Greetings, greetings, church, and greetings to all of you who are watching us via YouTube. Just want to say this has been a very good week. In spite of what Saturday Night Live thinks, this has been a very good week. So I'm very pleased and thankful that we again have this freedom and opportunity to come together. Lord, I want to come to you this morning to give thanks and praise for all of your blessings, all of your goodness, and all just of the freedoms that we still are able to enjoy. Lord, grant us the ability as we enjoy that freedom to sit down, to hear your word, to take the gift of your Holy Spirit who accompanies your word and to make this a permanent value. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. We've been working our way through the book of 1 Samuel, and when we last left Israel, we found them insisting on a king. Now that God had guided them and protected them for literally centuries has made no difference. Every single nation surrounding Israel had a king, and they wanted a king as well. And so in spite of the humiliation of his people's rejection, God agrees to this request. I mean, at this point in time, Israel is making a very short-sighted demand. They want a king just like all the other nations. They were surrounded on one side by the Philistines, on the other side by the Ammonites, and after many, many years of armed conflict, they were no longer interested in trusting God to be their defender. And to be sure, many times during this time, they suffered defeat, they suffered rejection. But in each case, it was directly the result of them giving up the real God and going after false gods. I mean, it's safe to say that Israel, they simply grew tired of having to give an account before their God. and they grew tired of having to answer to him, and instead they preferred to have a standing army and a king like all the other nations to address their defense. Now we may shake our head at their intransigence, but we have the benefit of looking at the broad sweep of their history in a manner of moments. I mean, we can see that whenever they placed their trust fully in God, he surrounded them, he blessed them, he protected them, and whenever they departed from him, excuse me, that protection broke down. Bad things happened. And after a while, the pattern established itself so much so that instead of returning to God, they decided, no, we're done with that. They wanted to be like all the other nations around them. And you know, looking at their situation makes me think that we're not that far removed from ancient Israel. I mean, you have to understand that the sweep of historical time takes hundreds of years and treats them as if they're mere moments. And so if we go back 10, 15, 20, 30, 75 years, we can certainly see our pattern is very similar to Israel's. And that is we too have rejected a corporate acknowledgment of God. We have systematically gone about the task of removing every vestige of God from our public life. You know, God is no longer welcomed in our schools, in our town hall meetings, in our local and state governments. For many, many years now, we've listened to our Philistines who have insisted that God has no place whatsoever in the civic life of a nation. We now find ourselves in a position that Israel found itself in. I mean, as a nation, we can't look to God for strength and protection because our law now forbids that. We asked to God literally years ago. So now we're looking for cultural weapons to protect us from a culture war that we find ourselves in when in reality we should have been looking to God in the first place. Years ago we told God we just wanted him out of the public square and we've largely achieved our goal. Now here we find Israel about to embark on a similar political strategy. And God gives them ample warning. He's telling them that a king is going to demand a great deal from them and he's going to give them very little in return. This is what he said in 1 Samuel 8 15. He said he will take a tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day when you cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day." Now, having just castigated Israel for rebellion, God then sets about the task of providing them a king. I mean, he tells them, here's what's wrong in wanting a king, and here's the damage a king is going to do to you But here's how to get a cane. And that doesn't seem to make much sense. I mean, we saw last time, God oftentimes does things that absolutely befuddle us. And we looked at it last time with regard to prayer. We considered God's attitude towards prayer. You know, on the one hand, we have God insisting that we pray without ceasing, that we be insistent, even impudent in our prayers for our loved ones. And yet, in spite of that insistence, we oftentimes see little or no answer. to those prayers. And I pointed out that one of the sources of our difficulty is the time frame that all of us operate from. You see, we, particularly in the West, we want things, all of us want things yesterday. God has a unique timetable for everything to fall into. And for most of us, it's way, way too slow. I mean, we absolutely believe in Romans 8.28 that all things work together for good. But as I said, that good is God's good, not necessarily what we think of good. And oftentimes that involves timetables that God is working out of. So yes, sometimes God will insist