Go Ye Therefore

Always seems weird to call you Mrs. Light, but thank you Mrs. Light for the offeratory music. It's very nice. And good afternoon, everyone. It is kind of interesting. It's been a while since this phase has seen the light of day. In fact, I shaved everything off not too long back, and one of my students came in first period and thought that I was a sub.

Hey, I'm so-and-so, you're a sub today, and I'm looking and I'm going, really? Seriously? But it's been a while. In fact, the kids were asking because they wanted to draw they wanted to draw a little tombstone for my beard on the board. And they asked me, when was the last time that you were completely clean shaven? And I had to think back in 2009. I think it was the last time. So, yeah, it's a little different. It's a little bit different. So, brethren, it is an absolute pleasure to be over here with you today on this fantastic day of Pentecost. It always is a pleasure coming over. It's so nice to see so many visitors and so many folks that are back from ABC and just here visiting and whatever else. It seems weird to say visitors, as Shannon and I really are kind of visitors, but places have begun to feel like home. So, it's really nice to see such a large crowd today, especially on such a momentous day as today, the day of Pentecost. Well, there have always been moments in the history of mankind that are major events. There have always been moments that are major events. Decisive military battles, scientific discoveries, political choices, large-scale societal trends. These are places in human history where mankind found itself at a fork in the road, staring at two possibilities. Down one road is one possibility, down the other is another, and two very vastly different outcomes down those roads. And then they're required to make a choice of which road they're going to travel. Sometimes mankind is chosen wisely, but at other times, as we well know, mankind is chosen very poorly. But that choice always leads to another opportunity, which leads to another opportunity, which leads to another opportunity. Sometimes even there isn't a choice. Man simply finds himself on a path that will change history regardless of their decision. We call these moments in history watershed moments. Call them turning points. And they represent a point in time where the remainder of human history after that point would be forever changed by that event. The election of 1860. Battle of Gettysburg. The Bolshevik Revolution.

Fleming's discovery of penicillin, the invasion of Normandy, the hippie movement of the 1960s, postmodernism, the Cold War. The list goes on and on. And at each step, had it gone the other way, things would be vastly different today. In fact, there's whole genres of science fiction that have dealt with this. What would have happened had this not happened? You know, how would the world have been different? We sometimes colloquially refer to these as game changers. They're these items that are such vast importance that the game would never be the same again. But typically we use that phrase in referring more to an individual than we do to an event. For example, Michael Jordan was a game changer to the game of basketball. Steve Jobs was a game changer in the personal electronic device market. Mark Zuckerberg was a game changer in the world of social media. But we're not here today to talk about Michael Jordan or Steve Jobs. We aren't here to discuss the finer points of Lincoln's election of 1860 and its implications on the Civil War or the accidental discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming. There was another game changer and turning point that occurred in human history, which was arguably more influential and far more important than any of these events or any of the individuals that we just stated. Turn with me, please, to Acts 2. Let's start today where most may predict we start. Acts 2.

We're going to go through Acts 2 today. We'll start in verse 1. Acts 2 and verse 1. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly, as this was alluded to by Mr. Miller this morning, suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, there's some debate as to how many received the Holy Spirit at this point in time, whether it was the 120 that Peter and the rest of them met with back in Acts 1 or whether it was just the 12 apostles. But the way I look at it is besides the point. The result, ultimately, is the same. Verse 5. They were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Notice it's not garbled. It's not gibberish. It's not a language that can't be interpreted like many of the tongues that are spoken today in some of the modern Pentecostal churches. These were individuals that were speaking languages that these men knew, that they didn't know before. It's a pretty incredible thing. Then they were all amazed and marbled, saying, to want another look. Are not all these who speak? Galileans. And how is it that we hear each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontius and Asia, Persia and Pampillia, Egypt and the parts of Libya, joining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and Proselytes, Cretans and Arabs. We hear them speaking in our own tongues, the wonderful works of God. So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, whatever could this mean? Others mocking, said, now they're totally white.

