Holy Spirit, His Sensitivity

Key verse again in John chapter 7, and we'll read it one more time, just to allow it to soak into our consciousness. John 7, 37, In that last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. The Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. As we continue on our study, we've talked about the significance of this blessed person, that he's a real person, a divine person, that he lives within us. We've talked about his work in salvation. We've talked about his work in the believer's security. We've talked about his work in supply, if you like, supplying the power needed to live a life that is pleasing to God. And I want to initially, at least in this session, think about his sensitivity, the Holy Spirit's sensitivity, because we do have a real person living within us. He is, I like to call him the indwelling heavenly guest that lives within us. And yet, it's very easy for this guest to be offended. He can be grieved. He can be quenched. He often is ignored. He can be despised, and he can be resisted. And so, we want to make sure that he is at home in us. And so, as we think about these various issues, I want to begin in Ephesians 4 again. We've looked at this verse several times, but we want to look at it in terms of how do we grief him? It's clear we can grief him. We said that's one of the proofs that he's a real person, because he has emotion, and we can emotionally impact, affect the Holy Spirit, this real person. And we can cause grief to be experienced by him as a result of our conduct as believers. So, what is it that grieves him? So, I want to kind of look at this verse in its context. I think it will help us. Let's just kind of back up to verse 22 and say this, that the context is concerning putting off and putting on. So, he says in verse 22 that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts. And so, that's speaking of what we were in Adam, that old man. And he says, you know, to put it off. And the language is like you put it off like a dirty shirt. You're done with that. You put off the old man. And then he says in the middle, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Of course, the mind affects everything. So, that's got to be renewed. It's got to be thinking rightly and biblically. And then he says, put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. And of course, the new man, our new identity, right? We used to be identified with the Adams family. That's a horror story from start to finish. But now we're part of Christ's family, right? We're in Christ. That's the great message of the epistle to the Ephesians. You're in Christ. And so, the new man is that which I am in Christ, my new identity in Christ. And of course, as Christ is, so are we, right? As he is in the world, so should we be. And so, put off concerning the former conversation of the old man. What was that like? Corrupt according to deceitful lusts. Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. And so, then he goes into some of the details of that which is to be put off and why it's got to be put off. And so, he talks, for instance, we're just going to break in at verse 29. He says, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. So, what he's saying is, the old man, that's what we used to be like, like out of our mouths, because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And when our heart was unregenerated, when we were in Adam—not in Christ, but in Adam—what came out of our mouths? Well, it was a lot of corrupt communication. And that came out of our mouths frequently, and it certainly wasn't edifying to anybody. It was corrupting. It was rotten. But when a child of God uses corrupt communication, the Spirit of God is deeply grieved by that, because that is so out of harmony with what we are now in Christ, right? And so, our speech sometimes can betray us. And we all know what it's like. Have you ever said something, and the minute you said it, you wish you could have grabbed it and stuck it back in, but it's too late. It's out. And it's not pleasant, right? And so, this is grieving to the Spirit of God, because you're supposed to be under new management now, right? Not the old man, but the new man. You're not supposed to be living like that or talking like that anymore. That's how you used to be. And so, he says, instead, the new man, what should come out of our mouths should be that which is good, wholesome, to the use of edifying, that it would actually—those that hear it would actually be built up in their most holy faith. And so, we need to be careful about our speech, because it can grieve the Spirit of God. And you know it. That's why, when that comes out of your mouth, you want to catch it and put it back in. How do you know you want to do that? Because immediately you know, instantly, you know you grieve the Spirit of God. You don't need anybody to tell you. You know it, right? And it's the I'm not happy. I wasn't happy with what you just said. And you recognize it immediately, and you sense that. And so, he says, instead, we want to minister grace. I love that. Minister grace unto the hearers. Wouldn't it be good that all our conversation would minister grace to the hearers? But he says, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed to the day of redemption. Then he says, Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Now, this speaks of attitudes of the heart. Bitterness—let all bitterness. Bitterness is when somebody's done something to me that hurt, and I can't get over it. Can't let go of it. It eats away at me. And you see that so often in assembly life, right? People say things, they don't even know they've said it sometimes. And it really hurt. It cut you deeply. And every time you see that