Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri

Full Redemption through the Holy Spirit

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Redemption by Blood

A couple weeks ago we began talking about actually the Lord’s Supper and we looked at 1 Corinthians 5 so let’s read that together and the Lord has kind of led us on a journey as we’ve contemplated the meaning of this text. In 1 Corinthians chapter 5 Paul says that in verse 6 he says, your glorying or boasting is not good, do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you truly are unleavened for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us.“ And we talked about the Passover in its relationship to the symbolism of the Lord’s Supper and The Lord’s Supper is really the New Testament version of the Passover meal. The Last Supper was the last Passover, if you will, the first communion. It was the same meal. And we looked at some of the symbolism of the Passover. The Passover is fundamentally about the biblical concept of redemption. We saw that the blood of the lamb that was slain was applied to the door, the flesh of the Lamb was eaten, and then Israel was to depart from Egypt or depart from bondage. The redemption that the Christian has in Jesus Christ is founded in his blood. That is to say that we are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Amen? And that redemption is a complete redemption. It is a full redemption. Every one of the Christian sins has been paid for. Amen. However, redemption isn’t just about the payment of sins. Redemption is about the setting at liberty of those that are in bondage. That’s really the fundamental meaning of redemption. The basic concept is the payment, it’s called a ransom, the payment of a price so that someone who is in bondage can then be set at liberty. That’s the basic concept of redemption. So the Lord Jesus is the Passover Lamb. His blood redeems us from what? From the curse of the law, Paul tells us, we’re going to look at that in a moment, from bondage to Satan and bondage from sin. Now as I pointed out last week, when Israel celebrated the Passover, they were still in Egypt. As a matter of fact, what we learn as we look at their journey that they celebrated the Passover but they had not yet gone through the Red Sea.

Because there’s a redemption by blood, that’s the Passover lamb, but then there’s a redemption by power. So God had to physically, if you will, redeem them even though the redemption was founded in the blood. And the same is true of the Christian. The Christian is redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. If you know the Lord Jesus Christ truly, if you genuinely put your faith in him, and I stress the Lord genuinely, then the word of God says that you have been redeemed, have been past tense. It occurred when you came to the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Let’s look at another verse, 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Chapter 1 says God’s chosen the foolish things, etc., etc. That’s why we’re all here. That’s us, amen. Verse 29, chapter 1, that no flesh should boast or glory in his presence, but Are you in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God? Even righteousness or it could be translated justification and sanctification and redemption That as it is that glories are he that boasts let him boast in the Lord So the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ is a complete Redemption every sin has been paid for and the Christian has been now bought by the Lord Jesus. We are owned by Him. He owns us. We’re His. So we’re His servants. We were the servants of sin, but we are His servants. We were the servants of Satan, but now we are His servants. We were the servants of the world, but now we are His servants. Amen. He bought us, He owns us, but He sets us at liberty from sin, from Satan from the world.

The Spirit Applies Redemption

The question is how does he do that? Or let me put it this way.

When Israel celebrated the Passover, the angel came and he killed the firstborn of all the land where there was no blood. And Israel’s firstborn was saved. But they still had to experience redemption, they still had to leave Egypt. And so, the Christian is in the same position because although the Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed us, that redemption needs to be made real in the experience of of the believer. Are you hearing me? Just as Israel ate the pass over meal but was still in Egypt so a Christian can believe in Jesus and still be, say, in Egyptgypt. We see it all the time, don’t we? A lot of Egyptians around here these days.

