Good morning church I hope you’re all doing well And I’m missing you And so I’m privileged to be able to bring the word to you this morning I hope that you’re encouraged by it I hope that it’s life to you And I just hope that you have just a wonderful Sunday A time with your families, a time to worship A time to think on the Lord and rest in Him It’s His day So let’s just have a word of prayer and then get started Father in heaven, we just worship you this morning We thank you for your goodness, for your faithfulness For your provision, Lord, in all things You provide from the smallest things Food, clothing, and shelter And Lord, you provide everything that we need Lord, to walk the path of life Remain faithful And to finish well Your grace abounds Lord, your mercies are new this morning We rejoice in that and we rest in it Lord, I pray that you would forgive us For our sins For they are many We need your cleansing this morning, Lord Would you wash us? Would you reveal to us the sin in our hearts? Would you reveal to us the things that we may not even be aware of, Lord? Would you convict us of our sin? We’d find repentance and forgiveness at the cross of Christ Lord, would you restore us? Would you continue to renew us and transform us into the character of Christ? That we would be effective soldiers and workers in your kingdom? Lord, I pray that you would use us effectively for your name’s sake Lord, to help us to forgive those who sin against us, Lord You’ve forgiven us Lord, I just pray that you would be with us now Lord, I just pray that you would be with us now That you would open our hearts and our minds Tune us in to your word, Lord By the power of your spirit, Lord That you would apply it to us And that we would just be made more like your son We thank you, Lord, for all things this morning We thank you that we have the means to do things like this And still, in some way, Lord, as a local body As Providence Fellowship in Madison, Lord We thank you, Lord, for all the things that we have to do And just hear the same word that you have for us Together, and just be built up together, Lord So I pray that you would just use me now to do that That you would just use me, Lord We love you, and we thank you, in Jesus’ name So I have a story for you this morning There was a fellow, starting from a young age He was tossed and battered by the storms of life And he could never seem to tread above water He being fatherless, what more would you expect? Who would have taught him what even life was about? What it meant? What the purpose and goal of it all was? No one taught him the standard of right and wrong He had no idea what it looked like to balance a bank account Showed him how to treat a lady No one demonstrated to him how to mind his manners And company How to love others well He was without guidance He had no support No correction And was just as confused and desperate as you could be As he grew from a young boy into adulthood The lack of these essential components in his life Became a part of his life And began to bear fruit He was especially prone to indulge his flesh And to give way to temptation To seek pleasure in all those things that would never satisfy All in a desperate search to fill that void that was within him A void that he was all too aware of The consequences of poor decision after poor decision Mounted up into a terrible enemy that condemned Oppressed And enslaved him And one day As he was just going about his normal routine And at this point in his life He was just merely existing He met a man Who would dramatically transform the course Of his now miserable life It really was an unlikely encounter The man wasn’t local He was from out of town on business But somehow And for some unknown reason Seeing how this fellow was less than desirable To even be around And he knew that He found the time To build what would become The sweetest of friendships They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks But that wasn’t quite true here Regular mornings over black coffee A shared meal here and there Turned into intimate conversations In which the fellow began to open up about his own His upbringing His struggles and his strongholds And over time Became a student As his information turned into questions On how to repair what was broken in himself Seeing that this man had a father Who did communicate those essential things He was virtuous Kind, loving, and wise He was a salve On this fellow’s infected wounds It truly was an amazing experience And an amazing thing to see As those visits turned into years of friendship And counsel This fellow was a new man No longer the black sheep of his hometown As they finished up Their now usual cup of coffee One cold winter morning The man broke the news That his business there had wrapped up And he would soon be heading back home To see his father It was bitter news As he had never had such a friend And so he pleaded with the man to come along It wasn’t going to work out quite like that But the man did assure him That he would see him again He affirmed all that he had accomplished And learned over the past few years And encouraged him That if he kept the course Everything was going to be just alright Somewhat comforted And a little more confident He eventually said his goodbyes And with the hope That it wouldn’t be long Before they sipped another cup of fresh coffee together Time went on Life was a bit strange now For the fellow But he really hadn’t adjusted To his friend being away He was managing And being the new man that he was now He was able to make some new friends And mend old relationships So he wasn’t completely alone Which was good Still fresh on his mind He was able to practice those things He had learned from the man Those things that had changed him So much for the better But as days added into weeks And weeks into months It did get harder Life’s challenges Confronting him all the more Weren’t quite so easy to navigate Without those morning conversations With his old friend Though he did have some Victories His defeats grew in number And as much as he tried Sitting on his porch Reflecting on the teachings of his friend The time just seemed to distort them And he couldn’t quite apply them With the clarity that he once did Sadly The years wore on And with them Came those old habits Fellow once again Looked like the fellow of old Only left with a faint memory Of that man That he once had hoped He would see again But that hope was gone And eventually So was he Praise be to God That this isn’t the story Of the Christian Praise be to God this morning That we have been made Into new men And new women With a living hope And we’re being protected By the power The power of God Having celebrated Easter recently And rejoiced in All that Christ accomplished For us on the cross In his death And secured for us In his resurrection We also know That he has finished his task here For the time being And has ascended in heaven So with knowing That our friend The true one Has finished his business here And is going back to his father We know that he is going to be Like that fellow And stay the course If you’ll turn with me We’re going to be in John Chapter 14 this morning Verses 15 through 18 John 14 15 through 18

