Living Hope Church

Pastor Phil Steiger: If you have your Bibles, if you would turn with me, please. We're in the book of Romans, we're in Romans chapter 8. In just a couple of minutes, we're going to start reading along in verse 7. If you don't have a Bible, feel free to use the one in the chairs in front of you, around you. We'll have scripture on the screen as well to help. But this is what we do: we open up the word of God, we make sense of it, and we listen to what the Spirit of God has to say to his church in this moment.

Romans chapter 8 has been full of amazing and incredible things. The turn from Romans 7 into chapter 8, we talked about that a few weeks ago, being I believe the most dramatic turn in the book of Romans, maybe in a lot of the epistles as well. From that inner tension, that frustration that Paul feels, "Who will save me from this body of death?" then he turns around and says, "Thanks be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." And then as we turn into chapter 8, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." And as we speak of that forgiveness, the Apostle Paul then begins to talk specifically about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So the deeper we go into Romans chapter 8, the more we are confronted with the reality of the Spirit of God inside of the lives of believers making his way out as we live these lives to the glory of God. So the deeper he goes into this chapter, the more we learn about the Holy Spirit and what he has done for us.

We learn in the book of John that Jesus told his disciples that it was actually to their advantage that he would go. He's on his way to the cross and then eventually resurrection and ascension, but preparing them for that weekend, for that time, he says, "It's good for you that I go because when I go, I'm going to send the comforter, the Holy Spirit, to be with you." It is the Spirit of God who now lives in believers and empowers the church. So instead of one man, God in flesh, in Judea and Galilee, now the Holy Spirit infills every believer and infills the body of Jesus Christ.

So Paul, in our passage of scripture this morning, is going to make this strong contrast between those who are indwelt with the Spirit of God and those whose minds are set on the flesh. That's been part of chapter 8 to this point and we're going to read some of that again. We remind ourselves that the mind that is set on the flesh, that is set against God, the mind that is set on the flesh is death. It does not, it cannot submit to God. It cannot please God. And the Apostle Paul says that mind is actually hostile to God.

But the believer now, in that resolution from chapter 7 into the glory of forgiveness and the Holy Spirit of chapter 8, the believer now has been given a brand new spirit of power. Friends, this is a thought that I just want to leave in your minds as we walk through chapter 8 and our time together this morning: the Spirit of God is power. And we're going to walk through that the more we go through chapter 8.

In our passage this morning, a couple of the thoughts that are going to kind of help us navigate what we read: first of all, who is the Spirit that lives in you? Not the Spirit that lives in anyone or everyone, but those who genuinely follow Jesus Christ. There's been repentance, there's been confession of faith, there is now the desire to live more and more like Christ. Who is this Holy Spirit? So the word of God actually has a lot to say about who the Spirit of God is. We talk a lot about God the Father and God the Son, Jesus Christ. We may not spend enough time on the Holy Spirit, but Romans chapter 8 gives us a chance to fix that and focus in on the third member of the Trinity. So who is it? Who is the Spirit who lives within you?

And then what difference does that make? Does it make any kind of difference? Scripture actually has a lot to say about this as well, the difference that it makes in our lives. But Paul, in our passage, is going to focus in on a couple of very powerful truths this morning. And one of those things, friends, one of the differences that it makes, and I anticipate this in our time together this morning, I enjoy this truth in the New Testament: the Spirit of God will never leave you and will never forsake you. The Spirit of God indwells the believer, the Spirit of God indwells the church, not just until Jesus comes, but for all of eternity. It's an incredible truth.

Let's read our passage of scripture together this morning. Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 7: "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." That is hope, friends. It's an incredible passage.

We may not get all the way to verse 11 this morning, but there's still a lot of good stuff until we get there. I began in verse 7 for a reason: "For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. For it does not submit to God, it cannot submit to God, it cannot please God, it is set against God." And we make sure we begin here so that we feel the contrast of the difference. What difference does it make now that I have repented and submitted and I belong to Jesus Christ? What kind of difference is supposed to be inside of my life now?

