Led By the Spirit: Hearing and Following God's Voice

Good morning, church family.

It is awesome to be with you this morning.

My name's Russ.

I'm one of the pastors here at Church of the Grove, and and uh I'm gonna can we turn the lights are coming up.

There we go.

There we go.

Because I'm gonna tell you to I like for you to be able to open your Bibles.

Um some of you don't have electronic versions of God's word, so you like the old paper and leather, so we want to be able to see, take notes if we can.

Um so so we're in we're in the series on uh the familiar stranger, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

I alluded to uh a GPS, this whole analogy, this picture, this metaphor of uh of a GPS, and and and most of us would know that that we all have access to um you know guidance through a GPS system that can provide directions for us, and it made me look back uh uh back to when I was growing up, we had these things called maps.

And so you'd keep the map close to you, and then you know, if you needed directions, you just open it up and read it while you're driving.

And then you hand it back, you know, to your spouse or somebody in your family, and and then you proceed to have a, you know, Jill and I have never argued, but there have been times where we had what we call intense fellowship.

And so sometimes that would play into that.

She has a built-in GPS.

Eight out of ten times, if she takes a side road as a shortcut, it's it's the right decision.

Eight out of ten times that I make that decision, it's wrong.

And so the GPS is, but I remember back when when there was this website called mapquest.com, and it was it was a technological marvel.

Because you could put in two addresses and it would tell you how to get there, but then you would do what?

You would print it off, and then you'd lay it in your seat, or maybe in the middle between your seats, and and it was better than a map because it's not blocking as much, but still not as good now as we can pull something up.

And not only do I have have access to look at the directions, but what does your smartphone do for you?

It talks to you, it talks to you.

Now, wouldn't it be great if we had a spiritual GPS?

I don't I don't know about you, but one probably one of the most common questions, common discussions in 30-something years of ministry is following a question that might come something like this.

I wish I knew God's will.

I wish he would make it clear and plain, and and I wish maybe he would just put it on a billboard for me, put it in the sky, you know, let me see it so clearly and where it can't be mistaken.

But what if God has already given us his will?

And our role is to tap in to something outside of ourselves that we can depend on that will give us the strength, the understanding, and the ability to follow God's will.

Because I don't know about you, but I found I'm not great at doing this on my own.

I need something outside of me to lead me and guide me.

So some some of these conversations might go like this.

I just want to know God's will.

I want to hear his voice.

I want to know what which direction to take in life.

And if you we're honest, it's not always easy.

What does God's voice sound like?

How do I know if if it's him or or or my thoughts or what I ate last night?

And and and so there's this tension, and I think it's a beautiful tension where God spoon feeds us at times on those those detailed, maybe points or forks in the road where we do have to make a decision.

Man, we are so in tune with him through his word, through the community of others around us, and he promises to lead us and guide us.

And so there's this tension of how do we learn to recognize his voice and and and and and not just settle for knowing about God, but walking with him in relationship.

And so we looked at Romans 8 last week.

I would encourage you to go back and look at the previous two weeks.

Here's what Paul says in verse 14 of Romans 8.

He says, For all those led by God's Spirit are God's sons.

You'd say sons or daughters.

All those who are led by God's Spirit, so this says, I can identify people who are led by the Spirit and identify them as God's children, as God's followers, as Jesus' followers.

And so the big idea is real simple, to know God is to know his voice.

To know God is to know his voice.

And there is that tension.

And I don't know that we can, it's like, I don't know if we can remove the tension.

Maybe that would be our desire.

We want God to just spell out everything, every detail.

I don't think we could handle it.

I know I couldn't.

We've been reborn and transformed if we've put our faith in Christ, and one of those distinguishing characteristics is being led by the Holy Spirit.

Now, that's one of those things.

Sometimes in the moment, you can't determine that completely.

Sometimes we look at God's will.

Charles Wendah said this: God's will is most often seen clearly in the rearview mirror as we look back.

So how so we've got to trust him and to follow him.

To know him is to know his voice.

And so we're in this series, the familiar stranger.

Week one, we said this the spirit is not an impersonal force, but it is God Himself who calls us and longs for us to know, to be known, loved, and followed.

