The River ChurchSermons

The Spirit

The Spirit - Gives Us Life

Caleb Combs · Sunday, 10 August 2025 · Romans 8:9-11 · 48:33 · 7,614 words

Romans S16 · 8:9-11 Holly

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The sermon focuses on the person of the Holy Spirit as taught in Romans 8:9‑11. It explains that believers are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, who lives in them as a comforter, helper, convictor, intercessor and guide, and who raised Jesus and will give life to our bodies. The message urges listeners to recognize the Spirit’s presence, to yield to His guidance, and to rely on His power to resist the flesh and follow the Lord.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

spirit 135 holy 74 guide 18 view 16 describe 21 uh 18 change 30 demonic 5 understand 36 empower 8 tabernacle 6 begin 23

Topics

The Holy Spirit 29 Righteousness 5 The Gospel 3 Grace 3 Salvation 2 The Flesh 2 Atonement & Sacrifice 1 Faith 1 Sin 1 Hope 1 Assurance 1

Scripture referenced 32

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 8 3:09 Romans 8 3:11 Romans 7 3:21 Romans 7 4:16 Romans 8 4:32 John 14 9:55 John 14:16-17 10:12 John 15 11:21 John 16 11:21 John 16 11:44 John 7 11:44 Luke 11 11:44 John 14 12:24 John 16 13:52 1 Corinthians 12 17:24 Romans 8:9 18:15 Romans 8 18:36 Romans 8:14 19:00 Romans 7 19:48 Ephesians 1 20:30 Ephesians 1:14 21:05 John 14 21:27 Acts 2 21:33 Romans 8 22:39 Ephesians 6 24:09 Ephesians 6:12 24:09 Ephesians 6 24:29 Romans 8:8 27:21 Romans 8:10 27:38 Romans 8:9 30:21 2 Corinthians 3 40:59 John 6 40:59

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 9 lines, 0:43. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.
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or you can text an amount to 84321.
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Again, so grateful for you joining us today and truly hope you're blessed by the message.
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So, we are pumped about continuing in our Roman series this morning,
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but before I do that, I want to invite you out Saturday or invite you out to be praying for us Saturday.
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And so, this Saturday, Pastor Noble shared it a few weeks ago,
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we are doing a Black Party.
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Get that out.
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And so, we have taken over part of Holly Foods parking lot.
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And so, we're going to take some inflatables down there and we're handing out backpacks
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as well as supplies to families that need backpacks and supplies.
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And so, we're so excited about that.
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And so, Rodney will be there as well.
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And we're sharing the gospel.
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And it's just going to be a great, great time.
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And so, I want to invite you out.
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You want to come hang out.
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They're doing hot dogs as well.
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And so, Pastor Noble's been saying,
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I'm going to go.
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Eat as many hot dogs in a minute.
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And I said, no, I'm not going to do that.
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And so, no, we're excited about that.
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And so, I want to invite you out.
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And so, but be praying for that.
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And so, it's our first time doing this event and seeing, okay, what will happen?
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What's the details?
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We're partnering with First Baptist of Holly as well.
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So, we're excited about partnering with them.
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They are brothers and sisters in Christ, proclaiming the good news of the gospel.
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And so, we want to get together with them arm in arm and see how God can just do a great work.
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And so,
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Be praying for all those that are going to be there.
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We pray that the Lord turns the temperature down a little bit, okay?
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And so, Saturday, I think it's supposed to be 91.
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And so, we're like in a parking lot at 91.
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That's not awesome.
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And so, we're going to take about 78, right?
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78.
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I don't know what your temperature is, but that's good.
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And so, I told Pastor Ryan before he came out, I was like, man, share a little bit about camp.
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It's so exciting to just the formative years of seeing.
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Not just children receive Christ, teenagers as well as I've talked to some of the leaders.
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They're like, man, that was just an invigorating, exciting week that God is doing some great things.
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And so, we want to just utilize that to see what God's going to do as we launch.
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I know this is terrible to say out loud in the middle of August.
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In the fall, okay?
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All right.
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Maybe some of you guys are ready for fall.
