I told you a few weeks ago I wanted to try and cover some of the basics of what we believe, what the Scripture teaches us. We talked about God the Father, and we've talked about God the Son, and we've not yet talked about God the Holy Spirit. We've talked about how this is a three-parting God, and three manifest ways. They have three duties, three separate things that they do, but they are one God. We are not polytheistic, if you will, which is worshiping multiple gods. They are in fact one. says as much and we believe that to be true. But the Holy Spirit is often one that can be over-emphasized by certain groups to a detriment I think. But I think sometimes we under-emphasize the work of the Holy Spirit to our own detriment as well. I remember reading a book one time the title was, The Forgotten God, and of course The Forgotten God was the Holy Spirit. And we do spend a lot and a great deal of time talking about God the Father and of course talking about the works of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice that He gave. And oftentimes we spend less time and less emphasis talking about the work of the Holy Spirit. but we shouldn't really de-emphasize one over the other because they are, in fact, all three one God. And so I want to talk about the Holy Spirit this morning for just a few minutes. And I want to begin by noting that I tend to read most from the King James Version of the Bible. I have since I began preaching and will probably continue to do that. But you'll notice, many of you, if you follow along or have a King James Bible yourself, you'll see the word Holy Ghost written a number of times. Upon studying for this, I come to realize that the phrase Holy Ghost, as opposed to the Holy Spirit, which means the same thing, was to some degree randomly interchanged. And so sometimes the The men who transcribe what we have as the King James Version would say spirit, sometimes I'd say ghost. There's not really definable reason for why they say one over the other. But if you've been listening or maybe noticed, you'll note that when I read the scriptures I usually omit the word ghost and change spirit even when I read out of the King James. There's a number of reasons for that, but I do believe spirit is the correct interpretation and is the one that's probably to be preferred. There are a number of reasons for this, but the idea of saying ghost brings with it this common notion that we think of as like an uninhabited body or something like that. And that's not, it's clearly not what the scripture is telling us about the Holy Spirit. It's not an if you will, and the sense of the term that we would use that today. And so I do almost always say, Holy Spirit. When you look at what that word means when you get the Greek, it actually comes and means one who comes along beside another and is an encourager. comes along beside and is encourager." And so when we talk about what the Holy Spirit is and what the Holy Spirit, how He functions in our life, He is one who comes along beside of us and encourages us all through our Christian walk with God. And so that's very encouraging. So let's talk about some of what the Holy Spirit is and what we know about Him. But I want to begin to contrast a little bit something that may or may not be surprising to some of you is that the Holy Spirit and how the Holy Spirit functions is different now and since Christ rose from the dead than in what we would typically call the Old Testament or before Jesus Christ was crucified, dead, buried, and resurrected. In fact, if we look back in the Old Testament, what we see is that the filling, or the empowerment, or the presence of the Holy Spirit in a person's individual life was usually indicated, the scripture might say that the Spirit rested on, or came upon somebody. And this was usually done individually. And so, we think about Moses, or David, or even Balaam who received the Holy Spirit in this unique and special way. And they generally had a very specific task. or a divine calling to accomplish. And oftentimes, when that task was over, the Holy Spirit would leave them. Now, this wasn't necessarily punishment. It's just how God worked during those times. Now you could also be disobedient and the Holy Spirit in the old times would also leave you. We might think about Saul and Samson. We see both of those men who the Holy Spirit rested upon for a period of time until they were disobedient and the Holy Spirit left them also for a period of time. But after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and we'll read some of these verses in a minute, Jesus Himself talks about how He's going away and will send another, that one being the Comforter, the one who comes along and gives you guidance. And that Holy Spirit, since Jesus has left, is here on earth dwelling inside of us. And so we see an important distinguish and a change from where the Holy Spirit would traditionally be residing with the Hebrews in the Ark of the Covenant and in the Temple or the Tabernacle and would from time to time light on certain people to help them fulfill certain duties and actions. Now the Holy Spirit is actually given to every believer to dwell inside of us permanently for a number of reasons and we know that the Holy Spirit lives inside of us. And so I've said multiple times before, and I don't usually correct us because it's not necessarily wrong to say that Jesus lives inside of me. But Jesus, according to Scripture, is seated at the right hand of God, waiting for the day that His Father tells Him to return and to bring all of us back. And until then, who's actually living inside of us, if we are believers, is actually the Holy Spirit, the third part of the Godhead who is living and dwelling inside of us. 1 Corinthians 6, 19 tells us this very clearly, "...or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body." And