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You and I are by default hope this doesn't offend too many of you selfish and self-centered beings. As humans, we seem to look in foolish optimism to ourselves in a myriad of things other than God to lead us, to guide us, to sustain our existence. And what I'd like to propose is that we all desperately need God, and we desperately need his spirit to fuel our feeble lives, because any other source is ultimately gonna leave us empty. I don't know if you guys have had the experience of being on empty, it's not a fun one. I used to work for my uncle doing construction and laboring type work, and and and we did uh landscaping, those sort of things. And one of the problems with working for my uncle is that from time I time to time I had to drive his work truck. And driving his work truck was an interesting experience because it would always break down. But one of the things that it also always did was run out of gas, just randomly. Like the the gauge didn't work properly, and you'd be driving along and blah blah blah, you know, the the truck would be out of gas, and you'd have to pull over and hope that there was a canister of gasoline in the back of the truck so that you could actually get out of the situation. So, one of the things that I learned pretty quickly in that whole experience, and this may sound very elementary, but it's absolutely essential for a vehicle to have gasoline or had to have fuel to be able to work. And as elementary as that may sound, I want to I want to inspire you this morning with the thought that God's spirit is essential for living, for fueling our life, especially if we want our lives to honor God and to bring glory to him. If you want to live a life that honors God and brings glory to him, you cannot do that in and of your own strength. You need his spirit to fuel you. And I know that some of you are already you're thinking, this sounds really strange. What are these Christians talking about? Because I'm going to assume that some of you in this room today are not Christians. And if that's the space you find yourself, you're not a Christian or you're not sure where you are spiritually. I just really want to encourage you and say thank you for being here. Like thank you for exploring faith. And I want to encourage you in your journey in that, okay? And specifically, what I'd say to you is, I understand that that statement sounds strange because in your mind you're asking yourself, why would God want my life? Why does he need my life for his good and for his glory? What's that about? And I'm not going to entirely answer your question with this next sentence, but I would say or ask you to consider that possibly your life is not your life. That it's actually a gift given by God who created and designs you and knows you actually better than you even know yourself. He has a plan and a purpose for you that can only be found by looking to him, by submitting to him, and by submitting to his spirit. We're going to have this conversation about God's Spirit today, and if any of you know a little bit about the book of 1 Corinthians, you know why we're having this conversation. You see, the book of 1 Corinthians is famous for in the back end of it having quite a long conversation about spiritual gifts. And we're up to that section in the book. But before we talk about spiritual gifts, I think it's incredibly important for us to give it talk for us to talk about the giver of those gifts, who is the Spirit. Spiritual gifts come from the Spirit, and when we're talking about the Spirit, we're talking, of course, about the Holy Spirit. Or in some circles, he's known as the Holy Ghost. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that whatever nice, neat, tidy box that we like to try and form and fit God inside of, that box is going to be too small. Because God is far beyond our understanding and our knowing, our comprehension. I don't know about you, but I do this. I have boxes in my life, and I'm like, not physical boxes, although I do have those as well, but I have boxes where I'm like, okay, this is what I believe about marriage, or this is what I believe about finances, or parenting, or about friendships, or whatever it may be. We have these like compartments that we put things inside of. And we tend to do the same thing with God. We're like, this is what I know and believe and understand about God. But whatever box, even if it's a ginormous box that we're trying to fit God inside of, I'm gonna tell you right here and right now, whatever that is is going to be exploded sooner or later by God because He goes far beyond our comprehension and far beyond our understanding. And so I want to note right as we start this conversation today that a study of the Holy Spirit reminds us of how mysterious, limitless, and powerful that God is. And just like there are incorrect thoughts and ideas and philosophies or thinking about God, there's also incorrect thoughts and ideas, theologies about Jesus, and definitely there are incorrect thoughts about the Holy Spirit. And I want to discuss a couple of those really quickly before we even get started. Is that okay? So we're gonna talk about a couple of these things. The first one I'll call the forgotten relative. We'll call it the forgotten relative. In some circles, Christian circles, the Holy Spirit is treated like a forgotten relative. He's like this awkward relative that nobody ever mentions or talks about. He's kind of there, and you kind of know he's there, but you don't really ever bring him up. It's just weird. He's kind of a part of your family, but not really. You know what I'm talking about? I kind of experienced this a little bit, not in an awkward way, but growing