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I'm not quite ready for it, but that's okay.
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If you have a Bible, a device, something to follow.
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We're going to be in Romans chapter 8.
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As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we are going to be using the whole month of August looking at Romans chapter 8.
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Looking at the entirety of the chapter.
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Looking really as the Apostle Paul comes to, not necessarily a fork in the road, but really a culmination point in chapter 7.
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Saying, you know, you've been called to live for Christ.
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You have an interior battle that is just fighting.
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You and your flesh and your spirit living that out and trying to follow the Lord.
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I shared a few weeks ago, it's been great with some conversations of that tussle that's happening.
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Not just in your life, in my life, in all of our lives, in the flesh, in the spirit.
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And wondering, why do I do the things that I hate?
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And I just get so upset.
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My desire is to honor the Lord and yet I continue to stumble.
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Why?
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Well, we have narrowed in and pointed towards that conflict.
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That cross point to go.
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It is clearly our flesh.
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And so that flesh and spirit battle.
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And at the end of Romans chapter 7, the Apostle Paul says, how do I do this?
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What thanks be to God, our Father.
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The only way we're able to do this is God the Father.
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That's the way we're able to follow him.
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And he's given us a tool.
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And all through chapter 8, he highlights.
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And I don't want to demean the Holy Spirit as simply as a tool.
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But it's a tool and a guide.
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And we're going to talk a little bit about the characteristics and the details of what the Holy Spirit plays in our lives this morning.
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But I've loved preaching through Romans.
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It's been just a stretching.
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I've told some of you that over the last few weeks.
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It's as we deep dive some...
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some deep theological doctrinal shaping things but also talking about for many of us the basics
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looking at saved by grace alone that's a solid foundational basic that we all have to understand
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that we can earn our way to a relationship with God it's realizing that we are all sinners
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realizing that this idea this incredible idea concept of grace is so awesome I saw this quote
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this week it says Christian maturity is not about arriving at the point where you no longer need
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grace but a deeper sense of need for an appreciation of the grace you've been given
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I love that it's like oh I I have graduated I don't need the grace of God anymore well that is
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not true I think as we grow and as we are sanctified you grow in more in love
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with the grace of God realize wow I need it way more than I even want to talk about or communicate
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and that's I love that quote because it just has kind of culminated really as we preach through
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this series on Romans we're going to look at the verses 9 through 11 this morning start in verse 9
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Paul continues it says you however are not in the flesh but in the spirit if in the fact the spirit
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dwells in you anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him but if Christ is
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in you although the body is dead because of sin the spirit is life because of righteousness it's
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the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised Christ from the dead
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will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you let's
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pray and we'll talk about this passage this morning God we love you we praise you we honor
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you we glorify you God thank you for who you are thank you for your love your mercy your grace
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God thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross for my sins God God we honor you we celebrate you
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we praise you God this morning as we preach of the Holy Spirit God as we look at really you
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as we try to seek to understand this idea of the Trinity and God the Father God the Son God the
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an advocate an intercessor God one that will lead and guide and teach us God but also convict and
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correct God thank you may lead and guide this morning guide my words help Caleb to get out of
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the way and help your word to speak God we pray for that
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we love you we honor you in Jesus wonderful name amen I know as we talk through the this person of
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the Holy Spirit all of us come with some uh I would say not preconceived notions but some pre-ideas
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that maybe you grew up in a different denomination that talked through the Holy Spirit I grew up in a
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Baptist denomination that it wasn't the Holy Spirit was the Holy Ghost and so uh some of you
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nod and you're like I know exactly what you're talking about and
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so I preached in uh the Philippines uh about a month ago or so and I would mention the Holy
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Spirit and one of the guys said no we call him the Holy Ghost here and I I wondered what that
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confusion was and so uh it just is an interesting idea and concept but the Holy Ghost is fully God
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I want you to understand that that is so important that we grasp and understand that idea in concept
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Paul here references the person of the Holy Spirit and so I want to
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give us a little background um and some just some really just some basics for us to chew on
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as we really come to this passage together and understand hopefully what the Apostle Paul is
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really teaching or guiding not only the Christians in Rome but also the Christians in Holly and those
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joining us online in 2025 okay and so Jesus mentions the Holy Spirit that's important for us
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Jesus foretells of the coming of the Holy Spirit if you need a
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a quick understanding of the Holy Spirit you can flip to John 14
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You don't have to do that now, but Jesus is foretelling of the coming of the Holy Spirit.
