Who Is The Holy Spirit - Dr. Efrem Smith | Sacramento

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More about Pastor Efrem

Rev. Dr. Efrem Smith is a pastor, consultant, speaker, and author. He is passionate about life transformation, multiethnic development, healthy churches, and community development. Within his church congregation he is known as Pastor Efrem, Pastor E, and Dr. E.

Pastor Efrem was the founding pastor of The Sanctuary Covenant Church, a multi-ethnic church in Minneapolis, MN, He served as the Superintendent of the Pacific Southwest Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church. He also served as the President of World Impact, an urban missions organization. Currently, Pastor Efrem is the Co-lead Pastor of Midtown Church, a thriving and multi-ethnic community in Sacramento, California. He is also Co-Owner of Influential LLC, a speaking, consulting, and coaching ministry. Pastor Efrem is the author of Raising Up Young Heroes, The Hip Hop Church, Jump, The Post-Black and Post-White Church, Killing Us Softly, and Church for Everyone.

Pastor Efrem is a graduate of Saint John's University and Luther Theological Seminary. He completed the Doctor of Ministry degree from Fuller Theological Seminary and received an honorary Doctor of Ministry degree from Ashland Theological Seminary. Pastor Efrem is married to Donecia, and they have two daughters, Jaeda and Mireya. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Hey everybody, my name is Ephraim Smith. I'm one of the pastors around here. So glad that you're here in the room. What's up to those in the overflow? What's up to those watching online? We are so glad, so glad that you are here at Midtown Church. We are launching a brand new sermon series today on the Holy Spirit. It's called Empowered by the Spirit. And we're going to be in this series for a little while. We're going to be talking about the Holy Spirit, spiritual matters, spiritual warfare, to understand that we are not just physical beings, we are not just intellectual, emotional beings, but we are spiritual beings. And so we're going to be dealing with that over the next few weeks. And so we're glad that you are with us. I live in West Sacramento. I've also lived in, well, I don't know if I can call it the Bay Area because I was in Antioch, Brentwood area. So that's not really the Bay. Some people say that once you get through the tunnel, you're not in the Bay Area no more. Or some people say once you get past Walnut Creek, Concord, you're not, you don't even count that. Fairfield, Vallejo, is that man? So E-40 Lion, he ain't from the Bay. That's the first and the last time you'll hear E-40 in the sanctuary, probably at Midtown. My bad. I've lived somewhere in the Delta. I've lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I've lived in Dayton, Ohio. I've lived in my mom and dad's house. I've lived in a college dorm room. I've lived in a one-bedroom apartment. I've lived in a four-plex. I've lived in six different houses. I've spent summers in my grandparents' house outside of Monroe, Louisiana. I've spent days in my grandmother's house on my mama's side in South Minneapolis. But for the Christian, life is more than where you live. It's more than the places you've lived in. Being a Christian is about who lives in you. Being a Christian is not just about where you've taken up residence, but who has taken up residence on the inside of you. Go with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 14, beginning with the 15th verse. John 14, beginning with verse 15, Jesus is speaking and he says, This if you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever, the spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. Before long the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my father, and I too will love them and show myself to them. Then Judas, not Judas Iscariot, said, But Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus replied, Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own, they belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you. But the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you. From this text, I want to preach to you on the title, Who is the Holy Spirit? Who is the Holy Spirit? God, I pray this would be your message that you would be preaching, and I would just be the instrument that you've decided to use to say what you want to say. To these, your beloved children, my sisters and brothers. God, I want to be obedient to your word, so please let that be done. Your way, not my way. In Jesus' name, amen. Who is the Holy Spirit? I told you that I've lived in Minnesota, I've lived in Ohio, I've lived in different parts of Northern California. And because I've lived in these different places, I've lived in different time zones. When I was in Ohio, I was in the eastern time zone. When I was in Minnesota, I was in the central time zone. Now I'm here in the Western time zone or the Pacific Standard Time Zone. And because I've lived in these different places, I've lived in Minnesota winters. I've lived in Ohio thunderstorms. I've lived