How the Holy Spirit Helps Us

Transcript: "(00:01) verse 8 or chapter 8 verse one. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Why? Why can Paul say that too? Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. (00:29) For what the law, that's the Mosaic law, was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh or the sinful nature, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. That's talking about Jesu emned to stay stuck in your sins because the Holy Spirit can help get you free. (01:19) Verse two says, "The law of the spirit who gives life set you free from the law of sin and death." Verse four, at the end of verse four, "The righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the flesh, but according to the spirit." Look at verse four again. (01:38) I want to show you something that doesn't come out in my English translation so well. Do you see where it sa walk by the spirit. That's putting in a sentence. There's more that could be said, but you got to be in Christ. You have to be connected to Jesus. (02:19) And then you need to learn what it means to walk by the spirit. You say, "Well, what does that mean? What does it look like to walk by the spirit?" Let me give you an illustration that I heard almost 40 years ago from one of my seminary profs that stayed with me over the decades that's been the most helpful illustration to help me get a pictur ttle stayed, it was always the same conversation that he had with her. He'd walk in and she was seated in her rocking chair, primed and ready to go. And he'd walk up to her and he'd say, "How you doing today, Grandma Little?" And she would always say, "Pretty good." And then he would say, "Are you ready to go, Grandma Little?" And she would say, "Yes, but not too fast." And then he would lean down and give her his arm. (03:36) She would reach up and put her arm in his and stand up. And there was o?" And I say, "Yes, but not too fast." And then I consciously reach up and lean on his power. I go through my day. I'm still active. My legs are working. (04:27) My hands are working but I am leaning consciously depending on the power of the Holy Spirit. I am walking by the spirit. That my brothers and sisters is what the basic requirement of a holy life takes. You have to be in Christ and learn to walk by the spirit. Because if you walk by the spirit, the spirit helps you in five key ways. (04 king. The Holy Spirit goes to work and he works to change or exchange our stinking thinking. Let let me read verses 5 to8. It's all about how you think. Listen for the word mind. M I N D shows up over and over. (05:34) He's going to talk about your mind. Look at verse five. Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires. But those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death. ) It's the it's the mindset of the flesh. That's all you know. It's your default setting. All you can do is think about those things and they lead to a lot of baggage. But once you become a a Christian, Paul says, "Now you can have a new mindset, you can set your mind, verse five, in accordance with the spirit on what the spirit desires. (06:48) " And what the Holy Spirit seeks to do is to literally help you change your mind. It's interesting to me that when he's going to change your life, he st ge some of the ways you think. You got some stinking thinking going on that needs to change. (07:33) Uh Linda and I were in Europe once and we were went to London and we went on the underground. If you've been on the underground in London, you know that they have signs everywhere and verbal uh reminders on the trains and it always says the same thing. As you come up to the platform, you'll see a sign and you'll hear a voice that says, "Mind the gap." Mind the gap. Now, as North Americans, we kin over and over and says, "Mind your mind. Mind your mind." He's reminding you that you can get tripped up in your thinking. We need to exchange that stinking thinking for something better. So, it's Monday night. You're heading home from work. It's been a long day. (08:39) And as you drive, your mind just drifts. and you begin to replay some old hurts, things that people said to you, things that someone did to you, someone that hurt you deeply. And you start thinking about that all over again. An And it is engaging. (09:25) The plotline is drawing you in. But pretty soon, it starts getting seamy. It starts getting sketchy. And you know that it's going to take you to places that you don't need to go with your eyes or your thinking. And the spirit of God cuts in right in the middle of the movie and says, "Hey, hey, hey, mind your mind. Mind your mind." And you think, "Thank you. Thank you. That this needs to I need to change the channels. (09:50) " And you switch it off. So you go to bed a , but in everything with prayer and petition, let