that we pray for our loved ones and we may go decades seeing absolutely no results. And part of the reason for that is should God answer our prayer in the affirmative, He still has to position the answer in the very best set of circumstances for our good and his glory. And that just may take decades. It might also be instantaneous. I mean, literally only God knows. That's also why after many, many years, in spite of the humiliation, God is now answering their request for a king. You see, the time has become right for God to institute a new form of government in Israel. And the reason being, he's in the process of establishing a kingly line that's going to result in the birth of Jesus. And here we get to see God's providence at work. I mean, out of all of this desire for a king is going to come King David. And out of King David's line is going to come King Jesus. And so once again, we see the providence of God working itself out through oftentimes sinful human failings. I mean, having agreed to provide a king for Israel, then God sets about that task. And that's what we come on as we read 1 Samuel 9 verses 1 through 13. It's a story. It says, there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abel, son of Zerur, son of Bekorah, son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth. And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward, he was taller than any of the people. Okay, God is starting out. He's just stating a fact about this new king that Israel is going to anoint. And again, we find a similarity between this man Saul and our political process. You see, in both cases, it's always the externals that attract people. It's not his heart. It's not his character. It's the fact that he's tall and he's good looking. Verse three says, Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. So Kish said to Saul, his son, take one of the young men with you and arise. Go and look for the donkeys. And he passed through the hill country of Ephraim, and he passed through the land of Shalisha, but they did not find them. And they passed through the land of Shalim, but they were not there. Then they passed through the land of Benjamin, but did not find them. When they came to the land of Zuf, Saul said to his servant who was with him, come, let us go back lest my father cease to care about the donkeys and become anxious about us. But he said to him, behold, there's a man of God in this city, and he's a man who was held in honor. All that he says comes true. So now let us go there. Perhaps he can tell us the way we should go. So here's Saul's servant, and he's suggesting they seek the counsel of this well-known spiritual leader. And the servant tells Saul that this guy is clearly a man of God. He's held in high honor. Everything this man says comes true. Well, Saul and his servant then give us a big hint as to where they are spiritually. He's talking about Samuel. Samuel is Israel's spiritual leader, but Saul doesn't even know his name. He goes on to say, then Saul said to his servant, but if we go, what can we bring this man? For the bread in our sacks is gone, and there's no present to bring to the man of God. What do we have?' The servant answered Saul again, Here I have with me a quarter of a shekel of silver, and I will give it to the man of God to tell us our way. And formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he said, Come, let us go to the seer. For today's prophet was formerly called a seer. And Saul said to his servant, Well said. Come, let us go. So they went to the city where the man of God was. I mean, you can tell Saul and his servants are clueless when it comes to honoring or even meeting with the prophet of God. We pick up on verse 11. It says, As they went up the hill to the city, they met a young woman coming out to draw water and said to them, Is the seer here? They answered, He is. Behold, he is just ahead of you. Hurry. He has come just now to the city, because the people have a sacrifice today on the high place. As soon as you enter the city, you will find him, because he goes up to the high place to eat. For the people will not eat till he comes, since he must bless the sacrifice. Afterwards, those who are invited will eat. Now go up, for you will meet him immediately." Now, in what might have been one of the very first in a series of providential consequences, It just so happens that Saul and his servant arrive in town at the very same time that this feast is being planned with Samuel to bless it. Again, verse 14 says, So they went up to the city, and as they were entering the city, they saw Samuel coming out toward them on his way up to the high place. Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel, Tomorrow, about this time, I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines, for I've seen my people because their cry has come to me." Now, what we see here is God is literally taking us behind the scenes in what seems like an apparently coincidental meeting. And actually, we find out that it has far more of a connection than we at first realized. And I'm looking at that, and I'm just wondering, and I'm not wondering, I know this is the way things are, not just for them, but for all of us. I mean, what if God's interaction with this world is not just with Samuel and Saul, but it's also with Mary and Sue and Bill and Bob and every Mary and Sue and Bill and Bob in the world? I mean, what if God is actively doing what he says he does in Romans 8, 28? guiding every single event so that it works together for good in a way that doesn't violate our free will, but still allows God's providence to work through it in a way that guarantees that it's going to come out for good. You know, the more you actually believe that, the more it's going to revolutionize, excuse me, it's going to revolutionize your walk with God. We pick up on verse 17. It says, When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him, Here is a man of whom I spoke to you. He it is who will restrain my people. Then Saul approached Samuel in the gate and said, Tell me, where is the house of the seer? Samuel answered Saul, I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place, for today you shall eat with me. And in the morning I will let you go and will tell you all that is on your mind. And what we see taking place here is, this is not a two-way conversation. It's literally a three-way. I mean, God is speaking to Samuel as Samuel is speaking to Saul. And Saul simply approached him as a stranger looking for directions. So God is certainly making the case that Saul is, he's not some kind of king in waiting. This is a guy who's simply looking for his donkeys. I mean, he's got plans. But God has other plans. Samuel says, as for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not set your mind on them for they have been found. And for whom is all that is desirable in Israel? Is it not for you and for all your father's house? And so Samuel tells Saul, I got news for you. All of Israel has set its desire on you and your family. It says, Saul answered, Am I not a Benjaminite from the least of the tribes of Israel? And is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken to me in this way? Like I said, Saul's just a guy out looking for his donkeys. I mean, he's completely unprepared for this turn of events that indicates that he's also not really happy about it. It goes on to say in verse 22, then Samuel took Saul and his young man and brought them into the hall and gave them a place at the head of those who had been invited, who were about 30 persons. And Samuel said to the cook, bring the portion I gave you of which I said you put it aside. So the cook took up the leg and what was on it and set it before Saul. And Samuel said, see, what was kept is set before you. eat, because it was kept for you until the hour appointed, that you might eat with the guests. So Saul ate with Samuel that day. And when they came down from the high place into the city, a bed was spread for Saul on the roof, and he lay down to sleep. Then at the break of dawn, Samuel called to Saul on the roof, Up, that I may send you on your way. So Saul arose, and both he and Samuel went out into the street. As they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, tell the servant to pass on before us. And when he has passed on, stop here yourself for a while, that I may make known to you the word of God." So just picture this. Saul's search for his father's donkeys has now brought him completely unexpectedly to a banquet, where he's now seated at the head, given the choicest portions. And that's followed up with a night stay that ends up the following morning with Samuel walking Saul and his servant out of the city. And just before they get to the outskirts of the city, Samuel tells Saul to have the servant kind of walk on so that he can say something to him privately. And what he says, we don't know, but Samuel states it's from the word of God. But what he does next, what he does next had to have stunned and amazed Saul. 1 Samuel 10 verse 1 says, Well, if anyone desperately needed a sign, it was certainly Saul. I mean, the events of this day go from, I'm looking for my donkeys, to being anointed the king of Israel. And so God graciously tells Saul, he's going to provide ample proof that this isn't a dream, this is not your imagination. It's backed up by circumstances that are going to unfold in the immediate future. And just get an idea of the detail that follows in what Samuel says to Saul. He's going to explain to him what's going to happen. He says, when you depart from me today, you will meet two men by Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelza. And they will say to you, the donkeys that you went to seek are found. And now your father has ceased to care about the donkeys and is anxious about you, saying, what shall I do about my son? Then you shall go from there farther and come to the oak of Tabor. Three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine. And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall accept from their hand. After that, you shall come to Gibeath Elohim, where there is a garrison of the Philistines. And there, as soon as you come to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, prophesying. Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. Now when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you. Here's where we have our first important question to address about Saul. Samuel tells Saul, he says, the spirit of God is going to rush upon you, and you're going to prophesy, and you're going to be turned into another man. So the question we ask is, was that other man, quote unquote, was that other man truly saved? You see Samuel didn't say you will become another man, he said you'll be turned into another man. He's simply warning Saul that God's spirit is going to come rushing upon him. And the question that haunts any account of Saul's life is what did that spirit do? Where did Saul wind up? I mean we all know he started out spectacularly, but we all know that in the end it was a disaster. And folks from that conclude that he was never truly saved. And so my answer to the question of Saul's salvation is that I have no idea. I do know, however, that there are two very different experiences of God's Holy Spirit. You see, you might be temporarily empowered by the Holy Spirit, something that God often used in the Old Testament to give strength and power supernaturally to individuals in order to accomplish his will, or you may be indwelt by his Holy Spirit, which is the primary sign of genuine conversion. I mean, we have ample examples of the Holy Spirit empowering individuals. We have it from Gideon to Jephthah to Samson. And in each case, these individuals, they were just kind of thrust into leadership and given this supernatural power on a temporary basis in order to accomplish what they needed to in order to lead. You know, when Israel was surrounded by the Amalekites and the Midianites, Gideon called on his fellow Jews to muster a counterattack. And if you study anything about Gideon, you know that warfare was not his ballywick. But just like Saul, God raised him up for a particular moment and empowered him for it. If you look at Judges 634, it says, but the spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Ebizrites were called out to follow him. We look at Jephthah. Jephthah was the disgraced son of a prostitute who was called upon by God to raise up an army to defend themselves against the Ammonites. And we find there God's spirit empowered him as well. Judges 11 says, then the spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites. And then we have Samson. Everybody knows Samson. What's not known is that God's Holy Spirit rushed on him repeatedly to empower him to do his acts of supernatural strength. Again, Judges 14. It says, then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. And although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. I mean, all these instances raise the question, what is the difference between the Spirit of God granting someone the power to do something extraordinary and the Spirit of God bringing someone to salvation in Christ? Well, to understand that, we need to go to the New Testament. We need to go to the account of Nicodemus to learn how he became born again. This is John 3, verses 1 through 8, another story. He says, now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do the signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who was born of the spirit. Now, we all know the term born again. I mean, it's become part of our cultural lexicon. For a lot of people, though, it's become a term of derision. You know, born again is now a term that's largely used to refer to people who are not too bright and too far right. but it comes straight from Scripture. I mean, the actual dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus shows just how the Holy Spirit operates when we come to know Christ. And so we look at what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus, and the very first thing he tells him is that there has to be not one birth, but two, to even see the kingdom of God. And the first birth is pretty obvious. It's the birth that gave you flesh and blood. It's the birth that enables you to exist. Jesus tells Nicodemus, though, you must be born again. That's the second birth that's required. He goes on to say, that which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born of spirit is spirit. Now the word spirit that Jesus uses in the Greek is the word pneuma. I'm sure you've heard that, you've heard of pneumatic tires, and pneuma has to do with air. Pneumatic tires are tires that you fill with air. Think of pneumonia. It has to deal with lungs. Lungs are the organ responsible for taking in air or wind. So pneuma, by analogy, also means spirit, which is also invisible, like the wind. When Jesus speaks of pneuma or wind, he's speaking about the second person of the Trinity. He's speaking about God's Holy Spirit. And he tells Nicodemus, the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who was born of the Spirit. And what Jesus is telling him is that God alone has the power to open up eyes and ears and hearts to the truth of the gospel, and that the Spirit of God in some ways is just like the wind. Quote, you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. That's to say you can see where the wind is going by its effects, but you have no ability whatsoever to make the wind blow in one direction or another. I mean, if those folks in Florida who were in the pathway of that hurricane knew the way to control the wind, they'd have the ability to send that hurricane out to sea. They'd have received no damage. But we all know for the past 2,000 years, we've recognized that no one has that power but God alone. And Jesus tells Nicodemus that the spirit of God answers to no one but God, and it blows in whatever direction it wants to blow. Everyone who's born of the Spirit has had the power of God's Holy Spirit open his eyes and ears and heart and mind in the same way that we speak of back to the Old Testament in Ezekiel 36. And there