Brothers and sisters, we're going to look at the Heidelberg Catechism, question number 53 this evening, and John 14, verses 15 through 18. And as is our practice, we're going to recite the catechism answer together, and then we'll read our text. Now, of course, we remember that when we preach from the catechism, we're not actually preaching the catechism, we're preaching God's Word. And the catechism helps us understand what God is saying in His Word, but if we compare the two and one of them contradicts the other, which one always wins? Exactly. There were too many answers there, but yes, all of you got it right. The Bible always wins because that's our primary standard. Our secondary standards, the catechisms, help us stick biblical doctrine in our heads and understand biblical doctrine. But the Bible is the only infallible rule of faith in life. Our catechisms, our creeds, our standards, these are good, but they are not infallible. So, brothers and sisters, we are going to look at question number 53 of the Heidelberg Catechism. The question is, what do you believe concerning the Holy Spirit? First, that the Spirit, with the Father and the Son, is eternal God. Second, that He is given also to me, so that, through true faith, He makes me share in Christ and all His benefits, comforts me, and will remain with me forever. And then we look at John chapter 14, verses 15 through 18. If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you." Brothers and sisters, let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for giving us your spirit. We thank you that you open your word to us by your spirit. And so we ask that you open this scripture to us, that you show us the beauty, the complexity of your Holy Spirit. And Lord, we pray that we would be encouraged and strengthened, that we would grow and that you would be glorified. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. As we took our hymn requests this evening, I noticed a trend. It was only three hymns. The first two specifically matched this trend. They had to do with Jesus. Jesus is the reason we're here, right? But we start thinking about all of our favorite hymns, and usually the best ones, the ones we love the most, have to do with Jesus. And the ones which are like secondary that we sing because they're old favorites, have to do with God the Father. There's not a lot of hymns that we're super familiar with that have to do with the Holy Spirit. And I think this reflects something of a preference that we fall into as Christians. Now, of course, this accusation is not true of our Pentecostal brothers and sisters, but it unfortunately seems to be true of reformed churches. A lot of times we give Christ airtime that is unmatched by the rest of the Trinity. And then we say, well, God, his whole point was to point towards Christ. And the Holy Spirit is kind of an afterthought that we throw in there because he also points towards Christ. And so tonight, as we look at the Holy Spirit, we're gonna be doing the opposite. We're gonna be really digging deep into who the Holy Spirit is and how he comes to us and what he's supposed to do. Now, we're gonna find out later that we're not necessarily in sin by focusing all of our glorifying efforts on Christ. And yet it is good to understand what the Holy Spirit does, who he is and everything about him. I'm going to kind of probably make you chuckle by this theme that we're following tonight. But the theme really is that through the Holy Spirit, we enjoy the blessings of Jesus. And you say, ah, there you go. You're splitting the Holy Spirit with Jesus there. But that's the role of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit opens to us Jesus. And so through the Holy Spirit, we enjoy the blessings of Jesus. As we talk about this theme, we're gonna talk first about the person of the Holy Spirit, who he is. Not what he is, but who he is. Now we're going to talk about the giving of the Holy Spirit. We're going to specifically talk about how Jesus praise to the Father and ask that the Father give the Holy Spirit. And then finally, we're gonna talk about the role of the Holy Spirit. What is the Holy Spirit supposed to do? So first, let's talk about the person of the Holy Spirit. Even though we don't realize that we fall into error regarding the third person of the Trinity or the Holy Spirit, most Christians have a defective view of this vital person. And the defective view has to do with that word, person. A lot of us will say, yes, God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit, and yet we treat the Holy Spirit as if he's a force. You see, many Bible-believing Christians and even more individuals from the multiple Christian adjacent cults tend to see and treat the Holy Spirit as a force. He's simplified down into a divine wind that blows out from the Father and the Son and knocks over the sinner's heart, right? A lot of times we simplify him down, we reduce him to what he's not when we think of him as a force. We think of the Holy Spirit as the divine wind that changes hearts, plants fruits, and maybe even informs us of what choice to make when we have key decisions before