The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 3: Holy Spirit

Episode Date: August 30, 2020

The Holy Spirit helps us, comforts us, teaches us, empowers us, guarantees us... ultimately, HE (not it) points us to Jesus.

Amen and amen. That's a smart girl, didn't she? Hey, if you got your Bibles and I hope you do, we're primarily going to be in John chapter 14 where Jesus teaches on the spirit. And so, as you've heard, we're in week three of this three week series on the Trinity, and this is Spirit Week, and we are talking about the Holy Spirit. Just so I know a little bit about who I'm talking to, how many of you have kind of like a Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Episcopalian kind of background? If that's your background, raise it high, okay? All right, cool. It felt weird to raise your hand, didn't it?

That was kind of, you know, congratulations on that. You're halfway there. So that's where I got saved at a Southern Baptist camp, fundamentalist. We didn't raise our hands in singing because then you might catch the tongues and then the deacons would have to meet. That's my world, okay? So you're going to be a little uncomfortable, so buckle up. Get ready. We're just going to read the Bible and do what it says.

All right. Now, how many of your, like, Assembly of God, Pentecostal, charismatic? that's your background anybody all right screamers that's what i'm talking about anybody else raise a mind let's do that again all right praise god all right you're going to be highly disappointed all right there's be no it's not bringing your own tambourine night we're not going to hand out flags and do laps we're not going to do any of that nobody's going to sizzle like bacon no shake and bake okay so what we're going to do is we're just going to go through john chapter 14 mostly and just talk about the third person of the trinity the holy spirit now very generally speaking when it comes to

theology of the Holy Spirit. This is a bit of an overgeneralization, but there's basically four categories. And I want to tell you three of them that we, here at 1122, are not, and then who we are. So we are not cessationist. There's a group of churches and believers that think that the gifts of the Spirit ceased when the last apostle died. And about 300 years after that, when we got the Bible, then there's no need for particularly the sign gifts of the spirit, like speaking in tongues and words of knowledge and

prophecy and healing, that all of that is done. That is not what we are. Thanks. We are also not charismaticians, meaning there are some people, and I'm not trying to be disrespectful to you, some of you are carismaniacs, that's not what we are, that ascribe more to the spirit than the Bible does. and so oftentimes where it can go too far is that the primary role of the spirit is to shine the spotlight on Jesus, not us. And when you kind of get into this charismania, it really becomes into like what kind of gifts do I have

and my expression is more important than anything else. That the Bible in the book of Corinthians talks a lot about orderly worship. And so we are not disordered in our worship. And we are not, classical Pentecostals, and there's just a strain of Pentecostalism that taught and teaches that there's like either, there's two kind of extremes here. One is, is that if you don't have the gift of tongues, then you must not have the spirit,

and if you don't have the spirit, then you're not a Christian. I don't think that's biblical, at all. And then there's another strain of it that teaches there's like kind of, there's like a first-class version and a coach. And if you don't speak in tongues, you're getting coach. but if you speak in tongues, then you're in first class. I don't think that's what the Bible teaches at all. We are, if I had to categorize us, one is we're non-denominational, praise God.

I am so glad just for me. It doesn't mean much to you, but for me, it keeps me out of a lot of trouble. And we're kind of charismatic with a seatbelt. That's where we are. If you want to know what 1122 is, we're charismatic with a seatbelt, and the seatbelt is the Bible. That's what we are. So I believe in the person and work of the Holy Spirit. and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

And in our worship time together, there is freedom. Freedom just can't get to crazy. So you can dance all you want to. Just don't do it down here where I can see you because it throws me off when I'm trying to sing. If you want to be free, man, be free. Just in those corners back there, those are the charismatic corners. Help yourself. All right.

And we don't have a bring-your-own instrument section. That's not, y'all, early on, we're about three weeks in. and because we do worship with their hands up and the music's loud and we talk about Jesus a lot it brings all kind of different people and somebody brought their own shofar. How many of you know what a shofar is?

All right, they're the charismatic. They just out of themselves, okay? It's a rams horn from the Old Covenant, the Old Testament that would play it. It's not very pretty. It's here. That's it, right? And this guy walks in and sits right over here

and you should have seen our Nehemiah team that runs safety and security. they thought it was a rifle. They don't know. Everybody on EMI just got saved like a minute ago. But they're great. They volunteer and help us out. And they go like swarming code black on this guy, like get him, SWAT team.

