Transcript
Speaker: In the book of Galatians, chapter 5, verses 19 to 21, Holy Spirit told Paul to write a description of human nature. Now this is human nature without Jesus in it, so it's not a very positive picture.
Speaker: The acts of a sinful nature are obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, um I know there a very uncomfortable video circulating on YouTube this week of a woman who slept with 100 men in one day.
Speaker: And next month, she wants it to be 1,000. in the Roman Empire, um where where this was written, it was very common um to molest teenage boys.
Speaker: So many of the leaders of society were pedophiles.
Speaker: And we see in our own countries today, a government's attempts ah to normalize that in many respects as well.
Speaker: Idolatry and witchcraft. um So praying to statues, praying to demons, chanting, cursing, astral projection.
Speaker: Hatred, just really hating life.
Speaker: Discord, hating unity and doing everything you can to create division.
Speaker: Jealousy, fits of rage, living in a deep, deep state of anger.
Speaker: Selfish ambition, not caring about anyone else, only about yourself. and what you can get out of things.
Speaker: Dissension and factions, just division division, division, division, dividing families, dividing circles of friends, dividing churches, dividing nations.
Speaker: Envy, coveting what other people have and hating that they have something you don't.
Speaker: And then living lives of excess, excessive a drinking, drunkenness, um orgies and the like.
Speaker: When people live lives without Jesus, without Holy Spirit, to some form or another, this is what the human condition looks like.
Speaker: but thank God that there's a better way.
Speaker: That better way comes by believing in the finished work of the cross, that every sin, every misspoken word, action, or thought has been dealt with while on the cross, that you have crossed over from death to life.
Speaker: that you are fully alive in Jesus and his Holy Spirit lives within you. we're going look at who Holy Spirit is a bit and the character of Holy Spirit and his eternal self, his personality.
Speaker: And then we're going to look at how he changes our personality.
Speaker: So Holy Spirit is not an it, a this, a that, thing. he is a he. but He is a person. And he's part of the triune God, part of the Trinity.
Speaker: Just like Jesus. Just like God the Father.
Speaker: Being eternal, he has no beginning and he has no end.
Speaker: At the beginning of creation, when they when Satan and his army got thrown of heaven... They were thrown into earth. Now earth was just a big ball of water, just the primordial earth. There was nothing there, no life, nothing to see, no land, nothing.
Speaker: Those demons, they took on marine aquatic features because they were thrown into the sea. But in Genesis 1-2, it's the first time we see Holy Spirit.
Speaker: And it says, now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep, and Holy Spirit was hovering over the waters.
Speaker: Now those waters in Hebrew, because that was written in Hebrew initially, means primeval waters, waste, urine, even semen.
Speaker: So if you want to imagine what the demons were trying to just look at that. The earth was a ball of water and they were already trying to destroy it.
Speaker: And personally, i'd say they were probably trying to create the Antichrist or something mad. But even then, Holy Spirit, like a mother bird, was hovering over that ball of water, probably just imagining how amazing it was going to be when the humans were created.
Speaker: They already had so many different kinds of creatures in heaven as their staff.
Speaker: but humans are going to be their family. And I'm sure he was just imagining how amazing that was going to be, getting to know us.
Speaker: In John 20, 22, says Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, receive Holy Spirit.
Speaker: So Holy Spirit is the breath of God. Sometimes in the Old Testament, you'll see the breath of God. It's another name for Holy Spirit.
Speaker: And if want to know what he does, look at Psalm 33, 6 to 9. By the words of the Lord, that's a name for Jesus, the heavens were made.
Speaker: Their starry host by the breath of his mouth. Holy Spirit breeds stars. Holy Spirit does... and suddenly planets are formed.
Speaker: He's amazing.
Speaker: He gathers the waters of the sea into jars. He puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord, let all the people of the world revere him.
Speaker: Why wouldn't you? he makes stars, people. For he spoke and it came to be. He commanded and it stood firm. The earth was created and firmly established.
Speaker: So our God makes stars. That's how powerful he is.
Speaker: In Genesis 2, 7 to 9, it talks about the Lord, so Jesus again, creating the man out of the dust. Now, in English, a lot of Bible translations say that the Lord breathed life into the man.
Speaker: In the Hebrew, the original language, it's better translated. He breathed the spirit of lives. He breathed in Holy Spirit, but also a soul. Because when he made the man, it was just a shell, and a meat suit, the the the physical being.
Speaker: but instead, the Lord breathed in a mind, a heart, a will. and Holy Spirit.
Speaker: And not only was he there at the very beginning, he will be there at the very end of all things. Because Hebrews 9, 14 refers to him as the eternal spirit.
Speaker: And John 14, 16 says that he is a helper and he'll be with us forever.
Speaker: So Holy Spirit had no beginning and he has no end. He is forever.
Speaker: But what is he like?
Speaker: Isaiah 11-2 tells us seven qualities about Holy Spirit.
Speaker: It calls him the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of God.
Speaker: The spirit of wisdom. Because you can know something and still make terrible life decisions. I know I have. But with wisdom, you're able to rationalize and make the best decision in that moment.
Speaker: You have the knowledge, and with the knowledge, you're able to make decisions for your better and for the betterment of those around you.
Speaker: He's the spirit of understanding. You know when you have those lightbulb moments? You're like, Eureka, I get it. That's Holy Spirit.
Speaker: He's the spirit of counsel. He is a counselor. When you need help, advice, but you've just had a rotten day, you can just sit down, pull up a chair, imagine he's right there, because he is, and say, Holy Spirit, today sucked.