us. And yet this is too simplistic an understanding. This error of treating the Holy Spirit as a force rather than a person is something that Jesus actually flatly denies in this passage tonight. And the Heidelberg Catechism echoing Christ's teaching also denies this. So let's discuss why this error, thinking that the Holy Spirit is a force. Let's discuss why this is a problem, and then let's look at what Christ says about the Holy Spirit being a person in John 14, and then let's cement the case with teachings from other scriptures. So first, why is it problematic to think of the Holy Spirit as a force? Well, to begin to answer this, let me read a quote from reformed theologian James Montgomery Boyce. He says, if we think of the Holy Spirit as a mysterious power, our thoughts will continually be, how can I get more of the Holy Spirit? If we think of the Holy Spirit as a person, our thought will be, how can the Holy Spirit have more of me? Do you spot the difference there? The first thought is entirely pagan. The second is New Testament Christianity. Now, when James Montgomery Boyce says the first thought, how can I get more of the Holy Spirit? That's pagan. I hope you're like me and you go, ooh, because I've prayed that prayer. Lord, give me more of your Holy Spirit, right? And when we read James Montgomery Boyce say, well, you can't say that. We say, well, why not? I've said it before. Well, here we look at the example of Simon from Acts chapter 8. I'll read a couple of verses from Acts chapter 8. If you want to follow along, we're going to be looking specifically at verses 9 and following. In Acts chapter 8, we see a person who treats the Holy Spirit as a power or a force. And we see here how wrong this is. Acts chapter 8, verse 9. There was a certain man called Simon who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great. to whom all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, this man has the power of God, the great power of God. Now we skip down to verse 14. Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet, he, the Holy Spirit, had not fallen, or had fallen upon none of them. and they'd only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles hands, the Holy Spirit was given, he offered the money saying, give me this power also that anyone on whom I lay hands on, on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said to him, your money perish with you because you thought the gift of God could be purchased with money. You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent, therefore, of this your wickedness and pray, God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity. Then Simon answered and said, Pray to the Lord for me that none of the things which you have spoken may come upon me. Do you guys see Simon's error? Simon's error was not that he wanted more of the Holy Spirit's work in his heart. That's usually what we mean when we pray, give me more of the Holy Spirit. We're asking work more on me, right? His problem was that he wanted the power of the Holy Spirit in his hands as if he could wield the divine force. Most of you, I'm guessing, have watched Star Wars or are familiar with Star Wars, and you know that, you know, the force, right? I don't even know if that's correct. The force, right? You know, it's a power that you wield and nobody can see it, but you can see the effects of it. A lot of people think of the Holy Spirit as that. You've seen Star Wars, haven't you? Yeah. Simon treats it as that he says I want more of that power. I'll pay money for that power So he misidentifies the Holy Spirit. He thinks of it as a force and not as a person and God says that sin If Simon had heard the words of Jesus in John chapter 14, he probably would have understood how wrong he was. Jesus says in our passage tonight, I will pray the father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever. Now, right there in that verse. In John chapter 14, verse 16, and I will pray the father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever. What do you think the key word is that proves that the Holy Spirit is a person and not a force? He, others, abide. There's an even more basic word here that just proves without a shadow of a doubt that this is not a force, but a person. Jesus says, I will pray the Father that he will give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever. He is a great clue, almost conclusive right there. Abide is really good too, because how does a force abide? But Jesus says, another helper. The Greek for this says, the Greek words are alon parakleton. Here Jesus calls the Holy Spirit another, Paraclete. Now we're going to define what the word paraclete means later. For now, we'll think of it as helper or counselor or advocate. Jesus says the Holy Spirit is another paraclete. He's not saying that he's going to send the first paraclete, the first helper to his disciples, but rather he's going to send a second or an additional paraclete to them. And so my question to you, of course, is who's the first paraclete? Jesus! Look at you guys. You know you're wrong. Yeah, we look at 1 John 2, verse 1. Jesus Christ is