What God's Spirit Does For You

Yesterday we talked about how on Pentecost in the book of Acts we have the pouring out of God's Spirit on the church in a very dramatic way. Hundreds of people, thousands of people ran up and they saw these disciples who now had an open manifestation of the power of God. They were speaking in tongues, they were speaking in other languages. They immediately began to tell people around them in all different languages about God, about Christ, about what God was doing, about the meaning of the day of Pentecost. And the result was amazing. If you read through then the next few chapters of Acts, after that Pentecost there was an explosion in the church. 1.3,000 people baptized in one day. As people began to respond, they had known Jesus, they had seen Jesus Christ, they hadn't accepted Him as the Christ. Now they knew He was the Christ. The result was there was this huge growth within that Jerusalem church. There had to be, because the Jerusalem church was going to be used to plant first-roots all over the place. When you look through the book of Acts, you see that most of those churches weren't very big.

But the Jerusalem church at the very beginning was very big. It had to be. It was the basis for the planting of all over the place. Those people were going to be used to do that. Now here we are almost 2,000 years away from those events. And yet we are still the plantings of what God started then. We forget sometimes, as was mentioned in the sermonette yesterday, that the same power that was given to them has been given to us. We somehow think that it's a lesser power.

Over the years, what happened was God gave less and less of the Holy Spirit to people, or less and less power to people. But the same power that the Apostle Ball said was the power of... We were given the spirit of power, of love, and of sound mind has been given to us. I originally started to prepare a sermon on what it means to have the spirit of power, of love, and of sound mind, but after I realized it would take three sermons to go through that, I decided I'll let that one go for a while.

Because that's what's been given to us. Power, love, and of sound mind. What does it even mean to have a sound mind? So we'll be working on that over the next 6-8 months, because eventually we'll go through those sermons. When we look at the power that's been given to us, the Holy Spirit that has been given to us, and then I want to go to a prophecy about the church at the end time. A prophecy about the church at the end time. Let's go to Matthew 25.

Some of you who have been in the church for many years have heard this parable given over and over and over again. I remember as a child listening to this parable given, and hearing, there is a time when this is what the church will become. This is part of actually the Olivet prophecy. Matthew 24 and 25 were all given at the same time. So we forget sometimes that these parables He gave about the church were all part of the Olivet prophecy.

So Jesus, in verse 1 of chapter 25, Matthew says, "...then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom." Now we know what this means. This is obvious. The Bible virgins are those who are submitting and following God, who have God's Spirit. They are the first roots. False Christianity is called a prostitute. Virgins are used to symbolize those who are spiritually pure. So this is first roots.

These are people who have received God's Spirit, all of them. And He says they took their lamps. We know that oil in the Bible is a symbol of God's Spirit. And a layup, of course, is what burns that Spirit. It's a visible manifestation of the oil. It's the use of the oil. And they're waiting for the bridegroom is Jesus Christ. So the meaning of what is covered here, if you read the New Testament at all, you know exactly what all these symbols are.

Now, five of them were wise and five were foolish. Now, remember, they are all virgins. They're all members of the Church, if you will. They're all first roots. Five were wise and five were foolish. And those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. They were not responding to the Spirit of God. But the wise took oil to their vessels with their lamps. They not only had their lamps full of oil, they had vessels full of oil. And it's interesting if you look at archaeological finds from the first century, you can even buy these.

There's so many of them. They have discovered thousands of little clay lamps. Now, if you get the magazine, the Biblical Archaeological Review, you will find reputable dealers in the Middle East who will sell you clay lamps from somewhere between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D. You will also find little clay like bottles. That's where the extra oil was carrying. And you can buy those, too, because everybody had them. They were very common. So many of them, there's a lot of them that have survived.

So the wise have their lamps full of oil. In other words, God's Spirit is active in their lives. This light is burning. Plus, they're interacting with God. And this oil from God is filling their lives. They have vessels full of it. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. I want you to notice there is a belief in the church at some point towards the end time that Christ just isn't coming. It's just we've been waiting, we've been waiting, we've been waiting.

And it's just people lose the sight of these coming. And it isn't just five foolish to do that. All of them sleep. All of them. The entire church gets to the place where it loses something. It loses its enthusiasm. It loses its dedication. The relationship between the members in God and not what it should be. And everybody sort of goes to sleep.

The problems of the world, the problems of life, in some cases the wealth of life. Sometimes we can have it too good. And the church just sort of goes to sleep. And at midnight a cry was heard, behold the bridegroom was coming, go out to meet Him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. Now, all of them have oil burning in their lamps. They trimmed their lamps. But then the five foolish begin to realize, wait a minute, we don't understand what's going on.