person, all you can think about is what they said. It drives you nuts. And it just eats. It's like a canker. It's like a poison. It eats away at you. In fact, people have said that bitterness is like taking poison and hoping it hurts the other person. The only person it's going to hurt is you. But there are many assemblies that are crippled by somebody said something to me 30 years ago, and I can't get over it. And there's nothing more grieving to the Holy Spirit than our inability to get over things. And how do we get over things? Well, the key to overcoming bitterness is forgiveness. So he says, bitterness, and of course, it doesn't just stay that way. It obviously comes out. It shows itself in wrath and anger, and clamor is kind of loud speaking and shouting, crying loudly. And so it really does, this bitterness finds its way out into these things like wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking. And he says, put away from you with all malice. Malice is where you want the other person to be hurt. You really do. And it's like, that person that's hurt you, something bad happens to them, and you think to yourself, well, they had it coming to them. I'm glad that happened to them. He said, these things are so contrary to the Spirit of God. So contrary to the Spirit of God. In fact, what he says is, and this is the key, I think, he says, put this away from you. Again, this is how the old man used to be. Put it away like a dirty shirt. This is not part of your new dress anymore. You don't need this anymore. Put it away from you with all malice. Put all that stuff away. And then he says, instead, be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Now, isn't that interesting? What the Holy Spirit is saying is this. Nobody knows more than the Holy Spirit how much God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Could you begin to quantify how much in your personal life, like, how much has God, for Christ's sake, forgiven you in your life? Before you were and even since you got saved, how much? Lots, right? And you can't forgive this person that just said one thing to you all those years ago, and they maybe didn't even know they'd done it, and you can't forgive them, and yet you have been forgiven. And the Spirit of God is so grieved, and what he's saying, don't you get it? Don't you realize how much you've been forgiven, and you can't forgive this one thing? This is grieving to my heart, he's saying, because you have forgotten how much you've been forgiven. And so, I wonder how many times has the Spirit of God been grieved in an assembly of Christians by unresolved conflict and people unwilling to forgive what somebody else has done to them. And it's going to eat away like a poison and destroy, because a little root of bitterness, the book of Hebrew says, through that many will be defiled. Because it's going to affect others. So, when somebody mentions this person's name in your company, immediately, there'll be an expression on your face that will tell them there's something not good about that person, because you can't hide it. When you see that person, you go to the other side of the room. You don't want fellowship with them. It's absolutely destroying. Let's just talk a little bit about this, this idea of forgiveness for hurts. I was talking to somebody recently, and I shared with them something that we've gone through, because in the Christian work, it's very easy to be misunderstood. And over the years, we've had people say some very horrible things about us, and even put it in writing, and all kinds of things over the years. I mean, we've got a file. I personally, some of the letters my wife has read, one of them was so disturbing that it put her to bed. I mean, she was devastated by what was said. I've never looked at it, because I just know I would have a hard time handling it. It's better just to leave it. I don't want to know. But my wife and I were down in the Bahamas, one of those occasions where we were serving the Lord down there. It's not what you think, by the way. This was in Nassau. And if you've ever been down to the assembly there, it's in a neighborhood where you have bars and locks on your doors. You feel like you're in prison the whole time you're there. And even before you go out, you have to check through the windows, make sure there's nobody around, and dart for the car and try and get in there. It's really not what you think. It's very difficult. So we were in this prison, I mean, apartment, and we were, we went, I was reading the Book of Job, and I read this revolutionary verse, and it says, God turned the captivity of when he prayed for his friends. Now, you know who those friends were? It was those four rascals that said, Job, all this is happening to you because you're a bad lamb. I mean, if you hadn't been such a rascal, that would never have happened to you. And so God says that Job had to pray for them, and that he would turn his captivity. And so we made a list of every person that we knew that had ever hurt us personally. It was kind of a long list. And what we did is, once we made the list, we spent the day praying for every person on that list. And we didn't say, Lord, zap them. We asked God's richest blessing on their lives. Now what was interesting is, I don't know whether it did anything for them, but it did wonders for us. It was like, it turned the hurts into a blessing. And now, even when we think of those people, we immediately just pray for them, when they come to mind. And it was very helpful. And I was sharing this with a brother, because he's just been deeply, deeply hurt. And he said, you know, he'd been thinking about another scripture that said the same thing. It said, it's when the Lord Jesus said, love your enemies, do good to those that despitefully use you. And he said he'd been thinking about those very same things. And so there is a way we can deal with this. And when we say, forgive them, you might say, well, they never asked for forgiveness. But when the Lord Jesus on the cross said, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. Did they ask him for forgiveness? No. He released it to the Father. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Stephen, Lord, it's not to their charge. They didn't ask him to do that, did they? Now, again, you won't enjoy full reconciliation with that person. All we're thinking about is in your heart, from your heart, you have forgiven that person. Full reconciliation will come if they will come and acknowledge their guilt, and you can enjoy full. But all you're dealing with is your heart, that you don't become bitter. You're releasing them to God. I've told this story many times, but there was a man who particularly did a lot of damage when we were in Ireland. And I saw him walking down a street, and I ran into a shop because I didn't want to talk to him. So I just died, and I hate shopping. If you know anything about Mike Atwood, like, I don't do shopping. And I ran into a shop because I didn't want to see this man. And then the Holy Spirit began to convict me. Is this the way you're going to live your life, Mike? Every time you see this guy, you're going to run and hide? Is this the abundant life? Is this the victorious Christian life? Is this the life that you've been saved for? Is this what it's all about? And of course, it isn't. And so when I got home, I said, I've got to do something. So I called this guy, and I said, I'd like to take you out for a meal. And we went out to a restaurant. We sat down together. And I just said, I want you to forgive me. I've had a really bad attitude towards you. In fact, I saw you in town, and I ran and hid, and that's not right. Please forgive me. And when I did that, it was interesting that he said, well, Mike, I've said some really bad things. Will you forgive me? And we were able to reconcile that day, and ended up hugging and just putting things right. And it was wonderful, because I don't want to—every time I see somebody, I don't want to hide. It's no way to live. So the Spirit of God is saying, if there's anything that grieves me, it is when God's people can't forgive when they have been forgiven so abundantly and so amazingly. And so it's good to ask ourselves, because we're here not just to get information about the Holy Spirit. That's not our purpose today. We're here for transformation, not information. And so it might be good to ask yourself, do I need to make a list? Do I need to start praying for some people? Do I need to ask somebody to go out for a meal and apologize for my rotten attitude, not saying anything about what they've done? You just make sure you're right. Leave the Holy Spirit to do the rest with them. Maybe we need to do that. Maybe that would revolutionize many of our assemblies. If we could deal with some of these leftover, bitter activities of the past, it might bring tremendous healing and provision of blessing. And so let's be careful we don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God. And let me just say this, that, you know, we talked about this overflowing life. Out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. But one of the things that I find, just look at James chapter 4 for a moment, James chapter 4, and we'll see something here. It says in James 4 and verse 5, do you think that the scripture saith in vain, the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy, or some version says yearns jealously? What does it mean? The spirit that dwells within us, this blessed person, the Holy Spirit, wants us to be madly in love with the Lord Jesus. That's what he wants for every believer. And when we get away from God because of unforgiveness, bitterness, all of these things that fill our hearts, the spirit yearns jealously that we would be back into a full, intimate relationship with the Lord. And so it's like this, if I can use this illustration. Out of his innermost being flows rivers of living water. And the idea is the Spirit's given to us to not only fill us, but overflow, an overflowing life that brings refreshment to a world. But when we're harboring sin in our hearts, his activity is no longer working out through us. His activity is directed in us in inner conviction to get us right. Right? So all of his energy is directed inwardly, in convicting us, in showing us we're not what we ought to be. We're not, we're grieving him. We're doing that which is displeasing, so his energy is all geared inwardly. And it's only when we put that right that he can once again flow outwardly again. And so we want to make sure, and of course, part of the process is 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And also, and again, this is an interesting one, a question you're often asked is, can you pray to the Holy Spirit? You've heard that question, I'm sure. You know, we see in Scripture very clearly that the normative pattern for prayer is you pray to the Father in the name or authority of the Lord Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. So all three persons are involved in our prayer, right? But there are exceptions. We read one of them, Stephen, when he was stoned, he said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. So he didn't pray to the Father, he prayed to the Son. And I think it's appropriate to address the Son in prayer, at least in worship, right? Are you thankful that Lord Jesus died for you on Calvary's cross? The Father didn't die for you, the Son did. Have you ever told the Lord Jesus how thankful you are that he died for you? Yeah, I've spoken to the Son before. But what about the Spirit? Now, again, I wouldn't do this in a public gathering, I don't think. I don't know, maybe I'm getting more bold as I get older. Maybe I would, I don't know, but I don't think so. 2 Corinthians 13, we've looked at it already in a different context, but it's a very interesting verse. