Living Easy - The Holy Spirit

Wow, what a great morning we've already had uh together with God and and with each other.

As uh Susan said, it's uh Baptism Sunday.

It's a day we've been looking forward to for a long time, and it's there's sixty of us being baptized this morning.

So thank you for being here.

I know we have family and friends that that came today to uh to share in this uh and so I know that your your friends and loved ones appreciate that.

We do too.

Uh it'll just be a great time together.

What we'll do is after we're finished, we'll we'll sing one more uh song together, and then we'll finish with Hands in the Pile, which you'll you'll see, and then uh we'll take about 15 minutes and get ready.

We'll try to remember to pick up the kids from his kids and uh nursery and get uh changed.

There's two big uh restrooms on on either side of these doors.

And then we'll meet back here, uh right here, everyone who's being baptized.

Every uh every time we have uh a group of people that uh woke up this morning not even thinking about it, not planning to be baptized, but something happens while while we're here, and uh and that uh choice is made.

And so we've got extra t-shirts and shorts at a table in the back, and extra towels will be up here where the baptistry is behind the hidden uh baptistry door.

Um but it's just such a great time, and it's not a ritual, it's it's it's a true statement.

It's a statement that I'm all in, that I've got my whole life ahead of me, that I'm living it with uh with Jesus, that I'm gonna follow him, and the Holy Spirit just uh is so strong when we're we're baptized.

And so it's really an exciting day.

Um couple uh quick thank yous.

One was uh last week we did uh a volunteer sign-up.

And if you didn't weren't here and would like to jump in in some area, there's uh those uh sheets up at the info desk.

But the truth is we had a tremendous response last week.

So thank you so much for that.

And I just uh everyone here is so giving of your time and and and talents and money and all those things, and it's really just encouragement.

And the second is I just wanted to thank the uh Falcons for taking it to the Eagles uh last Sunday.

It made an already great day even uh even better, and hopefully uh they'll keep it going um tonight.

Um today's another big day in a different way, and that is that it's our uh first Sunday that we can take Christmas Angels stars.

And that's also an exciting thing that we we do together.

Uh we get to help uh a couple hundred children from uh Woodstock Elementary and and Carmel or Carmel Elementary and um provide their entire Christmas, not just for these children, but for the other children of different ages that are in their homes.

The school counselors pick the families and then give us uh the information and we get to do that together.

So afterwards today, amongst everything, uh you can pick a star uh which would be a child, or you could pick more uh which would be a family.

Be sure and take that star.

There's I think round tables that the stars are spread out on, and then there's high top tables where you check out because it's not just the star, you need to get a list.

Each child uh kind of put together a wish list of uh what they'd like, and then there's other instructions.

So um you pick a star in the checkout, it won't take long, and then you'll have uh instructions in the list.

We'll be able to bring uh all those gifts back uh by December 2nd, and on December 9th, we'll line up and we'll all uh go out and uh and deliver them.

A couple quick things on that is that kind of the uh the budget, I guess, for each child is around$100 for a smaller child and about$125 for an older child.

And again, this is really the only uh Christmas that that they're gonna have.

But it's important um to stay within those numbers, you know, not to go up to them.

We're not worried about that, but actually that we'll stay within them.

Because if there's five or six children in a family, we don't want one of us to get all excited and decide to um give them the dream Christmas of all time, and then the other five children, you know, uh it's not the same.

Just like we do with our own kids, we try to keep it you know relatively the same.

So that's important.

And um as you're as you're thinking about that.

Um so afterwards we just grab a star, uh uh check out, and then we'll be able to bring the gifts back by December 2nd.

Um we're gonna have a great Christmas season.

I guess this kind of kicks it off, although it's just early uh November, but we got a couple exciting things to announce in December, and then on Christmas Eve, that'll kind of top it all off.

And we're gonna have two services this year at four and at six, and we'll be doing some things to invite the um community, and that will be a great night together.

Next week, um Ken Kington's speaking again.

You know, it's been kind of been unusual this year.

He's gonna speak for the next three Sundays, um, and just that his schedule has allowed him to be here uh so often.

And it's uh been great for him.

He loves it.

It's uh honestly it's great uh for me because it's been a really busy time uh in my life, and next year will be a little different.

His schedule's changed, and he'll still be with us uh um a few times, but uh the next few weeks we'll get to enjoy uh having Ken here with us.

And then just thank you for your uh your giving and generosity in all ways.

