[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's Word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find
[email protected] be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast, Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Right now, in the United States, there are state, there are local and there are federal organizations and websites that have this place where you can go and type in your last name, put the state where you live where you can find that there might be some benefits out there that you haven't claimed.
And if you look in total of the amount of unclaimed benefits here in America, we're talking state, we're talking federal, but also like pension benefits.
There are $60 billion right now that are being unclaimed. In fact, just pension benefits alone, there is $300 million that are unclaimed. And, and one of the things that they mentioned, there's 38,000 people that have not received any of their pension benefits, which averaged out $9,000 a person that is out there that is not being claimed. So there was this one guy that was going to that website and he typed in his last name and he ended up finding out that he was owed 32 million that he had not claimed.
And so by the way, during the middle of this service, if it's just out of nowhere, we hear a hallelujah.
I know two things. Number one, you're on your phone. Number two, you receive some really good news today. I'm just kidding. But I decided, I was like, well, that's pretty awesome. So like you guys are probably going to do this afternoon, if you haven't already.
I went to that website and I put in my last name and I put in my first name and I put my state and I was scrolling down and I was like, well, maybe they just have my first name, right? And so I just did the last name in the state and it turns out I have no money. But my cousin, my Cousin has a $100 expired check. So that's about it when it comes to the, it's a name and the money that is out there for us, but isn't it amazing to think that there is all these unclaimed benefits that are out there for the taking, but no one is taking advantage of them.
The reason why I say that as we dig into this text In Romans, chapter 8, what Paul wants the Church in Rome to know, but what we're going to understand this morning, too, is what Paul wants us to know too, is there is a benefit out there that so often we don't claim.
And he is the Holy Spirit.
Now, why in the world would they.
But Fast forward to 2025.
We today sometimes not claim the power and the benefit of the Holy Spirit.
Now, before we get into this text, I'll go ahead and tell you part of it for me, if you would have asked me maybe for several years, Andrew, can you tell me about God the Father?
I could share a lot of different narratives of how I've seen God the Father work. And if you said, andrew, tell me about God the Son, I could share with you different things and different moments that I learned about and I remember about Jesus. But if you ask me about the Holy Spirit, that understanding was not quite there.
And so I do think part of it is maybe a lack of knowledge as to why we don't claim the benefit.
I think another reason why we do not claim the benefit of the Holy Spirit is also because sometimes maybe the Holy Spirit has been misrepresented. And what I mean by that is maybe, like me, and by the way, we all have our things, but maybe you're like me and you've heard people sometimes say something that the Holy Spirit wanted them to do this, but it was a sin, or the Holy Spirit wanted them to do something that was contrary to God's word. And we understand that God is not the author of confusion.
And so because of that misrepresentation, what oftentimes happens is this.
We let one person's misrepresentation cause us sometimes, if we're not careful, to shy away from him completely.
But we don't do that with other aspects of God.
Take, for instance, the fact that God is eternal.
Can anybody in this room wrap their minds around the fact that God is eternal, always has and always will be, but we talk about God the Father.
And to me, that's part of what makes what we're going to talk about today with the Holy Spirit such an amazing benefit that God gives us is, I don't want to serve a God that I can put in a box. I don't want to serve a God that I know everything about, that I can, you Know, make it to where I can explain all the moments and all the things.
But what I also know about him as we talk about him today, is that there is this place with the Holy Spirit where we can live as we're going to understand today in. In fellowship with him and still practice sound doctrine. I think there's a misunderstanding there because 2 Timothy 1, you know what it says in verses 13 and 14, that there's this way that you can live in sound doctrine. You know what it is guarding the Holy Spirit who lives within you.
But I'll tell you another reason why I think sometimes we don't claim the benefit of the Holy Spirit is because Satan doesn't want us to.
In fact, there's a book called Forgotten God that made this statement that I love.
It says this, if I were Satan and my ultimate goal was to thwart God's kingdom and purposes, one of my main strategies would be to get churchgoers to ignore the Holy Spirit.
And so what sets up this whole benefit from Paul's perspective?
Well, what you're going to see today in Romans chapter 8 is that Paul wants to address this question, well, how does the Holy Spirit make all the difference in the world when it comes to my struggle and your struggle with sin?
