Does God’s Spirit Motivate Us?

Last week we were able to finish the series of sermons we've been going through on the fruits of the Spirit. Seven sermons that went through Galatians and went through the what God wants to produce in your life and why He gave you His Spirit. Now, some of you may remember, if you go clear back to April, that I prefaced this series on the fruits of the Spirit by giving a sermon that was based in Proverbs 16 verse 2. So let's go to Proverbs 16 verse 2, because that sermon I gave then and today's sermon bookend the fruits of the Spirit. They tie into what God is trying to do in your life. Proverbs 16 verse 2. Very simple statement. Solomon writes, All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits. In other words, our decisions that we make, we automatically think are right. We automatically trust our own beliefs. We trust our own feelings. We trust that we're right. But he says, the Lord weighs the spirits. Now, if some of you might remember that sermon, I talked about how the word spirit in Hebrew simply means breath. But one of the ways that that word is used, because it's used different ways throughout the Old Testament, is that it is used to describe the motivations of a person, the deepest mindset and emotions, the motivations that drive impulses and cause us to act.

So, we talk about the spirits here. What he's talking about here is that God tries the spirits. He looks inside you and says, Why are you doing what you do?

Remember the sermon I said very few human beings actually asked themselves that question. We simply do. We act. Very seldom do we ask ourselves, Why do I do that?

Why do I do it that way? Why do I treat people that way? Why do I act this way?

Why do I have such difficulty with this problem or that problem?

Why is it that I hate work or hate school? What motivates me to do the things I do every day? What motivates me to watch television at this time or in this show? What is the inner drives that are both thoughts and emotions? They're both thoughts and emotions. That's why the Bible talks about the spirit of jealousy, the spirit of sorrow, a faithful spirit, a haughty spirit, a humble spirit, a broken spirit. It's used many times to describe something good, describe something evil. But what it's talking about is what drives that person. The Lord tests your spirit. He wants to know and he tests you to see why do you do what you do. We went through that sermon. We never left the Old Testament. We never left the Old Testament in showing how that word is used and what it means. We even went through different examples of people who had wrong spirits, wrong motivations, people who did good but did evil later in their lives because their motivations never changed. Their feelings never changed. Because their emotions never changed, eventually they returned to what they used to be. Why do we do what we do? Well, now the Book End, that was the beginning of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. We had seven sermons of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Now I want to go through the New Testament and what the New Testament says about this same subject, about the spirit of the world, the spirit of the world, the motivations of the world, and the motivations that are brought about in us through God's Spirit. In other words, the only way you're ever going to change the motivations of the world, and how many times when I went through those seven sermons of the fruits of the Spirit that I say, remember these are the fruits of the Spirit of God. We cannot develop those fruits on our own. Oh, we can develop little pieces of it. Some people may be a little more peaceful than others, and some may be a little more kind than others, and some may have a little more self-control than others. But to have all those fruits of their fullness takes God's Spirit. You and I can't do that on our own. So what we're going to look at today is the spirit of the world, as it is explained in the New Testament, and how the Spirit of God changes our motivations. So we've looked at the fruits. Now what we're going to need to do is all of you need to spend some time exploring your motivations. Why do I do what I do? So what does the Spirit of the world produce in us? Four things.

The first one is that the Spirit of the world produces a love of physical things, experiences, and pleasures above the love of God in goodness. The Spirit of the world produces a love. You love physical things, physical experiences, and physical pleasures above the love of God and goodness. So we'll say, well, no, no, I'm just weak in this area. You know, this really has nothing to do how much I love God. I just have this weakness. No.

That's how this Spirit interacts with us. This is how we think if we have the Spirit of the world.

The Spirit of the world produces a love of physical things, physical experiences, and pleasures above the love of God and goodness. First, show on 216. When we come into the church, we can learn as we do. You know, when we God starts calling us, He teaches us things to do.

That's how you teach a child. You teach a child by having to do things. Later, you teach them how to think. But you start with teaching how to do. Remember, sitting down with our children, you know, okay, you got the little container, and you have little plastic squares and stars and circles, and you teach them how to do. Okay, I take this square and I try to push it through the circle, and they're frustrated. It doesn't work. No, no, no. You got to find the square. It fits in the square. Ah, okay. When God calls us, He starts telling us things to do. But as time goes on, we must start to understand real conversion now moves into the heart. How we think, our emotions, and our motivations. First, John 2 16. How many times have you heard this verse in a sermon or sermon head over the years? For all that has hit the world. This is the spirit of the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. So the spirit of the world, the motivation of the world that we absorb, is the motivation of these things.

