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The River ChurchSermons

The Spirit

The Spirit - Gives Us Life

Justin Dean · Sunday, 10 August 2025 · Romans 8:9-11 · 43:01 · 6,396 words

Romans S16 · 8:9-11 Davison

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

The sermon explains that the Holy Spirit now dwells inside every believer as a personal guide and helper, based on Romans 8:8‑11 and 2 Timothy. It contrasts the Old Testament experience where the Spirit temporarily rested on people with the present indwelling presence that empowers holy living. Listeners are challenged to ask daily, “How did the Holy Spirit lead me today?” and to respond in obedience rather than ignore His guidance. The message encourages relying on the Spirit’s power to call God “Abba, Father” and to live differently.

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 149 holy 116 dwell 23 specifically 19 guide 17 helper 11 lead 22 tour 6 miraculous 7 navigate 8 move 18 timothy 10

Topics

The Holy Spirit 33 Sin 6 Prayer 3 The Flesh 3 Adoption & Sonship 3 Faith 2 Death & Resurrection 2 Righteousness 1 Obedience 1 Hope 1 The Wrath of God 1 Salvation 1 The Law 1 Mission & Evangelism 1 The Gospel 1 Atonement & Sacrifice 1

Scripture referenced 20

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

Romans 8 2:25 Romans 8 2:31 Romans 8:3 2:31 Romans 8 8:01 Romans 8:8-11 8:01 Romans 8:8 8:50 Romans 8:8 8:50 Romans 8:9 9:13 2 Timothy 1 14:30 2 Timothy 1:14 15:00 Romans 8 17:46 Romans 8 17:54 Romans 8 17:59 Romans 8:10 18:05 Titus 3 22:48 Titus 3:4-7 23:08 Romans 8 28:43 Romans 8:11 28:55 Galatians 4 31:48 Galatians 4:4-7 32:43

Transcript

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

So, we're in Romans, right? I feel like that's how I have been starting off so many of my messages

because we've been in Romans for a minute now. I don't know about you, but these last several

weeks that we've been going through Romans, we've been talking about some really comforting things,

at least for me. Just as Paul, a couple weeks ago, we were diving through a section where Paul was

opening up about the struggle of every believer, which was, you know, that we have a desire to do

God's will. We have a desire for holiness, but we have a sinful flesh that just keeps pulling us

towards disobedience. And then last week, talking about life in the Spirit and specifically

the Holy Spirit, how He steps into our lives and how that looks and the different ways that we

could see that play out. And then really a challenge to live differently because of it,

specifically to live differently in purpose, right? To live differently because we have been given

the Holy Spirit and the Lord has regenerated a new Spirit in us. And so I'm really excited for this

week as we're going to continue talking about the Holy Spirit. I mentioned earlier on as we were

walking through this book how Paul has this habit of bringing up something, specifically in this

case, the interaction between the believer and the Spirit, right? And he lays this stake down on

every believer's plate or every reader's plate, and then he begins to help you cut it up,

and chew it, right, throughout the rest of that section so that he really processes through with

you what that looks like, why it's important, and how it applies to your life, how it applies to the

life of every single believer. And so this morning, we're going to continue to talk about the Holy

Spirit, and we're going to talk a little bit more about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit with us,

why it's important, what it does, and how it happens. And before we dive into God's Word,

let's pray together if you'd bow your heads with me. Lord, we thank you for your Word. We

thank you this morning that we are opening it together, and we're diving into your Word

together. I pray that you would encourage us, you would challenge us, you would inform us,

and that you would give us wisdom, wisdom to live differently, Lord. We thank you just for

your Word, and we thank you for each and every believer here this morning, and the truth that

your Word brings to each and every one of us. Lord, we love you, in your precious and holy name,

Jesus' name, amen. So open with me to Romans chapter 8. Specifically, we're diving into Romans

chapter 8. We're going verse 3.

