Who Is the Holy Spirit? - How The Holy Spirit Transforms Us
When we lean into God we receive the fruits of the spirit.
Mark Caswell
Mar 15, 2020 40m
In this sermon Pastor Mark talks about how we can be transformed into the image of Jesus and receive the fruits of the spirit. The Holy Spirit can speak to us through Gods word, through tragedy and uncertainty in our lives, and in confession and repentance. Lean into the spirit. Video recorded at Frisco, Texas.
TranscriptionmessageRegarding Grammar:
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
This is a transcription of the sermon. People speak differently than they write, and there are common colloquialisms in this transcript that sound good when spoken, and look like bad grammar when written.
Holy-Spirit- -3-15-20.mp3
[00:00:01] I'm Chuck Martin, lead pastor of First Baptist Frisco, thanks for watching our online messages. It's our prayer that today's message will be an encouragement in your walk with Christ. If you don't have a church family that you're part of, come join us. Thanks again for watching.
[00:00:38] Well, good morning and welcome to Frisco first, my name is Mark Caswell. Thank you so much for worshipping with us today. Today is a very unique Sunday in the life of our church and the life of our state, our country. And, as our pastor said, these are some crazy times for sure. But we just wanted to get together in this virtual format, launching our Facebook Live ministry that we are so excited about. A couple of people to thank for that, that I wanted to mention: Philip and Dave, you know who you are. Robert, thank you so much for fast-tracking this process to allow us to communicate our worship services in another unique way. And so, as our pastor said, we wanted to do this in a unique way. We wanted to adhere to the recommendations of our city leaders, our county leaders, state leaders about this coronavirus and responding to it appropriately. But we certainly did not want to go dark on you this week and cancel the services because these are some unique, crazy times for sure. All the more important that we come together and hear God's word for claimed worship together, albeit in a in another format. I want to remind you that God is still very much in control!
[00:01:57] God is still very much on his throne, despite some weird outbreaks and pandemics and economic times that we're going through. It's times like these that we need to be reminded that Jesus died for times like these. Jesus certainly died for our sin, allowed us to have that right relationship with him, but he died also to give us hope in the future. And when you read newspaper headlines, this is today's, it says: "Uncertainty Rushes In," reporting a large mass of people in the airport; I believe last night, this was yesterday's, "Trump Declares National Emergency". It's important for us to rest in the hope that we have in Christ. John 16:33 says, "I've told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble, but I have overcome the world." And that's Jesus talking, giving us that confidence and that hope. And sure, as Christians, we may get a little anxious from time to time, a little nervous in times like these. We may even buy an extra 80 rolls of toilet paper. You know who you are. So, yeah, be convicted by that. But, no, all kidding aside, we have this hope in Christ that has been sealed by the Holy Spirit. But many of our neighbors, many of our friends and even some family members may not have that relationship with Christ. And so it's important that we rest in the confidence that we have in our relationship with Christ, sealed in the Holy Spirit.
[00:03:25] But we must also live transformed lives by the power of the Holy Spirit, enabling us to be a better Christlike example to our friends. And that's what I want to talk to you today. About how the Holy Spirit transforms our spirit from one degree of glory to another. So, if you have your Bibles, turn to Second Corinthians, chapter three verses twelve through eighteen, our primary text is going to be verse eighteen. But I want to read a few verses before to give you the context of this verse about the Holy Spirit, and how the Holy Spirit transforms us from one degree of glory to another. And so if you have your your Bibles there in front of you, let's look at this. Last week, actually, before we do that--last week we talked about how we are sealed with a spirit at the point of salvation. And this security gives us a completely different identity that was instantaneous and transformational. Today, we're gonna see how the Holy Spirit does not stop there. He begins the process, a lifelong process, of transforming our spirit more and more into the likeness and the image of the spirit of Jesus. Now, we do not become divine like Jesus. Obviously, we cannot do miracles and, you know, be the son of God, obviously. But we can model Jesus's actions, his character, words, and care about what he cared about. And so look at this with me, in Second Corinthians, chapter three, twelve through eighteen.
[00:04:51] It says, "Since we have such a hope. We are very bold. Not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened for to this day, when they read the old covenant, the same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is it taken away. [Yes.] To this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord. Who is the spirit? Okay, let me try to explain this. You're gonna love this. Okay. This is a great text that is highlighting an Old Testament concept in Old Testament reality about what it meant to be in the presence of God. Being in the presence of God in the Old Testament was a dangerous proposition. Very few had access to the very presence of God. Moses probably being one of the most prolific people that had access to the presence of God. And when he would go into the presence of God and converse with him and talk with him, God's presence was like a nuclear reactor of glory.
[00:06:13] And there would be this glow, this brilliant impression that would be left upon Moses. And when he would come down from the mountain, begin to converse with the Israelites, he would put a veil over his face to kind of block the the intensity, the brilliance of the after effects of being in God's presence. But this presence, this glow, you could say, would would wear off. And so the veil would kind of come and go. And what Paul is is trying to explain with this in this text is that we had the Holy Spirit living in us. We all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord because of the Holy Spirit, because of Jesus first and foremost. We can have that right relationship with God. We can have our souls infused with the Holy Spirit, that he can begin the never ending process, or at least here on Earth, of transforming our hearts more and more into the image of Jesus. And that's what Paul is trying to say. And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. So with this unveiled face, what are we doing? What are we being transformed into the likeness or the image? We are being transformed, rather, into the image, the same image or likeness of Jesus from one degree of glory to another.
[00:07:40] That's what's happening in our lives based on what this verse tells us. As we grow spiritually, we are daily, more and more becoming more like the image of Jesus. So from this verse, we learned two things. Number one, the Holy Spirit is transforming our spirit. One step at a time when we become Christians will become followers of Jesus Christ. Our sins are forgiven or cleansed and washed away. What happens? The Bible says of the Holy Spirit comes into our life and begins a process of sanctification. That's a big Bible word for growing spiritually. And obviously we still struggle with sin. And so it's this constant process that the Holy Spirit is helping us to not sin and to do wrong things and to do the right things and the obedient things that God wants us to do to live out the life that he calls us to live. So the Holy Spirit is transforming our spirit one step at a time. And number two, what this verse tells us is the Holy Spirit is transforming us into someone specific. See what is happening in scripture that what scripture tells us is that we are not turning into a better us. You know, you're not turning into a better you to be the best you that you can be. What the Bible tells us is that God is in the Holy Spirit is turning us into the likeness in the image of Jesus.
