Well good evening, welcome to Resonate. My name is Josh Martin and I'm one of the
pastors here and I'm excited you're here but I don't have very long so I want you
to grab your Bible if you have it and turn to John chapter 14 and we're just
gonna jump right into this tonight. John chapter 14 and as you're turning there
I'll let you know that we're in a sermon series this summer called Real Truth
Right Time where all the pastors are getting up and telling you something
from the scriptures that has affected their life in such a way that they'll
never be the same after this teaching and so throughout the summer you've heard
lots of different men get up here and tell you about this time in their life
met with this truth in their life and how it affected them forever and so
tonight we're gonna keep that going with this sermon so John 14 before I read
this to you I want you to imagine yourself as one of the disciples so Jesus
had 12 guys that spent three years with him and I want you to imagine yourself
as one of these men who Jesus is your best friend Jesus is your hero Jesus is
everything that you wanted and in the Savior and you love him and you were
for him and you guys spent every day together for three years and then I want
you to imagine that Jesus looks at you after three years the best three years
of your life looks at you and says I'm about to die I'm going to die and I'm
gonna leave you because that's what you do when you die you leave so I'm gonna
die and I'm going to leave you and now imagine that feeling that you would
feel that the loss of a best friend the loss of your closest connected
relationship and the one you love and the one you're serving and the one that
you thought was was possibly never gonna have to experience anything like this
so now imagine that feeling of loss and how troubled and how hurt and how beat
up you would feel and in that feeling if you've been able to imagine that with
me Jesus responds to his disciples in John 14 right in that moment so listen
to this in John 14 verse 1 it says let not your hearts be troubled this is
right after Jesus says he's gonna die let not your hearts be troubled believe in
God believe also in me but in my father's house there are many rooms if
we're not so I would have told you and I go prepare a place for you and if I go
and prepare a place for you I will come again and I will take you to myself for
where I am you may be also and you know the way that I am going and then just
take a break here Thomas says well Lord where you're going I don't know and then
in verse maybe you have this first memorized in verse 6 Jesus said to him
Thomas you're asking which way do I go Thomas I'm the way I'm the truth I'm
the life nobody gets to the father except through me so Jesus says he's
gonna die don't be troubled because here's why I'm going to prepare a place
for you that's engagement language these these men would have known when you tell
a woman I'm gonna go away for a while but I'm gonna prepare a place for you that
means we're in union I'm gonna come back and get you so number one that's
engagement language secondly Jesus says where I am going you can talk to me and
so as you go down a little bit longer Jesus starts to talk about prayer like
you can speak to me where I'm going and then the last thing he says is where I
'm going to go I'm going to come back and get you so that you can be there as
well and so much of this would have just been crazy for these people to believe
because they thought if I believe in God okay I'm cool with that but Jesus you
just said that now I can believe in you and you're God and you're gonna go to God
and make a place for me and I'm gonna go with you and they're like okay but I
thought God was one but you're God and also he's God and and God's God and
what else and so I'm trying to confuse you you ready and then it goes a step
further and this is where we're gonna stay tonight verse 15 after Thomas says
you know man how do I go there Jesus says I'm the way to get there verse 15
says this if you love me you will keep my commandments and I will ask the father
and he will give you another helper your translation may say advocate or
counselor to be with you forever verse 17 even the spirit of truth whom the
world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him but you know him
for he dwells with you and will be in you and I will not leave you as orphans
I will come to you yet a little while and the world will see me no more but you
will see me because I live you also will live so Jesus just said listen first
century mine my heart's broken Jesus is gonna go away he said if you believe in
God believe also in me I'm gonna prepare a place for you're gonna be there but
also listen to this I have walked besides you for a while but I'm going to
send someone the verse 17 says in the spirit of truth is his name
helpers his name counselors his name and and it will listen to this it will not
be next to you or besides you but this will be in you he will be with you
forever and will be in you scripture says and so this is Jesus ushering in
this new idea in the Old Testament God the Father was prominent in the
Gospels God the Son is prominent from the book of Acts till current day which
the scripture calls the last days the Holy Spirit the helper the advocate the
one that Jesus is talking about is prominent so Old Testament God the
Father prominent the others still there still working just there's
