You were created for relationship with God. Through drawing near and trusting His word, you can experience the presence and love He has for you.
Holy Spirit, teach us about your presence. Lord, I pray that everybody walks away from today with a deeper understanding of your love, Lord, and just practically how to practice your presence in our daily lives. In Jesus name, amen and amen. So good morning, Real Church. Today, we are continuing a series titled Holy Spirit.
So we started with the person of the Holy Spirit. Next week, we we talked about the power of the Holy Spirit. Today, we're talking about the presence of the Holy Spirit, and next week, we'll talk about walking in the Spirit, or walking in the Holy Spirit. So person, power, and now today, the presence of the Holy Spirit. And with what I talk about today, I hope to make you think about what you've always thought.
Because I want us to grow in our knowledge and our understanding of the Holy Spirit, our knowledge and understanding of God and his love, and as we do, we'll be able to experience the presence of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives more and more, and and know also that we are carriers of his presence. So first then, in talking about the presence of the Holy Spirit, if we're talking about presence, we probably need to define the word presence. So I went to Webster's dictionary and looked up the word presence. It says, the fact or condition of being present. So when we're talking about the presence of the Holy Spirit, we're talking about him being present with us.
It also says the part of space within someone's immediate vicinity. Well, his his presence is in our immediate vicinity when we're talking about his presence being with us. 1 that is present, something present or visible or concrete nature, so or of a concrete nature. So meaning, like, when we talk about his presence, actually feeling his presence, sensing his presence, experiencing the presence of the Holy Spirit. And and there's a lot of different ways that we can experience that, and I'll talk about, you know, what those mean in this message.
And then also, the another definition was something such as a spirit felt or believed to be present, which is key as well. So with talking about the presence of the Holy Spirit and him being present or or welcoming him, that kind of thing, the first question that comes to mind is, where is the Holy Spirit right now? Think about it. Where really, where is the Holy Spirit right now? Let's go to Jeremiah-23:23-24.
I'm just gonna read it to you. It says this. Get there. There we go. It says, am I only a god nearby, declares the Lord, and not a god far away?
Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them, declares the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth, declares the Lord. So he fills heaven and earth. He's far away, and he's near. He is everywhere.
The Holy Spirit's presence is omnipresent. Meaning, whether or not you believe in God right now, I don't know if maybe your spouse is making you sit on the couch and watch this, even so the presence of the Holy Spirit is in the room with you right now, God is near. Or maybe you're used to the Holy Spirit, and you well, he is near to you there too. Whether you feel him or not, the Holy Spirit is present in the room. As a matter of fact, by him, we live and move and have our being.
The Bible says everything that we are, everything the world is made of is made of the very word of God. God is everywhere in all in through all. His presence is there. Now in talking about that, just because he's here, like, doesn't necessarily mean that we always know that he's here, or it doesn't necessarily mean that we're always aware of his presence. Because remember that definition talking about the presence, it's that, you know, that concreteness, like being able to sense to know the presence of the Holy Spirit.
So then let's think about that for a second. How then do we experience the *presence* of the Holy Spirit? Well, I'll tell you, you experience the presence of the Holy Spirit through what he does. And what does he do? Well, to know what he does, we must know who he is because what someone does flows out of who they are, and the Holy Spirit, as we talked about in the first message of this series, the Holy Spirit is God, and God is love.
So everything that the Holy Spirit does for you to experience him is out of love for you, because that's flowing from who he is. So he wants you to whenever he lets you experience his presence, he wants to love you in exactly the way that you need to be loved, and we'll talk through that. So we have a promise from God. *James-4:8* says, 1 version says, draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. The NIV says, "come near to God", and he will come near to you.
That is an absolute promise, period. As soon as we draw near to him, he is drawing near to us. See, the heavenly father is is constantly, he's wooing you to himself, drawing you, trying to get your attention, but but you have to know that he's never going to show himself to you in a way that doesn't encourage *faith*. It's always gonna take an ounce of faith. Why?
