The Holy Spirit in the Life of the Believer | Ps. Chris Brooks

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You guys can y'all can be seated.

Well, good morning, everybody.

What a beautiful day in Orlando.

And I love coming down here to be with you guys.

This is probably my fourth or fifth time down, and I love seeing everybody.

The team here is amazing.

Of course, Pastor Keith and Megan are just always so full of joy and such amazing leaders.

I love them so much.

And I love the whole team here.

Victor, I love when Vic I last time I was here, uh Victor spoke, and I love his accent, man.

He's where is he at?

I don't see him.

He's serving somewhere.

Uh but uh, of course, Lindsay is a longtime uh friend of mine.

We we served together up in uh Jacksonville for a lot of years, and I just I get there's Lindsay.

I get she's so good.

Come on, let's put her hands together for this whole team.

She's the best.

And uh and Nate's hair always is makes me jealous.

Every time I come, I get in the car and I think, Lord, why don't you give me lavish hair like Nate's?

I would put product in there, it would blow in the breeze.

I would just be so happy.

But uh anyway, it's so good to be with you guys.

And we're gonna pick up part two of this Holy Spirit series.

I love Holy Spirit series.

I love teaching on the Holy Spirit, it's one of my favorite things to teach about topics to teach about.

And so I'm gonna read this uh theme scripture and then we'll pray.

In John 14, it says this, John 14, 16, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another counselor to be with you forever.

He is the Holy Spirit, he is the Spirit of truth.

The world is unable to receive him because it doesn't see him or know him, but you do know him because he remains with you and will be in you.

Well, let's pray together.

Father, we thank you so much for your love, your goodness, your blessing in our lives.

And thank you for this beautiful community in Orlando that you're building here.

Such precious people.

God, we our prayer this morning is that we would leave today changed and closer to you.

And everybody said, Amen.

Amen.

Here in part two of this parakletos series, or paraclete, Pastor Keith thinks he's a Greek scholar.

That's what I've noticed when I come to Orlando.

He puts the Greek in everything.

So unless he can speak Greek to me, I'm not buying in.

Anyway.

Anyway, so in this today's message, we're gonna talk about the whole the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.

The Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.

Who's the Holy Spirit?

Of course, we know it's the third person of the Trinity, right?

The Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, three in one, one in three.

Uh I like to say that the Holy Spirit is God in the now.

He's how the Lord moves on the earth.

I know a few years ago uh there's a book that came out, I think it was uh Francis Chan that wrote it.

It's called Forgotten God.

And it was it was about the Holy Spirit because many people don't, many churches don't teach about the Holy Spirit.

But you know, we want to teach about the Holy Spirit, we want to teach about Jesus, and we want to teach about the Father because they're all three parts of the Trinity, amen?

And we want to, they all have different attributes.

They're all, of course, they're all the Lord.

And so the first idea of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit convicts of sin and leads us to new life in Christ.

The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and leads us to new life in Christ.

Jesus said this: no man can come to the Father who sent me, no man can come to me, Jesus said, unless the Father who sent me draws him.

And I will raise him up at the last day.

Jesus said, No man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

And how does the father draw?

Through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so uh I grew up in Louisiana.

I've been in uh Florida.

This is my, I guess my 25th year.

I've been uh working at Celebration Church for 25 years, and I did mobile church for 10 of those years, so I get the whole setup and teardown drill that we do here.

I did that a lot of years.

So uh, you know, it's uh it's a lot of work uh setting in Terra Nova Church, and I just want you guys to thank you guys for working so hard.

The people who set up the children's ministry and the worship team gets there early, and they have to set all of this stuff up, and it's not always so easy.

But I I have this so this is my 25th year at Celebration Church, and uh but I didn't grow up in church, and uh we went to church a few times uh a year.

We were Easter and Christmas only, folks, and my wife Ashley is with me today.

Ashley Ann, say hi to everybody.

So it's our birthday weekend.

So if you want to say happy birthday to we have a whole weekend, it's like a four or five-day celebration in our family.

So we this is our 28th year to be married.

We met in high school, and uh we didn't neither Ash nor I grew up didn't grow up in church, we didn't go to church.

