The Holy Spirit as Our Greatest Helper - John 14 - The Heart of Jesus

Hey, church, I'm so excited to be with you today. My name is Pastor Bobby, and today we're going to be talking about the greatest gift that Jesus gives us to help us in our daily walk with him. The greatest gift that Jesus gives us. Let me welcome you if you're at one of our campuses.

We're so happy that you are here today. So I'm going to go ahead and start off by actually drawing a picture for you all. You can all see that it's already partially on the board here. I don't draw very well. I will promise you this. My handwriting is infinitely better than Pastor Andrew's. You guys know if you've seen him right on the whiteboard up here, he has the gift of writing in tongues where only God can actually read his handwriting.

So hopefully you guys can read my handwriting here. So this picture, I've actually been drawing this picture all week for myself because it has really helped me to understand the concept that we're going to be getting into today. So over the last number of weeks, you guys know we've been in a sermon series talking about the heart of Jesus towards us, not just what Jesus has done for us, but how Jesus actually feels about us.

So we think of Jesus. He actually has a smile on his face as he's looking at us, not a scowl. He's not mad. He's not angry.

And when we think about his heart, some of the things we've been going over the last couple of weeks. It's gentle and lowly, meaning he's humble. He wants us to come to him. He's merciful. He's gracious. We saw two weeks ago he's our advocate, Hebrew seven, that he stands between us and God.

We saw last week that Jesus is a friend of sinners. So I'm going to call all of this. We're going to call this reality. This is us and we have just kind of this look on our face. What ends up happening a lot of times, you know, you think about lies, you think about fear, our own sin, Satan, the accuser, the world. What ends up happening is these things right here. And the way we feel about the way Jesus feels about us.

So we'll call this over here, our experience. I feel that Jesus is our advocate. And today we're going to see in John 14 that the Holy Spirit and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

This is such an amazing truth. The gift of the Holy Spirit. What he does.

He races this right here. And allows us to spiritually feel and experience the heart of Jesus for us. So the big idea today and this weekend is that the Holy Spirit helps us to feel and enjoy the heart of Christ. Dane Ortlund in his book, Gentle and Lowly, he says it like this, the spirit makes the heart of Christ real to us.

Not just heard, but seen, not just seen, but felt, not just felt, but enjoyed. The spirit turns the recipe into taste. The spirit turns the postcard into actual experience. So maybe we can think about it like this. The spirit turns reality into experience.

Because they're not always the same. We know what's true. We know what is reality, but we don't always feel that way about how Jesus feels about us. So if you have a Bible, go ahead and turn to John chapter 14. And in John 14, these chapters right around this, John 14, 15, it's Jesus. He's about to go away. He's about to go to the cross. He's been with his disciples up until this point. Jesus is about to go away. And so he's trying to prepare his disciples for this reality. Because you've got to realize, up until this point, for the last couple of years, the disciples, they have had Jesus in the flesh and blood. Like, we have to live by faith.

But at that point, they were living by sight, right? I mean, just think about the disciples and Jesus. It's like, hey, you know, if you get caught in a storm, just like wake Jesus up, right?

He'll calm the storm. You know, it's like, man, if you're at a party and Jesus is there and you run out of something, you know, just tell Jesus, and he'll make more food. You know, it's like, if we had Jesus at the weekender, we'd have Jesus making the food.

You know, the food runs out. We got Jesus make more food. That's what Jesus did. I mean, Jesus would go to a funeral and he would end the funeral. You know, if your friend died, Jesus would resurrect him from the dead.

That was their experience with Jesus up until this point. And now he's like, hey, I'm going to go away. I'm going to be gone.

So you're going to be doing this on your own, guys. And in addition to that, I'm going to task you with the same mission of spreading the kingdom of God that Jesus has been doing. So you can imagine how that they would feel at this point. I mean, they struggled with faith many times when Jesus was right there next to him. And now he's like going to be going away and they're going to have to start living the experience that we've all lived. We don't have Jesus right next to us. We don't have Jesus in the flesh and blood.

And so what does he do? Jesus tells them about this gift of the Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, that he is going to send to them to be their helper. So let's jump into John 14.

