The Spirit’s Letter of Recommendation

Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,

a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.

This fall we're studying the book of Second Corinthians.

Second Corinthians is a heartfelt and practical

book calling us back to the life of the cross.

We, like the Corinthians, so often pursue glory,

admire eloquence, shun suffering, hide hurt,

and hoard our goods. And yet the gospel of Jesus

tells us that resurrection comes after a cross.

comfort comes after being crushed, that the way

up is the way down, that the way to glory is

through suffering, that his strength is made

perfect in our weakness. We'd love to meet you

and we hope you'll consider coming and joining

with us each Sunday morning at 10 a .m. in the

heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You can find us

online at SecondCityChurch .org and on Facebook,

Instagram, and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this

sermon. God bless. Great God, thank you for your

holy word. Thank you for these texts, particularly

from 2 Corinthians chapter 3, but the beauty

2 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

that is your word, Psalm 32 and Ezekiel 11 and

Mark chapter 7 and all of these in many regards,

Mark 7 · chapter mention

speaking of these same truths. Lord, thank you

for the gift of its reading. Thank you for the

gift of its preaching. God, I pray for each one

of us. that we would be attentive this morning

to what you would have to speak to us. Lord,

speak, your servants are listening. In Jesus'

name, amen. All right, so this morning in our

adult Sunday school class, well, what we're doing

is we're inviting different people in the church,

and I would encourage you, if you care to do

this, it would be a gift to all of us, to share

some of the heroes of the faith that have gone

before us in church history with one another.

I got to do that this morning. And we were looking

at the life and legacy of a man who many consider

to be the greatest, or at the very least, it's

unquestionable that he is among the greatest

Scotsmen of the 19th century. Thomas Chalmers

served in many, many ways, many different educational

posts at St. Andrews a couple of times. in Edinburgh.

He was the president for the Royal Society of

Edinburgh, which is Scotland's national society

for science and letters. I mentioned that the

University of St. Andrews had a twice -in -large

lecture hall for the lectures he was giving on

mathematics. They were so invigorating. I wish

I would have had him as my math teacher. He was

also the professor of moral philosophy. He gave

lectures on political economy, on economics.

When he was the pastor of the Great Tron Church

in Glasgow, he started a midweek study for businessmen

in the area there in Glasgow to gather together

and to think of the things of God. And he thought,

of all places, let's start with Christianity

and astronomy. That makes a lot of sense, right?

His first lectures were on astronomy and actually

those lectures were published and remarkably

that year they were published eight more times.

They went through nine printings that year. They

outsold in that year the combined works of both

Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott lectures on

astronomy. There's zero question. He was one

of the great thinkers of the day with regards

to poverty, particularly in the cities. How do

we care for the poor? While he was the pastor

of the great Tron Church in Glasgow, he was there

for five years, and then there was the massive

influx of people for the coal and the textile

industry in the south of Scotland, as was the

case in other parts of the world, including our

own country. There was this huge industrial revolution

that was taking place and all these people were

flocking into cities and there was great poverty.

And he looked out upon one of the most poverty

stricken areas of Edinburgh, St. John's Parish,

and he petitioned, can I start a church there?

And while he was there planting that church and

caring for that, the city's expense that they

gave to the care of the poor was diminished to

one fifth of what it was before, because the

church was so active in caring for the poor.

I read that there were 50 different Sunday schools

going on, largely teaching people how to read,

how to brush their teeth, but also the great

faith of Christ's cross and resurrection. Thomas

Chalmers taught many of the great pastors and

hymn writers of the 19th century. You can think

of Horatius Bonar or Andrew Bonar, or you can

think of Robert Murray McShane. Some of you use

his Bible reading program to direct your Bible

reading throughout the year. He taught some of

the great professors that would come after him.

One of the great Old Testament scholars in Scotland

in the latter part of the 19th century was John

Duncan, who had the nickname Rabbi, even though

he was Scottish, because he so knew and loved

the things of the Jewish people. Rabbi Duncan.

And a lot of people attribute to Thomas Chalmers

really the beginning of the great missions movement

that began in the 19th century. David Livingston

coming out of that movement. But the Scottish

The Scots at that time and largely under the

leading of Thomas Chalmers were the great missionaries

of the 19th century going out into the world

and telling people about Jesus. I could keep

going because by all accounts this was a great

man who did great work for the gospel of Christ

in the world. And yet, here's where I want to

go with this. And yet, early on in his life,

early on in his career, there's zero question

that he had little concern for the people under

his care. He would say the same thing. The first

pastor that he had was in this small fiefshire

town of Kilmany, which is not too far from St.

