WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.560 But just for a few minutes, if you want to close, finish off our series, we've done 00:00:04.560 --> 00:00:07.120 the last maybe two or three months on the Holy Spirit. 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:09.359 And it's been incredible to do that. 00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:14.000 It's been a great opportunity to think about the role that the Holy Spirit has. 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.960 And I think that for me, certainly what I've thought about more than I've ever thought 00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:24.359 about before in listening to Cori and also preparing sermons on it is the Holy Spirit's 00:00:24.359 --> 00:00:31.359 pivotal role with us, with people, with you and me. 00:00:31.359 --> 00:00:38.200 In creation, as the one who inspires and opens up God's Word to us, the one who brings us 00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:43.840 as Christians new life in Christ, one who makes us holy, the one who helps us to become 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:53.280 holy, who's the one who walks with us, whose likeness we bear as fruit, who gifts us as 00:00:53.280 --> 00:01:01.120 the gifts we need for service, and the one who we can grieve. 00:01:01.120 --> 00:01:04.120 So we've seen that over the last number of weeks, all these different aspects of the 00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:10.640 work of the Holy Spirit, very personal focus of God in our lives. 00:01:10.640 --> 00:01:15.599 You talk about personal attention. 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:21.520 You know, as Christians, we often accuse God of being distant, being disinterested, 00:01:21.519 --> 00:01:24.599 uncommunicative, silent. 00:01:24.599 --> 00:01:30.759 And yet here we have the third person of the Trinity whose particular and total focus in 00:01:30.759 --> 00:01:38.519 many ways is you based, is for us in our lives. 00:01:38.519 --> 00:01:45.560 You know, you are attended to as a Christian by the most powerful, important and unique 00:01:45.560 --> 00:01:48.000 being in the universe. 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:49.719 He came for you. 00:01:49.719 --> 00:01:51.479 He died for you. 00:01:51.480 --> 00:01:53.920 He rose again for you. 00:01:53.920 --> 00:01:56.520 He's brought you to spiritual life. 00:01:56.520 --> 00:02:02.960 He dealt with and crushed the greatest trauma that you would ever have been likely to have 00:02:02.960 --> 00:02:06.560 faced death and hell itself. 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:12.120 And He promises to take you through all the battles and the many traumas that we face in 00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:15.159 life and never to leave you. 00:02:15.159 --> 00:02:20.159 That's the commitment and the person of the Holy Spirit. 00:02:20.159 --> 00:02:26.960 And even then, even in the struggles when sometimes we maybe feel distant from Him, the 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:33.400 phrase that quite often you hear from me here is, the best is yet to come. 00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:40.359 And that is a really significant and important way that we want to finish this series on 00:02:40.359 --> 00:02:46.079 the Holy Spirit because there's still for us as Christians and not yet. 00:02:46.079 --> 00:02:48.639 There's still for us something better. 00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:52.319 Even in the best days, we have the best days spiritually we have here. 00:02:52.319 --> 00:02:55.799 They're still and not yet. 00:02:55.799 --> 00:02:57.399 We're coming towards Christmas. 00:02:57.399 --> 00:03:00.919 This is first day of Advent and I love Christmas. 00:03:00.919 --> 00:03:02.879 Christmas is a good time of year. 00:03:02.879 --> 00:03:07.319 And as a dad, what I always really enjoyed doing when the kids were wee, I was getting 00:03:07.319 --> 00:03:09.519 up on Christmas morning. 00:03:09.519 --> 00:03:13.759 Early, Katrina used to say that I was more excited than the children. 00:03:13.759 --> 00:03:19.799 I would get up early before they were up and my job was to set the table for Christmas 00:03:19.799 --> 00:03:26.359 breakfast and set the fire in the freezing cold big room that identity were freezing 00:03:26.359 --> 00:03:32.919 in today with their blankets on to keep them warm and get their presents in place. 00:03:32.919 --> 00:03:34.519 And I would get all that done. 00:03:34.519 --> 00:03:38.199 And as I was doing it, the kids, of course, would wake up and they would have the door 00:03:38.199 --> 00:03:39.199 closed. 