Sunday, Jujly 13

Thank you very much for joining us today, and we will be in the next couple of weeks. I will be in the next couple of weeks, and we will be in the next couple of weeks, and we will be in the next couple of weeks. I will be in the next couple of weeks, and we will be in the next couple of weeks, and we will be in the next couple of weeks. And we will be in the next couple of weeks and we will be in the next couple of weeks. Good morning. We are glad to be able to worship together this morning. We are going to be having a children's church for some of the older kids this morning, so what that means is we are kind of reorienting our service a little bit, and all that means practically is we're switching our prayer time with communion.

So we're going to, in a moment, read some Scripture together. We are going to sing, and then we'll come to the table. Children will be dismissed, and then we'll move into our prayer time this morning. So if you would, let me go to God in prayer, and then we will read from the 95th Psalm together. Father in heaven, we thank you that we can gather this morning with your people and your word. We ask that your spirit would be with us, that we would be guided to where we need to be, that our hearts would be softened, that we would be strengthened, that we would be made courageous and energized for work in your kingdom. I thank you for your people, and I thank you for the good news of the gospel, and I thank you that we can gather together this morning. It is in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

So this morning, as we gather, we want to rejoice in the fact that God rescues and saves, and so no matter what burdens or struggles we bring, no matter what it is we are facing, we come to the one who is our strength and our salvation. And so, as we do that, we're going to read some words from the 95th Psalm that call us into worship. So if you would stand with me, and let's read together. O come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise. This is God's Word. And we're going to start by singing, "Our God Saves." In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Spirit, Lord, come.

We are gathered together to lift up your name, to call on our Savior, to fall on your grace. Hear the joyful sound of our offering, as your saints bow down, as your people sing. We will rise with you, lifted on your wings, and the world will see that. Our God saves. Our God saves. There is hope in your name. Morning turns to songs of praise. Our God saves. Our God saves. In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Spirit, Lord, we come. We are gathered together to lift up your name, to call our Savior, to fall on your path. We will rise with you, lifted on your wings, and the world will see that our God saves. Our God saves. Our God saves. There is hope in your name. Morning turns to songs of praise. Our God saves. Our God saves. Our God saves.

Hear the joyful sound of our offering. As your saints bow down, as your people sing. We will rise with you, lifted on your wings. And the world will see that our God saves. Our God saves. There is hope in your name. Morning turns to psalms of praise. Our God saves. Our God saves. Our God saves. Our God saves.

Jesus said, "How great the chasm did lay between us. How high the mountain I could not climb. In desperation, I turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night. Then through the darkness, your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul. I'm finished. The end is written. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken my heart. In every chain, there's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Who could imagine so great a mercy? What heart could fathom such boundless grace? Jesus Christ, my holy Savior, my Savior, my Savior, my Savior, my Savior, my Savior, my Savior, my Savior. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah. Praise the One who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in Your name.

Jesus Christ, my living hope. Then came the morning that sealed the promise. Your buried body began to breathe. Out of the silence, the roaring lion declared the grave. Has no claim on me. Then came the morning that sealed the promise. Your buried body began to breathe. Out of the silence, the roaring lion declared the grave. Has no claim on me. Jesus, yours is the victory. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Oh God, you are my living hope.

Jesus promised to his disciples in John 14, and we'll be there in a few moments as well during our message. He says, "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." These wonderful promises, and in fact, during this time, Jesus, five times, including this one, will make this promise and explain and teach his disciples about the wonder of the work in the Spirit, and that this wonderful promise about the fact that God would live and dwell within us was spoken around the same table where Jesus first broke the bread and shared the cup. And the Spirit comes because Jesus is willing to go to the cross to take our sin, to give us his righteousness, to give us new life, and to make us clean. And so when we eat this bread and when we eat this cup, we remember what makes this promise, this wonder of the indwelling work

of God, the Holy Spirit, possible. That through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, we could be forgiven, made new, and be filled with the Spirit of God. And so as we partake of the Lord's Supper today, we give thanks for the cross, but also we are reminded that we are not alone. The Spirit assures us that we belong to Christ. And the Spirit comforts us, strengthens us, guides us, and will never leave us. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for the hope of the gospel, that you take broken people and that you make all things new, that you have provided us for us a way to be renewed and restored, not through our strength, but through the sacrifice of your Son. I ask you that you have given us your Spirit. May our hearts be reassured, and during this meal, may we be nourished by the good news of the gospel. I ask that you bless this bread and this cup and that we would proclaim your Son until he comes again. It's in his name we pray. Amen.

