Foundations Class – Session 4: The Work of the Holy Spirit

When Jesus told His disciples He was leaving, they were terrified. But He told them something unexpected — it was actually better that He go away. Because when He left, He would send the Helper, the Holy Spirit, who would be with all of them, all the time.

In this session, Pastor Mark Medley explores who the Holy Spirit is and what He actively does in the life of a believer. Through a vivid story of being stranded alone in Istanbul with no guide, no language, and no plan, Pastor Mark paints a picture of exactly why we need the Holy Spirit — and how good it is to have Him.

You'll learn how the Spirit guides us into truth in a confusing world, helps us in prayer when we don't know what to say, comforts us in grief, convicts us of sin while always offering a way out, and leads us into the very thing we were created for — glorifying God. Pastor Mark also draws an important distinction between condemnation and conviction, and why knowing the difference can change how you relate to God every day.

The session closes with a powerful survey of the Spirit's active work throughout Scripture — from regeneration to gifting to freedom — showing that a life lived with the Holy Spirit isn't the exception. It's normal Christianity.

This is part of the Foundations class at Trinity Community Church, taught by Pastor Kelly Kinder and Pastor Mark Medley.

We are Trinity Community Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Subscribe to our Podcast & YouTube channel to find past sermons, classes, interviews, and more!
Find us on Facebook & Instagram