God describes the actual process of conversion, what it actually consists of. This is what God says in Ezekiel 36. He says, I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness. And from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. So here in the Old Testament, God is describing the actual process of conversion as one in which he removes the heart of stone, which all of us have been born with, and then replaces it with a living heart of flesh. But then he goes on to say, and I will put my spirit within you. Now that we're in the Old Testament, we're not looking at Greek, we're looking at Hebrew. And the word spirit in Hebrew is ruach. And guess what that means? It means wind. The very same wind or pneuma that Jesus was speaking of when he told Nicodemus, the wind blows where it wishes. I mean, did you notice, if you're looking in your Bible, that in that text, the word spirit is capitalized because that means it's referring to God's Holy Spirit. That's what God is saying here is, I will place my Holy Spirit within you. And that, folks, is the mark of a genuine believer. A truly born-again believer in Christ is someone who has God's Holy Spirit living specifically within them. God spells this out in no uncertain terms in Romans 8 and 9. He says, you, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. That doesn't get more clear than that. And God even calls us, as born-again believers, He tells us that we're temples of the Holy Spirit, the actual place where God has decided to take up residence. In 1 Corinthians 6, He says, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? So the question is, what's the difference between the Holy Spirit coming on Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson, and the Holy Spirit coming on Bob, Bill, Mary, or Sue? Well, the simple answer is one is temporary and the other is permanent. The temporary empowerment by the Holy Spirit is always for a particular task that God has set out for an individual. And again, we're going to look right now at that Spirit's empowerment in the life of Saul. This is what Samuel says to Saul in verses 8 through 12. He tells Saul, go down before me to Gilgal, and behold, I am coming down to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait until I come to you and show you what you shall do." When he turned us back to Leif Samuel, God gave him another heart. And all these signs came to pass that day. And when they came to Gibeah, behold, a group of prophets met him, and the Spirit of God rushed upon him. And he prophesied among them. And when all who knew him previously saw how he prophesied among the prophets, the people said to one another, What has come over the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets? And a man of the place answered, And who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets? So what happens here is the Spirit of God rushes upon Saul and he begins to prophesy. And this was so out of the ordinary, so completely antithetical to the life that Saul had been living, that it became proverbial. Is Saul among the prophets? Now it doesn't necessarily mean that Saul was saved or that he was converted, but it means that God had chosen to use him as a vessel. And one of the lessons we draw from this is to understand that whatever task God gives you to do, he will always empower you to do it in one way or another. Actually, Dave made that point this morning in the Sunday school class. I mean, Saul was a perfect example of how that empowering works. Now, whether or not it was permanent, we just don't know. You see, being born again means that something of permanence has taken place. God has removed the heart of stone from your flesh, and he's replaced it with a heart of flesh, and then he has placed within you his Holy Spirit. And so the key question that we need to ask this morning, the question we need to have answered is, how do we know whether the spirit's indwelling is the temporary one or the permanent one? I mean, just note what happens when the real Holy Spirit is permanently installed within us. This is what God says in Ezekiel. He says, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." Oh, here's where the problem lies when it comes to Saul. You see, what God is saying is when the Holy Spirit enters you, he's going to change your life, your attitude, your conscience, your thinking. It's going to be reflected in the life that you live. You know, it's Jesus who said, the tree is known by its fruit. And what he's saying is basically a person's life is the primary indicator of whether or not the Holy Spirit has taken up permanent residence within him. And when it comes to the life of Saul, there's a real problem of seeing him as being saved, as seeing him as someone who had the Holy Spirit permanently within him, as opposed to someone who was temporarily given a functional strength and power by God, only because God was using him as a chosen vessel. And the reason why is because Saul's life started out well, but it ended up just awful. I mean, his was a life of disobedience, of attempted murder, not just of David, but of his own son, Jonathan. He disobeyed constantly, and it was Samuel himself who castigated Saul for his disobedience by telling him in 1 Samuel 15, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. I mean, at the very end of his life, a clearly and openly disobedient Saul is