When the Spirit Moves | Genesis 1:1-2

Awesome song service.

Awesome song service.

If you would turn your Bibles to Genesis chapter one.

Genesis chapter one.

Title of this, I don't know if you seen the bullets or not.

I pray you did.

When the Spirit moves.

When the Spirit Moves.

And uh I'm gonna go all the way back to the beginning here in Genesis chapter one, verse one.

It says, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

Then it says, And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God saw that there be light, and there was light.

And God saw the law that it was good and divided the light from the darkness.

Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer.

Lovely Father, we just hope we bow before you.

Again, Lord, just thank you for the beautiful day and for the opportunity to be here today.

Uh, that we're free, uh, that we can come and freely uh worship you in spirit and in truth.

And Lord, I do ask you for your preaching grace this morning, Lord, that you just please have me behind your cross.

And I just remain there and that your Holy Spirit would speak through me and that we would hear, we would truly hear your word.

Uh, that it's your word is the absolute truth in all creation, that all of us would hear your word, not just our ears, but with our hearts, and understand uh that is your Holy Spirit uh speak into our minds and to our hearts for for your will to be done, uh to the lost to be saved, and to the saved to be growing in their faith, and being more like Jesus each and every day.

And our praise our prayer today, Lord, is for the lost.

If there's one among us, that today be the day that they would uh repent of their sins and uh not realize how much they're loved, the message of the cross, and and call upon the name of the Lord, call upon you and uh place your faith and trust in the blood of Christ and be saved.

And not just be saved, not just be content with salvation, but to be growing.

And the only way we can be growing, Lord, is to be uh moving as your spirit moves us.

And again, we just love and we praise you and we pray again for your will to be done.

We do ask forgiveness of sins, and we ask it's all in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So as we look at the Holy Spirit and think about him, he's a person, he's a third part of the Trinity.

Uh, he's always moving, he's always moving, uh, moving throughout Scripture.

We look at him here in Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

You can go all the way to Revelation chapter 22, the very end of the Bible.

Revelation 22 · chapter mention

In verse 17, it says this.

It said the Spirit, talking about the Holy Spirit, and the bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, Come, and let him that thirst come.

And it says, Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.

Who is saying that?

Well, at this point in the Revelation, the very end of the Bible, it is the Holy Spirit and the church, the bride saying, Come, come where?

Come who?

Come to who?

Come to Christ.

Know Jesus as your Savior, be part of an eternal place in heaven, belonging to the Lord, having been born again.

And it's what the Holy Spirit is always doing, He's always moving in the hearts of believers.

And it's that small, still voice, and those that aren't saved, wanting them to be saved, pounding upon our hearts to do the right things.

It's always, always, he's always, always pointing us to Jesus through his word and then through his guidance, pointing us to Christ so we can be more like Christ.

So thinking about preaching about the Holy Spirit and the moving of the Holy Spirit.

People have so many different thoughts and beliefs and thoughts about the Holy Spirit and how he works.

I just want to understand what the word moved means.

Look what it says in verse 2.

And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved.

The Spirit of God moved.

You hear it so much about people say, Well, I just felt the Spirit.

I hope he hope he moves today.

Yeah, we do.

We do.

But understand what the word moved means.

It means this.

And I want to think about what the Holy Spirit, when it the word means moved and what it means in the Hebrew.

And also remember, we're going to get to the very end of the message, and there's a rule called the rule of first mention in the Bible.

Something that's very first mentioned in the Word of God.

It's not like it changes somehow in the end of the book.

Sin is sin in Genesis, guess what?

It is still sin in Revelation.

But we're going to look at the Holy Spirit and think about how he moved in Genesis.

How he moves today.

It's the same.

It's the same.

The word moved in the Hebrew means it's roch.

R-A-U, R-U-A-C-H, which means breath, wind, or spirit.

And it says it's the image of the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters suggests that he prepared and shaped the primordial chaos into a habitable world.

It's a big word, especially for me, to really think about how the Holy Spirit works.

He was hovering over the water.

What?

To take this thing that God has created.

We think of it as like, wow, it's boy without form, it's chaos.

But the Holy Spirit comes in and puts it all together where it's livable and sustainable.

And that's what that word, the word primortical in Latin means this.