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He promises to send a helper, the spirit of truth, who will be with believers forever.
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That's an important thing in John 14, 16 through 17.
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His disciples are, I wouldn't say arguing with Jesus, but they are, they're arguing
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Jesus, you can't go.
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You need to stay with us forever.
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And Jesus is saying, no, I have to go.
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I am an ascend to the father.
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I will be coming back as he proclaims and prophesies, but also tells him, hey, when
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I go, I will send a helper.
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Jesus also says he will send the Holy Spirit in his name.
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He will teach all things and bring remembrance to all things that Jesus has taught.
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There's some misconceptions and misnomers.
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And I will say.
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Some straight out heresy where they have said the Holy Spirit is going to contradict the
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That is not in the Bible.
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We see the words of Jesus, the one that comes after me, he will illuminate, he will teach
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and he will remind all the things that I have already taught.
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And John 15, the Holy Spirit will testify about Jesus, John 16, the Holy Spirit will
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That's a, that's a important understanding for us to come.
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John 16, the spirit will declare to you what is to come as well as John 7, Luke 11, describe
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the Holy Spirit as one that gives life.
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And so quickly, I know that's, I, you're like, you're not preaching in Romans eight.
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I'll get there.
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I just wanted to give us a little backdrop and understanding before we, we jumped into
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this.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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Some of you are like, this is a good reminder.
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Some of this is new for, and that's okay.
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I wanted to bring us all together as we truly seek to understand what is the apostle Paul
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But before we get there, I want to give you some, some descriptions of the Holy Spirit
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or some tributes, if you will.
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The first is he's a comforter or helper as I read John 14 and ones that will comfort.
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I love the Greek word describes here, one that comes to your side, that helps guide
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you in.
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That is, you're not alone as you navigate in this world.
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It really gives a, a, a, a real good understanding where Jesus said, I'll never leave you nor
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And so understanding the Trinity of God, the father, God, the son, God, the Holy spirit,
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three persons in one, we can truly say the God of all creation, the God that created
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all things, the God of the universe, the God that made man out of the dust of the ground,
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the God that put Adam to sleep, that, that created Eve out of the side of Adam, the God
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that placed the sun, the moon, and the stars is literally the very presence of God is with
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you as a believer at all times.
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What's crazy is the Bible describes you as the temple of the Holy ghost or the temple
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There's my Baptist.
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I told you I was going to come out, right?
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And so you, you begin to see, okay, that the very presence of God is with you, one that
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comes.
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It comes to your side.
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One aspect or description of the Holy spirit that many of us may like or may not like is
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John 16 describes this as those where he, the conviction is the spirit of God, bringing
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becoming more like Christ convicting where you're like, man, I feel that still.
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Small voice in my life, man, you shouldn't have acted this way.
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You shouldn't respond to this way.
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You shouldn't have said that way.
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There's a, a, a pricking of our heart by the Holy spirit as that conviction.
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I do want you to hear this from me on a Sunday morning.
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I pray for the conviction of God for us as a church.
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You're like, really?
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Why do you, because we all need it.
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Every single one of us.
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I don't care how old, how young, how many times you've been in, in church, or maybe
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And you're like, man,
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that word is a heavy word.
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No, I'm not, I'm not meaning to hit it with a sledgehammer.
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I'm more talking about you very clearly to myself.
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Like God, I pray for your conviction in my life because I know every single day I struggle
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And I know I need that conviction in my life.
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life. Bible says who the Lord loves, he chastens or corrects, or you want to place that word
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convicts. And so the convicted hand of the Holy spirit is God's corrective way in our life. And
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I'm way more, um, I would like God's nice conviction than a sledge over sledge, a sledge
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hammer over the head. But the truth of the matter is I sometimes need that over my head. All right.
