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Delighted to be here. We're excited to be in week number two of our series on the chapter of Romans, chapter eight. Tell you more about that in just a second. Let me look into the camera. Say hello to all of our campuses. We are one church meets in campuses all across Alabama and Georgia. Of course, we're in all 28 of Alabama's department of Corrections facilities right now, everybody. God bless you guys. The men and women there. You want to clap? I hate to say. Go ahead and say hi. It's fine. Yeah, we love you. They love you. We love you so much. You're not a project to us. You are our church family and we mean that. And so everybody that's watching online or maybe later on demand, we're glad you're along for the ride today. Shout out to Tuscaloosa today. Pastor Mark and Jill are there today. God bless you guys. We're so glad you are with us. We are in week number two of a six part series where we're studying through verse by verse, through Romans, chapter eight. And the reason why we're doing that is one is we just love teaching the Bible. We want to make sure you understand it. And for some people, it's complicated text. I'm gonna do the best job I can to make the complicated simple. Put the cookies on the bottom shelf so everybody can have one today. All right? And also we loved teaching this because some say that Romans chapter 8 is the single best chapter in the entire Bible that entirely explains the Christian faith. So there's so much theology in it. So we're kind of dissecting it part by part. But also it's a preparation for Easter. We are four weeks away, everybody, from the greatest day in history. And we are gonna celebrate. Come on, you can celebrate a little bit better than that. Our God is alive. He's not dead. And so we have an exceptional worship experience prepared for you guys that the team has been working on for some time and you won't wanna miss it. So we're actually adding services April 3rd, 4th, 5th. We're adding services on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And that's because it happens to be also the Sunday where all you guys decide to come to the same Sunday, which makes a lot of people in the room. And then if history repeats itself, we'll see 10, 20, maybe even 30,000 people here for the very first time. And you can play a role in that. As you already heard from your campus pastor, be sure to invite someone. And let me just do a little bit of an add on to that when you invite someone, just don't tell them about it. Ask them to come to a service with you. In fact, ask them which of all those services is best for them and come with them. And let me tell you why I want it for the person, especially if they're far from God. Cause we're gonna believe God for thousands of people to know Jesus on that weekend. Amen, everybody, right? But also, I want it for you. It's a part of the Christian experience that I just hope for you. There's nothing like the feeling of having someone far from God sitting next to you in church. And then all of a sudden, things that didn't matter to you, matter to you. The songs and everything matters. Cause you're friends there. And then when they say, you know, every head bowed, every eye closed, and people get a chance to make a decision, you'll disobey. You'll bow your head and keep one eye open to see what your friend's gonna do. And when they respond, I promise you, it's an experience that is unbelievable because, you know, you played a role in their eternal destiny. So pray, invite, and let's see a great, great experience happening the weekend of April 3rd, 4th, and 5th. I've been assigned a section of Romans chapter 8 today, actually verses 5 through 13 as we talk today about power, the power of the Holy Spirit, God working inside of us. And I bet I read these verses a hundred times. I just kept reading through it and trying to outline it and asking God to speak to me. And I've spoken a ton on the person of the Holy Spirit, which is what I want to talk about today. And there's a lot of archived messages for you to go watch if you want more information about the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the miracles of the Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit works on the earth today. But I saw something in the text that I've never taught on before, and I'm very excited to teach it to you. And the way I want to do it today is I want to go to further down in the section they gave me to Romans chapter 8, verse 11. So you can open your app or you can look on the screens. You can fill in the blanks with me today. Romans chapter 8, which actually verse 11, which actually happens to be my favorite Easter verse in the entire Bible, says this. It says, if the Spirit. And I highlighted the word if, like, might not happen for everybody. And I want to just throw that out there to you that what you're getting ready to read might not happen for you. And that's why I'm teaching it to you. Because for a lot of people, what I'm getting ready to read is not happening for you. But it says if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, so you can have the Holy Spirit on the inside of you and that spirit not be made alive. Come on, help a preacher out