Our lives are messed up. We're not interacting with God's Spirit. We need the power of God. Power and love and a sound mind is not part of who they are at that point. God's power isn't in their lives in the way it should be. They don't have agape the way they should. They don't have sound-mindedness. They think too much like the world. And suddenly they realize, I'm not prepared. I'm not ready. I'm not what I'm supposed to be.

The foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. See, it's not burning the way it should be. The light in my life isn't what it should be.

There's light there. Because remember, these are virgins. These are people who have received the Spirit of God. There's a point where they say, they realize, I'm not prepared for what's happening in the world. I'm not prepared for the bridegroom that's coming. I'm not prepared for the fact that my life is going to fall apart.

I'm going to have to trust God at a level that I have never had to trust Him at. And I don't have the ability to do that. It's going out. But the wise answer is saying, no less there should not be enough for us and you, go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves. The wise virgins say, but we can't do that.

We can help you, but we're following God. It's time to move. I can't spend all this time helping you, the wise virgins are saying. You're going to have to get right with God. I can't get right with God for you. Because who sells the oil, so to speak? Where do they get the Holy Spirit? It comes from God. You're going to have to go get right with God, with Christ. Then, you know, this will work out, but we can only carry somebody else so far. We have to help each other. We have to carry each other, but you can't carry somebody into the kingdom.

And while they went to buy, the bride drew came, and those who were ready went in with Him to the wedding. And the door was shut. And afterward the other virgins came also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. And He answered and said, Assuredly I say to you, I do not know you. That's a frightening statement. Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

The reason for the parable is, we had better be right with God all the time. Now, He didn't just say the relationship between the virgins preparing to go to this wedding and the bridegroom. It's very important that He uses this analogy of oil and lamp. It has to do with our interaction with God's Spirit. These are not people who are living lives totally in the world. They are virgins. They are people who keep the Ten Commandments. They are people who go to Sabbath services. They are people who keep the holy things.

They are people who do the letter of the law. They are the people who, you know, pray. But their lives are more in the world than it is in God's Kingdom. But remember, everybody sleeps. Everybody sleeps. He says, watch, because we have to make sure we don't go into a deep sleeper. We have to be awake, because this time is coming up, I believe, maybe quicker than we realize. And even if it doesn't, we can't go to sleep. We can't go to sleep. So how do we respond to God's Spirit? I want to give you seven points today of what God's Spirit will do in your life. Once again, when we get to seven points, a lot of sermons I give have one or two points, because we're going into depth in the subject.

Seven points means overview. We're just doing an overview of a subject of seven aspects of how God's Spirit works in our lives, what God does in us through His Spirit. Now, before I get to them, I want to mention two things God's Spirit does not do. God's Spirit does not possess us and force us to obey Him. It's interesting that Satan actually possesses people, and they lose their sound-mindedness. You know, when a demon possesses somebody, the person goes crazy.

God doesn't possess us. He takes His mind, His power, His love, His way of thinking, His thoughts, and He puts them inside of us, but they interact with us, with who we are. He doesn't possess us.

We must develop with His help that sound-mindedness, that agape, that obedience. He helps us do it. He doesn't force us to do it. That's the important difference between Satan and God. Satan wants everybody to worship Him by force. God wants people to worship Him because they love Him.

He wants us to follow Him because He's our Father, not because He possesses us and forces us to do it. Two different viewpoints of how this relationship is supposed to work.

He doesn't possess us, but He gives us, if you will, a piece of Himself. I don't know how else to put it. God isn't in pieces. A little bit of who He is comes into us so that we're in connection with His mind.

The second thing is that the Holy Spirit does not immediately do away with our entire corrupt human nature. I wish it did, but it doesn't work that way. The Holy Spirit comes in, and now God is living in a corrupt person. So when you receive God's Spirit, a lot of times when people receive God's Spirit, they think, Oh good, everything now in my life will run just perfectly. And of course, the opposite happens because now you're in an internal conflict between our corrupt human nature and the nature of God.

So it's not like now everything gets perfect, everything gets even more of a mess.

Because inside we now have two natures.

We have two natures of battle. So we have to understand that before we can go into, okay, what does God do for us and in us with His Spirit? He doesn't possess us, and receiving the Holy Spirit doesn't immediately do away with the corrupt human nature. Part of the work of the Holy Spirit is to change our nature. And to change that, we have to willingly submit.

If God was simply going to possess us, He would have never had to make us this way to begin with. He could have simply made us as robots. He made us as robots, He would have never had to do it this way.

