I would like to ask you all to do something this morning, but let me give a brief explanation first. Some of you came to Christ when you were young, and your life has been a steady trajectory towards becoming like Jesus. That is an incredible blessing.
Some of you may have made a decision for Jesus later in your life, and again, it has been a steady, slow process of change, or maybe you are feeling like you are still beginning to see change in your life. That is an incredible blessing.
Others of you chose to follow Jesus, and your lives were suddenly, radically changed. You look at who you once were and who you have become, and there is a marked, obvious, clear change that has occurred in you.
If you look back on your life, and this could be in the course of the past month or the past 50 years, if you look at who you once were and who you are now, and you see a changed person, because of God’s work in your life, I’d like you to stand this morning.
Standing this morning is a testimony of the work of the Holy Spirit in us.
That is the title of today’s sermon: God In Us.
Last week, we talked about how the Holy Spirit is God with us. The Holy Spirit is fully God, and Jesus promised that when He left the earth, He would send us a helper, counselor, advocate, and comforter. He promised that God would be present with us as the Holy Spirit dwells in us. We saw how the Holy Spirit comes to live in us at the moment we believe that Jesus is God’s only Son and that He died for our sins but rose from the dead three days later. At the moment of belief, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in us.
Jesus talks about sending the Holy Spirit again in John 16. Look at what He says:
Jn 16:7 (CSB)—Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you.
I mentioned last week that here, Jesus is prepping the disciples for His departure. They are understandably distressed that He has told them He’s leaving.
But Jesus says it is for your good that I am leaving. If I don’t leave, you won’t receive the Holy Spirit. Why is it better for them to have the Holy Spirit than to have Jesus? Jesus was one guy who could be in one place at one time, but the Holy Spirit is God’s presence dwelling in every believer, all of the time. That seems like a pretty good upgrade to me. And this is what the disciples need as the story of God getting His family back progresses.
Jesus the Son did the work of redemption and reconciliation.
In other words, Jesus paid the price for our sin, on our behalf, and in doing so, He has restored the connection that was broken between God and His human family.
Jesus did His work and continues to do His work, interceding for us in Heaven. But now there is a new mission: first, to draw those who would come to Jesus and believe in Him and what He did on the cross; and second, to make those who have been redeemed and reconciled into the image of Jesus.
Look at what Paul says to the Romans about this:
Rom 8:29 (CSB)—For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
God knew before we were ever born whether we would ask Jesus to redeem and reconcile us. For those who choose Jesus, it is God’s design that we be conformed to the image of His Son; that we become more like Jesus.
This is what God’s presence in us accomplishes. He is in us to make us more like Jesus.
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The Bible tells us specifically how God does this.
Look back at John 16. We were just there, but look at the next few verses. How does the Holy Spirit make us more like Jesus?
Jn 16:8-11 (CSB)—When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: About sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
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What does the Holy Spirit do to make us like Jesus?
The Holy Spirit Convicts Us.
He begins with those whose eyes are blinded and hearts are hardened to the truth. He convicts the hard heart of sin, of righteousness, of judgment. The first step in becoming like Jesus is belief.
Jn 16:8 (CSB)—About sin, because they do not believe in me.
Jesus says the Holy Spirit convicts of sin because they do not believe in me. What is the sin that He convicts the world of? The sin of unbelief. It is the one thing that will keep you from ever knowing Jesus or becoming like Him.
Did you know that the Holy Spirit doesn’t convict people of smoking? He doesn’t speak to them about their swearing, drinking or partying—He only convicts the world of their unbelief in Jesus.
This is what makes the gospel, the good news. The good news is that no matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been, if you believe in Jesus, you are forgiven of all sin (Matthew 12:31).
But doesn’t the Holy Spirit convict us of sin once we start following Jesus? Absolutely, He does. When the way we live our lives does not align with the actions and attitudes that imitate Jesus’, He will convict us and even discipline us, the Bible says.
But God’s discipline and the Holy Spirit’s conviction do not drive us away from God. The opposite is true; it draws us to God. It’s the condemnation of the enemy that makes us ashamed to talk to the Father.
You can always tell the difference between the Holy Spirit convicting you and Satan condemning you because if it’s Satan condemning you, you won’t want to pray, and you won’t want to spend time in the Word. You’ll just want to ignore anything that is connected to God. But if it’s the Spirit convicting you, you’ll hear, ““Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”—and you’ll be drawn back to Jesus, not away from Him.
Jn 16:10 (CSB)—About righteousness because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me.
The Spirit also convicts of righteousness by pointing to the only righteous One — Jesus, who alone rose from the dead and ascended to the Father. He is the standard the Holy Spirit holds up, not our good deeds or good intentions.
Jn 16:11 (CSB)—And about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
And the Spirit convicts of judgment to remind us that the ruler of this world has already been judged. His power is broken. That’s very good news.
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How does the Holy Spirit make us more like Jesus? Through conviction and His guidance.
The Holy Spirit Guides Us.
There are some things that you can learn on YouTube. If you want to learn how to change the oil in your car, how to landscape a yard, or how to fix a printing problem on your computer, you can ask ChatGPT or Claude.