We went off to college together after high school at LSU.

Any Tiger fans in the house?

Just give me one go tigers.

Anybody?

No, we are too far.

Come on, we got the Gators, we got the Seminoles, I know we have UCF.

Any UCF fans?

All right, there we go.

Well, I am an LSU Tiger, and so when I was in college, I didn't know the Lord.

I went off to college, I did the smartest thing I could think of and uh join a fraternity and work at a bar.

Come on, somebody.

So uh that's what I did.

But you know, what happened to me is the Lord started dealing with me.

I quit the working at the bar and I gotta work, I started working at a gym, and it was owned by a Christian, uh, a Christian guy, and a lot of Christians worked at the gym, and I started watching them, man.

I didn't, but they just seemed to be filled with joy.

And they talked about the Lord.

One guy brought his Bible to work and he would read it during his lunch hour.

I said, Man, this guy's crazy.

He's reading his Bible and his lunch hour.

But he was filled with joy, and I remember he was always, he was the manager, but he wasn't afraid to sweep and clean.

He was always talking about the Lord.

And boy, I started watching him, and it started, it really started uh motivating me and getting me interested in the things of God and some of the other workers.

And the one time the owner came up to me and said, Did you ever go to church?

And I said, No, he's or you think you're too good to go to church, and he walked off.

But I and I thought, but I he left and I thought, God, I'm kind of a loser.

I think I need to probably go to church.

That's all it took, you know.

But I went home to my apartment and uh I lived in this apartment called uh Varn Villa.

Can you get a picture of this apartment in Baton Rouge, Louisiana?

And my cousin, who's he worked for the uh North Carolina Bureau of Investigation, he was like a cowboy.

It had a cowboy hat, all this cowboy stuff.

Well, he gave me all kinds of cowboy stuff.

So I had cowboy prints all in my apartment.

It was a cool little cowboy apartment.

And so I got off work and I came home one time, and uh while I was at the gym, this old man gave out Bibles.

He had these little paperback, purple paperback Bibles, and it said, uh, the good news in modern English.

I didn't know one scripture, friend.

I didn't know the difference between Abraham and Moses.

I'm telling you, I never opened a Bible, and I said, okay, this is this is I think I need like a kid's Bible.

And this thing said like modern, the good news in modern English.

I said, that's for me, I need that one.

So I I he gave it to me, I took it home, and I got home from work and I started reading it.

I'm telling you guys, the the word started jumping off the page.

I just started, I remember reading in John and reading in Romans, and I understood the gospel for the first time.

And I and I just I realized who Jesus was, and that he, and here's the thing, I had always heard the story of Jesus.

How many of you know in the South, everybody's a Christian?

You know, what else?

I mean, in and especially in Louisiana, there's everybody's a Catholic, right?

Or a Christian.

There's there's not, it's not very diverse there.

Everybody's a Christian.

What else are you gonna be?

Yeah, you know, so of course I would have said I was a Christian, but I didn't understand the gospel.

And I thought, you know, Jesus died for the sins of the whole world.

I'm going to heaven, praise the Lord.

Give me a beer.

Let's let's party.

I didn't, you know, it had it had no real meaning in my life until I realized I needed a savior.

And and that my sins had separated me from God.

And I got down on my face on that apartment in Varneville, and I laid down on my on my face on that in the carpet, and I just began to weep.

And I'm telling you guys, the Holy Spirit began to fill my life and heal my soul.

And I was healed instantly of some brokenness and some wounds in my soul that I didn't even realize I was carrying.

But I'm telling you guys, when I got up, I was different, friends.

I'm telling you, I was different.

I felt the life and the love of God.

This is how I tell people I would describe that experience: joy and freedom.

And I wanted to go out on that little balcony and just yell at, I'm free, man.

Jesus has saved me.

I'm free.

And this is how I used to think I can be the Chris that I'm created to be.

You know, because I was trying to be this Chris that I thought my parents wanted to be, and the attorney wanted me to be in the bar and the whatever, all these people wanted me to be.

And I said, Man, I'm who God made me to be.

And I was things were broken off my life instantly for that.

