Alright, let's take our Bibles tonight and let's go to the book of Ephesians, chapter number 3 if we could. The book of Ephesians, chapter number 3. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who had been the pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle Baptist Church in London, England years ago, told of an evening when he was riding home after a heavy day's work. He felt weary and depressed when suddenly as a lightning flashed, he thought of 2 Corinthians 12.9, where the Bible says, is sufficient for thee. He said, I should think it so, Lord, and just burst out laughing. He said that it seemed to make unbelief so absurd. It was as though some little fish, being very thirsty, was troubled about drinking the river dry. And the river said, drink away, little fish. My stream is sufficient. for thee. Or it seemed, after seven years of plenty, a mouse feared that it would die of famine. And Joseph might say, cheer up, little mouse, my granaries are sufficient for thee. Or a man way up on a mountain saying to himself, I fear I shall exhaust all the oxygen in the atmosphere. But the earth might say, breathe away, old man, and fill thy lungs ever. My atmosphere is sufficient for thee. Little faith will bring our souls to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to us. That even can get monotonous. Maybe tonight it's just the longevity of certain trials. You've been in a trial for quite some time. It's been going on for a while, and it's just like, man, it just doesn't seem like it's ever going to end. Maybe tonight it's some unmet expectations. You expected certain things to be in your life, and they're just not that way, or at least not yet, and you're just wondering when it'll ever be. Maybe it's just simply waiting on God. You're waiting on God regarding something in life. All these things take a toil on the life of a born-again Christian. They do. We face things in life that are very troubling to our souls. And over the course of time, it can really kind of wear you down a little bit. It can get you kind of down in the dumps. It can really squelch your your strength, and you can feel quite depleted. God knows life has its challenges, but thankfully the Holy Spirit was given to renew our strength to move forward when we'd otherwise just quit. Here in Ephesians 3, we're just going to look at one verse. There will be some other places as well, but it says here in verse 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. To be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man. Tonight, let's look at this thought a little bit closer as we talk about the strength of the Spirit. Let's pray. Father, thank you tonight for this time of study regarding the Spirit-filled life and really how valuable of a friend we have in the Holy Spirit of God. I pray that it would be clear to us as we look at a lot of scripture tonight, just what he can enable for us to do and to endure as we live out our lives for your glory. We pray your blessing tonight in Jesus' name. Amen. I don't know, some of you may remember this show called Reading Rainbow. I grew up watching that a little bit when I was in the 80s, you know? And I like the 80s, man. You know what, they talk about the 80s and 90s like they used to talk about the 50s and 60s when I was a kid. That's when you start knowing you've kind of aged a little bit. When they say, oh yeah, back in the 80s and the 90s. Great decades, amen. But anyways, actually I didn't realize this, but it ran from 1983 to 2006. I didn't realize that it aired that long. But I watched it as a kid and basically the gist of the show was just to help, or trying to encourage kids to read and they'd highlight different books and whatnot. But I remember one book in particular that was highlighted in that show. It was called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. I don't know if you've ever saw that before, but I think I had an elementary teacher read through that book to us, and it's kind of funny. But anyways, in that book, it's about a seven or eight year old kid named Alexander who relates his very bad day. And there were some things that he said in there. He said, I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there's gum in my hair. And when I got out of bed this morning, I tripped on a skateboard and by mistake dropped my sweater in the sink while the water running. And I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Now the book went on to explain how he had a bad day, of course, at school. He went to the dentist. That wasn't very good. Then he went to the shoe store and that didn't go so well. Then it came to supper time. And he relates, there was lima beans for dinner. And in parentheses it says, I hate lima beans. And then he goes on, there was kissing on TV. And he says in parentheses, I hate kissing. My bath was too hot and I got soap in my eyes and my marble went down the drain and I had to wear my railroad train pajamas. I hate railroad train pajamas. There were a few other things, of course, that made him conclude that he had lived through a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. And towards the end, he states, I think I'll move to Australia. It's kind of funny we can chuckle about a story like that, but in reality, I think more people can relate to this feeling of weariness that compels us to want to run away in life. And I'm guessing that from time to time, Even God's people get this idea, as I just want to move away, I just want to run away, I just want to go here, go there, just escape the things that are going on inside of me. If I just change my situation, just change my scenario, everything's going to be better, but the thing is, the problem isn't the outward circumstances as much as it is what's going on inside. And you take your heart wherever you go. You can't escape that. You can go to the moon, and you still have the same