The Right Here, Right Now Help of the Holy Spirit

0:45Well, one of the podcasts that I enjoy listening to recently had an episode on the rise of coaches in our society. For almost any area in life or any skill that you want to get better at, you can find a coach. You need help with life? Well, get a life coach. Need help finding a date? There is no lack of dating coaches out there. Need help getting into college? Well, search for a college admissions coach. You want to eat healthier? You can hire a wellness coach. And this is just scratching the surface. I mean, no joke, friends. Any problem that you are facing, anything that you are wanting to get better at in life, there is a Coach for that. And what I find so fascinating about the rise of the coaching industry, an industry with the market size in the billions, is the explicit acknowledgement that is made by every single person looking for a coach.

1:47And what's that acknowledgement? It's that we need help, right? You don't hire a coach because you have everything all figured out. No, you do it because you are aware of your need for help. The reality is that in life, every single one of us will face situations and we will experience struggles that make it clear to us that we need help. This morning, I wonder, what are those situations for you? What are the situations that you're facing in life right now where you are just very aware of your need for help?

2:28Is it help for a difficult relationship? Perhaps with a parent, a child, a friend? Or maybe it's help battling an addiction or helping someone else in your life who's struggling? Are you walking through an experience of deep sorrow and loss right now? Or maybe a dark night of the soul battling depression, doubt, and despair? What is it for you this morning? Well, whatever situation or struggle you are facing this morning, I have good news for you. Well, actually, I don't have good news for you. Jesus has good news for you. Because in this passage, Jesus is offering you the right here, right now help of the Holy Spirit, which you need every day. In this passage here in John 14, Jesus is holding out the right here, right now help of the Holy Spirit, which you and I need. Specifically in these verses, Jesus highlights three facets of the Spirit's help. And we're going to look at each of these so that we might be better positioned to receive the help that we so desperately need and that God is graciously offering each and every one of us right here, right now. First thing we see in this passage is that Jesus is offering us the right here, right now help of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit gives us power, gives us power to help us obey. The Spirit helps by giving us power to obey. Follow along with me starting in verse 15. Here we read, Jesus says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask... The Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth. Three times in this passage here in verse 15 and also in verses 21 and 23, Jesus calls his disciples to obey him, to keep his commandments.

4:52Not as a means of earning his love, there's no way they can do that, but as a sign, as a mark of their love for him. And I can only imagine that as Jesus, as these words are coming out of Jesus' mouth, he knows that his followers are going to need his help to do this. He knows that left to themselves, they will not be able to keep his commandments. And so, after commanding them to keep them, he immediately promises each and every one of them that he will send them a helper. Now, this word helper in the ESV might be translated advocate, counselor, or comforter in your Bible. And these are all good translations, and I think each capture in their own way what Jesus is trying to communicate to his disciples.

5:46The Greek word here is the word paraclete, and it literally means to call alongside. The idea or the image here is of someone who comes alongside you. To help you. When you read the word helper, you should picture an expert teacher or a master who is coming alongside the student or the apprentice who is struggling with something. And this teacher comes along and is right there at their side to help them to succeed. I think of how Donna is a paraclete to our kiddos and to each of the kids in her Latin classes at school as she sits beside them, helping them with their school, patiently and lovingly helping them to be successful where they're struggling.

6:43And that's what Jesus is promising us here in the helper of the Holy Spirit. He knows that when he is gone, we are going to struggle in so many different ways. And as we struggle, Jesus wants us to know that we are not alone, but that someone is at our side helping us. Doesn't this just encourage your hearts, friends? Jesus is for you. He wants the best for you. He desires that things go well with you. He came so that you would experience the abundant life. And he knows that that life only comes from following his word.

7:28And so he promises to give you. His Spirit to help you succeed where you're struggling. Friends, unlike the messages that we are told and sold all day long on social media, in advertising and streaming services, ultimate joy, happiness, and pleasure do not come from following our hearts. You doing you might lead to temporary moments of happiness, but these are fleeting. And social science has shown pretty overwhelmingly that you doing you ultimately leads to anxiety, depression, and addictions.

