God's Empowering Presence | Tyrone P Jones | We Believe

Amen. You may be seated. So we're in a series, We Believe. This is Lesson 12. There's three more to go, I believe, in this series. Today, we want to talk about God's empowering presence. And the reason we're doing this We Believe series is because it really does matter what you believe in the Word of God for your life. It's important that you have a foundation and a base of what you believe. And if you're building your life unto Christ or just building your life even based on a worldview, it's good to know what the Bible teaches so that every aspect of your life comes into alignment with God's Word and particularly with the God who created you and made you, who does have a purpose and a plan for our life. The only way we know exactly what that is and how to appropriate that is through His Word. And so it's important to know what we believe. And so we've been walking through the Apostles' Creed, which is the basic tenets of our faith. And we talked about, of course, believing in God who is our Father, the Creator, the Almighty. We talked about Jesus Christ being the Son of God and His work, His purpose, His mission, His death, burial, and resurrection. Even we talked about His ascension and that that ascension also was an assurance of us that we would also be ascended and eventually all of us will be judged by Him. Today, I want to talk about the Holy Spirit and believing in the Holy Spirit. That is a line in the Creed when it says, He ascended into heaven, talking about Jesus that's seated at the right hand of the Father and will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit. And what the Bible teaches us, the reason that this is important is the Bible teaches us that we are spiritual people. We are spiritual people. And from the very beginning, even from Genesis 1-2, the Spirit of the Lord is around God's people, right from the very beginning of creation. And it is God's desire for each of us to have His Spirit, to be people of the Spirit. One of the first indicators of that is in Numbers Chapter 11. Moses was leading the children of Israel at the time. They had come out of Egypt. They were on their way to the Promised Land. They had already crossed the Red Sea and was in a portion of the land that was more like wilderness. Because of their disobedience, they end up going around in

a circle, as you know, for about 40 years, or I shouldn't say necessarily a circle, but certainly went the long way to get to where they were going. Throughout that period of time, God Himself would present Himself before Moses and would give Moses direction on what to do, how to handle certain things, the direction that they should go. Moses would hear those things from the Lord, and he would report it to the people. In Numbers Chapter 11, the Lord told him that He wanted him to bring the 70 elders that was working with him to lead the people. They were part of the judging. They were part of the decision-making, overseeing the people. He asked them to bring the 70 elders with them, and they went into the tabernacle, the tent that was built for their place of worship as they traveled. And while they were there, the Scripture says that the Lord came down in a cloud, and He rested upon Moses. He placed His Spirit upon Moses, but He also placed the same Spirit that was on Moses on the 70 elders. And the witness of that is once the Spirit of the Lord rested upon them, they also prophesied. They began to declare things about God that they could not do naturally, but it was the supernatural Spirit of God that was upon them that brought forth the prophecy. Now, there were two men that stayed in the camp. They weren't part of the 70 elders. They were in the camp with the rest of the people named Eldad and Medad. When these 70 elders left the tabernacle to go back into the main camp, sure enough, Eldad and Medad is also prophesying like the 70 elders were. One of the elders hears them prophesying and gets alarmed, saying, they're doing something that only we were able to do. So they go and run and tell Joshua and said, hey, Eldad and Medad is also prophesying as if they're one of us, as if they're one of the elders. Joshua goes to Moses and says, hey, we got a problem. We got two people, two guys who are not part of us. They're also prophesying in the camp, to stop them. Moses says, why would you stop them? Why would you stop them experiencing the Spirit of God and magnifying God the way we were? You don't need to stop them for my sake. I'm not jealous of them