And so the Spirit isn't just a stranger to keep at arm's length, he is a companion to call alongside of us.

Week two, we learned that the Spirit, last week, we learned that the Spirit just doesn't visit occasionally, doesn't show up.

A lot of people have asked about the difference between how the Holy Spirit works in the Old Testament versus the New Testament, and he did.

The Holy Spirit would drop in in the Old Testament and move upon people, and that was according to just God's will.

And he used people that were that were godly, but he also used people that were ungodly.

He used people that were flawed.

One would be King David, another would be Samson.

King David became known as a man after God's own heart.

Samson is not necessarily viewed that way as much, but it's an example.

God can use anybody, and he can move by the power of his spirit.

The difference in the New Testament is every believer, when you put your faith in Jesus, you have access.

And all it listen, it's an invitation.

Come, lead me, guide me, and it's a posture of surrender.

And so, John chapter 10, we're going to be in the Gospel of John primarily, and we're looking at it, we're looking at what we call the final discourse, where Jesus is teaching his disciples and sharing a lot before he's arrested and taken and crucified and then raised from the dead.

John 10 · chapter mention

And so John 10 speaks to the fact that we are God's sheep and we hear his voice.

He says in verse 3, the gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice.

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them.

The sheep follow him because they know his voice.

Let's say that, know his voice.

Let's say that together.

One, two, three.

Know his voice.

We gotta.

To me, that's the beautiful part of the Christian life is we do get to know God.

We get to know him up close and personal.

He makes himself available to us.

The sheep follow him because they know his voice.

They will never follow a stranger.

Instead, they will run away from him because they don't know the voice of strangers.

And so when he said it, he's given this final discourse, which is John 13 through 17, specifically.

He goes into this farewell discourse.

And so we move forward to that in John chapter 16.

John 16 · chapter mention

John chapter 16, and getting more into the heart of what we're talking about today and following the voice, God's voice.

John 16 · chapter mention

Verse 12 in John 16, he says, I still have many things to tell you, but you can't bear them now.

You can't bear them now.

When the Spirit of truth comes, say Spirit of truth.

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.

Which means we need to know how to distinguish between what is true and what is false.

And we live in a world where truth is subjective.

It's subjective, which means that you can have a different truth than my truth, and they both are equally right at the same time.

Does that make sense to you?

Are there things that are right and things that are wrong?

C.S.

Lewis would would talk about how some of these things are so foundational even for a society, much less for the church.

Know what's right and what's wrong.

You can't even define what is wrong or what is untrue or what is false unless there is something that is defined as true, right, and good.

He says, when the Spirit of truth, he will guide you in all, he comes, he will guide you in all truth.

For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears.

He will also declare to you what is to come.

He will glorify me.

This is Jesus talking, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.

Everything the Father has is mine.

This is why I told you that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.

Jesus is saying, you're not gonna be, you're not gonna be alone, you're not gonna be out there to try to figure all of this out by yourself.

Because the Spirit will come and he won't speak on his own.

He will speak whatever he hears, and what he hears is related directly to what Jesus teaches and what we know about Jesus' life and how he models it.

The Spirit is a speaking spirit.

Listen, you read through the scriptures, you look, and this is theological training, you know, 101, is look for the action words.

And the Spirit always leads us not just to explore what we believe, but how we live.

And so here's what we learned.

If you'd like to take notes, the Spirit speaks what Jesus says.

The Spirit speaks what Jesus says.

So when the Spirit of truth comes, he guides you into truth.

He doesn't guide into your truth or somebody else's truth.

He guides you into absolute truth.

What is right, what is good, what is wrong.

And the spirit is a speaking spirit.

He uses actions word.

When the spirit of the truth comes, he will guide you.

He will not speak on his own, but he will speak whenever he hears.

He will declare to you what is to come.

The spirit is a speaking spirit.

The spirit echoes the voice of Jesus always.

There's no invention of new truth.

There is no evolution of truth.

Jesus is the embodiment of truth, the personification of truth, truth in human skin.

God gives truth going all the way back to Genesis.

Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

And he brings down the shortest condensed version of truth in the Ten Commandments.

And then Jesus takes all of God's truth.

And he's asked a question by one of the religious leaders or the lawyers, you know, people that study the scriptures and the law.

