Empowered by the Holy Spirit

It's just a joy to see you. Pardon my emotions, but it's been just a beautiful time to seek the Lord together and worship him and sit at Jesus' feet and just to see the faithfulness of God. My, God is good.

Yeah, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for your acceptance. Thank you for your sacrifice.

Many of you were here every night. Thank you for your prayers, for your responses. It's just been so good.

I want to say thank you to all you children. You made my day. I just love to share together with you all.

And yeah, this morning, it's just hard to believe it's the conclusion, the last day of the feast of this week. But you know, those who dwell in the Lord's presence have a continual feast. It'll just keep right on going.

Amen. Oh, praise God. Well, I didn't think about how I might do this.

Can I have a young man come up here and help me for just a moment? And well, I just rearranged things a little bit. That would be OK. Let's just take this pulpit and set it back.

I think it's got rocks in it. You try to make it steady. Oh, great.

All right, thank you. And we can maybe just put that aside as well. That would be nice.

I'm going to sit down intentionally, because today I just want to talk to you. I thought I'd like to give a word of comfort, a word of exhortation, a word of promise. Ezekiel 36.27, I will put my spirit within you, and I will cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them.

Can we bow our heads for prayer? Father, we do come in Jesus' name, here this morning with gratitude and praise unto our God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, all the things that we need pertaining to life and godliness in Christ Jesus. You so abundantly supply all of our need through our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I thank you so much.

Like Jesus taught us, he said, I'm going away, but it's actually expedient or better for you that I go, because when I go, I'm going to send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, to be with you and in you and to empower you to walk in my new covenant. Oh, Lord, I pray that today we would receive of the beauty of the deposit of the Holy Ghost of God given unto your children right here today, right now, the earnest that you have given. And Father, I pray that today this word would be a living word to your children, an inspiration, an enlightenment, an empowerment.

Oh, Lord, have your way, we pray, in the name of Jesus. Do not pass any of us by. Touch us and visit us by the presence of your Holy Spirit.

Quicken your word to our hearts and grant us grace to receive it. In Jesus' name, amen. You see, in the old covenant, God gave 10 commandments.

And he said, thou shalt not. Under the new covenant, he said, I'm going to do something very different. In fact, the epistles say that the prophets desired, as they heard the word of God to their hearts in the prophecy of what shall come to be in the days of ahead, they desired to look into it.

And they were at awe and wonder, what will that day be like? When God puts his Holy Spirit within the hearts of all believers. You see, in the old covenant, the Holy Spirit came upon a person for a specific time and a call. But in the old covenant, they were not filled with the Holy Spirit.

He said, I will cause you to walk in my statutes. And this will be made possible because I will put my spirit within you. You know, this word, cause you, is interesting.

I mean, it's a very common word in the scripture. But it has the meaning of to cause, to perform, to cause, to bring it about. And it appears in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 11 and 12.

Very interesting. God said, let the earth bring forth grass, and the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself. And it was so.

And the earth brought forth grass and herb, yielding seed after his kind, and the tree producing fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind. And God saw that it was good. Now a question.

I'll bet you Zach can answer this one for me. Can an apple tree produce watermelons? Ah, no way. What does an apple tree produce, tell me? What does an apple tree produce? Apples, yes, of course.

So this word cause is the same word in my studies as yielding or producing fruit after its kind. And James, he said, can the fig tree bear olive berries? What do you think? No way. Or a vine bear figs? The answer implied is, of course, no way.

Now God said, I will put my Holy Spirit within you. I mean, that is so amazing that I, a child of hell and sin, should be redeemed and cleansed and washed from my sins in the precious blood of Jesus. But he doesn't stop there.

He says, I'm going to put my Holy Spirit inside of you. You see, that's Christ in you, the hope of glory. Where is Jesus this morning? Jesus, where is he this morning? He's at the right hand of the Father.

And he has a ministry there. What's his ministry? Making intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Oh, it's beautiful.