problems. That's just the way it is. Life is not easy. It's not easy. And not everything works out the way we dreamed or planned. And sometimes the daily grind of life just wears us out. And that might be really more the culprit than we realize. Just the daily grind of day-to-day living and going to work and facing certain things and coming home and facing certain realities that we don't like. And it's very easy for us to just simply run out of gas. You know what I mean by that? We just run out of gas. We're just kind of depleted. So much so that even the smallest of tasks seem daunting. And the littlest irritations are overwhelming. You been there? I've been there. I know that. It's just like you just don't have the strength to do that simple task. And just these littlest things, the things that don't normally bother you, they just come welling into your heart and your mind and it's just like you're just getting grumpy at everything. And you're like, Alexander, this is a terrible, no good, very bad day. And we just feel wore out. It's very easy at that moment of time to simply run to a place or be tempted to run to a place we think we can find a relief or escape. The psalmist writes in Psalm 111, in the Lord put I my trust. How say ye to my soul? Flee as a bird to your mountain. You know what it's saying here is basically this. This mountain isn't the Lord. This mountain is an escape mechanism, or an artificial painkiller that people seek to escape. Again, their terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, or life. Now the lost man, that's all he has. Those who do not know Jesus Christ as their Savior have never been born again. That's all they have is their mountain that they've erected or they've sought after to try to deal with the inner stresses and the inner emotions that are so negative and that's what they run to. There's always something that they're running to. Years ago when I was working for a company, it was about this time the year where it was called our busy season then it was the company manufactured a lot of farm different types of farming equipment right now of course harvesting is going on and what happens they use their their equipment out in the field and things break down so you're always getting these parts being shipped out you're always getting different different things that we had manufactured sold and it's just very busy time for this especially for the shipping department And I remember going down there and talking to people in that shipping department. And you could just see it on everybody's faces, how stressed they were. Because it was like, demand, demand, demand. Here, we need this ship next day. Two-day air, three-day air. We need this shipped overseas. I mean, it was just a zoo down there. And I remember this poor shipping manager. He was fairly new. But you just see all this stress all on his face. And I would go down there, and he And they were talking about just kind of the way the guy smelled, because he smelled like vodka. So what was he doing? Well, he'd go home at night, evidently, and drink himself out of his miseries. I remember seeing other guys sitting in their vehicles, just puffing cigarettes, just doing whatever they could to relieve their stress, as it were. It was their mountain that they sought. Now, the world has any number of painkillers, and I put those in parentheses, that one could seek after to ease their inner pain, yet they offer only a Band-Aid relief, a temporary relief that over the course of time fails to work in the long term. It fails to work. In fact, it's just like they become immune to the effects to where they need more and more. They have any number of painkillers, yet temporary relief, but it has long-term emotional, spiritual, and physical losses attached to it. And that's not something that's helpful to anybody. What I'm saying is this, we as God's people, we who know the Lord, have a better way, have a better opportunity than to just go after the world's painkillers and other mountains that we can erect. to try to escape our weariness. We don't have to resort to endless entertainment, folks. We don't have to, some of this stuff, you know, is okay in its own restraints, but some people entertain themselves stupid, just from movie to video game to this to this, just trying to escape their reality that they're in. And that doesn't help you. I remember as a lost person doing that kind of stuff, you have to come back into reality and live. And it's not going to help you. Of course, there's the alcohol use. There's the drug use. People take, you know, seek illicit sexual relations with people and through other means. There's spending binges, there's obsessive busyness. You know, all these different things are used to try to relieve the mind and the heart of the ache on the inside. But I'm here to say tonight, if you're saved, there's a better way for you. There's a lot better way for you. You don't have to destroy your body and your mind with these types of things that So much of the world is using to just escape. Because we have somebody very, very special living within us. He's called the Comforter. Or we know him to be also the Holy Spirit. Go to John chapter number 14. Jesus, of course, this is the night before his crucifixion, and the disciples were going to experience some very stressful things. Okay, their world was going to be turned upside down, but Jesus is going to give them some promises about a comforter who was to come while he was now gone. Look at John chapter 14 and verse 16. And I will pray the father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. Notice the name Comforter is in capital letters. It starts with a capital C. It's speaking of the Holy Spirit. He is there to bring comfort and renewed strength to our weary souls. Instead of us having to run to the world's painkillers and mental diversions, which often lead the paths of sin