And so Jesus is the embodiment of that truth.

We get the Ken Commandments.

We have, and Jesus took it and he boiled it down to two.

Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then love your neighbor as yourself.

And so the Spirit always echoes the voice of Jesus.

And to know God is to know his voice, and that voice will always sound like Jesus, look like Jesus.

And so that's we always give you an example.

I've had people over the years that will come and say to me and say, God, you know, Russ, God is speaking to me.

And they'll talk about an issue of following the will of God, but but they will share something that they say that God is speaking to them, but it's in direct conflict with the word.

I mean, what's an example?

I've had people come in and say, you know, God spoke to me that I'm supposed to get a divorce.

And I'm like, well, listen, divorce is not unforgivable.

There is grace.

I know people who have been in situations where it just looked like there's no other option.

But it's not as if God tells them that divorce is okay.

Because divorce is not okay, although we know circumstances, and if you're in this room and you're divorced, there's no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus.

It's not unforgivable, but it is, but marriage is sacred.

It's not meant to be moved in haphazardly, it's not meant to be taken lightly, it's not meant to be pushed aside because of convenience.

Sometimes it's inevitable.

Sometimes the circumstances are uncontrollable.

I understand that.

Sometimes I've had people say, you know what?

I was standing behind somebody in a convenience store, and I felt like I was supposed to speak to them.

And so when they get to that part, I'm like, man, that is awesome.

Fall on the Holy Spirit.

What'd you say to them?

Well, I didn't speak to them.

I'm like, why?

Well, I just don't, I didn't feel like the Holy Spirit was compelling me to.

And I'm like, have you ever read Matthew 28, 19, 18, 19, and 20?

Jesus says, go into all the world.

That includes your convenience store, includes your grocery store.

It may include Honduras, or it may include Romania, or it may include another country.

But he tells us that we are to go and make disciples, which means that we are truth tellers, including telling people who don't know Christ the truth.

Is truth a good thing or a bad thing?

Honesty, truth.

Now, would you say loving people is an important thing?

Loving people the love of Christ.

If you love somebody, are you going to tell them the truth or are you going to tell them what they want to hear?

So there's not, do you understand?

There's not a lot of wrestling when you have a command.

You don't need the Holy Spirit to give you more truth.

You need to obey the truth he's already given.

And then as we obey, he promises to lead us and guide us into some of those difficult decisions where we need the prompting.

I mentioned going on a mission trip.

Mission trips are always a fun adventure.

And we we you know we we encourage that.

We're, I think there's another meeting for next year's Honduras trip coming up at the beginning of November.

And so I hope you'll pay attention to that and consider the possibility of going to Honduras and ministering to children and families and poor people and senior adults.

And it's an incredible ministry, and you share the gospel, you share the love of Jesus, and and and but there's always a barrier when you go to a different country.

What's that barrier?

It's language.

It's language.

So what do you need?

You need a translator, you need somebody that will interpret what you can't say in the language of the people.

And so that interpreter is so beautiful.

It's a cherished thing when you have a great interpreter that can on the fly follow you.

And I I there's times I've been preaching with an interpreter, and I hope they're saying what I'm saying, but I really don't know.

And so that interpreter helps communicate the gospel, the truth of God, in a language that people don't understand.

Similar to what the Holy Spirit does.

The Holy Spirit is a needed interpreter to lead us and guide us.

And there are things that can that can be a bit difficult, maybe forks in the road for your own personal life, learning and growing in Scripture.

But the way you recognize the Spirit's voice is always filtering it through the interpretation of the Holy Spirit in your life, which always comes back to Jesus and the Word.

And so what we do when we share truth, we're echoing, we're echoing the teachings of Jesus.

We are echoing what the Spirit is leading us to share, what He's leading us to do.

And so when you open the Word, you trust that God, even in those areas where you need understanding, and God will bring people in your life that will help you, guide you, teach you, help you learn.

We have access to so much theological information.

Sometimes we need to come back to just what's simple.

Jesus loves me.

This I know.

For the Bible tells me so.

And so the Spirit, the Spirit always, always speaks what Jesus says, but the Spirit also speaks truth.

The Spirit speaks truth.

He says in verse 13, when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.

