Yes, thank you to our Reformation Bell Choir for leading us in worship, getting us thinking about the fact that it is well with our soul, even on a cloudy and rainy morning. The Bible says God sends rain on the just and the unjust and believe it or not, that's a good thing because it takes rain to bring the crops and God is merciful and gracious and he cares for us. We're here today out of a part of gratitude to worship our great God and King. If you're visiting with us this morning, we're so glad that you're here to worship with us at First Presbyterian Church. If you would, find the friendship and visitor register, you'll find them in the pews, a blue pad and pass that along. W-2 kids will be meeting tonight at 5.30 in the choir room so take note of that. The W-2 kids will be meeting tonight at 5.30 in the choir room and we have one more important announcement related to the life of our church bill underwood is going to come and let us know the particulars of the Deacon's budget this morning. Good morning. You know, when somebody stands up here and says it's not about the money, what do you think? Well, folks, it's about the money today. So now you figure out what I want to talk about. We met last Monday with the we the budget committee and proposed a budget to the officers of the church and both sessions of the Deacon and the session did approve a budget. By the way, you should have been given or have access to this flyer that's out there having to do with this year's budget. I'm not going to read it to you, but I'm going to hit you some high points. We substantially met all the ministry team requests. I'm not saying we met every line item, but in the whole, we met the ministry team budgets and some of those line items we're still working on. The personnel cost actually went down because last year we had some transition. We have eliminated one the pastoral position, the executive pastor. We added, of course, the administrator last year and we still have a position in there for a new pastor, which has been in there all year. And he still has not been called. The people that go out and do this are actively working to add a pastoral staff. There are some some reasonable pay increases. I had to say out there more like modest. What we tried to do was to put enough money in each employee's pocket because of our health insurance. Their portion of it increased as it did greatly for the church. And it is greatly for everybody, including churches. So we tried to put at least enough money and the employees pocket so they're not going backward. We were able to increase outreach. We had a significant increased investment in Camp Vesper point. They have some, some much needed repairs up there and Tim Bond is, is now full time. So his salary was adjusted to be a full time person, promote the camp. We're looking for great things out of Camp Vesper point. This brochure actually says supporting operations went down slightly. They really met personnel because supporting operations went up. And that was because of the repairs that go on. I mean, this is the Lord's house and the Lord's house has to be maintained. It's an old facility. But it's a wonderful facility and we were stewards of having to take care of that. We also have continued what we call a contingency fund. And I came up with a better word. I think it's an opportunity fund because we set aside some money for things that are unknown, but those could be very positive. There could be some ministry opportunities that wouldn't be in the budget. And we can't stand around and scratch our heads and say, well, we can't do that. It's not in the budget. So we want to be able to really react. And that's part of being missional. And you know, Ben Hayden told me a long time ago, I go back a long way. He said a church that is not missional. It's not a church. And you know, over the last four years, we've increased the budget about 10%. And I just have to feel like in my heart that we have grown that 10% because we are missional. And we're doing what God wants us to do. So next week, we're going to talk about stewardship. And these cards, there's a card in an envelope or in the fuse. If you feel so moved to fill those out, you know, the quicker we get pledges in, unless you have to see of us up here talking about it. But, you know, these pledges are not a contract with our church. They're a faith pledge. And if you make that pledge and you can't pay it, then you'll trust me. The church isn't going to send out, you know, send it to collection or something. This is a faith pledge and budgets are are meant as an operating tool for the church. These pledges help us see where we are and what to expect. And if you'd like to submit a pledge card without even your name on it, just do that. And George and Darren will talk to you about that next week. But I don't think I said this budget we're in right now ends the end of this month. It was two million three ninety five. Our new new budget. We're proposing two million four fifty. And you can see how it breaks down between the ministry teams. And we just ask for your support and, you know, both in finances and effort and prayer. Thank you. Thank you, Bill. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to be your people here at First Presbyterian Church to make plans to sense your call and your mission and to be involved in your kingdom work. We thank you that the budget is nothing more than people coming together and trying to plan for that. We know that if you're not in it, nothing will be accomplished. We ask for your blessing on these plans. And we also pray that you would raise up willing hearts to support this work and give us the ability to do that. We pray this in Jesus name. And now let's prepare our hearts for worship. Amen. Let's stand for God's call for our worship. Don't know where you are this morning with the Lord. Maybe you're here and you're weary. Maybe you're here and you're wondering. Maybe you're here and you're just lost. But we invite you this morning and our call the worship in Psalm 139 that you can never flee from the presence of the living God. So I ask you to read responsibly with me with confidence in this God who is always with us. Where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence? Even there in your hands shall leave me and in your right hand shall hold me. If I say to show you the darkness shall come to me and the light of our evil eye, he too in the darkness does not hurt you too. The night is bright today or darkness is life with you. When you form my inner parts, you communicate together with my mother's wife. I praise you. I am fearfully and wonderfully hurt. My soul knows it very well. Jesus, we do ask that your spirit would this morning fall fresh upon your people. Lord, we come and we celebrate and we adore the accomplished work of Jesus Christ. And we are grateful that you have not left us to ourselves but you have given us your spirit to take the very work of Christ and throughout redemptive history, apply it to the hearts of your people. Lord, we praise you and adore you for you are God who is always with us who will never leave us or forsake us. You know, as very present this morning in the person of your spirit or we magnify your name and we thank you for sending that seed that would crush the head of Satan. The Alpha in the Omega. We praise his name this morning in Jesus name. Amen. A few minutes, but we have opportunity now to confess our using that which is central to what we believe. And so I ask you, Christian, what do you believe? I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ is only Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified dead and buried. He descended into hell, the third day he arose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and siteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen. Please be seated. For a confession of sin, our corporate confession of sin, I'm going to be reading the first portion of Romans 7, 14 through 24. Please follow along silently, meditate on these words, and then you will respond responsibly at the end before we have a time of silent confession. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what is right but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want, is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Father we come to you this morning admitting that we wrestle and we struggle with sin and yet we thank you. Thanks be to Jesus Christ who gives us the victory ever sin and so we come to you this morning and now we pray silently to you confessing our sins to you. Life and death on the cross if we come to him in faith confessing our sins that you are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness in Jesus name. They sang our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thine name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our deaths as we forgive our debtors and lead us not in the temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. As our children are dismissed the children's worship let's spread a little bit of that fellowship along this morning by greeting one another. Let's go again to our great God in prayer this morning. Father we thank you that you care deeply for us not because we're great not because we're good but because you have simply chose to set your affection on us and we are the recipients of incredible grace and mercy and gifts. And yet we come to you this morning as people with needs you have called on us even commanded us to go to you and pray to you as a Father and so we come to you as our Father in heaven admitting that we are weak that we have physical needs among us. So we pray for Maxine Shirak we pray for Curtis Smith and his family we pray for Bill Shelton and Shirley messenger Ken Simons and Richard Bonner. Sharon underdown Joe Mosier and Jason Belcher Joyce rich and so many others that we don't even have time to mention in our church that are undergoing various kinds of physical and health difficulties. We pray that you would give them a sense of your presence by your Holy Spirit that they would know that you are with them that you will never leave them and never forsake them. We pray Father that you would also heal them physically and we pray that you would even prompt us as your congregation to meet those needs where we're able to do so through the gifts that you have given us already. We pray for our honor roll for those who are unable to be here with us today and we pray that as they're in their homes and in their apartments that you would give them strength and encouragement and that you would give them fellowship fellowship of your