Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the critical question of whether we are truly following Jesus and possessing the Holy Spirit. He challenges listeners to reflect on their relationship with Christ, urging them to seek genuine fellowship, honesty, and a willingness to surrender their rights to God. The sermon highlights that true followers of Jesus will experience a transformative relationship with the Holy Spirit, leading to obedience, love for God, and a life that reproves the world of sin. Beach warns against the dangers of lukewarm faith and encourages believers to seek a deeper, more authentic connection with the Holy Spirit, which is essential for living a life that honors God.

Thank you, Lord, for your presence. Lord, we are so thankful. For your presence, Lord. Lord, we want to go into your word now and we want to hear your voice. We want to hear your voice, Lord, we want to hear your word, we want you to speak to us, Lord, and minister to us, give us life, Lord. Lord, we do pray, Lord, that you'll give us the capacity to hear. And that the light of your word would expose darkness, expose deception, expose sin. And that you would heal us, Lord, and bring us close to you, we pray. In Jesus name, amen. And. We're looking at again this morning. The question, and this is the question that I'm hoping each one of us are asking every day. Are you following Jesus? OK, are you following Jesus? Ask yourself this question personal, say, Lord, am I following you? Not am I a professed Christian, not am I reading my Bible or giving money to whoever or whatever, but Lord, am I following you? Do I am I hearing your word? Do I do I have a passion to know you and to follow you? Now, as we mentioned a few weeks ago, you can't answer that question subjectively. Like, for example, you might say, well, of course I'm following Jesus. Because then I'm going to ask you, well, how do you know you're following Jesus? Well, because I just know, are you following Jesus? We've learned that there's only one way to know if we're following Jesus, and that's whether or not what he said is happening in our life. That's how we know for following Jesus. And so that's what we're that's what we're doing. We're walking through. With Jesus, his words, and we're learning whether or not we're following Jesus. And so what we need is we need God to give us the capacity to hear his word. And what we need is we need God to give us the capacity to come under the authority of his word. One of one of the great signs of being in this lukewarm church age that we live in this day of apostasy. Is there is no longer a fear of God and his word. In our lives. And in our homes. This is a very dangerous sign, and we have to pray that God will give us grace to be free from this dreadful sin of not fearing God with a godly fear and not. Seeking to know his heart and his word. Now. As you know. We're just going to go very, very briefly through a little bit of of what we've already taught on now, listen carefully. When we ask the question, are we following Jesus? The first the first thing that we're going to encounter is Micah to 10. Remember, Micah to 10. And that was the call of Jesus to depart from everything and anything that we are looking to. That is a false rest, a false hope, a false trust. Micah to 10. The spirit of God said, depart, depart, for this is not your rest. And so one of the characteristics of being a follower of Jesus is that he's going to deal with you over the issues in your life and areas in your life where you are looking to find rest. You're looking to find peace, but it's not in Jesus Christ. And we learned that if that quality is not present in our life, we are not following Jesus. We're not following him simple. We might be professing him. We may have heard his voice 10 years ago when he called us to salvation, but we're not following him now. We learned that all the words of Jesus in relation to his followers are in the present continuous tense, which means we can't say, well, I followed Jesus years ago. It is I am following Jesus. He that heareth my words, no, he that is hearing my word. Jesus said, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, no, unless you are eating present tense, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. John chapter 10, not my sheep heard my voice and they followed me and they get together and talk about their fond memories of those days. No, that's not what it is. That's what much of Christianity has become. We talk about what the Lord used to do. But every one of us should talk about what the Lord was doing when we were going to bed last night and waking up this morning. A fresh word, a fresh word. There's a fresh word in God's heart. There's a fresh word today. So depart, depart. Matthew. Chapter. Eleven versus twenty five through thirty, Jesus said, come on to me, I will give you rest. Jesus Christ is our rest. And he is a jealous God. And if you hear the son of God calling you to follow him. He will demonstrate