City in Egypt. When the redemption is complete, but the redemption has to be applied, or we could say the redemption has to be experienced, or we could say the redemption which is ours in Christ Jesus has to be received. Question is, how does God take what the blood purchased, and you have to understand, you’ve got to hear me. Did you have your latte today? Your mocha? No? Can we order some in real quick? Everybody’s listening? Okay. I’ve been saying this for weeks now, but you need to hear me. Everything you need, you have in Jesus. everything. Everything that the Christian needs for life and godliness is already, that’s the key word, it is already been provided through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of it. The question then becomes how do I experience the wealth that is mine? That’s the question. Well, go to John 14 for a moment. John 14. No, John 16. So, Jesus Geezer here, and you know this is the Upper Room Discourse, this is the night Jesus was betrayed, so he’s leaving, and he’s telling them I’m leaving. They’re not happy about that. about that. They don’t want them to leave. He says in 16.5, But now I go away to him who sent me, and none of you asked me where you were going. But because I have said these things to you, in other words, because I’ve said I’m leaving, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you, it is to your advantage that I go away. You see that? It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper or the paraclete is the right word, will not come to you, but if I depart, I will send him to you.” Jesus is saying, as much as they were sorry that he was going to be gone physically, it was to their advantage that he was gone because with Jesus physically absent, now Jesus, through the person of the Holy Spirit could be present in the church, in every church, and in the heart of every believing Christian. Jesus was limited here physically, ascended on the throne. He’s now poured his Spirit out, it says in Acts 2. And so now the Holy Spirit dwells in the life and the heart and the soul of every Christian. And it is through the Holy Spirit that we experience the riches that are ours in Christ Jesus.

Look what Jesus goes on to say about the Holy Spirit in verse 12 of the same chapter. He says, I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak of his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak and he will tell you things to come. Verse

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to his people. So everything that Jesus purchased with his blood is made available to the Christian through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well this makes the Holy Spirit’s ministry really important. Yeah, I got a yeah. I I like that. I got a yeah. So, how we relate to the Spirit, if you will, is of profound importance.

Because it’s the Spirit’s ministry to give us what Jesus bought for us.

You can have a lot of money in the bank, but if you don’t have your debit card, You can’t get to it. Do you ever lose your debit card? Wait till your kids get to be 16 or 17. You’ll lose a lot of debit cards. Trust me. I won’t mention any names. But we’ve lost a lot of debit cards. Can’t get the money without the debit card, right? card, right? And you can’t get to Jesus without the Holy Ghost. And all the wealth that’s in Jesus isn’t going to do you any good unless the Holy Spirit of God God is ministering that to you. Because that’s his job, to glorify Jesus. So God, through the cross, has given us wealth. Through the cross, he has redeemed us. And redemption is only one part of salvation. It’s the part we’re focusing on now, but it’s just one part. Redemption has been provided. Redemption it’s done. It’s done and it’s in the bank So, where’s your debit card? Right. Where’s the debit card? It’s in the bank So the Holy Spirit is the the person of the Trinity that Takes the wealth of Jesus and puts it into my life if you will that I experience the wealth of Jesus not as a doctrine but as life. It’s life. You know Jesus said I came to give them life, right? And life more abundantly. More abundantly. Jesus didn’t mean you’re going to have fancy clothes and a big house and all kinds nice trinket. The more abundance is not physical abundance. I heard some guy who’s some one of those TV guys, you know, preaching and he’s walking the stage and he’s, you know, saying, you know, look at my $500 shoot. This is what Jesus wore. Jesus wore this most expensive clothes. He said, you know, people criticize me because I got a private jet. It says, I’m praying, I’m praying for God to give me another one R. That’s what they call the abundant life. Here’s the abundant life. Love Joy Peace Long suffering kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

That’s the abundant life. You can literally have nowhere to lay your head. If you have this, you have wealth. have abundance. So how do we get this? What just so happens? The verse I just read is the fruit of the Spirit. We get it through the Spirit. Well, how do I really do this?

Walk in the Spirit

When we look at Scripture, there are actually five exhortations regarding the Holy Spirit. regarding the Holy Spirit. So let’s go to Galatians 5 and look at the first one, which I think is the overarching one, in Galatians chapter 5. In Galatians 5 16, Paul says, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, But the Spirit against the flesh. For these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you will or wish. And, and then he lists the works of the flesh, then he lists the fruit of the Spirit.

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tells you, okay, you want this? Walk in the Spirit. That’s how you get it. Okay, but how do I do that? I knew you were thinking that, because you’re a pragmatic modern people.

