Holy Spirit: Counselor's Power to Convict and Restore

A lot of pastors and theologians say it's like it's like d day when the allied forces landed on Normandy, the beaches of Normandy. And historians say that that was a turning point of World War two. That that victory actually secured the victory for the allies even though the war raged on for months thereafter. Well, in the same way, the cross and resurrection, they were the d day of history. That is Satan, he still fights, evil still causes damage, the war still rages, but the victory has already been won. The victory is already ours. [00:47:38] (46 seconds)  #VictoryAlreadyWon

Notice that the ruler of this world talking about Satan has been judged, not will be judged, but he has been judged. What this means is that Satan's defeat has already been decided. His defeat was determined by the death and resurrection of Jesus. For sure, evil and suffering still exists in our world and in our lives today, but the final outcome is no longer uncertain. Some pastors and theologians calls this idea that, the victory is already in hand for us as believers even while we still fight the fight. [00:46:55] (43 seconds)  #SatanDefeated

Self righteousness is running faster and trying harder and trying to be better. And this is what religion says, that you gotta run harder and try faster and be better in order for you to get close to God or the higher power or whatever that is, that you gotta do this. You gotta sweat it out. But no matter how hard you run, you don't move any closer to God through your own efforts and righteousness. That's a hamster wheel. Soon, self righteousness and all your attempts to get God to notice you and to like you, soon that exhausts you. [00:42:54] (49 seconds)  #HamsterWheelFaith

Guys, let's be clear that the church isn't a group of people who somehow made it. This is not the gathering of the perfected. That is no mistakes, no sins, no errors. This is not a place for people who worked hard and got their act together and just figured everything out and now God loves them for that. This is not what this is. This gathering. This gathering is of people where the spirit has caused us to see the inadequacy of our own righteousness. And therefore, we confess by faith that our righteousness is not from ourselves, but it's from God. It's from Jesus. Jesus' righteousness. [00:44:44] (51 seconds)  #NotPerfectionButGrace

The church has always existed and gathered. And you know why? It's not because we have the best strategies or the most money. We all know that's not true. We gather and we still gather in spite of all the circumstances because Jesus won. He won the victory. And because he won the victory, that means that we win. His church wins. The gates of hell will not prevail against it. This is what the spirit is doing and that he is assuring us of this, convicting us, exposing this victory. He's putting a light on it. [00:49:05] (47 seconds)  #GatesWillNotPrevail

And do you know how we can tell that the spirit's power is still working today? You know how we can tell? Because you're here. You're here. Now some of you are looking at that picture up on the screen, like, where's me? Couldn't fit everybody in, so, you know but you're here. The gathering of the church is evidence that the spirit is working to open the eyes of people to sin. It troubles us. Our sin troubles us. We we fight sin. We are a people who know we can't save ourselves. [00:38:36] (47 seconds)  #GatheringIsProof

And so what the spirit does is that he uses that truth to expose the world's false belief that being a good person is enough. That if God puts your life in the in the balances and he say, well, you know, God's gonna see my life and yeah. I've I've done more good than bad. So he should like me. He should love me. He should accept me. I'm a good person. Friends, that's self righteousness. That's trying to make yourself right before God. But there's only one who's righteous. [00:41:36] (39 seconds)  #GoodIsntEnough

In other words, the spirit is always pointing to Jesus. In other words, he's like a spotlight. A spotlight never shines on itself. Instead, the spotlight shines on what the audience needs to see. And what the spirit does is that he's always shining the light on Jesus. He's always pointing to Jesus. This is the ongoing work of the spirit in your life and my life. He leads us again and again to Jesus. [00:53:24] (32 seconds)  #SpotlightOnJesus