In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes that it is not our own abilities or persuasive words that win souls, but rather the demonstration of the Spirit and power of God. The speaker shares a personal experience of feeling inadequate and relying on the Holy Spirit's power. They highlight the importance of knowing the Scripture and the power of God. The sermon also emphasizes that Jesus brings real and eternal life, contrasting it with the death that the law brings.

In Acts chapter 3, we have the wonderful miracle, I'll go back a bit here, and it was the miracle of the lame man who was healed. And as a result of it, he held on to Peter and John, he had been walking and leaping and praising God, and all the people ran together at 311, and to them in the porch which is called Solomon's, and they were greatly amazed. Now, when Peter saw it, he responded to the people, men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Which it seems like kind of a strange thing because this man had been crippled from his mother's womb and now suddenly he was walking and leaping and praising God, and they knew him well, he was always at the temple gate, and suddenly here he is completely well, of course they would be marveling, wouldn't you be? Absolutely. He says, why are you so amazed at this? Now remember that Peter had been with Jesus, remember that Peter had been with Jesus, remember that Jesus had done miracles, raised the dead, and so Peter's saying, listen, why would you be so amazed? He said, oh, why look so intently at us as though by our own power or godliness we made this man walk? Now this is a good thing because Peter is saying, listen, it isn't our power and it isn't our holiness, and don't you find that a little bit interesting? It's not our power nor is it our holiness. I tell you that the work of God does not hinge on you because if it hinged on you, it's not going to go very far. It isn't your power nor is it your holiness that causes the work of God to go forth, and sometimes we can get to a place where we think that it does and that somehow that this doesn't take away from the necessity to know the power of God nor does it take away from the fact that we ought to live a holy life or godly life. We ought to live a godly life. In Hebrews, we were studying last night that the Bible says without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Nobody will see the Lord without being holy. That is a holiness that is worked into your life from God. It's not a holiness that you achieve by your effort. That is so amazing to discover that it's not something that you achieve, it's something that you acquire. You see the difference between the two? Holiness is acquired because it is given to us from God. It is the Holy Spirit that makes you holy, not your ability that makes you holy. And so Peter says, why would you look at us intently? The tendency often is to worship men. It is to exalt the people. And he says, Peter says, what are you looking at us like this for? As if it was our own power or our own godliness that would make this man walk. And I want to encourage you to understand that it is always the power of God that accomplishes things. And praise the Lord when we see his power at work. Thank you, Jesus, when we see the power of God working. We need to see the power of God at work, but it's all for the glory of God. It's all to his glory, but it's all from God. It is not our power nor our godliness, it's the power of God. And of course it's the godliness of God because God is very godly, isn't it? It's all of God. And I want this to encourage you to know that God can do miraculous and powerful things because he is powerful and because he is holy, not because of what you are. And there is where we say, Lord, we need you. You know, when the man came, the man was there asking for alms, Peter had an answer to him. He said, silver and gold, I have none. But what I have, I offer to you in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. And he laid hold of that man. And you know, it wasn't that man's faith either that caused him to be well, because it doesn't tell us the man had any faith at all. The man wasn't looking to be healed. What was he looking for? He was looking for money. He was just, all he wanted was some more money. He was begging for alms. It says that Peter grabbed him by the arms and lifted him up, and immediately his ankle bones and everything received strength and he was made well. So it wasn't even his faith that made him well. It was just the mighty power of God working through Peter in that immediate moment and making him whole. And so I want to encourage you that the same power has come to the people of God. If it hasn't, because it's the power of Almighty God. It's not your power. But as God leads us in the directions of life, and God places us in places of ministry or things that he has for us to do, it can be done in the power of God. Can't be done otherwise. Has to be God that does it. And it takes the pressure off when I realize that the ability to do what God's called me to do has to be done by God and not by me. Oh, it takes the pressure off. It's wonderful to be able to lean on Jesus Christ and expect God to work. Many times I found myself expecting God to work. Sometimes my faith isn't very good. Sometimes my faith is weak. But even in this, even in this, God's power can override even where I'm at at the time and step in and do something by his mighty power. And as Peter writes here about this work that was done, or preaches about this to the people, about the work that was done, he refers