Christ in you is the Comforter, the Holy Ghost that he sent, the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the three in one to empower us and to quicken us with that same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead. Whoa, this is very exciting and very enlightening and illuminating for us as God's children. I will put my Spirit within you.

And I'm going to cause you to bear fruit after the Spirit. You see, Jesus said it's pretty simple. It's not complicated.

It's not rocket science. Every tree is known by his fruit. Well, we can look at that, and we can sort of say, well, OK.

So I just have to try to be more diligent to produce good fruit. I just have to try harder to not get angry or not lust or not whatever. You put anything in there you want, any type of work of the flesh.

But God said, no, I'm going to do something even better than that. I'm going to put my Holy Spirit within you and my seed, the seed of God in our hearts. Brothers and sisters, I'm going to put my Spirit in you, and my Spirit in you is going to cause you to walk in my statutes.

Isn't that beautiful? I'm going to empower you. I'm going to give you an affection and a desire to do my will and not only a desire. Didn't Paul say, for the will in me is present, but how to perform it? I find not.

You know, and many Christians that I've met, they live in that realm. They live in Romans 7. They desire to do good, but oh, my life is so hard. You know, that's how it was for me too, until Jesus came into my life.

And the Holy Ghost of God came into my life in reality and transformed my life. Oh, glory to Jesus. Without him, I can do nothing, absolutely nothing.

You know, we can try. We can try. We can try.

And I would challenge us this morning, if your life is a, if your Christian life is a hard role and it's tough and it's a bondage, maybe you just need to get a good dip at the fountain of the blood of Christ Jesus in cleansing and washing from all of those old carnal desires and everything and get filled with the Holy Spirit. Don't be drunk with wine where it is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. I mean, can't you just hear Paul pleading with the Ephesians? Why are you still wallowing around, trying to work this thing up in the flesh? And then when you fail and fail and fail, you get discouraged and you go out and get drunk with wine.

Now, hold it. Stop it. Something is wrong.

You're missing the mark. This is very, very, I was so excited. When I found this, oh, a couple of years ago, I came across this, that the word cause in the prophecy of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, I believe both prophesy of the new covenant very clearly.

I was so excited when I found the connection of the word cause right there in the beginning of Genesis about every tree producing and yielding fruit after its kind. I was just so excited. I said, wow, that is just, you know, when we compare scripture with scripture, the scriptures build upon the scriptures and give us greater understanding and a revelation of the heart of God.

Hear now, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. Thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the womb. You know, God knows every one of us here this morning.

He made us and he formed us in the womb of our mother's belly. And he's brought us forth into this life. And he said, fear not, Jacob, my servant, I will help thee.

And then he says in verse three of Isaiah 44, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty. This is so beautiful. The I am said, I will.

And when the I am said, I will, you can count on it. Amen. Every promise of God is yes and amen in Christ Jesus.

I will pour water upon him that is thirsty. This is the promise of God. Well, who's going to get this water? You know, sometimes we talk about these things and we say, well, you know, and we say, well, that's good.

But how do I get it? Didn't Jesus say to the woman at the well, if you know who it is that you're talking to and asking you for a drink, you'd ask him for a drink and he'd give you living water. Yes. Well, who's going to get this Holy Spirit? Proverbs 1, turn you at my reproof.

Behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you and make known my words unto you. You know, the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon those who are walking in repentance. They are walking in the face of Jesus Christ in the reality of his presence and in repentance.

They turn at the reproof of the Lord. They don't wait and harbor sin and wallow around in sin. When the Holy Spirit of conviction comes, they turn at the Lord's reproof.

Those are the ones who are sincere, the ones who are honest before God and honest and a good heart. And he says, when you turn at my reproof, I will pour out my spirit unto you and make known my words unto you. Jesus, on the last day of the feast, stood and cried.

He lifted up his voice and he cried, John 7, 37. Oh, I just love this scripture. He cried, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.

You know, I wonder if any of us have ever really been thirsty. I mean, we've been thirsty. I know I haven't experienced thirst to a very great degree.

