Making a Holy Week: God in Flesh

Hallelujah, hallelujah, and I know it's not much, I'm nothing else but for a king,

except for a heart singing hallelujah, hallelujah.

Well, Father God, we just want to say thank you for the opportunity to be here once again.

Thank you for your love and your faithfulness and your commitment to keep promises even when we don't.

Father, we just want to already say thank you for letting your spirit be here and to already be working and moving.

And Father, we are so unworthy to just show up, just come to church,

to just say that we're going to come and worship you.

Lord, it is such a privilege and honor that we take for granted.

And God, I just pray this morning that you would speak into our hearts and remind us and show us of how special it is for us to just be able to come and pray and sing.

The privilege of being able to go to the altar.

To humble ourselves before you seems like such a daunting thing.

But Lord, that privilege has been bought with a high price.

You paid for it with your life.

So God, this morning I pray as we gather and we get ready to dig into your word,

that you would remind us today of how much you have done to make all of this available to us.

Even something that sometimes we show up with a little bit of dread in our life for.

You gave up your life so that we can do it.

God, I pray that you would rearrange our hearts and our attitudes.

That your spirit would speak to us in a deep and profound way that we just cannot explain.

And Lord, we ask that your spirit would continue to be here and continue to move because we need you to do that.

We need to be continually filled with your spirit.

Father, this morning we come before you as a church.

Pray for Mr. David Boland.

God, we just pray for his body as he's not received a good prognosis.

And Lord, we just ask that you would touch him in the coming days and be with his family.

Lord, speak into his life and into his heart and in their hearts as well.

Father, pray for Miss Sheila as she's at home and she's recovering.

Lord, thank you for letting her surgery go well this week.

And we pray that you continue to be with her.

For all of our other brothers and sisters who are dealing with ongoing ailments and things,

Lord, we just ask that you would touch them and be with them today.

Lord, in these moments, as we read the word, speak powerfully, speak clearly,

and help us have open hearts and open minds and open spirits to receive it.

Jesus, we love you.

We thank you and we praise you.

And we ask all this in your precious and holy name, all God's people said.

Amen. You may be seated.

Easter's coming.

One of the things that we have talking about this coming month or these next few weeks

is talking about what went into making that week, that last week of Jesus' life,

such a holy week that we refer to it as the making of a holy week.

And as we get ready, we're going to be going through over the next several weeks

just some basic beliefs that we have as Christians that I think are really important.

And I will say that you may not understand every single thing

about the Bible or scripture that you feel like you should

or maybe that someone else does, but I want to say that's okay.

Because as long as you are open to the spirit working and moving in your life

and you're being obedient to the spirit, that is the most important thing.

As you follow God and as you serve Him and as you continue to serve Him,

He will reveal to you everything that you need to know along the way.

In His timing, it may not come as quickly as we would like for it to,

but in His timing, it will come.

So we're going to talk about a lot of things over the next several weeks

that may not make a whole lot of sense.

You may be in a spot of life where you're just like,

I've never even thought about this before.

This has never even been a question.

This doesn't matter to me, and that's okay.

And there may be some of you in here who are really big into theology

and you've read your Bibles for a long time,

and you're going to say, man, that was good, but I want to know more of that.

And I'm going to say what we're talking about today.

There's entire classes in seminary that are taught

on what we're going to be talking about today, entire semesters.

And so we're talking about Jesus coming and being God in the flesh.

That's what we're talking about.

So for this Holy Week to happen, you know, we have to really consider

some of the most intricate, important things that has to happen

in order for Jesus to come and be the sacrifice for our sins.

In fact, this is one of the things that the Gospel of John,

if you start reading your Bible and you start looking at the different Gospels,

John is very different from Matthew, Mark and Luke.

And it's from the very beginning, it starts off differently.

And John's written much later than those three Gospels are.

And one of the reasons why John writes this Gospel

is because there's some things that he wants to clarify about Jesus before he dies.

And there's a lot of things that have come into question in the early church

as to, okay, exactly who was Jesus?

Exactly what was Jesus?

What should we be believing about Jesus?

And so when John writes this Gospel,

he's kind of clarifying some of these questions at the early church.