in uh the California when it seemed like it was never gonna rain. Now it's raining pretty good nowadays. I mean, I've lived in different seasons, I've lived in different climates, I've lived in different time zones. I've I've lived in Minnesota where we went a whole month of January and it never went above 10 degrees. It is something when they say the high today is three. With the wind chill, it's gonna feel like minus 25. I remember being in Minnesota when it was a minus wind chill of 46. So the governor closed everything. We just stayed home. We didn't go anywhere. I mean, you didn't want to be out there because I mean, man, if your nose started running, that's gonna be, man, you're gonna have a booger pop right there on your top lip, you know, a snot sickle right there. You know, that's how it gets snot sickle cold in Minnesota. I've also lived through tornadoes in Ohio. So I've lived in different time zones, different seasons, different climates. The Holy Spirit living in us gives us the ability to navigate whatever seasons, whatever climates, whatever time zones we find ourselves in. Sometimes you might feel like you're on the mountaintop, other times you might feel like you're in the valley. Sometimes you're gonna feel like you're or you're not just gonna feel, you're gonna be experiencing sunshine and sometimes storms. Sometimes you're gonna experience great joy, sometimes difficult pain and loss. But the Holy Spirit living inside of the Christian is to navigate us, to guide us, to teach us, and whatever climate, whatever time zone, whatever season we find our life in. This is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives in us regardless of what we're living in. What is on the inside of us is more dynamic, more revolutionary, more powerful, more innovative than what is on the inside of our phones and our laptops. And that is saying something. Because we depend a lot on what is on the inside of our cell phone, what is on the inside of our laptop. We depend on that, but do you depend on what is on the inside of you if you're a Christian? One of the key affirmations of the denomination that we are in is a dependence on the Holy Spirit, a conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit. For the Christian, we are supposed to be living a life that we are desperate and dependent on God dwelling on the inside of us through the Holy Spirit. Do you know what people have done in order to tap into what is on the inside of a person or on the inside of even the soil of a nation? People have enslaved other people in order to get free labor out of what is on the inside of them. People have colonized nations, people have gone to war against other nations in order to get the minerals on the inside of the soil. If I can get to that which will make a diamond, if I can get to that substance that will make gasoline, people have killed other people, people have sustained wars because they saw something valuable on the inside of dirt. Do you know what is on the inside of you? Because you once were just dirt and clay, but God blew the ruach, the spirit on the inside of you so that we could be who we are today. There is something on the inside of you that is more valuable than what is on the inside of your cell phone or what is on the inside of your laptop. The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, you are beloved, you are worthy, you are purpose-filled because of what is on the inside of you if you are a believer in Christ Jesus. Here in the Gospel of John, chapter 14. This chapter is about the gift of the Holy Spirit and the place of residence of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit and a place of residence. Jesus, in the beginning of John 14, is talking about preparing a place for his followers in God's house. Oh, let's read it. John chapter 14, beginning with verse 1. Jesus starts out by saying, Do not let your hearts be troubled. Why is he saying that? Why is he saying, do not let your hearts be troubled? He's saying that because he just told them that he's gonna be betrayed, and on the other side of this betrayal, he is going to uh the cross. He and he's even predicted that that you know that that Peter, you're gonna deny me. I'm gonna be betrayed by one of you, one of you is gonna deny me. I'm gonna be arrested, I'm going to the cross, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna go into a borrowed tomb. They're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, Jesus. This is that is not what we signed up for. We were following you, Jesus, because we thought you were gonna raise up an army, we were gonna take on the Roman Empire and restore the nation of Israel back to its glory, back to the glorious times of King David and King Solomon and King Hezekiah. Come on, Jesus. And so he's saying, Don't don't let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. My father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, what I have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I'm going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you are going. So how