Sunday July 26th, 2026

Thank you for joining us for another life-giving message at Generations United Church.

I have a word from the Lord for you this morning.

If you were here last week, especially the second service, you know that was a service unlike any other service we've had here in a very long time, much needed of refreshing of God's spirit.

And so I want to talk to you this morning about how the Holy Spirit changes you and changes me from the inside out.

Now, some of you walked in this morning feeling stuck and abandoned and defeated and depleted.

And some of you walked in here this morning like, dude, I am on the mountaintop.

I am energized.

I'm hopeful.

I'm eager to reach my potential.

Whoever you are, wherever you've come from, wherever you find yourself, what I want to say to you this morning is that the Holy Spirit is vital in the next step in your destiny to seeing you reach everything that God has for you.

Can you say amen?

The Holy Spirit has been called the forgotten God because we can understand God as Father, we can understand God as Son, but how do you understand God as Spirit?

So, what I want to do, rather than trying to explain to you the nature of spirit itself, what I want to do is talk to you about four ways that the Holy Spirit works in our lives to conform us to the image of Jesus so that we can make an impact in the world around us.

And to do that, I want to focus on one passage of scripture.

So if you will go in your Bibles to Romans chapter 8, you can pull it up in the Bible app, you can pull it up in a physical Bible.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

We'll also have it on the screen this morning.

I'm gonna be in and around Romans chapter 8 this morning as I show you four ways that the Holy Spirit works in our lives to strengthen and grow us.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Now, would you put your hand on your heart and would you pray with me, dear Lord Jesus, speak to my heart and change my life.

In your precious name.

Amen.

Listen to the word of the Lord.

Romans chapter 8, verse 12.

Romans 8:12

Paul writes, So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you'll die.

But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you receive the spirit of adoptions, adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba Father.

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs.

Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Now, the first thing I want to show you this morning is that the Spirit brings freedom in due time.

Not in your time, but in God's time.

The Spirit will bring freedom in your life.

You are on a journey toward becoming who God sees you to be.

And actually, my friends, that is a mystery to you right now.

Your identity is hidden with God in Christ Jesus, the Bible says.

You don't even know what you are becoming, but the Spirit of God not only knows who you were before God put you in the world, but he knows who you're going to become now that you are in the world.

You are on a journey, and the Holy Spirit is growing and shaping you to become the person that God knows you to be, and the Spirit brings freedom in due time.

Here's the big idea.

If you're stuck, you're not going to be stuck forever.

You will find the freedom you seek.

Look at what Paul writes in verse 12.

Then, brothers and sisters, we're we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you die.

But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Paul says that the flesh is a debt collector.

We are debtors to the flesh.

The flesh comes knocking on the door.

You owe me, you have to satisfy this desire, you have to itch this scratch, you have to give in to this craving.

You're going to continue to be and do who you've always been and what you've always done.

But Paul says we owe the flesh nothing.

Now, when Paul writes about flesh, he's not talking about this thing with moles on it, okay?

Paul is talking about life organized to your carnal nature.

That's what Paul talks about when he talks about the deeds of the flesh and the flesh being something that you're wrestling against.

He's not talking about your body because he goes on to say that even when you die, God is going to redeem and resurrect your body.

If the body was bad, then why did Jesus raise from the grave in a body with scars?

The body's not the enemy.

That old carnal, sinful nature is the enemy.

But Paul says, by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body of the flesh.

The Holy Spirit is your partner in breaking the cycles and patterns that have defeated you.

That means you are not going to be stuck forever.

You can find the freedom that you are searching for.

1 Corinthians 10 13 says, whenever you find yourself in this predicament of wanting to sin, here's what it says: God is faithful.

He'll not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he also provides a way of escape.

What I want to add, not to Paul's words, but to your understanding, is this there is always a space between stimulus and response where you can escape.

Let me say that again.

You can't say, I'm just born this way, I have to do this thing.

If you believe that, my friends, with all due respect, you've believed a lie.

The truth is that there is always a way of escape, but you have to partner with God's spirit to put to death the deeds of the flesh.

And the way you do that is you create space between the stimulus to sin and your response to that stimulus.

Here's what I mean.

Take a look at this little chart up on the screen.

There's nothing better than a good chart.

I want to call this the power of a holy pause.

The power of a holy pause.

Here's what I mean: something happens.

This is the stimulus.

You feel the impulse.

Your anger might rise.

The temptation appears, the anxiety begins, the old craving returns.