And I tell you that story because I remember why did I go from just living my life and I didn't think about heaven, I didn't think about eternal things, I didn't think about sin.

The Bible says there's pleasure in sin for a season.

I was having fun, never cared about it, I just compared myself to others.

As long as I didn't get caught doing something bad, I was good.

And to all of a sudden I came, I was born again into his kingdom, and I began, I sensed the drawing and the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

And Jesus said this no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.

And that's what happens.

He draws us, opens our eyes, and brings conviction into our life by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And so I realized I needed a Savior.

The conviction of God came into my life.

The scripture says this if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.

Old things have passed away.

Behold, all things have become new.

John writes this nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you.

And I know Pastor Keith broke this down last week, but this word parakletos or paraclete in the Greek, it means helper, advocate, it means counselor.

One one time I heard it described like him described like this if you had if I had a log and you were to pick up the other side of it and we were to carry it together, that's the scripture of the paraclete, the parakletos, the helper.

And so listen, there's nothing wrong with saying, help me, Holy Spirit.

And one of the things we want to do in this series here is to be more cognizant, more aware of the Holy Spirit working in our lives.

Aware of his moving in our lives.

Amen?

And so he says this I will, if I don't go away, the helper will not come to you, but if I depart, I will send him to you.

And when he has come, he will convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

Of sin because they do not believe in me, of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no more.

Of judgment because the ruler of the world is judged.

So he comes to convict of sin.

And that's what I started feeling is that my sins had separated me from God, and I needed a savior.

That's why Jesus made sense to me.

I knew for some reason the Holy Spirit convicted me.

That word convict means to convince.

Convince of sin.

It means to determine guilty.

And I realized I was guilty before the Lord.

And that's why Jesus made sense.

And I, that's why I fell in love with him and I called out to him, and his blood cleansed me from all of my sins, and I was born again.

And so Paul writes this our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and must assurance.

And so it's not just words, it's it's it's the Holy Spirit unveiling, illuminating the words to in our hearts by the that's what makes the gospel come alive and be real.

And so, two of my favorite scriptures I want to bring you in Titus, it says this not by works of righteousness which we have done.

Come on, don't miss that.

Not by works of righteousness that we've done.

How many of you know you can't earn salvation?

It's not about good works.

You can be the best person and not know the Lord.

It's not about works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.

He saved us how?

By the washing of regeneration, washed in his blood.

The scripture says, without the shedding of blood, there's no remission for sins.

The life is in the blood.

There had blood had to be shed for our sins.

The washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.

Nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

And so who can read Greek?

You can read it over here.

Where's Pastor Keith?

He can does he think he can read Greek?

All right.

That looks really hard, doesn't it?

Look, but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God.

You say, Well, my friends, some of my family, some people I know, they don't they don't understand.

They don't and then it says, well, they think it's foolish.

You say, Man, that's foolishness.

That's foolish, man.

There's a Holy Spirit.

You have there's a Holy Spirit that lives in you.

There's the moving of the Holy Spirit in your life.

That's foolish.

Well, it says this.

They can't know him.

Why?

Because they don't have spiritual discernment.

Their eyes haven't been opened.

They don't, they can't see.

Maybe some of you, you, you, you need, you need to open, you need to receive the gospel, and then your eyes will be open, and you'll understand.

We live in an unseen kingdom.

Amen.

And so the Holy Spirit draws, convicts, convinces us of sin.

He opens our eyes and gives us revelation.

In John chapter 3, you guys, some of y'all have heard this story a lot, familiar passage about Nicodemus who sneaks to go see Jesus by night and he asks him how to have eternal life.

John 3 · chapter mention

And Jesus says this most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Born of water, a natural birth.

Born of the spirit, a spiritual birth.

That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit, do not marvel.

I say to you, you must be born again.

The wind blows where it wishes, you hear the sound of it, you don't know where it comes from or where it's going.

So is everyone who is born of the Spirit of God.

Jesus said this don't be so, don't be amazed.

Don't marvel.

You must be born again.

And I was thinking this when I got when I became a Christian 32 years ago, there was a book Chuck Colson wrote called Born Again, and that was a popular term, and then it became a political term to me.