up, uh, I, at the age of 14, moved with my family back from New Zealand to Australia, where I was originally from. And in that move, my sister actually moved out of home at that same time. She was like 17, 18, moving out of home. And so she moved out of home. I moved back to a new part of Australia and formed a whole new group of friends, my brother and I. Years later, we had people come over to our house and look at pictures of our family and be like, I didn't know you had a sister. Like they're looking at her like, what in the world? Like, their picture of our family was just my mum and dad and my brother and I. They didn't realize that there was actually another person in the picture. And I think some people, when they come into our churches, we treat the Holy Spirit like this relative in a picture that we never really talk about. He's not really involved in the conversation. Now, if you swing the pendulum the opposite direction, in other circles, the Holy Spirit is like a mystical force. This mystical force that needs to be relentlessly pursued. He's treated in a lot of ways like a genie or a or a Santa Claus type figure, where there's this stuff that he gives us and these good feelings and these vibes, and we just kind of go from one experience to the next. I have friends who have lived and been a part of journeys in their lives where they've gone from one spiritual or chasing the spirit type experience to the next, going from one mountaintop to the next. And I would say to you, people in those circles who have that kind of view of the Holy Spirit are actually pursuing the experience more than they are pursuing the giver of that experience. And that's not good either. Both of these are incorrect thoughts, both of these are not biblical, both of these are not helpful. So, what does the Bible tell us about the Holy Spirit? What can we know and believe about him? Well, let's go to 1 Corinthians to get us kind of going on this. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 is where we're up to. And I encourage you to read along. If you have a Bible there, please pull it out. We will have the words on the screen also, but sometimes it's just good to have the word right in front of you as we ingest it. 1 Corinthians 12. Like I said, it's where we're up to as we're journeying through the book of 1 Corinthians. And we're going to start in verse 1. Verse 1 of 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Now concerning what comes from the Spirit, brothers, I do not want you to be unaware. You know that when you were pagans, you used to be led off by idols that could not speak. Therefore, I am informing you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says Jesus is cursed, and no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. The text starts out with Paul stating that he does not want his friends to be unaware of what comes from the Spirit. And I'll just remind you really quickly, this is Paul writing to some friends, but we know that God was inspiring Paul, knowing that this was going to become a part of the canon of Scripture, God's holy word, okay? So this is God's word to us also. And he's saying, hey, I as Christians, I don't want you to be unaware of what comes from the Spirit. And I point this out to you because it's good for us to know what comes from God's Spirit, to examine it, to talk about it, to have a conversation like we are today, to not ignore him. And I realize that I say this, and that there's some of you who have a sentiment that if I don't really understand the Holy Spirit, it's probably best to just leave him alone. And I'd say that's not a healthy view. That's not helpful having that sort of idea about the Holy Spirit. We may not fully know all that there is to know about the Holy Spirit, and I would say that we don't, but God has clearly told us what we need to know about the Holy Spirit. There's a difference there. We may not know everything that there is to know about the Holy Spirit, and I would argue that we don't. But we do know what we need to know. And what we don't know should actually produce in us worship. As we think about and as we're reminded, wow, the Holy Spirit's much bigger than I can get my head around. What that should manufacture in us is worship. As we say, God, you're beyond my understanding. You're bigger than me. My heart is turned to you, and I see that, man, you're beyond my understanding, my comprehension. That's a good place. That's a humble, good, worshipful place for us to be in. As the text continues, God goes on to use Paul to contrast between the pagan or the former life and the spirit-led life. That's what happens next in the text. He talks about the pagan life, how they were led away to idols that could not speak, basically saying, hey, when you served idols, they weren't real gods. They didn't influence you or lead you or guide you. There wasn't anything really going on. And then he contrasts that by saying the Christian life is one where we're following a living, acting, and moving God who compels us, who moves us by his spirit. The example given in the text is to say that if we say Jesus is Lord and genuinely mean that, hey Jesus, you are Lord. You are God of my life. You are over and above everything. If we say that and genuinely mean that, that's only something that can happen as the Spirit of God moves and compels us. And what we're scratching the surface of here is an entire realm of theology that's quite mysterious, where God compels the heart of man. That's a mystery. The Holy Spirit has power to compel and to move the hearts of men. So who is this Holy Spirit who has this kind of power and ability to do that sort of thing? And that's actually a really good question, and one that I want for us to