Mark Medley: Hey everybody, welcome to session four of your foundation's class.
Mark Medley: We've talked about God and who he is.
Mark Medley: We talked about Jesus Christ and what he has done.
Mark Medley: And now we're talking about in session four the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.
Mark Medley: And there's some great scriptures there in your booklet.
Mark Medley: The the idea of this is that the Holy Spirit is a very present guide.
Mark Medley: It's the very presence of God and presence of Jesus inside us and with us day by day.
Mark Medley: So the very presence of God to convict us, to guide us, to comfort us, to empower us, to live the right way, all of this.
Mark Medley: And so there are some great scriptures there in your book, Ephesians 3, verse 14 through 19, speaking about the fullness of God, that we can be filled with the very fullness of God.
Mark Medley: And this is the work of the Spirit inside of us, that even in us, in our moral bodies, in our earthly life, we can be filled with the very presence of God and the fullness of God here.
Mark Medley: In John chapter 3, of course, Jesus was speaking with Nicodemus and he talked about being born of the flesh or of water and being born of the spirit, being born in physically and being born spiritually.
Mark Medley: And the wind, he said, blows where it wants to, and you don't know where it's going to go, but you can see its effect.
Mark Medley: And this he was using as a metaphor for the Holy Spirit.
Mark Medley: So we also understand that the Holy Spirit is a comforter for us.
Mark Medley: Jesus told us that he would be that for us, he would send us a comforter, and that he was to be a teacher, he would be a person of a presence, a person and presence with us to help us with our uh righteous living.
Mark Medley: He would convict us of sin.
Mark Medley: All of those things you can read, and so I'm gonna let you read those things, how the Holy Spirit indwells the believer, the Holy Spirit fills the believer, but I want to give you a little bit of a story and um and talk to you specifically from John chapter 16, verse 5 through 14.
Mark Medley: Let me read this in John chapter 16, 5 through 14.
Mark Medley: But I'm going to him who sent me, Jesus speaking, and none of you asks, Where are you going?
Mark Medley: But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
Mark Medley: Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away.
Mark Medley: For if I don't go away, the helper will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you.
Mark Medley: And when he comes, he will convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment.
Mark Medley: Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me, but concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, you will see me no more, concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
Mark Medley: I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
Mark Medley: When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.
Mark Medley: He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
Mark Medley: So let me tell you a story.
Mark Medley: A couple of years ago, a few years ago back now, as I was ministering to some leaders in Ukraine.
Mark Medley: It was a great conference we had with friends that I that I know in Ukraine, pastors and leaders there.
Mark Medley: And um I was going to go from there to Bulgaria and to also work with some churches there.
Mark Medley: And I was told that the best way to get there from where I was was to take a plane to Istanbul, Turkey, and then just take a bus from Istanbul all the way up through uh into Bulgaria and over to where I was going.
Mark Medley: So that's what I said.
Mark Medley: So I made plans for that, and I made uh the arrangements with the plane tickets and everything.
Mark Medley: The morning of I called and made sure everything was good.
Mark Medley: Everything was good.
Mark Medley: I had somebody who would pick me up there.
Mark Medley: But when I landed in Turkey that night, um late at night, and I walked through the airport to the place where I was supposed to meet my friend, my friend was not there.
Mark Medley: Uh he just didn't show up.
Mark Medley: I tried to message him.
Mark Medley: There was no answer.
Mark Medley: There was nothing.
Mark Medley: I got nothing.
Mark Medley: And I was there in this airport waiting for him, not knowing what to do.
Mark Medley: Um, I couldn't contact him.
Mark Medley: I was stuck.
Mark Medley: Finally, uh he messaged me saying he had to leave the country.
Mark Medley: Okay, so uh I'm in a town and I don't know where this town is.
Mark Medley: I don't know anybody in this town.
Mark Medley: Uh this is a city of Istanbul.
Mark Medley: This is at that time probably 12, 15 million people.
Mark Medley: I don't know.
Mark Medley: There's millions of people.
Mark Medley: This is a huge city.
Mark Medley: I know precisely zero people in that city.
Mark Medley: The only person that has a contact is not there, not even in the country.
Mark Medley: He had to leave unexpectedly.
Mark Medley: Just that day, he had to leave.
Mark Medley: I had messaged him that very morning, but he had to leave.
Mark Medley: It was an emergency.
Mark Medley: Um I am in the I don't know the culture, I don't know the language, I'm not familiar with the currency, I don't know where to go.
