preaching this morning. Turn your Bibles to the book of 1 John. In fact, my son-in-law just quoted some of this passage that I'm going to read tonight. I preached a funeral in Harper's Ferry last Friday, yes, two days ago, and a lady that I had pastored for many years, and some of the spirit of that funeral, I'm going to speak from Scripture that relates to the spirit that was there in that day. All right? I hope that I will be able to help us in this passage of Scripture to understand things. My heart has been filled with some thoughts because of that funeral. I'm not going to preach a funeral in this service, but there are some things here that I want to share with you. 1 John chapter 4. I'm going to start reading in verse 6. We are of God. He that knoweth God, heareth us. He that is not of God, heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. I want you to notice that last phrase, because he hath given us of his Spirit. Our Father, guide us, encourage us, strengthen us, teach us tonight through your Word. And Lord, may thy work be done first in our own hearts, in such a way that we might be able to live that we would influence others for Thee. Lord, thank You for Your work in our lives that caused us to know You and then be able to live for You. And Lord, many things have happened in our lives because of You indwelling us We pray that we might see, Lord, in a greater way that thought tonight of what it means that your Spirit is within us. Help us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I pastored this lady many years ago. Almost 20 years I was her pastor. In the last 20 years or so, I was not and they had moved and her husband had died and things had changed in her life. Born in 1926, she was about 22 years older than me when she died. She was a testimony to many, many people, a tremendous Christian lady. As I came to the funeral, almost everyone, she had lived with some of her children for the last several years. Okay, there we go. And I'm on, am I not? All right. And in the time that she lived with them, she grew old and feeble, but her spiritual life remained constant and strong, even when her mind had gotten so forgetful that toward the end, she could not remember too much from moment to moment. It's spiritually, she remained strong in all of that. The funeral, because she did not have it in where she lived most of her life, and she was living in an area back in West Virginia, when she died without any opportunity to go to church even, hardly. Well, she did go to church, but not much opportunity to really get to know people in that condition of her life. Her funeral was mainly attended by her family. She had, I think, five daughters. Is that right? and one son. And I knew most of them. I knew them fairly well over the years in the past that I'd got to know them. 24 grandchildren that she had. What I got from the spirit of her children and the spirit of her grandchildren was the understanding of their remembrance of her as being such a spirited woman, joyful, loving, and kind. And I know that we have a lot of times funerals that speak of those things and glowing reports of the person that had died. But knowing her for 20 years, I knew exactly what the people were saying, that were her relatives, that it was absolutely true. In fact, they could not really express unless you had known her, you would not really, even from their words, get a good, strong picture of what a wonderful Christian lady she was. But knowing her and being her pastor for many years, I did understand what they were saying and the truth of it. And in that, there was a message that I thought I could preach to them, and I did. Some of her grandchildren did not seem to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. One of her children did not know the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. However, those that did and knew Christ and those that did not know Christ were all impressed at the spirit of that one that they loved so dearly. And as I saw that, I was thinking, and I might say this to you, that the funeral was somewhat long because of all the ones that wanted to speak, and I would not encourage that long a funeral. But nonetheless, it was, and in that, I began in the service itself to realize some things that I really needed to say, and about half of my sermon was invented, I should say, led by the Lord in that time of the funeral. Because I began to ask myself, what was it in this lady that caused her to be such, and this is what I want you to hear, such a testimony to those that knew her best? Now, if you want to see who's mistreated or who doesn't get along, or who has battles and fights, it's usually within the family. If you come to church and you are treated nicely, that's because you're not a part of the family. But when you go home, your real self comes out. You understand what I'm saying. Everybody in this room knows exactly what I'm talking about. And when we get around people that we are not all completely close to, we oftentimes are different than what we are when we're around people that are our family. I think I said that right, and I'm getting old. Let me say it again. When we're around people we do not know very well, we're usually on our best behavior. But when we're around family, that's when our true self comes out. And I have to say to you that that is a sad thing that we mistreat people that we know the best. In this situation, the ones that knew her the best were the ones that were most impressed with her. Now what do you think of that? That's amazing, isn't it? That's different, isn't it? That's the way it ought to be. But that's not the way it is usually. But