The Holy Spirit: How to Cooperate with Him

Good morning, and let's begin our worship with a word of prayer.

God, thank you for this morning and thank you for this portion of your family that we get to gather with and worship with.

Thank you for the blessings we have, Lord, and forgive us when we take them for granted.

Give us opportunities to be patient, loving and kind, and thank you for your Son, who gave us that ultimate example, and it's in his name we pray.

Amen.

We worship the God who was.

We worship the God who is.

We worship the God who evermore will be.

He opened the prison doors, he parted the raging sea.

Our God, he holds the victory.

There's joy in the house of the Lord.

There's joy in the house of the Lord today, and we won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise.

There's joy in the house of the Lord.

Our God is surely in this place and we won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise, we sing to the God who heals.

We sing to the God who saves.

We sing to the God who always makes a way, cause he hung up on that cross.

Then he rose up from that grave.

My God's still rolling stones away.

There's joy in the house of the Lord.

There's joy in the house of the Lord.

There's joy in the house of the Lord today, and we won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise.

There's joy in the house of the Lord.

Our God is surely in this place, and we won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise.

We were the beggars, now we're royalty.

We were the prisoners, now we're running free.

We are forgiven, accepted, redeemed by His grace.

Let the house of the Lord sing praise.

We were the beggars, now we're royalty.

We were the prisoners, now we're running free.

We are forgiven accepted, redeemed by his grace, let the house of the Lord.

sing praise there's joy in the house of the Lord.

There's joy in the house of the Lord today, and we won't be quiet, we shout out your praise.

There's joy in the house of the.

Lord, our God, is surely in this place and we won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise.

There's joy in the house of the Lord.

There's joy in the house of the Lord today and we won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise.

There's joy in the house of the.

Lord, our God, is surely in this place and we won't be quiet.

We shout out your praise.

Amen Amen.

Amen.

There's a sweet, sweet spirit in this place and I know that it's the spirit of the Lord.

There are sweet expressions on each face and I know they feel the presence of the Lord.

Sweet Holy Spirit, sweet heavenly love, stay right here with us, filling us with your love, and for these blessings we lift our hearts in praise.

Without a doubt, we'll know that we have been revived when we shall leave this place.

There are blessings you cannot receive.

Receive till you know him in his fullness and believe you're the one to profit when you say I am going to walk with Jesus all the way, all the way.

Sweet Holy Spirit, sweet heavenly dove, stay right here with us, filling us with your love, and for these blessings we lift our hearts in praise.

Without a doubt, we'll know that we have been revived when we shall leave this place, this place.

You are the words in the music.

You are the song that I sing, you are the melody, you are the harmony.

Praise to your name I will bring.

You are the Lord of lords, you are the mighty God, you are the king of all kings.

So now I give back to you the song that I sing.

You are the words and the music.

You are the song that I sing, you are the melody, you are the harmony Praise to your name I will bring.

You are the Lord of Lords, you are the mighty God.

You are the King of Lords, you are the mighty God, you are the King of all kings.

So now I give back to you the song that you gave to me.

You are the song that I sing.

Amen.

All right.

The scripture reading today comes from Mark, chapter 3.

Mark 3 · chapter mention

It's verses 29 through 30.

It says but if you speak against the Holy Spirit, you can never be forgiven.

That sin will be held against you forever.

Jesus said this because the people were saying that he had an evil spirit in him.

Father, we do.

Thank you for loving us.

We thank you for your son, jesus.

We thank you for your Holy Spirit that lives within every one who believes in you.

And we ask you, god, as we look at, continue to look at how he works in our lives.

We look at how we can cooperate with him so that we can be the men and women you call us to be In Jesus' name, and all God's people said Amen.

Alright, let's see if this works, because, number one, you're talking about me, who's techno-Amish with the controller, and we're going to look at just three little short video clips of what it's like when someone, especially a kid, refuses to cooperate.

All right, so here we go, let's see.

Have you ever tried to do that?

Get the kid to sit, fine, just lay down in.

He said there's that one.

All right, josh, do I have to click to go to the next one?

Oh, okay, okay, and he's off.

Get him in, I'm back.