Andrews, and he would spend all of Monday through

Friday there in St. Andrews giving lectures on

math and other things. Well... I will say this

until he he came at odds he was an assistant

he was a lecturer there at the university and

then the the main math professor and he had it

out because they were both hotheads and so he

started lecturing on math at just a town hall

and all the students actually went to his lectures

he was a rather full of himself and he thought

he didn't really need to care for his flock and

until there was a massive transformation in his

life one year um actually so one year his uncle

and his beloved sister both died And then he

self -published a book that got no attention

at all. The title of that book is, Inquiry into

the Extent and Stability of Natural Resources,

invigorating. It was an analysis on some of Napoleon

Bonaparte's commercial policies. The stuff that

puts you to bed probably, like our book of Church

Orders, which is so helpful. Anyway, he was so

discouraged by that and so distraught over the

passing of his loved ones. And then he got consumption

and actually spent about six months in bed. And

it was through this dynamic of being humbled

and then also coming face to face with the reality

that we may have to give an account at any moment

to Christ for what we did in this body. that

his life could be taken from him at any moment,

that the Holy Spirit so worked in him that he

came back from that deathbed and everybody knew

he was a changed man. And the Holy Spirit had

entirely changed him. He went from kind of never

seeing his parish, not having a care of the world

for them, spending all of his time over in Posh

St. Andrews to devoting himself to the ministry

there in Kilmany. And the... The doors were bursting

at the seams for people to come and to hear Thomas

Chalmers preach. He went on, of course, to have

this remarkable ministry and all these other

kinds of ways. But he wrote at that time in his

journal, he said, Oh God, make me feel the firmness

of the ground I tread upon and enable me to give

all my mind to thy word. Above all, may I never

receive by a single inch from my Savior. Now

the end of second Corinthians chapter 2 last

2 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

week we didn't talk about this last verse but

it ended like this For we are not like so many

Peddlers of God's Word but as men of sincerity

as commissioned by God in the sight of God we

speak Christ and we pick up in chapter 3 and

It begins with this distinction between the peddlers

of God's Word which happens a few times in 2

2 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 3, and a Christ -centered,

sort of spirit -filled ministry. This is how

it begins. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Actually,

2 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

let me find it. You can turn in your Bibles too.

There, we're going to look at, draw your attention

to different passages. 2 Corinthians chapter

2 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

3 begins like this. Are we beginning to commend

ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters

of recommendation to you or from you. See, in

the ancient world, if one was to go from one

town to the next, say, last week I mentioned

Troas up in the north of the Aegean Sea down

to Corinth in the southern sort of tip of what

would be Greece now. If you did that and you

wanted to get employed in this new place, you

would get letters of recommendation showing that

you were a fine brick layer or you could make

tents or all these kinds of stuff. You would

bring along these letters and you'd say, hey,

can I have a job? Of course, we still do this

today, right? We fill out our CVs. We get other

people to reference us. We make calls to make

sure those references are good. We write letters

of recommendation. I have written many of you

letters of recommendation for various. It's a

fine practice, those kinds of things. But they

had, this is what had happened. The people came

in to Corinth and they were sowing dissent among

the people. And they were saying, oh, this whole

free offer of the gospel thing that Paul's offering,

that's not enough. And they're doing this because

they had letters. And so because they had letters,

they got the job. And because they had letters,

they started getting the money, started being

the peddlers of the word of God. Paul says there

is a different kind of letter and it is not just

different sort of materially, but it's on a whole

different kind of level, letter difference. It's

the letter that is written on the heart by the

Holy Spirit. And so verses two and three, they

say this, you yourselves are our letter of recommendation

written on our hearts to be known and read by

all. and you show that you are a letter from

Christ delivered by us, written not with ink,

but with the Spirit of the living God, not on

tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.

And some of you might catch, some of you know

your Bibles well, and you might catch that he's

referring to one of the great passages in the

Old Testament, Jeremiah 31. It's also, by the

way, connected to Ezekiel chapter 11 that you

Ezekiel 11 · chapter mention

heard. But here are some of the verses from Jeremiah

Jeremiah 31:31–33

31, verses 31 to 33. Behold, the days are coming,

declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant

with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

Not like the covenant I made with their fathers

on the day when I took them by the hand to bring

them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that

they broke, though I was their husband, declares

the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will

make with the house of Israel. And after those

days, declares the Lord, I will put my law within

them and I will write it on their hearts and

I will be their God and they will be my people.