how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father. This is the beginning of the construction of what the church father, Tertullian, and African theologian and church father would come to help us understand as the Trinity. Jesus is starting to construct in front of the disciples the Trinity, the understanding that God is Father, Creator, God is Son, the Redeemer, Jesus, God is the Holy Spirit. And so Jesus is going, starting by talking about the place where he's gonna prepare for his followers in eternity. He's also helping them understand that he, Jesus, the Son, and the Father, Yahweh, Jehovah, are one because this is piecing together that God is a trinity. God is the Father, God is the Son, God is the Holy Spirit. You might say that don't make human sense. Well, I know it's kind of beyond human comprehension, yet Jesus is breaking it down for us that God is expressed in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and God the Holy Spirit is how we stay intimately connected to God. I really want you to get this now. Jesus is doing a couple things here before he even gets to who is the Holy Spirit. He is talking about preparing a place for the followers of Jesus in heaven, in eternity. He's saying, I'm about to die, and I'm gonna raise from the dead, and I'm gonna go to my father's house to prepare a place in eternity for you. This is actually a metaphor for the custom of Jewish marriage at the time. And that went like this a guy would go to the father of the woman that he wanted to marry, and he would ask the father if he could marry her. And if the father said yes, he would then go to his father's land, his father's house, and start building in addition to his father's home for he and his future wife to live, to build their family. Ah, so he's saying, I'm going to my father's house, I'm going to eternity, because you, you the church, you the believers, you're my bride and you're my bride to be. So I'm going to my father's house to construct a place for you all to live, the church, the community of God, the beloved of God, to live in glory. But here's where Jesus switches it up. He goes from talking about developing a residence for you and I to live, to God taking up residence on the inside of us. So he's so he said, he said, while I'm constructing a place for you to live, I'm not going to leave you alone. God is going to live on the inside of you to sustain you in this crooked, unjust, upside down, sinful world until you live in eternity where there's no war, no human trafficking, no famine, no disease, no discrimination, no hatred, no unforgiveness, no sustained anger. And so the righteousness that you will experience in full in your eternal residence, you're gonna get a sneak preview of that dynamic because God's gonna take up residence on the inside of you. Oh, I'm trying to get you to get this. The other thing Jesus has to do before he gets to the Holy Spirit is he has to talk more about himself. He spends time here in John chapter 14 helping them understand that he is one with God. He is God. Because here's the deal if we get Jesus wrong, we'll get the Holy Spirit wrong. If we misinterpret who Jesus is, we'll misinterpret the Holy Spirit. If we uh let me say it this way, if we have a corrupt version of Jesus, we'll have a corrupt understanding of the Holy Spirit. Because you know, some there are nations, there are people, uh need I say, expressions of the church that have done some evil, wicked, unjust, sinful things in the name of Jesus. Because they got Jesus wrong. And if you can get Jesus wrong and do wrong stuff in the name of Jesus, you can do wrong stuff claiming that God is on the inside of you when you say that wrong stuff. You can do wrong stuff telling people Jesus is on the inside of you. You can say, I the spirit, that's that's that's how cults begin. That's some Jim Jones stuff right there. I'm telling you, God's on the inside of me, but if you got a corrupt understanding of God, a corrupt understanding of Jesus, a corrupt understanding of the Holy Spirit, you'll just be a corrupt person spitting Christ out your mouth. You'll and with your corruptible speech, you'll corrupt people. But that ain't really what I'm here to talk about today. I want to talk about truly understanding the Holy Spirit that we might truly understand the Trinity, the identity, the nature of God. Can I just give it away? I'm gonna go ahead and give it away, Pastor Otis. We're gonna spend uh uh uh some time on the Holy Spirit, spiritual matters, spiritual warfare, and then in the summer, we're gonna do a whole series on the nature, the character of God. If God is righteous, what does that mean? If God is truth, what does that mean? If God is love, what does that mean? If God is omnipresent, if God is omnipotent, if God is Jehovah Jireh, if God is Jehovah Nisi, what does that all mean? But we thought we'd start with the Holy Spirit and then get into a series on the nature of God. I hope you track with us because I think God has something, God has something that God wants to do through and in Midtown, through Elk Grove, Sacramento, and beyond. But