Major Bible Themes
Craig Kaes · Apr 10, 2011
Major Bible Themes (2011), No. 15
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926231257505

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So, we've gone and we've read our chapter on the Holy Spirit and His personality, and the way that the lecture is teed up this week is an overview of the Holy Spirit, and let's just not pay any attention to the Holy Spirit and His personality. Which I think is actually good, and it was especially good for me. I'll confess a little bit. The reason why I wanted to teach through all of the Holy Spirit is because I really wanted to learn in depth all about the Holy Spirit. You never learn so well as when you know you're going to have to teach it. So, a little selfishness on my part.

Anyway, as an overview, there's just so much amazing material in Scripture about the Holy Spirit and what a prominent role He plays. So we can start with some simple questions to focus the conversation. And I know that a lot of folks, when they think about the Holy Spirit in the way that the Holy Spirit is often taught, it's kind of like Star Wars, you know? You've got the Force, and use the Force Luke. And the spirit is this nebulous sort of thing, an it. But as we find out in scripture, not an it, it's a he. He's a he. With a very distinct personality, with emotion, and yet still part of the Godhead. So it's just fantastic stuff.

So we can ask a few questions as we go through here. Hal pointed out in his lesson on this that a lot of people will stray away from studying the Holy Spirit out of fear of going all the way over to the Charismatics, where the Charismatics will focus exclusively on the Holy Spirit to the exclusion of everything else, and given that it's the Holy Spirit's job to reveal God through Christ to us, focusing solely on the vessel and not on the message is wrong. But it doesn't mean that we should bury our heads, not pay any attention to the Holy Spirit, because as we'll uncover this morning, there is so much in Scripture about the Holy Spirit, and there is so much that the Holy Spirit does for us. Just incredible.

OK, so we'll talk about who he is just a little bit, just a tiny bit. We'll spend most of today talking about what he does, but also a smidge on why he does it. And I'm probably going to gloss over where he is and if we've got time, come back to that, because what he does is so amazing. And we're moving on.

So let's talk about it. talk about who the Holy Spirit is. So if you cast your mind back eons ago, five weeks ago or whenever, when we went over the Trinity, we found out that the Holy Spirit is part of the Godhead. Distinct The Holy Spirit is a distinct personality, a distinct person, but still part of that triune Godhead. And so just to remind ourselves around who He is, let's look at Genesis 1. I don't think we need to go to 1 and 2.

Do we know, do we remember what Genesis 1 and 2 says about the Holy Spirit, where he was? And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water. So, the Spirit of God is there from the very, very beginning. And if we look at 1.26 and 27, can somebody read that?

God said, Let us make human beings and our enemies be like us. It will rain over the fish, birds, all wild, wild animals, small animals. Yeah, you're good. And the key there is at the beginning of 26 where it says, then God said, let us make man in our image.

And God there is elohim, which is a plural noun that's used in singular context. And the plural points to, again, this triune Godhead that we talked about before. In terms of his personhood, we can go to John 14, 16. It says, this is Christ speaking, I will ask the Father and he will give you another helper that he may be with you forever. and there another helper is, in Greek there's the distinction between another of a different kind or another of the same kind, and here Christ is saying that the Spirit, which is going to come later, is another of the exact same kind that he is. Same in person and all of these characteristics. So, Holy Spirit, this is just a review. Distinct person in the Godhead. is God, has in person-hood.

To establish the Holy Spirit as God, the axe reference is really good. Where Ananias sells his property, gives just a smidge of money, says, no that was all of it, right? And Peter says to him, you know, how can you lie to the Holy Spirit? You have lied to God. So very clear that the Holy Spirit is God.

So what does he do? This goes to God's eternal purpose. So what's God's eternal purpose? To declare his glory? To share that glory with us? to continually reveal that glory to us, and then to in turn be glorified. And so, why do you think that the Holy Spirit would participate in this? This is God's eternal purpose. Why is it the Holy Spirit's purpose?

They're so one in everything. They're mixed together. They agree on everything. They have the same goal. Yeah, that's right. They agree on everything. I like that. And I've got a reference, John 16, 13, which goes thusly, But when he, the spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak of his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak. And so the Holy Spirit is not down here to run the Holy Spirit's agenda, as distinct from God the Father's agenda. He is here to be obedient to what the primary purpose of God is, which is these four things. And we get to participate in this, which is really cool. So I'm going to blaze through this. This is the where is he. So we see that in the beginning the spirit is over the waters.