8 through 11 this morning. And so one of the things that I think is really important

is to understand specifically the context of people's idea of the Holy Spirit. So there are

really two types of believers that were at this Roman church. The percentage in the church,

there is debate amongst, but really there was two. The one is Jewish believers who have an

understanding of the Holy Spirit, but in the Old Testament perspective.

And then we have Gentiles who have really no context or no understanding of the Holy Spirit,

other than what they would have had from maybe the explanation of the Gospels or the

being told the Gospels. And so as Paul is writing, he's giving them doctrine because they really

don't have a proper understanding of who the Holy Spirit is and why the Holy Spirit is necessary.

He's been throwing around this idea of the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit of God a bunch of different

times. And so it's important that we really understand that. And so for context, specifically

for the Jewish believers, the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament was a person of the Trinity,

but he was much more less understood, right? He wasn't quite as seen as the Messiah. There's all

these prophecies about him. And God the Father, they know in many different ways because of the

law and all these different things. But the Holy Spirit was kind of this character who would show

up and be mysterious. And specifically, the Holy Spirit was a person of the Trinity. And so it's

important that we really understand that. And so for context, specifically for the Jewish believers,

the Holy Spirit would descend and lay on people like a hand. And during that time that the Holy

Spirit would lay on these people or would be present on these people, they would do like kind

of miraculous things. There'd be miraculous displays of power. So some examples of this are

like Samson. Samson had the Holy Spirit laying on him and he did these incredible feats of strength

and did these incredible things, these miraculous things. David had the Holy Spirit on him at times.

Ezekiel, the prophet, had the Holy Spirit lay on him at times. And he showed up and they did

miraculous signs and wonders, miraculous things. But what happened was the Holy Spirit would descend

and lay on you for a period of time and then he would leave, right? And so that miraculous power

would leave. Sometimes it would leave because that person decided to do sinful things and pursue

sinful courses. And the Holy Spirit said, fine, if that's what you want, I'm out. Or sometimes it'd be like, hey, you've

accomplished what you were meant to accomplish and so now it is my time to leave. And so then

the other perspective of the Holy Spirit comes from Acts, right? The Acts of the Apostles,

specifically after the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus, right? Jesus says, there is a

helper. I'm leaving so that one greater can come and be a helper to you. And so there is this difference in the Holy Spirit,

role and function after the ascension of Christ. Specifically, Jesus says he is a helper. Now, a lot

of times when we hear that word helper, we think almost like a butler, right? Someone who is there

to wait on our beck and call, right? They are just there to help and support and really do nothing

else than empower us. And that's not necessarily what the Holy Spirit's role is. So when I refer

to him as a helper, here's what I want you to think.

Back when my wife and I got married, we went on a cruise for our honeymoon. That was like our big

thing. And so we went to a bunch of different places in the Caribbean, most notably was Mexico.

And, you know, if you've been on a cruise, you know that one of the cool things that cruises do is they

have these excursions. And so what happened is you, you know, say, hey, I want to go to this ruin or this

Aztec temple or Mayan temple or whatever it is. And then you say, hey, that's what I want to do. And then when the

boat stops at port, you get off, you find whatever tour bus or tour guide that is booked for that

excursion, and you kind of follow them. And they lead you all around, and then they get you back to

the boat, right? And I remember we went on this really cool excursion. We went out to this like

crazy, I don't know if this is Mayan or Aztec ruin, where there was like this really cool long canal of

water and the vines growing. It was super, super beautiful. And I remember though, at one point I was like, I don't know

where my tour guide is, right? Like, I need to find where my tour guide is, right? Because if I am not

following this guy who's meant to guide me around, lead me around, help me navigate through Mexico, I am

going to be left in Mexico. And I have very little understanding of how to navigate through Mexico. That's

why I have a tour guide, right? And so that's what I want you to understand, right? The tour guide was not there at

my beck and call. He was not my waiter. But what he was, was a guide, a helper to me, a helper to

navigate that excursion. And specifically, the Holy Spirit is that guide, that navigator there to help

us navigate through the spiritual life. And here's where we're going to talk a little bit more about

that. So open up Romans 8 through 11. Romans 8, 8 through 11 says this, those who are in the flesh

cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If, in fact, the Spirit of God

dwells in you, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is

in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the

Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will

also give life to your mortal bodies through his

Spirit who dwells in you. And so here we have a couple things. First, you may notice that we

went through verse 8 last week. And the reason why I included verse 8 this week is because it's a

really good, it really paints the picture for the comparison that Paul goes to introduce, right?

