A Friend Like No Other | The Advantage | Twin Rivers Church

um why don't you turn in your bible to second corinthians chapter 13. open your phone go to second corinthians chapter 13. i want to teach today and i want to give you um some life-changing um principles so i'd love for you to take notes um but we've been in this series and it's based on the words of jesus when he said in john 16 7 but i tell you the truth it is to your advantage that i'm leaving for if i do not leave the helper the holy spirit will not come to you but if i go i'll send him to you so this this is really remarkable according to jesus those who follow him have been given an advantage in life and this advantage is known as the holy spirit now i don't know about you but i use all the help i can get so if jesus says there's an advantage i want it and and that is the reason we've launched into a series of weeks where we're studying who is the holy spirit and and what is his function in our lives today i want to talk to you i want to just narrow it down and i want to talk to you about some misconceptions and the great benefit of the holy spirit's friendship that you have a friend like no other in the holy spirit but you may not be benefiting from that experience now um my kids are in elementary school and so they ask often what is what was it like when you were in school dad and the other day sawyer asked me said now when you went to school was like everybody in one room it was like a one-room school like that's like i said i'm gonna kill you you know it's um but but i was telling them there are kind of these codes on the playground you probably know these codes um you know when you're in elementary school they're just some rules they're they're unwritten but everybody knows them like for instance if the merry-go-round is is not going so fast someone could die it's going too slow we got to get that thing moving quicker um if if you find gum under a bench fair game just put it back when you're done just put it so somebody else can use it right um and y'all didn't do that at your school um and and then the last one you're gonna know this one um boys stay with boys girls stay with girls because the other has cooties you remember that they got this infectious disease you didn't want to catch called cooties now i think that was funny because i was thinking you know now i'm in love and and married and i think about um just you know but at some point there was a shifting like i went from from uh and worried about this person being infected to now i'm interested you know that something shifted in me at some point that what i once avoided now has become the best part of my life and that's what i'm hoping this message does for you that that something shifts because it's been my experience that people come to the discussion of the holy spirit with a lot of baggage that it could be something that you saw on on tv or youtube it could be an experience you had could be bad teaching almost everyone comes with some kind of story that says you know they did this and they said it was the holy spirit so it's an important principle that you're going to want to grasp right out of the gate when it comes to holy spirit it's this the holy spirit is not weird people are weird okay and the reason i bring that up is because people are also weird at walmart okay and you haven't stopped going to walmart so therefore i'm imploring you to open your heart to say hey i don't want i don't care what culture and people and other things i want to know what scripture says about the holy spirit and if you do that here's what i think honestly happened the thing you may have been avoiding will become the best part of your life in his work in your life now um for that to happen though you have to approach the holy spirit the right way you have to approach him according to god's plan you know god's plan was not for you to have be able to pass a doctrinal test about the holy spirit god's plan was that you have a personal relationship with the holy spirit the apostle paul writes to one of his churches and you get to read his letters in the new testament and i want you to see the way he ends a prayer for his his people the people who he's shepherding here's what it says second corinthians 13 14 the amazing grace of the master jesus christ the extravagant love of god the father the intimate friendship of the holy spirit be with you all paul says as your pastor here's my prayer that you would recognize that that god has revealed himself in a godhead of of three revealings that there's a father a son and a holy spirit it's not because there are three gods because there's one god revealing himself in multiple ways but each of them reveal themselves in a way so that you can understand the uniqueness they bring to your life he says i want you more than anything to know the grace of the lord jesus this grace that is displayed in the fact that he hung on a cross but not across your cross that it was your sin that deserved to die and instead out of a graciousness he hung in your place and it's this grace that's allowed you to be in right standing with god and no longer seen as the sinful person you are i want you to know that grace and by the way it's grace because it's not earned it's given he says and next i want you to know the love extravagant love of your heavenly father i mean this love that's unconditional this love that's unwavering this love that doesn't care what you look like what you've done where you've come from what you're presently in the middle of this love i want you to know because if you know this love you can stand in any situation and say if god be for me who can be against me because i'm loved by god he said and now the holy spirit ah the holy spirit all powerful all-knowing miracle working holy spirit yet what i want you to know about him is a friendship isn't that interesting it's interesting that god sees are in our human existence that as much as we recognize the holy spirit for his power what he was sent