Latest / Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self / The Holy Spirit

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The Holy Spirit · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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you to know Christ, grow in his word, and show his love to
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others. Let's dive right in.
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Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk Today.
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We've got a special episode, and I haven't done a whole ton of
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topical episodes, and that's in part due to the fact that I
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really love Bible study. But this particular episode, I'm
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going to be going through the Holy Spirit.
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And the Holy Spirit is something that we often as Christians
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today, depending on your faith tradition, what kind of
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denominational group you grew up in, you have either only ever
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heard about the Holy Spirit or you have barely ever heard about
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the Holy Spirit. And so there's a lot of
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confusion today on who the Holy Spirit is.
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Some people even wondering, is the Holy Spirit a person?
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And they wonder what his what his job is and what he is
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supposed to do, how we're supposed to relate to him.
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And so I'm hoping that as we spend a little bit of time
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together in the Word, we will get some great encouragement.
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And I am looking forward to this time.
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So we're going to do this. First.
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I'm going to read through. There's a classic Christian
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statement of belief that some believers in the about four to
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six hundreds AD put together. And I believe that it will help
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frame in historical ways what Christians have believed about
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the Holy Spirit over the past 2000 years and what God's people
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have believed about him since revelation of the Lord began.
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I'll say this first and foremost, the Holy Spirit is
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God. He's not a lesser God.
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He's not just some like powerful force.
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He is a person like the Father and the Son are the Persons in
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the Trinity. There is only one God.
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There's not one God, the Holy Spirit, a separate God the Son,
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and a separate God the Father. There's only one God.
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So anything that we would say about God is true about the Holy
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Spirit. So God is uncreated, the Holy
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Spirit is uncreated. God is omniscient.
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He knows everything. The Holy Spirit knows
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everything, the holy God is omnipresent, the Holy Spirit is
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wherever he desires to be, and same thing then with God is
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omnipotent, that he is able to do whatever he wants to do, and
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the Holy Spirit is just that same way.
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So as we have that kind of baseline that we are not
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Trithius, we do not believe that there are three gods, but only
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one God. That'll frame how we read
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through this ancient statement of faith in belief in the
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Trinity called the Athanasian Creed.
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Here's what it says. We worship one God in Trinity
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and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the persons nor
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dividing the substance. So the Father is not the Son,
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Son's not the Spirit, Spirit's not the Father.
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It's not one person in different roles or wearing different hats
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that each of them are distinct persons.
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But also it is not dividing the substance that there is not
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three gods, there is just one God.
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He says there's one person of the Father, another of the Son,
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and another of the Holy Spirit says, but the God head of the
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Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the
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glory equal, the majesty Co eternal, such as the Father is
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such as the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.
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They are all equal in their glory, all equal in their
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majesty. They are the same, if you will.
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They're the same thing. They are God the Father is
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incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy
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Spirit incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son
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eternal and the Holy Spirit eternal says and yet they are
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not 3 eternals, but one eternal. There's not three separate
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distinct gods, it's simply one. God says so likewise, so he says
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as also there are not 3 uncreated nor 3
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incomprehensible, but one uncreated and one
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incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is
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almighty, the Son is almighty and the Holy Spirit Almighty,
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and yet they are not 3 Almighty's but one Almighty.
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So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God,
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and yet they are not three gods, but one God.
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So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy
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Spirit Lord, and yet they are not 3 Lords, but one Lord.
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For like as we are compelled by the Christian truth to
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acknowledge every person by himself to be God and Lord, so
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we are forbidden to say that there are three gods or three
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Lords. The Father is made of none,
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neither created nor begotten. That is, no one has ever said of
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God the Father. You are my Son, he says.
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The Son is of the Father alone, not made nor created, but
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begotten. That between these two persons
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in the Trinity there is a relationship of Father and Son
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that the Father has called the Son, his Son.
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He is not created. There was no time when the sun
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was not in. This is what's called eternal
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begottenness. And that goes into a level of
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theology that we are not going to dive into on Tabernacle talk.
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Just know this. At the very foundation of the
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Trinity, at the foundation of true reality itself, is the love
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of a Father and a Son and the Holy Spirit.