to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers. He says, listen, this is a God thing. It's a God thing. Oh, let me encourage you in your walk of life, whether it's a struggle with sin, whether it's helping someone else, whether sometimes it might be praying for someone to be healed. Sometimes it might be sharing the gospel with someone. It is never your own power or your own godliness that achieves this work. It is always the power of God. And I thank God for that. I praise him because I feel so inadequate in the ministry. And I acknowledge that to you tonight. I feel inadequate. And because of that, I am constantly finding myself crying out to God, Lord, you must minister here because I cannot. You must speak. You must wake the dead. You must bring what needs to be done in this every situation because I'm out of my league. I always feel like I'm out of my league. And I hope I always feel that way. I hope I always feel like I can't, but that God can. And even in the times where, and there are times like this where I know I can't, and I have very little faith that God can, I can at least say, God, still meet me there. And amazingly, often, he just comes and he meets me. And he can do that with any one of us. Now, you've heard me say this before. In the Old Testament, God spoke through an ass. And I've often said, if God can speak through an ass, then he can speak through me. And I want to encourage you to understand that your Christianity lived out and a powerful Christianity can be lived out in each and every one of us because it's the power of God. It isn't achieved by your effort. And when we understand that, oh, that can free us up so much because we can begin to see, even with small steps of faith, that God can use me. God can cause my life to be a blessing to someone as I depend on his mighty power and not my own. It's good news, isn't it? It's great news, friends. And so I encourage you and encourage myself tonight to rely on the strength and the power of Almighty God for every part of ministry that we do. And there's no question tonight that every person in this room is called to ministry. It isn't certain people that are called to quote-unquote ministry, but every single one of us are called by God. And not whatever God calls you to. Maybe everybody has different gifts and will do different ministries. Whatever he's called you to do, he is the one that empowers you to be able to do it. And there are plenty of opportunities. Brokenness is all around us. It's incredible, the pain and the brokenness that people are going through. There's a lot of smiles, but there's a lot underneath a lot of these smiles that we see. Look at what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 1. I, brothers, when I came to you, I did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. Now, I don't know about you, but this is Paul writing. Do you find Paul's writings pretty good? Pretty profound? I would. Don't you say? Wouldn't you say? But he actually, in another passage, Paul says that people said of Paul that his words were mighty, but his presence wasn't quite so impressive. So maybe he wasn't such a good orator in one sense. Or it says, or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. What I really think that Paul is actually saying is that I didn't depend upon excellent speech and I didn't depend upon how wise I was. In other words, Paul says, I didn't depend upon my gifts. I didn't depend upon my abilities. Instead, we find out what he says later after that. But he says, when I came declaring to you the testimony of God, I want to encourage you to declare the testimony of God in all the weakness that you have, because there's a lot of broken people that need to hear it. You might think that everybody in Shaddy Camp and everybody around here knows the testimony of God, but I would beg to differ with you. Most people don't have a clue what the testimony of God really is. They don't know. It's all jumbled up with religion and myth and personal ideas and all kinds of different things. A mass of confusion in the minds of people as to what the real testimony of God is. So we need to be willing to share it. But sometimes, indeed often, and I've heard this many times, that most people feel inadequate to share. Am I right? They feel like, who am I that I could share with anyone the testimony of God? But here is Paul writing, saying, I didn't depend upon excellent speech, nor did I depend upon wisdom, but instead, we find what Paul says here, I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why did he say this? What's he referring to now in this verse? Well, that Jesus died for our sins and that He died for His sin too. He's preaching that Jesus died for us and without Him, we can't do anything. So is it safe to say that he's saying, I kept it simple? Yeah. Would it be safe to say that? Yes. I kept it simple and I kept it straightforward. I didn't get into fancy words. I didn't get into long, convoluted speeches. I just simply made it plain, the testimony of God, which is what? Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I didn't stray very far away into long philosophical debates. I just kept coming back to the root of what Christianity is, Christ and Him crucified. Isn't that what Paul writes in Galatians as he says, that God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which I am crucified to the world and the world to me. And so we can see here as Paul speaks about going forth, he says, keep it simple. I know some people say, keep it simple, stupid. I'll keep the stupid off. Just keep it simple and proclaim what you do know and that you know that Jesus Christ died for our sins. Isn't that a great thing to know? How many people know that? A lot do. But do they know that He died for their sins? I'm afraid not. I'm afraid all it is is a knowledge that He did die in a cross for sins but not particularly for their own because when you know that Christ has died for your sins, you know that your sins are paid for. That changes everything. Doesn't it? Absolute transformation. So we understand that Paul says, I came with, didn't come with excellency speech, I didn't come with great wisdom but I did declare the testimony of God and the testimony of God was Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I kept it simple and straightforward. I was with you and now he goes on to speak about where he was at. When you read the writings of Paul, you probably wouldn't get this impression, would you? I was with you in weakness, in fear and in much trembling. Isn't it? This is the Apostle Paul saying this. I was with you in weakness. Not strength. I was with you in fear. Not boldness. And I was with you in much trembling. I don't know about you but does that picture you sometimes? Does that picture how you would feel if you were going to go, say to a strange town and begin to try to approach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ? Does that picture you if you think about witnessing to your own family members? Weakness, fear, much trembling? I'm sure it does. That was Paul. That was where he was at in his proclamation of the gospel. Like Peter, it's not my own power or holiness that this man stands before you whole. And then he says in my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom. And so he identifies about himself. He gives the list of things of where he was at. Weakness, fear, much trembling. His speech and preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom. You know sometimes the Christian church in all of its wisdom looks at the world and its sales techniques and says they work in the world. They should work in the church. So let's adopt the sales techniques of the world and we'll just use those and rely on those and we'll see God work. And at the end of the day it will not be the sales techniques of the world. You know you hear that old saying you could sell ice to an Eskimo or whatever kind of thing, right? That will not win souls. What will win souls is not what you can do but what God can do. It is maybe stumbling in speech. Maybe not getting it out right. Maybe saying things backwards. Maybe feeling totally inadequate in the process. But God can work and he can use weak vessels. Because what does it say next? It says my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom but what? Demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Oh God. I can't. God I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do Lord. You must do something because I cannot. Holy Spirit come. Let your power be there. Let your life be seen Lord. That's what we need. We need the Holy Spirit. You know there was a time as we saw in the Gospel of Matthew when Jesus sent the disciples out and he told them in Matthew chapter 12 he said I'm sending you out and you're going to stand before kings but you don't even have to think about what you're going to say but in that hour the Holy Spirit will give you what you need to say and often that can happen in our experience. Sometimes we know what we're going to say well ahead of time but I never think even if I'm going to go preach I never think well that's exactly what I'm going to say because I don't know God may do something different right at that moment. He may not but I need to be prepared to lean on him because I don't know what God's going to do. He can do something far better. As a matter of fact tonight my text was further on in the book of Acts. It was not this. My text was more to do with Peter speaking about what they needed to do the people that were there but somehow right in the middle of this I felt the Spirit of God speaking to me and staying and going in a different direction altogether which is the direction we're in right now. What can I say? I believe that the Spirit of God has something to say tonight to us about his sovereign power and so I was only using the first part as an introduction and now I'm preaching on this other subject altogether that I believe that God wants us to know. I believe he wants us to understand in a deeper way that this whole Christian life was meant to be done in the power of God because it's not our ability. It's not in our power. Ephraim shared something about something he was unable to do in himself last week and and the wonderful thing Ephraim is that the whole of the Christian life is that way. It doesn't have to be some great difficult thing that we are unable to do when it comes to true Christian living none of us can do any of it. It's impossible to be done. To live the Christian life in the way that God calls you to do it you need the power of God. Anything else is an imitation and we all tried the imitation stuff. Somebody told me this week was it I think it was Chuck was it your daughter or somebody or somebody that ate imitation crab and too much of it and they got sick was it? Was it? Was it you? Okay Listen there is nothing like the real thing is there? Have you eaten imitation crab? No? It's pollock that's made to taste like crab. Yeah you could take that and you take the real thing crab there is nothing like the real thing right? But the real thing you can't beat the real thing can you? Friends we're always looking for the genuine aren't we? We're looking for the genuine article we're looking