Brittany had to chase Joe through Walmart the other day because he wouldn't give up that fishing pole he wanted, and it was just all right Then.

It's brother's turn.

Let's get off.

Can we get?

Julia.

Really we gotta give brother a turn.

This is his bike.

Julia Come on Julia, Julia come on.

Been there, done that.

If you ever had a kid right, it just dealt with them.

It just doesn't work.

When people don't want to cooperate, it's hard to get anything done and it just makes things happen.

In fact, if people don't cooperate, a lot of times nothing gets done.

We take that for granted.

Imagine the pew you're sitting in.

If somebody that sat in that, that built this pew, decided they didn't want to cooperate, you wouldn't be sitting in a pew.

Somebody had to chop down the wood, somebody had to make it into lumber, somebody had to deal with all of the padding on it because we got to have padded pews.

Somebody had to deliver it here.

Somebody had to come all the way from Texas to install it and put it together.

You're sitting in a pew because a group of people you don't even know cooperate.

In fact, everything you do depends on cooperation.

You couldn't go buy a gallon of milk at the store if somewhere in that whole line to get that milk there didn't cooperate.

Cooperation is a key for us to make it as a society, and not only is that true in a physical world, that's true in our spiritual world.

If we don't cooperate with God, then we miss out on a lot of things.

We've been talking about the Holy Spirit.

We've talked about the Holy Spirit as a person.

We've talked about he's God.

We've talked about what he does for us.

Last week we talked about His purpose, that everything the Holy Spirit does is to point people to Jesus and how.

As Christians, one of the things that happens to us when we come out of that water is we receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit does a lot of things in our lives.

He helps us become like Christ.

He strengthens us in our fight against sin.

He takes our groanings to the Father.

When we're so heartbroken we don't even know what to say.

The Holy Spirit does a lot for us.

But if we don't cooperate with the Holy Spirit, then there's just a lot of things that aren't going to happen in our lives.

And some of us go through life saying I don't feel.

You know, I just don't understand how God's working.

I don't see him working in my life.

It's because we don't cooperate.

God doesn't force us to do anything.

You get to choose.

God has given you the free will to choose how you want to live.

If you want to be a mass murderer, god says you've got that free will, but you don't get the right to choose the consequences of your choices, and so I can choose to cooperate with God and His Holy Spirit, or I can choose to try to do things my way and I miss out on the blessings he wants us to live.

It's like if you want to be an airplane pilot, you go to pilot school, you learn the flight routes, you take the test, you're familiar with all the charts, you're familiar with all the information manuals, but if you get up in the air and you refuse to cooperate with the air traffic controller, guess what You're going to crash.

And if I refuse to cooperate with God's Holy Spirit in my life, guess what my relationship's going to crash.

My life is going to crash.

I'm going to live a life of guilt, I'm going to miss out on all of the blessings that God wants to give me, and so we want to look today about how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and we're going to throw a lot of stuff at you in a short period of time.

But so this is some stuff you're probably going to need to study on your own, but if I want God to bless my life and the Holy Spirit to really show Jesus to me, I need to cooperate with him, and the first thing I need to cooperate with him, and the first thing I need to do to help cooperate with the Holy Spirit, is to listen to God.

In Mark, chapter 3, jesus is in a house with his apostles.

Mark 3 · chapter mention

So many people come to the house that they're not allowed to eat.

And it got to the point that it says in Mark, chapter 3 that his family showed up to take him home because they thought he was crazy.

Mark 3 · chapter mention

It literally says that he said his family showed up and said this man is crazy, his mom, his brothers, this man is crazy, you don't need to listen to him.

And then it says that some other people showed up that were rulers of the law, they were scribes, they were religious leaders, and they came from Jerusalem to Jesus's hometown and they started saying things like this Jesus is casting out demons because he's a demon.

He's Beelzebub, he works for Satan.

Everything he's doing, he's doing through the power of Satan, not through God.

So imagine you're Jesus and number one.

Your family wants to put you away because you're coming to take you away Because you're crazy.

And then the religious leaders of the day show up and say all this stuff Jesus is doing, he's doing it through the Satan of power or through the power of Satan.

