Speaker 1: The book of John will be in John 14 and John 16, and we're actually starting a brand new series today entitled Navigating Life Following God's Path in a World Full of Wrong Terms.
Speaker 1: Now, how many of you would agree with me that sometimes life is hard to navigate?
Speaker 1: How many of you would say all the time life is hard to navigate?
Speaker 1: Oh, my goodness it is.
Speaker 1: There's so many things happening and so many things going on as we get into the series.
Speaker 1: I got to say we had a little problem happen here a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1: It was by our friend, dr John Harris, which, by the way, don't we love.
Speaker 1: Having this guy come and preach he's great, but I got a bone to pick with Dr John and preach he's great, but I got a bone to pick with Dr John.
Speaker 1: He stole the text I was supposed to teach today.
Speaker 1: He broke the pastor etiquette.
Speaker 1: Can you believe he did that?
Speaker 1: Here's what he did.
Speaker 1: He basically said he's never coming back.
Speaker 1: I told him you're not allowed to come back over now.
Speaker 1: He showed in an incredible way such a great preacher.
Speaker 1: He showed us the foundation for following God's path, and it's this it's following God's path begins by embracing that Jesus is the only way, that Jesus is the only way.
Speaker 1: Following God's path begins by embracing that Jesus is the only way.
Speaker 1: Now our world tells you there's many different ways.
Speaker 1: You can go this way, you can go that way, you can go this way.
Speaker 1: It's all good, bro, however you feel, just follow your feelings.
Speaker 1: But Jesus says I'm the only way.
Speaker 1: In fact, look what John 14, verse 6 says Jesus told him I am the.
Speaker 1: I am the.
Speaker 1: What do you say?
Speaker 1: I am the Notice.
Speaker 1: Jesus didn't say this, jesus didn't say however you feel is the way.
Speaker 1: Your favorite TikToker is the way.
Speaker 1: This ideology over here, this new age stuff, this is Jesus said.
Speaker 1: He said this.
Speaker 1: He said I am the way, the truth and the life.
Speaker 1: No man comes to the father except through me.
Speaker 1: So if we're going to navigate life, it begins with Jesus, because Jesus is the foundation.
Speaker 1: What we're going to see today is that if Jesus is the foundation, then the Holy Spirit is our guide.
Speaker 1: Then the Holy Spirit is our guide.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit is our guide.
Speaker 1: Now, a lot of times we think about the Holy Spirit and some of us are like I don't even know what the Holy Spirit's about.
Speaker 1: Some of you are new to church and can I just say we got people with all types of backgrounds here and everybody's welcome here.
Speaker 1: You might say I've never even heard that.
Speaker 1: Others of us are followers of Jesus and we're not really sure.
Speaker 1: What does the Holy Spirit actually do?
Speaker 1: We know God, the Father I mean, god's pretty important.
Speaker 1: We know God, the Son, jesus.
Speaker 1: We're like, yeah, he died on the cross, that's a pretty big deal.
Speaker 1: But then it's like the Holy Spirit Pretty big deal, but then it's like the Holy Spirit, what's the Holy Spirit doing?
Speaker 1: Well, actually he does a lot, in fact.
Speaker 1: You might be here and you might be struggling with something that you feel like you're chained to and nobody even knows about it.
Speaker 1: And through the power of the Holy Spirit, you can break free of those chains.
Speaker 1: You might be here this morning and you might be unsure of some things and there's like this path and that path and this path.
Speaker 1: You're like I don't even know what to do.
Speaker 1: You know the Holy Spirit wants to guide you.
Speaker 1: You might be in a place in your life where you've tried to change yourself.
Speaker 1: This January 1st this is going to be the year New Year's resolutions I'm not going to be angry anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to yell at my family anymore.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be bitter anymore.
Speaker 1: We've tried to white knuckle things and we've tried our hardest and now we're like, oh, I can't do it.