Some of the first responses of those that were deriding this, regardless of their nationality, clearly they're drunk. That's the obvious explanation. Clearly they're drunk, as some sort of drunken rambling could be done in multiple languages that then could be coherently understood in each of their individual languages. But instead, for those who were mocking, this is their way of attempting to explain away an obvious miracle.

Peter's response is entertaining. I always like this response. Verse 14, But Peter standing up with the eleven raised his voice and said to the men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it's only the third hour of the day. Kind of a joke there. Kind of a joke there. Look, it's only nine o'clock. These guys aren't drunk. Get real. What you're seeing here is something else entirely, and you know exactly what it is. You know that this is a miracle that you're denying. You know you've heard of this happening before. They're in complete denial here. Verse 16, But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. So he reminds him, Look, this has been predicted to have occurred. The prophet Joel said it, And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that it will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. And on my men servant, my maid servant, I will pour out my spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above, signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smother. The sun shall be turned to darkness, the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls in the name of the Lord shall be saved. We see in this moment the partial fulfillment of a prophecy recorded in Joel 2. God states in the last days the spirit will be poured out on all mankind. Clearly, this has not been completely and totally fulfilled at this point when Acts 2 was recorded, but it's certainly a partial fulfillment of this prophecy with additional fulfillment to come. Peter then immediately goes into laying on them their guilt. Verse 22, Men of Israel hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know, him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, you have crucified, and you have put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by him. Quote David here in verse 25 for David says concerning him, I foresaw the Lord before my face, always before my face, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, my tongue was glad, moreover my flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your holy one, all capitalized there, to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life, you will make me full of joy in your presence. Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch, David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne. He, for seeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus whom you crucify, both Lord and Christ. He tells the people here, look, David died. David died. The patriarch that you hold up on this pedestal died. His flesh knew corruption. He wasn't raised to the right hand of God. He wasn't resurrected. He's still in his grave today, and that grave is among us.

But Christ, the very man that David spoke of, who would become a future king, he died. He was resurrected. His flesh knew not corruption, and he fit the bill of what David described as Messiah, the man that you crucified. Paul unequivocally tells the Jews gathered to listen that Christ was the game changer, that his arrival changed the game, and I say that very loosely, but changed the game entirely. His arrival as Messiah meant that human history would never be the same. Would never be the same. Verse 37, now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who were afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. Incredible, incredible promise in the end of verse 39, as far off as the Lord will call. Brethren, that's us. That's us.

To their credit, at this time, approximately 3,000 received the words that Peter spoke. They repented, they were baptized, and they went out into the world to do God's work. It doesn't state how many of that group, if any, didn't. But God began his modern work on that day of Pentecost and what we believe to be 31 A.D. And this piece of God's plan is absolutely pivotal. This day represents a watershed moment in the plan of God. It was absolutely essential, and without it, we are unable to get to the next stage of the plan. This day had to happen. It had to happen. But why? Why was it so necessary? You know, when Christ came, he met with significant resistance from the very people that God had worked with for hundreds of years. He was rejected by the very people who should have welcomed him with open arms. Let's go to Matthew 5. Let's go over to Matthew 5. We'll begin to set up the reason that this part of God's plan was such a necessity. Matthew 5. Matthew 5, we'll pick it up in verse 17.

Matthew 5 verse 17.

Matthew 5 verse 17 says, Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law until all is fulfilled.

Many in today's modern Christian churches argue that Christ's death accomplished the law. That was that. That as at that point the law was nullified, but we know, we recognize this, that couldn't be further from the truth. Christ's coming amplified our understanding of what the law was. It amplified what it meant and what it entailed through us in our lives.

A bit further down in Matthew 5 and verse 27, we see one specific example of this amplification. We see one specific example of how it was amplified. Okay, so Matthew 5, 27, and we'll read through 29. It says, This is something that all of it would have been listening there, would have known, would have heard, from the days, you know, when they were really young little types learning the law in the Torah for the first time.

But I say to you, here's the amplification, that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. No physical contact had taken place by the Jewish definition of adultery at that time. It hadn't happened. But Christ brought in a new application and understanding of how the law worked. Not a lessening, not a slackening of the law, but a more stringent law that focused on matters of the heart. Suddenly, it wasn't enough in your life to be able to check off your mental list as you went through the day.

