✨ Summary

Key Takeaway:
The Holy Spirit’s work is not about experiences or self-improvement, but about regenerative, ongoing transformation-through daily relationship, repentance, truth, and obedience.
("If you don’t walk with the Spirit, you will not be transformed into the image of Christ.")

Pentecost & the Spirit’s Role

• Pentecost = 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection; marks Holy Spirit filling the disciples.
• Jesus promised the Spirit to help build the church-the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity.
• Celebrate: God is with us through the Spirit; He builds, transforms, and does miracles.

Transformation by the Spirit

• The Spirit is the Spirit of Transformation: Scripture describes Him as living water, bringing life and turning wastelands into gardens.
• Every Christian is just a mess who met the Holy Spirit. (Confronting: "Every Christian is simply a mess who met the Holy Spirit… Amen.")
• Transformation is progressive: "We all… are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another." (2 Cor 3:18).
• Freedom in Christ: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." (2 Cor 3:17)1.
  • True freedom = being shaped into the image of Jesus, not doing whatever you want.
  • Submission to Jesus is real freedom.

The Spirit’s Priority: Heart Transformation

• Primary purpose of the Spirit: Not "tingles on your skin," but transformation of your heart1.
  • Confronting: "If you don’t walk with the Spirit, you will not be transformed into the image of Christ. You won’t."
• God prioritises formation over mission: "What hasn’t been produced in you will never be able to be reproduced through you."1
• Greatest miracle: Not what God does through you, but what He does in you.

Walking by the Spirit

• "Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." (Gal 5:16)
• Works of the flesh: Sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, hatred, jealousy, fits of anger, etc. (Gal 5:19-21).
• Fruit of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal 5:22-23).
• Daily walk: Transformation happens in daily, ordinary obedience, not just dramatic encounters1.
  • Confronting: "Christianity is a daily kind of religion, a daily kind of walk with the Spirit. That’s where the victory is won."

Traps: Self-Deception & Self-Reliance

• Self-deception: Thinking you’re walking with the Spirit when you’re not engaging the relationship.
  • Confronting: "If I am not engaging in the relationship, I will not be formed by the relationship. In fact… I’ll be deformed by all the other relationships I’m prioritising."
  • Sign of transformation: How you react when life goes sideways, not how you present yourself.
  • If your reactions haven’t changed in years, are you really walking with the Spirit?
• Self-reliance: Trying to be good by your own effort; leads to pride and deformation.
  • Confronting: "Self-reliance never leads to transformation. It only leads to deformation… Every single time."
  • Self-reliance = sinful behaviour: Paul uses the same word for self-reliance and sinful acts (Greek: sarx).
  • Saul’s warning: Spirit can leave if resisted (1 Sam 10:6; tragic end for Saul). Note: the Spirit does not leave a believer, in whom He "indwells". But, the principle that we can resist the Spirit still applies.

How the Spirit Transforms Us

1. He Convicts Us of Sin
   • Acts 2:36-37: People "cut to the heart"-conviction leads to repentance.
   • Conviction is relational: Sin grieves God, but conviction is a sign of His love.
   • Worldly sorrow vs. godly sorrow: Godly sorrow leads to repentance and life (2 Cor 7:10).
   • Community is key: "Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed." (James 5:16).
     • Confronting: "If repentance is not a semi-regular feature in your life as a follower of Jesus, you may be falling into the trap of self-deception."
2. He Reminds Us of Truth
   • John 14:15-17: The Spirit of truth will be in you.
   • Scripture is the Spirit’s vocabulary: "If you want to hear the Spirit clearly, then open your Bible consistently."
   • Communion is discipleship: As we consume the truth of Christ, we are transformed.
3. He Changes Our Affections
   • Romans 8:5: "Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit."
   • Prayer cultivates new desires: "God works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (Phil 2:13)
   • Obedience = faith: "There’s no difference between obedience and faith. Faith looks like obedience."