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we all know about that, the love of God, we know about that, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all, amen. Let me just talk about the word communion. What does the word communion mean? Koinonia, what does koinonia mean? Fellowship, right? How do you fellowship with somebody if you never talk to them, right? I mean, I'm open for answers, but I can't think of how you can do it without communication, right? Communication is implied in fellowship. Let me put it down to this. If I've grieved the Holy Spirit, who do I need to talk to about that? I suspect it's the person that I've grieved, don't you think? If I grieved Kyle, there's no point in me talking to Colin, because I didn't grieve him, I grieved Kyle. I need to talk to Kyle, right? Because he's the one that was grieved. And so—that's not really true, I mean, but I'm just using it as an illustration—but you get the point, right? The person that has been grieved is the person who needs to be addressed. And so I have had no difficulty when I have sensed that my speech has grieved the Spirit of God, speaking to the Spirit of God. I have no difficulty with that. And you sing it all the time, Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Have you ever sang that? I've sang it before. Oh, Holy Ghost, revival comes from thee, send a revival, start the work in me. Have you ever sung that? Well, it's a prayer, isn't it? In song, but it surely is a prayer, isn't it? By the way, it's a prayer we should be praying more and more. Oh, Holy Ghost, revival comes from thee. And it does. Send a revival. Would you like that? Start the work in me. That's a great prayer. So I don't have any difficulty personally. You might label me a heretic if you like, but I think I have biblical basis from 2 Corinthians 13 and verse 14, that in order to communicate with the Spirit of God, to enjoy communion, there has to be some discussion and talking. So the grieving of the Spirit. Now I want to think about the Spirit being quenched. He can be quenched. 1 Thessalonians 5.19. 1 Thessalonians 5.19. Wonderful verse. It says, quench not the Spirit. Pretty brief, pretty to the point, but again, contextually. Verse 20, despise not prophesying, prove all things, hold fast that which is good, abstain from all appearance of evil. So some have suggested that this idea of quench not the Spirit could be translated this way, extinguish not the sacred fire. Right? Because when you quench something, you're putting it out, right? And so the idea is this, that the Spirit of God is trying to light a fire for God in our lives, right? And to move us for God and get us active and serving with passion and zeal. And so what's possible is that we can quench, we can put out what the Spirit is trying to do in our lives, even in our assemblies. Quench not the Spirit. So if you like, grieving is connected with the sins of commission, saying things that I ought not to say. Quenching the Spirit is more connected with the sins of omission, not responding to what the Spirit wants to do in my life. So let's give some examples. Contextually, it says, despise not prophesyings. So what does that really mean? Well, in the early church, First Thessalonians, the New Testament believer's Bible, when First Thessalonians was written, was very small. If they had anything, it was this letter. Many believe First Thessalonians were the first letter. Maybe James, maybe Galatians—there's discussion about which one was first. But they don't have Romans, they don't have Corinthians, or 2 Corinthians, they don't have Hebrew, they don't have Revelation, they don't have John's gospel, they don't have the other gospels. I mean, their Bible is pretty small, and they don't even have one, actually. The letter is probably held very carefully by one of the leaders in the church, and it's read publicly, but they don't actually own their own Bible. Aren't you blessed? How many Bibles do you got at home or on your phone? Tons of them, right? They didn't have them. So what if they had problems in the assembly in Thessalonica? When we have a problem, we have case law. We can look, well, okay, there's a problem of sexual immorality in the assembly. Oh, wasn't there a problem like that in Corinth? Oh, yes, there was. How did they deal with it in Corinth? We can go to case law, and we can look at how to deal with it. They couldn't do that, because it hadn't happened yet, right? So they didn't know what to do. So God gave prophets for the foundational time of the church, right? The foundation is to start when you're just getting started. And prophets would come, and they would have a word for the assembly, and it would be the mind of the Lord concerning that particular issue that the assembly faced. And they'd say, Thus saith the Lord, and they'd give a message, and it was the right message for that occasion. The problem has always been that when you have prophets, you also have the potential of false prophets. Always been the case, mind you. You still have the problem with teachers. You have teachers, and you also have false teachers. So, you know, whichever way you look at it, there's a problem. But there was a problem with false prophets. In the Old Testament, it was a big problem. In the New Testament, it was a problem. And the Thessalonians were so concerned about doing things right that they were almost in