So we have to participate with the Holy Spirit. We have to let that and participate in the work that God does through us with His Spirit. That's why it's so important to understand that the Spirit is a person. It is the very mind of God and of Jesus Christ that comes into us. So what does God do through His Spirit? The first thing He does is when He gives us His Spirit, He gives us a guarantee of eternal life. Now, I'm going to show you what I mean by that in 2 Corinthians 5, because this is a misunderstood concept. And yet it's very important because it can be very encouraging to understand this, but we have to understand what it means and what it doesn't mean. 2 Corinthians 5. Now, to really understand this passage in 2 Corinthians 5, you have to understand what He wrote in 1 Corinthians. I find it interesting, just preparing for this, I pulled out three or four commentaries and said, okay, what does everybody say about 2 Corinthians 5? I haven't read those commentaries in years on this. And they all had different explanations. One commentary said, we have no idea what this means.

And then one commentary said, they got it right. They said, you'll never understand 2 Corinthians 5 unless you first study 1 Corinthians 15. And I said, you got it right! You got it right! Because in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul talks about how we have a physical body. And when we're... those in the first resurrection receive a spirit body.

Now, that was a strange idea in the pagan world. You have to understand how strange that was. Because they believed that you had an immortal soul, and that immortal soul became a disembodied spirit. It went to Hades. In fact, they were called shadows. Your spirit was a shadow. You know, once you got to Hades, certain people just sort of faded away. And when you saw them, there would just be shadows. You couldn't even talk to them. Others seemed to keep their intellect about them, and you could go meet them in Hades. And so, you know, this idea that you receive a spiritual body was really foreign in the paganism of that day. So that sets us up. He's talking about, you get this at the resurrection. So how do I know I received that at the resurrection? That's what he's talking about in 2 Corinthians 5. Okay, I want a spirit body. I want to be resurrected from the dead. How does that happen? So, verse 1, For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, our body, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Whereas God's going to give us something else. He's going to give us a body that's spiritual, like in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed with our habitation, which is from heaven. He says, we really like to be, have a spirit body. He says, because sometimes we groan in this life. There's limitations. There's sickness. There's pain. We get old. He says, If indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. That's the passage, a verse that really throws commentators. What does that mean?

Well, remember who he's writing to. People in courts who come from a pagan society, they thought eternity was spent without a body. You were naked. You were disembodied. You were... You see? You had nice... Because remember what he's comparing to here. Your physical tent and your spiritual building.

Otherwise, you're naked. He's taking on the immortal soul doctrine is what he's doing. That's why they don't understand what he's saying. You have to put it in the context of the world he's writing to. You're not a shadow. You're not a disembodied spirit in the resurrection. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed. It's not because we want to be spirits floating around. What's that mean? He says, because we want the spirit body to be further clothed. Why? That mortality may be swallowed up in life. He says, remember, the whole idea of this naked, floating, disembodied spirit is wrong. Then verse 5. I had to do that to lead you to verse 5, because this is the verse that hits into what we're talking about now. Now he who has prepared us for this very thing, we're being prepared for that resurrection to receive a spiritual body, is God, who also has given us the spirit as a guarantee. You receive God's spirit as a guarantee to receive a spiritual body at the resurrection. Now, some people say, all good. It's guaranteed. It's guaranteed, so this is where the concept, okay, one saved, always saved. I give my heart to the Lord, and I'm saved, and I can never, ever be rejected by God. But you know what's interesting is what the word guarantee means in Greek. Actually, it's a Greek word that comes from a Phoenician word. This is a very ancient word that actually comes through a couple of different languages. It gets translated into English as guarantee. Other English translations of the Bible will translate this as pledge or earnest payment. Earnest payment, you start to get to the real meaning of the word.

Let me read from one Greek dictionary of what this word actually means.

Here's what it says.

It means the earnest money deposited by the purchaser and forfeited if the purchase is not complete.

The earnest money given by the purchaser who purchases us, but is forfeited if the deal isn't complete. The word he picked had a very definite meaning to the people he wrote it to. Guarantee in modern English doesn't have the same importance. It doesn't have the same impact.

He was telling them, you aren't going to be a disembodied spirit. Remember, he already explained. In fact, one commentator said the only thing he could figure is by this time Paul had totally now thrown out his belief of 1 Corinthians 15.

Changed his mind and had a whole different doctrine. That's the only way he could explain this. This is a well-known commentary.

No. This fits right into 1 Corinthians 15. He's telling these people, you're not going to be a disembodied spirit. Remember what I told you before. I already wrote to you once. What's going to happen is you're going to be in a resurrection. You're going to receive a spirit body. And you already have the earnest payment of that now. As long as you don't forfeit it, it's already been given to you. That's what's been given to you.

The down payment of your eternity has been given to you.

Now, what I find interesting in that is you didn't give the down payment, the purchaser gave the down payment. But it is. It's reversed.

But it also means that if we don't complete the transaction, it can be withdrawn.

So it's encouraging to realize it's given to you. You already have been given the down payment of eternity. You know, I've bought a couple houses in my life, and you go give that down payment, and you walk away. You don't live in that house yet. But you feel like it's yours. But you know, that deal can fall through.