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That's the truth. Hardheaded. I hope you're talking about yourself. No, I'm just kidding.
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And so the great thing about this is the spirit is working in you. He's working in us. I love the
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apostle Paul talking to Timothy. Uh, he's telling him to show the people in Ephesus, show them your
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progress so they all can see it. That progress implies failure and struggle as the Holy spirit
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shapes and molds each and every one of us, especially talking in second Timothy about
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he also has Romans eight describes as intercessor ones that speaks on our behalf. He's our advocate
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to God, the father, one that guides and leads the guiding hand of God, guiding us to help make
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decisions. You're like, do you believe the Holy spirit guides us to help make decisions in life?
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Yes. I believe that wholeheartedly where the, the, the guiding hand of God is like, Hey, you know
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what? I want to be in your plan, your purpose, your will, where you are guiding that, that is
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ultimately. And the truth of the matter is that's the best place to be is in the place where the
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Holy spirit is guiding. I, this, this quote demeans a little bit. And so I don't, I don't
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necessarily love it, but it's, you understand the Holy spirit is your spiritual GPS. He will
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tell you where to go and where you are going, right? He will guide you. Romans eight 14 for
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all who are led by the spirit of God, our sons of God. We're going to talk a little bit about,
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actually, we're going to talk a lot about the Holy spirit. We're going to talk a lot about the
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Holy spirit. We're going to talk a lot about the Holy spirit. We're going to talk a lot about the
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Holy spirit. We're going to talk a lot about the Holy spirit. We're going to talk a lot about the
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Holy spirit. We're going to talk a lot about the Holy spirit. We're going to talk a lot about that
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last next week, but that, that, that premise, the idea really helps shape. Oh, spirit is our
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empower. First Corinthians 12 through 14 describes some of these gifts and ideas that the Holy
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spirit empowers us to do. You can go all the way back to Genesis and you see the very spirit of
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There's, there's many others that I just wanted to give us a, a base understanding to really jump off
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into the passage. I know you're like, man, you preach like 15 minutes on an introduction. I know.
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All right. And so I wanted to give us a, a really important idea for us to shape. So let's look at
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verse nine. Okay. Paul says you, however, are not in the flesh, but in the flesh, you are not in the
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spirit. If in fact the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone does not have the spirit of God does
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not belong to him. Paul begins with a writing change. It's important for us to, to understand
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that he had been writing in third person and more of a general idea in beginning of chapter eight.
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But now he says, you, he's saying, Hey, you, who's he talking to? One, he's talking to Roman
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their sins and believe that Jesus Christ came, died and rose again. He was a perfect sacrifice
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and is one day going to return for his bride, the church. They are sons and daughters as verse 14
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describes. So he's talking to Christians. And so if you have confessed your sins, you believe
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that you are a sinner, broken, separated from God yet God in his great mercy and his great love
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sent his son, Jesus to die on a cross for your sins, for my sins.
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He rose again, three days later, lived a perfect life. That is how you become a child of God. That's
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the good news. The gospel. That's who he's talking to. He's talking to believers here. Okay. That's
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what he's saying. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, very much ties and
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talks about chapter seven, that, that, that battle that we all fight the flesh and the spirit.
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We, that's a daily conflict in each of our lives.
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And so now Paul's saying,
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don't live in the flesh. Live in the Spirit. Your identity, your future, your decisions,
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your even past, even forgiving of your past, your present, your future sins, it's all in the Spirit.
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And so live in it. Paul is setting a requirement for the indwelling, I know that's a big word and
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I'm going to explain it here in a second, of the Holy Spirit. At the event of salvation,
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it says, in him you also, when you heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,
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just walk through what that gospel was and believed in him, were sealed with the promised
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Holy Spirit. That salvation, you were sealed. That's why when I said you are the temple of
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the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God lives in you.
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Verse 14, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise
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of his glory. And so we have been given, we've been promised as well as guaranteed the Holy
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Spirit, the permanent indwelling, the permanent indwelling for us. You say, when did that happen?