We'll start in verse 16. And just taking the big idea for today that the Holy Spirit helps us feel and enjoy the heart of Christ as I read these 10 or so verses, I want you to really just kind of keep that in mind what the Holy Spirit helps us to do as our friend, as our helper, as our friend, as our friend. Keep that in mind what the Holy Spirit helps us to do as our friend, as our helper, as our advocate.

Just kind of keep that lens on as we go through this text. So verse 16, Jesus says, I will ask the Father and he'll give you another helper. So Jesus has been a helper up until this point, but now they're going to get another helper to be with you forever.

And so, he says, I will ask the Father and he'll give you another helper. So Jesus has been a helper. So let's look at verse 16.

So Jesus has been a helper up until this point, but now they're going to get another helper to be with you forever. So through the Spirit, Jesus will manifest himself to us. And then in verse 22, Judas, not Iscariot, said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?

Because he's talking about through the Holy Spirit. Jesus answered him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him, and he will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, and the word that you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me. These things I have spoken to you, I have spoken to you, I have spoken to you, I have spoken to you, I have spoken to you. And the word that you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me. These things I have spoken to you while I'm still with you, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and he will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. So they're losing Jesus, he's going away, but they're gonna get the heart of Jesus as the Holy Spirit manifests the presence of Jesus to them. And this in fact is actually better, hear that, better than having the flesh and blood Jesus. So two chapters later, Jesus starts talking about this again of him leaving in John 16 verse seven. He says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it's to your advantage that I go away.

Let that sink in. It's to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. So it's to our advantage that we get the helper, the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

So who is this helper? Verse 16 describes him as helper, and your Bible may say something different. The Greek word there is parakletos, and I bring that up because every single translation, because it's sort of a unique word that's not, we can't easily just put it into English, and so if you look at your translation, it may say something different. Almost every translation has a different title there for the Holy Spirit. Helper, friend, advocate, counselor, comforter.

This is why I bring up the Greek word. So the para means alongside. So like a paramedic, right? Paramedic brings medical help alongside someone. Like they come to that person to bring them medical help.

So you have the para, and then the second word, the kletos, it means called. So the Holy Spirit is called alongside of us. So called alongside of us, I think, here from John 14, to spiritually help us.

That's the role of the Holy Spirit, to spiritually help us. Some of your Bibles, and this is one way to interpret it, may have the word advocate, like a legal advocate for somebody. And this was very helpful for me to hear Pastor Tim Keller talk about this, because he said in terms of the Holy Spirit being an advocate, it's not that he's an advocate the way we think that Jesus is an advocate. So like between us and God, you know, Jesus is our advocate to God. But the Holy Spirit is an advocate, yes, but he's an advocate to us, and for us.

So think about that for a minute. So as an advocate goes in front of a judge and argues for someone, sometimes we need somebody to argue for us against us. So Tim Keller described it as maybe somebody who deals with addiction, and they have like a sober companion. They have somebody alongside of them, and I've dealt with this, a lot of you guys know my story, losing my little brother this year.

Ten years of addiction, he died at 31 years old. And I walked alongside of him for so much of that, and I was this sort of sober companion. Meaning, you know, when he was struggling, when he was believing lies, when he was believing things about himself that were not true, I would try to come in and argue with him and say, that's not true.

You know, the way you're viewing this is not right. And the Holy Spirit actually does that for us, because we need somebody to come in and to speak into our lives when we believe lies about our reality before God, and our reality before Jesus. And in this passage I think we see two different ways that the Holy Spirit helps us to feel the heart of Jesus.

The first one is this, the Holy Spirit reveals to us spiritual truth about Jesus. So look at John 14, 17, what is he called? And he's called this throughout the New Testament. He's called the Spirit of Truth. So he's revealing to us the truth of who Jesus is. And now when we think of revealing or manifesting to us, it's not like we just, oh, Jesus told us this, or the Holy Spirit told us this.

It's deeper than that. He's helping us to actually spiritually believe these things. John 14, 26, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, what's he gonna do? Whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things.

He will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 1 Corinthians 2, 12 explains this very clearly. Now we have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, and what does he do? That we might understand the things freely given to us by God. What's the greatest thing that God has given us?