I remember years ago, many, many years ago, I taught in the book of Galatians question how. And as I look, because I knew someone was going to ask me how in the Bible

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step two, do this step three, you’re holy. And some of us are like that, right? Guys, a lot of guys are like this. So they were getting into this mechanical thing which made them susceptible to legalismism and falling back into ritualism. So I know people that don’t have the quiet time, at the same time of every day they get like, If they can’t have the quiet time in the same place every day, they’re like, ah.

Well God’s in the other room. I mean, God’s there at 830, not just 815. But it’s that part of our human nature that likes things like real nice and tidy, you know. Well, that was the Galatian problem. The worst thing Paul could have done for the Galatians would be to give them a list of how to do this. Because they would have taken it and made it a law, made it a legalism, made it a formula that they actually practiced, hear me now, in the flesh.

I’m going to get filled with the Spirit in the flesh. When you say it, it’s silly, it’s funny, it’s illogical. But that’s what they would have done and that’s sometimes what we do. Because Paul says, look what he says to the Galatians a little bit earlier. He says in chapter 3, he says, in 3, 2 2, well 3, 3, he says, are you so foolish having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect or mature or whole by the flesh? So they started in the spirit, in other words, they were born again, They had the Holy Spirit of God, but they were walking out the Christian life in the flesh. So it doesn’t work that way. You start in the Spirit, you continue in the Spirit, you end in the Spirit. So Paul, the last thing Paul is going to do is tell them to walk and give them a little list of things to do, because that was their problem. Paul is telling us to walk in the Spirit and we need to understand that the exhortation to walk in the Spirit is an invitation to live the victorious Christian life. That’s really what it is. And the victorious Christian life is not a pious ideal. We can and we should live in victory over the flesh. Amen.

We can have victory because the Spirit of God within us gives us power over the flesh. The Spirit is greater than the flesh and will always gain the victory when we yield to Him.

We can live in victory. The victorious Christian is not a pious ideal. It is God’s solemn and holy will for you.

It is the will of God that you live the victorious Christian life. Some of you don’t even want to hear that. You don’t want to hear that because that makes you feel guilty. I’m trying to fill your bank account with a fortune and you don’t want to hear it. doesn’t make any sense to me. I am telling you that Jesus has provided for you everything you need. Everything you need. And most of all, after filling your bank account, he gave you a debit card and a checkbook and it says, Holy Spirit on it. And when you use that card and write that check, you can access the wealth that you have in the Lord Jesus Christ and And you can have victory and power in your life. It’s not for a select few. It’s for every Christian. If you are a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit in you, and therefore the wealth of Jesus is accessible to you. So Paul says, walk in the Spirit, which means live your life according to the guidance, the leading of the Holy Spirit. your life in submission to the Holy Spirit. And I know what you’re thinking, how do I do that? Well, I think as we look at some of the other directives, it’ll become more clear because we are told, we’re exhorted to not only walk in the Spirit, but we’re

Do Not Grieve the Spirit

are also told to not grieve the spirit. Look at Ephesians 4.

Paul says in verse 30, he says, And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. There’s redemption again. That all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. So we’re told not to grieve the spirit, and the idea here is that the spirit, being a person, can be offended. He can be offended. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve had my feelings hurt before. You ever had your feelings hurt? I’ve had my feelings hurt by Christians. And I don’t know about you, but when somebody treats me lousy, I might go back for seconds and maybe for thirds, but after a while I quit going back. You know what I mean? It’s like, I know we’re supposed to love people that are unlovable and we should do that, but when it comes to friendship, I don’t wanna be friends with people that hurt me. Do you? No, I don’t want to be friends with people that hurt me. It’s just too hard. I’ve got other things to do. I can love them, but I’m going to love them from a distance. Right? You know what I mean. Well, guess what? The Holy Spirit is a person. And he gets offended. He gets grieved. It says, right here, It’s great. And so, if we sin against him, if we ignore him, not about you, this is one of my pet peeves. Want to hear a pet peeve, Mike? Sure you do. Say yes, even though you don’t mean it. If you’re walking to a room with a group of your friends who are talking, you show up and nobody acknowledges your presence. Has that ever happened to you? I’m like, that’s rude. at least stop for a moment and say, hi. But you know what? That’s what a lot of Christians do to the Holy Spirit. They don’t even acknowledge His presence. And it’s offensive. Or they harbor sins, and then that’s what Paul’s dealing with here. They harbor various sins, and those sins grieve the Spirit. And as the Spirit gets grieved, if the Spirit gets grieved repeatedly, the Spirit, I don’t believe, departs the Christian, but I believe He withdraws His influence. And so, if we’re going to walk in the Spirit, we have to not grieve Him by known sin in our life.