Speaker 1: Through the power of the Holy Spirit, he can transform us and I think today is going to be an incredibly powerful day in some of our lives, because what we're going to see is we're going to see what the Holy Spirit does, how he does it and maybe more importantly, how you can access his work in your life so you can learn how to navigate this crazy, tragic at times, thing called life, because we all need a guide, and the guide is the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: So let's pick it up in John, chapter 14.
Speaker 1: If you're ready for it, would you say amen?
Speaker 1: John 14, verse 26,.
Speaker 1: It says this but the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, father will send in my name, will what's that next word?
Speaker 1: Will teach, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.
Speaker 1: So, jesus talking to his followers, he says the Holy Spirit is gonna teach, teach you things and is going to remind you of everything I have told you.
Speaker 1: Now, how many of you would say sometimes I can be a little bit forgetful.
Speaker 1: In fact, how many of you need reminders of things?
Speaker 1: Oh, my goodness, I tell you what?
Speaker 1: I'm not that old but I'm already getting forgetful and I'm like, oh my goodness, it's already beginning.
Speaker 1: I got to have reminders on my calendar and my task list and all these different things, because I can forget things and I think we can all be forgetful people.
Speaker 1: What the Holy Spirit wants to do is he wants to remind you of things, and it says he wants to remind us of everything he's told them, he's told us.
Speaker 1: So what this means is he's for him to remind us of something.
Speaker 1: He has to remind us of things that we already know.
Speaker 1: I can't be reminded of something that I don't know, so, so the responsibility is on us to be in the word so the spirit can remind us of what we know.
Speaker 1: There's a responsibility for us to be in worship so we can be taught, so we can be reminded of what we already know, because this is what the Holy Spirit does.
Speaker 1: It's really interesting too, the word counselor here.
Speaker 1: It comes from a word, parakletos, which means counselor, helper, advocate.
Speaker 1: So you think about this.
Speaker 1: What does the Holy Spirit do?
Speaker 1: He counsels, he helps, he advocates, and when the disciples would hear this, the parakletos is going to come.
Speaker 1: They would know Jesus is going to send a helper, he's going to send a counselor, he's going to send an advocate.
Speaker 1: Now, if we break down this word a little bit more, the word kaleo means to call, so literally what the Holy Spirit is, what the counselor is, is someone who comes alongside to help, who comes alongside to help.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like this have you guys ever seen somebody that they were blind and they had a seeing eye dog and a seeing eye dog was kind of guiding them, helping them?
Speaker 1: Who's ever seen?
Speaker 1: All right, now, if you're anything like me, when I see a dog, you know what I want to do immediately.
Speaker 1: I want to pet that cute little guy and then, for some reason I don't know if you're like me, but I get in dog voice.
Speaker 1: You know I'm talking to you.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, hey, buddy, how you doing?
Speaker 1: Why do we do that?
Speaker 1: That's kind of weird.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I see a dog and I'm like, oh, there's a dog there, I want to pet it.
Speaker 1: That's the reason that person brought the dog, because they want me to.
Speaker 1: Sorry, personal problems, I digress.
Speaker 1: I got to get my dog fixed and I don't have one anymore.
Speaker 1: You see, a seeing eye dog.
Speaker 1: And the seeing eye dog is to help that owner, to guide them, to protect them, because the world that they live in is very dark.
Speaker 1: And what the Holy Spirit's role is?
Speaker 1: To come alongside us to help us, to counsel us, to guide us, because, let's be honest, we live in a very dark world.
Speaker 1: What does the Holy Spirit help us with?
Speaker 1: Well, in the text, he helps teach us and he helps remind us of things.
Speaker 1: This is what 1 Corinthians 2, verse 10,.
Speaker 1: It says this.
Speaker 1: It says that God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit.
Speaker 1: God has revealed things to us.
Speaker 1: Has there ever been a time in your life where maybe you have like an aha moment and there was, like this spiritual truth of, like who God was?