But I'm told that if a man or a woman is without water for going on into the third day, the thirst becomes intense. You know, so it should be in our lives for the thirst for God. Oh, I thirst for the living God.

I thirst for the fullness and the blessing of the Lord and the Holy Spirit of God. If any man thirst, Jesus invites him to come unto me and drink. But you know what we need to do? We need to get rid of all the junk stuff.

We need to get rid of that Mountain Dew, brother. You get rid of that other stuff, you know? All that stuff that, you know, sort of spoils our thirst for the living God. You know, many times where our lives are full, they are full of other things, and therefore we don't thirst.

We're not thirsty like we ought to be. Well, who's going to receive the Holy Ghost? I'll tell you who will receive the Holy Ghost. He that walks in repentance and then is honest before God and is thirsty and hungry for all that God has for him.

And you say, Lord, I will not let you go until you bless me. You don't get it at the drive-through. You get it down on your knees in earnest desire and saying, Lord, I want what the apostles got.

They were fearful behind locked doors, afraid of the Jews, running and hiding, Peter running and hiding. They were afraid. The apostles were all together locked in the room, trembling.

Oh, but they remembered the promise that Jesus said. Wait for the promise of the Father. Wait until you be endued with power from on high.

Wait for the Pentecost. Wait until you be endued with power from on high. And when you are filled with the Holy Ghost, you shall receive power.

And then you're going to be witnesses that can't be stopped. And they were. Oh, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were filled with the Holy Ghost.

They were all in one accord in one place, awaiting the promise of the Father. And when the promise of the Father fell upon them in baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, their lives were transformed. They went out and turned the world upside down.

They said, we can't help but speak because of Christ indwelling, because of the power of the Holy Ghost. You know, God, that wasn't just for them. That's for us today.

That's for you, young person. That's for you. That's for you, dear sister.

That's for all of us to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. So who's going to receive the Holy Spirit? The wholly dissatisfied, securing Christ in my relationship with him, but a wholly dissatisfaction that I'm not satisfied with my Christian life where I am today. Is there anybody under the sound of my voice who would say, you know what? I'm glad to be saved.

I'm glad for what Jesus did in my life. But I'm ashamed at times of how powerless I am and how little fruit I'm bearing. I want more.

I want all that Jesus has for me. Is there anybody here with a desire? Is there anybody hungry this morning? If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. Oh, yes.

He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly or his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But how's this going to happen? Well, he said it's going to happen by the infilling and anointing of the Holy Spirit. This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive.

For the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. Are you satisfied with the trickle? Are you satisfied with the level of living waters that you're drinking from and experiencing and overflowing out of your life? Oh, the hungry, the thirsty, they shall be filled. Oh, God, I want what the apostles got.

I want what you promised, Lord. Dear friend of mine, we were talking about this one day and then they said, well, everybody has the Holy Spirit. That's a Christian.

I said to that dear person, well, let me ask you a question. Did you ever see some Christians that just seemed to be bubbling with joy and a testimony of Jesus and living in victory over sin and just overflowing? Did you ever see any like that? Well, yes, I guess I have. I said, are they all like that? Well, you have to know this person.

I said, well, pretty outspoken person. Well, I guess not. You know, you can't be born again without being born of the Spirit.

So I don't wanna confuse anyone here this morning. If you're a child of God, you're born again by the Spirit of God, you have the Spirit of Christ. But a question is, how much of the Spirit has you? How full of the Spirit are you? How much are you surrendering your life to him? Oh, the promise.

Jesus said in John 14, 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 ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. This is the covenant, Jeremiah 31, 33. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days.

After what days? After the days when Jesus Christ has paid the atonement for our sins and has resurrected from the grave and has gone up to glory and the Holy Ghost is poured out in those days. And that's the day we live in, brother, sister. We live on this side of the covenant.

We're in the new covenant. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts. And I will be their God and they shall be my people.