danger. This pendulum swing, they're so scared about false prophets that there's a danger that they don't respond to true prophetic ministry. And so he says to them, Despise not prophesying. It's needed. You don't have the full Bible yet. You need this ministry. It's a vital ministry in the early days of the church. Don't despise it. But then he says, Prove all things. In other words, make sure that this prophetic revelation is in harmony with what God has already written. Test everything. It's the same today with teachers, right? Be a Berean. Search the Scriptures. See if they—this weekend. Don't just believe because Mike Atwood said it. You check it out in the Word of God. If what I'm saying is not biblical, throw it out, right? You have to discern. You have to check it, right? Prove it. Prove all things, he says. Hold fast that which is good. This is really a message from God. Deal with it. Hold on to it. It's right. And then he says, Abstain from all the appearance of evil. If this doesn't seem right, don't censor it. If there's something not right about this, stay away from it. And so how do we apply that today? Because we don't have prophesying, but we do have the Word of God, and we have people who bring to us God's message. And the question is, what do we do with it? When God brings that message to us, we could—it could be that the Spirit of God really is speaking to this assembly this weekend, right? We said, He that has ears, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. So we have the possibility of responding somehow to what we're hearing. On the other hand, we could quench the Spirit by not responding to what we're hearing, right? Is that a possibility? Let me tell you, this is a true story. I was in an assembly, and a brother came, and he gave a message. And I want to tell you, it was absolutely the message of the Holy Spirit for that assembly. And it was evident, after the meeting, nobody got up. Everybody just sat there. And then, afterwards, there were people getting up and going and asking forgiveness to different ones. God was doing something. But everybody got nervous. Well, the elders got nervous, and they closed the meeting. And they literally closed the meeting, because the Spirit was quenched. He wasn't done. He was working. Hurts were being healed. Things were being put together. It was amazing what God—and it was shut down prematurely, and now it's shut down. It doesn't exist anymore. And I believe what happened was, the Holy Spirit of God was deeply quenched that day. He was trying to do something, and they just poured cold water on it, and they put it out. The fire was out. It was gone for good. And we can see on an individual basis that sometimes the Spirit of God wants us to do something. He prompts us to activity, and we don't respond. Have you ever felt prompted to share the gospel with somebody by the Spirit of God and not done it? You probably may have met this guy, heard this guy, a friend of mine, Gary Weeks. He was a pilot for some commercial airline, and he had this burden to share the gospel with his coworker. And it was a very strong prompting, and he quenched the Spirit. His coworker was killed in a plane crash. My friend Gary said after that, he said, I will never ever resist the Spirit's promptings to witness again. And I'll tell you, he witnesses to anything that moves. But it was that occasion where he was clearly being prompted, and he quenched the Spirit. You've seen that at the Lord's Supper. Have you ever felt the Spirit of God leading you in a certain direction at the Lord's Supper, and you've maybe nervousness or whatever, and you haven't got up? And another brother got up and gave out the exact hymn, or prayed the same prayer, or shared the same scripture that you had been prompted to do, but you quenched the Spirit. But he said, I'll get somebody else. Don't worry about it. And he got somebody else to give exactly what he wanted. And so, it's very easy for us to quench the Spirit. We've got to be careful that we don't do that, and make sure that we're quick. Now, this idea of, let's just think a little bit further about this, extinguishing the sacred flame here, and this kind of paraphrase about it. It's kind of interesting, because there's three ways. I know this from the Yosemite Bible Conference. If you've ever been to the Yosemite, it's a great conference, really a beautiful location. But a lot of them, they cook on campfires. And it's important, because it's kind of a dry area, that you make sure that you quench the flame. You put the fire out. And there's three things that can do it. One is you can pour water on it, cold water on it. That puts it out. Another thing is that you can, if you're patient, you can just stop giving it fuel. And eventually, it'll die out without fuel. And the third thing is that you just cover it with dirt. And could we say this, that we're talking about this abundant life, this overflowing life. And there are three things that can really affect us. One is pouring cold water, as we've said, on the direct promptings of the Spirit of God. That really stops us from enjoying the abundant life. Third thing is when we stop giving fuel. Now, what's the fuel that the Spirit of God thrives on? The Word of God and prayer. Right? We need to keep the fuel. And then the third thing is dirt. If we spend our time looking at imbibing dirt, that will put any fire that we have for God out immediately. Right? We've got to be careful. That old song, it's a powerful song, be careful little eyes what you see. For the Father up above is looking down in love. Yes, be careful little eyes what you see, because dirt puts out the fire. We've already seen the Spirit can be resisted, stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart. You