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There's fellowship that is there.
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There is familial love. And So what is almost more true
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than anything else is genuine love.
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It's why we would say God is love, because there's been this
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love between the Father and love and the Son and the Spirit
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throughout all of eternity. So Son is of the Father alone,
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not made nor created, but begotten.
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The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, neither made nor
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created nor begotten. But proceeding that the Father
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and Son, they send the Spirit, and they have always been
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sending the Spirit. So there is one Father, not
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three fathers, one Son, not three Sons, one Holy Spirit, not
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three Holy Spirits. And in this Trinity none is a
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for or after another either. None is greater or less than
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another. But the whole 3 persons are Co
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eternal and Co equal. So that in all things as
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aforesaid, the Unity and Trinity and the Trinity and Unity is to
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be worshipped. So this is what scripture says
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about the Holy Spirit. We can see the Holy Spirit
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popping up in the second verse of scripture where it says now
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the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the
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surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was
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hovering over the surface of the water.
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When God breathes into mankind the breath of life, that's that
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same word as spirit in Hebrew. It's ruach.
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That is, God gives us his Spirit, His life giving spirit.
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And every breath that we breathe is a gift from God.
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And even from how Genesis 1 and 2 speak about it, I almost think
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of it in this way, that every breath that I'm breathe is every
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breath that I breathe is God the Holy Spirit continuing to give
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me life, breath after breath, moment after moment.
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And in the day that God chooses to Take Me Home that that I die,
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He will take his breath from me, His ruach, His Holy Spirit, and
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I will return to the Father who I was made to worship.
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So the Holy Spirit is seen right from the beginning portion of
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scripture and all throughout the Old Testament, you can see the
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Holy Spirit, He comes to empower God's people to accomplish the
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work of God. You can see it in Numbers 24
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when there's prophecy or 4th telling what will come in the
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future or true statements that will be made by prophets.
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The Holy Spirit is the one that equips them for that same in
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First Samuel that there are many prophets that are filled with
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the Holy Spirit of God and so they speak the words of God.
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You can see all throughout, all throughout the Old Testament,
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over and over and over again that the Holy Spirit is the one
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that communicates the word of God to the people of God.
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And it is through communing with God, the Holy Spirit, that
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people are able to speak God's Word.
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There are people certainly that use the Holy Spirit's
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empowerment of their life to not serve him, but to serve their
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own ends. So in Numbers 24, Balaam does
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that. And so even as the Holy Spirit
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is there, it's not that a person is unable to still do what they
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want outside of the will of the Holy Spirit.
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It's not that you are being controlled or puppeted by God.
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You are still able to do what you want.
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You're able to sin even as we see Balaam do, but the Holy
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Spirit is there to enable us to do what God has called us to do
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as well. That is when the Holy Spirit
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comes into your life, you're not an unknowing puppet.
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Instead, you are enabled by God to accomplish the will of God,
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something that you're not really able to do outside of the work
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in person of the Holy Spirit. Then we can even see in the Last
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Supper as Jesus is speaking with his disciples, He tells them I'm
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going to go away. The disciples are sad about it
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and Jesus tells them I'm going away, but I'm going to send you
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a comforter, a counselor. The word would be in Greek
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Paraclete. That is the advocate, the one
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who comes alongside to help. And Jesus tells them it is good
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for me to go because then you will have the Holy Spirit and He
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will teach you everything. He will remind you of everything
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that I have taught you and He will lead you into the way that
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you should go. And so Jesus, even speaking
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about the Holy Spirit, says God's presence, the person of
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the Holy Spirit living inside of you is an even greater joy.
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It's an even greater thing than having God the Son walking
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beside you. And what a comfort that is to us
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because often we think, man, if, if Jesus was here, then my life
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would be better. Maybe I'd obey God more.
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I would just have a better attitude.
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Who knows what would happen if Jesus was right here with me?
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But Jesus says it's even better for the Holy Spirit to live
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inside of us. And I want to note here real
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quick, the Holy Spirit is a person.
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He's not just some impersonal force.