8:10But Jesus wants better for us. And so out of his great love for us, he calls us to keep his commandments, to follow his way, to walk in his path. And he promises to help us because he knows that we will struggle. So this morning, as you consider your obedience, as you evaluate perhaps this morning or this last week in your life, as you consider how have I been keeping the commandments, how have I been in walking in obedience to Christ?

8:42Just wonder: where are you aware of your need for the right here, right now help of the Holy Spirit? What's the pattern of sin that you are constantly struggling with that keeps you from responding in faith? And obedience to Christ. Perhaps you're in need of help with a struggle with lust, greed, or gossip. Or perhaps, like me, maybe you struggle with the self-sins, self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, self-centeredness. Where are you in need of help? Kids, I've been thinking about you this week. I just wonder, is it ever hard for you to obey your mom and dad the first time?

9:31Do you need help with that? Or to be patient and kind to your brothers or sisters? Or maybe it's overlooking an offense? Well, whatever your particular struggle this morning, Jesus has good news for you. You have a helper. The Holy Spirit is right there at your side, helping you to succeed wherever you are struggling to obey right now. So this morning, friends, Jesus is offering us his help. His invitation to each and every one of us is to ask for his help. This morning, wherever you're aware of his need for help obeying, cry out to him, knowing that he is a very present help right here, right now. I mean, so often our struggles with sin are made so much harder because we don't ask for help. But Jesus doesn't want that for you. He's promised to send the Holy Spirit to be your helper, and he's inviting you to come to him, to ask him to help, to ask him for the power that you need to obey his word.

10:45That's the first way the Spirit helps us. He gives us the power to obey. But secondly, in this passage, Jesus shows us that the Spirit helps us by comforting us. Read with me, starting in verse 18. Starting in verse 18, Jesus says, I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Let a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

11:27As Jesus is speaking these words, he's in the upper room with his disciples, his closest friends, and he has just told them that he is going to be leaving them. And hearing this, his disciples are filled with grief and sorrow. I'm sure we can all understand their feeling. And so Jesus speaks words of great comfort to their grieving hearts as he tells them that I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Knowing all that they are going to face in the coming hours and the coming days, the last thing Jesus wants for his disciples is for them to feel like they are orphans, to feel like they have been abandoned, that they have been deprived of his love and his care for them. And so he promises them, I will come to you.

12:22Now this coming here could refer to his post-resurrection appearances to his disciples. But it seems to me that given the context of this passage, that the coming that Jesus has in mind here is his coming to his disciples in the person of the Holy Spirit. I think this is made explicit in verse 23, where we read that Jesus answered him, that's Judas, not Iscariot, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Did you catch that last part there? We will come to him and make our home with him.

13:11In the midst of the disciples' grief and sorrow, with all that he knows they're going to face in the coming hours, he wants them to know, or he knows that they're going to need his comfort and his encouragement. And so here in verse 18, he tells them that they will not be abandoned. They are. not going to be left alone like orphans with no one to carry them. No, in fact, exactly the opposite is the case. Rather than deserting them, Jesus promises that he will dwell with them.

13:45He will not desert them, but he will dwell with them. Friends, this is truly one of the most amazing verses in your Bible. And the good news is that this isn't just something that was true for the original disciples only, because this is true for all Christians. If you are trusting in Jesus this morning, God the Father and God the Son are dwelling in you right now through the Spirit. Oh, sisters and brothers, let this comfort your hearts. You are not alone. Through the Spirit, God is present with you right now. And so we need to ask, where do you need to be reminded of the Spirit's presence to comfort you right now?

14:37What are the situations in your life that have you feeling like an orphan? That have you feeling like you have been abandoned by the God who's supposed to care for you? Is it a season of suffering and sickness? Are you experienced a prolonged and intense season of suffering and sickness? Are you feeling hopeless as you look at your life circumstances, convinced that things are never going to change? Perhaps someone you love is struggling and you feel helpless and hopeless, unable to help.