The contrast that happens in verse 9 is important for us here. This hostility, the more I go through this passage of scripture, I cannot get past this language in verses 7 and 8 about the mind that is set on the flesh. Doesn't want to submit to God, in fact, it cannot. When we have a mind that is set against God and has become hostile to God, this hostility, we mentioned this briefly last week, but when we think of a mind that is hostile to God, I think sometimes the first image that comes to mind is that angry atheist friend of ours who can't stop talking about how much they don't like the God they believe doesn't exist. We think of that kind of hostility. And yeah, that is the case and that is often how it rises to the surface. But it's hostility against God's created order: against God's family order, against God's social order, his moral order. And for lack of a better phrase, it's hostility against God's reasonable order, the way our minds are supposed to work, the way our hearts and emotions and morality are supposed to work. It's hostility against all of that.

Friends, hostility to moral truth is a sure sign of a mind that is set in opposition to the Spirit of God. But you, however, have been given the Spirit and now there is life, now there is clarity, now there are different desires and drives inside of your life. But there was this mind many of you had. Paul, before his conversion as well, his mind was hostile against God. Many of us who are saved later on in life, we know what that hostility against God was like in our hearts and minds. But hostility to the moral truth of God is a sure sign of a heart and mind that are in opposition to the Spirit of God.

Friends, hostility to God's morality does not stay personal or private. It is very common for an individual to say, and it's common in the air in our culture today as well, that as long as I do whatever I want to do and don't harm anybody, then I'm allowed to behave however I want to. It is, in fact, the creed of the Wiccan religion: "Do what you will and harm none." That is a contradiction in terms. You cannot do whatever you want and never harm anyone. Eventually, my lifestyle will affect not just what's happening inside of my soul and my mind, but it will affect the people I live with, it will affect the people that I am around. And a life that is hostile to the moral truths of God, that life is going to eventually affect the lives of the people around them.

We also cannot leave hostility to God in one corner of our own souls. There's this piece of me I'm not ready to let go of yet. This is how I release myself emotionally. This is how I deal with difficult things, I just have to get through it and get over it. We leave that darkness in our soul. And friends, if we leave that corner of rebellion or hostility against God inside of our soul, it will eventually spread like a virus through the rest of us. Hostility to the things of God doesn't stay in a little pocket. And over time, friends, this is important: widespread and tolerated immorality will turn into public injustice. Let me say that again: widespread and tolerated immorality will turn into public injustice. It doesn't stay here, it doesn't stay here, it goes there.

The way the word of God talks about this issue, and we could actually spend the rest of the morning reading scripture on this particular issue, but the way scripture talks about it is that hostility to the truths of God is a gateway to injustice and it is a gateway to the love of falsehood and folly. It's amazing how the word of God speaks of this.

Proverbs chapter 28, verses 4 through 5. Heather and I were talking about some of these passages just yesterday. Proverbs 28:4-5: "Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive against them. Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it completely." The next several passages of scripture they're going to read this morning, you should just lay those on top of your social media feed as you go through headlines, as you read what's happening inside of the news, as you listen to people talk. You just go, "Oh, I was told about this in the word of God thousands of years ago."

Ecclesiastes chapter 2, I know one of everyone's favorite devotional texts. Ecclesiastes chapter 2, verse 13 and the first half of verse 14: "Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise person has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness." Proverbs also says in chapter 4, I think it's verse 16, when the fool walks in darkness, they don't even know over what they stumble. Have you ever thought to yourself, "How can they not see that?" Well, the word of God tells you how. Have you ever looked on your life and come to that moment of realization of, "God, how did I not see that?" It's because sin darkens our reasoning. It darkens the way we think and it darkens the way we act with other people.

So friends, we notice when God's system of public righteousness, of public morality is shunned, it does have consequences. Again, further in Ecclesiastes chapter 8, verse 11, I'm going to read from the CSB version. It says this: "Because the sentence against an evil act is not carried out quickly, the heart of people is filled with the desire to commit evil." So when those who rule over us do not enact justice in an appropriate and timely fashion, guess what the human heart thinks? "Well, I can get away with that." Again, we've been told this for a very, very long time. And if I may, friends, a firm grip on the irrational is a sign of the mind that is hostile to God. A firm grip on what is irrational, "I'm not letting go of this," is a sure sign of a mind that is hostile to God.