knowing her and hearing their report as she lived with them in old age and saw the things that they had experienced with her, I realized something about her was a testimony of what God had done in their life. Now there's a lot of Christians, I'm assuming that everyone here tonight knows the Lord Jesus as your Savior. I'm assuming that and I do not know that for sure. But if you know Christ as your Savior, then you know what we're saying here when this scripture tells us we are of God. And it goes on, he that knoweth God, heareth us. John is speaking there and he says, if the people that know God are around and we're speaking, John the Apostle, those that know God will hear us. They will listen to what we say. And he that is not of God, heareth not us. And he goes on and says, heareth not us, hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Now John is a preacher and he's proclaiming the message of God and now he's writing this epistle and he says, those of you that have been listening to what I've said over the years, that's an evidence that you know God. And it's also an evidence that those that do not listen, they do not know God. Now John spoke with authority because of his position as an apostle. And as he writes this, this is under the inspiration of God. And those that hear him know God. Those that hear what God says and want to hear and listen to what God says, that's an evidence of the spirit of truth that is in them. But those that refuse to hear what God says through his word, and I will put it that way at this time, They do not know God if they refuse to hear what God's word says. And thereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. And then he goes on and says, beloved, let us love one another for love is of God. And there's an emphasis here. That is the love that we have in our heart for God and for others. And let us love one another for love is of God. Those that are of the spirit of truth will hear what God says. And now the exhortation is, then let us love one another. Everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. And then he goes on, he that loveth not knoweth not God. For God is love. What do you think it was that was in this woman that caused her testimony to be so strong to those that knew her best? It was the love that she had for them. A son that had gone his own way into many wicked things, in the testimony and remembrance of his mother came to the Lord. What was it, do you think, that he had? It was a testimony of her genuine, real love. One of the sons-in-law, and I hope that I'm not saying too much, I think this is over the internet, but one of the sons-in-law pointed to him and said, Mom prayed for you. That was not offensive to him because it was a testimony of his mother. And it dealt with his heart so deeply. How do with the world know that we know God read on with me in this was manifested toward the love. I'm sorry. And this was manifested the love of God toward us. because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Here in this love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the perpetuation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Now may I tell you that it wasn't just in her heart that she loved. but it was expressed, and not just in words what it was expressed, but in attitudes. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. You don't sit there in a church service being critical. Love people. Love the preacher. Love the guy in the pew next to you. Don't be just thinking of what is right and wrong. You understand. Consider others around you. This woman had some great had some family that had some failings. The one that probably failed the most, when he spoke, he said, I was her favorite. Are you listening? I was her favorite. I remember as a young preacher, I remember people loving me and causing encouragement to me. not because I was doing everything I ought to do or that they were naive in thinking I was all I ought to be. They were not naive. They were older Christians. They were strong Christians and they knew my failings, but they loved me. That is the testimony of Christ. That is the spirit, listen as it goes on. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his spirit. Do you know why that family knew that God dwelled in her? Because that spirit of God was in her, revealing himself through her. Now that is the truth. I am so sick of our type of Christianity today. Now believe me, I am a Christian that believes that we need to follow truth. And I believe that truth really does matter. And I believe that error is really destructive. And I believe that there is a real trouble when we do not go by the right light of God in the scriptures. I understand that. But we can dot every I right and cross every T right and not love and we are nothing. That is the truth. Oh, to get it together. And we're gonna try to do that today. My heart is just pouring out right now and as I think on this thing. And this is the phrase that I wanna use tonight, because he hath given us of his spirit. That is what God has done in our life when we came to know Christ as our savior. God has given us of his spirit. The spirit that dwelleth in us, it's a truth that all Christians have that spirit of God in them. Everyone that is really saved, the spirit of God dwells within them. I remember when I first became a Christian, and I remember the love that I had in my heart for Christ. I didn't know as much as you and I know now about him. but I knew him and in the knowledge of him and knowing him, I loved him and it was something that was so real to me, I would talk to him wherever I went just as a little boy as I had come to know Christ as my savior. And when I saw people around me that I knew at my age and that were somewhat connected to me, I wondered if they also knew Christ and I desired for them also to know Christ. Why would that be? What was that that was causing that to be in me? The Bible here says that God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us. in us and hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. Even a boy, a child like I was when I came to know Christ, God gave me of that spirit of Christ. I remember the apostles when Jesus was, the night before he was to be crucified and he spoke to them and he said, I'm going away. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And as he went on in explaining to them the situation that was going to be, He said, if I not go away, if I do not go away, the comforter will not come. But if I go away, I will send him unto you. And then he said, I will not leave you nor forsake you. I will come to you. Now understand what he's saying. He's saying I'm going away, but when I go away, the comforter will come and I will come to you. The Lord Jesus Christ. the spirit of God in that wonderful trinity. As the Holy Spirit indwells us in salvation, Jesus lives in our very being. There is us dwelling in him and him dwelling in us. And that's a wonderful thing. Therefore, and because of his dwelling in us, because Christ is in us, then there is this love in us for him. That is the spirit by which he's given us. or what she's given us. And in that is a fact of Christ in his children. I hope today that we can be a testimony as this woman was for the Lord Jesus Christ. So I want to look at just for a moment in the context here, what is being spoken of mainly is this love that we would have for Christ, for God, and for others around us. And that is that work of the Spirit of God that's in us. But there's more than that. But that is the greatest of all the things that God gives us. I want you to turn with me to the book of Galatians, chapter six. And I'm just speaking now, I want us to think seriously about our condition in the Spirit. First of all, I'm going to assume that you know Christ as your Savior. And because of that, the Spirit of God, the same Spirit that I spoke of that was in this lady, is also in you and I. And because the Spirit of God is in us, there is to be fruit of that. If you would, chapter five of Galatians and verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. These are the testimonies of Christ, this that is in us, the spirit of God, and the fruit of that spirit shows in these areas. And I wanna go over them, first of all, with love, and mention love. Love is that wonderful gift of God, as it's mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13, that it is the greatest of God's gifts. And it is that spirit of God that gives us this fruit of love for others. As I saw in that place, a family that didn't always do right, And yet in that condition of the woman, the fruit of the spirit in her, they had to admit the goodness and the work of God that was done in her life because she loved them. But it wasn't just love that she had. And again, I know this lady so well. Joy she also had. We were in the Philippines years ago. She was a Filipino. And we were in the Philippines and We were going out to an island that her brother owned, just a small island, but it was a ways out. It probably took an hour or more by a boat to get out there. And as we got about halfway between the main island and this little island, the outrigger that we were on, the engine died. And I have to tell you, three of my daughters were with me, not Becky, but the older three, and this lady, this sweet lady. And what do you do out in the middle of the ocean? And you're in the outrigger, a little bitty boat, and the waves are coming and coming over you. It was good that it was warm water. What do you do? I'll tell you what she did. She delighted. She had joy. She wasn't afraid, she was a joyous person, and it was just an experience that she knew God would see us through on. And by the way, the wind was blowing in the right direction, and even though we were still a long way from the island, the wind blew us right onto the island. I'm thinking as I'm sitting there in that little boat, the wind's gonna blow us out completely away from all the islands, and what will we do? But she was a delightful, had a delight in her heart. I say to you that was from the Spirit of God. And I'll tell you why I think those things in a little bit. But there was a delight, a joy in her. I remember my father when he was old and could not hardly remember me. In fact, he came up and hit me in the face one day thinking I was an intruder into the house. Yet he could delight himself in the Lord. and he still delighted himself by quoting scriptures. Many things I heard of that about this lady. In her old age, when her mind was bad, she delighted herself continually in the Lord. And I have to say to you, it was such a delight and joy to that family, as they could all experience those things in her. And then there was peace. We live in a time of turmoil. fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. You know what comes before that? Cease from anger and forsake wrath. I thought I would be preaching kindly tonight. I'm a little bit hard, maybe on you. But we need to understand the peace of God. Okay, so the things of this country seem to be bad. What do you have in your heart if you have the spirit of God in you? Tell me. You can answer. We have peace. Enough of this turmoil in our hearts. Enough of this throwing up our hands and saying, what's going to happen? And by the way, I've