here we get this idea and we see very clearly that the Holy Spirit has been given to those who are saved and the Holy Spirit dwells inside of us. Now that can be both something that's encouraging and condemning all in the same token, can it? It can be encouraging to know that God has left part of Himself, if you will, living inside of us to encourage us and guide us, to come along beside us, to give us instruction on the way we should live and encouragement. And so those times when we feel absolutely abandoned or we feel as though we're utterly alone, if you are a believer in God, then you are not alone because the Holy Spirit dwells inside of you. And you can and do have instant access to God who made the world who is dwelling inside of you. But it can be condemning in the fact that we are also reminded and should be remembering that the Holy Spirit lives inside of us and therefore is with us everywhere we go, sees everything that we see, hears everything that we speak. Here's everything that others speak to us and actually knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts. And so the Holy Spirit living inside of us can both be encouraging to a believer, but it can also be chastising and a reminder that no matter where we think we are, no matter who we think sees us, God knows and God is there and present with us at all times. And so God does live inside of us in the form Holy Spirit. We see the Holy Spirit described with characteristics even as a person, kind of like we would have as well. So, a couple of verses to talk about this. Ephesians 4.30 it says, And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. We are not to grieve or to disappoint the Holy Spirit. Now again, this can be encouraging and condemning at both times to us. As I ask you a very interesting question, is the Holy Spirit disappointed with your actions? Think about that for a minute before you quickly answer. Do you disappoint, if you will, the Holy Spirit of God who's living inside of you? Now, the beautiful part of that is perhaps you say, you know, I don't know that I'm really quite living up to the standard that God has set for me. I'd say that's probably true for all of us to some degree or another. But lest we forget that it's not a test that we don't have a resource for. You see, evaluate whether or not we are grieving the Holy Spirit, whether we are not doing what He is telling us to do, or we're doing things He's telling us we ought not to do. But the exciting and the beneficial part is that the Holy Spirit is inside of us and so all we have to do is to rely on the Holy Spirit and to be obedient you see and we will be doing what we ought to be doing. We don't have to wonder what there is to do. We don't have to go to a priest to find out what God wants us to do. We don't have to make an animal sacrifice to find out what God would have us to do. All we simply have to do if we know the Lord and the Holy Spirit lives inside of us is to simply inquire, to listen, and then to obey. It's very simple. The problem is simple isn't easy. Simple can be hard. simple can be very hard, and I say that from lots of experience, and I know many of you do as well. The Holy Spirit in 1 Thessalonians 5, 19, it says it can be quenched. It says, do not quench the Holy Spirit. Well, what does that mean? Do not be unresponsive to the Holy Spirit. Now we can think about this in multiple ways. We can certainly think about it and rightfully so in the context of a worship service where you were supposed to give a testimony and you didn't, or you were supposed to go and speak to someone and didn't, or you were supposed to sing a song or to read a section of passage. The idea that we are here together, we worship together, we do this thing together, we set aside time every week that we do this together. But I think it also clearly tells us that when we can quench the Holy Spirit we can be unresponsive to the Holy Spirit when we are out in our everyday lives. How many times have we felt the impression to share our testimony, to share about the God that we serve with someone else and we haven't done it for whatever reason? Don't think I'm immune to this. I am challenged with this all the time. It's hard to know sometimes how hard we should push, what we should say, what we should hold back. But the reality is this, that we can quench or become unresponsive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and this is a terrible thing to have happen because then we are not listening to or responding to the One who God sent and set beside us to lead us and to guide us and to comfort us. And if we, on a daily basis, refuse to be obedient and quench, as this scripture says, the Holy Spirit or become unresponsive, then when it really comes time, it's very, very hard sometimes to know and to hear what the Holy Spirit would have us to do. The Holy Spirit is described as having a mind. This is kind of interesting. 1 Corinthians 2.10, And so there's this interesting interplay here where we see that they are all three, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all equal. But one of the things that the Holy Spirit does is searching through all of the things that God has in His heart and in His mind. And I think gives us an example of what we should be doing as well. There is never a point in our Christian life or our Christian walk when we come to full knowledge and understanding. There's always more that we ought to be doing. We ought to be allowing the Holy Spirit to encourage us to seek after and learn about God. And if the Holy Spirit is still doing this, then we ought to be about that business as well. We ought to be seeking after Him in the same way. 2 Corinthians, we're in lots in Corinthians today. 