The Mighty Power of God's Holy Spirit!

Thank you for the special music. Appreciated that very much. Also appreciated the auditory music. Glad we have such fine musicians and vocalists here in our congregation. Well, brethren, we live in a very interesting world. At least, I think so. I think this is a very interesting world, especially given the fact that we have the knowledge of God's truth to help us interpret what's going on in this world. I think it would be pretty frightening without this understanding, because there is a lot going on down here on planet Earth, and a lot of it can be pretty confusing.

So I find life absolutely fascinating. I believe I've lived a very interesting life, largely because God called me and revealed to me the meaning of life and death. At a very young age, I was a teenager, 18 years old, when God called me into his church. And then, at age 30, I was ordained into the ministry. So I suppose I have a certain perspective because of basically dedicating my life to this belief and this cause. And I know that's true, actually, for anyone who's a church member. It isn't just an elder. I mean, we all dedicate our lives, don't we?

This is the most important thing to us. I have an opportunity to spend a little more time, because this is also my job. So maybe I have a little bit more time to reflect on things, regardless. I don't know. But I know all of us are very dedicated to God's truth and God's way of life.

And I believe this makes life quite interesting. And the Holy Spirit has a huge impact in our lives, doesn't it? Have you ever thought about the huge impact of God's Spirit in your life personally? The power of God's Holy Spirit may not be overestimated. I don't believe we can overestimate the power of God's Spirit. I don't think we're capable of overestimating the power of God's Spirit. I don't believe that we are humanly capable of fully grasping the mighty power of God.

It's an impossible task for us. Now, I wouldn't be talking about the subject of the power of God's Holy Spirit if I didn't believe we could grasp some very important truths about God's Spirit from the Bible. I wouldn't waste your time.

I wouldn't waste mine. The Bible does say a lot about God's Holy Spirit. And Scripture tells us that God's Spirit will lead us into all truth. It's God's Spirit that has led us here today. I believe you're here because of God's Holy Spirit. God's Spirit has opened your mind to truth. God's Spirit has put it upon your heart, pricked your heart, in a sense, so that you're here today.

This is a good place to be. We're congregating as God's children, as God's people, because we love God, we love His way of life. And the Holy Spirit is working in us. And we should not grieve the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is leading, we should follow.

I believe God's Spirit is here today in a powerful way. This is the day of Pentecost. When two or more are gathered in His name, God is here. We have a lot more than that here today. God is with us today. We're keeping His annual Holy Day, the day of Pentecost. The weekly Sabbaths are every bit as important, however. They're all Holy Days.

The Sabbath, the annual days, they're all extremely important. And God has revealed this truth to us through the power of His Holy Spirit. God's Spirit is all-powerful. It's all-powerful. There's not a single force anywhere that has the power of God's Spirit. Not even close. God is Spirit, and we're told to worship Him in Spirit and in truth. God is supreme, and His Spirit is the supreme power in the entire universe. This physical universe was created by the power of God's Holy Spirit. Now, to me, that's fascinating. It's God's Holy Spirit that sustains this universe.

There's complete order in God's universe. As God created it, I think man's trying to mess it up, but God created it perfectly. And we can sit here and not worry about some of you flying off into space, and some of you dropping over dead. There's a lot of order in God's creation. And this is one of the biggest proofs of God's Spirit to me, is that we exist.

We're here. Yes, I'm real. You are real. We're communicating. We're talking. We're reasoning together. God created us in His image. We were made in His likeness. That's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. It's incredible. It's wonderful. So we should never take God and His Spirit for granted. When the sun comes up every morning, thank God. God created it that way.

When it sets at night, thank God again. God created it that way. It works. That's miraculous. It's amazing. It works. Think about it for a moment. Where would you start if you were going to create a universe? How would you do it? How far would you get? We're pretty limited, aren't we? We are very, very limited right now as physical human beings.

We're extremely limited, but God is all-powerful. His Spirit is all-powerful. So let's talk about the mighty power of God's Spirit. I want to focus primarily on one verse as I give an overview of the biblical record. The truth of this single verse, 2 Timothy 1, verse 7, where it says, "...for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind." That Scripture echoes through the Bible.