heard Christians say, should we take up arms? I'm telling you, this kind of stuff is crazy. Are you with me? This is nutty. Do we know Christ or not? Are we out on the sea and the motor's stopped and we don't know even how we're going to get back to land? We can still delight ourselves in the Lord and have peace. Now look, I'm telling you this is the truth. The world doesn't think much of Christianity because of the lack of fruit in our lives. That is the truth. And I'm assuming you have the Spirit of God in you. I'll tell you what's wrong in just a moment. But we can delight ourselves in the Lord and then we can have this peace of Christ. And then we go on, look at it with me. These are the fruits that God's spirit gives us. Long-suffering. That is, we are in that way with others. We're patient. We wait. We do not lose our endurance. We're long-suffering. And why are we that way? Because Christ is in us and we find that truth of His longsuffering with us and the fruit of His presence in our life gives us a longsuffering. You know, I know what it is. or a disappointment to common family. I understand what it is for pain of sins that others have in your family and how it disappoints you and how it hurts you. But there needs to be this understanding that God knows what he's doing and he's in control and we can have a long suffering. I think of Christ as long suffering with Peter. and he was long-suffering with me. How many times have I failed the Lord Jesus since I've been saved, yet he was long-suffering with me. It is that same person that's in me that can give me the fruit of long-suffering, and that is when others disappoint me, when others fail me, when others don't do as I think they ought to do. I don't give up on them. I can endure with long suffering. And then read on with me, gentleness. And I need more of this. Years ago, a scripture bothered me. A preacher needs to get up and tell people about their sin, and the scripture bothered me. Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. And my dear wife was so kind in so many ways, and I had to get up there and preach hard sometimes. And I thought, where is this? And I thought, God, am I to be that way and milquetoast in my preaching? How should I deal with this? And I kind of shoved it aside and said, well, some people can be kind and I just can't. And I was wrong. I was wrong. The work of Christ is a kind work. I know there are Elijah's that stand and say, choose you this day whom you will serve. I understand that and I understand the challenges of those old prophets and understand that there were people in even Jesus's day and John the Baptist said, repent. And there's an ax laid at the root of the tree and it's gonna be cut down if you don't repent. I understand those truths need to be spoken. but at the same time, there is this wonderful gentleness and kindness that needs to be in God's people. I can say to you that some people have helped me by being very blunt with me. but I do not think that they had the spirit of anger toward me, I think they had the spirit of love toward me and in their bluntness, they wanted to help me and there was a gentleness in that, a goodness in the fruit of the spirit. This genuine goodness in our lives, a real desire for right and piety and right living and so on, that's the fruit of the spirit. And then faithfulness. It's a fruit of the Spirit. It says faith there. But what you have to understand, that doesn't mean the faith of believing God, that means a faithfulness to God. And the faithfulness is the Spirit, is the fruit of the Spirit. They said this woman, it was so wonderful, and I'll tell you her name, Mrs. Hans, they said she got so happy, she forgot what day of her day was. And so the son-in-law would say, today's Sunday. Oh, good. And a few seconds later, she'd forget. And they'd say, we're going to church. Oh, good. And that was the fruit of the spirit, the faithfulness, shame on people that are not being faithful to attend the church services. I'm getting out of my genitals, aren't I? I saw a testimony for Christ. And then there's this meekness. Don't have to have your own way. She's the old grandmother. She's the one that ought to be everybody listening to when her mind was good. And they ought to be respecting her and so on. But here she is having to take orders from them. A meekness was in her heart. That's the fruit of the Spirit and temperance. Somebody interprets that as self-control. I think it'd be better interpreted as being under control. Under God's control. Temperance. Now, how come she's like that and some of us aren't? Is she saved? Yes. Are you saved? What's so lacking in us? What will our children, now may they get up, they may get up and say all those nice things. But I tell you, this lady lived with her children, and they saw things, and I saw the same things, and she was the same with all of them. It's just everything they said, I've seen it over and over again. What was it about her that caused this matter to be so strong that every one of the relatives would have done anything for her? You understand? They would have given themselves up for her. I don't mean to say that they were saved, I don't mean that. But they were so desirous to please her. What was it that she had? And how did it happen? If she had the spirit of God and I had the spirit of God, why is it in us that's different than that? That's what I asked myself in that service. If you would turn with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter five. There's this wonderful instruction that says rejoice evermore. That's a wonderful command, isn't it? Chapter five of First Thessalonians, chapters five and verse 16. And then pray without ceasing. They all testified of her prayers and continually prayed and never forgot to pray for her son even when her mind was forgetting it from one moment to another. And then everything, give thanks. And out of her heart came this thanksgiving constantly. The Lord is good, the Lord is good, the Lord is good. And even in her old age with her mind failing, how she's thanked the Lord constantly. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus, currently concerning you. Now look at the verse 19, that's what I want you to do. And I thought of that person, I thought that's what we've done. Now, do you understand what I just said? How do we quench the spirit? One of the son-in-laws said, I always ask my mother-in-law after I preached a sermon, he said, how was the sermon? Oh, the Lord is so good. It was so wonderful what God said to me. She didn't despise prophesying. Are you listening to me? You know what? You can look at a sermon. Are you listening? You can hear a sermon and find one fault in it and ruin it all for you just because of your spirit of quenching the spirit. That's how you quench the spirit. When you come along in life and say, well, you know, I'm have a lot of things, but Lord, why did the Lord let that happen to me? You've just quenched the spirit. When bitterness comes to you, you've just quenched the spirit. When you're unthankful about something, you've just quenched the spirit. You understand you and I, the spirit of God lives within us, but we can take the spirit of God and how you need to hear this back here. Yes. You can take the Spirit of God and quench him out of the existence of effect, I should say, the effect in your life. If we would just let the Spirit of God move in us, here's another one. God tells you to do something, but you refuse to do it. And a man can do that for years. And one day wake up and say, what happened to my spiritual condition? Well, you quench the Spirit of God. I remember a year in my life when I fought God on the call to preach. And I have to say to you, it's a wonder. He kept on working with me. He kept on breaking me, and he finally did break me. But I tell you, if I'd have gone on in that, do you see what would have happened to me? I wouldn't have lost my salvation, but where would the love and joy and peace and longsuffering be? There's a man at the mission. He's on, I'll not tell you. But anyway, he's been there for 40 years. And every director he hadn't liked. But he likes everybody else that will listen to him, you see. And one day, I became the director. And sure enough, in six months, he didn't like me either. You see what I'm saying? Sometimes what we do, God is dealing with us and we quench His Spirit and it sours us. And we cannot have that sweetness anymore. We become bitter. We become critical. We become unloving. We become unkind. We become joyless. We become without peace. We're in a turmoil because we have turned away from God and Him speaking to us. Despise not prophesying. You say, well, the preacher wasn't perfect. No, and neither are you. And if you had to get up in this pulpit and speak every week, let me tell you something. Probably they could find more wrong with you than they have can for somebody else. What do you think? Do you know what that does to a church service? When people in a church service begin to quench the spirit of God. If you want to change somebody's life, then do not quench the Spirit of God in your own life. If you want to be a testimony of the goodness of God, then have the joy of God in your heart. If you want to tell people that you are a great Christian, I don't mean for your sake, but so that they might follow Christ, if you want them to believe that what you believe is true, then don't quench the spirit of God in you because when he works in you freely, you will be full of love and joy and peace and longsuffering and gentleness and goodness and what else? I lost it, didn't I? and meekness and endurance and long-suffering. That's what you will have. I'll tell you what our churches need. We do need to take a stand on truth. I understand that. But we need to take a stand upon what is right and that God would have us to do in our own life. We need to quit trying to figure out everybody else's problems and how to straighten them out and find out that the Spirit of God can straighten out our life if we will quit quenching the Spirit. Aren't you glad Jesus is not critical of you? And yet he knows everything about you. Boy, if I knew everything about you, I'd really be critical, wouldn't I? And if you knew everything about me, you'd be really critical, would you not? What we need is the fruit of the Spirit in our churches. We need this joy, delight, smile, be glad. I thought to myself, And I said in the funeral, I said, I can preach this way. And the people came up to me and they said, you preacher, you really preach today. You know what they were saying? They were saying that most times in funerals, the preacher isn't preaching. He's just trying to say nice things. And they came up to me and said, preacher, you're preaching. While I was doing that, I knew that that was happening to me. And I knew what was going on. And I thought, here, I'm at a funeral and I'm preaching. I mean, I started shaking my fist and so on. And here's these, listen, here are these grandsons, big, tall, six foot five grandsons. And they came up afterwards and they shook my hand and they said, thank you, thank you, thank you. And one stood with me and talked to me and he hugged me. And as far as I know, some of them weren't even saved. But you know why that they had that reaction? Was not for what I