So right there during creation. appears here and there throughout the Old Testament, but doesn't indwell like he does with the church today. Shows up at Pentecost, is here with us, is here in us, has a ministry to the unbeliever, but it has a ministry in believers. And so the distinction is, what's his ministry to unbelievers?

Sure, the work of Christ. So simply to convict them, actually. I mean, he's here to point out how rotten and sinful they are, so that they would seek a savior. And I can tell you in my life he's extremely effective at it. Okay, so what's his ministry to believers? It's God's ministry. which is to declare God's glory, to share it, to reveal it, and to in turn be glorified.

So Holy Spirit's going to take off at the rapture, and so the question comes up, isn't the Holy Spirit omnipresent? Yeah. He is omnipresent. So what does it mean when he's going to leave? Nobody here is going to be indwelt by the Holy Spirit here on this earth, and all hell is going to break loose. It's going to be an incredible sin fest, and why? Because the convicting ministry is not going to be present.

Okay, so we'll jump on. Maybe if we've got time we can come back to this slide. It's cool. You should look at it offline because there's a lot of stuff in there. But I want to jump to what is it that the Holy Spirit is doing. So there are... His completed ministries is sharing Christ's glory with us. And we're going to go through and look what that looks like, and completed in the Greek perfect sort of sense. So this is done.

There are definitely ongoing consequences of this sharing of Christ's glory. But then there's continuing ministries. So we continually get this sharing of Christ's glory. We're continually having God's glory revealed to us by the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Spirit. And in turn, the Holy Spirit's work glorifies God.

So we'll look at each one of these along the way. And it's just incredible stuff. So let's jump into it. His completed ministries. I've highlighted up here in red the passages that we're actually going to read. You're certainly welcome to come back and look at all of the non-red passages.

But I think what we'll do is start with you, Courtney, and sort of wind our way to the back, and then back up to the front, and we can touch on each one of these as we go, and you can kind of look ahead and get a sense of where you might be having to pick up. Yes, so let's hear about the Holy Spirit calling us. But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. It was for this He called you through our Gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we've been chosen, we've been called through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.

Let's hear about choosing. Which one do you want? The first Peter? First Peter 1.2, yes. According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood, may grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. So again, we're chosen by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. And this is something that was done. It was done at the point at which we believed. This is when we entered into this. So let's, Tristan, let's hear about regeneration.

So that'll be Titus 8. Where's all the three chapters in Titus? Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, it's Titus 3. That's my eyesight. Hey, Dad. Yes? Can Kaylee do Titus and I can do Corinthians? I'm down with that. So I'm at Corinthians and Kaylee's at Titus. Yeah. Very flexible up here. Okay. Alright.

But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. So we're renewed by the Holy Spirit. I mean, think how amazing God's love is for us that he would send his spirit here to allow us to enter into all of this. I mean, it's just, it's astounding to me.

Okay, Tristan. Let's, let's hear about baptism. Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus is a curse, and no one can say, Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. I'm sorry, what? I don't know. Yeah, that one was a surprise to me. I wonder if he's in...

The first one is 12. For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. That's probably more like it. Much more like it. So yes, in fact, we were baptized. So we're placed into Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit. Bruce, you're up. Sanctification. And such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Such were some of you.

And so, this is Hal's life, Hal's word, but I like it. So, co-enlifed. And the challenge, of course, is to find a dictionary where you might find that word. What was the word? He co-enlifed you. Oh my word, what is that about? So, the Greek word is actually a combination of a bunch of words.

And so, one of the words means to make. One of the words means life, and one of the words means together. So, together the spirit makes us alive. And so we've actually got two passages on this one because the Ephesians passage clarifies what it means in the John passage. So let's start with John, honey. Are you coming for me? Yeah. John 6, 63. Okay, it is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. So that the spirit who gives life, that gives life, is who together makes a life. I'm sorry, I'm standing in front of the slides and making it hard for people to see.

How does he together make us alive? Mike, can you read Ephesians 2, 4 and 5? But God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespass, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. So it's that made us alive together again, but we get more clarification on what that means. Made us alive together with Christ. So when we're baptized into Christ, we're made alive together with Him.

And that's the work of the Holy Spirit. So He freed you. Russ? Sure. It says, in the case you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin leads to death. So, because we have died to sin, we're now free. In Dwells, I'll do this one.

1 Corinthians 3.16.

So do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Holy Spirit of God dwells in you? So we get to be a vessel, we get to carry around the Holy Spirit, which is pretty amazing stuff. So all of this, these are the Holy Spirit's completed ministries. These are things that the Holy Spirit has already accomplished. and He called us, chose us, regenerated us, baptized us, put us alive together with Christ, sanctified us, freed us, can dwell us, seals us.