his jealousy for you. By not letting you find rest in anything or anyone other than him. Now, is that what's going on in your life today? Are you experiencing the dealings of God over areas in your heart where you're tempted to rest? You're tempted to find a sense of security. Next in John, chapter twenty one, verses twelve through twenty two, we won't go through all these scriptures. John, twenty one. We saw four things that will happen when Jesus Christ calls us and we hear him and we respond. Number one. Verse twelve of John, chapter twenty one, he will call us into fellowship with himself. Number two. He will require that we become honest. Paul said to the Corinthians that we were called into fellowship with the son of God. Listen, please listen. Please listen. A follower of Jesus. Possesses a passion to fellowship with Jesus, to spend time with Jesus, to get to know Jesus, to commune with Jesus. Not Jesus things. Not things about Jesus, there's a place for that, but if your life is preoccupied with Jesus things and not Jesus himself, you are not following him. You're not following him. You see, it's very easy in the day that we live in to get trapped into this idea of we equate fellowship with Jesus as being equal to being involved in Jesus things. Christian music, whatever it might be. Jesus calls those who hear his voice to fellowship with him. Secondly, he calls us to be honest. You remember when he spoke to Peter and he said, Peter, do you love me? And Peter said, no, I only like you. I thought I loved you and I made a great boast. In front of all the disciples at the last table, and I said, Lord, though everyone forsake you, I'll lay my life down for you. And now Jesus is saying, so, Peter, are you going to lay your life down for me? Peter said, no, Lord. If you follow Jesus, you will not be able to live a lie. You will not be able to live in hypocrisy. You will not be able to give the impression to people that something may be true when it's not true and it's got to start in your home, it's got to start in your walk with God and in your walk with the closest people that you know. As I have mentioned many times over the years. I have heard pastors talk to me and tell me about how they've known ministers who. When they were with people, everybody loved them, bragged on him, he said, they're the nicest people in the world, the nicest pastor in the world, he's so loving and caring. And then his wife divorces him. And everybody's saying, I can't believe that, how could that have happened? And his wife says, you didn't know him. He was a bear. He was, yes, at home. When nobody was around. What are you when nobody's around? If you're a follower of Jesus, you're not going to be able to live a double life and God is putting his foot down over double lives. He's putting his foot down over double lives, beloved. You can't follow Jesus and be a phony. You have to come to the place where you say, Jesus, I don't love you the way I should. I don't love my wife the way I should. Men, women, I don't love my husband the way I should. And you need to look at him right in the eyeballs and tell him. That's what we need, honesty. Forget about all this hoopoe and stuff. Oh, there's a place to sing and rejoice, but people hide behind it too often. A lot of adulterers and fornicators and thieves and liars and phonies and hypocrites can sing like angels. God's not impressed with how you sound. He's impressed with how you live. He's impressed with what you do when no one's around, when you think nobody's listening or watching. That's what God is looking at. And he weeps when he sees that we put on a good show as long as we know people are watching. But when we don't think people are watching and how foolish to think that way, as if God's all of a sudden not watching and then we become something else. You know the saying and listen carefully, listen, your true character is not being revealed in this place right here. This is not your true character. You might come here and smile and sing and hallelujah. That's not your true character. Your true character is revealed. When you are all alone, unaccountable to anyone. One free to do whatever you want, and then your heart in the presence of God alone worships him. And says, Lord, I choose to love you. There's where character is. Are you honest? You can't go on being a hypocrite next. Truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and you went where you wanted to go. But when you're old, Jesus said, you'll stretch forth your hand and another shall lead the where you would not choose to go. So first, we're called to fellowship. Secondly, we're called to honesty. And thirdly, we're called to slavery. Slavery. We don't like that word slavery because slavery suggests I give up my rights. We don't want to give up our rights. But brothers and sisters here, the call of the spirit of God here, the call of the heart of God here, the call of the spirit of God. If you say yes to following Jesus, you will lose your