[00:09:06] We want to sound like Jesus. We want to talk like Jesus. We want to live like Jesus. We want to care about the things that Jesus cares about. We want to abstain and hate sin, just like Jesus abstained and hated sin. And so that's what is happening in this verse. And so what I want to do for the rest of our time this morning in the sermon is to take that text and provide three different examples from God's word of what it looks like for a life to be in process of being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. So we're going to bounce around a little bit. But I want you to hang with me, because I think you this will be very applicable to what we are going through as a country and as a community today. And so there are three common scenarios in which the Holy Spirit is actively transforming our hearts. Now, this isn't the only three, but these are these are probably three of the most common scenarios in which the Holy Spirit is actively moving in our lives. Number one, obedience to the word. When we study God's word and we'll see an example, apply it to our lives. The Holy Spirit's moving number two, tragedy and uncertainty. When things are kind of like today, one thing when the future is a little uncertain. This is a massive, massive deal that we're going through as a country and as a community.
[00:10:27] You may be worried about your job. You may be obviously worried about your health. And so these times of tragedy and uncertainty is an opportunity for us to engage the Holy Spirit in our lives and for the Holy Spirit, perhaps more importantly, to engage us. And then number three, confession and repentance. We go through times of sin, which we all experience, when and if we engage in confession and repentance, the Holy Spirit is moving. And all three of these scenarios, I like to say, are kind of under an umbrella of worship. I like that verse again in verse 18. It says, We all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed. And so our times of worship certainly when we sing on Sunday mornings. But perhaps more importantly, when we live out our lifestyle of worship, when we leave this place each each week is a better reflection of that Holy Spirit moving in our lives. And so let's look at these one by one. Number one, obedience to the word. If you have your Bibles, they are turned, also, flip over to Galatians, chapter five, sixteen through twenty three. This is the common passage about the fruits of the spirit. I want to read these to you to show you the relevance that God allows us to have as it relates to knowing what we are to do and what we are to not be engaging in. Galatians five, verse 19, says this.
[00:11:52] Now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalry's dissentions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So those are the bad things. In case you didn't figure that out yet. Verse 22: But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. So probably our first scenario in which the Holy Spirit is moving in our lives is when we are obeying God's word. Applying God's word to your life is the most consistent example of the Holy Spirit transforming your spirit, when you are obeying God's word, when you are doing the things that would that you know, you hear preached about through the text or in your LIFEGroup studying God's word or it at home when you're when you're reading God's word. That is the Holy Spirit moving in your life. That is the Holy Spirit, transforming your life from one degree of glory to another. And then the second thing I think we take away from this text is there's a right way and a wrong way to apply God's word to your life. Sorcery is bad. Love is good. Very simple. We can understand this. We can we can get it. And we can apply it to our lives. First, John, 324, says this.
[00:13:22] Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him. And by this, we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. So when we are walking with God based on what the Bible tells us to be doing and what the Bible tells us not to be doing, the Holy Spirit is transforming our life. There's no way around God's word. God's word demands a response. God's word demands us to engage it and read it and apply it and see how we are to come away from that. We listen to sermons, engage in LIFEGroups, read our Bible on our own. We must work hard. Ask the Holy Spirit what is something tangible he is wanting us to do with what we are reading this week. I want to encourage you to do that this week, as we are all kind of quarantined in our homes. This week, perhaps, is that we begin to think about, "What is the Holy Spirit wanting me to do based on the text that I am reading?" That's the gift of the Bible. God's word is God's word speaking to us. I had a former mentor pastor and I always stuck with him when we said, this is God's love letter to us. It's a letter to us telling us how we are to live. But this is not easy. There's plenty of times that I read God's word, hear a sermon, or a small group Bible study time, and I'm just like,"God, I don't know. I can't think of anything specific that the Holy Spirit is leading me to do." And there's other times, it's like the the words are jumping off the page right to me. This past week I took my family on a ski trip to Colorado. We had an absolute blast. This was the first time that my kids had ever skiied before. I love to ski. I did that at high school and college, hadn't been in a number of years, and so I was praying I didn't get injured, but we had a great time. But if you if you dads or moms have ever taken your kids skiing for the first time, you know that it's not exactly going to be a guarantee. For example, you know no one--are they going to like it? Are they going to enjoy skiing? Number two, are they going to have the persistence to stay at it, to learn how to do it? That's that's up in the air, you know. We never really know how kids are going to respond to that. Well, my son Hudson was--he wasn't getting it. He was struggling and learning how to ski as every first time skier does. We put him in ski school, he and Jack, and and he just said, "Dad, I'm just I'm just not getting it." He was getting very frustrated. And so I was working with him.
[00:15:57] And I've been skiing, like I said, a number of times. And so I said, alright, Hudson, here's what I want to do. I want you to stand there and I'm going to put my skis around you and I'm going to hold your chest. And I want you to just do exactly what I do. If if my left ski turns a little bit, I want your left ski to turn a little bit. If I lean a little bit, you know, to my left or my right, I want you to lean with me. And at first, he was kind of, you know, awkward and didn't understand his body, and I was holding him real tightly. And about halfway down the mountain, he yells, "I got it!" And he began to just, you know, cruise down the mountain, just like he'd been doing it for years. He was turning left. He was turning right. He was stopping. And he had an absolute blast. We as believers are the same way. Once we get it, it's a blast. My son had a blast on the Learning Hill. He had he had the time of his life on the bunny slopes. They can't wait to go back to Colorado and go skiing. Imagine how he is going to feel when he goes down that green, that blue, and maybe even one day a black, one of the most intense, you know, hardest slopes on the mountain. He's going to have a blast.