Holy Spirit and fellowship from your church family. We pray for those that are struggling economically vocationally that you would meet their needs the needs of the unemployed or the under employed. We pray that you would intervene in families that are hurting that you would give wisdom and grace and much more that you would just directly intervene and bless these families. We pray that you would be with us as a congregation and as people visiting here today who have various spiritual needs as we wrestle with the world, the flesh and the devil, that as we feel the onslaughts, the spiritual slings and arrows that you would protect us, that we would run to you as our power, as our strength, as our fortress and that we would find you to be that strong tower as you promised Father. Even prompt us by your Spirit to go to you in prayer and to cry out for your aid and I pray that you would help us not simply in defensive ways but that as we have been given gifts by you by your Holy Spirit and gifts in other ways that we would proactively be spurred on by you, your Spirit, your Word, to work for your kingdom's sake. We encourage us Father in that battle and in that fight and in that opportunity, in that mission that we have. Most of all, let us know how much you love us, let us know deep in our hearts that our relationship with you is based not upon how good we are, not based on our performance but based on what Jesus Christ has done perfectly on our behalf and his perfect life, his death on the cross. Father, may we more and more fully live out that trust that we have in your Son Jesus Christ and may we know it with confidence through the work of your Holy Spirit. And because of this Father, we come to you this morning and we give back to you a portion of what you've given to us. We do it as an act of worship and we give it as an act of faith that you would use this and bless these gifts for your kingdom's sake. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. I don't know if you long to be nearer to God, but it's exactly where our passage is today. We kind of live in this world of the already, right? The the truths of Christ, redemption has been bought and paid for through the blood of Christ and then not yet of wow along to be near to see my Savior face to face. We live in that tension this morning before we read God's word, I want to just lay for you the context of our passage and really it is a passage in which Jesus is comforting his disciples who are going to long to be nearer to their Savior. And John 14 is kind of this closing discourse, if you will, where Jesus is having some final words with his disciples because something is about to happen. He's about to be arrested, betrayed, flagged, crucified on a cross, spit upon and mocked and then died and buried in a tomb. And he leaves his disciples with these words and they can't help but begin to be fearful. They can't help but wonder, we've spent three years with Jesus, a very close friend and our good shepherd and Jesus has been throwing out phrases like these. Where I'm going, you cannot come. Let not your hearts be troubled. I go and prepare a place for you. I'm going to the Father. I'm going away. I will no longer talk much with you. Greater love has no one in this that someone lays down his life for his friends and Jesus says to his disciples, you're my friends. It is no longer your advantage that I go away because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer. Could you imagine you're there in that room and you spent this time with Jesus and you begin hearing these phrases and you're wondering, what is about to occur? The very one we've loved so deeply is that that's not be with us. You imagine if Jesus says to them, got him gathered in the room and he just kind of comes over to him and he says, my disciples, may the force be with you and he departs. Do you imagine if Jesus did that? Or maybe he says, I will send something that will make you feel better. It is going to be a great power that you can tap into at any time. Jesus said those words, you might leave the room going, man, that's really cool. I'm going to get like Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi is going to be communicating to me now. How awesome will this be? Well, I'm glad that Jesus did not say any of those words. But he said, and I am going to send another helper, the person of the Holy Spirit, not in it, not a force, not a conscience, not a mystical thing, but the very person, the third person of the trying God. Let's stand for the reading of God's word. Found in John 14, starting in verse 16. And I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you, yet a little while in the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live, you also will live. In that day, you will know that I am in my Father and you and me and I and you. This is the word of the Lord. Maybe seated. We're just really going to march our way through this text, very simply explaining it. Very too, very easy and clear points this morning. Who is the Holy Spirit and what does He do? Can't get much more simple than that, even though it's complex. Who is the Holy Spirit? You know, like I said, it's this kind of this improper understanding that we often confuse the Spirit with a what or an it, or this magical force or this conscience of