Key Takeaway:
The Holy Spirit’s work is not about experiences or self-improvement, but about regenerative, ongoing transformation-through daily relationship, repentance, truth, and obedience.
("If you don’t walk with the Spirit, you will not be transformed into the image of Christ.")

📝 Final Sermon Script

Acts 2

Acts 2

Acts 2

Today is Pentecost Sunday!

• What's pentecost? Well, Pent meaning five, cost or konta means times ten… 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• Pentecost marks the day that the disciples, waiting and praying together, were filled with the Holy Spirit.
• Jesus promised that He while He was leaving, that He would send another to help build the church.
• The Holy Spirit - the third person of the Trinity.
• So what we celebrate today is that God, the Holy Spirit, is with us. It is He who builds the church, He who transforms us, He who does the miraculous in our lives.

Ps Bill spoke a bit about the Holy Spirit last week and I want to continue that.. First by saying that The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Transformation.

• Throughout Scripture the Spirit is portrayed as living water, which brings life and transformation
• The Holy Spirit transforms wastelands into flourishing Gardens.
• In that sense we can say that every Christian is simply a mess who met the Holy Spirit… Amen
• And when we meet the Holy Spirit and we walk with Him, the result is incredible. The result is profound. We become like Jesus.

2 Corinthians 3

• In other words, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus is at work in you, transforming you gradually, progressively, not all at once, but progressively into the image of Jesus Christ.
• To be the image of Jesus means that you get the great privilege of representing Christ to the world.
• So that people look at you and they get a glimpse of who Jesus is.

Now isn't it interesting that this is how the Apostle Paul defines freedom?

• Where the Spirit of the Lord is working in your life, there is freedom.
• And that freedom doesn't look like you doing whatever you want. It looks like you being shaped into the image of Jesus.
• It looks like submission. Yeah, submission to Jesus.
• And according to Paul… If you submit to the Lord, you will actually experience submission as freedom in your life.
• The so-called freedom of living life on your own terms that's the real false advertising.
• True freedom, the kind that brings flourishing to your soul, your marriage, your relationships, your career, your purpose, your finances comes through surrender to Christ Jesus.

And if you and I are being transformed into that SAME image of Jesus, that means when people see us, they're seeing the Lord.

• What a privilege, by reflecting Christ, we actually reveal God to the world.
• No wonder Paul says that this transformation can only happen by the Spirit. It is not possible.
• You think you could act like God all the time? Even if you try really hard… no way, you'll never be like God.
• Which is why God sent the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

The Spirit's top priority in your life is your transformation.

• It's why Ezekiel 36 talks about God giving His people "new hearts"… God want to give you a new heart.
• He want to transform your character, that's where transformation starts.
• We so often want the miraculous and incredible without the character formation.
• This is why Jesus spent three year with His disciples
• Gradually giving them responsibility. And shaping their character before sending them into the world.
• That's why Proverbs teaches the gradual acquiring of wealth through work instead of getting masses of money, because as your wealth grows your character to manage it well grows with it.
• That's why the Apostle Paul, he had a decade at least of developing in the dark. Before he was called into leadership at the church in Antioch.
• God needed to do a work in Paul that matched the work he wanted to do through Paul.
• Because God always prioritises the formation of a person over the fulfilment of that person's mission.
• In fact, it's the making of a man. It's the making of a woman that God really cares about. That's really the point.
• Because what hasn't been produced in you will never be able to be reproduced through you.
• So God's priority is what he's doing in your heart.

The primary purpose of the Holy Spirit in your life is not tingles on your skin. It's the transformation of your heart.

• And don't go thinking that the first one is more exciting than the second one. Because it's a more immediate experience. No, no, no.
• If you talk to somebody who's genuinely experienced the transformation of their character through the power of the Spirit working in their lives, they will tell you how exciting that really is. Truly.
• The greatest miracle in my life isn't the incredible things God may have done through me… It's what He has done in me
• I know me. The transforming of my character is the greatest miracle God could ever do.
• this is what the Spirit comes to do. And this is exactly what Paul expects is going to happen.
• That you would experience ongoing transformation as you cultivate relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Galatians 5

• If you have relationship with the Holy Spirit, your behaviour will change.
• He spells out what those desires and works of the flesh are. A couple of verses later, beginning in verse 19.

