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Uh if you've been with us the last few weeks, you know that we're in the middle of a teaching series on the family. And so today is actually our final week of the four weeks on uh teaching on the family. Uh not that we will never talk about family again because we we talk about the family fairly often. And uh this week we're actually going to talk about something a little bit different as we've been talking about being uncommon, the uncommon family. But before I really dive into that, uh if you had ever have ever come to my house, and many of you I know have been in my house at some point, uh, but many of you may have not, but if you come to my house and you just kind of are observant as a person, what you will notice pretty quickly is that we have lots of family pictures on our walls. Anyone else like family pictures or like have a lot of family pictures in your house? Uh we have a lot of family pictures in our house, and sometimes I give my wife a hard time. Like, people are gonna walk in and go, like, you guys worship yourselves, you know, it's like there's so many pictures of your family. Um, but we we love taking pictures and we joke about it, and you know, because you get to capture these little windows into different stages of life, and you kind of walk around our living room and you can see, okay, here's what they were like when they had two kids. Uh, and then you can look at when they see like now that they have five kids. Nick's hair is gray now. It's like, what happened, you know? Uh you can see these different stages of our family, you can see all the things that have gone on. But it's interesting because you get those pictures, and they paint a really pretty picture of what was going on in that moment. Uh, but if you know the truth, and I'm just gonna kind of pull back the curtain here for a second, uh, for some reason, picture photo shoots for us, it's like there's weeping, gnashing of teeth. It's like it's some of the most miserable days in our lives as family. It's like we get in the car, we're gonna go take this photo shoot, we're gonna meet this photographer somewhere, and the whole way there, our kids are crying, and they're like, do we have to? And you know, and then and and of course, you know, when you look at that canvas on our wall, you don't know any of that, right? You just get this pretty picture of what, oh, look at that family, that's awesome, okay? And and yet behind the scenes, there's all these issues going on. Uh, there's all these struggles. You better smile. You are going to smile, or you're not gonna get to eat for the next week, right? Whatever it is, we say to them, we threaten them. I'm like, come on, this is for your mom, kids. You've got to do this for your mom. She she she birthed you, she loves you, she takes care of you. Get a picture for her for crying out loud, right? And so we go through all these things that we say and we do to try to get them so we can get the right picture. We put it up on the wall, and that's the ideal, right? But then there's the real. And I said this in week one that there is a gap in our lives between what is ideal for family and what's real for family. And we try to keep it real around here at Point Community Church because we'll just say on the front end, we don't have it all together. In fact, I I said this, I think, a couple weeks ago. If you came to my house, you'd be like, and you guys let him be the pastor? I mean, like, there's moments where we have these these spots where just conflict breaks out. Uh, I struggle sometimes to be patient. I know you can't imagine that. Be patient with my kids in a moment. And I'm just saying that we are real people with real problems. And we know that God has called us to be different. He's called us to be uncommon. He's called Christians, those who claim to follow him, to look different. And hopefully our lives do look different. But one of the biggest ways that we look different, hopefully, is that we are hopeful and we are uh we are clinging to the grace of God in our mess. That we are clinging to the fact that we are forgiven even though we still struggle with sin just like everyone else does. Even though we still struggle with conflict, even though we still struggle with anger, even though we still struggle with hardship in our lives, we we cling to the grace of God. And that changes us. But here's the thing: um, I want you to know that we do have hope that our lives can be different and that we can live differently. We can handle conflict differently, we can't have more peace in our homes like Harley talked about last week. We can experience a supernatural peace that passes understanding amidst the chaos of life. Because we have hope in a God who is powerful, and a God who is awesome, and a God who is at work in our lives. And so this morning we're gonna actually look at some interesting text. Uh, it's actually the longest section of scripture in the New Testament on family. It's Ephesians chapter 5. So if you're gonna pull your Bibles out, we're gonna start there and read a section that's very instructive about how we should live in our families, in our homes. Okay? So we're gonna begin in verse 22, Ephesians chapter 5. Section off to you, and I want you to think about these words. Just let them kind of sink in. If you can read along with us, or you can see them on the screen here, um, they're available for you. And I want you to really let these words sink in. Okay, so we're just gonna jump right into the deep end of the pool. And I'll go ahead and warn you now. All right? Verse 22, here's what it says Wives, submit to husbands, as to the Lord. I warned you, just gonna kind of go straight in, right? Wives, submit to your husbands, to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, he is the savior of the body. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her, to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word. He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hates his own flesh, but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, since we are members of his body. Now he's gonna quote from Genesis. He says, For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This mystery is profound, but I'm talking about Christ and the church. To sum it up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself and as her husband. And then chapter six children, obey your parents as you would the Lord, because this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment, with a promise, so that it may go well with you, and that you may have a long life in the land. Fathers, don't stir up your uh stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of now. I don't know. That is challenging. I mean, that is very difficult to actually do. Okay, and and and let's be honest, a lot of the stuff in the Bible is very difficult to do. There's a lot of commands, instructions that come clean. We don't follow through 100% of the time. We struggle to obey, we struggle to actually put them into practice in our lives. And so when you look at this passage that I just read, like I said, I just jumped right into some of the actions that Paul, who's writing this letter to the people at Ephesus, he's telling them this is what you should do, this is how you should live, this is how your marriage and your parenting should look. Some real practical things, right? And as you read that, if you're like me, you can start to kind of go, whoa, whoa, whoa, man, time out. Like, I just don't know that I can do this. I just don't know that I have the capacity to do this. Now, maybe there are some of you in the room who are like, oh, we got this, got this figured out. We're all coming to your house for lunch and you're gonna like download to us how you do it, right? Um, but no, seriously, with we we there there may be some folks who feel like, oh, no, I got this, I'm doing okay at this. But if we're really honest, we struggle with this because this is hard stuff. And there's a tension level that raises because, again, as I said at the beginning, the ideal is not our real. The ideal family, the ideal situation is not what we live in in reality. Though we can taste some of the ideal, we can taste some of the good things that God has given us. So, what do we do with this passage? What do we do with this section of scripture? Well, I'll tell you what some people do with this section of scripture. Some people just say, well, let's just uh ignore that. Right? Let's just kind of take that out of the Bible and let's say that that's not part of the scripture. It'd be easier if we just don't do that. Or maybe let's just don't read that section. Then we'll have to be uh reminded of what we're supposed to be doing. Uh I don't think that's a good idea, okay? I'm just gonna go ahead and tell you the pastor of the church. I think it's a good idea to just ignore it or to just say, I'm gonna shred that section of scripture, I'm gonna pull that out of my Bible. All right. So what do we do? Do we just assume that, hey, Paul's a little crazy? Do we assume that maybe this is just outdated? Maybe Paul didn't, this was a you know it applied back then, but it doesn't really apply today? Is the Bible, you know, just kind of outgrown its usefulness? Is it just kind of archaic? Old school? What do you do with that? Well, I believe that all of God's scripture is designed to be applied to our lives. And so it has a message for us today, in the here and now. And I think when Paul's saying this, I think God is still speaking through this today, saying this is how it's supposed to be in our families. Now we may wrestle with it, we may struggle with it, we may not like it. I mean, there's a lot of things in God's word when it says it, I don't like it. But it means that it's not true, or that it's not good. No, it's not. That's that's not what it's saying at all. It's not true. So we trust in the fact that God is wise, and we're gonna talk about what that looks like today. I don't think it's our time to throw in the towel and to give up. I think it's actually our time to press in. It's our time to press in. Because I purposely set you up by just going straight to the instructions that Paul's giving here. But if we actually back up a little bit and you see the bigger picture of Paul writing this letter, we understand that Paul always talked about activity after he talked about identity. He always addressed the activity of a Christian after he talked about the identity of a Christian. Now, I'm not going to give you the whole uh book of Ephesians in a nutshell, that would take us far too long today. But in Paul's letter, he's already talked about the fact that we as Christians, he's writing this two Christians, are adopted to be his children. We're adopted into his family. And as children of God, we now have been given some amazing gifts. One of those is we can have confidence that when Christ returns, we're going to spend eternity with God in heaven. That's pretty