And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, it's not a club. It's an Old Testament instrument. And this guy is just tooting away, you know, show far, show good. That's what he was thinking. And we were like, we have tryouts for to be worship leader. So now, as we talk about the Holy Spirit, One of the huge mistakes, in my opinion, when studying the third person of the Trinity, the person of the Holy Spirit, if you only focus on him as the bringer of gifts, then what you do is all the focus really becomes on you

and you miss out on the character and nature of the Spirit of God. And so let me warn you here. Let's get a bigger picture of who God the Holy Spirit is. in the beginning God creates the heaven and the earth and the earth was formless and void and the spirit of God is hovering over this creation

and then God starts speaking so in the first few verses of the Bible we have God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit all there at creation and then God creates his image bearers and the Bible says that he gathers together the dust of the ground and Adam was not yet a living creature.

And then God breathes in the nostrils of Adam, so he's close, the ruach of life. We talk about this all the time. The Hebrew word ruach is kind of word play. It means wind, it means breath, and it means spirit. And I think the Bible is intentionally, not vague, but that all things, three of those things can mean the same thing, that God breathes his spirit. The spirit of God is breathed into Adam as the breath of God is breathed into Adam, and then Adam becomes a living being. Amen? God says it's not good for man to be alone, gives him a wife, and then he says,

listen, now, whatever y'all do, there's all kind of commandments, some good ones, there's only one don't. In the garden, there's only one thou shalt not. He goes, you can eat from all the trees, It's not that one. It'll kill you. And so, and he says, and if you eat of it, you'll die. And then they did eat of it, but did they die? Not immediately. But what happened in that moment is spiritually speaking, every single one of us died. This is why the Bible says that we were dead in our trespasses. And then Christ comes to give us new life that through Christ that we have the Spirit of God deposited into us. In John chapter 14, Jesus is going to teach his disciples,

and in so doing, teach us the role of the Holy Spirit in our life. Now, when you get to John chapter 14, the Lord's Supper is over. Jesus is letting his disciples know the time has come. Multiple times so far in the book of John, he has said, my time is not yet come, my time is not yet come. and now he's basically saying it's time. And the circumstances are going to be very, very, very troubling over the next few days. And in light of that, chapter 14, verse 1 says this, Jesus to his disciples,

let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. That word believe there is Pistuo. We talk about it all the time. It means to trust or to believe in, not just cognitively. agree that I am who I say I am, but the circumstances of your life are about to go crazy disciples. I'm about to be handed over, tried, crucified, dead buried, and you are not going to know what to do with that. So before all of that happens, I'm trying to tell you, trust me.

Trust in God, trust also in me, which, by the way, is a really good word to all of us. when you feel your heart being troubled, then you really need to check to see if you're really trusting God. Your circumstances may feel out of control, but God has never been out of control. And then he begins to paint this picture of hope in my father's house or in many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you

that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am you may also be, and you know the way to where I am going. Again, he's saying, listen, the next few days are going to be rough. But don't set your eyes on the current circumstances, but set your thoughts on the eternal reward. That eternity with God awaits you, and no matter how bad today is, eternity with him is worth it. This is what he's saying.

And then Thomas. Later, we'll know him as doubting Thomas. He hadn't earned that nickname yet. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? Now, here's what I need you to know. Jesus has been with these disciples for three years. And over and over and over, he specifically says very clearly,

there will come a time where I will be arrested, tried, crucified, dead buried, and on the third day, be resurrected from the grave. and now it's the evening that those things begin to happen and he says hey listen I'm going to prepare a place for you but you know the way he's been teaching them for three years I mean you think your disciple group's great they had Jesus as their disciple group leader and Thomas is like what what are you talking about we don't know the way let me just tell you why this is good news if you're a little slow on the uptake you can make a great disciple. Like if it takes you a little while for it to sink in, well, guess what? The disciples whom Jesus handpicked have the same problem. Thomas says to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? And then Jesus replies with a very, very famous and a very important verse,

verse 6. Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. And if you had known me, you would have known my father also. Do you see the Trinitarian language going on here? Like the son and the father are distinct persons, and yet he says to know the father is to know the son and to know the son is to know the father. If you had known me, you would have known my father also from now on. You do know him and have seen him. And I think they're looking around, but we don't see him. And Jesus is, they're You're still not getting it? Now listen, in our current context, this is the thing that gets us as Christians in trouble more than anything else.

That people will say, you mean to tell me how in the world can you claim that Jesus is the only way to God? I mean, of all the religions and all the good people and all the things taught all over the world, how in the world can you say that Jesus is the only way? Isn't that a bit narrow? Now let me be honest. It's embarrassingly narrow, for sure. But I just want to go on record here. We didn't make it up.

