Good morning, church. Good morning. Glad you are here.
You did not get blown away this last week. That was wild Friday. Man, that was just crazy crazy. Hey, before we get into today's message, some of you guys know every so often we like to take a moment and highlight somebody in our church, someone who's a really valuable member of our serve team. You're all valuable members of our serve team, but we sometimes just like to take time and highlight someone in their story. And so I have a little something. And I like this one because Pastor Andrew mentioned we got a few new serve team coming up and this particular serve team member, they don't serve in a more traditional standpoint. They're like, "Hey, I want to come. I want to do something physical. I want to be able to help the church in a meaningful way." And we said, "Okay, we've got some stuff that you can do." And we said like, "Hey," he's like, "I can do anything. I need some cleaning." And like, "Well, we got a lot of cleaning." And he's like, "I can mop floors." And so this particular gentleman comes every Thursday and mops all of the concrete floors in our entire like this building and over there by hand. We have a floor scrubber, but he doesn't want to do that. He says it keeps him young and fit. And so he goes through and he mops every... It's a lot of mopping. And he does it every single Thursday. And so Steven's here this morning. I'm going to swipe right past you. Steven's here. Steven, we got to this card just to tell you we love you. And we got this... We got you a coffee mug because we asked him, he said, "Hey, if you had a slogan, what would your slogan be?" And he said, "Just keep moving." That's it. Just keep moving. And so we got you this coffee cup with your slogan on it. We love you. We're thankful for you. It's so good. I'm going to slip back around here. So fun. You know, I know that everyone has different places and different ways that they can stay connected and serve. And sometimes it's like, "Oh, I don't know." Like the more traditional Sunday thing may not be it. Or, you know, my schedule or whatever the case is. There's always a way to stay connected. And it's a massive, massive blessing. And so, man, check out some of the different opportunities we have to serve because I think it's really a powerful thing to get together and to help out. Hey, do this for me. Stand with me as we read today's word today and pray to get into our sermon. I'm going to be reading out of Psalms, chapter 139, verse 7 through 12. It says this...
If I make my beds in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me and your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely darkness will hide me and the light will become night around me."
Even darkness will not be dark to you. For the night will shine like day. For darkness is as light to you.
Father God, this morning we just give you this service.
Lord, we give you this time.
We invite your presence here in this place.
Lord, for those who are affected in our community and in the areas around us, that have been murdered with these fires and that have been removed from their homes or received damage or even lost their homes, Father God, Lord, we just speak your healing power, your miraculous works, your provision, your comfort.
We thank you that you're here, that there's nowhere that we can go that we're separated from you.
In Jesus' holy name we pray, amen and amen. You may be seated.
I want to share with you this morning, I was watching a video conference and one of my favorite Bible nerds, Tim Mackey. You guys maybe have heard Tim Mackey. He founded the Bible Project. He's really great. One person heard. Great. Thank you.
But anyways, I love listening to him teach and he was teaching. He brought up this particular phrase and spoke about it for a little while and it was really impactful to me. And I wanted to share some of the thoughts and then some of the notes that I took from that session with you. And it's a better particular phrase that if you grew up in church, especially a charismatic church, you've heard this phrase. We have it in songs. We say it to each other. We maybe say it to ourselves. We maybe say it. You've heard it from the stage or different ways and different traditions. But if you really think about it, it's an interesting phrase. And so I want to unpack it and really kind of allow it to kind of unfold in our community and in this time, especially in the middle of our series that we're in. Because we're continuing series where we're talking about the Holy Spirit. And this is actually the fourth week that we've been talking about the Holy Spirit. And if you missed the previous three, you can go back. But it's been a really sweet time to be able to study and look at the person of the Holy Spirit, that triune Godhead that we see in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And we looked at a couple of different biblical analogies that we've seen, whether it was the breath of God or the water that flows and the different things over the last couple of weeks. But today I want to look at a phrase that I think is important and that we say, and maybe even after today, we'll say more often and with maybe more conviction, which is the phrase, come Holy Spirit.
Come Holy Spirit. And like I said, depending on the tradition that you grew up in, that may have been a very frequent thing that you heard. It may have been said very often.
And here's the reason that I think the statement is important to think about, is that we find ourselves when we say, come Holy Spirit, actually joining ourselves with Jesus and other teachers, which is, we're saying something that on the surface of the Holy Spirit, on surface level is very easy to understand, but we actually don't mean what we're saying.