Galatians 5

Galatians 5

Paul is making an incredible claim here.

• Do you want to overcome anger? Then walk by the power of the Spirit.
• Do you want to uproot jealousy and envy from your life? Then walk with the Holy Spirit.
• Do you want to break free from pornography addictions or other kinds of addictions in your life? Then walk with the Holy Spirit.
• In fact, if you walk with the Holy Spirit, not only will you uproot the tree that produces evil, but you'll plant a new tree that produces the character of God.
• Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness, and self-control.

How?

Galatians 5

• This walk is the Greek word Peripateo, which refers to daily conduct, a way of life.
• A DAILY walk. That's where transformation happens.
• Christianity is a daily kind of religion, a daily kind of walk with the Spirit.
• That's where the victory is won.
• Not just in big dramatic encounters, though we have those, but also in daily dependence upon and responsiveness to the Holy Spirit.
• You were born again into a relationship with the Holy Spirit. That's Christianity.
• And just like any relationship, it only grows, the relationship only grows when you engage the relationship regularly. God's preference would be daily.
• But if you don't walk with the Spirit, you won't be transformed into the image of Christ.

Let me say it again because that's the scariest thing you've ever heard.

• If you don't walk with the Spirit, you will not be transformed into the image of Christ. You won't.
• That transformation does not happen by default. It does not happen on accident, by osmosis. It happens because we cultivate a relationship with the Spirit.
• It also doesn't happen through self-effort. And yet so often we treat becoming like Jesus like a spiritual self-improvement project.
• No, no, no, we're meant to walk. It's like that's a picture, right, of like going on a journey. We're meant to walk with the Spirit down the path of life.
• But too often we wander off, we fall into a ditch.

Self-Deception

Now there are two main ditches, or let's call them traps. Two main traps on either side of that path.

• The first one is self-deception. I made a little chart for us, self-deception.
• Now by self-deception, I simply mean that you have convinced yourself you're walking with the Spirit, when in reality you are not.
• If I am not engaging in the relationship, I will not be formed by the relationship.
• In fact, not only will I not be formed by that lack of relationship, I'll be deformed by all the other relationships that I'm prioritising in your life.
• Your relationship with your device. With the media that you consume.
• Your relationship with all of your friends who do not know the Lord, that you prioritise spending time with them more than you do spending time with the people of God in the church or spending time with God in prayer.

Listen, if you're a follower of Jesus, the Spirit's in you.

• But do not mistake the fact of the Spirit being in your house with the experience of actually sitting down at the table with Him for breakfast. Those two things are not synonymous.
• He can be there, but we've still got to engage in the relationship.
• The Spirit was in the Galatians' house, but they were treating him like an unacknowledged roommate.
• And when that happened, transformation begins to degenerate.
• It does, because if we are not walking by the Spirit, Paul says we will end up gratifying the desires of the flesh.

You can tell when someone's walking with the Spirit because their character will be moving in the direction of Christ.

• I heard someone say recently that the clearest sign of your character is not how you act, it's how you react.
• Your carefully crafted self, the you that you present to the world around you, that's not the best window into your heart.
• No, it's your reactionary self when life is going sideways. That's the best window into your heart.
• So if being challenged, if being offended, if being corrected, if being passed over for the job, if being cut off in traffic for that matter, still gets the same reaction today as it did five years ago, it might be time to ask, am I really walking with the Holy Spirit?
• Because there should be the fruit of Christ's likeness in our responses to life.

Ava, my daughter, likes toast. And so when she asks for toast, like a good parent I make her toast, put peanut butter on it, cut it up, plate it, and deliver it to her highness.

