The Time Has Come | Week 5

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And now, here is this week's message.

I didn't use the title of this series as often as I use the name titles.

We probably always spend too much time thinking of a title.

But I'm gonna just circle back here.

So we we called this the time has come.

The time has come.

Is that what I called it?

Okay.

So the time has come, the last supper, the beginning of everything.

So all of that's kind of all that kind of matters when Jesus begins this discourse in the Last Supper with the disciples.

He begins it with the the time has come.

Now what time what time is that?

Well, the time from the beginning.

I mean, this is Genesis 3 coming time, um, that the time has come.

You're looking thousands of years uh of in the making, and and then with that kind of pronouncement, okay, time's come.

And I just wanted to use the the juxtaposition of the terms kind of last supper with the beginning of everything for just a little to characterize what God does with what think we think are endings.

That that there's there's always a beginning after what we think is an ending.

And so some things are endings, right?

There are things that are endings, and there's some things that we perceive as ending, but God brings beginnings, and and so even though he's drawing one era, epoch of history to a close, and then even kind of this face-to-face relationship with the disciples, he's bringing that to a close.

It's not an ending, it's a beginning.

That's why we spent all these weeks here in this discourse.

Um, the first Passover was a bridge event, meaning there was 430 years of Egyptian Egyptian slavery that abruptly ended in one evening.

Abruptly.

Abruptly meaning that it wasn't anticipated, wasn't expected.

And then just as unexpected was um how awkward the freedom that the Hebrews were going to experience.

Um they didn't know, they only knew captivity.

There were there wasn't anybody in their family alive that was able to express to them what it was like as this nation is evolving.

That they only know slavery.

And so this thought occurred to me that freedom in Christ is always a bit awkward at first, but awkwardly free sure beats consistently captive.

And so when when you when you come to a new relationship with Christ, it's awkward.

There, there's there's so much that you don't know, so much you can't put into words, so much that it's difficult to explain.

And you're you're a new person, and yet you're kind of the old person, and and and you're and you're trying, it's it's it's an awkward, it's an awkward season.

And um, but what brings you around to well, this is all new, and I don't know what to do with all of this, the the thought of, but I don't want to be like that.

I don't want to be in that life anymore.

What characterized me as who I was, I I want that person long gone.

Even though I don't know all of what this is, I I I know this isn't that, and I'm gonna stick with this.

And also say that anytime we enter a new season of life, it's awkward.

Sometimes it's good that the old's gone, sometimes not.

But whatever becomes new, whatever becomes different, it's awkward.

It's not easy to walk in.

Um, and I I think this is kind of the heart in which um we find this last section of this discourse um with the disciples.

Um four days after this particular day in history, right?

So this is Palm Sunday.

So this is the day in history.

Well, two two things happened on this day in history.

One, that the um uh Hebrew families would set aside the lamb that would be sacrificed for their Passover that week.

So this was the day that the family took that lamb and set it aside.

And then then historically, then this is the day that Jesus enters into Jerusalem.

Um two shouts of Hosanna, which is kind of a it's kind of a mixed bag.

Um, the the phrase meant save us now.

So you say that's appropriate.

The Messiah is entering into the city, that's appropriate, just they don't know what they're saying, really.

I mean, everything is on high alert, everything is tense that particular Passover.

Um, we'll find that Jesus in his discourse, they're tense, they're anxious, they they don't know what they know something is coming to a close, or they know something's gonna happen, but they don't know what.

And then the people, the commoners, they they they knew they knew there was something going on.

There was something about this guy that they couldn't put their finger on, but they knew something was gonna happen.

And they're what they want to happen is they want to be saved, right?

They they don't want to be um a Roman-occupied um territory.

The religious elite knew something was wrong.

They knew something was up, they didn't know really what to do with it either, right?

So that's why they're wanting to kind of tap down all the excitement because um the excitement just brought them attention that they didn't want brought to them.

They they were comfortable in how things were.

Jesus was going to disturb the equilibrium.

Anybody know that to be true?

Jesus disturbs the equilibrium, right?