And so Jesus tells them this.

He says I promise you that any of the sinful things you say or do can be forgiven, no matter how terrible those things are.

But he says if you speak against the Holy Spirit, or maybe your version says, if you blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, you can never be forgiven.

So these people I want you to picture it these people are showing up and saying Jesus is of the devil.

And Jesus tells them.

He says listen.

He says number one, why would Satan work against Satan?

Number two a house divided against itself cannot stand.

If Satan's empowering me and I'm casting out demons, then what are we doing?

And then he says you know what?

I've come to bind Satan.

The only way you can rob somebody is if you go into a strong man's house.

You've got to tie him up first.

And I'm coming to tie up Satan because I'm going to take from him his power and I'm going to take from him his possessions, which is the people that he's taken from me.

And then he says this he looks at these religious leaders and says I promise you that all of these sins that you commit you can be forgiven of.

But if you speak against the Holy Spirit, if you refuse to listen to the Holy Spirit, you, if you blaspheme against the Holy Spirit the word blaspheme just means to speak against.

It's just a word us preachers like to use to impress you with our knowledge.

If you speak against the Holy Spirit, you cannot be forgiven.

It's impossible for you to be forgiven If you refuse to listen to the Holy Spirit.

It's impossible.

Now, last week we talked about the purpose of the Holy Spirit.

We looked at John, chapter 14, 15, and 16.

John 14 · chapter mention

And what we learned was this Everything the Holy Spirit does, he does to point people to whom Jesus Jesus, remember, he said Jesus said I'm giving you the Holy Spirit and he's going to guide you in truth and he's going to make the world aware of me.

Everything the Holy Spirit does points people to Jesus.

If you feel something in the Holy Spirit, if the Holy Spirit is glorified, chances are it's not from the Holy Spirit, because everything the Holy Spirit does is to promote Jesus, not himself.

So if you're, you know people who get all caught up in this Holy Spirit stuff, which is, you know, the Holy Spirit's important, and I'm not denying their experiences, but if their experiences lift up the Holy Spirit instead of Jesus, it's not from the Holy Spirit.

If you start having these feelings and everybody whoo and everybody look at him, how spiritual he is, that's not from the Holy Spirit, because everything the Holy Spirit does points to Jesus as the way and the truth and the life.

And so if I blaspheme the Holy Spirit and speak against the Holy Spirit and if I say you know what Jesus, he's a good man, no, he's not a savior.

He lived 2,000 years.

He don't know what makes me happy.

If I refuse to listen to God and listen to his spirit, you cannot be forgiven.

Jesus says Does that make sense?

Now, it's not that God doesn't have the power to forgive someone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit.

It's not that that sin's too big.

The reason why you can't be forgiven is a person who speaks against the Holy Spirit, who refuses to listen to the Holy Spirit, who refuses to accept the fact that Jesus died on the cross, that person with that heart that refuses to listen.

They can't be forgiven because there's only two ways for you to get to heaven Be perfect and you blew that one and be forgiven.

And the only way you can be forgiven is through the blood of Jesus.

And if you say I ain't listening to that stuff, you're done, because there's only one way.

It's amazing that those Pharisees, those Bible teachers that came and started saying, oh, jesus is of the devil.

They should have known better.

They had written the Bible, they copied the Old Testament, they were scholars, they had all the history of what God had done in the Old Testament.

They had read all the prophecies about the Messiah.

And they come along and say this ain't him.

And you know why they refuse to listen.

Part of the reason is because of their tradition.

Well, that's not what I thought the Messiah would look like.

That ain't him.

Part of it was because they didn't want to lose control.

They had power.

They controlled the religious world.

You couldn't do anything unless you went through one of these religious leaders.

They had a good deal going.

They would shake people down when they walked into the temple to worship.

They'd take money from them.

All of a sudden, jesus comes along and boom.

So they refused to listen.

And there's a lot of reasons why people refuse to listen to the Holy Spirit.

It may be.

You know what I don't want to change the way I live.

I'm not going to listen to that.

It may be.

I don't want to change the way we do church.

I've always sat in the same pew for 50 years and I ain't changing.

I've always sat in the same pew for 50 years and I ain't changing.