• I remember one time she just looked at it and started crying because I had cut it into triangles instead of squares. So she ran into her room, crying, screaming, "you never loved me"
• All the parents know.
• Sometimes life is going to cut the toast wrong for you. It's just going to happen.
• Do we still throw spiritual tantrums like a four-year-old? Do we get all melancholy? Do we quit the job? Do you dump the boy? Do you quit the team? Do you ghost the leader? Do you abandon ship?
• And then justify it all with language like, God is moving me into a new season. No. No, he's not.
• You're just resisting the transformative work of the Spirit in your life.

Now, the transformation Paul talks about is progressive. It's gradual. But it should also be undeniable.

• A lot of Christians use slow as a cover-up for stuck.
• Listen, if you walk with the Spirit, you won't be sinless this side of eternity. But you should begin to sin less. That ought to happen.
• Perhaps you are in that place of self-deception right now. You think you're walking with the Spirit, but you're not. You never take your seat at the table. You're not actually cultivating relationship with Him. You keep rushing off to your own plans.
• If that's you today, the Spirit's calling you back. Back to relationship. Begin to walk with Him.

Self-Reliance

The trap ditched on the other side of the path is probably even more sinister, is the trap of self-reliance.

• This is where the Galatians were primarily slipping, trying to continue the transformative work of the Spirit through self-reliance and self-help.
• Now, they started with the Spirit, but they tried to finish the transformation project through legalistic law-keeping.
• And here's the irony. The irony is that self-reliance never leads to transformation.
• You never become like Christ through self-reliance. It only leads to deformation.
• In fact, Paul uses the same Greek word flesh, it's the Greek word sarx.
• In Galatians chapter 3, he uses that word to define and describe self-reliance. Your own effort to become like Jesus, it's the Greek word sarx.
• And then in Galatians 5, he uses that same Greek word to define sinful behaviour.
• Paul uses the same word to categorise self-reliance and sinful-behaviour. Because self-reliance always leads to sinful behaviour. Every single time.
• That's why Paul warns the Galatians so strongly against the acts of the flesh, because that's where self-reliance leads.

The book of Romans talks about this, that the law actually provokes your sinful nature.

• Self-reliant righteousness provokes our flesh. It doesn't tame sin, it exposes sin.
• Our own self-reliance reveals just how deeply we need a Saviour, and just how deeply sin runs in us.
• The moment we try to reach for a moral standard by our own strength is the moment we realise that we cannot attain that standard on our own, right?
• Like a toddler trying to dunk a basketball.

We see this self-reliance over and over through the Old Testament

Deuteronomy 32

• They abandoned the God who made them and rejected the rock their Savior.
• Now this verse is about how Israel prospered because of the blessing of God. But instead of using their prosperity to worship and honour God, they became idolatrous.
• Because self-reliance always leads to self-indulgence. It just does.
• Because if we go from spirit-led to self-reliant, we'll stop being formed into the image of the Son, and we'll start being formed into the image of the self.

Think of the story of Saul… it's tragic

1 Samuel 10

• This is how the story begins. Samuel prophesies over Saul, he says God's Spirit will rush upon him powerfully, Saul will prophesy, he'll be transformed powerfully.
• And yet the tragic story is that Saul ended in failure.
• He rebelled against God and eventually the Spirit left him altogether.
• It's such a sobering thought that the same Spirit who came upon Saul to make him a different person was ultimately resisted by Saul until Saul became worse off than he was at the start.

Now two things that are important to differentiate us from Saul:

• Number one, the Spirit rushed upon Saul when the Spirit indwells us.
• Number two, the work of the Spirit in Saul's life was purely vocational, empowering him to rule as king, whereas the work of the Spirit in our lives is vocational and regenerative. He transforms us on the inside out.
• But nevertheless, Saul's story stands as a warning that the Spirit can come into your life to transform you into a different kind of person, but you can still resist him through self-reliance.
• And that's the not-so-surprising fact about Saul's story is that his sin was the same sin as the Galatians. He was self-reliant.

Your self-reliance will not tame your flesh. It will provoke it. Why is that?

• Because self-reliance does not produce humility. Self-reliance produces pride.
• And pride is the breeding ground for all manner of sin.
• Pride tells you that you deserve what you desire. It's self-congratulatory.