I don't know if you've ever noticed that about Jesus. Jesus says things that are very simple to understand and then you realize He actually doesn't mean that at all. But you can understand what He means. It's like a riddle. It's like this thing because when we say come Holy Spirit, it brings up different pictures because the way that we use the word come, we use it today. I have four boys, as many of you know, and my house is a two story house and parents for all of history have expressed this, that you need to talk to someone and you try to call them to come downstairs because they're not there. And they want to have a conversation like eight floors and two, like they want to have this yelling conversation through the house. And what do you say to your children when you need them to be here? You say, come downstairs, come here so I can talk to you.
We say it because they're not there.
And that's why we say it. That's the normal way. And guess what? This isn't even like a Greek or a Hebrew or like, no, no, that that's how we always say it. You tell someone to come here when they're not there. And yet we have this phrase that's been part of the very earliest traditions in many different languages, come Holy Spirit.
And the first thing, and maybe you've grown up and there's been some confusion because I know I had different confusion and maybe you thought, well, is there something that I can do that will make the Holy Spirit leave? So therefore I need to invite the Holy Spirit to come here.
That could be a little confusing, especially if you're young and your faith are young. And here's the thing we just read.
We just read, where can I go that I could ever separate myself from your spirit?
There's nowhere that you can go, that you can separate yourself from his presence.
And so what we have to understand, and we're going to look at some of these different statements as we go, is there is nowhere that the spirit is not present.
There is nowhere that the spirit is not present. So when I say come Holy Spirit, because of what I'm living in, I'm not saying, hey, you are gone from this place and I need you to come here. That's not what I'm saying.
That's not what we're singing about when we sing it in songs. That's not what we get to reflect or to say because that would be inaccurate.
That would be untrue.
You are not inviting him to a place that he doesn't exist in, and we're going to look at some more scriptures in a second because all of the earth is his in the glory thereof.
He is present everywhere.
There is nowhere where the spirit is not present. But here's the thing. Psalms 33, verse 6 through 9. You have to think Jesus is who is our greatest teacher of the spirit, and he gives us so many good things of how to live by the spirit. And you know, we can't even fully understand how saturated the upbringing of Jesus was in scripture. His entire life was saturated in Old Testament scripture. He heard it sung over him. He read it. He studied it. He did all these things from his very youth on. But when Jesus teach and he spoke and he preached into these different communities, there was one book that he quoted the absolute most, the absolute most. And some people think, oh, I bet it was one of the prophets. I bet it was Isaiah. Or maybe it's Jeremiah. Listen, Isaiah was the second place. But the place that he quoted the most was the Psalms.
The very, the poetry of God, the expression, the thing that makes you feel and experience his presence through words. That is who Jesus quoted. And listen to this Psalms chapter 33 verse 6 through 9. It says, "By the word," again, the very spoken, "breath of the Lord of heavens were made, and their starry host by the breath," or the ruach, the spirit of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars and he puts the deep into storehouses.
"That all the earth fear the Lord, that all the people of the world revere him, for he spoke and it came to be. And he commanded and it stood firm." This is a poetic reflection on Genesis 1 and how creation happened and how the spirit was hovering and he spoke and it came to be. So here's the thing. Not only is there no where the spirit isn't present, there's no when the spirit isn't present. Because from the very beginning of time, the spirit was present. Speaking into creation and into existence and performing the very words that God spoke out of his mouth, the very breath and animating force of the spirit is the thing that went out and dried up the dry ground, that created the things that crawled on the ground, that animated and created the wind into the trees and the life into human beings. From the very beginning, from page one of our Bible, the spirit is present. There is no where that you can go that the spirit does not exist and there is no when that you can go, that the spirit was not there.
But it's even bigger.
Psalm 104, 27, it says, "All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up. When you open your hand and they are satisfied with good things, when you hide your face, they are terrified. When you take away their breath, their spirit, they die and return to the dust. When you send your spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the ground."
You renew the face of the ground.
What a beautiful picture. What an idea. And I want you to imagine this. I thought about trying to steal someone's baby this morning, but then I thought, probably not a good idea.
For the Lord, of course.
Sometimes, especially in our modern days, like, I believe understanding and how things work and science is really a beautiful thing. And I think it points to God and I think it points to creation. And I think it points to His and I love it. But sometimes, sometimes we just get in our way too much because we just understand too much.