if you don't know who God is, if you don't know who the Holy Spirit is, if you don't know who you are, is a spiritual being, we'll miss it. So let me just let me just say what the big idea of this sermon is. The big idea is the big question: who is the Holy Spirit in our lives? Who is the Holy Spirit in our lives? What does it mean to have the Holy Spirit living in you? Who is that? One. The Holy Spirit is an advocate. The Holy Spirit is an advocate. Uh, John 14, beginning with verse 11, says this. Jesus says, Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father, and I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me of anything in my name, and I will do it. If you love me, keep my commands, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever. The Holy Spirit is an advocate. Now, uh, this word, uh, advocate, it is also in some versions of the Bible that the word is counselor. Now, it could mean that the Holy Spirit counsels us, very well could mean that, but also think of it as a counselor like an attorney, like counsel, like a lawyer, because Jesus is kind of using kind of some attorney lawyer language here. I mean, go back to verse 11 when he says, believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. So now he's presenting evidence. Now he's trying to say to the disciples, okay, look, I'm a I'm gonna do my best, Perry Mason, right here. I'm gonna come in here, I'm gonna try to show you this right here. Uh and what I'm trying to show you is that I am not just human, I am God. This is what Jesus is saying. The Father and I are one. You should believe this. You should at least believe on the evidence that you've just seen. Did you see me give sight to the blind? Did you see me give mobility to the paralyzed? Did you see the dead raised? Did you see people with evil spirits, those evil spirits be cast out? How did you think that happened? Did you not see me walk on water? Peter, did I not invite you on the water with me? Did you not have you should at least consider exhibit A. You should at least consider the evidence that I am putting before the jury of this, these Pharisees and Sadducees that don't think I'm God and think I'm some kind of demon or something. You should at least consider the evidence. The Holy Spirit, if you allow the Holy Spirit, will be an advocate on the inside of you. If you allow the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will guide you and produce evidence that there is a God. The Holy Spirit will remind you that you'd be worse than you are right now if it wasn't for the grace of God, if it wasn't for the salvation of God, if it wasn't for the liberation of God, if it wasn't for the healing of God. Do I have any witnesses in the courtroom today that would say that God is a heart fixer, God is a mind regulator, God makes a way out of no way, God is Alpha and Omega, God is righteous all by Himself. I was addicted and God healed me. I was in prison and God liberated me. I was in recovery and God found me. I was out I was on the other side of divorce, not knowing where I was gonna go. And God met me, I was unemployed, and my bills still got paid. Is there any evidence in the courtroom that God is real? Don't clap because I'm preaching it, clap because you've been living it. I gotta get out of point one. Well, there's one more thing I want to say about it, though. The Holy Spirit is an advocate. This means you are not alone. God is on your side. God is on your side, not because you're all that good, not because I'm all that good. God is actually on your side in the midst of you being flawed, imperfect. God is on your side because he sent his son Jesus to die to get you on the right side. To come out of the grave to get you on the right side. So Jesus is your advocate. Jesus is the one standing before the Father, advocating for you to get into glory. The Holy Spirit is the one advocating for you, even when you don't know how to represent yourself well. I heard it's not a good idea if you're not a lawyer to try to represent yourself in a courtroom. I heard that ain't a good idea. It ain't a good idea for you without Jesus and the Holy Spirit to try to stand before God and represent yourself as righteous. That's not a good idea. We need the Holy Spirit to represent us. It says in Romans, this is a bonus text. You won't even see this on the screen. Romans 8, verse 26. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. Sometimes you don't know how to put, you don't know how to put words to it. But the Holy Spirit, you ever seen something and it wasn't right, and the Holy Spirit is trying to tell you that this ain't right. Somebody's telling you something and it ain't kind of right, but it seems kind of right. It sounds kind of true. It seems like it's factual, it seems like it's right, but something on the inside of you, you can't even use human words. Something on the inside of you is going, mmm, mmm. That's the Holy Spirit saying what you can't say because you don't know how to say. That's some foolery. That's some that that that that's some mess. That that that that's that's that's that's decrepit tea. I can't drink that. I can't digest that. I can't get involved in that. I can't step into that with you. That's the Holy Spirit that makes you go, but that's also the Holy Spirit doing that for you and me when we're messed up and we're doing something foolish. And the Holy Spirit has to stand before God and go, I know it's Ephraim. God love him anyway. I'm so glad the Holy Spirit stands before God on my behalf, going, but you died for him. You came out the grave for him, you hung on the cross for him. I gotta get out of point one. I got one more thing to say about point one, though. This is the last thing. I guess this is one C. The Holy Spirit is your advocate. The Holy Spirit is your affirmation. So you don't need to run around the world trying to win everybody's affirmation. Now, now listen to me. There's nothing wrong with presenting your best self before people. That's a good thing. You're in a job interview, present your best self. You're applying to college, present your best self. You're you're you're you're you're you know, you're present your best self. Do that. You're trying to get a loan for your car, you're trying to finance your house, present your best self. But there's a difference between presenting your best self and trying to win everybody's love and affirmation. Trying to win the popularity of this crooked world. You don't need to spend your life running and running, trying to gain the love, the affirmation, the approval, and the popularity of people that don't even know Jesus the way you do. Your affirmation and approval, it's an inside job. Your affirmation is coming from the inside out, reminding you: you are not the broken, you are not the neglected, you are victorious because the Holy Spirit lives in you. Point two, praise the Lord. The Holy Spirit is truth. The Holy Spirit is an advocate, and the Holy Spirit is truth. John 14, beginning with verse 17, says this the spirit of truth, the world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my father, you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my father, and I too will love them and show myself to them. What am I trying to say here, sisters and brothers? The Holy Spirit lives in us to reveal the truth. And if it's revealing the truth, you can assume then it's revealing lies as well. The Holy Spirit lives in us so we can discern, so we can understand, so we can see truth for what it is, and see lies for what they are as well. In Christ, we are meant to house the truth of God. The Holy Spirit reminds us of the truth of who God is, who we are, and the world in which we live, but this truth is also connected to love. What Jesus is saying is if you allow the Holy Spirit to live and breathe and be active on the inside of you, it will give you the ability to live in truth. You'll know the truth about who God is. You'll know the truth about who Jesus is. You'll read through the scriptures and go, oh, oh, oh, that's God. This is Jesus, this is the Holy Spirit, this is the world in which I live. This is who I'm supposed to be in this world as a person of righteousness and truth, connected to God's love. The Holy Spirit is truth. Let me talk about AI for a minute. So, artificial intelligence. And this is especially for those of you that are going, you know, I don't know if the Holy Spirit is real. I can't see it, I can't grow, I can't grab a hold of it, I can't see him. You just told me it's a person. The Holy Spirit, really? Well, there's a lot of stuff that for us more seasoned people in the room, things that we'd never believed would happen that can now happen. I'm like, I can have a phone that ain't hardwired in the wall in my house. I can carry it around. Now, you young people, you're spoiled. You spoiled, you spoiled. But but old heads in here. I'm I'm look don't look down because I'm looking at the people I would consider old heads. I see you, I see you. Got more salt and pepper. I see you. Me too, me too, me too, me too. We were we would have never met. I remember on Star Trek when they would just walk to a door and they would go, shh. I'm like, that'll never happen. Now I'm in the airport and I go up to a door. Shh. They're like they're talking like this. That'll never happen. It has happened. Innovation. So now we have artificial intelligence. What is AI? Just to break it down plainly, AI is you you go based on what is on the inside of your phone. Please help me, Holy Ghost. Based on what is on the inside of your laptop, you can ask a question, and through AI, within seconds, it will gather as much information and evidence out there on the topic that you are asking about and give you information to prepare you to walk into a meeting, to prepare you to navigate an issue. You are trying to write something, you're trying to prepare for a presentation, you're trying to prepare for a meeting, you ask AI. AI has the ability, artificial intelligence, to gather within seconds all of the information you need to deal with what you need to deal with. Well, let me introduce you to another AI. It's called anointed intelligence. And this is what