2 Corinthians 13 and 14 says, The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. And so we also understand this idea and we see this multiple times through the scripture that the Holy Spirit living inside of each of us will commune and we can have some idea and a fellowship with other believers. We see this in the road to Emmaus, I think very clearly that we preached on, on Easter morning. This idea that two believers were walking after the resurrection, sad for the events of that day, and Jesus Christ unknown to them. began to walk with them and had a conversation. And Jesus finally revealed who He was and then disappeared. And they said to themselves, did not our hearts burn? They knew something was different about the one they were walking with. How many of us have had times in our lives when we just know that this person is a believer? How many times have we been with someone we're like, there's something different about you and not even without saying a whole lot, somehow we know and have a fellowship with someone. I hope you've experienced that. I hope someone's experienced that with you. I know I've experienced it with others where I just kind of knew that there was something different. There was something about that person. You know what that was? That's the Holy Spirit of God working. That's the Holy Spirit of God making obvious or transparent that these two physical bodies both have the living God inside of them. That is how we come together and we fellowship and why everything that we do should be done in love. That is how other people know who we are is what the scripture says by how we love each other. But that doesn't come naturally, does it? Love for other people can be very, very hard. But when the Holy Spirit is inside of both people, it should become easier. As I mentioned, the Holy Spirit is often called the Comforter or a Counselor. We see that in a couple places, John 14 and 16. And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper to be with you forever. later on in the same chapter verse 26, but the Helper the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name. He will teach you all things and bring you to remembrance all that I have said to you. And so Jesus is telling His close disciples, I'm going to go away, I'm going to send another, someone who is the helper, someone who is the counselor, someone who is the comforter in these difficult times, someone who will help you remember all the things that I've said to you. Again, I hope that some of you resonate with some of what I'm telling you. Have you ever had a time in your life when you've had a discussion with someone and you've been able to recall some level of wisdom from the scripture that you were kind of surprised by? Maybe it wasn't exactly a word for a word for a word, and you know exactly where that scripture reference is from. But I hope there have been times in your life when you have been in the midst of discussion and been able to recall certain attributes of God, been able to apply biblical logic. That is the Spirit of God working inside of you to tell you and help you know what to say. And we see this time and time again through Scripture. This is why it's so vitally important that we know and understand the Spirit and do not quench or become unresponsive to Him and why we should not grieve Him because the Holy Spirit is sent for us to be our counselor, to be our guide, and to be our comforter in very difficult times. It's vitally important that we understand who He is and what He does. The Holy Spirit was also active Revelation of the Word of God. And I believe that's primarily one of the early focuses that the Holy Spirit had was to come upon men and to inspire them to write the Scriptures. And we've read some of these verses recently. All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. And we also recently read that, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So, the same Holy Spirit that has been from the foundation of the world until now, the same Holy Spirit that rested upon David and Moses and all the great men of the Bible, the same Holy Spirit that was present and confirming that two people know each other in the Lord, the same Holy Spirit that allowed the men of God the wisdom and gave them the words to write down for our scripture is the same Holy Spirit that can dwell inside of believers today. and does dwell inside of believers. But it gets even really more amazing than that because what we see is the Holy Spirit had a part in Jesus Christ as well. We see in Matthew 1.18 the story of Christ's conception. And I've talked about how important this is, that Christ would be born of a virgin. So I won't rehash that, but I'll look in Matthew 1.18. It says, You see the Holy Spirit had an active and important role in Jesus Christ and in His life. It goes on and we find out in Hebrews 9.14, the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God. And so we even see this idea that the Holy Spirit was present in the bodily creation of Jesus Christ and was present and helped him through the most difficult point in his earthly life where he would take upon my sin and your sin and later we see where he would conquer death according to the Spirit of holiness, by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord." That's Romans 1 and 4. We understand that the Holy Spirit was present and interacting with Jesus Christ through His entire ministry from conception to the point that He died and to the point that He was resurrected. And if the Holy Spirit was involved in Jesus' life that way, again, let me put you in remembrance, that is the same Holy Spirit that we have access to today. Nothing has changed. Nothing is different. That same powerful God Holy Spirit that dwelled in Jesus Christ is the same one who dwells inside of believers today. And yet we ignore it. We pretend like it isn't there. We'd