Isaiah 32, verse 6, again in the CSB, says this: "For a fool speaks foolishness and his mind plots iniquity. He lives in a godless way and speaks falsely about the Lord. He leaves the hungry empty and deprives the thirsty of drink." Something powerful happens in these two verses of scripture that we need to sort of tease out for just a second or two. Part of us is willing to say, "Okay, yeah, the fool does this." They think in iniquity and in twisted ways and they're ready with their own mouths to speak folly and hatred toward the things of God. But that last sentence says: "And their way of life is fruitless. Their way of life is garbage."

Godless ideologies in our culture will tell you over and over and over, "If you follow this godless ideology, we're going to make sure that everybody has enough money. We're going to make sure everybody has enough food. We'll take money away from the people that you don't like and we will give it to you. We will make sure that you have free this, free this, and free this as long as you follow this godless ideology." History tells us that fails 100 percent of the time. Isaiah told us this. They tell us they will feed the hungry and they tell us they will give the thirsty something to drink. But the fool leaves the hungry empty and deprives the thirsty of drink.

The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, God's created order, the way the soul works, the way family works, the way our relationships work. This is how hostility against God works. So we reflect on that for a few moments, we let those thoughts sink in and become real to us in our own lives, in our past, in the world around us.

And then the Apostle Paul says this: "You, however, are not in the flesh, but you are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you." That is a strong contrast, that little term, "you however." We've been looking at this, we've paid attention to this. I've explained this to you in Romans 1, I mention it to you here in Romans chapter 8. But you know what? If you are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation and you now live in the Spirit of God. This means things are going to change: the way I think, the way I emote, the way I interact with God and with my neighbor. The believer belongs to God and the believer is learning how to live as if they belong to God. You, however... and this is strong language. This is great. You belong to him now.

He has given you his Spirit. We're going to walk through this. It is his seal, his guarantee of his presence upon my life. I belong to him and now I'm learning how to live like I belong to him. We've gone 180 degrees from the mind that is set on the flesh to now the life that is in the Spirit of God. If you read verses 9, 10, and 11, you will notice that the Apostle Paul uses this word "in" a lot, in the sense of being in the Spirit or the Spirit in us. Paul in three verses uses that word "in" in that sense five times. So we're talking about the animating principle of your soul. The animating principle of your soul. What is moving you, driving you? What is building your emotions, your thoughts, your priorities, your speech? What is in me?

Twice in these three verses, verse 9 and verse 11, Paul says that the Spirit of God dwells within us. Oftentimes when we talk about salvation, we'll talk to people about that moment, we'll ask the question, sometimes we use this language when we're talking to little kids to try to help them make sense of it: "Have you asked Jesus into your heart?" Now every now and then a grumpy pastor or theologian is going to go, "Oh, that's not in scripture. I don't know what that means." Paul says right here, he says right here: the Spirit of God lives inside of your heart. The Spirit dwells within us. The Greek is very straightforward for this word. It means "to be fixed within." This is where I live. This is where I reside now.

There are a couple of other passages in the New Testament that use the same word to describe the same thing. In Ephesians chapter 2, verses 21 and 22, the Apostle Paul says you and I, we are being knit together into this whole unit, this temple that is becoming the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. So it is true that you and I personally, individually, when we come to Christ and he becomes our savior, the Holy Spirit dwells within us individually. Then it's true in the plural as well: that when we gather together, friends, the Holy Spirit indwells our presence. He is with us.

Jesus told his disciples, "It's good that I go because I'm going to send you the comforter. I will not leave you as orphans." What a great phrase. You're going to feel like you've been left alone like orphans, but you won't be. The Spirit of God, the third member of the Trinity, the creator of the universe, the raiser of Jesus from the dead, is going to indwell you for all of eternity.