[00:17:10] Applying God's word to our lives unlocks the skill of obedience that the Holy Spirit uses to take us to new heights of blessing, of purpose and wonder when we obey God's word. It is a blast because the Holy Spirit is transforming our lives. First, John four, twelve through 13, says this: "No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. And by this we know that we abide in him and he and us because he has given us his Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit is transforming us every time we apply the word to our lives. Second scenario, a common scenario, which the Holy Spirit is transforming our lives; number two is tragedy and uncertainty. Flip over to the Old Testament, Job. Chapter 42 verses one through five. I'll read this here. It says, "Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand things to wonderful for me to know, which I did not know. Hear, and I will speak and I will question you and you will make it known to me. I had heard of you. By the hearing of the ear But now my eye sees. You see tragedy and uncertainty will force any one of three basic responses for the Christian. Trusting in God, trusting in the idols, or what I like to call 'apathetic responsibility'.
[00:18:45] Those are typically the three responses that Christians engage in when it comes to uncertain times, tragic times. We lean into God more, or we lean into our idols in our lives. And when they don't measure up, then we've got a problem, or we are kind of apathetically responsible, continuing to move forward. Job is the picture of what it looks like to suffer well. Talk about a season of uncertainty, if you're familiar with the story of Job. Job was very wealthy. Lost all of his resources, all of his money, all of the things that made him so successful. All of his children died tragically. Talk about not knowing what the future was holding in his life! And if you remember, his wife took a different approach. Her encouragement to Job was to curse God and die. That's that's not good. Why did she say that? Well, in her mind, it was unnatural for a person to be going through this level of pain. It just did not compute in her mind. Life was not supposed to be this hard. Remember, this is a woman who was filthy rich. And Job did not turn to his idols in his life, but his wife did. And when those idols did not work. What's the point of going on? We don't have money anymore. So what's the point? Our children are gone.What's the point for us moving forward?
[00:20:13] Well, Job didn't do that. He engaged God. He begged for understanding and insight. And what we see from this text is the ultimate outcome that God never explains to Job, by the way, never tells him why all these bad things happen. But Job's conclusion was, 'I have heard of you with my ears now my eyes have seen you'. In other words, I know you more. And so that is precisely what Job did. He trusted in God, his wife trusted in her idols.
[00:20:46] And then another common response is what I like to call 'apathetic responsibility'. We simply act responsible: "Well, that's life. Nothing to do. Move forward." All the while refusing to lean into Jesus, all the while refusing to lean in to the Holy Spirit. Because someone's got to 'be the adult in the room'; someone 'can't just sit around and cry and pray all day'... I gotta keep moving forward. I want to encourage you not to do that. I want to encourage you to lean into Jesus--into the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is engaging our spirit big-time in times of tragedy and uncertainty. It's times of struggle and pain that his voice can become very, very real in our lives. And it's the Holy Spirit's goal that sometimes can only be found in times of tremendous fear and loss. For us to know him more. That's his goal for us constantly, whether reading our word, whether in times of tragedy and uncertainty or as we'll see in a moment, confession and repentance.
[00:21:49] Why God allows certain things to happen, what he is orchestrating or doing, our minds don't know or understand, but we know he loves us, because he's proven it in Jesus and sealed it with the Holy Spirit. So he's transforming us in times of tragedy and uncertainty. A third scenario: confession and repentance. Flip over to Psalms, chapter 51, ten through seventeen. Little background on this text, this is David talking. David was the most famous king in all of Israelite history. Loved the Lord deeply, but he committed a terrible, terrible collection of sins. He had an affair with a woman named Bathsheba, and orchestrated the murder of her husband--in order for him [David] to become her husband, it was an awful, awful sin. And David was called to the carpet about it by the prophet Nathan, who said, "you are the man who created this terrible, terrible scenario of sin". And David simply said, "I have sinned against the Lord. I failed." That was his simple response. And then Psalm 51 captures his confession in more detail to the Lord. Notice what he is requesting, Notice the language that he uses in this text, Psalm 51, 10 through 17. He says, "Create in me a clean heart. Oh, God. And renew a right spirit within me." When you get into the Hebrew of that text, what what David is saying there and in English really brings it out nicely is I don't want you just to clean my heart. I don't want you just to kind of wipe off the rough edges. I need a heart transplant. I need to be transformed at the most intimate levels possible because of the depths of my sin.
[00:23:42] Verse eleven, "...cast me not away from your presence. Take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness oh God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart oh God you will not despise. And so if you find yourself today in a season of sin, a season of confession needs to be your next step. And then your next step needs to be a season of repentance. Confession cleanses the soul, repentance, repairs, the damaged relationship. And we are all guilty of that. Obviously, we don't need to be seeking out seasons of sin or seasons of tragedy in order to experience this. But that's just what happens in life.
[00:24:52] We have good days and we have bad days, good days of our own account and bad days of our own account, good days and in life and life's just blessing us. And then bad days when when life just throws us a painful, painful curveball sometimes. And we need to lean into Jesus. We need to lean into Jesus and see the Holy Spirit the same way that David does. "Cast me not away from your presence. Take not your Holy Spirit from me." That's David crying out to God. Engaging in a spiritual battle, renew my spirit with yours. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me, but continue to infuse us together, renew me and create me a clean heart. God has not only sent us, his son, Jesus, for our salvation and rescue, he's also sent us the Holy Spirit to maintain our salvation and to put the pieces back together of our life, to give us that purpose and value that he wants us to have. When I was eight years old, my dad had a major, major heart attack. He was 40 years old, played a round a golf, mowed the lawn, and just collapsed. And what had happened was his ascending aortic artery was 100 percent blocked. He was rushed to the hospital. Open heart surgery, bypass surgery. I remember many details. Some are a little fuzzy, but I remember the magnitude of the moment. I remember thinking my dad, you know, may not come home from this hospital.
[00:26:24] It was that big of a deal. We were, you know, very, very nervous about that, obviously. But the heart procedure worked. The bypass work saved his life, but it came at a cost for my dad. His cardiologist told him that he had to change his behavior in drastic ways if he wanted to continue living. He went on a strict vegetarian diet for over a year, he exercised, took medication, and the recovery process was not easy. But his life was saved. His salvation came. Salvation gave him new motivation to live a more healthy lifestyle. The doctors transformed my father's heart. They repaired the broken pieces of his heart. What David is talking about here is, 'I need a heart transplant'. And so when we go through seasons of sin, which, again, all of us do, we need to confess that sin quickly. We need to repent of that sin and make the same requests that David made, create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me. And sometimes we look at God's word or these these great famous sins. You may think, well 'I've never had an affair', 'I've never murdered someone', So maybe, "God, my bad. I'm sorry." But the nature of sin--all sin--is just as tragic as David sin. Our little white lies and little 'imperfections' as we like to call them; we need to come clean with God often and request this new heart of transformation over and over again.