for something that's real something that's significant I noticed that as Con and I we went to the Highland Village this morning we took them over to the Highland Village just on the spur of the moment we just remembered it was there and I said do you want to go to this Highland Village? And they did and they thoroughly enjoyed it we went to the blacksmith shop and the guy was hammering out something and I kind of came in late I didn't know what he was making and in the end of it he cuts it off and he made a nail right? And Con was quite surprised I could tell wow he was surprised and he gives it to Con well Con didn't say oh no I don't want it he grabbed that thing and he put it in his pocket because that's the real thing and I bet he'll hold onto that nail because he saw crafting a nail in the blacksmith shop just the way it was many years ago when you pull apart an old building and you find those forged nails square head nails yeah it's the real thing right? And we want the genuine and God is saying to you hey I want to give you the genuine but the genuine is my power my might not yours my strength my ability trust me weakness in yourself fear as far as your ability is concerned trembling unable absolutely yet trusting God you know I could tell you that as I thought about Bible study tonight I struggled Lord it's easy for me whenever I'm doing a book because I always know what the next text is but I find it a little more difficult when I'm not doing a book because then I don't know and I don't want to just come and share something I know that God has a word at a specific time and that's kind of a scary thing when you're a teacher because the Bible says teachers have a great responsibility on right so I did pray I did seek the face of God but I didn't get a word from the Lord except that one verse in the book of Acts and yet I wasn't feeling settled about it but I said that's the only verse I have Lord so I'm going to teach it and yet what does the Lord do? He takes me to the verses before it and says no this is what I want you to teach on and it's just to show to share that it is the Spirit's work and it is the Spirit's power lean on Jesus lean on Him in all your weakness in all your fear in all your trembling in all your inability you can lean on Him and so men and women come to us from South Carolina they're not Billy Graham you know and I mean certainly Con and Debbie are tremendous gifted in singing and Chuck and Joan are wonderful in their how they work with children and every you know all of these together they're wonderful folks and God has gifted you but you know what the greatest gift that God gave to you in all of this? What do you think it is? His Spirit His Spirit His power yeah that you know it's a simple thing they were willing to come they were willing to come with what they had and maybe it wasn't much but they were willing to come and have they been a blessing to your souls? Haven't they? My goodness how much we are blessed because God is in their hearts and God is using them to bless us and that's the secret of Christianity is I'm willing Lord in all my fear and all that I'm not I'm willing to be for you I'm willing to go forward I'm willing to serve you I'm surrendering I'm giving myself to you and Lord you can do what you want with me and oh God can use you He can powerfully use you and we will know in heaven the fruit of the travels of Khan and Debbie and Joanne and Chuck in heaven we will see the fruit of that and it's going to be glorious I believe that the fruit in some of these young children the fruit that a few years back they did a a VBS in Dingwall to the very children now that are getting to be teenagers the fruit the fruit that God has brought don't despise the Bible says the day of small things because God is great there is little and little is much when God is in it you know Paul writes this for a reason because he says so that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God he says I I came to you the way I was I came just preaching Christ and Him crucified so that you might know the power of God when you look back to the previous chapter as Paul writes about this very aspect here as he speaks about the cross here the preaching of the cross sorry your eyes are going to get go crazy here as I scroll down here he says here Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel not with wisdom of words lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect nothing should substitute the cross of Christ not the best preaching if good preaching is a substitute for the cross that is the salvation that comes through Jesus Christ and Him crucified then throw out the good preaching throw it out we don't need that we need the cross we need to hear about Jesus and Him crucified for the message of the cross is what foolishness foolishness to those who are perishing what a foolish message it is that some guy died on a cross 2000 years ago and that's going to change my life now that's foolishness but to us who are what being saved it is what it's the power of God it's the power of God it's the power God has decided that through weakness strength would come it's amazing in the old testament you probably all are familiar at least at some extent with the story of God calling Moses to lead the children of Israel out of bondage right so when God tells Moses that's what I want you to do when he goes up to the burning bush and he sees this bush being burning but not being consumed and the Lord tells Moses I want you to go down and deliver Israel from the Egyptians what does Moses say can't do it send somebody else Moses can keeps on saying