God feels like you're His already for eternity.

But you know, this deal isn't complete yet, because we have a responsibility. You've been given a down payment of eternity.

A house here. A body that is forever spiritual.

That's the first thing He does to us through receiving God's Spirit.

When God gave you the Spirit, God did not call you to fail. I want you to understand that. The power for your success has been given to you.

The only way we can fail is we decide we don't want it anymore.

We give it back. We go to sleep.

We drain the oil out and then realize our lamps are going down.

We have to do that.

Does God's Spirit fail? Does God fail? Does God possess weakness?

What He says is the Spirit of power? Does He say, what's the Spirit of we do to the power? Just not much power. Just a little power.

Is that what that means? Of course not.

God's Spirit will not fail, because it's His.

We can forfeit the deal.

So that's not forfeit the deal. And God will do it in us. So the first point should encourage us. He has given us the down payment and said, I will do this as long as just keeping the deal here.

Stay in the deal and God will give us eternity.

Second point, and I mentioned this a little bit earlier, but the Holy Spirit literally then impregnates us with God's nature. Look at 2 Peter 1.

Because God will not give you and me eternity the way we are.

God will not give us eternity as corrupt sinful beings.

He's forgiven us, but forgiveness was the first step. We went through that and passed over.

Then we talked about the wave sheet. And we talked about Pentecost.

The next step is, God has to. We have to take in Christ. Christ now gives us the example. He gives us the personal leadership.

He leads His church, brings us to the Father.

But it's the Spirit that gives us the power for our nature to be changed. God takes some of His nature and puts it inside a corrupt human being. That's the difference when we talk about Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ had human nature, but it wasn't corrupted. There's nothing corrupt about His human nature. And He had the perfect nature of God within a human being. What did He live? A perfect, God-like human being.

Because He was God in a human being. When God gives you and me His Spirit, we're already corrupted.

So, the work of the Spirit is to change our nature. This is why we begin, when we first come into Christianity, we begin by doing the simple things and keeping the letter of the law.

If we're still to the point we struggle with a desire to steal, or, you know, if we're still committing adultery, if we're still breaking the Sabbath, if we're still worshiping idols, we're at kindergarten. That's Christian kindergarten. The nature of God at the very core of who we are has to be changed into His nature. I can't do that with me. You can't do that with you. I can't give you the five steps that change your nature. I can help you change your behavior.

I can give you five steps to change your behavior. You're a smoke, I can help you stop smoking. If you want to keep the Sabbath, I'll give you instructions on how to keep the Sabbath. You want to overcome different problems you have, different sins you have. You want to deal with your alcoholism, I can give you the twelve steps.

I can't change your nature any more than I can change mine. I can only submit to the work of God in changing my nature. Only God can change our nature. It's like in Peter 1, verse 2. Peter says, "'Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who was called us by glory and virtue.' Now, at the same time, it's either true or if it's not true.

When you received God's Spirit, you were given everything that pertains to life and godliness. What did God hold back from you? What is God holding back from you? If God's not holding back anything, then you have to be asking yourself, what are you holding back from God?

Either God's holding something back from us, or we're holding back something from God, or we'd all be living perfect lives. I mean, God's not holding back anything from me, but I'm sometimes more often than I wish to admit holding things back from God. Because I just don't always... But it hurts to do it your way sometimes, or I don't understand your way sometimes, or death takes faith.

Can I just live a nice, peaceful life with no problems, God? See, we hold back. This is what God gave you. For those of you who are contemplating baptism, this is what God will give you.

All things that pertain to life and godliness. Verse 4, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. We have become partakers of the divine nature. Now, that means this work has to be done. That means sin has to be exposed for what it is, and it has to be rooted out of us. And it's a hard struggle, because you have your part to play in the deal.

The guarantee, the earnest payments be given to us, we have a part to play in the deal now. The Kingdom is prepared for us. It's all being done. And then we have to become and adapt ourselves to God with His help, because He had to do it ourselves, so that we become prepared for what He's going to give us. Because remember, He won't give eternity to us when we're in a state of rebellion against Him.

He just won't. We have to come into accordance with His will. 1 Corinthians 6. 1 Corinthians 6. I keep looking at my watcher. I'm sorry we can't stay after services. We have to get up to temple, so we'll be running off real quick. We won't get any cake. All the sacrifices we have to give. 1 Corinthians 6. Paul says, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not adhere to the Kingdom of God?

The idea that everybody just gets into the Kingdom isn't true. He says, Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, nor the Kingdom of God. But notice verse 11, And such were some of you. Well, you know, if you just put all the sin lists together, you would have to come... I could take all of Paul's sin lists, because he does this a couple of places. And we could put them all together, and we'd have to say, And such were all of us.