[00:27:52] Ezekiel, 36:26, says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." God has some post operation instructions for us. Just like my dad's cardiologist had some post operation instruction for him, God provides the help of the Holy Spirit to keep us on the straight and narrow. The Holy Spirit is the greatest and most transformational life coach...Financial planner...counselor...therapist...professor...motivator that the world has ever seen. And he lives within us. What a blessing it is that we have the Holy Spirit in our lives walking through these common scenarios in which he is working on our souls. When we confess or repent sin, the Holy Spirit is transforming our lives. When we go through seasons of tragedy and uncertainty, the Holy Spirit is working and transforming our lives. And, when we obviously read God's word and apply it to our lives and even begin to repent of sin and embrace holiness, the Holy Spirit is transforming our spirits. He is linking our spirit with his, making us more and more in the image of Christ. God cares deeply about his word. And when we apply it to our lives, he's working in us. John one, one through five says, "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him, all things were made, without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it."
[00:29:44] God cares about his word. And so when we read the Bible, we hear it proclaimed in church and in our Bible studies and in our in our rooms, in our quiet times that we have every day, hopefully that we can know that God's word is shining a light into the darkness of not only our life, but in our world. So if you find yourself in a season of confession and repentance, don't run from it. Embrace it. Understand that the Holy Spirit is doing a mighty work in your life. Through that confession and repentance, you find yourself in a season of tragedy or uncertainty, not unlike what we are experiencing right now as a country. Don't run from it. Don't don't hide in the corner, but embrace this as an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to reform you, to transform you, to know him more. The same way that Job did: 'Initially, I have heard you with my ears. Now I've seen you with my eyes.' We want that, just sometimes don't want to go through the tragedy to get there. And if every sermon, every Bible study is seemingly speaking right to you, embrace the truth of God's word and do not resist the Holy Spirit. If you don't hear anything I say today, I want you to hear that.
[00:31:00] Do not resist the Holy Spirit. Acts 7:51 says exactly that, "You stiff neck people, you always resist the Holy Spirit..." The person who said that was Stephen at the end of a mighty, mighty sermon. And it was that line, that concept, that caused the people, the Sanhedrin, begin to pick up stones to murder him because they did not want to hear that. Talk about a picture of resisting the Holy Spirit! That is what we do not need to do, we need to embrace the Holy Spirit in his work in our lives, knowing that we have the capacity to resist the Holy Spirit and grieve him. And we don't need to do that. Hey, if you're going through something heavy right now, obviously we are here in an online setting, but please know that we would love to hear from you. You can e-mail us at the church and there's several different emails of all of our staff members there at the church that you can e-mail us with questions or concerns if you don't have a relationship with Christ. We want to talk to you about that. We want to help you understand the hope that you can have through Jesus to be sealed with the Holy Spirit, as we've talked about and what that looks like.
[00:32:22] What I would like to do as we close today is to have a time of prayer. And I would like you to participate with me as you're watching this. You may be in your living room, in your bedroom, in your kitchen, watching this right now. But I want you to participate in this time of prayer with us. There's about eighteen of us here on the campus right now participating in this. But you at home, I would like you to pray for a couple of things. I want you to kind of take a moment here to get in position, but I want you to take a moment and pray out loud right where you're at. For our national leaders, well, we are going through right now is a big deal. It's affecting all of us. And it's not just Texas. It's not just America. Obviously, it's the entire world. And so just take a second with your family, with your spouse or by yourself, and just pray out loud for our national leaders, our city leaders, our county health officials, our senators, our president, all the decision makers that are going into how to combat this coronavirus. So take a moment and do that right now, if you would.
[00:33:56] Praying for our national leaders, praying for our city leaders, our mayor, our county health officials. People who are making decisions that are affecting millions of people.
[00:34:11] Take a second and pray for them.
[00:34:16] Ask God to give them wisdom. Many of these leaders are working. Around the clock.
[00:34:25] Ask God to give them strength and endurance to keep fighting this very unique, very difficult pandemic that we find ourselves in.
[00:34:50] Second thing I want you to pray for, is our health care workers, our nurses, our hospital staff, our doctors, E.R. doctors especially. I want you to pray that God would give them great energy. They also are working around the clock. They also are putting themselves in great danger, caring for those that are sick. If you know some nurses, some E.R. doctors by name, pray for them. Pray God's protection over them. Next group of people I'd like you to pray for is our elderly population, and those with underlying health issues. It seems from the news reports, that demographic has been most affected by the coronavirus. Take a second and pray for them. Pray for your parents. Pray for your grandparents. Pray for those in our church that are such wonderful mentors in our lives. Such encouragers to us, and may be going through a a little bit of an extra round of fear with this coronavirus.
[00:36:40] Take a second and pray for them, if you would. If you know them by name, pray for him by name.
[00:36:52] Pray that God would protect them. Pray that God would keep them safe. Pray most importantly for perhaps that they would lean into the Holy Spirit and trust in him. In these uncertain times. And lastly, I want you to pray that the Holy Spirit would transform your life this week.
[00:37:30] Don't pray that he would make you a better person in general one day. Don't pray that he would, you know, help you out to be a little less prideful in life in general, some immeasurable prayer requests that you really never know if you're actually doing it.
[00:37:45] Take a second and pray and ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do this week based on the text that Mark just preached through? Who do you want me to call? Who do you want me to check on? What do you want me to stop doing? What do you want me to start doing?
[00:38:01] Ask, beg, plead the Holy Spirit to transform your spirit.
[00:38:08] One degree of glory to another. More and more and more, a little bit closer to that likeness in that image of Jesus.
[00:38:19] Take a second to pray that out loud. Pray that there in your home.
[00:38:53] God, thank you so much for today. Thank you so much that we live in an age that we can gather virtually/digitally. With a with a global pandemic going on, the we as the body of Christ can be the body of Christ, which is the people, not the building, that we can come together in this unique way. To hear your word, proclaim to sing praises to you, to pray. God, we thank you for that. And God, we do pray for our national leaders, we do pray for our health care workers, our elderly population, and those with underlying health issues. And God, we pray that the Holy Spirit would transform our lives. This week, I pray that the Holy Spirit would transform my life in a unique way. This week. So that we can continue to grow from one degree of glory to another. More and more into the image and likeness of Jesus helped us to do that. This would give us the boldness, the courage to do exactly that this week. And we pray this in Jesus name.