just a little bit, everybody. All right? I'm serious. You can have the Holy Spirit in you. And if you're a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit, but he cannot be active. He can be inhabited but not active. So he says, if the Spirit is living inside of you, he. He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies. In other words, the same power that it took to get Jesus out of that grave that we'll celebrate in a few Sundays, that same power is available. The Bible says to bring to life your mortal bodies. The word mortal means the places where you're dead or the places where you're dying. And so to make this message even more meaningful for you, think about the places in your life that are either dead or dying. So it's just not. Or let me say it this way, not where it should be. So you find yourself thinking, I'm a Christian. And there's a whole lot of promises in here, and I'm not getting most of them. I know I'm going to heaven, but I am not receiving these promises of resurrected marriage, resurrected emotions, resurrected health, resurrected. Like, where is all that? And the Bible's saying you might not be receiving it because the spirit's not alive on the inside of you. Like, there's a missing component. And my job is to show you why today. Now, before we get there, I wanna talk to you just a little bit about the Holy Spirit, because this is the part of the Godhead or the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit that people know the least about and arguably might be one of the most important for your success of your life here on planet Earth. Because we have these roles. Each the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Watch this. That each play a different role in your life. And according to this text, that Holy Spirit part is the part that's not living inside of you like it could, so that you can have resurrections. Is everybody following me so far? Right. So let me talk to you about the Holy Spirit and what his role is. And to do that, I'll show you a benediction or a final, you know, prayer that's prayed at the end of one of the books of the Bible, 2 Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 14. And it says this, and it has the entire Godhead in it. It says, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Notice there's three different roles. And by the way, also notice that it starts with Jesus. So the entire experience or the relationship you can have with the Godhead or the Trinity, each have a different role and it begins with Jesus. In fact, let me say it this way, or if you're taking notes, just put this in your notes. God the Son saves us. So his whole role in the relationship that he has with us was to go to the cross, take on your penalty, and pay for it with his gruesome, horrible death. But he wasn't supposed to be there. We were. But he took our place and he saves us. Can we pause for three seconds and give Jesus praise for going to the cross for us? Everybody, aren't you grateful for Jesus? Because it's because of that. If you receive that, that now you can have the love of God. So God the Father loves us. He's always wanted to be in a love relationship with you. Listen to me. He's not a mean God. He's not a harsh God. He's a loving father who wants to be close to you. But he can if there's sin. So that's why Jesus stepped in and paid your bill. But once the bill is paid, now you can experience the love of the Father. But notice with me also that the Holy Spirit plays a different role. He uses the word fellowship. May the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you. What is that all about? Well, if God the Son saves us and God the Father loves us, what is the Holy Spirit's role? And here's what I would want you to know, and that is that God the Father, God the Son aren't here on earth. Even people that say, oh, I have Jesus in my heart. Well, you do from a devotion standpoint, but geographically, that's not where he's at. The Bible said he's seated at the right hand of the Father up in heaven. When he ascended into heaven, he left us his Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit that's here, here on earth to fellowship with us. And this is the part that according to Romans chapter 8, that we don't have enough working in our lives. We're not fellowshipping enough with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is with us. God the Son Saves us, God, the Father loves us. God, the Holy Spirit is supposed to be this interactive, close relationship on a daily basis, that if you have a great relationship with the Holy Spirit, then the same power that raised Christ from the dead can quicken or raise to life all the dead areas of your life. Am I making sense so far? Everybody? All right, then what's the problem? If all that's happening, then what's the problem? Now let's go back to the beginning of the text, and you're gonna see the problem. So we're gonna go to Romans 8. 