Speaker 1: It was just revealed to you.
Speaker 1: It's like, where did this come from?
Speaker 1: It came from the Spirit.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're like me, but sometimes I have the gift of being hard-headed.
Speaker 1: Anybody have that gift of being hard-headed?
Speaker 1: Okay, all right.
Speaker 1: Does anybody know anybody that?
Speaker 1: No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I can be stubborn.
Speaker 1: Do you guys know any stubborn people?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I gotta tell you, we can all be a little stubborn, and sometimes I can be hardheaded.
Speaker 1: I can be stubborn, and sometimes I feel like the Holy Spirit has to be like come on, do this, come on, realize this, come on, realize this.
Speaker 1: And then, finally, the light bulb comes on and it's like, oh, I'm handling this situation in not the best way.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, I'm handling this situation in not the best way.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, I've been reacting instead of responding.
Speaker 1: Oh, I have this worldview that I'm so locked into that I know that this is the right thing to do.
Speaker 1: And the Holy Spirit will point out a scripture and we'll say whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 1: That worldview did not come from God, and what the Holy Spirit wants to do is he wants to come alongside us to teach us, to help us.
Speaker 1: In fact, in John, chapter 16, a sister passage, jesus talks about how important and powerful the Holy Spirit is.
Speaker 1: In John 16, verse seven, he's talking to his disciples.
Speaker 1: He's talking to the people that he's been hanging out with for three years.
Speaker 1: He's talking to his boys, and this is what he tells them.
Speaker 1: And imagine if you're in their shoes and you hear this.
Speaker 1: He says nevertheless, I'm telling you the truth.
Speaker 1: Of course Jesus always told the truth.
Speaker 1: It is for your what's that word?
Speaker 1: It's for your benefit that I go away.
Speaker 1: If I'm one of the apostles and Jesus just told me that it's my benefit, for my benefit, that he goes away, I'm like, are you sure about that, jesus?
Speaker 1: I mean like hanging out with you.
Speaker 1: It was like you know, we were hungry.
Speaker 1: You just provided food.
Speaker 1: It was great.
Speaker 1: I saw you do miracles, I saw you do all of these things.
Speaker 1: What do you mean?
Speaker 1: It's for my benefit that you go away.
Speaker 1: Jesus went on to say this because if I don't go away, the rest of the verse, the counselor if we can get the rest of the verse up there, the counselor will not come to you.
Speaker 1: If I go, I will send him to you.
Speaker 1: Jesus says if I don't go away, you will not have the parakletos.
Speaker 1: Get this, guys, get this.
Speaker 1: Jesus says it's better to have the Holy Spirit inside you than his physical presence beside you.
Speaker 1: Hold on, I want that to sink in.
Speaker 1: Think about this.
Speaker 1: Jesus says it's better that you have the Holy Spirit inside you than his physical presence inside you, than his physical presence beside you.
Speaker 1: Why Jesus physically could be in one place at one time.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit can be anywhere.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit indwells us.
Speaker 1: Jesus says it's for your benefit that I go away, so you will have the paracletos with you.
Speaker 1: Man, that's a pretty big deal, that's pretty powerful.
Speaker 1: And in verse eight he says what the Holy Spirit's going to do when he comes.
Speaker 1: He will convict the world about sin, righteousness and judgment.
Speaker 1: About sin because they do not believe in me.
Speaker 1: About righteousness because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me.
Speaker 1: And about judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged.
Speaker 1: So in these four verses we see the Holy Spirit's role for people who do not yet know Jesus.
Speaker 1: So number one, the Holy Spirit's role in the world.
Speaker 1: What does he do in the world for those of us that don't know Jesus?
Speaker 1: Well, it's interesting.
Speaker 1: He starts off in verse number eight.
Speaker 1: It says when he comes he will convict, he will convince the world about sin.
Speaker 1: Why would he start with sin?
Speaker 1: I mean, couldn't the Holy Spirit, like do something different?