Jesus. Jesus is the greatest thing that God has given to us, and what does the Holy Spirit do? Helps us to understand the things freely given to us by God. Helps us to understand and feel the heart of Jesus for us. You know, none of that changes the reality of who Jesus is, but sometimes we need a clearer picture of that reality. Because many times we don't see clearly, we don't feel clearly.

So all the things we've been talking about over the last number of weeks, right? Jesus' grace, the rest that he provides us, his mercy, the fact that he saves us to the uttermost. We can't lose our salvation. He's a friend of sinners. All the truths that we've been learning, the Holy Spirit turns the reality of who Jesus is into an experience of who Jesus is. You see, why do we need an advocate? Why do we need someone to remind us of how Jesus feels about us?

This is why. Because our emotions, our feelings, our own sin, our past, the world, the news, whatever, can end up getting in the way of understanding and feeling the way Jesus feels about us. And think about Satan. In many ways, this title that's given to Satan as the accuser is almost the exact opposite of what the helper is.

If the helper is trying to help us believe what Jesus thinks about us, the accuser is trying to distort what we believe about God and Jesus and ourselves. Think about it like this, okay? For those of you who have kids, so some of you may know this. My kids run. I love to run.

It's something we just like love to do, okay? And my two older sons have, they've begun to compete in running. And so my son Everett, he's eight years old, he is an incredible runner. I mean, I mean, just objectively, like he's an incredible runner. And I asked his permission to share this story with you, but what I've been working with him with, because this is what he struggles with many times, he's an incredible runner, but he will just say, I'm not a good runner. Like, I'm just not a good runner. Like, I'm not.

I'm not a good runner. And so what I have begun to do, because I have a little ammunition now, as his advocate, as his friend, as the person speaking in to him, I'm like, hey, buddy, you guys went to the Junior Olympics last fall in Paris, Kentucky, and you raced against 300 kids. And you know where you came out? You're an All-American. That's reality, buddy. I pulled the medal out for him. I'm like, hey, man, you are telling yourself a lie. You actually are a really great runner. Here's the medal. This isn't platitudes. This is reality. You literally are an All-American.

My other son has the opposite problem. He thinks he's going to qualify for the Olympics, like, tomorrow. I'm like, bud, we need to get some more miles on those legs before we go talking about beating the world record and all of that.

But when you think about me coming to him objectively and saying, man, you are a great runner. This is what the Holy Spirit is doing for us. You know, we say, I'm not forgiven. And the Holy Spirit's like, well, that's a lie.

You are forgiven. You know, I'm not a son. He's like, nope, that's a lie. You're definitely a son. Jesus, man, there's no way he could forgive me again. He's like, nope, Hebrews 7, he's your advocate.

And that's what he's doing, speaking to us as our advocate. You're forgiven. You're loved.

You're accepted. You are Jesus' friend. Raise your hand if you need that in your life. I need that.

I need that. The second thing that we see that the Holy Spirit does here is that the Holy Spirit reveals to us spiritual truth about ourselves. You'll see here, John 14, verse 18 through 20. So Jesus says, I will not leave you as orphans. I'll come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more. But you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day, you will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you.

So it's kind of deep at first when we read this. The surface meaning here from verse 18 is that, hey, I'm not gonna leave you. Meaning, like, you're not gonna be alone because the Holy Spirit's gonna come. So you're not gonna be an orphan in that sense.

Like, you're not gonna be alone. But the much deeper meaning here is that the Holy Spirit does this amazing work in our hearts. Where the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts and we don't just feel what Jesus feels, we begin to feel something ourselves back towards God that the Holy Spirit is doing.

And I can't tell you guys how amazing this is. I mean, we begin to see this in verse 20. I think this is the most amazing truth maybe in the entire Bible. In that day, you will know that I am in my Father, so the relationship within the members of the Trinity. So the way that Jesus is in the Father, we're gonna know that. We're gonna experience that. And we and you and me and I and you.