It's primus, meaning first and orgi, which means to begin.

First or beginning.

And what is how does the Bible start?

Look at verse 1.

In the beginning.

What's it say?

In the beginning, God.

God.

The Trinity.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

And so when you really think about the creation, how it was created, how was the world created?

It was spoken by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

And how it had all worked out, it was the Holy Spirit.

And so when you start talking about the Trinity, it can kind of make me sweat a little bit, because how do you explain the Trinity, really?

For us humans that are so far beneath God, but he gives us the mind of Christ.

We can understand what he wants us to understand.

So I've had this little thing to kind of share.

It's kind of like, as I thought about this morning, talking about this message.

It's like an inventor.

He has this idea, he's come up with this gadget or some kind of product.

And he speaks to someone and say, hey, I've got this idea about this product.

And I need you to draw this thing up and put it on paper.

And so you think about God spoke it and it's given to a person, and I say an engineer, super smart people, they can draw blueprints and do different things, read blueprints, they put it on paper.

Then they're like the owner of a business hires an engineer, has this engineer write this product down, draws it all out, everything looks great on paper.

And then what it has to do?

It has to be made.

There's a process.

You have somebody that owns a business with this idea.

They go out and hire the brightest, they want the brightest engineer they can get.

They come up and put it all on paper.

Then what's the engineer want?

The best crew he can hire to build this thing.

Most engineers aren't welders, fabricators, things like that.

Torch people, impact workers, mechanics.

Yeah, there's mechanical engineers and things.

They have a mind, but a lot of them are kind of white-collared.

They don't like to get down there and get their hands dirty.

They've had this education.

So I'm just going to say it like this.

I'm going to say it like this.

We have God who gave the idea.

The engineer is Christ.

He's labeled the blueprint.

He has it.

Jesus drew it all out.

And Jesus hired, if you want to say hired.

He has the best labor to ever be hired.

Who is that?

The Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit does the work, the working, the working of it.

And unlike the business world, you think about there's owners and there's bosses at every level and different things.

God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are all one.

They're all one, but they all have an amazing, they play an amazing part.

And you think about what was the greatest greatest thing they ever created.

It was man.

It was man.

And man is kind of like what we bought, ASA bought about 15 years ago.

We make product over, make tie plates, and we have a finishing meal.

Everything was working fine, but it was outdated.

And I said, you know what, we're going to buy us a new meal.

Like, hey, all right, get a new meal.

Well, it was new to us.

It was built in the early late 40s or 50s.

We're like, what are we doing?

That's well, it's going to come in, you're going to put it all together.

Well, it came in in just these giant crates, written in German.

Everything was German.

It was made in every guy I used to work with.

Hitler made this thing.

It's a Nazi, it's a Nazi meal.

I mean, it is super strong, but it is, it was so complicated.

So complicated.

We looked at those parts.

Nothing was labeled.

It was just all in disarray.

We're like, we're never going to be able to put this thing together.

Ever.

And then the little engineer guy comes down from up front and says, hey, here's a blueprint.

This part goes here.

This part goes here.

And this part goes here.

Like, okay.

All right.

And so we started putting it together.

Started putting it together.

Get it all together.

It would take no kidney.

It would take us almost all day to get what used to take us about a couple hours.

Because it was new, trying to figure all the everything out, get it to where it would work.

We had to cut this, modify that, and all the different things.

But the engineer was always there saying, okay, you do this, this, and this, it's all going to come together.

Yeah, we had to be the modification, but we'll get it.

And we finally got it.

And now it's one of the best meals we have by far.

So it's built right, it's built to last, and it's it's there.

But I just share that to say when we first got it, that man looks like chaos.

It looks like chaos.

You know what that is?

It's a picture of man, fallen man in pieces.

No instructions for life.

No instructions how to put your life back together.

But the Holy Spirit comes and says, you know what?

I have a blueprint.

It's the cross.

I have great news.

It's the gospel.

If you'll give your life and you'll follow these plans, guess what?

He'll put it back together.

And that's how we were.

We had to come to work every single day looking at that montrosity of parts, thinking, golly, but guess what?

Faithful to put it together, to build it as He told us to do it and get it together.

And now it works.

And that's what God wants for us.

We follow, we follow God's plan.

We follow God's plan.

But don't you see who created us?