[00:39:53] Amen.
Recorded in Frisco, Texas.
[00:00:01] I'm Chuck Martin, lead pastor of First Baptist Frisco, thanks for watching our online messages. It's our prayer that today's message will be an encouragement in your walk with Christ. If you don't have a church family that you're part of, come join us. Thanks again for watching.
[00:00:38] Well, good morning and welcome to Frisco first, my name is Mark Caswell. Thank you so much for worshipping with us today. Today is a very unique Sunday in the life of our church and the life of our state, our country. And, as our pastor said, these are some crazy times for sure. But we just wanted to get together in this virtual format, launching our Facebook Live ministry that we are so excited about. A couple of people to thank for that, that I wanted to mention: Philip and Dave, you know who you are. Robert, thank you so much for fast-tracking this process to allow us to communicate our worship services in another unique way. And so, as our pastor said, we wanted to do this in a unique way. We wanted to adhere to the recommendations of our city leaders, our county leaders, state leaders about this coronavirus and responding to it appropriately. But we certainly did not want to go dark on you this week and cancel the services because these are some unique, crazy times for sure. All the more important that we come together and hear God's word for claimed worship together, albeit in a in another format. I want to remind you that God is still very much in control!
[00:01:57] God is still very much on his throne, despite some weird outbreaks and pandemics and economic times that we're going through. It's times like these that we need to be reminded that Jesus died for times like these. Jesus certainly died for our sin, allowed us to have that right relationship with him, but he died also to give us hope in the future. And when you read newspaper headlines, this is today's, it says: "Uncertainty Rushes In," reporting a large mass of people in the airport; I believe last night, this was yesterday's, "Trump Declares National Emergency". It's important for us to rest in the hope that we have in Christ. John 16:33 says, "I've told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble, but I have overcome the world." And that's Jesus talking, giving us that confidence and that hope. And sure, as Christians, we may get a little anxious from time to time, a little nervous in times like these. We may even buy an extra 80 rolls of toilet paper. You know who you are. So, yeah, be convicted by that. But, no, all kidding aside, we have this hope in Christ that has been sealed by the Holy Spirit. But many of our neighbors, many of our friends and even some family members may not have that relationship with Christ. And so it's important that we rest in the confidence that we have in our relationship with Christ, sealed in the Holy Spirit.
[00:03:25] But we must also live transformed lives by the power of the Holy Spirit, enabling us to be a better Christlike example to our friends. And that's what I want to talk to you today. About how the Holy Spirit transforms our spirit from one degree of glory to another. So, if you have your Bibles, turn to Second Corinthians, chapter three verses twelve through eighteen, our primary text is going to be verse eighteen. But I want to read a few verses before to give you the context of this verse about the Holy Spirit, and how the Holy Spirit transforms us from one degree of glory to another. And so if you have your your Bibles there in front of you, let's look at this. Last week, actually, before we do that--last week we talked about how we are sealed with a spirit at the point of salvation. And this security gives us a completely different identity that was instantaneous and transformational. Today, we're gonna see how the Holy Spirit does not stop there. He begins the process, a lifelong process, of transforming our spirit more and more into the likeness and the image of the spirit of Jesus. Now, we do not become divine like Jesus. Obviously, we cannot do miracles and, you know, be the son of God, obviously. But we can model Jesus's actions, his character, words, and care about what he cared about. And so look at this with me, in Second Corinthians, chapter three, twelve through eighteen.
[00:04:51] It says, "Since we have such a hope. We are very bold. Not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened for to this day, when they read the old covenant, the same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is it taken away. [Yes.] To this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord. Who is the spirit? Okay, let me try to explain this. You're gonna love this. Okay. This is a great text that is highlighting an Old Testament concept in Old Testament reality about what it meant to be in the presence of God. Being in the presence of God in the Old Testament was a dangerous proposition. Very few had access to the very presence of God. Moses probably being one of the most prolific people that had access to the presence of God. And when he would go into the presence of God and converse with him and talk with him, God's presence was like a nuclear reactor of glory.
[00:06:13] And there would be this glow, this brilliant impression that would be left upon Moses. And when he would come down from the mountain, begin to converse with the Israelites, he would put a veil over his face to kind of block the the intensity, the brilliance of the after effects of being in God's presence. But this presence, this glow, you could say, would would wear off. And so the veil would kind of come and go. And what Paul is is trying to explain with this in this text is that we had the Holy Spirit living in us. We all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord because of the Holy Spirit, because of Jesus first and foremost. We can have that right relationship with God. We can have our souls infused with the Holy Spirit, that he can begin the never ending process, or at least here on Earth, of transforming our hearts more and more into the image of Jesus. And that's what Paul is trying to say. And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. So with this unveiled face, what are we doing? What are we being transformed into the likeness or the image? We are being transformed, rather, into the image, the same image or likeness of Jesus from one degree of glory to another.
[00:07:40] That's what's happening in our lives based on what this verse tells us. As we grow spiritually, we are daily, more and more becoming more like the image of Jesus. So from this verse, we learned two things. Number one, the Holy Spirit is transforming our spirit. One step at a time when we become Christians will become followers of Jesus Christ. Our sins are forgiven or cleansed and washed away. What happens? The Bible says of the Holy Spirit comes into our life and begins a process of sanctification. That's a big Bible word for growing spiritually. And obviously we still struggle with sin. And so it's this constant process that the Holy Spirit is helping us to not sin and to do wrong things and to do the right things and the obedient things that God wants us to do to live out the life that he calls us to live. So the Holy Spirit is transforming our spirit one step at a time. And number two, what this verse tells us is the Holy Spirit is transforming us into someone specific. See what is happening in scripture that what scripture tells us is that we are not turning into a better us. You know, you're not turning into a better you to be the best you that you can be. What the Bible tells us is that God is in the Holy Spirit is turning us into the likeness in the image of Jesus.