And if there’s known sin in the life, then we are to acknowledge that sin, confess that sin, bring it into the light, Amen?

And let the Holy Spirit deal with that sin so that the redemption in Christ Jesus can set us free from that sin.

You hearing me? So the Holy Spirit is a person. It’s not a force, it’s not like electricity or some weird thing.

And a lot of people think of the Holy Spirit because when we talk about the Spirit, we always talk about the Spirit’s power. And it’s almost like we’re talking about the Spirit as if it’s an it, and it’s this powerful thing, this mindless force.

The spirit is a person. He thinks, he wills, he feels, if you will. And so we relate to him. We need to acknowledge him recognize what he’s doing to him in our lives and yield to him. Otherwise we’re going to grieve him. Secondly,

Do Not Quench the Spirit

we’re told not to quench him. Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

1 Thessalonians 5 verse 16. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and everything give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecies, test all things and hold fast what is good. abstain from a reform or appearance of evil. Notice, do not quench the spirit. The quenching of the spirit is when we resist his operations, not just in our own life, I believe in this context, but rather when we resist what he is doing in the community, because I believe this is a communal context. It’s about praying, rejoicing, giving thanks, prophetic words, all these things happening. so he’s saying, and do not quench the spirit. Let me ask you a question. During worship, you ever felt like God wanted you to share a scripture passage and you didn’t do it? Caught you. Ha ha. Ha ha. You ever, during a time. a time of prayer, felt like God wanted you to lead.

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So, the Spirit’s trying to communicate to us the fullness of Jesus Christ.

And if we’re basically saying, you know, here’s the debit card. I don’t want it. We’re not letting him give us what he wants to give us. And Paul gives us two positive exhortations.

Be Filled with the Spirit

The first one is be filled with the spirit. Go to Ephesians. Ephesians 5. In verse 18 he says, and do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the spirit. Speaking to one another, Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,

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and thanksgiving. Praise worship and thanksgiving. It’s interesting when you go back and you study the history of Israel and you see the mighty redemption that God just opened the Red Sea and he brought them out with his power. Then he saw a cloud which is at night and

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It was a covering by day and it guided them through the wilderness and all that God did for them, all of this provision. And it is astounding that over and over and over what did they do?

They murmured and complained. And that is the opposite of gratitude. That is the opposite of praise and thanksgiving. They complained. They complained. They complained. Paul says here, to be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another, Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Fathers. the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of all people, the Christians have to be the most joyful of all people because of what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will do for us. We ought to be the most grateful, thankful people. For Christians to go around mumbling grumbling is a profound expression of unbelief. It’s just unbelief. That’s all it is. And if you want to limit the work of the Spirit in your life, all you have to do is complain. Just complain. But if you want to be filled with the Spirit, Paul tells us this is the closest how-to you’re going to get. He tells us to praise God, to thank God, to be grateful grateful always. And you can do that. You can do that. You know why? Because it is a choice. It’s a choice. You can choose to be thankful. You can choose to not be thankful.

You’re like, well, I don’t really feel thankful. I understand there are days I don’t feel thankful. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be thankful. Because I can choose to acknowledge the truth and I can choose to say what God says is true, it takes priority over my feelings.