Jesus identifies the Holy Spirit, the one that was to come, but is also now living inside of all believers.

The Spirit of Truth, Jesus identified himself, not as a person who just spoke truth, but but he was the way, the truth, and the life.

He was the embodiment of truth.

And so part of the Holy Spirit's ministry is to bring light and to shine light on the reality of this life.

There's what is present, there's what is seen, there's what is unseen, and so the Spirit comes and leads us in those areas.

He empowers us to do what may be hard to do, but he illuminates the pathway for us.

Sometimes it's just one step at a time.

And so he doesn't just give us facts and knowledge, he gives and leads us into the way of life that we're called to live following Jesus.

And the Spirit's activity is threefold.

It's illumination.

Illumination.

He opens the scriptures, he makes the scriptures come to life.

Come to life.

A person who doesn't know Jesus has not been awakened.

They haven't been born again.

Without Christ, when we are born again, we have access to the Spirit.

It doesn't necessarily mean that we're always going to walk in the Spirit perfectly, but we have access to the Spirit.

Illumination.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit.

Since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

For who knows a person's thoughts except his spirit within him?

In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

Now we have not received the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God.

And so he illuminates.

He illuminates Scripture, brings it to life.

Conviction.

Illumination, conviction.

The Spirit exposes what's false in us.

It exposes what's false in us.

John 16, verse 8.

John 16:8

When he, the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment.

Sin, righteousness, and judgment.

All of that requires the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Now, let me tell you something about what the enemy does in your life.

The enemy wants to whisper lies in your life.

The enemy wants you to believe that you are unable to walk this life as a follower of Jesus.

The enemy wants to speak in your lies.

You don't even belong to God.

Look at how you live.

Look at this hidden sin.

And so guilt, the enemy wants to use the darts of guilt.

Guilt condemns without any hope.

It condemns without any hope.

Now, there is an aspect of truth that involved the reality and the existence of a place called hell and the reality of the wrath of God.

Now, listen, we all get a little nervous when the preachers start talking about hell and wrath.

And listen, I'll tell you straight up.

I like talking about grace and love and all those warm and fuzzy things.

They're a lot easier to talk about.

But you know what?

If there is not something to be saved from, how are you going to be long to be saved for?

Caleb is my 20-year-old.

And you know, I mean, we, you know, our kids, there's so much as a you know, a child in church.

And we we never we never wanted to use the preacher kid or preacher, you know, uh we never wanted them to have this overly fishbowl existence.

Try to give them room, but with Caleb, but they're they're constantly under the teaching.

We're teaching them at home, they're they're being taught in their school, and and they're they're hopefully they're they're being taught in church.

And and so Caleb was about eight.

I think he was about eight.

I may be wrong, but but we're we're driving down the road in this old old minivan that we had, and he just burst out crying.

And he just starts crying, and and and Jill and I, like, Caleb, what's wrong?

I don't want to go to hell.

And of course, as a parent, you I mean, I my first response, son, son, you're not going to hell.

Wait a minute.

Son, you are going to hell if you don't know Jesus.

And I didn't say that like that to him, but but I I comforted him more.

But Jill, as we talked about it, we're like, hey, this is this may be the evidence of the Holy Spirit working in his life.

And so we love him.

We want him to know the reality of the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

It's so different than guilt and shame that buries you and consumes you.

You don't, you don't even, you, it causes you to question your relationship with God.

That's the enemy full of lies.

But the truth is, if we love people, we've got to be willing to tell them not only the good news of God's grace, but the news of reality, which is hell is real, and the wrath of God will be poured out on all who are found outside of the faith and believing in Jesus.

So the world, the world says, live your truth.

The spirit says, live the truth of Jesus.

The world says, you're enough, you're enough, you're your own guide, you have you have access to information and things in this world.

Uh you are enough, you are enough, and and and this world offers enough, but the spirit says Christ is enough.

The spirit says, if you are in Christ, you are a new creation.

Second Corinthians 5.17.

The old is past.

Behold, the new has come.

The world says, earn your worth.

Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

The spirit says, you are beloved in Christ.

Now obey out of love.

The world says it's hopeless.

The spirit says Jesus is risen.

Nothing is impossible with God.