This is why our walk with God sometimes feels so inconsistent, because deep down we still think this thing is about us trying harder.

• And when success is up to your strength, guess what? Failure won't look like failure. Failure will look like a vacation.
• I've been putting so much effort in, failures means I get a break. PHEW
• Failure comes disguised as self-congratulation, like a day lounging around the palace instead of going to war.
• So leave behind the self-reliance. It's not going to get you where you want it to get you. Move into spirit dependence.

Because we cannot become like Jesus apart from Jesus.

• The Holy Spirit alone is the one who initiates and sustains that transformative work in us.

Let me show you the three ways that the Spirit transforms your character and the tools that He uses to do it.

1. How He Transforms: He Convicts Us of Sin.

Acts 2

• When Peter preached Jesus to these people, they were cut to the heart. They had an experience of cutting. That's what conviction feels like.
• They suddenly realize their guilt in rejecting Christ. This wasn't a feeling that they produced on their own.
• They were quite content just a few weeks prior to crucify Christ. And now all of a sudden they're cut to the heart? They're experiencing a guilt?
• This is the fundamental truth about conviction. It's the grief that comes when you realize you've turned away from God to pursue something else.
• Conviction is relational. Sin is not just bad behavior. It's relational betrayal.
• And so when you experience the conviction of the Holy Spirit, that's Him letting you know, hey, you're participating in behaviour that grieves the heart of God, and He's calling you back to fellowship.
• That's what He wants to restore you to, to point out what hindered the fellowship in the first place.

The Spirit convicts us not to condemn us, but to show us what grieves God, so that we can return to Him.

• Conviction is not a sign that God is leaving you. "I feel so guilty, so ashamed, God must love me less"
• No! Conviction is a sign that God is loving you, He want to transform your character.
• The ones I worry about the most are the ones who no longer experience any conviction because of their sin.
• Those whose hearts have grown so hard because they've resisted the Spirit so many times
• Pay attention to the conviction of the Spirit, walk daily with the Spirit

2 Corinthians 7

• Can I say, the idea that "if I have a peace about it, it must be God", is often wrong. Because too often we really mean, "if I'm comfortable, if I'm happy with it"
• Godly sorrow brings repentance.
• You became sorrowful as God intended.
• It might not have been church hurt. It might not have been bad leadership or a toxic environment. It could have just been the conviction of the Spirit.

One scholar notes, worldly sorrow is the sorrow of the people who's been caught, not convicted.

• Godly sorrow flows from love, from a desire to please God, not just to avoid consequences.
• And so it's a sorrow that draws you back into fellowship.
• So, as followers of Christ, we need to pay attention when we feel conviction.
• When guilt follows our actions. Even if nobody else in your life knows about the action, pay attention to that feeling of guilt.
• That's the Holy Spirit at work inviting you into transformation.

Ever been in a car with someone who thinks they know better than the GPS?

• Isn't it frustrating?
• Please don't be the person who thinks you know better than the GPS.
• Don't be the person who trusts the voice of the GPS until it disagrees with you. Don't be that person.
• The GPS can literally see the whole world. Like all of it. You can see like a hundred meters in front of you. Right?
• That's like the Holy Spirit. He knows where that's going to take you.
• Listen to the conviction of the Spirit. Listen and repent. Change direction.

That's how conviction changes you. Only when you respond with repentance. Not just regret. But an actual turning. A change of direction. A change of your mind.

• That means that you and I, we confess to God. We confess to the person that you've wronged.
• That's how we participate with the Spirit in the process of change.
• The goal isn't to feel bad. The goal is to be made new.
• And confession is what brings about newness.

James 5

• Before the healing comes the confession. And not just to God, but to one another.
• Even here shows the priority of the Spirit's role… Yes, He gives spiritual gifts, He works in incredible ways, but His priority is your transformation.

1.1 Tool of Transformation = Community

And, as James says, the primary tool that the Spirit uses to facilitate our transformation through conviction and repentance is the community of the saints.