We're like the mailmen, okay? You don't write it, you just deliver it. Jesus said this himself about himself. And this is one of the seven I am statements in John, which means he is claiming equality with God, Father, that the covenant name of God, in English, is I am. In Hebrew, it's Yahweh. Jesus is saying, God the Father and God the Son, we are one, and I am the way, the truth in the life. And just in case you think that's some sort of like metaphor, no one comes to the Father except through me.

So, and I've had people say, well, why can't you just, like, don't just all roads kind of lead to heaven and they all get there, you know? I mean, it's like, in God, like up on the mountain and we're all down here. and everybody's got their road on the way up, you know, and whichever road you choose, that's good for you. It's kind of the Oprah theology. Well, here's the thing. Number one, just to be frank, we don't get to make up the rules.

Like the king of the universe and the author of life, he is the one that determines what eternal life consists. And just that theological reality is that if God is holy and God is just, and sin must be paid for or atoned for, then the problem with the all roads lead to heaven deal is every other religion says, well, it's up to you. If you want to do the all roads lead to the top of the mountain,

then we're all at the bottom of the mountain, and it is up to you to climb your path to the very top of the mountain. And everybody's got their own system. Judaism would be obedience to the Ten Commandments. Hindus would be you just get a number, runs at it until you, you know, get it right. They'd say there's 3,000 plus gods or so. Islam would say, well, you've got to obey the five pillars. Buddha would say there's not really a mountain, but you can pretend like there's a

mountain, and eventually the mountain disappears and you're there. Everybody's got their own way. But ultimately, and even fundamentalist Christianity, gospel-less Christianity, which happens a lot, is still, it's just a new set of commandments. It's like, don't drink, smoke, chew, go with girls who do. There's only four commandments, but you do those things. And if you're good enough, then you can make it. The gospel is fundamentally different. The gospel is not that we work our way to the top of the mountain. The gospel is that Jesus came off the top of the mountain

on a rescue mission for us because there is an impassable divide between the bottom and the top of the mountain. And it is by grace that we have been saved and not by works. So is the claim of Jesus exclusive? Yeah. But it's exclusively inclusive or maybe inclusively exclusive, but I think it's exclusively inclusive.

And here's what I mean. Everybody's invited. There's no caste system. There's no, some people start here and some people start here. Everybody's invited. And this is big, and everybody gets in the same way through Jesus. And the best news of all, and the price has already been paid. If it is by works that we are saved, and it really is this great judgment when we get up there and the scales have to go in your favor, listen to you.

Some of you don't have enough life left to do enough good things to make up for all the bad things that you have done. Can I get a witness? Right? And so this is a grace-filled invitation for Jesus to say, I... I am the way. Not I'll show you the way, not I hope you can figure out the way, but I am the way, the truth in the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you know my Father also. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him. Verse 8. And Philip said to Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. This is Strike 2.

He literally just said to see me is to see the father. And so, again, so if you're a little slow on the uptake, all right, if you find yourself asking the same questions over and over and over in Bible study, you can make a great disciple, okay? Philip, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough. Verse 9, and Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long? And you still do not know me, Philip? whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father. Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does His works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me or else believe on the account of the works themselves. Again, do you see the Trinitarian language? the Father and I are distinct, yet we are one. And what he is saying is this is very controversial, okay? You cannot simultaneously reject God the Son and say that you know God the Father.

You can't. You cannot simultaneously reject God and say that you accept God. That's just not how it works. Jesus is saying to know the Father is to know me. Verse 12, truly, truly I say to you. whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do because I am going to the Father. What a bold statement from Jesus.

Jesus says that believers in Him will do greater works than he has done because he's going to go to the Father. He goes on to say, whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. if you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. Now, that doesn't mean that you ask stuff in your name and then say in Jesus' name at the end, and he's like, oh, you got me. Okay, that's not how it works.

It means whatever you ask in line with my character and nature and will, these things I will do. If you get over to John chapter 16, verse 7, Jesus says, Jesus actually says, it is to your advantage that I leave because I'm going to send you the helper, the Holy Spirit. and Jesus, Jesus begins to teach on the Holy Spirit in the following verses. Now, let me give you a little warning. There, oftentimes there are two extremes when it comes to the way that church people deal with the Holy Spirit. One of the extremes is we treat the Holy Spirit like you treat your medulla oblongata. You know what's in there.

You're sure it's important. You don't want to be without it. I'm not even sure exactly what it does. I see some of you that do and whatever. But I know it's there, okay? I do have a degree in biology. That and a bus ticket gets you ride on a bus. Okay, so I don't know what it does.