himself called a paraclete, a helper. I'm not saying a parakeet. A paraclete, he's a helper. I'll read 1 John 2, verse 1. My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate, that word is paraclete, with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. So Jesus is the first helper who advocates and intercedes before the Father in the interest of repentant believers. So when we sin against God, we go to the throne of God and we say, Lord, forgive me, not because I've earned it, but because your son is my advocate, my paraclete, my helper. In our passage tonight, Jesus says, well, he's going to send another helper, another paraclete, one who will abide with the disciples of Jesus forever. Jesus is literally saying, one just like me, I will send to you another. Now, this is just the tip of the iceberg. We go through the rest of the New Testament. We see plenty of proof that the Holy Spirit is a person. and not a mere force. The Holy Spirit teaches God's people what to say in times of trial. Luke chapter 12. How does a force teach? It doesn't. The Holy Spirit speaks to the church of Antioch in Acts chapter 13. How does a force speak to a church? It can't. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us in the weakness of our prayers. Romans chapter eight, verse 26. Again, how can a force intercede before God for us? We are warned not to grieve the Holy Spirit. How do you grieve a force? Can't. And so we see, in short, that the Holy Spirit is a person of the Trinity, what we call the third person of the Trinity. He's not a mere force that whooshes out from the Father and the Son. No, as a person of the Trinity, he is therefore equal with the Father and the Son. He is co-eternal with them. He is fully divine. so you can actually worship the Holy Spirit. Don't feel bad if your interaction with the Holy Spirit has been skin deep while your interaction with Christ has been very deep. One of the commentators, a fellow named Kevin DeYoung, don't hold his last name against him. He points out that believers actually worship Christ only through the Holy Spirit. And so when we worship Christ, the Holy Spirit is doing his job and the Holy Spirit is glorified. Kevin DeYoung says, we must not forget that the work of the Holy Spirit is first of all to glorify Christ. And there he references John 16, verse 14. He says, so whether we realize it or not, we are very intimately connected with the work of the Spirit. Because wherever we are drawn to Christ as a Savior, wherever we are led to worship Christ as Lord, wherever we are made to behold Christ as glorious, we are being operated on by the Holy Spirit. This role does not make Him less glorious or less worshipful. But rather, as the catechism reminds us, the Spirit with the Father and the Son is eternal God. So I don't want you walking away today saying, well, the Holy Spirit, he's, you know, junior leagues, but Christ and the Father, they're amazing. No, every time you see Christ for what he is, the one who died for you and lived for you, the Holy Spirit is doing work. He's changing your heart. He's opening your eyes to what Christ has done. And he is glorified, even as he brings glory to the Son. Well, now let's pivot to the giving of the Holy Spirit. The question of how the Holy Spirit is given is far from being a minor issue. It's a very important issue. There have been hot debates over what it means for the Holy Spirit to proceed from the Father and the Son, and yet be equal with the Father and the Son. But those are mostly doctrinal issues that we've already addressed with the first point. So I'll be pretty brief here following the catechism's lead. I'll be pretty brief as we talk about the giving of the Holy Spirit. When we think of the giving of the Holy Spirit, what event, what church event do we usually think of? Is it Easter? No, Christmas? Pentecost, yes, we think of Pentecost as the time where the Holy Spirit comes upon the church. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit did come upon the church. He was poured out on the church in a powerful and an amazing way, filling the church with the power of the Holy Spirit and preparing them to go and preach the gospel through the world. Pentecost began what continues today as the age of the Holy Spirit. But we have to be careful, even as we say that. Because the Spirit of God is not a Biblical character who just pops into being at about Acts 2, and starts having a reoccurring role in the Biblical drama for the rest of the New Testament. No, the Holy Spirit is right there in the first couple of verses of the Bible. The Spirit is hovering over the surface of the deep, exactly. The Holy Spirit is active in creation. First Peter chapter one tells us that the Old Testament and New Testament writers were holy men of God who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. So we think of Moses writing the first five chapters, first five books of the Bible. The Holy Spirit was active right there. We think of David as he's just going through his mood swings, pouring out his heart in the Psalms. The Holy Spirit was active. We think of Isaiah. writing beautiful words of conviction