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Well, Jesus describes the coming of the Holy Spirit in John 14, where ultimately would come
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in Acts 2, somewhere right around the same time. And so we're going to look at the coming of the
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Holy Spirit around there. And so you can see that the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at the day of
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Pentecost, where many are saved. And so an incredible, incredible event. And so the pouring
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out of the Holy Spirit into our world, ones that come after Jesus. And now permanent indwelling was
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promised prior to the giving of the Holy Spirit. It was selective indwelling. You're saying, what
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is that? Well, it was more given for a task or for even a battle. And you're looking and go, why did
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God do some of these things? I want to ask God the same question. Sometimes I look at some of the men
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and women in the Old Testament. You go, God, like, why did, why did the Spirit of God come on in that
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moment? You look at some of the interactions of Samson and you go, God, I don't understand. Why
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did the Holy Spirit come in in this moment? And so I described some of the descriptions of the Holy
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And so you can see much of that in the Old Testament. But Paul in Romans chapter eight is
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setting a requirement that the Spirit of God dwells in you as a believer. If the Spirit of God does not,
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you are not. You're saying, how do I understand that? Well, how do I know that? I, I, I, I'm trying
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to discern and figure that out. I can see this very, very clearly. All you have to do is point.
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Do you have, I confess my sins and believed in my heart that Jesus Christ came, died and rose again.
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That's how you know, if you have the Holy Spirit in your life, that is very clear. Titus three,
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he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness. Like why does this tie? Well,
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it's not our righteousness. It's what Christ has done, but according to his own mercy,
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by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, when we poured out on us
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And so we, we, we look and see the very giving of the Holy Spirit. But as we see and understand this,
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Paul is writing to these Christians and describing this, this, the spirit that lives inside of them.
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But we must also understand there are evil spirits out there. There are evil spirits
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that we battle against. Ephesians chapter six, verse 12 says, for we do not wrestle against flesh
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and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present,
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thing. Okay. And so I, you can read the rest of Ephesians chapter six tells us to put on the full
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armor of God. As we realize we are in the battle speaking, the word of God is the sword. And so we,
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we must understand this, but I don't believe as we see as one that is filled with the Holy Spirit
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can be possessed by a demon. However, I,
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I think they can be oppressed by demonic forces. I think that is a real truth that
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we can see. And so we must understand as you, as believers, there is a battle of spiritual things
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in our lives, in and around us. And so I wrote this in my notes and I just felt led to do this.
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And you're thinking, well, this doesn't have a ton of what you want to preach, but I just
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realized spirituality is at an all-time high right now. In the last 25 years, it's actually
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upticking. It really is. But it's not necessarily in the things of the Holy Spirit. It's in the
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idea of spiritual things where this, uh, the ideas of, of old, uh, folklore or demonic things
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are at an uprise. I was in a, um, antique store this last week. And so like antique stores,
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I like buying old junk. And so, uh, some of you are like, I do too. So, and so I was in there and
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they had a whole booth of crystals in an antique store. And the store was, I remember it was like
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Like that. I made up the Wanda, but it was, it was a W I don't remember what it was. Uh, but it was
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like really in an antique store. I couldn't, I was like, well, I'm going to avoid that area, man. So
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plus it smelled really, really weird. And so, um, but I'll say this as Christians, as believers,
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it's important to avoid things like that. It really is. It really is. I wrote, I'll give you
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as, as your pastor, as one that loves you, man, you should avoid a fortune tellers, crystals,
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There's a fad growing now of Christian tarot cards. I'm like, throw those pieces. No, I'm going to
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throw those things away. Right? Like what are we doing? Like demonic forces, witchcraft. I'll say
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this demonic movies. You're like, you're inviting things into your life. Like you have formative,
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like brain cells, you have kids, you have teenagers. And I'm like, wow, you're like,
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you're like getting out. I like scary movies. I'm like, I don't do scary movies, but I also,
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you can like, there's some whacked out movies. Now Hollywood is making demonic forces that
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you're allowing in your life. So realizing that there are things of the spirit and they're things
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of the flesh. And so I'll say this to you, be careful, be careful what you allow your eyes,
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be careful what you allow to be intake into your life. It's important. It's an important thing
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because there is a spiritual battle around you. And so Paul in verse eight is describing, Hey,
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you, if you are a believer, you have the spirit of God in you. He dwells in you. But then he continues
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in verse, excuse me, verse 10, excuse me. But if Christ is in you, he's talking to the Christians,
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this, this flesh versus the spirit, again, the spirit of God, although the body is dead
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because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness. I love this passage. The older I
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get, I love this passage more and more because I can understand it. You're saying why? Well,
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this describes aging in our life. Like really?