experiencing the same things we are experiencing. As a matter of fact, Moses goes on to say, I wish that every person of God had the Spirit upon them and every one of God's people were able to prophesy. And so that's the first indication that we hear what the heart of God is concerning us having His Spirit. Now, you move up a few hundred years later and you're in the Book of Joel. In the Book of Joel, the Lord is talking to His people after they've experienced a destruction. The Lord has sent another nation to come in and do a lot of damage to the people of Israel. He lets them know this is because of discipline, because of their disobedience. They go in and they just about ransack the nation. They destroy the crops and all kinds of stuff. They do it. And the Lord comes to them after that's done. He lets them know why that happened but said, I want you to know, you are my people. I'm going to restore you. I'm going to make up everything that was lost. Your fields that have been ransacked, don't worry, you're going to have crops again. And they're going to multiply, et cetera. He said, once I do that, I'm also going to leave a blessing behind. And He gave them some indication of what those blessings would be. But then He says this in verse number 28 and 29 of Joel 2, and I don't think this will be on the screen. It says, this is the Lord talking. Then after doing all of these things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and the young men will see visions. In those days, I will pour out my Spirit even on servants, men and women alike. So listen to the promise that the Lord makes, that there's going to be a time when I'm going to pour out my Spirit just like you saw or read about with Moses. But I'm going to do that not just on 70 elders, I'm going to do that on everyone, male and female, even servants. Everyone is going to experience my Spirit, and every one of them will be able to do supernatural things like prophesy. That was in Joel. Now fast forward to what we call the New Testament in the book of Acts. After Jesus rose from the dead, and you'll recall this from the last few sermons, He stayed on earth for 40 days. Remember that, Jesus stayed on earth 40 days before He ascended.

After Jesus ascended, as He's ascended, He tells them to go wait in Jerusalem, because now the outpouring of the Spirit that I promised is going to happen. I don't want you to go do any ministry work, I don't want you to go do no church work, I don't want you to go represent me until the Spirit comes. Ten days after Jesus ascended is what we read about in Acts Chapter 2. It's called the Day of Pentecost. Pente means 50, 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus is the Day of Pentecost. And listen to these words in Acts Chapter 2, verse number 1 through verse 16. On the Day of Pentecost, all the believers were meeting together in one place. It's about 120 of them that's meeting in an upper room above a building. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. Now, so this is a phenomenal thing that happened. First of all, you got 120 people up in a room, be like kind of being up in the kids room, you hear this amazing sound of wind that comes through the room. And then with their eyes, they can see like fire resting upon everybody in the room. They can see that with their eyes. Verse number 4, and everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. So as this is taking place, things are coming out of their mouth and they're speaking in languages that they do not know. Verse number 5, at the time, there were devout Jews among every nation living in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running and they were bewildered to hear their own language being spoken by the believers. They were completely amazed. How can this be? They exclaimed, these people are from Galilee. And it lists the 13 ethnicities. 13 nationalities that was hearing this. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages the wonderful things God has done. They were amazed and perplexed and says, how can this be? So mind you, this would be, what's happening here, they know Hebrew or

Aramaic, but they're speaking in languages that they don't know. The Holy Spirit has come upon them, and when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, what comes out of their mouth is a language that they never learn. But it's a perfect speaking of the language because those who hear them in that language know they're saying great things about God. That would be like you and I being dropped in the middle of Iran, never knowing Farsi, never taught Farsi, and yet we can speak to people in Farsi. We open our mouths, and those folks who speak Farsi hear us talking about God in their language. We would all be amazed. If your child starts speaking Swahili to you, I think you'd be amazed. Or if your child starts speaking Chinese, I think you'd be amazed. So they never learned that language, but supernaturally, God spoke through them, using them to proclaim the things of the Lord. Verse 13 says, no, no, no, no. These folks are just drunk. That's what's happening. Then Peter stepped forward with the 11 other apostles and shouted to the crowd, listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem, make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk, as you're assuming. It's only 9 o'clock in the morning. It's too early for that. Now, that worked in that day. You probably can't say that now. Folks would be drunk at 6 a.m., but he says, no, they're not drunk. It's the spirit of the Lord. He said, this is what was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel. So Moses first tells us that it's the desire of God for everyone to have the Holy Spirit.