00:03:39.199 --> 00:03:40.719 They'd stand at the door and say, can we come in? 00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:42.319 Can we come in now? 00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:47.039 And I would say, not yet, not ready yet, not time. 00:03:47.039 --> 00:03:55.479 So there was this just amazing sense of anticipation within them as they waited to get in. 00:03:55.479 --> 00:04:01.240 And I think there's an element of that for us as Christians that the Holy Spirit, as 00:04:01.240 --> 00:04:07.240 we come to the end of this short series for all of us, for you and me as Christians, you 00:04:07.240 --> 00:04:09.159 say, I'm not finished yet. 00:04:09.159 --> 00:04:15.280 Now, however you feel like in your Christian life, however maybe complete you feel, maybe 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:16.800 you don't feel very complete. 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:19.759 He's saying, look, I'm not finished yet. 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:22.240 I've got more to do. 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:25.839 And his final work, the first point I want to make is that his final work is bringing 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:30.199 us as Christians all of us to glory. 00:04:30.199 --> 00:04:33.759 Now we didn't read verse 11, but it speaks about here. 00:04:33.759 --> 00:04:39.040 It speaks about the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in you, Holy Spirit. 00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:43.640 He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through 00:04:43.640 --> 00:04:46.000 His Spirit who dwells in you. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:50.120 And he's reminding us that this resurrection power that brought Jesus from the dead is the 00:04:50.120 --> 00:04:54.080 power that will raise our bodies on that last day to be with Him in glory. 00:04:54.080 --> 00:04:56.540 He's going to make us perfect. 00:04:56.540 --> 00:05:05.680 So having already been especially committed to humanity as a whole, and then to the redeemed 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:12.560 humanity, even from the beginning, he is a task to complete, which is to make us perfect. 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:18.800 So he's going to glorify us by glorifying Jesus in us. 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:23.360 Jesus is the first fruits of that resurrection and we will follow Him. 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:30.639 And it reminds us, as we sit here this evening, that verse 11 of the importance of the resurrection 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:39.319 of Jesus Christ, because it's the guarantee of this not yet, this work that Jesus still 00:05:39.319 --> 00:05:42.360 has to do in our bodies and in our life. 00:05:42.360 --> 00:05:50.000 And that we have this great participation to look forward to in the divine nature. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:55.479 Second Peter 1, through these great promises, he's given us this very great and precious 00:05:55.479 --> 00:06:00.599 promise so that through them you might participate in the divine nature, having escaped the coming 00:06:00.600 --> 00:06:03.480 corruption of the world caused by evil desires. 00:06:03.480 --> 00:06:07.960 And we've got this great hope and this great future with Christ. 00:06:07.960 --> 00:06:13.439 There's so much yet that we don't know and we can't even imagine. 00:06:13.439 --> 00:06:22.040 Dear friends, we are now children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known. 00:06:22.040 --> 00:06:28.360 But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:33.400 So there's this great future that He has in store for us, the Westminster Confession, 00:06:33.400 --> 00:06:35.920 our great subordinate standard. 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:40.639 It says that the bodies of the unjust shall be the power of Christ be raised to dishonour, 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:46.759 the bodies of the just by His Spirit unto honour, and be made conformable to His glorious 00:06:46.759 --> 00:06:48.600 body. 00:06:48.600 --> 00:06:49.600 Not yet. 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:51.840 He's still got work to do. 00:06:51.840 --> 00:06:54.000 But we look forward to that day. 00:06:54.000 --> 00:07:00.399 And remember, it's a great conclusion to this study that we've been making of the Holy 00:07:00.399 --> 00:07:01.399 Spirit. 00:07:01.399 --> 00:07:06.279 It's important always to remember that He is bringing us to glory. 00:07:06.279 --> 00:07:11.519 He has got an unfinished task in our lives. 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:17.959 I encourage you to work hard at replacing frustration with anticipation. 