Let’s read He says If you love me You’ll keep my commandments And I’ll ask you Ask the Father And he will give you Another helper To be with you forever Even the Spirit of Truth Whom the world cannot receive Because it neither sees him Nor knows him You know him For he dwells with you And will be in you I will not leave you as orphans I will come to you

Jesus had just finished explaining To his disciples That his time was drawing near He would be leaving them And he charges them With this statement If you love me You will keep my commandments Imagine yourself Sitting at that table with Jesus As he lays this on you You’ve just walked With the Son of God Learning And receiving instruction You’ve seen And touched And heard the word of life And you’ve seen And now he’s leaving Jesus did in fact say He was going to prepare A place for them And that he would return To take them And they had that hope But these are men Like you and I Frail And fragile Prone to doubt And worry And stray Sure to cave As he predicted Peter would Under the pressure Of persecution What were they thinking? How were the disciples feeling? How would they keep his commandments When surely like the fellow Life would wear on They would be worn down Afflicted Distracted Discouraged And disappointed Would they not Surely fail Jesus’ charge? Consider yourself You’ve heard the gospel You know Jesus But like the disciples We are not We are awaiting his return To take us to the place That he’s now preparing Are you strong enough To endure all that this hostile world Has in store for you? Can you withstand the cursing of men? Can you endure the schemes And the temptations of Satan? Can you resist your own flesh And remain faithful To the call To keep his commandments?

Has Jesus left us To remember On our own His word And out of our own power Walk the straight path That leads to life? No Take heart this morning Take heart Jesus has words of encouragement And assurance for us here And know That when you follow Jesus He prays for you Those who love Jesus Will keep his commandments Those who keep his commandments Will be prayed for And what Jesus prays for Is vital to those who love him We’ve said it before here at Providence And it’s worth saying a thousand more times Know this You have to get this into your mind And into your heart When Jesus calls He gives the power to answer the call So when Jesus bids you come and die Follow him Until the end He’s not doing that Expecting you to pull up your bootstraps And make it He calls you with power To do it Jesus says He will pray And the Father will send another Helper To be with you forever Another Helper? Yes And by another He does not mean different In quality In quality Value Effectiveness Or mission He means In addition to himself And of the same essence

Parakletos That word is translated here as Helper It’s a proper noun The word is not referring to a thing But a who See how he says Afterward That he May be with you He’s speaking of a person The Apostle John is the only one In the New Testament To use this word Four times in the Gospel account And once in the first epistle Every time he uses it in the Gospel He’s referring to the person Of the Holy Spirit In this passage We get a glimpse Into the saving economy Of the whole Trinity I want to touch on this this morning Not all But three roles of the Spirit Two of which are found In his name That Jesus gives In verse 16 So first See that Followers of Jesus Will be comforted The word Parakletos means One who is called To someone’s aid As I’ve mentioned already The ESV translation Translates the word As helper Some describe this As a broad term That I think Is really fitting In capturing both Of the first two Of the three roles That we’re going to see Some translations Like the KJV Use the term Comforter Which some say Is too specific But What that word gets at Is what I want to draw out In the first role It doesn’t mean Comfort in the sense That the aim Is to comfort Is to make you Cozy Like you’re laid back And you’re lazy boy And everything’s hunky dory No If you look at the Latin root Fortis The word means To strengthen Like Like the piano Was originally named A harpist chord That can be played Soft And loud Piano is soft And forte Is loud Or strong So when you think of one Chorus Called to someone’s aid Forte is good Strong alongside me Strong with me Strong for me The comforter Follower of Jesus In your afflictions You are not left To strengthen yourself The comforter is with you In all the trials Of the Christian’s faith You are not expected To remain firm In your own power You can’t The comforter is here We need not be like Peter When asked to give an account Of whether we’re With the Lord And shrink back Denying him No We have the Holy Spirit To bring comfort To bring strength In those moments So when you’re mustering up All the courage you can To go and speak The hope of the gospel To your neighbor You don’t need to be afraid Be strong Be strong When you’re exhausted On the brink of giving up And you don’t think You can make it another day In the life of the Christian Take heart Press on Jesus has prayed The Spirit has come And you need only to rest And to be comforted When people slander you In the halls of the school You work in When they make false accusations Against you And you just want to retaliate With a very bad Vengeance Be comforted When your health Is hanging on By a thread Or by a tube And you’re confused About the reasoning Of it all Be comforted When a co-worker Wrongfully takes credit And gets rewarded For something That you accomplished Be comforted When your finances Are draining Every ounce of energy You have Because you’re working Your fingers to the bone Be comforted Or maybe you’re struggling To even find income Doing everything you can To make ends meet Be comforted When you struggle In relationships Struggle with sin Struggle with believing That Jesus is the Christ That takes away The sins of the world Be comforted In the face of all this Through the strengthening Of the Spirit Who is in you Bring glory To your Lord By keeping you in the Lord By keeping His commands When’s the last time You were faced With the weakness Of your flesh Whatever that might Look like for you And you believed And leaned into the truth That Jesus prayed For the Spirit to be sent To be with you forever