15:19Or maybe it's the painful experience of unanswered prayers. The reality is that we will all experience situations in this life where our natural response is to question God's nearness, to doubt his presence with us and his willingness to care for us. And it's in these exact moments that the Spirit helps us by reminding us that he is our comforter, by reminding us that he is sitting right there next to us in the midst of our struggling and our suffering. In this way, the presence of the Spirit functions for our hearts kind of like that message on the side mirrors of our cars. You're probably all familiar with the message listed on your side mirrors. What does it say?

16:11That's right. Yes, objects in mirror are closer than they appear. In the midst of our grief and suffering, in the midst of our struggling and our suffering, that is exactly what the Spirit does for us. The Spirit Reminds us that God is closer than he appears. He hasn't abandoned us. He is not far away, but he is with us and he is dwelling in us. So this morning, if you're feeling like an orphan, if you are doubting that he is with you, know that he is closer than he appears. By the Spirit, He is present with you and in you right now to help you.

17:03This morning, the application is the same. Let's pray. Let's pray and ask God through the Spirit to cause us to know and experience His presence with us in the midst of our struggling, in the midst of our suffering. When we are filled with grief and sorrow, let us ask Him to remind us that He is near, that He is our comforter. So we've seen this morning that the Spirit helps us by giving us power to obey, by being present to comfort us. And lastly, we see that the Spirit helps us by giving us true peace.

17:46The Spirit helps us by giving us true peace. Read with me starting in verse 27. Jesus says, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. In these verses here, Jesus is promising his disciples that through the Spirit, he is going to give them peace, and not just any peace, but he is going to give them his peace. Notice here he says, my peace I will give to you. And this peace that he gives is distinguished from the peace that the world gives. You see, for the world, peace usually refers to the absence of conflict or troubles in your life. Peace, it's a feeling of calmness that comes when circumstantially all is right in our own little worlds. And when it's not, we seek this feeling of peace through self-medication, escapism, or some other coping mechanism. This is why the only peace that the world can give is a shallow and a fleeting peace, if you can even call it that. Because it's not true peace. It doesn't last. But this couldn't be further from the kind of peace that Jesus is offering us in the Spirit. You see, Jesus knows for certain that his disciples and you and me are that our lives are going to be filled with trouble. Jesus knows that the world is going to hate his disciples and us. He knows that we will face persecution and suffering for following him. And on top of all of this, Jesus knows that we are going to experience the realities of living in a fallen world where death, disease, physical and mental disorders are part of everyday life. And so Jesus tells his disciples that he's giving them peace. He's giving them his true peace. And as he tells them that he's going to give them this peace, he is definitely not telling them that their lives are going to be free of trouble or hardship. He knows they will experience them. But instead, it seems like the peace that Jesus is offering his disciples and you and me this morning is the subjective experiential peace that comes from knowing that Jesus is with us through the Spirit. You catch that? The peace that Jesus is offering us isn't a life free from trouble, but the peace he's offering us is an experience of peace in the midst of troubles in our lives.

20:41Because Jesus is with us, he's saying we can have his peace. We can have this settled conviction that no matter what is going on in our lives, all is going to be okay. You see, Jesus never promises us that bad things will never happen to us or those that we love. Promise that we will never walk through a dark night of the soul, or that when bad things happen to us, we will immediately be saved from them. Jesus does not offer us that. But what he does offer us here in verse 27 is that we will not be left alone. And as we begin to understand this reality, we can make sense of what Jesus says next when he tells them, Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Because in the midst of the circumstances in our lives that easily cause us to be fearful and anxious, we can have confidence that our helper is once again sitting right next to us, comforting us and helping us to keep going.