rights. You will become the property of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we learned how clothing ourself is more than just putting on our own clothes. Do you remember? We discovered that Christ had something deeper than simply the fact that Peter dressed himself. No, we learned that the idea here was that Peter wanted to dress himself in honor, dress himself in being seen by men. He wanted to dress himself as being the most spiritual disciple, didn't he? Though all men forsake you, but boast it right in front of everyone. I won't, Lord. When you were young, you clothed yourself with what you wanted. But we learned that when you lose your rights, you don't clothe yourself. In boasting and seeking the glory of man, but God clothes you in shame and dishonor, though you remain honorable to him. We learned Paul's testimony where he was hungry and thirsty and naked. What about God shall supply all your needs? Where was God? Oh, that we would be delivered from the doctrines of men that are floating around in the church. What happened to Paul naked, hungry, starving shipwreck? He was clothed as being the scum of the earth. He lost his standing with men. He lost his reputation. He lost honor for men. And his greatest joy was being known as a captive of Jesus Christ, a captive, a slave to Jesus. Are we following Jesus? And then lastly, we learned that when we follow Jesus, he calls us and lovingly but firmly rebukes us. And this is what he says. Stop being a busybody. Remember, Peter, after Jesus said, Follow thou me, what did Peter do? The scripture says, Then he turned and looked at the other disciple. Brothers and sisters, when you follow Jesus, God is going to deal with you about turning and looking at your brother. You're going to get in trouble looking at your brother because you're not going to hear Jesus and his words to you instead of hearing Jesus instead of hearing Jesus say, Follow me and and and falling down on his knees and saying, Oh, master, thank you for recommissioning me, even though I failed you. Thank you for showing me that even though my love is so imperfect yet, you're not rich. Instead of saying, Lord, help me to follow you. What does he do? Hey, Lord, what about Danielle? What about Jeremy? Essentially, this is what the Lord said, Peter, it's none of your business what I plan on doing with your brother or your sister. What's it to you? And then again, he says, But you follow me. I said, Follow me. There's some right here today who are not following Jesus. You know why? You are too concerned about what other people think and you're not following him. You're hung up on, but what about what about what about what about what about? See, it's easy to be a Christian today. But it's impossible to be a follower of Jesus. Without God dealing in your life. Now, that leads us to a very, very important transition. All of these, listen, all of these dealings that we just dealt with. Was before the Holy Spirit was even given. Now, as God deals with us about these areas of our life, this is what we're going to hear, we're going to hear the call of Jesus Acts, chapter one, and being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the father. Listen, which sayeth. He you have heard of me. Now, let me ask you a question, please, please listen carefully. You cannot follow Jesus without. The present continuous power of the Holy Spirit working in your life. You better just right now throw out this whole thing. If there's any inclination in your heart that you're going to take hold of these things and you're going to pull up your bootstraps and you're going to say, bless God, I'm going to do this. You're not going to do it. But now let me ask a question. Do you have the Holy Spirit? Now, be careful, be careful. Remember. There's way too much subjective feelings in the body of Christ today. Well, I have the Holy Spirit, why? Because I feel him. Oh, you feel him, huh? What does he feel like? Well, he gives me goose bumps. Oh, that's definitely sound evidence that you have the Holy Spirit. Well, I talk in tongues, so a lot of tongues I hear. I wonder where they're coming from. Oh, I have visions at night. How do you know you have the Holy Spirit? And if you do have the Holy Spirit, the next question is, does the Holy Spirit have you? We need a major crisis in this area in our life, brothers and sisters. We need a major crisis. Let's go to God's word and find out some of the things that happen when the Holy Spirit comes and forget about your subjective feelings, forget about them, they come, they go, they might be valid, they might not be valid, but I'll tell you what lives and abides forever. And that's the truth of God's word. We've got to come back to God's word. So ask yourself this question, do you have the Holy Spirit? And if you do, does the Holy Spirit have you? John. Chapter 14. Verse 15, if you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him, but you know him, for he dwells with you and he shall be in you. Listen, I will