He begins to have about who and what Jesus was because the years have passed.

And a lot of the information that people have been receiving about Jesus

has been second, third, fourth hand information by this time.

And as you can imagine, some of that information gets skewed a little bit.

Or someone's not exactly clear on their explanations.

And you know this, we've laughed.

Hannah's talked about this this past week.

She's had some text threads going on with some people, totally confused.

Nobody's reading their text.

I think somebody else had it in the group message.

Totally confusing when people don't read and communicate clearly with one another.

And it's amazing how fast that can happen.

So in today's passage, John chapter 1, verses 10 through 18,

John 1:10–18

in chapter 1, John begins to explain these wonderful attributes of Christ

and who he was.

And in verses 10 through 18, what we're going to focus on today,

John said, he came into the very world he created.

And that's weird.

And like I said, a lot of this stuff, for some of you, it's not going to make sense.

Some of you just want to may think some of this stuff is rubbish.

This is just like, oh, that's just far fetched out there.

I don't believe in that nonsense.

And if you don't want to believe, you're not going to believe.

But if you want to believe, and if you want to understand,

and if you want God to reveal things to you, he will.

And it's all the attitude of your heart

and the willingness of you to open up your spirit to let God teach you.

So to understand, he came into the very world he created,

but the world didn't recognize him.

He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.

But to all who believed him and accepted him,

he gave the right to become children of God.

They are reborn, not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan,

but a birth that comes from God.

You notice John chapter 3 is where we get the story of Jesus and Nicodemus

John 3 · chapter mention

having that conversation.

He tells Nicodemus, you got to be reborn.

So John's very much talking about this idea that you and I need to be reborn.

We need to be made new.

Verse 14, so the word became human,

and if you look at most translations, especially your older translations,

it's going to say flesh.

He became flesh and made his home among us.

He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness,

and we have seen his glory,

the glory of the Father's one and only Son.

See how John's being very specific?

With his own eyes, he has seen God's one and only Son.

He has seen God's glory through Jesus.

Verse 15, John and the Apostle John is talking about John the Baptist.

John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds,

this is the one that I was talking about when I said,

someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am,

for he existed long before me.

Again, there's some of that literature that's going to like,

it's going to be hard to process because only God can come after us

but also exists long before us.

So these are some key things that we understand about who Jesus was.

And in verse 16, from his abundance,

we have all received one gracious blessing after another.

For the law was given through Moses,

but God's unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God,

but the unique one who is himself God is near to the Father's heart.

He has revealed God to us.

The understanding of what comes into making this holy week that we celebrate as Christians,

as believers in Christ for Jesus to die on that cross,

to be the adequate substitute for our sins,

and for him to be in that tomb for three days and to rise on the third day,

giving us the promise of eternal life and revealing to us

actual life after death, all begins with this whole idea that he came in the flesh to reveal God to us.

So point number one,

flesh and blood.

And the need for flesh and blood goes back to the very beginning

when you read the book of Genesis in chapter three when Adam and Eve first sinned.

And the weight of their sin came upon them and they felt the guilt and the shame,

and they realized their nakedness, they were exposed and they understood that.

And then they heard God, and for the first time human beings ran from God

because of the sin and the shame and the guilt.

And as a remedy to all of that, God slayed the first animals.

The first things to die were animals so that God can make clothes for them out of the animal's skin to cover up their shame.

So from the very beginning of God's word, there is this great need for something to pay in blood for our sins.

But the problem is, is that animals aren't really good enough because they're not the same.

Now I know some of you in here have some pets that you would do anything for.

I've seen some of you with your pets. It's kind of gross.

I like animals. I've never been that kind of animal person.

But there are some of you whose pets, like you would treat them as your own child

and you would pay a lot of money or you would sacrifice a lot for those pets.

And that's okay.

But when you look at it from a scriptural perspective, animals and people are not the same.

And so even though it's been commanded in scripture and you see it all through the Bible

where people have sacrificed animals to God as peace offerings and love offerings and sin offerings

and all these things to the Lord to give things to him,

the Lord was pleased with those things, but it never fully added him.