study for the next few minutes. Who is the Holy Spirit? We'll get on to talking about what he does, but who is he? Well, I will point out to you as we ask this question, this is not going to be a comprehensive list in the slightest. We could stay here until I run out of voice, and we still wouldn't cover, even begin to cover all that the Holy Spirit is. I really do believe that. I was thinking about this this morning as I was looking over my notes again. I was like, what we're doing here is I pull out a few things that we know about the Holy Spirit. It's really like pulling out a few grains of sand from a beach. The Holy Spirit's like this vast beach of this thing that we, you know, we should know and discover and continue to immerse ourselves in. What we're going to look at is just like a couple of grains. The first grain that I would point you to of truth is that, like we mentioned earlier, the Holy Spirit is a member of the Trinity. Alex mentioned this earlier. The Holy Spirit is a member of the Trinity. What that means is that he is a part of this trinity, which is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is a mystery. If you think that I'm going to explain this to you completely right now, you're much deceived. I will not completely satisfy your hunger for knowing how that works or what that means. But I will say that we know that God is one, but there are three persons in one. Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. We're told that emphatically, Deuteronomy 6, right? But if you go into the other parts of the scriptures, we see these three persons of God living, acting, and moving and working together. We actually see that right at the very start of the book, uh, the the start of the whole book of the Bible, or the books of the Bible, in Genesis chapter 1, or John 1, if you look at that account, it tells us the three persons were there present in the beginning. It says, in the beginning was God. We believe that's God the Father, there present at creation. But if you go across to John chapter 1, it says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then it goes on and says, The Word took up flesh among us. It's talking about Jesus. It's saying Jesus was present there at creation. Genesis 1. If you go back to Genesis 1 and look at verse 3, it also tells us there that the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the water. There's all three persons of the Trinity right there at creation. Pretty cool, right? If you go on to another part of Scripture, I'm just pulling a couple of examples. Go on to another part of Scripture. If you go to the baptism of Jesus, Jesus is there, obviously. It's his baptism. So Jesus is there, and uh he's going into the waters, he's getting baptized by John the Baptist, and as that happens, what happens? A spirit descends on him like a dove. There's the Holy Spirit doing his work. And at the same moment, a voice comes from heaven and says, This is my Son. It's God the Father, in whom I'm well pleased. That's those three persons working together in that moment. We can absolutely and emphatically believe that the Holy Spirit is a member of the Trinity. The second thing that I would point you towards quickly this morning is this: that the Holy Spirit is God. And I wouldn't say just God, he is fully God. Now, again, this is beyond our comprehension. I'm not telling you that Jesus is 33.3% God and the Holy Spirit is 33.3% God. That's not worth saying. We believe that all three persons are fully God. That means a whole bunch of other things, too, about what we can believe about God, but we must see that he is fully God, just as Jesus is fully God and God the Father is fully God. Another quick thing that I would point you to to kind of help you expand your view of the Holy Spirit isn't just that he's fully God, that also means that he has always existed. For eternity past to eternity future, the Holy Spirit has always existed. And I could go on and talk about more attributes. I could talk about the Holy Spirit's sense of justice. If you go to Acts 5, somebody lies to the Holy Spirit and they're punished for that. I could talk about how the Holy Spirit is everywhere, that we can't escape his presence. If you go to Psalms 139, it says, Where can I go to escape from your spirit? Talks about that. I could go on and talk about how he knows all things. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 tells us that he knows, the Spirit knows all things. But I want to move on and ask a second question, not just who is the Holy Spirit, but what does he do? And in answer to that question, the simple and annoying answer is he does lots of things. The Holy Spirit does lots of things. And again, I'm not going to cover all that there is to cover about this, but for our conversation today, let's examine this question by seeing how he moves progressively on our hearts as humans as he interacts with us. The first thing that we know about the Holy Spirit and what he does is that he draws. He draws, and by this I mean that he brings convictions. He awakens and stirs our souls. I'm not just making this up. Listen to what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit. By the way, if one member of the Trinity tells you something about the other member of the Trinity, it's probably something that we can believe. He says this when he comes, this is John 16, verse 8, when he comes, he will convict the world about sin. Talking about the Holy Spirit, righteousness and judgment, about sin because they do not believe in me, about righteousness because I'm going to the Father and will no longer you will no longer see me. And about judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged. This is a really cool part of who the Holy