Today's scripture reading is John 16 verse 13. Let's pray. God, thank you for this day that we can gather together to worship you. I pray that you would clear our minds from distractions of the past week and the coming week. God, please help us be attentive and give us ways that we can apply what we hear today. In your name I pray. Amen. Now we do want to begin with our scripture memory that we're starting, a new passage of scripture that we're gonna be memorizing together as a church, and possibly some of you have already memorized Matthew 5, 2 through 12, the Beatitudes. And so we're gonna say these together, and we're gonna begin, and we're gonna Finish verse two and three, and then we'll just continue reading together the remainder, and then every week, we will add a verse. So next week, we'll do verses two, three, and four. So say it with me. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. I don't know about you, but as a kid, I memorized this in the King James, and I keep wanting to change some of the words, and so maybe that's your, or maybe you didn't memorize it, you're just used to saying it, but Lord, we'll be able to say all this together here in a few months, verse by verse, and hopefully it'll just be instilled and ingrained in your hearts. as the scripture, because there may come a day where the physical word of God is taken away from us as citizens. And so you want to have the ingrained word of God written on your heart. Now, so far, we've spent a few weeks here In our time between books of the Bible and going through our three-year plan, a discipleship plan as far as what we're going to cover, and we're looking, it's been a few weeks on God the Father, a few weeks on God the Son, now we're looking at God the Holy Spirit. And so this is where we are in our study, and my prayer is that as we finish this up, we can walk away with a more godly and more abundant, more spirit-filled, more biblical more how Jesus intended us to live kind of experience as we walk out the spirit-filled life. So let's continue today by looking at how the Holy Spirit helps us. Now, and I kind of went over this pretty hard last week, but at salvation, God's spirit is given to each and every believer. Listen carefully here. None of us have more of God's spirit than the other. If you're a child of God, it doesn't matter. If you're a child of God, it doesn't matter. The Holy Spirit, the same amount, if we will, he is a person. And so the Holy Spirit is in every believer. And we see this in the scriptures, regardless of your age, your spiritual maturity, which I'm thankful to read that. Regardless of how long you've been a believer, the Holy Spirit of God is in your life. God lives in you. It's an incredible truth. Regardless of who you are, if you are a believer in Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit of God lives within you. Not more or less than any other person. So now you can live according to the Spirit more than someone else, but the Holy Spirit himself is not more or less present in your life. And so as we saw last week, Jesus told the disciples about the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. He says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. So what we see revealed here is that the Holy Spirit's desire is to make us witnesses, to make us living testimonies of Christ and his saving work in our life. We proclaim Christ for the remainder of our life, and we do so in the power of the Holy Spirit. And so that's our mission, and we looked at this last week, to glorify Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit being evident in all that we do. We are living witnesses Jesus Christ. So with that being said, here's what your life looks like now as a believer. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So you're a dead person now. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So this is sort of the essence of daily Christian living right here. Spirit-filled Christian living. You are a dead person. And what happens is Jesus has replaced his life for yours. And the great news is, along with our mission as we are witnesses, the Holy Spirit ministers to us in many ways because we are his children, we are the children of God, and the Holy Spirit is within us. He teaches us, he comforts us, he guides us, he helps us, he leads us. God has not left us alone to live the Christian life, but instead has said, I'm coming to live within you. And here's something I want us to see today, because there's a lot of believers who tend to miss this. To live as Christ desires for us to live, to be on mission, to be witnesses for Him, is not found in anything outside of Christ and the leading of the Spirit of God. Now here's what you don't do. Our mission is not found in some type of new theology. Our mission is not found in keeping the law. Our mission is not found in having high standards and conviction. Our mission is not found in making sure we don't do this and start doing that. It's found in a daily personal relationship with Jesus, which is built upon the word of God. And this is where I believe a lot of Christians miss it in their Christian walk. For some people, their understanding of Christianity consists of, well, what's Christianity? Well, it's a bunch of things I can do. I mean, I can't do, but a list of other things I'm supposed to do, which is really unfulfilling and ungodly when you understand what the scriptures teach about our relationship with the Lord. Our Christianity then becomes a bunch of rule-driven lifestyles. Now, hear