Last week he said, those who are not in the flesh cannot please God. And we talked about that reality

of living in the Spirit versus living in the flesh.

And he says, here's the deal. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But verse 9, he says,

you, however, you, however, are not in the flesh. You believers, you people who have confessed Jesus

Christ as Lord and believe in his resurrection, you are not in the flesh. You live differently

because you are in the Spirit. The Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit

of Christ does not belong to him. And so,

what he paints here is the life of a believer should look different than the life of someone

who does not believe in God. The life of someone who confesses Jesus Christ as Lord should look

different from those who don't confess Jesus Christ as Lord. And he goes, specifically, the main

characteristic that I want to deal with right now is the person who does claim Jesus Christ as Lord

has been given the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God dwells within their hearts. And he looks and he

says, so every believer has access to the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. Every believer has access

to the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. If you claim Jesus Christ as Lord and you believe in his

death and resurrection, you have access to the Holy Spirit. He lives. He lives. He lives. He lives.

He dwells in you. The Spirit of God dwells in you. You see how this is a really stark contrast from

what the Old Testament or what the Jewish believers would have realized from the Old Testament. You see,

in the Old Testament, like I said, the Holy Spirit would come and he would dwell on them for a time.

Paul says he's not dwelling on you now as a New Testament believer. He's dwelling in you.

He's dwelling in you. And so what he wants them to see is those miraculous signs and wonders that

you saw happening in the Old Testament, those incredible feats of strength and prophecy and

all these different things that you saw in people like Samson and David and Ezekiel, all these

different things, the person who empowered them to do that is now empowering you to live a life

for God. The Holy Spirit that helped them, helped Samson,

to bear down the entirety of a temple is dwelling inside of you, living inside of you,

living inside of every believer. Because you are not made in the flesh, but your spirit

has been remade and your spirit has been given life. We have been given salvation and we belong

to Christ. He's ransomed us with his blood and shed. He shed that blood for us. He shed that blood

for us to free us through his resurrection. And as we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us,

we have this helper, this guide, this navigator. And it's important that we recognize that it is

every believer, every believer, you, me, whoever it is that believes in Christ has the Holy Spirit

as helper. And here, the reason why I really want to emphasize that is sometimes as we talk about

things in scripture, and specifically as Paul talks in Romans, things can become a little bit

non-personal. They can become, you know, Paul talks about doctrine. He's talking about the sin of the

world. He's talking about the sin of all people. And it's really easy for us to separate all people

and ourselves. And so when I talk about the life of every believer, you're going to see that the

more and more that we talk about the spirit, the more and more that you realize the spirit is

it is not dwelling in all believers as a whole. It is developing, or it is dwelling in all believers

individually, right? It's not like some blanket thing. The Holy Spirit dwells in each one of us

individually. We personally have access to the Holy Spirit. We corporately have access to the

Holy Spirit as a church, but we individually have access to the Holy Spirit because he dwells inside

of us. You see the personal aspect to that? We're going to continue to see that. But I love how

Paul talks to Timothy in 2 Timothy. Turn with me there real quick. If you don't know the story

behind Paul and Timothy, Timothy was a disciple of Paul. Paul was kind of his mentor and really even

describes him as a son. And so he's writing the books of Timothy or the letters to Timothy. And we'll

be in 2 Timothy 1. He's writing them to him to help him to grow deeper as a believer, specifically

a leader, right? A leader within the church. He knows, you know, hey, my time is not long for this

world. Paul knows, hey, my time is not long for this world. So I'm going to invest. I'm going to

invest specifically in Timothy. And he's talking about the good qualities that he sees in Timothy.