Because without faith, it is impossible to please God, but he's wooing you to himself, wanting you to turn your heart towards him, wanting you to draw near to him, wanting you to choose him in your choice, in your free will. And as soon as you turn towards him, there he is. Boom. Like, I think about the prodigal son, like this wayward son who who took all the father had and and went and, you know, squandered it, went and and and wasted it all in in this crazy living, you know, the worldliest that that you can think of, the most sinful stuff you can think of, that's probably what he was doing. And as soon as he turned his heart towards the father, as soon as he turned and started to come home, the prodigal I mean, prodigal son started coming home, the prodigal father, prodigal just means like lavish generosity, started running towards the sun, a picture of us drawing near to God, and as soon as that happens, he draws near to us.
So in the same way, I want to right now, says come near to God and he will come near to you. He will love you in the moment, in the way that you need to be loved. I want to I want us to experience that together. Like, if that really is a promise of God and it is, then what if we corporately, even you sitting on your couch, or sitting in your chair, or you know, watching this in the coffee shop, or wherever you are right now on your TV, what if we draw near to God together and experience that? Like and you you might be thinking, hold on a second.
This is weird. Like, I've never experienced this before. But but what if it's real? What if he really loves you enough to let you experience his presence, to you turn your heart to him just for a moment, and and he draws near to you, and loves you in the way that you need to be loved because you are created for relationship with him right now. So I wanna try this little exercise with you because of that promise.
Remember, the promise is come near to God, and he will come near to you. So let's everyone, right now, let's become aware of his presence. I dare you. And so maybe maybe close your eyes, and I just say close your eyes, really, you're getting rid of all of the distractions, your spouse beside you, your kids, you know, whatever. Just close your eyes, and begin to think, I mean, begin to become aware.
Wait. God, okay. This crazy preacher says you're in the room. Holy Spirit, you're in the room. Okay.
I'm turning my heart to you. I'm I'm coming near to you. And just just pray this with me. Say, I invite you right now, Spirit, to show me who you are. Holy Spirit, right now, I I recognize that you're here and and I invite you to love me.
I just thank you Jesus. Just right here, right now, say that out loud. I invite you to love me. Thank you Jesus. I want to experience you right now.
Show me who you are. Show me who I am in you. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for your presence. Thank you, Lord.
Now just sit there. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for loving us. Thank you, God.
We welcome you. I'm gonna pray for you as you continue to sit there. Father, I pray for everyone right here. Some, this is really weird for, they're stepping out of their comfort zone. Others, this is absolutely normal.
But Lord, I pray that you reveal yourself to them right now. Just more of your presence, more of your love, more of who you are in the room. Let them experience your presence. Let them experience your goodness. Let them experience your love in the way that they need to experience it right now.
In Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, father. Okay. So some of you felt amazing things, and we're gonna talk through a lot of the different things that you could have felt or you could have experienced.
Some of you felt other things, and some maybe even, like, just felt nothing, nothing at all. And so stick with me. I I want to talk with you. First, I want you to log in your mind whatever you experienced, whether it was nothing, whether it was this, you know, sensation, or this feeling of peace, or comfort, or or or whatever it was. I want you to log that in your mind because when I go through the different things, I want you to think about it.
And and if I'm talking about something that you didn't experience or have never experienced, still pay attention because maybe it's something you experienced a long time ago, and it will explain that to you, or maybe it's something that you will experience, and you'll know what his word says about it, or you'll know, you know, what is happening, or maybe it's something that you're gonna be discipling others through on how to experience the the presence of the Holy Spirit. You're gonna be showing them, and it will just help to clarify, you know, what you tell them. So so let's pay attention, and I want to talk about the first case, and I want everybody to listen. Okay. So first, I want to deal with those of you that you chose in that moment, maybe for the first time ever, or the first time in a really long time, you chose to draw near to God.