Joel comes along and says, watch what God does. God is going to pour his spirit out upon everyone, male, female, no matter what culture they come from, no matter what ethnicity they come from, no matter what their background is, no matter whether they're rich or poor, whether they're owners or whether they're slaves. The Holy Spirit is going to be poured out upon his people. He prophesied that in the Book of Joel, and then in the Book of Acts, it actually happens. Now, it's the fulfillment of what God intended. That lets us know what God's purpose is for every person in our life, that every one of us experience has the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit living in us, doing the things that God has called us to do, empowered us to do, and gifted us to do. Now, if you've been at CTC for any length of time, the term Holy Spirit is not uncomfortable for you or shouldn't be because we talk about the Holy Spirit on a regular basis. But I'm not foolish. I know some people come from backgrounds where just the thought of someone talking about a Holy Spirit makes you uncomfortable, maybe some anxiety. Maybe you've had some experiences with people who did have the Holy Spirit, and you thought, if that aunt has that stuff going on in her life and she says it's of the spirit of God, I don't want to have nothing to do with it. We've probably ran across people who say that they're operating and moving under the anointing power of the Holy Spirit, and you thought that was just weird stuff. Maybe you've walked into a Pentecostal church and just thought, man, whatever's going on in here, I just don't know if I want to have anything to do with it. Come from a background, matter of fact, you might come from a background where they've taught to you that any of this stuff these Pentecostals do,

miracles, and laying hands on people, and speaking in tongues, and operating by gifts, that's just of the devil. Maybe you had that. My statement is they of the devil. But anyway, you might have heard that. You might have heard that kind of teaching. So maybe you got a little bit of fear about it, a little anxiety. I certainly know when the charismatic movement got stronger and stronger from the...it was kind of like late 40s and maybe on into the 60s, and then certainly late 60s, early 70s became stronger and stronger. Some of the fastest-growing churches in America and around the world is charismatic churches, whether it be here in America or South America, in Africa, etc. But I know also what came with that was some painful divisions. There's still battles now among pastors, among churches. about debates about speaking in tongues and spirit baptism and spiritual gifts, et cetera. Fully understand that and fully aware of that. I also know that everything that people have said is of the Holy Spirit is not. I was raised in what some of you would probably call an ultra-Pentecostal church. As a matter of fact, we didn't use the term Holy Spirit. We said Holy Ghost. Try that on when you're inviting your high school friend to church. What's going to happen tonight? The Holy Ghost is going to come. The Holy Ghost is going to show up, you know. So we were King James only, so Holy Ghost was the term that we would use. And I will admit, even in the church I grew up in, there was some stuff that was just absolutely outrageous. Some stuff I would think was almost insane. People would get all excited and say the Holy Ghost was on them and Holy Spirit, and next thing you know, they're running all over the building, knocking pews down, tearing up light bulbs and running over people like they're bowling balls and say that that's the

Holy Ghost. I mean, I got to the point where I stopped inviting my friends to church because I didn't know what was going to happen next. You know, something go on and you got to sit there and try to explain, don't worry about it. It's okay. We'll get through it. They'll stop in a minute. That got to be a little overwhelming, you know, inviting folks to church and, you know, what's going to happen? And I got no idea. Ain't no telling what Sister Sally going to do and Brother John jumping all over pews and carrying on and folks throwing handkerchiefs. And next thing you know, they're not almost stripped. They close off to the music, you know. No, no, no. Listen, I totally, totally get it that not everything that people have portrayed to be the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. At the same time though, we can have it just make some catastrophic errors if we're so fearful or got so much anxiety, or if I can just say it this way, so much ignorance about the Holy Spirit that you want to just completely shun it out of your life. Because we have a tendency of things that we don't understand, maybe things we haven't studied out, maybe things we haven't read in the Scripture. If it seems odd, if it seems different, if it's not what I've been used to or what I was raised in, we have a tendency to say, no, no, no. I don't want no part of that. And I'm going to tell you, that's a big error. Because when you shun the Holy Spirit, you've distanced God from your life. You've distanced God from your life. At the same time, nobody wants a bunch of chaos and we call that the Lord. And so, how do we chart the path of the Spirit's work and the evidence of the Spirit without going into a forest of fear or to a forest of ignorance? And at the same time, not descend into some kind of charismatic chaos. So, let me give you three things that the Scriptures is pretty clear about that I hope should give you a great desire, an understanding of the Holy Spirit, if you have the Holy Spirit, which I'll define if you do, and a desire for the Holy Spirit if you don't. The first thing to know is this, is that the Holy Spirit is a divine person. The Holy Spirit is not a force.