As we prepare in just a moment to take the bread and the cup, we remember what these things direct us toward. Christ's body, which is given for us, his blood that was poured out on our behalf. And as we do so, and before we do so, I'd like to read from Romans, the eighth chapter, just beginning in verse 10. 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 the spirit who dwells in you. And so let's prepare as we take the bread and the cup together. If you would take your bread as Jesus did with his disciples, sharing it with them, saying, "This is my body, which is for you." Let's remember Jesus.

And as Jesus took the cup, says, "This is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you." Let's remember Jesus together. Father in heaven, I thank you for the fact that you nourish us deep in our souls. May we, in the strength that you provide, and by the power of your Spirit, live for righteousness, assure that we are your children, and strengthen for the work that you would have us to do. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. At this point, the kids can be dismissed to class, and we will move into our time of prayer. Did you not get the announcement? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen. Amen. Amen.

All right, in just a moment, we'll be in the 14th chapter of the Gospel of John, and we'll get there in just a moment. Let's go ahead and have another word of prayer. Father in Heaven, I thank You for Your Word, Your People, Your Church, and Your Spirit. This morning, as we seek to understand more of how You have equipped us through the work of Your Spirit, we just ask for understanding, for clarity, most of all for encouragement and strength. This morning, if we are struggling and hurting, remind us that we are not alone. If we feel like we're not strong enough, remind us that You are. If we feel like we are too broken, would You bring to us the good news of the Gospel, that in Jesus, our sins are taken away, and that there is hope and life.

And so we thank You for what You have done for us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So this week, as I was getting ready on Tuesday to do some cooking, in preparation for Wednesday, one of the things I've been noticing about my smoker is that it was having trouble getting to the temperature I needed it at, and then in some cases having trouble maintaining that temperature. And so, you know, I talked to a neighbor, and one of the things that happens on this particular type of smoker is there is a fan that circulates the air, and I hadn't thought anything about it because you can hear the fan running. But what it does is over time and over the years that I have had it, right, the fan begins to grow weaker, and so the air doesn't circulate as much,

and so it takes a little bit more fire to get to the temperature you need. It doesn't quite stay as even. I said, "Well, that's a simple solution," and so I just got on Amazon, ordered a replacement fan for like $6.95. It was there the next day. "You know what? This is going to be pretty easy," and we all know famous last words on that, and so I did what everybody does when they're getting ready to fix something is I looked up a YouTube video, and in the YouTube video, I was like, "Pull this screw. Pull that screw." Now, I just kind of watched it, didn't really listen to it. Just kind of watched it, said, "Okay, pull this screw. It seems like it's super self-explanatory." You know, I've used a screwdriver before. I think I can handle this, and so on Tuesday,

afternoon, I'm tearing my entire grill apart to replace this fan, and at some point, I realized that the part that's supposed to come off to get to the fan isn't coming off to get to the fan, and I am, at this point, insanely tired and insanely frustrated, so I sit down for a minute, and I said, "All right. Well, let's figure out where the fan is," and it turns out that on this grill, it's far more simple to get to the fan. There's just like four little bolts underneath, and you take it apart and drop the fan out, put the new one in. I said, "Okay." So I put everything back together, did all my normal grill maintenance. It's nice and clean, and I get down, and I'm sitting in the chair, kind of reaching underneath, taking out all the bolts, and I get ready to take out the fan, and I

