much. All the Spirit wants to talk about is Jesus. If you cast a Holy Spirit in a play, he would work in the back. He would be a tech guy. He would run the spotlight, and he would continuously shine the spotlight on Jesus. It's important for us to understand how the Godhead

works together. Something that Pastor Britt said last week is very, very important. He said this. You won't know who you are unless you know whose you are. Very important. He was talking about your relationship with the Father. I would add to that, if you don't know the who of whose you are, you'll never know who you are. And most of us have a real misunderstanding how one God and three person works. And I get it. It's hard to understand, okay? And if you think that you could fully understand the magnitude of the Godhead, it's going to be tough.

All right? We got like a Dixie Cup-sized brain standing in front of the Atlantic going, I can't get it all in. Yeah, okay, he's God, you're not. And a lot of us have a misunderstanding about who God the Father, God, the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is. Oftentimes we think like the father's the mean one and the son's the nice one and the Holy Spirit is the weird one. That is not how it is, okay?

One God and three persons. And God is not in competition or in conflict with himself. That God is love and the Godhead is cooperating for our salvation and his glory. And so the Holy Spirit always points us to Jesus for forgiveness and worship. and Jesus always wants to bring us to the Father for healing. That's identity and perspective. See last week's sermon. And the Father sends us the Holy Spirit to help us and sends us the Son to save us.

That God himself is in perfect concert with God himself in three persons as one essence. Verse 16. He says, a little while, and you'll see me no longer. And again, in a little while you will see me. He's talking about his death and resurrection. They're confused. So some of his disciples said to one another, what is this, he says to us a little while,

and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me, and because I'm going to the Father. And so they were saying, what does he mean by a little while? We do not know what he is talking about. Anybody ever feel like that at church? Guys up here just sweating and screaming, and you're like, we do not know what he is talking about, okay? I got really good news.

You can make a great disciple. These guys are going to be the apostles. And when you do not know what he is talking about, just bring that to the Lord. we do not know what he is talking about because look what Jesus does. Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him. So they're standing around,

they're kind of clear in their throat, but they won't ask him, but he knows. If you hear you kid ever do that kind of thing? When J.P. was younger, he would come up to me and he'd be like, Dad, I didn't finish my dinner, so mom said I couldn't ask for candy. So I'm not asking for candy, but she didn't say you couldn't give me some.

Okay, is that kind of thing. So they're standing there, and he knows. He knows. So he says to them, is this what you were asking yourselves what I meant by saying a little while and you will not see me and again a little while and you will see me truly truly I say to you you will weep and lament but the world will rejoice you will be sorrowful but your sorrow will turn into joy what he's saying is this it's going to be a rough few days boys but after three days it's going to be worth it and then this is

the example that he gives I love this sort of he says when a woman is giving birth she has sorrow because our hour has come. Can I get a mama amen right there? All right. Listen. He goes on to say, he uses words like sorrow, and later he's going to call it anguish. And Jesus is right.

I've been in the room twice. Anybody calls that beautiful? They are lying to you. It ain't beautiful. It's awful, man. It's awful. It's scary. It's intimidating.

It's terrifying. It's gross. It's awful. The whole situation. is awful. So if you're with child, it's going to be terrible. You're not even ready.

And your husband, he way ain't ready. He got no idea. Video. Oh, I'm telling you, it ain't. But when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, and it's anguishing, all right? For the joy that a human being

has been born into the world. Now this is just one off, but I can't, okay. For the joy, who's been born in the world? A what? A human being. So when that thing is born, it's a human being. What about an hour before? What is it?

Human being? What about a month before? Human being? What about nine months before? The Bible wants you to know that from the moment of conception, that is a human being created in God's image that we are talking about here. And listen, man. And so what he's saying is, I know it's traumatic, but it's worth it.

And look, mammas, I can't even understand what you've gone through. I've been through it twice. I don't want to sign up for it ever again, you understand. And I was just witnessing. I was a part of the very beginning of the situation, and I pretty much just ran taxi for the rest of it until, you know, they came home. And yet, even when you go through all of that

and then you hold your kids, parents, you know what I'm talking about, right? There is a love unleashed in here that you did not realize that you possessed. And what I love about it is this is the example that Jesus is giving in the context of him talking about God, the Father, God, the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Because when you are married and make a baby, it is, it's not the same, but it is a reflection of the Trinity. The God's one God in three persons. When Gretchen and I got married, she's still herself and I'm still myself. We're two people, but God says that the two become one flesh. And then because she loved me

and I loved her out of an overflow of our love for one another, we created literally, literally, image bearers of us. They have our names and they look like us and we love them and they aggravate the life out of us. This is what's happening. So mamas, I can't even, I can't even begin to imagine the kind of love that you have for that child that you carried and that you went through the anguish for. And then when you held them, yeah, you should hug your mama right now, boy, right there. Yeah, third row, boo-ya. Got it. All right. You're welcome, mama. So listen. Jesus says it's like that. It's like that.