It echoes through every page in the Bible. It will echo through all I have to say today about the mighty power of God's Holy Spirit. God's Spirit is not the spirit of fear. It is the spirit of power, the spirit of love, and the spirit of a sound mind. Frankly, all three of those items are lacking to some degree in the world, aren't they? In many respects, there's not a lot of sound-mindedness. There's a lot of fear.

Wrong kind of fear. Not enough faith. Not enough power. But it's not because of God. The problem's always been with the people, hasn't it? But God's working out a marvelous plan, and there is great comfort in knowing that. There's great hope in knowing that. The concept of a trinity is false, as Mr. Hooser aptly pointed out yesterday in his sermon. God is spirit. Our belief that has been taken directly from the Bible in John 1 is that in the very beginning was God, and the Word, the Logos, the spokesman was with God, and the Word was God.

We believe in the beginning there were two beings in the God family, and both were composed of God's Spirit, God's Holy Spirit. That is their divine essence. It is their divine power. That's the record in the Bible. It's important that we believe what the Bible says. Now, one of these two God beings became known as the Father. The other ultimately became known as the Son. I think we can understand that. It's also our longstanding belief in the Church of God that the being that became known as the Son, as Jesus Christ, was the Word.

He was the Logos, the spokesman in the Old Testament. He was the one member of the God family who interacted primarily with the children of Israel on a more intimate level than the Father at that particular time. That's the record of the Bible. That's what it clearly says. Of course, today we pray to the Father. I pray to the Father. You pray to the Father. We have an intimate relationship with the Father.

Don't we say our Heavenly Father? It's primarily the Father to whom we pray. Now, we pray in Jesus' name. That's a wonderful combination, frankly. So we are able to have a close relationship with both the Father and the Son. Now, Scripture tells us that Jesus came to reveal the Father. He came to reveal the Father. That was certainly one of the main purposes for which Jesus came. No one can come to know Jesus Christ unless the Father draws us to Christ. By the same token, no one comes to the Father except through the Son revealing who the Father is. That is powerful truth.

Most people don't understand that truth. That is precious truth. That is truth that we all need to hang onto and cling to and understand and believe because it makes sense of the Bible. I remember when I came into the truth. That was one of the most shocking things for me. I was a Methodist. I'd never heard these things taught. Even though they're clearly in the Bible, I'd read John 1 before, but they didn't put it together for me and I didn't put it together for me. It wasn't until God opened my mind and showed me the truth and brought me into a knowledge of His truth that I came to understand this. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to die for us. The Father gave up His companion, the Word, the Logos, the spokesman, who was with Him from the very beginning. We don't even comprehend what that is. That's eternity. That's forever. We're not forever. But the one who became the Father, the one who became known as the Son, they were together. Two beings in the God family.

That's what the Bible teaches. That's what it shows.

So the Father gave up His companion, the one who was with Him, the one that He was so tight with and so close to.

They were so much in love, you might say. They loved each other. God is love. They're both perfect love. Just imagine the bond that they must have had toward each other.

The Word became flesh and died for us by the will of the Father. And Jesus was completely obedient and submissive to the Father's will. And the Word, the spokesman, the Logos, He divested Himself of that divine nature and was born of a virgin. Born in the flesh. See, that boggles the mind to really try to understand what that really means. The Almighty God, the all-powerful God, became flesh and was willing to give His life for us, to lay His life down, to have His life snuffed out, to be beaten brutally, to be crucified.