Speaker: Here's why. How do I have a better tomorrow?
Speaker: He's the spirit of power. And we're going to look at that in lots of detail next time in particular.
Speaker: He's the spirit of knowledge.
Speaker: He will reveal information to you. it could be information that you just couldn't and understand or learn in any other way. He just freely gives it to you.
Speaker: And he's also the spirit of the fear of the Lord. Now that doesn't mean that you're terrified. God is a good, good father. and But to have a reverential fear.
Speaker: all That sense of Holy Spirit just taking your breath away. You're like, oh my goodness, God is so good. That's what it is.
Speaker: And Holy Spirit... can multiply himself. When Holy Spirit enters you, you don't get a 0.0000000000378% of Holy Spirit. get a 100% layer. So everyone here has 100% layer of Holy Spirit. There's Holy Spirit heaven, which we'll look at moment.
Speaker: you got a one hundred percent layer so everyone here has a one hundred percent layer of holy spirit there's also a holy spirit in heaven which we'll look at in a moment He's also on the earth flying around looking for lost people who are ready to be found by Jesus. He can just multiply himself as many times as he needs to.
Speaker: And in heaven, he can be anywhere he needs to be. If you're in your garden, in your mansion in heaven, and you want to talk to Holy Spirit, he will multiply himself and he will be there.
Speaker: But he also has seven multiples of himself. which are always before Jesus' throne in heaven. Now, heaven is not a place.
Speaker: It's not a state. It is a world. But there's one particular throne room in heaven where Revelation 1, 3, verse that seven versions four verse five and five or six tell us that's seven versions Seven layers of Holy Spirit are always before the throne of Jesus.
Speaker: It's called the sevenfold spirit of God. Now, this throne room is a crazy, mad, mental place. And in a number of weeks, I will show you what it looks like.
Speaker: and Because in week 17, we're going to look at heaven. The geography of heaven, the creatures in heaven, what people eat and drink in heaven, what they do in heaven, how they travel around in heaven. We're to look at heaven a lot. It might take several weeks. It's one of my favorite topics.
Speaker: But one of the things in that throne room are seven layers of Holy Spirit always right there before Jesus.
Speaker: but his most important job on the earth is he is the agent of salvation.
Speaker: Salvation is purposed by Father God, accomplished by Jesus on the cross, and it's applied by Holy Spirit.
Speaker: Holy Spirit gives Christ to us the moment we first believe. and all the redemptive blessings he has secured to God's people.
Speaker: The fruits are part those blessings. The gifts we'll look at next time.
Speaker: And Holy Spirit applies to the church and gives the church what Jesus accomplished for the church. Jesus died on the cross so we could have full life, access to the Father,
Speaker: and power to defeat evil, Holy Spirit gives it to us.
Speaker: Holy Spirit graciously, effectively, and permanently gives us Christ Jesus and every blessing he has secured. Our salvation is in Jesus alone, but our salvation is by Holy Spirit alone.
Speaker: When you first heard the good news of the cross and the empty grave, Holy Spirit's the one who turned on the lightning bulb, who helped you to understand it. Your heart wanted it, and Holy Spirit made you understand it simultaneously at the same time.
Speaker: He was right there. I know sometimes when people are born in the natural, their parents say, oh, you were a surprise, or you were unwanted. i never wanted another child.
Speaker: That's not what God says. His Holy Spirit was right there the second you experienced the inner birth, the renewal, the new life. Because he chose you specifically, on purpose, lovingly.
Speaker: So therefore, no one enjoys the benefits of Christ's saving life, death and resurrection apart from Holy Spirit. He has to be involved.
Speaker: Being a good person doesn't cut it. Not being worse than your neighbours doesn't cut it. It's a God thing.
Speaker: He's the vital bonding agent. He's the glue of the gospel. Securing sinners immediately and permanently to Jesus.
Speaker: So long as you believe in the finished work of the cross, he will not let you go.
Speaker: And Holy Spirit is the one who gives you that knowledge and that understanding that there's only one mediator between God and man.
Speaker: Only one person who reconciles you to God, who makes you good with God, hence Jesus.
Speaker: Therefore, Colossians 1.22 tells us, He looks at you like you are without blemish and free from accusation.
Speaker: so when you get those thoughts in your head, you're a Christian. Yeah, good one Okay. I heard you gossiping last week. You're not a real Christian. You're a bad person. You say, nope.
Speaker: Holy Spirit says I'm without blemish. Without spot. No scars. no bruises. No cuts. And I'm free from accusation, free from condemnation.
Speaker: Or bit later, Colossians 2, 13 to 14, says that when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, that's fancy language for a sinner, God made you alive at Christ.
Speaker: He forgave us all our sins. Not some, not a few, not the big ones, not the easy fixable ones. All.
Speaker: Having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us. He's taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
Speaker: I know that's quite financial legal language, That just means that if I
Speaker: commit a crime against somebody and a judge says, Brendan, you have to pay 500,000 euros to that person. Compensation. You damage them, pay them back the money.
Speaker: It is like Jesus, the best judge there is, tearing up that punishment and saying, Brendan, I'll pay for it. You're fine. You're clean. You're free. That's what Jesus on the cross.
Speaker: Not for my easy sins, or my secret sins, or the big impossible ones. all All sin.
Speaker: Now you might say, but it did happen. I was there. i know it happened. It can't be that easy. Colossians 3.3 tells us, your old life is hidden with Christ and God.
Speaker: So it's just like if Jesus were standing in front of you, and that's all Father God can see, the gold, the silver, the shine.