[00:09:06] We want to sound like Jesus. We want to talk like Jesus. We want to live like Jesus. We want to care about the things that Jesus cares about. We want to abstain and hate sin, just like Jesus abstained and hated sin. And so that's what is happening in this verse. And so what I want to do for the rest of our time this morning in the sermon is to take that text and provide three different examples from God's word of what it looks like for a life to be in process of being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. So we're going to bounce around a little bit. But I want you to hang with me, because I think you this will be very applicable to what we are going through as a country and as a community today. And so there are three common scenarios in which the Holy Spirit is actively transforming our hearts. Now, this isn't the only three, but these are these are probably three of the most common scenarios in which the Holy Spirit is actively moving in our lives. Number one, obedience to the word. When we study God's word and we'll see an example, apply it to our lives. The Holy Spirit's moving number two, tragedy and uncertainty. When things are kind of like today, one thing when the future is a little uncertain. This is a massive, massive deal that we're going through as a country and as a community.
[00:10:27] You may be worried about your job. You may be obviously worried about your health. And so these times of tragedy and uncertainty is an opportunity for us to engage the Holy Spirit in our lives and for the Holy Spirit, perhaps more importantly, to engage us. And then number three, confession and repentance. We go through times of sin, which we all experience, when and if we engage in confession and repentance, the Holy Spirit is moving. And all three of these scenarios, I like to say, are kind of under an umbrella of worship. I like that verse again in verse 18. It says, We all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed. And so our times of worship certainly when we sing on Sunday mornings. But perhaps more importantly, when we live out our lifestyle of worship, when we leave this place each each week is a better reflection of that Holy Spirit moving in our lives. And so let's look at these one by one. Number one, obedience to the word. If you have your Bibles, they are turned, also, flip over to Galatians, chapter five, sixteen through twenty three. This is the common passage about the fruits of the spirit. I want to read these to you to show you the relevance that God allows us to have as it relates to knowing what we are to do and what we are to not be engaging in. Galatians five, verse 19, says this.
[00:11:52] Now the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalry's dissentions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So those are the bad things. In case you didn't figure that out yet. Verse 22: But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. So probably our first scenario in which the Holy Spirit is moving in our lives is when we are obeying God's word. Applying God's word to your life is the most consistent example of the Holy Spirit transforming your spirit, when you are obeying God's word, when you are doing the things that would that you know, you hear preached about through the text or in your LIFEGroup studying God's word or it at home when you're when you're reading God's word. That is the Holy Spirit moving in your life. That is the Holy Spirit, transforming your life from one degree of glory to another. And then the second thing I think we take away from this text is there's a right way and a wrong way to apply God's word to your life. Sorcery is bad. Love is good. Very simple. We can understand this. We can we can get it. And we can apply it to our lives. First, John, 324, says this.
[00:13:22] Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him. And by this, we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. So when we are walking with God based on what the Bible tells us to be doing and what the Bible tells us not to be doing, the Holy Spirit is transforming our life. There's no way around God's word. God's word demands a response. God's word demands us to engage it and read it and apply it and see how we are to come away from that. We listen to sermons, engage in LIFEGroups, read our Bible on our own. We must work hard. Ask the Holy Spirit what is something tangible he is wanting us to do with what we are reading this week. I want to encourage you to do that this week, as we are all kind of quarantined in our homes. This week, perhaps, is that we begin to think about, "What is the Holy Spirit wanting me to do based on the text that I am reading?" That's the gift of the Bible. God's word is God's word speaking to us. I had a former mentor pastor and I always stuck with him when we said, this is God's love letter to us. It's a letter to us telling us how we are to live. But this is not easy. There's plenty of times that I read God's word, hear a sermon, or a small group Bible study time, and I'm just like,"God, I don't know. I can't think of anything specific that the Holy Spirit is leading me to do." And there's other times, it's like the the words are jumping off the page right to me. This past week I took my family on a ski trip to Colorado. We had an absolute blast. This was the first time that my kids had ever skiied before. I love to ski. I did that at high school and college, hadn't been in a number of years, and so I was praying I didn't get injured, but we had a great time. But if you if you dads or moms have ever taken your kids skiing for the first time, you know that it's not exactly going to be a guarantee. For example, you know no one--are they going to like it? Are they going to enjoy skiing? Number two, are they going to have the persistence to stay at it, to learn how to do it? That's that's up in the air, you know. We never really know how kids are going to respond to that. Well, my son Hudson was--he wasn't getting it. He was struggling and learning how to ski as every first time skier does. We put him in ski school, he and Jack, and and he just said, "Dad, I'm just I'm just not getting it." He was getting very frustrated. And so I was working with him.
[00:15:57] And I've been skiing, like I said, a number of times. And so I said, alright, Hudson, here's what I want to do. I want you to stand there and I'm going to put my skis around you and I'm going to hold your chest. And I want you to just do exactly what I do. If if my left ski turns a little bit, I want your left ski to turn a little bit. If I lean a little bit, you know, to my left or my right, I want you to lean with me. And at first, he was kind of, you know, awkward and didn't understand his body, and I was holding him real tightly. And about halfway down the mountain, he yells, "I got it!" And he began to just, you know, cruise down the mountain, just like he'd been doing it for years. He was turning left. He was turning right. He was stopping. And he had an absolute blast. We as believers are the same way. Once we get it, it's a blast. My son had a blast on the Learning Hill. He had he had the time of his life on the bunny slopes. They can't wait to go back to Colorado and go skiing. Imagine how he is going to feel when he goes down that green, that blue, and maybe even one day a black, one of the most intense, you know, hardest slopes on the mountain. He's going to have a blast.
[00:17:10] Applying God's word to our lives unlocks the skill of obedience that the Holy Spirit uses to take us to new heights of blessing, of purpose and wonder when we obey God's word. It is a blast because the Holy Spirit is transforming our lives. First, John four, twelve through 13, says this: "No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. And by this we know that we abide in him and he and us because he has given us his Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit is transforming us every time we apply the word to our lives. Second scenario, a common scenario, which the Holy Spirit is transforming our lives; number two is tragedy and uncertainty. Flip over to the Old Testament, Job. Chapter 42 verses one through five. I'll read this here. It says, "Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand things to wonderful for me to know, which I did not know. Hear, and I will speak and I will question you and you will make it known to me. I had heard of you. By the hearing of the ear But now my eye sees. You see tragedy and uncertainty will force any one of three basic responses for the Christian. Trusting in God, trusting in the idols, or what I like to call 'apathetic responsibility'.