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We can read about this in Acts chapter 13 and verse #2 When
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people think about personhood, there are three things that
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normally come to mind. It is mind, will and emotions.
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Mind, will and emotions is kind of what makes up a a person that
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they are able to think, to process You can have.
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So that's the the mind with will.
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They make choices and decisions and you have emotions that
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you're not just a robot. A robot could have, if you will,
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a mind and a will, but a robot doesn't have emotions.
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And so for people, for persons, they have emotions.
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And though God is perfect in his emotions, He's never sinful in
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the way that He emotes. He does express Himself to us in
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inspired Scripture as having emotions perfected, but He does
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have them. So Acts chapter 13 and verse #2
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they're the church that's at Antioch.
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It says as they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy
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Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work
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to which I have called them, hear the Holy Spirit.
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He speaks, he communicates. There is a mind here that is
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making communication to other people.
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And then in Acts chapter 16 and verse #6 we can hear about the
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will of the Spirit there. Paul and his missionary
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companions, they're going through the regions of Phergia
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and Galatia, and they had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to
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speak the Word in Asia. They're forbidden by the Holy
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Spirit to speak the Word in Asia.
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So there you have this communication of what is the
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will of the Spirit, that he has a mind.
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He communicates information to individuals.
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We know that information can only come from information.
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You can't just have chaos that is expressed that would not mean
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anything to the person hearing just gibberish.
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And so here the Holy Spirit, an intelligent, all wise person, is
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communicating things to the early apostles, disciples and
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missionaries. And then we can read about the
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emotions of the Holy Spirit even in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse
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#30 where we read and don't grieve God's Holy Spirit.
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You were sealed by him for the day of redemption.
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That the Holy Spirit, he can be grieved.
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And what a thought that God, holy, perfect, unchanging God,
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he can be grieved by the actions and the words and the thoughts
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that you and I have. And so that's why we're
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encouraged in Ephesians not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God,
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but instead to follow him to to love him and to pay attention to
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him. So that's the personhood of the
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Holy Spirit, that he is mind, will, and emotions.
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I also think it's wonderful that the Holy Spirit is sent from the
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Father and the Son to accomplish the will of God here on earth,
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That if you will, God in every way.
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God as authority. The Father really pictures in a
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lot of ways. And so we learn how to be a good
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authority from paying attention to God the Father and what
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Scripture says that he does. We can learn about submission
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and obedience and sacrifice through looking at God the Son.
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And we can learn what it is to lay down our lives in love for
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another. We can learn what it is to
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listen to imperfect people or to be patient with those who are
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flawed. We can learn what it is to go
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through difficulties in our life and temptations through looking
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at Jesus, and then we can learn what it is to be about the
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mission that we have been given by looking at God the Holy
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Spirit, if you will. We learn how to accomplish the
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Great Commission through listening to the Holy Spirit who
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gave us the Great Commission and who each and every day He does
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amazing things in our world. I want to highlight just a
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couple of things that the Holy Spirit does.
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Number one, and probably most dear to my heart, the Holy
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Spirit indwells, baptizes, and seals us when we accept Christ
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as our Lord and Savior. OK, where would I get that from
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Ephesians chapter one, we are told that the Holy Spirit is the
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down payment of our inheritance until the redemption of the
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purchased possession. That is that God has set a seal,
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a promise on our lives that He will in fact bring us to glory,
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that the work that He began, He will end up finishing and
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accomplishing. And the Holy Spirit is the
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promise that He will do that. So the Holy Spirit seals us.
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You do not keep yourself saved. The Holy Spirit is the one that
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has sealed your salvation. And we can read about that in
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Ephesians 113, that the sealing isn't some later event that
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might take place, but instead that verse says in him you also
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were sealed with the holy, with the promised Holy Spirit when
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you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and
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when you believed. So when you believe the gospel,
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the Holy Spirit seals you. We can see that even in the book
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of Acts as Cornelius and his family, they were Gentiles.
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They were ones that have not previously been a part of the
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covenant relationship of God's people.