literally calling up spirits from the dead through a medium. And so folks look at his life, and they see either no fruit at all or fruit that's twisted, gnarled, and unedible, and they conclude, this guy's not saved. And again, you can counter by saying, well, look at David. I mean, David committed adultery. David committed murder. Ah, but David also repented. And that's something that doesn't seem to have happened at the end of Saul's life. I mean, there's no doubt that Saul ended badly. But again, when it comes to his eternal salvation, it's not for us to say. Mercifully, Jesus reserved that final judgment for himself alone. And in fact, he tells us not to engage in determining whether or not any fellow human being has made it to heaven. Now, probably the most quoted verse in the entire Bible is the one from Jesus in Matthew 7, where he says, Judge not, lest you be judged. Now, folks mistakenly conclude from that single line that Jesus is forbidding Christians from having any judgments or discernments about anyone, and that simply isn't true. And it's only five verses later that Jesus issues another command. This is what he says. He says, Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. Well, I got news. It's virtually impossible to obey this command without exercising some form of discernment or judgment with regard to what a dog is and what a pig is in terms of human behavior. You see, when Jesus tells us to judge not, he's using a particular Greek word that refers to condemnation. It refers to final judgment. God reserves that final judgment for himself alone, and I'm quite happy about that. And so the question is, was Saul saved or was he lost? And my answer is, I have no idea. And furthermore, God says it's not an area that we're supposed to speculate in. But the real question that all of us need to ask is, how about me? How do I know if I'm saved or lost? You see, it's not a matter of the words you might have said or the good things that you might have accomplished. It's all a matter of whether or not God's Holy Spirit has taken up residence inside you. God says clearly in Romans 8, 9, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. Okay, so how do I know if the Spirit of Christ is within me? And again, the answer to that, I think, is relatively simple. Just look at your life. I mean, Jesus said, a tree is known by its fruit. You look at a tree, and that's how you know what's empowering the tree. And what he's saying is, if the Spirit of Christ has entered you, he's opened your eyes to the enormity of the sacrifice that Christ has made for you. You know, many of the critics of Christianity say, how could a good God possibly have created this world, which is so full of evil? But we see a God who is willing to fully enter into that very same world with none of its privileges, with none of its blessings. A God who is willing to live in that exact same kind of broken world that we live in and to live in it perfectly so that he could one day embrace all of its imperfection by paying for it on a cross. And he did it so that we could by faith claim his perfection as our own and stand before a holy God worthy of heaven not because of anything that we did, but because of what he did. And when the spirit of Christ is within you, you begin to understand what it means to say that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. You also begin to take on the very qualities of Christ, which we call the fruit of the spirit, because God's Holy Spirit is now living inside you. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, gentleness, and self-control, they all begin starting to grow within you. You begin to love what Jesus loves, you begin to hate what he hates. And the reason why so many believe that Saul was never saved is because any evidence of fruit in his life seemed to just disappear as his life went on. But again, only God knows where Saul is today. You know, Saul's life is over, but ours is still unfolding. We still have the privilege, we still have the opportunity to ask ourselves if we fit the description of someone who has the spirit of Christ living within them. It's the most important question you will ever ask yourself. And if you've never even come close to this kingdom, the bottom line is exactly what Jesus said to Nicodemus. You must be born again. You must invite God's Holy Spirit within you. The good news is all you have to do is ask. Let's pray. Father, I want to just ask on behalf of anyone who is sitting here this morning wondering, does God's Holy Spirit live within me? And Lord, I want to pray for each and every one of those individuals that has that question and doesn't feel confident of the answer, because I know, Lord, that It's simply a matter of asking God, by your Holy Spirit's power, would you please become my Lord and my Savior? Would you enter into me, make me a temple of your Holy Spirit? And so, Lord, I ask this morning that anyone and everyone who has that doubt, has that question, would be asking that very same thing of you, that you would take up residence within them. And again, I pray these things in and through the power of your Holy Spirit. And I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, folks, if you'd all stand, let me give to you God's blessing. God says, Now to him who was able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever. And God's people said, Amen.