But if you decided one day that you wanted to go climb Mt. Rainier or trek through the Amazon Rainforest, you probably wouldn’t watch YouTube; hopefully, you’d hire a guide. There are some tasks that require a little more personal, hands-on help.
When it comes to the twists and turns of everyday life and becoming more like Jesus, God has taken a more hands-on approach. He has given us someone to guide us.
Let’s continue reading in John 16. Jesus tells His disciples …
Jn 16:13 (CSB)—When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.
The Holy Spirit is a reliable guide because He will guide you into all truth. He does this primarily through the Word of God.
The Apostle Paul reminds Timothy that:
2 Tim 3:16-17 (CSB)—All Scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
The Holy Spirit guides us into truth as we study God’s word. He enables us to understand things we may not have previously understood, and He directs us to the truth we need to know.
How often have you been reading your Bible and you come across something that just blows your mind? I can’t tell you how many times I’ll be reading and I’ll just start weeping. Often it’s in my office, and I’m hoping no one will come knock on my door and see me crying like a baby.
When you experience that, it is the Holy Spirit at work in you.
When you begin to understand something in a passage of scripture, that understanding doesn’t lead to an encounter with God, that understanding is the encounter with God through the Holy Spirit in you.
He guides us in a number of other ways but they all work together with God’s word as our guide. The Holy Spirit may guide us when we pray or through other people. He may guide us by using our circumstances or by putting desires into our heart. He may even give us specific impressions about people or decisions that need to be made.
But again, as the Holy Spirit guides us it will be into all truth, the truth according to God, and so it will always agree with and line up with His word; with what the Bible says.
Let me re-state something I said in our last series: It is often in silence and solitude that we find the Holy Spirit guiding us. Frequently, it is in a quiet place, away from the noise and the distractions, that you hear the Holy Spirit whispering to you.
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Finally, when the Holy Spirit guides us into all truth, He begins to transform us.
The Holy Spirit Transforms Us.
2 Cor 3:17–18 (CSB)—Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at, the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.
What does the Holy Spirit do to transform us?
First, He gives us Freedom. He liberates us. This is not a license to sin, but freedom from the power of sin that once defined us. We are free to make new decisions that will bring us life instead of death. And freedom from the consequences of sin. We no longer fear death because we know we have been forgiven for our sin, past, present, and future. We are secure in Him.
He transforms us With Unveiled Faces. The Apostle Paul is referring to when Moses received the Old Covenant. Because Moses had been in God’s presence, his face glowed so bright that others couldn’t look at him, so he had to veil his face. But we don’t approach God at a distance or through a veil anymore. The Spirit gives us direct access, and in that access, He begins to transform us.
Transformation happens From Glory to Glory. For most of us, transformation doesn’t happen in a single moment. Transformation is not a moment. Transformation is a direction.
You may not feel like you’re becoming more like Jesus on any given Tuesday, but the Spirit’s work is cumulative and continuous. Some days it may feel like 3 steps forward and the next day it’s 2 steps back, but cumulatively we are moving forward. The trajectory is always upward. God’s power in us, the person of the Holy Spirit, is there to transform us, moving us closer and closer to becoming more like Jesus.
Let’s look back at Rom 8 to see how Paul describes this power transforming us:
Rom 8:11 (CSB)—And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you.
The same power that overcame death, which is the most final, irreversible force in the universe, is the power at work in you right now. If the Holy Spirit can raise the dead, He can transform a marriage. He can break a twenty-year habit. He can soften a hardened heart. The resurrection is not just an event that happened 2,000 years ago—it is the measure of the transforming power available to every disciple of Jesus.
And as that power works in our lives, we begin to see the evidence. Paul calls it fruit.
Gal 5:22-23 (CSB)—But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.
We may look at this list and think, there are a few things on that list I need to work on. I need to work on having more peace or I need to try and be more loving or more gentle. But the fruit of the Spirit is not a to do list; it is the natural result of a life surrendered to the Holy Spirit’s work.
It’s fruit. Fruit grows; it’s not manufactured.
I have an apricot tree that produces some pretty good fruit. Unfortunately, I can’t make the tree produce more fruit. What I can do is provide the best conditions possible for the fruit to grow. I can water, fertilize, and trim the tree. I can create a fruitful environment, but growing the fruit is still up to the tree.
The same is true for us. Our part in this process is to create an environment in which the Holy Spirit can work. Living lives surrendered to Jesus, living as His disciples, spending time in silence and solitude and living as worshippers, we begin to see the power of the Holy Spirit work in us to transform us.
But understand that transformation is a process, and the reality is that on this side of eternity, we are always becoming, but never fully arrived. We are constantly presenting our bodies as living sacrifices and constantly watching Him transform us by the renewing of our hearts and minds. It truly is a process.
Let’s end this morning by evaluating our own hearts:
- Are there areas of your life that you are looking for the Holy Spirit’s guidance?
- Have you been trying to manufacture change in your life?
- Has the Holy Spirit been convicting you lately? Is it time you surrender your life to Him?
Chris Hankel 
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