When you get to the point where you refuse to listen to God, that's when you blaspheme the Holy Spirit, that's when you speak against the Holy Spirit and you cannot receive forgiveness.

Does that make sense?

Now I'm going to let you in on a little secret.

It says the same thing.

It's similar in Stephen.

When Stephen was killed for being a Christian, he said you always resist the Holy Spirit.

Again, it was religious leaders that killed Stephen, the first Christian killed.

There was one guy there who watched it.

I don't know if he threw any rocks at Stephen, but he held the clothes of everybody that was killing him.

You know who he was Paul, the guy who wrote most of the Bible, took part in killing the first Christian and as Stephen's getting ready to be stoned to death, he says you stiff-necked people, your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised, In other words, the sin's not being cut away.

You always resist the Holy Spirit, you refuse to listen to the Holy Spirit.

And when I refuse to listen to what God wants me to do, I'm done for.

So how do I cooperate with the Spirit so I can have the peace and the joy he wants to give me?

Where I can grow in my faith, it begins by listening to God.

Does that make sense?

Now, two points.

If you are afraid of blaspheming the Holy Spirit, you haven't, because I know Christians.

What is that sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit?

I'm scared to death.

I've done it.

Well, if you're scared, you've done it.

You haven't, because people who blaspheme the Holy Spirit could care less about what the Holy Spirit says.

And secondly, to keep from reaching that point, that's why you need to be a student of the Word.

That's why you need to be in the Word every day.

That's why it's important to be a part of a discovery Bible study.

That's why it's important to be a part, hi, lou, that's why it's important to be a part of, and you too, natalie.

That's why it's important to be a part of a small group.

So how do I cooperate with the Holy Spirit?

First thing I do is I listen to Him.

Secondly, I need to be honest.

I need to be honest.

In Acts, chapter 5, the church had just started in Acts, chapter 5, and people were all excited and people started selling their property to help poor Christians.

Acts 5 · chapter mention Acts 5 · chapter mention

Because there was all these Christians from out of town and there was two people, ananias and Sapphira.

Ananias and Sapphira decided they were going to sell some property they had and give all the money to the poor Christians, or to give the money to the poor Christians.

Ananias and Sapphira sold this property.

They walked in, they gave it to Peter and they said look, we sold our property and here's every dime of it, every penny we're giving to the poor Christians.

The problem was they kept some of the money back.

Now, keeping some of the money back wasn't a sin.

There's nothing wrong with that.

So well you know.

The problem was no.

The problem was they kept some of the money back and then they gave some of the money to them and said that's every dime we sold it for.

The problem was they lied.

Does that make sense?

You sold something for $100,000, you said I'm going to pocket $20,000, and then you give $80,000 and say, yeah, we sold $80,000 in.

Here it's every dime, we're giving it all to you.

And Peter looked at Ananias and he said how is it that Satan has filled your heart, that you've lied to the Holy Spirit?

You have lied to the Holy Spirit and you've kept for yourself some of the money you received from the land.

And then what did he tell Ananias was going to happen?

You remember, huh, you're dead, you're done, you're dead meat, you're gone.

And he dropped dead.

And then his wife, sapphira, came in and Peter said Sapphira, did you sell that piece of land for $80,000?

Yes, sir, peter, we did.

He said why did you lie?

Same thing's going to happen to you.

It happened to your husband.

She gone.

Now, does that sound harsh to you?

Do you understand that if God struck everybody dead for lying, none of us would be sitting here today?

I'd have lived, to have been about two.

Yeah, I'd have been up there in that video I've got.

Do you think God's being a little bit harsh?

Don't you think he's a little mean?

I mean just a little white lie.

It was their money.

They could have done what they wanted to.

Why would God do that?

There's some things we need to understand.

First, we need to understand Ananias and Sapphira were part of this new church and everybody knew them.

Secondly, we need to understand it wasn't a mistake.

It was a premeditated con job.

And thirdly, we need to understand that they were trying to take glory away from that belonged to God and put it on themselves.

They lied to the Holy Spirit, he said.

And you think what's the big deal about that?

That they lied to the Holy Spirit.

Here was the problem.