00:07:17.959 --> 00:07:26.079 It's very easy in our lives to be frustrated by our weakness, by our aging, by our struggles, 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:28.079 by our battles. 00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:38.039 But it's important for us to at least be cognisance of anticipation, of better days to come. 00:07:38.039 --> 00:07:46.240 And in our lives to learn patience with God and with other people as well as we look forward 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:48.000 to that day. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:50.639 I've also said this a lot here. 00:07:50.639 --> 00:07:56.960 I struggle with original illustrations and thoughts. 00:07:56.960 --> 00:08:04.960 But this life that we have is just the first line of the introduction of a beautiful and 00:08:04.960 --> 00:08:07.480 never-ending narrative. 00:08:07.480 --> 00:08:13.040 This life is just what sex has seen for that incredible and great and strong future that 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:18.720 we have, hard to imagine when we think this life is everything. 00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:24.960 But it's only the first line of the introduction. 00:08:24.960 --> 00:08:27.760 And that's a great and significant and important truth. 00:08:27.760 --> 00:08:28.760 That's the first thing. 00:08:28.760 --> 00:08:34.720 The second thing that I want, the other thing I want to say is, or expand on a little bit, 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:39.920 His work is an unfinished symphony with all of us. 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:43.519 It's an ongoing and progressive work He's doing for us. 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:50.039 Second Corinthians 318 says, And we all with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory 00:08:50.039 --> 00:08:54.479 are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the 00:08:54.479 --> 00:08:56.479 Lord, who is the Spirit. 00:08:56.479 --> 00:09:03.959 So there's this unfinished work that He promises that He will finish. 00:09:03.960 --> 00:09:10.160 We grasp that we have a glory in us that has yet to be revealed. 00:09:10.160 --> 00:09:15.440 Sometimes doesn't look like it in our lives, but we believe it by faith, that there is 00:09:15.440 --> 00:09:19.040 a glory that will be revealed in our lives. 00:09:19.040 --> 00:09:26.759 Our resurrected bodies will be the Holy Spirit's completed work of divine genius. 00:09:26.759 --> 00:09:34.960 His great creative work will be completed in our resurrected bodies. 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:41.319 And a remarkable truth is that creation itself longs to see that day. 00:09:41.319 --> 00:09:45.600 We read that in the passage in Romans chapter 8. 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:50.759 The creation is longing for that revelation and that great day. 00:09:50.759 --> 00:09:57.919 And it will share in what we can call true freedom day. 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:03.639 Verse 21, we are told that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption 00:10:03.639 --> 00:10:07.159 and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 00:10:07.159 --> 00:10:13.399 So we have this great partnership that we look forward to with creation, who will all 00:10:13.399 --> 00:10:20.720 celebrate together the freedom of the finished work of the Holy Spirit. 00:10:20.720 --> 00:10:21.720 And that's a hope. 00:10:21.720 --> 00:10:23.680 It's not a vague hope. 00:10:23.680 --> 00:10:26.279 It's not a pie in the sky hope. 00:10:26.279 --> 00:10:31.560 It is based on the resurrection of Jesus. 00:10:31.560 --> 00:10:34.040 And but yet, you know, the Bible is not unrealistic. 00:10:34.040 --> 00:10:37.920 It knows that as we wait for that great day, we struggle with birth pains. 00:10:37.920 --> 00:10:42.399 It talks about that in verse 22. 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:48.080 For we know that the whole creation has been growing together in the pains of childbirth 00:10:48.080 --> 00:10:50.240 until now. 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:53.840 So there's pain and there's struggle. 00:10:53.840 --> 00:10:56.240 We feel under threat. 00:10:56.240 --> 00:10:58.759 We're decaying. 00:10:58.759 --> 00:11:00.440 We're battling. 00:11:00.440 --> 00:11:03.720 We're unable to see the end game. 00:11:03.720 --> 00:11:09.120 But in all of this, we're called to hope and to wait patiently. 00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:16.680 Now, I don't know anything about labor pain other than having watched it. 00:11:16.679 --> 00:11:25.199 But I'm sure that a labor pain for an expectant mother, anticipating mother is made more bearable 00:11:25.199 --> 00:11:33.719 by the anticipation of the life that is to come in childbirth. 