He keeps going. He says, so also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again. We worked all week on that baby crying right now. Isn't that great? So also, you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you because they can't take Jesus from you

because Jesus put his spirit in you. That's what he means. And in that day, you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. What a promise. What a promise. Whatever you ask of the Father in the name of Jesus, he can't wait to give you that.

The problem is we mostly ask stuff of us in our name and then get mad when he doesn't answer that prayer. And then he says, until now you have asked nothing in my name. Think about this. Had the disciples asked for stuff? Oh, yeah. They asked for power. two brothers sent their mom.

You don't talk about a wimpy move. Hey, mom, will you go talk to Jesus? See if we can be senior VP of Jesus Incorporated? It's like the original helicopter parent right there, Matthew. And so, did Jesus answer their prayer? Nope. Peter, on the Mountain of Transfiguration, it is good that we are here.

We should just camp out up here. And Jesus's like, no, man, what are he talking about? One time they asked for revenge. There was a city that rejected Jesus. And so the disciples were like, why don't you bring down fire on their heads? You see, they have been asking for stuff. They just hadn't been asking.

They haven't been praying of the Father in the name of Jesus. Number eight or number nine. The Holy Spirit helps us pray. The Holy Spirit helps us pray. The book of Romans says, even when we run out of words, he gives us the words to pray. And the Holy Spirit will always guide you to pray of the Father in the name of Jesus. And then in closing, he says this. I have said these things to you in figures of speech.

The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in. figures of speech, but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day, you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. And this is as plain as Jesus can put it for disciples. I came from the Father, I have come into the world, I am now leaving the world and going to the Father. He said, I ain't from Bethlehem. I'm from heaven. I came here for a while, and I'm going back. And for whatever reason, this is when it clicked for him. And his disciples say, oh, now you are speaking plainly and not using figures of speech.

And say, we appreciate the seven I am statements in the gospel of John, but all that I am covenant name of God, chump went right over our heads. Why didn't you just tell us? Now we know that you know all things. And do not need anyone to question you. This is why we believe that you came from God and Jesus answered them, do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming and indeed it has come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. And then here's the last thing, the tenth thing. He says, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace, that the Holy Spirit brings us peace. And then he gives a little commentary, in the world you will have tribulation.

and that could be financial, that could be relational, that could be mental, that could be spiritual. In this world, you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. You see, here's how this works. Jesus purchases for us peace at the cross, and he deposits his Holy Spirit in us so that we can experience that peace that he purchased. He says, I give you peace. Here's the point. you is greater than the circumstances around you. This world, your world, has trouble,

and God offers peace that transcends understanding. It's the church. In these crazy times that we live in, is anyone experiencing trouble, tribulation? Or maybe I'll ask you this way, is anybody here wants some peace? You see, for two years we studied the Shama. Shama, Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one,

and we shall love the Lord our God with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind and all of our strength. Is there anybody here and you're not able? You don't feel like you can love the Lord of your God with all your heart because you've got some relational tribulation

and trials and troubles going on. And I don't often ask you to do this, but I'm going to ask you if you would be brave enough and willing enough to say, you know what? I need some peace relationally. Maybe it's in your marriage. Maybe it's with a prodigal child.

maybe it's a broken relationship. If you were to say, I'm facing some tribulation in the area of relationships, I want to invite you to stand. Jesus says that he wants to give you peace. Whether it's your fault or somebody did something against you, maybe somebody's sinned against you and you want to be able to forgive them so that you can walk in this kind of peace, but you've been holding on to the unforgiveness for so long,

there's like a bitterness, a hard-heartedness that's beginning to start. Jesus wants to give you peace through the power of its Holy Spirit. So we're to love the Lord of God with all of our heart and all of our mind. Maybe some of you would say, you know what, the tribulation, the trouble that I'm experiencing right now, it's in here. Today we would call this mental health issues. How many of you would say, hey, you know what, I need some peace in my mind. I struggle with depression.