To understand this morning that the sin that you and I have committed,

no matter how small, no matter how big,

there was nothing in this world that could satisfy God's anger against the sin

that we have committed other than the blood of a human.

Because it was humans who sinned.

It was humans who broke it and messed it up and brought curses and toil and pain into this world.

And when you look at the world today, every problem that exists exists because of all of us.

And every one of us has contributed to it.

And it doesn't matter how big of a sin you've committed or how small of a sin you've committed

because there's some of you here this morning and you're really good people.

And you would probably say, man, I'm a really good person.

I really haven't ever done anything that bad.

But to lie, to cheat, to steal, to dishonor your parents,

I mean, I don't even know how old I was, but I remember fervently at a very young age

and anytime my parents told me not to do something,

the first thing I did was exactly what they told me not to do.

And I'm getting payback for it now.

We sin, but yet, and we laugh about it because we think, you know,

we have all sinned and so it kind of gets normalized.

But the truth is, is it comes with such a heavy price.

And Jesus Christ is the one who paid that price.

And only He could do it.

Only He could come in the flesh to pay that price.

And then Philippians chapter 2, verses 6-8, Paul writes through the church in Philippi

Philippians 2:6–8

and he's kind of explaining a little bit of why it's so important that Jesus came in the flesh

and who Jesus was. Look at what he says in verses 6-8.

He said, though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.

Instead, He gave up His divine privileges and He took the humble position of a slave

and was born as a human being.

And when He appeared in human form, He humbled Himself in obedience to God

and died a criminal's death on a cross.

The importance of what Jesus did does not just start in the garden

where He's sweating drops of blood and He's praying and He's asking God to let this cup pass from Him.

This decision was made thousands of years beforehand for Him to say,

okay, this is the plan. This is why all the prophecies of His coming are just littered throughout the Old Testament

beginning as soon as Genesis 3 is one of the first prophecies of the coming of the Messiah.

So as soon as man and woman sin, God sets into motion this plan of something has got to be done

because these people will never be able to try it again.

So we're going to have to do something to make this right.

And Jesus says, I will go. I will make it right.

He did not cling to His position of God in a way that He was unwilling to give it up,

but freely gave it up for you and me and everyone else who's ever lived and sinned on this earth,

which is everybody but Him. That's a wonderful gift.

Only He could do it.

I don't know if you know this or not.

I'm sure there's not many of you digging through Hebrew.

I don't dig through it a whole lot. I'll get in trouble if I do.

But there's this Hebrew word called Kaver.

And it's used in rabbinic literature.

Mostly you see it in things like the Talmud and stuff like that.

But Kaver is this interchangeable word that goes back and forth between a tomb and a womb.

And it keeps like whenever you read, it can be used for either one.

It's pretty interesting to think about that word, about how Jesus basically had to deny Himself,

put His privileges and His qualities and His deity of God to death

in order to be able to come in the flesh to be the sacrifice that you and I needed.

So His sacrifice did not just begin with the beatings from the Roman soldiers.

And it didn't just start whenever He was hung on the cross

and they were mocking Him and shaming Him and all those things.

No, it began from the very decision of Him coming into this world through that womb,

which could also be considered a tomb because He was taking a step down.

He was taking a demotion. It was the greatest privilege.

It was the greatest thing that a God could ever do for the people that He created.

But at the same time, He left perfection.

He left everything that you and I are trying to get to in order to save all of us

who did everything we could do to not get it.

That's unfair, but He was willing to do it.

And His final moments in this world were to suffer and die in a horrible and shameful way.

And He did that for you and me. He emptied Himself out to become flesh and blood.

I don't know if you've ever sit around and just thought about that and how important that is.

Point two, Spirit Field.

Another reason why it's so important that Jesus actually came in the flesh

is to set the example on earth for how you and I are supposed to live.

And one of the things that you find out about Jesus is that whenever He was on earth in human form,

He was very much filled with the Holy Spirit.

And so He is setting the example for us of if you want to be holy,

if you want to be set apart, if you want to live for God,

there is this absolute need for you and I to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And Jesus walks on earth in flesh and blood doing all these amazing things,

doing all these wonderful things for God.

And it wasn't because He was God.

It was because He was filled with the Holy Spirit.