Spirit is and what he does. He draws the heart of man. I want to give you a couple of quick examples of how this works. Last Sunday, some of you stuck around and we did hot dogs and stuff, but we also did a baptism after the service, and it was really cool. There was this young man getting baptized, and one particular thing stood out to me in that whole time as he was telling his story. He talked about how before he was a Christian, he was feeling quite like, you know, averse to God. He kind of had a wall up and was saying, you know, I don't know about this Christian thing, this God thing. But he came to church with his family, he walked in through the doors, and he came and was a part of the congregation like you guys are this morning. And one of the things he said is, when the music started, when everybody stood up and started singing words and actually seemed to actually believe it and mean it, there was something stirred inside of him in that moment that said, I want to see what it is that these people are actually on about and singing about. I would tell you that that was the work of the Holy Spirit, stirring his heart, so that ultimately it led to salvation, a conversion moment for that young man. How cool is that? A couple of weeks earlier than that, we had another baptism. I'm using baptisms as my example today. But a couple of weeks earlier than that, my friend Cindy was baptized over here in service. Many of you guys were here. And as she was talking, it was really cool to watch what was going on. She was talking, giving her testimony, talking about her story. I was standing over here, taking some pictures, seeing what was going on, and I was looking across the room and I saw several people visibly stirred. People crying, some people just emotional about her story. And I would say again, that was the Holy Spirit working as Cindy was testifying about what who God is and what he would have done in her life. The Holy Spirit was working in people's hearts and lives and saying, What has happened to Cindy can happen to you. This life of change, this life of beauty that God is bringing out of these ashes, that can happen to you. How cool is that? That is the work of the Holy Spirit drawing people, bringing them here. The Holy Spirit's drawing in your life may have been he just actually got you out of bed this morning to be here. How cool is that? That is part of what he does. He draws our hearts. I could stay on this, but we're going to keep going. Because the next one's really cool too. What does the Holy Spirit do? He doesn't just draw us, he indwells us. He indwells us. And when I say us, I'm talking to believers this morning. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a gift given to, and hear me on this in capital letters, all believers. The Holy Spirit is a gift given to all believers. It isn't some exclusive club, it's for all of us, and it's permanent. The scriptures make that exceedingly clear. It's a permanent gift given at conversion. So when you and I say, God, my life is no longer mine, it's yours. Lord, I give my life completely to you. When we pray that prayer, when we genuinely mean it, what we believe as Christians is that the Holy Spirit mysteriously comes and makes our hearts, our lives, his home permanently. I'm not making this stuff up. Let's read about it. Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1 13 says, When you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed him, it's talking about that conversion moment, you were also sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. What is a seal? A seal is think about old school letters, like you get that ring and that wax and you seal that letter or that scroll, and it's sealed. It's it's done, it's good, it's it's finished, right? It's not to be open or undone, it's good for the rest of time. And I love that the scriptures use this language to talk about the Holy Spirit, because what it's saying to us is, hey, you're sealed. When you make that decision, and it's a genuine decision to love and to follow God for the rest of your life, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit. This isn't the only reference we have. Go to 2 Corinthians 1 22 with me. It says this He has also sealed us and given us the Holy Spirit as a down payment in our hearts. What's this down payment it's talking about? It's talking about the hope for the future of eternity. It's really cool. I'm gonna keep moving. I love that scripture though. Ephesians 4, verse 30. And don't grieve God's Holy Spirit, for you were sealed by him for the day of redemption. There's that word again, sealed by him. Now, this scripture is a little bit of an interesting one because this again is written to Christians. And what the instruction there at the first part is, and don't grieve God's Holy Spirit. You see, as Christians, the Holy Spirit takes up permanent residence in our hearts, but we still struggle with sin, which means we can grieve the Holy Spirit. I want to tell you a quick story about this. My wife, Liz. Uh, part of her story sounds like this. She, at a young age, made a decision to be a Christ follower in her elementary days. And I believe that was an absolute, genuine decision to be a Christ follower. And at that young age she was baptized. I believe when she made that decision to be a Christ follower, the Holy Spirit came and took up permanent residence in her heart. Now, many things happened in her life, there were several situations, scenarios that led her in her college days to really walking away from those things that she believed, trying to push away from those things, acting in a way that didn't line up with. With what it meant to be a Christian, to be a Christ follower. But I would say absolutely and