do always resist the Holy Spirit. I want to think about the leading of the Spirit, but I'll have to wait till tomorrow, because it's now 7.30. And tomorrow we'll think about the of the Spirit. We'll think about the symbols of the Spirit. And if we have any time left, we'll look at the gifts of the Spirit. But our time is gone. Let's pray. Father, we do just thank Thee for the work of the blessed Holy Spirit. And we do just desire greatly that we would not quench the Spirit when he prompts us to serve the Lord Jesus in some effective way. When a word of ministry comes and it speaks to us, we know that's the voice of the Spirit, but we just pour cold water on it all. Lord, forgive us that we've done such things, and help us not to grieve this blessed person, grieving him by stuff that comes out of our mouths that ought not to come out, stuff that's more suitable for the old man than the new man in Christ. And then, Father, we pray about the danger of harboring in our hearts bitterness and unforgiveness. Oh, Father, how can we, who have been forgiven so much, hold on to little offenses so that they cripple us spiritually? Lord, deliver us from this kind of thinking, and we'll be so quick to give Thee the praise and the glory and the worship in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. There we go. Thank you. I don't have much of a voice, but the Lord is gracious. So I used to have the volume that I could speak in service half mile away, and now I can't even yell. I'm yelling now. And while I'm saying that, we've made a prayer request. Some of the elders, we've submitted and listened to people, and we've tried to listen to the message and take notes. I was going to say, we're going to ask for corporate prayer. We've highlighted some of the notes of things that we think that apply to everybody here, regardless of where you attend, except whether it's here, St. Louis, North Carolina, all the way through in different places. And we just thank her for Brother Mike. I was going to say I'm going to close directly at eight, and then I was warned not to quench the Holy Spirit. I was listening all the way to the end. But as you see up here, we've put the list. Rather than me trying to go through and read, I'm going to give you all a minute to read it, think about it, whether this or any man that feels led to pray about any other situation. These are just some of the things. And then at the end, we've asked prayer as well. We have a wellness here on Monday night, and I know others that have the same groups going worldwide. And then the other thing that I will mention is just prayer for again, for tomorrow again, just that the Lord's name be glorified. He's being remembered right now, Sunday on the other side, the timeline all the way through. And the wonderful part is, and then I'll be quiet because I talk too much, and I've already taken four minutes. The Lord's given us one family, hadn't he? And so with that, I'm going to be quiet. Any man that feels led, and then however, I'm going to trust at the appropriate time that I will close in prayer, and I'm going to sit down. He would offer unto us the faith, the trust that it takes to experience the power of the Holy Spirit in man fully. And we pray for willingness of heart and willingness of mind to accept the difficulty that comes, knowing that when we accept that challenge, Father, when we accept the call of the Holy Spirit, when we accept it, Father, when we accept the feeling that that is the only place to find the true fullness of joy, and then to feel like it's enough. Father, we pray that each one individually and each of the assemblies represented here would see the increase of the Holy Spirit in their own personal lives and in their own local needs. We pray that the Holy Spirit would become more evident in the way that we feel our lives, in our prayer, in our motivations, in our believing, in our teachings, and in our conversation. May the Holy Spirit be evident that the Lord comes to our minds and the Lord comes to our hearts. As we just heard, when he gives us the wisdom, the strength, and the boldness not to question the Holy Spirit, knowing that his ministry is to glorify you and to quench him is to detract from the glory of you, our Father, and your saints. Father, give us the future perspective that we need to serve you in the way that we ought. May you give us a mindset that is set on heavenly things and not focused on the temporary. May you keep us from distractions. Father, may your name be glorified. We think of tomorrow morning as we come together to remember your son. May you bring each one here with hearts overflowing with joy and with baskets full. May you pour out our praise to the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, may our hearts be even fuller than they were before. May your spirit be even in tomorrow morning. May ultimately your son be glorified. We ask all of these things of his holy and precious name, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. God has always had a responsibility on us and we need to be just with us and many things of life. Just the fact that in spite of the efforts of faith in and to discredit us and spread lies about the Holy Spirit, the truth of faith has come to us. These are things that we just ask that the Holy Spirit continues to work in us and that in spite of the different encounters that we face and the circumstances that the Holy Spirit continues to be faithful and continues to be with us, everything is there. These things are the security that we have knowing that the Holy Spirit will be with us and will be with us for the rest of our lives and our work. As we continue to work these days on socializing, just pray that we may be open