get the first two screws out, and I'm like, "Oh, this is going great," and I go to take the next two out, but unfortunately, they're under sort of this metal lip, so the grill comes down here, and over here is the screws that I need to take out, and unfortunately, you know, it's like, "Man, I can't get my screwdriver in there." I tried, like, some kind of little bendy thing to let you use a screwdriver on an angle. It was too tight to get in there, and at this point, I'm like, "You know what? I'll just put it back together. I got to cook food for Wednesday. It'll be fine." I'll figure it out. So there I am. I look like I've been through war. I'm incredibly hot, incredibly tired, incredibly sweaty, and I'm just

like, "I don't understand. This was supposed to be easy. It's taken me three hours, and I am done." And it just seemed like a lot of heartache for no accomplishment. And I think, for some of us as Christians, the Christian life can, at times, feel like nothing's working the way that it's supposed to, nothing's fitting where it's supposed to go, and we are tired, and we are discouraged, and we are worn out, and we're simply saying, "Man, I just, I don't know what's going on. I'm struggling to understand. I'm trying to follow Christ, grow in my sanctification. I'm trying to be more loving, more patient, more gentle. I'm still struggling with sin." And all of these struggles and questions. Now, here's the thing about my grill. Later on Wednesday evening, I was talking to my neighbor who has the very same grill, and I was telling him about my

problems with the fan. I said, "Well, you replaced your fan." I said, "I tried to replace mine, tore it all apart, put it back together, couldn't get the two screws out underneath." And he looks at me, and he goes, "Hey, guess what? You look a little closer. There's some holes in the middle, and you can just stick a screwdriver right up through there, and it pops out in about two and a half seconds." And I am just like, at that point, I've gone from just frustrated, now I'm just mad. Not really mad at anybody, just mad. And here's the thing. As I was working on that grill on Tuesday, I thought, "Maybe I should give him a call and ask him a question about this." And guess what I did? Not that, right? And here we are as Christians, and maybe we're struggling to understand how the

Christian life works. Struggling to understand where our strength and our hope comes from. But here is the wonderful reality. There is someone that we can go to. And maybe we've been trying to do it in our own strength and by ourselves. And maybe as Christians, or maybe as a church as a whole, we haven't been considering the fact that God has provided for us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. And this can be something that is hard for us to understand. Something as wonderful as the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity. And we struggle, I think, sometimes in our understanding. And so what I want to do this week and the two weeks that follow this is I want us to try to understand more deeply, not just simply in an intellectual

way, but in a way that encourages us and strengthens us, that calls us to follow Jesus more deeply, to leave sin aside with more fervor, to work for the kingdom with more energy. And so to do that and seek to understand, we're going to begin in John chapter 14, a verse we read just a little bit ago. So in John chapter 14 beginning, well maybe, in verse 16, and I'm going to read down through verse 18, hear what Jesus says, "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, one 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 leave you not as orphans. I will come

to you." One of the things about this particular passage of Scripture is that it is built upon a foundation of love. In this, chapters that proceed in John 13 and into the beginning of John 14, Jesus has talked about His love. He has demonstrated His love. He's called us to love one another. And the verse that precedes this in verse 15, He explained to us that when we love Him, it's not just a love of words, but it is a love that is practically played out in how we live. That in our obedience to Him, we see our love for Jesus. And so underneath all of this promise of the Spirit is love is both the moving and the motivating force. And in order to understand our text this morning, we need to understand just a little bit

of what is happening. Jesus is in the middle of celebrating Passover with His disciples, but not just another yearly celebration of Passover, this Jewish feast. We also know this meal as the Last Supper, because it is the last time that Jesus eats with His disciples. After this meal, they'll sing a hymn, they'll go out into the garden, they will pray, and in the middle of the night you hear the boots of the soldiers coming to arrest Jesus, who then will be tried. Three times by Jewish authorities, three times by the Roman authorities, He will be flogged and mocked, and then He will carry His cross, stumbling under its weight to where He is crucified. That's sort of the big context of what this passage finds itself in, and so see, these are some last words of Jesus before He