me out on this. The purpose of our faith is not so that we can all of a sudden start living a moral, well-behaved life. The purpose of our faith is not to look holy. The purpose of our faith is not to start keeping the law. The purpose of our faith is not to make us go to church. God did not save us so that our behavior would just change. He saved us so he could have a relationship with us, so that we could be with him forever. And because of this, our life does change. So if the person of Jesus Christ is not the focus of your faith, you're completely missing out on what he taught. And as much as holiness is a part of our faith, it's not the focus of it. It's not the foundation of our faith. But for many, all their faith is about is just living and doing the right thing. It's not about an ongoing relationship with Jesus. It's not about the person of Jesus Christ. Christianity is, that person's Christianity is just action. It's a form of behavior modification. It's not about the person of Jesus. And yes, Jesus calls us to live righteous and holy, but that's not the goal, because Jesus is to be the focus. But so many believers focus more on just doing the right thing or living right versus having an actual fellowship, intimate relationship with Jesus. They're not spirit-filled. So how do you spot that in your own life? How do you look at your life and go, well, I want to live a spirit-filled life, or am I someone who just lives just to make sure everything on the outside looks OK? Well, here's something to look for. If you think this may be you, or you're not sure if it's you and you want to examine your life, one of the ways you can look at it When the essence of someone's faith is not about an intimate relationship with Jesus, but instead it's about doing right and having standards and knowing the right doctrine, you often see it manifested in their other relationships. And let me explain this. When someone lives this way and does not have an intimate walk, a spirit-filled walk with Jesus, and it's all about the externals, and not that those externals are wrong, but that's what it's about, that's what their foundation is built upon, what happens is, is you start to see it manifest itself in just other people relationships. There's usually an exclusivism type of, or judgment of other believers who do not believe and live exactly like they do with the same convictions that they do. Genuine love for other people is not there. And when someone lives that way, they find themselves in pursuit only of people who are just like them, who have their standards close enough to theirs that they feel like they can fellowship with them. Now to be clear, we should live godly. We should have standards and convictions as the Spirit works in our life and we grow in maturity in Christ. And we should know true doctrine. And that's, we understand that. That's how we understand our faith is lived out. We know these things, but we have to understand our foundation is built on Christ, not things that we are doing. And when that is when, if that's what you're focused on, you're completely missing out on how Jesus wants you to live. That is not how we are to live. That's not Christian living. It's not how Jesus lived. He said, for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same. See, in the life of Jesus, we see him caring for people, all types of people, adulterers, religious people, rich people, poor people, people of the government, people with great faith, people with little faith, children, women, men, everyone. Jesus did not pursue people who were more like him. First of all, we know that no one was like Jesus, but he didn't pursue people for what they could offer him. He pursued them because of what he was offering them, which was his love, the person of Jesus Christ. And aren't we called to do the same, to testify of Christ through our life and let the love of Jesus be seen in our life, which is made up of loving God and loving others. Jesus told the disciples, the Holy Spirit is coming. And once he comes, you will be witnesses of me. Not of yourselves, but you'll be witnesses of me. So what does that look like for us today? Because if our mission is to be witnesses and living testimonies of Christ, what does that look like? How does that happen? Well, I can tell you this. I want us to understand this. because I don't want us to end up just like what I was talking about where we feel like everyone has to be like us. Here's what we have to understand. If our mission is to testify of Jesus, if that's what he told us to do, to be witnesses of him, one thing you have to understand is my mission is probably not gonna look a lot like your mission. Think about that just for a moment. You see, our God is personal, he is creative, and he works uniquely in every one of us. He has fearfully and wonderfully made each of us, and no two are alike. So our mission, as we testify of Jesus, and we live out our spirit-filled life, is not gonna look the same for everyone. It's gonna look a lot different, in fact, because we are not the same people. We don't live in the same neighborhoods. We don't work at the same place. We don't have the same extended family. We don't have the same spiritual gifts. God has made us uniquely And so when we walk in a spiritual life that testifies of Christ, it's gonna play out in a different way for each and every one of us. That's why it will be different. Now it doesn't mean that we don't minister together, but it doesn't mean that we're all gonna be just alike. Because