Speaker 1: I mean, the Holy Spirit, like the Holy Spirit's just gonna all of a sudden put the words Jesus in the sky.
Speaker 1: Couldn't the Holy Spirit just do some crazy miracle, like right off the get-go?
Speaker 1: And he does do miracles, why would his main role?
Speaker 1: The first thing, jesus says that he's going to convict the world about sin.
Speaker 1: The world about sin, because we will never see our need for Jesus until we first realize that we are sinners.
Speaker 1: You will never realize your need for Jesus until you first realize that you're a sinner.
Speaker 1: What is sin?
Speaker 1: Sin is anything we say, think or do that you're a sinner.
Speaker 1: What is sin?
Speaker 1: Sin's anything we say, think or do that breaks God's law.
Speaker 1: We are all sinners by nature Romans 5.12, from our common ancestor, adam.
Speaker 1: But we're also sinners by choice.
Speaker 1: How many of us there's been times in our life where we knew something was wrong and we did it anyways?
Speaker 1: Yeah, how many of us there's been times in our life where we knew something was wrong and we did it anyways?
Speaker 1: Yeah, how many of you?
Speaker 1: Hey, you knew you shouldn't have said that thing, but something welled up in you and you said it and it felt good when you said it.
Speaker 1: Sin?
Speaker 1: There's times in our life where we should have said no to things that we said yes to.
Speaker 1: We should have said yes to some things that we said no to and it's called sin.
Speaker 1: And in our world that we live, in the world that we live in minimizes sin.
Speaker 1: It's like oh, sin is just like a boo-boo, just like a mistake.
Speaker 1: Humanism says there is no sin.
Speaker 1: Whatever feels good, whatever your true self tells you to do, just do it.
Speaker 1: There's no such thing as sin.
Speaker 1: But to God, sin's a big deal, but to God, sin matters.
Speaker 1: It's such a big deal that Jesus came and died for that sin.
Speaker 1: Jesus came and died for our lying.
Speaker 1: He came and died for our lust, for our bitterness, for our anger.
Speaker 1: Jesus died for our sin, and what the Holy Spirit wants to do is he wants to show you, if you don't yet know Jesus, that you are a sinner in need of a savior, and one of the most beautiful places in your life can be when you stop running from this reality that you're a perfect person, when you stop buying into the lies of humanism and everything out there and you realize that you are a sinner before a holy God.
Speaker 1: Because when you realize that you are a sinner you are now.
Speaker 1: You are now a candidate to receive God's grace and mercy and forgiveness.
Speaker 1: Your sin does not disqualify you from Jesus.
Speaker 1: Your sin is the very thing that qualifies you to have a need for a savior, and God's grace does not push people away.
Speaker 1: The only people that don't want to receive God's grace are the self-righteous, because they think they're good.
Speaker 1: But the self-righteous are rarely self-aware and what the Holy Spirit does is the Holy Spirit wants to bring you to a place where you realize that you're a sinner and you repent.
Speaker 1: That's a change in direction and you come to Jesus by faith and you put your faith in Christ.
Speaker 1: This is what it means to follow Jesus and, by the way, true repentance it's always a change in direction.
Speaker 1: It was I was going this way.
Speaker 1: Now I'm following Jesus and my faith and trust in him is producing fruit in my life.
Speaker 1: Fruit is a result of following Jesus, and there's this idea in the world which I'm really glad it's dying.
Speaker 1: Right now we're in a season where, like, lukewarm Christianity is just going by the wayside and I'm so thankful for it.
Speaker 1: But for a while there was like this thing in the world that's like, yeah, I can do whatever I want.
Speaker 1: Jesus loves me, he forgives me, so I'm gonna do whatever I want.
Speaker 1: Guys, that's nowhere in scripture.