Or as Paul continues on in verses five and seven,

five to seven, it says this, not that we are

sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is

coming from us, but our sufficiencies from God

who's made us. us sufficient to be ministers

of a new covenant, not by the letter, but by

the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit

gives life." Okay, now you all probably have

heard, if you've been around church settings

for a little while, maybe you've read about some

of this stuff, this great distinction between

the old covenant and the new covenant. And you've

probably heard that that's primarily sort of

a temporal kind of thing old covenant equates

to old Testament maybe New covenant equates to

new testament maybe y 'all heard that kind of

thing Probably some price maybe refer that kind

of thing Old covenant pre Christ new covenant

post Christ that kind of thing BC you know, all

that kind of division. But I want to put something

before you this morning that I actually think

is deeply, deeply important. It massively influences

how we approach the Bible, but it also invites

us to examine our hearts, I think, which is a

very healthy thing. And it's this, that the Old

Covenant, New Covenant idea is one that is not

so much temporal, but spiritual. It's not so

much a temporal distinction as a spiritual distinction.

And what Paul is saying in this chapter is that

you can be part of Israel or not part of true

Israel. You can be a preacher and you can be

a teacher and you can be an elder and you can

lead small groups and you can lead Sunday school

and not be truly a part of the people of God.

You can be a faithful attender in worship. You

can know your theology. You can read through

the Bible. You can do all these different things.

Volunteered English language classes. And you

can be of the old covenant and not the new. You

can be of the letter and not the spirit. The

way of death and not the way of freedom. One

last, the new covenant working in us through

the Holy Spirit. But the other comes to an end

the covenant the old covenant the covenant of

working of letter of law of doing So the next

two paragraphs of this chapter, they kind of

talk about these two big pictures The two big

words that they keep going back to are the words

glory and the word veil. And I think as we kind

of maybe consider these two words, I think it

will invite us into this understanding. But first

what you have to get when you come to these two

words, glory and veil in these next two chapters,

what you need to understand is that what Paul

is doing is throughout this whole section right

here, is he's inviting you back to the story

of Exodus 32 to 34. Now, some of you may know

what that story is, but you know. Many of you

probably don't remember that. Children, some

of you are going to remember what happens in

Exodus 32. When Moses goes up to the mountain

and he receives the commandments of God written

on the stone, what are the, I want like under

15 of these sanctions, what are the people of

God, the Israelites doing down at the base of

the mountain? What does he find them doing? Thank

you. Building an idol, right? They've gathered

together their jewelry. Hey, give me your earrings

and your rings and your necklaces. Let's throw

them in. Oh, there's a golden calf. Let's bow

down. So Moses comes down from the mountain,

right? He's got the tablets and he hears singing.

People are praising. He hears shouting. It's

a worship service. Of course, he throws down

those tablets, doesn't he? He's kind of... He's

kind of unhappy about that, as he should be because

they're not actually worshiping the Lord. They

had just been brought out of slavery. They'd

just seen the mighty acts of God in salvation.

And what do they do? They fall down and they

worship another God. He had just been given the

law of God, the letter of God written on tablets

of stone. But the letter in and of itself never

brings life. It never does. The letter does absolutely

nothing for you. It actually does something very

negative. It only brings condemnation. Your heart

is not bent towards the Lord. Your heart has

not received a transformation through the Spirit

of God. Of course, the story goes on to tell

of how Moses then begins to meet with God in

the tent of meeting, right? Outside of the camp.

because God's basically like fed up with them.

And, you know, Moses and Joshua are out there

at the tent of meeting and Moses goes in to meet

with God. And when he would meet with God, he

would come out and his face, it says, would be

full of glory, would be radiant because he'd

been in God's presence, unveiled before the face

of God. And he would come out. and he would shine

with God's glory. Now, if we looked down at that

paragraph that begins there in verse seven, what

we would see is that this ministry of Moses is

said to be a ministry of death. Sorry, it's said

to be primarily a ministry of glory. It's very

interesting that that's the word that keeps being

said. It's also said to be a ministry of death,

but it's primarily said to be a ministry of glory.