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Yes. Although the body is dead. I turned 40 last year. I turned 41 last week. And I really feel my
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body is starting to die. Okay. All right. And some of you are like, just wait. I understand. All
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right. It's not the age, it's the miles, right? And you're like, I can understand like, oh my
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goodness, like these things are starting to hurt. That shouldn't hurt. Or I can't even figure out
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what I did. And now, now if you sleep bad, you are in trouble, right? Not like a couple hours.
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It's a weak process. Now, like my shoulder doesn't work right now because,
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I slept on it. It's just life, right? But you can see this. This is this passage right here.
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The body is dead. It's falling apart. Things are not working. Why? It's not the way God created us.
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Bible describes God created us in what? His image. In a perfect image of God. But what entered into
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this world? Sin. Through one man's sin, death entered into the world. Destruction, hurt. And
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that is why our bodies are dying. Not, the Bible describes all creation is groaning. All creation
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is groaning for the return of Christ. Why? Because that will be the ultimate death of death. It's the
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end of death. And so as our, our bodies are, are, are really, and you're like, really this happens?
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Yeah. They're, they're beginning to break down. Newsflash for some of you. They said, they all
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said, just wait till you turn 40. I understand now. Okay. All right. Paul says, because of sin,
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our bodies are dead. The spirit is life because of what? What's the next word? Come on. What's
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righteousness. That's important. That's important. Okay.
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that righteousness doesn't come from you and I, that righteousness doesn't come from anything we
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can qualify or any good we can do in this world. That righteousness is not from you and I, that
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righteousness is from Jesus Christ alone. That is so important. That is a foundational truth for us
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as believers, us as the you that are described in verse nine, the you is described. We are made
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righteous. That's why it's important as we've preached through Romans to understand how we can
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be justified by what the righteousness or the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He became, and I taught
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this a few weeks ago, the propitiation, our replacement. He took the punishment of God because
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of our sin and stepped in and we can become righteous by what God has done through the work
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of Jesus. That's so important.
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And I really, if I could just keep preaching that over and over and over and over and over again,
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it's something that a truth we must grasp and understand because it changes everything. It
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really does. It's not something flipping and go, oh, I made my righteousness by Jesus Christ. No,
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the righteousness of God was offered to me. It was offered to you. That's just mind blowing.
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That's, that's something that should like, oh my goodness, I can't even grasp or understand that.
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I'm so humbled by it. God, I don't even understand why. I don't deserve.
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This, but that's what should change about understanding the grace. That's why I love
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that quote is, is we begin to go, wow, spiritual maturity is not knowing. I don't need more grace.
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No, it's spiritual maturity is going, God, I can't even understand your grace. I don't even,
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I can't even grasp why you've done this. And yet God has offered us his righteousness.
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We'll talk about next week as sons and daughters of God. He's offered us as heirs. He's offered us
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Titus three, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness. Like our righteousness
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is what our works are filthy rags. The Bible describes, but according to his own mercy,
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by the washing of regeneration, the renewal of the Holy spirit, there it is righteousness poured
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out. And so I, I, I, this verse, as I begin to think about this, it begins to change everything
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or it should, it begins to change everything. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead
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because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness, the spirit changes how we view
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life on this earth or should it should the Holy spirit should give us a different perspective.