Turn to Genesis 1, look in verse 26.

And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and fowl of the air and the cattle and over the cattle and over all that, all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth.

In verse 27, so God created man in his own image, and the image of God created he him.

Male and female created he them.

We see the image of God.

When we see the image of God, who do we see?

We see Jesus.

I say this all the time.

You want to see God, look at Christ.

You want to see Jesus?

Look at God.

You want to see God?

Look at Jesus.

You want to see Jesus?

Look at God.

Look to God.

You see God.

Jesus and God are one.

There's a oneness.

It's so important.

We are created in the image of Christ.

Jesus wasn't born in our image on that Christmas morning that we celebrate December 25th.

He has always been.

But what do we celebrate?

As John says from John 1, 13 and 14, the word became flesh.

Jesus has always been, but he has never only for one time been in human flesh that could die, that could bleed.

That's what we celebrate.

That he came, he was willing to put on human flesh and live in this sin-cursed world that he created to die for us.

To die for us.

And so what happens when it happened in the garden?

Turn to Genesis chapter 2.

Genesis 2 · chapter mention

Look in verse 4.

It says, And these are the generations of the heavens and of the earth, when they were created in the day that God, the Lord God, made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew.

For the Lord God did not cause it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.

But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

Think about everything that's going on.

God gives what?

He created these plants, but it wasn't no growth.

What do you have to have?

They have to have water, so it was a mist.

God gives the life.

The life.

And he says verse 7, and the Lord God formed form man of the dust of the ground.

So he has like a, we might think of a statue.

He says, I'm going to create this man in our image out of just molded out of dust.

It's just there.

Until when?

Well, what's it say?

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed in his nostrils the breath of life.

And man became a living soul.

So I want to think about.

Remember what that word for moved was?

Talking about the Holy Spirit, moved, and that word means breath, wind, or spirit.

It was the Holy Spirit that God breathed into the man to become, to have life.

To have life.

To have life.

And you think about what happened in the garden, Genesis chapter 3 is the fall of man.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Man, Adam sinned.

He broke God's word, he broke God's commands to not eat of the tree of good and evil.

Because he said you would surely die.

And so people that say they don't believe in God, well, if you don't believe in God, you must not believe in death.

To me, that's the simplest point to anyone to say that there is a God.

People die.

Because God created man not to die.

Then you think about you don't believe in sin.

Well, why do people die?

Because of sin.

It proves two things.

When the world today says, oh, there is no God and there is no sin.

We can live how we want to live.

Well, death and sin.

It proves that.

It proves that death proves there's a God.

And also this proves the consequences of sin.

And so we need this, what do we need?

We need a Savior.

And why did Jesus say?

We must be born again, the most famous chapter in the Bible.

Turn to John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

Because it's talking about when the Spirit moved, what did the Spirit move?

He moved into man, and man became a living soul.

Until when?

Until sin came, and then man died physically and had to be saved spiritually.

That's what Jesus is teaching in John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

So many people know John 3 16, but they don't know the whole context of the story.

So I encourage you, don't just read one verse in God's Word.

See the context.

We have to understand the context.

It's like reading the buying any novel and you read the last chapter, the last page.

Well, that makes no sense.

You haven't read the book.

How could it make sense?

So read it, see it in context, because everybody knows John 3.16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Sounds great and it's awesome.

But what's going on?

What led to that?

Well, let's just see.

Look at John 3.1.

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews.

The same came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi or teacher.

We know that thou art teacher come from God, from no man can do the miracles that they'll do us except God be with them.

So here's the context.

A very religious man, a very religious Jew, comes to talk to Jesus by night.

It's a conversation between one man and Jesus.

That's it.

That's it.

In the entire chapter, up to one verse 21, I think, is Jesus Nicodemus.

It's a one-on-one conversation.

I'm just going to pause and say this.

The Holy Spirit's moving here today in all of our hearts individually.

Speaking to each and every one of us individually.

The lost to be saved to the saved to be growing.

So it's a one-on-one.

You can't run from it.

The Holy Spirit, He's here.

You hear the word of God, it returns.

It does not return the void to him.

So you hear it, you're here today, and the Spirit is around us, or He's either in us.

It's true.

I pray you're saved and He's in you, encouraging you what?