The Holy Spirit is not something. The Holy Spirit is not an it. The Holy Spirit is a divine person. The Holy Spirit is part of the triune God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Each is a person. As a matter of fact, here in Acts 13.2, the Holy Spirit speaks like you and I would speak. Acts 13.2, it says this, one day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, watch this, the Holy Spirit said, appoint Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them. So, the Holy Spirit speaks as a person because He is a person. Throughout the Scripture, you'll see the Holy Spirit testifying, the Holy Spirit communicating, the Holy Spirit leads, the Holy Spirit is a witness, the Holy Spirit intercedes. Throughout the Scripture, you'll see where the Holy Spirit can be insulted just like you and I can be insulted. The Holy Spirit can be blasphemed against just like God can be blasphemed against. The Holy Spirit can be grieved just like we can be grieved because He has a mind. And with that mind, He makes decisions and does the things that He does because He is the Spirit of God. And Jesus made it clear that the reason that you will not be lonely, will not have less than godly experiences when I leave is because the Holy Spirit will be with you and the Holy Spirit will be in you. Here it is in John 14, 16, and I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate who will never leave you. So this is what Jesus is saying. Verse number 18, John 14, 18 says, I will not leave you as orphans. I've been with you. You've experienced me. You've heard me speak. You've seen miracles. You've seen me carrying out the things of God the Father. I'm not going to leave you in a position where you don't have those experiences. I'm leaving, but the Holy Spirit is going to be in you. So what you see of me externally will now be operating within you.

I'm not going to leave you as orphans. The Spirit of the Lord will be in you. Are y'all following me so far? John 16, 7 through 8, I don't know if this will be on the screen, but hear this. This is Jesus talking. However, I'm telling you nothing but the truth when I say it is profitable for you that I go away. Because if I don't go away, then the comforter, the counselor, the helper, the advocate, the one who strengthens you, he cannot come to you. But if I go away, then he will come in you and have close fellowship with you. So Jesus is saying, when I leave, it's better that I go. Because right now, you only see me right here with your eyes. Anything that takes place, anytime you need a good word or advice or counsel, you got to come to me and hear it from me. But when I leave, the reason it's better is now my spirit is in all of you. You're all comforted. You all can do the supernatural things. You all can experience what you've seen of me individually. Now, the Holy Spirit is in each one of you so that you can carry out what Christ started while he was here on earth. And so the Holy Spirit is a divine person. Here's the second thing. The Holy Spirit does the primary work in our life. Now, here is what may shock you. If you're a Christ follower, if Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, you've made a confession of faith, you've accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, you've went through the waters of baptism, if you're born again, do you know the work that you're doing in this life every day? It's not being done by Jesus. It's not being done by the Father.

It's being done by the Spirit. It's the Spirit that's operating in us. It's the Spirit that's working in us. He is the one that's doing the primary work in your life. It's he that gives us the skill for craftsmanship. It's the Holy Spirit that empowers you to do leadership. It's the Holy Spirit that reveals things to you. When you're reading the Scriptures or when you need some guidance, it's the Holy Spirit who's speaking to you. There was a family that came down to visit the church last Sunday. They live in California, but they're moving to Yuma. Someone told them, someone actually from Oregon, told them about our church. And so they knew they were going to be moving here in May, so they started watching our services online just to get a feel of the church before they moved here. And then they came last week just to visit Yuma, visit the church live, etc. After the service, I met with them because I wanted to hear a little bit more of their story. And they both were raised Mormons. Their parents was Mormons. It might even went generation above that. They were raised Mormons, done what Mormons do. They even talked about all of the...because they got to such a rank, I guess, place that they done things in the temple that only certain people can do. They talked about their temple services and ceremonies, etc. And they were raising their kids as Mormons. Now, the lady, the mother, the wife, she said in the community that she was in, she just wanted to meet more people and have more opportunities to be around people who was, you know, who would teach the Bible, etc. So she found a local at a church, a Christian church, she found a group, seemed like it was similar like a Mops or a Mom's group or something like that,