• This is the tool that the Spirit uses, is the community of Christians. He wants to use the church.
• Like Paul and the Corinthians, the Spirit will use pastoral authority to convict you.
• He'll use someone in your Connect Group who is close enough to you to see your sins to convict you.
• And when you confess your sin, not just to God, but to a trusted Christian, something powerful happens.
• Take the Bible at its word that when you practice that confession, the scripture says that you will experience healing.
• The Spirit uses the church, people filled with Him, to facilitate your repentance and your restoration.
• And this is what repentance looks like, and that's what leads to change.

Let me just say this. If repentance is not a semi-regular feature in your life as a follower of Jesus, you may be falling into the trap of self-deception.

• Either that or you think you've got it together a whole lot more than you actually do.
• If there's not a regular exchange of sharing your struggles with people who are journeying with you in Christ, then you might be resisting the voice of the Spirit who's leading you into the power of genuine repentance and confession that brings transformation and change in your life.
• That's the point… transformation. God wants to transform your heart.
• Aren't you sick of dealing with the same issues that you dealt with a decade ago? Aren't you tired of that?
• He's given you a way out. He's given you a way forward. The community of the saints to practice repentance.

2. How He Transforms: He Reminds Us of Truth.

• Because after you repent, any lingering guilt is misplaced. It's shame. It's rooted in lies that attack your identity in Christ.
• Those lies, they might come from your own mind. They might come from the enemy.
• And your behaviour is shaped by your beliefs. What you believe is how you'll behave.
• So what the Spirit does is He comes to remind you of the truth so that you'll be transformed into the image of Christ instead of being deformed by something else.

John 14

• On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit comes to fill the church.
• Notice the connections here; Loving Jesus leads to obeying His commands, which requires the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
• I can't live like Jesus in my own strength, I need the Holy Spirit!
• That's why He's called the Spirit of Truth here, He's the one who reminds us of the truth of salvation.

Our identity is in Christ, we are new creations in Christ… but we know there are little lies that come to distort that identity.

• Adam was created in the image of God, and the serpent in the garden tries to distort that "eat this and you'll be like God"
• These lies belittle you, the devalue you, they devalue others
• And when your identity gets distorted, it leads to distorted and un-Christlike behaviour.
• That's why the Spirit wants to continually remind you of the truth of Jesus. And the truth of who you are in Christ.

This is why we take communion so regularly. It's more than remembrance, it's discipleship.

• As we consume the truth of Christ crucified, guess what? A life of cruciformity, being transformed by Christ's sacrifice, begins to follow.
• The work of the Spirit is working as you and I consume the truth of the gospel.

2.1 Tool of Transformation: Scripture

• That's the Spirit's vocabulary. If you want to hear the Spirit clearly, then open your Bible consistently.
• You want a word from God? He gave you 66 books.
• And if you spend time with the Spirit in Scripture, the primary truth he's going to remind you of is the truth of Jesus.
• The Holy Spirit loves to talk about the Son. Loves to.
• And he'll show you Jesus as you study the Word of God. It's not that he doesn't have other things to talk to you about. It's just that there's nothing better to talk about than that. Right?
• Meet with God in the Scriptures. Transformation will take place.

3. Ways of Transformation: He Changes Our Affections

Romans 8

• This is incredible. That scripture is literally telling you that part of the Spirit's transformative work in your life is that you'll start to want what God wants.
• You'll start to share in God's desires.
  • You want to do the things that please Him. And you'll lose taste for the things that don't please Him.

Now, the key to character transformation in this area is that we would actually respond to those new desires.

• When the Spirit stirs up desire in you, you actually have to respond. You've got to act upon that desire.
• Because if you don't respond to that desire, you quench the work of the Spirit in your life.
• Walking by the Spirit means that you're going to start wanting to do things like joining a church. Getting water baptized. Serving people. Making things right with the person you wronged.
• If you start walking with the Spirit, you might wake up one day and feel like giving money away.
• Maybe you grew up in a family that was constantly afraid about having enough money. And you're like, what the heck is that? That's not me.
• Now all of a sudden I've got these desires, I want to give money away? I want to go to work and serve my boss who has a bad attitude? What is that desire?
• That's not you. That's not your flesh. Where did that come from? That's the desire of the Spirit at work in you.
• He's going to prompt those desires. And we obey them. The Spirit will not force obedience.