was saying, but was from her life. And I told them in the sermon, I said, I can say these things to you. Here's what I did. Let me preach part of the sermon. I said to them, I said, it's not because I'm saying words to you. that are, that are whatever, that are helpful to you. What is what is happening is, you know, from her life, that what I'm saying is true. You know, from what I'm saying, she believed, and she lived, and the fruit of the Spirit was in her. And because she did that, you're listening to what I say. Now, if the world is going to listen to the preaching, then God's people have to have the fruit of the Spirit in them. Not when the election doesn't go our way, we're all down in the dumps. You understand? The wind is still blowing as God wants it to blow. And just because the preacher gets up and lays an egg, like I'm probably doing today, doesn't mean that this isn't good for you. God knows what he's doing. And God gave me an experience that made me realize that God's people need to get the fruit of the Spirit in them if the world and anybody is going to listen to what we say. This church should have more people in it tonight. The fruit of the Spirit is faithfulness. There ought to be more kindness that we show to each other. The fruit of the Spirit is kindness. We ought to be less critical of each other and know God is in charge and God can straighten each other out and we need to encourage one another instead of criticize one another. I don't know anything bad about you. Except this, I know the human spirit. I know the way we are. We go around, the world is coming to an end because we lost an election. God's spirit isn't. We're quenching him. World War II came. This lady was a teenager in the Philippines, in the Japanese occupation. And in that time, she came to know Christ as her savior. Now, I'm going to tell you something. She could have gone bitter later. She could have lost confidence in God later. But somehow, for some reason, wonderful, wonderful work of God, she did not quench the spirit in her. And then the preacher can get up and preach. And I thought to myself, when I was speaking, I thought, these young people, they're not gonna listen to me. Well, they didn't listen to me. They listened to the Spirit of God that had worked in their mother, their grandmother. You say we want revival? Then let's quit quenching the Spirit of God in us. Let's quit pointing out every critical thing in somebody else and let's start looking at our own hearts in a critical way. Let's quit analyzing everything that somebody else is doing and let's start analyzing what we're doing. And let's get some happiness in us. Don't make it up, just surrender to the Spirit and you're gonna find delight in this world. I don't mean in the world, but while we're here. It's gonna be a delightful time. So I dread old age, what's gonna happen to me? Okay, quit quenching the spirit. Trust in the Lord. Now you've heard better sermons, but I'm gonna tell you something. I wish you knew this lady and I wish you knew the spirit of God that had worked in her and the fruit of that spirit. You say, brother, don't you want me to be like her? I want you to be you. In other words, I want your personality and so on. You're a unique person. But the Spirit of God can build the fruit in you where that there is such a testimony that people that know us will say God is working in that life. Now, it could be that you and I are going to suffer. And it's in that suffering that people will know whether the Spirit of God dwells in us or not. Will the delight still be there? Will the peace of God still be there? Will the love for others still be there? When others fail, will we still have the love of God in us? When people are not what they ought to be and we would like them to straighten up, if they fail us and fail us, we will not change our love for them because the Spirit of God in us is not quenched. God is love. And those that love him are love him because they've been born of him. And they then would not quench his spirit. You wanna know the answer to the problems of Christianity in our world? It's Christians having the fruit of the spirit. That's the solution. The preachers, the listeners, all of us, the fruit of the spirit. You know that we would pray more if we understood God was in charge. in a better way, in a greater way, we would pray more. If we were more thankful, we would come to God with praises more fully. If we had more peace in our heart, we would have more of a calmness in the tragedies and hardships of life, and things would not turn us away. no matter how difficult. And that's what those grandchildren saw in that woman, that whatever came in her life, this fruit of the Spirit was still there because the Spirit of God dwelt within her. And there was no quenching of that Spirit. So where's the solution? Where does it lie? Lies in us. I don't mean we're the answer. Christ is the answer. But when we would let God deal with us and we quit trying to solve everybody else's problems, and let God's will be done in our life, we will find that we will be a testimony for Christ. Her son drove to the graveyard with me. God worked it out, and I was able to talk to him about the Lord. Oh, how I could talk so straight, because he knew what I was saying was what his mother believed, and she had lived it. The fruit of the Spirit was in her, And he listened to everything I said. So what do you need? You need the Spirit of God. May we find him. If we've quenched him, may we turn from our wrong and ask him to restore us to his, to the fellowship with him. And may the fruit of the Spirit come back so strong in our life, that what we say.