And that's sometimes how we treat the Holy Spirit, like the forgotten God. And a lot of those kind of church people, your functional Trinity is God, the Father, God, the Son, and God the Holy Bible, right? And there's some real danger there. You see, again, this was kind of my camp, the experience I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church.

It was like we feared the Holy Spirit. It was because we didn't think the Holy Spirit was weird. It was just the people that knew and best were. You know what I mean? And again, like if you were singing a song, even like a camp song, and somebody's hand went up, people were like, I'm just saying, if you leave it up there long enough, you're going to catch the tongues, and the deacons are going to kick you out of here.

So you better relax. Next thing you know, we'll have snake handling in the church, okay? And it was like that. It was way in this extreme. Well, the Spirit of God, again, it's not a force, it's not an it. It's the third person of the Trinity. And the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, is how we have a relationship with God, the Father, God, the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. So to neglect the Holy Spirit and try to abide in Jesus is virtually impossible.

What begins to happen here is you begin to know a lot about God, you just don't know God. Now, there's this other extreme. I remember when I was in high school, this Pentecostal kid comes up to me, and he heard that I got saved, and nobody believed it. But he was like, I heard you got saved. I said, yeah, I did. And he's like, do you believe the full gospel?

And I was like, I think so. I mean, I didn't sign up for like a payment plan or like the limited edition. I think I went like the full, the platinum, the gold medallion. I think I'm all in. And he had began to add some things that, you know, I don't see in the scriptures. And then what can happen is you can only focus on the spirit as the giver of the gifts. And listen, Ronald Reagan is famous for saying the most dangerous words you'll ever hear is this.

I'm from the government and I'm here to help. Okay? I think that's an excellent quote. But the most dangerous thing you hear in the church often is, I have heard from the Lord and I have a word from you. I have had so many of these in my life that I'm just telling you, I got an email a couple of years ago that said, the spirit has given me a word in a dream, and I need your help. All right. And this young lady went on to tell me that the Spirit of God had told her in a dream,

oh, you'll love this, that God's will for her life was for her to marry Tim Tebow. And she woke up in the morning, and she said, God, if God, if God, if God, you're going to marry Tim Tebow, that God, that is true, would you confirm that dream? And she said she was sitting in her car. And the moment she said that out loud, God, if that is true, would you confirm this dream, then the light turned green. And she looked up in the sky,

and the sky had turned blue and orange. And the place that she was going that day, the address was 15-15, Atlantic Boulevard, his number twice. And right in that moment on the radio came, my heart will go on by Celine Dion. And she said it must be the spirit. To which I said, well, first of all, I don't know if you've seen the movie.

It doesn't end well, okay? And secondly, that doesn't sound like the Holy Spirit. It sounds like the preamble to a restraining order, if you ask me. It turns out the will of God for Mr. Tebow was to marry Miss Universe, of course. So, you see, in the book of Nehemiah, Chapter 1, when God specifically calls Nehemiah to go rebuild the wall in Jerusalem. Nehemiah says, I didn't tell anybody about what God had laid in my heart. Because God will always confirm what he calls. And so some people can kind of have this obsession with the supernatural and leave out what God wants to do in us and through us and to us.

Now listen, Jesus says, again, in John 16, 7, it will be to your advantage that I leave because I'm going to send my helper. And then here he says, because you're going to do you, every believer, the church is going to do greater works than even I have done. Now who wants to raise their hand and be like, yep, I did it today. I preached a better sermon than the sermon on the mount. I walked on water a couple of times. I fed 5,000 people with like a little, you know, a couple chicken biscuits from Chick-fil-A, right?

So what does he mean? What does he mean? Because Jesus says it would be better for me to go. It would be, it's better. It's to your advantage. J.D. Greer, my friend J.D. Greer, pastor in North Carolina, wrote a book about five or six years ago called Jesus Continued. That the spirit in you is better than Jesus beside you.

And this is what Jesus is saying. Because think about this. Who wouldn't like Jesus beside you? Can you imagine if Jesus was your roommate? I mean, can you imagine, like, if you came home, you forgot to pay the light bill? You're like, Jesus, I forgot to pay the light bill. He's like, no problem. I'll just transfigure my face like lightning and we'll light up the whole joint for as long as we need to.

You'll be like, sweet. Or you go to the party and they run out of wine. Guess what he does, Baptist? You can try to say it's grape juice and ain't. He could turn the water into wine. You'd be the most popular person on your block. If you ran out of food, he could just produce more food. I mean, think about it.

