you have to admit that is the truth. He is the best thing that ever happened to you and will ever happen to you. I want you to, I'm going to do a couple of things today, tonight. I'm going to preach in just a minute, but I want to take your Bibles and turn to the book of Psalms chapter 25. And then when we get done with this, I'm going to have us all grab our iPads and turn. Amen. I hope the Prince of Power of the Hour leaves us alone for a little while, amen? I do. This morning, Brother Chris was preaching from II Corinthians 5, and he was talking about as unto the Lord and living our life unto the Lord. And I read this in my devotion last week. And as I read it, I thought about a song that we learned years ago. Kathy and I asked her about the date. She's got a lot better with dates than I am. But she and I were able to go on a cruise to Alaska back in 2014. Now, you can just be envious if you want to. That's OK. But it was great. And we had a cruise, and then we had a a land tour after that, and we wound up in Fairbanks, Alaska. And we were there on Sunday, and there's a, if I remember correctly, it's a Bible Baptist church there in Fairbanks, Alaska, and Brother Duffet is the pastor. Brother Duffet is a Yankee. And I mean, Brother Chris ain't a Yankee compared to Brother Duffet. I mean, he is a Yankee. But when I went there, I thought it was an amazing church. It was just an amazing experience. It was the farthest north church in the United States. I mean, it's right on the edge of the United States border. And it was a southern church in a northern part of Alaska. And I'm honest with you, I've never been in a service where I left and felt as clean as I felt in that service. Every song, without exception, every song that they sung were scripture songs. every song. I mean, and I love all the hymns, you know, I've told you about that, but every song that they sung, they sung from the scripture. And I'm honest with you, I feel like I was awashed in the Word of God when I left that place. I just felt like I was awashed in the Word of God. And that's been one of the most joyful experiences that I've ever had in a church service whenever that they saw in the preacher preaching the word of god and it was just a blessing well some twenty five let's look there for just a minute and i'm trying to work at the courage to preach so it takes me a minute or two to get my get my courageous breeches also uh... but i i want to don't you look at this and so i was uh... twenty five verse one and two it says under the old lord i will lift up my soul Oh my God, I trust in Thee, let me not be ashamed, let not my enemies strive over me." We learned a little chorus with those two verses. You may have heard it before, you may have sung it before, but I'm going to sing it to you and then I want you to jump on both feet and sing it with me, okay? And here's where it goes. Under thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Under thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in thee. Let me not be ashamed, let not my enemies triumph over me. Unto Thee, O God, do I lift up my soul. Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul, O my God. I trust in thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not my enemies triumph over me. We'll sing it through again in a minute, but I love to sing songs on Sunday night that go with me through the week. I do. I love singing songs that hang into my mind and in my heart so that during the week they just come back out of nowhere. Maybe this song or one of the others we've sung tonight would do that, but I thought as Brother Chris preached this morning, I thought, wow, what a good two verses to follow up with what he preached today. as unto the Lord. So let's sing it one more time and then we'll look into the Word of God. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul, O my God. I will trust in thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not my enemies triumph over me. Question, how many of you have ever heard that before? I know you read the psalm. Well, good. Get it in your heart and sing it this week. Well, take your Bibles or take your iPad and turn to the Book of John, the Gospel of John, Chapter 14. I want to finish up, the Lord helping me, with what I began last Sunday morning. I'll be honest with you, whenever I got to thinking about what to preach about, I was going to go a different direction, and the Lord just really kept my mind coming back to this passage of Scripture. If you were here last Sunday morning, I preached on the subject, I believe. And what I did in that message, I explained to you biblically what the difference in the English use of the word believe and the Bible use of the word believe is. I talked about the word believe in the English language means to just have confidence in or to become persuaded or to come to the conclusion of, but the Bible word believed come from a Greek word and it really means to have faith in, to commit our lives to, to entrust our entire being to. And I believe the reason we have a lot of people who make professions of faith but their life isn't changed is because they do not believe in the biblical sense of the word. They're not putting their trust, their faith, their confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's look at, if you will, if you'll stand if you're able, and we'll look at verse 1, read down through verse 7, and we're going to try to hurry through this tonight and get you home before midnight tonight. Say amen right there. The Bible said in verse one, let not your heart be troubled. You believe, and there's the word believe, you believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house or many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I'd go and 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 whether I go, you know, in the way you