Now, I'm doing well. I didn't kill anybody today. Check. I didn't break the Sabbath. Check. I didn't commit adultery. Check. Didn't worship idols. Check. You know, write down that list of 10 commandments and check in off each one as you go through your day. When Christ came and established His teaching, the Spirit of the law asked us, yeah, how did you treat the fellow man?

Did you treat him in hate for his fightful manner? How did you spend your Sabbath time? You may not have actually cheated on your spouse, but did you look upon someone with that mental intent? You may not have bowed down to a golden calf, but did you spend time with God or did you forsake your time with God for a distraction? Christ's coming changed the game. He anted up our spiritual lives in such a big way, and therein lies the problem. He anted up our spiritual lives so much that without the Spirit of God working in our life, it's unattainable.

Paul in Romans 7 talks about this. Let's go to Romans 7. It talks about this struggle with carnality. Romans 7. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 22 just to kind of get some of the context.

But Romans 7 verse 22, yep, just like I thought, still comes after Acts. Didn't change it. It's funny sometimes when you're heading in the right direction, your thumbs just don't want to cooperate. Romans 7. I'm going to go ahead and pick it up in 22 for just a little bit of context. He's talking here about this battle with carnality, this back and forth, this back and forth with human nature, and then with the Spirit of God within this kind of battle royale that occurs within himself. These difficulties, these pulls of the flesh, they kind of concludes ultimately in verse 22.

We'll go to Romans 7. 22 and 23. Romans 7. 22 says, For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. In other words, I love the law of God.

I delight in it. But I delighted it up here. It's kind of an academic delight. My actions may not illustrate that delight. Paul's saying he's got head knowledge. He knows it's right. He knows it's good. He knows God's law is fantastic. But the follow through can be lacking. And Paul was an apostle. He had God's Spirit.

Brethren, so do we. Without asking for a show of hands, I wouldn't do that to you. I venture against that many of you can identify with this battle between our Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God and our lives, and carnality. Kind of what Paul's getting at here in Romans 7. Can you imagine for a moment how difficult this life would be without God's Spirit? Without God's Spirit. Not that it's easy with it. Not that it's easy with it. But imagine trying to navigate the difficulties of this life with no internal compass. Nothing inside of a saying. No, no, no, no, no. No, that way. No, no, no, no, no. No. That way. Without that internal compass. Nothing inside of us to help us discern. Nothing inside of us that helps us to understand what God is doing. Would we obey? Maybe. Would we understand why? Probably not. Probably not. Ancient Israelites didn't fully understand why they did the things they did. So much of what they did were types pointing forward to what we experienced today. What the New Testament church was set up to do. And so much of what they did... I mean, they got God's commands, they got his statutes, they got his laws, and sometimes they obey. But we've been with this chronological reading thing. We just got done with Isaiah. And Isaiah is so much of a treatise on, you guys messed up. Isaiah is so much of a treatise on, you guys messed up. And this is what you should have been doing. And you didn't. And in looking at the Old Testament, it seems like more often than they obeyed, they didn't. It really seems that way in a lot of cases. They obeyed because God demanded it, and they missed the point. Christ came and they didn't even realize. That's what the entirety of the Torah, the prophets, and all of the other Old Testament books pointed to. That was the point of the Old Testament. Israel knew these laws academically. They knew what God required of them. They had the head knowledge. They even added 400-plus things to shield that from being broken.

They knew what God required. They had an academic knowledge, but an academic knowledge of the law wasn't enough. God desired that His people would keep the law for the right reasons, that they would love Him with all their heart and with all their soul, as that lawyer quoted to Christ in Luke 10. Let's go to Deuteronomy 5. We'll see a little bit of a lamentation from God here. Deuteronomy 5, inspired to be written down by Moses. Deuteronomy 5 verse 29. You can just hear, almost hear the emotion in it. Deuteronomy 5 verse 29.