for was our companionship and i think that's because listen i need miracles every once in a while but i need a companion every day listen every once in a while i need power but every day i need to be accepted and loved guided and feeling the nearness of someone without judgment and so he says to that i want you to experience the holy spirit's friendship now what i find interesting about this is that most of us don't settle for his friendship we settle for knowing about him instead of knowing him which is why theologian donald gee says this doctrines about the holy spirit are necessary inevitable but the all-important question is not what we mentally believe but what we experimentally enjoy he's saying hey it doesn't matter if you can pass a test it matters do you know him personally have you received the benefit of him in your life and and you know i just think throughout your life you can see the benefit of not just knowing about someone but knowing someone and what that brings even in the smallest things like for example you know that i've told you i i try to run several times a week and and when i began running i mean i did everything i could to learn about running i read all the blogs i i bought equipment i i you know went for the tips and but i i would go out running alone and it was it was tough i mean this is a lot to get moving it really is and and and so you know you're out there running and and the problem with running alone is this is that the only voice is your voice right i mean like like so it's my mind going why are we doing this what's the problem are you should i call someone this is this is a bad decision and it's my body saying why do you hate me what did i do to you i mean we should be back eating krispy kremes and an ice cream those were the good old days what have i done to you to deserve this and that's the only voice you have and if that's the only voice you have you're not gonna stick with running very long i knew very quickly something's gonna have to change and i read this article that said the best thing i could do is get a running partner man it's changed everything to have someone to run with you it's amazing because it makes the same route feel shorter it causes me to perform better there's more joy in the experience but listen it's not because we're talking there's not enough oxygen for that i mean we're just together but something about having someone on the journey makes all the difference in the world and as i prayed about this message and i prayed about where you are in your life i just kept sensing god push in push and push in on this idea that many of you are you're running alone and that's why the only way to label your current path is tired not just physical tired not just emotional tired not just mental health like you're spiritually tired that you keep telling yourself if i can just get through this week and this month and this this this this season if i can just make it to christmas you keep setting up false finish lines in hopes that it motivates you but the reality is you've never stopped to consider that it shouldn't it's not just about finishing there's a journey and the journey shouldn't be a drudgery and so what you need is what i needed you need a pal a partner a friend and that's the reason jesus announces in john 14 16 i will ask the father and he will send you i love this version a companion who will be with you forever listen your greatest need has already been met by your heavenly father that he knew more than a miracle worker you needed a companion that you needed someone in a world where it gets really lonely you needed someone where people are not dependable you needed someone who was a friend like no other and as someone who studied and personally experienced the holy spirit what i can tell you is that's true on every level people have a tendency to be mean and manipulative the holy spirit's the most gentle kind and loving person that i've ever met in my life people have a tendency to come at us and even have on their their best behavior they have bad days and have mood swings the holy spirit's consistent and he's always available there's never been a day that he's ever been up or down he is absolutely 100 no wavering for you at all moments of time listen people come to you with selfish agendas the holy spirit's come with this agenda to help you know him and whatever it takes to make that happen he'll do it he's more committed to your calling than you are he wants better for you than you do he is completely 100 the best partner pal and friend you could ever have in your life and you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't dedicate your life to knowing him to knowing him so what i want to do today is i want to give you really i just want to teach three principles that i think really could be the difference between you knowing a scholarship of the holy spirit or developing a friendship with the holy spirit and so here's the first one um the very first thing you're going to need to do is you must redefine the holy spirit as a person you must redefine him as a person now many people if you talk to him today i'll have many conversations the lobby and people will say a phrase that i hear again and again and they'll say things like i just feel like my faith is missing something turns out your face is not missing something it's missing someone and it's the holy spirit you see um for what we have to realize is right out of the gate the holy spirit's not an it he's not a power he's not a force he's not an energy he's not something that comes from rocks or trees the holy spirit's also not an experience he's not when i get really passionate and what i'm saying moves you to tears and he's also not a song that you prefer and tend to get goosebumps in the holy spirit's also not a power he's not something that we harness something that we bottle something that you can go to this meeting or that place and find that you can't find in other places he is all-powerful but more than that he's