You know, it's important so we can do what what God has us doing, but it's also important as we just step out and trust uh with God in our lives.

So thank you for that.

Let's uh pray.

So, Father, we praise you.

Thank you for being such a loving father that uh even with all of our stuff, that you would adopt us each into your own family as your very own children.

And we just praise you and thank you for being our Abba Father, our daddy father.

And Holy Spirit, we thank you for being our uh comforter and our counselor.

And this morning, please just speak to each one of us that as we leave, we would know that we got a word that was directly from you uh to us.

And Jesus, we just thank you for for being our Savior, our friend, our teacher, and uh please teach us today.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.

So we've taken a couple months, we've talked about something uh really powerful that uh that Jesus said, a promise uh to each of us.

It's in Matthew 11, 28.

Uh it says, Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.

And so I've known this verse for a long time.

Many of us uh have, um, but I never really learned it, I think.

You know, because my life really, although it it's uh great and I'm thankful for it, it's never really felt easy, or it's never really felt light, and my soul never has really felt that much at rest.

And so a few months ago, as I'm reading this verse, um, what really jumped out at me was not the verse, it was the four words Jesus said when he said, Let me teach you.

You know, and so I thought, yes, that's what I need.

I need, I need to learn this.

I have not learned how to walk this in my every um day life.

And and Jesus said, there is a way.

There is a way to live light and easy, and there is rest for our souls.

And our soul is our minds and our wills and our emotions, what we think of as our personalities.

And, you know, sometimes it's just tough to find rest, to turn our minds off.

You know, we're always thinking, if we go to bed, we can't quite go to sleep because we're we're uh thinking or worrying, or even just planning about our busy next day, or we wake up in the night and we can't go back to sleep, and we just have difficult um resting.

You know, it's hard to unwind some sometimes.

Might uh get a break, and still we find that it takes uh days or longer just to rest and um unwind.

All those things are are our soul.

We tend to think of souls more as a spirit, but those are what the Bible describes as our souls.

And Jesus says, you can trust me.

You can trust me.

I'm gentle, I'm humble, and you will find rest for your soul.

And so that's what we've been taking some time um looking at, letting Jesus teach us, you know, and and and he teaches us through all of his word, but we specifically uh have been looking at uh words that he said, the red letters, if you will.

Jesus, just just teach us.

And then looking at the words that he said, how to live a life that feels easier, how to feel a lot life that, or live a life that feels lighter.

And it's like the you know, we are gonna have difficult times, and many of us are having difficult uh times now.

You know, it's like Susan read, how we might be pressed down or knocked down, but but we're not overcome.

But even through the hard times, there's a way for it to be lighter and easier.

And then there should be times in each of our lives where our life actually does feel lighter and easier and restful.

And so the first thing Jesus taught was, come to me.

It was right in that verse, come to me.

And it was in contrast to religion and the rules and the dogma and just how no matter what he did, no matter how he tried to help, someone was always getting on to him.

Oh, you didn't do it on the right day, you didn't do it the right way, you're not hanging with the right uh people, all those, all those types of things.

And Jesus said, you know, forget all that, come to me.

A relationship, come to me.

The next thing he taught right after that uh was simple but hard to do.

And he was talking about the Sabbath and how that we are not created for the Sabbath, the Sabbath is created for us, and so we need rest.

You know, our Father rested after creating the world, he created the land and the world itself to need rest, and we need rest.

And so if we're gonna live an easier and lighter life, somehow we've got to have a scheduled time where we can really rest and rest uh with God.

We notice how Jesus saw God everywhere and everything.

Whatever he looked at, there was a metaphor for something to do with God.

And so God was always near him.

He knew that and with him, and he was always reminded.

So he he uh he never felt alone.

He always had that strength.

We talked about how Jesus uh encouraged us not to live in the past and not to live in the future, but make sure that we live today.

You know, tomorrow's gonna have enough worries.

Um let's let's live today.

And um Justin shared a great message just about how the formality of religion, if you will, uh can be a burden that can be difficult to bear.

And what an informal relationship Jesus had with his father, how he called him father 170 different times, and every single time it was Abba Father, Daddy Father.

And uh we can lose that weight of informality and just have a real relationship with Jesus.

Um, last week we talked about the one thing Jesus taught the most often, which was simply do not be afraid.

And there's so many other things we could talk about.