That's why when we went into the fruits of the spirit, we had to talk about self-control.

Self-control goes beyond, okay, I'm not going to openly break within the Ten Commandments. I'm not going to steal today. I'm not going to kill somebody today. Therefore, I have self-control. Self-control means you have mastery over things, over experiences, over pleasure, so they don't master you. I won't ask for a show of hands, but I'll put my hand up here. How many of you have just deal with mastery over eating? I have that problem. Mastery over cookies.

I have been conquered by chocolate chip cookies more times than I wish to admit.

If that mastery gets to the point where it hurts our health, then we don't have proper self-control. Our problem is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

When we spend too much time watching television, we have a similar problem. When you work to avoid, you work 12 hours a day, so you don't have to deal with your marriage problem. It's a self-control problem. It's part of the issue there. This is the spirit of the world.

The spirit of the world drives us and motivates us to be driven by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The love of physical things, the love of physical experiences, the love of physical pleasures, above the love of God in goodness.

We'll drink too much and say it's a weakness, but the real issue is we like it too much. We like it too much. So we like it enough that we like it more than God in goodness. That's a hard thing, but we'll never truly grow and overcome the spirit of the world until we understand what it is. The spirit of the world is what motivates us. It is the love of these things.

Now, being human beings, what we do is we hide this under a facade.

We hide this under a facade so that we can still try to appear to look good, and we try to cover up our motivations. Look at John 12 here. Let's go back to the Gospel of John. John 12.

Verse 1.

Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, who he had raised from the dead. And there they made him a supper, and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with him. Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. Now, I want you to understand, you know, really understand what's happening here. Here's Jesus sitting there, a man who taught that you should take care of the poor, you should love the poor. I mean, so many of his messages deal with that poor people should be cared for and loved, the needy, the widow. And here they're taking... I'll make up a figure, but here's the poor, and here they're taking a thousand dollars, some ointment that's worth a thousand dollars, and you're just pouring it all over his feet. What a waste! You could serve... how many poor people could you serve a meal for a thousand dollars? You know, think about all those ads on television, you know, how you can feed and clothe a child for ten dollars a month in some place. You know, you've seen those, right? Think of all those children. What a waste! At least that's what one person thought. Verse 5, But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, who would betray him, said, Why would this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and give it to the poor?

Well, this isn't a very moral thing to do. This isn't a very righteous thing to do. It should be given to the poor. Now, on the surface, you think, wow, Judas has a point, doesn't he?

Well, what is his motivation? Verse 6, This he said, John... Now, remember John's writing. As John was there, John knew Judas Iscariot.

This he said, not that he cared for the poor, because he was a thief, and he had the money box, and he used to take what was put in it.

He said this because that's a lot of money, and you know, sometimes I use that money to buy things.

You know, Jesus would say, Hey, look, we need to go someplace. Go and rent a room for the night. Who would go do that? Well, Judas Iscariot. He was the treasurer of the group. He carried the money box. He's the one who would show up and pay the bills. He's also the one who would make sure that, you know, an extra bottle of wine was served in his room that night. A little extra. He deserved it anyways. I mean, he was the treasurer. He's the one who had to do all the work. He's the one who had to go set up everything. He's the one that when they would go into an inn would have to go pay the bill, you know. He's the one who had to make worried because there wasn't enough money that week. He's the one who had to do all the extra work. So it didn't matter if he took a little extra for himself. I mean, it's only justified. It's only right, isn't it?

He deceived himself. When we find the spirit of the world, as we go through all the elements of the spirit of the world, you've got to find the self-deception that's at the core of it. We deceive ourselves to get what we want.

Verse 7, but Jesus said, Let her alone. She has kept this for the day of my burial. For the poor you will have with you always, that me you do not have always.