I mean, let this sink in a little bit, okay? In the Old Testament, you could not get in the presence of God without dying. Now, through the Holy Spirit, our relationship with God the Father is similar to Jesus' relationship to God the Father. If it wasn't written, this would be blasphemy to even be able to state this. That Jesus is describing the way that he's in a relationship with God, that's how we are gonna be in a relationship with him and with God. And so one way to think about it is when the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts, we know that God is our Father in the same way that Jesus knows that God is his Father. Jesus experientially knows that God is his Father. Mark 14, 36. What does Jesus call him?

Abba. Daddy. What's it say in Romans 8, verse 15 and 16? For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to walk back into fear, but you've received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. The spirit of God gets in our hearts and our hearts then begin to declare that God is our Father.

This is not just something we read in a textbook, this is something we experience at the heart level. And some of you may be here today, and I just want to take an aside for just a second, and you're here because you want to be spiritual. Like you desire spiritual things. Many people in our society desire spiritual things. But the reality is this thing where we're able to cry out to God that you are Abba, you are Father, that only happens when there's a total spiritual rebirth that the Holy Spirit does. When he takes away our heart of stone, gives us a heart of flesh, opens our eyes to God, we could try to pursue spiritual things in a relationship with God literally for a million years.

And without the Holy Spirit, through believing in Jesus coming into our lives and giving us a new birth, we will never experience this spiritual relationship that we see here. This is what Jesus talks about in John 3. Some of you may know the story when Jesus is talking to Nicodemus.

What's he tell him? Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he's old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. So I would just encourage you to just ask yourself today, have you been born of the Spirit? Have you been transformed from the inside out?

Because that's what we're seeing here in this text. It's not outside in religion. It's where our hearts actually begin to call out, Abba, Father, you know, it's religion versus the gospel.

It's inside out change. So at this point, I think we all realize, hey, like, man, I need this. Like, I need this in my life, right? We know true things about Jesus, but we don't always feel the truth about Jesus, do we? You know, sometimes reading the Bible, if we're honest, it does feel like reading a recipe.

Doesn't feel like tasting our favorite food, you know? Sometimes reading the Bible is like, man, it's kind of like looking at a postcard of the Grand Canyon versus like being in the Grand Canyon and experiencing that reality. Sometimes Jesus feels distant. Sometimes we go into spiritually dry places in our life, you know, all Christians go through that. And this is why God has sent us a helper in our advocate, the Holy Spirit.

So at this point, as we're kind of moving to application today, I think for many of us, we're like, hey, got it. Like, sign me up, right? Like, what button do I push that the Holy Spirit is going to work in my life in that way? Like, I want to be filled with the Spirit. I want to be led by the Spirit. Like, I want to have the Spirit work in my life. So how do we actually get the Holy Spirit to work in our lives? I mean, that's a pretty deep question. We know the Holy Spirit does.

That's clearly what we see here. That's why Jesus gave him to us. That's why the Father sent him to us.

But how do we actually make that happen, okay? I want to use an analogy here to close out the sermon for today. All right. Think of it like this, okay? And I promise you, I'm not a heretic. You can get in trouble when you talk about analogies for the Holy Spirit and for the Father and the Son.

But seriously, the Bible uses some of this language. So give me a little bit of space here, okay? So you guys know, if you've been around Mercy Hill, that Pastor Andrew likes to complain about the electric fire he has. You know, it's maybe not manly enough, whatever. Like, you just go and turn it on.

And you've heard him maybe complain about that. So in our house, we have like a legit wood-burning stove that's like the centerpiece of the house. So we live in a log cabin. Anybody that's ever been to our house, it's like right in the center of the living room.

You guys go ahead and throw up a picture here. So that's the wood stove. Man, that's with no fire. I got one here with fire. That's it burning right there. I mean, one time we had community group during the winter, and I accidentally got it so hot that we had to literally open up all the windows during community group. So that's a wood-burning stove.

I don't know exactly how it works, but it's really pretty simple. Like, you put wood in, and as long as the thing gets air, it burns really hot. And you want it to burn hotter, you put more wood in. And if you don't want it to burn that hot, you shut the front door, you don't let any air in, you can throw water on it, you know, and you begin to quench it.