And I struggle with anxiety. And when I look around at the circumstances, everything ought to be okay, but I can't turn the okay on. And then you had some Christians that told you a lie that some, a Christian could not struggle with depression, except many people in the scriptures did. And maybe you would say, God, I need hell, I need the paraclete to give me some peace in my mind

and take captive every thought, maybe that's you so that you could love the Lord of you got with all your mind. And maybe some of you, maybe some of you need peace in your soul. I mean, you're a believer, man, but somehow you feel a million miles from God. And you're like, Lord, I don't know what happened. I feel like when I pray,

the prayers don't make it through the ceiling and I'm alone. Even though you know theologically you can't be alone, you have this soul problem and it feels like you're alone. Or maybe there's an addiction. Maybe there's this thing that you struggle with and you need some peace because it's chains of bondage. It's like a thing in the spiritual realm has got a hold of you and keeps baiting you to walk down a road that you said you'd never walk down again and then you look up and there you are again, and it's trying to kill, steal, and destroy you. And you're like, Jesus, I need some help. And the Spirit of God wants to help you and break those chains.

Or maybe it's physical. Maybe it's physical. Maybe you would love to experience some physical peace. This word peace means like to put back together, to be whole. And maybe your physical body isn't whole. And maybe the scans were going okay for a little while, but this week you got some back and it's still there or it came back. And you're like, Jesus, I need some help. If that's you, I want you to stand.

If you were to say, this is kind of last call. If you want to say, all right, God, I need help. I need some peace. I want to invite you to stand up. Because the Spirit of God wants to provide that for you. And you know how Jesus responds to you right now? Here's what he says. This is in Matthew 11.

To anybody that needs peace, Jesus says, come here. Come here. come to me all you who are weary and heavy burden let me tell you what a heavy burden is man a heavy burden is when you lack peace in the heart and in the soul and in the mind and in your body and he says you you weren't meant to carry it on your own you don't got this we need a helper come to me all you who are weary and heavy burden and he says this and i will give you here's the word i will give you rest for your soul Another word for that is peace. So if you're sitting around somebody that is standing up and it's appropriate,

would you put your hands on these people? And I'm going to pray. We're going to pray. We're going to pray that the Spirit of God does exactly what Jesus promised because we believe Jesus is who he says he is, and he always keeps his promise. And he said he was going to send a helper. And in this world, we were going to have trials and tribulation,

but Jesus is going to give us peace, not like the world gives, because Jesus has overcome the world. And we're going to pray. We're going to pray. We're going to pray marriages are restored. We're going to pray prodigals come home. We're going to pray addictions are broken. We're going to pray physical bodies are healed and souls are set free.

So I want you to join me as we pray. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father God, we love you because you first loved us. And God, we pray, we pray that our faith in you, though it might be tiny in comparison to our overwhelming circumstances. God, I thank you and I praise you. It's not the amount of faith that matters. It's the object of our fate that changes things. And so, God, we cry out to you. God, would you help us because we need your help?

God, would you restore marriages? God, would you bring forgiveness between husbands and wives where there is bitterness? God, would you be reconciliation from people that have been broken? Surely, God, if sinful man can be reconciled to a holy God, surely brothers and sisters can be reconciled to one another. And God, we pray, we pray for clear, transformed minds. God, we pray against the lies of the enemy, because when he whispers those lies of condemnation,

He is speaking his native tongue because the enemy is a liar and fear is a liar. And you did not give us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of self-control. So, God, he has no room in our heads. And, God, we pray for souls to be reconnected to you. Spirit of God, would you just fill up the believer in this place? And, God, for anybody that hasn't trusted you yet, we pray right now you would rescue and to redeem that soul that they would surrender to you in this very moment. And, God, we pray for physical health.

God, we know that through the stripes of Jesus we will be healed. And we know that you are the great physician. But God, we're just asking of the Father in the name of Jesus that we would experience that healing on this side of eternity. God, would you put us back together, heart, soul, mind, and strength that your body, your church, full of the Holy Spirit, under the blood of Jesus and the love of the Heavenly Father, would be able to love you with all. And so, God, we pray all these things. In the name, the only name that matters when you pray. we pray these because of the love of the Father, the blood of Jesus, the power of the Spirit. We prayed in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, amen.

Would you please stand as we respond? We're going to bring, we're going to bring. We're going to do money in God's way and say, God, we can bring you our first and our best, because you're first, and you gave your best for us in Jesus. And we're going to pray. And so stay in a posture of prayer. Won't you come? Won't you come and pray? And we're going to sing.

And we're going to sing. is anyone broken, anyone need to be healed, then come to the altar. So let us bring, let us sing, let us pray, let's respond.