Transcript

Introducing The Spirit’s Work

Mark Medley 0:00

Hey everybody, welcome to session four of your foundation's class. We've talked about God and who he is. We talked about Jesus Christ and what he has done. And now we're talking about in session four the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. And there's some great scriptures there in your booklet. The the idea of this is that the Holy Spirit is a very present guide. It's the very presence of God and presence of Jesus inside us and with us day by day. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. And this he was using as a metaphor for the Holy Spirit. So we also understand that the Holy Spirit is a comforter for us. 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. He would convict us of sin. 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. Let me read this in John chapter 16, 5 through 14. But I'm going to him who sent me, Jesus speaking, and none of you asks, Where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I don't go away, the helper will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. 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. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. 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. So let me tell you a story. A couple of years ago, a few years ago back now, as I was ministering to some leaders in Ukraine. It was a great conference we had with friends that I that I know in Ukraine, pastors and leaders there. And um I was going to go from there to Bulgaria and to also work with some churches there. 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. So that's what I said. So I made plans for that, and I made uh the arrangements with the plane tickets and everything. The morning of I called and made sure everything was good. Everything was good. I had somebody who would pick me up there. 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. Uh he just didn't show up. I tried to message him. There was no answer. There was nothing. I got nothing. And I was there in this airport waiting for him, not knowing what to do. Um, I couldn't contact him. I was stuck. Finally, uh he messaged me saying he had to leave the country. Okay, so uh I'm in a town and I don't know where this town is. I don't know anybody in this town. Uh this is a city of Istanbul. This is at that time probably 12, 15 million people. I don't know. There's millions of people. This is a huge city. I know precisely zero people in that city. The only person that has a contact is not there, not even in the country. He had to leave unexpectedly. Just that day, he had to leave. I had messaged him that very morning, but he had to leave. It was an emergency. 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. I'm in the I'm in the late at night in the airport, standing outside of the airport in the cold. I don't know anything. Uh I need a guide. 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. I need a guide. 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. It was uh I couldn't help it. But uh I have a friend who's coming to get you. 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. And so now the friend of my friend of my friend is going to be picking me up in in the airport. He's no, he's not gonna pick me up. 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. 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? Wow. 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. I didn't know anything. I didn't know anything at all. I I couldn't speak to anybody. 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. Yuri took me to a place to eat. He took me to an office where we slept that night on couches. The next morning he took me, he woke, woke me up and took me to the bus stop. 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. It was amazing. You see, I needed a guide. This is my point. I needed a guide. I didn't know anything. With you know, without a guide, I'm stuck. So, this is the good news of the Holy Spirit. This beautiful word that that Jesus speaks here, when he's talking about the Spirit, he will guide you. He will guide you into all truth. He is a guide for us. You know, we're in a brand new kingdom. We've been born again out of this world into a spiritual kingdom, the kingdom of God, out of darkness into his light. And now we're in an in this new kingdom, like I was in the middle of Istanbul. I don't know exactly the culture. I don't know exactly how to handle myself. I don't know what's the what's the the currency of this culture. I don't know. I don't know, I need a guide. And the and the Holy Spirit is our guide. When Jesus says it's important that I go away, if I don't go away, then your comforter will not come to you. It's better, he says, that I go away. Because when I go away, I'll send the comfortable, he will be with you. Now, Jesus in his body, his earthly body, could only be one place at one time. The Holy Spirit can be with all of us all the time because he's spirit, not incarnate, like Jesus was, he's spirit. So this is beautiful, and Jesus had many names for the Holy Spirit. Many of them were mentioned in that passage that I read today. But the one that's so beautiful to me, I want to talk about, is this this word, this name guide. He is a guide for us. 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. 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. There's this fear and anxiety, but at least Jesus was with them. And then Jesus says, I am leaving. And can you imagine the fear and the panic that must have been in their hearts? You can't leave. You can't leave us alone, you can't leave us here like this. But Jesus said, No, it's even better if I go away. I I think they probably didn't believe him. You can see who wants to change when things are so comfortable, right? They had Jesus right there with them. 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. So we're pushed beyond what we know to do, so we're dependent upon the Holy Spirit. 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. I had Yuri that night came alongside me and was my guide, and he helped me. This was what saved me, and it got me from Istanbul all the way up into Bulgaria. It's beautiful. Okay, so parakletos, one who's called alongside to help, an advocate. So many shades of meaning in that word, but it really just means he's here to help us. He's present. This is beautiful. So the Holy Spirit is our guide. So let's talk about the ways that he guides us. Number one, he guides us in knowing what is true. He said, the Spirit of Truth will guide you into all truth. So this is part of his name, the Holy Spirit's name is the Holy, the is the Spirit of Truth. 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. It's a very confusing world. There's a real assault on truth today, right? Things that are logical and obvious have been have been uh questioned and rejected, and things that are completely against science have been accepted. This is a a really uh confusing day. So you've got to be careful who you're listening to, who are you listening to? How do we know the truth? Jesus said, I will ask the Father and He will send you another helper to be with you forever, the spirit of truth. That's how. So the guide is inside. And there's a way when we start to, there's a process where we start to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. You know, um I could probably call you on the telephone. 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. I'm not sure who this is because I haven't heard your voice enough. 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. 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. 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. He is a spirit that guides us. And so little by little we have the ability to hear his voice. You know, we follow what we're feeling in our heart. We learn to discern because the guide is inside. And so we have this beautiful guide. The Holy Spirit is a guide who knows the truth, too. This is what's beautiful. He's a guide who knows what's true. This is good news. 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. He can get us around in it. So, and you'll even hear the Holy Spirit changing your own false narratives inside your heart into Jesus' true narrative. For example, we may think God is an angry God who wants to punish me. 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. 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. Okay, so what also, this is interesting, it says that the Holy Spirit will tell you things to come. We have a God who knows the future. I I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow. At this recording in just a few days, we're heading to Cuba on a mission trip. I don't know what's gonna happen in Cuba, but the Holy Spirit does. And the Holy Spirit knows the future. He knows what's there, he's already there in tomorrow. He can speak to me today about tomorrow. This is really beautiful. This is what a word of wisdom or a word of knowledge is uh is very similar to this. A word of a prophetic word is like this. This is the gifts of the Spirit. Part of that is he guides us through it. We learn to hear his voice. So, don't you need a guide? Aren't you glad you've got one? This is great. And then it says that he guides us in prayer. Um, he's an advocate. He's an advocate with the Father. That's someone who comes alongside and pleads your case, an intercessor. He prays for us. 