Now we all know we live in like the subjectivist heaven here in America, right? Right? I mean, we are immersed in narcissism. Just immersed in it. It is so much a part of our culture that we are all infected by it much more than. And the problem with narcissism, well there’s a lot of problems, but I’ve just mentioned one, It’s a a

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I feel really cool about. Now, why do I need that? I was talking to someone a while back, and they made a comment that led me to believe that what they were really saying, although I had to parse it later, I know that such and such wasn’t true because I didn’t like the way it made me feel. Well, if you’re thinking everything you’re going to read in the Bible is going to make you feel good, you need to go get Joel Osteen’s books or something, because that’s not how it works. That’s not how it works. There’s some pretty rough stuff in here. There’s some rough stuff in here. All right. There’s some pretty stern truths in there. some pretty sobering. Remember those old commercials where the guy put the cologne on his face in the. And smacked himself, he’s like, I needed that. It’s before your time, Hannah, don’t worry. Anybody want to come up, I’ll demonstrate. No, I’m kidding. You know, we need that. We need the bracing effect of the truths of the word God to kind of startle us out of our narcissism. You know what I mean? The Christian life isn’t all about me. It’s not all about my family, it’s not all about my church. It’s about God. It’s about God’s will and will and will being established. It’s about his purposes being worked out on the earth. It’s not about me, as much as I want to make it about me. It’s not. It’s about him. So, you know, we need the broad range of truths in God’s word, some of which sting and some of which can…we’re like, I don’t like that. How can I make that softer? We need that because we we just go toward the you know the soft and the the gray and the comfortable. I don’t know how I got up on that. Anyway, the point is is that If we want to walk in the Spirit, if we want to be filled with the Spirit, we need to be people that are grateful and thankful and we express that with our mouths. Can we express it? Yes, it’s got to be in the heart, but we have to express it with our mouths. And I believe that this is a widespread problem in the church, not just this church, but that church. I think it’s a massive problem, and I think it’s okay, it’s considered okay for people to be negative and critical and complaining and murmuring about stuff. They assumed okay. It’s not okay. Now it doesn’t mean that when you’re hurt, you can’t bring your hurts to God or even bring your hurts to other people. This is not about that. This is about complaining and whining, and there’s a huge difference between experiencing pain in your life and complaining about stuff.

God brings things into our life and some of those things are hard things. And it’s intentional because he’s training us. He’s developing our character. It’s not always going to be easy in the Christian life. But the beautiful thing is, is that in the hard things, we have the Holy Spirit. We have power in the hard things. So when we’re going through the hard things, we have an instructor, we have a guide, we have a R. Comforter who dwells with us, and that is the Holy Spirit of God. So therefore, even though we’re going through a difficult time, that we can walk through that in a way that honors God and in a way in which we demonstrate the victory that we have in the Lord Jesus.

So I encourage people all the time to get a 3×5 card and write down things to be thankful for.

Actually, write the things on the backside, you’re not thankful for. and then thank God for them every day. And do it as an act of obedience. Do it because the Scripture tells us to be thankful. If you’re waiting to feel something, your Christian life is going to just be blah that’s a pretty heavy theological word I know. It’s going to be blah. I mean it’s going to be really boring. So, our feelings will come in line with the truth of God as we walk in faith and obedience. That’s what happens. He changes us. He realigns us. It’s not us, it’s not us getting God to do what we want. It’s us realigning ourselves to God’s purposes, amen? And God’s plan. And that’s a change, That’s a process he does in our life when he changes to realign us with his kingdom. Lastly,

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Ask

Just making sure you’re listening.

Jesus said in Matthew 7 verse 7, he says, Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and who seeks finds to him, in knocks will be opened. Or what man is there among you who if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone, or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent. If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Amen? So notice verse 11, he says, know how to give good gifts, good gifts.

Now go to the book of Luke and go to chapter 11.