emphatically to you that the Holy Spirit didn't pack up shop and be like, Well, I'm out of here, I'm done with this. That would actually make sense that he would do that, but he didn't. He stayed with her, even though she was pushing him to the very corners of her heart, to the very corners of her soul, trying to silence him with all this stuff she was acting out in. She allowed the Holy Spirit to, well, she didn't allow the Holy Spirit, he was there, and he continued to speak truth to her, even if it was just a whisper in her heart, saying, I love you. Come back. I love you. Eventually, praise God, that voice broke through in her life. And at a moment, God radically changed her and brought her back to a place of health and a place of relationship, a place where the Holy Spirit wasn't just this little ember in the corner of her heart, but was allowed to have reign and control in her life again. And I've got to see God just doing incredible things through her life. That's a part of her testimony. And the reason I tell you that this morning is because even when we are faithless, God is faithful. And the Holy Spirit will stay with us forever. That is something that we can absolutely take to the bank. I love this thought that the Holy Spirit indwells us, but there's actually even another one that's really cool too. He doesn't just indwells us, he fills us. He fills us, or another way that some people call it is he infills us. That indwelling that we talked about a minute ago, that's a one-time deal. Good for the rest of eternity. The infilling is actually different in that it's a continual process. This is a clear instruction that we have from God, that we are to be filled by the Holy Spirit. I don't know if you remember if you were here a couple of weeks ago, but we ended our message talking about Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18. And the instruction there is emphatically clear. Again, it's to Christian. It says to be filled by the Holy Spirit, to allow him to have reign and freedom and control in our lives. Now I just need to make a side note here because I know that this idea of filling has been misused or hijacked in the past or even in the present by some circles or some faiths. And there's talk about different words about filling of the Spirit, like this extra bonus type thing that happens, or there's there's talks of talk about baptism of the Holy Spirit, which that is a concept, but it's misused in several ways. You see, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is something that happens at the moment of conversion. When you accept Christ into your heart, into your life, the Holy Spirit immerses you in himself. You are baptized in that moment by the Holy Spirit. It isn't some extra bonus Christian thing that you do. And so to be filled with the Spirit, what that means is to rather say, God, all of my life is yours. Would you fill every fiber, every member of my being? God, would you use me for your glory? 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19 says this, and don't you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, you are not your own. You are bought at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. This scripture clearly tells us that our body is the home or the temple of the Holy Spirit. And therefore we must glorify God with our bodies. The infilling of the Holy Spirit is a day by day, moment by moment, surrender to the plans and purposes of God in our lives. And when we live in a space where we allow him to fill us, or we say, God, my life is yours, all of me is yours, when we allow him to do that, some really awesome stuff starts to happen in our lives. If you want to read examples of that, look at the book of Acts. If you go to the book of Acts, all throughout it, you see examples of people being filled or full of the Holy Spirit. And all of these people, by the way, are people who are already indwelt by the Holy Spirit. If you go to Acts 4, Peter is filled as he speaks to the leaders of Jews by the Holy Spirit. Acts 6, we have the story of how Stephen is selected to help the disciples. And then Acts chapter 7, he is actually put to death by the Jews. But as that's happening, he's filled by the Spirit and looks up and sees Jesus at the right hand of God. If you look at Acts chapter 9, Paul is prayed for by this man, and they ask for the Holy Spirit to fill him. Acts 11, Barnabas is full of the man, full of the Spirit. Acts 13, Paul is filled with the Spirit. You get the idea. Throughout the scriptures, we are encouraged as Christians to surrender our lives and to be filled by the Spirit. And when this happens, some really cool stuff starts to happen. I'll give you an example. A number of years ago, we were in Mexico on a mission trip, and our team was there, and as we do pray every day, especially when we're on a mission trip, we were praying as a team together and saying, God, would you use us for your glory today? God, would you lead us? Would you guide us? Would you help us to have the conversations with the people we need to? Show us how to love for and to pray for and to serve the people that we're going to interact with. We went out that day, we're on the outskirts of Cancun in this really terrible living situation type place. Like it's it's a slum, basically. And we're out there on this edge of town, and we come across this American lady, and we get to talking to her, and she's in this horrible situation. You know where she originally was from and where her home was, and she was trapped in Mexico, but her home was on East Slaughter Lane, just up the road here. We're a church from this area, meeting this lady who's trapped there and going through this horrible situation, legal situation with her husband