prominence the Gospel Jesus prominent the Holy Spirit doing work God the Father
doing work new covenant new story of God we are now in the spirit of the
Holy Spirit is now working prominently so much so listen to this that the
living God who created everything that made a way for us to know him does not
simply walk beside us does not simply lead us and talk to us externally but
rather Christ just told his disciples I will send someone to be in you that the
spirit of the living God would dwell in you friends that should not make you
yawn tonight that the spirit of the living God is in you that it dwells
within you and and this is while we are in the human body we should marvel in
this truth the spirit of the living God is in us so tonight I want to talk to
you about the Holy Spirit I want to talk to you about a process of what it means
to follow the spirit how to connect with the spirit the work of the spirit and
that's why I say this is an impossible task so in order to do that I want to
tell you two quick things first and then we're gonna jump right in so if you have
notes and you want to take notes now will be the time to pull that out but as
we talk about the Holy Spirit the two overarching truths that I feel like we
have to get across first and foremost is this the first truth is that the Holy
Spirit is a person not an impersonal force so the Holy Spirit is not the wind
the Holy Spirit is not energy the Holy Spirit is not hope the Holy Spirit is
not love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness self-control that
is not the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is a he you can grieve him you can hurt
him you can listen to him you can be rebuked by him or rebuke him which is
not a good thing so the Holy Spirit is not energy or power he is something you
cannot grieve energy you cannot disobey power you cannot say to the wind
something that hurts the wind or affects the wind but rather the Holy Spirit is a
person and this should affect us and the second truth is the Holy Spirit is God
not a creation of God the Holy Spirit is a part of the Trinity the Holy Spirit is
God not just a creation of God and he has some fundamental work that you and I
have got to get around tonight here's why I tell you this so my story is that I
grew up in church in two settings when I became a Christian at age 13 I would go
to a southern Baptist church in the morning and then because my mom liked
it I would go to a very non-denominational charismatic let's get after it kind of
church in the evening you following similarly will be vague up here on
purpose okay so in the morning the Trinity was God the Father God the Son and
God the Holy Bible in the morning because God the Holy Spirit I don't know
enough about him we can't invite the Spirit to do some things so so in the
morning the Spirit was not doing things in our church that you would read in the
Bible the Spirit is supposed to do so God the Father God the Son and God the
Bible in the morning and night it was God the Father God the Son and God the
Holy Ghost you familiar with the ghost that those are interchangeable that's
fine we can call him the ghost tonight but I'm saying the ghost in the evening
would do things that I didn't see in the Bible so in the morning stuff was
supposed to happen that didn't happen that I saw in the Bible and at night
things were happening that I didn't see in the Bible and made me feel weird and
so this is how I grew up I'm like man what is the Spirit just like not here
and it's the Spirit crazy over here like where where in the world are we
supposed to land on this because I believe these people open the Bible and
teach it I believe these people open the Bible and teach it but the Holy Ghost
and the Holy Bible man this is this is getting crazy for me so so I would tell
you this that that affected me a little bit I was thoroughly confused I was
jaded I started to think things were fake and foolish and I started to be
judgmental towards one church and judgmental towards the other church and
so in the middle of that I found myself desiring to meet with the Holy Spirit
but couldn't figure out what the Holy Spirit was what he did and in light of
that listen church the biggest sin of my whole life has been my neglect of the
Holy Spirit the greatest sin in my life has been my personal neglect of the Holy
Spirit prompting me leading me fashioning me moving me I have rebuked
the Spirit I've rejected the Spirit I've grieved the Spirit I've not followed the
Spirit's promptings I've gone my own way hundreds upon hundreds of times
because I did not know what to do with the Spirit I thought that can't be the
Spirit because of this teaching or the Spirit has to lead everything so I
need to like pray for my car before I start my car because the Holy Spirit can
start my car right it's like no keys start your car because we're on earth and
this is normal and God designed it that way so there was a big big miss disconnect
for me a lot of mistrust a lot of times where I just ran past the Spirit or
didn't trust the Spirit to chase the Spirit and so I have in so many ways
missed it and neglected it and it is the largest sin that I've walked in it is
not doing what the Holy Spirit asked me to do so in John chapter 14 I wanted to
set it up by saying Jesus ushered in the Holy Spirit and you and I need to take
a look at that and you and I need to figure that out because may we not walk