Or did you Simply act out of your flesh When’s the last time That you Instead of responding Out of the weakness Of your flesh Stopped And you remembered And were strengthened In the person Of the Holy Spirit You and I both We need not neglect The power that God Uses in our lives The strength He supplies In all things In all things In your life Be comforted Secondly Second role The second role That followers of Jesus Will be contended for The term Parakletos Can also refer To advocacy One who stands In defense of someone Sometimes in a legal sense But I’m inclined To leave that Description Specifically to the role Of Christ as our advocate As John would use In 1 John 2 Verse 1 Says if any man sin We have an advocate With the Father Jesus Christ The righteous See here Jesus Standing as our defense In the courtroom Of God’s justice Our advocate But the Spirit too Is very much Advocating for us Interceding for us With groans Too deep for words Defending us As we journey home But you might ask Why would I need Someone to contend for me If you haven’t learned it yet You will soon find That the Christian life Is one of warfare You’d be foolishly mistaken If you thought it would be One of no adversity To be a follower of Jesus Is to be marked With a bull’s eye One that a skilled archer Like our ancient enemy Satan And his armies Are well capable Of hitting with their fiery arrows Of which you would be covered with Were it not for the staying Protecting power Of the Spirit Sent to aid you Have you been in the boxing ring That is the mind set against the flesh It’s a heavyweight fight Sometimes it feels like You’re a malnourished boy Versus Rocky Marciano In his prime You just can’t win lad Throw in the towel And you would Even if you were If If you did not have the contender In your corner Knowing our weakness The Spirit of God Is standing in our defense Against the schemes And against the lies of the enemy When you’re condemned by the devil Showered with guilt And told that you have no place in Christ The contender makes you to cry out to God Abba Father There are many days that I battle Just to come into the presence of God Sometimes it’s that I don’t feel worthy I feel rotten Because of past sins Current sins Or maybe just feeling guilty Of my lackluster prayer life at the time I thank God That in the power of the Spirit He makes me to come And to come boldly And receive forgiveness of those sins Receive forgiveness of those sins Receive pardon of my negligence in prayer And to be strengthened To grow out of that Sometimes After having prayed my heart out Not able to find any other words to say Or after having saturated myself in the Word I feel a thousand miles from the Lord I get discouraged How can that even be? Thankfully Thankfully The Helper carries me on Through that And by His grace in due time I find His presence His nearness to me Is just as it was the first day I believed When you’re at your wit’s end Battling whatever it is Whatever particular temptation it is in your life And you’re just about ready To secede to the mind of the flesh Remember You have the contender Remember You have the contender In the spirit You have life And there is no one Or nothing That can overthrow that grand champion Who is praying the will of God Over you When you face your darkest days When trials come and beat you down Throw yourself on the Helper Do you do that? When you battle that temptation To cheat on your taxes Or to not look at those filthy pictures anymore Or struggle to put to death your inclination To speak harshly to your wife Or disrespect your husband Or put down the phone to truly look at What your kid is desperately trying to show you Or be dishonest on your time card at work Or not be true to your word that you gave to someone Do you stop And in prayer And in prayer And in the power of the Helper Find freedom And life And victory Do you believe that Jesus prayed And the Father sent another Helper? Believe it Be encouraged Be strengthened Friends, press on