Speaker: he cannot see your wicked self, your former self, your worst moment, because Jesus is in the way. You're under the shadow or the light of Jesus and Jesus all he sees. And God loves Jesus very, very much.
Speaker: but but And it's the same love he has for us.
Speaker: So that's what you are like now because Holy Spirit lives within you.
Speaker: And Holy Spirit doesn't have any agenda beyond that. Not really.
Speaker: his aim is to point to you to Jesus, because everything that you need is in him. Your identity, your position, your authority on the earth, your past, your present, your future.
Speaker: So everything that Holy Spirit says and does then, he does under the instruction of Jesus. Imagine it's a movie. And Jesus is sitting in the director's chair.
Speaker: And Holy Spirit's the one with the microphone. The director said, get on the set. Okay, everyone leave the set. I need the cleanup team. That's what Holy Spirit's doing. Mobilizing his kids, leading them, maneuvering them a upon Jesus' instruction.
Speaker: Sometimes we think of Jesus as just, you know, Sweet baby Jesus, meek and mild. No, he's the Lord. He's the master. or He's calling the shots.
Speaker: So conforming the authority of Christ's redemptive work and words, Holy Spirit says whatever he hears from Christ or from Father God.
Speaker: John 16, 13 says, But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He won't speak on his own, but whatever he hears, he'll speak.
Speaker: And he'll disclose what's to come. Now that might sound like Holy Spirit's very, very submissive. But let's be honest, when Jesus was on the earth, all he said was what he heard Father God say. All he did was what he had seen Father God do.
Speaker: Amen. Where'd he go? where he was told to, by Father God. So the Holy Spirit is all-powerful, but he's happy to let Jesus call the shots, because Jesus is the head of the church.
Speaker: And the same way Jesus is all-powerful, yet when he was on the earth, he was okay to follow God's instruction. The Father, Son, Holy Spirit have never once disagreed with each other.
Speaker: They agree completely on everything. So don't worry, he's not being bullied by Jesus.
Speaker: And then 1 Corinthians 2, 10 to 13 says, But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit. Holy Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
Speaker: Now, Holy Spirit's God. He knows everything. But that's how much they love each other. They're still communicating. They're still fellowshipping. They're still asking questions, sharing information.
Speaker: They know everything. Holy Spirit knows God's answers before Holy Spirit adds a question. But he still searches out because they just love unity and fellowship with each other so much.
Speaker: So who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirits within him? Because you don't know what anyone else is thinking. You can only really know what you're thinking. Unless Holy Spirit does something miraculous.
Speaker: So too, no one knows the thoughts of God, except for Holy Spirit. We have not received the spirit of the dark world, the demonic world.
Speaker: Amen. You have received God's spirit, whose first name is Holy. Hello. That we may understand what God has freely given us, which is everlasting life and freedom.
Speaker: We've also been given dynamite resurrection power. Ephesians 1, 1820 says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he's called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power.
Speaker: Because he's God. No one's power compares to God's. For us who believe. That power that's in you through Holy Spirit.
Speaker: And listen, now this is good stuff. Is the same mighty power he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead. And seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.
Speaker: So within you, there is resurrection power. From Holy Spirit. And it's the same power that Holy Spirit used in resurrecting Jesus and flying Jesus up into heaven sit on a throne beside God the Father.
Speaker: You might be thinking, Brendan, I do not access that power. That is nuts. Don't worry. Like I said, we will look at it first week in January. And it'll make a lot more sense then.
Speaker: but also in Holy Spirits within you.
Speaker: He doesn't make you timid, or afraid, or weak, or a victim. He gives us power, love, self-discipline, and sound mind.
Speaker: He heals and restores your inner self and he fills you to overflowing so other people can be blessed as well.
Speaker: And not only do we have Holy Spirit, but Jesus is in there as well. Romans 8, 9 says, You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.
Speaker: If in fact, Holy Spirit dwells in you, Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. So basically, when you believe in the finished work of the cross, you're getting Holy Spirit and you're getting Jesus as well.
Speaker: And they're not in there redundantly. They're not in there doing nothing. They're in there changing you from the inside out.
Speaker: And this is what we call the fruit of Holy Spirit.
Speaker: So Holy Spirit functions as a fruit producer in our lives, producing good fruit. We've seen what a human heart looks like.
Speaker: without Holy Spirit and Jesus, not very good, you'll agree?
Speaker: So when Holy Spirit is in there, he's producing the good kind of fruit, his own personality, his own character, his own qualities, his own passions.
Speaker: And they are love joy, joy, peace Patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Speaker: Now, sometimes people think of these in a very everyday kind of way. And they say, actually, you don't need God for that. I mean, anyone can be patient. Because they think of patience like the boss is two minutes late.
Speaker: And you're not for looking at your watch top of your feet. You're waiting peacefully. Okay, that's a kind of patience, but that's not Holy Spirit patience. but Or they think of love and they think of Valentine's Day or I love Christmas or I love this pillow. It's my favorite. am Okay, that's nice. But that's not the love we're talking about here. We're talking about a deeper love in this context.
Speaker: Or for peace, they think, oh yes, Christmas holidays, two weeks off work. Yeah, get in there. Yes and amen. I agree.
Speaker: I cannot wait until the next 48 hours and I'm free. But it's not the peace that we're talking about. We're talking about deeper qualities here, which don't really translate very well into the English. They can seem bit shallow. But we're going to look at what they mean in the Greek language, which has so many more layers.
Speaker: In fact, i don't know. I'm this tempted to actually write my own version of the Bible with the closest Greek translations I can find.