And Jesus teaches pretty much the same thing, but there’s a few things that are a little different here that’s very important. Excuse me. He says, he gives a parable about persistence, the parable of the persistent friend, right? And then he says in verse 9, so I say to you, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened. For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds, and he who knocks, it will be open just like Matthew right then he says if a son asked for bread from any father among you who will give him a stone or if he asked for a fish will he give him a serpent instead of a fish of course not right nope or if he asked for an egg will he offer him a scorpion notice this verse 13 here’s the interesting change if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more will your Heavenly Father, give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. And that addition is important because we need to understand the good things that God wants to give us are given us via the Holy Spirit. The good things that God wants to give you. The power that God wants to give you over sin. The victory that God wants to give you in your life over discouragement or depression. – The things that God wants to give you, the joy, the love, the peace, the patience, the meekness, the kindness, all of this, the things that God wants to give you as his child, these are good things, amen. these good things are given to you through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

So that’s why Paul says, excuse me, that’s why Jesus says, therefore if you ask for good things the Father will give them to you and if you ask for the Holy Spirit, He’ll give Him to you This is where we misapply our theology. If you are saved, you have the Holy Spirit.

There’s no, it’s just not debatable. You have the Holy Ghost. But that doesn’t eliminate the fact that at any given moment you need to be led by him, by him, instructed by him, empowered by him. Amen? because you can have him and not be walking in his power. So when Jesus says here, ask for the Holy Spirit, I don’t think he’s saying ask for the original, I mean you could say, okay he’s asking for the Holy Spirit, an unsaved person, God save me and give me the Holy Spirit, yeah that’s fine. But I think he’s talking to his children, God’s children, who every day, who really every moment need to say to the Father father, give me your Holy Spirit, Lead me by your spirit. Fill me with your spirit. Empower me by your spirit. Just think when you’re at work and your boss is like in your face and you just want to kill him. You need the Holy Spirit. Amen? And you moms, when your kids are driving you crazy and you want to lock them in the bathroom, you need the Holy Spirit. You need the Holy Spirit. You need him to fill you right then at that moment. When you’re being tempted to click that thing on the internet and look at the bad pictures, right then you need the Holy Spirit. Right at that moment. And you ask the Father, give me your Holy Spirit, fill me with the Spirit, empower me with the Spirit, guide me with the Spirit, instruct me through the Spirit, give me wisdom by your Spirit, give me love by your Spirit. And as you ask the father, Jesus says, because he’s a good father, he will give you good things. And as James said, you have not because you ask not.

Be honest. When’s the last time you ask God to fill you with this spirit? You probably can’t remember some of you. And you have not because you have not. This is not a one-time asking. This is a lifestyle. This is a actual dependence on the Holy Spirit in every situation. because we need Him in every situation. We need Him. We need His wisdom, His instruction, His power, His love, His joy, His peace, His patience, His goodness. We need the Holy Spirit, Amen? And God has given him to us and continues to give him to us if you will. But we must ask. It’s really simple. We try to make it complicated. It’s not that complicated. Ask. That’s what Jesus says, ask. So he says, don’t grieve the Spirit, don’t quench the Spirit, don’t resist him.

Be filled by being thankful and then ask.

These really simple injunctions, exhortations, whatever you want to call them, as they become part of our lives, then we learn to walk daily in the spirit. Either we’re at work, or we’re at home, or we’re at church, we’re out with friends, we’re at the ball field, we’re at a restaurant, whatever it is. Our lives become spirit infused and spirit filled. Isn’t that what you want? Is that what you want? Raise your hand. All right, let’s stand and pray. I want to close in a time of prayer as the worship team plays quietly. Let’s have a time of prayer together. Now I’m going to invite you to come forward for prayer. I think some of you want prayer. I think some of you want victory in your life. I think some of you want to be filled with the Spirit, and we just want to pray for you. So I’m going to invite you to come down for prayer as they play, and we’re going to have a season of prayer as we close the service today. Holy Spirit, we thank you for your presence here. We thank you, Lord, that

Closing Prayer

the thing that amazes me, Lord, Lord, about you is that you are so selfless, that you come and you dwell in our hearts and you show us Jesus and your whole ministry is about Jesus. And so we often just overlook you. We ask the Lord that you forgive us for grieving you or quenching you. Even now Lord, I pray that we would not do that. I know you’re prodding some people to come forward for prayer and I pray that they would not quench your spirit, not now. Not now. We just thank you, Lord, that you give us the riches of Jesus. We just are appreciative, grateful for your life-transforming ministry in our lives.