If you came home and your dog died, Lazarus, come forth. Raise your dog from the dead. If you got a cat and you came home and your cat was dead, he'd help you dig a hole to put it in. And yet, I think what Jesus is talking about is that not greater in wonder, but greater in volume. You see, because when Jesus was here on this earth, he was concentrated in one place at one time. And all of his miracles in the book of John are called signs because they were pointing to something greater. And what they were all pointing to is that he came to save. and then he's going to set his disciples loose to take the gospel to the very ends of the earth

and salvation and the great commission happening is greater than all the signs and wonders that he did. That's what he's talking about. And so now he's going to get into the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Verse 15, he says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. That God gives us himself the Holy Spirit to help us in our daily lives. And what the spirit does, the spirit does not just make us more discipline, although one of the, a fruit of the spirit is self-control or self-discipline. But what the spirit does is the spirit illuminates our hearts to love Jesus more and more and more and more. And when you love a thing, discipline is not a problem.

Like you surfers that love to surf. Y'all are crazy people. Hurricanes come and you have no problem getting up early in the morning, driving on. all up and down to East Coast at the peril of all people. You don't care. You get these waves, or when it's cold, you put on, I mean, you get like the ice cream headache when you go under, but it doesn't bother you getting in that water if the waves are good enough.

In fact, it doesn't even feel like a sacrifice, does it? For me hunting, man, we're two weeks away to the greatest time of the year, all right? Deer season is about to start, and I know some people think I'm crazy because I get up at 4 o'clock in the morning and get all dressed up, and when it gets cold, you get out there to cold and you climb up in the tree and you sit and all of that and none of that feels like a sacrifice because I'm into it or if you're a runner, God bless you. You know some people that are these crazy like runner people and they run into cold and they run into hot and they run into rain and just run and you're looking at it and you think who would do that? I'll tell you who would do that.

Somebody that loves that thing so that the discipline does not feel like a sacrifice. The spirit of God draws us into an abiding relationship with Jesus Christ. so that the keeping of his commandments does not feel like a sacrifice to us. It just feels like something that you do when you love him. Verse 16, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper. The word in Greek there is pericles. It means to walk alongside or to walk with. He says, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever,

even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, you know him, for he dwells with you and will be with you. Jesus is talking about the third person of the Trinity. He says, I'm going to go be with the Father, but take heart, I am going to send you a helper. The implication here is we need help. We need help. First and foremost, we need help trusting. Jesus. This is the first role of the Spirit of God in the life of the believer. That he helps you

see Jesus for who he really is. And here's what I mean. Man, some of you come to church, right? Think about this. Think about how many messages you heard before you ever heard the gospel for the first time. Think about that. I mean, I can remember, I did youth ministry forever. And right when I was in seminary and bought this church van, my whole youth group, I thought we were awesome. At first, when I first started, the whole youth group could fit in my pathfinder. It was great. And we'd have these youth ministry events, and it was three people when they'd get in the truck.

And then we outgrew it, so we got a church van. I put the whole youth group in the church van, and I took them to camp. I've been working with these kids for like a year. And we get to camp, and a preacher, just like me, gets up and shares the gospel. And at the end of the night, they played a song, and they're like, who wants to receive Jesus? And my whole group is like, boom, we're in. They all say, we want to receive Jesus. And then the guy speaking is like, is like, all right, go meet us.

with your youth pastor. And then I sat down with them. I'm like, guys, that's great. What happened? And they're like, we've never heard the gospel before. I'm like, shut your face. I know that you have because I've been teaching it, you idiot, for like a year and you don't even pay attention. Don't put that on me. And actually what was happening, we got to have help. We got to have help. This is why sometimes I'm declaring the gospel. And for one of you, it penetrates your heart for the very first time. And it makes sense. The Spirit of God did that. That's not because I can explain stuff good. That's the helper doing what he does in our lives.

And then he helps us with all kind of stuff. He helps us fulfill the promise of Jesus. When Jesus in the Great Commission says, and lo, I will be with you, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you, that the Spirit of God is with us forever. He says he's called the Spirit of Truth, that the Spirit of God in us helps us discern the truth, what is true and what is false.

And the primary way he does that is that he teaches us and aligns us with the Word of God. In fact, it's the Spirit of God that wrote the Word of God. If you look at Second Peter 121, the Bible says, For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Spirit. So when the Spirit is in you, when you surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, then Christ puts the deposit of the Spirit of God in every single believer that you are immersed in the spirit when you trust Jesus.