over here where the Spirit's not a part of it and may we not walk over here where
the Spirit's not even following the Bible so if you have your Bibles stay with
me turn with me to 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 and we're gonna look at the
work of the Spirit and 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 we're gonna say God what are
we supposed to do in light of the Holy Spirit how are we supposed to follow
what are we supposed to to learn and live in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 I
want I want to frame to you how Paul talks about the Spirit in verse 7 we
read this now if the ministry of death carved in letters of stone this is this
is Moses getting the Tink amendments that's called the ministry of death in
other words these are the rules you can't follow them you're gonna die it's as
quick as I can say it the ministry of death right Moses went up to get the
law that would lead to people realizing they should die if the ministry of death
carved in letters of stone came with such glory the ministry of death came with
such glory that that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses's face because of
its glory which was been brought to an end will not I love this transition I
love this this parallel will not the ministry of the Spirit have even the
same glory did you catch that he said Moses came down with the law and had to
cover his face for a while because people couldn't even look at him and he
was bringing a word of death to the people so that they might hope for a
future savior but there was a word of death handed in that so so wouldn't the
work of the Spirit have even more glory verse 9 for if there was glory in the
ministry of condemnation the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in
glory righteousness that's the work of Jesus in us indeed in this case what
once had glory has come to have no glory at all so what used to be the law and
these rules it used to have glory but doesn't have glory anymore because of
that glory there's been another glorious surpassed it verse 11 for if what was
being brought to an end came with glory much more will have more glory coming
on so I'm gonna keep going here verse 12 it says this since we have such a hope
we are being bold not like Moses who would put a veil over his face with the
Israelites might not gaze but being brought to an end but their minds having
been hardened but their minds having been hard for to this day when you read the
Old Covenant the same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ
has it taken away yes to this day whenever Moses has read a veil lies
over their hearts so listen to this this is this is gonna get spiritual if
you're a non-believer in the room we're talking about the Holy Spirit tonight so
this might feel a little different and it should because if it doesn't we're not
doing it right so this should feel a little different you should you should
understand what we're saying this should be sensible to you but this might not
feel sensitive to you this might not feel like wow this is speaking directly to
me so listen to this when the law is read when the scriptures read there's a
veil over their heart but when one turns to the Lord the veil is removed now the
Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there's freedom so so when
the Spirit of the Lord comes to your heart where there's a veil holding you
captive where the Spirit of the Lord is there's freedom so that veil cannot stand
a chance against the Spirit so this is good news and we all with unveiled faces
behold the glory of the Lord we are being transformed into the same image from
one degree of glory to another we are being transformed into the likeness of
Christ from one degree of glory to the other for this comes from the Lord who
is the Spirit so I have three things that the Holy Spirit does based on second
Corinthians chapter 3 number one the Holy Spirit makes us holy the Holy
Spirit's job is to make us holy God could have a multitude of names he could
have been the friend spirit the joyful spirit the kind spirit the father's
spirit the loving spirit the joy already said joy what other spirits there are
ready go the fruitful spirit the love joy peace patience kind of all of these
spirits he could have been but no no God named himself holy I'm the Holy Spirit
so the work of the Holy Spirit is to make us holy now I'm gonna say it in a
sentence God forgives us because Jesus justified us and the Spirit sanctifies
us God forgives us because Jesus justified us and the Spirit sanctifies
us what Christ accomplished made us right with God but the Holy Spirit does
not come in and work in us and sanctify us and remove the veil day after day
after day then we never understood the justification and therefore we're never
forgiven by God that's significance God forgives because Jesus justified
because the Spirit sanctified he is in the mix do not forget him do not say I'm
justified that's fine you are not justified if you are not sanctified and
walking in the justification that leads to the forgiveness did you catch that
that that's significant that not now don't get your sanctification mixed up
with your justification we've talked about this just because you walk in
behavior modification doesn't mean your hearts actually had the veil removed so
we can fake it but God forgives us because Jesus justified us and the
Spirit sanctified us the definition of holiness is being like Jesus so the