your requests be made known to God." And you say, "Thank you. Thank you, spirit of God. I need that. I want you to I want to get rid of this stinking thinking. (10:35) help me to set my mind on what you want. And then the spirit of God prompts you. He says,"Listen, we're going to have to change your thinking." And he prompts you to open up scripture as you spend your days. And you start opening them up and reading because as you read God's word, ou think. He's going to help exchange your stinking thinking. That's the first way the spirit of God helps you. But there's four more in this chapter. So, let me go to the second one. Comes out in verses 9 through 11. In verses 9- 11, we find not only does he, this Holy Spirit exchange our stinking thinking, get this, he also energizes our faithful obedience. (11:40) He energizes you to do the things that you should do and that you even want to do. Look at verse 9, 10, and 11. You'll see it. Ver t of God's spirit to live inside of you. That's part of a promise Jesus made. Listen to these verses from John 14 161 17 and 18. (12:25) Jesus promised this would happen. Listen to this. Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commands and I will ask the father and he will give you another advocate or another counselor." Some translations say another helper to help you and to be with you forever. The spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him or knows him. (12:51) But ecause of righteousness. And if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his spirit who lives in you. Here's what he's saying. (13:36) The Holy Spirit will energize you to do the things that Jesus wants you to do. You say, "I don't have the strength to do that." Well, that's okay. You don't need the strength in yourself. The spirit of God will give you the strength. That's what he sa them. (14:20) I need daily bread. Spirit of God, help me. And so, I open up the word of God and I begin to read. And undoubtedly, he'll start meeting me there. He energizes my obedience to do that. He helps you with that. Or here's another way it works in my life. You c you come you come to a ministry that you're a part of and you're tired and you don't feel like going. (14:46) Maybe you work with kids men, maybe you work with adults, maybe you have a small group, some area over and over, I've b doesn't know Jesus yet, as best we can tell. And so we went to visit him and we thought, I don't know if he wants to see us. He doesn't know us that well. So we drove by his house. And as we drove by his house, he walks out the door. (15:35) It was like synchronized. So we pulled in and we thought, "Well, maybe the Lord wants us here." We sat down and we said, "Uncle Lawrence." And he was initially like, "Who are you people?" And we said, "This is Linda Han Coupoop. This is Garrett's, your brot od joke about heaven." and he told us a joke about heaven, about baseball players because he loves sports, but he kind of pushed it away, didn't he? He didn't really want to go there. So, as we prayed about it, we left, had a wonderful visit with him. I I thought, Lord, you want me to do something, but I don't know if I can do something. I don't I don't even know him very well. (16:37) But I felt the spirit of God say, "He loves baseball. Tell him Mickey Manel's story." And if any of you know ba ow you guys." I said, "Uncle Lawrence, I know you love baseball. I mentioned Mickey Mantel. (17:13) Here's a story about Mickey Mantel I think you'll enjoy." So we gave it to him and we left. His daughter texted us a little bit later, texted Linda and said, 'I was just by my dad's house. He was reading the article on mantle. The spirit of God gave us the courage to do what we might normally shy away from or put off. He energizes our obedience. You found that. (17:37) But you got to walk by him. . We got to hasten on. This one is stunning. It comes out in verses 12, 13, and 14. I'd put it this way. The spirit of God executes our sinful actions. He executes our sinful actions. Let me show you them. Look at verses 12, 13, and 14. (18:24) You'll see it. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh to live according to it. Verse 13. For if you live according to the flesh, if you live the old way, you will die. But if by the spirit by the spirit you put ecutions in your life of things that you know are wrong. The spirit of God will say that's got to die. You got to put that to death. Now, I want to I want track with me for a moment. This is a little bit f what I'm going to say next. You got to stay a little sharp to follow, but I think you'll get it. The Greek word, the verb that Paul uses there in verse 13 where he says put to death. (19:37) The word that he uses means put to death or it can mean hand over to put to death. For example, in Matt 's what's involved in the spirit of God