You said, Holy Spirit, I invite you. You did what I said. And as you invited the the presence of the Holy Spirit into the room, overall, you felt convicted of sin. I wanna show you, according to Scripture, what is going on, like, what is happening right there. Let me show you.
Let's go to John-16. *John-16*, and it says in verse, let's see, verse 8. You ready? When he comes now, this whole section is talking about the Holy Spirit. So when he says he, he's talking about the Holy Spirit.
When he, the Holy Spirit, comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong, or he will the another version says, he will convict the world about *sin and righteousness* and judgment. Now, lot of us know that verse. The Holy Spirit's gonna convict the world of sin, righteousness, judgment. Okay. But then he says in verse 9, about sin because people or they, another version says, do not believe in me.
So maybe in that moment, you were convicted of sin. And remember, you experience the Holy Spirit by what he does, and he is love. So what he does, he does out of love. So when you came near to him in your heart, and the Holy Spirit came near to you, he made himself aware to you out of his love, and showed you that you've been living a life of choosing not God, which is sin. And the only reason that he would show you that is because he chose you, and he wants you to choose him.
So he convicted you of sin, of choosing not him, out of his love for you because he loves you right now, and he wants you to see that. Why? Let me show you. *Romans-4:5* says this. It says, however, to the 1 who does not work, but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.
So immediately, let's say some of us, a lot of people think this, well, I gotta clean myself up before I go back to church. Like, the Holy Spirit begins to talk with them, and they say, well, I wanna get back into church, but I need to clean myself up. Maybe as you experience the Holy Spirit, and you're convicted of all of your sin, of all of your your your choosing not God, you thought, well, I needed to work on that. *Romans-4:5* says, however to the 1 who does not work, God does not want you to work on your sin. Because it it he doesn't justify the 1 who works on their own sin trying to be godly.
It says, however, to the 1 who does not work, but trusts God who justifies the ungodly. See, the Holy Spirit showed you your sin that you were choosing not God, so that you could recognize that you were not godly, and you needed a Savior. That's what he was doing. Right? And so what he wants you to do is not work on your sin, he wants you to give your sin to him, to say, God, I can't, but you can.
Instead of working on myself, taking it on myself, which is pride, I'm gonna trust you. I'm gonna give it to you, and justify means just as if you've never done it. He literally takes your sin away, washes you as white as snow by his blood, by faith. Right? And so your sin is cast as far as the East is from the West from you.
God literally remembers it no more, takes your guilt, and takes your shame, and gives you his righteousness, credited to your account, his righteousness. Meaning, **right standing** with God, so that you can know whatever you're going through, that he's standing right next to you because he loves you. You want that? Like, because right now, being convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit, he's drawing you, he's showing you that he is you haven't chose him, but he's chosen you, and he's giving you the opportunity to choose choose him right now. Well, if that's you, and if you're like, yes, I want to be justified, just as if I've never done these things.
I I want to be have his righteousness, to be in right standing with God. If that's you right now, let's pray. And I'm not just praying a prayer so that you can get into heaven. That's not it. No.
We're receiving Jesus into our life. You're receiving Jesus into your life. You're giving him your sin. He's giving you his righteousness, and and you're it's transformation. The gospel without transformation is nothing, but the gospel, the grace of God transforms us.
So he wants to transform your life into what he's created you to be. So let's let's pray. If you if you want to receive Jesus right now, let's pray. Alright. Father, I thank you for convicting me of sin.
You've shown me that I've chose myself, that I'm ungodly. I can't make myself godly. Just repeat this after me. So I choose to trust you. I give you my sin.
I give you my life and I receive your life. Make me new. Make me clean. And your word says, you credit your righteousness to me. I receive your righteousness.
Now say this out loud as a confession. Thank you, Jesus, for coming into my heart. Thank you for forgiving me. Thank you for washing me new. Thank you that I am in right standing with you because of your word.