Spirit's job is to make us holy so the Spirit's job is to make us like Jesus
the Spirit pushes us to be like Jesus this might sound really weird to you but
the Holy Spirit loves Jesus the Holy Spirit loves Jesus like could not I
could not explain to you how much he loves Jesus so much so that the central
emblem or icon of the Christian faith it's a cross it's not a dove and the
Holy Spirit loves it he loves it it's a cross because he looks at the cross and
says it was on the cross that Christ justified them and went into the grave
and that's when it was my turn and Romans chapter 8 says the power the Holy
Spirit's power that raised Christ from the dead the Holy Spirit said what
happened in the tomb that was me so so what happened in the tomb happened in
your chest what rolled away that day that stone that moved away that was the
work of the Holy Spirit the veil that moved off your heart that was the work
of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit loves that the symbol is the cross friends
the only unforgivable sin is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit it's it's
I'm gonna give it to you in a definition so I don't mess this up the
unforgivable sin well we'll have this on the screen of the blasphemy against the
Holy Spirit is an act of resistance which belittles the Holy Spirit so
grievously so grievously that he withdraws forever with his convicting
power so that we were never there we will never be able to repent and be
forgiven so the only sin that God will not forgive it's not cussing it's not
any of these hot topic social issues you want to make it's not suicide none of
these are these sin that God will not free the sin that God will not forgive
is us not allowing the Holy Spirit to remove that veil is us living so
grievously towards him that ultimately we will never repent and we will never
be forgiven the opposite of that listen is the Holy Spirit wants us to be like
Jesus pushes us to be holy therefore the Holy Spirit hates our sin therefore the
Holy Spirit hated that we were blasphemers of him and he made us no
longer blasphemers of him did you catch that he hates our sin and made us
overcome that first unforgivable sin and now it is his joy to push us out of
sin more like Christ the Holy Spirit's job is to make us holy we were born
again because the Holy Spirit came into us and bore us again you and I would be
dead in our sin if it went on for the Holy Spirit you and I have no power on
our own to conjure up in us energy to want to follow Christ you and I have to
have the Holy Spirit's power pulling us out of the sin that condemned us in the
first place that was against him so he rescued us from a sin that was against
him to make us like Christ so that God would forgive us I love this this is
exciting for me this is this is the work of the Holy Spirit he wants to make us
like Jesus who is holy second thing the Holy Spirit leads us and how he does
that is he communicates us communicates to us to lead us now I mentioned this
earlier but some people get really weird when it comes to the Holy Spirit like I
went to a Christian college so I know these people hey man you want it you
want to go to the rec center after after class yeah let me pray about it I see
what the Spirit says about going to the rec center after class now this isn't
because like they had some other ministry and they like were weighing all
these decisions and things were actually going in their life the Spirit cared
about it was you need to go to the gym and I'm inviting you and you need to
pray about that like you've met these people where everything is almost weird
it's like I hang on a minute the Holy Spirit is talking to me it's like do
you got do you have like do you have one of those weird things on your ear that I
can't see happening right now because you know those look weird right just hold
your phone it's better for both of us just hold your phone is that how you in
the Spirit do this do you have this little side earpiece thing with the
Spirit so the Spirit desires to lead you but but in some of these places we've
let me say it like this we have both trivialized the Spirit and way over
estimated what the Spirit should be desired to have word in so in other
words there's times where it's like where do I go to lunch and we got asked the
Holy Spirit that's that's really trivial and borderline foolish and there's these
other times where we're like trying to seek out the things of the Lord and we
kind of say I don't think the Holy Spirit would care about that no we
probably would and so the Holy Spirit's desire is to communicate us communicate
to us to lead us so so I'll say it like this your life and my life they're
direct reflections of the voices that we listen to your life and my life are
direct reflections of the voice we listen to if you have a baby in America and
you speak English long enough they will grow up speaking English right now no
one is teaching kids in China to speak Chinese they're just speaking Chinese
you are a collection you are a model you're resembling what you grew up in
so you are listening to voices and reflecting those voices you are a
sum total of voices who you give your ear to matters who you give your eyes to
matters who you allow influence in words of influence into your life that's
stuff matters so if that is socially true how much more so should that be true
when it comes to us hearing from following the words of the Spirit so