and she started spending time with them. So she would have a...while her husband was working, that's where she would be. And over a period of time, as they're going through these... Bible studies, she's realizing that what she was taught and what the Scripture's teaching wasn't lining up. So much so that she began to investigate more and more, spend more time, till she came to the place that realized that she really needed to surrender her life to Jesus Christ, that He is her Lord and Savior. He's the one that died for her, that her sins might be forgiven. And sure enough, she gives her life to Jesus. Now, yes, that's wonderful. Now, she's got a problem because her husband is still very much Mormon. She's telling him what I believe Jesus has done, who Jesus is, this is what the Scripture teaches. And he said, no, no, I...nope, Mormon. I know what the Book of Mormon says, I know what the Pearl of Great Price says, and this is who we are, and I'm staying what I am. So she would continue to go to the Christian church, he would go to the Mormon church until a period of time, he just...he felt like something was overwhelming him and kind of convicting him. Man, I got so much to go, I don't know what you're all doing. But...so he made a decision that he was going to read through the Book of Mormon again. He said it landed where it always landed, he's read through it before, but he also decided after that, that he was going to read the New Testament. So he starts, of course, in the beginning, he says, before he got to the Book of Acts, it was revealed to him who Jesus is, that Jesus truly is the Christ. Jesus is truly the Lord and Savior, and surrendered his life to Jesus Christ, and now his whole family is Christian. That's a revelation of the Spirit of God. As you're reading the Word of God, he reveals who he is through the reading. The Holy Spirit does that. The Holy Spirit reveals some things to you in your life. I was sharing with my friend Dave this week, I think it was this week, that we talked, and I had a very similar experience. There was things...I think I was 40-some, 40...I don't know, I can guess, I figured out exactly how old I was, but there was things happening in my life that I knew this...I just came to the

conclusion that I was pretty jacked up. Let me just cut to the chase. But it didn't make sense. I knew Jesus. I knew the Word. I was a pastor in a church, but I couldn't figure out why I would make decisions the way I would make, why I would do some things that I did, and felt right in doing those things. Could justify doing it because it felt natural for me to do these things. So I'm sitting with a counselor, and if any of you have read my book, I talked about this. If you haven't read my book, I don't know why you haven't, but that's another statement. But I talk about this scenario. I'm with this counselor, and the day before, something had occurred, and I actually had a certain kind of reaction to it. And so I made a decision, made a phone call so that I could rectify my mind and heart. I did not want to deal with what had just happened. Well, the result of that, I'm in the counseling session, and what I had done came to full circle right there in front of the counselor. And he said to me, why did you make that decision? Why did you take that action? And I told him why I did it. It seemed natural to me. It seemed right. He says, now you realize that these kind of actions and decisions has affected your life, I think, for years. And I'm like, how do you know that? He said, well, look at the fruit of it. Look at the end result of it. Look where this has led you. Look at the decisions that you've made. Look at the actions that you've taken. He says, I really believe we need the Holy Spirit to reveal to you why this is happening, why you're making these kind of decisions, why you're thinking this way. And I said, okay, fine. So he said, let's just pray. So he prays. He's praying in English. He finished praying, and then he said, now you go ahead and pray. And I started praying in English, got my head bowed, eyes closed. We're sitting in chairs. I'm praying in English. And then he starts praying in tongue. Now, the dude is German. So hearing a German speak in tongue, it was odd. It sounded, you know, kind of funky. I mean, I ain't used to that kind of tongue talking in German.

And so I opened my eyes because I'm like, first, I'm listening to it, and I'm trying to pray in English. And I'm like, dude, man, come on. Can you change your language or something? I mean, so I just opened my eyes. And when I... look at him, he says out loud, Holy Spirit, reveal it to him. Soon as he said that, I get flooded with emotion because I saw a picture of when I was 12 years old of something that scarred me and damaged me up until that time. And it was so clear that the decisions I was making still at 40-some years old was because of that incident when I was 12 years old. He kept praying in German, in tongues, and I see an incident when I'm nine, and I'm seeing an incident when I'm six. And finally, when I could bring myself out of the emotion, he says, tell me what you saw. And I revealed to him these things that I saw, and he says, the Holy Spirit is showing you why you've been doing the things that... Am I telling you the truth, Dave Lehman? And the Holy Spirit is the revealer of these things. That's what he does in our life. He illuminates. He gives us understanding, and the Scripture says that we're justified by the Holy Spirit. Three things I definitely want you to know that the Holy Spirit absolutely does, which has even brought you here to this place. And one of them is the Holy Spirit is what gives you life. When Jesus Christ died on the cross for you, when he took up on your sins, when he was buried, when he rose again, and you accepted Christ in your life, and had your sins forgiven, it's the Holy Spirit that comes in you and regenerates you. The Holy Spirit is what gives you eternal life. Listen, John 6, 63, the Spirit alone gives eternal life.