We could talk about forgiveness, um, you know, forgiving uh ourselves, forgiving others, um asking for forgiveness.

We could talk about making peace with others, we could talk about uh loving others.

You know, Jesus said, give and you'll receive, your gift will return to you in full, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over and poured into your lap.

The amount you will give will the amount you give will determine the amount you get back.

And so we talk about in the context of uh money and giving, but it's true in all areas, and the more we give love, the more that we're gonna get love back.

But we're gonna finish today with something that Jesus taught that had to be a little mind-blowing uh to his followers, but it is certainly one of the keys to living an easier, uh lighter, and more restful life.

In John 16, Jesus says, I didn't tell you this earlier because I was with you every day, but now I'm on the way to the one who sent me.

Now one of you has asked, where are you going?

Instead, the longer I've talked, the sadder you've become.

So let me say it again, this truth.

It's better for you that I leave.

If I don't leave, the friend won't come, but if I go, I'll send him to you.

When he comes, he'll expose the error of the godless world's view of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

He'll show them that their refusal to believe in me is the basic sin, their righteousness comes from above, where I am with the Father, out of their sight and control.

The judgment takes place as the ruler of this godless world is brought to trial and convicted.

I still have many things to tell you, but you can't handle them now.

But when the friend comes, the spirit of the truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is.

He won't draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen, and indeed out of all that I've done and said.

He will honor me, he will take from me and deliver it to you.

Everything the Father has is also mine.

That is why I've said, He takes from me and delivers to you.

Jesus says it is better that I go so someone he calls a friend can come.

I mean, could there be someone that would actually be more helpful than having Jesus in person with us every single day?

You know, have you ever been asked if you could spend time with anyone, you know, who would it be as an icebreaker or a conversation starter?

You know, there's a lot of people we we might think of.

Um you know, maybe a famous leader or politician or a general or a writer or an artist, uh, musician.

But no, I and most of us, the first person that would come to mind would be Jesus.

If we could spend time with anyone, it would be Jesus.

Of course we get to do that all the time.

We did that this morning, taking the Lord's Supper, spending time with Him.

We're doing it now as we're reading and uh and thinking about the actual words that Jesus said.

But what could possibly be more important or as Jesus said, better than one-on-one, physical, in-person time with him?

The gift we have in the person of the Holy Spirit.

You know, in John 16, that word is uh parok latas.

It's a Greek word, and uh many translations, almost every translation of the Bible uh translates that word differently.

Uh it might be advocate, it might be counselor, uh, it might be comforter, it might be helper, it might be friend.

And um and what that word means in the original Greek is anyone that will help a friend in trouble or a time of need.

And so it's the helper, advocate, comforter, and friend.

And so this in many ways is the perfect morning to talk about the Holy Spirit.

Uh it's so interconnected with baptism.

You know, when Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended uh on him like the dove, like a dove.

Um all of Jesus' uh followers were baptized.

And in talking about the Holy Spirit, Jesus says that you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

In other ways, it may not be the perfect time to talk about the Holy Spirit.

You know, because different beliefs on the Holy Spirit are uh so controversial and and so fiercely held.

You know, when Jesus would do something great, you know, loving, you know, people would argue about uh how he did it, uh what he did, you know, whether his hands were washed and and all that, but they missed the same, they they missed the whole point.

They missed the whole point.

And the same can be said of God the Father, and the same can be said of God the Holy Spirit.

We can argue about the how and the what and miss the whole point.

And the whole point is the who.

It's the who.

You know, we don't you know, differences in opinion, differences in belief, differences in experiences are all actually a great thing.

You know, it makes us round well rounded and and and it's good because we're never gonna if if we took say fifteen things, you know, we'll call them core beliefs, but then maybe subsets of what you think about each of those things.

And we all filled out a form, uh I would guess that not two forms would be identical.

You know, because the truth is we are not together and united because of believing everything the exact same way.

We're united by believing in in Him the exact same way.

It's it's not so much what we believe, it's who we believe and and and who we love and and who we follow.

And the Holy Spirit gives different gifts, and some of those are experiential.

You know, uh I might not believe that God gives dreams, you know, until I have a dream given by God, you know, and then then I do.

And so we don't really need to stress about that.

We can be excited about it.

We can be excited that God works differently in each of us and in different ways.

We can be excited that real relationships are unique and that we're all uniquely created and and wonderfully made.

And so God's gonna speak to us and and um talk to us and give us life in in different ways.