and comfort to his people. The Holy Spirit was powerful there as well. Elihu, one of Job's better friends, tells us in Job 33 that the Spirit of God has made me and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. King David ties the Holy Spirit to salvation in Psalm 51. He begs God, he says, do not cast me away from your presence. Do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit. And so the Holy Spirit was active even in the time of the Old Testament. He's not a mere New Testament invention or a New Testament character. He was active all the way through scripture. As eternal God, he was working in the church from before time even existed. The key difference though, between the Holy Spirit's role in the Old Testament and his role in the New Testament is the point of our passage tonight. He's given by Jesus to his disciples in order to help them. You think about the Old Testament. The Old Testament is God saying, you're messed up and broken. And I've shown you how messed up and broken you are. And I'm sending you a savior who will save your souls from hell. And then we see in that brief little bit there, 30 years or so, where Christ walks among men, living for them, and then he dies for them. And now he rules and reigns from heaven above. But guess what? He sent his spirit to be a paraclete, a helper. That's the role of the Holy Spirit in this age, if you will, of the Holy Spirit. In half a moment, I'll zip on to the third point in detail, what the Holy Spirit actually does in this age, the help he provides to believers and so on. But before I do that, let me round out the point by fleshing out Christ's words in John 14. In John 14 verses 16 through 17, Jesus says, I will pray the father. He will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever. The spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. So we have to notice a couple of things from Jesus words. First, God gives the Holy spirit. Now, we shouldn't think of this as like a servant, who God the Father says, okay, it's time for the Holy Spirit to get out there and get to work. Don't think of it that way. We think of the Holy Spirit as a person with a very specific function, and at the right time, God says, I now give this to my church. The Holy Spirit, the second helper, Upon the request of Christ is given by the Father. Christ ascends to heaven, but rather than leaving his people as orphans, Jesus asks the Father to give the Spirit as a helper, a helper who reveals the Son to his people, a helper who opens our eyes to the beauty of our Savior. But this Holy Spirit is also hidden from the world. We'd like to say, well, with the Holy Spirit coming, then everybody just wakes up out of their stupor and sees their sin and sees their need for Christ. And yet we see that's not the case here in this passage. The Holy Spirit is not given to all. There are some who cannot receive the Holy Spirit because they do not know Christ in a saving way. God has not opened their eyes to Jesus' sacrificial work. And so they don't have a helper or a counselor or an advocate. They're lost without the Holy Spirit. And thus they lack the fruits of the Spirit that only the Spirit can cultivate. We look around us at our neighbors who we've had talks with and they say, oh, I don't have time for that church stuff. They're really nice people, aren't they? And we say, well, they seem to be patient. They seem to be loving and joyful and peaceful and patient and kind. Brothers and sisters, it's entirely possible for humans in their sin to produce counterfeit fruit of the Holy Spirit. It's not even fruit of the Holy Spirit. It's counterfeit works. And yet the Holy Spirit actually gives us the ability to be loving, peaceful, joyful, patient, etc. for the glory of God. That's the difference. Those who do not have the Holy Spirit, they may do good things, but their motives are to bring glory to themselves. And so we see a significant difference between those who do not have the Holy Spirit and those who do. Even more importantly, we see a present and a future timeline provided by Christ. Christ says, but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. Some really get turned around by this. They say, well, without Pentecost, the disciples didn't know the Spirit, so how can Jesus say this? Others would guess that the Holy Spirit only appears to come in power at Pentecost. But that doesn't make sense when we compare that with Christ saying he's gonna ask the Father to give the Spirit. And so we say, well, what's up with Christ saying he dwells with you and will be in you? How do we reconcile those things together? I think the answer is actually pretty simple. Jesus goes back here to the basic doctrine of the Trinity. Those who have seen the Son have seen the Father. When we know the Son, we know the Father. Now, I want to be very clear. The Son is not the Father. The Father is not the Son. The Father is not the Spirit. And the Spirit is not the Father. And, you know, all the different permutations of that. And yet, when we know Christ, we know the Father. And in a very similar way here, when we know Christ, well, we know the Holy