Speaker: So let's look at love first.
Speaker: The word for love in this Bible passage is agape. Agape translates as God's love for wreck humanity.
Speaker: What is God's love for humanity? Sending Jesus Christ to the earth for 33 years. To be bullied, beaten, and spat on by humans.
Speaker: To have a crown of thorns forced into his skull. To be whipped with several lashes, or lashed with several whips.
Speaker: To carry cross and have his hands and his feet nailed to that cross, and to hang there dying while he's cursed with every curse the Old Testament has, so that you and I could be adopted to his family.
Speaker: That's what God's love looks like. It's not lovey-dovey, write a Valentine's Day card, I love chocolate. No, it's self-sacrificial. It's unconditional.
Speaker: Because we've heard the good news and we've said, yes, God, I receive it. It's a free gift. Amen. I take it, Lord. And that's what God's grace is. It's a gift.
Speaker: You receive You reject it. Or you receive it and you return it to senders. Only one of those is good. Receiving it and keeping it.
Speaker: God did that for us, but he also did that for every human who rejects Jesus. He also did for every pedophile, every rapist, every mass murderer, every dictator, every torturer.
Speaker: That's the sacrificial, unconditional love that Holy Spirit, in time, gradually produces in our lives. That we can impossibly love the impossible to love.
Speaker: that we can love the unlovable unconditionally.
Speaker: It's a love which centres in moral preference. So not love as in, I you love my pillow, it's so soft, but loving from a moral point of view.
Speaker: It's love which is based upon the will and mental altitude Emotions are great. God has emotions. But, you know, there are times when I really don't feel like I love people, but I still have to make an act of my will, a decision with an act of my will to choose to love them.
Speaker: It's a choice.
Speaker: Agape love is the highest form of love there is. Not romantic, though it's great. Not friendship, though it's wonderful.
Speaker: Agape is the highest level. It's God's love.
Speaker: You can have emotions and feelings, but they are not the source. They're not the be-all and end-all.
Speaker: It's an act of the will, characterized by your commitment to people's well-being. Your commitment to seeing them prosper, thrive, and grow, flourish.
Speaker: And the emphasis is on selflessness. Let's be honest. What does God actually get out of having a relationship with us?
Speaker: If I don't worship God, he has stones in heaven that can worship him.
Speaker: If I never teach the Bible ever again, he has millions of people on earth who will. And let's be honest. No one can teach the Bible better than God himself anyway. He can teach himself the Bible.
Speaker: If I don't worship him, and no human on earth does, he still has choirs of angels in heaven and creatures who aren't even angels, seraphim and cherubim, who will still worship him.
Speaker: He'll be okay. His self-esteem is very, very good.
Speaker: But this love, it's selfless. If you get nothing from it, and only other people do, are you still willing to love people that way?
Speaker: That's agape love. Now you might think to yourself, I am not there. That's okay. You give it time. Holy Spirit will produce these things in due course.
Speaker: I have also heard that agape, it agape? It is, yep. Akape love means of like fatherly.
Speaker: fuck Yeah, fatherly love because God is the father. Amen. so it is fatherly. As you said, not romantic love because eros is romantic. Correct, yeah. Akape is also fatherly.
Speaker: Precisely. Fatherly love. Yeah, exactly. If you, let's go for the, mothers and fathers and in the group when you think of your child even if your child doesn't say please sorry and thank you 20 times a day you will still cook them dinner um because you have the unconditional love for your child oh or even if your child if your child says you know my feet have grown my school shoes are too small You make a priority of, okay, I'm not going to go to bingo tonight. I'm going to plug that money towards new school shoes.
Speaker: but You wanted to have your fun time, your down time, your de-stressing time. You say, no, I'm choosing my child. That parental fatherly, motherly love. Exactly.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Human relationships are often a picture of God's relationship with us. Very true.
Speaker: And love encapsulates the moral law. If you look at the Ten Commandments, for example, don't misuse God's name and miscarry, misrepresent him.
Speaker: Don't dishonor your parents. Don't be envious. Don't steal. Don't murder. All these things. Don't lie. If you truly love someone, you're not going to do those things.
Speaker: So you can summarize all the laws there are in the Old Testament and the New into loving people unconditionally. Because it's not just a feeling.
Speaker: It's a decision for their betterment, for their prosperity, so that they thrive and triumph. So can I ask... that o this encapsulates this? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Speaker: ah So is it this exactly the same thing, but it's just saying another way. Silas said, I give you one command.
Speaker: ah Hold on. Yeah, that's it. think he said, yeah, have one commandment. yeah He was saying things like, Don't murder. i mean, don't kill. Don't lie.
Speaker: Don't adultery. Yeah, adultery. Yeah, one thing. Love. Love each other as I love you is all those. Don't do this. Don't do that. blah blah Just one thing. you understand what I want ask? It includes everything. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Okay. That's it. Good connection. Yes. Okay. Thank you.
Speaker: So 1 Corinthians 13, 13 talks about the importance of faith, hope, and love.
Speaker: But it says the greatest is love. Because God is love. Amen. Not his character, it's it's who he is. By God, there would be no love. In fact, he only made reality from the overflow of his love.
Speaker: um He made humans with will so we could choose to love him and be loved by him, to give our love and receive his love. It's who he is.
Speaker: And therefore, in the works he would have us to do on the earth, he wants it to be a labor of love. not to do good things because you feel condemned or pressured or bullied well, if I don't do that, people might not like me. If I don't support this person, they're going to gossip.
Speaker: No, you want to be a labor of love, something you do from the overflow of love.