Thank you, Jesus. Amen. If you just prayed that, like, the Bible says you're "born again", you're brand new, and you're in right standing with him, and that will never change. And what I'm about to say for the next group of people is applicable to you as well, moving forward. Okay?
So let's praise the Lord. And and, know, if we were in church right now, we'd have a big hand clap of, you know, because there's a party going on in heaven because you just received Jesus, and that's awesome. Okay. So now, let's talk about the next case. Some of you have received Jesus.
So the next case, when when we were remember what you logged in your mind, we prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to come, and and we we turned our heart towards him, and he drew near to us, and we experienced something. Right? So we're on part 2. Some of you received Jesus before this moment, but you, those of you that have received Jesus before this moment, not who we just talked to who had never received, but those of you that had received, excuse me, that had received Jesus, you felt convicted of sin or what you would describe as *conviction* of sin or being convicted. And I just want to clarify something to you.
What does the term convicted mean? If you look up the term convicted, it means to declare someone guilty by the decision of a judge. And so if you have received Jesus, what has the judge declared over your life? Well, you just saw in Romans-4:5 that he has credited Jesus' righteousness to your account. *Romans-4:8 says, he's declared that you are forgiven*.
So he he's declared that you are in right standing with God. He's he's declared that you are forgiven, and watch this. What does the Holy Spirit declare? John-15 or 16 and verse the very next verse says well, let's start in verse 8 again. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong or convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment.
About sin because people do not believe in me. So the Holy Spirit convicts those who don't believe in him about sin and out of his love for them because he wants those who haven't chosen him to choose him. Right? But verse 10, he convicts about *righteousness* because I'm going to the Father where you can see me no longer. Who's he talking to?
He's talking to his disciples. Right? And he's saying, the Holy Spirit is gonna convict you about righteousness. So if you're a disciple of Christ, the Holy Spirit convicts, right, you're judged by the Father to be righteous, and he's going to show you that. Why?
Jesus says, because I'm going to the Father where you can see me no longer. We can't physically see him anymore, but we need to know that he's with us. So the Holy Spirit convicts or proves us as to be righteous in right standing with him, which means we can sense his presence that he's standing right next to us. Oh, okay. So this makes me think about Eden Rose, my my 4 year old child.
When Eden thinks that I'm leaving her, she gets fearful. And, you know, I could just see her at Busch Gardens. Right? We're walking to Sesame Street, the Sesame Street area, which is a big theme park. Right?
We're walking to Sesame Street area. She sees Elmo, and she gets distracted by Elmo. She runs off to go to Elmo, and she loses sight of me. Now, when she comes to, she's like, wait, daddy. She begins to look around, and she lost sight of me, and she can't see me in wherever she's at, and she begins to get really fearful.
Oh my gosh, daddy, where are you? Did you leave me? Not realizing that I was I followed her and I was standing by her the whole time and she was in my sight. She just lost sight of me in the moment. See, that's how a lot of us get.
So what you thought was conviction of sin, the judge judging you guilty and separating himself from you, if you've already received Jesus, it wasn't conviction. It was very strong and definite criticism or disapproval. Do you know what the definition of that is? The definition of or what the word that that's the definition of, very strong criticism or disapproval, it's condemnation. A lot of Christians, when they feel condemnation, they think it's conviction.
They feel that God is disapproved, like is is expressing disapproval, or very strong criticism of them, and they say that it's conviction of the Holy Spirit. No. That's condemnation of the enemy. The enemy wants you to think that you're out of step with God, but what does the Holy Spirit do? The Holy Spirit is constantly convicting you of righteousness.
He's saying, no. The the Father has judged you in right standing with me, so I'm standing right next to you. Keep your eyes on me. Know that my presence is here. Know that my presence is with you.
God approves of you because of your faith in Christ Jesus. And anytime that you make a habit of sin, 2 Peter-1 verse 9 shows that it's simply that we've forgotten that we've been forgiven. We've taken our eyes off of what Jesus has done with us. So if that is you, if if, you know, when we invited the Holy Spirit, you felt like it was conviction of sin, but it was really condemnation, let let's pray together. Let's just pray.