awesome, right? We know we have an eternal home with God. That's that's an amazing thought because we know that our eternity is secure. You don't have to question that. But he also tells us in the early parts of Ephesians that we have been given the power of the Holy Spirit. That we've been given the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, again, if you're not a believer and you're just a seeker here today and you're trying to just figure out this whole Christianity thing, or maybe even if you've been in church all your life, but you haven't heard a whole lot about the Holy Spirit, we're going to address the Holy Spirit today, which I think is interesting because today is most in your life. Today is actually the day that the church celebrates Pentecost. And in the New Testament, Pentecost is huge because 50 days after Jesus came out of the grave, after the Passover meal, they celebrated Pentecost, which was when the Holy Spirit came down and actually infused life into these ragtag bunch of people that the apostles that started the church, that God gave empowered them. So I thought this was pretty appropriate. I didn't know this when we were setting out the plan message series, that we're going to talk about the Holy Spirit on the Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost. And the day the Holy Spirit comes, and what does the Holy Spirit do? The Holy Spirit comes and empowers. In fact, I want you to know that as believers, our hope is not in our strength. Our hope is not in our strength or our capacity or our ability to follow God's commands. Our hope is in God's Spirit in us. It's in God's Spirit in us. Now, again, that might sound a little spooky to some, that may sound a little weird to some, it may feel a little bit like I don't really know what you're talking about. That's that's completely okay because I didn't hear a whole lot of teaching when I was growing up about the Holy Spirit either. But I want you to know that the Bible consistently says to us that our hope to do what God has asked us to do is not based on our ability to do it in our strength, right? It's based on God's power at work in us. Zechariah 4, verse 6. God's speaking to his people. They're struggling. They're this little uh band of people. They they've been they've gone through so much, and they're gonna try to rebuild uh Jerusalem and the temple, and and they don't know what they're gonna do. And listen to what God says to them. He says, This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, not by strength or by might, but by my spirit, says the Lord. You ever heard that verse? Some of you have been around church, you probably have heard that verse before. I think it's so appropriate that when we think about family, we think about marriage and parenting, we need to hear this every single day. Not by might, not by power, not by my own ability to actually make my family work, but by God's spirit. By God's spirit, because we're in a spiritual battle and we need some spiritual strength. Anybody with me? Can I get a witness on that? Right? And we need some strength to actually do what God's asked us to do. And so this morning I want to give you hope that because we have a God who has not left us on our own, who actually has engaged with us, we are not like a lot of the toys in my house. You're like, what are you talking about? We have a lot of children, we've raised these kids, we have a lot of toys around our house, but a lot of our toys, they like really need to go to the toy cemetery. Um, some of it's because they've been, you know, beaten up and they've been just kind of pounded. But some of them, um, you know, much to our liking, actually, the batteries are dead. Uh there's some of these toys, man. I'm serious, like day one, I'm like, please take the batteries out. Yes, you know, and then of course, the the problem is with some of the ones they really like like that, that are really noisy, uh, then the batteries start to go down, and then it gets even more annoying because it's like you get the slow version of the annoying sounds that come out of them. You know, it's like these little squeaks. And then we have these like random toys that are in toy chests that like in the middle of the night, you're like, what is that noise? And it's like this goofy toy over in the. Some of y'all know exactly what I'm talking about. You've experienced this. And it's like the toy in the chest that is making this noise. You know, we've got this little car in our living room that for some reason every now and then just decides to come on, and it's like, what's going on? But you know, when when the batteries are dead and then the toy doesn't function like it's supposed to, that's how a lot of Christians are in our lives. It's like we we have something that we're supposed to be doing, but we're not attached to the power source. We don't have batteries. The battery is dead, okay? And spirit is the power source in our life. And when we try to live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit, when we try to do family, marriage, parenting without the Holy Spirit, we are going to struggle because it is not designed to work that way. It's a lot like my friend who went on vacation, and somehow in the process of going on vacation, uh a breaker got switched on their freezer in their garage. And you guys know where I'm going, because if you've ever had that happen to you before, they came home from to vacation and their house smelled like death. And they were