Well, what changed them? What changed these people? Well, he says, But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were made holy, but you were justified, you were brought into a relationship with God, in the name of the Lord Jesus, in other words, you had to come to repent and accept who Christ is as your sacrifice, in order to come to God, and then notice what it says, And by the Spirit, allow our God.

This is what the Holy Spirit does. It battles our nature. And we have to submit to it. You know, I think sometimes it's easy. I've used this term before. So we have to use the Holy Spirit. Because, you know, the Bible says that we can't let it die out. We have to stir it up. But I don't think use the Holy Spirit is really a very accurate term. Because that would mean it's a tool.

And the mind of God is not a tool. The mind of God is the mind of God. We have to submit to it. God's always talking to us. Our problem is we're shutting it down. We're not listening to it. And we're not submitting to it. That's the problem. It's there. It's always taking us to this book. God's always saying, don't do that. So we shut him down. He's always saying, do this. We're shutting him down. God's Spirit is there. We have to submit. We have to get so sensitive that we know God's wanting me to do this, I do this. I follow. I submit.

And now you know whether God's leading you to something? Because you'll find it in here. But I've seen people twist this Bible, though, around. Like I said yesterday, this man who was a self-proclaimed prophet that said that Jesus Christ is coming back today, I don't know what he's going to do when he doesn't. And he said, well, he can look at Scriptures and put them together to make it sort of say that.

But that's not a sound mind. So you have to understand what a sound mind is. We just can't make this stuff up. So God gives us this sound mindness, and we follow. We submit to it. And then our human nature, the corrupt human nature, has changed. We slowly learn the divine nature. And we reflect the divine nature by then our lives, reflect Jesus Christ. That's why we should be studying the Gospels and always saying, okay, how did Christ handle this? How did he handle this? What did he do here?

Because that's what I'm supposed to do. And then we always have to be saying, God, you give me the strength to do this. You help me obey. I am tempted. Help me to fight this temptation. Our immediate prayer all the time. But we wait till we're halfway through the sin, and then we pray. You know, it's like the guy standing there robbing the person and says, oh God, help me not to do this. Well, it's sort of late. The immediate prayer brings us into this contact because God's here.

He says, I abide in you. Yes, the great travesty of the New Age Movement. That we're all born already part of God. No, we're not. We're born corrupted messes. Right? In need of God coming into us. You know, when you make yourself God, you just help promote the corruption. Because if I'm God, whatever I feel is right.

Well, the more we submit to the nature of God, the more we feel that much of the time whatever we feel is wrong. Our feelings are the worst way to respond to God. That's the worst way to respond to God. The third point. Through the Holy Spirit, we become the children of God.

And we are in a father-child relationship with Him. God is creating children. When we're changed, we are the eternal children of God. He says, yeah, but I'm not changed yet. I'm not in the resurrection yet. But you have a child-father relationship with Him already. You actually have a brother-to-brother-brother-to-sister relationship with Jesus Christ already. The relationship's already there. Look at Galatians 3. Galatians 3.

Verse 26. Paul's writing to the church in Galatia, and he tells them, For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Because you're already in this relationship. I tell people all the time in baptism counseling, God doesn't do away with the law, but He changes your relationship. You don't want to be in relationship with God as judge. And that is the relationship every one of us have before repentance. We go before God as judge. I'd much rather go before Him as dad when I've done something wrong. Dad may punish me, but he has a different motivation than judge. Judge has one motivation. Law says this, you're guilty punishment. Dad has a different motivation. Punishment is to teach you a lesson so you don't do it again.

He says, You are sons of God. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ. Now if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heir according to the promise. Now I say that an heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ from a slave, though he is a master of all. But it is under the guardians and stewards until the time of the appointed by the Father. Even so, when we were children, we were embodied under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of time has come, God has sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father, very close relationship. Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. I always find it interesting here that he uses the term adoption.

You know, in the writers of the New Testament who write to the predominantly Jewish Christian church or write predominantly from the viewpoint of a Jew, don't use the word adoption. They just talk about people being children of God. They came from a culture where they were taught when they were babies. You were the children of God. You were the people of God. You were the special people of God. You were the Israel of God. Paul here is writing to people who didn't come from that kind of culture. So he uses a Roman term. And once again, we have to understand the power of this. In the United States, when we adopt somebody, it is a legal action we take. It was a legal action in Rome, but it had a meaning that's hard for us to grasp.

When someone adopted somebody, that person became blood. In their mind, that person is blood. In fact, what's very interesting is in the Roman aristocracy, if a man had his eldest son, which was supposed to become, you know, his estate was supposed to go to the eldest son, that the eldest son was a deadbeat, and the father had, say, a neighbor young man who he really respected, really liked, he would spend years training his neighbor's son and adopt him and give his entire estate to his neighbor's son.