Father, thank you for who you are. Lord, thank you that I'm forgiven. That's what your word says. Thank you that I'm in right standing with you. Let me keep my eyes constantly on the fact that I'm in right standing with you, saying, what the Holy Spirit is showing you, when you believe that, then when unrighteousness comes up in your life, you can say, wait, that's not who I am.
See, we we have this crazy thing in in our lives. We think that just because we have the ability to fail, we're a failure. We think that just because we have the ability to sin, we're a sinner. We think just because we have these thoughts or or these desires come up, that must be who we are. No.
We are who the Holy Spirit says we are. We are who his word says we are, and his word says we're righteous. So if unrighteous things happen, or we do unrighteous things, that doesn't mean that's who we are. That's just the enemy or our old selves wanting us to believe that that's who we are. No.
We believe that we are who the Holy Spirit says that we are. We're forgiven, and we're in right standing with him. That's vital. Make sense? Okay.
So let's go on to the next thing. Some of you just felt the presence of God. As you welcomed, you invited the Holy Spirit, you turned your heart to him, and you became very aware that he was in the room. You became very aware of his presence. Maybe it was goosebumps.
You know, maybe the hair stood up on the back of your neck in a good way, not in a creepy way. Maybe you felt peace. Maybe you felt the just the comfort. You know, you were in trials and stress, but as soon as you turned your attention to God, you felt his comfort, and he began to comfort you in that moment. Or or maybe, like, maybe you began to weep tears of joy, or just to cry and be comforted in in in that moment.
Maybe just a sense that you were, you felt really small and and and God, this big God was in the room, like you felt humbled in his presence in a in a good way, or or maybe just the stillness and the quiet was calming to you. Maybe you felt something like that or any number of other things, the Holy Spirit loving you in the That's awesome. You know what that's doing? The way the Holy Spirit's doing, he's convicting you of righteousness. What is righteousness?
Right standing with God. And he's letting you experience the fact that he's standing right next to you, showing to you that you're in right standing with God. Right? In in the Old Testament, they they couldn't go into the holy of holies. The high priest only went in and once a year into the very room, the tabernacle, the presence of God.
But now, because of the blood of Jesus, we can enter into that presence wherever we are at any time, being aware that he's right with us. So just sensing his presence wherever we are in whatever way, experiencing the Holy Spirit moving our life is proof that we're in right standing with God. He's convicting you of righteousness. Come on. That's amazing, and that's good.
So so when we when we we turn our hearts to him, some people say seeking after God, or going, we're turning our hearts to him, we can be sure that he's gonna draw near to us because of our standing with him, and we can experience his presence in joy and peace and be like, man, it's wonderful, and let him minister to us. It's awesome. Okay. So here is another thing as well. And I I just wanna throw this in.
Do you know why he convicts us of righteousness? Because when we believe that God sees us as righteous, we do righteous things, and all unrighteousness fades away. So any unrighteous things become obvious, and we see, wait, wait, like I said before, that that's not who I am. And so when we're captivated by his presence, we're captivated understanding our standing with him, all unrighteousness begins to fade away. So we keep our eyes on him.
Now, let's go to the next the next thing. Some of you, as you went to practice his presence, right, as you you turned your heart to him and he drew near to you, because that's what his word says, you didn't feel a dang thing. You didn't feel anything. And you've been listening, and you're like, man, I wish I would have felt that. I wish I would have felt that.
Or maybe you're just like, this is a load of junk. There's there's 2 reasons that you didn't feel anything. Number 1, maybe it's just you simply don't believe. Maybe you think all of this is a crock, a load of junk. Your spouse is making you watch this, and maybe you did the hand motions, but you didn't really turn your heart to God.