All the academic knowledge in the world wasn't enough. Deuteronomy 5 verse 29. Illinois 7 Dogs It's something that I think really fits in this particular thing. Many of you know that I teach. In my classroom, we begin the year in a very specific place. We come in and we have new students that show up. They don't know me. I don't know them. I probably yelled at them in the hallways to quit running or quit messing around or something. That's the extent of our relationship. I don't know them very well at all. There's one of two ways that things kind of go. At the beginning, they obey what I tell them to do, either one, because they're afraid of the consequences of what will happen if they don't. Which is, to be honest, the majority of the students. That's probably the majority of the kids. Or, because I bribe them in some way. I mean, realistically. So they're either afraid of the consequences, negative reinforcement, or they want some kind of a reward, which is positive reinforcement. Kind of like when you train a puppy. But, you know, at this stage in my classroom, we don't have a relationship beyond, like, I'm the keeper of the candy and the detentions. I mean, that really is the extent of our relationship at that point. And, you know, if it stays like this, we'll never reach the later stages of the relationship. We'll never get past that. I will always be the keeper of the candy and the detentions. You know, even though this is where we start each year, as the year goes on and the kids realize that I really do have their best interests at heart, my rules really aren't that tyrannical. And they find out that I'm kind of funny and sarcastic. In other words, I kind of act like an overgrown version of them. You know, I typically, when I'm over, we develop enough of a relationship with those students that they do what I ask them to do, not because there's a reward or a consequence, but simply because it's me that asks them to do it. And it's amazing to me when I will see kids outside of the classroom setting, you know, and this last week we had an assembly and it was one of the most notable, one of the most notable examples of this. I got a kid over there messing around in the middle of the assembly on the opposite side of the gym. I'm over here and I'm looking going, all right, how am I going to get to this kid? So I'm looking and I kind of look and he looks my way and I kind of get his attention and his teacher's been been going at him the whole time, stop it, knock it off, quit it, quit it. I just look at him and I go, yeah.

All right. And it's like, you know, that's where we need to get, though. That's where that relationship needs to get. God does not want us to obey Him purely for self-preservation. He does not want us to obey for self-preservation. If we're obeying God only so that we don't end up in the lake of fire, yes, we're obeying and that's great. But are we obeying for all the long reasons?

Do we run the risk of losing out because we got the process wrong? Or is all obedience the same?

Likewise, God doesn't want us to obey Him so that we can receive a reward.

Sure, we're obeying, but once again, what does our relationship with God look like? If we need extrinsic motivation, if we need some kind of a reward to go and have a relationship with our Father, we've got a problem spiritually. We have a problem spiritually. We have to be motivated by something within ourselves, not extrinsic, but intrinsic, within ourselves, motivated.

We may start at a place where we fear God, where we have, you know, this keeper of the candy and detention sort of relationship, but we have to move past that. We have to get to the point where we have a relationship with our Father that enables us to obey Him for the right reasons. And, brethren, that relationship is impossible without God's Holy Spirit. Without God's Holy Spirit, that relationship cannot happen. The heart has to be there. He wants us to obey Him because we internally understand His plan. That we've evaluated the alternatives. That we've looked at, okay, here are all the roads that I could go down. And I want this road. This is the road, the narrow way. I want the difficult path. I want to go through this path. That we've made the conscious decision that God's way is better. And that Holy Spirit helps us get there. You know, like the men on that day of Pentecost following Christ's sacrifice, we're called by God. We hear His teachings. We internalize it. We repent of the sins that we've committed. We're baptized. We receive the Holy Spirit. We go through that conversion process. With all of our additional understanding and the spiritual growth that comes from a life that's been dedicated to God, we buy into what God's way of life entails.

We begin moving away from that obedience for self-preservation or reward and into an obedience because we love God. We want to be part of His plan. So how does the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, a pivotal part of God's Holy Day plan, get us there? With the time we have left today, I'd like to briefly examine three points. The three points we'll examine in the time we have left, is that, number one, the Holy Spirit gives us insight into the mind of God.