Like it was like, those are born-again Christians, maybe, you know, whatever, they're conservative or whatever.

That's that's how to me it got.

And it got to be a thing like making fun of people who are say they're born again, and maybe there's been some hypocrisy.

You know, there's always been hypocrisy.

Don't let hypocrisy keep you from following God.

Listen, I tell you, we know when I really started getting fired up with for God?

When I realized at one day I'll stand before the king, and he's the one that's gonna hold me accountable for my life and no one else.

I can't worry about what other people do and what other people fail, whether when other people turn away or whatever.

Amen.

And so, and I made that choice when I was a kid.

And some of you, if you really want to find some freedom in your life, make that choice, man.

I'm I'm I'm accountable to one person, the Lord Jesus.

Amen.

I'm not gonna the if you you'll never find true freedom if you're always a slave to what you think everybody thinks of you.

Amen.

And so Jesus said this, you must be born again.

And listen, don't be ashamed to tell people you have received new life in Christ.

If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation, old things have passed away.

Behold, all things have become new.

You received, you're the scripture says you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

You were dead, you're spirit, you were spiritually dead.

You had no discernment spiritually, you were dead in your trespasses and sins, but you've been made alive through Christ, and now you sit together with him in heavenly places.

Amen.

For it is by grace you have been saved, not of works, lest any man should boast.

And so being born again into a new kingdom, man, that's you receive new life.

I'm telling you guys, for me, and sometimes I wonder, I know everyone's not gonna have the same experiences.

We're all different.

And sometimes I ask myself, why did I have such a transformational salvation experience?

One reason for me, I think, is because I had no light in my life.

I had no, some of you were raised in church and around spiritual things and your parents and friends and community and churches and the scriptures and worship.

I had I had hardly any of that in my life, very, very little of that, and it was like light into the darkness.

I mean, I didn't know a Christian person.

It was like light into the darkness, and some of you are more saved through like more like osmosis, but it doesn't matter because at some point there comes a time on your life where you have to repent and believe the gospel and be born again.

Amen.

And so the scripture says Jesus said this.

He told Nicodemus, you must be born again.

And it it helps me.

Uh, he said, the wind, it blows where it wishes.

You hear the sound of it, you don't know where it comes from and where it goes.

It goes, so is everyone who is born of the Spirit of God.

How many of you know there's a sovereignty in the kingdom of God?

God is working and we can't see it.

It's an unseen kingdom.

You can't see the wind, but it's blowing, friend.

And it's moving in other areas of Florida, maybe not here.

Maybe it was a nice breeze this morning, but he the wind is blowing.

And you can't see it.

How many of you know God is moving in our lives?

He's moving in other people's lives.

You can't see it, but the scripture says, such as everyone who is born of the Spirit of God.

There's a sovereignty in the kingdom.

And so some symbols of the Holy Spirit help me understand him a little deeper.

And I want to bring those, some of you, to you today.

So wind.

We talked about how Jesus said he's like the wind, and then in the day of Pentecost, it says it was like the sound of the mighty rushing wind filled the room.

And and so the Holy Spirit can be like the wind.

He can be like the fire.

Jesus said this, or it was prophesied of Jesus.

He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire.

Another symbol is water.

Jesus said this.

He said, On that great day of the feast, he said, He who believes in me.

He says, He stood and he cried.

Can you picture Jesus?

It's on this great day of the feast.

I think it's the day of Pentecost when he says this.

And he stands and he says, He who believes in me.

He says, out of his heart will flow rivers.

It says he stood and he cried out, and he said this, if any man thirst, let him come to me and drink.

And out of his heart, out of his belly, out of his innermost being, will flow rivers of living water, and he'll never thirst again.

He's speaking of the Holy Spirit.

A dove.

You remember Jesus' baptism?

The Spirit lighted on Jesus in the form of a dove, and the Father says, This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased.

The scripture in Ephesians says this you are sealed until the day of redemption by the Holy Spirit.

The seal of the Holy Spirit.

You're sealed as a guarantee, the scripture says in one translation.

You're sealed as a guarantee to the Father.

Oil.