Human effort accomplishes nothing. We are new creatures. We've been born again because of the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is what gives us spiritual gifts. This is 1 Corinthians 12, 4 through 7. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. Hear this. He's talking to every one of us. Every one of us, God works in. How? By his Spirit. His Spirit is in us. And verse number 7 says, a spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. So every one of us that are born-again believers, each of us have a spiritual gift. Many of you got more than one. You got multiple spiritual gifts. That comes from the Holy Spirit. Why does he give us spiritual gifts? So that we can help each other. Whatever those gifts are helps us become more of what God wants us to be. That's why you're so valuable. That's why the body is so important. That's why we can't be who we are unless you be who God called you to be. Am I talking to the right church?

I know my time is almost up, but just hang in here with me if you don't mind. You guys fine? I want to finish this. The NASCAR race, I'm recording it. We'll get to it. So, but listen, that's part of body life. That's the value that we have. The Holy Spirit is what gives us these gifts that people can accomplish the things that they accomplished for the kingdom of God and here at the church. And it's the Holy Spirit that produces the fruit in your life. Galatians 5, 22 through 23. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Listen to this. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. You think you have that fruit in your life because you that good? No, no, no. The Holy Spirit produces that fruit in you. Some of us have a hard time loving people. You know why we can love people? Because the Holy Spirit is within us. Some of us can't hardly settle without our minds being in chaos and our life being in a storm. Why do we have peace? Because the Holy Spirit is producing. Why can we be kind? Because the Holy Spirit is producing. Why do we have patience? Because if you're like me, you've learned not to ask God to help you be patient.

That goes real bad. That goes bad, doesn't it? Why do we have patience? Because the Holy Spirit produces this. It's the Holy Spirit in us that produces this. And so, the third statement on that is this, that you expect the Holy Spirit work in your life to be something that you will experience because it's part of the gospel promise. It's what God promises us. We see it in Luke 24, 49, and now we'll send the Holy Spirit, just as my father promised, but stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from up on heaven. When he said that to the disciples, he's making that statement to all of us. Every one of us needs the power of God in us so we can be who God wants us to be that comes from the Holy Spirit. You see it every time we baptize someone. We know that the promise is... That God will give his spirit to everyone that commits their life to him So we repeat this every time acts 238 Peter replied each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God and be Baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins so much I can teach on this He wasn't just saying it to those if you want your sins forgiven. You have to turn to Jesus You turn to God you be baptized in his name, and then you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit That's part of the gospel promise And so the Bible tells us that When the Holy Spirit is poured out of it poured in us. That's how we know that God loves us He pours his spirit in us Fills us with his love that comes from the Holy Spirit How do I know that God loves me his spirit has been poured into me that fills me with his love? How do I know that I'm a son and daughter of God? Galatians 4 6 says when the Holy Spirit comes in you as a child in Christ now you cry out Abba father

Because of the Holy Spirit we could talk about the joy of the Spirit and so on but here Here's where the rubber meets the road on it Here's what you absolutely have to know If you haven't given your life to Jesus Christ you don't have the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit is only for those is only given to those who've committed to Jesus Now that's not Tyrone Jones's words That's the Bible Romans 8 9 says this and remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ Living in them do not belong to him at all but everyone who does Everyone who's committed your life to Jesus everyone that's trusted him as your Lord and your Savior You do have the Holy Spirit in you You have the Spirit of the Lord in you. So what does that mean? That means that God is living in you You're not alone You're not without help God is living in you. That's how you get through the things that you that you get through I don't care what you write in your journal when you start off in the morning If you write in your journal at the end of the day, you can write about all the things that you went through it today but I tell you how it should end every time you finish your journal and God helped me and God got me through and the Lord was with me and the Spirit of God guided me because we Cannot get through this life alone. I don't see how people live this life without God I really don't when you cry Who do you cry to if you don't have God if you're hurting on the inside? Who do you talk to if you're going through chaos, who do you seek to help you get settled? I Don't see how people can live Without the Lord in this life where the scripture says you're without help and you're without hope You need him You need Jesus. You need the Spirit of the Lord to come into your life. So you will know God is with you He's with you and he's in you And because of because of that you're part of a community