And we allow our imagination and a very just the most simple of understanding of things to just kind of pass, pass by. But there's something that this this verse in Psalms that says such a beautiful way to think about life. And if you allow this to really penetrate your heart, I'm telling you, it'll change the way that you live. You live every single day. Because what it says is from the very moment that you and even all of creation, but from the very moment that you are born.
And if you've ever had the privilege of being present at a birth, the very moment that you're born, there's this moment that for the very first time, a baby takes its first breath.
And God gives the gift of breath, the first breath into this baby's lungs.
You see, up to that point, that baby was connected to its mother via the umbilical cord and everything in the all the oxygen that was coming from the breath that God had already given the mother.
And that baby was united with the mother in complete safety and in the stillness and the hiddenness of the womb. And after passing through the waters, the baby comes out and it takes its first breath and it's greeted by God to give the first breath.
To animate life.
And from that moment on, every single breath is a reminder of a God who loves you.
None of us gets a control how many breaths we have.
At one moment, you will breathe your last breath.
And the air from your lungs will go and the very breath that God breathed into you will then be reunited and brought back into his breath.
But till then, every breath is a gift.
And when you see it in life, this breath, this breathing, and you think, "Oh my gosh." And if you've ever been a parent, you don't have to raise your hand because I want to embarrass you, but we've all done it when you put them to sleep, especially when you're a new parent. And you're just really quiet and they're really still and you're like, "Are they still breathing? Are they still okay?" And you get on there and you put your hand on it. Are they still, is breath still in their lungs? Are they still, "Am I doing enough job? I didn't get an instruction manual. I don't know if I'm doing it right."
There's this breath.
There's this breath.
The very breath of God goes into people.
And you know what's beautiful about our God is that his breath goes into all life.
And that because he is so good and he's so much love, he doesn't just give breath to the ones that he knows are going to choose him. He gives breath to everyone. And then he gives an invitation, "Will you choose me? I choose you." That's why I put breath in your lungs so that you would have the voice to choose me.
And we know some live and die and never make that choice.
But his breath was poured out for them.
So not only is there nowhere that you can go that the Spirit is not present, there's no when that you can't go that is not present. It says that the very animation is in all of creation. There is no what in your world that the Spirit is not present. And there is no who in this world that the very Spirit is not present. There is nowhere that you can go that can escape the presence of God. So if that is the case, then why do we say come Holy Spirit?
And I think we should say come Holy Spirit.
There's three things.
There's three things that I want to share this morning that I think is important of what we mean when we say this riddle, when we say this slogan, when we say this battle cry,
that is three very short words that you can say in the happiest times of your life and in the very lowest of lows.
Come Holy Spirit.
The first is this.
Holy Spirit, increase my awareness of your presence in every part of my life.
Can you increase my awareness that there's never been a when or a what or a who? There's never been a time or a place that you haven't been present. Can you increase my awareness even in the very present moment or even when I reflect on my past, even if there was hardship in my past, can you make me aware of your presence so that when I see you, I can see the world around me, I can remind myself that your presence is there even in that.
Even in that.
Even in that.
I was talking to Pastor Charlie just this morning via text because he's been like professional firefighter man, which I feel like he gives a good firefighter vibe.
Because he lives out in the country and like there's been fires literally all around his property and he was working on it and he was having to work with the local firefighters and he was doing stuff and Pastor Andrew went out there. And the thing that's amazing is a couple weeks ago, he borrowed a tractor because he was pouring a concrete patio and he hadn't returned it yet and the tractor was there on property. Now, if you look at it, you can say, God, why in the world if you love Charlie? Why in the world did you just not let any fires just never come close to him? That's what you should have done, God. I know because I'm really smart. And I'll tell you what would have been good is if you just would have made it where it's like, look at this, there's a ring of protection and no fires ever came near that dwelling.
But there were fires and they were close.
But you know what he did have? A tractor.
And do you know what he got to do with that tractor? Build up fire berms. And he literally takes me, he said, if I didn't have that tractor, it would have been a really bad deal.
But that tractor was what was in it. And God already knew. God already knew. God already knew that he needed that piece of equipment before Charlie ever knew, before we knew there was going to be winds from hell rushing up from the south, before we knew that it was going to spread fire like you know what, before we knew that like I thought I was doing some work on a ladder with Bruce and we literally thought at one point it was going to take us off both of us standing on a ladder. It was going to be a real miracle.
God already knew.
And you can look back and say, look at God. I didn't know to ask for a tractor. I didn't prepare. I didn't say, oh, winds are coming. I bet it should have a tractor just in case there happens to be a mess of fire that I can be, no, but the Holy Spirit, no.