He's talking about the way that they live as leaders in the church, but specifically how all

and he says this in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 14. It says,

And so here he recognizes that believers have the Holy Spirit. And the reason that the Holy Spirit

is there personally in each and every one of us is because salvation.

Salvation and a renewed spirit has been given to us, given to us as a good deposit. How God has

deposited in us a new spirit. He took away the old flesh. He took away our sin and he gave us

this new investment of a spirit in our lives. And he will come back and he will claim that spirit

and give us a new body to live.

An eternity with him. And so Paul is describing here, you have access to the Holy Spirit to be

protection and insurance for the investment that God has given you. That God has given us

the Holy Spirit to flourish and make sure he gets a return on investment. Now for you, that may sound

maybe a little bit not personal, right? Like, oh, God just sees us as an investment. No, there's

plenty of scripture that talks about it. There's plenty of scripture that talks about it. There's

plenty of scripture that talks about it. There's plenty of scripture that talks about it. Him loving us

and caring for us. And that's the reason why when he gives us this good deposit, he wants to see that

good deposit flourish because he loves us. Because when we flourish, he receives glory and he loves

us and he cares for us. And so he's given us this Holy Spirit to help guide and protect this new

spirit that he's entrusted to us. And so he's given us this Holy Spirit to help guide and protect

and that it would be grown, nourished, and cultivated. And so the Holy Spirit is this

insurance. It's this beautiful thing that we have access to because we have been

saved according to the gospel. But the Holy Spirit is more than just insurance. It's the

means by which he moved us personally to salvation. The Holy Spirit is the means by which he moved us

personally to salvation. Go back to Romans chapter 8. I'd encourage you. We're going to jump around

a couple different places, but Romans chapter 8. Keep your finger there or you see me with my red

tassel. I like to keep it right here in Romans. Romans chapter 8. We're going to go back, sorry,

to verse 10. Here's where he says, but if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin,

the spirit is life because

of righteousness. And here we see this picture of how salvation has come to us personally. Christ

died on the cross and by his wounds we are healed, right? The wrath of God was revealed against us.

That's what we've been talking about in the early parts of Romans. Romans, how we as sinful people,

we earn death. All of humanity was uniformly sent to death because

of our own sin. And by Christ, the wrath of God has been satisfied, right? He went to the cross

and he endured the punishment that we should have incurred. The punishment that was meant for us.

Christ satisfied that punishment. And then it says, through the power of the Holy Spirit,

he was resurrected from the dead. He overcame death through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Christ's death provided satisfaction for that wrath, but the Holy Spirit brings life. First,

to the resurrection of Christ. Now, to the resurrection of us, our spirits. I think I've

told this story before, but I grew up in Florida and my buddies and I, we would go out and we would

swim in the ocean a lot. And I remember there was one time specifically, we were out there swimming

and if you don't know what riptide is, it's, it can pull you out to sea and you can hardly really

even notice it until you like start focusing, right? And so you're like, hey, wait, where are we?

Right? And so my buddies, we're out there at sea. We're on a sandbar hanging out. I think we're

throwing a football or something. And the Coast Guard pulls up and we're like, whoa, what's going

on? And the Coast Guard's like, here, grab on, right? We got to pull you back to shore. We're

like, turn around. And we look back and we're like two miles from the shore. We got pulled out,

right? And then, you know, each and every one of us is like pushing the other person off, like trying

to be the first one to grab, right? Because then we realized like, oh, we are sunk, right? That's

the reality of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. I can tell you till I'm blue in the face that you're

a sinner in need of a Savior. But until you recognize that you are truly a sinner in need of

a Savior, you don't see a need for Jesus in your life. Now, is it me being super persuasive? Is it

each one of us, you know, with our coworkers, oh, we have to be sufficiently mean enough to help

people see how terrible they are in the face of holiness? No, that is the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit shows up and rejects.