And the Father was willing to do that for us. Stop for a moment and think about that. For God so loved the world. And He's not talking about just us who He's calling today. He loves everyone. He loves all people. He loves all children of God. All of us are created in His image, in His likeness. He is not willing that any should perish. That is not His will, that any should perish. But God doesn't force us. He allows us to choose. Will we obey Him or won't we? We get to choose. You get to choose. I get to choose. And we get to choose every day of our lives. God doesn't force us. He doesn't make us. Now, we have a very intimate relationship with the Father and the Son, and we should honor the Father every day in our prayers as we go to Him in Christ's name. Yes, the Father and the Son have been deeply involved in the plan of salvation. Deeply involved. Christ was slain from the foundations of the world. Before the material universe was even created, it was a part of the plan of God that one of these two beings would become the Christ, the anointed one, and would lay His life down for us. One who was composed of spirit would become flesh. That's amazing. That's miraculous. Now, this is a truth that was revealed to the Church of God many years ago, and a truth that does make us unique and different from mainstream Christianity. They just don't believe this. They don't understand it. They don't comprehend it. They don't teach it. I mean, there might be some people somewhere that may have some idea of how all this works that are not yet a part of our organization. I understand that. I mean, people know different things. Some people accept some things and not other things. The Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth. I don't think we have all truth yet. I don't think I have all truth. I don't think the United Church of God has all truth. I think we're being led in that direction. God is working in us through the power of His Spirit. He's revealing things to us. So we should hold them very precious, what God has revealed to us. Back in 1995, a group of men decided that what the Church of God had taught for so many years was not true. Remember that? Those of you who are around? They were trying to grab that precious truth from us. We need to hold fast to God's truth. We must not allow anyone to deceive us. So this was a truth about the Father, the Word, the Logos, the Spokesman. This was a truth that was revealed to the Church of God many years ago. And it's an important truth.

The one who became known as the Father was in complete unity with the Word. Together, they devised the creation that we see in Genesis 1. Let's go to Genesis 1 for a moment. Genesis 1.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It was God who created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. Tohu and Bohu. Now, I don't have time to go into all of the details of this, but let's suffice it to say that in Isaiah, it says that basically everything was created perfectly. So in verse 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He did it perfectly. It became confused. It became chaotic. It was because Satan, the devil, who was entrusted to the earth, rebelled against God. He rose up against God. Satan is the one who deceives the whole world. We have to always be on guard, because Satan will try to deceive us. Always. He never gives up. He's very persistent. So, the earth became without form and void is a better translation. It became that way because of the rebellion of Satan. Now, the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the deep as the earth was being recreated. And this is what it talks about here in Genesis 1. God's spirit was there. I have no doubt that in Genesis 1, verse 1, God created the heavens and the earth by the power of His spirit. That's His divine essence. That's His power. That's how it was done. It was by the Holy Spirit. It was created perfect. And then it was recreated, and God said it was all very good. What God had created was very good. God did this by the power of His spirit. Notice verse 3, and God said, let there be light. God spoke! And there was light. The spokesman spoke, and there was light. Now, if we go to a couple other verses here, we'll see that it was the one who became Christ. The word, the logos, the spokesman, who was doing the creating. Now, the Father was doing the creating through the Son, for sure, but both of them were creating together. They're completely unified in what they do. So let's see that in Philippians. I'm sorry, it's Colossians. Colossians 1 verse 16. Colossians, I'm sure glad we have a bigger podium at the JCC. This one is tiny. Colossians chapter 1.

Colossians chapter 1 verse 16. Let's notice this. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and earth. We probably ought to go back a little bit. Speaking of the Father, it says, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. I told you, He loved that companion. He loved that one that became flesh. He has delivered us from the power of darkness, from Satan the devil, and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. We, in a sense, are conveyed into that kingdom now. We are citizens of His kingdom. Even though we're not yet born into the family of God, we're not spirit. The spirit of God dwells in us. God's Holy Spirit dwells in us if we've repented of our sins, if we've accepted Christ as our Savior, if we've had hands laid upon us by a true minister of Jesus Christ. God grants us His Spirit. And that's what sanctifies us and sets us apart and seals us, frankly, for the resurrection. Well, the resurrection. If a person dies with the Spirit of God, the Spirit in man goes back to God who gave it, and the Holy Spirit seals that Spirit in man that makes us different, gives us identity until the resurrection, until we're quickened and changed into Spirit, resurrected and changed. So these are amazing truths. Amazing truths that we should hold very dear. So in Colossians 1, verse 14, it says, In whom we have redemption through His blood, Christ is our Redeemer. He has redeemed us by His blood. God, the Father, is also our Redeemer. They work completely together in this. They have redeemed us. We have been redeemed through the blood of Christ. The forgiveness of sins comes through the blood of Christ. He is the image of the invisible God. Jesus Christ is the image. And we are to be made in His image, aren't we? We are to become like Christ. We are to put on the mind of Christ. Christ is like the Father. Christ never sinned. Christ was perfect. He was tempted. And every point as we are, yet He was without sin. So very different from those of us who are sitting in the flesh here today. We have all sinned. We have all fallen short of God's glory. We need a Redeemer. Jesus Christ has redeemed us by His blood, by His shed blood. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth. All things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him.