anointed intelligence through the Holy Spirit. This is not based on a chip on the inside of your cell phone. This AI is not based on something on the inside of your laptop, but this AI is based on what God has planted in you through your salvation in Christ Jesus. Let's say that you're going through trouble and you don't know how to deal with your trouble. AI, announced intelligence, will point you to James 1 that says, consider it joy when you go through trials and tribulations of any kind, because it will produce perseverance and maturity in you. Then you can think back to when the old folks used to sing, trouble in my way, I have to cry sometimes. So much trouble I have to cry sometimes later wake at night, but that's all right. Somebody said Jesus, Jesus will fix it after a while. Then the artificial intelligence that is now anointed intelligence will point me to all the trouble that my parents went through in Alabama and Louisiana, and all the trouble that my grandparents went through, and all the trouble that my great-grandparents went through. And then that anointed intelligence will remind me that now my family owns land that used to be a plantation for slaves. What I'm trying to tell you is what is on the inside of you will get you through a storm, get you through pain, get you through anxiety, get you through frustration, get through through headaches. Have you ever used the AI on the inside of you? Man, y'all making me work so hard today. Y'all making me work. Jesus says, All this I have spoken while still with you. But the advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I've said to you. Will teach you all things. The Holy Spirit is a teacher. Now we have people that go to this church that are teachers. Got any teachers in the house? Any teachers in the house? Amen. Amen. Administrators, we got any school administrators in here? People that work at Sack State or UC Davis in here? You know, okay, okay. I better be careful now what I say about school then, since all these school people in here. So I want to be very clear. I I of course I am pro-university and college. I I'm for get as many degrees as you possibly can. Get as much, as my grandma would say, get as much schooling as you can. You know, you know, get get that schooling, as my grandmother would say. Do that. And at the same time, that there are external universities out here where we can gain knowledge and understanding and access through education. There is a university that God is trying to develop on the inside of you. The Holy Spirit is an institute, the Holy Spirit is a seminary, the Holy Spirit is a college, the Holy Spirit is a university, the Holy Spirit is a classroom. Will you sit at the sacred desk of God who wants to teach you? And this university that is on the inside of you has some departments. Have you ever stopped by the school of your intellect so you can get wisdom from God? Have you ever stopped by the school of your emotions so that God can deal with that? Have you ever gone to the school of your past and let God no longer have you living under condemnation and guilt? Have you ever gone to the department of your future so that you would know eternity is where you will live one day? There is a university that God is trying to build on the inside of you right now. You will you look at the syllabus that God has provided for you? It is the word of God. Will you allow God to step into your life and create the university that is you? Because God wants to teach you something. Can I just say, sisters and brothers, the Holy Spirit doesn't make you God, but through the Holy Spirit, God can make you. And finally, the Holy Spirit is with us in the battle. No matter what you're fighting right now, the Holy Spirit is with you. John 14, Jesus says something to prepare the disciples for the battle they will face on the other side of his resurrection. We are in a calendar part of the year where as a church we are on the other side of Jesus raising from the dead. The problem is Jesus rising from the dead alone doesn't take all the pain out of the world. There's still wars, there's still violence, there's still brokenness, there's still discrimination, there's still heartache, there's still lying, there's still cheating, there's still murder. But Jesus says through the Holy Spirit, verse 27, peace I leave with you, my peace I will give you. The Holy Spirit is about rooting things on the inside of us to give us the ability to navigate all the mess in which we live. Can I close like this? We are living in a crazy world, but an awesome God is living in us. We are living in a sick world, but a healing God is living in us. We are living in a violent world, but the God of peace is living in us. We are living in a demonic world, but the divine God is living in us. We are living in a world of slavery, but salvation is on the inside of us. There is something on the inside. I can't explain it, I can't put all English words around it, but I'm a witness that it's true. God walks with me, God talks with me, God guides me, God comforts me based on what's on the inside of me.