and her kids, and they're in this dire straits, they're in a bad situation. And in this moment, God by his Holy Spirit leads us to connect with this lady, to pray for her, to serve her, and actually support her. How cool is that? I'm just telling you that when we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us, to lead us and to guide us, some really cool things begin to happen. That's the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So, what is the result? We've started to talk about this of his drawing, his indwelling, and his filling in our lives. He when this happens, he works for our good and for our glory. As we allow him to not just draw us and not just indwell us, but to fill us, he begins to work for our good and for his glory. Couple of quick thoughts here. The Holy Spirit, as he does all of this stuff, begins to sanctify us. That's a Christian word to say that he helps us to look more and more like Jesus. Romans chapter 8 tells us, and if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then the he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his spirit who lives in you. Basically saying God is going to be able to help you become more and more like him and to bring glory to him through your life. He doesn't just sanctify us, he also stirs us. We've already talked about this a little bit. We've talked about how he led our team that day in Mexico, or how he was stirring Liza's heart to come back to him, or how he was stirring people even in baptism the other day. That's part of his work. He gives guidance. As we read his word, he illuminates God's word to us. As we have things in our lives that we pray about, he gives us guidance in those things. He is the counselor, the helper. John 14, Jesus again talking about the Holy Spirit, said, And I will ask the Father, and He will give another counselor to be with you forever. By the way, there we see the Trinity again. Jesus is praying, praying to the Father, asking for the counselor of the Holy Spirit to come. He gives us gifts, spiritual gifts. Come back next week. We will talk about that, I promise. He intercedes for us. Romans 8, 26 and 27 tells us that. He produces fruit in our lives. Man, I wish I had time to go into all of these things. Galatians 5 tells us about the fruit of the Spirit. As we surrender to God and as we are filled by God, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, all of those things begin to be manufactured in our lives. I got to see this in a very active living way recently. We had our kids' clubs. And as I was out at our kids' clubs, I got to visit around all the different kids' clubs and check on them and see how everybody was doing. And as I did that, I got to see all different people of our church using their giftings, being filled by the Holy Spirit to love and to serve the community. I'd look across and I'd see somebody praying over somebody they'd just met, somebody who was in need. I'd look across a different direction and I'd see somebody loving and serving a kid. As I got to see Becca Robinson and Vanessa Houston, as those guys were like leading out and serving, I got to see them using their gifts. God's gifted those ladies to lead out and to do the things that they were doing in those clubs. I just want to encourage you today that what the Holy Spirit offers us is awesome. It's power, peace, direction, spiritual gifts, assurance of our salvation. So why then will we not live in complete and utter surrender to the Holy Spirit? We struggle to surrender to the Holy Spirit because of our flesh. What is our flesh? It's a term used to describe our carnality, our fallenness, our sin nature, our bentness towards sin. We are all predisposed or inclined towards sin. Psalms 14 is quoted in Romans 3. Both of them say the same thing. There is no one who does good, not even one. There's no loopholes here. No Christian, no human being who has ever lived has been good. Not one. Outside of Jesus, nobody has been good. Our flesh is what draws us away from God. It's what wrestles with God's Spirit. There is this struggle going on daily, life by the flesh versus life by the spirit. And this struggle is talked about many places in Scripture. This isn't just some random concept that I'm coming up with for us to talk about this morning. Go to Romans 8 and we'll look at it. I really do want to ask you to move to Romans 8. I know we're going all over the scriptures this morning, but this is a good one to read together. Romans chapter 8, and we'll look at verse 12. Verse 12 says this. So then, brothers, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. That's pretty clear. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. All those led by God's Spirit are God's sons. The instruction there in verse 13, I don't know if you saw it, but it said to put to death the deeds of the body and you will live. And if you're anything like me, you hear that and you're like, put to death the deeds of the body and you will live. Put to death the deeds of the body. Okay. Okay. And I start to think about, okay, how can I do that? And we start thinking about ways that we can try harder to work against our flesh. You know, I'm going to be a better person. I'm going to prove myself to God. But that's utterly and emphatically missing the point. Look at the whole sentence with me again. And include the all-important first few words on that sentence in verse 13. It says, But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. This isn't something we do on our own. The point I'm making to you is this: the Holy Spirit is the one who enables and empowers us to live by the Spirit. It's a cyclical thing. We need the Spirit to live by the Spirit. It's only by His grace that we can be the people and live