And what many Christians make of this is primarily

the idea of death. Ah, the Old Testament, death,

bad, old, passe, antiquated, to be disregarded

and not read and not studied and not thought

much of, right? Old, particularly we like new

stuff, right? Maybe not new, we're in this building

that could use a little new in it sometimes.

But that is not the main thing that Paul's saying.

The main thing he's saying actually is that it

was very glorious. Verse 7 actually tells us,

now at the Ministry of Death, carved in letters

of stone, came with such glory that the Israelites

could not gaze at Moses' face because of its

glory. He twice says, it's glorious. You can't

even look at it. It's so amazing. That's part

of... the emphasis, down in verse 11, the end

of that paragraph, for if what was being brought

to an end came with glory, much more, well what

does permanent have glory? You know what? I've

been hearing this alarm going off since I walked

by this morning at 5 30. It goes off like every

half hour. And so it's all just going to distract

us for the next minute. How about we just let

it pass by for a moment? I was thinking this

morning while I was sitting in my office, I was

like, what am I going to do with that alarm that

keeps going off? It's probably going to go off

right in the middle of my sermon. And it is.

We'll just let it pass. It doesn't last too long.

Golly somebody it's your car wake up 11 o 'clock

already. It's time to get on with your day It's

what I'm saying is that what what what Paul is

unequivocally saying is that this this old covenant

can come with this sorry this this This gift

of the law can be a ministry of death, but you

have to understand that it's glorious It's surpassed,

but the primary thing that Paul does say about

this was that it was a glorious time. Now, what

he is not saying is that the old covenant was

glorious. He's saying that the letter that was

given at the time was glorious, which is to say

the law of God. But if all you have is that,

it only brings death. and it only brings condemnation

and it has no glory at all. Even the glory that

it does have, received rightly, is surpassed

by what we have in light of the coming of Christ.

And yet, if you receive it as simply a letter,

as simply something to do, it brings death, it

brings condemnation. Well, brothers and sisters,

how did the Israelites receive the law of God?

Where are the 40 years of wandering in the desert

by the people of God? Was that generation commended

for their faithfulness? Lifted up as a model.

Did the generation that Jeremiah speaks to, he

says there's going to be a day when the spirit

writes, the words of God upon our hearts. Is

the generation of Jeremiah's day ever lifted

up to us as to be commended? No, not at all.

They had the very words of God, and yet what

we hear time and time again in the scriptures

is that they didn't care for the care for the

Lord Himself. Though they had the very law of

God given to them, their hearts were far from

Him. And the fact is that you can have the law

of God and it be glorious. But if you do not

have a love for the Lord, if the Spirit of God

that Moses had, that Aaron had, that Caleb had,

that Joshua had, that Miriam had, that Plenty

had at that time, If the Spirit of God does not

transform your heart, then all that the law does

is condemn you. All that the law does is show

you how little you care for Him, how you bring

death. We know, right? You can think with me,

the people of God often rested on the glory of

the law. They held it up and said, because we

have this, We can set aside all, you know, we

can sit on our spiritual laurels. And we know

that that was the case in Jeremiah's day. I mean,

we have the temple. God himself said that we're

his people. We have Abraham as our father. We've

been circumcised. We belong to the people of

God. That's the case in Jeremiah's day when he

wrote his marvelous works, Jeremiah and Lamentations.

They believed that because they were the chosen

ones, because God had met with their ancestors

there on Mount Sinai and given them the law,

they were good. What happened during Jeremiah's

day? Exile, the judgment of God brought upon

those people, death and condemnation. Think of

our Lord Jesus. Jesus comes to minister. among

the people who had received the law of God. So

many of his words were to the Pharisees or the

scribes. What was the scribe, but literally the

one who was writing out the law of God. Experts,

they knew it all. The theologians of the day,

the people that devoted themselves to the scriptures,

the scribes, the teachers of the law. Did they

have the glorious words of God? Absolutely. They

did They you could say they devoted their lives

to it But they miss God entirely when he was

standing right there in front of them Because

their hearts were not transformed and the letter

killed and Only the spirit gives life the letter

the law the right words and the right actions

In a way, you could say they have a form of glory.