else I'll ask you how how often do you give ear to the Spirit how often do you
sit alone not busy song Psalm 46 is be still and know that I'm God I'll be
exalted among the nations be be still how often do you sit still and say say
spirit will you speak to me I want to wait patiently on you want to hear you
because I have a lot of voices going on in the Old Testament there's a story of
Elisha the prophet wanting to hear from God so much so that the Bible tells you
how he sits he sits and puts his hands over his ears and his head between his
knees he doesn't want to hear the other voices it's like God I need to hear from
you you and I need to be listening to the Holy Spirit I need to be asking the
Holy Spirit Holy Spirit what songs do you want to sing at Resonate Church what
do you want us to preach through next year at Resonate Church you know better
than I do I have the blinders on I'm in this little moment if I had coffee
today that affects my whole life so like I cannot be trusted so I don't know the
future I don't know what's coming next I could imagine planning five years worth
of content or five years worth of this you Holy Spirit you can see the big
picture could you please speak to me about that would you tell me what's
coming would you lead me into where you want me to go would you speak to me in
such a way that I know it's your voice the Holy Spirit friends has
intelligence that you and I could never get to in 1st Corinthians if you want
to write this down in 1st Corinthians chapter 2 verse 2 it says the Holy
Spirit seeks out the things of God and the things of you and tries to connect
the dots the Holy Spirit seeks out the things of God and his spirit knows your
spirit and tries to tell you things to prompt you so in other words what God
told you a couple years ago may not be what God wants to tell you today because
the Lord is seeking out the things that are bigger than us to speak to us the
Lord wants to speak to us and I would say it's a little bit bigger than do you
want to go to the rec center this afternoon I think you and I are longing
for purpose and the Holy Spirit's longing to communicate that to you I think you
and I are longing for calling you and I are longing for answers and the Holy
Spirit is longing to communicate to that you to you just you need to sit in that
you need to be patient that you need to open the scriptures and say Holy Spirit
speak to me a non-believer can pick up this book it brews books and it does
nothing for them but a believer with an unveiled heart picks up this book and
allegedly according to this book it comes to life and the life of a
believer that the your heart and the heart of this book come together in the
very spiritual word illumination that you are illuminate the words literally
come off the page but not literally right but I use literally wrongly sorry
about that so they they're not gonna come off the page but but the words
would metaphorically come off the page and affect us they would affect us the
spirit wants to speak to you through his word he wants to speak to you through
the church he wants to speak to you through prayer he wants to speak to you
through accountability through village he wants to speak to you the question is
are you and I listening would you even know his voice anymore has he been
prompting you for so long and you've been shutting it down for so long that
when he speaks you're you're not sure because you're you're you're brilliant
at second-guessing you're brilliant at saying surely not surely you didn't
really want me to do that the Holy Spirit will give you a long view of your life
and then he will prompt you to share the gospel at a coffee shop on the spot
randomly you have to walk with him you have to know his voice you have to be
inclined to him you have to be ready for him you have to say Holy Spirit I dare
you to drop a word today something ready for that word I'm gonna go to the
store and I got one ear listening because I'm not weird I'm gonna listen to
people that's normal there's no earpiece in this year but metaphorically not
literally metaphorically I'm gonna be listening to you and I want you to speak
to me because I need you to lead me I need you to communicate to me the last
thing the Holy Spirit does and listen there's we could preach on this a year
but I picked three things so the last thing the Spirit does is the Holy Spirit
comforts and counsels and empowers the Holy Spirit wants to change us and he
changes us by comforting us by counseling us by convicting us by moving
us forward by inviting us into more by pulling us out of things we shouldn't
be in and he wants to lead us and empower us the Holy Spirit gives us
boldness the Holy Spirit should give you an immense amount of boldness where you
walk in scenarios and you don't have to fear like everyone else fears because the
Holy Spirit is emboldening you and empowering you friends the New Testament
was really kicked off by the Gospels and then Jesus gives over a message and
11 men in the Holy Spirit changed the world and there's power in those guys
you cannot read the book of Acts and not see that these men walked in power and
if you know the book of Acts you know Jesus said you don't get to leave until
the Holy Spirit comes because if I let you guys go this won't take very long
and we're gonna be in trouble but I'm Jesus so I know stuff so I'm gonna wait
and tell you to wait till the Holy Spirit comes and the Holy Spirit's gonna