a person so what makes him a person he doesn't have a body well body doesn't make a person a person for no other sense then we could roll a cadaver in here today it's a body but there's no person inside what makes the holy spirit a person is the same thing that makes you a person he has a personality look at what the new testament alone speaks of him i want you to see this i i made you a list romans 8 27 says he has a mind first corinthians 1 11 says he has a will he has emotions such as love and joy he speaks he can be insulted he can be resisted and acts 5 tells us he can be lied to see it's his personhood that makes it possible for you to have a personal relationship only though if you have the right perspective it's this let me say it this way if you treat the holy spirit and like treat him like less than a person you're going to receive less than he offers he's a person and any person that's in a relationship it's only that relationship's only successful for two reasons time and attention time and attention every relationship thrives on or or demises on time or attention let's take for example that on kayla and i's wedding day we have all these people come we're we're we get married we have cake we dance and now it is our it's mine and her time to be alone for the first time on this day we're now husband and wife and i say kayla listen you look gorgeous it's amazing i feel like the luckiest man alive kayla i want to know you like i've never known anyone i want to know you so intimately that every bit of who we are comes together i want to be one with you i want to know you in a closeness with which you could i mean i want it to be as though you and i you can't find separation that's how close but we can only talk from 10 to 11 15 on sunday mornings she said boy you better move back to your mama's house this is over already because she knows that that's ridiculous to think that we could have that kind of relationship with such a limited capacity time is tantamount to any relationship but but let's take a step further it's not just time i mean let's assume that i get the time thing right that we spend all our time together i mean we ride together we eat together we we at the house together we watch tv everything is together but let's say that when we're together i'm always on my phone well eventually i'd be scrolling divorce lawyers because time's not enough time also requires attention okay so let me let me say this time and attention are required for successful relationships the holy spirit has given you all of his time he's with you every single moment of every day and the holy spirit has given you his full attention so into you is he that he has numbered the hairs on your head not cumulatively he knows that this morning number 331 fell out so if he's given you all his time and all his attention why would your relationship with him struggle except for that he needs more of yours he's a person and you know anything you you can know all the doctrinal statements you can pass the test but you'll never receive until you treat him like what he is a person now here's here's the next one um you must recognize what damages this relationship because i mean the reality is this if i'm gonna have a relationship with you there's some things you like things you don't like and if i keep doing the things you don't like then we're not gonna have much of a closeness the scriptures tell us that the holy spirit has two things that cause us to damage our relationship with him and there are two words that i don't think we fully grasp the first one is called grieving and the next one's called quenching that you can grieve the holy spirit and you can quench the holy spirit and so those are not common words let me explain to you grieving comes from this idea that when you choose to follow jesus the holy spirit comes into your life when he comes into your life his whole goal is to then make you from the inside more like jesus so he's the one that helps you move out of mindsets and attitudes he's the one that restrains you from actions he's trying to help you contort your character into more like christ but there will be moments where you choose to not want to do what he's trying to do you know i want to say that i don't want to give that i don't want to be a part of that i don't want to do this and so our actions cause us to resist him when we resist the work he's doing in us it's called grieving the holy spirit let me show it to you ephesians 4 29 it says do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths but only what is helpful for building up others according to their needs that it may benefit those who listen so let me just say this right right again because this is the context of this i don't care if you speak in tongues if you gossip and slander and curse other people the holy spirit doesn't have your mouth as a matter of fact if the holy spirit doesn't have your mouth he really doesn't even have you because it is your mouth that either propels or repels his work in your life so that's the reason he starts out with this he says don't grieve the holy spirit of god with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption get rid of all bitterness rage anger brawling slander along with every form of malice okay so so here's what we're saying when we ignore promptings that come to us and and when we're reading scripture and sermons when we say i don't really want to do that i don't want to forgive them when we we ignore nudges you know we're getting ready to tell them off and and we're like no i shouldn't say that and we just go ahead and do it anyways when we act in a way that is not in his character it grieves him now for some of you you're going well then he must live in constant disappointment with me but that can be further from the truth you know why this this is so good you can't grieve something unless you first loved it like hundreds of thousands of people die every day in this world and you don't grieve them because you don't know them and