To be more like Jesus.

So we see this story to help us understand what's going on.

Jesus says, we know that, or uh Nicodemus says, We know that you are a man come from God, except God be with him.

He's done these things.

And Jesus answered unto him, Verily, verily I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

I used to always be wondering about what's that?

What is he talking about?

Be born again.

That was the very first message they ever preached.

It was called born-again confusion.

Being confused about what it meant to be born again.

Because what Nicodemus say?

He said unto him, How can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter into a second time, into his mother's womb, and be born?

What do we always think about?

We always think about physical things.

He's like, Man, I'm an old man.

How in the world am I going to go back inside my mom and my mom's gonna rebirth me?

That's what he's thinking.

He said, That just doesn't make any sense.

So Jesus goes, he's gonna start to explain to him how he is to be saved.

So many people today, they want to do good works, they want to have some kind of baptism, they want to join some church, want to do all these different things to try to be saved.

Climb the highest mountain, give the most money, do the best good, do all these different things.

Yeah, we ought to do those things to be good after salvation, not to be saved, because we can't do anything to be saved apart from the blood of Jesus Christ.

And that's what Jesus is going to explain to him in verse 5.

He says, Jesus answered, verily, very he says, Listen, listen.

I say unto thee, such a man be born of water and a spirit, he cannot enter to the kingdom of God.

What Jesus is plainly saying is you have to be here physically on this earth first.

There's a water birth, the water breaks and the baby comes.

We have to be here first, and then you have to be born again spiritually.

Because that's what he says.

Look what he says.

I mean, it plainly tells us in verse 6.

He says, That which is born of flesh is flesh.

And what is the flesh made up of?

What, 96 or 98% water?

So that's what he's saying.

That's born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

He says, Marvel not, thus unto you must be born again.

Then Jesus goes on to explain the Holy Spirit.

He explains the Holy Spirit.

Talks about being like a wind.

He compares it to the wind.

He said, The wind bloweth where it listens, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but it cannot snow tell whence it cometh.

We can go out and feel the wind and say, Yeah, it came from the east, it came from the west, it came from the south, it came from the east, whatever.

We can know the direction, but where does it come from?

Where does it come from?

Think about the tides and all the different things that God controls.

I mean, it's amazing.

The jet stream, I mean, that's incredible how it affects our weather.

No one can actually really explain that.

I mean, look at a picture from some space station.

You see the earth just floating.

So many million or billion, trillion metric tons of mass just floating there.

Can anybody really explain how that works?

I mean, really?

It's God.

But we see the Holy Spirit working all around inside of us, and that's what Jesus is saying.

You feel the wind, but you don't really know where it comes from.

And he says, and whether it goeth, he says, so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.

For all of us who are saved.

I pray you remember that salvation experience.

You may not remember the day of the week or even the month or whatever it was, but you have it.

You remember that time.

And you really can't explain it.

I know I can't.

I just said a prayer to the Lord, speaking to God, saying, God save me.

I know I don't really understand your word.

I don't really understand you, but I know that I do believe in Jesus.

I do believe that if I die today, I'm gonna die and go to a place called hell.

I believe those things.

And I knew I needed to be saved.

So I prayed a prayer to God, not a sinner's prayer.

There's not a there's not a pitch or a typed up prayer that you can pray and say, you read those words and say, Ah, I'm saved.

That is not it at all.

It is you talking to God in all sincerity and truth from the heart, saying, God, I believe in Christ.

I believe, I understand and realize that I'm lost and I need to be saved.

And then you understand the message of the cross.

You understand that there had to be a death for your sin, and you understand that death was Christ.

And his blood was shed for your sins, that he died in our place.

You say, Lord, I believe in Jesus.

I believe he's alive today.

I ask him to save me.

And however you word that, however, your prayer was with God, and in all sincerity and truth, and you belong to him.

That's the Holy Spirit that works inside of us, that comes and we're born again.

And then Jesus said, or Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

Jesus answered and said to him, Art thou a master of Israel, teacher in Israel, and knowest not these things?

He had a head knowledge.

Like so many people today, they have a head knowledge.

They can quote Scripture, they can do all these things about God's works, but it's not in their heart.

Why is it not in their heart?

Because the only way to get in the heart is it has to be placed there by the Holy Spirit.