will lead to greater problems for our heart to bear. All those things I mentioned will lead to greater problems that your heart will have to bear over the long haul. I don't want to destroy my mind. I don't want to destroy my body. But I have to deal with stress and pain in my own heart as you do as well. And God has given us the Spirit of God to help us deal with this sin-cursed world that we live in, that creates all the pain and agony in it. So tonight, let's consider how the Spirit strengthens our inner man, as our text relates in Ephesians 3.16, so that we can endure reality with purpose, hope, and joy. First off, He comforts. He comforts. Hence the name Comforter, right? Again, we learn that the Holy Spirit is called by Jesus, the Comforter. When Jesus left the earth, the disciples were pretty bummed, understandably. They were depressed. It was a sad thing. And you can imagine why. How would you like to be hanging around the guy who could raise the dead, or heal the wounded, or could make bread out of thin air? I mean, you got somebody pretty special there. You're going to stay pretty close to him, and they did. I can't believe there are people that walked away from Jesus like they did, to be honest with you, when you sat and watched what he could do. I mean, it was amazing. But he was only going to be here for a short time. And then he was going to tag off with the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit was going to come down. And as he's about ready to leave, he's telling them, I'm going to send this Comforter, and he will indwell you and abide with you forever. Again, we saw in John 14, verse 16, or John 14, verse 16, and I will pray the father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him, but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you." Again, this is a very special thing. When you get saved, you've got the Spirit of God dwelling inside of you. God Himself comes to inhabit your being. You are the temple of the Holy Ghost. That's a very, very special thing. And God put that there, put Him there for a great reason. We've seen some of that already. But tonight, we are going to see how He strengthens us because of His presence within there. It's a very special thing because we face challenges in this world. We know that. John 16, verse 33, Jesus makes no bones about it. These things have I spoken to you that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation. Have you had tribulation in your life? Probably at least a little bit. Some maybe a little bit more than others. Difficulties and trials that come your way. Some of it you bring upon yourself because of decisions. Some of it comes as a result of other people's decisions. But regardless, you go through problems. And I don't think God wants his people to be depressed all the time. I don't think God wants his people always down in the mouth. I don't think God wants his people constantly defeated and thinking, woe is me. You know, we get that way sometimes. I've gotten that way sometimes. But God wants to say, hey, I want to pick you back up and keep you going so that you can be a testimony of the greatness of my personage. These things have I spoken to you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." Can I just tell you this? The Christian life that's biblical, the one that's striving to live biblically, isn't the easiest path to choose. Let me break that to you. Maybe some people say, well, the Christian life is great. It is great. I'll explain how it is in a moment. But that doesn't mean it's the easiest pathway to follow. Because you're living contrary to this world. Unless you're a Christian trying to live with this world, that's a whole different subject. But if you're living biblically, you're living it right, you're going to live against the grain of this world. It's very obvious by the scriptures. Paul told some converts, After he had gotten stoned, he said in Acts 14.22, confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith. And that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. Now he had just been stoned in, I believe it was Lystra. And he picked himself back up and kept going. I don't think, hopefully, Lord willing, none of us will ever have to face a stoning. But the whole point is this. The Christian life, if lived biblically, is not going to always be the easiest pathway. Because you live contrary to the world in which you are currently living in. Of course, then there's the obvious question, why choose it then? I'll tell you why. Because it has the greatest overall outcomes. The end result What's best? How do I know go to 2nd Corinthians Paul writes this? 2nd Corinthians 4 2nd Corinthians 4 16 Paul again, he went through a lot of a lot of troubles a lot of trials a lot of tribulation as a born-again Christian But he says this Verse 16, for which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, in other words, we get older and older and our body wears out, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal way to glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal." In other words, this life is real temporal, it's not that long in light of eternity. But the things which are not seen are eternal. See, we're not living for the here and now, we're living for the hereafter. Because this life will soon be passed. As it was once said, and only what's done for Christ will last. This world's passing away, 2 Peter 3 tells us that, it will no longer be. And if we believe the Bible, that means what's going to be is going to be what's eternal, what God lists out in his word. And as a born-again Christian, you can't live short-sighted and think that, well, why am I, you know, why am I dealing with difficulties now? Well, because you'll have eternal bliss later and you'll be rewarded later based on what, again, the scriptures teach us. Very short-sighted Christians don't realize that their