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[0:00] We're our second week here. And yes, thanks for having Jessica and me come and share with you while Pastor Todd's away.! It's good to be back with all of you.

[0:12] And so thankful for, I think, about our time here several years ago when we lived here for about two years.

[0:23] And then thinking that as a church, you are continuing to partner with us in our work with international students, with the Navigators. And so we're so grateful for your support in that way.

[0:38] As you come alongside us in that way, I really believe, I didn't mention it last week, I just wanted to take a moment to say it this morning, not forget, but I really believe that God, as He provides, as He works, you know, partners, whether it's churches, individuals, and then in what we're doing, that you are a real part of the ministry we have with international students.

[1:04] And so students that you might not meet this side of heaven, but that God is working through you. So I just want you to be encouraged in that. Well, we're going to look this morning, I know I have John 14, 15, 16, we're not going to look at all three of those chapters, it's too much, but portions of it, we're going to really be in John 16.

[1:26] And so if you have your Bibles with you, turn to John chapter 16, and we will read the first half of that, and then I'll make reference to some of the verses in chapter 14 and 15 as well.

[1:38] But as we look at this idea of the alongsideer, so in John chapter 16, and I want to read, I want to read the first 12, no, first 15 verses of John 16.

[1:54] So John chapter 16, Jesus is speaking here and He says, These things I've spoken to you so that you will not be led into sin. They will ban you from the synagogue.

[2:04] Yet an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he's offering a service to God. These things they will do because they've not known the Father nor me. But these things I've spoken to you so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them.

[2:20] However, I did not say these things to you at the beginning because I was with you. But now I'm going to Him who sent me. And none of you ask me, where are you going? But because I've said these things to you, grief has filled your heart.

[2:33] But I tell you the truth, it's to your advantage that I am leaving. For if I do not leave, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world regarding sin and righteousness and judgment.

[2:48] Regarding sin, because they do not believe in Me. And regarding righteousness, because I'm going to the Father and you're no longer going to see Me. And regarding judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

[2:59] I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them at the present time. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak.

[3:12] And He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take from Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. This is why I said that He takes from Mine and will disclose it to you.

[3:27] So, Father, we pray as we open Your Word now that, well, really, as we look at who the Holy Spirit is and what He's doing, we pray that Your Spirit would be our teacher even this morning.

[3:42] Show us the truth, Your truth, that You want us to capture in our hearts. God, that it would not just be facts that we add to our minds, but rather things that transform us and change us and shape us more into the image of Your Son, Jesus.

[4:00] So that we might leave this place here in a little bit, looking and living and speaking and, yeah, being more like Jesus.

[4:11] Thank You for the work that You've done in us. And we just pray all these things trusting You in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So, as we begin here, I think it's important that, you know, we connect here with the disciples.

[4:27] I think we all know what it feels like when somebody leaves, right? You've experienced this. Maybe it's a son or daughter or grandchild or someone else who's gone off to college.

[4:43] Perhaps a friend or family member who moved away or even a loved one who has passed away. Someone's probably come to your mind, even as I'm saying these things, along with some of those feelings that you had when they left.

[5:02] Feelings of sadness, loneliness, loss, confusion, maybe even some anger or regret mixed in with those.

[5:16] The loss of someone leaving us, it's a common human experience, right? Across cultures, across times. And the emotions that come with it are universal as well.

[5:27] We can relate to this. And in John 16, where we just read, and really this whole context here, the disciples, the followers of Jesus is 12, well, 11, because Judas has already gone out at this point.

[5:40] But these closest ones to Jesus, they're dealing with these emotions. Verse 6, Jesus says about them, grief has filled your heart, right?

[5:52] And in the greater context of this passage, we see the disciples, we can go back all the way to 13, and you can trace it. It's an interesting read. Just if you have time, go back and read in these final few chapters, really this last night before Jesus is betrayed.

[6:09] We pick up a lot on how the disciples were emotionally processing this. They were confused. They lacked understanding. They were troubled and doubting.

[6:19] They were feeling abandoned. They were fearful and lacking joy. They're experiencing so many emotions at this point. And for good reason.

[6:30] Their teacher is departing, right? Their Lord, their master, their closest friend is going away. Jesus is leaving his disciples.

[6:41] It's the first thing I want us to see here in this passage. And with the disciples, or excuse me, the disciples are asking, like, what's going on? We don't understand this.