And as we go into this today, I want us to get a little bit of a context to help it make sense why Paul would bring this up. Now, I love how it was mentioned in the scripture reading this morning and in even the communion that In Romans chapter 7, Paul deals with a tension that every single one of us in this room have dealt with. And it's when he said this, the very thing that I don't want to do, I keep finding myself doing.
I don't know if there's any dads out there that feel like me at times, that maybe I make the excuse that I'm tired or whatever it might be that I want to be this kind of dad. But then sometimes my anger gets the best of me, my temper gets the best of me, and I'm like, man, that's not the guy that I wanna be and that's really not the person I am. But yet I do that. I'm like, well. And so then I do better for a little bit, and then I go back to it again and then I do better, then I go back to it and round and round it goes, and we feel that cycle and that tension, whatever stage of life you're in.
And so when he says that, we're like, yes, I'm doing That now, and I've done it before. And then he gets to verse 24, and this is what he says. Who in the world can rescue me from that?
Who can rescue me from that type of mindset and that kind of cycle that is subject to death, the way that it's leading is a very dangerous way. You know what he says in Romans 8, he gives us the answer, holy Spirit to the rescue.
And so what we're gonna do today is this. We're gonna answer in a few different ways how the Holy Spirit can help you and I specifically in our struggle with sin.
And I know not everybody out there is a note taker. In fact, I'm not when it comes to lessons that I listen to.
But I will say this, if you are a note taker, I highly encourage you to. But even if you're not, I highly encourage you to write down maybe in your phone beside these verses, these different traits of what the Holy Spirit, what he will do when it comes to our struggles with sin.
But I also want us to address this question because as we reach out to our community, this is such an important message for them to know that, yes, Jesus Christ saved me and saves them from the penalty of our sin, but also once we've been saved from the penalty of sin, we have the power to deal with the sin. What I'm saying is we have a message that we can tell people that we just haven't been saved from something, but to someone.
And that's a powerful message to share.
And I was even sharing with somebody earlier this morning between services and they were telling me, they said, you know, I even think about this with my kids, that I want them to know that as they grow up, that they don't have to do it alone. And I love what Cam Walker this morning mentioned in the scripture reading thoughts. One of the things that he mentioned is that God, yes, made us to be resilient, but he did not make us to be self sufficient.
And so with this understanding, I want to get right into it in verse one as he sets the tone. And it's kind of like he just got done kind of beating himself up. He said, all right, that whole thing I just mentioned about who's going to rescue me, here's where I want to start. In Christ Jesus, there is zero, no condemnation.
The idea of condemnation is a law term that you are guilty.
And we all understand if we don't. This morning, I want to tell you, every single one of us are guilty. We talked about it in Romans 3. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. We've all sinned, but with Christ. And in Christ, he says that penalty is no more.
But as I read this, one of the things that I was thinking about this week, and I don't know if you feel like I do.
I feel sometimes like I know I'm not under condemnation, but I live sometimes under condemnation.
So I explain it like this. Have y' all noticed how the past few weeks it's been crazy hot?
Like, ridiculously hot? And I don't know if y' all do this.
Like, when you hear the air conditioner, like, grr, like, you know, starting up, you're like, oh, come on, please make it. I just need you a little bit longer, right? We just got, like, another few months of this, if you can just make it right. And so imagine for just a second right now, I go to the thermostat at the house, and I crank that thing down to 58 for the whole month.
What's that power bill gonna look like?
That's gonna be very expensive.
Someone just went like that.
Yeah, maybe you've done that, too. So you crank that thing down, you get your power bill from Huntsville Utilities. It's gonna be very high.
So imagine that's what happened to us, and we did that. Lorianne pays the bill, and then they call me a few days later and say, excuse me, Andrew, weren't you the one that cranked the air down?
Well, yeah.
Well, you need to pay, too.
Well, no, I'm not paying. My wife already paid for that. Oh, no, you gotta pay, too.
I know that sounds silly, but that's oftentimes what we do.
What Jesus Christ already died for and rescued and released us from, we keep living in it. And it's kind of like we're asking him to die. Twice.
He's died, and he rose.
And because of the death, because of the burial, and because of the resurrection, we're not just saved from the penalty of sin, but we're also given, as he's going to talk about this in just a second, the power to deal with that sin. See, when Jesus died on the cross, I want you to think about it like this. How many sins at that moment had you done?
Zero.
When he died on the cross, he was dying for all of your past sins. Your sins, as he says in verse one now, but all of those to come.