lives are meant to be living with eternity in view. And Jesus taught that very plainly. Matthew 6, verses 19 through 21, he says, lay not for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. By the way, if you want to have more affection for God, invest in the eternal. Because that's where your heart will be. If you don't want to have any affection for God, you just want to live for this world, then you'll just kind of keep the investment of your time, treasure, and talent in the things of this life. But this does mean, at times, life will get bumpy. You say, why? Because we live in a war zone here on Earth. You realize that today? You know, there's war zones all over the world. You know, there's a war zone going on in the Middle East and Ukraine, and there are a lot of other places today that aren't ever mentioned in the news where there's conflict going on, armed conflict. And you say, boy, that's a war zone. Yeah, well, Earth is a war zone. The Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Jesus even said in Matthew 11, 12, and from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent taken by force. Speaks of conflict and war. The Bible uses the language of war to help us understand what the Christian life is going to entail at times. And we don't fight with guns and missiles or even fists, if you will. It's a whole different battle. It's a spiritual one. And those living for the Lord will face difficulties and challenges that others may not always face, and others compromise so they don't have to face. But can I say this? You'll never win a prize compromising the Word of God. Go to 2 Timothy chapter number 2. 2 Timothy chapter number 2. It says here, We'll start in verse 1. It says, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Be strong in God's grace. And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Verse 3, Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth and tangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. If a man also strive for masteries, in other words, you're striving for the crown, you're striving for the victory, striving for the trophy, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully, that means scripturally. Compromise gets you nowhere. It might make your road easier while you're here, but you get no crown at the end. But the reality is too, because of the the war zone that we live in, those challenges can be very depleting upon the soul. It can overwhelm us. It can be very overwhelming to experience that kind of stuff. And we get tired of it. I get tired. There's times I just feel like I'm dragging. I'm like, and I ask my wife, what is wrong with me? And then I remember, well, I'm in a conflict. I'm in a conflict. And that's where the Comforter comes into play. He'll comfort and console your soul when you feel void of strength and overtaken with burdens. Let's go to John 14 again. He'll console the soul when you're overtaken with burdens. John 14, verse 26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." See, God knew the world would wear out a Christian. So he gave the Holy Spirit to be our companion who comforts us when we're overburdened with cares. Secondly, we see that he directs. Now, how does the Holy Spirit bring comfort to the soul? Well, I believe Jesus mentioned a few ways that it occurs. Number one, through knowledge. Verse 26, again, it says, He will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance. In other words, He'll teach us truth and remind us of truth, very simply. One thing that occurs when we're facing our weakest moments is that we are learning truths that God's Word expounds to us. Sometimes we don't understand it until we've experienced it. The Holy Spirit will illuminate and teach us key truths at those moments that the Lord states in His Word. A good example of this is when Paul had that thorn in the flesh, you remember in 2 Corinthians 12, and he learned something about the sufficiency of the grace of God to uphold him and help him continue to move forward despite that thorn not being taken out. He says in 2 Corinthians 12, and I mentioned it in my opening illustration, He said, and he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. He learned the truth that when he was weak that he was strong and that God's grace was sufficient to enable him to be fruitful in his ministry and in his life. And that was something he learned through the difficulties that the Holy Spirit brought to his mind. The reality of grace became very apparent when Paul was weak. The Holy Spirit will also remind us of truths, things that we have learned in the past to address current needs. I don't know if you've ever been going through a time period in your life where you begin to pray over a certain issue that is burdening you, and then God brings certain things to your mind. He brings maybe something that you've read recently or key verses to your mind. That's the Spirit of God reminding you about about those truths that maybe in the moment of time you've forgotten or just simply haven't applied. Maybe it's from a message that you heard from somebody who had preached something and something got illuminated to your mind and God will bring those things back to your mind. He'll bring those truths back up. Even at times, just as a little side note, God is, even at times, if you witness to somebody, how God will bring verses to your mind. Sometimes verses you hadn't even thought about in a while. It's amazing to see that. When God's Spirit is bringing those things up in the soul, it's just like, you know what? That's the Spirit helping out. Can I say this? You know how to get all that stuff coming up at those times? Get the Word of God into your heart. Get it into the heart. The more the word of God you have in your heart, the more the Spirit of God has to work with. Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119, I think it's verse 12, something like that. 11, thank you. I was close. My point being here tonight, the Spirit of God can illuminate, He'll encourage through the truth of the word of God. Number two, He'll guide us. Look at John 16, verse 13. He'll guide you. One thing that makes the heart overwhelmed is that in times of uncertainty or weakness, we don't know what to do. We just don't know what to do. And we often feel very stressed about that. I know I do. I feel stressed. Like, I don't know what to do. And you're just kind of wringing your hands. You're not sure. And the Spirit is there to give us some guidance. He'll guide us according to truth. Again, God's truth. Can I say this? The Spirit of God will never lead you to do something contrary to what the revealed truth of the Word of God states very clearly. Well, I feel differently. I'm sorry, but you're being not led by the Holy Spirit, but another spirit. 1 John 4.1, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits which are, whether they are of God. Because many false prophets have gone out into the world. You've got to be able to test that. We do not want to be emotional led people. We want to be spirit led people. And that means that it's going to be according to revealed truth. According to revealed truth. May I also say that the Spirit will lead people differently, even in similar situations. Because the Spirit knows things that we don't. Because there are some things, there isn't a distinct Bible verse or principle that can relate to this. I've had people ask me, what should I do in this situation? I frankly don't know, personally. But the Spirit knows, and He will guide them to make decisions. Every situation may need a unique strategy based on factors too numerous to be seen. But again, it will never run contrary to God's Word. Never, never, no never. I think of Paul when he got his Macedonian call. If you were to go to John, Acts 16, we won't go there for the sake of time tonight. Where Paul, the Spirit wouldn't let him go here, the Spirit wouldn't let him go here. Eventually, he discovered the direction. It was to Macedonia, which is in Greece. But the Spirit didn't allow him to go to Asia, what we know today as modern day Turkey or Asia Minor. Eventually he would get there. But it wasn't that time yet. It wasn't that time. So how do I know the Spirit is leading me? Well, two primary things I'll mention tonight, and there's more, but these are the first two things that I think are very helpful. Number one, truth. Truth, again. He will guide you into all truth, verse 13. And again, God's spirit will never lead you contrary to his word. I can't emphasize that enough. Because we get lots of feelings and lots of whims and lots of emotions, and we can deceive ourselves very easily. But the spirit of God will always lead according to truth. Number two, I would encourage you to get some godly counsel from God-ordained authorities. Hebrews 13, 17, obey them which have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls. As they that must give an account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. You know, we live in a day and age where nobody wants to be counseled. They just want to do what they want to do. And you're free to do that, but you're also responsible for the consequences of your choices, just like I am. You're responsible for those. You can't blame anybody else if you're the one making the decisions. And I believe we should seek and listen to counsel from those that God has put over us. And we all have multiple God-ordained authorities on different areas and have different jurisdictions in our life. Proverbs 11.14 says, where no counsel is, the people fall. But in the multitude of counselors, there is safety. We need input. And I do believe God works through his ordained authorities. That's why they're there. They're not there, they just want to run my life. Well, there might be some like that, but at the same time, too, at the end of the day, they have to get on account for what they counsel, right? Believe it or not, folks, our lusts have a way of deceiving our decision makers. I'll say that again. Our lusts have a way of deceiving our decision makers. It is something that we have to be very careful of, because we can convince ourselves of something that is certainly not a good decision to make. Go to Acts chapter number 27, because the devil is more than happy to make something that we really want look good, but it can be a very deceptive trap. Look at Acts 27 here. Paul is on his way to Rome. He's a prisoner. And the ship that he's on was ported. And they wanted, the ship people here, they wanted to go to another place because this other place, and to winter, because this other place, well, that was a place where the partying was a little bit better than this place. And Paul here, It mentions here now in chapter 27, verse 9, Now when much time was spent, when sailing was now dangerous, because of the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them, and said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading of the ship, but also of our lives. Notice the preacher has something to say here that's practical. But he's the one that's always the bad guy. And said of them, sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be a hurt, much damage. Consider, this might not be a good idea. Nevertheless, the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship more than those things which were spoken by Paul. And because the haven was not commodious to winter, and it's not where we want to be, the more part advised to depart thence also, if by any means they might attain to Phineas, and there to winter, which is in the haven of Crete, alight toward the southwest and northwest. Look at verse 13 real carefully. And when the south wind blew softly, supposing they obtained their purpose, loosing, hence, they sailed close by Crete. Oh, look, everything's