executing sin in our body. Here's what happens. (20:21) The spirit of God goes after outlaw actions in your life. things that you're doing that you know are wrong, he knows are wrong. Remember those wanted posters that used to be in the post office that have some poor guy's face on there and say wanted by the FBI. (20:39) It's like the spirit of God puts up a wanted poster in your heart on some actions that you're doing that are wrong. You know they're wro ding that over to you. Put that to death. Lord, I know I've got this harsh tongue that slices up the people next to me, people closest to me. I don't want to do that, but I can't kill it. I'm giving it to you. Put that thing to death. (21:32) He's saying, "That's what you And by the way, this is not a small matter. You have to do this." Did you notice verse 13? If you live according to the flesh, you will die. This is life and death. But if you put it to death by the spirit, you will live. (21:5 his should recalibrate some of our expectations when it comes to what does it mean to live a spiritfilled life. Some people think that living the spiritfilled life is a life of small struggles and easy victories. But that's not what the Bible says. (22:36) The Bible says a spiritfilled life is also a a life of a fight. It's a battle. You're doing battle against the sin that's trying to mess you up. In fact, verse 14, I love verse 14 says those who are led by the spirit of God are the children of ying is this. (23:18) The spirit of God leads you to put to death the things that are killing you because they're wrong. And one of the ways you can know you're a Christian is you feel the fight. You feel that internal war. And you feel the spirit of God trying to say that has to die. That has to die. Stop dabbling with that. That has that actually is an evidence of God's spirit living in you that you're a child of God. (23:47) JC Riyle who was an English pastor in the previous century actually r? How does the spirit help you as you walk by the spirit? As you lean on him, well, he exchanges your stinking thinking. He energizes your faithful obedience. (24:32) Third thing is he executes your sinful action. Let's get to the fourth one. It comes out in verses, let's see here, where are we? We're all the way down. We'll get to verses 15, 16, and 17 next. And the fourth way the spirit of God helps us is this. And I love this one. The spirit of God encourages closeness to the father. He enco t we may also share in his glory. Paul says the spirit that lives inside of you is the spirit of sunship. God not only forgave you when you trusted in Jesus, he gave you himself in the person of his spirit. And the spirit, it says, leads you to say, "Aba, father." Aba father. (25:50) You know, aba, that word aba, it's the Aramaic word for papa, like daddy. So think about this. The spirit of God encourages you to come to the almighty God and say, "Aba, papa." See what he's saying? The spirit of G usician, you may have heard the term sympathetic resonance. Sympathetic resonance. What that means is if I were to walk over to the piano, uh, this one is actually electronic keyboard, but if it was was a acoustic piano, and you lifted up the lid, and if I leaned over the cavity, the sound cavity where the soundboard is, and press down the sustain key, so all the hammers are up, and if you sing a note into the piano, if you go and then listen, you will hear that the piano without you touching an g. He says come close. Something inside you says I'm coming close. There's a resonance. He let you know you you can come close. And what's stunning about this is that this is all in the context of you dealing with sin in your life. (28:19) The messy business of killing sin, he's saying in the midst of that, the spirit of God is saying, "Come close, Aba Father." Let me ask you, when you're struggling with some sin in your life, do you feel close to God? Do you feel like you can just walk in and s you're leaning on him. (29:14) This is going on in your life in real time. So the spirit of God exchanges your stinking thinking. He energizes your faithful obedience. He executes your sinful action. He encourages closeness to the father. And there's one more. It comes out in verses 26 and 27. I'd put it this way. The Holy Spirit empowers our feeble prayers. (29:40) He empowers our feeble prayers. You say, "Where do you get that?" Well, look at verse 26. You'll see it. In the same way, the Spiri convoluted situations that I and others find ourselves in. There are times when I say, "I don't even know where to start on this one, Lord. I don't even know what I should be praying for on this one. This seems so hopelessly tangled. (30:32) My prayer seems so very feeble." He says, "The spirit of God helps us in that." And he intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. The