People can be so smart, so amazingly, have an amazing IQ, and still be so totally lost because they have not succumbed to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, asking God to save them and being spiritually born again unto God.

Now Nicodemus is just like, how can these things be?

He says, You don't know these things?

Then Jesus says, Verily, verily, I stand it.

He said, I have told you earthly things, and you believe not.

How shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

And he says, No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven.

Where did Jesus come from?

Came from heaven.

To do what?

Had a mission to come and live a sinless life and to die for me and you.

What a mission.

But he did it perfectly.

Perfectly.

Why?

Because he loves us.

He loves us.

He loved the Father.

He wants to do the Father's will.

And so he begins to understand, explain to him that he came from heaven.

Then he does what's amazing about Jesus as a teacher.

He tells Nicodemus a story that he knows Nicodemus knows.

It's a story in the Old Testament found in Numbers.

And he says, and as Moses, verse 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

See, they were in, they were being bitten by snakes because they were disobedient to God.

And I paraphrase the whole story.

Read it for yourself.

It's a really amazing story.

And so they said, We're getting bit by these snakes and we're dying.

Moses, do something.

So Moses goes to God and said, Hey, people are calling out, they need help.

They're dying because of these snakes, these serpents.

And so God tells him an amazing thing, kind of an odd, unique thing.

He says, Okay, you take a brazen serpent and you mold it and you put it on a pole.

And you lift that pole up.

And when that pole is lifted up, you tell the people to look on that serpent, to look on that brazen serpent.

And when they look upon that brazen serpent, once they're bit, they will not die.

And guess what?

They made the serpent, lift it up, and those that were bit would look, and they wouldn't die.

Guess what?

The snakes were still there.

The sin was still there.

But there was a way out.

There was a way to overcome, conquer the death.

So God would save them through faith.

Through faith.

The Old Testament people were saved the same way we're saved today, through faith.

So Jesus tells him that story.

And he says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

What's Jesus talking about?

In the Old Testament, Moses made that brazen serpent and help lifted it up so people could live, have eternal life.

Jesus said the Son of Man must be lifted up.

And what was he lifted up?

On a cross.

That all the world can see.

Yeah, we're all bit by the serpent of sin.

That there is hope.

There is a remedy.

And that is the cross, the blood of Christ on the cross.

If we will look to him in faith, believing, what does Jesus say?

Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Isn't that amazing?

And what does Jesus say?

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

That's how that verse comes.

It's an amazing verse, this amazing story.

But I want you to look in verse 17.

Jesus explains that love, really, and his mission.

He says, For God sent not his son to the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

He says, He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already.

See, there's no neutrality with God.

There's no straddling stain on the fence.

You're either you're lost or you're saved.

You're either alive or you're dead.

There's no saying, well, I don't believe in all that.

I don't believe in the word.

I don't believe in God.

I'm just going to do my thing.

Okay.

Okay.

But there's always going to be a judgment for all people.

The Bible says appointed for men once to die and then judgment.

And you can believe or not believe.

But it's written and recorded for us to believe.

To believe that Jesus died for us.

And Jesus says, Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Then Jesus says in verse 19, and this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.

And what happens?

Why are we as sinners run from the light?

Because our deeds are evil.

And what produces that light?

And what produces that conviction?

The Holy Spirit.

It's the Holy Spirit that enlightens us, that we see our sinfulness.

We see it.

We're like, man, that's convicting.

And he says, and Jesus goes on to explain it.

Verse 20, he says, For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved.

And he says, But he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be manifest that they are wrought in God.

We do things for the right reason.

We do things for the right reason.

Just like we can do wrong things or we think good things to be saved, we can be the same way after salvation if we're self-righteous.

Thinking, well, I'm going to do this, this, and this, and people will see me, what kind of great guy that I am.

It's never about us.

It's never about us being saved.

We can't save ourselves.

It's never about us after we're saved.

It's about who's inside of us.

Who are we living for?

Who receives the honor, the glory, and the praise of this Christ?

But here's the thing: what drives us?

What's our motivation?

It's the Holy Spirit.

It's the Spirit inside of us that convicts us that we need to be saved, how much God loves us, that there is a way.

And then after we're saved, it's the Holy Spirit that doesn't just lest on no roll and say, man, I'm glad I'm saved.