You weren't really drawing near to him. You really didn't do that. Maybe maybe or maybe you just didn't. Maybe you just sat there, and I'm gonna see what this is like. So you didn't turn your heart to God.
Well, there's no promise. If don't turn your heart to God, he's gonna draw near to you. But James-4:8 says, if you turn your heart to him, he will. So for you, I encourage you, as we enter into worship here in just a little bit, take a moment, you you you know, you can kinda hide it as if nobody's watching, and just turn your heart to him, and watch and see what the Holy Spirit does. It's amazing.
But group 2, you didn't feel anything, and you really turned your heart to him. You're like, Holy Spirit, I I I want to experience you. I wanna show you. I I know that you're in the the room, and you really did what we we prayed about. Well, that's amazing.
I'm so glad that you didn't feel anything because God is fathering you well. See, there's periods periods of my life, and I'm so thankful for these, where I physically didn't feel anything. I would I would go into God. I would go into his presence. I would I would get in his word, and I would seek after him, and there was nothing that I could do to conjure up the presence of God.
There's nothing I could do to to make myself feel him. And I I would think there must be something wrong with me. I must be doing some kind of a sin that's separating me, and then condemnation will hit, and that's dumb. No. There is nothing wrong at all.
I am who he says I who I am despite whether I feel it or not. See, his word is is true. It says, draw near to him, and he will draw near to you. So 1, I knew that the Holy Spirit, and I should have known that the Holy Spirit was there that because just because he's omnipresent, but in that, he was training me to trust him, Like, even when I don't feel him, knowing is greater than feeling. It doesn't say you know, the Bible doesn't say that we walk by feeling.
It says that we walk by faith and not by sight. Meaning, we walk by faith and not by we see touch, hear, taste, smell, feel. Not by what's around us. We walk by faith in what he has spoken. And it would be a tragedy if the Holy Spirit only trained us, his sons and daughters, to walk by feeling, to only think that he's near when we feel him.
Because as soon as the enemy attacked us, and we felt some kind of way, because we're in this world, as soon as the enemy attacked us, and we got sick, or as soon as the enemy attacked us, and and and we were feeling funky that day, we would think that the Holy Spirit was nowhere near us, because we've been trained to feel. The Holy Spirit is a good God, and he's a good Father, and he wants to train you to be more mature than that. Because if we thought that the Holy Spirit was only there when we felt him, then we would live this mountaintop and valley Christianity, thinking that we're only on the mountaintop when we feel good, and we're in the valley when we don't feel good, and man, you know, this roller coaster, and people ask us how we're doing, we say, oh, I'm just I'm just waiting to feel the presence of God, and and instead of having a life in Christianity that's on the foundation of the rock, which is his word, knowing, and that I can be steady, regardless of the circumstances, and regardless of how I feel, a mature faith.
See, I'm I'm glad for those of you that received his word, believed his word, and didn't feel a dang thing. I'm glad he's training you to trust his word. Does that mean that feeling is, like, not good? No. Feeling's amazing.
He created us to feel. He create he he just wants us to trust his word. So in those times, those seasons where it felt like the God drew his feeling back, I just began to trust him regardless of what I felt and trust his word. But man, I love the goosebumps. I love the tingles.
I love the tears. I love I love the joy. I love the laughter. I love the peace, and he loves to let me do that. But he's a he's a he's such a good father that he's gonna train me to be ready for every attack of the enemy, so that when the attacks come, I can know that I'm still in right standing with the father.
I'm still in right standing with him because I trust his word over my feelings. And there's man, there's times where where, you know, I used to go into the living room and and I just turned my heart to the Holy Spirit late at night, and Lord, I just thank you that you're here. I thank you that you're in the room. I praise you, and not feel a thing, and still know that he's there. But when when I became secure in that, most of the time now, go in, man, I feel goosebumps, I feel tingles, I I feel his priest at peace, I feel him in the room.
He loves me in the way that I need to be loved. So maybe maybe, just maybe, he's maturing you