mind. This mystical thing that we can't quite put our hands on, it's somewhat explainable if you think about in Scripture, the Spirit is the one in Genesis 1 that's hovering over the waters. The Spirit is the one who empowers the prophets and the kings and the judges and those throughout redemptive history. The Spirit is the one who comes upon the Virgin Mary and impregnates her with the Son of God. The Spirit is the one who descends like a dove on Jesus said his baptism. And the Spirit in Acts at Pentecost is the one who has tongues of fire rests above the heads of the disciples and you hear all that and you kind of come to a logical understanding. It's hard to put our finger on the person of the Holy Spirit. Who is He? He is infinite. He's eternal. And he's unchangeable. He is God. God is Spirit and has not a body like man. The Holy Spirit here is defined by Jesus as one who is referred to as another helper. You may have seen the title another paraclete in your bulletin. It's not referring to a soccer player who's going to get another pair of cleats. It is actually the Greek term for the helper, the comforter, the keeper, the counselor, however your Bible translates it, the Greek is paraclete. And it says there that the paraclete is one who is called alongside of to help. The one who's called alongside us to help is kind of who is this Holy Spirit? He's the one that Jesus comes and comforts his disciples in this upper room and he says there's going to be one that comes alongside you to help. He's going to be an advocate for you. He's going to be one who stands in your place, right? He kind of get the picture of a courtroom. There's many of you in here that maybe a practice lawyer and currently lawyers in a courtroom, you have a lawyer who stands before the one who is giving a defense. And that person, that lawyer is acting as an advocate for you on behalf of standing before the judge. That is the sense in which you get this helper, this paraclete who's coming alongside you, assisting, helping, comforting, nurturing all along. This is not the one that will maybe be distant from you, that will kind of be far off from you, but it's very intimate person of Jesus. This term, another helper is a very intimate term that Jesus is using for disciples that had to be under incredible duress of what they were getting ready to face. And Jesus says, I want you to find great encouragement that there's another helper that will be with you, and that will be with you forever, as he says. The spirit is the one who proceeds from the father and the son. The spirit is the one who is the, if you look in verse 26, the helper in chapter 14, the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send to my name. Later on in chapter 15, he says, when the helper comes, who I will send to you, from the father, the spirit of truth, who proceeds from the father. He will bear witness about me. And chapter 16, he says, I will send him to you. The Holy Spirit is not separate, right? We believe in a trying God, father, son, and Holy Spirit equal and power and glory and honor and majesty forever and ever. The spirit is the one who takes the election of the father, who before the foundation of the world said, I am going to redeem a people for myself. And the son says, I am going to go carry out and accomplish that work for you, father. And the spirit comes along and says, I am going to apply the redeemed accomplished work of Christ to the hearts of your chosen people. See, there's this seamless transition. I have a little bit of a weird quirk. You music quirk guys will appreciate this. I have this weird quirk about seamless transitions and music and in worship services. And when we did the summer worship service last summer, I was always kind of working on like, how do we get seamless transitions between things? So it doesn't feel so wooden. And so we feel like worship is just one kind of gigantic flow. And really, I don't know where that comes from. This is this weird quirk of mine. But I also understand that God, the father, before the foundation of the world, when he's making this covenant of redemption with the son and the Holy Spirit, that redemptive history is one gigantic, seamless transition. There's no point in which we hit this and hit a point in history where God cannot be found. There's no point in history where God is not at work, whether it's God, the father at work, or whether it's the age of the son being here, or now we're in the age of the spirit. There's never going to be a day where the trying God is not at work in his creation. That's a great hope and courage in our days. And I think it's why when you come to our 16, a word that maybe you just gloss over because you've read this many times or maybe it's the first time you've heard it. And it mentions the word another helper, another one. So it's implying that there's been a helper before. And so when he mentions another helper, it makes us think, okay, this word perically, where else does this word perically? Where else do we find this in the New Testament? Well, we find it throughout John is kind of using it, especially in 14 to 17, these chapters of John exploring and explaining the Holy Spirit and the paraclete, but we also find it in 1 John chapter 2, verse 1, where Jesus is called the advocate. Jesus is called the