rather trust our own intuition. We'd rather ask neighbors for advice. We'd rather let other people tell us what to do rather than to go to the one who is that powerful. The Holy Spirit is our guarantee or our seal. What do I mean by that? Ephesians tells us, "...in Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantor of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory." That guarantor gives the idea is the first installment or a pledge. This is why, now there's multiple reasons for this, and this isn't the focus of the sermon today, but this is why I believe that once you have been saved, you will not and cannot lose your salvation. Because it isn't mine. Because I didn't do anything to earn it, and I can't do anything to keep it. What it is, is a gift of God. It tells us that, and then He seals us, or guarantees us, or gives us a pledge, however you want to interpret that one word. It's this idea that we are sealed, pledged, guaranteed, and what is that guarantee of a life to come? It is the Holy Spirit. And I cannot lose that. because that is the pledge and the guarantee of what God said He would do for me. It is not mine to earn. It is not mine to give away. It is not mine to lose. It sits in the hand of God the Father as He says in the book of John, and the Holy Spirit is the guarantee or the pledge that I have a future with an Almighty God. Now, as I've said a few times already, the Holy Spirit also intercedes for us. Romans 8 and 26 says, Likewise, the Holy Spirit helps in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Holy Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Have you ever had a time in your life when you didn't know what to pray for? You ever had a moment you just really don't know? The Spirit does. And the Spirit takes over for us. And the Spirit groans with words that we can't even understand on my behalf to God the Father. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that wonderful and comforting to know that when I don't know what to ask for or dare I say even when I ask for the wrong things, the Holy Spirit on my behalf is asking for things. This is so encouraging. When you don't know what to pray for, just pray, right? When you don't understand which direction to go, that is a time that you look to the Holy Spirit and say, God, I don't know what I'm supposed to do here, but you do, and Lord, I want you to help me. That's okay. I think sometimes we feel like we have to go to God and know what we're gonna ask for. Sometimes we don't know what we really need. sometimes what we think we need or what we think we want isn't what we really need. That's where the Holy Spirit can come in and communicate on our behalf, intercede for us, trying to help us to know what we should do, to know what the will of God is. It's vitally important that we have the Holy Spirit in our lives, that we engage with the Holy Spirit and allow the Holy Spirit to have its way among all the things that we do. The Holy Spirit also is the one that administers or gives out the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Again, a whole other study we could probably and should at some point go into all of those things. Let me just read a little bit in 1 Corinthians 12. Now, concerning the spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. You know that you were Gentiles carried away into these dumb idols even as you were led. I give you understanding that no man speaking by the Spirit of God call Jesus a curse, and that no man can say that Jesus is Lord by the Holy Spirit." Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administration, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operation, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all or for all. For to one given by the Spirit is wisdom, and another by the word of knowledge by the same Spirit. to another faith by the same Spirit, to another the gift of healing by the same Spirit, to another working of miracles, and another prophecy, and another discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues. But all these worketh that one and the same Spirit, dividing to every man severally, as he will. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many, one body is so also Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, they have all been made into one Spirit." And we understand, I think, through this idea that God, through the Holy Spirit, calls and gifts all of us certain abilities and things to do. And we are to be about using those things for one common purpose, and that is glorifying our Lord. That's it. We often try to look at these gifts, and sometimes we will compete with others, and we will become jealous of a certain gift or ability that someone else has. You may want to sing as well, or play as well, or be able to art or draw as well, or you might want to lead as well, or you might want to have any of these things, but the reality is all of these gifts are given by the same Holy Spirit for the same purpose, and that is to glorify God. and we are to come together to function as one through the Holy Spirit no matter what our gifts and abilities and assignments are and to do the one thing that God wants us to do because we are all one body in Jesus Christ. This is so important that we understand why we are here. The Holy Spirit, when you are saved, the Holy Spirit leads and guides you. He gives you abilities, and then you are to use those abilities for His glory and His kingdom work. And we are to do that together, not arguing about it, not being jealous over who has one, and certainly not going through life wondering, well, what on earth am I supposed to do? The Spirit wants you to know what He's gifted you with, because He wants you to use that gift. And we are to use those gifts together for His single glory. For we are by one Spirit, we are