They pretended to be somebody they weren't.

We don't have that problem, do we?

We walk in here like we got it all together.

We post all our stuff on Facebook.

We're sharenting.

I'm going to do a sermon on sharenting before I get out of here.

Do you understand how much pressure you're putting on your kids by over-sharenting?

You don't post the bad stuff in your life and everybody, oh their life, has it all together and their life must be great.

I know preachers that walk.

There's nobody lazier than a preacher, except for this one.

But I mean, I'm being honest, I know a lot of preachers that work hard.

I know a lot of preachers that make you think they work hard.

And I know a lot of Christians that, yeah, I just do so much for the church and they pretend to be someone they're not and when you're doing that, you're not being honest with God.

You are lying to the Holy Spirit when we walk around pretending like we got our act all together.

Listen, I know you don't have your act all together.

We live in Guernsey County.

I know everything about you.

You are a dysfunctional mess, and so am I.

Just be honest with God.

Just be honest with God.

Just be honest, because when I refuse to be honest with God and with others, I am not cooperating with the Holy Spirit and I won't be able to receive the blessings God has.

Does that make sense?

Just be honest with God.

Don't pretend to be what you're not.

Thirdly, use your gifts.

Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5.19,.

Do not quench the Spirit.

Do not quench the Spirit.

Do not quench the Spirit.

The five most common phobias.

How many of you have this phobia?

We got some arachnophobia people in here.

Yeah Well, watch out.

I saw one crawling under that bench earlier.

How many of?

you?

We got any snake phobia people?

Yeah, I don't.

Huh, what?

Ophidi, ophidi, ophidi, yeah, ophidiophobia, I don't know.

The third most common phobia Fear of heights.

Yeah, I got a lot of phobias.

My worst is probably.

I mean, I don't like snakes, I don't like bats, but I'm claustrophobic.

Trent, you got to make sure I'm dead before you close that lid.

All right, you stab me or something.

You make sure I'm dead before you close that lid.

All right, you stab me or something.

You make sure I'm dead before you close that lid.

You know, whew, if I had time, I'd tell you about this Twilight Zone show I saw once where the guy go ahead once upon a time, but where the guy escaped from prison and he made a deal with the funeral director.

You remember this one actually Made a deal with the funeral director that when I escape prison, you'll bury me with whoever the next funeral is, and then, after everybody leaves, you'll dig it back up, open the casket, let me out.

And so he escaped, and then he had heard about the next funeral and he snuck in and he closed, snuck into the casket and they lowered him and then he's waiting for the funeral director to come and dig him up and he turned on his flashlight and looked and the dead man was the funeral director.

You ain't sleeping tonight, are you?

Yeah, I am.

Oh, a rack, yeah, whatever it is.

And then there's fear of flying.

Yeah, fear of a headache, fear of flying.

And then there's this what's this one?

Oh, I didn't know that one was up there.

Come on, josh, put a picture of a meaner dog in that up there.

Who's going to be afraid of that one?

And then there's this one nyctophobia, fear of darkness.

Lou's afraid of the dark.

Yep, grandkids spent the night the other night.

We had 48,000 nightlights on in our house, looked like we were having a party Afraid of the darkness, and that's a serious phobia.

Why do you think people are afraid of the dark?

Huh, they don't know what's in there with them.

You can't see where to go.

You stump your toe, I mean.

There's all types of reasons.

I'm not a big dark person, especially outside at night, and so fear of the dark is normal.

But some people have had intense fear of darkness, and while it's normal excessively it can be done.

Well, let me tell you something Spiritual darkness can be afraid as well.

Spiritual darkness is when you're so focused on what you want, want and you can't see Jesus.

You can't see the way to go.

And that's when Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5.19, do not quench the spirit.

Literally, what he's saying is don't put out the candle, don't put out the spirit's fire.

Don't put out the Spirit's fire, don't put out that fire where you can see what God wants you to do.

And then the very next verse he says this don't treat prophecies with contempt, test them.

And I really think in context, what Paul is talking about there is you know what?

God has given you a gift.

The Holy Spirit gives us gifts.

You don't quench the Spirit by treating your gift in that case, prophecies with contempt.