send somebody else and actually it tells us that God got angry at Moses but that didn't mean that God wasn't going to call Moses to do exactly what he was to do so here's Moses and what was Moses job no before after no when he was up on the mountain what was Moses job when he met that when he met that God of the burning bush what was his job yeah no what was he doing what do you say Kathy he was a shepherd and how long was he a shepherd for how long was he a shepherd 40 years right he was in he was in Egypt 40 years he was the son of Pharaoh's daughter but then because he chose to stand with the Israelites he was had to flee and he had to flee and he had to flee and he had to flee and he had to flee and he so what's Moses first response where is he looking at himself can he find this in himself no in a sense he's right who am I but he's just looking in the wrong in the wrong place maybe you feel that way who am I oh yeah don't talk to that you must not say anything to that person because there's no that person is definitely not interested don't bother he's always saying that so don't listen to his voice anyway that's what Moses said there's no way they're gonna listen to me and so Moses said the Lord said to him what's that in your hand he said a rod he said cast it on the ground so he cast it on the ground it became a serpent and Moses fled from it the Lord said to Moses reach out your hand and take it by the tail which you don't do you grab a snake you grab it behind the head not by the tail because what happens if you take a snake by the tail he comes right around and gets you so Moses had to have faith you can't but if God speaks if God encourages you and God touches your soul none of those reasons count so the Lord said to him who has made man's mouth or who makes the mute the deaf the seeing or the blind have not I the Lord now therefore go and I'll be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say so the Lord says it doesn't matter it doesn't matter what you have I am the one who made your mouth trust me it's not a good word I think it's a great word so what does Moses say oh Lord please send by the hand whoever else you may send in other words oh Lord send somebody else send somebody else no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no Receives the same reward as the prophet in other words here's the prophet preaching and somebody comes along and gives a cup of cold water to the prophet to enable him to preach and The Bible says at the end of the story The exact reward that the prophet gets the guy who gave the cup of cold water gets In other words God looks on the ministry of the guy who gives the cup of cold water Exactly the same as the one who's doing the preaching amazing to think of you pray for Billy Graham and Thousands of souls are saved then the scriptures are teaching us that the exact same thing that God looks upon your ministry as important as Billy Graham's ministry. We don't think that way do we It gives that picture yeah, it does yeah You know the picture also is given here that here's a guy who's only a shepherd Here's a guy who has a stick in his hand. That's all he's got is a stick in his hand Well, what does he do with that stick? He rules Egypt That little stick the shepherd's staff in his hand rules Egypt so God grabs a hold of an 80 year old has-been and Lifts him up and uses him to deliver all of Egypt the Israelites Sounds funny it has been Yeah, well Yeah, he lost everything Yeah, here's the guy that was on top of the world. He was the son of Pharaoh's daughter Right. He had nothing left. Oh He would have been considered the lowest of the lowest especially by Egyptians, you know Egyptians have nothing to do with sheepherders Right, they were the they're the lowest of the low of the low they wouldn't eat with sheepherders. You remember that from Genesis? Here we see God raising him up God can raise you up God can use you Not by my own might or power Peter says Paul says not with excellency of speech and weakness and fear and in much trembling and Even God can even use reluctant prophets to Moses was a reluctant prophet Sometimes I'm very reluctant to Jonah is the picture of a reluctant prophet But God never stops and I want you to know that that God doesn't stop either God calls you he keeps on working at you to get you where he wants you to be Grace all the way grace, that's right Pours it out on your life. He delights to take you know, somebody wrote a book. It says God uses cracked pots Bible says we have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the excellency to power might be of God and Not of us now think about this. It says the excellency of the power that's in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 God's excellent power is revealed in These earthen vessels or jars of clay. That's what he uses We're not the ornate. He says we aren't the golden ornate jars. We're just simple jars of clay but the the more This the The less glorious the jar of clay is the more the Glorious is the what's in it is seen the comparison is so great And that's what God says we have this treasure in earthen jars of clay earthen vessels God's excellent power will be revealed I can't if I was right, I couldn't do it. Yeah, but you know, I said Let me get me and I said God may your Holy Spirit just come right through me and lift me up on high with you All day long for you to sit and take care of my fish. I always ask to pass your fish I say that you could have given me care of my truck and help me sell this fish God, but may I be with you and never mind the fish. I'm not worried about it. That was three days