you don't know them therefore you don't love them but a person could die that you love and you'll grieve them for a long time so listen he doesn't grieve you because he's disappointed with you he grieves you because he loves you so much it hurts him to think you would live less than what god has for you it bothers him that you're missing out on any of god's goodness that's why it grieves him now the other one's quenching and this comes from first thessalonians 5 14 it says we urge you brethren admonish the unruly encourage the faint of heart help the weak be patient with everyone see that no one repays another for evil for evil but always seek that that which is good for one another and for all okay so you can underline that that basically everything you should do should be good for one another and for all rejoice always pray without ceasing in everything give thanks for this is god's will in you in jesus christ do not quench the spirit and don't despise prophetic utterances which are spiritual gifts don't despise spiritual gifts okay the whole context of this passage is how you relate to other people all of that and what he's saying is is that the holy spirit's not only doing a work in you but there are times he comes and wants you to use your life to strengthen encourage other people so let's say for an example you're in a store and you notice someone and they just catch your eye and like you can't get them off your mind you can't like man i don't know them but they just stick out to me and then you start noticing their countenance it's discouraged it's despondent you're gonna i just there's something about them i wish i wish someone would just go up and encourage them and tell them how much god loves them well the fact that you want someone to do it means that it should be you that's the that's the mark of the activity of the holy spirit he's the one that showed you them you didn't see them he saw them through you and and and his heart is for them not your hearts for them and his his desire is that someone would communicate that so now you have a decision you will either quench what he wants to do or you'll follow through with his lead one will lead you to a spiritual dryness and the other will set you on a journey that's amazing i'm telling you i had this this week i felt like should i should i not with someone and i sensed the holy spirit called me to do it and i stepped out to do it and it was amazing how well it was received i've never had someone say please no more encouragement stop with the god loves me quit with this prayer you're offering never had it and and so so my point is this grieving is when you stop the holy spirit's work in you quenching is when you stop the holy spirit's work through you okay now listen um kayla and i one day we're having a passionate marital discussion that's preacher talk right and um and and it got out of hand and i said some harsh things to her things i should not have said because i was angry and so a little bit later that day i went on a walk and i was praying and i felt like the holy spirit impressed my heart you need to apologize and i thought well what's the fun in that i don't want to apologize i don't want to i mean you know what that's like i don't want to so i didn't so a few more days pass and i'm on another prayer walk and i just feel dry and that's the only way i can have you ever felt spiritually dry like like you know what the bible says it's just like none of it seems to be apparent right now in your life you just don't have the peace you used to have you don't have the joy you said there's just something wrong with all that and i was like god you know what what's the problem here and here's what he said very clearly to my heart he said when you hurt her you hurt me and then he said this and until you make it right you won't feel right see i had grieved him by saying it but i had quenched him by not apologizing for it and and and here's the reality you can't be wrong with people and write with god you you can't he loves people therefore you can't be wrong with people and write with him okay but i want to take it a step further when you chose to follow christ the holy spirit came to live in you in you so wouldn't it be ridiculous to think i can make the person in me miserable and i remain happy i don't make any sense that i can live a life that makes him miserable but somehow i'm gonna be happy so do you know what that means we should make it our aim to live our lives pleasing to him and the more he's enjoying it the more we're gonna enjoy it because he's living in me that's the success for happiness make him happy and you'll be happy now here's the la here's the last one um you must reorient around what deepens your relationship with the holy spirit so quenching and grieving come from the same root do you know what it is they both want to control the work of the holy spirit i want to say what i want to say when i want to say it i want to do what i want to do when i want to do it and and here's what i'm saying nothing kills your relationship with the holy spirit like trying to control the one who's supposed to be in control so therefore the deepening comes for when i let him be who he is and follow in that that mindset for how he interacts with my life could you imagine if someone said hey we don't want you to be you like i don't want you to be you i know you like that stuff i don't ever want you to mention it i know this is why you were created i don't ever want you to do it it would make you miserable when we restrain him from who he is it hurts our relationship but when we release him to do what he's made to do it allows him to flourish and our relationship deepens so what is he what is he wanting to do what is he here for um well there's a lot that i could list but i'm going to give you the two the the big two that you need if you'll just do these two things i'm telling you it will change the trajectory of your relationship with the holy spirit first of all he's a teacher and therefore