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. But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us. With groanings too deep for word, for words. 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. The Holy Spirit prays for us according to the will of God. This is really good news. This is beautiful, wonderful news. The Holy Spirit prays for us, and the word it says there, he comes, he helps us in our weakness. It's this particular Greek word, kind of a funny one. Uh, the word is like a combination of words. It's called sunantilambanomai. Sunantilambanomai. I can't say it. Uh but I know what it means, and it means one who takes hold of, opposite of, to lift. 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. You're helping me. This is what the Holy Spirit does. This is how the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. He soon tilambanamai, he lays hold of that thing and he supports them. It's beautiful, it's a beautiful thing, and it says also that he guides us. The scripture says that the Holy Spirit guides us in our grief. Here he's he's called the comforter, he's called a comforter. Jesus says the comforter will come to you. Grief is just part of living on this earth in a fallen world, especially when we lose a loved one. Grief is grief is part of love. If you love that person, the only reason you grieve the person is because you love the person. There was no love, there would be no grief. And because there's a lot of love, there's a lot of grief. And we grieve from a human, earthbound perspective, and we don't even know how to grieve as we ought to sometimes. 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. Soothing, healing, perspective. But there's a different way, too, that He that He leads in grief, and that has to do with godly sorrow. 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. He's a he's a a a convictor. So he's a a counselor, he's a helper, he's an advocate, he's a convictor, he's a spirit of truth. Convicting of sin, Jesus said. Well, listen to what else Jesus says in John 16, verse 8 through 11. 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. So we have a guide that helps us to see our wrongs and then brings us into a place of making those things right. This is just as important, just as precious, just as needed as the other ways that he guides us. But he also afflicts those who are comfortable in their sin because the sin is destroying us. And he wants to get that out of our lives. 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. 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. It's a great, beautiful gift, and the Holy Spirit works inside our conscience. But our but our conscience also is a terrible thing if you don't want to live with God. If you don't want to be right with God, it's always bugging you, it's always guilting you, right? But this is an important thing you need to understand about the Holy Spirit and the difference between condemnation and conviction. 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. There is a condemnation that comes from our enemy who accuses us. Condemnation and conviction are two different things. Condemnation is, I see what you did wrong. Of course you did it wrong. You never do right. You you are not right. You can never do wrong. And this is the voice of the enemy accusing you and beating you down and guilting you all the time without an out. Okay, this is the difference. Condemnation um beats you down with no hope, no out. Conviction, on the other hand, is the whole Holy Spirit saying, Yes, this is wrong. You can't do that. I will not put up with that in your life. It's destroying you. Here's the way out. Here's the way out. There is conviction gives you a path and hope. Condemnation says you're stuck with no hope. That's the difference. You need to reject condemnation. You need to welcome conviction. And he said we are uh we have this guide who helps us in being right with God. He leads us to repentance through conviction of sin and also through kindness. Scripture says that the kindness of the Lord leads us to repentance as well. Sometimes our hearts are hard, and he has to bring the fear of the Lord and conviction and bring godly sorrow for our sins. 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. Is he drawing you today? 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? So today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart. The Holy Spirit speaks to us day by day. 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. He will glorify me. You know what? This is what you and I have been wanting our entire life. We were made to bring glory to God. All things were made, the scripture says, for his glory. We were made to glorify him. And when you're not glorifying him, you're living below what you were created to be. There's never any real feeling of success and fulfillment unless we're glorifying God with what we have. The Holy Spirit teaches us how to glorify Him. We're made to worship. We'll always worship. We always give our lives to something. This is the way it is with us human beings. We always worship something. And to worship is to order your life around something. So that what are you ordering your life around? That's the thing that you're worshiping. But your idol will never love you like your father does. 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. Maybe I don't know what it is. This is the thing that defines you, that you get your identity out of, your security from, your provision from. Those things are our idols. We never will get security or love from that idol. It's always asking, asking, asking. Never peace. 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. You will be filled up. So he's truth, he's help. He helps us in prayer, he helps us in our grief, he helps us in uh knowing what to do next. He helps us in being right with God, he helps us in glorifying Jesus. This is this is good news. 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. 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. Of course, the Holy Spirit regenerates us, as we talked about last time. Um, we're sealed in Christ because of his spirit. That's Ephesians chapter 1. We're baptized into the body of Christ. And so we're we we we belong in a group. That's uh 1 Corinthians 12. He dwells inside of us, 1 Corinthians 6. He bears fruit in us, Galatians 5. He is the gift and the promise of the Father. That's Acts chapter 2. He's a generous giver of gifts to the church. That's uh 1 Corinthians 12. He's a leader, he leads us, he guides us. That's Acts, that's uh uh Romans 8 and uh Galatians 5. He's a revealer of the thoughts of God. That's 1 Corinthians 2. He speaks to the church, Revelation chapter 2. He speaks to uh in in the moment when you need to hear something, Acts chapter 8. He speaks through people, Mark chapter 13. He's a foreteller of things to come, Acts chapter 1. He empowers us to prophesy and speak the word of God boldly, Acts chapter 2 and chapter 4. He gives us power for witness, Acts chapter 1. Guides us into truth, John 16. He's a helper who's always present, John 14. He's a convictor, John 16. He's a constrainer and a compeller. In other words, he stops us when we need to be stopped, and he pushes us when we need to be pushed. That's Acts chapter 16. He anoints us in order to bless others. That's Isaiah chapter 61. He builds us up and he makes us increase, Acts chapter 9. He calls out and sends out laborers, Acts chapter 13. He pours the love of God into our hearts, Romans chapter 5. He prays for us, Romans chapter 8. He sanctifies us, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, he brings freedom, 2 Corinthians 3. He helps us understand that we're children of God. Galatians 4. And then he strengthens our inner man, Ephesians chapter 3. We need the Holy Spirit, brothers and sisters. All of these things are the benefits of having the very presence of God with us and in us. And then he gives gifts to us. 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. 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. He doesn't just bless us for our sake, he blesses us for other people's sake. He uses us. 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. This is what's normal. 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. 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. Thank you, Father, that you guide us. 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. 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. Amen. God bless.