And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist, and He is the head of the body, the church. It's the church of God, right? We're the church of God. Christ is the head, according to the Father's will, according to God's will. Again, such unity that we should strive to have ourselves. The unity of the Father and the Son. And it's because of God's Spirit that they have this unity. We need that same unity. We need to stir up the Spirit of God in us and not be so carnally minded and not walk so much in the flesh. They learn to walk in the Spirit. Then we will have some unity within the body of Christ, within the church of God. But, frankly, we're too busy fighting with one another to work together. It's a sad commentary, and it's been going on for a long time. I hope one day we will truly learn what it means to be united. United under God, under Christ. United through the power of His Spirit. That's a powerful, powerful force. If we would just allow it to work in us, to change us, to perfect us. The Scripture says that we are to become perfect. Even as our Father in heaven is perfect, the Scripture tells us to be holy. Even as God is holy.

There's no way we'll ever get there unless we learn to yield to His Spirit. The power of His Spirit. And allow His Spirit to change us. Now, the Scripture tells us that the fruit of God's Spirit is love. It's joy. It's peace. It's long suffering. It's kindness. And it's goodness. It's meekness. It's faithfulness. And it's self-control. And we all fall far short. I fall far short. I know that. You fall far short. You're not perfect. It's something that we have to continually strive for. This is a tough world. Satan is the God of this world. We're told to come out of the world. It's not easy to do. It's very difficult to do. And, frankly, we all need to do better. I need to do better. We all need to do better than we are. And through the power of his Spirit, we are capable of doing better. None of us are doing our very best. I know I'm not. Are you? Are you doing your very best? You know, this is not designed to be a bummer, by the way. My sermons are never designed to be bummers. There's always hope in my sermons. I'll get to the hope. I've already talked about it. We have a Redeemer. It's our Savior Jesus Christ. We don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be perfect, but does that mean I should tell you to go ahead and get lackadaisical and become lethargic? Is that my job? Is that my job as a minister of Jesus Christ to tell you to take it easy? I don't think that's my job. I'm not supposed to speak smooth things up here. I'm supposed to talk about the hard things, the difficult things, the tough things. Yes, I am also to give you hope. And I am so hopeful for you, all of you. I am so very hopeful for every single one of you because you are God's children. Made in His image, made in His likeness.

Whatever we lack, God will take care of as long as we stay faithful and as long as we try to do our best. As long as we try, really try, to do our best. And when we fall short, if we will go boldly before the throne of grace, we will find help in time of need. Now, hopefully you're doing that before you sin. Hopefully you're doing that before you sin. If you do it before you sin, you will sin far less. If you wait until after you've sinned, then you've already sinned. And that's how you learn to overcome.

Try to do it before you sin. Go to God before you sin. Get down on your knees before you sin. When you're tempted, get down on your knees when you're tempted. When your mind isn't right and you're struggling at work, maybe you can't get on your knees. But call out to God. Ask Him to guide you through His Spirit that dwells in you. Then you'll make a better decision.

But if you don't think on the things of God, then you will not do the things of God. You've got to think on the things of God. That's why it says, think on whatsoever things are good. Whatsoever things are pure. Whatsoever things are lovely. Whatsoever things are of good report. Things that are virtuous. Think on those things. And then you're far less likely to sin, brethren. Far less likely. You should constantly monitor your thoughts. What are you thinking?

What are you thinking? What am I thinking? We should continually monitor our thoughts. Because that's how sin begins, doesn't it? It begins with our thoughts. James 1 begins with our thoughts. We have to bring every thought into subjection. And to the obedience of Jesus Christ. That's what Christ did. First of all, he thought on things that are lovely. Things that are virtuous. Things that are right and good. He wasn't thinking about evil things. He wasn't dwelling on evil things.

We don't have to dwell on evil things. God will help us drive those thoughts away. If we'll become more serious in obeying and following God. It's possible to walk in the Spirit. We've all done it at times, haven't we? We've all walked in the Spirit. It's just that we don't always walk in the Spirit. Sometimes we walk in the flesh, and then we do the works of the Spirit. And then we walk in the flesh. Galatians 5. You know what the works of the flesh are? Lust. Jealousy. Envy. Strife.