5, the beginning verse that I've been assigned today. And it says, those who live according to the flesh. Now, when he uses the word flesh, it's not talking about your skin. It's talking about the human part of you that still interrupts your spiritual experience. So is it all right if I get on? I teach it this way today, Everybody? Y' all all right. Like, there's a human side that's interacting with your spiritual experience. And every one of you know what I'm talking about. In fact, in the King James that uses the word carnal, there's a carnal part of you, this flesh. And those who live according to the flesh had their mind set on what the flesh desires. So, in other words, you're going through your week, and you're not thinking about godly things. You're thinking about ungodly things, fleshly things. But those who live accordance with the Spirit have their mind set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death. And it's not necessarily talking about a physical death. It means that you'll have things in your life that are dead or dying. But the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile toward God, and he's talking to Christians. So you have a part of you that's not wanting to be obedient to God is actually hostile toward God. And it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. And Paul describes a war that's going on that's keeping you from having fellowship with the Holy Spirit, which is keeping you from having a resurrected life. Is everybody with me? Sephora? And I want to talk to you about that because we have this part of us that we're going to have to learn how to deal with this human, fleshly side of us that's in continual war with the spiritual things. In fact, I want to take you to another text in 1 Corinthians 2, where Paul actually mentions three different types of people. And the first one, if you're taking notes, is the unspiritual person. And he describes the unspiritual person this way in verse 14, that the person without the Spirit. That's actually one word. In the Greek language, we use three words without the spirit, but it's the word psuchikos, which means, I'm a person that does not have the mind of God. I'm living on my own mind. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, but considers them foolish. They look around seeing you guys raise your hands or giving your life to Jesus, or maybe being generous to others or whatever, and they think you're dumb for doing that. Cause they don't understand. They cannot understand them because they are discerned only by the Spirit. Which means, by the way, if you're one of those people who has never gotten close to God or given your life to Jesus, and all this looks really dumb to you, you'll never know how real it is until you take a step toward God. And that's a fact. It'll continue to be dumped to you because there's a part of you that has to be awakened. Which brings us to the second word, second type of person, which. Which is you have an unspiritual person. The second one is the spiritual person. The spiritual person. And this is in the next verse where it says, but the person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things. In other words, everything kind of makes sense to you. Now life makes a whole lot more sense. But such a person is not subject to merely human judgments. For who has known the mind of the Lord as to instruct him almost if to say, you can never know what God's really thinking, but he says, no, you can, but because we now have the mind of Christ, he's beginning to renew us. And so what that means is before Christ, you were mean and impatient and had ugly thoughts. But all of a sudden, Jesus begins to do this brand new work on the inside of you. But there's a third person, and this is the one I wanted to get to. So you have the unspiritual, you have the spiritual. And the third one is the mixture of the two. And I'm saying that's what Paul's talking about. That's keeping you from having fellowship with the Holy Spirit. That's also keeping you from having a resurrected life. And it's called the worldly person. The worldly person. And it's found in First Corinthians, chapter three, verse one. Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit, but as people who are still worldly. By the way, in the King James version, it uses the word carnal. Carnal. Mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. In other words, you're baby Christians and you're allowing too much of the world still in your life. Even though you've given your life to Christ, indeed, you are still not ready. You are worldly, carnal, by the way, for you historians or word origin people, you know, the word carnal is Latin. It's where we get like carnivore, which is a flesh eating animal, a carnivore or a flesh eating person. You like to hear it here. On a carnivore diet. It means flesh, it means meat. You ever had chili con carne? Everybody have chili? Don't look at me so silly out there. Has anybody had chili with. It means chili. It means chili with meat. And the problem is we got some Christian con carne going on out there. That's funnier in my head than yours, obviously, but I thought it was hilarious. We're a Christian concar. You're going to heaven, you're still going to heaven. But we still have too much of the world in us. And that too much of the world in us is actually keeping us from fellowship with the Holy Spirit and lack of fellowship with the Holy Spirit's keeping us from the resurrection of life that God wants us to have. So Paul's saying the whole problem is, is that we have too much of the world still in us and it's keeping God's power from flowing through us. You want to see it in another place? Galatians, chapter 5, verse 17 says it this way. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh. You probably have felt that war going on inside of you. I have felt it inside of me. For these are opposed to each other and they keep you from doing what you actually want to do. Paul's saying that there's this battle going on that at some point in your life you're going to have to settle. Let me tell you how it basically plays out. And as you come to church and I don't know what your week was like, what you thought or did or what experiences you had, but it probably kicked you around just a little bit. We all have had that. And then we show up in a place like this. And for me, I can feel it the moment I walk in the room, the peace of God. I'm almost a bit hopeful. I'm a little bit shameful, maybe have a little bit of guilt. But you walk in and it kind of feels like, wow, I'm so glad I came. And then they sing a song, and it lifts your heart a little bit. You may or may not respond, but you go, man, this is. It's so true. It's so good that God is awesome. And then the next song hits, and you feel like entering in a little bit. And then the devil tells you, don't do it because you've been such a bad person this week. But you ignore the condemning voice of the devil and follow God anyway and give him the worship he deserves. And all of a sudden, your heart gets lifted and you get encouraged. And then by the third song, you're really engaging and experience with God, thinking, wow, I'm so glad I came. And then you hear an incredible message, and you get into God's word and it lifts you even more. And you walk out of this place feeling encouraged and strong and strengthened, and your spirit's lifted. You're ready to go bear hunting with a switch. Come on, somebody. Right? But then you step right back into that world and it starts kicking you around again. You feel disconnected from God again. And the Bible says that when we lose that fellowship with the Holy Spirit. I'm not just talking about on Sunday. I'm talking about on Monday for some of y'. All, Sunday afternoon. Come on, where you at? Right? Just, like, it starts to disconnect. So what do we do about that? Like, what is the solution to that? And I'll read the text one more time, but emphasize a different word, and you're gonna see what we're gonna have to grapple with. If you want fellowship with the Holy Spirit so that you can be close to God. And here's what it says. Those who live according to the flesh have their mindset. Paul's saying, the problem that we have is we don't have a disciplined enough mind, and we're allowing our mind too much into the world. We have our mindset on what the flesh or the world desires. But those who live in accordance with the Spirit had their mindset on what the spirit desires. The mind governed. That's an interesting word. In other words, are you willing to allow your mind actually to have a governor on it? The mind governed, governed by the flesh will kill you, it's death. But the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. So the whole message in an entire sentence, if you're taking notes, put it on the screen for me. Guys. When we have a spirit focused mind, we can have a spirit encountered life. We can have this empowered life with God. If we can figure out how to get this right. Now, here's my job, and that is to show you how to make this a part of your life every day. Cause, you know, we can do it in here. Like, wouldn't you love to have the Highlands worship team just come into your prayer time every day at your house? Yeah, I'm like, that would be easy. So how do we. How do we actually live a life that never breaks fellowship with the Holy Spirit? And here's my promise to you. In fact, I'm challenging you to try it. And that is get so close to God and so focused and have a mind that's governed by the Spirit instead of the world and our flesh, so that we have this closeness with that Holy Spirit who brings resurrection into every part of your life. And I guarantee it. And you can do it three ways. And the first is to cultivate his presence. And I'm not talking about Sunday. Man. It's easy in here. It's easy in here, but we've got to get to the place, as Galatians, chapter 5, verse 16 says, where we are now, walking with the Spirit. And if we walk with the Spirit, not just in here, if we walk with the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of our flesh. Verse 25 says, Keep in step with the Spirit. In other words, I'm not gonna follow the world's ways. I'm gonna follow God's ways. And my question to you, and it's a little personal to ask you this, but I'm asking you today. And that is, how's your closeness with God? Not on Sunday. We know how it is in here. How's it gonna be tomorrow morning? How's it on Thursday? How's it on Friday night? And are you breaking fellowship with God? And if I can encourage you in anything that will actually help this closeness with the Spirit, that what you'll give you, this resurrected life is, is we're gonna have to maintain this closeness with our God because he loves you, wants to be close with you, and he has power that is