[6:52] And as we want to look here in the first part of John 16 that I read, as well as some other portions here, what Jesus is teaching his followers, what he's teaching you and I this morning.

[7:05] And really, it's just Jesus' words that we read here. The disciples didn't say anything in that portion, right? Those first 15 verses. It's important, though, to understand what they're experiencing, how they're feeling, the pain that they have knowing that Jesus was with them, that he loved them, that he loved them to the end, it says back in chapter 13, and now that he's going away.

[7:35] That this Jesus who is God made flesh, right? The Word became flesh and dwelt among them, John says at the beginning of his gospel. He is, as Matthew says, Emmanuel, God with us, right?

[7:50] He was God with them, and now he's leaving them. But Jesus has some encouraging things to say, right?

[8:01] That even though he's leaving, that the Spirit is coming. And for us, we're looking at this, you know, beyond this, and so we can say that the Spirit has been sent to be with Christ's followers.

[8:13] But here, where the disciples are, from their perspective, he's promising, hey, this is going to happen, the Spirit's going to come. Now, this entire section, really going back from 13 on, Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure, for what's going to happen next.

[8:31] He's told them several times about his death and his resurrection and his return to the Father. Most of this went right over their heads. They're not getting it. But he, knowing that these things are coming up, he's giving them some final instructions, some really important teachings.

[8:52] Think about it this way. If you just had a few hours, right, or a couple days left, and you knew you were going to leave, in whatever fashion you were, and you were with someone that you were close to, you know, what would you give?

[9:04] You tell them the most important stuff. This is the critical information I want you to know. And so, for Jesus, much of his instruction that's so, so important is coming here in these chapters.

[9:16] And a lot of it has to do with the person of the Holy Spirit, who we just read about. And I want us just to read, go back to chapter 14, and we'll just read these verses, and they're all tied together here.

[9:30] 14, 16, and 17. He speaks of the Spirit there, too. I will ask the Father, He will give you another helper, so that He may be with you forever. The helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it doesn't see Him or know Him, but you know Him, because He remains with you, and will be in you.

[9:49] Oh, we're going to pick up on that. Jump down, same chapter, verses 25, or verse 25, 26. These things I've spoken to you while remaining with you, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I've said to you.

[10:06] And we jump to the end of chapter 15, verse 26 and 27. When the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, namely the Spirit of truth, who comes from the Father, He will testify about me.

[10:19] And you're testifying as well, because you have been with me from the beginning. And then right into the passage we read, right? So He's now, He's already told them some about the Spirit, and then in chapter 16, this very concentrated portion about the person of the Holy Spirit.

[10:35] So I want us to spend a few minutes just digging into understanding what does Jesus teach us here about the Spirit. First of all, He shows us the Spirit's identity, okay?

[10:48] He calls in verse 7 of chapter 16, and before we also saw it there, He calls Him the Spirit, the helper. At least that's the New American Standard.

[11:00] There's other versions, right? And you can look at yours in verse 7. It might have advocate, counselor, comforter, intercessor, the strengthener.

[11:12] A couple of versions, the standby, the encourager. Does anybody have something that's different from any of those? No? Hit one of them at least for you, right? All right, so the question is, why are there so many English words here, right, to describe who the Spirit is in these verses, or in this verse?

[11:33] I think it's because one reason it's difficult to capture in one word the Greek word that's used here. The Greek word literally means one that's called to one side, right?

[11:47] Or one who is called to someone's aid. And it was used in some ways in a legal context, you know, that's where the idea of counselor comes from, right?

[11:57] One who's called to the, or advocate, called to one side to advocate for them. But in other words, the Holy Spirit, and that word, it's like, how do we translate it?

[12:10] It's all these things, right? Helper, advocate, counselor, comforter, intercessor. The Holy Spirit is called to the disciples' side and is going to be sent to be with them, alongside them.

[12:25] He is, Jesus promises His followers that just as He was with them, the Spirit will be with them and in them. Jesus was God with us, right, for the disciples there, but now the Spirit will be God's presence with His people.

[12:44] In a very, very personal and intimate way. This idea that He is, and this is where, you know, called alongside, it's where the idea of the alongsider comes from.

[12:56] That's a word that if you put it, at least in my spell check, or my Word document, it tried to say that's not a real word. But that's really one of the best ways to capture who the Spirit is.

[13:07] He's the one that's called alongside. He's the one that's called alongside. And He's with us. He's God's presence. He is God, the Spirit, with His people, with you and me. Jesus also, touching on His identity, calls Him the Spirit of truth.