Spirit. When Christ dwells in our hearts, the Holy Spirit does, too. Brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit will be poured out on the church in Acts 2, preparing them for a very specific age of evangelistic ministry to a lost world. But the disciples already have the Spirit dwelling in them by Jesus' power. He had lived for them. He had died for them. They believed in Him. They had the Spirit, even as they had the Son. Well, in our final point tonight, we're gonna talk about the role of the Holy Spirit. We're gonna see the words of Christ here in John chapter 14, echoed by other passages. We're gonna see the role and the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, in believers' hearts. We all know that the fruit of the Holy Spirit, well, they're planted in our hearts, they're cultivated in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. These are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We look at these things and we say, we don't have those for the glory of God without the Holy Spirit. So we can see those things. That gives us joy. And yet the passage before us, it's actually pretty light in giving us details about what the Holy Spirit does. In John chapter 14, Jesus just seems to tell us that the Holy Spirit is given to us and cannot be taken away. He tells us that it's only for Christians. He tells us that the Spirit is only for Christians, and he doesn't give us much additional information. But look again. In Jesus' words, we actually do see comfort and guidance and permanence and blessing. Look at the command and the promise that bookend this section. Jesus starts by saying, if you love me, keep my commandments. Then he ends with a promise. He says, I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Brothers and sisters, in this commandment and promise, we find immense comfort. When we read God say, if you love me, keep my commandments. We said, oh, what a burden. How can we do that? We're not able. And then we look at the other end, we see, I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. And we say, well, that's comforting, but that's at the end of time. And so what do we have now? This promise of the Spirit in the middle ties it all together and says, actually, we're prepared to keep God's commandments, and we are comforted as we wait for Christ to return. Brothers and sisters, in this commandment and promise, we do find comfort. It's tempting to feel lonely and empty as we ponder the physical absence of our Savior. And yet Jesus, knowing that this loneliness would creep into our hearts, he tells us, I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. This does tell us that Christ will come a second time at the end of time, but it also comforts us in the meantime. Jesus will come to be with us by the power of the Holy Spirit while we wait for Him to physically return. We are not orphaned here on earth, no, we have received Romans chapter eight, the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. We have the presence of God and all the benefits and comforts that the disciples who walked the road with Jesus experienced. We have all those through the Holy Spirit. We have the Holy Spirit given to us by the Father. But notice the command as well. We are commanded if we love Jesus to keep his commandments. How do we do this? Talk through our own power. I don't know how many of you have tried to keep all 10 commandments just for a day. It's impossible. Have no other God before me. I don't have my cell phone on me, which is actually a good sign, but how many of us tend to bow down our hearts to that little thing? Brothers and sisters, even our stomachs, our stomach rumbles and we say, I'm going to do anything to get to food. It's so easy to have things take the place of our God and priority. So we look at ourselves, we look at this command, we say, well, if we love Jesus, we're supposed to keep his commandments. We can't do this in our own power. This is where Christ sends his Holy Spirit. As we read the word paraclete, we see one who is sent to help. Let's define the word paraclete. If we wanna interpret this or translate this, a long translation, I think the best long translation for this is a person who is called to the side, called to our side, in order to help. Now, it would be great if every translation out there, instead of saying, I will send another blank, you know, one word, instead said, I will send another person who is called to the side in order to help. But that's kind of clunky. And so most translators try to find one word that sums up paraclete. If we look at the King James Version, it says comforter. We'll send another comforter. That's pretty familiar to a lot of us, I think. If we look at the New King James or the ESV, we read helper, right? If we look at the NIV, we see advocate. And people fight over these different renderings. They say, oh, this one's way better, and that one's way worse. And I would say each one kind of misses the mark a little bit. When we read comforter, we tend to import the modern understanding of comforter. My wife is my comforter when she listens to me complain and moan and