All of these things have already been accomplished for us and it's just amazing to me. Moving on, his continuing ministries. So this is in our walk by condition. So as we cruise around conditionally, what does he do? Number one, he fills us, which we've already seen. He empowers us.

Courtney, can you read Acts 1A? And she'll be up for Romans. I have to go old school? but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth. So what's interesting about the empowering is what we are now empowered to do. So the Holy Spirit has empowered us so we can now go out and lift 500 pounds. Right? No. We're empowered and so we can now go be witnesses? Yes. Okay. So the Romans passage. Let's see if there's some consistency around this.

In the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit, so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Elricium. I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. So, empowered to preach the gospel of Christ. And so what does the Holy Spirit empower us to do? It empowers us to carry out God's eternal purpose, which is to declare, share, reveal God's glory. He gifts us. Which one of you will be reading this one? I will.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things and all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit. To another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit. and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually, just as he wills."

So lots of gifts there. He manifests in us and through us. So the fruit of the Spirit, I was at a Boy Scout thing last night and we got to talking about this where We have the life of Christ in us. And we've already learned that that life of Christ, that baptism, was affected by the Holy Spirit. And that life has a certain appearance. And that the appearance of that life is represented in the fruit of the Spirit. And so we get, you know, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. And I always hear that with helmets.

But this is the manifestation of the life of Christ that's coming through us, and it's a constant revealing to us, to each other, but to others as well. And it's this way, stealing from a future slide, but it's this way in which God glorifies himself, the work of the Holy Spirit glorifies God, in that people can see this fruit. They know what sort of people we are without Christ. They see our life in Christ, and it astounds them, and it confounds them.

And I know that in my life personally, before I was a believer, seeing that life in others was absolutely glorifying to God, was convicting to me, and made me want that. So, Just absolutely powerful stuff. So, the Holy Spirit, He desires for us. Were you prepared for which one?

I was going to read Galatians, but I also have 2 Corinthians 3.18.

Alright, go for 2 Corinthians 3.18. So this is revealing Christ's glory to us. face, beholding as an emir the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. Beautiful, thank you. Alright, so he desires for us.

Bruce, I want Galatians 5.16 and 17.

I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. for the flesh lust against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. So the Holy Spirit's desire for us is something very specific. It's not, oh, I really want them around. It's, I want for this person to be able to live a godly life. I don't want this person to be running around in sin, because that's not glorifying in any way, shape, or form.

And so the flesh, the spirit, are dukkhanado, and the spirit, I'm thinking, has a little bit more power in that equation. So, he gives us access to the Father, Ephesians 2, 18, Monique? Okay. For through him we both have our access in one spirit to the Father. So our access to the Father is through the Spirit. He leads us.

Romans 8.14, right? For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. And he fellowships with us. This one's cool. So, what do you mean? 2nd Corinthians 13, 14. That says, all of God's people here Yeah.

So we get to fellowship with the Holy Spirit of God. I mean, the point of all of this as we go through it, the Holy Spirit has a very specific ministry. And the Holy Spirit carries out this ministry in just a myriad of different ways. And so As we go through scripture, we see time and time and time again that the Holy Spirit is critical for our relationship with Christ, for our relationship with God, for our very life.

So He transforms us. Tristan already read this passage. He conforms us. So Romans 8 26. In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness. For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good, for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. And who does that calling? Again, that's the Spirit.

Okay, so when you say to have fellowship with God, fellowship with God? I mean, no, fellowship with the Holy Spirit? Wouldn't that be like God? I mean, if I'm driving, And the Holy Spirit works in me and I'm having a conversation with God, wouldn't that be...

Gee, I don't know, I'm getting so confused here. Okay. The purpose is not to confuse you. So the Holy Spirit is God and the Holy Spirit indwells us and intercedes for us. Right. Meaning, is in constant communication with God on our behalf. And so when we are praying and hanging out with God, I believe that's absolutely the work of the Holy Spirit who desires for us to be in that relationship with God. Is that fair? Yeah. Thank you. Small doctrine, I'll check. Okay. Alright. Where did I leave off? So God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose. The Spirit does that calling.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his Son. So this is the will of God. We will skip over But these are all the ways in which the Holy Spirit is constantly sharing the glory of God with us and through us. So, next one up is revealing Christ's glory to us and through us. just a whole slew of different things that the Holy Spirit is doing that all tie back to that very specific thing. He's revealing God's glory. And there are so many ways in which he does reveal God's glory to us. So let's start with Romans 8, 5 and 6. For those who are according to the flesh that their mind And that speaks, I think, very well to comforting us in that the mindset on the Spirit is peace. Wow. He teaches us, John 14, 26.