[00:18:45] Those are typically the three responses that Christians engage in when it comes to uncertain times, tragic times. We lean into God more, or we lean into our idols in our lives. And when they don't measure up, then we've got a problem, or we are kind of apathetically responsible, continuing to move forward. Job is the picture of what it looks like to suffer well. Talk about a season of uncertainty, if you're familiar with the story of Job. Job was very wealthy. Lost all of his resources, all of his money, all of the things that made him so successful. All of his children died tragically. Talk about not knowing what the future was holding in his life! And if you remember, his wife took a different approach. Her encouragement to Job was to curse God and die. That's that's not good. Why did she say that? Well, in her mind, it was unnatural for a person to be going through this level of pain. It just did not compute in her mind. Life was not supposed to be this hard. Remember, this is a woman who was filthy rich. And Job did not turn to his idols in his life, but his wife did. And when those idols did not work. What's the point of going on? We don't have money anymore. So what's the point? Our children are gone.What's the point for us moving forward?
[00:20:13] Well, Job didn't do that. He engaged God. He begged for understanding and insight. And what we see from this text is the ultimate outcome that God never explains to Job, by the way, never tells him why all these bad things happen. But Job's conclusion was, 'I have heard of you with my ears now my eyes have seen you'. In other words, I know you more. And so that is precisely what Job did. He trusted in God, his wife trusted in her idols.
[00:20:46] And then another common response is what I like to call 'apathetic responsibility'. We simply act responsible: "Well, that's life. Nothing to do. Move forward." All the while refusing to lean into Jesus, all the while refusing to lean in to the Holy Spirit. Because someone's got to 'be the adult in the room'; someone 'can't just sit around and cry and pray all day'... I gotta keep moving forward. I want to encourage you not to do that. I want to encourage you to lean into Jesus--into the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is engaging our spirit big-time in times of tragedy and uncertainty. It's times of struggle and pain that his voice can become very, very real in our lives. And it's the Holy Spirit's goal that sometimes can only be found in times of tremendous fear and loss. For us to know him more. That's his goal for us constantly, whether reading our word, whether in times of tragedy and uncertainty or as we'll see in a moment, confession and repentance.
[00:21:49] Why God allows certain things to happen, what he is orchestrating or doing, our minds don't know or understand, but we know he loves us, because he's proven it in Jesus and sealed it with the Holy Spirit. So he's transforming us in times of tragedy and uncertainty. A third scenario: confession and repentance. Flip over to Psalms, chapter 51, ten through seventeen. Little background on this text, this is David talking. David was the most famous king in all of Israelite history. Loved the Lord deeply, but he committed a terrible, terrible collection of sins. He had an affair with a woman named Bathsheba, and orchestrated the murder of her husband--in order for him [David] to become her husband, it was an awful, awful sin. And David was called to the carpet about it by the prophet Nathan, who said, "you are the man who created this terrible, terrible scenario of sin". And David simply said, "I have sinned against the Lord. I failed." That was his simple response. And then Psalm 51 captures his confession in more detail to the Lord. Notice what he is requesting, Notice the language that he uses in this text, Psalm 51, 10 through 17. He says, "Create in me a clean heart. Oh, God. And renew a right spirit within me." When you get into the Hebrew of that text, what what David is saying there and in English really brings it out nicely is I don't want you just to clean my heart. I don't want you just to kind of wipe off the rough edges. I need a heart transplant. I need to be transformed at the most intimate levels possible because of the depths of my sin.
[00:23:42] Verse eleven, "...cast me not away from your presence. Take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness oh God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart oh God you will not despise. And so if you find yourself today in a season of sin, a season of confession needs to be your next step. And then your next step needs to be a season of repentance. Confession cleanses the soul, repentance, repairs, the damaged relationship. And we are all guilty of that. Obviously, we don't need to be seeking out seasons of sin or seasons of tragedy in order to experience this. But that's just what happens in life.
[00:24:52] We have good days and we have bad days, good days of our own account and bad days of our own account, good days and in life and life's just blessing us. And then bad days when when life just throws us a painful, painful curveball sometimes. And we need to lean into Jesus. We need to lean into Jesus and see the Holy Spirit the same way that David does. "Cast me not away from your presence. Take not your Holy Spirit from me." That's David crying out to God. Engaging in a spiritual battle, renew my spirit with yours. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me, but continue to infuse us together, renew me and create me a clean heart. God has not only sent us, his son, Jesus, for our salvation and rescue, he's also sent us the Holy Spirit to maintain our salvation and to put the pieces back together of our life, to give us that purpose and value that he wants us to have. When I was eight years old, my dad had a major, major heart attack. He was 40 years old, played a round a golf, mowed the lawn, and just collapsed. And what had happened was his ascending aortic artery was 100 percent blocked. He was rushed to the hospital. Open heart surgery, bypass surgery. I remember many details. Some are a little fuzzy, but I remember the magnitude of the moment. I remember thinking my dad, you know, may not come home from this hospital.
[00:26:24] It was that big of a deal. We were, you know, very, very nervous about that, obviously. But the heart procedure worked. The bypass work saved his life, but it came at a cost for my dad. His cardiologist told him that he had to change his behavior in drastic ways if he wanted to continue living. He went on a strict vegetarian diet for over a year, he exercised, took medication, and the recovery process was not easy. But his life was saved. His salvation came. Salvation gave him new motivation to live a more healthy lifestyle. The doctors transformed my father's heart. They repaired the broken pieces of his heart. What David is talking about here is, 'I need a heart transplant'. And so when we go through seasons of sin, which, again, all of us do, we need to confess that sin quickly. We need to repent of that sin and make the same requests that David made, create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me. And sometimes we look at God's word or these these great famous sins. You may think, well 'I've never had an affair', 'I've never murdered someone', So maybe, "God, my bad. I'm sorry." But the nature of sin--all sin--is just as tragic as David sin. Our little white lies and little 'imperfections' as we like to call them; we need to come clean with God often and request this new heart of transformation over and over again.