So I want to talk a little bit through chapter 8 about who the Spirit of God is. The Spirit of God is the presence and the power of God within his church. The Spirit of God is the presence and the power of God within a church. He is the third member of the Trinity, co-equal with God the Father and with God the Son. He himself is God and he is with us this morning.

It was striking to me as Heather and I watched the Charlie Kirk memorial last week, and maybe some of you caught snippets of that. By the way, last week we prayed for that because I said it's going to be possible that the gospel of Jesus Christ is going to be preached over and over again to hundreds of millions of people. And guess what? It was. It was preached over and over again to hundreds of millions of people. And people reflecting on that moment and even people inside of the moment were saying this. They kept saying, "The Spirit of God is here." One of the speakers actually said, "The Holy Spirit is here humming like a tuning fork." I love that phrase. What does that mean? Why is that true? Why does that happen?

So friends, the church, and we speak right now of the church as the body of Christ, not the physical building where the church will gather, but we're talking about the gathering of the children of God. Those who belong to Jesus, when we gather, this is the local church. This is the body of Jesus Christ. The church is not a social society. The church does not primarily exist for social gathering and social good reasons. The church of Jesus Christ is the only organism on the face of the planet that God has chosen to actually put his Spirit within and empower it to do his kinds of things. It's the only organization that God has done this with. And friends, here we are. Here we are in the presence of God.

Now, I love this thought. The Holy Spirit in the New Testament begins the church. The church as we understand it biblically is begun by the falling and coming of the Holy Spirit in a unique way in Acts chapter 2. We also discover that the Holy Spirit is still with the church and speaking with the church at the end of all things in the presence of God and his eternity. So to see these two bookends: Acts chapter 2, the first four verses, this is the beginning of the church, this is the day of Pentecost. Christ has ascended. He has told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father. And this is what happens: Acts chapter 2, verses 1 through 4. "When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance."

And you should read the rest of Acts chapter 2 to watch that drama in that moment unfold. As the church begins, it starts with 120-some odd people inside of a room. Acts chapter 2 ends with thousands of people professing Jesus as Savior. The Holy Spirit comes, fills and empowers the church. Then at the end of all things, we see this: Revelation 22, verse 17. All evil and rebellion has been done with. There is a new heavens and there is a new earth and God is on his throne and the tree of life there is given, is there again for the healing of the nations and we are in the presence of God in his perfect kingdom forever and forever and forever. And as John the Revelator winds up this book, this is part of what he says in verse 17: "The Spirit and the bride, the Holy Spirit and the church, say come. And let the one who hears say come." So John's saying, if you're reading this and you feel this, say it: "Come, Lord Jesus." "And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price." The Spirit still indwells his people, even friends into the eternity of God.

How does the New Testament describe the Spirit of God to us? Who is this Holy Spirit that Paul is talking about who indwells the people of God now? Well, the New Testament has a lot to say about the Holy Spirit and here's a handful of things for us to keep in mind as we think through this passage and the rest of Romans chapter 8. The first is this: the Holy Spirit is our helper. He is our comforter. Part of what Christ tells his disciples in John chapter 14, verse 16: "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever." There it is, going to be with you forever, the helper, the comforter.

The Greek word there for helper or comforter is *parakletos*. It's where we get a word *paraclete* from, again, I know that's a word most of us use all the time, right? But the Greek word means someone who is called to our aid. Someone who comes alongside and takes up our case for us. Christ says, "In a little while you're going to actually watch me ascend into heaven and you're going to wonder what is next. Well, here's what's next: the one who is coming to your aid is going to come and he is going to be with you forever. You belong to Jesus Christ. He has sealed you with the Holy Spirit and you are his." If you are a son or daughter of God, you belong to God and he has given you his Holy Spirit. None of us will ever be left alone. That's incredible. The Holy Spirit is our helper, he is our comforter.