Um so Israel didn't know what was going on, Rome didn't know what was going on, the disciples really don't know what was going on, and then Jesus comes in.

And then so four days later is then when he gathers privately with the disciples, the twelve to begin with, as his friends.

These are his friends.

He calls them his friends.

He knows all of the disruption, but he knows what's on the other side of that.

And so he sits with them during this time, he sits with them, so that he can talk them through what exactly is going to take place and how it's going to impact them and what provisions he's making for them.

That that's in essence the discourse, the reason behind the discourse.

And so we we find ourselves um, well, the the the disciples were that they were they were caught between two worlds.

Okay.

So um they they know they know that they they've spent enough time with Jesus that they don't want to go back to their old their old life.

Okay.

Um, they don't want to integrate back into the old religious system.

Jesus had changed them for all that.

But they were caught between two worlds.

This world fell woefully short of their hopes and dreams, and God's future kingdom was still too fuzzy to grasp.

Does that sound familiar?

That if you live any length of time with Jesus, you realize that this world and what it offers and what it does, it just is gonna, it's just gonna come up short.

It's not gonna deliver everything that you want, um, everything that you'd hoped for, everything you dreamed of.

But yet this future world, the future kingdom with Christ is just still a little fuzzy.

It's kind of it's kind of trying to pick up water.

I d how do I do this?

And and and so that tension of I don't want to go back the old way, but I don't know what the new way holds.

I just want to set that up for you.

That that that is that I think that is the posture and the emotion of which they're going to hear Jesus and what we've talked about for several weeks that we're gonna end today.

Um, you find it in John 14.

We're gonna we're gonna go verses 12 through 20.

We're gonna skip a question by another disciple because it it just seems that Jesus' answer just seems confusing where where we're trying to what I'm trying to piece together today.

And then um verses 25 through 27.

So if you brought your Bibles, you can turn there.

You can also read it on the screen.

It says, Very, very, very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they would do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father, and I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

If you love me, keep my commands, and I'll ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth.

The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him.

But you know him, for he lives with you and will be, and will be in you.

I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.

Before long the world will not see me any more, but you will see me.

Because I live, you also will live.

On they on that day you will realize that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you.

Verse 25.

All this I have spoken while I am still with you.

But the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you.

My peace I give you.

I do not give you as the world gives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid.

And with a few other words, the chapter ends by Jesus saying, Come now, let us go.

And then chapters 15 and 16 and 17 of John's gospel actually continues on in Jesus' teaching, um, in probably a very familiar, a very familiar way.

Jesus is walking and talking with them, and they will leave where they are, they'll cross the Kidron Valley, they'll they'll go up to the Mount of Olives, and there's where the Garden of Gethsemane is, and this is where we find the end of Jesus' earthly life in the sense of this is where he's arrested and everything begins.

All right, but we're gonna we're gonna concentrate on the the teaching that he gives still while he was with them in the room.

So the center of this passage is I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.

Um it's this promise that Jesus bases his admonition, don't let your heart be troubled and do not be afraid.

What did I say last week that he's telling you, don't let your trouble trouble you, right?

So there's an acknowledgement that there's trouble.

But the reason why he can say, Don't let your heart be troubled, um, and is because I, even though I'm leaving, I am not leaving you as an orphan.

It could be translated, I'm not leaving you desolate, I'm not leaving you empty-handed, I'm not leaving you stranded, I'm not leaving you to your own accord, I'm not leaving you to fend for yourself.

All right, this is what he's communicating.

I'm not going to just leave you by yourself on your own.

Now, the disciples would have grown up in two conflicting worlds around orphan and orphan care.

In the Hebrew world, if um if you had a child and both you and your spouse died, there was laws and practice where a family member would receive the child.

Okay?

And so so if it if it wasn't going to be done just in normal practice, there was Jewish laws that had to be followed in the care of that child.

Now, by that child being in the family, even though it's an extended family, the child still has a history.

Child still has an identity, the child has a security in the moment and has a secure future.

That was the world that they grew up in around orphans.

But they also grew up in the Roman world.

Right?