No, he won't let you just be glad to be saved.

He wants you to grow.

To grow.

It's like a little baby that's been born.

Guess what?

Matt and Nicole will just rejoicing that baby's born.

Yeah, he's good.

Then leave him in the hospital and leave him in bed and say, okay, take care of yourself.

No what?

They got to nourish him.

Take care of him, change him, dress him.

Guess what?

The Holy Spirit does that for us as babes in Christ.

We're all babes in Christ at one point if we're saved, but he doesn't want us to be babies.

Guess what?

Matt and Nicole's gonna have serious issues about a little baby stage.

It's like he is when he's 10 years old, that small, and he can't feed himself, can't go to the bathroom.

Oh, guess what?

Something's wrong.

It's the same way for Christians.

If you stay as a baby your entire life, something's wrong.

You're not yielding to the Holy Spirit.

You're not doing what the Holy Spirit would have you to do.

That we grow, we're fed the Word.

And then what?

We're fed the Word, then we get a little understanding, we begin to feed ourselves.

Then what do we do?

You grow and you mature and you become a member of a church and you're growing and doing these things, guess what?

Then you become a teacher.

Well, God lays upon your heart.

You teach others, you feed others.

That's the process of growth.

And that's what Jesus explains to the Holy Spirit to Nicodemus, and explains it to us so well in John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

If you will turn to John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

Because his disciples, he's about to tell them he's going to leave.

He says, Let not your heart be troubled in John 14.1.

All this discord he's talking about to his to his disciples.

John 16, just look in John 16, 1.

He says, These things have spoken to you that you should not be offended.

And he's talking to people that are his disciples that have been with him for three years.

And they're really trying to understand.

John 16, 1.

Not to be offended.

Because it's going to be a struggle.

Being a disciple of the Lord is a struggle when you're trying to do it in your own strength.

We're so blessed today.

We have the completed word.

They didn't have the completed word, and they didn't have the Holy Spirit inside of them.

They didn't have the Holy Spirit inside of them until the day of Pentecost.

They were being led, they didn't have the completed word.

That's the Old Testament.

But we have the completed Word and the Holy Spirit inside of us today.

And so Jesus says this to them.

He says in verse 2, they shall put you out of the synagogues.

Yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that they do it God's service.

We see it all in our society today.

With the radical Islam, all different things.

What they want to do?

They want to kill Christians to kill them like crazy over in Africa today.

Kill them today for their faith in Jesus Christ.

Why?

Because they're thinking they're doing their God a service.

And he says, These things will they do unto you because they have not known the Father nor me.

They're being deceived.

But he says, But these things have I told you that when the time shall come, you may remember that I told you of them, and these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.

Why didn't Jesus tell them those things from the very beginning?

Because they were babes.

They're like, Well, you seem like a really good guy, and you do some amazing tricks.

I want to say miracles, but man, they're going to do what to me?

You're saying if I follow you, they're going to kill me?

I didn't tell you that from the beginning.

Why?

Again, because they're babies.

He couldn't handle it.

It would have scared them to death.

But now he knows they've grown.

And they've matured.

And yeah, they don't make mistakes like Peter's going to make mistakes.

You can see, we know.

But they were ready.

They were wretched.

They're in a point in their life, they were ready.

Because Jesus' timing was coming.

He was going to die.

He was going to die.

And he was saying, Hey, I have prepared you.

That's what Christianity is.

It's a prepared people for a prepared place.

So are you prepared?

And the only way to be prepared is to be spirit-led, to be growing in the spirit, allowing him to shape and make and mold you.

And he says, in verse 4, he says, But these things have I told you that when the time shall come you may remember that I told you of them.

And these things I said not to you at the beginning because I was with you.

He says, but now I go my way to Him that sent me, and none of you ask where thou goest.

He says, But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.

I bet.

Not only were they upset that Jesus was leaving, I'm upset, like, man, he's saying that someday they're going to we're going to be killed for our faith.

And look what Jesus says.

Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.

I'll tell you the truth.

Is expedient, or this word expedient means better.

We might say today, Jesus saying, hey, it's better.

Look what Jesus says.

It is better for you that I go away.

I bet they were like, What?

Are you kidding?