That word immersed means baptized. That you have all of the spirit. The key question is, does he have all of you? And the spirit in you begins to help you discern what is true by leading you to His Word. That the Spirit of God sanctifies us by convicting us of sin. Have you ever had those moments? like you came to Christ, regardless of how you grew up, you came to Christ, and then there are these things in your life, and you want to do this thing, whatever that thing is, but then you've just

got this little check in there and you know, nope, that you feel that kind of conviction? That's the spirit of God, like a hammer in a chisel, just chiseling away everything in your life that does not look like the Son, Jesus Christ. That's what sanctification is. And it's his grace that he would convict us. And the Spirit of God is with us forever. Therefore, if you want to talk to God the Father, no appointment necessary. Because he is with you always.

And then the Spirit of God in you allows you to abide in your relationship with Jesus Christ. Abide, but it just means stay close. The Spirit of God in you draws you to God the Son. And it's in that abiding relationship that the spirit begins to produce fruit in you.

That's very different than manufacturing behavior. In Galatians chapter 5, a very famous passage, where Paul juxtaposes the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. And the works of the flesh, he says,

are obvious, and he lists all kind of crazy. stuff I'm not going to get into. And then he says, but the fruit of the spirit is love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness, faithfulness and gentleness and self-control. And that's not manufactured. You see, if you try to do life apart from the spirit, then what you will do is you'll try to manufacture morality. And if I go and take oranges and nail them to a two-by-four, that does not make it an orange tree. And if you walk out of here and just pick two or three bad things to quit doing in your life and add two or three good things to your life, that does not make you alive in Christ. That just means you're manufacturing behavior. But when the spirit of God

is planted in here, over time, not overnight, like have you ever tried to, how do you, have you ever seen a tree strain? Like I go in the woods a lot. I've never seen like an apple tree go, be patient. No, man. In fact, if you try to be patient, you'll ruin it. Think about it. What will happen is the Spirit of God is in you, and the Spirit begins to produce from the inside out. That you're rooted in Christ, and as those roots go deeper and deeper into the Word of God to learn more about the Son of God than the fruit of the Spirit of God begins to be produced in your life.

And some of you, some of you have seen this. This is God's sanctifying work in your life. Like you just got saved not too long ago, and you stump your toe, and instead of like vile words coming out of your mouth, they didn't. And you were like, it's working. It's working. Or you had this moment with your kids, and one time last week you didn't lose your mind on them, and you're like, that smelled like patience. I'm not a patient person. Those kind of things.

This is what the Spirit of God does in our lives. and Jesus says, I'm going to give you a helper. So the key is not to try to be more loving and try to be more kind and try to be more gentle in your own power. The key is be more surrendered to the spirit of God in you. To just cultivate that abiding relationship with Christ. And he will help you in these areas. He goes on to say this, and I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you.

That the Holy Spirit plays a role in adopting us, and this adoption in the Bible is a picture of our salvation. I mean, think about this. We talked about this last week. He is not a king just looking for subjects to rule over, but he's the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit looking to people to be in relationship with. And the Spirit of God plays the key role

in adopting us as sons and daughters. Think about what happens in the United. adoption. You're chosen, you're paid for, your name is changed, you have full rights of the family, and you are a co-air with your brothers and sisters. This is what the spirit does in our life. Verse 19, yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live, you will also live, and in that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you and you and you in you, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Now, here, he's talking

about his death and his resurrection and his ascension, but they're not going to know for a few days. And it's obvious here that they don't get it. This is the third time now they don't get it. Verse 22, and Judas, not as scary it, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not the world. Now again, Jesus has told them over and over and over that he must be handed over, tried, crucified, dead, buried on the third day, resurrected. Have you ever noticed how we had this like select deafness

towards God when he says things we don't want to hear? Same thing was happening then. Verse 22, and Jesus answered him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him, and he will come to him and look at this language. and make our home with him. Jesus uses plural language for anybody that loves Jesus.

For anybody that surrenders their life to Christ, he's talking about the Father, he's talking about the Spirit, and he says, we, the Godhead, of all the language to use, will make our home in you. One of my favorite verses in all the Bible is this, Romans 8-1, therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. It comes right on the heels of Romans chapter 7, and all of Romans chapter 7, the Apostle Paul is doing a little self-evaluation of how his walk with Christ is going. And ultimately, where he gets to is this, he says, what is wrong with me?

What is wrong with me? There's all this good stuff that I want to do. I can't seem to do it. There's a whole heap of bad stuff I promised I would never do again and I can't stay away from it. What a wretched man am I? By the way, anybody else in that kind of predicament? And can we agree the Apostle Paul is a Christian when he writes Romans chapter 7? He is.