[13:21] Did you see that? In verse 13 of chapter 16, and before, I think it was back in chapter 14, where He also calls Him the Spirit of truth. Yeah, verse 16, 13.

[13:35] But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. And so, like Jesus Himself, who Jesus has described as what? The way, the truth, and the life.

[13:47] So here we have this identity of the Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth. He's going to speak truth. He's going to tell the disciples the truth. This is contrasted with false spirits that speak lies, that deceive people.

[14:03] The Spirit only speaks what's true out of His very nature. The Spirit of God is trustworthy. And so, I think it's important that we get a grasp on this, because we're living in a culture that says what?

[14:21] The truth is subjective. In other words, truth is, we have phrases like, my truth, which, according to one dictionary, if I say my truth, it's defined as a non-negotiable personal opinion.

[14:39] That's pretty weak truth, I think, because that's not, that's that, my truth can be totally different from your truth, and your truth, and we can all have different, and God is saying, no, this is the Spirit of truth.

[14:51] He is going to speak the truth. That God defines truth as a person, first of all, Jesus Himself, and what God says is true. His Word is true.

[15:03] And so, like David says in Psalm 25, and I'll just read this passage, make me know your ways, Lord, teach me your paths, lead me in your truth, and teach me.

[15:15] You are the God of my salvation, for you I wait all the day. So, this is our desire, that we're following the Spirit of truth, right? Okay, so, we see these things about the Spirit's identity.

[15:27] I also want us to think for a couple minutes about the Spirit's work then, that what He's doing. And Jesus teaches about that in these verses. First of all, He talks about the Spirit's ministry to the world in verses 8 through 11 of John 16.

[15:42] He says He'll convict the world regarding sin, righteousness, and judgment. And we see this played out if we go ahead in the story after Jesus has died and resurrected and ascended to the Father, and now the apostles who receive the Spirit and are dwelt by the Spirit, comes upon them, and we see this happening in their ministry.

[16:03] For example, in Acts chapter 2, right? When Peter is preaching to this whole crowd of Jews who had killed Jesus, their Messiah, and he's calling them to repent of this, it says in verse 37, after he's preached all this, now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what are we to do?

[16:29] Well, what is this? This is a work of the Spirit. This is what Jesus promised His Spirit would do. He's going to convict those that don't believe of judgment, of who Jesus is, all these things.

[16:40] We see it in another place, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Paul's recounting his ministry. And in 1 Thessalonians 1.5, he says, we didn't come to you just with words, but we came in power and with full conviction, with the Holy Spirit, right?

[16:56] Paul's saying, when we preached the gospel, it wasn't just some ideas we had, but this is the truth of God, and that the Holy Spirit came with that message and convicted you of your need for Jesus.

[17:09] And so we see this played out. We see how Jesus is fulfilling these things. Those are a couple examples. So this is, I think, encouraging to us because we see that as we are God's people and as we share the good news of Jesus with others, right, that we're not just us speaking.

[17:33] I mean, it is us speaking, but that as we pray and we trust God, that His Spirit is using His Word to work on that person's heart, right? So that's encouraging to me.

[17:46] So we see that ministry. But then Jesus also speaks of here of the Spirit's ministry to the disciples, right? So He's got a ministry in the world, but also a ministry.

[17:57] Look at verses 12 and 13 again in chapter 16. John 16, 12 and 13. Jesus says, I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them at the present time.

[18:10] But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak and will disclose to you what is to come.

[18:21] So here's some promises here that are specific, I think, to the apostles, right? In other words, Jesus had not revealed everything yet.

[18:33] He taught the disciples quite a bit, but these apostles, these ones that had seen Jesus, face to face, they were eyewitnesses of this, and they're going to be sent out. He says, the Spirit's going to give you more revelation, right?

[18:47] I think this is specific to the apostles. Paul, including the apostle Paul, he talks about this later. It's in Ephesians 3, when he talks about how the Holy Spirit has revealed these things to His apostles and prophets, right?

[19:02] So there's this specific promise there that I think we're, it's not something for us to claim and say, oh, well, God's going to reveal new things to me through His Spirit.

[19:13] No, He's done that, right? We have the Word. And so even though we don't see that the Spirit's continuing to give revelation, I think there's still truth and encouragement, a principle here for us today to grab onto.

[19:29] That the Spirit still speaks to us as followers of Christ through His Word. Like the apostles, we need to depend on the Spirit to do His work in us.