And so here's what he wants for us. And this is the first thing I want you to write down is this. He wants us to live in freedom.
He wants Us to live in freedom. Look what he says in verse two. He says, the law, the spirit of life, sets you free. So he's drawing a contrast. The spirit of life wants to set you free. But you know what the law does?
It wants you to live in sin and death. The whole premise of this text was Paul saying, listen, I used to be one of those guys that used to be like, all right, I got to do this, and I got to do this, and I got to do this. Check it. Check, check, check. That was wearing me out. He said, I used to live like that, but now with the spirit of life free from that, that he has made me free.
And so I want us to think about it like this.
Have you noticed in Jesus ministry how he will deal with a sin problem but also want people to walk in freedom?
So the man in John 5, y' all remember when he had been, you know, this is like 30 years, been laying on that mat near the pool.
And one of the things that you can learn about that man based on his response when Jesus says to him, hey, man, do you want to get well?
And when you first read that, you're like, of course he wants to get well. That's why he's at the pool.
But Jesus never asks a dumb question. He's asking because he knows something about this guy, that sometimes it's not our condition that we're laying in as much. It is a mindset that we've laid in.
He said, well, I would, but I have nobody to help me.
And what's amazing about that whole interaction is he forgives the man's sins. And then he said, hey, take up your mat, and I want you to walk.
The man doesn't need the mat anymore. He can walk.
But you know what? The mat represents what he used to be.
It represents his freedom.
What he did there is forgive the man of his sins, but also ask him to walk. Here's another one. John 8.
One of the things commentaries say, that when this woman who was caught in the act of adultery was dragged out into the streets, some people believe she could have been unclothed because she was literally caught in that moment. We don't know. But we do know that her humiliation of what she did was out in front of everybody.
And when Jesus sees that woman and sees the crowd, he noticed that the crowd has a bunch of stones.
And so he looks at the crowd and he says, hey, excuse me. If you are without sin, here's what I want you to do. I want you to chunk one of those Stones.
And it says, from the oldest to the youngest, they begin one after another. Begin to drop those stones. And he says back to that woman. He said, hey, I want to ask you this. Where are your accusers?
And she looks up, and the people that were carrying the stones no longer have them.
He said, neither do I condemn you.
Go on your way and sin no more. Right?
You know what's really interesting?
He didn't say, hey, get things going in the right direction, and then you don't have to live in condemnation. Look at the order. He first says, neither do I condemn you. That comes before go and sin no more.
She needed to know, just like we need to know the power of assurance and acceptance in order to walk.
Because think about it from this lady's perspective. What was it probably that got her into that lifestyle? We don't know if it's something she experienced as a young lady, something maybe an abusive relationship or something. We have no clue.
But what he did know that she needed to know is that the arms of God and the love of the Savior is way better than whatever she's been running from and running to.
And the same thing for us, that Jesus gives us his love and acceptance and wants us to walk in that. And whatever we walk in is way better than what we used to be in.
And so I think about this for all of us. It is wonderful that God has forgiven us of our sins. But I also think we have to answer this question. Have we been walking in freedom, or are you still trying to pay for what's already been paid for?
What causes us sometimes not to walk in freedom? I think, number one, it's unrepentant sin.
We keep a lot of things close by that Satan, the enemy is really, really attracted to.
And in just a second, we're gonna talk about sometimes with our sin, you know, what we do?
We tame it and not kill it.
Maybe for some of us, it's this that we fall into what Paul's been speaking about this whole time, the performance track and the trap that if I could just, like, do enough, then, right? No, neither do I condemn you now. Go on your way.
Or could be the pretending trap.
And it's very difficult, and I think Satan sometimes uses it, that the struggles that we have that we're like, well, I don't want other people to know about it. And I'm not saying we have to, you know, post everything and share everything, but I do think that there's a time that sometimes we think that our struggle ranked against somebody else's. Struggle is not worth sharing or mentioning.
God never, ever in scripture ranks struggles.
Struggling is not a competitive sport.
Like if you have a physical struggle or a mental struggle, if your struggle is something that everybody knows or doesn't know, struggle is struggle.
And so sometimes for me, I was like, well, I can't let people know that.
But also in light of what they're going through, again, what he wants us to do is for us to be in the operating center and for us to try to fix us without the help of others and the help of the Holy Spirit. And so then he goes into this. He says, for those who live according to the flesh, here's what they do.