not leave you comfortless. Another word there can be translated. I will not leave you as bereaved orphans. But I will send I will come to you, he says. Now, listen carefully. Listen, we need to get we need to get our minds washed from tradition and the doctrines of men. We're going to take our time here, we're going to take our time and we're going to walk through this very slowly. So that we can get this. When Jesus listen, when Jesus said in Acts chapter one, you you shall receive the promise of the father. As I as I spoke to you about what was he talking about? Well, what's the only thing recorded that Jesus had spoken about regarding the Holy Spirit is in John 14 through 17. So when when he says in Acts, you shall receive the the promise of the father, just like I talked to you about, he was referring to these things that he was talking about to his disciples right before his passion. Now, I want you to see. Listen, I want you to see the context. That is the information that was before and after when Jesus mentioned the Holy Spirit. Because the context is very important for us to understand why Jesus gives the Holy Spirit now, first of all, in verse 15 of John chapter 14. If you love me, keep my commandments. Jesus, as he was about to introduce the comforter, the Holy Spirit, he was talking about loving him and keeping his commandments. And so that's number one, one of the one of the evidences that we we not only have the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit has us and we're being filled continuously with his power. One of the evidences is that there is a love for Jesus and a desire to keep his commandments, to obey him. Listen, please listen carefully. If the Holy Spirit is actively working in your life, you will have a passionate love for Jesus and you will have a passionate desire to keep his commandments, to keep his word. Therefore, if your heart is cold and calloused and lukewarm and the name of Jesus doesn't cause your heart to cry out, oh God, I need to know you, then you either don't have the Holy Spirit or he has been grieved or quenched and he's not working in your life and his power has lifted. There is too much. In the church today, talk about the Holy Spirit and being filled with the spirit, but no passion to love God and obey his word. You're not filled with the Holy Ghost, I don't care how many visions you have, I don't care how many dreams you have, I don't care how you feel led of God to do anything. If you are not consistently crying out to God, Lord, I've got to obey your word. And I mean, that gets into your face. I'm not talking about vague obedience. Oh, yes, Lord, I do not steal. Oh, yes, Lord, I do not commit adultery. I'm talking about obedience. Right down to everything you do in your life, you can't be filled with the Holy Ghost and look at your sister or look at your brother with an arrogant eye. You can't. You can't do it. You can't lie to someone to be filled with the Holy Ghost, but nowadays we got people talking in tongues, shouting, oh, I'm filled, I'm filled. And they go home and they look at their wife and they say, get away from me. I can't stand you. And they curse. You're not filled with the Holy Ghost. You're deceived. Brothers and sisters, that is deception, and it is everywhere today, everywhere. It's a form of godliness. It's the it's the religion called Christianity. That's the religion called Christianity, but it's an apostate religion. And. If you love me, keep my commandments. Then I will pray. And I'll send the comforter. How are you doing over this issue of obedience? Oh, brother. Phil, I mean, before this, before you said this, I really thought I did have the Holy Spirit, but now I'm wondering, good, good. I'm glad you're wondering. I'm glad I hope you go home today and get mad. I hope you get mad. You even get mad at me. I don't care. As long as you come to a crisis in your life and you have a dealing with God and you say, God, I'm not going on until I find out what's going on in my life. What else are some of the evidences of the presence of the divine spirit of God? Verse 18. I will not leave you comfortless. Brothers and sisters, listen carefully, if you do not possess an overwhelming. Yeah. Knowledge. That left yourself without the person of the Holy Spirit working in your life. Revealing the things of Christ to you, making the words of Jesus real to you. If you don't see that without that you are alone and orphan without a father, without hope, bereaved, sorrowful, left to yourself. The chances are. You're not acquainted with the Holy Spirit. Let me tell you something, the Holy Spirit is not for those who feel that they've just got the whole world in their hands and everything's going well and everything's going fine and I'm self-sufficient and I can just I can just take care of things myself. The Holy Spirit is for orphans. When I was in the Philippines, we visited villages. And I saw what a true orphan was. A true orphan with these little kids, they had no one to love