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I was reading this week of a testimony of someone that received Christ. They said,
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I can remember the day that it was like a light switch turned down. Everything I began to view
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began to change. Things began to look differently. He wrote, I began to see in color,
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and I love that description. Some of you that were saved, I recently, it's like, it's like a fire
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was lit inside of you. I love it. And you begin to see, wow, things begin to change. The sad truth
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of it is for others that have been saved for 20, 30, 40, 50, you make up the years. It begins to
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become old news a little bit. Well, can I say this to you? Maybe make today as a regeneration moment,
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not to be saved again, but a new perspective to say, wow, I need to get back to the point of the
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Has began to show me things that I never saw before when I was dead. Now I've been made alive
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by the work of Jesus Christ. He made me righteous. And now I see people different. I see events
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different. I see difficulties different. That's what James says. Count it all joy. That's a change,
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right? Most of us go, man, bad things are happening. What'd you do to upset God? Come on.
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That's the truth. Rather than what is God doing? What's God doing? What's God like? Those begin
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to change. And so the difficulties, the things that we look and get all frustrated and upset with
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that happened on this earth, maybe God is doing something. It'll change everything. That's what
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this verse does. It will change everything of how you view on this earth. The Holy spirit gives you
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the glasses to do that. One of my first messages I ever preached. Some of you were here. I'm sorry.
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It was terrible. I'm sure. Uh, but I handed out 3d glasses and it out three glasses and it was a
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perspective change. And some of you have showed them to me.
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you've kept them years later in your Bible. I love that because it's putting on the glasses
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of the Holy Spirit. I begin to see things different. The next one, and this is a difficult
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one. This is one I am, I'll say this, I struggle with. The Spirit not only changes how we view
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things on this earth, but the Spirit also changes how we view death, how we view death on this earth.
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The Spirit changes how we view death on this earth. I mean, this is a difficult one is because
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for us, I'll lump myself and some of you in there. Anthony, you'll help me with this one.
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Us that love to control everything. Okay. All right. I want all the details and I want all
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the no's. Just give me the schedule and I want all these times and everything. This is a hard
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thing because these are moments we can't control. And so we go to ourselves and go, all right, God,
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well, you just give me the appointment times. You put it in my phone. I don't even know how
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it got there, but it'll be helpful for me. That's not how it works, right? I wish it was. And so
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I have this conversation with a friend of mine. Um, she describes, uh, the death of her grandma
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as one of the special moments in her life. And I always say, I don't understand why it goes really
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asset. Cause I say this, I hate death. I really do. It is something I really struggle with and
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battle with going, God, this is, this is, this is terrible. But the reality is the death of a
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saint. Someone that knows Jesus Christ is, is, is, is there's no sting. There's no hurt. They are
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seeing the very presence of God. That's what the spirit of God allows us to see. That's what first
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Thessalonians says, comfort one another with these words. And so there's no like, oh my gosh, this is
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like, they're a child of God. They're in the very presence of God. They've graduated way beyond this
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place. And so they don't deal with the sort of Psalm one 16 says precious in the sight of the
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Lord is the death of the saints. Second Corinthians four 16. So we do not lose heart though. Our outer
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Day by day. I love that passage because it begins to give a new perspective. You tie that to Romans
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eight 10. Yeah. The struggles. Yeah. The difficult. Yeah. We may feel the death, but my inside is
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being made new every day and beginning to be stronger because it is eagerly anticipating to
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see God face to face. Now what a, what a perspective recently. Uh, I'd say, I'd say one of
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Um, so John MacArthur man should know the Bible, teach the Bible. Um, he was a little harsher than
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I would have been. And that's, that's light, but he's a human being. Okay. And so he's not perfect.
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He's not Jesus, not close, but man could teach and understand the Bible in ways that I could
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maybe, no, I can't even get close. Just let me, uh, it's just incredible. Uh, family, uh, recorded
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I thought it was so cool. I don't know. Some of you may have read this. He says, I feel no sting.
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I feel no, I feel no fear, but what a perspective. So he saw things differently in this world. Now
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he'll see things differently in his death because he knows once he shuts his eyes, the next time he
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opens, he'll see Jesus face to face. I'm like, wow, what a perspective. What a change to the spirit
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changes, how we view life on this earth. The spirit changes, how we view death on this earth.
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And I'll say this, the spirit changes.