Jesus also tells his disciples that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. The Spirit of truth. John chapter 14, verse 17: "Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you." The Spirit of truth. Jesus tells his disciples that part of what the Spirit is going to do is he is going to bring to your minds everything that I have taught you. You're going to remember the things that I have given you. They're going to make sense to you. They're going to be attractive to you because the Holy Spirit now will teach you and will lead you and will draw you actually to me. So as the Holy Spirit is at work, one of the things that happens is we love Jesus more. We understand him more. We love the word more because it sends us to Christ, his truth, his glory, his power. This is part of the work of the Holy Spirit.

I think we're seeing in some of the passages that we have read this morning, and what we just read here in John chapter 14, a lot of the distinction between those who follow Jesus and those who follow the spirit of the age is often put in terms of truth and falsehood, wisdom and folly. It's never one choice among many. It's never anything like that. It's never, "Well, if you've got some sort of emotional problem, Jesus is here to help you, and that's who Jesus is here to help." He's not one moral teacher amongst many. You might find meaning in another path in another moral teacher. Scripture never presents the faith like that. Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, the life." The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, is going to show you more and more about me: the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is the truth itself and this is who the Spirit speaks of. Christians can say that this is not just some set of ideas or what reality is like; truth is a person. And that person is Jesus Christ.

So he's the Spirit of truth. The Spirit is our guarantee. The Holy Spirit of God inside of our lives is our guarantee. 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 21 through 22: "And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and has given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee." Notice how, Christian, when Paul is talking about your salvation and the life now that you live and how dramatically different things are between the darkness and the light, in this passage of scripture amongst others, he uses this Trinitarian formula. God the Father is at work like this. God the Son, Jesus Christ, is at work like this. And now, believer, you've been given the Holy Spirit as a seal. As a guarantee of what God has done. He is the guarantee of our salvation. Do not fear for your salvation, for the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our salvation. He is the guarantee of the God who is still with us. And he is the guarantee of our eternal life with God. This is amazing.

Again, friends, all of that does not rely on you or me or our capacity, our good days, our bad days, our ability to ascend some sort of moral ladder and become wiser ourselves or more righteous ourselves. Notice, it is the Spirit who is the seal of all of these things. He's the guarantee of all of these things. The Spirit of God is our guarantee.

The Spirit is our freedom. The Spirit is our freedom. 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 17, very simply says this: "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." My goodness, we've just walked out of, well, this is what the mind that is set on the flesh is like. It's hostile, it refuses to submit to God, it cannot, it doesn't please God. We've walked through what that looks like. Romans chapter 1 explains it in painstaking detail what the mind set against God turns into. And Paul says, "But you now live in the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom from all of that." We can't fall back into that. We don't need to fall back into that. We can't go back to the pigsty when the glories of heaven are now available to the follower of Jesus Christ in the presence of the Holy Spirit. We are freed from slavery to sin, the way Paul talked about it in chapter 6. We are freed in Jesus Christ from the manipulation of falsehood and evil. We are freed from the darkness. This is incredible. Jesus says, "You will know the truth and the truth will set you free." The Holy Spirit of God is our freedom.

And then he is the Spirit of grace. The Spirit of the gift that only God can give. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 29: "How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?" It's a curious verse of scripture, but part of what the author is getting at there is that we have been given access to, and we have, as children of God, experienced the Holy Spirit of God as grace: the gift that God gives us, the free gift of salvation, the gift of God's empowering presence inside of our lives. He is our presence and he is the power of God within us.

But there is this warning that comes with it. This genuine peril, as far as Paul is concerned, for rejecting the Spirit of grace. Now part of the way that God's grace works, part of the way the Holy Spirit is at work today, is what theologians call prevenient grace. Prevenient grace. Now here's what that means: the word "prevenient" means "to go ahead of, to anticipate." So what this means is that the Holy Spirit is always at work. The way God has designed things, our hearts and minds to work, the way in which we are hardwired to seek after God, and now the Holy Spirit is with us and the church is here and the witness of the church is here. God is at work. He is going ahead of the sinner to make a way back to him possible. This is the Spirit of grace that God went ahead of me. And before I submitted myself, before I repented, the Spirit of God is drawing, the Spirit of God is wooing, the Spirit of God is speaking. And so Paul says because we have that, how much peril is there when now God is speaking through his word and through the presence of his Spirit and through the presence of his church? There is peril there for rejecting that, for trodding on the shed blood of Jesus Christ and the free gift of the Spirit of grace.