Mark Medley: I'm in the I'm in the late at night in the airport, standing outside of the airport in the cold.
Mark Medley: I don't know anything.
Mark Medley: Uh I need a guide.
Mark Medley: I need somebody who knows the culture, who knows the language, who knows where to go, who knows how to get on a bus and take the bus somewhere and knows where it's going.
Mark Medley: I need a guide.
Mark Medley: I got a buzz on my phone and was my friend, and my friend said, uh messaged me and said, uh, I'm so sorry I had to leave unexpectedly.
Mark Medley: It was uh I couldn't help it.
Mark Medley: But uh I have a friend who's coming to get you.
Mark Medley: So my friend, uh a friend of my friend, uh by the way, my friend that I was supposed to meet there was the friend of my friend.
Mark Medley: And so now the friend of my friend of my friend is going to be picking me up in in the airport.
Mark Medley: He's no, he's not gonna pick me up.
Mark Medley: He said, You you have to go to him, but you have to get on the last bus that's there at night, and you need to go and and follow it all the way to the very last stop and get off the stop and start walking in this direction.
Mark Medley: And you will see a you'll see a set of stores, and they will be uh that's where my friend will meet you, okay?
Mark Medley: Wow.
Mark Medley: Okay, so I got on the bus, I connected with his friend, we were looking at each other's uh position, you know, uh on the phones, and we're seeing each other getting closer to so I was there, and you know, I got off that bus, the last stop.
Mark Medley: I didn't know anything.
Mark Medley: I didn't know anything at all.
Mark Medley: I I couldn't speak to anybody.
Mark Medley: But I walked in the direction I was told to walk, and I met my new friend, the friend of my friend of my friend, his name was Yuri.
Mark Medley: Yuri took me to a place to eat.
Mark Medley: He took me to an office where we slept that night on couches.
Mark Medley: The next morning he took me, he woke, woke me up and took me to the bus stop.
Mark Medley: He took me to a cab which went to the bus and he got on the bus fare and he even he even bought me breakfast.
Mark Medley: It was amazing.
Mark Medley: You see, I needed a guide.
Mark Medley: This is my point.
Mark Medley: I needed a guide.
Mark Medley: I didn't know anything.
Mark Medley: With you know, without a guide, I'm stuck.
Mark Medley: So, this is the good news of the Holy Spirit.
Mark Medley: This beautiful word that that Jesus speaks here, when he's talking about the Spirit, he will guide you.
Mark Medley: He will guide you into all truth.
Mark Medley: He is a guide for us.
Mark Medley: You know, we're in a brand new kingdom.
Mark Medley: We've been born again out of this world into a spiritual kingdom, the kingdom of God, out of darkness into his light.
Mark Medley: And now we're in an in this new kingdom, like I was in the middle of Istanbul.
Mark Medley: I don't know exactly the culture.
Mark Medley: I don't know exactly how to handle myself.
Mark Medley: I don't know what's the what's the the currency of this culture.
Mark Medley: I don't know.
Mark Medley: I don't know, I need a guide.
Mark Medley: And the and the Holy Spirit is our guide.
Mark Medley: When Jesus says it's important that I go away, if I don't go away, then your comforter will not come to you.
Mark Medley: It's better, he says, that I go away.
Mark Medley: Because when I go away, I'll send the comfortable, he will be with you.
Mark Medley: Now, Jesus in his body, his earthly body, could only be one place at one time.
Mark Medley: The Holy Spirit can be with all of us all the time because he's spirit, not incarnate, like Jesus was, he's spirit.
Mark Medley: So this is beautiful, and Jesus had many names for the Holy Spirit.
Mark Medley: Many of them were mentioned in that passage that I read today.
Mark Medley: But the one that's so beautiful to me, I want to talk about, is this this word, this name guide.
Mark Medley: He is a guide for us.
Mark Medley: And you can imagine what the disciples are thinking as as uh Jesus is uh nearing his crucifixion, he's been talking about his own death.
Mark Medley: He's been um talking multiple times about it, and he's been he's been in arguments with the religious people, and here he's in the middle of religious people in Rome and him and all this mess is happening, not exactly the way they thought it would happen.
Mark Medley: There's this fear and anxiety, but at least Jesus was with them.
Mark Medley: And then Jesus says, I am leaving.
Mark Medley: And can you imagine the fear and the panic that must have been in their hearts?
Mark Medley: You can't leave.