know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me. If ye have known me, ye should have known my Father also. And from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him." I wanted tonight to finish up, by the help of the Lord, the message that I began last Sunday entitled, I Believe. Now Father, I ask you today that you would help us, Lord, as we look into this deep truth of Scripture about biblical belief. I'm convinced today that we have such a shallow Christianity and such shallow preaching, certainly not here, but across our nation, Lord, of what being a Christian is all about. And God, we know that truly believing transforms a life. We know that it does. if we believe in the biblical sense. Now help me today that I might be able to convey these simple truths from this passage of scripture that they might encourage us in our journey and God help us as we walk through our life next week to share with our friends and families and neighbors, God, the truth of what it means to truly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we will thank you for it, for asking in his name and for his sake we pray. Amen. Now last week, and I'm just going to touch on this and we'll get on with the rest of the message. Last week, we looked at one thing from this passage of scripture. First of all, we talked about that I have believed in a person. I love the way that John 14 starts. He said, let not your heart be troubled. He said these words, you believe in God, believe also in me. Now, I want you to understand, and we talked about this last Sunday morning, it is one thing to say, I believe in God. It's another thing to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. There are a lot of people who believe in God. As a matter of fact, the Bible says, we talked about it last week, that the devils believe in tremble. He said, you believe there's one God? Even the devils believe in tremble. So we need to understand that this idea and this concept of believing there is a God is not sufficient to get anyone to heaven. We find this to be true in the cults today. They believe in a God. You find this true in the Muslim world. They believe in God. You can find this true in the Jewish world. They believe in God. But Jesus said, if you're going to believe in God, you must also believe in me. Meaning that the only way of going to heaven is through the Lord Jesus Christ. And he underscored that and he really amplified that in verse 6 where he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. and no man come to the Father. but by me. So, first of all, we talked about last Sunday that I have believed in a person. Secondly, I want you to look at verse two. I want you to understand today that not only have I, and I hope you have as well, believed in a person, but I have also believed in a place. The Bible says, in my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go and 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." I want to make a statement here that I think is very important to understand. If you and I have never biblically believed in a person, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no way that we can biblically believe in a heaven. There is no way we can biblically believe in a place called heaven in the scripture. I do believe in heaven in the biblical sense. I believe that there is a heaven. I believe there is a hell. I believe the Bible's abundantly clear on both those topics. You see, I believe it because of the heart of man. Only one person could have done that. That is the God of heaven. I read this some time ago and it struck my mind and it kind of grieved my heart, but I read about Stephen Hawkins. Most of you may know who he was. He was described as the smartest man who ever lived. He was an English theoretical physicist and his author and director of research at the Theoretical Cosmology Department at the University of Cambridge. At the time of his death, someone had brought up a statement that he had made earlier in his life. He said that the belief in heaven is nothing more than a fairytale belief. Now wouldn't you hate to die believing that in your own life? But on March the 14th in 2018, Stephen Hawkins began to believe in both a heaven and a hell. He believed in the biblical heaven and the biblical hell. The man who lived with ALS from 21 years of age until the time of his death when he died dropped into the fire that never shall be quenched. But can I say this to you? I take no pleasure in that. It grieves me that he went to hell, but he made his choice, he made a decision, and he just did not believe, biblically speaking, that there was a heaven and that there was a hell. Now, I take no pleasure in that. Hell is reality. It is a reality to people that are lost. But I want to say this, just to assure him, is there is a hell that's reality. There's a heaven, blessed be God, that is a reality for the child of God. The second day of January of this year on a Sunday night at about the 5.30 mark, 12 years ago, my first wife Jill passed off the scene and she went into heaven. She went to the place where there's no struggles, there's no sickness. She went to the place where there's no sin. of our society through sorrow and suffering. She went to the place of eternal day and the place of eternal joy. Now I share that with you to tell you this. How do I know that there is a biblical heaven? Well, I know because the Bible tells me so. But I also know because I've seen people leave this world and depart this world and go to heaven about two weeks before Jill died. I was at home, and we had to put her in a nursing home because we could no longer care for her at home as we'd like to. And I would go at least two to three times a day to visit with her. I'd feed her her meals, and I was there every day of her life. And I remember I was at home just getting ready to go to the nursing home, and my phone rang. And it was