Speaker 1: That's nowhere in scripture.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit wants to convict us of our sin, to show us our need for Jesus, and what he's gonna do is he's going to bring things into our life to help us see that sometimes what the Holy Spirit will do is he'll bring a general dissatisfaction in your life and you just feel like something's missing.
Speaker 1: That's the Holy Spirit saying Jesus is what you need.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the Holy Spirit will use a world event like an assassination of Charlie Kirk, will use a world event like an assassination of Charlie Kirk that will show you oh, there's something out there.
Speaker 1: I need Jesus.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the Holy Spirit will use a friend that's a follower of Jesus and the way they live their life is so compelling and so convicting.
Speaker 1: You're like, wow, there's something about them and it convicts you.
Speaker 1: What the holy spirit wants to do is convict, convince people that don't yet know jesus to bring them to jesus.
Speaker 1: But many of you in this room, you are a follower of jesus.
Speaker 1: The holy spirit has convinced you, convicted you of your sin.
Speaker 1: You've turned from it.
Speaker 1: You've put your trust in Christ.
Speaker 1: So what is the Holy Spirit's role in your life?
Speaker 1: We'll pick it up in verse number 12.
Speaker 1: He tells us Jesus says I still have many things to tell you, but you can't bear them now.
Speaker 1: But when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears.
Speaker 1: He will also declare to you what is to come.
Speaker 1: He will glorify me because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.
Speaker 1: So what's the Holy Spirit's role in the life of a Jesus follower?
Speaker 1: And declare it to you.
Speaker 1: So what's the Holy Spirit's role in the life of a Jesus follower?
Speaker 1: Number two, and this is really really important, it says in this verse when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.
Speaker 1: Here's why this is so important, because there's a lot of guides out there that try to tell you what to do, how to think, how to parent, how to see the world.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of expert guides out there.
Speaker 1: If you're wondering where they are, just open up your social media account.
Speaker 1: They're all over the place.
Speaker 1: They will tell you everything.
Speaker 1: If you don't have social media, turn on the news all the talking heads.
Speaker 1: They will tell you everything.
Speaker 1: And in our world we have an abundance of information and an abundance of voices and guides, but a shortage of wisdom.
Speaker 1: And just because a voice is loud doesn't mean a voice is right.
Speaker 1: So what God, the Father, has given all of us is he's given us the Holy Spirit to guide us.
Speaker 1: So what we gotta do and this is the toughest part, guys is we have to listen to the Holy Spirit and we have to let the Holy Spirit guide us.
Speaker 1: Now this is really difficult Because, if you're like me, sometimes I sense some things and I'm like is this the Holy Spirit or is this something else?
Speaker 1: Is this the Holy Spirit, or is this that video that I just watched last week?
Speaker 1: What is this?
Speaker 1: Somebody came to me last week and they said hey, can I pray for you?
Speaker 1: And I was like yes, please pray for me, because, as a pastor, I need prayer.
Speaker 1: How many of you would say, just as a human being living in this world, you need prayer, right?
Speaker 1: This person said can I pray for you?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, absolutely.
Speaker 1: And can I also say that man, in a church community, let's not be shy about praying for each other.
Speaker 1: When somebody shares something, they're going through something, or they ask just pray for them on the spot, you say, pastor Nate, that's kind of weird and awkward, like I'm just supposed to pray for somebody, like they're talking to me and they're telling me that something happened in their family or they're going through this hard time.
Speaker 1: I'm just supposed to like ask them if I can pray for them, like right here, on the spot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you say, how do I do it?
Speaker 1: Well, you blame me.
Speaker 1: Pastor Nate said that we should pray for people.
Speaker 1: Can I pray for you right now?
Speaker 1: You're like what do I even say, this is what you do.
Speaker 1: You talk to God just like you're talking to that person.
Speaker 1: It can be like a two sentence prayer.
Speaker 1: Lord, this person is going through this right now.
Speaker 1: Will you please help them?
Speaker 1: I got an email this week.
Speaker 1: People have been going to our prayer next steps banners.