Mark Medley: You can't leave us alone, you can't leave us here like this.
Mark Medley: But Jesus said, No, it's even better if I go away.
Mark Medley: I I think they probably didn't believe him.
Mark Medley: You can see who wants to change when things are so comfortable, right?
Mark Medley: They had Jesus right there with them.
Mark Medley: But we will never grow into all that we were meant to be unless we're challenged out of where we are and goaded out of our safe places.
Mark Medley: So we're pushed beyond what we know to do, so we're dependent upon the Holy Spirit.
Mark Medley: So here's the thing when he uses this word helper, it's the word parakletos, it's a Greek word parakletos, coming alongside to help you, coming alongside to help you.
Mark Medley: I had Yuri that night came alongside me and was my guide, and he helped me.
Mark Medley: This was what saved me, and it got me from Istanbul all the way up into Bulgaria.
Mark Medley: It's beautiful.
Mark Medley: Okay, so parakletos, one who's called alongside to help, an advocate.
Mark Medley: So many shades of meaning in that word, but it really just means he's here to help us.
Mark Medley: He's present.
Mark Medley: This is beautiful.
Mark Medley: So the Holy Spirit is our guide.
Mark Medley: So let's talk about the ways that he guides us.
Mark Medley: Number one, he guides us in knowing what is true.
Mark Medley: He said, the Spirit of Truth will guide you into all truth.
Mark Medley: So this is part of his name, the Holy Spirit's name is the Holy, the is the Spirit of Truth.
Mark Medley: And what a day of confusion we're living in when you can get totally opposite viewpoints of a particular subject and polarizing, and we don't even know what to think, and we're not even sure how to who to listen to or how we can trust who we can trust.
Mark Medley: It's a very confusing world.
Mark Medley: There's a real assault on truth today, right?
Mark Medley: Things that are logical and obvious have been have been uh questioned and rejected, and things that are completely against science have been accepted.
Mark Medley: This is a a really uh confusing day.
Mark Medley: So you've got to be careful who you're listening to, who are you listening to?
Mark Medley: How do we know the truth?
Mark Medley: Jesus said, I will ask the Father and He will send you another helper to be with you forever, the spirit of truth.
Mark Medley: That's how.
Mark Medley: So the guide is inside.
Mark Medley: And there's a way when we start to, there's a process where we start to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.
Mark Medley: You know, um I could probably call you on the telephone.
Mark Medley: Maybe I know you at church or something or see you, and we talk a little bit, or we talk on the telephone, or maybe if you call me and I answer, um, I may not know your voice at first.
Mark Medley: I'm not sure who this is because I haven't heard your voice enough.
Mark Medley: But you know, if I call you enough times, or if I hang around you enough times, I'm hearing the tone of your voice, the timbre, the way you talk, you know, the words you use.
Mark Medley: And after a while, you know, you could just say a few words on the phone and I know who it is immediately, because I've learned to know your voice, because I've listened to you, I've been with you.
Mark Medley: So the way it is with the Holy Spirit, as we're with him in the word of God, in worship, in prayer, as we're listening in solitude, and even as we listen, as we learn from each other in the in um in among our congregation, our friends in Christ, we learn to hear the voice of the Lord.
Mark Medley: He is a spirit that guides us.
Mark Medley: And so little by little we have the ability to hear his voice.
Mark Medley: You know, we follow what we're feeling in our heart.
Mark Medley: We learn to discern because the guide is inside.
Mark Medley: And so we have this beautiful guide.
Mark Medley: The Holy Spirit is a guide who knows the truth, too.
Mark Medley: This is what's beautiful.
Mark Medley: He's a guide who knows what's true.
Mark Medley: This is good news.
Mark Medley: He's not just somebody who doesn't really know everything, he's a really good guide and he understands the culture of this kingdom.
Mark Medley: He can get us around in it.
Mark Medley: So, and you'll even hear the Holy Spirit changing your own false narratives inside your heart into Jesus' true narrative.
Mark Medley: For example, we may think God is an angry God who wants to punish me.
Mark Medley: And then we understand through Jesus by the work of the Spirit in the Word of God that God is a loving Father, wanting to draw near to us.
Mark Medley: He's not only sovereign Lord, out beyond us, away and inaccessible, but he's also Father who's close and relational and accessible and intimate.
Mark Medley: Okay, so what also, this is interesting, it says that the Holy Spirit will tell you things to come.