There's Jesus Christ, since you don't understand her. She is honoring me. He was or is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Christ. He was due an old honor. If Judas really understood who he was, Judas would have understood what was going on. It's interesting that not one of the other disciples here, not one of them complained. The other eleven understood what was going on, that he was owed this honor, that this was a great act of worship that was taking place, honoring him as the Messiah. Judas, all he could see was the box, the box, because those box meant physical things. And she spent that. The next time we have to go to Jerusalem, it's no three-star hotel for us. It's a Motel 6, because she wasted all this money when we could have got it. Yeah, we would have given some to the poor. And I had taken my little cut, which I deserve, which I deserve. So, this first point is the spirit of the world produces a love of physical things, physical experiences and pleasures above the love of God and goodness.

The second product of the spirit of the world is deception. Deception. And at the core of that is self-deception. 1 Timothy 4. Now, these are broad overviews. Actually, I could have taken each one of these points and made it into a sermon itself. I thought about doing that, and I thought, well, no, that's another seven-part sermon. Maybe we'll not do another seven-part sermon right now. So, we'll just give an overview. And this book ends... I mean, go back and look at your notes from the sermon that was given in April. And you'll see how these two sermons bookend the whole idea of the fruits of the spirit. 1 Timothy 4. Now, what God wants to produce in us is love and joy and peace and long suffering and gentleness and mercy and faith and goodness and self-control. These are all good things. These are the things you want. These are the actual things that will bring happiness into your life. That's what God wants to do. These are things that are produced in you.

The spirit of the world keeps trying to tell you these things are produced outside of you.

They're produced outside of you. So, the more you get, the happier you are.

The spirit of deception. 1 Timothy 4 verse 1. Now, the spirit... this is God's spirit. The spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving him to demons or deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. Now, he's talking here about the church. He's not talking about the world. He's talking about the church.

He's saying here that it is possible, in fact, it will happen, that members called by God into the body of Christ, into his family, will fall prey to deceiving spirits. What's very interesting I find here is he gives us a little insight in how that happens when he says having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. How do you give into a deceiving spirit?

How do you give into a deceiving spirit? Usually, when someone comes along and deceives you, it's because it appeals to some motivation you have. See, we're into your spirit.

It appeals to a motivation that you have.

Many times you wrestle with it at the beginning, oh, that can't be right. That's not right. That's not how I should be. I shouldn't do that. But, you know, if I do that, these good things will happen to me.

So you give in. I need to be recognized. I need to have fun. I need to have other people look up to you. I need to feel spiritually superior to others. I need to be secure. Sometimes we're motivated by this need to feel security. Sometimes it's just some physical need we have.

Many times it's because we seek it will make us happy. This will make us happy. Remember, when I talked about joy, I talked about the difference between fun and happiness.

Fun's good, but fun is always temporary. And so bad fun has a terrible price with it. Always brings a terrible price afterwards. Deception. When religious deception comes along, and he's talking here about religious deception, not just deception to commit sin, we will resist it at first. God's Spirit will give us a conscience to resist it, but we will wrestle with our own conscience. Because we have a need, we have a need that this secret teaching, this different viewpoint, will fulfill that need. It will help our human spirits somehow. In the Bible study last week, in the east side here, we've been going through 2 Peter. It's interesting because in 2 Peter, the apostle goes through 2 false teachers that were in the church. They weren't outside the church. They were in the church. He kept saying, these people are in the church. They feast with you. They're there.

And what do these false teachers do? He goes through and shows what they taught, that you'll have more liberty, more understanding if you'll just get my secret knowledge. I have secret knowledge to give you. And if you get this secret knowledge, you will be a superior Christian to everybody else. Now, there's an interesting phrase in 2 Peter 2.14. You don't have to turn now, but I read the phrase, They have a heart-trained, incongruous practices.

They have a heart-trained, incongruous practices. At the Bible study, I read from William Markley. William Markley is a Scottish theologian. I don't say everything that I don't always hold to a much of his theology, but he has a great way of writing. And he has a deep understanding of Greek words. He knows Greek. He can write Greek. And he wrote, I think it's 12 volumes, just on the New Testament alone. So many times I'll look up what he says about certain words and what they mean. And he's so profound that what he captures about the language. Here's what he says about that little phrase. As Peter speaks of this, there's a terrible deliberateness about it. They have hearts trained in unbridled ambition for the things they have no right to have. Now, that's how he translates it. You know, the King James is a little more simple. They have a heart-trained, incongruous practices. He translates it, They have hearts trained in unbridled ambition for the things they have no right to have. We have taken an entire phrase to translate one word, Cleonexia. Cleonexia, that whole phrase, is one word. One word in Greek.