Because there's nowhere you go but what we do when we invite, we say come Holy Spirit, the first thing we can mean when we say that is, can you make me more aware of your presence everywhere in my life?
Can you make me more aware?
And see you more clearly, come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit.
But listen, the first person filled with the Holy Spirit wasn't the people who were in that upper room when the Holy Spirit poured out. That wasn't the first person that was filled with the Holy Spirit. It wasn't even like John the Baptist or any of the people in the New Testament. The first person that was filled with the Spirit of God, if you start from Genesis and move forward, you have to get all the way to Genesis chapter 41, where we hear that there was this guy that had brothers and then was sold into slavery and then was in a jail and then got delivered from the jail and then ended up interpreting dreams. And at the end of this, Genesis 41 verse 38, it says, "So Pharise asked them, can we find anyone like this man?" Speaking of Joseph, the one in whom is the Spirit of God.
Because when Joseph spoke, the Spirit of God moved. And you know what's really wild? Joseph wasn't doing miracles.
Joseph wasn't like hitting sticks and things. Joseph wasn't making snakes and Joseph wasn't parting red seas. Joseph wasn't calling down plagues. Joseph was enacting an economic plan, which is like episode one Star Wars boring kind of stuff.
That's what Joseph did with the Spirit. Economic and harvest restructuring.
Lame.
But the Spirit of God was in him. Do you know who the second person that God found?
You got to go all the way to Exodus 35 after they've, the nation of Israel has now left Israel. It wasn't Moses. It wasn't Aaron. It wasn't Joshua. It wasn't Caleb. It wasn't any of those guys.
It was a guy named Betzael.
Anyone remember Betzael?
He was the one that the Spirit of God was on him. It says this in Exodus 35, it says, "Then Moses said to the Israelites, "See, the Lord has chosen Betzael, the son of Uriah, the son of her from the tribe of Judah, "and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge, "and with all kinds of skills. "And do you know what they needed those skills for? To building things, to craft things for the tabernacle."
You know, there's a few traits that God's really particularly into. God was particularly into shepherds. He loves shepherds.
He was particularly into craftsmen. He loves craftsmen who create.
He loves people who come creative expressions. And it says that this young man was filled with the Spirit of God, and it had the gifting and the knowledge and the wisdom and the insight to be able to craft these intricate golden items and different things, all these different panels, that it was the creativity that God invested inside of him.
Just so you know, Jesus was also a craftsman. I know some of you are like, "No, it said it." I learned it was a carpenter. Bad translation. He was a craftsman.
He worked. He created, just like his dad. No, not Joseph. Although Joseph was also a craftsman.
Creative.
He creates this idea that the Spirit is in them. And there's story after story, and then we don't have time to go through all the different examples, but there's something else. 2 Samuel, chapter 23, 2, it says this. This is David speaking about what it means. This is David, the one who wrote the most Psalms. The one who is the poet. The one who is quoted most often.
It says, "The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me, and his work was on my tongue."
Now, we can just read past this and just like glance by it and be like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." But I want you to hear, David didn't say, "It was all me. I'm really good at writing poetry."
But he also didn't say, "It was all God. I didn't even know what I was doing. I was in a trance. I just...
What he said was, "God chose to work through me to partner with his Spirit to create."
And is there another poet that are read by billions of people still to this day that was written 2,000 years ago?
There isn't. No one is reading these people, but David is still read far and wide in every single language and all these different things in all these different places, and still is something that we get to read and to be grown through.
And we say, "Oh my gosh, look at this. He partnered with the Spirit of God to create these works and these expressions of his heart." This person who authored things like, "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not what. Certainly goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of our life." Like, what an incredible thing. Like, yes, it's because David was such a great guy. But then we remember this is the same man who stood on a balcony and saw a woman and had her brought to him, who had sex with her, who then killed her husband and then covered it up, and then his firstborn son with her died. And that same person who is morally flawed and whose actions led to the death of multiple people somehow,
that same guy could say, "Where can I go to depart from your presence?"
Sometimes we think, "I've made too many mistakes for the presence of God to be with me."
If anyone made too many mistakes for the presence of God to leave them, I'm telling you it was David.
But it didn't.
It didn't.
It didn't.
Some of his actions led to death, violence, and destruction.