So Rome would have been occupying Jerusalem for about a hundred years now, and they would have seen and would have known about how the Romans dealt with orphans, that children could be left abandoned in a public place, and that was legal.

It's legal, it was normal that a child would be just taken, dropped off, public place, and then leave.

In fact, the Christian church begins gaining its kind of reputation by the fact that they were the ones who would go and retrieve these kids and put them into their homes.

That's one of the first ways that the early church was recognized was, oh, well, the Christians will get them.

Okay?

And so, so so there you got to know that all this stuff is swimming in their minds, all of this history, all of the all of this knowledge, the tension of you've told us now that you're going away, right?

I mean, Jesus says it multiple, multiple times, I'm going away, I'm going away, I'm going away.

So all the emotion is very heightened in the room.

And so this is why then I think he then will ext he extends this to them that yes, I I am going, but I'm not gonna leave you by yourself.

You will not be desolate on your own, fend for yourself, no identity, no future, no security.

I am going, I am going, but I'm not gonna leave you in that manner.

Um, I will ask the Father, he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.

All those are important.

Another.

This person is going to be not just like me, another person identical to me.

Any twins?

Are there any twins in the room?

Any twins?

You know, so forever, like I probably still couldn't call your names out right now because I have to get real close.

Because what when we have twins of the church, I have to pay particular attention, right?

Because I haven't met a twin yet that if you knew how to tell them apart, right, you could tell them apart.

And and and Jesus isn't saying, I'm gonna send one that looks a lot like me.

I'm I'm gonna send someone just like me, not a representative.

This is God has appeared to you in the flesh, and God will descend on you in the spirit.

Another everything that you have received from me, you will receive from him.

Every assurance that you've needed from me, you will receive from him, another advocate.

The Greek's difficult to translate, the Greek is paracleat.

I always remember growing up because I've I had a number of cleats.

And they always made me more stable.

I right, I could run faster in my cleats.

Um comforter is a word to choose, but it's it's not so much comforter meaning, oh, it's gonna be okay.

Although that's it too.

It carries it carries a legal connotation to it.

Someone that can step in the gap.

Um comforter, counselor, helper, helper, not as an apprentice, helper, helper as the person strong and mighty, um just like him.

And then forever, don't overlook the word.

Forever.

There will be there will be no time in which the spirit won't be with you.

There will be no circumstance that gets between you and this advocate.

There will be no time gap between you and the advocate.

He will be with you.

There's no expiration date for when the spirit will not be with you as I've been with you.

I will send, I will ask the Father, he will send another advocate.

I believe God's three biggest promises in scripture are salvation, heaven, and the forever presence of the Holy Spirit.

Now, the person and work of the Holy Spirit was not um foreign to the disciples.

They they would have had an understanding in Genesis where the scripture says that the spirit hovered over the waters.

That from the spirit then comes life.

They would have had an understanding of the spirit coming on certain people at certain times for certain things.

That the old throughout the Old Testament, that's how the Holy Spirit showed up on a prophet, on a prophet bringing a prophecy.

The Holy Spirit would come on someone.

Um, even as interesting enough, as artisans.

So the the people who were um in charge of all the ornate elements of even the uh even before the temple, but for the tabernacle.

This it says that the spirit would come on them, and then they would have this creative gift in order to make the temple to be exactly in which how God had ordained it and called it out to be in specifics.

They were familiar with that.

They were familiar with that.

They would have been familiar with Ezekiel's prophecy that reads, um, where'd it go?

34, 26 to 27.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.

I will remove from you your heart of stone, I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit in you, and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

But the interesting thing now is they would not experience the in you until the day of Pentecost, fifty some days later.

They understood on you.

They they didn't quite get yet in you, and yet this is what he's promising.

He's promised it as far back as Ezekiel is that I'm gonna take that old stone heart out of you, I'm gonna put a flesh heart in you, and my spirit will be and live in you.

It's a whole lot difference of somebody doing something right where it's on you and someone in you.

This is why he's talking about forever.

Um, but when when Jesus is beginning this, so that I took that orphan thing out of the middle.