They set their minds on things of the flesh.
But those who live according to the spirit, what they do is they set their minds on the things of the spirit. Notice he doesn't say you set your mind just on the spirit, but on the things of the spirit. And what that means is the things that God does, the things that Jesus does, the things that he loves, the things that he pursues, you pursue those things, you love those things.
And what you'll notice about this as he builds on it, he says, so if you live according to the flesh, what you're going to do is this. You're creating a path of death. That is where you try to just fix you on your own to be like Cam said, to be self sufficient, self reliant. He said that leads to death.
But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you're gonna live.
So there's two things that are mentioned here, and this might be a weird way to explain it. There was a lady in Pennsylvania that at like, I think the bear was like nine weeks old. They estimate she got this bear and brought it into her home and raised it. Okay.
And this bear ended up becoming a 350 pound bear that she had for nine years now. And I was just thinking about, and you know, we all have our things, but if she was like, hey, your kids should come hang out with my kids. Like, no, you know, you come to our house, but we're not going there. Right?
But anyway, and it's really sad, but after nine years of having that bear, the bear ended up mauling her and killing her.
She was trying to tame something.
And the reason why I say that is do you think sometimes what we try to do when it comes to sin is we try to tame it instead of get rid of it, just to kind of put it under to the side or I'M going to try to.
Here's why this matters.
As Matt Chandler said, it's not just the fact, right as he builds up into this quote, that we try to fight those sins, but we also have to understand we can't fight those sins on our own. And then he led it into this statement. Fighting sin without the Holy Spirit is like open hand slapping a bear.
It's not going to go well for you. Not a deep theological thought, but a simple one at that.
And so I want us to think about it like this. What if we started to rethink sin?
Like, not think about sin just from the standpoint of the punishment.
Not think about sin from the standpoint of the repercussion, or think about sin from the standpoint of just the effect. I hope people find out, or I hope I don't have to deal with the punishment.
What if we thought about it from the perspective is, I don't want to grieve the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 4:30. That's what it says, that we actually can grieve the Holy Spirit. That one of the greatest negative impacts of how we view sin is not the effect, but the fellowship that it hurts with the Spirit of God. Here's the next one. If you're writing it down, I want you to write presence.
Presence.
He says this in verse nine. He says, you, however, you're not in the flesh. What he's doing, he's bringing these Christians back to where it began.
He says, you're not in the flesh if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. That word dwell in the Greek doesn't mean visit, it means lives, makes residence.
He says, the Holy Spirit has made residence, lives in you.
And what's neat about the presence of the Holy Spirit, it then leads to his power.
And as I was thinking about this verse today, if there was ever a moment where, you know, say Brandon was sick or I was sick, and we just needed to read one verse and leave it on the screen and then offer the invitation, part of me thinks it's this one.
Because man is this powerful, it says this, if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And then this is what it says.
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through the Spirit who lives in you. Let me say that again. The Spirit of him who raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives in you. Can we get an amen?
Is that not incredible?
The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you.
He says you have power.
Maybe you've heard this before, that when elephants are babies, one of the things that they do is they put a shackle around one of their feet and they'll put a chain on that shackle. And then at the end of that chain, there's a stake they put in the ground.
And because it's just a baby elephant, when it tries to break free from that chain, it can't.
And so it gets so used to being shackled and unable to move. Here's what happens as the elephant gets older at that circus, that same shackle, that same chain and that same stake, they put it in the ground because it was so used to living in slavery that even though that animal is powerful enough to break free, guess what it chooses to do to still live in the same thing?
And I had to do some self reflection and make sure that maybe in my past it's been my own pride that's caused me to miss the Holy Spirit.
Like, I struggle with that. Like at a restaurant, if someone's like, here, I'm gonna get like, no. They're like, can we just do something for you? Like, let me do that, right? I don't know if anybody struggles with that. That's kind of what God's saying here. Listen, I wanna do something for you. And don't let pride stand in the way.
The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is living in you.
Quit living shackled, quit paying twice for what I already paid for.
But then he leads into this. And it's kind of a neat transition because it makes sense that you would go from this presence and power then to leading.
And so if you're writing down, I want you to write this one down. The Spirit leads us.