You know, a question for us this morning, is the word of God, is the word of God in your experience only written here, only in the Holy Bible? Is the word of God only written there? Or is the word of God written in your heart? Is the word of God alive in your life, in your inward part, in the innermost being? I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. You know, I'm sure you've met Christians that I think they are largely living under the old covenant. They look at the commandments of Jesus, the commandments of scripture as this is my rule for life, this is how I must live.

And I'm not discounting the commandments of scripture, of course not, the commandments of Jesus. But they're almost like living under the old covenant because the law of God, it's not a whole lot different than transcribed in stone, the 10 commandments that was transcribed in stone. And they don't really have it in their hearts.

Oh, my dear brother, sister this morning, the Lord wants to quicken his word in our hearts, becoming alive in our hearts through the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit. This is repeated, the Jeremiah prophecy is repeated in Hebrews 8, 10. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws in their mind and write them in their hearts.

And I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people. So after the Holy Ghost was poured out and the apostles went out and began to boldly proclaim the glory of God and to prophesy and speaking in tongues there, the people said, what is this? These men are drunken. But Peter stood up with the 11, lifted up his voice.

And he said, ye men of Judea, all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be it no one unto you and hearken to my words, for these are not drunken as ye suppose. Seeing it is but the third hour of the day, but this is that, this is that which was spoken by the prophet, the prophet Joel. The prophet Joel prophesied, it shall come to pass in the last days, in the days of the new covenant that I make with my people, it shall come to pass that I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh.

Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Wow, the old men shall dream dreams.

And on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy. You know, I just wanna lift this up this morning. Wow, I'm telling you, I mean, what would you give in exchange for a life of sweet communion and fellowship with Christ and our heavenly father and the anointing of his Holy Spirit for the young men and the daughters to prophesy and the young men seeing visions.

Wow, I mean, it's so amazing. I just wanna lift this up to you this morning you know, Jesus said, you know, in another sentence, what would a man give in exchange for his soul? Well, I wonder this morning, what will you give in exchange for a Holy Ghost anointed life, a Holy Spirit filled life? What will you give? Well, but I want it my way. I don't know if I should get into some practicals this morning and name some things, but you know, what is the passionate desire of your heart? What is it that gets you going? You know, I thought the man was just quite shy.

He just doesn't speak much. As I was attempting to talk to him about the Lord, a little bit later, another man walked over and their conversation began and they began talking about their hunting trips. That man could talk after all.

He had a lot to say after all, because when he became the subject of the desire of his heart, he was filled with knowledge and wisdom and all kinds of methods of hunting. Or maybe it's the farmer. You know, he doesn't have much to say, but wow, you just get talking farming.

Ah, yes, and you get talking whether they're green tractors or red and whoa, the conversation just goes and rolls. But you say, what's the Lord doing in your life these days, my dear brother? What's the Lord speaking to you? What dreams and visions do you have, young man? Where do you wanna be a year or two or three from now? Is God giving you some vision? He says, young men shall see visions. And I don't mean that that just means that you have some aberration of some heavenly thing.

But I believe young men shall see visions that will empower them and inspire them to serve God with all their heart. They shall have a vision. Because you see, without a vision, people perish.

You know, and it's so much that way today. So many people are just without a vision. I mean, these gadgets have caused their attention span to drop down to about two seconds.

And they gotta always be going for something else and everything has to try to excite them and inspire them and make them feel good. But when you ask them, hey, what's your vision for your life? What do you wanna accomplish in life? Well, yeah, I don't know. I just, you know, a lot of people in today's world are in hopelessness and despair.

The children of God ought not be one of them. These things should not be named among us as children of God because we have an almighty God. We have the outpouring of the Holy Ghost who gives us vision and dreams.

Hey, old man, what are your dreams? Ask me, what are my dreams? Old man, what are your dreams? It's so sad to see someone who was on fire for God at one time and now they're old and they're like a dried up prune. They're grumpy, discouraged, shuffling along without purpose. Oh yeah, they still attend the church service.