When you go to the front part of that of the discourse that I'm reading, Jesus alludes to the scope and the gravity of the work of the Spirit when he introduces him as that greater works than these will you do.

Greater works with these will you do.

Um it's uh they they were familiar with the works of Jesus, right?

They would have seen Jesus encounter someone that was lame and then he walked.

They would have encountered, they would have they they would have seen Jesus encounter someone who was blind and then now was seeing.

They saw someone who approached Jesus leprous and then clean.

In fact, they would have they would have been around for the the three times Jesus resurrects someone from the dead.

I mean, and one of these, one of these, you know, Jesus enters a room.

Another one, the young man is in a funeral procession.

He is being carried, and there is a wake behind him, and Jesus raises him from the dead.

And then not to mention the one that was kind of the end uh where where the the Pharisees sought to kill both Lazarus and Jesus.

The man had been dead four days, so he wasn't just dead, he wasn't, he was, I mean, the scripture says his sister said that he Jesus he stinks.

Right?

I mean it it's he's been dead so long, he's dead dead.

He's not just dead, right?

He's dead dead to the stink dead, and they see this.

And so, how how would they have heard you will do greater works?

Well, you can't do greater works than those.

So, what the Holy Spirit is, is what I just call the great multiplier.

Greater would be in the scope of what he was going to do, not in the intensity of what he was going to do.

Then in fact, what he's telling the disciples is, listen, there was a time where I sent you out under my authority, and you went out and you came in, and when you came back in, you said, Wow, I mean, the uh we we're casting out demons, we're healing people.

And he's saying, Yeah, yeah, don't get too excited about that.

Just be excited that your name's written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

Or he's saying, I know that was amazing.

You were operating under my authority, but there's going to be a day when my spirit's going to be in you.

And so when wherever you go, whatever you encounter, whatever circumstance, you're carrying me.

You're carrying the kingdom.

So what so so you're you're going to do greater things through the power of the Holy Spirit than I was doing because I was locked into where my feet were.

He was self-limited in the flesh.

Where he could go, that's where he would do a miracle.

Right?

Even when Jesus taught, it was a miracle, right?

I mean, because people were going like, like we've never heard this before, right?

And they had studied the scripture their entire lives, right?

It's like it was eye-opening to them.

So the same spirit being in us then carries us in that same format.

Look, they would have had to be concerned about how do we do this thing you've been teaching us to do?

You're you're you're kind of passing off this mission and purpose to us.

How is it remotely possible that we're gonna be able to carry out this mission and purpose?

He's telling them how you're gonna do massive things in in my name and in the kingdom.

You're gonna be everywhere where you are.

That you're gonna carry that out because I'm going to the Father and I'm gonna ask for the Advocate to come in your in my Father's name.

The Holy Spirit was gonna come on purpose for mission.

Um verse 25.

All this I have spoken while still with you.

But the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you, I do not give to you as the world gives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled, do not be afraid.

How in the world were they going to continue to be changed when they didn't understand half the stuff he told them while he was here?

I mean, I I I've got to be sitting there going, listen, I'm not a full apprentice yet.

Right?

I mean, yeah, yeah, we've we've been together for three and a half years, but I'm not re remotely close for you to leave the keys with me.

And so, and so what Jesus is taking one of his primary elements with them was teacher.

He was the rabbi, he was shaping them into becoming who he was, which meant that they understood the pat the scripture like he understood, that that they were able to teach like he taught.

They were able to look and act and form like he did.

And so you you've got to be sitting there going, this process has just now ended.

I mean, if you're leaving me, if you're leaving me to figure out the rest of this stuff, then I I'm not gonna be able to do it.

And yet he comes in and says, Well, but I taught you, but the spirit will teach you.

And then what about the reminding part?

This one really got me because like if I knew he's leaving, I'm going, okay, no, okay, I gotta.

It's like cramming for an exam.

Any any people still cramming for exam?

I mean, I still have nightmares of cramming for exams.

You know what I'm saying?

I mean, it's like if I can just get this, like you're walking in the class, right?

You're just hoping the teacher profs late a little bit so you can get one more thing in there.