we should aim to learn everything from him now that doesn't mean we don't learn from other people it doesn't mean we don't learn from books and and studies and youtube they don't mean that but we should learn to aim in every way to learn from him not just on the spiritual stuff because he's a teacher um that's that's what um john 14 26 says but the advocate the holy spirit whom the father will send in my name will teach you all things and remind you of everything i've said to you have you ever had a teacher that wasn't passionate about teaching like you've had someone like that like someone who's just collecting the check someone who's just filling in it's miserable it's like watching paint dry right i mean it's just awful um what you should know is the holy spirit is passionate about teaching because he loves you and he knows everything imagine if you knew everything you'd want to teach everybody he knows everything he is an expert at all like he specializes in it all nothing's ever occurred to him like he knows it all and and i mean that that means if you have questions about marriage ask him he knows if you don't know how to raise your kids he does if you don't know how to handle money he's great at it you don't know how to pass an algebra exam he invented it listen you you don't know why you're going through this season he does you don't know what's going on with your kids he does he knows you have a friend who knows everything about anything it's incredible and he's passionate about teaching you not just teaching you though about life he wants to remind you what god said do you notice that he wants to remind you about what god said listen if you don't enjoy reading the bible this is your promise i remember when i first became a christian you know it's the christian thing to do is read your bible and i'd read my bible and it was awful honestly miserable and um and i thought oh gosh i just you got to do this enough and then eventually you get to go to heaven i guess i mean but here was the problem i was reading it for information and without the holy spirit the holy spirit brings revelation when you read the bible with him the holy spirit's the author of the bible every verse now there were 40 writers but he's the author he said what does that mean exactly let me give you one example of that the book of the gospel of john was written 60 years after jesus left planet earth john writes in detail the most personal of detail his encounters with jesus how in the world does someone remember that detail 60 years later i can't remember what i had to eat 60 hours ago and he's talking about and we leaned this way and he said this and how do you think that happens because there's a holy spirit who's authoring it and reminds him of everything god has said so listen when you sit down and say holy spirit i need you to show me this here's what's happening you're sitting with the author and he takes information and turns it into revelation what's revelation revelation is something you understand but not just understand it you can now apply it okay so this is the best part about the holy spirit he's going to show you things and then give you the power to live them out like without the power the bible's depressing because you just see everything you're not but with the revelation you see everything you can be like you're reading you oh my gosh i i know i'm not this kind of spouse but i see this and it's revealed to me and now i can become through the skills of the holy spirit the husband i'm supposed to be like i i'm no good with money i mean i am no every time i go to the mall i overspend i got more credit cards i can't do this but now i read did this and it's revealed in my heart now i get the self-control with the information like i i didn't know people could be healed i'm hoping i'm healed i wish i was healed no i see god heals people and that's not just something i now learned back then it's something that reveals power that i currently can be healed because of what he said it's a revelation the holy spirit's the best teacher listen he takes information and makes it revelation so that you can make it your application he which means everything you learn you can live because he gives you the power and the insight to go hand in hand why wouldn't you want to learn from someone like that it's incredible now he's a teacher but he's also a guide and therefore we have to let him lead okay now i want to spend a minute on this um the reason you and i need a guide is because tomorrow is a place we've never been you don't need a guide for somewhere you've been tomorrow is a place you've never been okay now listen to me um we think about tomorrow and we assume it'll be just like today that's the reason we have a comfort with tomorrow it's because we just assume well it'll be like today but that's not true you know this isn't true because you could ask someone sitting on your row you say hey did you expect to be here 10 years ago they said lord no i didn't even expect to marry you i didn't expect to work here i didn't expect to do that you know right we don't listen life is a race filled with unexpected terms and and so therefore when you realize that that like you're really you don't know what's coming tomorrow it makes it really hard to compute like a proverbs 22 3. let me read this to you this is you're like how is this even possible a prudent or wise person with insight foresees danger coming and prepares himself for it but the senseless rush blindly forward and suffer the consequences can we just pause for a second and say how is this even true i mean i get some people are wiser than others but but there is no amount of wisdom that can see a cancer diagnosis there's no amount of wisdom that can see your kids developing an addiction there's no amount of prudence that would allow me to see an economic downturn how how could this even be true that that there's a the the wise can see things and make adjustments to them well here's how that can be true the book of