Speaker: And it says and Romans 5.5, when we're suffering, when we're going through hard times, We choose to hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through Holy Spirit who has given to us.
Speaker: So no matter how bad things get, we can still love people beyond what is otherwise naturally possible, because we've already received the greatest love there is.
Speaker: Could you please explain what is this ah labor or of love? I don't understand. bill a labor Labor is work. So it's that you're not doing things out of pressure.
Speaker: You're not doing good things. Because if I don't, God will hate me and I'll go to hell. That's fear. okay You're not doing them because you want your pastor to like you and give you a position in the church.
Speaker: Ambition or vain ambition Ambition's good, vain ambition's bad But a labour of love You're compelled from the overflow of God's love in your heart It is kind of like freely I freely love my silly friend Exactly So not under compulsion or pressure With an act of your will You're choosing to love these people Ah, okay, thank you, and I understand.
Speaker: Lovely.
Speaker: And I know it looks in those passages like love only benefits other people. ah But actually, 1 Thessalonians 5.8 also says that love protects you.
Speaker: It's a breastplate.
Speaker: Since we are of the day, that means you're a child of light, not of darkness. You're helping God, not the devil. Let us be sober, not drunk or drugged up to the eyeballs, but thinking clearly, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.
Speaker: So God's love, knowing it and showing it, will also protect your heart as well. Because commonality is vulnerability.
Speaker: If you have more in common with evil than with God in your words and your thoughts and your actions, you'll be more vulnerable to disaster.
Speaker: But actually, if you're rooted and grounded in God's love, it does actually help protect your heart from attack, from abuse, ah whether they be words or even spiritual warfare.
Speaker: And joy. Joy is a word we hear a lot in December, you know, joy to the world, the teacher's dead. Well, you could sing that at school. Then I became a teacher and I began singing the proper lines myself. Joy's the world, the Lord has come.
Speaker: I thought it was very funny until I became one of those dead teachers. ah But we often think of joy as just happiness, like that a joke.
Speaker: It makes you smile. But actually, the true translation, if we look at the Greek to English, because this was originally written in Greek, means delight.
Speaker: A deep abiding, that means it's always there, sense of gladness. that's rooted in spiritual reality rather than external circumstances. Some people, if they dropped their favorite teacup or mug, would lie in bed crying for three days.
Speaker: That is emotional incontinence. Joy means I go, oh darn, that was my favorite mug. But you know what? God is still good. Jesus is still on the throne.
Speaker: still have breath in my lungs. Your feelings don't change or fluctuate based on what happens externally.
Speaker: It's characterized by a deep sense of inner peace and contentment that yes, we live in days of political bigotry when politicians are literally trying to destroy their own countries.
Speaker: Yes, we see so many people around us ruining their lives on purpose With no intention of course correcting. Yes, we see people who know better making really stupid decisions or being passive.
Speaker: But no matter what happens outside,
Speaker: you still have the peace. I'm still content. You're not passive. You're not apathetic. You care about these things. But they don't destroy your peace.
Speaker: You're not lying on the floor in a heap, starving yourself for 17 days straight. It's like you are okay.
Speaker: It's deeply connected to the hope and the assurance found in Jesus. His life, his death, his resurrection, and the eternal life that we have through him.
Speaker: So yes, things might be bad today, you we go gods on the throne. Jesus is still good. I'm still right with God. He looks at me just as if I never sinned.
Speaker: Heaven is for real and I'm going to live there.
Speaker: It literally translates as the awareness of God's grace and favor. Grace recognized. Or rejoice because you have grace.
Speaker: Or a joy because of grace. Because you know Jesus is in you. Because of his cross, his forgiveness, his death, his resurrection, you're still stable. You're still happy.
Speaker: You're still solid. You're still secure.
Speaker: The next fruit is peace.
Speaker: Peace means to join. to tie together into a whole. Properly, wholeness,
Speaker: when all the essential parts are joined together, to have prosperity in the soul, harmony, security, welfare.
Speaker: Think of a rope. It's got lots of different strands and you tie them all together into something secure. that you can abseil down a mountain. You can throw a bucket into a well and bring up water and your bucket.
Speaker: That's the peace of God. These things are knitted together, joined together, they're secure, and therefore you prosper and you flourish. Because that's what God wants your inner self to look like.
Speaker: And again, it doesn't matter what's happening on the outside. It won't shift your inner man, your inner woman.
Speaker: And patience. We often think of patience like someone is annoying us and we hold our tongue. You grit your teeth, you don't speak, you tense up.
Speaker: It's not patience. This is what patience is.
Speaker: long suffering, forbearance.
Speaker: That when someone mistreats you, they treat you badly, they hurt you, repeatedly, again and again, you're slow to anger.
Speaker: It doesn't mean we tolerate abuse, we don't.
Speaker: But no matter what, how they're provoking you, or what the difficulty is, that you endure. You don't break.
Speaker: You don't fall apart. And here's the wonderful thing. If you do break, Proverbs says the righteous man falls seven times and he gets up an eighth. God will get you back on your feet. That's why you have a family, the body of Christ, to help you get back up on your feet again.
Speaker: and then you know what? You put your feet deeper into Holy Spirit, deeper into Jesus, and you're stronger for the next time.
Speaker: It's the character of God and the expected behavior of believers, highlighting the virtue of enduring trials, not so abusers get away with evil, but so that you can show mercy.
Speaker: Because God loves justice, he is a God of justice, but he prefers mercy and grace. He prefers to let people go off scot-free in an eternal sense, to become his children, rather than to perish and burn forever.