And if you don't believe me, look at the book of Acts.

And whenever Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit and He's preparing His disciples,

you stay in Jerusalem and you pray until you receive the Holy Spirit.

Because when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will do not only what I have done,

but you will do even greater things than I have done.

He is setting the example of what it means to be Spirit-filled.

In 1 Timothy 3, verse 16, Paul is writing to Timothy

1 Timothy 3:16

and he's talking about the truths of the faith that they believe

and he's encouraging Timothy,

these are the things that you need to be teaching to your church that you're leading.

And Paul says in verse 16, without question,

this is the great mystery of our faith.

Christ was revealed in a human body and vindicated by the Spirit.

He was seen by angels and announced to the nations.

He was believed in throughout the world and taken to heavenly glory.

So in this passage, I want you to focus on that word vindicated

because it says He was vindicated by the Spirit.

And I'm not very smart so I had to look up what vindicated means,

but it means cleared and justified, vindicated, or I'm sorry, validated and proven right.

That's what vindicated means.

And so the Spirit proved who Jesus was and who He belonged to.

This is why when the religious leaders were challenging Him

and accusing Him of casting out Satan because He belonged to Satan,

that's when Jesus said, well, you know,

that's blasphemy against the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is doing these things

and you're denying the Holy Spirit its credit.

For us as believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit

is one of the biggest things that you and I should be seeking.

Look at the progress of Jesus' life.

When you look at Jesus as He enters into the ministry,

the first thing is He submitted to God and the calling that God put on His life.

He entered the womb. He became flesh.

He lived for 30-something years or 30 years until He began His ministry.

And then as you see Him beginning His ministry, He goes in obedience to be baptized.

Why did Jesus need to be baptized?

Did He have sins that He needed to be cleansed of?

No. He had to be baptized because He came in the flesh

to set the example of what you and I are supposed to do.

So He submits Himself to God. He goes to be baptized.

Once He is baptized and He begins in obedience to God,

then you see when He comes up out of the water, it said the Holy Spirit descended on Him

like a dove out of the sky and He is filled with the Holy Spirit.

Then He's led by the Spirit into the wilderness, which is kind of weird

because why is the Holy Spirit leading Him to the wilderness to be tempted?

But that's where the Holy Spirit takes Him.

Because then when you're filled with the Spirit of God,

then there's a battle that happens inside of our fleshly bodies

where our body says, this is what I want,

and the Spirit says, this is what you need.

And for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit is so important

because you can call on the name of Jesus Christ

and you can call on Him to forgive you of your sins,

and He will forgive you of your sins.

But if you're not filled with the Holy Spirit,

your flesh is still ruling.

And this is why you see so many people who claim to know Jesus Christ,

but you have seen no change inside of their life

because they are not spirit-filled.

The Spirit is not flooding inside of them

and pushing their old self out and putting their old self to death.

The Spirit has to come in. The Spirit has to rule.

The Spirit has to be the one who guide us and lead us.

And it even led Jesus.

And it led Him to the wilderness to the point where He had to go into the wilderness

and face temptation and deny His own flesh, food, and comfort,

and glory in that moment in the kingdoms of the earth that He could receive.

And the only way He can deny His flesh from what His flesh wants

is if the Spirit is reigning and the flesh is not reigning.

So if you're sitting here this morning and you say,

man, I'm a believer, I believe in Jesus Christ,

but I don't feel like my life is living for Christ like it should be.

More than likely, it's because the Spirit is not reigning inside of our life.

This is why it's so important for Jesus to come in the flesh

because only a fleshly body can be the sacrifice for fleshly sin,

a human body, but also He came to set the example.

And to be Spirit-filled and to show us and teach us that in our lives,

we are supposed to be Spirit-filled.

And the Holy Spirit does miraculous things within the human body

that you cannot explain.

You can't fathom it. You can't make it up.

You can't impersonate it.

It just does things that you cannot explain.

Point three.

Miraculous union.

Jesus coming in the flesh

created the ability for us to be united with God in a way

that no one else on earth had ever been able to be united with God.

I don't know if you know this or not,

but when you read the Old Testament and you look at all those great people

that we read about, it's like, man, I would love to be like them.