00:11:33.719 --> 00:11:39.079 That may be part of the reason why they can endure such pain. 00:11:39.080 --> 00:11:47.280 And surely that picture speaks to us in the battles and struggles and pains of our lives 00:11:47.280 --> 00:11:55.320 if there is an anticipation and a hope of release and freedom and a future that is entirely 00:11:55.320 --> 00:11:59.840 different and entirely glorious. 00:11:59.840 --> 00:12:08.080 And in that struggle and battle which we face, who is it that helps us on a day to day basis? 00:12:08.080 --> 00:12:15.840 Verse 26, likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray 00:12:15.840 --> 00:12:22.440 for as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 00:12:22.440 --> 00:12:29.280 So God's Spirit helps us as the creation groans and as we don't know what to pray for, the 00:12:29.280 --> 00:12:37.960 Spirit intercedes on our behalf and He incarnates our struggles and groans before the Father. 00:12:37.960 --> 00:12:42.800 Praying for us when we don't know what to pray for, even when we don't know what to 00:12:42.800 --> 00:12:47.600 say, do you feel you need to be articulate before the Father? 00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:49.759 Do you feel you need to know what to say? 00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:51.759 I don't know what to say. 00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:53.519 That's fine. 00:12:53.519 --> 00:13:00.000 Just go to Him with the unspoken pains and struggles and battles. 00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:02.480 We don't need to articulate them. 00:13:02.480 --> 00:13:11.159 We're not presenting them before a courtroom where we need to articulate our defense. 00:13:11.159 --> 00:13:16.680 We simply are crying out and sometimes we don't know what to say. 00:13:16.680 --> 00:13:24.080 The Holy Spirit is there in that great role of being our helper, especially there to be 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:26.320 our helper. 00:13:26.320 --> 00:13:33.000 And through that He whispers to us that the best is still to come. 00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:37.879 Those whom He predestined, He also called, verse 30, those He called, He also justified. 00:13:37.879 --> 00:13:40.680 Those He justified, He also glorified. 00:13:40.680 --> 00:13:46.400 It's almost given in the past tense because it's so clear and so sure. 00:13:46.400 --> 00:13:47.879 This is His work. 00:13:47.879 --> 00:13:50.360 This is His guarantee. 00:13:50.360 --> 00:13:53.280 God's honour is at stake. 00:13:53.279 --> 00:13:59.839 Nobody this morning preached about assurance, and this is our great assurance, is that He 00:13:59.839 --> 00:14:06.559 will take us through His perfection, His power, His love is on the line when He makes these 00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:11.079 promises and you doubt them at your peril. 00:14:11.079 --> 00:14:17.720 And we doubt them by misunderstanding His character. 00:14:17.720 --> 00:14:22.319 So to the young people here, I'll encourage you not to forget this truth. 00:14:22.320 --> 00:14:27.520 It's very easy, I think, to forget when we're young because we've got all of life we believe 00:14:27.520 --> 00:14:32.480 ahead of us and many dreams to fulfill. 00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:38.720 And it's easy to feel that life is really certain and guaranteed for us. 00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:40.120 But we know that's not. 00:14:40.120 --> 00:14:43.160 And maybe you, as young people today, I don't know it may be different. 00:14:43.160 --> 00:14:45.240 Maybe you feel very uncertain. 00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:46.240 You feel very unsure. 00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:48.240 You feel very insecure. 00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:55.879 A couple of weeks ago there was the walk that went up. 00:14:55.879 --> 00:15:02.840 I don't know where all that went, but it ended up at Hollywood, which was about the environment, 00:15:02.840 --> 00:15:04.720 about global warming. 00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:13.879 And the first three or four rows with megaphones shouting and seeking the good of the planet 00:15:13.879 --> 00:15:16.919 were all teenagers, were all young people. 00:15:16.919 --> 00:15:18.759 So maybe there's not the same certainty. 00:15:18.759 --> 00:15:20.240 Maybe there's not that same security. 00:15:20.240 --> 00:15:23.319 Maybe there's a feeling of insecurity. 00:15:23.319 --> 00:15:27.360 But it's important as Christians to remember this guarantee of the Holy Spirit for you 00:15:27.360 --> 00:15:29.039 as young people. 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:34.439 And for us as we're getting older, it's also a great hope. 00:15:34.439 --> 00:15:40.519 You know, if you feel that your best years are behind you, maybe you feel the loss of 00:15:40.519 --> 00:15:42.879 loved ones. 