21:46One pastor tells a story that I think captures this reality really well. Years ago, on a cruise with his wife to Alaska, a terrible storm broke out. This pastor says that people were screaming and pianos were rolling. I would be throwing up. At one point, at one point, the pastor's wife calls the bridge of the ship and relays an anxious and fearful message to the captain. And a few minutes later, the assistant sent the captain's reply to the wife. And hear what the captain said: He says, Ma'am, this ship was built with this storm in mind. Mind. We knew that there was going to be a day when we would face nature at its most vicious. And so, way back when we were putting the boat together, we contemplated this moment. Now, here are his final words. He says, Ma'am, the storm is bad, but the boat is better.

22:55That's what Jesus is telling us here in John 14. The storm is bad, but he's better. Jesus is not promising us that we will never go through any storms, but he is saying that as these storms break into our lives, as they threaten to overwhelm us, we can have peace because he is with us through the Spirit. No matter how bad the storm in your life right now, Jesus is better. So, where are you in need of this peace right now? What are the storms in your life that are troubling you, the situations that are causing you to be anxious and afraid? Does it have to do with your health, your money, your relationships, perhaps challenges with your children or your parents? Whatever the specifics of your situation. Jesus is offering you his peace, true peace, the only peace that can sustain you as you know that you are not alone, but the Spirit is the helper right there at your side. Again, this doesn't mean that nothing bad will ever happen. Suffering and ultimately death will come for each of us.

24:23But this promise of the Holy Spirit does mean that our experience of these situations can be fundamentally different as we have a settled conviction deep in our bones that ultimately everything is going to be okay because we have Jesus. So in the midst of your fears, pray. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you this experience of peace. Ask him to give you this feeling of peace that enables you to say, no matter how bad the storm, you can say it is well with your soul because Jesus is with you.

25:04Because friends, Jesus knows that this subjective experience of peace that the Spirit gives us is ultimately dependent on and flows from the objective experience of peace that we have with God because of all that He does for us in His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus alludes to this in verse 30. When he says, I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. You see, Jesus knows that in just a matter of hours, he is going to be betrayed, beaten, and ultimately crucified on a wooden cross. To all human appearances, it would seem like this is something that happens to Jesus against his will, something that he is completely helpless to stop. But as Jesus says here, Satan, the ruler of this world, has no claim on him. You see, Jesus goes to the cross freely of his own accord, out of obedience to his Father, so that all who trust in him can be at peace with God.

26:28You see, the bad news of the gospel is that because of our sin and our rebellion against God, we are not at peace with him. But the good news is that because of Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and ascension, through faith in him, we can be at peace with God. So for those of you who are trusting in Jesus, let this truth fortify your faith, especially in those moments when you don't necessarily feel God's peace. Because in Jesus, you are at peace with God, and that's the ultimate peace that we need. And because we are ultimately at peace with God, you and I can experience this subjective experience of peace no matter how bad the storms in our life.

27:21For those of you who are here who wouldn't consider yourself a Christian, first, I just want to thank you for being here. There's truly, I don't believe, a better place for you to be this morning. But secondly, I just want to call you to trust in Jesus right now. Like the rest of us, you are in need of help. And as we have seen, the good news of the gospel is that Jesus has provided the help that you need to be at peace with God right here, right now, and the help that you need to live every day after that. Turn to Jesus now. If you have questions about what this means, what this looks like, ask someone. Fill out the connect card. You can drop that in the offering basket later. We would love to talk with you, answer any questions that you have. But Christian or non-Christian this morning, know that in the Spirit, God is offering you His right here, right now help, the power that we need to obey, His presence to comfort us in moments of grief and sorrow, and His presence. That gives us peace no matter what we are facing. Thanks be to God. Pray with me.

28:42Jesus, we thank you. We thank you for providing the help that you know we so desperately need. Spirit of God, thank you for being a very present help in times of trouble. Spirit of God, I pray that you would meet each and every one of us where you know we need your help this morning. Whether that be a struggle with sin, whether that be an experience of grief or fear or anxiety, whatever it might be that is weighing on us this morning, Spirit of God, be a very present help.

29:23Father, we pray that you would give us the faith that we need to believe what we have heard in your word this morning and give us the grace to live in the good of it. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.