says, OK, you're fine. It's all right, honey. You'll get through this, right? That's not the only role of the Holy Spirit. He does far more. What about helper? Well, that's awfully generic, right? Someone who bags my groceries at the store is technically my helper. And then we think about the word advocate from the NIV. Well, that just seems like an advice giver, someone who's there with a word of little wisdom to help us along. And so each one of these seems to fall short. And so we ask, how do we understand the word perically? What exactly does the Holy Spirit do? Well, Jesus tells us that he dwells in us forever and helps us keep the commandments of the Savior we love. We call this sanctification. In fancy terms, if you ever hear Steve or I say the word sanctification from the pulpit, we mean the Holy Spirit making us more like Christ. Paul calls this bearing the fruit of the Spirit. The catechism before us, it tells us that this amounts to the Holy Spirit making us share in Christ and all his benefits through true faith. It's another way of saying he gives us the Holy Spirit that gives us fruit. The Holy Spirit is the one who blesses and comforts us with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. After all, Jesus calls him the Spirit of truth here in our passage. He also helps us to grow more and more like Jesus as we obey his commandments. And he comforts us as we feel the absence of our Savior, who is ruling us from heaven, but not physically in front of us. Brothers and sisters, through the Holy Spirit, we enjoy the blessings of Jesus Christ. So as you go through this next week, pause to ponder the rule of the Holy Spirit a little bit. Can you read the Bible and understand it? If so, that's the Holy Spirit! I don't know how many times I sat down with the Bible when I was a little kid and read the same paragraph about 15 times, shut it and went and had breakfast because my parents told me I needed to read the Bible if I was a Christian. I don't think I was a Christian at the time. I opened the Bible and the Holy Spirit was not there opening the word to me. And so I read this, you know, okay, Paul's talking again onto the next thing. God opens our eyes to the truth of the scriptures. He does it by the Holy Spirit. So if you read the Bible and understand it, that's something to thank the Holy Spirit for. Do you go from spiritually dead to spiritually alive? If all of you tonight here profess faith in Jesus Christ, if that is true of you, then that means you were dead once and now you are alive. Guess who's responsible for that? The Holy Spirit. Do you ever feel guilty for a sin and then go and confess it to the person you sinned against? Whether that's God or another human being. You ever say, you know, I really shouldn't have sped there. I'm gonna go find the nearest cop. Brothers and sisters, when we repent of sin, it's the Holy Spirit prompting us to repent. Do you ever have peace when the world seems to be crashing down around you? I'm gonna be honest here, usually that's, peace is not my first reaction to chaos, right? And yet usually chaos reminds me that I'm supposed to be a Christian and at peace. So what's with that? And that's where you go when you ask God to give you peace that passes understanding. And he does. He calms our hearts as he reminds us of the sovereign God who cares for us. Do you ever have words to speak that weren't yours? Now, I'm not talking about your mind goes blank and you start prophesying. I'm talking about someone comes to you and says, I don't know what to do about this sin in my life. And by the way, you don't either, but you pull something out of the Bible and give them good advice. And you're like, where did that come from? How was the Holy Spirit bringing to mind what he has said to you in his word? So brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit is powerfully active in our lives, applying Christ to us, opening our eyes to Christ, giving us a clearer view of what Christ does for us. He is a helper. He is a comforter. He is a convictor. He is one who strengthens us and comes alongside us to help. So brothers and sisters, since the Father has given us the Spirit, we are never alone. We will never be without a guide. We will never be without an advocate. We will never be weak and feeble and helpless in our own self because the Holy Spirit is there to strengthen us as we seek to obey God's commandments. We always have a comforting and helping person within us because God has given us his Holy Spirit. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for this person of the Holy Spirit. And Lord, we thank you that you, by your Spirit, speak truth to us through your word. We thank you for the way that you open our eyes to understand your words. We thank you for the way that you apply this to our hearts. We thank you for the way that you convict us of sin. Lord, give us more. Lord, we do ask, even as the one theologian asked, we ask you, Lord, how can you have more of us? Lord, please take more of us, shape us, Lord, sanctify us. Lord, we pray that you would make us fully yours. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.