How many of you remember the story of David where they go get the shepherd boy and they and Samuel pours the oil over his head?

Can you imagine a young boy and they just didn't anoint him with a little bit of oil?

They pouring oil over his head.

It's a symbol of the Holy Spirit.

It's going down his head, it's going in his beard.

And how many of you know, then he gets up and now, next thing you know, he's running for his life from King Saul.

He's hiding in caves and in the wilderness, Saul's throwing spears at him.

But I've often thought, I wonder if he reflects on the oil.

He was anointed king.

He just had to pay the price and he had to make it to the but how many of you know he never forgot that?

And in Psalm 92, he says this you have anointed me with fresh oil.

How many of you know we need the oil of the Holy Spirit in our lives?

Listen, you know what I think about with Christianity?

It's boring.

Christianity is boring without the power of the Holy Spirit.

Well, I don't know about you, but I need the oil to flow in my life, flow in my spirit, the anointing of God, the power of God.

The scripture says this: you shall receive dunamis.

That's the word we get the word dynamite.

You shall receive dynamite.

After that, the Holy Spirit has come upon you to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

To me, Christianity is just born without the power of God.

The power of God is in the gospel.

Don't get me wrong.

That's where we live, is in the gospel.

But how many of you know we get dry in?

Gee, the scripture says this.

It says, My flesh longs for you, my soul thirsts for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.

So I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory.

How many of you know we live in a dry and thirsty land?

We need the water.

We need the oil.

We need the fire.

Come on, y'all.

We need the power of God in our lives.

That's the anointing of God on our lives.

Some tiles of the Holy Spirit.

He's the spirit of truth.

He will lead you into all truth, the scripture says.

He's the spirit of holiness.

He's the sanctifying spirit.

He's the spirit of life who sets us free from the law of sin and death.

He's the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father, we've been adopted into his family.

He's the spirit of grace.

He graciously works in our salvation.

He's the spirit of glory.

Come on, y'all remember in the Old Testament where the glory of God fills the temple and the priests cry, glory.

They can't even stand, they fall.

And the glory of God, I was thinking about this in the first service when Ash and I were younger, we visited church.

I went to different church every night.

I don't recommend that, but I couldn't get enough.

I went Sunday every, so we had Tuesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday.

I found a church.

The Thursday night church that we found when we were young, it was a Pentecostal church out in the country in South Louisiana.

And one time we were in church, and now today, I don't know if we do it here, but a lot of churches they they put like haze, it kind of sets a vibe, you know, and for worship.

Well, they didn't have that in the early 90s.

And so we went to this church, and we f, you know, all of a sudden, like this mist started filling the sanctuary.

And the past, and we were like, something's going on, man.

The glory of God's coming in this place.

And and so, and you know, and the pastor was this country guy, and he had a flat top and a mustache.

And he was country friend.

His name was David Diamond.

And he came out and he said, He came out and he started laughing.

He said, Y'all, I think the glory of God is filling this place.

The Shekinah is here, you know.

And we were like, Man, I think we're having a visitation.

And then he he came back out and he said, There's a fire in the kitchen.

There was it's a fire, and he just started laughing, and we all started laughing.

It was a fire in the kitchen, man.

The smoke was filling the sanctuary.

We thought it was the glory of God.

Oh man, the spirit of glory.

He's the eternal spirit, he's without beginning or ending.

And so the Holy Spirit can brings conviction into our lives.

Thank God for the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Thank God we can sense the conviction of the Holy Spirit in our life when he convinces us and deals with us.

And then the second idea we're going to talk about today is the Holy Spirit sanctifies our lives and makes us more like Christ.

We're talking about the Holy, the life, the Holy Spirit in the life of believers.

And the second idea is he sanctifies our lives and makes us more like Christ.

And so the scripture says in 2 Corinthians, but we all with an unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

So did you catch that scripture?

It says we're being transformed.

How?

By the Holy Spirit.

What are we being transformed into?

The image of the Lord.

Okay?

And so have you heard of this term spiritual formation?

Some churches have a spiritual formation pastor or spiritual formation director.

Paul writes this in Galatians.

He says, This, my little children for whom I labor in birth again.