And ordinarily you move immediately from stimulus to automatic response.

You get this seduction, you do this thing.

But with the Spirit, you can create a holy pause.

And your growth moment exists in the space of that holy pause.

That's when you breathe.

That's when you pause.

That's when you walk away.

That's when you bite your tongue.

That's when you put the phone down.

That's when you don't say the first thing that comes to your mind.

That's when she walks by and she's a smoke show, you put the fire out.

Cold showers are a gift from the Lord, gentlemen.

You call somebody, you don't automatically respond because you are not an animal.

You have the ability to create a holy pause.

In that pause, you ask the Holy Spirit, what are you leading me to do right now?

Because I know what the flesh wants.

The flesh wants her, the flesh wants that, the flesh wants this, the flesh wants this.

But the spirit wants righteousness and love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and self-control.

You look for the escape during the pause, and there's always an escape.

You follow the prompting of the spirit rather than the impulse of the flesh.

You make a faithful response.

And each time you make a faithful response, you create a new pattern.

Every time you yield to the Holy Spirit, you are weakening the old pattern and strengthening a new one.

And eventually the old appetite begins to lose its mastery over you.

The old timers used to tell me, son, it's like you have two dogs inside of you.

You have the good dog and the bad dog.

If you keep feeding the bad dog, the bad dog's gonna grow and it's gonna keep eating and beating up on the good dog.

But if you starve the bad dog and feed the good dog, which one's gonna grow then?

It's pretty simple the way that the old timers explain it, isn't it?

If you will just allow in the space between stimulus and response the Holy Spirit to give you a way out, the Spirit will give you a way out.

The fact of the matter is, the reason we keep doing the things we're doing is because we like them.

Oh, is it just me?

Bro, the reason I do the sin I do is because it gives me something.

But in the end of it all, you know what it usually gives me?

Guilt, shame, feelings of anxiety.

It doesn't give me what it promises, it's a quick fix.

It's empty spiritual calories.

What the Holy Spirit wants to give you is a full-on feast of Jesus.

Now, how do you do that?

You create the space, you choose the faithful way, and God makes micro adjustments over time.

My man Bo here, you guys own a gym or something like that.

At least you work out a lot.

I'm looking at your biceps, sir, okay?

You did not get jacked overnight.

You got jacked by showing up and having micro adjustments every single day.

Yeah?

That's the way it works?

Could it work that way for me?

Maybe.

I don't know.

I just see your gym pictures and I'm envious.

The second thing: the spirit affirms your identity.

Here's the big idea: you're not alone or abandoned.

You are God's beloved child.

Romans chapter 8, 14 to 17.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Listen to this.

For all who were led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

You didn't receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear.

You received the spirit of adoption as sons.

It's by this spirit that we cry, Abba Father.

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And of children, then we're heirs.

Heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

I spent a lot of my early life in the faith being afraid of God.

I was afraid of hell.

I got some really bad teaching early on.

It's where they told me if I sinned and Jesus returned, that I was gonna bust hell wide open.

And listen, one of my gifts early on in the faith was the ability to string together a litany of expletives that would make a sailor blush.

And Jesus had to deal with me about that.

Still still works on me from time to time.

You stub your toe, it's hard to create space between stimulus and response.

A little difficult.

I don't always say, praise the Lord.

I was so afraid of God.

I was afraid that if I did something wrong and Jesus came back, that he just wanted to just send me to hell.

But then I heard a sermon on, actually from the book of Romans, believe it or not.

And it said that there's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Condemnation, it brings you down, conviction lifts you up.

Condemnation says this is who you are, like you are the bad thing that you do.

Like you are bad.

Conviction says this isn't who you are.

You can do better.

One pushes you down, one calls you up.

When I realized that my acceptance was not based on my performance, but on God's decision to adopt me into the family.

I'm like, bro, that was, if it was a mistake, that was your mistake.

That's on you.

You're the one who picked me.

You well, yes, he did create, and technically, technically, with the help of my parents, God created me.

Children, you can ask your parents when you're 12 about how that works.

You know, when it comes to natural conception, sometimes that happens by uh, I would say accident, but it's not accident.

Sometimes you get the surprise.

I'm gonna be a dad.

How did that happen?

But not one child has ever been adopted to where the dad said, I'm gonna be a dad, how did that happen?

Bro, it's a process and it's expensive.

There's not one adopted child in this world that was unwanted.

And it costs the parents a great sacrifice.