I want you in your Bible, if you don't mind on that word, led just to underline it, because it says this for all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Now if you were to ask me, hey, Andrew, how could I tell whether Andrew Itson was a son of God, like one of his children? You know what I might do? Well, I go to worship. And that's good.
Well, I pray. Well, that's good.
And I read my Bible, well, that's good. All of those things are good. But that's not what he said, are the ones that are sons of God.
He said the ones that are sons of God are the ones that are led by the spirit.
Now, the reason I want you to underline that word is I've always had in my mind, led as, like, as he's pushing me along.
It doesn't say driven by the spirit. It says led by the spirit.
Satan drives go, but God leads.
Have you ever had those bosses before?
Like, by title? Okay, they're a boss, but they're not necessarily a leader. And the way they lead is from like that, like, go, do it. But have you noticed the difference in those bosses that are like, hey, come with me.
There's a difference between the two.
That's what he's saying here that he does. He's not driving you.
He's out front and he's leading you.
And one of the ways that I've heard it broken down like this is these three Cs that he convicts us. John 16 says, he actually convicts the whole world of their sin. But you know what he does for us? He convicts us also of righteousness.
That, yes, he convicts you like, man, I don't need to do it. But he also says, no, do the right thing.
He also comforts us. We're gonna get to that comfort in just a second. And he counsels us. And here's where all of that leads. It leads to repentance.
It leads to you thinking less of yourself. It leads you into truth. It leads you into love. It leads you into holiness. And it leads you into a life that is useful.
And it makes sense that after he's led us, like a good father would, that he's now saying, I'm putting my name on you.
I'm adopting you.
It says, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption. As sons by who we cry.
Sorry, Abba. Father.
The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are called children of God.
It's incredible.
To think of what one guy called a primordial desire is that every child is born with the desire to be parented, to be loved.
And we also know life throws a lot of stuff at us that tells us otherwise.
Might tell us that we're not worthy of love or whatever it might be.
But isn't it interesting? Like, at night, you don't have to tell a kid when they're scared, hey, go to mama. Go to daddy.
There's something within them that understands that.
And so he says, not only do I lead you, but I want to claim you and make you my own.
Every Single one of us are looking for someone who loves us perfectly and can take care of us.
You know, husbands and wives are great, kids are great, friends are great.
But there's no friend, there's no relationship, there's no child that can feel what Christ can feel and do what Christ can do through the Holy Spirit. That all of them are great, but they make very lousy and incomplete gods.
And so I want us to all think about this for just a second.
Would you describe your life with God as a spirit of slavery or a spirit of adoption?
Do you feel like you're being driven, or do you feel like and know that you're being led?
Here's the final thing. If you're a note taker. He intercedes.
One of the reason why I was so excited that I got to Preach on Romans 8 was because of this very hobby, lobbied verse of Romans 8:28. And part of the reason why I love this verse, probably like you do, is I read it sometimes the way I want to understand it, not the way it was maybe intended. And what I mean by that is, have you ever read this before and be like, yeah, all things work out because I love God.
You know, I read that sometimes, like the way I've maybe misunderstood it, that, well, I'm doing everything that God's asked me to do, but not all things are working together.
And so what I try to do is I try to have a Romans 8, 28 kind of faith. Without the Romans 8, 26 and 27 context of the Holy Spirit. This verse will be misrepresented and misunderstood if we don't understand the two verses before it. Because you know what precedes this?
Suffering.
Hurt.
But what he's about to say is that how we know that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose is even when they're at the weakest moments, guess what? They have the Holy Spirit who speaks on their behalf.
It says, likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we don't even know what to pray for as we ought. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
And he who searches the heart knows what is the mind of the Spirit. You know, when I read that, I think about Hannah. Do you remember when she desperately wanted a child?
And part of what made it difficult was when she saw Elkanah. Well, not Elkanah, whatever the one's name was, getting the very things she wanted. It made it worse.
And so it's like, she couldn't seem to catch a break.
And she got to this point in her prayer life where the Bible describes that she was. Her lips were moving, but nothing was coming out. But you know what God said? I hear that.
And maybe some of you can relate to this graphic. You've started a prayer and you're like, dear God, like, I think I know what to ask for. But the problem is I don't think that's what I really need. Or maybe I do need that.
And then even in your prayer, if you're like me, sometimes you're like, wait, did I just contradict myself?