available to you. Can somebody say a good amen right there? I'm talking about your quiet time in the morning. I'm talking about reading your Bible, whatever it looks like, don't turn it into a religious exercise. I'm just talking about your time with God and your closeness with God and your worship with God and getting into his word and praying and seeking God. I heard this story this week that kind of. I thought it was so powerful, and it just reminded me because I think we all have a tendency, including the one speaking to you, to get away from that closeness with God. I heard this story about this father daughter camp, and they wanted to do this exercise between fathers and daughters. And so all the dads and their daughters, they took them deep into the woods, and when they got there, they blindfolded all of the girls, all the daughters, and they told the fathers, you can say three things to your daughter, and you need to say it to her over and over and over before we begin this walk through the woods. And the three things are, you need to say to her continually is, I will never leave you. You can ask me anything, and you should only listen to the sound of my voice. So I will never leave you. You can ask me anything, and you should only listen to the sound of my voice. And he said it over and over and over to her. And then they were allowed to put their hand on their. Their daughter's shoulder. And with her blindfolded, with the reminder of those three things, they could walk her through. And so the father could actually talk to her and guide her with his hand on her. But somewhere along the path, he was instructed. Silently, the counselor made a gesture. Silently, take your hand off your daughter's shoulder, and you can't talk anymore unless she asks you a question. And they started going. And as you would imagine, the daughter started getting off track. So the counselor spoke up and said, hey, you're off track. You're not even close to the rest of the campers here. Follow me and I'll get you back. Caught up with them. But he didn't. He intentionally took her into a ditch all the way to the place where she was up against a tree, down in a ditch, and couldn't move anymore. And she stopped. And for several minutes, she didn't know what to do, little tears popping out of her eyes. But then she remembered what her dad had instructed her to do when she got disconnected from him. And she said four. Dad, are you still there? Dad, are you there? Dad, are you there? He said, baby, I've always been here. I was just waiting for you to talk to me. And when I heard that, I thought about how close God actually is. And by the way, he never leaves us Nor forsakes us. You can ask him for anything. And you should actually only listen to the sound of his voice, not that counselor who led her into the ditch. Isn't that right, everybody? And how much. Our lives are simply like that. And I'm here to tell you today that God's not mad at you for not having time with him every day. He's still right there with you, just waiting for you to talk to him and say, father, are you still there? Are you still there? And he's gonna say, oh, yes, I am. And I'm ready to lead you right back into the best things for your life. Do you believe that today? Gay church. It's true. It's really true. And that's what cultivating his prayer. Second thing is, is you're gonna have to learn to listen to the sound of his voice. You're gonna have to learn to listen to the sound of his voice. And how do you actually learn someone's voice? Like when somebody even calls you and says, hey, without identifying who they are, how do you recognize who that is? It's very simple. You've talked to them a whole lot. If Tammy calls me and I pick up my phone, of course I was gonna do like this, but we don't flip them anymore. But anyway, shows you how old I am. But anyway, I picked up the phone, said. And she goes, hey. Well, I know exactly who it is, because I know the sound of her voice. Are y' all listening to me? Everybody and God's the same way. God's a speaking God, and he's talking to you a whole lot more than you think. In fact, not in your notes or on the screen, but In John, chapter 10, Jesus said, My sheep know my voice, and they actually turn away from the voice of the stranger. In Isaiah, chapter 30, verse 21, it says, Whether you turn to the right or the left, you will hear a voice behind you say, this is the way. Walk in it. That God is actually wanting to have a more interactive relationship with you than you realize. And he's speaking a whole lot more than you think. In fact, this week, by the way, I heard a funny bujo joke that fits perfectly right here. Do you want to hear it? Yes or no, everybody? Okay, well, I'm gonna share it anyway. But anyway, for you guys that are new to the church, I'm from South Louisiana. We tell these Boudreaux jokes. And Boudreaux thought his wife Marie was losing her hearing, so he had a relationship or a friendship with actually an ent. And they were playing golf one day. He said, doctor, man, she can't hear anything. She's losing her hearing. He says, what do I do? He says, boudreaux, there's a test you can do when you go home. He says, and you call me back and you tell me the results of this test. He