all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Gentile, whether bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. You see, the Spirit of God brings unity wherever it's at because the Spirit of God is focused on one thing, and that is God. And if there is not unity among us, then some of us are not following the Spirit of God. I truly believe that. We are to be unified in one. That's not to say there won't be differences. Obviously, we just read there are differences in abilities and gifts and things of this nature. But we are to be one because we are in one. The Holy Spirit also does something very important. The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts sinners. The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts sinners and brings them into judgment. I want to look in John 16 for a few minutes as we come to a close. John 16, verse 7-11. Jesus is speaking to His disciples, He says, And when He has come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on Me. Of righteousness, because I go to My Father, and you see Me no more. Of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged." We see two very, very important things here that I want to talk about for just a minute as we come to a close. I tell you the truth, it is expedient, or another translation might say better, for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come. But if I depart, I will send Him to you." Ever given that much thought? How many times have we thought, and this is a fine thing to think about, this again goes back to the idea that we oftentimes forget about the Holy Spirit and we think to ourselves, well, wouldn't it be great to have Jesus here? And, you know, in a manner of speaking, it would be. But, you know, the thing about Jesus being bodily present is He was only in one spot at one time, mostly. And so if you really couldn't hear or if you were away in another city and Jesus wasn't there, then you weren't around Him. If you had things to do and you had to go to some other city and you missed when Jesus came by, you didn't get to see Him. And so, as much as we might think, well, it would be great if Jesus Christ was here standing in this pulpit today and I guarantee you He'd give a much better sermon than I am. But what if He was at another church this morning and say that you miss Him? But not so with the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit in the form of a spirit is everywhere at all times. And so no matter what church we are in today, or whether you are not in a church, whether you are in the depths of the earth, or the top of it, whether you are in the sky, no matter where you are at any time the Holy Spirit is there and that is better for everyone. Because God is with us no matter where we are. It's a beautiful thing to think about. And Jesus himself tells us, you're better that I go and the Holy Spirit come than I stay. Now, there's multiple reasons for that. Again, it's better that Christ would die and pay the penalty and be resurrected. Certainly that's implied with what is said here. But I think it's important for us to remember that that comforter, that daily guide, that opportunity for us at any point in time to talk to God directly and hear what He has for us to know can be had in an instant no matter the situation. have to go to a specific place. We don't have to pray a specific direction. We don't have to take a pilgrimage to go see a holy site once or twice a year because God is inside of us. And that is far better than any of those other things. And in verse 80 it says, And when He comes, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. The reality is this, I can tell you anything that I want to. I can read you the scriptures. I can try to convince you that you are doing something wrong. I can try to convince you that you are in sin. I might even be able to bring up an emotional response to you. But it is the Spirit of God that actually convicts you when you are doing something wrong. And that is not the same as me speaking to you. The Spirit of God is something different, and when the Spirit of God comes to you and convicts you that what you're doing is wrong, or that you need to be doing something different, we must listen to that. The only thing that I'm trying to do here when I preach, and the Bible calls it the foolishness of preaching, is to allow the Holy Spirit to work in your lives. To be a tool and an instrument for whatever God has in store for you today, but I can't convict you of your sins. Only the Spirit does that. That is the Spirit's job. And so some of you today have been coming for a decent amount of time and have heard this over and over again. Maybe some of you in past times have been convicted by the Holy Spirit, but maybe you're not currently feeling convicted for what you have done that is wrong. You need to start praying that God would convict you. You need to ask the Holy Spirit to convict you. Those of us who are here who have concerns over the salvation of others who are in the same room need to be praying that the Holy Spirit would reveal to them and convict them to the point that they don't feel like they can go on of all their sin, of all their unrighteousness, of all the things that they have done that dishonor God, so that the Holy Spirit can work inside of them and bring them to the point that they finally give up and say to God, Mercy, Abba, Father, take this from me and please forgive me." That is when salvation occurs. That is when that peace that passes all understanding, when all that guilt of all that shame and all that sin is rolled away at the point of salvation and the Holy Spirit then is permanently planted inside of you, that peace is the Holy Spirit that God sends to those who have been saved. It comes through prayer. It doesn't come any other way. It doesn't