Cause you're trying to navigate it from your own perspective. What he's saying is, in those times of confusion, in those times of hurt, here's what I do. Even when you do not have the words, I bring those up to the Father.
It is so incredible to know we have someone like that.
So how does the Spirit make all the difference in our struggle with sin, Freedom, presence, power, leading adoption and intercession?
I just want to pose this question this morning, as we conclude is what would happen if we all lived in fellowship with the Spirit? What would it look like? You think?
One guy made the point. He said, you know, fellowship with the Spirit is basically children of God walking around with what he calls a God consciousness.
It's the idea that God's always with me.
You know, when I study with people, I don't care what age they are, I get to a point. And I asked them this question. I said, hey, would you rather have God with you right here or Jesus with you right here or here?
And one of my favorite studies was a young man.
And I asked that question. I said, hey, buddy, would you rather have Jesus here or here? And this is what he said. Here, duh.
I was like, here, duh is right.
I said, because guess what happens when you go to school?
Well, he's with me.
And what about when you're at Bible class? Oh, he's with me.
What about when you're doing that, sport? Well, he's with me.
And that's what. Life with God is not meant to be relegated to a schedule or a timeline.
That life being in fellowship with the Holy Spirit is not schedule oriented. It's life centered.
Everything around life revolves around him.
But it's neat how this would also have a reciprocal effect of how we see each other, that the fellowship of the Spirit is powerful too, because then we start to see each other different.
It doesn't mean we're all the same. In fact, we celebrate the fact that the body of Christ is diverse, that we have people that are older that we can learn from, younger that we can learn from. Hey, you've got a different personality. We need that. You've got these talents, we need that. You have this idea for a ministry, and you have this idea for a ministry, but we're all living with that God consciousness. And what would it look like if we all lived in fellowship with the spirit?
The guy on the screen behind me is a guy named Calvin Johnson. And people called him Megatron because he was an unbelievable wide receiver, like, generational type talent. He's one of those, you just throw the football up, one hand, grab it and bring it in.
And so, because he was doing so well, gaining so much popularity, he signed this massive deal. But problem like you and I know sometimes with a lot more opportunities also comes more, what responsibilities.
So he had all this money, but guess what came with it? Other stipulations where he had to meet with these people from Nike, and he had to talk with these people every single week, and he had to talk to his attorney and he had a talk with the press. But then he also had his own family and he had his own friends, and he was trying to break records. So you can see the kind of tension this guy's dealing with. I'm trying to do all these different things.
And what was really interesting is the way that Nike did it is they had Calvin, who was the football player guy, and when he's not playing football, they called him Johnson, which was the guy that you see on the screen with the tie.
And so what was happening was he was having this battle in his mind that we've all had where we have competing things going on. And the commercial goes like this.
He said, well, what about the game?
And then that other voice in his head says, put it on me.
He said, well, what about the schedule? Put it on me.
Well, what about the demands? Put it on me. What about that next meeting? Put it on me.
What about all those records? Put it on me.
And I love that because what if we started to think like that with our different pressures, our schedules and our appointments and our demands?
What if when the pressure came, we let the Holy Spirit say, put that on me.
Or when the failures happen, we let the Holy Spirit say, no, put that on me.
And when you feel overwhelmed, say, yeah, put that on me.
If you're here today and you've never made the decision to give your life to Jesus, whether you're young or older and you're tired of being tired because you've been trying to fix you, help you, sustain you. You can't.
You need spirit, you need Jesus. You need to be saved from the penalty of the sin, but you also need the help to deal with sin.
But maybe you're here today and you're hurting.
You know that all things work together for those who love God and called according to his purpose. But it's hard to see it.
But maybe in that what you need to do is just to come forward. And here's the neat thing, as we just learned, you don't have to have all the perfect words to say.
You just have to bring them before the Father.
And so even if you want to come forward and just say, I don't really know necessarily what I need to do next, I don't know what I need to do.
I just know I need Him.
So whatever it is that you have a need of, we're going to have shepherds that stand in the back that you can walk to them and confess a sin or ask for prayers, or you can walk up here in front of our church family with maybe an unrepentant sin.
Maybe you're going to walk forward today and break free from the performance trap.
Maybe you're going to walk forward or walk back there and break free from the pretending trap, knowing that we don't have to pretend. It's not about performance, it's about Jesus. And so whatever you have a need of, please, please come while we stand and we sing this song together.