So maybe he, as a spiritual father, he labored in birth so they could come into the kingdom, the Galatians, the church in Galatia.

But then he says, I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.

And so this is the process of sanctification.

So we have justification.

That means like just as just as if you never sinned, you're justified.

That's the gospel.

Just as if you've never sinned.

That's the power of the gospel.

The scripture says you are seated in Christ in heavenly places.

Take, go through the book of Ephesians and write and circle how many times it says in him, in him, in him, in him, in him.

Because we are in him.

We are seated with Christ in heavenly places.

Just as this we've never sinned, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

That's the gospel.

It doesn't get any deeper than that, friends.

The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and you receive new life in him, and now you're adopted into his family.

It doesn't get any, that is, that's where all the power lives.

You can live in that message for the rest of your life and live in joy and victory from the power of the gospel.

Amen.

Don't get it twisted, man.

The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is the power of God into salvation for us, man.

And so that's justification.

When you repent and believe you are his son, you are his daughter, you are seated with Christ in heavenly places, and you can live out of that position.

Don't try to live for that, live from that.

And when you can catch that and you say, His blood has cleansed me, I am his son.

I'm not trying to achieve, it's not by works of righteousness that I have done, but his it's by his for grace.

And so that's the gospel, that's justification.

But then there's sanctification, and that's what we're talking about today.

That means the act of making holy, the act of consecrating, setting apart for a sacred purpose through God's grace.

And so some people say it like this we've been saved, that's justification.

We're being saved, that's sanctification.

And we will be saved.

We're gonna get new glorified bodies one day.

And mine's gonna have a lot of hair.

Amen.

We're gonna get new glorified bodies one day.

So we're justified, we're being sanctified, and one day we will be glorified.

Ash and I were talking about this the other day.

She's a Bible teacher as well at school, and she was we were talking about heaven, and we were talking about, I love trying to learn the guitar and play the guitar, and she's like, you know, we can play instruments, heaven.

You can learn any instruments you want.

I said, Man, I'm gonna be, I'm when I get to heaven, I'm gonna rock.

I'm gonna play the guitar like a beast.

And and so, and I'm gonna have Nate's hair.

Sanctification happens when we submit our lives to the Holy Spirit, and the grace of God and the power of the gospel now is working in our lives.

See, he is working in our lives for his good pleasure.

That's the power.

How are we sanctified?

We we yield or we continue to walk in the Holy Spirit.

The scripture says in Galatians 5, you know that Galatians 5, it's the fruit of the Spirit and the works of the flesh.

And that's the passage that says, walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

For the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and they're contrary to one another, so that you don't do the things that you wish.

And so there is a thing, there at on this side of heaven, we're gonna have to, we're gonna always have to battle the world, the flesh, and the devil.

The world system is not pointing everyone towards Jesus, it's gonna have an amen.

Amen.

So we have that to battle.

So the world, the flesh, we have a flesh.

And so I heard one country preacher say this it's like having two dogs.

The one that you feed the most is gonna grow the most.

That's not that great of an analogy, but it I remembered it.

So if you feed your flesh, you're not gonna walk in much victory.

But like Pastor Nate was saying, if you take up your cross, deny yourself, and and deny your flesh and feed your spirit, man, you're gonna live in more victory.

Amen.

And so we're constantly gonna battle this.

You know what I found out?

It's easy to become a Christian.

You're justified when you believe and repent.

When you repent and believe the gospel, you're justified.

But it's hard to be a Christian.

It's easy to become one, it's hard to be one.

That's what it's about.

Take up your cross, deny yourself, and follow me.

It's it's hard to follow Jesus in this culture.

And so, how do we live in freedom?

If there's this war going on in the flesh, but how do we live in freedom?

Just like Jesus did through the word of God.

Because when he came and he was tempted, he said what?

It is written.

Man shall not live by bread alone.

It is written.

And so we remember that the blood of Jesus has what's your best weapon against the enemy?

The blood of Jesus.

Don't forget it.

You're cleansed by his blood.

No one can ever take that away from you.

No, your spiritual enemy can never take that away from you.

You're cleansed by his blood.

What's your other weapon?