and listening to the Holy Spirit, listening to your will and just being willing to obey, willing to listen, willing to follow the instructions that we are given. We thank you for our reminders of the word of the priest. We thank you that we can see how the Holy Spirit continues to work in us, the differences amongst the different situations. Just pray for the rest of the day for those who are traveling, for those who are maybe in some other place or dealing with services. Let's pray a little compliment to the Lord for their needs. We thank you for the different privileges that you've been given, whether it's brothers and sisters in this time of need, people who have been dealing with sickness and other needs that you're facing. We thank you that that's so hurtful and so great to provide for all of us and we thank you for this time to bring all these things to me. Heavenly Father, I just want to offer a prayer of praise and thanks for you, for a God who deserves praise and thanks. We just want to thank you so much for your word, for the fact that your word is truth. We know we live in a confused world right now and without your word we would be just as confused, but we thank you that no matter what happens, no matter what the world thinks, we can know for a fact that your word is truth and that we can live upon it no matter what. We want to thank you this morning for your forgiveness that you have extended unto us. We know that we as guilty, evil sinners, do not even deserve to be in fellowship with you, but we know that through the sacrifice of your son Jesus on the cross, we are able to have fellowship with the creator of the universe, something we do not deserve, but we know that it is such a blessing to us. We thank you so much for your ability to gather together in a conference freely without being in fear that some may try to put a stop to this. We thank you just for this privilege to gather together under your word as we grow closer to you, we grow closer to each other and ultimately find that we love you more each and every single day and find out more about you each and every single day. And we finally, one more prayer, we want to pray that you will help us to not question the spirit, be better Christians for you than we were before we came to this conference, and we pray this so that ultimately we may turn it around and ultimately give the glory back to you, because that is our only purpose here. We pray that you will be selfless for the rest of our lives, ultimately pointing the arrow to you, the one who deserves this. We pray all this in your name, amen. Thank you so much for this evening to be together like this and it's been mentioned before. We have the freedoms to use of the speaker name openly and to carry your word with us and to open it and read it one to another and open them. Thank you so much to each and all for valuing this awesome privilege. Father, may we also keep it ever present in the minds of what it cost, what it cost you, it cost you your son to bring down his life on the cross and tell him the fullness. Father, may we also keep it ever present in the minds of the ordained. God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, I would like to invite you to speak, if you can't talk, speak also. You can't finish the script, speak also. And Father, we just pray that you keep it ever present in the minds of what we have in you as God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. And we just thank you for this privilege to live for you and everything that you do, to give to your honor and glory, to bring honor and glory to you and all that you do, how we interact and how we live in this world, how we present ourselves. May we all be prepared to share it, as I've told those around us and other people, our neighbors, our friends, our family members. We just pray all these things. Father, we thank you for your son. Lord, we come before you today, Lord, so often, Lord, in our prayers, Lord, we often need to say, Lord, nevertheless, our will be done, but it's your will. There is one kind of prayer, Lord, that we don't have to pray like that, and it's the prayer of salvation. You are not alone in each prayer, but all of them are in each prayer, so we know already that it is your will, and so we do not have to worry about asking a mix of prayers. So, Lord, we pray, Lord, that your will will be done, and Lord, that those that we love and care about, Lord, may they be saved. So may this, Lord, have family members who are unsaved, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, children, and friends, Lord, who are far away from you, Lord. And Lord, we just pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit will be convicting them, and proving to them, Lord, that they are in need, Lord, that they will stand before you in judgment one day and get their account. And also proving, Lord, that you are good. We pray, Lord, that they would see the fruits of the Spirit in our lives, and Lord, that they would see that fruit, Lord, and they would desire those same things, Lord. And we pray, Lord, that they would hasten to see it, Lord, as good. We say, Lord, we pray. We pray for all the people who are not only in this assembly, but of all the local churches and people visiting, Lord, that we pray that you would keep those who are unsaved, Lord. You know that you love them, and in the cycle of war and suffering, we are looking to come unto you, and we just pray for their protection, Lord. We pray, Lord, that the moment that they are able to comprehend and make a decision on gospel, Lord, that they would say yes, and be saved as soon as possible. Their souls would be secured in heaven. And Lord, just pray, Lord, that for each one of us, Lord, it is already