Yeah, I'm going to come down and clap for myself.

Or clap for God myself.

The Holy Spirit is truth.

He guides us in all truth.

And so the New Testament writers were concerned about people being deceived.

I'm not so concerned about that, are you?

Are people living in this world deceived?

Man, it's overwhelming at times.

The deception, the immorality, the false doctrinal teachings.

We were promised, hey, last days are going to contain, there's going to be preachers and ministers and church leaders that tickle the ears.

And so I don't want to be that.

I want us to be a people that are willing to listen to how the Spirit guides and leads us.

The Spirit of truth will not only sound like Jesus, but it always points back to the truth.

And so we have to understand, God doesn't want to keep things hidden.

He wants to reveal himself to you, which leads us, I think, to look and to spend these final few minutes talking about how do we practically hear the promptings of the Holy Spirit that will lead us into sharing our faith, loving people like Jesus, being the hands and the feet of Jesus serving a lost and broken world.

So there are times that that, and we see, I'm listen, I've got several verses out of the book of Acts.

So if you want to, I'm going to hit them pretty quick here.

Acts 8, 26 through 28, Philip is given a specific prompt by the Spirit to share about Jesus with supernatural timing.

Acts 10, 19, the Spirit comes to Peter about the gospel being extended across cultural lines.

It's not just for Jewish people, it's for every person.

It's for every ethnicity.

Acts 13, 2 through 4, there's this corporate discernment.

As they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work which I have called them.

And so part of what the Spirit will do, he will lead you and He'll guide you.

He will speak to you.

It's always for us to be on the offensive and not just be defensive.

If you look at the armor of God, a lot of that armor is for us to defend ourselves from the enemy.

But you know what?

At the end of the day, He has given us the word and the Spirit that is promised to overcome the enemy and the lies that he wants to share.

So so discernment.

Some things I have to pray about that are questionable, some things I don't have to pray about.

God's called us to share Jesus.

He's called us to love people.

Acts 16, 6 through 10, Paul's missionary journey closed doors and offered redirection.

It says they had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

That's an interesting passage to me because it's unique, telling them not to go somewhere.

But it's not to go ever, it's just not to go at that point.

The Holy Spirit directs you.

Sometimes we need to know where do we need to put our energy and put our finances and put our support as far as mission work.

And then Acts 20, verses 22 and 23, the Spirit prepares Paul for suffering.

Acts 20:22

He says this the Holy Spirit warns me that change and afflictions are waiting for me.

The Spirit doesn't just lead super saints or those that are especially especially spiritual.

He leads all of us that are believers.

And the same Holy Spirit that dwelt in Paul, that dwelt in Peter, and that dwelt in the disciples and the apostles, it's the same Holy Spirit that dwells in us.

Paul says in Galatians 5, he says, verses 16, 18, and verse 25, and we're going to be talking about the spirit, the fruit of the Spirit in the next couple of weeks.

He says, I say then, walk by the Spirit, and you will certainly not carry out the desires of the flesh.

For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh.

These are opposed to each other.

So that you don't do what you want, but if you're led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

In verse 25, he goes on to say, if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

We got the flesh and the Spirit.

And this is not a great picture, but you ever seen the analogy of the little angel on one shoulder and the devil on this shoulder?

Or I've heard people talk about there's two wolves, there's a good wolf and a bad wolf.

I didn't know there was good wolves.

But you the whole point is you you have the flesh pulling at you, the desires, appetites that align with the world.

Sin.

And you've got the spirit.

And so we need to be convicted by the Holy Spirit when we tend to gravitate toward our flesh and trust that God will lead us and work and lead us by the Spirit.

By the Spirit.

Which leads me to this final thing.

Is what you feed, you fuel.

What you feed, if you feed the flesh, you will fuel a life of fleshly desires.

You'll act on them.

If you feed the spirit, you will get the promise that God will lead you and he will guide you.

So I'm going to close with this acronym.

And it's the acronym using the word voice, because we're talking about to follow God is to follow the Spirit's voice, to follow his voice.

How do you know when it's the Spirit?

You run it through the filter.

Not one of these letters is important.

Every one of them is important.

And the V is this value Jesus above self.

Jesus above self.

We live in a world where we elevate self, but we need to elevate Jesus above self.