Mark Medley: We have a God who knows the future.
Mark Medley: I I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow.
Mark Medley: At this recording in just a few days, we're heading to Cuba on a mission trip.
Mark Medley: I don't know what's gonna happen in Cuba, but the Holy Spirit does.
Mark Medley: And the Holy Spirit knows the future.
Mark Medley: He knows what's there, he's already there in tomorrow.
Mark Medley: He can speak to me today about tomorrow.
Mark Medley: This is really beautiful.
Mark Medley: This is what a word of wisdom or a word of knowledge is uh is very similar to this.
Mark Medley: A word of a prophetic word is like this.
Mark Medley: This is the gifts of the Spirit.
Mark Medley: Part of that is he guides us through it.
Mark Medley: We learn to hear his voice.
Mark Medley: So, don't you need a guide?
Mark Medley: Aren't you glad you've got one?
Mark Medley: This is great.
Mark Medley: And then it says that he guides us in prayer.
Mark Medley: Um, he's an advocate.
Mark Medley: He's an advocate with the Father.
Mark Medley: That's someone who comes alongside and pleads your case, an intercessor.
Mark Medley: He prays for us.
Mark Medley: In Romans chapter 8, verse 26 and 267, um, Paul says it this way: likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray as we ought.
Mark Medley: But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us.
Mark Medley: With groanings too deep for word, for words.
Mark Medley: And he who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Mark Medley: The Holy Spirit prays for us according to the will of God.
Mark Medley: This is really good news.
Mark Medley: This is beautiful, wonderful news.
Mark Medley: The Holy Spirit prays for us, and the word it says there, he comes, he helps us in our weakness.
Mark Medley: It's this particular Greek word, kind of a funny one.
Mark Medley: Uh, the word is like a combination of words.
Mark Medley: It's called sunantilambanomai.
Mark Medley: Sunantilambanomai.
Mark Medley: I can't say it.
Mark Medley: Uh but I know what it means, and it means one who takes hold of, opposite of, to lift.
Mark Medley: Okay, for example, if we were going to move this bookcase back here behind me, you know, it's gonna, it's too big for me, but I could, you know, we could pull it over and I could grab one end of it, you could grab the other end, you're taking hold of it, opposite of me, to lift with me.
Mark Medley: You're helping me.
Mark Medley: This is what the Holy Spirit does.
Mark Medley: This is how the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness.
Mark Medley: He soon tilambanamai, he lays hold of that thing and he supports them.
Mark Medley: It's beautiful, it's a beautiful thing, and it says also that he guides us.
Mark Medley: The scripture says that the Holy Spirit guides us in our grief.
Mark Medley: Here he's he's called the comforter, he's called a comforter.
Mark Medley: Jesus says the comforter will come to you.
Mark Medley: Grief is just part of living on this earth in a fallen world, especially when we lose a loved one.
Mark Medley: Grief is grief is part of love.
Mark Medley: If you love that person, the only reason you grieve the person is because you love the person.
Mark Medley: There was no love, there would be no grief.
Mark Medley: And because there's a lot of love, there's a lot of grief.
Mark Medley: And we grieve from a human, earthbound perspective, and we don't even know how to grieve as we ought to sometimes.
Mark Medley: But when you don't know how to grieve, you do have a helper in the Holy Spirit, and He will help you to grieve.
Mark Medley: Soothing, healing, perspective.
Mark Medley: But there's a different way, too, that He that He leads in grief, and that has to do with godly sorrow.
Mark Medley: So not only when we're grieving because we've lost something or there's some kind of pain in our lives, but also because there's godly sorrow, he guides us in being right with God.
Mark Medley: He's a he's a a a convictor.
Mark Medley: So he's a a counselor, he's a helper, he's an advocate, he's a convictor, he's a spirit of truth.
Mark Medley: Convicting of sin, Jesus said.
Mark Medley: Well, listen to what else Jesus says in John 16, verse 8 through 11.
Mark Medley: When he comes, speaking of the Spirit, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe in me, concerning righteousness because I go to the Father, and you will see me a little longer, concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged.
Mark Medley: So we have a guide that helps us to see our wrongs and then brings us into a place of making those things right.
Mark Medley: This is just as important, just as precious, just as needed as the other ways that he guides us.
Mark Medley: But he also afflicts those who are comfortable in their sin because the sin is destroying us.
Mark Medley: And he wants to get that out of our lives.