empower you and Peter the guy that betrayed didn't betray me but like
disowned me three times and I called him back Peter you're gonna be the guy
that preaches the sermon the Holy Spirit's gonna blow that place up there's
gonna be three thousand even five thousand you don't have time I'm Jesus
I'm gonna get out of here but I'm gonna send you the Spirit and it's gonna be
incredible the Holy Spirit's gonna affect you so much so listen to this so
much so that if you were to take the life of a person not walking with the
Holy Spirit and a person walking with the Holy Spirit there would be
evidential difference and you eleven men are gonna walk with evidential
difference and evidential power and evidential insight and evidential
intelligence and evidential leading and they put your life up against other
leaders life or even other world religion life whatever you men are gonna
stand apart and everybody that receives your message is gonna stand apart then
Paul's gonna come along and teach us and he's gonna stand apart the whole the
word holy means set apart it means you're different God says my name is the
Holy Spirit it means I'm not like everybody else I'm different I'm set
apart I'm consecrated I'm not like them I'm separated from them I'm not like
every brother every other story you and I are supposed to walk in that Holy
Spirit supposed to comfort us honestly I think we're just already pretty
comfortable so the Holy Spirit doesn't have to do much of that we're just like
man I'm doing fine you know to come for me my whole life's about comfort these
are walking in obedience you start walking out of comfort then you go hey
Holy Spirit remember when you said you were the comforter can I get some of
that now because you've been pushing me out of some comfort when you come for
me Holy Spirit counsels he internally counsels us he says don't go that way go
this way listen to me let me let me lead you according the Holy Spirit empowers
you the Holy Spirit convicts you so when you're walking into a situation you
start being tempted to do things you shouldn't do the Holy Spirit's trying
as best to cut you off and to push you to be more like Jesus so friends there
should be things that happen in your life that are unexplainable because of the
Holy Spirit that there should be once a month what I don't want to give a time
to it but there should be season stuff happening in your life where you can
tell some stories and it kind of takes you a while to tell that story because
you're laughing crying during the hell like you're not gonna believe what just
happened there needs to be stuff in your life that your talent cannot explain
there's to be things in your life that happen that your gifting simply could
not accomplish you and I are gifted you and I are talented you and I are upper
class of the mind and of the life social structures and whatever in planet
earth I hear the 1% stuff all the time but there needs to be stuff happening in
our midst in this church in this city that people look at and go they're not
talented enough for that there's no gifting that could do that something's
going on there that's unexplainable something's going on there that's
powerful there should be things happening in us it cannot be faked it
cannot be manipulated and borderline that they cannot be reproduced because it
was so crazy it happened in you and you're like nothing else could have done
this guys I could not reproduce this with a good movie or a good story a
rocky theme song or whatever like nothing could have done in me what that
just did in me and I don't think I'll be the same ever again in the New Testament
the Holy Spirit is quite often compared to alcohol or it says don't be drunk on
wine but be filled with the spirit you know what you know being drunk on wine
does it changes your speech changes your actions it changes the way you walk the
way you talk the way you live the way you view the world it affects everything
about your decisions and the writers of the New Testament go yeah yeah like that
but just the spirit so have your speech affected have your life affected have
your walk affected have your decisions affected have everything affected so much
so that it's a holistic change they could not be explained and then when
someone says what happened to you you can explain to them the power of the
Holy Spirit removing the veil from your heart and empowering you to walk in a
life that could never be explained so in this church there needs to be stuff that
happens it cannot be explained in your family there needs to be stuff that
happens they could not be explained my hunch is that you and I know about the
Holy Spirit and that some of you go man okay I've already heard all this Josh my
hunch is that you know this but you don't want to be very honest about
whether or not you're walking in this my hunch is that we know a lot about this
but you and I are rarely tapping into the internal indwelling of the living God
inside of us desiring to move us affect us change us and motivate us there it
needs to be in us this overwhelming constant sense that I am never alone
because the Holy Spirit's inside of me that I'm being pushed to holiness point
number one he makes me holy point number two I am being led because he
communicates to me so ground zero I'm never alone never he puts someone
inside I'm never alone guys I don't know what you're doing in the room when
you're looking at the thing but you're not alone in there there's there's a