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:50.000 Or you feel that life is passing you by or has passed you by and the best has passed 00:15:50.000 --> 00:15:51.519 you by. 00:15:51.519 --> 00:15:58.240 And it does seem that the older we get, the life that we have been leading seems to just 00:15:58.240 --> 00:16:03.720 be passing swifter than a weaver's shuttle to put it in biblical terms. 00:16:03.720 --> 00:16:09.759 Well, it's important for us all to stay strong and to give thanks for how committed the Holy 00:16:09.759 --> 00:16:13.319 Spirit is to us. 00:16:13.319 --> 00:16:20.200 Therefore we don't lose heart, though outwardly we're wasting away, yet inwardly we're being 00:16:20.200 --> 00:16:25.960 renewed day by day for our light and momentary troubles and achieving for us an eternal glory 00:16:25.960 --> 00:16:27.439 that far outweighs them all. 00:16:27.439 --> 00:16:31.840 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen. 00:16:31.840 --> 00:16:36.639 For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 00:16:36.639 --> 00:16:40.279 Who is on your side? 00:16:40.279 --> 00:16:42.960 Who is batting for you? 00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:47.720 Who is promised to finish the work that he's begun? 00:16:47.720 --> 00:16:54.759 If you're not a Christian, can I invite you to the open arms of the living God who promises 00:16:54.759 --> 00:17:01.600 to redeem and forgive you if you put your trust in Him and give you His Holy Spirit? 00:17:01.600 --> 00:17:09.640 With all the promises and with all the particular focus He has on you, that in a sense that's 00:17:09.640 --> 00:17:17.039 the whole role that divinely, if I can speak in these terms, He's been given is to be there 00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:24.160 for you, to support you and to esteem you and to build you up and to encourage you and 00:17:24.160 --> 00:17:27.839 to never let you go. 00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:30.120 We really need that. 00:17:30.120 --> 00:17:31.120 Let's pray. 00:17:31.119 --> 00:17:37.039 Rather, God, we ask and pray that you would help us to understand who you are and understand 00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:45.439 that you're not this great, distant, divine being who is disinterested or far away. 00:17:45.439 --> 00:17:47.559 We know we can't see you. 00:17:47.559 --> 00:17:52.719 We know we often feel that you're away from us or distant. 00:17:52.719 --> 00:17:58.279 And that is a battle we will always face, but we are constantly encouraged to remember 00:17:58.279 --> 00:18:03.839 your promises, to remember your help, to cry out to you when we don't have answers and 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:09.599 when we don't even have words, to remember that you have begun a work that you will sustain 00:18:09.599 --> 00:18:15.119 us in it as followers of Jesus and you will glorify us in the end. 00:18:15.119 --> 00:18:17.359 And that will be a great day. 00:18:17.359 --> 00:18:18.359 Give us that perspective. 00:18:18.359 --> 00:18:24.240 We thank you for Sundays, which help us to remember that perspective as a resurrection 00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:33.160 day and in the bleakness sometimes of our experiences may Sundays be a bright day that 00:18:33.160 --> 00:18:38.559 maybe recalibrate our focus a little bit and remind us of the Holy Spirit's work and 00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:46.039 help us to worship and helps us in our battles to know miracles and to know impossibilities 00:18:46.039 --> 00:18:47.759 and to know sustaining strength. 00:18:47.759 --> 00:18:48.759 We thank you. 00:18:48.759 --> 00:18:52.319 Those of us who are older here will be able to thank you for the way you sustained our 00:18:52.319 --> 00:18:57.879 lives and sustained our witness way beyond what we could ever have dreamed you would 00:18:57.879 --> 00:19:00.839 and that you sustained us every day. 00:19:00.839 --> 00:19:06.839 And we pray that you continue to do that till our last day of life here. 00:19:06.839 --> 00:19:16.480 And as we look forward to that remarkable return of Jesus when all things will be made 00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:24.680 you and even this world we find so much of it so beautiful will be made perfect and will 00:19:24.680 --> 00:19:33.400 be an amazing home for us to live in with resurrected bodies forever with Jesus. 00:19:33.400 --> 00:19:37.880 We thank you for that hope and we pray that it would encourage and sustain us in this 00:19:37.880 --> 00:19:44.559 week that we have entered into whatever befalls us by your providence this week. 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:46.559 In Jesus' name, Amen.