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And when they heard Peter preaching the gospel to them,
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even before he called for a decision, before they were
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baptized, any of that, as they heard and believed in their
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hearts, the Holy Spirit came on them and he sealed them and he
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indwelt them. And that was something that then
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the rest of the believers, mainly Jewish believers, at that
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point, they went, OK, well, these must really be saved
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individuals because they have the Holy Spirit.
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And so we need to baptize these people because that's what it is
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to to follow Jesus. And so if God has already, if
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you will, if he's already spiritually baptized, baptize
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them into Christ's body, then we need to physically baptize them
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into Christ's body. So that's the sealing end of
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things. Also mention the indwelling.
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So in the Old Testament, many people received the Holy Spirit
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at various times for a specific purpose.
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More often than not prophecy, sometimes in great battles,
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other times even in construction work.
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So as you look at the book of Exodus and the construction of
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the Tabernacle, you have the Holy Spirit empowers some of the
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workers so that they are able to do the good work in crafting and
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and molding and making what God had wanted for the Tabernacle.
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And so this was what the Holy Spirit did in the Old Testament.
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But in the New Testament, the wonderful truth is that the Holy
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Spirit, he indwells us, He lives in US from the moment that we
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believe in Christ as our Savior, and he is with us until the
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moment that we die. We can read in Romans chapter 8
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that if you don't have the Holy Spirit, you don't belong to God,
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and that the Holy Spirit is the one that he he prays for us.
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As Jesus said, He reminds us of everything that has been
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expressed in the word of God. I want to encourage you.
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I've said it off and on here, the Holy Spirit takes the Word
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of God to make the child of God more like the Son of God.
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And so you need to be in the Word of God personally.
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So that way the Holy Spirit, if you will, he has something to
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work with. And so that's what the Holy
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Spirit does. He, he indwells us, he seals us,
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He reminds us of everything that God has for us.
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The Holy Spirit works with our conscience that our conscience
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is something that we have as part of how God made us.
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Every person, regardless of whether or not they have the
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Holy Spirit has a conscience. But the Holy Spirit will use our
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conscience. Those feelings of you have done
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right or you have done wrong, and he will use that to guide
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you into truth. Now here's the problem.
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Many of us, we live, I say. Many of us, all of us live in a.
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Fallen sinful world in which our conscience is being constantly
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recalibrated to the wrong things so that we feel it's wrong to
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say the truth or that we feel it's right to partake in a
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particular sin. And so we need to constantly
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going back to the Word of God and to the Holy Spirit to say,
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God, would you show me what truth is?
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Would you show me what is really right and really wrong in your
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sight? Not in my own.
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And so the Holy Spirit works with the conscience.
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So one thing that I heard often growing up was obey every
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impulse of the Holy Spirit that when God tells you to be kind,
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when God tells you to be generous, when God tells you
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that that was incorrect, that action that you took of those
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words that you said, you need to listen to him.
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And so that's what we are called to do.
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Don't ignore your conscience. God pleased it there for a
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reason. And especially with the Holy
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Spirit working in and through you, that is something that you
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do not have the luxury of avoiding.
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If you want to learn more about the conscience, I feel like I
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mention it every three or four months.
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Please read the book Conscience by Andrew Nacelli is an
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incredible book. It's by it's from the publishers
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Crossway. And so I encourage you to go to
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crossway.org and look up the book Conscience and it is
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excellent. One other thing that the Holy
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Spirit does that I want to mention as we end today is the
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Holy Spirit. Jesus said in the Last Supper,
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He convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgement.
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The Holy Spirit is the one that brings conviction to the hearts
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of mankind, and he convicts of sin that what we are doing and
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saying and thinking it is wrong. And so he convicts of sin, He
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convicts of righteousness that there are good actions that
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people ought to be taking, that they are not taking.
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So he convicts of sin what we do that we ought not do.
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And he convicts of righteousness the things we should do that we
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are not doing, including, of course, belief in Christ.
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And then it says he convicts the world of judgment, that is, that
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there is a final reckoning. Now, this is something that
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happens within someone's conscience.
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This is not something that everyone's not looking at their
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life necessarily in terms of the great White Throne judgment.