The problem with that is with your short-term memory, the one more thing you put in, the last thing in the queue leaves, is what that looks like.

But but that's what that's what I would have had to anticipate.

Sitting there and go, like, okay, what did he say?

What did he say on the Sermon on the Mount?

Because I'm pretty sure that was real important for me to remember.

And right now it's gone.

I can't, I can't, and he's saying the the the Holy Spirit will he will remind you of all things.

It's interesting after after Jesus leaves, the Spirit comes.

That several times in Acts, it would it will say that the the disciples, when responding to questions, it was the Holy Spirit would come on them and give them the words to speak.

This is what he's this is what he's trying to tell them.

This is I know I know you're concerned that you're not through developing yet.

I know that's a concern of yours.

I know it's a concern that even the stuff that you've learned about me, you haven't fully incorporated all it and it haven't processed it all.

And it's some of it's not sticking.

I I know that.

I know that.

That's why I'm gonna send you the advocate.

See, you you I you find yourself in this position, even as a follower of Christ, if you're a follower of Christ, like like I just I hope no one tests me on this, right?

Uh I hope no one asks me a question I don't I don't understand.

I mean, it's still as much as I've been around it, there's still so much to it that I still it just still feels a little clunking to me.

And he's saying, Well, listen, I know I'm not gonna be here, but I'm gonna send my spirit to be in you all the time in every circumstance.

I'm gonna take care of that peace.

I'm gonna take care of that peace for you.

Um and then he ends with this reminder, right?

Not don't let your trouble trouble you.

There's trouble.

Don't let it trouble you.

And then it's it seems like it's another discourse, and it's not.

It seems like there should be a gap, but there's not.

And he just says, peace I leave with you.

Not as the world leaves with you.

So you so you start thinking about what is the peace that the world gives?

Well, I I would have I would have told, I can tell you what it's not.

I I can tell you it's not all of our 401ks losing 10% in the last four weeks.

There, right?

Or um or five hour gas prices for high test.

There's no peace there.

Being afraid to open up your news app every morning to find out what new is going on in the Middle East, there's no no peace there.

And even when even when we even when everything just lines up.

Anybody have everything lined up this week?

I mean, some it happens.

It happens.

Not for any of you today, but but I mean, right?

But if our peace, if our peace has to rest when everything just lines up, you see how fleeting it is.

So this is the contrast, this is the contrast in which Jesus is giving.

He's saying, guys, I know in your mind things are not lining up right now.

I know in your emotions, this is not what you would have begged.

But guys, what I'm giving you is something nobody else can give you.

And you're not gonna get it anywhere else.

And anywhere else you think you get it, it's always going to be temporary.

And I know you have felt somewhat peaceful with me.

You know they had to, right?

But they had just seen enough where if Jesus is here, we're all good, right?

We're gonna drown.

He stands up, says, Peace be still, we're dry again, right?

I mean, there's there's this element like when dad shows up.

Now, this is my dad.

My dad was quiet as I'll get out.

There was a lot of places where my dad didn't show up when I would love to him to show up.

But I'll tell you this when my dad showed up, he was there.

When he showed up, I could just relax.

Because it wasn't matter, no matter what someone was saying or doing or trying on me.

No, no, dad's here.

I'm all good.

And that and what Jesus is trying to trying to communicate to them is man, you're gonna feel so lost.

You're gonna feel so lost, but you're not.

You're gonna feel so on your own, but you're not.

You're gonna feel like you have no answers, but you have them.

Peace.

He begins, I think, what makes sense to my mind, but saying, I'm gonna send you the comforter, and you're concerned about the mission and how we're gonna carry that.

You're gonna be concerned about your your purpose and how you're wired, and what is it you're gonna do.

And I'm I'm telling you, the Holy Spirit's gonna multiply me all over the place.

But at the end, at the end, I feel like he's just talking to them as sons and daughters, but there's like I know there's just gonna be a lot of emotion too, guys.

There's gonna be a lot of emotion, and that's why he's your peace.

I know I'm going, but I'm gonna send my spirit.