Because when he became his son, he was no longer that person's son. He was his son. When they were adopted, they gave up all other family ties. They weren't, you are now my blood. And so you will see, and I'm exaggerating a little bit about a neighbor's son, but what you will see is they took other people, other men, and adopted them and gave them everything because you are now my son. You remember in the movie Ben Hur, one of my favorite movies. Ben Hur is a Jewish man and he gets adopted by a Roman general.

And he is now the heir of everything he has. Now, in the movie, I think the Roman general didn't have a son, so he adopts him as a son. But even if he had a son, he could disown that son because this was now his blood. He's telling these people, you're now blood. See, this Roman world, this adoption idea, because in the church, these people who were Gentiles would feel like somehow they didn't measure up to the Jewish Christians.

I mean, the Jewish Christians were sort of God's people by birth, you know? So they didn't quite measure up. And Paul said, you bet you do! You're blood! You're children just as much as any Israelite! Because this is what the church is. The church has nothing to do with your physical birth. It has everything to do with your impregnation by God's Spirit and your future spiritual birth into the kingdom of God.

That's what this is about. So that use of adoption is a very important word there. And Paul is the only one who really uses it often. But Paul's writing to people who were many times predominantly not Israelite. They had a different background. They would think, but we're not Israelite people. We're not Jews. Somehow we're not as precious to God. The Old Testament wasn't about us. It was about them. Paul said, no, no, no, no. You're blood. You're blood just as much as anybody else in this family. When you come into this church, when you are a first fruit, when God calls you, become part of the body of Christ.

I don't hear what the congregation is. You're brought in. You are blood. That's how God looks at this. And you become a relationship with God as Father. You have a relationship with Jesus Christ as elder brother. And you have a relationship with each other as fellow brothers and sisters. And that's why we're going to fight sometimes.

Can I tell them this story, Mr. Foster? You told me before services. About you when you were little? Okay. See, the thing is, I asked him. He would have said, no, you would all go to ask him afterwards. So I had him in a box. He couldn't get out of where I put him. He said once when he was little, he and his, what, two brothers?

So the three of them were sitting in the front row at church, and they got into a literal fight. They were just beating a tar out of each other. And Mr. Foster had to stop the service to chew them out to stop fighting. But you know what? That's family, isn't it? He didn't stop being their dad. Everybody in the church is sort of snickering, and looking at their kids and saying, you better be good. Mr. Foster, may he do that to you? I mean, it just, I'm sure it had an amazing effect on the entire church.

The kids for the next month were the best-behaved kids any place in that church. It's family, folks. That's what a congregation is. We're blood. We're blood. That's why a congregation should be a mixture of people from all different backgrounds and ethnic groups. And that's who we are! We're all adopted here. We're all brought in. God makes us His family. That's who we are. That's what the Holy Spirit does. It's actually thicker than blood. That's what it is. The fourth point is that the Holy Spirit helps us to get through our human weakness to communicate with God when there are times we can't.

I mean, there are times when, how I, I mean, there are times I find myself, I'm upset with something, and I can't even pray. And I'll find the real reason why is I don't want to pray. I did like the answer I got. And then I wake up in the middle of the night, and I pray. I get up, I leave the room, I go out of the living room, and get down on my knees, and I start praying. Because it's like God won't leave me alone.

Come on, boy. Stop it. It's, it's, it's, it's, the Holy Spirit drives us when we can't, God, I don't even know how to say this. And God says, that's okay. I understand. Look at Romans, Chapter 8. Romans 8, 26.

Romans, Chapter 8, Verse 26.

It's okay to go to God and say, I don't know what to say. It's okay to go to God and say, I am so distraught here, I can't even work this out. You must do so. I don't even know how to explain to you. It's okay. God is inside here. He abides in you through that Spirit. And God says, I know exactly what you're thinking, and I know exactly what you're feeling. And some of it's messed up here. We'll work this out.

Sometimes God doesn't even supply an answer. He just supplies comfort.

Sometimes that's all He does. Sometimes that's all that we need. We think we need more, but sometimes that's all we need is comfort. And in common you'll think, where did that come from?

It's because you went and asked for it in God's Spirit. Remember, half of those virgins, that lamp, isn't burning right. The oil got all burned up somehow. It never got replaced. They weren't on their knees going to God and saying, help me through this. So they, you know, I tell you the thing that will destroy us as Christians as fast as anything. Being offended by other Christians. Because we're going to offend each other. And we're going to misuse each other, and abuses are going to take place.

It's just, it is. We just have to be, we have to be mature enough to accept that. And secondly, we get bitter, and we get angry, and we judge others, and we get filled with a sense of animosity towards other Christians. That will destroy us about as fast as anything.