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 said to you. Okay, inner seeds, we just covered. Guides, Kim? He will glorify me, for he will take of mine and will disclose it to you. That was the wrong one. Hold on a second. But when he, the spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will disclose to you what is to come.

Yeah. So, are you getting the impression that God wanted us to know about the work of the Holy Spirit? I mean, we're up to, what, I'm guessing, our 30th thing that the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives every day. Scripture hits it time and time and time again. He testifies to you. So, Romans 8, 16. Bruce. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace being built up and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it continued to increase. So he encourages us, he comforts us. he teaches us, he reveals Christ to us.

Let's go to Edifies, Ephesians 4.11. And he himself gave some to be apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Yeah, so all of these ways in which he gifts us are for the purpose of edifying others, for the purpose of building up the body of Christ. He assures us, He equips us, which we just saw from that passage.

So all the ways that He's revealing the glory. And when we get to His continuing ministries, glorifying the Father and the Son through us, again, unbelievers know what sort of people we are without Christ. And when they see that fruit of the Spirit in us, They see the glory of God reflected, and it's sometimes frightening, it's sometimes inspiring, but it's always the glory of God being reflected, and that makes an impression on others. And I speak not just about unbelievers here, I speak about believers as well. Hello.

How when we see the fruit of the Spirit in others, how encouraging that can be. I mean, we are living epistles. And that living epistle-ness is because of the life of Christ that's in us. And that life of Christ in us is there through the work of the Holy Spirit being baptized into him at the moment of our belief. So, very cool.

You know, I think you see that when you travel or do anything, when you meet other believers, it's different than meeting a business contact or something. There's something different. They have the life, you have the life. There's something different when you meet somebody. You can see it. You can tell it's completely different. That, I think, is something that as you travel, as you said, there's something different about believers. And it's not that there's, you know, a yellow stripe up her back that you can see that, you know, we're all Christians.

It's just you start seeing the life and there's something different about a believer that you identify with. And that's very comforting. I mean, when you travel. I went to Moscow back in 2006. I was traveling with somebody from my work, a non-believer. We were taking the subway to his mom's house.

She was going to make us abortion. And he was telling me about how when they moved to America, she just stopped drinking. It was the weirdest thing and just never picked it up again and started acting all nice and stuff. He didn't understand this. Well, we got to her house and she was a believer, of course, and she had a She spoke almost no English, but she had on her wall a verse out of Philippians, and I could recognize it, you know, even though it was in Russian. I'm like, okay, I see this is a Bible verse of some sort, so I asked her about it. And just instant bond, because we have that same life, because of the work of the Holy Spirit.

And he doesn't get it, this guy that I work with, but you know, five years later. We met, his mom and I, for two hours. And when I hear he's gone to Texas or he's gone to Moscow, you know, how's your mom doing? And whenever he goes, she says, how's Craig doing? Because we have that same life. Yeah, it's exactly what you're talking about. It's pretty fantastic.

Let me ask you, can you pray to God to fill somebody with the Holy Spirit or is that an impossibility? Well you can certainly pray to God that he fills somebody with the Holy Spirit. Now whether God chooses to fill somebody with the Holy Spirit is entirely up to them believing a simple set of facts that Christ died on the cross according to the scriptures, was buried and raised the third day according to the scriptures. So it's on the basis of that belief alone that folks get the Holy Spirit. And that goes to the sealing, the Holy Spirit, the sealing. The seal is, yea verily you are gods, is what that seal tells people. And you become gods by believing in the gospel. So yeah, indirectly, I'm constantly praying for people at my work that God would fill them with the Holy Spirit, but it looks a lot more like, Lord, I pray that they would believe. Right. Okay. Right. You know, I've mentioned this before, but you're talking about her son who just doesn't get it.

And I used to be in the Bible studies of Buckley with Hal, and he'd come back and he was studying Greek, learning about Greek, and he'd be totally by a Greek teacher who was an atheist. So that is an absolute, this is totally my belief, how God opens up this Gnosis from Epic Gnosis. It's for me, I believe it.

And it's a great example of something that we talked about just a few minutes ago, that God uses all things together for good for those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. Part of that all things is the teaching of an atheist Koine Greek teacher. So maybe he did get it at the end, did he? The Koine Greek teacher? Yeah. We can certainly pray. Yeah, that would be fantastic. It's right in front of him. Yeah, I think that this is the teacher that was leading him through Hebrews and having Hal diagram all of Hebrews.