The word of God?

What's your other weapon?

That you're in the new covenant.

You're a part of his kingdom.

And so yielding our lives to the power of the Holy Spirit.

I like this verse, man.

Isaiah 10 says this.

I think this is the King James.

It says, And it shall come to pass in that day that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be a strugg shall be destroyed because of the anointing.

What does that say to me?

You know what that means?

It means the anointing of God, the power of the Holy Spirit can break off yokes of sin in my life, and I can walk in victory and freedom.

I already have the victory through the blood and the power of Jesus, I just need to walk in it.

If I walk in the spirit, I won't fulfill the lust of the flesh.

I have the power, I just need to walk in it.

You have the power, you just need to walk in it.

That's the gospel.

And so we have a part, and God has a part.

And so when we yield to the Spirit, which means walking in obedience, God changes and sanctifies us.

But we don't drift towards holiness.

Holiness isn't gonna happen by accident.

When you think of holiness, don't think of some something that does not.

This is what holiness means.

Set apart.

Distinct?

You're strangers and pilgrims in this world.

There's something unique, distinct, set apart for you, consecrated for you.

Because why?

You're his daughter.

You're his son.

That's what holiness means.

We don't drift towards that.

We have, it takes, it's we're not saved by works of righteousness.

However, it takes grace-based effort to live in victory in God's kingdom.

It takes grace, that's why you're here today.

Because it takes grace-based effort to live in his kingdom.

It takes grace-based effort moving forward in God.

Do we fall?

Yeah, but the scripture says, if a righteous man falls seven times, he'll come back.

Do we fail?

Yeah, but the scripture says, do not rejoice over my enemy.

Do not rejoice over me, my enemy.

For when I fall, I will arise.

And when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.

What does that mean to me?

It means I'm going to keep moving forward in God.

Am I going to make mistakes?

Yeah, am I going to fail and sure?

But I'm going to keep moving forward in the Lord.

There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

He loves us.

And I want to close with a little prayer that I've I've been praying this for real, and I wanted to give it to you, the team can start uh making their way back up.

But this is, I have a kind of a linear brain.

I like stuff like this.

So if you do too, you could write this in your phone.

They're going to put it on the screen, but this is a prayer to strengthen your inner man through the Holy Spirit.

So we're doing this series, it's to be more cognizant, more aware of the Holy Spirit that's in us and through us, the moving of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

And this is a really good prayer that will bring that out in our lives.

And so you can take a moment and pray this in the mornings or at work whenever you pray.

And so the first one is T.

It stands for thank you.

And we simply thank God for his dwelling.

We thank God for his presence.

The Holy Spirit.

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for your indwelling presence in my life.

He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit.

Apart from me, you can do nothing.

I thank you, Holy Spirit, that that you live in me and that the fruit of the Holy Spirit flows from within me.

All the fruit of the Holy Spirit is that his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and faithfulness and self-control is in my in my in me.

Why?

Because the Holy Spirit lives in me.

And I'm recognizing that.

I'm thanking him for that.

The R is release revelation.

This means this Father, Holy Spirit, thank you for giving me the spirit of revelation, the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him that my the eyes of my understanding may be enlightened.

Ephesians 1.

I'm asking the Holy Spirit to give me revelation.

The wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him.

Give me, Holy Spirit, give me understanding of God's heart and his word.

Release revelation in me.

Let me see as you see.

Give me your heart.

The you is for using my spiritual gifts.

The scripture says each one of us has been given a spiritual gift.

Every one of us, if we're believers in Christ, we've been given spiritual gifts.

Each one of us.

The scripture says the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.

You have a spiritual gift.

And so this church will help you find that.

You can meet with one of the pastors.

They would love to help you discover your spiritual gifts.

Some of you have a gift of mercy.

You love helping people, you love helping hurting people.

Some of you have the gift of leadership, some of you have a gift of exhortation, some of you have a gift of discerning of spirits, some of you have a gift of healing.

Those are your spiritual gifts.

And so, what do you what can you pray?

Use me, Holy Spirit, use my spiritual gifts today.

Because the scripture says we are created in Christ for good works, which God had prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

He wants to use your spiritual gifts in his kingdom.