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chapter 22, he testifies to these things saying, surely I am coming. Amen. Come Lord Jesus. Come
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what a change spirit is life because of the work of Jesus Christ. Let's look at verse 11. Just
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quickly. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ
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from the dead will also give you life. He will give you life. He will give you life. He will give you
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life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. This is the only spot in Paul's
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writings where he describes or references the spirit raising Jesus from the dead. All others,
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from the dead that's so this is a distinction but ultimately we know god the father god the son god
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the holy spirit are three in one but paul in this passage is describing the spirit of him
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raised jesus from the dead dwells in you and that is that that is simple truth i don't even need to
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follow all that up with illustration with idea that truth alone will preach if the spirit of
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him who raised jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised christ from the dead will also give
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and you as a believer you as a child of god will be raised to dead by that same power the same
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gospel the same righteousness that jesus was raised you and i as followers as sons and daughters
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as believers as children of god will be raised by that same holy spirit
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that's it
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it is the spirit who gives life the flesh is no help at all the words that i have spoken to you
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are spirit and life and jesus is so great i how lockstep that jesus the holy spirit god the father
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and helping us come to righteousness are so incredible and so for us
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chafing us molding us guiding us the very spirit of god lives inside of you
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and promised it's a guarantee i read this quote i'll say i had a whole different clothes written
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and i read this quote late last night or maybe earlier this morning when oh this is so good
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because i think as we begin to see that tie to roman 7 so that conflict of of flesh and spirit
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in us begin to see that tie to roman 7 so that conflict of of flesh and spirit in us begin to
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make decisions and struggle with our decisions or struggle with our our failures or or stumble
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and begin to go god this is of the flesh i i desire to be uh to live a victorious christian
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life i begin to i desire to follow you i desire to do all these things and yet i continue to keep
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stumbling and we begin to see this this this tussle this fight this battle i read this quote
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by jc rye i thought it was so good and i hope it encourages you this morning it encouraged me
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as i begin to prep and preach this prepare to preach this message
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the fact that you have a struggle is evidence the holy spirit is motivating you to resist
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see the world has no struggle they just indulge but you have a fight because the spirit of god
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is still working on you i read that and i was like okay okay god yeah i'm not where i'm supposed to
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be but god your great grace and your mercy loves me yeah there's a resistance there's a fight
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every day but god has promised the holy spirit to walk with me to guide with me to protect me
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to convict me to teach me to shape me to mold me to ultimately seal and guarantee my salvation
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my eternal life it's changed how it should change how we view one another it should change how we
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sing it should change how we preach it should change how we do our job tomorrow it should
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change how we interact with our wife with
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our husband it should change how we interact with other people around us our neighbors
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it should change every experience we go god what are you doing i know your very spirit is with me
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through this and i don't have to fear because i know you're walking with me that spirit is with
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me it doesn't matter what life that flesh that death throws at me because god has given me his
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spirit so in that turmoil in that fight in that that battle i began to go wow god give me the
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my own not on my own abilities not in my own righteousness but in yours your righteousness
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to be able to resist to be able to fight be able to handle the very conflict so you may feel
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overwhelmed by the things of this world can i be honest with you there's a lot of days i do there
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is a lot of days that man anxiety depressions things that i don't i remember we talked last
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week things that are in here most people don't want to know right that's for all of us but the
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truth of the matter is as we begin to read these passages and understand is god he's won the
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victory he's overcome so that you and i could overcome that's the end of romans eight you're
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more than a conqueror i'm not going to preach it today i want to we'll get to that in a couple
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weeks through jesus christ and so we study this we understand this and look at wow god you have
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given us your spirit very person of god what a great promise but it's more than a promise
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brings hopefully that encourages you this morning god we love you praise you we honor you we glorify
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you thank you for this morning god if i say it enough thank you for giving us your spirit god
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may we yield flesh our desires our control our thinking of what we want the future to bring
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to your spirit god but as we look and
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study the holy spirit as we see these descriptions these details these attributes they become
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overwhelmed with your goodness because ultimately it's changed how i view how i view what's going on
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in this world how i view the difficulties how i view the death of the saint how i view eternity
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god because in the spirit you give life life abundantly you guarantee it god i thank you for
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that praise you we love you we glorify you thank you
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for being here this morning god honor you praise you in jesus wonderful name