spirit of God comes and takes what you can't articulate and expresses it to the father in a beautiful way. He ano. (31:30) And the opening line of the song is, "I've been told that I can't play piano." And it was clear that he really wasn't a piano player. He was just kind of playing the most basic chords. And the lines of the song went, "I've been told that I can't play piano, and it's true I don't play very well." And that was true. You could hear that he doesn't play very well. (31:52) But the next line said this, "But if I wait until it's perfect, maybe I will never play at all." And then the next v r piano who was actually an excellent virtuoso pianist. and he started to play along with Allen. Allan's playing his most basic chord. (32:42) This guy gets in and starts adding flourishes and runs and rich chord progressions. And suddenly this very basic music is suddenly coming to us with this glorious sound because somebody is assisting Allen with his simple plane. And that's become a metaphor for me with my prayers. I feel like I'm the guy at the keyboard plunking out my basic prayers. They king for good in all things. God is working for good in my life. That starts to feel like a reality. God's spirit lets me know that. Or as he says in chapter 8:31, we can know that God is for us. That becomes more of a reality. or what he says in 8 chapter 8:33 that God has justified us or what he says at the end of this chapter becomes more and more real where Paul ends with these words for I am he says and um the end of verse 38 for I am convinced that neither death nor life neither angels nor . He'll energize your faithful obedience. He will he'll come and he'll execute sinful actions while he encourages closeness to the father and then finally he comes and he empowers your feeble prayers. All of that can be true and that's how you start seeing the baggage go away. (35:10) He he helps you start getting rid of some of those sinful baggage things that you couldn't get rid of on your own. The spirit of God is able to do that. But all that is predicated on one thing is that the spirit of and kind of engineering in some of our colleges in Canada. But Ludvik was a man who told me he had no faith. They had lived through World War II, through the horrors of World War II. Elijah's brother had been hauled out of their house by the Nazis and executed in the street. And when that happened, on the day that it happened, Elijah's mother said, "There is no God." So, they had come to Canada. (36:20) They were nominally linked to a Catholic Polish church, but they weren't going there. They we where they talked about the Holy Spirit, how that when you trust in Jesus, when you ask him to forgive your sins, God gives you his spirit. (37:00) We drove home that day. We parked in my driveway and Ludvik said to me, "Is this true?" I said, "Is what true?" And he said, "Does God's spirit come to live inside you when you trust Jesus?" I said, "That's true, Ludvik. The Bible says so." He goes, "I've never heard this." I said to him, "Would you like that?" "Yes, I would like that. (37:18) I wou fe in mine. I want to follow you." So, I prayed the simple prayer. And so, after I was done, then it was Ludvik's turn. I will never forget his prayer. He starts off and he says,"Lord, this is Ludvik. (38:08) " It had been 30 years, so I'm guessing he's thinking up in heaven, maybe they lost track of him. "Lord, this is Ludvik. I want to have faith. I want to believe in Jesus. I want to have the Holy Spirit in my life." He prays this prayer. Now, I've been around a bunch of people over the years e table and said, "Let's all say something we're thankful for." And people are saying stuff like, "I'm thankful for my boat. (38:57) I'm thankful for my cottage. I'm thankful for the trip to Tahiti." Gets to Ludvik and he says, "I am thankful I have been born again." He's so pumped up about this. And then Ludvik got ALS. Lou Garrick's disease, which is a brutal disease. It takes away your life a bit at a time. He lost the use of his arms. He lost the use of his legs. But he never lost his faith. th that night. Shortly after that, Linda was able to help his wife Eliza come to faith in Jesus as well. (40:07) You see, when the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of you, God does something deep and and starts changing you. Doesn't mean that all the trials of life or all the struggles of life are over. doesn't mean that everything's going to go perfectly from then on, but it just means you will now have God's power inside of you in a way you've never had before. It will help you in life. (40:25 he day where you say, "Help me, Lord, to walk by your spirit so that this sinful baggage that I'm dealing with will be will be gone, will be gotten rid of, that this struggle will not last forever, that you'll help me. (41:14) "