Generates the heart of someone. And then guess what? They see the depth of their sin

and they see their need for a Savior. And then the gospel steps in. The Spirit shows up in our

lives and it brings regeneration to our hearts so that we can receive salvation. Why? Because we

realize how sunk we are and how holy God is. And so the Holy Spirit steps in, but the Holy Spirit

also imparts righteousness to our hearts. He personally puts us in right standing with God

by dwelling in our hearts and growing us. Christ was the necessary sacrifice. The Holy Spirit

brings it to us. It's this beautiful picture of the Holy Spirit stepping in our hearts, right?

We've been absolved of consequences, but if left in a standing of neutral, we will turn back

to our sin every time. And so we are brought to life. We are brought to God through the powerful

Holy Spirit working in our lives, moving us to follow Christ who we claim as Lord. And really,

this is what's described in the book of Titus. Turn with me to Titus chapter 3. Titus is a short

book, but it includes a lot of really great theology and truth. It's worded really, really

well. And so in Titus 3, 4 through 7, it says,

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us,

not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy,

by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us

richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace,

we might become heirs according to hope, to the hope of eternal life. And so here we see it's this

personal thing, right? Our hearts, your hearts, believers, your hearts have been regenerated and

renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit. And that was poured out on us through the death

and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have access to the Holy Spirit because of the

death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, because we proclaim Him as Lord. We did not receive that

gift because of our worth. We received that gift because of the worth given to us by Christ Jesus.

And so the Holy Spirit steps into our lives, and He makes us children of God, so that we might

become heirs of God, partake in the kingdom of God. And so we receive that gift because of the

inheritance of Christ, which is eternal life, glory forever. We have that beautiful picture in

the gospel because we confess with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we believe in our hearts

that He's risen from the dead. And so this morning, I want to pause right here as I talk about the

Holy Spirit. I talk about the value of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. If you do not

believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, if you do not believe that He is risen from the dead, you are missing out

and I say that truthfully and earnestly, not as a used car salesman pitch. I say that truthfully

and earnestly, you are missing out on the Holy Spirit, the thing that renews and regenerates

the hearts and spirits of believers. That is a big thing to miss, and I will encourage you

this morning, do not miss out. It is so wonderful. It is so encouraging. It is so life-giving. So

if you want to know more about the gospel, if you want to have a conversation about what it means

to follow Christ, what it means to give your life to the Lord, please, I would love to talk to you

about it. I would love to talk to you about it because I want you to experience the regeneration,

the renewal of your spirit through the power of the Holy Spirit. So we have this beautiful picture

of the gospel, what the gospel has done, right? We have been made new by the Spirit because of the

in our lives, and he does work in our lives. That's what the Holy Spirit's role is. We've been

sent the Holy Spirit so that he can first regenerate our hearts so that we can turn to

salvation, and second, begin to cultivate in our hearts a life for God. Wonderful picture. We are

not left helpless to wander and try and figure this out on our own. We're given the Holy Spirit

to help us. Now, some of you may be sitting here and saying, Justin, I am a believer,

talk about the Holy Spirit moving in my life. You talk about following the Holy Spirit's leading in

my life. I don't feel like I've ever seen the Holy Spirit move in my life. I don't feel like

I've ever seen the Holy Spirit move me anywhere in my life. And here's what I'll say. All of this

building up to say the Holy Spirit has moved in your life. If you are a believer,

the Holy Spirit has moved in your life. How is that true? Because you confessed Jesus Christ as

Lord. Like I said, you don't realize how far you are away from sin unless someone turns you around.

We didn't realize how far we were from shore until we were turned around and we saw. You don't

realize the depth of your sin and need for a Savior unless the Holy Spirit shows up and moves

in your life. That's how you know the Holy Spirit.

Bare minimum, if you're a believer, has moved in your life one time. Bare minimum, he has moved

one time. Why? Because you were dead in sin and he brought you to life because of your righteousness,

because of your works, because of your worth. No, because of the worth that he gave you.