Which means the desire to have more of the things which a man has no right even to desire, let alone have. The picture is a terrible one. The word used for trade is used for an athlete exercising himself for the games. These people have actually trained their minds. Now, this is what is important here. Because remember, the people that Peter is talking about are people who are in the church. They come in, but they have heresies. They have false teachings.

They are deceived, and they are deceiving others. We have to always be careful. Someday, somebody is going to walk through that door, and they are going to have a false teaching, and they are going to try to deceive you. It happens.

The spirit of the world is deception, something new that always takes you one step away from God and what he is doing. He says these people actually have trained their minds to concentrate on nothing but the forbidden desire. They have deliberately fought with conscience until they have destroyed it. They have deliberately struggled with their finer feelings until they have strangled them, and there is the important thing. That's why, what we just read, what Paul wrote, he says, their conscience is seared with a hot iron. In other words, their conscience has been mutilated. Who mutilated their conscience? It wasn't God's spirit, and it actually wasn't Satan. It's themselves. We mutilate our conscience by resisting God. We mutilate.

Think about how people slip into certain thought processes. See, one of the things that's so simple is to watch people do it. I've seen people do it with worshiping idols. Okay, it's not wrong.

Okay, they say, well, it's wrong to have worship idols. I never worship a statue of Mary. I wouldn't do that.

Well, but, you know, Jesus, that's okay. So I have a crucifix in my house, and they slide. They start sliding. I've seen people do it with all the Ten Commandments.

So we get to the place where people will argue, why is the Church always making such an important point about homosexuality? Or why is the Church always making a stand against abortion?

Shouldn't we love those people? Yes. It doesn't make it right. But we start to deceive ourselves. We start to slide. I see people do it with the Sabbath. Well, you know, it's okay to stop and get some groceries on the Sabbath since we're going to eat them. Because we got so busy Friday, we didn't get a chance to get our groceries. It's okay to go in Walmart and get our groceries today. And then you just get to have it. And then it's okay to go in Walmart and get your groceries and the car battery you need that you're going to put in the car tomorrow. Then it's okay to go get your groceries, your car battery, and oh, look! They just came out with a new style jacket. So I'll get a jacket today. We slide, and we deceive ourselves. We deceive ourselves and we deceive ourselves. It's the spirit of the world because it's the spirit of safety. Deception. Markley says, There were names in this passage one further charge.

It wouldn't be bad if these people deluded only themselves. It is worse that they delude others.

I didn't read the full passage here, but it talks about how they snare weak souls, weak people.

The word that's used for entrap or snare means catch with a bait.

They catch with a bait. Deception always appeals to some inner motivation that you really want.

And so, say, deceive us, other people deceive us into sin. They deceive us into giving up the truth. They deceive us into all kinds of things because they're appealing to what you really want. And we have to get down to the ugly part of us. And sometimes we have to say, oh, I actually want that.

And so, let's look at how God looks at it. I actually want to eat that bowl of sewage.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, it's just a weakness.

You know, I just like marijuana so much. I just like drinking so much. I just like adultery so much. No, no, that's not what we'd say with it. That's not what we say. What we say is, it's a weakness I have. God understands. It's a weakness you have. He wants you to help you overcome. Oh, I understand, but pornography really isn't that bad. It's not like I'm actually committing adultery. Then we slide into the deception. And then we try to deceive others. Mark Lee goes on, A man becomes really bad when he sets out to make others as mad at himself.

Everyone must bear the responsibilities for his own sins. But to add to that the responsibility for the sins of others is to carry an intolerable burden. You catch with a mate. Remember that about deception. There's some element of it that always looks good. It does. There's some element of deception that looks good. Let me tell you the secret knowledge that will make you a better Christian. Let me tell you why that really isn't that bad in the eyes of God. Let me tell you. See? It starts taking us down the path.

The third spirit of the world I want to talk about is the spirit of self-esteem that is sustained through feeling superior to others. This spirit feels really good. It does. It feels really good. You have great self-esteem. You know, we talk about self-esteem all the time in the world that we live in. You feel good about yourself. You feel good about yourself. You feel good about yourself because you know you're a better Christian than everybody else.

Now, this isn't exhibited always towards the world. Sometimes we can be that way towards the world.

You know, boy, God loves me more than you. No, God has shown you more grace.