Mark Medley: So he's uh it's a good thing because it, you know, if you you have a conscience, we God has given us a conscience, and a conscience is a beautiful gift.
Mark Medley: It as long as you want to be right with God, it's a beautiful gift because it tells us when we're wrong, it pats us on the back when we're doing what's right, it keeps us on the on the path.
Mark Medley: It's a great, beautiful gift, and the Holy Spirit works inside our conscience.
Mark Medley: But our but our conscience also is a terrible thing if you don't want to live with God.
Mark Medley: If you don't want to be right with God, it's always bugging you, it's always guilting you, right?
Mark Medley: But this is an important thing you need to understand about the Holy Spirit and the difference between condemnation and conviction.
Mark Medley: The Bible says Jesus didn't say that, he didn't say that the Holy Spirit would come and condemn you, he said he would convict you.
Mark Medley: There is a condemnation that comes from our enemy who accuses us.
Mark Medley: Condemnation and conviction are two different things.
Mark Medley: Condemnation is, I see what you did wrong.
Mark Medley: Of course you did it wrong.
Mark Medley: You never do right.
Mark Medley: You you are not right.
Mark Medley: You can never do wrong.
Mark Medley: And this is the voice of the enemy accusing you and beating you down and guilting you all the time without an out.
Mark Medley: Okay, this is the difference.
Mark Medley: Condemnation um beats you down with no hope, no out.
Mark Medley: Conviction, on the other hand, is the whole Holy Spirit saying, Yes, this is wrong.
Mark Medley: You can't do that.
Mark Medley: I will not put up with that in your life.
Mark Medley: It's destroying you.
Mark Medley: Here's the way out.
Mark Medley: There is conviction gives you a path and hope.
Mark Medley: Condemnation says you're stuck with no hope.
Mark Medley: That's the difference.
Mark Medley: You need to reject condemnation.
Mark Medley: You need to welcome conviction.
Mark Medley: And he said we are uh we have this guide who helps us in being right with God.
Mark Medley: He leads us to repentance through conviction of sin and also through kindness.
Mark Medley: Scripture says that the kindness of the Lord leads us to repentance as well.
Mark Medley: Sometimes our hearts are hard, and he has to bring the fear of the Lord and conviction and bring godly sorrow for our sins.
Mark Medley: And sometimes our hard hearts are softened by the kindness that he's shown to us, even though we were not right, not doing what was right.
Mark Medley: Is he drawing you today?
Mark Medley: Do you feel his spirit drawing you closer to him, convicting you, turning you away from what's wrong, giving you hope and a pathway out?
Mark Medley: So today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart.
Mark Medley: The Holy Spirit speaks to us day by day.
Mark Medley: And the last thing I'll say about this is that He He guides us in glorifying what Jesus said in this passage is that He will glorify me, He will take what is mine, He will declare it to you.
Mark Medley: He will glorify me.
Mark Medley: You know what?
Mark Medley: This is what you and I have been wanting our entire life.
Mark Medley: We were made to bring glory to God.
Mark Medley: All things were made, the scripture says, for his glory.
Mark Medley: We were made to glorify him.
Mark Medley: And when you're not glorifying him, you're living below what you were created to be.
Mark Medley: There's never any real feeling of success and fulfillment unless we're glorifying God with what we have.
Mark Medley: The Holy Spirit teaches us how to glorify Him.
Mark Medley: We're made to worship.
Mark Medley: We'll always worship.
Mark Medley: We always give our lives to something.
Mark Medley: This is the way it is with us human beings.
Mark Medley: We always worship something.
Mark Medley: And to worship is to order your life around something.
Mark Medley: So that what are you ordering your life around?
Mark Medley: That's the thing that you're worshiping.
Mark Medley: But your idol will never love you like your father does.
Mark Medley: If your idol, whatever your idol is, whatever the thing that you're worshiping, and maybe it's money, and maybe it's fame, or maybe it's power, maybe it's your reputation, maybe it's uh just your performance, you know, maybe it's your zeal.
Mark Medley: Maybe I don't know what it is.
Mark Medley: This is the thing that defines you, that you get your identity out of, your security from, your provision from.
Mark Medley: Those things are our idols.
Mark Medley: We never will get security or love from that idol.
Mark Medley: It's always asking, asking, asking.
Mark Medley: Never peace.
Mark Medley: But from your Father, who has accepted you in Christ Jesus, who's drawn you by his spirit, and who's sealed you by his spirit.