They still put money in the offering maybe and whatever, you know. I say, Lord, please have mercy on me. I wanna finish my race with joy and with purpose.

Oh Lord, you know, sometimes I feel it. I could just sleep more than I should. I could just eat a little more than I should.

I could just relax a little longer than I should. Oh God, let me not become an old flat tire. But oh God, I wanna serve you with all my heart.

Please, Lord, to my dying day, I wanna finish my course like the Apostle Paul said. I wanna finish it. I wanna make full proof of the ministry.

Brother, sister, what's your course before you? What's your vision and your dream? I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. You know, in the old covenant, quite often it was older people who were filled with the spirit for a purpose, sometimes younger ones. But now he says, it's gonna be on the handmaids.

It's not gonna be in those scholars that have studied scripture all their life. It's gonna be upon the handmaids. It's gonna be upon the youth.

I love it. Young people, when you get born again and saved, you can be filled with the Holy Ghost. You can be filled with vision and purpose right from day one.

And press into the kingdom in the days of your youth. I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy. I mean, wouldn't you rather prophesy under the anointing of the Holy Spirit and see a lost soul get saved? That'll bring you a whole lot more thrill and satisfaction.

Wouldn't you rather fish for Jesus and catch fish for Christ rather than catch those big stripers or whatever they are? I don't know my fish very well, but some people live for the thrill of reeling in that fish. I hear some places it's such a dramatic experience. They go out in a boat out into the deep ocean and they strap the guy fast to the chair that he's holding the line with because he might get pulled out into the water if they did it.

And what fish are those? Are they marlins? Are they tunas? I don't know what they are. Anybody know? But anyway, it's a huge sport and they pay huge money. And when they finally reel one in, maybe like a 50 pounder, 100 pounder, some of these fish are big.

And they got that long spike on the nose. You've seen pictures of those already. And really quite amazing fish.

God has created amazing things. And I'm not saying he's wrong to go catch one. But what I'm saying this morning, what is it that gets you going? What is it that you're living for? Oh, I'll tell you the thrill of winning a lost soul to Christ.

The thrill of sharing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and seeing the Holy Spirit of God begin to work in a person's life. Oh, the thrill of the rescue of a down and outer, a druggie, a harlot. The thrill to see the rescue and the transformation of a life.

Wow. What will you give in exchange for that? One of these big four wheel drive pickups with the wheels sticking way out, extenders on the wheels and big pipes up the back and chip it up to 400 horsepower or whatever. And wow, when you pull out, everybody turns heads because, well, this thing whistles and roars.

One of those came in here the other day and made a loop and a circle. He did it about three times. I hope it was not a you.

But anyway, he would pull in here and I was in here, you know, just spending time with the Lord, seeking the Lord, preparing my heart to preach. And he'd come in here and make a U-turn, go back out. And when he'd hit the highway, the blacktop, he'd put the pedal down pretty good.

And this thing would whistle like those turbos do, you know? And so after about the third time, I thought, hey, the next time this guy comes in here, I'm going out to meet him. But by the time he came in the next time, by the time I got out, he was already out of the road. And then that's the last he came in.

I think he saw me coming out. I think I maybe scared him away, but. But anyway, here this morning, the Lord has paid for and purchased that you, every one of you can have the privilege and the opportunity to be filled with the Holy Ghost, to empower you, to inspire you, to quicken you to live in resurrection life.

I recommend it to you. What will you give in exchange for that? Aren't we going to be ashamed at the judgment day if I frittered my life away on the love of pleasurable things, temporal things? Well, we're going to continue here with the thought of who's going to receive the Holy Spirit. Who will receive the fullness and the blessing of the Holy Spirit and live in the reality of the Holy Spirit outpouring continually.

I don't want to present here this morning that it's a once and done thing. And when you get filled with the Holy Spirit, your life is going to produce what? Spiritual fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is.

So I want to give a little caution here. Some people seek for an experience and they are maybe expecting that when I get filled with the Holy Spirit, I'm going to speak in an unknown tongue. Now that may happen and it may not.