paraclete. The word advocate is translated there out of paraclete or helper. It could have some of your translations in 1 John may say helper. And it says this, my little children, these things are right to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous, or we have a paraclete with the father. Jesus was the other helper. Jesus was the one who's coming to his disciples and it comes to you today and he says, there's another helper for you. It wasn't just the earthly ministry of Jesus, but there's going to be someone else who comes and he's going to be the person of the Spirit and he's going to take the very works that I have done and he's going to continue them throughout history. So much so that Jesus says with incredible confidence that when I leave, it's going to be better for you because the helper is going to come and you will be able to do greater things than I have done. The Spirit explodes on the scene at Pentecost in Acts 2 and guess what? It's been like a massive snowball at the top of the hill that's been rolling through history every since. The Spirit is powerfully at work right now in your life right now in creation right now in his word. There's never a moment where God is not at work. It's the greatest presupposition of the reformed faith. God is always at work. Never forget that. You might be down in the deepest pith of your life right now. Everything possible that could go wrong has gone wrong. Be comforted by the reality that God is at work. You may be celebrating the greatest joy on the planet. You've had your first child. Maybe you're on the other end of the spectrum and your children are about to graduate and the nest is empty. Right. God is at work. Maybe you're pulling your hair out wondering what in the world is going to happen in the future. God is at work. I try to point this out and I encourage you to do the same. I'm not giving this as a model of perfection as a father at all. If you want to clear that out, just come sit at my house for an hour. Watch me. You all say, well, okay, I understand. But I try to do this with my children and every day when I'm driving them to school, I just say, look for God to be at work today. How do you see God at work? And then sometimes I forget most times I forget at the end of the day and ask them, how do you see God at work today? Whether it's in creation, right. It used to be a fisheries biologist and just the amazement of seeing Calvin talked about two books that we have. We have the Book of Creation and the Book of God's Word. And I love that I got to study the Book of Creation before I studied the Book of God's Word in seminary. And as a fisheries biologist, there's these things called Catastly larva that I'll spare you the technical name of those. They go and they live on the bottom of a stream and they're half an inch long. And they have this saliva that they secrete out of their mouths. And what they do is they go along the bottom and they'll grab a hold of a tiny little pebble and they'll grab it in their mouth and it's to create some kind of glue type substance. And then they'll grab another stone and they'll glue that together. And then what they do is they start building this little, this little glued together rock house. And then when they get it all put together in this little tiny tube, they'll back themselves into it and close it up. And then they'll go through metamorphosis and turn into a catastly hatch out of the river. But it's just this amazing picture of the details that is that tiny little insect that right now is going through that process as we sit in this room is God at work. If he cares that much from using Jesus's phrase about the sparrows, if he cares that much about a catastly, how much more is he care for you? How much more is he at work in your life? God is always at work. The spirits roll look back with me at the text. Another helper, right? Jesus the advocate, the continuing work, the Holy Spirit is this continuing work of our union with Christ, right? It kind of had this picture of this glorious union that we have with Christ. Look at verse 17. Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. This title, Spirit of truth, right? We get into the aspect now our second point of what does the Spirit do? Now that we know who he is, the infinite eternal and changeable God who is continuing the work of Jesus Christ, sees this paraclete, this helper, and what does he do? What does the Spirit do in your life? If he really is at work, well there's a clear picture here when he says, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. The Spirit of truth, I believe Jesus is talking about when he looks out at the world and he sees that there's those that do not believe, and he knows that they don't see and he calls in the Spirit of truth, the reality is that the Spirit of truth is the one who brings about sight to the blind. He calls him the Spirit of truth because the Spirit of truth is the one who regenerates, the one who regenerates our hearts. It's a picture in Ezekiel. It's pictured in Ezekiel chapter 11, where it says this, I will remove a heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Now a heart of stone, we may be sitting here this morning and we're not thinking about the work of the Spirit in this way, but the reality is all of us at some point in our lives have had a heart of stone. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, and Jesus puts it this way, Ezekiel puts us a heart of stone being turned into a heart of flesh, and Jesus puts it this way that no one comes to the Father or no one comes to me unless the Father draws him. No one comes to me unless the Father draws him. How does the Father draw through the work of His Spirit? And the term there draw literally means drag. So picture yourself, why would it mean drag? Because here we are spiritually dead. No one seeks God, no one looks for God, no one is righteous, no not even one. We're spiritually dead. And the picture of the Father drawing is that He sends His Spirit to drag our cold, hard, dead heart. Drags us because we have to be dragged. Because the Spirit doesn't over your going, come on, please come to the Father, will you please? I'm just going to throw you a life ring, all you've got to do is grab onto it. Please just grab it. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that we're laying dead over there and the Spirit comes and grabs us, drags us to the Father and breathes life into us. That is regeneration. That is the work of the Spirit. And if you're here this morning and your faith is in Jesus Christ, at some point in the history of your life, there was a heart of stone sitting on this pulpit and the sledgehammer of the Holy Spirit took the sledgehammer and you went bam! And cracked your heart open. And you saw, I'm a sinner. And I'm separated from God. And I don't even seek after Him. Holy Spirit, thank you for opening my eyes. See, sometimes I think we get it backwards. We think, if I just believe then the Spirit will come in and take me to the Father. The Scripture is teaching. You don't have the ability to believe unless the Spirit brings life first. That's what Scripture teaches us. First Peter says, we are made alive in the Spirit. Job 33 says, the Spirit of God has made me and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. John 663, it is the Spirit who gives life. Romans 8, 10, 11, but if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. And then second Corinthians 36, if we don't believe that the Spirit brings life can't be much more clearer than second Corinthians 36, it just simply says the Spirit gives life. Without the Spirit, your heart would never be broken. You would never understand. You would never come to faith in Jesus Christ. The job of the Holy Spirit as redemptive history rolls is to slowly but surely find hearts of stone and break them and make them into hearts of flesh. What great confidence we have to go and share the gospel. That Jesus would use us as a means by which to carry redemption, right? We're in this snowball with the Holy Spirit to carry redemption to other people. And that Jesus would use us. What a great privilege as a means by which for hearts to be broken. All right, I hope this morning, maybe you're here and your heart has been cold. It's kind of like a stone, if you will. Maybe it's time to just simply say, Holy Spirit, will you take your sledgehammer of truth about who Jesus is and what he has done for me and break my pride for heart? They would have the arrogance to say, I don't need a helper. If that's you this morning and you're being convicted of that, then Jesus is working as Ezekiel 11 into your heart. The Spirit of truth is changing the trajectory of your life right now. Maybe you're here this morning and you've already been regenerated. And you're asking, well, what purpose is the spirit fill in my life? All right, we all know the passage of the fruit of the spirits. Don't have time to spend there, but I want you to remember two things that the spirit's job is to unite you to Christ. And he creates this union between you and Christ. Look back at John 14 with me. And I want to ask you this question, how would you respond if you're in that upper room and Jesus says, you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. I just simply ask the question, do you know him? Notice the connections he makes. He's talking about the context of the spirit coming when he leaves. And he said, notice the interaction. It's hard to tell because he starts using words. The eyes can they interchange with is he talking about the spirit or is he talking about Jesus himself? Is he talking about the union of the Trinity kind of at work at the same time? He's talking about he's going to come to you. Is he talking about the spirit coming in verse 18. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. He had a little while the world sees will see me know more, but you will see me as you talk about the spirit. Or is he talking about his second coming? Is he talking about his resurrection? Well, I don't have a great answer for you because all the commentaries kind of go back and forth on this issue. I believe there's kind of a combination of the two. Let me think about the boldness of let me just give you an example. Because in verse, verse 20 says in that day, what days are you talking about? You will know that I am in my father and you and me and I and you. Is he talking about the resurrection? Is he talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2? All these kind of questions that are really hard to figure out in this text. Let me just give you an example and I think this might