You don't even have to look it up. And then he says, who would save a wretch like me? And he answers his own question. Praise God for his son Jesus Christ. And then you get to Romans 8.1 and says, therefore now, because Christ is going to save me and it's not my good works that saved me, therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. condemnation is a building term that means unfit for use.

That's what it means. The building inspector checks out the facility and slaps a big sticker on it and says, nope, nobody can go in there. That is unfit for use. I know this because when I was in college, my fraternity house got condemned. And on it, they put a big sticker and it said condemned unfit for use. This is the language of the enemy. When you screw up, when you mess up, when you sin, if you fall,

into some sort of category that the church has historically put a big bull's eye on and say, can't be that? Then the enemy comes along and whispers in your ear, you are unfit for use. And yet the Bible says, therefore now, because of Christ, you're not unfit for use, that Jesus wants to make a home in you. First Corinthians chapter 6, when the Bible says your body is a temple, That has nothing to do with what you look like at the beach. Glory to God. It means that God sees that same facility that the enemy says is condemned and unfit for use. And God goes, no, no, no, I don't think so.

Because of their faith in my son, Jesus Christ, that facility is not unfit for use. That facility, that body is worthy to be called my temple. I'm going to put my permanent residence inside of what the enemy says could never be used by God again. that the Spirit of God wants to make our home with Him. And think about it. It doesn't just say move in as is. That's not what you do when you make a home. What do you do when you make a home?

When you come in, you immediately begin to make changes, don't you? Some of them are minor. You're like, no, no, no, no, no, we're going to move the couch over. I know they had the TV there. We're not putting the TV there. That's dumb. We're going to put the TV on this while. You begin to make some changes.

And the people in your home, you make changes too. No, no, no, no, no. You're going to pick that up, put that away. And the Spirit of God begins to walk around your home and be like, we need, hey, listen, what's on the other side of this door? And you're like, well, I've had that closed since college. Well, we're going to get in there and not so I can condemn you, but so we can start cleaning this thing up.

And then sometimes it's not just a minor adjustment like we're going to change some paint color. Sometimes the Spirit of God comes in and says, in order for this to be home, we've got to take this wall out. We're going to chip and Joanne on this thing, all right? We're going to shiplap everywhere in your whole house. Now it's going to look like a mess for a minute. But then one day you're going to wake up and we're going to move that bus and then in your

house, it's going to be a totally new renovation because the Spirit of God is making a home inside of you. This is what he does. That's called sanctification, by the way. Verse 24, and whoever does not love me does not keep my words, and the word that you hear is not mine, but the fathers who sent me. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Next time you get convicted of sin, like you come to church and you're like, ooh, that was bad.

I need you to think that the Spirit of God is helping you. That's what that, that's help. That's help. When you ever learn anything from the Bible or ever anything from a sermon of mine, then you know that the Spirit of God is helping you understand the Word of God. I've told you this before.

I can expose you to the Scriptures. Give you the context, tell you what was happening historically and all of that. But only the Spirit of God can expose the scriptures to you. And Jesus promises that you have a helper, you have a teacher that's going to do that. So he helps us learn. Verse 27, peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. The Holy Spirit brings peace. And he doesn't bring it the way the world. brings it. The world at best can offer you circumstantial happy. That's the best this world has to offer. And there is circumstantial happy. There is, no doubt, man.

No doubt. If you've been Daniel fasting hard, go get you some ice cream and that's some circumstantial happy. I mean, don't tell me it ain't. It is. But when the circumstances change, the happy changes. And Jesus is saying, I'm depositing the Holy Spirit

and he's going to give you peace. Not like the world gives. because in Christ he promises, how about this? Paul says in the book of Philippians that he has learned the secret of being content in any situation. That's the work of the Spirit of God in you. That you could look at circumstances

that aren't happy that are not going in your way, but you know because of the Spirit of God deposited into your soul that one day, no matter how bad it is here, then nobody walks with a limp. And you go, I'm content. in any and every situation. Jesus says this,

come to me, all you who are weary and heavy burden. Anybody that? Let me tell you what will wear you out, chasing after happy your whole life. Because you have to manufacture all the circumstances all the time, and it will wear you out.

And he goes, anybody worn out from doing that? Let me tell you what else will wear you out. Religion. You know what religion is? Religion is when the spirit has left the building. It will wear you out. And Jesus says, is that you? come to me, all you who are weary and heavy burden, and I will give you rest.

And he goes on to say, I will give you rest for your soul. That the spirit of God in us as a gift from Jesus gives us a peace that transcends understanding. Paul's going to say it this way in Philippians chapter four. He's going to say, are you anxious? You worried? He says, be anxious for nothing. But by prayer and supplication, your request known to God.