like, What is that smell? as they got out of their cars and were knocked over by this stench. And they went to their garage and they opened their garage and it just literally knocked them down, right? Because it was so strong. And they opened up their freezer and there's rotted food in there. Listen, that's what our lives are like when we are disconnected from the power source of God. And I'm telling you this morning, if you want to experience an uncommon family, you need to tap into an uncommon power, and that's the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to tap into the power of the Holy Spirit in our life. So as we celebrate Pentecost today, as we think about a God who wants to help us to be wise, to know his will, let's look at what he says in this Ephesians passage just above. This is really important, the context in which I just read that activity, because Paul goes after identity and he gives us the power source, and then he tells us what to do. Verse 15 in chapter 5. Go back and read it with me. Just above where we were when we started earlier. He says this pay careful attention then to how you walk, not as unwise people, but as wise. And just a note there the tendency of a human being is to be foolish. Right? That's natural. It's natural to be foolish, it's natural to drift towards doing things our way, uh, trying to control life, trying to deal with circumstances on our own. It's natural for us to be foolish. That that is the MO. I know again, because like I said before, I've raised six little sinners. Okay? Making the most of the time because the days are evil. So don't be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Verse 18, and don't get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless actions. Growing up, that's where we stopped with that verse. Okay? In my house or that my kind of growing up world is like we stopped with don't get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless actions. Okay, that's what that verse says. Actually, that's not what that verse is talking about in full, and here's why. He goes on to say, but be what? Filled by the Spirit. Capital S Spirit, meaning God, being filled by the Holy Spirit. God. The Holy Spirit is not just another creation like the angels or humans. The Holy Spirit is God. He was there in the beginning, just like Jesus: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. I'm not going to try to get into the Trinity this morning. Our brains can't get around that, okay? But just know, God, the Spirit, He is fully God. He says, be filled with the Spirit. And notice what happens when you're filled with the Spirit. He says, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing, and making music from your heart to the Lord. Giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus, and submitting, there's that word submit again. Submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. Here's the point. You're like, why do we just go back and read? Because you need to understand that this is attached, right? This is attached to the activity that God's called us to. He's saying we need to be full of God's Spirit in order to actually do what He's asked us to do. I I didn't see this when I was younger. I and in my ministry, I focus so much on just telling people, go do this, go do this, go do this, go do this. And if I do that to you, I am setting you up for failure. Because the truth is you can't fully do it on your own. I cannot do it on my own. We need God's Spirit. And he says, be filled with the Holy Spirit. Now that's just an interesting note, just to pull that out real fast. Why would he juxtapose the idea of being drunk with wine and being filled with the Holy Spirit? Have you thought about that? It's a little odd. Like, why would Paul use this language to talk about? Because let's think about this. When someone drinks or consumes alcohol, all right, and they start to consume more and more alcohol, that alcohol begins to influence their actions. Some people get sad and or angry, some people get silly. And and so whatever it might be, but it impacts, it influences your life. Alcohol has that effect and impact, okay? And he is saying, not just telling people don't drink, by the way, he's saying, don't get drunk, but be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit is supposed to influence us. It's supposed to impact us, it's supposed to change the way that we live. Now, interesting again, think about this. If I was to walk up to you and pour a beer over your head, okay, first you'd punch me. And then secondly, nothing would change in terms of your actions. The fact you'd punch me, uh, in terms of like from a true like it wouldn't have a control over you in that way, right? To pour beer over your head. You have to consume it. You have to take it in, and it gets into your bloodstream, and then it begins to change you, changes the way your behaviors are while you're under the influence of it, right? In the same way, the Holy Spirit changes us from what? The inside out. When we put our trust in Jesus, if you're a Christ follower in the room, if you have said to Jesus, I believe you are my Savior, if you have said to Jesus, I believe you are the one who has rescued me, who has saved me, if you believe that he is the one who has forgiven you of your sin and you have invited him into your life, the Holy Spirit is inside of you, which means that the Christian faith is not an outside in thing, it's an inside out thing. Are you tracking? So, like the