goes to the cross. These chapters in John record for us these precious moments, John 14, 15, 16, and 17. And now the immediate context of this is that Jesus has told the disciples that He is about to leave, and this goes about how you would expect. In John chapter 14 at the very beginning, Jesus says this, "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you." And so Jesus says, "I am going to prepare a place for you," and there's sort of this logical response from the disciples is, "Where are you going? How do we get there?" And Thomas, a guy who frequently sort of has a bad

reputation because after the resurrection he struggles to believe without seeing the hard evidence of Jesus and his wounds. One of the remarkable things about Thomas is it seems biblically in the other two accounts we read about him is that he's somebody who wants to be where Jesus is. And so in verse 5 Thomas says this, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" And you can kind of hear it in Thomas' question and his voice is like, "Jesus, we want to be near you. We want to be with you. What are we going to do without you?" And these disciples who have given the last three years of their life, who have traveled risking everything, set aside their careers and their incomes, put their lives and families and their plans all sort of on a hold

and have traveled and learned and worked and been with Jesus are now facing this moment. And in their hearts there is this fear. Jesus has been the one who has protected and provided and brought hope and power and guidance. And so it's into this context of a group of followers of Jesus who are unsure of what the future holds and are saying, "How can we do this without you? If you are going away, how can we survive?" And so Jesus speaks to them both the comfort to teach and encourage them. And he starts by reminding them that they are not alone and reminding us that we are not alone. See, being alone sometimes can be kind of interesting because in the short term, sometimes it's nice to be alone, right? We like the quiet. Like the lack of distractions

and there are times where you just want to drink your coffee in peace all by yourself. You just want to be alone. And maybe that's because I'm an introvert, but sometimes I find great joy in being alone. But over time it becomes a struggle to be alone. Because sometimes we need help, sometimes we need to talk to people. What we find in life is that those big struggles and hurts are always scarier when we're alone. And alone is always worse when we're facing something that is far bigger than we are. So I want you to listen to Jesus' words here in verse 16. "I will ask the Father, and He will give to you another helper to be with you forever." He says "I'm not leaving you alone." In fact, in verse 18 He will say, "I'm not going to leave you

as orphans, without protection, without provision, without power, without guidance, without hope, that you are not alone." And we might say, "Well, that's great for the disciples, those who are close to Jesus." Of course, we can see Him pouring out His Spirit on those who He has taught and been with for three years, but what about me? Paul makes it so very clear, not just in Romans, but in the rest of the New Testament, from the book of Acts, and through the rest of the epistles, that God's people are given the gift of the Spirit. Listen to what Paul says in Romans 8. We read this a little bit earlier. Romans 8:9, we read this a bit earlier. "You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If, in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you,

anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him." Now, Paul lists it there, in sort of the negative, saying if you don't have the Spirit, you're not in Christ. The implication is, is that if you are a Christian, if you are in Christ, you do have the Spirit. Look at verse 14. "For all who are led by the Spirit are sons of God." Paul, in Corinthians, talking about righteousness and leaving behind sin, his argument is that we are the temple. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 2, the church is being built together by the power of the Spirit. We see, throughout the New Testament, in our salvation, our struggles, our sanctification, the Spirit is at work in our lives. The disciples fear that they are going to be

left alone, and so do we. But the promise is that we are not without protection, without provision. We are not without hope, without power, guidance, and assurance. Now, we also need to understand what kind of not alone we are. Because there's kinds of not alone. Maybe they're funny, right? You're having pizza with the family, and somebody goes, "I don't think we're alone." And you look over in the corner, and there's your German Shepherd with really sad eyes, just eyeing that pizza, right? But then there's kind of a not alone that's terrifying, right? Maybe we've seen that movie, and they're out in the jungle somewhere, and it's like, "I don't think we're alone," right? That's never a good kind of not being alone. So what kind of not alone are God's people? There is a kind of not alone