How do you address the issue that we have the aroma of death to those who are perishing? Can you refine the question? How do I address that? says that we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.

I guess I'd address that a couple different ways. Number one, the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the unbeliever is that conviction of sin. So recognizing there are consequences for your actions and your actions are completely unacceptable to God. Absolutely.

The other way I'd address that again with the Holy Spirit is to look at Romans 6.2. So I'll read from that.

But in Romans 6.2, we learn that we're baptized into Christ, specifically into his death. Right? So... Oh, is that 2 Corinthians? Where?

And then Romans 6.2 says, It may never be.

How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? I guess my question was, when you're amongst non-believers, I don't think you have to assume I think that it can actually go either direction.

I mean the work of the Holy Spirit is to convict them of that sin. I'll have to look through and find specific scripture to back my point that it can be attractive. But I know in my personal life that it definitely was. Seeing believers bearing the fruit of the Spirit got my attention. very uncomfortable. But God uses that to expose that they are sinners.

You don't say those words, you don't do those things. And it exposes them. And that's very uncomfortable. But they also then respect you after a while. It's like, we are different. And then it's a drawing. It's after that exposing. A lot of times, it's just like what you're saying. You're different. And what is that difference? And then it's the drawing. You have peace. You have rest. And it can, I mean, there's an initial conviction, but then there's a question and a drawing.

And that's, I think, what the Spirit does, is it convicts them, and then uses, at least in some instances, you to draw, you know, what's different about you, and I want to know why. But doesn't your conscience kick in, also? Your conscience, doesn't that also kick in? Boy, you shouldn't have done that, or said that, or bang, bang, bang. in what circumstance? Who's conscious? If you've done something wrong, the person, who may not be a believer, doesn't have the Holy Spirit, but doesn't that person also have a conscience, knowing that this guy shouldn't have done what he did? That's right. He does. She does. Right. I think the other thing is you know the scripture faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

It seems like you know every one of those had people that were gently sharing Jesus with. And when they had their last heartbeat and rejected I think that's part of what Mike's talking about. When they roll the tape and it's witnessing and witnessing by many different people their entire life and they reject it. for sure, they weren't ignorant, they rejected it. But we've all got, I mean, we're all sinners, we all were, you know, and at some point we were drawn to, you know, through the on to Christ. So, I mean, even though there's that fragmented, I mean, that's the exposing, that's the revealing of your sinful nature and a need for a Savior.

My experience was different than yours. I couldn't stomach being around Christians until I was saved. I'll have to tell you that Christians were a deterrent to me accepting the Gospel. In that, one of the last things I was holding on to was, well, okay, if I believe this, do I Same with me. I had a guy on an airplane flight when I was a high schooler. And a guy button-holed me for three hours on a flight, gristing, trying to witness to me.

Biggest turn-off of my life. I just didn't want any part of this, you know, and what this guy did. Later, he used other people through, you know, different methods and different things. But that was the first reaction was, I don't want any part of these guys.

You know, three hours and wouldn't let me alone, wouldn't let me, you know, and it was like, I think John Ford talks about the fact that those that are lost love the darkness. They want to be there. And if I come in the room with my flashlight on, they're not happy about that. So the ministry of the spirit is to convict the world of sin. in order that a savior might be presented to them, but I think sometimes a conviction of sin just causes them to stay in sin. If the light is shining upon them, they want to get out of the light, because they love the darkness. What I'm saying is that not every room that I walk into If the glory of God is being manifested through me, they're lining up to be saved. They're getting rid of me is what they're doing. Yeah, I was trying to get a sense of what you were pushing back on.

I completely agree with that. I do think that the glory of God is appealing. to unbelievers in some circumstances, and I'll share some of that once I get off. You know, I think in this too, if you go back to God as sovereign and in control, he uses that anyway. I know he does. And so even though, you know, I think this guy who witnessed me, you know, that was a message to me 20 years later. Yeah. And, you know, there are things that he uses even though you don't know it, he's using them.

And even though they're not lining up, you have an impact on them that you never know. God wanted you for that time, that moment. I never think of myself walking into a room of non-believers that I'm going to have any effect on them at all. If the spirit of God doesn't show up, nothing is happening anyway.

That was the second bell. Lord, thank you for your love again and thank you that you would give us your spirit. that you would carry out all of these ministries in us and through us so that ultimately we might reflect your glory. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.