The presence of the Holy Spirit is the evidence of God within us. That paraphrase commentary on the Holy Spirit from a great writer, is something that Mart Green believed. Mart grew up in Oklahoma City in a Christian home. His parents, raised him the right way, taught him about Jesus, and went to church as much as possible. His parents, took their faith to another level when they started the store Hobby Lobby, but Mart wanted to do something more that made a positive impact in the lives of followers of Jesus. From that desire, the store Mardel’s was born in 1981 in northwest Oklahoma City. At 19 years old, Mart took his retail background from his family built through the growth of Hobby Lobby — to start his own business called Mardel’s, with a focus on Christian products and educational materials. The original Mardel store was relatively small (around 7,200 square feet) but offered multiple pathways to grow as a disciple of Jesus including Bibles, Christian books, music, gifts, office, and school supplies. Mart built Mardel’s to serve the Christian community. A community that was not just the church, but also believers, educators, homeschool families with resources that support both spiritual growth and education. The company’s mission emphasizes renewing minds and transforming lives for Jesus through the products and services it offers. Over the years, Mardel expanded from that first store into a multi-state retail chain offering tens of thousands of faith-based and educational products. The stores grew in size and scope, often around 25,000 square feet each, adding more categories like homeschool curriculum, apparel, gifts, church supplies, and teaching materials.

In 2015, Jay DePalmo became CEO, continuing the founder’s vision and leading further expansion into new states. A cool aspect about the store is that Mardel is committed to serving spiritual and educational needs and donates a portion of profits (about 10%) to activities like Bible translation via ministries such as Wycliffe Bible Translators. In an interview, Mart made the comment that God gets the glory and that God’s provision to open and grow Mardel’s “is way above His pay-grade.” In other words, only through the power of the Holy Spirit, could Mardel’s have blessed as many as they have done. That is what I want to talk about this morning. Galatians 5 talks about the fruit of the spirit such as joy, peace, patience, and self-control. What are the benefits of the Holy Spirit? There are many, but today I want to focus on two distinct benefits the Holy Spirit of God provides.

The Holy Spirit helps believers grow in humility “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,”-1 Corinthians 2:2-4. To be humble is to think of God more than we think of ourselves. Don’t get me wrong, some believers today think of God more and they are jerks, make bad choices. Biblical humility is believing God’s promises will outlast our disappointments. Greek culture in Paul’s time thought the opposite. They valued highly valued rhetoric, eloquence, and philosophical persuasion, seeing strong speech as a marker of wisdom, education, and social status as a sign that one could be trusted and reliable. Teachers of rhetoric, and orators gained influence by dazzling audiences with clever arguments and polished delivery rather than by moral substance alone. Public life—courts, assemblies, and marketplaces—rewarded those who could persuade through verbal skill and intellectual display. Against this backdrop, Paul’s emphasis on the power of God rather than persuasive words directly challenged cultural assumptions about authority and truth. What’s more, it gave a glimpse into growing in humility. Paul writes that the church in Corinth was born not because Paul was impressive, or did a good job promoting Jesus, but because Jesus Himself spoke through Paul, and the community wanted to hear more about Jesus. Some of the best Christians I know are constantly trying to give their job away and point to Christ in someone else. That is the description of Biblical humility.

Some of my best experiences in the church have been around Christians who don’t talk much about their faith, but support the presence of Christ in the lives of others with their actions. My wife walks with some wives in our church when it’s not as cold as the Antartica! She used to walk with a wife and some other ladies at the church we served in Troup. At Troup, I used to serve in a Food Pantry every Thursday at the church. I worked with a member of the church at that Food Pantry named George Starkey, and I loved being around him. We would talk about Marvel shows, he would show up at the 5th Quarter and bring food, watch kids, etc. He even took kids to camp a couple of times, and Conference officials commented “Pastor we love you, but would you please keep sending George! He is great!” I don’t remember much of the churches my Dad served in, but I do remember adults and kids who just knew how to connect. They weren’t very good at scripture, their prayerlife wasn’t great, but man they could talk about Jesus, and what He was doing in our lives, our friendships, etc. Church Camp at Ceta Canyon outside Amarillo Texas was memorable for me, what made the camp memorable wasn’t the content, it was the realization that I was loved by Jesus, and the people who were there representing Him.