that is wonderful, that is welcome. Listen to what is said here in verse 16. It says that we are given another helper. We'll ask the Father, and He will give to you another helper to be with you forever. And I just want to take that title, that name for the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of God. And I want to unpack it just for a moment to help us understand the magnitude of what is happening in the lives of God's people as the Spirit is at work within us. The picture here is another helper. That word "another" literally means "one of the same kind." So when you're at breakfast, and they come by your table and say, "Hey, do you want another coffee?" And you say, "Absolutely." Right? You're just asking for the same thing that you already

had. And when Jesus says, "I'm sending you another helper," it means there's one that has come prior to it. And what Jesus saying is, "You have a helper, me. God the Son. I'm getting ready to leave, and so I'm going to send the Holy Spirit." And what that means for God's people is there is someone who does in His presence what Jesus did in His presence for the disciples. Someone who strengthens, who provides, who protects, who teaches, who corrects, who leads. And there's this beautiful symmetry throughout Scripture that points to the wonder of the design as Scripture is inspired. Let me show you a picture of this, another helper. The one who does the same things for His people that Jesus does. In Luke chapter 2, verses 25 and 26, Jesus has just been born.

They're taking Him to the temple to be dedicated. It says this in Luke chapter 2, 25 and 26. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, and waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him, and it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And so that word, consolation, is the word that I want zoom in on here in the Gospel of Luke. And the picture here is that it's sort of this earnest request, or an earnest appeal for help. And so the consolation of Israel is the one who is coming to meet that earnest appeal and request. And so Simeon, who is righteous and devout,

and he has been praying, and he's been saying, "God, send the one who is going to come, and who's going to help, and who is going to comfort, and who is going to be there for your people." And the Holy Spirit says that it's going to happen in your lifetime. You're not going to see death until you see the Christ, who is going to be the one who comforts God's people. And so the Spirit promises that this consolation is going to be met in the person of Jesus Christ. Now here's where the symmetry comes in. As Jesus is born, and about to be dedicated, the Holy Spirit reveals to Simeon that the one who comforts Israel is about to arrive. Now Jesus, as he is about to depart, to go to the cross, to die, be buried,

rise again, and eventually ascend into heaven, is now promising to his disciples that the Comforter is going to come. And so at the beginning of the Gospels, the Holy Spirit promises the comfort of the Messiah. And at the end of the Gospels, the Messiah promises the comfort of the Holy Spirit to God's people. And so there is one who just as Jesus walked with his disciples, God the Son, God the Spirit indwells his people and strengthens and corrects and teaches and helps them. Let's zoom in on this word, helper. And this word helper in the English Standard Version, it's been translated in a bunch of different ways. Helper, advocate, I think in the New American Standard, comforter in the King James. All these different ways that this word in John is translated, whether it's helper,

comforter, advocate, they're all trying to help us see the same work of the Spirit using different words. And the picture of this word in Greek is literally someone who comes alongside you, specifically as you're walking into the darkest day of your life, which is walking into court, unsure of what is going to happen. And so the word is paraclete, it just means someone who comes alongside you. And so your defense counsel, your lawyer, your advisors, they stand not far from you, but with you they guide you, and they help you in that moment. So the heart of this word is someone who comes into court to defend on your behalf. And part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to do that in your life. And I want you to think about this, because it's wonderful. Because the Holy

Spirit comes into your life to speak on your behalf to you. That in your doubts, and in your struggles, and in your worries, the Spirit testifies to us about who we are in Christ. Listen to Romans chapter 8, beginning in verse 15. "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father." The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Notice that in this point the Spirit is not defending us from some sort of outside attack, but rather the Spirit is defending ourselves from ourselves by bearing witness to our spirit that we are children of God. That part of the work of the Spirit is to speak to us about our identity

in Christ. But the Spirit also speaks for us. Let me give you another example just from Romans, the eighth chapter. "Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And He searches hearts to know what the mind of the Spirit knows, what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And notice the picture. The Spirit doesn't just speak to us about who we are in Christ, but He speaks for us because we're weak and we don't always know how to pray or what to pray for. I remember the first time I think that this verse became more than just a verse

in the Bible to me. I was a very young and probably had been preaching for about a year at this little church right on the banks of the Mississippi River and there was a couple who had come to church and they always sort of sat in the back corner. They were there every Sunday. Rain, snow, tornadoes, floods in the Mississippi. They were always there. And she had had a brother and she had asked me. He'd been very, very sick and I'd been... Sunday afternoons, a lot of times I would stop by his house and talk with him. And this particular Sunday they weren't there. And keep in mind, like, I'm a new baby preacher. All I really had experience with is getting up and talking about Jesus. I visited like one guy in his house one time

or two times and they weren't there and I said, "I wonder how are brothers doing?" I said, "Well, it's on my way home." So as I was getting ready to drive back to the college, I stopped and they were just... and they were moving him in the ambulance. I didn't know what to do, right? I've never been in this situation before. Nobody had trained me for this. And I remember and I think it was the work of the Spirit that brings this to mind that went over and said, "Hey, let's just pray." Like, "It's the only thing you can do." And I had no idea what to pray or how to pray or what I should even say. And so I just prayed this verse. I opened up my Bible and I was like, "We don't know how

to pray. Here's how we pray. We're just going to pray that you will succeed on our behalf." And so here we are, and a lot of times we have a lot of words, and sometimes we try to fill the silence with words, and sometimes we try to add enough words to make what happens that we desire to happen happen. But there is a part of our lives where sometimes we get to the end of our words and our strength and our hope. And I want you to know that the Spirit doesn't just speak to us, He speaks for us in those deepest, darkest, most broken moments. So I want you to understand that first of all, we are not alone. Secondly, the Spirit comes alongside us, speaking both to us and for us. And what the Spirit

does is He strengthens us. And I want to think about that word, comforter. Oftentimes we hear that used in relation to the Spirit that He is our comforter. I think it's how the King James translated it, and it's interesting for us because we maybe have too weak a view of the word comforter. So for us, when we think of comforter, maybe it's something we put on top of our bed in the winter, let's get out the comforter because it's getting cold. Or maybe we think of comfort in terms of somebody who sits by us in our sadness, or who has the right words to say when we're struggling or hurt. We have to remember that the King James Bible was written, translated, not written, translated several hundred years ago. The word comforter comes from Latin.

And the word comforter in Latin is made of two words, and it means one who comes with strength. That when you hear that, comforter, it's not that warm blanket on the winter night, but rather the one who comes with strength. And Jesus promises that the one who comes with strength will indwell you and be at work in you. Whether in your group, facing the battle for righteousness, facing the battle to stay faithful, seeking to deal with what comes ahead, a good description of the Spirit, is the one who comes with strength. And of course it's good strength because it is the strength of the power of God. One of the ways in which the Spirit is referred to throughout the New Testament is the Spirit of God reminding us that this is not just a nice idea

or a warm sort of soft, fuzzy way of thinking, but rather the power of God in the person of the Spirit dwells in our life. Sometimes that strength isn't just to face trials, but to understand who God is and what He has done. Look at this in Ephesians chapter 3. It's Paul overwhelmed by the Gospel and the fact that he gets to proclaim it. It says this, "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family and in heaven and on earth is named, so that according to the riches of His glory, He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being." And he goes on to say, "So that we might know and comprehend the love of God." Not just that we need to be strengthened

to live out the truth, but we need strength to begin to understand and to see the truth. Especially in the face of conflict, when our troubles and our heartbreak seem so big, part of the work of the Spirit is in His power to help us to see that God is bigger, that He is stronger, greater than anything else. And so the Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, comes into our lives to encourage, help lead strength in His power as God. He comforts, He advocates for us, He counsels us, speaks to us and for us. He's literally called alongside. So two things I think we need to see. One, is that we are to be encouraged. We live in a world where bad news sells all the time. Everywhere. It's always the biggest headlines. And as Christians,