I know a young man who some of his friends, they've been seeking a fuller life with Christ and what all God has for us. And they got sort of pumped with this, that you need to get the holy baptism of the Holy Ghost. And when you do, you're going to be speaking in tongues.

If you don't speak in tongues, you ain't got him yet. That poor young man almost lost his way in his Christian life because he's very earnest, very sincere for God, but he didn't speak in tongues. So he kept thinking, well, I mustn't have the Holy Spirit.

A little caution there. Just a word of caution. Luke 11.

Oh, I love Jesus teaching here. It's so beautiful. Ask and it shall be given you.

Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone who asks receives and everyone who seeks finds.

And to him that knocks, it shall be opened. Now Jesus gives us this beautiful illustration to help us understand this in a deeper way. He said, if a son asks bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he asked for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? And of course the implied answer is, no good father would do such a thing.

So he says in verse 13, if ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? I wanna encourage you. I ask the Lord daily. Lord, I need your Holy Spirit anointing fresh upon my heart today.

Oh God, I'm asking in the name of Jesus for the Holy Spirit to lead me, just like it says in Romans, to cause me to walk in all of your statutes and commandments today, Lord. To walk in all pleasing before you, to guide me, to equip me, to empower me. I just wanna encourage us this morning, ask in faith.

Jesus said in Mark, whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and ye shall have them. Now I know that times we sort of shy away from a scripture verse like that because we have seen abuses. There were people say, okay, so if I want a Cadillac or I want a Rolls Royce, I just ask.

And these faith healers and health and wealth teachers say, well, just ask and believe and you'll get it. No, that's not what we're talking about. That's asking you to miss in my opinion.

But if you ask according to the will of God, believe that he wants to give it to you. And do you believe it's the will of God that you be filled with his Holy Spirit? Do you believe it's the will of God that you young man, age 16, 17, 18, you young woman age 15, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, whatever. Do you believe it's the will of God that you shall be filled with the Holy Spirit? You believe it? So when we ask according to his will, we know that he hear us.

And if we know that he hear us, we know that we have the petitions we desired of him. Oh, I hope we're grasping this. This is so beautiful.

Ask for the Holy Spirit of God. Ask for the fullness and the blessing of the Holy Spirit of God and believe that our heavenly father wants to give the Holy Spirit to even me. You know, many times in our, oh, how do we say it? In our insecurities or whatever it is, we think, well, I can't believe that God wants to give Jerry the Holy Spirit, but me, who am I? You know, I'm just young or I'm just this or that or the other thing.

I don't know the scriptures near as well. Hey, wait a minute. It doesn't say anything about you having to know the scriptures really well.

All it says is that you have to have a heart that is seeking and pending after God and walking in righteousness, walking in repentance, walking in openness before God and a hungry heart for God. Ah, yes, even the handmaids. Imagine that, the handmaids, that old washer woman, the one that brought the towel and the basin of water to wash the feet of the guests that came, even that one, yes, even that one.

Praise God, even that one. One of my sons, when he was about 14, dads, pray for your sons and your daughters. Ask the Lord to give you a quickening word.

Ask the Lord to cause you to be quick and discerning to what God is doing in your sons and your daughters. And I say this with all glory to Jesus. I'm not some great man.

I'm just a sinner saved by grace but filled with the Holy Ghost and continuing to want more of Jesus. Hallelujah. One of my sons, when he was about 14, the Lord began to really lay it on my heart that he needs encouragement.

He was pretty insecure. I hope he won't listen to this. He had a pretty serious need for braces with his teeth.

I think they had to remove one tooth. It was pretty serious. And he was so self-conscious about that because he didn't wanna smile because then his teeth would show.

And it was very humbling, very embarrassing. And anyway, we did have him fit it with braces and he went through quite a long time wearing headgear and everything else to get that all taken care of. But I realized that in his Christian life, he's just floundering a bit.