Thirdly Believe that followers of Jesus Will be counseled

Like the fellow that forgot the valuable truths his friend had taught him, we too were prone to forget Prone to neglect Or to not even understand in the first place What it is that Jesus has taught us But while Jesus is preparing a place He’s not left us With just a cold doctrine To govern us To warn our lives No, the spirit of truth is with us Wielding the living and the active word of God And He will be forever He will communicate that truth to us Jesus says just a little later on in John 14 verses 25 and 26 These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you But the Helper The Holy Spirit Whom the Father will send in my name He will teach you all things And bring to your remembrance All that I have said to you Just as the Spirit taught the disciples Deepened their understanding of what Jesus had taught them And helped them to remember it So He does the same with you And with me It’s by the Spirit That we’re convicted according to the truth It’s by the Spirit that we’re enlightened in the Word It’s by the Spirit that in any situation We can take the knowledge that we’ve gained Through learning the Scriptures And with wisdom apply it righteously

This is the grace of God to His church alone The Spirit counsels those Who receive Him The world can’t do that There may be common graces and truths That the world can touch for a season But the truth of God The Word of eternal life Can only be received by grace What a special privilege it is then To be taught of the Spirit This truth isn’t something that can be learned apart from Him It isn’t something that can be remembered Apart from Him It isn’t something that can be communicated Apart from Him It isn’t something that can be applied Apart from Him But you have access to all these things Because He dwells with you And He is in you When making decisions in your life When you’re seeking understanding When you’re looking for guidance Remember that you have with you And in you The Spirit of Truth

Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life And He’s given you the Spirit of Truth And if the aim is to look like Christ Take heart That He is doing that by the power of His Spirit in you He’s conforming you to His image Through the sanctifying work of the Helper

Your character will only begin to look like Jesus If it’s through the sanctifying work of the Spirit You cannot be Christ-like without the Spirit of Christ in you Press into Him Lean in Know and depend and rest in the fact that you have The living Spirit of God within you

And know that when you follow Jesus He prays for you And He is with you He says, I will not leave you as orphans I will come to you I believe Jesus here is Just very much pointing out To the sending of His Spirit He’s letting the disciples know And He’s letting us know this morning That He has not left us as orphans Though Jesus has ascended into heaven Sit at the right hand of the Father To take His rightful place on the throne He’s not left us here To figure this out on our own He’s not left us here to do this by ourselves Or even with one another No He has sent His Spirit So in a very real way He has sent Himself And He dwells in us And so we have the very real presence of Christ With us now Right now

Christ is with you And He is in you Dwelling there He’s comforting you Strengthening you In all your trials In all of your afflictions In all your hardships Even in those times when you’re on the mountaintop And everything is going well He’s strengthening you to handle that well

He’s contending for you When you face all those battles In the war of life Whether it be Afflictions from your own flesh Your own mind Or the enemy He’s there fighting for you You’re not alone You’re not left to do this by yourself The Spirit is interceding for you Jesus is interceding for you He’s with you Rest in that fact And He’s counseling you He’s teaching you Everything that you need to know To accomplish the work that God is giving to you Whatever it is that He’s giving you to take part in the building of His kingdom Whatever it is that He’s trying to teach you Whatever it is that He’s trying to correct in your life Whatever it is that He’s trying to impart to you To be more like Him To teach your kids to be more like Him To teach your wife to be more like Him To influence whatever sphere you have To be more like Christ He’s there doing that with you He’s doing that for you When you come to the Scripture Pray and depend on the Spirit To open your eyes and to open your mind And to give you understanding

Jesus has not left us Jesus is praying for us And He is with us

Rejoice in that fact this morning

Father Thank You that In Your Word You have revealed to us Your truth

You’ve communicated to us By the power of Your Spirit Thank You that You Did not withhold Your own Son from us But You sent Him And Lord Jesus In Your obedience You lived A righteous and a perfect life

And You took that life And You Offered it up on the cross You took into Your body our sins And You paid the penalty for them And You give us The righteousness that You You merited That You lived And Your life is now our life And as You’re now away preparing a place for us You’re still with us You’ve given us the Holy Spirit of truth Just as You promised We thank You that by Your Spirit You’re renewing us You’re sanctifying us You’re refining us You’re keeping us You’re protecting us

God I thank You that You’ve loved sinners like us So much That You give Your whole self To redeem us To recreate us And to bring us back into the fellowship of Yourself The fellowship of the Trinity Thank You Lord that You would do that Because we don’t deserve it

Lord we just rest now that You have accomplished these things And we need not do anything but to trust and obey And just to continue walking faithfully And relying solely on Your power On Your grace On Your faithfulness Thank You Lord for providence I pray that You would just bless and keep each one of us today Lord That You would give us today our daily bread That You would just give us a time of Just rest and To enjoy our families that You’ve given to us Lord I pray that You would just keep us as we’re away from one another still With this sickness I pray that You would not let our relationships Be harmed because of all this But that we would remain faithful and strong And committed to one another

Lord I just Just thank You Thank You for Your goodness Lord Thank You for loving us And we love You only because You’ve done that It’s in Jesus name we’ll pray Amen