The Holy Spirit gives us insight into the mind of God. Point number two, the Holy Spirit enables us to love one another and to love God. So to love one another and to love God. And then the third point is that the Holy Spirit helps us to grow spiritually. These are all things that the Holy Spirit provides for us to help us to achieve this sort of relationship with God. So it gives us insight into the mind of God, enables us to love one another and to love God, and helps us to grow spiritually. You know, it's interesting, the world has access to God's ideas and teachings now.

The Bible is one of the best-selling books in human history. Almost every household has a copy, or two, or three in the house. And sadly, many of them are collecting dust. Sit in our shop. You know, Mr. Armstrong used to always say, you know, blow the dust off your Bible. You know, dig that thing out, really get into it. You know, as an author, you can gather an understanding of the author's ideas by reading the words that they've written, or in the case of God, inspire to be written. I remember when I was in college, I took an American literature class, which was, I don't know if this is to be fair, and I was in a atrocious class. It was not a lot of fun. It was not my favorite class in the world. I'm more science-minded. I'm not much of a literature guy. You know, I don't like arguing over ideas that were reading things into this book that who knows if that's what the author actually meant, but we're going to argue about it. Didn't make sense to me. I like concrete things, black and white, no gray areas. But we had one of the readings that was assigned to us was a book called, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. And it was a book written by an Indian-American author named Sherman Alexey. And actually, the year that we read that, that movie had just been made into this critically acclaimed Sundance Film Festival-winning movie called Smoke Signals. I don't recommend either the book or the movie. I'm not going to do that. We were required to read it for the class. And you know, we did. We read through it in the class, and we sat in our room, not one of us Native American, not one of us, and we sat in the room, and we talked about, well, what does he mean by this? What does he mean by this? We had no idea what he meant by that. We didn't know. We don't know what life on a reservation is like. We don't know. We're so distant from this, we have no clue. So, the one cool thing was, I mean, so we could understand what that was like. But I thought I understood it for the most part. You know, academically, I could read it, I could look at it, I could say, yeah, this just seems to be what he's getting at. But then what was kind of cool was, it turns out my American Literature teacher knew Sherman Alexi personally. He's a local there in Spokane, kind of one of our Spokane celebrities, grew up on the on the Colville Indian Reservation, just north of Spokane. But he came to the college to screen the movie at her request. So he came out, we just got done reading the book, he came out, he screened the movie, and then she talked him into sticking around, and our class would get this little personal discussion with him when it was all over with. After that discussion, I came away with such a greater understanding of that novel, why it was written, how it was written, what was going on in his mind at the time that he wrote it, and why he wrote this one way or that, and really what was the difference? The difference was I had an all-access pass to the mind of the author.

I had an all-access pass to the mind of the author. Let's go over to 1 Corinthians. We'll head to chapter 2, get started today. 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

But 1 Corinthians 2, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 10. We'll see the presence of the Holy Spirit in a person's life give someone a distinct advantage when it comes to understanding God. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 10. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 10. I might mean 2 Corinthians. Hang on one second. Yep, I think I want 2 Corinthians. My apologies. I'd love to say that that was a stutter on my part, but I have written into my notes 1 Corinthians 2 verse 10.