said that, Lord, that you would be using us, that we would be fools, fit for the master's use. You would use us, Lord, to spread the gospel, that our very lives would be a testimony to your goodness, Lord. We pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would be in our lives, and that your work would absolutely be evident. So let me just pray for your will. You've got it in us, through us, Lord. We're praising, Lord, your holy name. God, we just thank you for your goodness to us. And again, thank you for the time that we're here because of this. In spirit, Lord, I know that at least in my life, in my heart, I do not appreciate your spirit as I am talking to you. I'm sure there are convicted fathers today that do not study, that do not know your Holy Spirit as their Godfather, and do not appreciate that as their father. So, God, we do just thank you for the spirit. We thank you, God, that you not only saw fit to give your son, Jesus Christ, to die upon a cross for our sins, but you saw that in me, and you gave us a helpful product. So we thank you, your son, Jesus Christ. We thank you for the Holy Spirit. We thank you, God, for those who live within us. God, we just mentioned, I'll say it again, I pray that there would not be people who clench the spirit, who would not pour water out at people or take dirt upon them. God, we would ask that the spirit would be alive and well in us, and we would get people who are being used as good as we see fit and desire. God, we would ask you to pray. I think there's just many different means that are represented here this evening. Pray about these three things. Lord, that you would give your work alive in those meetings. God, I pray that we would not be content, as in our local assemblies, to just exist. But God, that you would be alive and well and friendly, and that your spirit would be at work within us as a local body. Father, it certainly seems that the days are drawing near. We return and we pray, God, that you would return soon, or if you don't return soon. I pray, Lord, how many years you're giving to us. God, I pray that you would look to us forward to the end. God, we would not waste any more days, any more time. I think of that illustration we saw tonight of the glove stuffed with candy, and how appropriate that Michael put it on, thinking it was empty. There was a whole nice piece in his glove. God, what a troubling thought. It's such a strong picture of my heart so often, Father. I'm willing to get rid of certain things, but sometimes things I may not belong to. One last piece. God, I pray that we would be able to truly clean the house and make room for you to be alone. God, I would not make secret bedrooms, make closed doors, make a confessant, make a brother or sister that we've not dealt with. God, I would be open if you've already received that from me. God, I would just be humble before you, Father. I pray for my own heart, but on the other hand, I pray for my own heart. Father, humble us, God, that you would give us a receipt that you would expand. Amen. Father, heavenly, thank you for tying us all together today. Thank you for the family that we have for each other. We need to be able to give to one another. I'm singing a song, from the wonder of what I feel it, from the beauty of God I love. Here's my heart, but I can't even see it, it's literally full of love. You've made us, you've created me, you know me, you still love me, even if you think I've done it. I thought so often, I keep back what I want from myself, instead of letting the Lord's Spirit take control of you. I'm praying that we're sealed with this Lord's Spirit. You've been a down payment, it's a by-factor, you've guaranteed our salvation. You've done all the work. I surrender to you fully, to be filled with the Lord's Spirit. I pray that you can use us, room and center, to your purpose. I pray that you can clean our hearts, help us to serve you. I pray that you glorify him, in our lives. I just thank you for this time you've had, to gather around your word, and continue to pray for me tomorrow, and pray for you soon. Our Heavenly Father, we just thank Thee, that when we accept the Lord Jesus Christ, we're sealed by the Spirit. That eternal promise, that the good work that you've accomplished on that cross, that you're making us more like the Son, has been asked and prayed for, as that old nature rears its ugly head, a reminder that we have to daily die to ourselves, and serve you, and a constant reminder that I keep that door closed, and that one closet. Lord, again, we thank Thee that, in spite of ourselves, that your name is above all names. We just ask that our testimony would be true, that your name would be glorified. Our Heavenly Father, we realize that you leave us here to be a witness. You ask us to go and preach your word. It's been asked, saying that you empower us with everything. We're the ones that limit that. Lord, again, we just thank Thee that we can come together, and offer our praise. Lord, just your tender mercy each day, how you give it, how you pour it out. Again, just, I don't think we'll ever have even any idea until we see you face to face, and see that glory, be able to prostrate ourselves, and all praises flow to the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal One. Heavenly Father, again, we just thank Thee for this night. Again, we would just ask for travel mercies as we travel back, different places. Again, just for safety, for your guiding, protection. Lord, we know that everything's in your hands. And again, we just, that constant reminder that we have to entrust everything to you. Again, we just thank Thee for this time. These things we just ask in our Lord Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Thank you.