I mean, it's very simple. Like, you can make it hotter, or you can quench the flame. Now, let's use that for a little bit of a framework for how we're going to think of the end of this sermon today. So I'm going to go ahead, I don't draw very well, but I'm going to go ahead and draw a wood stove right here in the middle, between us and Jesus. Okay, there's the legs of the wood stove, there's the door, there's the little thing on the top, and then there's, and I'm going to draw a little fire here on the wood stove, okay?

All right, so this is our wood stove. It's very simple. Even if you don't like fire, it's very simple. You want to make it hotter, you go ahead and throw more wood in there. You want to make the heat go down, you just go ahead and quench it, you shut the door, whatever.

It's very simple. The Bible uses some analogies to talk about the Holy Spirit actually in the same way, in a very simple way. So I'm going to give you three verses that are going to be kind of a framework for the way that we're going to end the sermon today.

So the first one is 1 Thessalonians 519. It tells us, do not quench, it actually uses that word, do not quench the Spirit. So quench means reduce, extinguish, smother. So that's telling us we have an ability, like the wood stove here, to quench the Spirit. You know, if the Spirit's living in us, we have an ability to quench that flame in our hearts. Ephesians 518 says the opposite. It says, be filled with the Spirit. So sort of the opposite of quenched, you know, intensify, increase, amplify.

So we can either quench the Spirit in our lives, and that way we're not going to feel the truths about God, we're not going to feel the truths about Jesus, or we can fuel the work of the Spirit in our heart. Very simple, just like the wood stove. Man, you want it hotter, put in more wood. You want it to go down, shut the door, don't put in any more wood. Eventually the flame will die down. The third verse that's very helpful, you say, okay, well how do we do that?

Like, man, how do we put wood in there, you know? How do we light the flame of the Holy Spirit in our hearts? Ephesians 617. This is the weapon of the Spirit, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. So the thing that the Spirit uses as ammunition is the Word of God.

It's very straightforward. Fuel for the Spirit is the Word of God. So if you want Jesus, through the Spirit, to be manifesting himself to you and you understanding truth spiritually, you've got to be in the Word of God. And you've got to be obeying the Word of God. We actually see it from this text, John 14 21. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, so think that as like fueling the Spirit, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, you know, fuels the Spirit, he it is who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and I will manifest myself to him. So let's think of it like this.

Obedience to the Word of God fuels the Spirit's work in our life, while disobedience to the Word of God quenches the Spirit's work in our life. Guys, this is so mysterious, and yet it is so simple and so straightforward. Can I tell you how it happens? Absolutely not. I don't have a clue how this happens.

I mean, this is a otherworldly spiritual thing, how the Holy Spirit can help me feel truths from 2000 years ago and burn them alive in my heart. Can I explain how that happens? No. Is it very simple? Yes, it's actually very simple, based on what the Bible says.

So I'll give you a real quick example of how just like mysterious and simple this is. So I had to go to the bank this week, Wells Fargo over on Brassfield, and it was before work, and I had to do a wire transfer. I couldn't get the thing to work, and I was just kind of pouty and frustrated and just sitting in my car waiting for the bank to open. And, you know, I was thinking to myself, I'm like, man, I'm such a hypocrite. I'm preaching the sermon this week. Haven't you read my Bible this week except to prepare for this sermon and all the crazy stuff going on in the world? You know, it's like, man, there's the shooting in Texas.

There's the racial shooting in New York and things going on at the church. I just sort of had just sort of a just like just a kind of bad attitude about it all, you know? And then I was like, man, I'm a hypocrite. I should go ahead and at least read the Bible as I'm sitting here.

The bank had opened yet. So I go to the Bible app, and I just looked at the verse for the day. Here was the verse for the day. It said, truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Something happened in me in that moment when I read that that said, man, you're being way too much of an adult here. You think you hold the world in your hands and you're worried about all these things as if you have control over them like God doesn't?

Maybe you need to go to Jesus as a child. And you know what happened? My heart just went. I just immediately just felt peace in my heart because that's how the word of God fuels the work of the Spirit in our heart. So the closing question today is this. Are you fueling or quenching the work of the Spirit in your life? It really is that simple. And I realize it's not that linear, you know, like, man, today I just fully fuel the Spirit in my life.