them. They had no one to care for them. What they do is they run up to you and they want to touch you. They want to touch your body because they're orphans. They want and they want you to touch him back. You know why they told me because they just want to feel. I can't touch him. That's what an orphan is. Are you bereaved? Are you sorrowful? It's just not true, is it? We just don't feel this need, do we? That's listen, that's why the Holy Spirit is not really working in our lives. We're not orphans. We live in America. We've got all kinds of things to preoccupy our attention and our affections. We've got all kinds of things to make us happy. And to give us a song. But God is looking for orphans. God is looking for men and women who at night quietly like Hannah cry out, Oh, God, I feel so sad. I feel so sorrowful because left to myself, Oh God, I am a miserable man. I'm a miserable woman. I'm a miserable wife. I'm a miserable mother. I'm a miserable father. I'm a miserable brother in Christ. Lord left to myself. I will inevitably fail you and fail everyone else. Has that gripped your heart? Have you seen that without the Holy Spirit possessing your life, you are nothing but a miserable orphan bereaved with no hope, no love, no power. No direction in your life. Orphans have no direction. They just live in clans and they're dirty and you can look into their eyes and they don't have the twinkle in their eyes because they're orphans. Listen, you're an orphan without the Holy Spirit. You're an orphan without God's presence in your life. Do you see that? I will not leave you as orphans. Next, John, chapter 15. Number one, the love. If you love me, number two, number two. Obedience. See, the Lord knew the Lord knew the Holy Spirit was going to be the enabling power for these things. Love obedience. Then number three, he'll come and meet the need of an orphan's heart. I'm not sure, listen, I'm not sure if the Lord is really hearing the cry of orphans this morning. I'm not sure. We are orphans, but we don't know it. We don't know it. John 15, 1-17, I'm not going to read it. Isn't it interesting how right as a sandwich, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you got two pieces of bread and slap in the middle, what does Jesus have here? The branch and the vine. Why does he talk about the branch and the vine right after he gets done talking about the Holy Spirit? Because the presence and working of the Holy Spirit in our life will result in our coming to see our utter dependence upon the life and enabling of Christ as the source of everything. Listen carefully. The Holy Spirit is not working in your life or my life if you are not gripped continuously with your utter, utter powerlessness to bring forth fruit that is pleasing to God apart from being vitally in union with Christ. I am the vine, ye are the branches. For without me you can do nothing as the branch apart from the vine dies. So if you are not vitally connected to me, you cannot do a thing. You can't please me. All of your works, all of your good deeds, all of your attempts to please me, all of your religious hypocrisy, all of your fine words, all of it gathered up together is worthy of nothing but being burned. You are nothing but a branch. And the branch can't boast when it brings forth fruit. It can only say, I bring forth fruit because the vine, the vine is my life. One of the sure signs that the Holy Spirit has departed from many, many, many, many people is you touch, you sense a sense of dependence, strength. I can do it. Strong will, strong temper. You touch the strength of flesh, not trembling, weak people who walk softly before God. Listen, the Holy Spirit will wreck you, they'll wreck you. He'll take the sail out of your or the wind out of your sail. He'll take the boast out of your tongue. He'll take the fight out of your heart. He'll take the bragging out of your lips. He'll take the boasting from your vocabulary. He'll put you on your knees and you'll have to cry out and say, oh God, you alone are worthy. And I can do nothing without your empowerment and your strength. That's what He'll do. And if that's not happening in your heart, you don't have the Holy Spirit. Or you have grieved Him and quenched Him and His power has departed from you and He's left you to yourself. So you can see how miserable you are. Do we have the Holy Spirit? Well, I thought we did. Good, good. Well, I felt I did. Forget about your feelings. Forget about your feelings. Following Jesus isn't about feelings. It's about obeying His word, period. Oh, you might get a feeling here and there. But I tell you, the true joy of the Holy Ghost isn't something that's in the emotion. It's deeper. It's in the spirit. It's in the spirit. Can you have joy burning at the stake? I don't know if you can have physical joy. I think you'd have physical pain. But you can have joy in the Holy Ghost. Most Christians have no clue what the joy of the Holy Ghost is because all of their happiness is contingent upon and hangs upon circumstances. Okay. Now, interestingly, Jesus goes from abiding in the vine, dependence on Him, bearing fruit, and then all of a sudden... Remember, He's still talking about the Holy Spirit working in the church. Verse number 18, chapter 15. If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before. If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. Listen, please listen. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. Another evidence that the Holy Spirit not only dwells in our life, but is controlling our life is the world will hate us. The world will hate you. You say, well, wait a minute, brother. Are you sure that's true? Because I find a constant desire to seek the approval of my Lord. Very little influence in our life. When the Holy Spirit grips a hold of the heart and conquers the pride and empties it of all self-aspiration and self-desire and vainglory, the Holy Spirit instills a passion within us that's insatiable and unquenchable. And here it is. I must please my God. It is better to please God than man. But that's not true in our life. Oh, it might be with our words. We might say we've got good theology, don't we? But is that really the life passion of your life? Are you willing to obey God at the expense of being misunderstood or hated? In a work scenario, being honest with your friends saying, I'm sorry, I'm not going to defile my mouth. I'm not going to defile my eyes. I'm not going to defile my body. I'm sorry, I can't do that. I'm sorry, I can't gossip. I can't backbite. If the Holy Spirit's not working in your life, you will. You will fall prey. Why? Because you want to please man more than God in your natural condition. We're men pleasers. But when God gets a hold of a soul, when God gets a hold of a person, when God gets a hold of you, your life is changed. And you seek to please God. Paul said in Galatians, we know the Scripture, but I like to read it. It's appropriate. Paul said in Galatians chapter 1, verse number 10, For do I now persuade men or God? Do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Listen carefully, brothers and sisters. If we seek to please men more than God, we are not following Jesus. And it's best to settle right now, as we mentioned a few minutes ago. If you think you're going to get a hold of this stuff and memorize it and put it into action tomorrow, you're wrong. All this is going to do is prove to you that you are a liar. I'm a liar and God is true. That's all this word is going to do, this letter, if that's all it is to you. But if this letter, this word, this pure, precious word of God leads you to Christ, leads you to Him, leads you to the Holy Spirit and you become devastated, you will be empowered to obey it. One of the greatest nooses around our neck today is the noose of being men-pleasers. We don't love truth enough to die for it, but rather we will die for a lie to save our face, rather than to die for truth and save Christ's face. The Holy Spirit is called the spirit of what? Truth. Truth. Do you love truth this morning? Are you a lover of truth? Do you long for truth more than silver or gold? Or do you dream about the stock market? If you dream about the stock market, you're not a lover of truth. I'm sorry, dear friend. I love you, but I've got to tell you the truth. If you dream about homes and houses and cars and careers and all the things of this world, if you dream about that, if that's the thing that's got a hold of you, you're not following Jesus. You're not. But He's calling you today. And perhaps if you hear His voice, you can follow Him today. But if you do, it'll cost everything you got. You said, I thought salvation was a free gift, preacher. It is. Salvation is free. But if you accept it, it'll cost everything you got. It's free. There's no price. There's no price. There's nothing you can do to get it. You just receive it. But once you got it, it'll cost you everything you got. You're not paying for it, but it'll cost you everything you got. Luke. And we're going to go back to John. Look at this. Luke chapter 14, verse number 33. Luke 14, verse 33. Listen carefully. So, likewise, whoever he be of you, among you, that includes everyone here, listen, that forsaketh not all that he has, how much? All. What does it say? He cannot be my disciples. Disciples. Today, modern Christianity is promising men, become a Christian and God will give you everything. But Jesus said, you want to follow me, you'll lose everything. John. Let's go back in John for a few more minutes. John chapter 16. Some more evidences of the Holy Spirit working. Listen carefully. Verse seven, John 16. I tell you the truth. It is necessary for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the comforter will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin. Now, brothers and sisters, I want you to know that the Holy Spirit's power to reprove the world of sin is connected to the believer living in or the Holy Spirit living in the believer. In other words, is your life reproving the