Okay. Was it one? Did I just miss it? Oh man, Jeff, you're gonna have to strike that one from the record. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 10. I was in 10, that's what happened. 2 Corinthians 10. There we go. Underlined even. But God has revealed them to us through his Spirit. These things have been revealed to us through his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things. Yes, the deep things of God. Those mysteries. But what man knows the things of a man except the Spirit of the man which is in it? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Verse 12. Now we have received, not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For who is known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him, but we have the mind of Christ. Paul is expressly telling the people of Corinth, the only way to understand the deep mysteries of God is for God to share that mind with us. For that Holy Spirit to be able to open those things up to our understanding. He even goes on to say, look man's mind and God's mind are so far apart on the spectrum. Mind's mind alone isn't enough. It's not enough for them to understand it. You look at how Christians are portrayed in the world today. There's been a series of high-profile debates recently between Christianity and evolution, one of which was last name's ham. And Bill Nye the Science Guy, over creationism and evolution. You look at things like Twitter, and you look at some of these other things after those sorts of debates. And look at what's being said about the Christian argument, about the Christian side of things. And they absolutely think it's foolishness. They absolutely light up the Christian side of things, one side up, one side down, the other. And there are a lot of academics out there today who are experts in their respective field. They're some of the greatest thinkers the world has ever known. You look at people like Aristotle, Descartes, Lael, Michio Cacu, who's a theoretical physicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson. Without the Holy Spirit, they can't understand the things that God is revealed to you. They can read the same passage of Scripture. They can read the words in Greek and Hebrew. They can read the historical context of the passage. And when it's all said and done, we have this expectation, like, we can look at them and go, see, see what I'm saying? And the reality is they'll look back at you dumbfounded, or disagree entirely. They don't have God's mind. They don't have a piece of God's mind. They haven't been given the pass. God hasn't shared it with them yet. Yet? One of the most important components of God's plan was to pour out that Spirit on all flesh, not just those He's chosen at this time, but every man, woman, child, Jew, Greek, Arab, to give all of them access to Him, to His mind, and to His ways. So, let's turn over to Joel 2. We'll pick up that part that Peter was quoting in Acts 2. Joel 2, verse 28, is part of Peter's sermon to the men there in Acts 2. Joel 2, verse 28.

Joel 2, verse 28, says, and it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, and also on my men servant and my main servants will I pour out my Spirit in those days. Verse 30, And it shall come to pass, that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance. As the Lord has said among the remnant whom the Lord calls.

The pouring out of God's Spirit on mankind enables people to understand the mind of God. Can you imagine the entire world given access to the mind of God? Given the opportunity to understand who and what God is, how He looks at the world around us, how He looks at us, what part we play in that plan. The Holy Spirit's presence in our life is integral to being able to understand God. Without His mind in us, we're just not able to understand the mysteries of God. We simply can't do it. The second point was that the Holy Spirit helps us to love one another and to love God. You know, as an organization, United has taken a lot of heat for preaching about love, and we really have. It was a major focus of Mr. Luker's personal ministry, and I think it had an increased focus within UCG while he was president. It's one of those topics that we hear is kind of a primary focus in mainstream Christian churches today, even though they completely misunderstand what it means and mispreach how it works. But as such, I think when we hear the word, our hackles go up. You know, a little bit. But there's a mainstream focus on that a little bit, and it kind of seems to be a stigma that goes along with it. But just because it's a focus in mainstream Christian churches today and that they misapply it, it doesn't mean it's biblically wrong that it should be avoided. God is love. His very character is love. And I feel our increased focus on this topic recently, I personally feel, is God inspiring us as a group to recognize, you know, we haven't done this well in the past. We really haven't done love well in the past. Throughout the years, we've kind of failed miserably in that category. You know, I think that's we're having these opportunities to show that and have these things come up. But part of that, part of the hang-up that people have is there seems to be this idea that when we preach about love, what we're really saying is tolerance. And I think in some people's minds, love equals tolerance. And that means that we're supposed to look the other way when our brother is living in sin and that we're, you know, supposed to keep from offending our brother when they're doing something wrong. And that couldn't be heard of for the truth. Sin and sin, transgression, transgression. Love is not the same as tolerance. Love means clothing ourselves in humility, going to God, working through the steps of Matthew 18 when we see these situations, and really attempting to intervene for the very life of our brother. It's that serious.

Intervening for the very life of our brother. You know, the onus of change is on them. It's up to them to make the change. We can't do it for them. But we have to care enough about them to try. We have to care enough about them to try. We have to love them enough to make the effort and not just look the other way when something's going wrong. But if the relationship between those two brethren is weak, or if the relationship between those two people with God is weak, both part of either the corrector is the correctee, if that's the right word, the action comes across as accusatory. It comes across as an attack rather than the loving correction that was intended. I had kind of a interesting situation that had occurred with this. I'm not the best organizer in the world. I'm not terribly organized. I'm somebody who very often is kind of last minute on things.