ago. You know four hours It's good Right with the Lord, yeah Yeah No, not with Jesus it's all his power Learn to lean on him and discover the greatness of God's mighty power in your life And Matthew 23 it says As Jesus replied, he said your mistake is that you don't know his scriptures and you don't know how it's done. That's true Absolutely I'm going to Look at one more verse to close and And it's a very well-known verse of scripture and it is This was a guy named Zerubbabel I don't know if you'd like to have that name but that was his name and he was called by God to do something and that was to rebuild the temple and It was an impossible task it was called total disarray and he was called to do what was impossible to be done Let me tell you something God's called you to do the impossible that is to live a Christian life in an ungodly world That's impossible God's called you to do the impossible to forgive when it's impossible to forgive God's called you to do the impossible to share with dead to see talk to dead people Spiritually dead people and and for them to be raised to life it's all impossible and So here's the answer that Zerubbabel gets from God. This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel not by might nor by power But by my spirit says the Lord of hosts and then he speaks about the obstacles and he says who are you? Oh great mountain That's all the obstacles that Zerubbabel was facing before Zerubbabel you shall become a Plane and he shall bring forth the capstone which shouts of grace grace to it Now what he's saying here is the capstone was the final stone on the building, right? and he says Zerubbabel is going to bring forth the capstone in other words Zerubbabel is going to finish the job that I called him to do no matter how big the mountain is no matter how hard A task is but he's gonna do it shouting something. What is it? Grace grace to it You know what that means? God doing it undeserved favor on it. God is doing all of this. It's all the grace of God that's accomplishing this It's not me Not by might not by power, but by my spirit says the Lord, let me encourage you and myself as well this Christian life Wow God can use all these crackpots in this room and he can use these broken vessels He can use these has-beens. He can use And the ass that's right. God can use the ass that he spoke through Balaam's ass that spoke God can use you and he can use me just make yourself Available to whatever he wants to do and don't be looking so long at yourself. Look at him Peter, am I getting this right? I call him Peter. That's all right. Oh, yes Peter. In the Old Testament. Yeah Am I got this right that it was only God? There was not the Son and there was not the Holy Spirit. Right? Or am I wrong here? No, all three were active in the Old and the New Testament, but they weren't fully revealed The Holy Spirit was at work because the Bible says that that the Holy Spirit was the author of the of the of the scriptures Jesus was active because the Bible says without Jesus Christ. There was nothing made that was made The Spirit came and descended on Jesus. Yes, that was the the the the presence of the Holy Spirit Anointing Jesus for the ministry that he was called to do but the Holy Spirit was in the world in the Old Testament because the Bible says men of old wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament as A matter of fact the Bible says without Jesus Christ. There was nothing made that was made because Jesus was previous He left heaven and became conceived within the womb of Mary and then walked on this planet But he was with the father previous to that Is that answer that is that answer Okay, so the father the son and the Holy Spirit were present in the Old Testament But their understanding of the father son the Holy Spirit was not so clear until the New Testament But he was still there the three persons in the one God were always there But the manifestations, but even when you go back to the book of Genesis chapter 1 Just very quickly look look at what it says here when it comes to the creation of men I think that's a common question Yeah, very common and it's an understandable question because it's a little bit it seems a little confusing but let's look here just for a second at the creation and it says this and We'll close up this here Look at Genesis 126 then God said let us Make man in our image according to our likeness. How could God say that? He meant himself which is the father the son the Holy Spirit So God was that all were present at the very beginning of creation The image indeed indeed just for a second if you look here it says The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters at the beginning of creation. There's the Holy Spirit right there so God him in all of his person It's just the father son the Holy Spirit were present at the time of creation and all the way through Indeed in the New Testament it tells us in first Corinthians chapter 13 It tells us that they all the Old Testament people drank at the same spiritual rock and that rock was Christ the Messiah Jesus Yes, yes Yes, there's a different work of the Spirit of God There was a different work for Jesus Christ to do in the New Testament in the Old Testament Jesus was present with God. He was part of he was creating I believe it was Jesus that knelt and made Adam in the gut in the dust from the dust of the earth Jesus himself, however The work that he came to do in the New Testament was to become incarnate and become one of us The work of the Holy Spirit as you're saying was different from the Old Testament in that he was authoring the scriptures