Holy Spirit is inside of you, and he is working in your heart down here in the seat of your emotions and your motives. He is working in you to change the way you behave. So any kind of church situation, religious situation that you're in, where they are just simply trying to get you to do behaviors, to change your, you know, they basically call it behavior modification, to change the way you live without the power of the Holy Spirit. That's called legalism, that's called moralism, right? It's like you can do it. What we need is we need God to change us. Which means in my own life, I need the Holy Spirit, and also means that I gotta stop playing the Holy Spirit in my other people around me's life. That means I gotta stop saying that I'm the Holy Spirit in my wife's life, because I like to play that role, by the way. But we already said there's God is the Trinity, it's not four people, it's just three. I'm not one member of it, right? So I gotta lay that down, submit to God, and trust God's work in her life and her heart. That does not mean that we don't speak truth to one another. That does not mean that we don't uh have discussions with one another along the way, but we ultimately trust the Holy Spirit in each other's lives to transform and to change us. That's what needs to happen. And so in this passage, he's saying, Don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. So literally, you know, you could say, That this would what it would look like. Because the Holy Spirit's at work in your life, let's say you're in your neighborhood, you see a neighbor in need, and you go and help them, and they ask you, Why are you helping me? Right? As a Christ follower, you could say, Because I'm drunk on the Holy Spirit. And I'm just saying, don't say that. Don't say that. That would like wiggle them out, right? No, I'm saying, here's the deal. Because we are compelled, there is something inside of us compelling us, hopefully, the power of the Holy Spirit in us, giving us a capacity and a desire to go and help others, to go and serve others. Okay? I couldn't help but but help you. Because the God, because God is moving in me and stirring in me to do what is right. Take it home to the home front. What about when a spouse is being very venomous with their words? Listen, what happens when your spouse is saying things that are very hurtful, very painful? What do you do in that moment? Well, hopefully, when you're full of the Holy Spirit, instead of just spitting venom back and fighting in the flesh, you say, I'm gonna choose right now to keep my mouth shut, which is a very hard thing to do, right? Right? It's very hard to keep your mouth shut when they're spitting venom, it's making accusations that many times you feel like are not true or not justified. But in the Holy Spirit's power, you're able to keep your mouth shut, have self-control, and say, I'm gonna choose not to receive what you're saying right now. I'm gonna wait until we can have a better conversation. Now again, you're going like that's so idealistic. That's not real. I get that, but I'm telling you, the Holy Spirit has the capacity, has the strength and the power to change the way you do conflict, to change the way that you embrace and engage one another in your home. When your kid is a rebellious punk, because at some point your kids will be rebellious punks, even the beautiful, most beautiful kids, I don't know what they they have this moment when they rebel against you, and you have to choose as a parent, how do you love them and engage them? Firmly, even in righteous anger, right? But without sin. The power of the Holy Spirit's the only way you can do that. I can just tell you right now, it's the only way you can do it. Because if not, we're gonna fly off in rage. We're gonna lose control, and the works of the flesh are gonna come out, and we're gonna be just as much in sin as they are. We need the spirit. So let me practically say, how does the spirit help us today? Okay? How does the spirit actually help us? Four things that the spirit does that empower us. The first one is this the Holy Spirit empowers us by convicting us first, bringing conviction. Now, some of you are thinking, like, wait, wait, wait. How is conviction empowering me? Why, why, why, why is me knowing that I'm wrong or doing the wrong thing, how is that empowering? Well, let me tell you why. Because the Bible tells us that when the Holy Spirit comes in us, Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit comes, he will convict us of sin. What he is saying is, don't do this. It's going to hurt yourself, it's going to hurt you, it's going to hurt others, right? He's saying, don't do this. Notice, conviction is different than condemnation. The Holy Spirit does not condemn us. We are free, we are forgiven in Christ. And I am grateful for that today. We are forgiven, we are loved, and as I said a while ago, we have our eternal home with God forever, sealed for us in the person and work of Jesus. Praise God for that. But we can still live like fools. We can still live in the flesh. And so in those moments, we need the Holy Spirit to convict us. We need the Holy Spirit, that that voice that comes in and says, Stop, don't, don't do it, don't cross that line, don't go there. Here's the problem with me, and I'm guessing with probably you. We have blocked that voice out so often that we've grown calloused to the Holy Spirit's conviction. We've grown accustomed to just saying no, or I'm going to keep doing my thing anyway. This