Now you think about the high price that was paid for you by your heavenly father sending his only son.

You think about the great lengths that your heavenly father went to to adopt you as a son or as a daughter.

And not only that, but puts inside of you the spirit of adoption.

Not the spirit that says you're bad, not the spirit of slavery to fear, not the spirit of you're not good enough, not the spirit of accusation, but the spirit that cries out, Abba Father.

There is a time to call God Lord.

There's a time to call God in the proper old sense of the word master.

There's a time to call God Almighty.

But the Spirit of God inside of you, the spirit of adoption, is the one that cries out, Abba Father.

That word means father, but it also means something like Papa.

That's what my kids call their grandfather.

They call me dad, they call him Papa.

And when they say papa, they know Papa breaks out the checkbook.

They tell me that having grandkids is even better than having kids.

They usually tell me it's because you can send them home whenever you're tired of them.

I see you.

But how great is it?

How great is it as grandparents when they call you papa or G-Mama or whatever they call that tender inside word?

Listen, you're gangster if they call you G-Mama.

That tender inside word, like Abba, the Holy Spirit's trying to get you to wake up.

That God is not an angry overlord.

God is not a cosmic despot who's seeking to pin you to the ground with a trident every time you screw up.

That God is a father.

He's your Papa.

And you can come to him just like that.

And the Spirit's already inside of you, luring you to Papa God.

Three, the Spirit groans and connects you with Abba.

Here's the big idea.

You're not defeated.

You have everything you need to succeed.

Listen to this.

It's going to take me a second to read it, but just let's honor the word of the Lord.

Romans 8:18 to 29.

Romans 8:18–29

Paul writes, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that's going to be revealed to us.

For the creation waits with either eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

For the creation was subjected to futility.

Not because it wanted it, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself would be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

I'll explain that in a second.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

Look at that metaphor.

Paul says creation is groaning.

It wants its redemption.

It's like a woman in the pains of childbirth.

That's what our created world feels like.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth.

And now not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, grown inwardly as we await eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

So God has both adopted us and God is going to finish the work in resurrection even after our death.

For in this hope we were saved.

Now hope that is seen isn't hope.

Who hopes for what he sees?

But if we hope for what we don't see, wait for it with patience.

Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

For we don't know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes.

Intercession is like a prayer.

The Spirit Himself intercedes.

We don't know what to pray for.

The Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

And he, Abba, who searches our hearts, Abba is the heart searcher, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God, what God wants.

And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Here's what Paul's trying to get you to see.

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world, death through sin, not just to humans, the whole thing that was pristine and amazing.

Now it groans, it shifts, it shapes, it tsunamis, it erupts, it does all kinds of weird things.

Even creation isn't quite right, as amazing as it is.

It's riddled with the effects of sin.

Death entered the world through sin.

And now creation groans.

It wants us to take our rightful spot as wise and caring stewards.

It wants us to stop abusing and to start caring for it like Adam and Eve were called to in the beginning.

That's not a political statement, that's a biblical statement.

Take care of this place.

It's the only one we've got.

But Paul also says, not only is creation groaning, but we're groaning.

We groan in these bodies that are falling apart.

The older I get, the more my body groans.

I see you.

Nobody under the age of 30 is nodding their heads.

But we know.

Our bodies groan.

It's like, oh.

And there's a groaning inside of our bodies that goes beyond what a leave and Tylenol and whatever.

There's a groaning inside of us that's just like, I'm ah, I'm I'm meant for so much.

And I know that one day I've got to shed this earth suit.

I know it.

And even when the earth suit falls apart, it's not going to stay falling off forever.

The Bible says at the end, one day, God is going to resurrect all of the bodies of those who are in Jesus.

Just like God brought Jesus back from the grave in a body, He's going to bring your butt back from the grave too.

That's the Christian hope.

And a new heavens and a new earth.

But now we groan.

Sunday of last week.

I got done preaching and uh looked at Facebook.

I didn't know why I'd do that.

You know what I found out?

I found out that my friend from North Carolina, I mean, one of my dearest mates in the whole world, uh, Pastor Kevin Frack, who actually taught here on a Wednesday night through a Zoom, you might remember it.

Pastor Kevin Frack, my dear friend, one of my key mentors, he died after a long battle with cancer.

I remember my friend John.

I don't think John would mind me telling this.

I've always had like older friends in my life, it's just the way that I am.

They were in the, you know, they were older than me, 20 years older than me, probably.