And so we see the Spirit has brought this regeneration to our hearts. Back to Romans 8,

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus

from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

So we have these mortal bodies, right? We have this struggle that Paul lays out where we have

a mind that is so in pursuit of God's holiness.

It has this deep desire to live up to the moral standard that God has set for us,

according to the new covenant. And then we have this mortal body that is flesh and sin,

and it pulls us to sin. It pulls us towards disobedience. And so it's back to this predicament

that Paul is in. I have this flesh that's pulling me to sin, but this desire, this heart that has been renewed in

me to follow God. Here, what Paul is saying is we can find comfort in the midst of that struggle

because we have the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. Because he is raising our mortal bodies.

He is doing away with this, and he is helping us towards this. That's, Paul opens up about this

struggle that he's having, and the struggle of all believers. And he says, you want to know how

you can have comfort in the midst of that struggle? Relying on the Holy Spirit who is raising your

mortal body to life for God. He's helping you navigate. He's guiding you towards godly things.

The things that you say that you are dying to do, the Holy Spirit will help you. The Holy Spirit

will help you. He will guide you. He will show up in those ways, those mighty, mighty ways. And he does

it through the regeneration of our hearts, the continual growth of our lives. We're given a life

to God, reborn, no longer children of wrath, but children of God. We saw that talked about in that

Titus passage. Turn with me to Galatians chapter 4. Like I said, it's easy to just sit there and be

God-working in my life, or I haven't seen the Holy Spirit moving in my life. You talk about this a lot,

Justin. I haven't seen it moving. Well, so like I said, we have this one instance where we know the

Holy Spirit has moved, right, through our salvation. But the second thing, or the reason why it's

important is, we know that he's moved once, and I can tell you, he's been moving since then. That's

what Paul paints, this picture. He is continually moving in our life. He's continually guiding us.

He's continually doing these things because he's,

helping us to stop doing fleshly things and start living after God. And here he talks about the

reality of what that looks like. Galatians 4, 4 through 7 says this,

but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law

to redeem those who are under the law. You see how this was a continual picture of kind of what

we've been talking about Romans, this old law that led us to disobedience and the new covenant,

which God gives us to uphold, or that he gives us to live in, right, that we do not have to hold,

but are upheld by his righteousness. Continue to redeem those who were under the law,

so that now we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent

the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave,

but a son, and a son, then an heir through God. And so we here have this moment where Paul is

writing to the Galatians, and he says, here's the deal. Here's once again this picture. You were in

this old law where according to your works, your obedience, you were required to uphold God's

standard of righteousness, and you failed. You failed. And you were a slave to that system, to

obedience. But now you have been redeemed through the work of Jesus Christ, and you've been made

heirs. No longer slaves, but heirs, sons adopted. And you've been given a spirit of Christ in your

life. And then he, once again, I really highlighted the personal influence of the Holy Spirit. And

here's where I see it so, so clearly in verse six. He says, and because you're sons, God has sent you

into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Abba, Father. This new way, this new life that we're

given, this new covenant that we're called to, this life redeemed, regenerated, and given the

inheritance of God as sons. And we have this spirit who we're given that pushes us to a personal

relationship with God, specifically by trying to get us to call out Abba, Father. If you don't know

what that means, it's a very personal, personal word for dad. It's deep relational. For me and my

dad, I've always called him Papa. I don't know why, it just resonated with him. And this Abba,

Father is this personal cry to dad, to Papa. This cry of, I need you. I'm struggling in this back

and forth. This tension has got me hurting. It's got me struggling. I constantly want to do these

things, and I constantly are messing up here. But the spirit in me has given

me access to God, personal access to God, where instead of calling him God Almighty,

Creator, which are his names, we should call him those things. But we have a deeper relationship

with Creator. We have a deeper relationship with Almighty. We have a deeper relationship

with God of the universe. He is our Abba, Father. He is our dad. And so we cry to him. We say,

God, I need you to show up. God, dad, I need you. I need your spirit in my life. I need to show,

I need, I want to live how you want me to live. And so I need to know how to cry out to God in

our hurt, a cry out to God in our fear, a cry out to our dad when we're struggling to do what we

want to do to honor him. And so we have the spirit's leading. We're going to be talking

about that over the next week or so, the reality of the spirit's leading. But one of the ways that

I think that we struggle with the spirit's leading is we struggle to recognize it, right?