And the thing that's exciting and why we can have a great morning thinking about this is when Jesus talks, he is not talking about the gifts.

He is talking uh say he's not talking about the gifts of the Spirit.

He's talking about the gift of the Spirit.

The person himself, the Holy Spirit, you know, he is the gift.

And so if you ask me about my dad, I wouldn't say, oh, my dad, man, when I was a seven, he gave me a baseball glove, and then when I was eleven, he gave me a bike, and when he was I was fifteen, he gave me an Atari.

I said that an Atari.

Shows how old I'm getting.

Um you know, but honestly, I had to stop and try to think of some of those types of things, because you know it would be He that would be the gift in my life, right?

It wouldn't be those things.

It would it would be Him.

And it it's so true of uh of the Holy Spirit that He's generous with each of us, but really He is the gift.

And so in Luke 11, Jesus says, So you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children.

How much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

You know, the Holy Spirit, one of the reasons it's just kind of controversial, or he's kind of controversial in in uh some ways, um, Jesus was kind of controversial in some ways, is that the Holy Spirit is a mystery.

There are four or five conversations that Jesus has with different people uh that to me are kind of meaningful.

One is with Nicodemus, and we've talked about this before, but Nicodemus was a Pharisee, he was one of the leaders of the uh religious scholars in that group, and he was afraid of what others might think, but he wanted to talk with Jesus, so he had to sneak out in the middle of the night.

And he comes to Jesus and he says, You know, obviously, you know, God's with you.

And uh Jesus says, I tell you the truth, unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.

What do you mean?

exclaimed Nicodemus.

How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?

Jesus replied, I assure you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the spirit.

Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.

So don't be surprised when I say you must be born again.

The wind blows wherever it wants, just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit.

And what I like about this conversation is that Jesus is talking about how we come to life through the Holy Spirit.

You know, it's a pretty important thing.

It's where the whole expression born again uh comes from.

And Jesus says he can't explain it.

If Jesus can't explain it, who can?

I mean, who can?

You know why?

It's because it's a mystery, it's supernatural.

You know, think about that for a minute, because it's it's really a real paradigm shift.

The the Pharisees were know-it-alls.

I mean, they knew everything.

They were dogmatic, uh, they knew it all.

They spent all their time trying to catch Jesus doing something wrong, you know, telling them what he's doing wrong.

And then one of them sneaks out to talk to Jesus alone.

And Jesus says the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.

And it's a mystery, and I can't really explain it.

You know, I guess Nicodemus would have to experience it to really understand.

And there certainly are things that are absolutes, but we don't have to feel the pressure to understand everything, to argue.

Everything.

When it comes to the Holy Spirit, it's really best that we don't put him in a box.

He's a mystery.

He's supernatural.

You know, a box like the Holy Spirit always gives all believers this particular gift.

Or a box like the Holy Spirit never gives any believers this particular gift.

The Holy Spirit does what he wants.

He knows what's best for each of us.

He loves each of us.

And his relationship's going to be different with each of us.

Unique.

And Joseph that bravely went, got Jesus' body, and honored him with a burial.

The Holy Spirit is a mystery.

He is supernatural.

He is powerful, and he is life.

In John 7, it says, On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, Anyone who is thirsty may come to me.

Anyone who believes in me may come and drink.

For the scriptures declare rivers of living water will flow from his heart.

When he said living water, he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him.

But the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.

Jesus calls the Holy Spirit friend, advocate, helper, teacher, comforter, and he calls him living water.

You know, it's such a beautiful metaphor for the Holy Spirit and what he does.

It was how Isaiah prophesied about this time, really our time.

He said, For I'll pour out water to quench your thirst and to irrigate your parched fields, and I will pour out my spirit on your descendants and my blessings on your children.

I think about how the Holy Spirit's like water and gives life quite a bit.

At home, we've got a front porch.

We've got uh kind of a small yard and we've got a covered front porch, and the rest, we have plants all through the yard, and um they get rain and they get watered, and we've got a sprinkler system.

So if it's dry for a few weeks, we can turn that on.

Um but there's no sprinkler system on the porch and it's covered, and so there's no rain.

And so when you know, we've been out of town and and busy and all that type of stuff, and I forget we've got two plants on the front porch, and they're kind of vines that come out of these urns.

One is in um in each corner, and so I'm sorry, plant lovers, but I'll just forget about it, you know, and I guess it's my responsibility, because Susan doesn't think about it too often either.