He says, For if I go not away, the comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, will not come unto you.

But he said, But if I depart, I will send him unto you.

I used to think about that as a young baby Christian.

But man, the disciples had it so made.

We get to walk with Jesus, see all the miracles.

But now I realize how much better we have it today.

We get to look back and see how it's all going to end.

We have the end of the book.

Yeah, we're living in it.

But they were, they were in this book.

And we get to live by it.

So we're so blessed today.

So blessed today.

Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit in verse 8.

He says, When he has come, here will approve the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment, because of sin, because they believe not on me, of righteousness because I go to my Father and see me no more.

Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.

And he says, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now.

Why?

The Holy Spirit wasn't inside of them.

They were only going to be able to retain so much as they could retain.

But once they had the Holy Spirit, they were going to be able to write what?

The Word of God.

It's amazing.

Because look what Jesus says in verse 13.

He said, I'll admit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come.

It's one of my favorite verses, I mean I don't care what's my favorite.

I'll say I have a bunch of favorite verses in the Bible, but this is one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible.

John 16, 13.

Jesus explaining to his disciples.

Now I think everybody here is a disciple of Christ.

And you want to hear the truth.

You want to know the truth and be led in the truth.

What's he say?

When he, the Spirit of truth, has come.

What will he do?

He will guide you in all truth.

There's no greater promise.

Regardless.

How upside down your life can be.

Life can get upside down.

We have a compass.

It's always pointing to Christ.

It's always about the word for us to get our life right.

Not in our own strength.

Not in our own strength.

Allowing Him to set us upright and to guide us.

To guide us.

It's amazing.

We're so blessed.

Never forget the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth.

And the truth is we make mistakes.

We struggle.

We drop the ball.

Turn to Isaiah chapter 64.

Isaiah 64 · chapter mention

That's where we're going to end real quick.

Isaiah 64.

Look what it says in Isaiah 64, verse 4.

Isaiah 64:4

He said, For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, besides thee, what he hath prepared for them that waiteth for him.

And how do we wait on God?

Being spirit-led.

Being led by the Spirit.

We just stand and wait, talking to the Holy Spirit.

Say, Lord, what do you want me to do?

He says, I'm going to lead you in just a minute.

We ought to have patience, being led by him.

He says, waiting for him.

He says, Thou meetest him that rejoices and worketh righteousness of those that remember thee and thy ways.

Behold, thou art wroth.

He's angry, for we have sinned in those continuance, and we shall be saved.

He said, But we, Isaiah saying this, but we all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags, and we all do fades as a leave in our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.

That's all of us.

We're all sheep that's gone astray.

And he says, There is none that call upon thy name that stirreth up myself to take hold of thee, for thou hast hid thy face from us and thou hast consumed us because of our iniquity, because we're all sinners.

But God in his mercy and his grace sent Christ to die, and he gave us the Holy Spirit, we could belong to him.

Because what's he saying in verse 8?

He says, But now, O Lord, thou art our Father.

We belong to the Creator of the universe.

If you've been born again into Him.

He says, But now, O Lord, thou art our Father.

And we are the clay.

We are made from dust.

What does he say?

And thou art our potter.

And we are all the work of thy hand.

It's amazing, isn't it?

God will shape us and make us and mold us.

And through that, through that struggle, it can be difficult.

Pain, pain is pain.

But when you go through those things, what's he do?

He makes us better to be more like Christ.

But how do we do it?

We follow when the Spirit moves.

Would please stand.

Brother Matt, Miss Michelle will come forward.

So really think about your life.

Think about are you truly following the Holy Spirit, or are you just trusting your own intuition and your own wisdom and own knowledge and doing the things, living a life by your own will?

Well, you may have a great life on this side of heaven, but it's going to be short-lived.

James says, life is a vapor.

Life is a vapor.

You look at these little kids, you see them, and they grow so fast.

Next thing you know, you're like me, you ain't got no hair.

You're like, man, where did life go?

It goes so fast.

So I'm here to tell you: give your life to Christ.

It'd be the greatest life you'll ever live.

But it begins by yielding to the Holy Spirit and having that intimate personal relationship with God that He wants for you.

That you repent of your sins, you call upon the name of Christ and be saved.

And then that just is just the beginning of an amazing life, as we sing.