And the S stands for strengthen me.

This is what I've been praying a lot lately.

It's in Ephesians 3, and it says that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, that He would strengthen with might through your spirit in the inner man.

He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, that you'd be strengthened with might through His spirit in the inner man.

You're getting supernatural strength.

That's what Paul said to pray in Ephesians 3.

He would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in your inner man.

Come on, that's a good scripture to pray, friends.

Teach me.

The T stands for teach me.

And that's just saying this.

In John, he says, He will, he's the Spirit of truth.

He is your teacher.

He will guide you into all truth.

That's saying this.

The Holy Spirit will give us wisdom to live.

And so the acronym trust.

That's that's a prayer you guys could write down and pray some as we are deepening our lives with the Holy Spirit these next few weeks.

Come on, let's stand together.

A couple prayers I want to pray.

If you're here today and you don't know the Lord, I'm just gonna give you a chance to receive the gospel.

So if that's you, and you'd say, Pastor Chris, when just like when you were a kid and you you know 32 years ago and you you realize your sins had separated you from God, if there's anybody here today, I just want to give you a chance.

Is anybody?

Come on, lift your hand up.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's say a prayer, amen.

I see those hands.

Let's let's say a prayer together.

Maybe just repeat after me, Lord Jesus, thank you for going to the cross, paying the price for all of my sins.

I repent from living my own life, and I turn towards you.

Thank you for making me a new creation today.

I'm gonna follow you all the days of my life.

Amen.

Come on, put your hands together for those.

If that's you, I really encourage you to connect with one of this team here.

They're gonna help you in your in your walk with God.

Now, here's what else I want to pray as we close in this Holy Spirit series.

There's a passage where Jesus says this.

He says, If you give, if you give give good gifts to your children, how much more will my father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them who ask?

So that's so to me, it means all we have to do is ask.

How much more if you give good gifts to your children?

I have a daughter and a son.

I love giving them gifts, and my daughter loves getting gifts.

It's her favorite thing.

How much more will your father in heaven love to get?

How much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them who ask?

So here's what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna say a prayer for us, and I want you, we're gonna open our hands up if you're comfortable.

Just maybe lift your hands up as a prayer.

The team's gonna lead us back into worship, and I'm gonna lead us into prayer.

We're gonna ask the Holy Spirit to fill us as we leave today.

Thank you, Jesus.

Come on, just open your, maybe take a deep breath.

Just maybe open your hands, that's a that's your palms to heaven, that's a sign of receiving.

And I'm gonna lead us, but you have to you have to pray with your own, from your own heart, your own lips.

Thank you, Jesus.

Holy Spirit, thank you for moving in our lives.

We open our hearts to you today.

This isn't a sermon, Lord.

We want to hear from you.

We believe in your in your that you are God in the now.

We believe that you're moving in our lives.

You came in all these different symbols and ways, but you come in the way that we need it most.

Some need your oil this morning, some need your fire this morning, some need your wind this morning, some needs some some need to just experience the love that only you can.

Shed abroad in our hearts by your power.

So right now, let's just pray this.

Just pray with me.

Just pray this with me, Lord Jesus.

Fill me with the Holy Spirit.

Right now.

I feel like some of you, some of you feel something.

Jesus said, out of your belly will flow rivers of living water.

Some of you feel something in your belly inside.

That's the Holy Spirit.

Some of you feel it's not about emotions or feelings.

However, that's how God made us.

And some of you feel that inside.

That's the Holy Spirit.

And as we go, as Lindsay and the team lead us into this song, I believe that some of you are gonna you're gonna experience a deep well.

Some of you are gonna experience the Holy Spirit in a new and a special way.

Even in worship.

And here's what I want to encourage you as we sing this song together and close.

I want to encourage you, as you're worshiping, ask God to fill you.

The scripture says, be continually filled with the Holy Spirit.

You know why?

Because we leak.

We need fresh infilling.

So it's not weird or spooky.

As we sing this song, just lift your hands and sing if you're comfortable and ask God to fill you.

Tell him how much you love him and worship from your hearts.

Amen.

Thanks again for listening.

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