Mark Medley: You will be filled up.
Mark Medley: So he's truth, he's help.
Mark Medley: He helps us in prayer, he helps us in our grief, he helps us in uh knowing what to do next.
Mark Medley: He helps us in being right with God, he helps us in glorifying Jesus.
Mark Medley: This is this is good news.
Mark Medley: And I just want to end by uh just giving you a few things that I did, I made a little study years ago about what the Holy Spirit does.
Mark Medley: Some of these are we've already spoken of, but I want to I just want to show you the the um the active work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a of a believer.
Mark Medley: Of course, the Holy Spirit regenerates us, as we talked about last time.
Mark Medley: Um, we're sealed in Christ because of his spirit.
Mark Medley: That's Ephesians chapter 1.
Mark Medley: We're baptized into the body of Christ.
Mark Medley: And so we're we we we belong in a group.
Mark Medley: That's uh 1 Corinthians 12.
Mark Medley: He dwells inside of us, 1 Corinthians 6.
Mark Medley: He bears fruit in us, Galatians 5.
Mark Medley: He is the gift and the promise of the Father.
Mark Medley: That's Acts chapter 2.
Mark Medley: He's a generous giver of gifts to the church.
Mark Medley: That's uh 1 Corinthians 12.
Mark Medley: He's a leader, he leads us, he guides us.
Mark Medley: That's Acts, that's uh uh Romans 8 and uh Galatians 5.
Mark Medley: He's a revealer of the thoughts of God.
Mark Medley: That's 1 Corinthians 2.
Mark Medley: He speaks to the church, Revelation chapter 2.
Mark Medley: He speaks to uh in in the moment when you need to hear something, Acts chapter 8.
Mark Medley: He speaks through people, Mark chapter 13.
Mark Medley: He's a foreteller of things to come, Acts chapter 1.
Mark Medley: He empowers us to prophesy and speak the word of God boldly, Acts chapter 2 and chapter 4.
Mark Medley: He gives us power for witness, Acts chapter 1.
Mark Medley: Guides us into truth, John 16.
Mark Medley: He's a helper who's always present, John 14.
Mark Medley: He's a convictor, John 16.
Mark Medley: He's a constrainer and a compeller.
Mark Medley: In other words, he stops us when we need to be stopped, and he pushes us when we need to be pushed.
Mark Medley: That's Acts chapter 16.
Mark Medley: He anoints us in order to bless others.
Mark Medley: That's Isaiah chapter 61.
Mark Medley: He builds us up and he makes us increase, Acts chapter 9.
Mark Medley: He calls out and sends out laborers, Acts chapter 13.
Mark Medley: He pours the love of God into our hearts, Romans chapter 5.
Mark Medley: He prays for us, Romans chapter 8.
Mark Medley: He sanctifies us, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, he brings freedom, 2 Corinthians 3.
Mark Medley: He helps us understand that we're children of God.
Mark Medley: Galatians 4.
Mark Medley: And then he strengthens our inner man, Ephesians chapter 3.
Mark Medley: We need the Holy Spirit, brothers and sisters.
Mark Medley: All of these things are the benefits of having the very presence of God with us and in us.
Mark Medley: And then he gives gifts to us.
Mark Medley: There are three different passages in Romans chapter 12, in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, and in Ephesians chapter 4, where he says, He gives gifts to us so that we can be can be used to bless other people.
Mark Medley: He gives us gifts so that we can be can that this can be good for the common good of all the people that we're around.
Mark Medley: He doesn't just bless us for our sake, he blesses us for other people's sake.
Mark Medley: He uses us.
Mark Medley: This is wonderful, and living life with the Holy Spirit and having these active, active works of the Holy Spirit in our life is normal Christian life.
Mark Medley: This is what's normal.
Mark Medley: So I just wanted to share those things with you today, and I want to pray for you and for me as well as we close out.
Mark Medley: Father, thank you so much for your kindness to give us what we need, that you give us a guide into truth that helps us to pray, that helps us in our sorrow, that helps us become right with you, Lord.
Mark Medley: Thank you, Father, that you guide us.
Mark Medley: Thank you that you don't leave us without and leave us alone, but you come to us and you do that through your spirit.
Mark Medley: And I pray for everyone listening that the active work of your spirit would be more and more obvious and evident in their lives, that you would bless them with the presence and the power and the working of the Spirit in their life in greater measure in Jesus' name.
Mark Medley: Amen.
Mark Medley: God bless.