They're a gift of God. But often it's a form

of glory as verse 10, right? It says it's surpassing

and when used wrongly, it's actually a letter

of death. And the truth is that the letter, the

law, the right words and all of that, are often

far from glorious, aren't they? Don't we all

know? We all know that people have done atrocious

things in the name of Christ. We all can admit

that there is reason why our neighbors say, go

to church. Yeah, right. Place is full of people

that are full of themselves. Self -righteous.

self -confident, full of pride, hypocrites. We

all know that there's reason for that because

it is so often the case that we take the letter

of God, the glorious thing that has been given,

and we say, look at me. And we are self, we are

puffed up. We are full of what we do or we don't

do, right? I mean, it's true. The law of God

brings death. It does all over the place. Unless

you receive it with an utterly transformed heart,

life that's transformed by the spirit of God.

Brothers and sisters, this is how they received

it in Moses's day. It is. They received the glory

that was before them with a hard, hard heart.

The wheat and the tares growing together. The

thing about it, the glorious days of the United

Kingdom happened under David and under Solomon.

Glory. Man after God's own heart. A man whose

life led to the destruction of the kingdom. Wheat

and tares. They did this in Jerusalem in Jeremiah's

day. This was the life of the church in Galilee

and Jerusalem in Jesus' own day. This was the

life of the church in Corinth with Paul's day

and these peddlers of the Word of God. And this

is the life of the church today. It has always

been the life of the church. Same old, old covenant

that puffs up and that tears down. It's the old

covenant that meant that Israel had to wander

for 40 years instead of being brought in by God,

by the encouragement of Joshua and Caleb, into

the promised land. It was their hard hearts.

It was the death that came out of those hard

hearts. It's the old covenant that brought about

the destruction of Jerusalem in Jeremiah's day

that caused him to write that masterfully sad

work Lamentations. It's the old covenant that

crucified our Lord. It's the old covenant that

promoted or prompted these letters of recommendation

by these peddlers of the Word of God in Corinth.

It is life outside the Spirit of God. And life

outside the Spirit of God always brings death

and condemnation. Life outside the transformative

work of the Holy Spirit. Let's think about this,

right? Anybody know how many people around the

globe today claim to follow Jesus? 2 .4 billion.

2 .4 billion people. And of course, you may read

the stats of how many people claim to follow

Jesus in our own country. Nobody thinks. No one

thinks that all those people are grabbing onto

Christ and His cross, have put it paramount in

their life, are seeking to put sin to death and

live in the Holy Spirit. It's the wheat and the

tares. And it's always been the wheat and the

tares. It's the old covenant and the new covenant.

It's always been that way. No one thinks that

that 2 .4 billion people have circumcised hearts.

We all know this. What do we make of the last

paragraph and the veil? Well, so verse 12 says,

since we have such a hope, we're very bold. Paul

is very hopeful for this church. Maybe that they

are living in the tension of the old and new

covenant, but he's very hopeful for them. That

word bold there is actually a transliteration

from the Aramaic. So it's just Greek word. It's

the Aramaic word just kind of written with Greek

letters. But he's getting at this idea of veil

specifically and how a veil in that culture Would

mean shame and reproach and while an unveiled

face a face that can be seen looked upon Open

to you and to be received and given meant confidence

and it meant freedom What Moses did in covering

his face was to rebuke the reproach of the people

because they lacked faith. They didn't really

want God. They wanted him to give them certain

things, to do things for them. Their hearts weren't

bent toward him and knowing him, loving him.