But most of the time we exhibit it towards others of the church. I'm better than you because I'm better than you. Whatever. Because my marriage is better than yours, or my child-rear is better than yours, or my Sabbath-keeping is better than yours, or my understanding is better than yours, or just, I mean, I'm a better Christian than you.

Look at Mark 12. Look what Jesus said here.

I'm going to move through this because I want to get to the positives. Mark 12.

And verse 38.

Jesus says to them in His teaching, Beware of the scribes who desire to go around in long robes, love greetings to the marketplaces. Rabbi. Rabbi. They just loved to go around in a costume that made them, everybody knew, well, you're a scribe, you're a Pharisee, and they loved everybody coming up and showing them special preference. The best seats in the synagogue and the best places at the seats, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers, they will receive greater condemnation. The spirit of self-esteem that comes from wanting to parade ourselves is the superior Christian. It's interesting. When we have this attitude, if my neighbor who sits next to me in church, I can't find anything wrong, I will make up something. I will make up a standard.

So, I fast-filled the Day of Atonement. Well, I fast-filled the Day of Atonement, too.

I started my fast an hour before sundown.

You only, when did you start your fast? Well, five minutes before sundown. Ah, waiting up to the last minute. Not a good attitude, is it?

We will make up a standard to make sure I'm better than you. It's a funny self-deception, because it makes you feel so good.

This made these people feel good.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about that. Don't make pretenses of prayer, so parade yourself like the Pharisees. Matthew 6, the first six verses, he talks about that. Don't parade yourself. And then the fourth point I want to talk about is a spirit of bondage to sin and, of course, eventual death. The spirit of this world puts us in bondage and chains of habits and addictions and emotions that enslave us to misery, and they enslave us till we die.

You see, God wants to free you from those chains, but He has to change our spirit. He has to reach inside us and take these things out, and they will never change until you know that you have them.

Is this what we celebrate every year at the Feast of Unleavened, Brad?

Just as God brought Israel out of Egypt out of bondage, God is bringing us out of bondage.

And we say, yeah, yeah, that's great. We love to watch the Ten Commandments, and we love to think about each and every Israel coming out of bondage. We get together, and we talk about Jesus died for our sins, and we take the bread, and we take the wine, and then, you know, two days later, well, we're pretty good for the first holy day. Then about two days later, we're just our normal selves again, except we're eating unleavened bread. I'll tell you that. We're just the same people we always were. We're still in bondage to the way we think, to the way we feel, to our sins. To our habits. To our addictions. Jesus Christ came to take us out of those.

He came to break those bonds. Now, it's not easy. Some bonds take years to break, but He came to break them. You have to understand that, but you will never, ever, ever fully reach the conversion process that we're supposed to go through until we all recognize I'm in bondage, and I prefer slavery sometimes to freedom. I prefer the slavery. It's more comfortable. It's sort of fun, and I sort of like it. And I've seen myself at the thinking it's better. I've seen myself at the thinking, if I do this, I'll have a better life. No, you won't. And so we're in the bondage to our own misery. We're in bondage to sin, and we're in bondage to death. So we look at the ways of the world, the spirit of the world, the love of physical things, experiences, and pleasures above the love of God and goodness, the spirit of deception, a spirit of self-esteem that is sustained through feeling superior to others, and a spirit of bondage to sin and death. The only way to overcome those things is to recognize them and then submit to God's Spirit. So now let's look at what God's Spirit does. You subject. I've got a half hour to tell you. Okay? This is going to take a lot of personal study. First of all, you're going to have to go through those spirits and see how much of those spirits are in your life. You have to take some prayer and some fasting and some study, and you're going to have to say, how much of these four spirits are in my life and I don't even know it? You have to go ask. But, you know, you do that. It's like, wow! How depressing that is! No! Christ came to free us from all that. He came to break those bonds. He came to get us out of this mess, and God has given us His Spirit. What is the Spirit of God? Now, we talk about our spirit. Well, I have a spirit of sorrow, and I have a spirit of faith, or I have a spirit of happiness. It is our innermost thoughts and feelings. It is our motivations. It's who we are at the core of our being. You know what God has given to you? The core of His being. That's the great travesty, or the sadness of the Trinity doctrine. God has taken His mind, and His power, and His law, and He put it into us and said, okay, let me get into that core where you're all messed up, and let me change that. So, let's start with what you do. You take the little blocks and you put them in here, and okay. And so, we started. We stopped eating pork. That was taking a block and learning how to do it. Do you still do those? Yes. We still not to eat pork.