See, we we can talk a lot about God the Father because it's easy to kind of comprehend Father, whether or not it was a good father or a poor father or a great father in your life.

You father, we can wrap our brain around.

Jesus comes as the son, we can wrap our brain around the son.

You either are one or you know one.

You can wrap your brain around him as a brother, whether you had one or not had one.

But the spirit is something that is more difficult for our Western brains to wrap our brain around.

We we have there's a there is a theological construct in Christianity that is it's only in Christianity, and it's called the Trinity.

And the word Trinity never appears in Scripture anywhere.

It's it's a word given to try to explain something that's not explainable.

That we have God the Father and God the Son and God the Spirit.

They are co-equal, they are not three different gods.

We do not worship three gods, we worship one God that eternally exists in three persons, and that they have different roles in the Godhead, but they are the same God.

That's the best.

No, it's not just the best I can do, that's the best of centuries of theologians can do.

And so that's why when when he's leaving, he has no concern.

Jesus has no concern about leaving them.

I mean, I'm sure that emotionally he can see the consternation in there, but but he has no concern leaving them because he isn't leaving them.

I used to think, I don't know about you, I used to think, well, how amazing it would have been to kind of be in the presence of Jesus, and yet he gives all of us his spirit.

Someone just like someone just like him.

Um according to Romans 8, Paul says that we are a we're legally an heir with Christ because of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8, 14 and 17.

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

The Spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again.

Rather, the spirit you received brought about your adoption into sonship or daughtership.

And by him we cry Abba Father.

I I so some of you may know this, right?

But there would have been other ways in which Paul could have listed God as Father in the Greek, and he chooses Abba.

So, so again, primarily we'll talk about in a charismatic Pentecostal church and my background, we'll emphasize the power of the Spirit at Pentecost in Acts 2.

And then there's a lot of conversation around the gifts of the Spirit, Paul this in Corinthians and Galatians, kind of the equipping, equipping ministry.

We'll talk about the fruit of the spirit, of how the spirit lives inside and matures us, but we leave out so much this personal, this personal side of the Holy Spirit that that with the gift of the Holy Spirit, we feel brought into a family that we weren't born into.

And it's not just that we're brought into that family, our relationship with the head of this family is a papa relationship.

It's a dad, daddy relationship.

It's not just a formal acknowledgement of your father, it's your rules, it's your house.

Anybody knew that, right?

My rules, my house, my way.

The spirit gives us that kind of connection to the we don't have that kind of connection without the gift of the Spirit.

So the Spirit Himself testifies with our Spirit that we are God's children.

Now, if we're children, then we're heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.

If indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

I don't know this, I don't I don't necessarily know this to be true.

Um it seems like I heard this up into a lot of adoptions in front of judges.

Um it seems like, Steve, tell me if I'm wrong, that you can take a child out of your will, but when you adopt someone, they stay.

Yeah, he says don't go to him for adoption advice, but he's a good legal attorney.

Um, I I think I think that's true.

I'm not, I'm not sure.

Anybody adopted anybody in here in the room?

Is that true?

All right, I knew I was right.

I knew I was right.

All right.

Um, Ephesians, Paul also says this.

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

When you believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possessions to the praise of his glory.

So I I'm so I'm leaving you and I'm not leaving you.

I'm leaving you and I'm not leaving you, and I am coming back for you.

And and your guarantee that I'm coming back for you is I've left myself with you.

And even though I'm not with you, I am with you, and you're not abandoned, and you're not desolate, you're not left up to your own devices, you do have an identity, you do have a history, you have a future, and I'm it, all the above.

This is what he is communicating to the disciples in their most vulnerable time.

Every promise of God has to be received as a gift.

So Jesus is a gift.

John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he did what?

He gave.

He gave Jesus as a gift.

I have to receive Jesus to actuate the promise of Jesus.

Salvation is a gift, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not from yourselves.

You you you cannot achieve salvation.

In fact, you have to feel so daggum lost that you look for Him.

That's salvation.

If there's any if there's anything that's an ending and a beginning, it's when you come to the end of yourself and you give up and you ask for Christ's help.

That's the beginning.