proverbs is a book of wisdom but it's not about our wisdom see he's not writing that wise people with human wisdom see things here's what he's saying um it's a book about god is the source of all wisdom and here's what he's saying he's saying that that if you'll make god the guide of your life you get supernatural wisdom so that when things are coming down the road that you don't you normally would run blindly into them he'll guide you around them and through them so he's saying hey this prudent person it's not because they're wise it's because they have a guide okay so you know what that requires you and i need to admit how blind we really are so that we depend on our guide i i read this this is a really incredible story the olympics started this week and i i read a story about a sprinter named david brown who's in the paralympics and david was born in missouri and he developed a condition very early on where his eyes uh began to to fade in their vision and it continued to rapidly increase until he moved to st louis to attend a special school but but by early in his adolescence his his condition his eyesight was completely gone completely blind yet he his condition did not keep him from still wanting to be a runner so in this amazing story of kind of perseverance he continued to be a runner a sprinter he continued to train continued to travel became very good at it but he said that the shift or the transformation when things got a lot better is when he developed a friendship with a guy named jerome avery now jerome avery is a sprinter in his own right an olympic level sprinter but a few years ago he decided to commit himself to being a guide for paralympic runners so but let me explain this this is really remarkable um he's more than a coach he's he's there at every practice for for david he's there at every race but he's not just watching david to be his guide he runs with david in every single step i mean this is remarkable he's committed himself to partner with david and his responsibility is his voice calls out the coming turns it's his job to keep their steps in cadence and he does his job when david finishes the race well i mean this is remarkable and and listen he's with him in every turn he's with him in every step they're not there's no separation between these two and listen it's made a huge difference david is now a gold medalist and he's the fastest blind man on earth because of his friendship with jerome isn't that remarkable so remarkable now listen here's why i'm telling you this listen this is the whole point you're blind like well that's not real encouraging you're blind i know you got degrees and i know you hold a position and i know other people come to you because they think you have foresight you're blind you don't have a clue what's coming you don't have everything you think is going gonna happen there's no guarantee you don't hold tomorrow you don't even see tomorrow but that doesn't mean you can't win your race because you've been given a guide someone who sees everything and has made his whole existence committing to partnering with running alongside you he's going to call out every step and he's going to keep you in cadence and he's going to be with you in every turn and he is with you till you finish well that's an incredible incredible friendship as a matter of fact i know some of you right now like i don't know i mean you just want me to trust i mean decisions teach you want me to trust this i can't even see it let me tell you um you can trust the holy spirit because he's already led you to the best thing about you the holy spirit is the one who led you to jesus he said now pastor that ain't true i met jesus and then i heard about the holy spirit nope here's what scripture says first corinthians 12 3 no one can say jesus is lord except by the holy spirit so here's the way i think of it if he led you to the source of life then you can trust him with the rest of your life if he can get you to jesus he can get you anywhere else you need to be and that's the reason you lean into this friendship you know what one of the interviews david brown said he said my goal for jerome and i is that we are so close that when we run we look like one person running come on somebody that'll preach let it be said of my life and let it be said of your life that when people see our steps it looks like us and the holy spirit are one person in every step in every turn in every way may it be said that my values or his values my characteristics or his characteristics and my destination is his destination may it be said of our lives i want you to bow your heads and close your eyes if you're here today and you're not in a relationship with the lord jesus christ say what does that mean that means you got none of what i talked about that means you you live more by fear than faith you live more by your own wisdom than his you live more without peace than with it you're not sure about tomorrow you're not sure about eternity if that's you today and you want to begin this relationship with christ which by the way let me add there is no gift of the holy spirit without first being in relationship with christ if you're here today and you're choosing to put your full faith in jesus saying hey i'm going all in i want god to lead my life i want i'm choosing to follow jesus i want to pray for you i'm not going to embarrass you but i do want to pray for you so with every head bowel and every eye closed hey what's up guys we hope that this message you just heard blessed you to always get our newest messages and to stay up to date be sure to subscribe to our youtube channel and click that bell icon to be notified every time we upload now while you're here go ahead 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Channel: TwinRivers.Church

Views: 183

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Jesus, Church, Twin Rivers Worship Center, St. Louis

Id: x9aGgQlb2b8

Length: 39min 28sec (2368 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 26 2021