It's still a sin to go do those, but if that's all that's happened, you are retarded in your growth process. You are held back in your growth process. We should eat pork, but we should do more.

And that's why when we talk about what is God going to do, now we're to the fruits of the Spirit. So, we just went through that sermon. I won't go to it, or series of sermons. The first thing is the fruits of the Spirit. And we want to say, okay, what is God going to do with this? It's Galatians 5, 22, and 23. I will go there because we just did seven sermons on it. It's the fruits of the Spirit. What is the next thing? I'm going to have four things. I had four things that are the fruits of what the Spirit of the world produces. We're going to look at four things that God's Spirit produces. First is those fruits. Second is in Second Timothy 1. Second Timothy chapter 1. This verse is an entire subject of its own.

The entire sermon. Verse 7. For God has not given us a spirit.

Okay. Your spirit now has God's spirit bound to it. And God's spirit is different than our spirit. You and I live our whole lives in a spirit of fear. We fear death. We fear what other people are going to think about us. We fear failure. We fear success.

We fear that our mate's going to leave us. We fear that we're going to get sick. We fear that our loved ones are going to get sick. We fear that our loved ones are not going to love us. We fear that we just fear all the time. We fear we're going to lose our job.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear. When God's Spirit comes into your spirit, the first thing that God is going to try to do with you is give you vision and courage. He's not going to change what happens to you outside all the time, but He's going to give you courage to face what happens outside of you all the time. So God's Spirit brings these fruits, and He brings courage. You know, it'd be an interesting thing for you to do. Just right now, without even thinking, write down what you fear the most. What do you fear the most in life? Go write a demo. See, when I fear the most, there's two things I fear the most in life.

One is being abandoned by God. That's the greatest fear I have. The second fear is something that happened to my wife. That's my two greatest fears. But until I face those fears, I'll be controlled by those fears. God gives us a spirit that helps us begin to deal with our fears.

Also, in a spirit of power, the power to grow, the power to overcome. We're back to the imagery of ancient Israel coming out of Egypt. We rehearsed that once a year. We should talk about a boy just once a year. He brings us back to it once a year. God's going to break your chains. It is the spirit of agape. God's spirit guides us into love. We have to be very careful sometimes that we can have the knowledge of the truth, but not what the truth is supposed to produce. Just take anything. I know people who go to the Feast of Tabernacles and hate going.

One of the reasons why is they don't keep their second tithes. They don't obey God. They don't keep their second tithes. So they feel guilty about that. Many times they've gone to a self-deception that they don't have to keep second tithes. Well, I know God wants us to, but He understands that I just don't make enough money to pay second tithes. Then they get this ready to go to the Feast.

They want to go to the Feast. They don't want to tell anybody that they didn't keep second tithes. So they take their last paycheck, and they take a few dollars, and they go anyways. They really don't have enough money. The kids want to do things, but they don't have time or money to do so.

They get a rush right after to get back. They don't enjoy the spiritual part of the Feast because they feel guilty. You see, having the knowledge isn't enough. We have to do it and then love it. We have to love it. Remember in the sermon I gave on the other end of this, how I actually was one of the servants on Joy. That's where the fruits.

Back in Deuteronomy where God says, I'm going to... you people, I'm going to abandon because you did not do what I said with joy. Now we did it. We loved on it. We did it because we had to. Because you're God, you just punished us and we don't.

We didn't do it with joy because we love it. We love God. We love His way. We love His people. So we go through the motions. Now He gives us the... this Spirit gives us power and gives us love. And He gives us a sound mind, a healthy mind. So we are troubled in our thoughts and our emotions. No matter what the issues are, the first thing we've got to do is go say, God, give me a sound mind.

Help me think clearly. Help me see clearly. Help me feel what I'm supposed to feel. Remember last week when I talked about what we'll be like in the resurrection? I went through in Revelation where one of the things God changes is our emotions when we're changed. There'll be no tears. There'll be no sorrow. He changes the core of our spirit. He changes the core of our spirit. He's starting that right now inside you and me. The core of our spirit is being changed right now. It's not easy. You know why? We like being carnal. Let's just admit it. I like being carnal. We were called to be something else for eternity.

Believe Thee. What God's offering is a whole lot better than being carnal.