It is the gift of God, not by works, so anyone can boast.

Paul acknowledges, I mean, uh Peter acknowledges in Acts 2 of the gift of the Spirit.

He says, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The promises for you and your children, and all for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.

See, because he has just now experienced this idea of Christ not being with them, but in them.

Lastly, in Luke 11, this is Jesus' teaching, and he said, If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

Who ask him?

Okay.

So are you in an awkward place?

Awkward season.

You're a believer, you're you're a disciple of Jesus, and you find yourself in a just an awkward season where something maybe be ending.

Is it ending?

Is it not ending?

Um, is something new begun and you're still it's still awkward, it's still difficult to navigate, and and you don't know if you're in the right place or right.

This is the role of the spirit to meet you in the in that in that awkward in that awkward season.

Not just, right, but in this awkward season of teaching, reminding, comforting, empowering, peace that we can we can ask for the spirit.

So I thought we I thought I thought we had the spirit.

Well, it's both and.

It's both and.

I can't come to Christ without the role of the Spirit.

I I wouldn't know that I would, there was even a Jesus.

I wouldn't, I wouldn't be um, um, I wouldn't know I was lost if there wasn't a conviction of the Holy Spirit of telling me that I'm heading down a wrong road.

I would, I wouldn't, I don't, you don't know that on your own.

But he's still there that we can ask.

And it's not just the Spirit isn't just someone who comes on you.

The Spirit is someone that lives inside of you, the guide and direct you.

Maybe, maybe you're still maybe you're still exploring Christ as as uh as real or not.

Um maybe you're new in your faith.

It's still you're still real new, and it just it just feels so awkward learning this new way.

And I would say just continue to compare where you were to where you are.

Don't lose sight of where you were, because the awkwardness of where you are is still a lot better than where you were.

And the Spirit will walk you through.

You're not you're not in any of that by yourself.

So wherever this lands with you today, in terms of an application piece, right?

Um this side of the altar, there will be people that will lend, link, and borrow faith with you that you can you can share.

You might need uh you might need prayer for a whole bunch of stuff that that has put you in a place where you're not experiencing the peace of God that's available to you to you through the Spirit.

And these people will will link their faith with you and pray that direction, okay?

And then over here, if you want to spend time just yourself with the Lord, you can do that here.

Well, Pastor, can I do that in my seat?

You can.

My experience, my experience is that I usually get more distracted where I am, and this is where I don't.

I mean, all the major moves of my life have happened at an altar.

They've been initiated in an altar, or they've been activated in an altar, or they've been confirmed in an altar.

So, like, Pastor, we've been to a bunch of churches, they don't do this, they don't do this anymore.

Maybe, maybe not.

I'm not saying one way's right or the other.

I'm telling you, my experience, my experience is it matters.

So that's why we do it.

All right.

So Stan, I'll pray.

Communion's available on my left and my right.

Uh church, I true, I truly believe this is uh, I truly believe that this is a word in a very specific moment in your life.

And and I don't I don't say that every time I believe God speaks, He speaks through donkeys, he can speak through me if.

You know anything in the Old Testament.

I believe God can do anything He wants to do on any given Sunday.

And then there are those particular times.

There are those particular times.

Where I sense it is a word in season for somebody.

And I just say that now to try to silence the voice in your head that's saying, if I can just wait another 10 minutes, I can get out of here.

The Spirit wants to do something for you.

He wants to do something for you.

You just gotta ask.

Every gift of God has to be received.

Every gift of God can be left somewhere.

But you can receive it.

Oh Father, in this moment, speak so clearly.

You know the noise that's bouncing around in someone's heart and head.

But I know that you can cut through all that.

Cut through it.

Some have panned out, some have not.

Every risk taken in the name of Jesus, every risk taken to move towards Him always works.

Somehow you have to be less concerned about what you're leaving behind and more excited about what's in front of you that you still don't know.

I invite you to move.

I invite you to move to the altar.

We hope you were encouraged and challenged by today's message.

Again, to learn more about Gateway Franklin Church, find us online at gatewayfranklin.com.

Thanks for joining us today.