But some of his actions, when partnered with the Holy Spirit, led to life and beauty and an expression of God's love that we can still read and be grown and be encouraged. It led to people who were not able to be with us. It led to people who were not able to be with us. And then he was able to, when he was able to be with us, to be with us and not be with God, be with us. And then he was able to be with us and not be with us. And then, he was able to be with us in an expression of God's love that we can still read and be grown and be encouraged. It led to people being able to be taught how to pray and how to interact with God. It led for people to be able to see how they can express their emotions in difficult times.
He could help for that.
But when partnered with the Holy Spirit,
He could help produce life and creation and new creation.
Which leads me to the second thing when we say come Holy Spirit.
We can say come Holy Spirit, and what we can mean in our hearts and our mind is Holy Spirit, let every thought, word, and action today contribute to the reunion of heaven and earth.
Let everything that I think and everything that I say and everything I do be so aware of your presence, God, that they help contribute to your desire for heaven to be made known here on earth, for new creation to reign here in this place. Let everything that I say and do, not partner with what my default is, with his death and violence and destruction, I don't need my power to be here. I don't need my name to be lifted up or my actions or my deeds, but Lord, let me partner with you
so that your creation and so your goodness can be seen all around me. Come Holy Spirit.
Because I'm morally compromised and will be until I die.
But the Spirit of God inside of me
can breathe life and new life.
You see, we sometimes as humans, we have this innate desire, this innate insight where we try to protect what's ours
and we protect and we protect and we protect even to the point of conducting violence on someone else.
We protect.
But in partnership with the Spirit, we don't have to protect, we get to give freely and we get to create and give and so.
And then for time's sake this morning, you fast forward.
And the Bible says that from the moment that Mary was visited and she conceived a baby, it says that he was filled with the Spirit or the breath of God.
Jesus, the Son who became flesh was filled with the breath of God who took his first breath here on this earth and is born and we have very little about his childhood, just these occasional check-ins like in Luke chapter two where it says that he grew in stature and wisdom and favor between God and man, that he's growing in spirit and in truth.
And then the next thing we know is that when he goes to get baptized, the dove descends and the Holy Spirit falls on the person of Jesus and the audible voice of God, the Father says, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased and then he's led by the Spirit out into the wilderness where he is tempted and then he's led by the Spirit back into ministry and he begins to perform many strong, powerful signs and wonders among the people that he's being led by the Spirit. And people are so confused when they meet Jesus because when they meet Jesus, there's this man that's before him like many other men that they've seen, but when Jesus speaks, it's like God is speaking and when Jesus commands something, things happen. And so they can't figure it out. Am I meeting a man or am I meeting a God? Because everything that he says comes to pass and sickness and disease bow and the very winds of the air stop and the oceans have no control. He is over all of these things. He is like a man, but he's not. He is in partnership with something that is far greater and I can't tell if it's God or man, but they're together.
They're together, they're together.
He performs, he even rejoices. There's the day where he does so many miracles and so many things, it says that he's there and he begins to sing for joy. He rejoices in the spirit of what the Spirit has done around him. Jesus himself is led to joy and rejoicing because of what the Holy Spirit has done through him.
And then by the Spirit, he's led to Jerusalem.
And by the Spirit, he purposely pokes the establishment and gets himself convicted of trumped up charges so that he'll go to the cross. And he's led by the Spirit to the cross after he submits his own will and says, not my will, God, but your will be done. And he's taken to that cross and then on that cross,
he says, into your hands I commit my spirit.
And he bowed his head and breathed his last breath.
And he hung his head dead. (Gentle Music)
And the Bible says that at that moment,
there was darkness and there was earthquakes and the veil was torn, but in this moment, all those things signified God the Father saying, look, finally,
a human who lived a life spotless and perfect.
Yeah, yeah, I had to sin to myself, but I love you that much.
And Jesus, when he breathed his last breath, he did it fully confident that God would breathe his breath back into him.
So after a day of Sabbath rest in the tomb,
the breath of God was breathed back into the person of Jesus and he came out of that tomb in new resurrection and new power and new glory,
speaking and teaching.
So that now when we say come Holy Spirit, we can say, Holy Spirit, create the version of me
that is most like Jesus.
Animated by the spirit of creation.
Create in me the version of me who's most like Jesus. I don't need to be like my arrogant self. I don't need to be protective at all costs. I don't need to look out for my, no, the world has enough of those people. Lord, create in me someone who's like Jesus, who's willing to love, because not only do I look around and I realize that there's nowhere that I can go to escape your spirit. There's no time or no wind that I can go. There's no what that exists, this apart from your presence. There's no who that isn't encapsulated by your spirit, but all of this that answers the why is because you love me.