Speaker 1: In the last couple weeks there's been two direct answers to prayer because people have people praying for them here.
Speaker 1: It's so powerful.
Speaker 1: And this person said I want to pray for you.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, please pray for me.
Speaker 1: And this is what this person prayed for me.
Speaker 1: They prayed this over me that, in a world full of voices, that I would clearly hear and follow the Holy Spirit's voice in my life.
Speaker 1: And I needed that Because, not just as a pastor but as a Jesus follower, I hear all these guides, all these voices out there, and the Holy Spirit's voice can get drowned out in my life.
Speaker 1: You might be here.
Speaker 1: You might say, okay, like the Holy Spirit speaks, the Holy Spirit wants to guide.
Speaker 1: How do I know if it's the Holy Spirit speaking?
Speaker 1: This is what you can do.
Speaker 1: You can take those promptings through a test of three simple questions.
Speaker 1: One it's the who test.
Speaker 1: Is this prompt, self-serving or others focused?
Speaker 1: The wisdom test what do godly reliable people think?
Speaker 1: So if you were to go to your ministry leader or your group leader and you were to ask them what do you think about this, would they affirm that?
Speaker 1: Wisdom test again is this self-serving or others focused?
Speaker 1: It's like I just sense the spirit leading me to work 85 hours a week so I can provide for my family.
Speaker 1: And because I can do this and I'm, you know I'm not going to really be able to spend time with my family, I'm not going to really be able to gather with the church.
Speaker 1: I'm not only going to be able to value my spiritual life, but I'm going to work real hard because I want to provide.
Speaker 1: Stop lying to yourself.
Speaker 1: You just want to buy a new fancy truck.
Speaker 1: Is it self-service or is it others focused?
Speaker 1: Is it self-service, is it others focus?
Speaker 1: And then it's the word test.
Speaker 1: Does it contradict an honest reading of scripture?
Speaker 1: A word from God will never contradict the word of God.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we get promptings in our life and it's not the spirit of God.
Speaker 1: What it is is it's insecurity, or it's our past, or it's some other voice telling us something that is not true.
Speaker 1: And what can happen in our lives is we have to learn to sense the promptings of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit wants to guide you and produce fruitfulness in you and do something for you.
Speaker 1: How does the Holy Spirit guide us as we wrap up?
Speaker 1: Very quick One.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit guides us by indwelling us.
Speaker 1: Ephesians, chapter one, verse number 13.
Speaker 1: It says in him you also were sealed.
Speaker 1: This is in him, in Christ.
Speaker 1: You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
Speaker 1: What's the gospel?
Speaker 1: The death, the burial, the resurrection of Christ, and you believed.
Speaker 1: So the moment you trusted Christ to be your Lord and your savior.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit indwells you.
Speaker 1: You were sealed with the Spirit.
Speaker 1: Now you are never alone.
Speaker 1: The paracletos is with you to guide, to comfort, to teach.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit empowers you for service, he indwells you and he empowers you for service.
Speaker 1: You realize that every person that's a follower of Jesus has been gifted by the Holy Spirit for the building of the body and for making the name of Jesus known.
Speaker 1: And some of you have been told that you are not gifted.
Speaker 1: That is a lie from the pits of health.
Speaker 1: Some of you have been told that you don't matter, that you don't have a lot to offer.
Speaker 1: That is a lie from the pits of health.
Speaker 1: Some of you have been told that you don't matter, that you don't have a lot to offer.
Speaker 1: That is not true, because you have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit wants to empower you to serve others and to make Jesus known in a great and powerful way.
Speaker 1: I wanna talk to every person in this room that serves somewhere, and there's about 200 of us now that serve somewhere every month in our church, which is a mind-boggling number for us.
Speaker 1: This is what I want to say when you serve, what you are doing is you're letting the Holy Spirit work through you.
Speaker 1: When you serve, you are doing the Lord's work and, as you are relying on the Spirit, the spirit wants to use you.