Those are the works of the flesh. And there's a lot more of them named. There's many, many ways to walk in the flesh. But God's Spirit allows us to walk in the Spirit. And it is possible to produce the fruit of God's Spirit. It is possible to be a loving person. Like Mr. Renoso.

It is possible. If we have big hearts, if we have soft hearts, malleable hearts, hearts that can be moved, hearts that can forgive, we all have to forgive each other. Look, we all have to forgive each other. I need to forgive you. You need to forgive me. We need to forgive each other. We need to have soft hearts. God's forgiving. We will be forgiven in the same manner that we forgive others. God doesn't give up on us. We should not give up on people. Are you one who gives up on people? Don't give up on people, no matter what. Don't ever give up on anyone. Ever! God doesn't give up on you. So don't you ever, ever give up on anyone.

I have completely thrown my notes out the window. I've got like eight pages of notes. I'm skipping everywhere, which is probably a good thing.

I believe God's Spirit moves us if we allow His Spirit to move us.

I hope I'm a living witness of God's Spirit moving. This is important to me. This is what I do. This is important to me. I'll pour my hearts out to you. Because this is important to me. This is the most important thing ever. Ever. And all of us, with God's help, will be able to see that.

And dedicate ourselves in greater ways. I hope I will. I'm ashamed of Mark Welch. I'm ashamed of him. I'm ashamed of myself at times. I'm ashamed. I feel guilty at times because I know. I've walked in the flesh once again.

But we're all in this together. I understand your pain. I have pain. We all have pain. Jesus Christ understands your pain. He has pain. He went through pain. I'm sure he grieves to see the mess we make down here on this earth. Look at Moses. Look at the man that Moses was. Moses said, Blot my name for the Book of Life.

If you won't spare these people, if you won't spare them, then blot me out!

God heard Moses.

God didn't blot them all out. He didn't blot any of them out of the Book of Life at that point. Now, he did blot some of them out because they chose to disobey. God sets things as an example for us.

Children of Israel rebelled against God. They rebelled against Him. Finally, they went into captivity in Assyria and in Babylon. But you can read the Bible, and the whole record of the Bible is that God's Spirit is not the spirit of fear. It is the spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. Moses had love toward God's people. Moses was a loving person. He cared. He was willing to have his own. He could have been numero uno, number one in every way. God would have started over with him. Remember what God said? I'll start over with you. You're the good guy. There are these other people down here that are really frustrating me in certain ways.

I'm really grateful for Moses and what he did. To me, that was a lovely example, as they would say in Australia. It's a lovely example. It really is. It's a beautiful example of love. God's Spirit is not the spirit of fear. Look at Joshua. Joshua was courageous. Caleb, they were courageous. They didn't follow along with those unfaithful spies who said, they're too big for us. Joshua and Caleb had faith, and they had courage, because they had God's Spirit. God's Spirit was with them. It was in them. It was motivating them. It was guiding them. They were courageous because of God's Spirit. Abraham, he was courageous because of God's Holy Spirit. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his own son. Imagine that.

Does that take courage? Does that take faith? Does that take love?

Love is keeping the commandments. That's what God commanded of Abraham. Take your son and sacrifice him.

Abraham was willing to do that. And you know, I'm sure it was largely because he believed God. And God said that through Isaac, there would be a certain seed that would come. The son of promise would come through Isaac. Isaac was a promise himself. Remember Sarah? She was barren. Abraham was old, really old! He knew that God would spare Isaac one way or the other. He would either resurrect him, bring him back to life, or he would do exactly what he did. And stop Abraham short.

I have no doubt Abraham would have thrust that knife through his son. He would have done it! Could you do that? Tough. That's tough, man. I don't know. That's tough. I love my son. I love my daughter. That takes faith. Hopefully I would do it because I would have faith. That God knows best, and if he tells me to do it, it's got to be the right thing to do.

That's the power of God's Holy Spirit. The Spirit is not the spirit of fear.