Speaker: It promotes a lifestyle of forgiveness, rather than revenge or immediate justice. Sometimes when we get hurt, we just want people to suffer, to feel the pain of that moment, to feel what we felt.
Speaker: Yes, God hated what they did to you.
Speaker: but for them to experience the freedom that you have, oh, he'd love that so much more.
Speaker: I'd say the best, most accurate translation is actually long passion. Waiting a sufficient time before expressing anger. Sometimes we have to get angry about things. Sometimes it's important that we show righteous anger so people know that we have morals, virgin standards.
Speaker: But God doesn't want us to use force prematurely enact retribution improperly, where it's more of a personal reaction or a personal vendetta, rather than showing Christ.
Speaker: It's a divinely regulated patience. I mean, there are things that God hates, and you know what? He will deal with them eventually. But he chooses to be patient.
Speaker: With us.
Speaker: he um To embrace steadfastness and staying power. To be a steady eddy. Not tossed on the waves, whatever wind blows get shifted, but to be stable, secure.
Speaker: And not to be short-tempered. You look fat in that dress. What did you say? No. Long-tempered. That's... but but but You're not always blowing a fuse or blowing a gasket.
Speaker: You take a breath, relax, and move on.
Speaker: And Holy Spirit also wants to reduce within us kindness. Now I think sometimes we mistake kindness for friendliness.
Speaker: You can be friendly, you be polite, you smile, you ask, hello there, how are you today? but kindness is much, much deeper.
Speaker: Kindness means showing gentleness, uprightness. Not that you're morally compromised, but uncompromised.
Speaker: To show loving kindness. And not just once, but a steadfast love.
Speaker: You don't love someone one day and then delete them off Facebook the next day and then you delete all your Instagram photos of them the third day and the next day they're BFFs and you're inviting them to your wedding.
Speaker: but but Steadiness.
Speaker: Covenantal loyalty. Covenantal loyalty. I love you today, were great. You ticked me off the next day, but I still love you. You hadn't replied to my text when I wanted to you to the third day, but you're still my bestie.
Speaker: It's a moral goodness and integrity that is expressed through acts of benevolence towards others. You are going to be generous and kind in physical ways.
Speaker: It starts on the inside, but it will manifest externally.
Speaker: It's usable, purposeful, well fit for use, for what's really needed. It's serviceable. You're going meet people's real, actual needs in God's way, God's timing.
Speaker: It's a divine kindness that Holy Spirit produces within you.
Speaker: Maybe your heart wants to be harsh and cruel to the person, but you say, no, God loves them. going to be kind. going to help them out.
Speaker: That's the kind of kindness we're talking about here. And again, we don't do good works to be loved by God. We do it empowered by God. because we've received his love for ourselves.
Speaker: The next fruits of Holy Spirit the Bible mentions is goodness.
Speaker: This goodness is intrinsic goodness, especially as a personal quality, with a stress on the kindly side of goodness. So we've looked at righteousness before. You are right with God.
Speaker: Goodness here is more on the outworking of that righteousness. You're righteous with God and God can see it. Goodness is what people can see with their physical eyes.
Speaker: You're pleasant.
Speaker: Agreeable. Not that you pretend to agree with wicked opinions, but but agreeable in that you're doing things that people should agree with. Should say, oh wow, that's so true. That's so amazing. Yes, lovely.
Speaker: It's beneficial. It's helpful. In a world where people are so selfish, it really speaks volumes and changes the atmosphere of a room when someone one is just selfish.
Speaker: kind, just good, just beneficial, helpful.
Speaker: It's a moral quality that reflects what's already true on the inside, your moral rightness for God.
Speaker: When people look at you, they'll see kindness, benevolence, and a desire to do what's right. Not socially, Not in the Twitterverse, but according to God's standards.
Speaker: It's rooted in the character of God. Because God is, and I say this every week, absolutely good.
Speaker: It's inherently good. Spiritual, moral excellence.
Speaker: Then we get to faithfulness.
Speaker: Faithfulness is a confidence, fidelity, be persuaded, reliant, steadfast, a steady Eddie again,
Speaker: confirming, supporting, believing or trusting.
Speaker: It's a conviction or a belief in the truth.
Speaker: An intellectual agreement or approval, but trustful commitment.
Speaker: You're trustworthy in your personal relationships, but also in your civic duties, helping other people.
Speaker: The most important faith you can have is in your covenant relationship with God. When you believe that Jesus is your Lord, who died for you and was raised again for you. you That's a covenant with God, very special sacred agreement, where you believe what he's promised you, everlasting life.
Speaker: And it's a response to God's grace. So your first faithfulness is believing in God, but as a result, people will also see that you're trustworthy.
Speaker: You're reliable. You're a man or a woman of your word. What you say, ye mean. If you say it, you'll do it.
Speaker: You know, we have a few different ways of perceiving and and comprehending unseen reality. We're told and in theology that for faith,
Speaker: It can be shown through rationalism. That means you trust reason.
Speaker: Empiricism. You trust what you see, what you feel, what you smell, what you hear, what you taste.
Speaker: And faith trusts authority.
Speaker: So the authority of God's word, the Bible.
Speaker: Though when God says he loves you with an everlasting love, he means it. He's not lying to you.
Speaker: Sometimes people think faith is very abstract, hard to achieve, especially if you've been let down a lot in life. To be honest with you, I would actually say we exercise faith every day.
Speaker: for example, i've got a stool here, yeah? got four legs and a seat. exercise faith. Now I normally stand when I teach, but I exercise faith every time I sit down.