You don't say I'm not doing that, because when I refuse to use my gifts to the glory of God, I am putting out the Spirit's fire.

Paul told Timothy.

He said fan in the flame the gifts that God has given you.

God has given you certain gifts, god has given you abilities, and when you say I'm not serving anybody, I'm not getting out of my comfort zone.

I'm not going to go make disciples, I don't care what Jesus says, I'm not going to do that.

I'm not going to go make disciples, I don't care what Jesus says I'm not going to do that.

I'm not going to.

You are quenching the spirit.

I don't have time to do that, I'm too busy.

Yeah, I know I need to, but I need to go visit.

When I refuse to use my gift, I am putting out the Spirit's fire.

In other words, I need to live out my purpose and mission.

I cooperate with the Spirit when I live out my purpose and mission, I use my gifts.

Does that make sense?

And then the last one is this Take sin seriously.

In Ephesians, chapter 4, paul writes this.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

He says do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, do not make the Spirit of God sad, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

We haven't got to the last part of that verse, but one of the reasons God gives us the Holy Spirit, it's sort of as a down payment on.

Listen, I'm giving you the Holy Spirit to show you that I'm coming back and taking you to heaven.

It's a seal of redemption.

Hey, I'm going to do what I say.

But Paul says you don't need to grieve the Spirit, you don't need to make Him sad.

And right before that he lists some of the sins that causes us to grieve the Spirit and he lists things like this Bad language, angry words, bitterness, laziness, hatred.

None of those are what you call the big bad sins.

He doesn't say murder, he does say stealing, but he's saying you know what?

Whenever you hate someone, you're grieving the spirit.

Whenever you're apathetic and lazy and won't use your gifts, you're grieving the Spirit.

Whenever you're apathetic and lazy and won't use your gifts, you're grieving the Spirit.

Whenever you're bitter towards someone, you're grieving the Spirit.

Whenever you refuse to forgive your spouse, you're grieving the Spirit.

Don't grieve the Spirit.

Don't make God sad by not taking your sin seriously.

Imagine if you will imagine, if you will imagine, if you will, that all of a sudden your whole maybe some of you may not have to imagine this your whole family decides they don't want to have anything to do with you because you're a Christian.

Imagine if you didn't get invited to the Fourth of July cookout because you were a Christian.

Imagine if you didn't get invited to the 4th of July cookout because you were a Christian.

I met a lady like that a couple weeks ago when I was preaching in Morgantown and in front of her class we were talking about some gospel conversation stuff and she said my family will have nothing to do with me.

I'm not invited to anything.

They won't speak with me.

I'm not invited to anything.

They won't speak to me.

When I do see them, they mock me and make fun of me Because I'm a Christian.

That's what the book of Hebrews is about.

These Jewish Christians are thinking about giving up their faith because they're tired of not having family.

They're tired of walking through town and going into their uncle's deli and not being able to buy a sandwich.

Get out of here, you stinking Christian.

And so the Hebrew writer's encouraging them to stay faithful and let them know that you can't quit.

And then he says this Read this with me, please.

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment.

Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without the mercy, on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who is treated as unholy thing the blood of the covenant that saved him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

How bad do you think it's going to be for those people who have insulted the Spirit of grace, who have grieved the Spirit because they don't take their sin seriously.

And he says there's no other way to get to heaven except through the blood of Jesus.

And when I rationalize my sin yeah, well, yeah, I know my language is not real good, but it's not that you know, it's not as bad as so-and-so's language.

When we deny our sin not me.

When we blame somebody else for our sin well, I'm that way because the doctor dropped me on my head when I was born.

When we pretend our sin's not a sin, when we say you know, god wants me to be happy and that makes me happy, so having to commit adultery makes me happy it should be okay.

When we refuse to take our sin seriously both sins of commission things we do that are wrong and sins of omission, refusing to do what God wants us to do we are grieving the Holy Spirit.

There's nothing else left.

We're grieving the Spirit of grace.

I don't like to be insulted, do you?

When I got it?

The biggest insult I ever got well, probably not the biggest, the one that sticks with me I was in high school.

You know, in high school do y'all have superlatives up here like most popular or most likely, you know, and you vote all of that.