It's the spirit of faith, power, love, of a sound mind. You can see it through the entire Bible. I hope to go through a lot more. I don't really have time to go through. I don't even know what time it is.

I guess I have some time yet. It's so encouraging to me to look at these examples. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Think of Joseph. Look at his example. He gets thrown in prison a couple of times. Potiphar's wife. Was he walking in the spirit, or was he walking in the flesh? Joseph walked in the spirit. That was probably not an easy thing because no doubt Potiphar's wife was a beautiful woman.

He wouldn't do it. He would not sin against God. Joseph had his act together.

He really did.

So the Holy Spirit could come into his entire life. Mr. Hooser was talking about a house guest. We're the temple of God's Holy Spirit. Do we keep God away from certain parts of our life? Because we want to hang on to the sin that dwells there? He mentioned pornography. That's a huge temptation. It's a huge temptation. It can plague people for years and years and years. It is a huge, huge temptation. The power of God's Holy Spirit will help you overcome that. It will. It will give you victory. It may not be easy and it may not be a quick victory. It may be a victory that you'll just have to continue to seek for until you find it. I know a guy 70 years old. He was from Grand Rapids, Michigan. I was just a young guy. I was ordained in Grand Rapids, Michigan at 30 years old. He was a friend of mine and he confided in me that he had a problem with porn. A huge problem. And he continued to battle that problem for years and years. And then many years later, he contacted me in his 70s. I'm sure he had a porn problem since he was a teenager. He contacted me and said, God has taken it away. God's taken it away from me. He fought it all this time. He never did perfectly overcome it on his own. God just took it away. Because he stayed faithful.

God will give you victory over sin. But you have to be invested yourself. You have to put your whole heart into this battle. God will help you in ways that you cannot imagine. God's Spirit is not the spirit of fear, people. It's the spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind. And it's the same spirit that Joseph had. Same exact Holy Spirit that gave him victory over sin. I look around and I see some of you are very, very tired this morning. You're having a difficult time staying awake, even in this sermon.

It shows how fleshly you are. It shows how weak you are. You're weak and you're fleshly. You can't stay awake. Even when I'm talking about the power of God's Holy Spirit. It may be you next week. You may be the one that's that tired next Sabbath. I don't know. I'm no judge. I don't judge people. I look at people. I see them falling asleep. They had a rough night.

We're all in this together. We're all in it together, you know? It's a good place to be. It's the best place to be.

You know it was the power of God's Holy Spirit that allowed a bush to burn and not burn up. Remember that? The burning bush incident? Moses was there. God was calling Moses. Moses was a human instrument that God was using to deliver his children. And he was doing so by the power of his spirit. Plagues were poured down upon Egypt, one after another, by the power of God's Spirit. Moses didn't have that power of and by himself at all. But he raised the rod, he spoke. God backed him up. Aaron was his spokesman, actually, you know? You know the story. That's an interesting analogy that Aaron was the spokesman for Moses.

It was the power of God's Spirit that delivered the children of Israel from the Red Sea. It was the power of God's Spirit that drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea.

They had to move forward in faith. That's what God told him to do. Moses said, stand still. See the salvation of the turtle. Moses had good intentions. God said, move forward. Get moving. Get through the water. You need to get on the other side.

God opened up the waters. They came through. Then he closed the waters upon the Egyptians. It was by the power of his Spirit. There had to be some measure of faith to move out into the water.

I hope we would move into the water.

I hope we would step out in faith. Remember Joshua's long day when God held up time so he could give victory to Israel? God can do anything he wants. God can do anything he desires. He does it by the power of his Spirit.