But you have to believe that. You have to get to the place where you believe that.

A third aspect of God's spirit that comes into us that produces what His spirit produces in our spirit is in Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. Verse 17.

Break it into the middle of a sentence here. Paul writes, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit, at the core of who you are, your thoughts, your emotions, your motivations, the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.

So one of the things that God's spirit produces in us is wisdom, something we lack a lot of. We need to go pray for it. Wisdom is the ability to take God's way.

You know, wisdom had to do, especially in the Hebrew, it means a craftsman. A wise person was a craftsman that took whatever trade they had, and they were the absolute best at taking that trade. So you could be a wise farmer, a wise artisan, a wise person who worked with metals. You could be... you were wise in that. You were good at that. You knew how it worked. You knew how it functions. A spiritually wise person knows how to take God's way and make it work every day in their lives. The spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Verse 18, The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of His glory, of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His mighty power, which He has worked in Christ, but He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand of the heavenly places. Oh, man, that's nice. That's sort of nice theology there. Do you realize what He just said? He's going to give you a revelation, the spirit of revelation, that does three things that helps you understand the hope of His calling, why God called you.

What He's doing in your life, His plan, His purpose, where He's going to take you, the change He's making now at the core of your spirit. And that spirit drives you.

See, this changes your motivation. If the Spirit of God has touched your spirit so that you understand your calling, it changes how you live life. It changes your motivations. You're no longer motivated just to make money or just to have fun. You're motivated because you want to become a child of God. That's your calling. He says the riches of the glory of His inheritance of the saints. He's offering you the universe. In a better life now, God's way is better than the spirit of the world. But you have to believe that. You have to believe it so that it motivates you. And He said here, the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe. The greatness of His power toward us. The power that's already been given to you that we ignore, we don't use, we go through life. Having it sort of dormant, it's there, it's inside of us.

Remember, it's His motivations, His mind, His love that He put inside of you. It's His thoughts.

What is this power? Well, He just said it's the same power that resurrected Jesus Christ.

How great is the power that is put inside of you? Well, He said He gave us the spirit of power. We already read that.

It is the spirit. The same power has been put inside of you as the power that took to resurrect Jesus Christ. That's a lot of power. A lot of power.

And then the last point is in John 16. John 16.

In verse 13.

Sticking here, Jesus says He's got to send the Holy Spirit. However, would He in 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. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Truth, and He will guide us into all truth. Everything you need for salvation will be given to you. Everything you need for salvation as far as truth and knowledge will be given to you.

A dozen people understand everything.

I realize that I'll never understand everything of God. After I'm changed, in all of eternity, I'll never understand everything of God. I'll never understand everything in this Bible in my lifetime. But I will have everything I need for salvation. He will guide us into all truth.

Remember, the Spirit of the world is a deception.

It's to create the self-deception that leads you into self-destructive behavior.

The Spirit of God leads you into truth that leads you into behavior that is good for eternity. The word Spirit can be used in the Bible to denote the mindset and emotions that motivate your decisions. The Spirit of God is the mindset and emotions of God that He actually pours into your mind. His Spirit binds with our spirit to create a new man. So it says, not just at the beginning stages, okay, I've got to keep the Ten Commandments, He who steals still no more. I mean, think about Paul, you know, he who goes to the Temple prostitutes, don't do it anymore. That's the first stages.

You and I should be way beyond that. We don't do that. We shouldn't be stealing. We don't go to the Temple prostitutes. We don't do those things, right? But it's a continual growth process, and the growth is inside you where God's Spirit is bound to your spirit and changing your spirit.

Changing whatever, all the things you're going to take into eternity.

So your submission to His Spirit will replace the love of physical things, experiences, and pleasures above the love of God and goodness.

Your submission to His Spirit will replace the spirit of deception.

Your submission to His Spirit will replace the spirit of self-esteem that is sustained through feeling superior to others and give you a spirit of humility. His Spirit will replace the spirit of bondage, the sin, and death.

Oh, we may still suffer physical death, but we will break the chains of that when we're at the resurrection, or He will break those chains. Are we a resurrect?

What will He replace those things with? It's not just what God is taking out of us. It's what He's putting into us. What He will put into us is the fruits of His Spirit.

What He will put into us is the spirit of courage, of power, of love, of a sound mind, of wisdom, of revelation, and of truth.