Because that light begins to burn out.

And yet we can still be keeping the letter of the law.

It's a power, an agape, and a sound mind. I fear, as the world gets crazy, as we get closer to the end, if we aren't close to God, we're going to go crazy also.

A sound mind in this is going to come from God, because it's not going to come from living in the society that we live in. And we're going to be on our knees saying, I'm so messed up, I can't even work this one out. That's where we're going to be. And we're going to have to trust that because God's spirit is in us, God will work this out. He may not fix the situation, but He'll fix us.

When we can't even explain it. You know what a great gift that is, isn't it?

What a great gift! You can go to God and just fall down on your face and say, don't even know how to work this one out, don't even know how to define it. And the Almighty God says, it's okay, kid. It's okay. We'll work this out.

That's what's been given to you. Are we letting that lamp go out because the world seems so good to us that we'll give this up for that?

The fifth point is through God's spirit, we learn spiritual truth. We can't know otherwise. 1 Corinthians 2.

This passage we read all the time. 1 Corinthians 2.

I don't care if you're brand new in the faith. I don't care if you've been doing this for 50 years. I don't care if there are sins in your life that you are hiding and not overcoming. I don't care what problems you're going through, whether it's job problems or marriage problems or personal emotional problems. This is the power that's been given to you to conquer those things. I can't do it. I can only give you help.

I can only take you to God. That's my job. And give you a hand. You are to take each other to God and to give each other a hand. But there are certain things that only happen because you're on your knees before you're a creator. And He doesn't. You don't do it. He doesn't.

And we submit to it. Now, if you don't submit to it, it only gets worse. Remember a few weeks ago I talked about in the Psalm where it says, The hand of God was upon me until I was just... David said there was nothing left. And he said, You better save me soon or I'm just going to die. The hand of God just got heavier and heavier and heavier. Sometimes you and I are walking around because the hand of God is getting heavier and heavier and heavier because we keep saying, Take your hand off of me and just fix it the way I want it fixed. And you guys say, No. No, no. My hand is on your shoulder here. It's getting heavier, isn't it? Just a little bit. It's like God wrestling with Jacob all night long.

You know, I'll wrestle with you. Here, put my finger on you.

Remember what I always say, Don't box with God. Your arms are too short.

I used to tell my kid that all the time, Don't box with God. Your arms are too short. Can't reach it.

2 Corinthians 2. 2, verse 9.

He says, But as it is written, He quotes from the Old Testament, I have not seen or ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, just the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of man which is in him, even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God?

Now, we have not received the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things which have been freely given to us by God. Verse 14 says, But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

I was talking to someone yesterday who was having job problems because their boss kept saying, This religious stuff you're getting off for religion is just stupid. I can't believe you believe this stuff. The boss had a theology degree, and so thought the Sabbath and the Holy Days were stupid. The boss was also a homosexual.

It's foolishness. This is foolishness to the world. It's not foolishness to God. But remember, the natural person, corrupted person, sees this as stupid. God's Spirit brings us to love this. We do this because we love God. We love this way of life. We're to love each other. It's agape. That's the power, part of the power that's given to us. Part of the problems we suffer from is because we all need love so much that we have trouble with other people because we feel like other people don't love us. When we're right with God, we still need love from other people, but our main concern is not being loved, but it's loving. Now, all of us need to be loved. That's part of who we are. But when God is loving us, when we're experiencing that through His Spirit, our concern turns to not always being loved, but loving others. It begins to come outward. Now, nobody has that down mastered entirely yet, but it's where we should be going. The sixth point is God, through His Spirit. That Spirit will give you the power to endure when you think you cannot anymore. That Spirit will give you the power to go through things that you think you cannot do and you can't do on your own. There's things you can't do on your own. Only God can do it in us. Once again, you say, well, okay, God, do it through me. And then God says, okay, submit and do this. Well, I don't want to do that. I just want you to do this through me without me having to do anything else. There's submission involved in God's Spirit. Look at 2 Corinthians 4. So our sixth point is God gives us the power to endure what we think we can't endure. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 6. Paul says, For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who is shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. For we have this treasure in earthen vessels. He goes back to these earthen vessels, this tent. But we have this treasure that's coming into it. That the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. He says, you and I can't do certain things, but God can in us.

We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always caring about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies.

Well, how is it manifested in our bodies? So then the death is working in us, but life in you. Verse 13. Well, verse 11. I just keep verse 11. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

So then death is working in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith, the same spirit of faith as who? The same spirit of faith! Well, okay. Who do I have the same spirit of faith of? Who's He talking about? What's the subject about? Let's see. Verse 9 says, Jesus Christ. Verse 11 says, Jesus Christ.