But um but about once a month I'll look out on the front porch and I'll see those vines.

And they're kind of droopy, and some of the leaves are brown, you know, and they look bad and I feel bad.

And so I go and I get a pitcher of water and I pour in both of them one at a time, a whole pitcher of water, and within 15 minutes, those things spring to life.

I mean, 15 minutes later, they're you know full and they're standing up, and within a day or so uh the the leaves are green and the plant is um is growing again.

And every time it makes me think of the Holy Spirit and just how quickly He can bring us back to life, how we can get dry and worn out and beaten down, but one good drink of the Holy Spirit, and we can be filled and spring back to life.

And we've all heard the time uh when Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman that was at the well.

Said the woman was surprised for Jesus, uh, for Jews refused to have anything to do with Samaritans.

She said to Jesus, You're a Jew, and I'm a Samaritan woman.

Why are you asking me for a drink?

Jesus replied, If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me and I would give you living water.

But, sir, you don't have a rope or a bucket, she said, and this well is very deep.

Where would you get this living water?

And besides, do you think you you're greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well?

How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?

And Jesus replied, Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again, but those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again.

It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.

You know, the woman said, Please give me this water.

I get thirsty, you know.

I mean, we all can get thirsty spiritually dry.

I mean, there's nothing like a long drink of the Holy Spirit.

There's nothing like asking him to release a stream of living water in us and through us.

It's something he loves to do because he loves us.

He loves you.

And he is our comforter, our counselor, our friend.

He is life.

You know, practically speaking, we can ask the Holy Spirit to refresh us and to fill us.

This is something Susan does, is you know what she calls soaking, you know, and it's uh putting on worship music and then just for a half hour or however long, just really laying there and asking the Holy Spirit to refresh her and and uh and fill her, and and and he always does.

How does that exactly work?

You know, it's like the wind.

You can't really explain it, but it does.

You know, reading his inspired word, one of the things that that I've done for the last few minutes, or last few, one of the things I've done for the last few minutes for the last few months is really try to read just some red letters every single day.

You know, and and just things that Jesus said.

And every single time, there's a refreshment.

You know, there's an encouragement, there's an enthusiasm, there's an excitement about the day.

You know, we can ask the Holy Spirit just to fill us, to refresh us.

You know, like the plants on my porch, we can spring to life really quickly with the Holy Spirit releasing that living water through us.

In John 6, it says, the Spirit alone gives eternal life.

Human effort accomplishes nothing.

And in 2 Corinthians 3, it says, He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant.

This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit.

The old written covenant ends in death, but under the new covenant, the Spirit gives life.

And Jesus talks so much about the difference between religion and a relationship with him.

And one of the things that he talked to the Pharisees and the scholars about quite a bit was how focused they were on the externals.

You know, he says, you're always wanting people to see you pray on the street corner, and you want to be noticed at dinner and in the marketplace.

Um but you're like bulls, Jesus said, you know, that are really clean on the outside, but they're dirty on the inside.

Nothing was happening internally.

And Jesus is about the internal.

Jesus is about our hearts.

And that's where the Holy Spirit does his most powerful work.

You know, not in dramatic external fashion, even though he does that some, but his most powerful work is inside, changing us from the inside out.

John 14 says, I will ask the Father, and he'll give you another advocate who will never leave you.

He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.

The world cannot receive him because it isn't looking for him and doesn't recognize him.

But you know him because he lives with you now and later will be in you.

Well, Jesus there is the big change that was about to happen, and why it could possibly be better, better for Jesus to go so the Holy Spirit would come.

And it was that he would live in us, that he would live in all believers.

You know, the Holy Spirit's always been here from the creation of the earth to the last few verses in Revelations.

But ever since mankind chose rules and religion over life and relationship, was at the Garden of Eden, there were two trees, tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or the tree of life.

Mankind through Adam and Eve said, you know what?

Just tell us what to do and tell us what not to do, and we'll take it from there.

God wanted us to have life.

You know, so since that point, the Holy Spirit was so powerful, but and sometimes he would fill someone with his presence, but often he would come upon people.

You know, he would come upon people in uh in short doses.

He did that with Saul, he did that with Samson.

His followers would recognize that because they've known that he was with them.

And Jesus says, Yeah, but from now on soon, he's not going to be with you, he's going to be in you.