is a very dangerous spot because here's the thing: God loves us enough to discipline us to get our attention. And so if you block out that convicting voice of the Holy Spirit, I'm just going to go ahead and warn you now, as a man who loves you, as a pastor of this church, to say that you're headed for some difficult days. Because God loves his children, and it says in scripture, he will discipline those he loves. But I encourage you, before you get to that point, just like I do my kids all the time, look, listen, obey. Listen to what he's saying. Listen to the Holy Spirit. You will know what that's like. You will be prompted. You will hear that. You will learn. You'll practice obedience, practice listening. So the Holy Spirit convicts, we cannot change ourselves, we cannot change our course or actions if we are not aware that what we're doing is wrong. And the Holy Spirit will show us that. And that's empowering. That is a supernatural gift from God that He is telling us, don't do this, don't go there. And so the question isn't, is God speaking to us? The question is, are we listening? Are we listening to the Holy Spirit? Are we listening to that conviction? Now here's the good thing. He doesn't just convict us and say, stop and throw up a stop sign and a red flag and you know red light, whatever he's got to do. He'll speak to us in that. But the second thing that the Holy Spirit does that empowers us is he counsels us. In the Bible, Jesus said not only this, he's going to send one who is our convictor of sin, but he's also going to send one who is the counselor. How many of you need a good counselor? I need a good counselor. I mean, people come all the time and they're asking for counseling referrals. Hey, my family's going through this. We need this. We need help with this. Listen, I want you to know that human counselors have a great responsibility and opportunity to speak into your life, but I also want you to understand, want myself to remember that we have access to the best counselor on the planet, to the best counselor in the universe. And he's the Holy Spirit. And what the Holy Spirit is going to do is the Holy Spirit's going to counsel us back towards his word. So if anybody ever gives you counsel that doesn't match up with this word, you need to throw it out. You need to ignore it. You need to blow it off. There's a lot of people who will say, uh, you know, you can do this. You can fix yourself. Or if you could just figure out what happened in your past and you can understand that wound, you can understand that brokenness, and you can just embrace that, and you can just that that'll fix everything. I don't buy that, guys. Only God can truly heal your heart. Only God can truly minister to your deepest needs. Am I saying that counseling is bad? No, absolutely not. There are godly biblical counselors that I am thankful for. And if you need a counseling referral because your marriage is struggling today, or you're struggling with some issues of conflict, or you were struggling with some issues of pain from your past, listen, I would love to refer you to some godly biblical counselors, but not every counselor that you sit in front of is wise. Not every counselor that you listen to is going to give you sound advice and wisdom. So you need to be careful who you let speak into your life. We have a Holy Spirit who is our counselor. He guides us into all truth, is what Jesus says in John 16. He says he guides us into truth. He gives us the ability to understand not just that we're wrong, but what do we do to fix it? Now, this is how it works for me. I'm convicted of sin. I'm in the middle of a discussion with Jada, and I feel convicted that I am crossing the line, that my pride is getting the best of me. And I just want to be right in that moment. And I wake up and I had this kind of like moment, like, oh man, I am cross, I have hurt her, I've wounded her. Okay, God, what do I do next? And inevitably, God will lead me if I will be willing to ask that question. God, what do I do to make this right? Now, here's the thing. A lot of times I don't want to ask that question. Because it's going to typically involve my humility. But in the moments that I say, God, would you help me? Would you would you tell me what to do? He counsels me. He'll bring a scripture to mind. It's not rocket science. A lot of times it's like, seek forgiveness. Just own it. Just admit you were wrong. Just stop trying to win the argument. Just stop trying to be right. And so the Holy Spirit will counsel us again, back with his word, back to truth. Jesus said he will bring you back to truth. He'll bring you back to what really matters. Here's the greatest thing that the Holy Spirit does in counseling us. I think this is really powerful. The Holy Spirit, as our counselor, doesn't just give us the right thing to do, it reminds us of what Christ has done for us. The Holy Spirit, he reminds us of what Christ has done for us so that we will stop trying to make ourselves justifiable in our own works. Then we will start stop trying to make ourselves valued and loved and worth something in our own ability. But we'll just rest in Christ. And that's one thing that I love about the Holy Spirit as a counselor is that he reminds me that Christ's work again is finished, that I'm forgiven, that I'm free. He will lead me back to that truth. Are you with me? Third thing the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit doesn't only convict, doesn't only counsel, but also infuses