And every time you obey, you're transformed. because you discover that what the Spirit wants for you is so much better than what you desire for you.

• This is how you grow strong in the Spirit. You feed the Spirit's appetite. You starve the appetite of your flesh. Do both.
• Only resisting sin, that's self-reliance. Following the Spirit, that's obeying the voice of God. That's allowing His transformative work to take shape in your life.
• Join the church. Be a giver. Put down your phone. Be present with your kids. Serve your wife.
• Serve your co-workers. Serve your church. Obey the impulses of the Spirit. Many of you have felt them.

Too often Christians want change without obedience. I want the healing without the confession. I want the provision without the stewardship. I want Peace without the Cross.

• The book of Romans, at both the start and the end, defines faith as obedience.
• There's no difference between obedience and faith. Faith looks like obedience.
• Flimsy obedience will produce flimsy fruit in our lives.
• But if we obey what the Spirit leads us into, we'll will grow in our taste for the things of the Spirit.
• Our appetite for godly things will grow and our desire for ungodliness will diminish.

And the primary tool the Spirit uses to prompt us is in the Secret Place

3.1 Tool of Transformation: Prayer

• If we would step away from the noise, even just 30 minutes a day. Just give Him 30 minutes.
• You'll start to notice, if you make this a pattern, you will start to notice the desires of the Spirit welling up in your heart.
• He'll speak to you in the stillness. If you'll just create a place for Him to speak and for you to listen.

Philippians 2

• God is actually working in you for us to will certain things, for us to desire certain things, and to act in order to fulfil His good purpose.
• God gives both the desire and the power to fulfill the desire. That's an amazing promise.

Conclusion

So how does the Spirit transform us?

• He convicts us of sin, cutting our hearts so we can turn back to God.
• He reminds us of the truth, anchoring us in who Jesus is and who we are in Him.
• And He gives us new desires, shaping our hearts to long for what God longs for.

And He doesn't do this in the abstract. This doesn't happen by osmosis.

• He does it through the saints, people who walk with us in repentance.
• He uses scripture to realign our thinking with the truth
• And he meets us in the secret place Where he stirs new affections in our hearts

That's the work of the Spirit That's walking with him To experience ongoing transformation in your life

• The Spirit is within you The only question is Will you walk with him?
• Because if you do You will be changed

Prayer

Let's all stand our feet as we close in prayer.

• I want you to ask, Holy Spirit, what are you saying to me?
• Maybe throughout the duration of this service, you have experienced the conviction of the Spirit. Maybe he's leading you to repentance. Maybe you need to do that today before the service is concluded.
• Maybe for others of us, you need the Spirit of God to open the eyes of your heart, to remove the veil, like Paul says in 2 Corinthians, so that you can see Jesus rightly, so that you can see the truth of who he is.
• Because as the holy, wonderful Jesus becomes your vision, you'll become like what you behold. You'll be transformed as you see the truth.
• We need to pray that prayer today. Ask the Lord to remove the veil. Help you to see Jesus in the scriptures.
• Others of us maybe need to pray, Lord, come change my affections. Maybe you've been resistant. Maybe you've felt the desires of the Spirit welling up in your life. But instead of obeying, you've been running.

Let's just lift our hands all across this room. Every one of us falls into at least one of those categories.

• Why don't you just take a moment right now just to pray right where you're standing. Say, Lord, I need your help.
• We're believing for a real spiritual thing to take place this morning. A work of the Holy Spirit. The transformation of character all across our church.
• He doesn't need a song, He doesn't need an hour in prayer, all He needs is a willing heart, a heart after Him.

CLOSING PRAYER FOCUS:

• Conviction: Need for repentance
• Truth: Eyes opened to see Jesus rightly
• Affections: Changed desires and willingness to obey Spirit's promptings

🧠 Brain Dump