the lives that He's called us to live. All that you and I bring to the table in this whole equation is surrender. It's a life submitted to the Holy Spirit. And that sounds like something that should be pretty simple to say, yeah, God, here's my life, but it's not, right? It's not easy for us to say, God, here's my life. All of it. It's yours. We're so attached to it. And this is where we can and should draw great hope and joy from the person and work of Jesus. We see in Jesus the battle between spirit and flesh played out on an epic scale. You see, Jesus was fully God and fully man. That's a mystery for another day. We're not going to explore that one right now. But I will say this quickly. We see his humanity in that he got hungry, tired, sad, angry, and burdened. At the same time, we see his divinity, the fact that he was God, in that none of these issues, none of these struggles with his humanity, he sinned. You see, Jesus lived in perfect submission to God. He was led completely, 100%, by the Spirit. And I'm telling you this this morning because I think Jesus helps us in two very, very, very important ways. The first way that Jesus helps us is that he is the perfect example of submission. I don't know about you, but I struggle to say, yeah, God, all of my life is yours. Absolutely every area. I can say that, but really meaning that and living that is hard. And in those struggles, in those particular areas that I struggle to give to him, whether that's my parenting or our finances or whatever that may be, I struggle to give those things to God. I can look to Jesus and see in him an example of what it looks like to live in submission to God. He understands us in that. He understands the struggle. You guys may think it was easy for him, it wasn't. There he was in the garden, getting ready to go to the cross, right? We've talked about this a lot of times, but it's important to realize he's there in the garden and he says, God, if possible, take this cup from me, but not my will be done, yours. And we see him going to the cross, submitting to the Holy Spirit, to the Holy Spirit's leading and guiding. And what happens is he gives us the perfect example of what submission looks like. Not only that, the second way that we we draw hope and joy from Jesus is in this. That he gives us a means by which we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us in the first place. What I'm trying to say is that the Holy Spirit could not take up residence inside of the heart of humans before the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Does that make sense? Think about it with me this morning. Before Jesus was on the scene, before Jesus died and ascended, was raised to life and ascended to be with the Father, the Holy Spirit didn't indwell people. This is a new thing that you and I get to experience. It's awesome that we get to experience that. So not only does Jesus give an example of how to submit to the Spirit, he was the one who enabled us to have the Spirit come and live inside of us. That should be a great source of joy for us today as we dwell on that and as we think about that. Once again, we're not the heroes of this story. Jesus is the hero because he demonstrated living a life by the Spirit and enabled the Spirit to come and to have relationship with us. Now, my goal in preaching this morning was not to give you guys a theological lecture on the Holy Spirit. My goal was to actually increase our knowledge and belief in the Holy Spirit so that our worship and submission would increase. That's the goal of today. It's not so that you can sit here and go, oh yeah, okay, cool. The Holy Spirit, I get it a bit better. That's not the point. The point is that this would actually transfer into worship and transfer into submission. The goal is for us to surrender our lives completely to the work of the Holy Spirit. And to that point, I've got one last scripture I want to point you towards. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. And in verse 16 through 19, we're given some instructions. Again, this is to Christians. We're told, verse 16, rejoice always. Pray constantly, give thanks in everything, for this is God's will for your lives in Christ Jesus. Verse 19, don't stifle the spirit. Don't stifle the spirit. That word stifle, if you look that up and dig into the meaning there, what it means is to put out a fire. Another word used in some translations is to quench the spirit. Don't quench, don't stifle, don't smother the Holy Spirit. Don't push him into a corner of your life, but allow him to have rule and to have reign and to have control and freedom in your life to fill every fiber of your being. That is the instruction. And so I want to ask you this morning this one last question. How are you stifling the Holy Spirit? How are you stifling the Holy Spirit today? If you're not a believer in Jesus, if you're here and you're exploring faith, I would say that you are stifling the Holy Spirit by not allowing him to come and to make your heart his home. He wants to come and indwell you, to empower you, to help you, and to be with you, to seal you for the rest of your life, like we've talked about. And it sounds, I know it sounds kind of crazy, it sounds kind of weird, but that's what he does. He wants to, he's drawing your heart. And even as I'm talking right now, I'm gonna be praying and saying, hoping that some of you in this room are feeling a tugging in your heart. That is the Holy Spirit working in your heart and saying, hey, listen, this is for you to hear this morning. The instruction throughout the text to us is that all that we need to do is to believe in our hearts, confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, that God raised him from the dead, and