And that really got started a week and a half after Jesus ascended into heaven, when the Holy Spirit poured himself out in a huge way into the world.

He is not just with us, he works inside of us.

You know, we're created in God's image, all of us.

We have a spirit.

We put our trust in Jesus, our spirit connects with God's spirit, and we come alive inside, and he is there, and he is working, and he is changing us from the inside out.

In Ephesians 3, it says, God can do anything, you know, far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams.

He does it not by pushing us around, but by working within us.

His spirit deeply and gently within us.

He's going to do that in different ways.

You know, we saw some of the things Jesus said about that this morning.

He fills us with life.

He reminds us of things, he convicts us of things, he teaches us, he guides us, he gives us peace, all because he is the gift.

It's because he is the gift inside of us.

The Holy Spirit, our friend, that will never leave us.

You know, the verse we just read a minute ago, John 14, says, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate who will never leave you.

And then later it says, I'm telling you these things while I'm still living with you.

The friend, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you.

He'll remind you of all the things I've told you.

I'm leaving you well and whole.

That's my parting gift to you.

Peace.

I don't leave you the way that you're used to being left, feeling abandoned, bereft.

So don't be upset.

Don't be distraught.

I might take him for granted.

In fact, I know I take the Holy Spirit for granted.

You know, there's times I grieve him, there's times that I make him sad, there's times I stiff arm him.

And I'm like, not now, I got my own thing I want to do over here.

You know, I'll listen to you, I'll connect with you later.

But he never leaves me.

He's always there.

I can just turn, have a drink, ask him to refill me, flow through me, his living water.

And so Jesus is teaching us.

He wants us to live lighter, he wants us to live easier.

He doesn't want our time on earth.

And certainly he's going to train us and he's going to teach us, and we're going to go through things, and it's going to build our faith, and it's going to build our character, and it's going to draw us closer to him.

But he does not want our life to be a continual stress test.

He wants it to be easier, to be lighter, and to give us rest.

And so the first thing he says is, Come to me.

Come to me.

I will give you real rest.

And the Holy Spirit says the exact same thing.

You know, all the controversy about me, all the arguing about it is this way or that way, the Holy Spirit says, forget all that.

Come to me.

In Revelation 22 and verse 17, it says, The Spirit and the Bride say, Come.

Let anyone who hears this say come.

Let anyone who is thirsty come.

Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life.

And so it's Baptism Sunday, and a bunch of us will be baptized this morning.

We'll be baptized into the Father, our Abba Father, our Loving Father.

We'll baptize into the Son, Jesus.

And into the Holy Spirit, our advocate, our comforter, our counselor, and our friend.

Jesus says there's a way to live lighter, there's a way to live easier, and we can find true rest for our souls.

Some of those things he's taught us are a different way of thinking, a different way of believing, a different way of doing and trusting.

But one of the most powerful things that he teaches us is not a what or a how.

It's a who.

It's the Holy Spirit his gift to all of us.

And so we'll stop there this morning.

If the worship team will come up, we'll get ready to sing one last song together.

Let's stand and we'll be ready.

You know, we talked about Jesus and Nicodemus' conversation about being born to a spiritual life.

And it's really such a simple thing, and we can make it complicated, but uh it is so simple.

It's us turning to Him in our own way, in our own words, wherever we're at.

You know, Jesus, I need you.

Jesus, I'm sorry.

Jesus, help me.

But mostly, Jesus, I want you in my life.

I want to connect with you.

I want to follow you.

And we do come alive.

And God's Spirit does fill us and starts teaching us and comforting us and changing us from the inside out.

If you've never done that, you could do that this morning.

You could do that this morning and be baptized on the same day, which would be a wonderful day for sure.

But I know I can use more of allowing the Holy Spirit to lead me.

I know my life will be lighter and easier and more restful as I allow him to give me peace and to teach me and to counsel me and comfort me.

And that's probably true for most of us.

So let's ask God for that.

Father, we do praise you.

We thank you for being such a great God.

Thank you for everyone here this morning.

I ask you to bless them in every way.

And especially, Father, that you would uh just stir up our hearts for more of the Holy Spirit.

And Holy Spirit, that you would flow your living water through us, through our very being, through our souls.

We love you, and we thank you for being our friend and our comforter, our counselor, our teacher, and advocate.

And Jesus, we praise you.

We thank you for being our Savior, our teacher, our friend.

It's in your great name we pray this morning.

Amen.