[19:42] And as we trust Him, He applies the Scripture to our hearts, gives us insight into the truth of God's Word. And at times He brings us encouragement at just the right moment.

[19:54] Sometimes it's very gentle. He shows us, well, yeah, I think it's always gentle, but sometimes He gently shows us, convicts us of our sin, leads us to confess it.

[20:04] He reminds us of the promises of God, our identity in Christ. He prompts us to action, right? This is all the work of the Spirit. An example of this in my own life over the last several years, I think, yeah.

[20:20] So our youngest, many of you know her, Chloe. And I'd asked her, by the way, if I could share this story. So she was getting ready to go to school.

[20:30] She was still living with us. We had moved over to the Seattle area. And she was her senior year of high school. And she was looking at a couple different options.

[20:41] She was looking at going out to Grace Christian University in Michigan. And she was looking at going at Central in Ellensburg. And I found myself really struggling with the idea of her going to Central.

[20:55] And, you know, it was just, every time it came up, I'm like, well, no, she's got to go to Grace. You know, this was in my mind. And so one day I was praying about that.

[21:05] And I was walking my dog and praying. And like, Lord, why am I, why do I keep trying to, like, manipulate and control this situation? What's going on? And the reality was I was afraid.

[21:19] And so I was praying about that. I'm like, okay, God, I confess. I've got some fear here. What am I afraid of? Oh, well, I'm afraid that if Chloe goes off to Central Washington University, a state school, not a Bible college, not a Christian university, then she's going to fall in with the wrong crowd and just walk away from the Lord, which can happen at a Christian university, too, for that matter.

[21:43] But there's, you know, some more guardrails, right? So this was in my mind. I'm like, oh, that's what I'm afraid of. Well, Lord, I want to trust you with this. This was part of my prayer process.

[21:55] And immediately as I was praying that, Lord, I just want to trust you with Chloe, whether she goes there, wherever she goes. Immediately, the verse from the end of Jude came into my mind.

[22:08] Now, I had not read Jude in a long time. I can't remember the last. It's not like I'd spent my quiet time that morning in Jude and it was fresh in my mind. It was, but these verses from Jude 24, 25, now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault.

[22:30] Immediately, those verses, I think that was God's spirit, speaking his word to my heart for this specific fear that I was confessing to him and just praying about it.

[22:41] And I thought, okay, that's God's promise for Chloe. And so fast forward about a year. It was toward the end of her freshman year. She did go to Central and she was home over the weekend.

[22:53] And we were actually, we were over in the Seattle area. We weren't at our home church there. We were visiting a different church. And it's Jessica and me and Chloe and a couple of friends from that church. And we're all lined up.

[23:04] And it's the end of the service. And it's been almost a year that she's been at Central now and she's back home visiting. And as we're singing the closing song during this worship service, I look over and Chloe's just praising the Lord.

[23:17] And what comes to my mind is, wow, God, you have kept your promise. You promised me this, that you were able to keep her from falling away, from stumbling. I'm like, God, you are so good.

[23:29] And I thought, this is just so rich. And the last song ends and the pastor gets up and he says, okay, now for the benediction before you leave, right? Any guesses what verses he read for the benediction?

[23:43] Jude 24 and 25. Yeah, exactly. And I'm like, okay, Lord, I get the idea. You are faithful, right? But his spirit was, he's just gently reminding me of this truth that he has promised to take care of these things.

[23:57] So I want us to be encouraged that in our lives, that God is a very personal God, that he does this. He comes alongside, that this spirit, his spirit, speaks to our hearts encouragement and truth from his word.

[24:17] So we see that ministry. We also see a third connected aspect of the spirit's ministry here, and it's related to Christ. Verse 14 and 15 says, he will glorify me, for he will take from mine and will disclose it to you.

[24:32] The spirit's work here is to bring glory to Christ in our hearts, in our minds, the words, the lives of his followers, right? So it's not to, the spirit's chief purpose, one author said it this way, is not to make himself prominent, but to magnify the person of Jesus.

[24:55] And so I think about, if you go to watch a play on stage, right? And the main actor that's up on the front of the stage, the whole stage is dark, but what's there? The spotlight is shining right on that main actor, the central figure of the story.

[25:09] And it would be silly if you're sitting there watching that play unfold, if you're, you know, stare up and say, I want to look at the spotlight. No, you don't look at the spotlight. You look at what the spotlight's illumining, right?