And John said that Kevin told him, I just didn't know dying would be so dang painful.

It's a long battle.

It's arduous.

It was just you just watched a man who was a prince among men just wither away.

He never lost his spirit, he never lost the brightness in his eyes.

He told me one time, he's like, I'm not afraid of death.

I just I just want to make sure that the people that I leave behind are gonna be okay.

That's him.

And I just went, gosh.

Dang it, I hate death.

And then within five minutes, I get a phone call from a pastor friend whose son had to have, I won't give the details, like surgery, like serious surgery, serious surgery.

They thought they had it licked, and then they did some more repair surgery, and it just didn't go like they wanted it to go.

I'm like, back to back, I just went into my bed.

My son came out.

He's like, Dad, are you okay?

I'm like, I just I'm gonna go lay down.

We had Holy Ghost revival on Sunday morning, and now I'm laying in my bed just crying, just literally crying like God, this isn't right.

This is terrible.

I just groaned.

I didn't have words to say the anguish that was in my have you ever been there?

Have you ever gotten to the end of your words and all you have is a groan?

You ever got to the point where, like, I don't even know what to pray, and even if I prayed, I don't even know if it would matter, and all you've got on the inside is a groan.

When there are no words, sometimes there's just a groan.

My friend Arthur, the rabbi, who's a Jewish genealogy historian.

The Jews know something about pain.

He said, Tommy, it's in our darkest time when the gates of heaven are brass and it feels like no prayers get through.

Their ancient text tells them that tears are prayers that always get through.

And God treasures them.

And God holds them in his hand.

There's gonna be a day when things are gonna be set to rights, when creation's not gonna groan and we're not gonna groan, but until then we groan.

And it's then that the Spirit prays through us with sighs and groans that are too deep for words.

The Spirit says the things your heart cannot say because the Spirit speaks the eloquent language of desire.

What language does God speak?

God speaks heart language, God speaks desire.

God, I don't know what to say, I don't know how to pray.

Just say, God, here I am.

Sometimes a prayer just sounds like, ah.

God, I don't know how to pray.

And yet the spirit perfectly expresses what our weakness cannot put into words because Abba is the heart searcher.

My friends, when you're out of words, when you can't even find the strength to pray, the spirit knows.

When you don't know what your child needs, the spirit knows.

When you don't know what your marriage needs, the spirit knows.

When you don't know how you're going to carry the grief, the spirit knows.

When you don't know how you're going to make your way through the darkness, the spirit knows the way to the Father.

You don't have to figure it out.

You don't have to think it out.

All you have to do is cry it out because the Spirit is inside of you.

The one who searches hearts knows the mind of God.

And when you don't know what to pray, the Spirit ushers a prayer through you.

That's why God gave you the Spirit that cries out, Papa.

And when he hears Papa, he's always dialed.

The Spirit will not leave you as orphans, he'll always present you to the heart of the Father.

Number four, and finally, the Spirit helps you become like Jesus.

Here's the big idea.

You're not finished.

You are a work in progress.

Romans 8, 29 to 30, 20, 28 to 29.

And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Notice Paul's movement that he makes here.

In verse 26, he says, we don't know what we ought to pray for.

We don't know how to pray as we ought.

We don't know, but in verse 28 he says, and we know.

There's some things you can't know, but there is one thing that you can know.

That no matter what you're going through, no matter how dark it is, no matter how far gone it seems, no matter how much your body groans that God is working everything for your good.

It doesn't make sense.

You don't understand it.

It doesn't say that God causes everything to happen or that everything that happens is good.

It says that in all things, like a master weaver, God is luring it together for the good.

And I don't know how that happens, and I don't even have to understand.

And I don't have to say that's good and that's what God's doing.

People say, What is God doing in all this?

You can't know.

Your life is like a tapestry, it's like one of those cross-stitch things, and so much of your life is spent looking at the underside of a cross stitch.

It's like it looks messy on the underside of the cross stitch.

Put my put my photo up here.

I want you to see it up on the screen.

This is what life looks like from the underside.

It doesn't look like much of anything.

You're like, God, what are you doing right now?

You see the knots, the loose ends, you don't see how it all belongs together.

You can't see the tapestry God is creating.

But what is the real thing that God is working on?

God is making you become like Jesus.

God is conforming your life.

All of the details, all of the things that all you can see is the mess.

The thing that God is working on at the end of the day is that you are being conformed into the image as of his son.

Join us next Sunday at 9 and 11 a.m.

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