world of sin? Because you are so possessed and controlled by the Holy Spirit that when they look at your conversation and your way of life and they see the absence of greed, the absence of covetousness, the absence of immorality, the absence of setting unclean things before your eyes, the absence of corruptible speech in your mouth, is it bothering them? Do they come to you and say, what is it with you? I fear that rather than that, we fall under the condemnation of the book of James. Chapter 4, verse 4, Ye adulterers and adulteresses. Who's he talking to here? He's talking to believers. And he says, you adulterers and adulteresses, listen to what he says. Don't you know that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Listen, whoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Did you know that was in your Bible? How many didn't know that was in your Bible? Huh? Is that what it says? Or does anyone have a razor blade or a pair of scissors? Maybe we should agree right now that that's a little too extreme. Let's cut that section out. Don't you think that's a good idea, Meg? She's looking at me like, you're not serious, are you? Let's cut it out. Isn't that what we do? Come on, isn't that what we really do? We don't like something, we just ignore it. What does Jesus say here? If you have the Holy Spirit, the world will hate you. If you have the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit through you will reprove the world of sin. Listen, the Holy Spirit through the church isn't reproving the world of sin. The church is courting the world. The church is so insecure. All the things the world's doing, the church is bringing it inside her doors so that we don't look too strange. It's not hard to be a Christian nowadays. If you'd love to go to nightclubs, go to a Christian nightclub now. They're all over. You'd like to dance, go Christian dancing. Christian movies. We have a version of everything. Who's following Jesus? Bearing His reproach. Fellowshiping with His sufferings. Being scorned and ridiculed and mocked. Oh, I can't do that, Phil. I'll lose my friends. They're not your friends. I'll lose my job. What, is God weak? Is God weak? Isn't there a God in heaven who says, if you follow me, I'll take care of you? What are you afraid of? Let me tell you something. Your boss isn't paying your paycheck and don't ever think he is. Jesus said He'll take care of you. Don't be ensnared in thinking that men are caring for you and men are providing for you. There's a God in heaven who's able to take ravens and put food in their mouth and bring it to His servants if they're hungry. There's a God in heaven who's able to take a coin and stick it in the mouth of a fish and tell you to go fishing and open up the mouth and take the coin and there you could pay your taxes. Don't ever compromise your testimony because you're afraid that in obeying Jesus, someone might get mad at you whom you think is somehow helping you or supporting you. I'd rather obey God than man. Lose my home, lose my car, lose everything. But if I've got Him in a clear conscience and know that I've obeyed Him, then I don't need anything. Amen? We're spoiled. What's going to happen? What's going to happen if it does happen when it's no longer fun to be a Christian in America? I'm not even going to go there. Forget it. We're just going to stick to this now. Whoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God. There you go, beloved. It's God's Word. It's God's Word. There's a few more minutes. Thank you for the Holy Spirit, God. I know He's here, but I question whether He's really got control of any of us. And I'm the first one to acknowledge, Lord. I want You to control me. Please, Lord, do this in our lives. All right, listen. He's going to convict the world of sin and of righteousness. Oh my, that the world would be convicted of righteousness as they behold our life. Are we not the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus? Then why do we live? As though we're mere man. Strife, envy, backbiting. Is the world seeing what righteousness is when they look at your life? And of judgment. Listen, verse 13. How be it when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. One of the other evidences of the Holy Spirit working your life is He's guiding you, He's leading you into truth. John 17, 17. Sanctify them by Thy Word. Thy Word is truth. He shall not speak of Himself. But whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak. And He will show you things to come. He will glorify Me. Oh, we can spend so much time on each one of these points, brothers and sisters. When the Holy Spirit comes, He glorifies Christ. He fills your heart with a revelation of Christ. He fills your heart with a passion for Christ. He doesn't speak of Himself. He speaks of Christ. The passion of the Holy Spirit is to reveal the eternal perfections of Christ and make them known to you and reveal them through you. That's what the church is for. To reveal the perfections of Christ through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Detaching us from earth. Detaching us from the things of this life. Making us in our heart true pilgrims and strangers and sojourners. Looking for another city whose builder and maker is God. Free from the passions of flesh and the passions of this world. Willing to lay everything down to follow Him. The Holy Spirit makes a people heavenly. Heavenly minded. All things, verse 15, that the Father hath are mine. Therefore, said I that he shall take of mine and show it to you. Where's the Holy Spirit? Do we want the Holy Spirit? Do we want to follow Jesus today? Do we want to be conquered? Overcome? Father, I pray that you will give us grace to repent. It's your goodness that leads us to repentance. Lord, break our heart. Help us to weep. Deliver us from the many ideas that we have that have just right now been destroyed by your truth. Help us, Lord, to exchange all of our ideas for the unchanging truth of your word and let your word judge us. Father, we come as children. We see your word. We ask that you speak to us now in these next few moments. Speak to us. Speak to us now that we see what it really means to have the Holy Spirit and for the Holy Spirit to have us. So likewise, whoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. He cannot become a container of the eternal spirit of God. Who will continuously, without stop, be bringing the fullness of Christ. And right along with that, a continuous dying to our own way. Our own desires. One of the sure evidences of next to nothing regarding the Holy Spirit's power in the professing church today is this right here. When we want something, we want it now. And we're going to get it. That is so unlike God. So unlike the teachings of Jesus. Everything about Jesus is you deny yourself. You know why there's so much premarital sex going on? Because kids aren't taught. Teenagers aren't taught that just because you have a desire doesn't mean you fulfill it. Parents, you need to teach your kids this. You need to sit down eyeball to eyeball with them when they get to be young teenagers. And you need to tell them about that three letter word, sex. And you need to explain to them the desires going on in their body. You need to tell them that followers of Jesus full of the Holy Ghost, they deny their self. That's the beauty of being a virgin. You denied yourself. And it's never too late. It's never too late. You want something, you want it now. You want clothes, you're going to get it now. You want a car, you're going to get it now. No, I'm not going to be inconvenienced. That's a sure sign the church has bought into the lie of the world. Because that's the world. The world has made every possible way for you to get what you want. Listen, brothers and sisters, please bear with me for a few moments. Don't buy into this lie. Don't buy into it. Don't buy into it. We're going to get into this next week. The call to be a disciple. A disciple is a disciplined one. One who is disciplined. You are disciplined in that you will not grasp, but you will wait for Father's provision. We live in a day when we want something and we want it now. Instant. Everything's instant. But the Bible says, they that wait on the Lord. Wait. Do without. The absence of the Holy Spirit in our life is resulting in uncontrolled desires. Excesses. Excesses. Surfeiting, gluttony, obesity, pleasures. No Holy Spirit. What's one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit? Self-control. Why are people in debt over their ears? Why? Is it because they haven't read Larry Perkett's book yet? I'm not knocking Larry Perkett. There's a place for teachers. But that's not the problem. That's not the problem. It's not understanding how to budget your money. The problem is self-control. Self-control. People are going in debt over their ears because. When they want something, they're going to get it. I don't know what it means to wait anymore. Be content. All of this is an evidence. The Holy Spirit. It's not working. The way he wants. All right, brothers and sisters. We'll bring it to a close. Thank you for being patient. I know we cover sometimes a lot. But, oh, God, may God give us ears to hear. And may we not think in the good word of God. And also, too, don't be discouraged if God's word speaks to you and you feel convicted. Don't lean here and say, oh, God, there's no hope for me. No, no. Say, thank God, Lord. Thank you, Lord. I've been caught by your word, but I have. I trust you, Lord, to do the work in me. Don't be discouraged. But let God speak to you, OK? Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the Holy Spirit. And I just ask, Lord, that you would take your words and in each of our heart, you would speak them into us, make them real. And as we leave here, Lord, may we be thinking during the week. Are we following Jesus? Do we have the Holy Spirit? Does the Holy Spirit have us? May you answer that question. To each one of our hearts through your word, I pray. Jesus name.