Speaker: i have faith in the manufacturer that that chair, that stool will support my body weight. That the legs and the seats are secure enough to hold me up and not to drop me down to the ground.
Speaker: So if I can trust a manufacturer of a stool, how much more the manufacturer of the human body, the human soul, the human spirit, the cosmos, the world of heaven, and the creator of time and space.
Speaker: You know, a lot of people will say things like, well, I believe in in God, or I believe in our God, I believe that there's there's something out there. Okay, that's more ah of ah of a mental ascent.
Speaker: But if they say, I believe God, that's a personal trust that they have in his heart and his character, in God as a person. And that's why I opened today's lesson with Holy Spirit as a person.
Speaker: Not as an abstract force, like the force in Star Wars. know, feel the force, Luke. but as a person who actively loves you and chooses you and wants you to thrive.
Speaker: And Hebrews 11, one tells us that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen. That means that when we have faith, it's not blind faith.
Speaker: It will manifest. God will answer your prayer. You will see his goodness in the land of the living. And you know what? You'll see it even more when you did.
Speaker: and
Speaker: And Romans 1.7, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it's written, but the righteous man or woman shall shall live by faith.
Speaker: We don't do things to try to get everlasting life. We receive it as a gift from Jesus through faith. And then we act accordingly afterwards. We think accordingly afterwards. We respond accordingly afterwards.
Speaker: Or Romans 5, Therefore, having been made just as if we'd never sinned by faith, We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained our inheritance by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
Speaker: And it's not just a little bit of grace. It is totally unmerited favor. And we exult in hope of the glory of God. Ephesians 3, 16 to 17 says,
Speaker: that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, and God is very rich, you're the richest being there is, he has no lack, to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your soul, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
Speaker: that as we have faith, Christ enters in, And just like trees, we get deeper and deeper in his love. The more we get discipled, the more we learn about him, the more we learn him.
Speaker: and we grow like trees and we spread out our branches and we take up more space. So like a canopy and other people get blessed under our covering.
Speaker: But we can grow in faith. Yes, we need the initial faith to become Christians. But we're on a journey in life. And we don't all have super faith straight away. And that's okay.
Speaker: It'll be developed over the course of our lives.
Speaker: Sometimes it means fleeing from things. Temptations. Some people like to stand around and say, God, help me to give up this addiction. The Bible doesn't say that. It says run away from them.
Speaker: ah but but yeah Temptations are it's one of the only things you're not guaranteed to win in life. Take a hike. but And instead, grow in faith.
Speaker: Grow in love, perseverance, righteousness, godliness, gentleness. 2 Corinthians 8, 9. God wants you to abound in faith.
Speaker: Not just have a little bit, but always and ever to get more and more and more. And he wants you and to put your faith into action, working through love.
Speaker: Not that the faith begins and ends with you, but that more people get blessed through the faith that you have.
Speaker: That'll be in how you pray, and how you step out to help people, even when it doesn't humanly make sense. Because we serve a God who has total resources, all time and space in his hands, and he can make a way.
Speaker: and matter what age you are, what season of life you're in he can use you for his goodness, his glory.
Speaker: All right there are two more. of them is gentleness. You know, a lot of people think of gentleness actually like a weakness. You might say, oh, I was gentle and people walked all over my heart.
Speaker: Or, oh, someone's very gentle, very fragile. It's not the gentleness that we're talking about at all.
Speaker: We're talking about meekness and mildness.
Speaker: But remember, the spirit of God does not make you timid. Instead, it's a quality of gentle strength. That you're very strong, but it's not shown like, you know, you're like a hulking brute, like, know, the Terminator looking for attention. It's characterized by your humility and having a calm demeanor. It's a quiet strength.
Speaker: You don't have to walk into a room and make a spectacle of yourself to feel good and be seen. There's a quiet confidence there.
Speaker: Your power is under control. Because you're submitted to God and you're considerate of others. Just like Jesus could have come to the earth, slapped a metal crown in his head, sat on a throne and ruled the galaxy as he wanted to.
Speaker: no He chose to do things only in accordance to what God had specifically told him for that day. Our Holy Spirit right now is God. He is the star breathing God.
Speaker: But instead, he only does what Jesus tells him to. What he searches and seeks out and hears in the mind of God the Father.
Speaker: So if Jesus and Holy Spirit will be submissive to each other and to Father God, who do we think we are to rule the roost and lord it over other people in a place of arrogance or conceitedness?
Speaker: It's a strength that comes from our trust in God rather than relying on our own power. There have been times in my life where I knew I was technically capable and able and smarter and more knowledgeable.
Speaker: And I tried to let the whole world know it. Well, ah but in short, that didn't work out so well for me or for anyone else involved. But rather, no, i don't need to be seen.
Speaker: I don't need the attention. God can expand my world as he needs to. He puts the right people in my path every day for me to bless and to bless me. i just have to trust him and not try to manufacture it on my own.
Speaker: It's power with reserve. You know, Jesus is omniscient. He's all-knowing. He's omnipresent. He's everywhere.
Speaker: He's omniscient. He knows everything. There's nothing he doesn't know. But even when he was on the earth, he laid aside some of his divinity.
Speaker: The baby Jesus was not sitting in the manger saying, Ha ha ha ha, today the shepherds will come and visit me and sing a song. No. He was a baby. He said, Or when he was two years of age and Joseph had built himself and Mary house.
Speaker: In Bethlehem, Jesus didn't say, Mama, stepdada, the wise men are going to make us rich today. Nah, he was human and he was two.