[00:27:52] Ezekiel, 36:26, says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." God has some post operation instructions for us. Just like my dad's cardiologist had some post operation instruction for him, God provides the help of the Holy Spirit to keep us on the straight and narrow. The Holy Spirit is the greatest and most transformational life coach...Financial planner...counselor...therapist...professor...motivator that the world has ever seen. And he lives within us. What a blessing it is that we have the Holy Spirit in our lives walking through these common scenarios in which he is working on our souls. When we confess or repent sin, the Holy Spirit is transforming our lives. When we go through seasons of tragedy and uncertainty, the Holy Spirit is working and transforming our lives. And, when we obviously read God's word and apply it to our lives and even begin to repent of sin and embrace holiness, the Holy Spirit is transforming our spirits. He is linking our spirit with his, making us more and more in the image of Christ. God cares deeply about his word. And when we apply it to our lives, he's working in us. John one, one through five says, "In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him, all things were made, without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it."
[00:29:44] God cares about his word. And so when we read the Bible, we hear it proclaimed in church and in our Bible studies and in our in our rooms, in our quiet times that we have every day, hopefully that we can know that God's word is shining a light into the darkness of not only our life, but in our world. So if you find yourself in a season of confession and repentance, don't run from it. Embrace it. Understand that the Holy Spirit is doing a mighty work in your life. Through that confession and repentance, you find yourself in a season of tragedy or uncertainty, not unlike what we are experiencing right now as a country. Don't run from it. Don't don't hide in the corner, but embrace this as an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to reform you, to transform you, to know him more. The same way that Job did: 'Initially, I have heard you with my ears. Now I've seen you with my eyes.' We want that, just sometimes don't want to go through the tragedy to get there. And if every sermon, every Bible study is seemingly speaking right to you, embrace the truth of God's word and do not resist the Holy Spirit. If you don't hear anything I say today, I want you to hear that.
[00:31:00] Do not resist the Holy Spirit. Acts 7:51 says exactly that, "You stiff neck people, you always resist the Holy Spirit..." The person who said that was Stephen at the end of a mighty, mighty sermon. And it was that line, that concept, that caused the people, the Sanhedrin, begin to pick up stones to murder him because they did not want to hear that. Talk about a picture of resisting the Holy Spirit! That is what we do not need to do, we need to embrace the Holy Spirit in his work in our lives, knowing that we have the capacity to resist the Holy Spirit and grieve him. And we don't need to do that. Hey, if you're going through something heavy right now, obviously we are here in an online setting, but please know that we would love to hear from you. You can e-mail us at the church and there's several different emails of all of our staff members there at the church that you can e-mail us with questions or concerns if you don't have a relationship with Christ. We want to talk to you about that. We want to help you understand the hope that you can have through Jesus to be sealed with the Holy Spirit, as we've talked about and what that looks like.
[00:32:22] What I would like to do as we close today is to have a time of prayer. And I would like you to participate with me as you're watching this. You may be in your living room, in your bedroom, in your kitchen, watching this right now. But I want you to participate in this time of prayer with us. There's about eighteen of us here on the campus right now participating in this. But you at home, I would like you to pray for a couple of things. I want you to kind of take a moment here to get in position, but I want you to take a moment and pray out loud right where you're at. For our national leaders, well, we are going through right now is a big deal. It's affecting all of us. And it's not just Texas. It's not just America. Obviously, it's the entire world. And so just take a second with your family, with your spouse or by yourself, and just pray out loud for our national leaders, our city leaders, our county health officials, our senators, our president, all the decision makers that are going into how to combat this coronavirus. So take a moment and do that right now, if you would.
[00:33:56] Praying for our national leaders, praying for our city leaders, our mayor, our county health officials. People who are making decisions that are affecting millions of people.
[00:34:11] Take a second and pray for them.
[00:34:16] Ask God to give them wisdom. Many of these leaders are working. Around the clock.
[00:34:25] Ask God to give them strength and endurance to keep fighting this very unique, very difficult pandemic that we find ourselves in.
[00:34:50] Second thing I want you to pray for, is our health care workers, our nurses, our hospital staff, our doctors, E.R. doctors especially. I want you to pray that God would give them great energy. They also are working around the clock. They also are putting themselves in great danger, caring for those that are sick. If you know some nurses, some E.R. doctors by name, pray for them. Pray God's protection over them. Next group of people I'd like you to pray for is our elderly population, and those with underlying health issues. It seems from the news reports, that demographic has been most affected by the coronavirus. Take a second and pray for them. Pray for your parents. Pray for your grandparents. Pray for those in our church that are such wonderful mentors in our lives. Such encouragers to us, and may be going through a a little bit of an extra round of fear with this coronavirus.
[00:36:40] Take a second and pray for them, if you would. If you know them by name, pray for him by name.
[00:36:52] Pray that God would protect them. Pray that God would keep them safe. Pray most importantly for perhaps that they would lean into the Holy Spirit and trust in him. In these uncertain times. And lastly, I want you to pray that the Holy Spirit would transform your life this week.
[00:37:30] Don't pray that he would make you a better person in general one day. Don't pray that he would, you know, help you out to be a little less prideful in life in general, some immeasurable prayer requests that you really never know if you're actually doing it.
[00:37:45] Take a second and pray and ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do this week based on the text that Mark just preached through? Who do you want me to call? Who do you want me to check on? What do you want me to stop doing? What do you want me to start doing?
[00:38:01] Ask, beg, plead the Holy Spirit to transform your spirit.
[00:38:08] One degree of glory to another. More and more and more, a little bit closer to that likeness in that image of Jesus.
[00:38:19] Take a second to pray that out loud. Pray that there in your home.
[00:38:53] God, thank you so much for today. Thank you so much that we live in an age that we can gather virtually/digitally. With a with a global pandemic going on, the we as the body of Christ can be the body of Christ, which is the people, not the building, that we can come together in this unique way. To hear your word, proclaim to sing praises to you, to pray. God, we thank you for that. And God, we do pray for our national leaders, we do pray for our health care workers, our elderly population, and those with underlying health issues. And God, we pray that the Holy Spirit would transform our lives. This week, I pray that the Holy Spirit would transform my life in a unique way. This week. So that we can continue to grow from one degree of glory to another. More and more into the image and likeness of Jesus helped us to do that. This would give us the boldness, the courage to do exactly that this week. And we pray this in Jesus name.
[00:39:53] Amen.
Recorded in Frisco, Texas.
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