help explain in Acts chapter 2. Why do you think that the apostles went from ones who had denied Jesus who had run away when he's arrested and about to be crucified to all the sudden being the most bold preachers on the planet and quoted in Acts as saying the ones who would turn the world up. How is that possible? How is it possible that Peter wanted to deny Jesus would then give the first sermon and 3000 people would be cut to the heart and converted? How is that possible? Well, it's possible because both scenarios are true in this passage of belief. It's possible because they saw the resurrected Jesus Christ and it's possible because the power of the Holy Spirit continues the work of the resurrected Jesus Christ, semening it into our hearts, into their hearts, to give them boldness of speech to carry the church on. So, when you and I struggle as followers of Jesus, we read earlier, Romans 7, I love the honesty of Paul there, right? The honesty of Paul that says, the very thing I don't want to do, I keep on doing. I hope you can relate to that. The very thing that I hate, I find my flesh still wants to do it. There seems to be this apparent equal struggle between the Spirit and the flesh. But then when you go into chapter 8, Paul gives the answer. It kind of says, here's this equal struggle going on. What I do with this chapter 8, the essential message of the first part of chapter 8 in Romans is the Holy Spirit is winning. The Holy Spirit is winning. I want you to be encouraged this morning because if you're, if you're like me, sometimes you just struggle to get and to follow Jesus in the day to day and the struggles of life that just weigh so heavily, and you just wonder, you maybe hear me say that, I don't feel like the Spirit's winning, and I get that. I'm there. But I want us to know that there's a great importance of knowing the truth, that the Spirit of truth brings to remembrance, that there's a foundational truth under all the whirlwind of storms in our lives. The Holy Spirit is winning. And let me just close with this. There's some of you in here that kind of read this and resonate with it on an intellectual level. You're a thinker. There's others of you that are sitting here and you're going, I feel this. Everyone sitting in this room is a thinker or a feeler. Maybe your combination too. But we resonate to one side or the other. I'm a feeler. I can sit and watch a commercial about some baby or something or something and I'll just, I'll be over there like my kid. I don't like my kids. I'm like, I can tears away. You watch Frozen and you're like, oh, such a beautiful story. There's just these tears start rolling up. I'm such a softy, right? I feel deeply, I feel everything. Sometimes it gets me in trouble. And there there's the thinker. It's hard for me to relate because I'm not one because you're a thinker and you're always kind of thinking analytically about things. You kind of have things in neat categories all the time. You're able to operate on a pretty reserve level. Your emotions are like this all the time and you're kind of looking over at the feeler and you're going, are you a pregnant woman? What is going on with you? Your emotions are all over the place. Can't you ever just keep it together? Right? And then it may be maybe you're the feeler and you're looking across at the the thinker and you're going, could you please just feel something? You're just cold. Like, is there any emotion in you? Right? We have this tension between us all the time. And I think it's good to know, first of all, that those two exist. Because not one is not better than the other. Aren't we glad that the Lord didn't make us all thinkers? I'm sure I'm glad that he didn't make us all feelers. No, we don't be booed all the time. All right? Lord has made us to be different for great reasons and he's given us, use those gifts greatly in different ways. So whichever category you're on, the point of all that is, is if you're a thinker, I love the fact that I can look at it. I can look at it. I can have a conversation with a thinker in the midst of my emotional basket case self. And they remind me of the truth. Feelings are great. Emotions are God-given. But we can't trust them. We have to always be undergirding our feeling and emotions with the spirit of truth. The spirit of truth says, later on in this chapter, he's the one that's going to teach us all things. He's the one that's going to bring to remembrance. And it's in the midst of the struggle, midst of the battle between the flesh and the spirit that Paul refers to, that have to be reminded. The spirit is winning. The spirit is winning. The spirit is winning in my life. God is always at work. Let's pray.
Lord, we worship you, the one who never slumbers nor sleeps. Lord, you never tire. You are always working, upholding, sustaining, showing mercy and grace and love that is flowing from rivers that will never end. O Lord Jesus, we praise you for your accomplished work. O spirit, we praise you for awakening our stone hearts, enabling us to believe. We magnify you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. We'll stand together and receive the Lord's benediction. Paul closes his letter to the Corinthians by saying, may the love of God the Father and the grace of Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.