The Spirit spots light, spot, puts the spotlight on Christ, not on us.

O is for outcomes that show the Spirit's fruit.

And we'll teach on this here coming up, but it's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control of the nine fruits of the Spirit.

And so the outcome of following the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit.

I is for the inner witness of peace or holy conviction.

A Christ-centered peace is promised to us as we seek to obey the Spirit's leadership in our life.

Not comfort.

The Spirit doesn't promise comfort, but he promises peace even in the midst of discomfort.

See as counsel of community.

We're all have access to the Lord.

And so the council of community confirms.

The church helps discern.

We invite people to pray over decisions and things that we're called to.

And then E is established in Scripture and the wisdom of God.

The wisdom of God.

And so what I want to do with just a couple of minutes here, I want you to bow your heads.

Bow your heads.

And I want to just walk us through understanding the practical steps that we might take as a result of being at this place, this point in this series.

And I know at this 845 service that probably the majority of you are believers.

We're tending to have more guests at um at the second and third services.

And so, but I don't want to assume all of you know the Lord.

And so what is God calling you to do?

The first step is to understand and surrender to the gospel of Jesus.

It's to do what Jesus said.

He said, The kingdom of heaven is here.

Repent and believe the good news.

What's the good news?

Jesus has come and he's lived and he died and he rose again for you.

He promises you the indwelling spirit of Christ living inside of you.

He promises you a life not that is comfortable, but a life with hope.

He promises that he will never leave us or forsake us.

But we need to understand our desperate need for redemption and reconciliation.

And the truth is, all of us will stand before the Creator God one day.

There'll be a judgment, there'll be a determination of whether you will spend eternity in the presence of God or eternity away from God in a place called hell.

And the single issue, the single thing, the single experience that you'll be judged by is how you responded to Jesus and his gospel.

And so I'm telling you, there's hope.

God loves you.

But he also, the scripture tells that we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And what is the wages of sin?

It is what?

Death, separation from God, hell.

But he offers us hope.

We're divided by sin, separated by sin, but he invites us, he invites us to receive his grace.

And if you never put your faith in Jesus this morning, this is the morning for you to put your faith in Christ.

And have your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

Your salvation, you will be sealed by the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption.

Others of you, it's it's just your exercise or your response this morning might be to follow a prompt.

As we sing here, a second, this hymn.

I'm inviting you to follow the prompt of the Holy Spirit.

You say, Russ, what does that feel like?

I'm just telling you, some God, God, sometimes as I look across the room, God will prompt me to go speak a word of encouragement or a word of hope.

Pray for people, encourage people.

And so it's a little bit discouraging at times when we hear the word preached to us, but we sit on our seats like a lump on a log, and we don't respond to the prompts of the Holy Spirit.

So there ought to be sometimes a little bit of activity where I see us ministering to one another.

And it doesn't have to start with somebody on the platform, it can start with you.

And so your prompt might be to go speak to somebody that you know is going through a hard time, encourage somebody that needs encouragement.

You say, I don't know a lot of people in here.

You know what?

Sometimes the most encouraging thing to do is to speak somebody to somebody you don't know and just give them a word of encouragement.

And finally, it's this we look at the country and we say, we say, man, this is a messed up place.

We look at the world, we say it's a messed up place.

All the things that are happening, shootings, whether it's an individual, a prominent public figure, or people that will never know their names.

That might be killed at work or at school.

We know this is this is all this is a terrible world.

But here's here's what I think the Holy Spirit leads us to do.

He leads us to understand how to be the change we want to see.

How do we just embody the change?

It's by looking at Christ, putting him first in our life, and then inviting the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us.

So as we close this morning, that's my prayer.

Father, would you lead us and guide us?

Would you, would you work in us over these next few moments, lead us and guide us into how we are to share truth and how we are to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

So, Father, I pray for those that need Jesus right now, that they would be prompted to find, come find somebody or turn to somebody around them and say, you know what, I'm putting my faith in Jesus.

You you look around the room, there's somebody that God leads you to speak a word of encouragement.

If you think about this broken world, then you become the change that you want to see.

Father, speak to us, lead us and guide us by your Holy Spirit.

We love you, we praise you.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.