So Paul says in verse 10, and we'll come back next week and we'll spend more time in verses 10 and 11, but here's part of what he says: "But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness." He's just said anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. And now there is this distinction between life and death. If the Spirit of Christ is not within us, we cannot claim the name of Jesus Christ. He is not in us.

Now, this is an interesting thought to me because there are so many out there who claim the name of Jesus Christ, call themselves pastors and churches, but in their speech and in their life, they are hostile to the things of God. We have to watch out for those things, for those teachings, for those individuals. So there are those who claim the name of Christ, but we can see through the Apostle Paul the Spirit of God is not in them because we watch the fruit of their mouths and of their lives and of their ideas. If we reject the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of grace, we are left to our own strength and our own devices, and we find ourselves just at odds with God and with all of his creation.

But the point of this passage this morning is that contrast. But if you belong to Christ, the Spirit of God is in you and all of this belongs to the sons and daughters of God, everything that we just listed. He says now the Spirit is life because of righteousness. This right standing before God, this right living, this way of living now that glorifies God, that looks more like Jesus and less like my own sin. This lifestyle that has decided to honor God and to follow Jesus no matter what the pressures around us or the complications or frustrations around us want us to do. The Spirit is life because of righteousness. The life that Christ gives us.

The more I go through this passage, friends, I just keep coming back to this thought. And this is how I want to put things together this morning: we are in a spiritual battle. This is why things feel the way that they feel. This is why we're watching the things that we never thought we would ever see. We think to ourselves, "Well, I never would have put that sentence together." It's because we are in a spiritual battle. The enemy is at the surface in many ways. He is obvious.

And friends, you and I need to be enjoined in this battle as Spirit-filled children of God. Now is not the time to step back, now is not the time to retreat, now is not the time to put ourselves inside of some little circle. Now is the time for you and I to live lives that glorify God in public. To live lives that are full of the righteousness of Jesus Christ in private and full of the truth of the glory of God with our mouths and with our lives so that others can see it.

An increasing amount of bizarre and open violence and assassinations and the murder of Christian kids inside of churches, in schools, this cycle of victim blaming that we keep on watching. Remember this flywheel of evil that we talked about: stoke anger, encourage violence, blame the victim, start all over again. Around and around it goes. And many of you see this as well. We see in this curious fashion more and more lions of the faith in our culture just continue to pass away. If you didn't know, Voddie Baucham, he passed away this last week at 56. You should know him, you should watch his sermons, you should read his books. He's a phenomenal preacher of the gospel and witness to Jesus Christ. And through medical complications, he just passed away.

We keep losing some voices, but part of what that means, friends, is that our voices should become more and more prominent. You and I need to step up. We cannot shrink back. We are in a spiritual battle. And all of this hostility and all of this displeasure, yes, it exists, but you live in the Spirit of God. And the Spirit of God lives in you and he's not leaving you. He is not leaving you. He will be with you. Jesus promised he will be with you forever. We need the Spirit of God at work within us. We need to live holy and faithful and courageous lives.

Friends, our first line of defense in spiritual warfare is personal holiness. Our first line of defense in spiritual warfare is personal holiness. So the enemy doesn't have a way in. So that our lives are entirely devoted to Jesus Christ. So that now there is a life of righteousness that is the life of God himself within us.

So God is calling. And the way God calls is he does not bend and break us, he does not coerce us, but he draws us to himself. He reveals to us more and more how beautiful and glorious he is and what life with him is like and can be like. We turn our eyes toward Jesus. We spend more time making sure that we are living Spirit-filled lives with the presence of God within us. And friends, by the grace of God, the light within us will grow brighter and brighter all the time. Let us live as children of God who are filled with the very Spirit of God himself. Let's pray.