working out the way we thought. We're going to get what we wanted. Verse 14, but not long after, there rose against it a tempestuous wind called Eurocliden. And when the ship was caught and could not bear up into the wind, We let her drive, and you just read the rest of the chapter, and they came within inches of death. Why? Because the South went, oh, this is what we wanted. That dumb preacher, what does he know? I guess he knew a little bit more than he realized. Or whatever authority you want to throw in there. You have to be very careful, because the lust of our heart can deceive ourselves into believing something's okay when it's really not okay. The Spirit wants to guide us in these critical times. Now, there are other points I could mention about that, but if we ignore the first two, the other ones are just, it won't matter. Because we will talk ourselves into things, into decisions that we make, we will justify it, we will slap, God led me on it, boom, boom, you know what, boom, we got it, and we'll try to sell it to other people. Can I just say this? You live with the consequences of your choices. Choose wisely, because you can't undo them. You cannot undo them. And they will affect not just you, but your children and your grandchildren and even people not even born. This is serious stuff, folks. Nobody's perfect, but we want to keep our eyes on Jesus and allow his spirit to lead every step forward. It's so serious. Going contrary to the guidance will only create more problems and greater burdens to carry in the long run. And that's what we want to avoid. Because the last thing you want is shipwreck. That's the last thing you want. He directs. Thirdly, I'll try to go very quickly here, his empowerment. Now back in our text, Ephesians 3.16, it says here, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by a spirit in the inner man." It speaks of the Spirit's empowerment. He strengthens us from within. And that renewing happens, or can happen, needs to happen, daily. 2 Corinthians 4.16, "...for which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." Day by day. But sometimes it requires a special season of coming apart so that we don't come apart. The Christian life is often referred to as a marathon. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. You're going for the long haul. And a lot of people start out, like any race you can watch, a lot of people start off, but as you go down the line, it thins out. It thins out. And not everyone finishes their race. To keep going to finish your race in a real marathon, your body needs fuel along the way to keep the desired pace. You know, my wife and I have done this. We've learned some things over the years as we've run these things. And, you know, we have nutrition that we take and water and, you know, Powerade, things like that. Because if you don't take that stuff, your system burns up what's in store. And you hit the wall, as the terminology goes. And sometimes in life, we will hit the wall and need a spiritual second wind to keep going. And you cannot muster that up. And the world can't pump it up into you either. It needs to be something that God empowers from within. You know, maybe tonight you're tired. weary, which you can get from God as a refreshing. Now sometimes when people get tired and weary, they do not refresh themselves with the help of the Holy Spirit. You know, I'm all for vacations, you know, taking some time off. But can I say, don't take a time off from God. You know, you're out of town, go to church. Do your devotions. It's amazing. People go on vacation, and they throw that away. I need a vacation from God. No, you don't. You need a vacation from the grind. If there's anything, you need to spend more time with Him during those times, and get yourself replenished. You shoot yourself in the foot. I'll forget it. I'm not going to do that. I understand there are some places where you might not be able to find a good church. Livestream, at the very least. But get yourself fed. You need that every single day. Even when you're getting refreshed. See, the Bible says in Isaiah 40, let's go over there quick and I'll close here. Thank you for your patience tonight. Isaiah chapter number 40, verse 28. through the end of the chapter. It says, "...hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainted not, neither is weary?" There is no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint. And to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint." In other words, God will regain, put the strength back into His people through the power of His Spirit. But you have to refresh yourself in spiritual things, not carnal, worldly things. Can I say this? Endless entertainment isn't going to refresh you spiritually. It's not. Having a movie binge is not going to refresh you spiritually. I'm not against seeing some things, but I'm just saying here tonight, if you want to be recharged from this spirit, you have to be involved in spiritual things to get it. It's just not going to happen any other way. I need a break. Let's go to the world and get the break. No, you're not going to get that. All you're going to get is entertainment. and a temporary band-aid. Only seeking the face of God can accomplish that renewed empowerment that you need. And that only comes by immersing yourself in him, seeking his face, seeking his word, maybe getting something that is spiritually helpful, a book, a message, whatever. But get yourself charged up with spiritual things. That will renew your spirit and give you the regained strength to keep going, keep doing what's right, stay on the firing line, and live out your life bringing glory to Almighty God. Anything less than that is insufficient. May God help us tonight to find where the real strength lies in Him. In Him. Let's take a few moments and stand to our feet for a few moments of an invitation as the pianist comes here.