I would love to have that faith.

I would love for God to use me in that way.

At best, all those people in the Old Testament,

when you read about it, it said the Holy Spirit would come upon them

for a moment to do a specific thing.

And then it says the Holy Spirit would leave them.

They did not have access to the power of God

and the relationship with God that you and I have today.

Before they could go to God, they had to offer sacrifices

and appease God temporarily for the sins that they had committed.

But because we have a sacrifice that was once and for all time

to cover all of our sins, we can come to God at any time.

We can receive forgiveness at any time.

We can access God through prayer at any time.

What a privilege that the people in the Old Testament didn't have.

And to be filled with the Spirit,

not just for a time and then the Holy Spirit leave,

but we have the ability to be filled with the Spirit continuously.

And then if you start reading like the Greek and all that stuff

about when they're talking about being filled with the Spirit,

it's not like the term is not to be filled once,

but it's a continual filling.

You and I have the ability to have this continual filling of the Spirit

because like Jay said a while ago, we are leaking.

We are leaky vessels.

We need to be continually filled in order to be filled.

But in Colossians chapter 2 verses 8 through 10,

Colossians 2:8–10

this is talking about the freedom that you and I have in Christ.

And it says,

Don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies

and high sounding nonsense that come from human thinking

and from the spiritual powers of this world rather than from Christ.

One of the things that Pastor Timmy and I talk about all the time,

if there's ever anyone that proclaims

that they have found something new or discovered something new

or has this new idea about God, you should be very weary of that.

We're 2000 years into this thing.

There's been a lot of really good leaders

and a lot of really good saints in the church

who have provided us with many wonderful things on how to serve God.

But I'm going to say you got to be really careful because

I'm not too positive there's just new stuff popping out there

that people's coming up with like they've discovered something

that hasn't been discovered before.

God may speak and work and move in your life

in a very unique way for this day and this time.

But as far as revealing who Christ is and what we should believe

and the things that we should really be basing our life around,

it's already been done.

He accomplished that 2000 years ago.

And they clarify that in Scripture because

all the new ideas and the new teachings and stuff

generally lead us away from Christ.

So let's go on now.

Now let's look at verse 9.

For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.

Think about that.

As amazing as God is,

you know when Solomon dedicated the temple that he built for the Lord?

In his prayer he talked about how God,

how can God dwell inside of something made by man?

And the temple is much bigger than a human body.

And at the same time the presence, the fullness of God

can dwell within the human body

because that's exactly how God created it to be.

It's not a matter of physical space.

It's a matter of the willingness and submission of our hearts

to allow God to come into our life

and to reign and move and cleanse us

and make us holy to be a holy temple

that he is pleased to dwell in.

And for us to become that, we've got to die.

There's got to be some things in our life that we die to

so that we can be cleansed and purified for the Holy Spirit

to come in and dwell within us.

Now in verse 10, to finish up it says,

So you also are complete through your union with Christ

who is the head over every ruler and authority.

That when we get saved and we put our trust and faith in Jesus Christ,

it was meant for us to be complete.

And there's an emptiness inside of our lives.

We've talked about that a few weeks back,

how there's this emptiness within us,

this God-shaped hole that only God can feel.

And we are going to be empty until God feels it.

But we can be complete and made whole in Christ.

And the miracle in this passage is to know this morning

that if you are sitting here and you love Jesus

and you've asked him to come into your heart,

you've asked him to forgive you of your sins,

and knowing that right now in this moment,

you may not be living perfectly.

There might be something in your life that's like,

okay, I've been doing this, I know it's wrong.

I feel guilty about it.

I know that I should do better

to know this morning that you can repent of that.

In this moment, you can be obedient to Christ,

and you can turn away from that sin

and repent of it and ask God to fill you.

Because here's the thing,

the natural tendency for us as human beings

is when there's guilt and shame in our life,

is to be like Adam and Eve and run from God

and hide from him.

When the very thing that we need to do is reach out

and grasp him.

To run to him.

And so we can repent of our sins,

and we can ask God to fill us with the Holy Spirit,

and God is very willing to fill us with that Spirit.

And if you've ever been filled with the Holy Spirit,

you know what a wonderful and amazing experience that is.