[25:20] And here's the spirit's work. He's a spotlight that's focusing all the attention on Christ and so that our lives overflow with Jesus. So this is part of the spirit's ministry here as well.

[25:33] To focus our attention on him, for Christ to shine out of our lives, so that I think when we meet a believer whose attention, whose life, everything is so much on Christ that he just emanates out of that person's life, then we're seeing the work of the spirit, that there's a daily dependence on the spirit.

[26:00] So we see all these promises that the spirit's been sent to be with Christ's followers, and this is what Jesus says he'll do. This is what I believe he says he's going to do for you and me. And so then the question is, well, how are we then living trusting his spirit, right?

[26:17] If this is a reality, if this is what Jesus promised, that he's left, but he sent the spirit, he indwells us, it's very personal, it's very, yeah, specific to what we're going through in our lives, so we can trust him, then how do we do that?

[26:32] How do we live trusting his spirit, right? We understand that he's indwelling us, he's living within us. That's the theology, right?

[26:44] That's the head knowledge, and that's important. But practically, how do we rely on him? Is our daily dependence on the spirit of God, do we trust him as we walk with Christ?

[26:56] There's a popular worship song. You may have heard it. It's just called Holy Spirit is the title. But the song, I'm just going to read some of the lyrics here.

[27:09] It says, Holy Spirit, you are welcome here. Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere. Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for, to be overcome by your presence, Lord.

[27:23] And I'll tell you, when I first heard this song, I thought, oh, is that right? Like, is that a, are these lyrics like accurate to scripture? Because it sounded like it was us somehow welcoming a spirit.

[27:36] And we just read that the Father and Son sent the spirit. Is it theologically accurate for us to say, well, we're welcoming him? But then I looked at the whole song and compared it with scripture and I thought, no, no, no, this is right on, right?

[27:52] The song's meaning, it's not saying that God is not already present, that his spirit's not already here or that we somehow control the spirit's coming. Well, he can only be here if we welcome.

[28:03] That's not what the, the idea of the song is. Rather, it's expressing a desire to, for us as followers of Jesus to be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit's presence and to his activity in our lives.

[28:22] If you go later in the song, I think it's the bridge, it says, let us become more aware of your presence. Let us experience the glory of your goodness, right? And so the idea is it encourages us to be more aware that the spirit is here, that he's living among us, within us individually, but among us as the body of Christ and to respond to his leading, right?

[28:52] And I wonder if sometimes, again, we're saying, how do we as followers of Jesus live trusting his spirit like on a day-to-day? And there might be some reasons why we do this, at least a couple that I thought of.

[29:06] One might be because we don't want to seem like really weird and strange, right? Because there are teachings and churches out there that talk about the spirit and attribute certain things to the spirit, and as we look at them, we say, that is odd, and that seems unbiblical, and I don't think that's what Jesus had in mind here, and so because we know that those things exist, we want to stay way over here and make sure that we don't look like we're talking about like we fit into that group, okay?

[29:40] That could be one reason. Another reason, I think, at least in my life, maybe this hits home for you, is that there is a dynamic, relational, and sometimes uncertain quality to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, uncertain in the sense of not like it's certain we can trust him, but just this dynamic, it's relational, that sometimes we're uncomfortable with, right?

[30:11] Think about how Jesus talked about the Spirit earlier in John. In John chapter 3, he's talking to Nicodemus, and he says, you know, whoever is born of the Spirit, and the wind blows where it will, and you don't know where it's coming from, there's this, oh, this almost mysterious idea of it, right?

[30:33] Or Acts 15, these are all, I love this passage because it's like, oh, wow, they didn't even fully get it, right? The apostles and the elders of the church, it's the early Jewish church, they're dealing with, oh, wow, we've got Gentiles that are joining us now, what do we do with them when it comes to the law?

[30:52] And there's some disagreement there, and the letter that's written, I love this letter, there's this line in here, this is in Acts 15, it's verse 28, you can look it up later, it says, this is what they wrote back, for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials.

[31:12] But I just love that language, it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and others, it's like, it seemed good, come on, you guys are the apostles, what do you mean it seemed good, but there's this sort of ambiguous relational quality to it, or later on, in Galatians 5, Paul talks, he uses these words, walk by the Spirit, be led by the Spirit, live by the Spirit, follow the Spirit.

[31:39] I don't know about you, but all these seem sort of ambiguous and vague, right? Whereas, it's like, well, Paul, it would have been nice if you gave me a checklist and I could say, okay, now today I'm walking by the Spirit because I did one, two, three, you know, I checked it off.