we will be saved. If that happens this morning for you, you can be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, sealed for the rest of eternity today. How cool is that? My prayer is that someone or that several of you would make that decision today. In the time of response we're about to have, I would encourage you, just pray a prayer and say, God, I want to surrender my life to you. You can even say, I don't know what that fully means, but I do. I want to give my life completely to you. And I believe in that moment the Holy Spirit can and will take up permanent residence inside of you. How cool is that? If you pray that prayer, come and tell me. You need to share that. That's an awesome decision. That's a big thing to do. Come and tell me or tell somebody that you brought you along to church. That is awesome. And I would encourage that today. Don't live another day quenching or stifling the Holy Spirit. If you are a believer, remember that the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. Have you stopped to consider that recently? Have you thought about, wow, the Holy Spirit is living inside of me? He's been with me every moment of this week and this year. He's seen everything that you've watched, he's heard everything that you've said, he's been present with you because the Holy Spirit resides inside of you. Have you been quenching him? Have you been stifling him, or have you been asking him to take reign and control and to fill you? You can stifle his work. And so my question to you, believer, to myself today, is how are we doing that? And be specific. Are there areas that we're quenching the Holy Spirit? What areas are those that we're not submitting to God? Is it our marriages that are managed by our flesh or our parenting or our job situation, our finances, our singleness, our sickness, our fill-in-blank, our struggle, our past, our history, our relationship that has exploded? I don't know what it is for you. But I know that we all struggle with our flesh. Remember that scripture from Psalms that says, There is no one who is good, not even one. We all struggle with our flesh. Believer, how are you struggling? What is not submitted to the Lordship of Jesus today? My prayer is that we would bring every area of our life into the lordship and governance of the Holy Spirit. Coming back to our very first thought. There is no way to live the Christian life without the fuel of the Holy Spirit. I absolutely believe that. I'm convinced of that. And so my charge to us is that we would give the Holy Spirit freedom in our lives to not just be a faint little spark in the corner of our beings, but to rather be a fire that consumes us in every shape, way, and form. Not just on Sunday when you're here at church, but when you're in your neighborhood talking to your neighbor, when you're getting your day started, as you're going to sleep, may the Holy Spirit have reign and control in our lives. May we allow him to fan into flame his work. Think about Pentecost with me. Pentecost was the moment when the Holy Spirit was first unleashed to indwell the lives of Christians. Jesus had ascended into heaven. He said, Hey guys, my followers, my disciples, I want you to wait for the Holy Spirit. You'll know when he comes. They're there praying. And as they're praying, this building is like literally shaken by the wind of the Holy Spirit rushing into that place. And as the Holy Spirit comes, tongues of fire are visually seen on the heads of people. That was a visual representation of what was going on in the inside of all of these believers. There was a fire ablaze in their hearts as they were giving reign and control and being filled by the Holy Spirit. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit would have freedom in our lives and in our church so that he can work for our good and for his glory in the same way. That we would say, God, we want you. We need you in every single area today. So my challenge to us is that we would surrender to him. Let me pray for us. God. It really does sound simple. That we just need to surrender our lives, our flesh, our struggles to you, and that you would come and fill those cracks and crevices in our hearts. And that you would work for our good and for your glory. That sounds so simple, but God, the reality of surrendering, prying our fingers that are wrapped so tightly over different areas and parts of our lives, is actually really hard. And like we talked about from that verse in Romans 8, God, we cannot do that by ourselves. We need your Holy Spirit to actually enable us to release ourselves to your spirit. And so, God, essentially what we're praying for this morning is for a miracle, is for the miracle of your spirit to work among us, to stir our hearts, to relinquish control of every area of our lives. God, for Christians and non-Christians alike in this room this morning, I pray that your Holy Spirit would have freedom to work. God, we've reflected on all that you offer us through the Holy Spirit, and we say it is good. And we want it. We want you to not just draw our hearts, to not just indwell us, but to actually fill us and produce fruit in our lives. So, God, we just say we're open to your Holy Spirit moving this morning in our lives, right across this room. Would you have your way? Would you do your work in our lives? And not just this morning, but on through this week, through this month, and through this year. May you work in our hearts and in our lives and in this church and in the churches of this city and across this globe, God, for your glory. May it not be about us, may it be about you. Thank you. Thank you, Holy Spirit, that you're here dwelling inside of us. We give you freedom to work. We ask you to work. Thank you. Amen.