come by work. It doesn't come by membership. It doesn't come by blood relation to anybody else. I can't trick you into it. I can't fool you into it. I can't lead you along on an emotional response. The only thing that I'm capable of doing and the only thing I think by Scripture that I'm allowed to do is to speak the plain truth of God and let the Holy Spirit have His way in your life. End of story. I cannot go any further. I dare not go any further. It is not my job to convict you, nor am I able to. It is the Holy Spirit of God who does that." John 3, 5. And Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. See the Spirit of God for all of us is there at the point of salvation. And then the Spirit of God is your seal, your present help, your opportunity to know what the will of God is and is there all through the rest of your life as long as you live on this earth. The Holy Spirit is at the beginning of everything. And those of us in whom have been saved, it's the Holy Spirit that continues to convict us of our sins, not for the purpose of salvation, but so that we might live according to His will. We call that sanctification. Romans 8 and 9 tells us, you, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. Brothers and sisters, that is an important verse that we ought to know, that we ought to remember, that we are no longer, those of us who've been saved, are no longer in the flesh, in this body, but in the Spirit of God. And because the Spirit of God dwells in us. And so we have to ask ourselves a very, very, very important question today. Does the Spirit of God dwell inside of you? If you can answer yes, if you know for a fact that He does, then we would call you someone who is a believer, someone who has been saved from their sins. If He does not dwell inside of you, then you are someone who is separated from God and the scripture says you're actually God's enemy. And then for those of us who have been saved, the question is, Are we allowing the Spirit to guide us or are we telling the Spirit to be quiet? I know I shouldn't do this, but I'm going to shut you up and do it anyway. It's very, very important that we understand this. The Spirit of God, the third part of the Godhead is vital for us to understand. It is the God that we interact with. It is how we know things. It is how we are comforted. It is how we receive guidance. It is how we are used to do the things that God would have us do. I have a quote here to kind of close us out. This author said, the question is not how much of the Holy Spirit you have, but how much of you the Holy Spirit has. There's a subtle difference there. Let me just explain this for a second. It's not how much of the Holy Spirit you have, but how much of you the Holy Spirit has. You see, even those of us who have come to know Him, who are saved, who are believers, We go back to that box that I talked about last week, and we say, I want a little bit of the Holy Spirit to do this, but not too much because I don't want Him to make me do something I don't want to do. Let's just all shake our heads and say we've been there, right? Lord, I want you to do this, but only in this certain way. Lord, I want you to fill me, but wait until next Tuesday. This is the problem. The question isn't how much of the Holy Spirit do I have? The question is how much How does the Holy Spirit have any of me? What control does He actually have over my life? Because I so often want to have complete control. I don't want to give it up. Or if I do, I'm only willing to do it in a certain way at a certain time. I'm unwilling to give complete control to the Spirit. I'm unwilling to let the Holy Spirit have all of my life no matter what. I'm unwilling to do whatever the Holy Spirit wants me to do. And this is really, I think, the problem and the great problem we have in our world today. How much better would we be if we gave access for the Holy Spirit to have all of us, to use us however the Holy Spirit so desires, to do whatever He wants us to do? And that is a truth that applies both for those of us who've been saved and those of us who haven't because many times, I believe, Those who have never been saved are just unwilling to give up that control. They're unwilling to let an almighty, all-loving God have control over their lives. And that kind of comes back to something we talked about last Sunday night. It comes back to pride, doesn't it? Somehow we can know all these things about the Holy Spirit and yet somehow we think we can do it better because we, want to be in control. The reality is control is an illusion. Control is an illusion. Most people, the last few months that we've seen who have died in tragic ways, they weren't really in control and they figured that out. And I don't mean that to be glib. I mean that to be serious. You think you're in control on your way home. Not so much. Wouldn't it be better to be obedient to the One who is in control and to do whatever He has us to rather than to try and try and try and fail and fail and fail to do it our own way? And so as we have a conclusion today, as we have a hymn, I want us to think about that. I want us to think about whether you're letting the Holy Spirit control you rightfully to have His way in your life, to take any or all of you to do whatever He wants you to do? Or are you trying to run the show? Maybe that means for the first time you need to come and to seek Him. Maybe He's convicting you of your sins and you need to come and repent until you're saved. Maybe that means that you have been saved. You just need to seek Him and give over control to Him. Say, Lord, I know that I belong to you, but I need you to have all of me and to control me. And so as we have a Him, I want us to be reflective of this, but very importantly, I want us to be obedient to what He wants us to do. I want Him.