goes, how do y' all do it? He goes. He goes, stand 10ft back behind her when she doesn't know you're there, like if she's washing dishes or something at the sink, and stand 10ft back and ask her something. And if she doesn't respond, get one more foot closer. And then get one more foot closer. And then get one more foot closer. He said, then tell me what number it was, how far away, and I'll tell you how good her hearing is. So Boudreaux goes home, and Marie's in there washing dishes or something. And he gets 10ft back from her. He said, marie, what's for supper? And no response. So he comes up one more foot. Marie, what's for supper? No response. He comes up another foot. He said, marie, what's for supper? And he keeps going on and on and on. And when he gets one foot away, he says, marie, what's for supper? And she said, for the 10th time, we're having etouffee, everybody. It was his hearing, anyway. Yeah, and I'm telling you, that's funny. I don't. That's funny. I don't care what y' all say. That's funny. But it's also true. We think God's the problem, and we're the one with the problem. That God's a speaking God. He's trying. Listen to me, Church. He's trying to say some things to you. And this is where I could have gone for two hours, but I'll go for just a few minutes that the Spirit is trying to. Here's the first one. Encourage you. Whether you realize this or not, we have an encouraging God. Romans, chapter 8:16. We'll study this in coming Sundays. The Holy Spirit speaks to us deep in our heart and tells you, boy, what a bad person you've been this week. No. You're my child. I love you. I'm so proud of you. You say God couldn't possibly be proud of me. Oh, yes, he is. I mean, my children have done things that have disappointed me. And I never for one second lost love for, you know, letting them know, man, you mean a lot to me. Listen to me. I don't know who needs to hear this, but God loves you. He will tell you, you are my child and I am so proud of you. And I don't know who needs to hear that, but God's not mad at you. In fact, if God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it right now. Everybody, he loves you deeply. Somebody say a good amen. Second one is that God will also warn you, though. And one of the dynamics we're supposed to have in our walk with God is that right before we do something we're not supposed to do, you may have even heard this phrase before you get a check in your spirit. Well, that's the Holy Spirit. That phrase is not in the Bible. Check in your spirit. But the concept is all throughout the Bible. In fact, in Acts 16, I'll put it on the screen for you. That's one example where the apostles were headed to go preach to a city. And right before they went into the city, the Holy Spirit said, don't go in there. Don't go. You should not do that. Look at me. And the Holy Spirit's been trying to tell you guys things like, don't send that. I know you composed that email. You better not hit sin. You better end that secret. It's not gonna turn out well. You better tell somebody what's going on in your life. Hey, you better get some help. You can't do this by yourself. And the Holy Spirit will guide you. This is so good. And it's not supposed to be just this, you know, you figuring out life. You're supposed to have someone that's in fellowship with you, talking to you all along the way. And listen to me, he'll do it. The Holy Spirit will give you direction. Some of you guys are looking for, like, I don't know what I'm supposed to do with my life right now. Some of you guys know you're living a life that's not sustainable. Acts, chapter 20. The apostle Paul said that compelled by the Spirit. In other words, I had something deep inside of me speaking to me, telling me to go to Jerusalem. Paul actually made his itinerary based on how the Holy Spirit was speaking to him. And not only what you're supposed to do, but also what you're not supposed to do. And for some of you, the Holy Spirit's been saying things like, slow down. And in a few minutes, when we close the service, he's going to say, why don't you go forward? Let somebody agree with you in prayer about that. Or the last one, I put this because it's personal to me. Call him Say PC. What do you mean? About two months ago, I was sitting in my prayer time, just worshiping God. Got my music going, got my Bible. I was having the best time ever fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit. And he reminded me of a broken relationship I had with a friend and the Holy Spirit. I could hear the Holy Spirit loudly say, call him. Call him. And I really felt like it was their place to call me. You know what I'm talking about? It's like it wasn't me. I kind of argued for a little bit, you know, like, come on, go talk to them. Like, you know, But I heard God say that. And honestly, I remember having to make a decision to kind of swallow my pride a little bit. Bit. And I picked up the phone and just called him. And I mean, I just decided I was just gonna. I was gonna take the high road and just call him. And this friend of mine And I, in 30 seconds, had the most beautiful reconciliation love. It was like. It was like something never happened. And if you'll let the Holy Spirit, he'll do something like that in your life, too. Here's even one that ramps it up a bit more, and that is the Holy Spirit will also give you vision. Dreams. Acts, chapter two. In the last days, God says, I'm gonna pour out my spirit on all people, both men and women. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams. Listen to me. The language of the Holy Spirit is vision. He'll speak to you. He'll say things to you. It's time to go all in. Some of you guys been putting your toes into Christianity. And he's saying, boy, come check. Come into the deep end of the pool. Find out how good it is for those that be saying, take your step. Take your next step. I try to challenge you. At the beginning of the service, invite somebody, have them sitting next to you. And some of you, honestly, you actually need to do that. Not only for them, but for you, too. And watch how God just. I just. I'm promising you it's one of the greatest experiences of your Christian faith. And then some of you, I'm convinced, both adults and students, you're called to ministry. You're called. One of the things I've decided I'm going to do now that I'm leading our college is every place I go and every place I preach. Because I think people get stuck in jobs or stuck in degrees at universities that they know they're not supposed to do, and they're not Even enjoying it. And they know they're actually running from a call of God on their life. And there are some of you who are adults, you're already in your job, have families, but you like, man, I don't even know the pathway back. Highlands College Leadership Institute. I don't know the pathway. I'm a student at Auburn, Tuscaloosa, uab. Uab, wherever. Like, listen to me. We've had so many students that have got into degrees. They know there was a call of God in their life, and they stepped back in to that call on their lives. Do it. Do it. So what do we do? We cultivate it. You're going to have to learn how to walk with the Holy Spirit. Not just on Sundays, but every day. You're going to learn how to listen to his voice. And here's the last one I'm going to close, and that is to honor his presence. I was having a hard time finding a word to put there because I actually had at one point respect his presence. And here's what I'm going to show you. And I'm going to read you one more verse. And that is. He's sensitive. Out of all the Godhead, he's the most sensitive. In Romans 8, verse 12 and 13, the last verses I was supposed to teach to you guys today says this. It says, therefore. It says, therefore, we have brothers and sisters. We have an obligation. I looked up the word in the Greek. It literally means a debt to God. But it's not to the flesh to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you're going to die. But our obligation is to the Spirit. And you. You fulfill that obligation by putting to death the misdeeds of the body. In other words, stop offending him. Because the Holy Spirit only operates in a place where he feels welcomed. That's why Two verses, one in. When Ephesians says, don't grieve the Holy Spirit, in first Thessalonians, it says, don't quench. Don't put the fire out. What is the Bible trying to tell us? That's saying that the Holy Spirit literally will operate in our lives where he's made welcome. And when he does, he'll guide you, warn you, encourage you, speak to you, give you direction, and resurrect every dead place in your life if you'll make room for him. And all people said a good amen. You got it? All right, let's pray. Let's pray. So, Father, help us cultivate the presence. Listen to your voice and God honor you. Let us be mindful of the ways that we've offended you, Holy Spirit. In fact, Holy Spirit, forgive us for doing that. And this week, we purpose to get closer to you, cultivate that every single day, and enjoy you speaking to us and guiding us to a resurrected life with every head bowed, every eye closed in this room. If you're here today and you know for a fact you have a broken relationship with God, or for some of you, you've never had a real relationship with God, God, can I lead you in that moment. In fact, that every location, be very still. And as you're here today, you say, chris, I feel God feels like a million miles away. The Bible says that Jesus came to pay for sin, to make you and God close again. And that closeness, listen to me, can happen in one prayer. I'm not talking about joining this church, although that'd be a good thing for you to do. I'm talking about joining Jesus and making him the Lord of your life. And if you're prepared to do that, the Bible says you can do it by the confession of your mouth to make him the Lord of your life. And I'll lead you in that prayer right now. If that's you, say these words, whisper them right there where you're seated. Say, jesus, forgive me. I lived my life away from you. I lived it my way. And today I'm inviting you to be the Lord of my life. I'm prepared to surrender my life to you. Everything. So take my life. Forgive me. Save me and Holy Spirit, come live inside of me. In fact, be alive on the inside of me. Because I truly believe Jesus is the son of God who was raised from the dead. And today I put my faith and my trust and my love and my devotion in him. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. I.