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They're just is often subtly going, no, there has to be
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punishment for bad. And we're more cognizant of this
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as it relates to other people. We say that murderer or that
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thief, they ought to pay for their crimes.
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There ought to be justice for what was done in this abuse
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situation. People understand some of that.
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They know that there ought to be justice that if you will, this
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life is not the end. People don't don't quite often
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accept that, but inside of their conscience they know.
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And so they are called to, they are called to repent of their
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sin, to believe in righteousness because there is a judgment that
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is coming. And so I want to encourage you
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even as you witness. Those are the main things that
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people's souls are telling them that yeah, there is sin and
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sometimes I have partaken in that.
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There is righteousness and I haven't lived up to a perfect
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standard. And there should be justice for
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wrongs that are done in the world, both that other people do
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and the wrongs that I myself have perpetrated in the world.
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And so I encourage you even in your evangelism work along with
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the Holy Spirit, that the things that he is telling them on the
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inside, you tell them it on the outside as well.
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And so as you do that, I know that you are working along with
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the Holy Spirit. I've mentioned often before as
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well, the Holy Spirit takes our prayers to the Father, bringing
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what we should be bringing to the Father.
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He brings that. And so as you pray, as you
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evangelize, as you worship Christ, all of that is a
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reflection of the work of the Holy Spirit.
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So join him in the work and mission that he is doing.
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I want to mention one last thing as we end because of the Holy
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Spirit is omnipresent as God is, I do have a little bit of
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umbrage against a popular phrasing, particularly in
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charismatic circles, about something like Holy Spirit, you
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are welcome here. Come flood this space and fill
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the atmosphere. Things like that which properly
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understood God, you are everywhere and but you are not
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doing the same things in every place.
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You are doing unique things in unique places.
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And so God, I'm asking for you to do something unique here and
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now. Even as we would read in
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Ephesians chapter 5, we're called to be filled with the
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Spirit, that the Holy Spirit is there, but we want to allow him
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more control over our lives, that we exhibit more of the
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fruit of the Spirit, more of his character.
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And so I want to encourage you don't think that the Holy Spirit
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is not yet wherever you are. The Holy Spirit is everywhere.
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He's God. He's omnipresent.
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The prayer request that we can have is God.
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I want you to do something special in me right now, in this
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place, right now. I want to allow you more
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control. I want to become more loving,
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joyful, patient, peace filled, loving good towards others.
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I want to exhibit self-control. That's what it means to be
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spirit filled. To be spirit filled is not just
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that there's a great time of music.
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To be spirit filled is not that a bunch of other outside people
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come to know the Lord. To be spirit filled is at its
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core you becoming more like Jesus through allowing the Holy
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Spirit to call the shots more and more in your life.
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I encourage you this week be spirit filled.
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And as we are filled with the Spirit, it'll overflow in song.
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It'll mean that we evangelize, that people are saved.
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All of those things flow out from that because our God, he
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does miracles, he works wonders. And so how wonderful that we
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have a Holy Spirit that indwells us, that has made us part of the
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body of Christ. That was the one thing I didn't
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mention First Corinthians 12. It says that the Holy Spirit, he
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baptizes us, He immerses us, he, he places us into the body of
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Christ when we are safe. So the thing that connects you
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and I and all of the people that are saved at Tabernacle and all
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the people in, you know, Freedom Baptist in Dundalk that are
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saved. What unites us all together is
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the Holy Spirit and that we've been placed into the body of
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Christ to become the bride of Christ by the Holy Spirit.
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So I hope this was an encouragement to you.
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If you have any questions, please let me know and I would
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love to talk with you more about this because the Bible is God's
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revelation to us. Oh, I should also mention that
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the Holy Spirit gave us the Word of God and that said over and
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over and over and over again that the Holy Spirit is the one
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that gives us inspired scripture.
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So, so much more could be said about the Holy Spirit, but we
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are well past time for today. So thank you for tuning in.
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The next two episodes are going to be some Ask Anything episodes
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and looking forward to those times and seeing some of what
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you all have asked about the Christian life for the Bible and
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looking forward to that time together.