courage. Infuses courage in our lives. Now, once we've been convicted, and once we now know from the Holy Spirit what we're supposed to do, it takes courage to actually do it. It takes courage, it takes boldness. And Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit would come, he would bring power. Listen, guys, we have power at our disposal to actually obey God, to do what he's asked us to do. And so he will give us the courage that we need. There are things that we need to say, there are things that we need to do, there are things that we need to make right, and the Holy Spirit can give us that courage. He is God in us, God with us, God working around us. Again, as I said a while ago, when I hear God's counsel in my life, there's many times that I don't want to actually follow through because I know that I'm gonna have to be humble. I know that I'm gonna have to own it. But thankfully, by God's grace, he encourages me to do the right thing. And he will encourage you as well in your life. The final thing that the Holy Spirit does is he provides comfort. He provides comfort. Now I won't make you raise your hand on this one, but I already know the answer. How many of you would say that doing family is messy and painful? We all feel it, right? Relationships are painful. Uh we have the capacity to wound each other deeply. I said this, I think, in week one, in ways that no one else does because we have direct access. We know the stories, we know the skeletons in the closet, and we can bring those things up and we can hurt each other very deeply. Listen, we have a Holy Spirit who can comfort us in our pain, who can bring comfort when conflict arises and there's a clash and there's fireworks and there's damage done, the Holy Spirit can move in and can bring comfort. In fact, Paul writes in a different place. He says that the Holy Spirit is our comforter. And he can bring a comfort that again passes understanding. We need that, don't we? We need comfort in our lives, and so it empowers us because we have someone who can can sympathize with our weakness and is with us. Listen, God does not leave you, he will not forsake you, he will not abandon you, he will not run away from you. God is with you if you're his child. He is for you, he is fighting for you and with you, and he will comfort you. So the question is how do we actually receive this power? How do we plug in, if you will? How do we tap into this power that's available to us as Christians? Well, the same way that we receive the salvation that we have been given by faith. By faith. Like, well, what does that mean, Nick? It simply means this: that we say, God, I can't see the Holy Spirit. God, I can't see you, I can't see your power, but I believe that it's available to me. And by faith, I receive it right now. By faith, I'm gonna say a prayer, a simple prayer of God, would you fill me with your Holy Spirit? Would you fill me with your presence? Would you fill me with everything that I need to accomplish the work you've called me to accomplish? Now that that may seem so simple. It is simple, but it's very challenging and difficult to actually get there because we would much rather run our own lives most of the time. At least I'm just speaking for myself. I'd rather just keep doing it and doing my thing, and I keep getting the same results, which is I keep hitting walls and going through difficulties and hardship. And so know this morning that just like salvation is by faith, that Jesus alone is our Savior, that it is by his grace that he has demonstrated, by his love and his forgiveness that was given to us through the work on the cross, we receive the Holy Spirit by faith. And if you are a believer, a Christ follower, and you have been baptized, and if you have put your trust in God, you have the Holy Spirit in you. The question is, is are you listening to him? Are you listening to his conviction? Are you listening to his counsel? Are you listening when he is trying to encourage you to do the right thing? Because if we aren't, we're missing out on the only opportunity we have to actually live out what God's called us to live. To be uncommon in our families. Going back to that passage in Ephesians, he says, wives, submit to your husbands. He says, husbands, love your wives and lay down yourself to them. And there's there's this idea of submission and sacrifice and serving and selflessness. I mean, this is just really difficult stuff. But here's the question: Do we believe that God has asked us to do something that we cannot do? Well, if it's up to us, yes. But if it's up to him, no. And I believe it's the second that he's asked us to do something that we actually have the capacity to do because of what he's doing in us and through us. I don't know your situation today, but my guess is in a room like this, some of you came in, and this past week, the last seven days of your life, there's been conflict at home, there's been hardship at home, there's been some difficult conversations that have happened, there's been some hurt, there's been some wounds, there's been some uh things that you're either struggling with still or have struggled with this past week. You're burdened, your heart's heavy. Just know that we have a God who is with us and is for us, and he wants to meet you in your need today. He wants to meet you in the midst of your challenges and your circumstances, and he wants you to know you are loved, you're forgiven, you're free if you're in Jesus, and that he again has true hope for you.