The Holy Spirit helps believers grow in resiliency “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him— these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.”-1 Corinthians 2:9-10. Biblical resilience is the daily repetition of asking the Holy Spirit to do again what we can’t do, so Christ can reign through what we will do. G. K. Chesterton was a joyful Christian thinker who used wit, paradox, and storytelling to defend faith in Christ, showing that Jesus is worth believing in. When asked about how children repeat the same things every day and adults have a harder time repeating daily tasks, he said something very profound.

“A child can repeat daily tasks because a child is abounding in vitality, it is in spirit fierce and free, and it wants everything repeated and unchanged. So it says to the grown up, do it again. And the grown up does it again until they are nearly dead. For a grown up is not strong enough to exalt in repetition. But perhaps God is strong enough to exalt in repetition. Maybe God says, do it again every day to the sun, and do it again every day to the moon. Perhaps the reason there are so many daisies is not automatic necessity. Maybe God makes every daisy separately and has never got tired of making them. Perhaps God has the eternal appetite of infancy, for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father in heaven is younger than we are.”-G.K Chesterton

As we mentioned earlier, the culture in the time of Paul placed a high emphasis on a new thing and having all the answers. Truth, was measured in what you know and doing new things and debating new ideas. The church in Corinth, and really throughout the New Testament, had a hard time competing with this kind of know-it-all, and new ideas culture. The prescription from the New Testament writers is following Christ day after day in a repeating fashion is a task that will never get old . Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die;”-John 11:25. Paul again points to Jesus: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”-Romans 5:1, 3-5.

Richard Wurmbrand was born to a Jewish family in Romania in 1909 and became a Lutheran pastor after converting to Christianity. When communism took power, the regime demanded that churches submit to atheism. Richard refused. He preached underground, was arrested, and spent fourteen years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement, enduring beatings and starvation. Guards mocked his faith and forbade prayer. He prayed anyway, memorizing sermons in silence. Released and later exiled, he founded Voice of the Martyrs, testifying that Christ was worth suffering for, even when belief meant chains, darkness, and daily danger for persecuted believers worldwide today.

Though I am not in jail for my faith, I have found that Christ is worth suffering for to be true in my own life, and I think you would in yours. Some seasons are just awful. The job didn’t pan out the way you wanted. Relationships were broken. People you know and care for make terrible choices. Money runs dry. Yet, the longer we persevere for Jesus in good and bad seasons, the Bible promises the more resilient we become! The hymn writer put it much better than I can: “Tis grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home!”

I have a couple of invitations for you today. Number 1, I invite you to fill your mind with life and the character of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing wrong with conviction, and having strong ideas about things. God calls us to be humble about those convictions. “The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”-1 Corinthians 2:15-16. To have the mind of Christ is to be filled with His Spirit, which in Galatians tells us is to be filled with joy, hope, peace, kindness, goodness, and self-control “against these things there is no law.” The hopeful mind starts with the fruit of the Spirit. The more you seek the fruit of the spirit, over time, the more hopeful you become. Number 2, I invite you to be resilient this week by remembering what Christ has done. Our world tries as many ways to get our attention, many of them destructive, and often, it gets us down. Either we aren’t wise enough to have what the world is offering, or we aren’t wise enough to stop problems in the world. Hear the promise of the Bible: “Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”-1 Corinthians 1:20, 24. The more you remember what Christ has done for you, the more He will do what you can’t do, so He will reign through what you can do. That is what it means to grow in hope and resiliency. May our Lord and King Jesus do it again. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.