You can't explain it.

And it's something that you want and you desire,

and if you ever have it once,

you'll be like,

God, I want to fill this all the time.

Because you'll know it's like,

if we're not careful,

we won't fill that way all the time.

And that's why we need that continual filling in our life.

We need God to continually pour himself into us.

And that's not bragging about anything.

Because there's nothing that you and I can do

to deserve to be filled with the Spirit.

The whole thing about God is that he came as a free gift.

So that everyone who believes in him

should not perish but have everlasting life.

It's free.

And the power of the Holy Spirit is free.

And if you're not filled with the Holy Spirit,

if you haven't experienced that,

it's not because God is withholding that from you,

because he doesn't like you or you're less than anyone else.

What it means is that you have not come to the point in your life

where you say, okay, Lord,

I'm done being me,

and I want to be who you created me to be.

I give you permission to empty me out

so that you can live inside of me

and I can become who you have created me to be,

because what I'm doing is not working.

And I'm not satisfied, and I'm not complete.

But only God can do that.

Point four, last one.

The visible God.

There's something about the ability for you and I to be able to see.

Seeing is believing, right?

And yet we follow a God that calls us to have this amazing,

submitting faith that we have never seen Jesus

and we've never seen God,

and trust in him anyway.

And so Jesus comes to show the world

to be this visible image of who God is.

And most people who were looking for the Messiah,

most people who were looking for Jesus,

they missed it because he wasn't anything like they were expecting.

So they rejected him, they denied him.

Our focus passage talked about that.

The world rejected him.

But for those who believe we're given the right

to become children of God.

And so this morning,

for you to be able to believe in Jesus Christ

is of the utmost importance.

And today, the reason why it's so important for especially

some of you people who've been saved for a while

and you've lived for Christ for a long time,

the reason why it's so important for you to be good examples

of Jesus Christ in this world

is because you are the only visible image of God

that most people will ever see.

And if you don't show somebody

that you can actually live a holy life,

how in the world are some of these young kids

ever going to believe it's possible

when they haven't seen anyone do it?

They need to see people living holy lives.

They need to see people controlling their temper.

They need to see people controlling their urges.

They need to see people who's willing

to sacrifice and die to things

rather than just pursuing what they want all the time.

We need to be able to see that visible image of God.

And the Holy Spirit provides us with the ability to do that.

Now, we will never measure up to who Christ was,

but through the power of the Holy Spirit,

He can lead us and guide us and help us

to be that to people who need to see it.

In Colossians chapter 1 verses 15 through 20,

Colossians 1:15–20

this passage talks about the supremacy of Christ.

And it says,

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

He existed before anything else was created

and is supreme over all of creation.

For through Him, God created everything in the heavenly realms

and on earth.

He made the things that we can see

and the things that we can't see,

such as thrones and kingdoms and rulers

and authorities in the unseen world.

God's in control of all that.

There are several passages of Scripture

that just talk about how God is working and moving.

He's using different leaders.

He's using different governments for various different things.

And He will hold everyone accountable.

And I know that there's so many things

that we get frustrated at

because we want to change things,

but we can't because we don't have the power and ability,

but God does.

He's in control.

Everything was created through Him and for Him.

Verse 17, He existed before anything else

and holds all creation together.

Christ is also the head of the church,

which is His body.

He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead.

So He is first in everything.

He was first in creation.

He was the first in the resurrection.

He was the first in dying to Himself

to be the sacrifice for our sins

so that we too would follow in His steps

and die to ourselves for God to use us

and resurrect our bodies one day.

He showed us how to be filled with the Holy Spirit

and live a holy life

so that we too can be filled with the Spirit

and live a holy life.

The reason why Him coming into flesh is so important

because He revealed everything

that God wanted us to know about God.

There was all these teachings

and all these theologies

about the Ten Commandments and the Laws of Moses,

and they had just expounded on them

and created like 400 and something other laws

to go along with those laws from the Book of Exodus.

And Jesus came and said,

Love God and love people

and you'll do it all.

That's how simple God wanted to make it.

He didn't come to make it hard.

He didn't come to make your life more complicated.

He came to simplify and make it better and easier.

