[Confident Series] Confidence Instead Of Burden Sample

Confident in the Holy Spirit

Since life is difficult, burdensome, and complex, following Christ requires the Holy Spirit. We cannot power our way into loving people unconditionally. We cannot fulfill God’s commandments out of our own sinful nature. The Bible tells us that our flesh is weak and is unable to please God. That is exactly why Christ gave us the Holy Spirit as our Helper. 

When Christ died on the cross, He sent the Holy Spirit to live in us. Since the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in our hearts, He gives us life and empowers us to live according to God’s will. The power of the Holy Spirit is greater and stronger than anything we can produce in our own flesh. 

To use baseball as an illustration, our power is like being in a batting cage; His power is like being in the game. During church on Sundays, we are in the batting cage. We hear about loving people, and it is very easy to do in church. We hear about faith, and we think that we will not doubt for a day in our lives. It is easy to worship in church. It is easy to believe God’s Word in the congregation, with other Christians. The church is the batting cage because it prepares us for the game of life. When we leave church, we enter the real world, and it is quite different. Being loving to a continually combative coworker is hard. Being kind to a rude person who intentionally cuts you off, that’s the real game. Trusting God in trials and difficult times is hard. This is the game of life. It requires the Holy Spirit. 

If we want to win in life, we can do that by embracing this member of the Trinity: the wonderful Person of the Holy Spirit. Christ sent Him to be our Helper, to teach us all things, and to bring everything to our memory. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to witness to others. He gives us the power to withstand sin. The Holy Spirit makes us victorious. We cannot walk this walk of life alone. With the Holy Spirit inside us, we do not have to. We can be confident that God will never leave us; He will never forsake us. 

This reading plan is based on the Confident series preached by Pastor Gregg Matte. To watch the whole sermon this plan was taken from, please follow this link:  Click Here