There's another person that's in our congregation that's the exact opposite of that. I had made a slight, and I had ended up causing a situation. The response, rather than just kind of pull-aside discussion, was like a seven-page email that kind of outlined all of the things that I'd done wrong. Our relationship at the time wasn't terribly strong. My response was, how could I even say that? It wasn't there. The relationship was not where it needed to be, and that was my fault. My relationship needed to be in a better place, both with God and with this person. But if we're not careful, and that relationship isn't there, correcting someone comes across as accusatory even when it's not necessarily intended. So we have to be very careful with that. That love has got to be agape love. It's got to come from the Spirit of God. Rather, that love's not capable in us as humans unless the Spirit of God is poured out on us. Let's go over to 1 John 4. 1 John 4. 1 John 4. We'll see a passage that discusses the love of God, discusses the kind of love that we need to have for one another. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 7, and we'll establish a point here where the Holy Spirit is necessary for us to achieve agape. 1 John 4, verse 7, we'll start there. It says, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In order for us to know God, we have to exhibit love for one another because, according to John, God's character is love. To love is to understand God. To have agape for the people is to understand God. Verse 9, in this the love of God was manifested towards us that God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Let me see the full manifestation here of God's love, that he was willing to sacrifice his son for our salvation. That self-sacrificing love is the kind of love that we work towards and exhibit towards one another. Verse 12 goes on to say, as soon as I find it, there we go, 4-12, sorry, no one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. Because God has given us his Holy Spirit, it abides in us.

Then we are capable of loving one another as he's loved us. If we love one another, God continues to abide in us. That Holy Spirit allows us to achieve agape, and again, I personally believe you're unable to exhibit this kind of love for another person without the Spirit of God in your life. Agape itself is unattainable apart from God. It's a reflection of his character in your life, derived from his Holy Spirit. That's not in someone who does not have God's Spirit. You can't have the character of God. It's not there. I think you can have other forms of love and very highly advanced other forms of love. But agape comes from the Spirit of God. We're commissioned to love one another. We're commissioned to love God, and it's impossible for us to truly love God or love one another without that Holy Spirit active in our lives. Last point today is that the Holy Spirit helps us to grow spiritually. I was actually talking with someone a while back after services. We were talking about the Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit leads and changes us, and they related kind of a funny story of someone that they ran into from their past a while back. They hadn't seen each other for quite some time, and they were reconnected. They talked for a little bit, and the person's comment to them as they were getting ready to depart was, hey, you're not as much of a jerk as you used to be. And the person's response is kind of a, thanks! Hey, wait a minute! You know, but we laugh. The reality of it is the Holy Spirit changes you. The Holy Spirit is transformative. God picks us up wherever we're at, shakes us off, puts us down. And we know people come to God's truth in different stages. They come from different places, different levels of understanding. And the Holy Spirit points them in the direction of the standard that Christ provided for us. It doesn't matter where you started. The expectation of completion is here. Maybe you started up here. Maybe you started back. That's okay. Here's where you're heading. Everybody's going the same direction. This is the standard. This is the goal line. Doesn't matter if you've got a little longer to walk. But this is the goal line. And we know it's a tall order. We know it's a tall order. But through actively working in our lives, the Holy Spirit provides us with access to the knowledge of God, provides us the love to be able to interact with both man and God. And most importantly, it gives us the strength to change.

The strength to change. That strength to transform. Spiritual growth isn't capable unless the Spirit of God is poured out. As you may have predicted, we'll head over to Galatians 5. Mr. Miller went there today. We'll go over to Galatians 5, 22, and 23. Reinforce, reiterate, revisit. That's a good teaching tool, right? Repeat it, repeat it, repeat it, repeat it, repeat it, repeat it, repeat it. Okay, I'm done. Galatians 5 verse 22.

Sometimes there's a danger in going over it too much. You can start tuning out. But you can't go over this one too much. Galatians 5 verse 22 and 23. You'll see here in this particular passage characteristics should be present in the life of a believer. Actually, you know, we're going to pick up the context in verse 16. I think we're going to go back to 16 and get the context. It says, I say then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. In other words, if you're walking in the Spirit of God, you're not going to fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh, that war that Paul talked about in Romans 7. And these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. A lot of people stop there and go, Woo-hoo! I'm led by the Spirit! I'm not under the law! I can do whatever I want! Now we've got to keep going.

Verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are evident. In other words, they're noticeable. People see it. It's out on your sleeve, so to speak. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. It's quite a list.

You look around the world around you today. You can read the paper in one day and you can almost check all those off. Revelries and the like of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. God's clear. These things don't get you there. These things don't get you there. But, as often, he'll say, here's the things that don't, but here's the things that do. Let's go to verse 22. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law. You know, Paul tells the believers at the Laisha that walking in the Spirit keeps you from the lust of the flesh. Actively, as Mr. Miller mentioned this morning, actively stoking the fire of the Holy Spirit, living a life that's influenced by it, allows you to avoid a fleshly life. He also goes on to say that these two ways, again, are in opposition to each other, physical, physical, spiritual, spiritual. They're direct opposition. But being led by the Spirit will enable somebody to live a life where they're not under the law. Now, probably should qualify that a little bit. A Spirit-filled life fulfills the requirement of the law and more because the heart is involved, as well as the brain. It's not just academic. The heart is involved. You're living it rather than just knowing it. You're living it. He goes on to list these characteristics in 22 and 23 that are exhibited in the life of a person who is being led by the Spirit. Contrast those with the fruits of the spirit of a less-filled life. We're actively allowing ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit. These characteristics will be exhibited in the life. We're finding we're having difficulties with these things. We're constantly having issues with patience or we're constantly having issues with love, joy, peace, any of the list in 22 and 23. We need to stop treating the symptom and go to the source. The symptom is that we're having difficulties with these things. The source is we're not being led by the Spirit. If we're having problems in those aspects of our life, when we're led by the Spirit, those things will be evident, just like they're evident in the life of flesh. It might mean that our human nature is getting in the way and that human nature is driving the bus. It has to change. We spiritually grow as time goes on and we should be able to look back five years back and recognize a completely different person. We should be able to go 5, 10, 15 years back and see it in person. That Holy Spirit gives each of us that little voice. It's that little voice in the back of our head that says, no, no, no, no, no, not that way. This way.

This way. But then comes the hard part. It's up to us to have the courage to follow that voice. It's up to us to recognize it, have the courage to follow that voice. The pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the believers on the Pentecost following Christ's crucifixion was a major turning point in human history. Christ's coming changed the game. And after the Holy Spirit fell on those men, gathered together that day in history, nothing in the human experience would ever be the same again. God's plan at that moment in time was in motion. That was the start. That was the spark of that fire. You know, this pivotal part of His plan, that pouring out of His Holy Spirit, was an absolute necessity. It enabled His followers to understand His plan, His way, to search out and to understand the mysteries of God, to really dig deep in the Scripture. It enabled His followers to love one another and to love Him with their heart. And lastly, the pouring out of that Holy Spirit enabled God's people to grow towards the standard that Christ had provided. Without that Holy Spirit in our lives, without the events of this day, day of Pentecost, these things would not be possible. Let's go to Acts 17, verse 6. We'll turn there for the final Scripture today, Acts 17, verse 6.

Still after Romans.

Or before Romans, I mean. Sorry. Essentially the wrong place. Oh, that's right. It's after. Nope. Acts 17, verse 6.

Acts 17, verse 6 says, But when they did not find them there, they were looking for the disciples that had gone out at that point, but when they did not find them there, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, these who have turned the world upside down have come here, too. Now, this particular thing was kind of a little bit put on. They were trying to cause a ruckus in this particular situation. But what's interesting is it shows the rest of the world's reaction to the spirit and to the zeal that these men left that moment of the day of Pentecost with.

There was an Acts mentioned that it was a prevailing line of thought that these men went out into the world and turned the world upside down, that they set it on fire, that they went out and they just went out with such a spirit and such a zeal. They had gone out from the pouring out of the spirit of God so full of that spirit that they preached the gospel message and changed the world. And brethren, that's our commission as well. Go ye therefore.