And so I'm in high school and walking in and it's the end of the year and one of my best friends, who who I went to church with came up to me and said Woody, you want to hear the funniest thing I've heard all week?

I said what he said somebody voted you as most likely to succeed.

Isn't that the stupidest thing you've ever heard?

Yeah, I didn't have a heart to tell him it was me, but anyway, but, but, but.

And I thought, hmm, I see him every now and then he's like you remember, yeah, I've said that.

Yeah, you can say it again.

I'm going to knock your Christian love, I'm going to knock your head off, but anyway it hurt.

And when I refuse to take my sins seriously, I am insulting the Spirit of God.

Now, how do I keep this from happening?

Real quick, I encourage you to go home and read Hebrews 10, because Hebrews 10 tells us how to not do it.

Verse 23 says you need to hold on to hope To keep from grieving and insulting the Holy Spirit.

You need to hold on to hope.

Secondly, you need to be accountable to each other.

He says in verse 24, listen, I know you're ready to quit because your family's disowned you.

Spur one another on to good works.

Encourage, you know, be accountable.

Spur one another hey, did you do that?

Spur one another on If you're serious about your sin, you're going to be accountable.

You're going to go to somebody you can trust and say, hey, I'm really struggling with my anger.

Will you check with me this week to see how I did Meet together regularly?

Verse 25, he says hey, don't forsake the assembly.

Stop making an excuse for not being with other Christians.

Get together.

Why?

Because when I'm with other Christians, it's going to help me take my sins seriously.

They're going to help me stay on the right path and then encourage each other because Jesus is coming back.

That's how you keep from grieving and insulting the Holy Spirit.

Did I go too fast there?

Everybody get that.

So here's your homework Just look at these verses this week and evaluate your life.

Where in my life am I refusing to listen to God?

Because when I do, I'm not cooperating with the Spirit?

Am I pretending to be someone I'm not?

I'm not talking about struggling, but being honest about your struggles.

Is something keeping me from using my gifts?

Is it my selfishness?

Is it fear?

Am I quenching the Spirit?

Am I putting out the Spirit's fire Because I refuse to do what God wants me to do, and am I making excuses for my sinful lifestyle?

I'm not talking about struggling with sin.

I sin every day, but I like what Riggins prayed Because of the blood of Jesus, he sees perfection when he looks at me.

But I'm talking about living a sinful, rebellious lifestyle.

There's a difference between struggling with our sins we all struggle with that but saying I'm going to do whatever I want to do.

I want to encourage you to evaluate yourself and then pick one and follow the Holy Spirit.

Cooperate with the Spirit and I guarantee you you'll see God work in your life and your life will be better.

When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul, With my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul.

My soul, my sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought.

My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross.

O my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul, with my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul.

And Lord, haste theound and the Lord shall descend.

Even so, it is well with my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul, with my soul, with my soul, it is well, it is well With my soul.

Once again, we're going to just go talk to God as we close out this service.

You know, we've just celebrated another year of freedom, we've celebrated another year of life for this country and, lord, we thank you for that, because so many times we overlook these simple things in life.

I can look back at a year ago doing the same thing, and I can look back and realize that there are many things, many people that are not here today, that were here a year ago, not here today, that we're here a year ago.

We need to understand that as we walk each day with Christ, we do it with a sincere heart.

We do it, as Woody said, we don't want to pretend.

Do it wholeheartedly, with everything we have.

And so, lord, as we leave here today, let's just understand that we worship you every day and we ask that you will help us to keep Satan out of our life, in a way, and help us to realize that we're not promised tomorrow.

So each day let's do the best we can.

This we ask in Christ's holy name, amen.

My country, tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride.

From every mountainside let freedom ring.

Let music swell the breeze and ring from all the trees, sweet freedom song.

Let mortal tongues awake.

Let all that breathe partake.

Let rocks their silence break the sound.

Prolong Father's God to Thee, author of liberty, to Thee we sing.

Long may our land be bright with freedom's holy light.

Protect us by thy might Great God, our King.

Amen.

God bless you everybody.

Have a great week.

Listen to the Spirit this week.