we have something different. We have good news. The good news of the Gospel. That God loves us. He sent His Son to stand in our place. That He dies for us. Rises again, giving us His righteousness, conquering Satan, death, sin, and hell. And then empowers us with His Spirit. And that we are not alone. That for Christians in a world where it is easy to be discouraged, our temptation is to cower down or to hide or to run or maybe tone down what it is we stand for. We need to be reminded that the power of God dwells within us. But maybe this morning you are outside of Christ. And you've come face to face with your weakness and your brokenness. Your sin and your shame has sent you running from God. The good news of the Gospel

is that Jesus Emmanuel, God with us, has come. And He takes your sin to the cross. He dies in your place. He rises for your victory. And He gives you the Spirit who fights for you. Who helps you to live in righteousness to let go of that sin. Who brings you to this place of repentance. So this morning, whether you're a Christian or not, we must be encouraged in the good news of the Gospel. Not just intellectually, and not just in our emotions, all of those are good, but in how we live. That our actions will be consistent with the truth which we hold. Strengthened by the work of the Spirit. Let's pray. Father in Heaven, I thank You for Jesus and for grace. For hope. For the gift of Your Spirit. And we struggle to understand

so many things. We struggle to find the right words, and we find our words insufficient. You are not insufficient. We know that You open our hearts to understand Scripture. We know that You call us to repentance. That You strengthen us. You speak to us and for us through Your Spirit. We thank You for Your Word and for Your people. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to stand His mercy is more.

What love could remember No wrongs we have done Our nations all knowing He counts not their son Thrown into a sea Without bottom or shore Our sins they are many His mercy is more Praise the Lord His mercy is more Stronger than darkness New every morn Our sins they are many His mercy is more What patience would wait As we constantly roam What Father so tender Is calling us on He welcomes The weakest The vilest The poor Our sins they are many His mercy is more Praise the Lord His mercy is more Stronger than darkness New every morn Our sins they are many His mercy is more What riches of kindness He lavished on us His blood was the payment His life was the cost We stood neath the debt We could never afford Our sins they are many

His mercy is more Praise the Lord His mercy is more Stronger than darkness New every morn Our sins they are many His mercy is more Praise the Lord His mercy is more Stronger than darkness New every morn Our sins they are many His mercy is more Our sins they are many His mercy is more

The book of Daniel. We're going to walk through those chapters, 12 chapters of the book of Daniel. It's a remarkable book. It begins with kind of an impossible choice that the Hebrew captives are put to. It moves into impossible situations. There's political intrigue. There's fiery furnaces. There's lion's den. If you ever use the phrase, the writing on the wall, that comes from the book of Daniel. Later on in the book, we encounter there's dramatic divisions. There's spiritual warfare. There's the rise and fall of kingdoms. And through it all, the purpose of Daniel is that it would point to the God who reigns in every moment. Whether that's the impossible circumstances, the decisions that we are unsure of, whether it's the furnace or the lion's den or the kingdoms rising and falling, the point is that we are unshaken because God reigns.

And so that's where we're going this fall. Also, this fall, Wednesday night Bible study, we're going to dig into two things. One, the trustworthiness of the Bible, whether that's the text, the history, the theology of the Word of God, but also to see the treasure that is contained within the Word of God. So we see both the truth of and the truth that is for us found in the Word of God, and so I'm looking forward to both of those things. We're going to go ahead and have a word of prayer, and then I will read from 2 Corinthians chapter 13, and then we will sing the doxology. So if you would, just let's go ahead and bow in prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for Jesus and for grace and for hope. We thank you for the peace that you bring to our lives.

We just ask that as we walk through life, whether in the joyful, glad times or in the sorrowful, difficult times, that you would remind us that you are with us, that your Spirit would guide us and protect us and encourage us. It's in your Son's name we pray. Amen. And so as Paul ends 1 Corinthians 13, he just simply says to the Corinthian church, and it's what I'd say to you, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all."

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.