It's not that simple. You know, it's back and forth and back and forth. But it's a very good question that we're able to ask ourselves. Man, am I fueling the work of the Spirit in my life or am I quenching it? Let me close with two scriptures that I think are really going to help us to see what it looks like to quench it and see what it looks like to fuel it. So Galatians 5 verse 16 through 21. These verses are really all about quenching the Spirit. It says, But I say to you, walk by the Spirit, so fuel the Spirit, and you'll not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh, so he's going to say, hey, things that quench the spirits work in your life. They are against the Spirit. The desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. Now the works of the flesh, they're evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalry, dimensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

Let me just pick out three of them real quick here. Sexual immorality, we all understand that. You may have a pornography addiction. You may be stepping out on your marriage. You may be lusting in your heart.

Let's pick out another one. Fits of anger. You know, you may have uncontrolled anger with your spouse or with your kids or at work or with somebody else. Envy, you may be jealous of other people's position in life. You're envious over their life. You're not happy for anybody.

What happens? We say to ourselves, man, I don't feel Jesus's presence. I don't feel his presence. And if we're living in some of these sins, you know what we're doing? We have like a bucket of water here and we're literally dumping it on the fire as we say, I don't feel Jesus's presence. Like we literally are quenching the spirit and at the same time saying, man, wow, why don't I feel Jesus anymore? You know, I don't feel forgiven.

I don't feel like he's my advocate. And we're literally just dumping water on the fire. We as human beings, we are just crazy sometimes. You know? And so I just want to encourage you, like, yeah, if you are wrapped up in some sort of sin, you know, on a day to day basis like this, yeah, you're not going to feel the presence of God. You're quenching the Holy Spirit in your life. So today I would encourage you, man, talk to somebody.

It's not hopeless, I promise you. If you have the Spirit of God in your life, Romans 8 13 says that by the Spirit, you are able to put to death the deeds of the body. I'm not saying it's easy, but you have to make a hard choice that you're going to follow the Spirit and you're not going to follow your flesh. And through doing that, you will gain some spiritual momentum in your life and Jesus will become more and more clear to you. Talk to somebody today.

Talk to somebody in your community group. All of us are dealing with the same stuff and somebody would love to walk alongside of you and say, hey, let me help you with that thing that you're dealing with. The second example is one of fueling the Spirit. Think of Colossians 3 verse 1 and 2. This is what it looks like to fuel the Spirit of God in our life. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. What does it say in verse 16? Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing songs and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. If you told me today, hey, I don't feel Jesus, I would say, what are you being filled with?

When's the last time you threw some logs in the fire? And a lot of times we may realize like two weeks ago. That don't mean we lose our salvation. That don't mean the Spirit of God leaves us. But we certainly will quench the Spirit's work in our life or we can fuel that. You know, I would just ask all of us to ask the question, what are we being filled with? What are we being filled with? Is it the news, talk radio, books, podcasts, things to worry about?

When's the last time we've put some wood on the fire? And so for all of us, one application needs to absolutely be, listen to this, very simple. Go read the Bible tomorrow and read the Bible with a heart that says, I love you, God. I want to obey you, God.

Please help me do that. If you just do that every day, I promise you things are going to change in your life. Go to church, be in a group, sit under the word. And guys, I realize we don't always feel like doing those things, do we? But based on everything we've seen today in John chapter 14, when we don't feel like it, when should we be doing those things? If fueling, right, the Spirit's work in our life is going to help us to feel Jesus, then when we don't feel like it is exactly when we need to be doing these things. So let us just leave today and say, thank you, Jesus, that you provided for me, a helper.

There ain't no way I could do this on my own. And let us try to fuel the Holy Spirit's work in our life. Let me pray. God, I just want to thank you so much, Lord, that you did not leave us as orphans. You gave us an advocate. You gave us a friend. You gave us a comforter. We don't have to fear.

We don't have to be scared. God, through the Spirit, we can put to death the deeds of the body. I thank you for that. I pray for everybody that is here today, God. Help us, help us, Lord, to fuel the work of the Spirit in our life so that we see you more clearly, Jesus.

And as we see you more clearly, we're going to love you more clearly. God, help us do it. Help us do it, God. You know we can't do it on our own. Thank you so much for the Holy Spirit. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.