Speaker: So if even Jesus would put aside some of his power and use that power with reserve, because he could have done whatever he wanted to, but he chose to do things God's way.
Speaker: Who are we to think that we're going to do things contrary to Jesus? Come on.
Speaker: It's a gentle force and it begins with the Lord's inspiration and it finishes with his direction and his empowerment. Like I said, Jesus is in the director's chair.
Speaker: It's called the throne. he is the Lord, he is the master of reality.
Speaker: And it's a divinely balanced virtue. that can only operate through faith. Again, we can think of gentleness in a friendship kind of way, or someone's very soft, positively or negatively.
Speaker: But this kind of strength is Holy Spirit strength, measured and filtered through godly instruction. Only Christians can access this kind of gentleness.
Speaker: And the ninth one is self-control.
Speaker: Self-control means temperance.
Speaker: Mastering yourself. Restraining yourself. Controlling yourself. Having continence. You know, we live in days of emotional incontinence.
Speaker: For example, if let's say a movie comes out, like... Or a TV show, let's say Star Wars, the... don't know, whatever the last one was. The girl with the funky hair.
Speaker: There were people... who, now it was a bad show, I never watched it, I don't watch TV, but I know it was a bad show from all the reviews I saw. There are literally people who are out there signing petitions just because it was made by communists. And they're like, you know, this show needs a second season. Marxism, socialism, it's good.
Speaker: And they if you criticize that show, they would get offended. Hollywood does not know who these people are. If these fans died, Hollywood would not throw them a funeral or shed a tear.
Speaker: Yet people were losing their minds that someone one would criticize a TV show. That's emotional incompetence. And incontinence. Or if a celebrity dies, yes, it's it's always tragic. Pray for celebrities.
Speaker: um Pray that they have a revelation of who Jesus is at the cross. But if a celebrity dies, and next thing you're in bed starving yourself for seven days.
Speaker: It's a bit weird. I mean, cop yourself you have life to live, right? That's emotional incontinence. But Holy Spirit has given you a spirit of self-discipline and sound mind.
Speaker: You're not swayed by fads and trends and social media algorithms. You're steady. You hear the word of God, you respond.
Speaker: If you don't hear from God, wait until you do. But don't be swayed by popular opinion or what you think is mainstream.
Speaker: Because the thing with a human soul
Speaker: is people don't realize, Christians don't realize just how value a soul is. Demons want to steal it, kill it, and destroy it.
Speaker: Angels and a heavenly host, heaven's army, are sworn to protecting your soul. you know you all have a minimum of two guardian angels? The Bible says they always go up and down to heaven to get instructions. So if they abandon you, they're not really guarding you.
Speaker: but So you'll always have one there while the other has gone up and down to the father's throne.
Speaker: People do everything they can to control other people's souls, to dominate, to brainwash people.
Speaker: And Jesus Christ died the most gruesome death of all on a cross to save your soul. That's how
Speaker: incredibly Christless a human soul is.
Speaker: But you can master your own. You can guard your heart. You can make sure your heart is aligned with God the Father's. And when you've gone astray, you can choose to course correct.
Speaker: And Holy Spirit will gradually help you to be stronger, masterful and powerful over your own emotions.
Speaker: Where you're not a slave to your emotions or actions, desires, thoughts or impulses, you'll be in control. because your heart is submitted to Jesus.
Speaker: You align your mental, emotional, and physical self with God's will. Why? Because God only has one thought towards you.
Speaker: Good, perfect, and pleasing plans. Plans for good, to prosper you, that you reach unexpected, anticipated, preordained, preplanned,
Speaker: Reason for a season, pointed end.
Speaker: He honestly and truly only has what's good for you in mind. And as numerous as the sand is in the seashore, that is all he thinks about you. Positive thoughts. For every day on earth, every day in heaven, and every day in the recreated earth at the end of time.
Speaker: And that's a world that has no end. Even heaven will end. The recreated reality will never end. We'll just have super awesome adventures with Jesus forever.
Speaker: It's a life led by Holy Spirit's guidance. Remember I said he's a counselor? He's there to help you with your emotional problems and baggage. But he also gives you counsel.
Speaker: Think of a president's cabinet. Or a prime minister's cabinet. or a king's or queen's cabinet, he gives you advice, instruction, direction, the do's and the do nots.
Speaker: It's a necessary quality for believers to resist sinful desires and live a life pleasing to God. i emphasize sinful desire because desire is good.
Speaker: God desires you. God desires relationship with everyone. God desires all people to know him.
Speaker: But sinful desires, they're the qualities we started with. The human condition, without God.
Speaker: And self-control is also dominion within. Proceeding out from within oneself by Holy Spirit, not by oneself. So basically think of your soul as a kingdom because of what Holy Spirit's doing on the outside.
Speaker: You can then determine what gets produced, what comes out of your mouth, out of your mind, what you physically do. You can control what you choose to look at, what you choose to listen to.
Speaker: So last week was a very physical-centered week with own your zone, but this just shows you that you're not in it all by yourself.
Speaker: The longer you go on with Jesus, and the more you let him disciple you, and wash over you, strengthen you, impart knowledge and revelation to you, these qualities, these fruits, will go bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble. bubble but but but and begin to produce within you, like grapes and apples and mandarins and oranges, lemons bananas.
Speaker: And these will help empower you to make those changes so that you live freely, lightly, um successfully, authoritatively, and not as a slave to the darkness, not as a slave to sin.
Speaker: not a slave to your passions, not a slave to evil, but a fruitful life that looks and smells like Jesus.
Speaker: Amen.