Back, Jesus was mentioned twice. Who's the spirit of faith that we have? Where does that come from? We have to submit to it so that it becomes ours. God doesn't want us to do this because we're forced to. Eventually He wants to do this because it's us. If you came to the Feast of Pentecost today and we'd rather doing something else like preparing for your big Spurs party and you're here because you really don't want to be, you'd rather be doing that, then you're not doing this because you love God. You're doing this because you're being forced on Him.

He says here, we have to have the same spirit. We do it because Christ did it. We did it because we want to. That means our nature has to be changed. And He says, According to what is written, I believe and therefore I spoke, we also believe and therefore we speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus and will present us with you.

For all things are for your sakes, and grace, having spread through the many, makes cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Therefore, we do not lose heart. Why do we not lose heart? Because we go to God and we say, Through your spirit, give me the spirit of faith that Christ had. What spirit did Christ have? The Spirit of God, which is actually His Spirit. Jesus Christ and Father are the same spirit. Of absolute faith. He also showed us as a human being, it's hard to live that way, didn't He?

He understands how hard it is. You don't think He knows how hard it is? That's the point of being an intercessor. This is hard. I know. Been there. But you have that same spirit. He's given it. Not that you had it from birth. He's given it to you. Do not lose heart, even though our outward man is perishing. Yet the inward man is being renewed day by day for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporary, and the things which are not seen are eternal. Paul says that, whatever you're going through now, remember, you're being prepared for an eternal tent. Well, no. We're in a tent now. We're getting an eternal building. You're being prepared for eternity with God and His family, and you've already been given the down payment of that. The deal is already a handshake. God already took off His robes as Judge and came around and gave you a big hug and said, Welcome, son.

Welcome, daughter. He already did that. That's already taken place. The deal's been made. The purchase was paid. Only we can break the deal. The Spirit's been given to us. And then, the last point. As you can see, as you go through this, by the way, you will see, if you really analyze these points, problems in your life have to do with, many times, not understanding and submitting to the Spirit in these different ways.

Now, you can be submitting to God's Spirit in two or three ways and not submitting to God in two or three other ways. And so, our life is always out of balance. The last point is that the Holy Spirit brings us into unity with other people with the Holy Spirit. When there's disunity in the body of Christ, that means we are not submitting to the Spirit of God. It's that simple. Because if we're submitting to God's Spirit, it won't happen. When there's disunity, that means we're not submitting. Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4.

Verse 1, Paul says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love. Bearing means putting up with. He didn't say, oh, just skipping through the garden, holding hands with each other. Let me just... bearing with each other. Sometimes the family just... Man, this family is pretty dysfunctional at times.

Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit. It's not just the unity of friendship. If we're just here through the unity of friendship, no congregation will last for decades and decades if it's just the unity of friendship. It has to be more than that. I mean, there'll be groups of people. Usually what happens is if a congregation is together through the unity of friendship, they'll eventually divide into three or four congregations. All those people bound by the unity of friendship. It's the unity of the Spirit. We do it because God, we're submitting to what God is doing. Without God, we're nothing. Without God's Spirit, this all is an exercise in factuality.

That's all it is.

But here Paul says, Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There's one body, one Spirit, just as you were called in the hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.

Or if he hadn't been a Texan, he would have said, in all of you, but he said, in you all, which shows that he's a Texan.

So we can see that God's Spirit is first. It's our earnest payment for eternity.

God already gave it to you.

Paid the price, put his Spirit in you. Deal's done, except we can walk away from the deal, see?

And that's what the word means.

We see that God's Spirit impregnates us with God's nature, giving us the power over time and effort and pain and struggle to have our corrupt human nature changed.

We've seen that through the Holy Spirit we become the children of God. We enter into a father-child relationship with God right now and a brother-brother-brother-sister relationship with Jesus Christ.

Number four, the Holy Spirit makes it possible to have a non-human level of communication with God.

Number five, through the bonding of God's Spirit with our Spirit, we are enabled to understand spiritual truth that you and I could not understand on our own. We just couldn't.

The Holy Spirit then gives us the power to endure. It gives us the faith to endure when you and I would give up.

And then lastly, the Holy Spirit brings us into unity with other children of God.

You and I have, living in us, the power, love, and mind of the Almighty God.

God has willingly given that to us so that the mind of Christ can be developed in us.

Every day is a struggle to have that developed in us.

We need to be spending more time in prayer. We need to be spending more time in fasting. We need to be spending more time asking God to stir up that Spirit, to guide His Spirit, to give us His thoughts, to give us His emotions, to give us His help, His faith, His guidance, His endurance, His agape.

So that it becomes ours. We have to go ask for that. We have to go struggle for that.

Please, do not neglect this precious gift, because the time is going to come to trim our lamps.

In fact, I believe now, brethren, is the time to trip your lamps.