we are a body made up of many different members. But I'm afraid there is a culture within Christianity, and honestly, I see it more, the more conservative the Christian, you tend to see it even more, where we feel like we all have to be on the same exact page in every single thing. But my Christian life is not gonna be lived the same way your Christian life is gonna be lived. Again, I'm not talking about an acceptance of sin. I'm not talking about that at all. But what I'm referring to is how you live your life testifying of Christ, what your Spirit-filled life looks like. What Spirit-filled looks like for me versus what Spirit-filled living looks like for you. Our standards may not be the same. We're not gonna live out our faith the same exact way. We're not gonna agree on every little doctrinal discussion. We're not gonna worship the exact same way. We're not gonna live out our faith. It's going to look differently for each one of us. And that is not a bad thing. That's actually a great blessing of the Holy Spirit. It's not a curse within Christianity. Although we are all believers, we're not the same. And that's not just okay, that's actually a very, very good thing. It is to be celebrated because we are different. We are uniquely, we're fearfully, wonderfully made, and the Spirit is going with all of us, is gonna use us in different ways with different people. We're all gifted differently. If you study the Gospels, it's clear the disciples were not the same. They were from different backgrounds. They even disagreed with each other at times. They ministered differently. They were gifted differently. God made each one of us But yet we're all unique within the same body. And that's the connection I want us to make. Because Jesus died so that we might be saved and forever be with Him. That's how much He wanted a relationship with us. He saved us from sin so that we can have an eternal relationship with Him. Because when sin entered into this world, it forever separated man from God. God did not save us so that we would behave better. or so that we become smarter with what we know doctrinally, or so that we would have higher standards or convictions, or spend the rest of our life overly concerned about doing this or that. That's not why he saved us. That's a horrible way to live out your Christian life. But for many, that's their way of thinking. It's all about rules and standards and keeping the law, you name it. And they're so bound up in this, there's no joy in Jesus. There's no spirit-filled living. It's just all work and no joy, no spirit-filled living. But that is not the life that God has called us to. We're not to live that way. There's no joy in it. The Spirit did not come to make our life like that. It's not relational living. Remember, God saved you so that you could be with him. And where so many Christians go wrong is the focus is on what they have to do, and they end up missing the relationship. But if our relationship with Christ is our focus, if that's our goal, to have an intimate, ongoing relationship with Christ, then all these other areas will take their rightful place. We will learn the right doctrine. We will have standards and convictions. We'll hate sin. We'll strive for holiness as we walk with God. But our focus is always to be Jesus. I want you to know something. Following Jesus creates more freedom in your life than you can ever find outside of him. That includes even things like having high standards. That includes even things that God has called us to do. None of those things, Jesus is better than all those things. He's better than any ministry. He's better than any calling. Jesus is better. You can never find freedom outside of Christ, even within things that he has called us to do. There is freedom in Jesus. And some of you, if you're honest with yourself, you really don't believe this. You think a life surrendered to Jesus restricts you in some way. It's made up of things you can't do, but that's a miserable type of living. Christianity isn't about having to live exactly like other people in the church or other believers that you know. It's not about toeing the line. It's not about being the law police with other believers, but there are some people who take that position and they have a joyless faith. But if we walk in the Spirit and follow Jesus, that doesn't mean you have to become like the other believers you know or your pastor. Everything about God as He has created you does not go out the window just because you're saved. God removes our sin, but He doesn't remove us. We're still here, uniquely created to be Spirit-filled believers who are going to live out our mission not exactly like the believers sitting in our same row that are in our family. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, and God enjoys you as his creation. and we are to enjoy other believers as God has made us unique in the body. I believe that there are young people who end up struggling in their faith because they in some way believe that if they're gonna follow Christ, then they have to become just like their parents or just like their pastor or just like Billy Graham or someone else. That's not Christianity. They believe that they're gonna have to be just like them, enjoy the things they enjoy, hate the things they hate, They feel they must have a personal life that falls in these parameters compared to other people. But Christian living is not the exact same for all of us, even within our own families. First Corinthians tells us, for just as the body is one and as many members, all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit. A few verses later, we read, but as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as, there's three words at the end, as he chose. See, God has designed us in certain ways, as He has chosen. Christian living is not a cookie-cutter life. But if we're not careful, we'll try to make it that way. God chose us to be different. He designed us to be different. different members in the same body who walk in the same spirit, how fascinating and remarkable it is, which means for us in our study of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit may have the same mission for us as Jesus declared to be witnesses and living testimonies of Christ, but when it's lived out, that doesn't look the same for every believer. but it's sometimes hard for us to grasp because we tend to reject or at least distance ourself from people who aren't a lot like us. But that is not spirit-filled living. In reading through the New Testament, it's clear that God has blessed his church with a lot of diversity. I'm not talking about race or ages or nationality or financially or anything like that, all that's true. I'm referring, he's blessed us with the diversity of how we live out our faith in Christ Jesus. It's gonna look different for every person, for every family. The people I minister to may not be the kind of people you minister to. How I raise my own children may not be the way you raise your children and the kind of church I attend may not be the kind of church someone else attends. Again, we're not talking about being soft on sin and anything kind of goes and accept people, their sin type of thing. I'm not talking about that. But in the areas where we apply our Christian life, where it's lived out, it's gonna look differently because God has uniquely created each of us. There is so much freedom and celebration in understanding this truth. And that's what I want us to see in our need for the Holy Spirit, even though we have the Bible. Because here's a big question, and maybe you've thought of this, but why do we need the Holy Spirit if we have the Bible? Why? Isn't the Bible sufficient? Yes, it is. Why do we still need the Holy Spirit, though? Which brings us to the question, how does the Holy Spirit help us? I wanna look at two ways, two main ways, and I really tried to get both of these points in here, but the second one's gonna have to wait till next week, or we might be here till Monday. So, we're gonna look at two important ways that the Holy Spirit helps us and leads us. And so, it's gonna even lead us into what does walking in the Spirit look like as we progress through this study. And so, 1 Corinthians, it says, but as it is written, But no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one, for who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. Now the first truth I want us to see today, the only truth I want us to focus on as far as the points, I hope everything I've said is true so far, don't get me wrong about that, but the main truth I want us to see in how the Holy Spirit helps us is that he helps us to understand the Scriptures. And there are many ways that He works in our lives. The Spirit's ability, the Spirit's creativity, the ways of leading us and teaching us, they're endless. And we'll see that more as we look at how we walk in the Spirit. But here's one thing for certain when it comes to being taught the things of God, and we see it back in verse 11, which we just read. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person which is in him? So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. You know, you cannot, and here's the thing, you cannot learn the things of God apart from the spirit of God. People have tried, but it's impossible. Let me explain it this way. You can logically, intellectually know a truth, even believe a truth, but that does not mean that you gain understanding. An unbeliever can read the Bible and say, I believe that Jesus died and rose again. Yeah, I believe that. He can logically agree with it, but still not understand it because the Spirit of God is not in him. He's not revealed it to him. You cannot understand the Scriptures apart from the Spirit of God intervening in that way. And just because a non-believer may logically agree with the spiritual truth, it doesn't mean he has spiritual understanding regarding that truth. For us as believers, what the Holy Spirit does is he teaches us the Word of God. As you read the Bible, as you come under the hearing of a sermon, The Spirit of God, even though I may read it and I may try to explain it, it's actually the Spirit of God that brings you understanding regarding those things. The Holy Spirit actually teaches us. Any understanding you have of Scripture is because the Holy Spirit has taught you that. Now he may have used a pastor, he may have just used you reading the scriptures yourself, he may have used a friend talking to you about the scriptures, but the Holy Spirit of God is the one that has taught you the truths of scripture. And he does this for our continual sanctification We become more and more understanding of spiritual truth. We certainly don't know it all at once. You don't get saved and go, oh wow, I fully understand all the Bible says now. No, the Holy Spirit continues to reveal that to us as we grow in Christ Jesus. That's why some are further along in their understanding than others. That's not an excuse to be lazy. You still read, you still open the Word, you still seek the truth