The veil was an act of judgment. He was depriving

the people of Israel from the glory of God. as

a way of telling them that if you continue in

your unbelief, neither will you receive God now

or later. If all you want is to take the law

and do with it what you will, be puffed up, look

down at others, whatever have you, you won't

receive really the goodness of it, the glory

of it, and you will not receive the glory of

God. The gaze on the glory of God is a privilege

for those who believe in the reality of God,

the reality of Christ, the promise of His Holy

Spirit within them. What Paul is saying, and

this is kind of wild, what Paul is saying is

that Moses actually preached with no effect to

the people of his generation, and Moses would

have agreed with that. They were the wandering

generation that died with hardness in most of

their hearts. But interestingly, Paul is saying

that actually he preached with great effect in

Corinth. He's trying to recall for them, hey,

you're a letter of the spirit. You can't go back

this other way. Think of what God's done for

you. We can live with unveiled face. You've been

transformed by God. Paul's teachers who had come

in were like the Israelites of old. They were

church folk. They knew the law. Like the Pharisees,

like the scribes, like the lawyers who devoted

themselves to the work of God and they were in

it for themselves. They were in it to be puffed

up. They didn't have God's Holy Spirit transforming

them. This was the Jews back in the day. The

Israelites of old under Moses. This was Jerusalem

under Jeremiah. This was Galilee. This was Jerusalem

under our Lord Jesus. And Paul says it's very

possible that it could be you. Corinth. People

of the Church of Corinth. There's always been

a great deal of unbelief in the church. There

has. There are churches, full churches, whose

folk have no heart for Jesus. Truly. No real

life lived depending on the Holy Spirit. There

are churches where the ministers and the leaders

and all the rest have no saving faith. And Paul,

there's a sense in which Paul likely feared that

if these other leaders grabbed a hold of this

congregation, that is where they were heading.

But he says, no, you've seen. You've beheld the

glory of God because of the work of the Spirit.

The veil has been removed. Walk. Walk keeping

step with the Spirit. Maybe you noticed I put

a little poem attributed to John Bunyan in the

meditation page of your bulletin. It says this,

run, John, run, the law commands, but gives.

I didn't mean to say gives twice there, but gives

us neither feet nor hands. It's unable. It only

brings death. It's unable. Far better news the

gospel brings. It bids us fly and it gives us

wings. Daniel Defoe, the great author of Robinson

Crusoe, he wrote of the church in England in

his day. He said this, wherever God erects a

house of prayer, the devil always builds a chapel

there. And to be found upon examination, the

latter has the larger congregation. Just folk

showing up, not really loving Jesus, just going

through the motions. I believe there are many

in his day who could care less for Christ, who

didn't abide in the spirit, whose lives hadn't

been transformed by the cross. The story that

Moses enacted with his veil, the story that Jeremiah

lived out in his life, the story that brought

about the death of our Lord Jesus himself, is

the story that Paul is speaking to in the church.

And brothers and sisters, we must hear this story.

It is told time and time again for our salvation.

Because it's an invitation for us to examine

ourselves. The Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

The wheat and the tares, side by side, right

there in the church. Letter in the Spirit. I

would ask you please, examine your hearts. Search

them. Ask God to examine your heart. How do you

know if you're of the wheat or the weeds? Good

question, right? How do you know? How can you

have a sense? Am I of the old covenant or the

new? Of the letter or the spirit? What you will

know by your love of the Lord Jesus? You'll know

by the gratitude with which you have for His

death upon the cross? You'll know that this is

a strange way that you know this, which sometimes

I do not enjoy. Often when the cross looms large,

our sin seems more apparent. Maybe the Holy Spirit

has given you a greater and greater sense of

just how much you need the cross of Christ. That's

an indication that you're of the spirit of the

New Covenant. You will know because your love

For the church, Christ's very bride grows. It

doesn't diminish. You'll know by having a real

desire to put sin to death and to live to righteousness,

be done with the old man and put on the new.

You'll know, let me end with this, because you

can say, as Thomas Chalmers did, When the Holy

Spirit grabbed onto him, above all, may I never

recede by one single inch from my Savior. Let

me pray for us. Lord, Holy Spirit, speak to us,

please. invite us into the examined life, and

in so doing draw us please to the cross of Christ,

where the glory of which outshines the letter

so much that the letter's glory feels like nothing

at all. Holy Spirit, move among us, please. God,

I pray that each one of us this afternoon even

might take a moment and just ask you, Lord, am

I of your people? Lord, help me to put to death

sin. Help me to grab on to Jesus. I pray that

we would be a church that delights in the Holy

Spirit's work. That we've been transformed. That

once we were enemies of God, and now we're your

friends. And once we were living in darkness,

and now we're in light. And once we were living

by the letter, and now we're in the spirit. Once

we were of death, now we're of freedom. How would

we be a people? Individuals, a body together.

that delights in this work of your Holy Spirit,

bringing us from the old man to the new, the

old covenant to the new covenant. God, please

draw each one of us into this examination. And

please pour out your Holy Spirit upon us. In

Jesus' name, amen. Thank you for listening to

Second City Sermons podcast. We hope this sermon

has encouraged you to worship God and to celebrate

the gospel of Jesus. Please consider subscribing

to this podcast and joining us in person each

Sunday at 10 a .m. You can find us online at

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and YouTube. Thanks again for listening. God

bless.