Can you make me like Jesus?
Church, and here's the crazy thing.
And I hope I have more time to unpack this later.
The wild thing is the version of you who's like Jesus.
It isn't an ideal that doesn't exist.
It already exists.
In Jesus, you are already seated in heavenly places. In Jesus, you already are boldly accepted. In the spiritual realm, you are already made like Christ. And in fact, that person is more real than what you experience on your daily journey. When you fall short and say things and think things and do things that you shouldn't, that person may feel real because you can see it, you can taste it, you can touch it, all those things. But the very person, the Holy Spirit has crafted you to be, the person that is seated in glory and honor as a result of what Jesus has done on the cross, that person is alive and well. And when we say come Holy Spirit, allow that person to be more real to me today in how I live than what I see in my daily actions or what I feel or hear with my ears. Lord, let that person who really exists, my new creation, partner with your spirit so that I can go around creating in your name and things around me and I can be more like that person, be more like that person. Come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit.
(Soft Music)
Let me be made aware of you.
Let me partner a new creation. Let me be like Jesus, the one who went before us, the first fruits, the receipt, the brother who goes in front of us, the one in whom you said that we can be like, that we are attached to, that we can abide in, allow me to be like him.
Allow me to be like him. (Soft Music) Come Holy Spirit.
Don't let me be swayed by what these eyes see
or these ears hear.
Don't even let me be swayed by my own shortcomings and failures.
Instead, let me embrace this identity of who I am in you. (Soft Music)
And when I breathe my last breath
and my spirit is reconnected with your spirit
and I finally can see that day
in which I can be who I truly am created to be.
Thank you that on that day I can continue to say, come Holy Spirit, (Soft Music) usher fresh wind inside of me.
Will you stand with me today?
(Soft Music)
Will you just take just a moment today
and do two things. One, if you're here,
and you haven't accepted Jesus,
it's a life transformation.
And I'm gonna say a prayer just to give that opportunity to anyone who maybe hasn't made that decision today. I'm gonna invite everyone to repeat this prayer and just say, dear heavenly Father,
thank you for sending Jesus to die for me. So my sins could be forgiven
and my heart could be set free.
It's in Jesus name I pray.
With the eyes closed here in this room, if that was you anywhere in the room, would you just raise your hand up real high, anywhere in this room, just raise your hand up. If you're online, they're gonna put a phone number up on that screen, that'll connect you to our prayer team. But if you're here physically, just raise your hand.
Any hands that they're up, they can go down, Father God, thank you.
And then lastly, church, just before we leave, (Soft Music)
will you just join me whether that's audibly or just in a posture of worship,
of just praying come Holy Spirit,
of making that invitation,
just wherever you're at.
And if you wanna focus on one of those three sayings or all of them or anything, just inviting this place
to become more aware for you, your temple, to become more aware of that spirit inside of you. Just join with me this morning.
Come Holy Spirit.
We need you today.
We need you in our community and in our lives.
I need to be more aware of your presence every single day.
I'm surrounded by death and violence and destruction and hate and anger.
And I need your spirit. I need your spirit.
Lord, help my thoughts and my actions and my words be led by your spirit, come Holy Spirit.
Come Holy Spirit.
Lord, let me become more like Jesus.
(Soft Music)
Let me be like him.
Let me be more and more like this glorious image that is already seated in your presence.
That's very real and very active.
(Soft Music)
And church, if there was a place
where you felt like I don't know if God was there, I don't know if the spirit was there,
there's nowhere that his spirit wasn't.
Maybe you can think about a time where like there was this time in my life, it was hard. I felt abandoned. I don't know if God's presence there. I'm here to tell you by the very spirit of God, there was no when when he was not there with you.
There was no what that you wanted to see, that you just were desperate to see changed in your life and it still is not what you wanted it to see. He is still there even in the middle of that.
(Soft Music)
For the who's in your life or the how's in your life that are out of your control, yes, his spirit was even in the midst of those things.
And the why is very clear,
because he loves you, because he loves you,
because he loves you.
And if you want proof,
just take a deep breath in.
And if there's breath in your lungs,
then God is at work in your life.
And he'll continue to work.
Father God, we give you all the glory.
We love you.
It's in Jesus name we pray.
Amen and amen. Church, we love you. I can't be a little bit of a fan of you. Amen. Church, we love you. I can't be a little late. Go find your children before they tell you that they're really hungry. Have a great rest of your Sunday, you're dismissed.