Could you stop the sun? Could you stop the rotational? I don't even know how to explain how God does things, even from scientific terms. I'm not that smart. I suppose I could be that smart if I studied that stuff more, science and all that. Some of you could do it. God's Spirit has been active throughout history. Look at the New Testament. Wow! God's Spirit was given in power on the day of Pentecost. Poured out in power. You know, Joel had talked about that in Joel 2, verse 28. So come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. That's what God says. I'm going to pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit. Now in Acts 2, verse 16, on the day of Pentecost, after God had poured out his Holy Spirit, Peter says, but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. What you've seen today, this was prophesied by Joel. Now, that's a dual prophecy. Oftentimes prophecies are dual. They have two fulfillments. The first one was on the day of Pentecost, Acts 2, when God poured out his Spirit. But if we continue to read on, we'll see that there's another fulfillment coming. verse 30, Joel 2, verse 30, And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness. The moon will be turned into blood before the great and the terrible day of the eternal come. The sun shall be turned into darkness. The moon into blood. Revelation talks about that, doesn't it? There is a time coming when God is going to shake this earth by the power of his Spirit. Some people think God is dead. Some people think he's asleep. Some people think he doesn't care. Make no mistake. Joel 2 will be fulfilled. The second part of it will be fulfilled. The sun shall be turned into darkness. The moon into blood before the great and the terrible day. Why is it going to be such a great and terrible day? It's a day of God's wrath. God is going to pour out more plagues on this sinning world. On this world that's turned his back against God, has rejected God. They don't believe in God. Many don't believe in God. They blaspheme him. God is going to take a whole year to pour out his wrath. He's going to shake this earth in unbelievable ways by the power of his Spirit. Verse 32 of Joel 2, God is calling a remnant. We are among that remnant.

Don't let anything get between you and your worship of God. God says this is a commanded assembly. That's what he says. Don't let anything get between you and being here. This is a holy convocation.

Don't allow anything to get between you and your worship of the Almighty God. Just don't allow it. Don't stand for it.

The remnant whom the Lord shall call. God is continuing to call a remnant. Today, he's still doing a work. We're still doing a work, brethren. We're all in this together. We're doing a work. We're doing the best we can. We have little power. At this time, we're small. Very small. But, of course, God's Spirit is all-powerful. And I have faith that when God is ready, when he's ready, when it's his time... Remember, the Holy Spirit came on the appointed day, the day of Pentecost. God has another appointed day when he's going to fulfill Joel again. He's going to pour out his Spirit. Then we will see miracles as we've never seen them before. Then we'll see the power of God. And God is going to shake this earth. His two witnesses are going to thunder from Jerusalem. They're going to speak the truth. They're going to speak the truth.

God's going to get our attention, all of us, not just us here, but everyone. Christ is coming back. Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. He now sits at the right hand of God. He is our high priest. He makes intercession for us. That's why we have hope. That's why you have hope. That's why I have hope. That's when I find myself having sinned.

God's Spirit drives me to my knees.

God's Spirit convicts me of sin.

And I have to go and repent. God grants me repentance. It's a gift. God grants me faith. It is a gift. God gets all the credit. God is good. There is none good but one. That is God. If you'll enter into life, keep the commandments.

Not just in the letter, but in the Spirit. And remember, the fruit of God's Holy Spirit. You know, as I said, we live in a fascinating world. So if you see a genuinely good act, a godly act, God's Spirit must be somewhere involved.

No matter what it is, brethren. No matter who does it. God's Spirit is involved in some way.

The human mind is carnal. It's enmity against God. It is not subject to God's law. So if there are any true, genuine, godly, good acts being done, it's because God's Spirit permeates this universe.

We have the Spirit of God dwelling in us. We can surely produce the fruit of His Spirit because God's Spirit is in us. Dwelling in us. I believe sometimes people do good acts by the power of God's Spirit when it's not dwelling in them. Didn't you, before you were baptized? Sure you did. As God's was leading you to His truth. God's Spirit is all-powerful. God's Spirit is everywhere. It's all-powerful. God is omnipresent. Omnipresent. Never heard it pronounced that way before. I'll have to check and see which is really correct. You may be right.

So... I find that... You know, I just find... Our life is fascinating. I love it. I love my life. I'm grateful to be alive. I think this is an exciting time to be alive. It's a good time to be alive. Gotta look for the good, though. You gotta look for it. It's not always easy to find. But it's surely there. God's Holy Spirit is, again, the most powerful force in the universe. Again, there's nothing even remotely close. Satan's unholy spirit is certainly not powerful like God's Holy Spirit. There's no comparison.

God's Spirit in us today is a powerful force. It is the Spirit not of fear, but of the power of love and of a sound mind. The Father and Son live in us today through the power of their Spirit, their Holy Spirit. They live in us. Brethren, will you allow God's Spirit to guide you and to direct you and to give you the real power from on high? Amen.