spirit in there working you trying to push you out you're not alone never alone
always trying to push you into holiness always trying to lead you always trying
to guide you always trying to communicate with you and lastly in the heartbreak of
life in the heroic moments of life he is there to counsel to comfort to empower
to embolden to make you and I strong so that we might walk like Jesus walked
here on the earth and that's available to you right now right now that's
happening in you there are things happening in you right now that are
unimaginable the Holy Spirit has rescued you from things in your life that are
unimaginable and I pray church I pray that you are not like me and you do not
have to say man my biggest sin is my blatant neglect of the Holy Spirit in
my life I pray that that's not you and I pray that tonight when the band comes
out and sings you know what I love about tonight there's there's like there's no
kick drum to emotionally engage you there's not even there's two lights up
here way to go resonate right we just came in and said the Holy Spirit of
God should motivate you enough Danny go get him we should be motivated we should
be internally affected and tomorrow morning when we wake up we should
recognize that we're not alone we should recognize that we're being pushed into
holiness we're being communicated to we're being led we're being in power for
being embolden we're being comforted we're being counseled if you were to
take the amount of time that you and I spend looking at and reading our Bible
plus the amount of time you and I spend with our heads down praying or even if
you walk and pray whatever if you were to take the amount of time that you and
I read the Bible and pray and then do the math of that for the whole of your
life I bet you less than three to four or five percent of your life less than
five percent of your life is spent praying and reading the Bible less than
five percent of our Christian lives will be sent spent praying reading the Bible
or in a worship service I'll throw that in if you're disagreeing with me right
now I don't think more than five percent of our life is spent worshiping praying
reading the Bible the other 95 percent of our life is to be spent with the
Spirit I'm talking about your life here this is how you and I functionally walk
in the justification of Christ walk in God's forgiveness and go about being
changed and sanctified the five percent of our life to spend praying and reading
the Bible praise God for that but the Spirit of God saying don't leave me out
of this I'm the rest of the story I'm the rest of the story of the gospel being
worked out in you so that you might be empowered churches to share the story
with others so I can continue to rip the veil off of hearts in your city and in
this world this is significant I hope you get it I hope you're encouraged tonight
I hope that this ignites something inside of you with the Holy Spirit goes
hey he's not lying he may not be doing a great job talking about me but he's not
lying when we were backstage we were praying before the service Rachel who's
leading worship tonight when we got done praying she said Josh when we were
praying I had a vision of like politicians and different motivating
speakers who get up and they try to affect change and then then while we were
praying I kind of saw that and then the Holy Spirit just spoke to me and said
those people will never change them like I could so how the Holy Spirit affects
change is when we open the word and speak to you about it and you allow him
to do what he does which is remove the veil and do work in you so I don't I
don't know where your art tonight but I pray that none of us would walk out and
live this next week or this next month neglecting the Holy Spirit so I'm gonna
pray for us the band's gonna come out and sing a little bit more and I want to
invite you just to take an inward look of where you're at with the Spirit would
you invite the Spirit to affect you to move in you to do things in you and then
would you respond and worship you know why would we worship if we worked for
our salvation the Holy Spirit did that so why don't we worship saying thank you
for doing that thank you for doing what I could never do so Father tonight I
pray for our church I pray that your Holy Spirit would be so evident tonight
God I pray you would affect change in us you would empower us you'd embolden us
you'd push us towards holiness if there's stuff in our life where we're
not walking like Jesus walked Lord pull that away push us out of that God if we
need to be communicated to if we need to be led tonight then God communicate to
us Holy Spirit communicate to us lead us give us a new word help us tonight to
get something and lastly would we feel encouraged and convicted and counseled
and empowered tonight God and Holy Spirit of God if there are people in
this room who still have a veil over their heart then I beg you to remove the
veil what would you speak to them in such a way that they could not resist would
you show them your love towards them would you reveal to them what Christ
accomplished and would you pull them into the love of the Father Holy Spirit
remove the veil and affect the rest of us as we worship we need you desperately
so I pray you would be here and we would not give you a shoulder shrug we would
not give you a yawn but we would give you our hearts I pray that in Jesus name
amen