Speaker 1: I had somebody come to me 845 service.
Speaker 1: They said I've been watching after the service.
Speaker 1: I've been watching the service, the services online for a while.
Speaker 1: I knew I finally needed to come.
Speaker 1: I came in the room.
Speaker 1: When I got in the room I knew that I was home.
Speaker 1: I said whoa.
Speaker 1: I said huh, this is what happened.
Speaker 1: She encountered lots of people serving and, as she's encountering people serving, the Spirit used people serving in her life and now she's like this is the community I want to be a part of.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit indwells us, he empowers us and then he transforms us.
Speaker 1: Lastly, I'm going to ask all the grammar police in the room to give me some grace for a second.
Speaker 1: I know some of y'all are out there.
Speaker 1: I'm going to say something that's really bad English.
Speaker 1: It's a double negative, but if you get this, it's really good theology.
Speaker 1: Here it is.
Speaker 1: You can't change nobody, but the Holy Spirit can transform anybody.
Speaker 1: You can't change people in your family.
Speaker 1: You can't change your coworker.
Speaker 1: You can't change your friend.
Speaker 1: You can't change that knucklehead that's your neighbor, but the Holy Spirit can transform anybody and it's a freeing time in our life, when what we do is we say, lord, I can't change anybody, but I want the Holy Spirit to transform people.
Speaker 1: And what the Holy Spirit can do is he can transform us from being a prideful, angry, selfish, bitter person to being a humble, loving, selfless person.
Speaker 1: This is what he does In Galatians, chapter 5, verse 22,.
Speaker 1: It says this the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit can produce this in your life.
Speaker 1: And what breaks my heart as a pastor is sometimes Jesus followers will pigeonhole themselves to live fruitless lives and they'll say because of my personality or because of my past or because of my struggles, I'm just not this kind of a person, I'm just not patient, I'm just not kind, I'm just not filled with love and joy and peace.
Speaker 1: So because of this is who I am, I can't do those things over here.
Speaker 1: Guys, guys, guys.
Speaker 1: Peace and joy and patience these are fruits of the Holy Spirit, and if you'll let the Holy Spirit work through you, if you'll surrender to the Holy Spirit in you, he will do something that is unexplainable.
Speaker 1: You will find yourself handling a situation and you're gonna look at yourself.
Speaker 1: You're gonna be like how did I handle that situation that way?
Speaker 1: How did I have so much patience?
Speaker 1: How did I respond loving.
Speaker 1: Who is that guy?
Speaker 1: That's you.
Speaker 1: You've let the spirit of God work in you.
Speaker 1: But what we have to do is we have to surrender to the spirit's work in our life.
Speaker 1: This is how I'm gonna invite us to end.
Speaker 1: The message is, I'm gonna invite us to pray a prayer of surrender to the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: If we can get that prayer up, guys in the back, and it's this Father today I surrender to the Holy Spirit's work in me.
Speaker 1: I repent of the times I've stifled what the Holy Spirit wants to do.
Speaker 1: Guide me in humble obedience.
Speaker 1: There's a scary thing that could happen to all of us Jesus followers, and it's.
Speaker 1: We have stifled the work of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit's tried to do something in us, and we've said no so many times that the Holy Spirit says okay, you can have it your way.
Speaker 1: And here's what I'm gonna invite all of us to do.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna invite all of us to say Spirit of living God, would you just please work.
Speaker 1: I surrender myself to you.
Speaker 1: I repent of the times I've stifled what you want to do.
Speaker 1: Guide me in humble obedience and friends.
Speaker 1: When we do this and we let the Holy Spirit guide us, we no longer have to white knuckle our Christian life.
Speaker 1: We no longer have to white knuckle our Christian life.
Speaker 1: We no longer have to try to do all these things.
Speaker 1: Guys, it's the Spirit doing the work in and through you.
Speaker 1: Let's all bow our heads.