Here's what that means, God, I need help. I need to help her. Make your request known to God. And the peace of God that transcends understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. How does he do that? He does that by the person of the Holy Spirit deposited in the life of the believer.

And then he says, you've heard me say to you, I'm going away, and I will come to you. If you love me, you would have rejoiced because I'm going to the Father for the Father. is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place so that when it does take place,

you may believe I will no longer talk much with you for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commended me so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go. He's saying, hey, boys, everything I've been talking about is about to go down.

Here's the point. The Holy Spirit helps us, comforts us, teaches us, empowers us, guarantees us. Ultimately, he, not it. He, the third person of the Trinity, points us to Jesus. J.I. Packer says the Holy Spirit isn't looking for the spotlight. He's running the spotlight and he always shines it on Jesus. And the Holy Spirit is so important that before Jesus ascended to the right hand of God the Father and he gives the great commission, therefore go and make disciples everywhere in the world. He says, but before you do any of it, you wait on the spirit.

Don't come up with a strategy. Don't start your TV ministry. Don't write a sermon. Don't write the Bible. Don't write a book. Before you do anything, you wait on the spirit. And so the disciples did. Jesus ascends to the right hand of God, the Father.

And it's on the day of Pentecost, and the disciples are huddling up, and they're celebrating Pentecost. And the Spirit of God falls on the disciples. and they began to speak all these different languages. And at Pentecost, Pentecost was like Georgia, Florida. Everybody came to it, man. All the people would show up. And Peter looks around filled with the spirit. And people are criticizing them.

They're like, these men are drunk. And who's going to talk first? He's going to talk most? Peter does. And Peter gets up and God uses the very thing that used to get him in trouble. And now it's an instrument of God's grace for people to hear the gospel. And Peter says, these men are not drunk. It's too early.

He didn't say they didn't drink. said it's kind of early for that. And then you can read your Bible. It's in Acts Chapter 2. And then he begins to unpack the prophet Joel and he begins to unpack some of the Psalms and he declares the gospel. He says Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, God the Father, sends his son, Jesus Christ, the author of life, and you killed him. You think I'm offensive. This is the sermon Peter preaches. You killed him. And he's the author of life, the Lamb of God. and the Bible says that these men and women that were hearing the sermon, they began to be cut to the heart.

And at the end of it, they come to Peter and they say, what must we do to be saved? And he says, repent. Put your faith in Jesus. And for anyone who would put their faith in Jesus, you will be given the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that day, in the very first church service in all of human history, 3,000 people surrendered their life,

to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and every single one of them were immersed in the Holy Spirit, and then they went down, they had these ceremonial baths at the bottom of the temple called a mikfa, and they were immersed in water to declare to the whole world that Jesus is our Lord. And that same spirit, the same spirit that brought Christ out of the grave, the same spirit that Jesus promised would comfort and convict and help and teach, that same spirit that fell on those believers, those men and women on the day of Pentecost, that same spirit resides or dwells within the heart of every single believer. Like today, you and me, Paul goes on to say in Romans chapter 8, the greatest chapter in all the Bible,

where he's talking about how you and I in Christ live out our life and how we live as more than conquerors over sin, 22 times in Romans chapter 8, Paul mentions the spirit. You think he's important? He only mentions the spirit 10 other times in all of the book in Romans. And in Romans chapter 8, he mentions the spirit of God 22 times, and he says this, so then brothers. We are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. live for all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father, the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Do you know how you know that you're a child of God? because the Spirit of God connects with your spirit and confirms that God is your father,

that His son Jesus is your brother, and the Spirit of God is your helper. Amen? Would you please stand and let us pray? Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit. God, please forgive us when one, we either overlook the gift, or two, we get more concerns with the gifts that we received instead of the gift that is the Holy Spirit. Spirit of God, we need your help. Spirit of God, we need you to comfort us.

We need you to convict us. We need you to teach us. We need you to remind us that it's not by works that we are saved. We need you to remind us that, therefore, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. we need you to remind us that we are children, sons and daughters of the Most High King. And Spirit, we thank you. We thank you, we thank you, that you do that in the life of every single believer. And we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Church, we respond by the power of the spirit. We pray. Roman says that when we don't know what to pray, the spirit helps us. So just get going and the spirit will help you. we bring our ties and offerings and we sing that the spirit of God in us wells up worship that we would cry out Abba Father so as we respond let us pray let us pray like the spirit of God is helping us pray and let us bring our first and our best like he is the greatest gift we have ever received

and let us sing come holy spirit come let's respond