I talked about that question. I feel like I haven't seen, how do I know what the spirit

is trying to lead me to do? Well, part of it is just to open up your eyes to it, to open up your

eyes to it. Holy Spirit leads us through his word. Are you diving into his word? Kind of difficult

for him to lead you. It's kind of difficult for a map to lead you if you aren't ever looking at the

map. The Holy Spirit leads us through conviction. How many times are we convicted by the Holy Spirit

and then we just say, no, it's not a big deal. I don't need to do anything about that.

I just feel really uncomfortable in this sermon, but it'll pass once I leave. That's the Holy

Spirit works in our life. He convicts us according to the word of God. The Holy Spirit is trying to

lead you that way. He leads us to people. How many times have we interacted with someone and either

A, they've imparted really great godly wisdom to us, or they were in need of some godly wisdom

that we've been equipped to do. And we either,

sloughed it off and said, ah, they'll find someone else wiser than me. Or we say, ah,

they don't really know my circumstance, what's going on. The Holy Spirit speaks to us. The Holy

Spirit looks to lead us in a bunch of ways, but a lot of times we like to turn a deaf ear to the

Holy Spirit's leading. And so as we talk more and more about the reality of the Holy Spirit leading

in our lives, my encouragement to you is we're talking about a personal experience with the Holy

Spirit. Relationship with God through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit shows it up in

our lives personally. And so how, I want you to wrestle with this question every day. How did the

Holy Spirit lead me today? How did the Holy Spirit lead me today? He's looking, he's trying to get you

to follow him. He's there as your guide, your helper to help you navigate. How is the Holy

Spirit leading, leading you today? Was it in a scripture verse you read? Was it in someone godly

reaching out to you? Was it in a scripture verse you read? Was it in a scripture verse you read?

Was it in a scripture verse you read? Was it through a conviction to say something or share

the gospel, invite someone to church, whatever it may be? How was the Holy Spirit moving you this

week? How did the Holy Spirit lead me today? And ask yourself, did I follow or did I miss it?

Did I follow or did I miss it? We've been given this wonderful guide, this incredible,

incredible God, Holy Spirit who is in our lives and he's helping us navigate. Don't miss it. Don't

turn a deaf ear. Don't turn a blind eye. Don't let yourself be caught in apathy or laziness. Don't

let fear overcome, but instead rely on the power of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit that raised

Christ from the dead and now dwells in us. Let's pray. Lord, Lord, I thank you for the Holy Spirit.

So often he gets forgotten about. Lord, but the power of the Spirit working in our lives

is so incredibly crucial. He is our helper, our guide, the one who leads us to

navigate, the one who cultivates godly, holy living in our lives. Lord, for those of us as

believers who wrestle with that tension of a desire to honor you with our lives and a struggle

of sin and corruption of the flesh, Lord, I pray that we would rely on the Holy Spirit that is

producing in us life. Lord, I pray for my friends in this room who maybe are struggling with the

gospel or maybe are struggling to feel a very personal connection with you, Lord, that they would

read these scriptures.

And they would begin to pray and see your Holy Spirit working in them. They would see the Holy

Spirit working in others, but specifically the Holy Spirit working in them and how you have given

them the precious gift of salvation and the precious person of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Lord, in that he's growing each and every one of us. Lord, I pray for whoever it is in this room who maybe

is struggling with the truth of the gospel. Lord, I pray that they would see, first of all, their need for you

their need for a savior and their need for the Holy Spirit in their lives. Lord, the need for

renewal and regeneration out of the Holy Spirit. Lord, we love you. We thank you for your word and

we thank you for the wisdom that it brings. I pray that we'd live differently this week

according to the Holy Spirit in our lives. In your precious and holy name, Jesus name.