You're part of a community. You're not solitary There's a promise in the scripture in Psalm 66 and 67 That says God takes the solitary and he puts them in the family How does he do that by baptizing us all in the Spirit of the Lord when when we receive Christ Jesus? We're baptized into the body of Christ. This is a family This is a community you may not be in the same house. You may not even talk the same language You may not even look the same But you're all part of one community and when this when God comes back to take his his people He ain't coming back for individuals. He's coming back for his church He's coming back for his community. He's coming back for every one of us We are now part of the community that the Lord is working through working in and coming back when he returns To take us to be with him forever We love the body Because we're part of one another It's it's not right to say it's not good to say. Well, I love Jesus, but I hate the church. How can you hate his church? That's us That's the body You're that's the we are the bride of Christ. That's like telling your best friend man. I like you, but I hate your wife That's what you're saying. When you say I love Jesus, but I don't like the church. No, no. No, we are a community We're a family now. Listen, do we got some junk in the community? Yes, we do There is no perfect church There is no perfect church. And if it was perfect, it just got jacked up when you showed up When you messed up there is no perfect church now I believe CTC is about the closest thing there is to a perfect church, but there is no perfect church But the Lord is working in all of us, so that when he returns, there's a glorious entrance of the people of God into eternity. Amen? And there's a foretaste. Having the Spirit in us is a foretaste of the future glory. It's an assurance. Because you have the Holy Spirit in you, you should never worry about whether you're going to be in heaven.

The Holy Spirit is the assurance. As a matter of fact, Ephesians 1, 13, and 14 says, when you receive the good news, you got saved. And when you believe in Christ, he identified you as one of his own because he gave you the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us as his own people. The reason I know that I'm going to heaven, don't have to guess, don't have to think twice, don't have to check the list to see if I'm naughty or nice. The reason I know that I'm going is because the Holy Spirit is in me, and that's the assurance, the guarantee that I belong to him. That's the assurance. That's the guarantee. So I know I need to wrap this up, and I want to thank you for your patience through this. This is why we should be mindful of how we live, because the Spirit of the Lord is living in us. We should be conscious about those things. We should be very much knowing that God is living in me, Christ is living in me. So Ephesians says this, so be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don't act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is living in you. Listen, that ought to govern what you do. And listen, there's some of us that will not take our children to certain places. This may be for us, but it's not for you. But yet, we got the Spirit of the Lord in us, and we'll go anywhere. We'll go everywhere. We'll go places that we know all kind of nonsense is going on. No, we won't take the family, but it's okay for us. You're taking Jesus with you. There's certain movies you won't sit down with your children and watch, but you'll let Jesus sit there with you and watch them.

Am I talking to the right church? There are certain things you won't do in front of people, other people, but you'll sit there with just you and Jesus and drink till the bottles are empty. Okay. Well, y'all ain't got no place to go. We need to be wise. The Spirit of the Lord is living in us. What would you do if Jesus was sitting right next to you? Would you say certain things? Would you act a certain way if you knew Jesus was sitting right next to you? Well, I'll go one step further. He's not sitting right next to you. He's in you. He's in you. Why shouldn't we live wise? Why do we do things that are so foolish that we wouldn't want to look in the face of Jesus and say, I'm going to do this? I don't care what you think. No, you care because he's poured his love out in you and you want to respond to him in such a manner that you're so thankful that he loves you enough to fill your life with his love and his person until he returns to take you home forever. Everybody stand if you would. We'll pray. Thanks, thanks, thanks for letting me finish. Father, I want to thank you for the work that you've done, the work you're going to do, for the love that you have. Lord, may each one of us hear this message about you, about the Holy Spirit being in our lives. And Lord, let us live this life reflecting your love, your goodness, your glory, knowing that Christ is living in us. It's in his name we pray. May the church say amen. God bless you. Have a great day.