So one day around age 14, I was just really impressed. I need to have a good heart-to-heart talk. And so I asked him, I asked him, well, how is he doing in his spiritual life and so forth? And he was clear in his testimony that he's saved but he hadn't stepped up to be baptized yet.

And he was just sort of shy and hesitant and insecure. And so I just began to minister to him the word of God. And then I began to encourage him.

I said, son, I want you to step forward in faith, believe in God and go ahead and make that declaration to be baptized and step forth to believe God that God has good things for you. And he wants to fill you with his spirit in a greater dimension. And he's just waiting for you to step out and believe him and to act in obedience and response to what God is doing in your life.

And my son took that and he stepped out and he took baptism and he began to be more serious and more secure in his Christian life. And I'll tell you, his life just totally changed, totally transformed his life. Why do I say that? I say that because I think there might be some young people here this morning that we need that encouragement because maybe we're a little shy or timid and maybe we're a bit ashamed.

So I wanna read to us from the scriptures, 2 Timothy 1, 12, where Paul said, I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed. And am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. I shared those things with my son.

And I said, you know, I want to just encourage you to not be ashamed, but to be assured of who you are in Christ Jesus in your heart, not some pumping up of pride, but just to have a confidence in the Lord Jesus that I know whom I believe. You know, and sometimes it does us good to ask those questions. Like if a person is struggling, well, do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, yes, I do.

Are you living in any known sin? Well, not that I can think of. I mean, I know I'm not perfect, you know, quick to say that, you know, and that's true, but no, I'm not living in any known sin that I'm aware of. You know, well, do you believe the Lord Jesus Christ has forgiven you your sins when you ask him to forgive you? Well, yes, I believe that, you know.

You know, and then, well, do you believe that he's able to keep you and that he loves you and that he has good desires for you? And you have to just help him to see that all that cloudiness and all of those accusations of the enemy, the accuser, to try to press us down and make us be not confident in our faith, make us ashamed, insecure, and we can't talk hardly because, well, I'm not that great of a Christian or whatever. No, no, wait a minute. I'm accepted in the beloved.

My sins are forgiven. My sins are under the blood. I'm secure in Christ.

I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed to him. And, you know, I just want to encourage all of us here this morning. I shared it the other evening a bit.

The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force. Like we said earlier, you know, God isn't gonna just dump out his Holy Spirit on someone who's pursuing other things, the lust of other things, the love of other things. But I'll tell you this morning, the eyes of the Lord, ah, they're going to and fro across the face of the whole earth to show himself strong toward them whose heart is perfect toward him.

And that perfect heart does not mean you never make a mistake. That perfect heart very simply just mean one whose heart is turned toward the Lord in desire, in adoration, in longing, and in fellowship and communion with him. Can an apple tree, hey, Zach, can an apple tree make watermelons? Nope.

I just want to encourage us this morning. This is just such a beautiful revelation that God has promised his Holy Spirit to fill you with his Holy Spirit and cause you to walk in his statutes. Oh, that is so freeing.

That is so liberating compared to, well, now I gotta try harder. I gotta do better. Now, our will is still involved.

We could still choose to walk away. He doesn't make us do something against our will, but I want to tell you this morning, when the Holy Spirit of God comes in you, he empowers you. 1 John says that the seed, his seed remains in him and he cannot sin.

I believe, really, I do believe that. If we are walking in the spirit, as the scriptures say, ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Ye shall not.

When you're walking in the Holy Spirit, ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. This is so empowering. This is so freeing.

It is so liberating. Oh, yes, Lord. To walk in the fullness and in the power and the blessing of the Holy Spirit is the birthright of every child of God.

I really believe it. It's for all of us. It's not for just Brother Jerry or Brother David back here.

It's for all of us. ♪ Spirit of the living God ♪ ♪ Fall afresh on me ♪ ♪ Spirit of the living God ♪ ♪ Fall afresh on me ♪ ♪ Melt me, mold me, fill me ♪ me. Spirit of the living God, afresh on me.