[31:57] But I think that's sort of the point because if we do that, what are we doing? Well, look, I followed this rule and I followed this rule and I followed this rule. And now suddenly, I'm back here under the law, which Jesus says you are free from.

[32:14] And now it's this relationship in the Spirit and there's this, you see what I'm saying here? So it's not this checklist of what to do, but it's a relational, as we are in the Word, as we're praying, as we're just going through every day and saying, God, I'm depending on you.

[32:32] Lord, I need you in this moment right now. Would your Spirit please just show me the next step forward here, right? Yeah. This is a dynamic relationship that the Spirit is the alongside or the presence of God with us.

[32:50] That we are depending on Him just as we are depending on Christ and believing in Him for our salvation. We need Jesus, right?

[33:00] The Gospel doesn't end there, but God continues to show us His grace and goodness that we are continuing to live trusting His Spirit now to walk day to day. And what does that look like?

[33:12] What's that look like when I have a disagreement with somebody? And I'm like, Lord, help me to work this out. I need to trust You. I need You to show me and give me Your wisdom through Your Spirit.

[33:24] Lord, I don't know this next step, this decision. It's really a hard one and I've got a couple, but God, I need to trust You. Well, it seems good to the Spirit and to us that this is the direction we're going, right?

[33:35] So that God is with us in this. But as a result, we're relying on Him, we're trusting Him, we're doing this with God's power. So one way this came up for me recently in working with international students, I had a student from Indonesia that I'd been meeting with pretty regularly.

[34:03] He grew up in a religious household, but not, I wasn't convinced that he knew Jesus as Savior. They'd done church-type activity, but didn't have, you know, a relationship with Christ.

[34:16] And so I'd been meeting with him and we've been talking about things and I'm like, Lord, where do you want me to go? We are going to meet that day and in fact, it was our last time because he was returning home to Indonesia within the next week.

[34:30] And so I was just praying about where to, what to do. And as I was preparing to meet with him, just praying and saying, God, I need, you know, these are the things we've talked about.

[34:46] And again, like God does, he brings his word to mind, right? And he brought to mind, at that point, I think it was 1 John 3, 1, that says, see how much our Father loves us for he calls us his children.

[35:00] That's what we are. The people who belong to the world don't recognize that we're God's children because they don't know him. And I thought, oh, this is a perfect verse. This is exactly, we talked about some of these things, but that was exactly what I needed.

[35:14] And then before I left home, something else came up. And again, it was just like, God worked all this together. And it was one of the best conversations he and I have had since we started meeting together.

[35:29] So this is how God's, as we're trusting him in living day to day, whatever it is. And so then finally, I guess I want us to be encouraged in that we're empowered by his spirit, right?

[35:43] As we go out. That Jesus has left, his spirit has come, he's indwelling us, he's with us. We're trusting him for day to day and that we're empowered by him as we go out.

[35:55] That Jesus is with us in the spirit. That we can have a confidence that God has not left us, that he's not abandoned us, that you and I are not alone, right?

[36:15] And so I want us to be encouraged first and foremost with that, that we're not alone. Sometimes, and for all those reasons we looked at earlier and consider what the disciples were going through, sometimes life can be very lonely and difficult.

[36:33] And this isn't like denying those things, like those things really are, those happen. but that if you know Christ as Savior, that his spirit is with you, he's within you, that he's the alongsideer as we walk with Christ, he's our helper, our comforter, our counselor.

[36:51] And I want us to be encouraged to depend on him, that he will help us, whether that's saying no to sin, to produce his fruit in us, to make us more loving, more joyful, more at peace, right?

[37:09] All those things are his work. And also to be encouraged this morning as we go out from here to think that, oh, we're empowered by the spirit and that same spirit is at work in the world.

[37:23] And so to ask these questions of ourselves as individuals, as families, as a church family, right? How can we more fully trust God and his spirit to do his work in us and through us in the world as he's called us to do?

[37:45] That as we're proclaiming the gospel, as we're speaking these things, God's truth to the world that the spirit is applying that to people's hearts as well.

[37:57] That we do this to, in our own neighborhoods, our, the people we know beyond our neighborhoods and the communities and that the spirit is at work.

[38:09] So this is encouraging to us as we look at Jesus' promises, knowing that he's fulfilled those and he's continuing to do that. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you.

[38:20]  We thank you that you're at work. We thank you that as you...