Love God, love people.

Verse 19,

For God in all His fullness was pleased to live in Christ.

And through Him God reconciled everything to Himself.

He made peace with everything in heaven

and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross.

Jesus made it all right.

He took everything that was broken

and He made a way for it to be made right.

And this morning,

He can make you right if you let Him.

And He can fill you with His Holy Spirit

if you let Him.

But here's the thing that I've found out in my lifetime,

whether it's from a worldly perspective or a Christian perspective,

the Lord tends to give us the desires of our heart.

If you won't sin,

and you want to experience the things of this world,

He will give you the freedom to go

and pursue all the things that you want.

But the consequences of all those things come with Him.

But that's your choice, and He gives us what we want.

But if we want God,

there's never been a time where I've said,

Lord, speak to me.

He hasn't spoke to me in some way.

God reveals this.

It may not be as soon as I want it,

but eventually He reveals it.

God, I want more of You.

He gives more of Himself.

God, I want to be filled with Your Spirit.

He gives His Spirit.

God, I don't want to struggle with this sin

or this temptation anymore.

He gives the power to overcome.

And I'm not saying that I'm excelling in all these things in life,

but I'm telling you, when my heart's in the right place

to give God for those things,

that's what He always gives.

Wherever my heart is,

God has always been faithful to give what that is.

He made it.

All good.

He paid the price so that we could be made right.

He was the visible example of God.

You know, when you think about how much

we knew about God beforehand,

it's a very mysterious thing.

But we understand so much more about God because of Jesus.

Not just by what He taught,

but the way that He lived and what He did.

It gives us such an unbelievable insight

into who God is and what He wants from our lives.

The need for us to follow Jesus Christ

and to follow His example,

you cannot even understand how important that is for your life

because that's what you and I were created to do,

to be as much like Jesus as we possibly can.

We can only do that through the power of the Holy Spirit

because even Jesus was filled with the Spirit,

guided by the Spirit and empowered by the Spirit.

That's what we have to have in order to do that.

And this is where faith comes in.

You know, this is where the rubber meets the road

because it's really easy to sit here and say,

oh, that's impossible, man. Nobody's perfect.

A lot of people say, oh, we sin every day.

I'm a sinner, I sin every day, but the Lord's got me covered.

It's like, no, God, I guarantee you, I will stand,

I will die on this hill.

Jesus Christ did not come into this world

and suffer and bleed and die for your sins

so that you could just keep on sinning.

I don't care what anybody says.

I'll fight for that till the day I die.

That is not the calling that He's put on our lives.

He came to set the captives free.

Sin is addicting.

Sin is enslaving.

Sin is one of those things you feel like you can't get away from it.

He came to set us free and to forgive us and cleanse us of our sins

and to bring us into righteousness.

That's why He came and died.

So you can say, oh, I'm never going to be filled with the Spirit.

I'm never going to be perfect.

That's a waste of time.

And you never will be because you don't believe it.

But in Scripture, it says, through God,

all things are possible.

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

And Jesus said, you will do the same things that I've done

and even greater things when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

It's all about faith.

It's all about what you believe.

And it's all about what you're willing to surrender in order to see your life be more like God.

Or if you're just going to give up and say, I'm good with the world.

Let's pray.

Jesus, thank you

for another opportunity to be in your house,

to live for you, to serve you, to read your word.

I pray, God, that you would reveal great truth to us today.

Not because of what someone says, but because your Holy Spirit speaks to the depths of our heart.

And shows us that this is definitely worth changing my life for.

This is definitely worth putting my desires and my hopes and my dreams to death

so that I can be like you.

Lord, it's going to take more than just a pastor standing up there and talking for 30, 40 minutes.

Jesus, I pray that you would speak and work and move powerfully.

That your Holy Spirit would work and move powerfully.

And that you would guide us to be the men and women you've created us to be.

Lord, as we get ready to go down to the Family Life Center and eat,

I pray that you would bless the food to the nourishment of our bodies.

I pray that you would guide our meeting in the next few moments.

That your will will be done and that wisdom will be given in all things.

Jesus, we love you and we thank you and we ask all this in your precious and holy name. Amen.