and that he Was guiding the prophets and then he was speaking and empowering them in certain situations But in the New Testament says he is where we are baptized with the Holy Spirit like you said So the work that he's doing is different in the new but the presence of God was there in the old as well as the new The real image is the character That's the real image that I would be We thinking about the at the image of God and that God was in complete unity with himself Because it says male and female he created them that God was community that there was more than one male and female He created them to be in community. And so there is the sense more I believe in the image of God is the character of God than the physical image a picture though. That could be part of it It's the it's a character of God the the attributes of God in that his ability to think and his desire to create Which we have a desire to do we make something from something God makes something from nothing But still we want to go out and create things We want to make things because that's part of the very nature of God So there's a sense more of the image of God in the characteristics of God than so much the image But that doesn't take away from that. Yes Louise This is just an internal question but 40 I can't get a photo of my mind 40 days 40 nights 40 years in the desert Yes 40 40 What's the significance of 40 days 40 nights I don't know Yeah I mean You often yes you often see numbers like that and there's some people who are into numerology in the Bible and they could tell you a lot more. Sometimes they stretch it way beyond what it should be. But I really don't know. But definitely you see a pattern of 40s in the scriptures. So it's not a question of translation? No. Oh no, no. It's literally 40. Yeah. It's not ambiguous in a sense. Jesus did fast for 40 days. Moses went up for 40 days and 40 nights. But we could say that there's likely a very clear correlation to the fact that Moses went up and got the law for 40 days and 40 nights. Jesus was tempted of the devil for 40 days and 40 nights. There would be a correlation there. And the fact that it was 40 would tie the two things together in the sense that this was the work of God in giving the law. And this was all that could come against God in the sense where Jesus was being tempted of the devil in that he was fulfilling the law of God. He said, I've come to fulfill the law and the prophets. And that even the temptations that men failed at in the giving of the Ten Commandments, Jesus didn't fail at it at all. And so you will find correlations like that where numbers mean something in a sense. For example, and you probably heard me say this, when the giving of the law happened, 3,000 souls were destroyed. They were killed. They were judged because they had gone and worshipped the golden calf. When Pentecost happened, 3,000 souls were saved. And so we can see that in the giving of the law, judgment took place and that the same numbers are given in both. And that is a correlation that we can grab hold of and say, look, this is what the law produces, death. But God wanted us to see that even at the giving of the law, 3,000 souls were put to death. But ah, when grace came, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, when the gospel was preached under the power of the Spirit of God in the day of Pentecost, when that time came, 3,000 souls were saved. Beautiful pictures. I think we're used to death, but when God made himself known through the power of the Holy Spirit to all those people, lives were changed. Yeah. And life that they never understood before was different. Absolutely. As Christ. No question. And so we see that the law brings death, but Jesus brings life. Real life. Right. That's right. True life. Eternal life. When they were saved, they received eternal life. Not just temporary, but eternal life. What really matters. Some of the teachers believe that number seven is complete. Four means whole. Seven. God completed everything in seven days. And seven is a complete number. Yeah. Yeah. And some of it, you know, like I say, there's people that know a lot more than I do about that, and sometimes it can be stretched, but it does seem as if there's significance to certain numbers. We can't go through all of that tonight. Somebody translate. That's right. That's exactly what we're saying. Right on. There's a reason for it, for all of it. There definitely is. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely, Joe. I think he did. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Holy Spirit and Jesus, were they in the Old Testament? And I said, yes, they were, but they worked in different ways. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Well, they were doing things. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. No, no question. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Very true. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, there's no question. Yeah. No question, that God was active, the Spirit was active. Joe's not saying this Holy Spirit wasn't active, but he's saying that the Holy Spirit's come in a new way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Very true. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's true, and yet there was a different work in the New Testament, a work of the Spirit of God in the New Testament was different than the Old. Yes. Oh, absolutely. Yes. Yes, I understand. Yeah, because on the day of Pentecost, he said that his power would make us witnesses over all the earth. Yeah. He always points us to Christ. Very true. I appreciate that. Amen. Always. Amen.