of the Word and the Holy Spirit of God will teach you. The Holy Spirit reveals to us more and more and more as we live out our faith. And what he teaches us is not a new theology. It's just a greater understanding of what God has already said. Now, it may be new to you, and some of you, if you read a chapter of Proverbs every day, for instance, and let's say you've been doing this for 20 years. Well, you get to another verse that you've read, Countless times and all of a sudden you're like, oh wait, I Have an understanding of this verse. I have never had before even though I've read it a hundred times that's the Holy Spirit of God giving you understanding a Greater understanding. It doesn't mean that you have a new truth just means you have a new understanding of an existing truth that has always been there and So there's no new theology in that sense. You just have a greater understanding, an awareness of what God has said. And as we delve into the word, the Spirit of God will teach us these truths. The Holy Spirit is our teacher. When you're younger and you're learning math, You can always say to your kids, well, one plus two equals three. And if you work hard enough, you can get a two-year-old to repeat that back to you. One plus two equals three. And we may go, wow, that two-year-old is so smart. But if that two-year-old has no understanding, he's just reciting what he knows. He's been taught, but he has no understanding. He's just reciting back that 1 plus 2 equals 3. But he doesn't have an understanding of what the value of 1 is, or the value of 2 is, and how that brings up a value of 3. They have no understanding of that. They're just spitting back to you. It's like a parrot, just talking, just coming back to you. So if you have a truth like that, but you have no understanding, See there must be understanding that comes from the teaching of truth and that's what the Holy Spirit does for us It's one thing to be able to just say, I believe this fact, or recite a fact back, that Jesus died and rose again. It's quite another to understand and to be, and for your eyes to be opened and for the Holy Spirit of God to teach you these truths. God's word tells us, when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak. and he will declare to you the things that are to come. The Holy Spirit is our guide. He will guide you into all truth. One of the works of the Holy Spirit is to teach us the truth of his word, and God's word is truth, and he reveals truth because you cannot gain that on your own when it comes to God's word. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I have said to you." Jesus' promise. He was saying this to his followers. The Holy Spirit will teach you. He will be your teacher. Because think about the disciples. When they were walking with Jesus and Jesus would give a parable or he'd say something else, they would always need an explanation and who would they go to? Jesus. Well, we can always ask Jesus what this means. Well, Jesus was leaving. Who's gonna teach us now, Jesus, when we don't understand something? The Holy Spirit will be your teacher. He will be the one who will teach you, as the Bible says, all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. I encourage you, every time you sit down to hear me preach or hear another sermon or you read those scriptures on your own, ask the Holy Spirit. to give you understanding, to teach you as you grow in Christ through the truth of His Word, regardless of how you're receiving the truth of His Word. Even if you just listen to it on your phone as you're driving. Rely on the Holy Spirit to teach you that is the only way you will gain spiritual truth And that is such an incredible blessing to the body of Christ For Jesus to send us his Holy Spirit so that he may teach us through his word The truth so that we can have an understanding so as we are omission being witnesses and testifying of Jesus I We have spiritual understanding. What a great blessing for the body of Christ. For Jesus to say, I'm giving you my spirit, and he is going to stay with you. And he will teach you all things. Next week, we're going to continue with how the Holy Spirit helps us. But I pray that God grows us in this area to be spirit-filled believers who understand we are uniquely made. We minister differently. There are so many different things about us, but we are in one body and we have one spirit, and that is to be celebrated because the Holy Spirit lives within each and every one of us. What a great blessing we have that Jesus has given us. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for your spirit. I pray that today that the spirit of God has even taught us again. And Lord, we cannot learn anything outside of you. Lord, I pray that we would even celebrate our uniquenesses, our differences, as we walk in the Spirit, what it looks like in our life, what it looks like as we minister, and Lord, what it looks like as we grow in our faith. Lord, may we also have an appreciation for those who are different than us within the body. Lord, may we truly love others. And may our focus be on Jesus, not works we try to do, not standards we try to have, not rules we try to keep. But Lord, may we focus completely on Christ as we walk in holiness, as we are obedient to your word, as we proclaim truth. So Holy Spirit, we thank you for teaching us. May we be believers. who live the spirit-filled life. Father, may we continue to grow in our faith because you have placed us on mission to testify of Jesus. It's in his name I pray. Amen.