somebody from the nursing home, and they said, Mr. Killian, can you come to the nursing home? I said, yes, I plan to. What's the problem? He said, well, Jill's not doing well. And I said, OK. And so I got in my car, and I went there. It's only about 10 minutes away. And when I got there and I went into the room, there was three nurses standing at the foot of Jill's bed. And there was another therapist that was sitting on the side of Jill's bed, and she was holding her hand. And they told me that, before I went in the room, said, Jill has told us she no longer wants to take her medication. Jill had brain cancer and she had problems with seizures and she was on anti-seizure medication. And so she had come now to the place of her life where she said, I no longer want to take medication. And so when I walked in the room, the nurses, they loved Jill. And if you had ever known her, she just had such a sweet personality. And they were standing at the foot of her bed and they were weeping. And the lady that was sitting beside her bed was holding her hand and patting her hand, and they were weeping. And when I walked in, it was like Jill looked at them like, what is all this crying about? I mean, it was really weird the way that she looked at them. And so when I went in, the lady on the bed stood up, I sat down on the bed beside her, I took Jill's hand, and I said this, and by this time she could no longer speak, she had lost the ability to speak, but she understood. And I said, they tell me you no longer want to take your medicine. She shook her head no. And I looked at her and I said, are you tired? She shook her head yes. And I said, do you want to go to heaven? She shook her head yes. And I said, well, honey, you have fought a great fight. I admire you, and you fought a fight I could never fight. But if you no longer want to take your medicine and you want to go to heaven, that's OK. I'll live with that. Two weeks later, we were in her room around her bed singing hymns, and the Lord come and took her to heaven. Can I tell you, you don't get that with the earthly belief of heaven. You only get that when you've got a biblical belief of a place that is called heaven. I'm saying, thank God, I believe in a place called heaven. I believe that Jesus died and rose again and is preparing a place for us. I've had two things happen in my life. Every time I come to a death, death of a believer, I'm just fascinated by it. I am just really moved by it. We had a lady when I was pastoring at Nellie Head, Her name was Mrs. Black. What's her first name? Betty Black. Miss Betty Black. She was just a sweetheart of a Christian. I mean, she loved God. It was really funny. Whenever I went there, there was another man whose wife died. His name was Randall Black. And so, Randall and Miss Betty, her husband had been dead for a long time, and they just started going out to eat together. I remember Brother Randall, I mean, they were in their seventies, and he'd come to me in my office, and I'd preach to her, me and Miss Betty going out to eat, but there ain't nothing going on, okay? I said, Brother Randall, I don't care if there is something going on, I know it'd be moral, but I'll never forget this. Randall died, they got married in a few, years, a couple years later, he died. But then Miss Betty got a lung problem, a lung disease, where her lungs literally turned to leather. And they were keeping her on steroids and medicine to try to keep her breathing. And they had her in intensive care. And finally, they called the family together. And they went in and met with Miss Betty. And they said, Mrs. Black, there's nothing more we can do. The steroids can no longer work." And said, the only thing we know to do is to let you go ahead and die. We hate it, we wish we could be to do something, but we can do nothing more. And she said, well, can I do this without a lot of pain? They said, we'll be sure that you don't have pain. And I told you that to tell you this. One day, Kathy and I went up to the hospital to see her just a day or two before she died. We went back to the intensive care, her daughter was in the room. And I saw Miss Betty and I said, Miss Betty, I know that you're just a few days from going to see Jesus. And I said, I love you. And I've been honored to be your preacher and I've been honored to be your pastor. And by the way, that wasn't empty words, I was. I was honored to be her pastor and to be her preacher. And we talked a little bit and she said, well, yes, I'm ready to go. And then it just startled me. She stopped and she said to her daughter, she said, get that doctor in here. And I thought, good night, what have I done? What have I said? And her daughter said, get him in here. And she said, mama, what do you want the doctor for? She said, this thing ain't happening fast enough. That's when you believe. That's a belief not that the world knows. That's a belief that only can come from our intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. I'm saying to you, thank God, I believed in a person, but hallelujah, I believe in a place called heaven, and I'm going to go there someday. You see, you don't have that kind of belief unless you have that belief in a person. You see, I want you to notice three things quickly, and I want you to see this. First of all, I want you to see that heaven is a real place. He said, I'm going to prepare a place for you. Heaven is not a state of mind. It's not a fairy tale. It's not an escape from reality. Heaven is a real place. It's just as real His Fellowship Baptist Church is real. It's just as real as East Street, Tennessee is real. It's just as real as Chattanooga is real. It's just as real as the United States of America is real. It's just as real as this world is real. Heaven is a real place. It's not a figment of our imagination. I was thinking about this some time ago. Many people pay thousands of dollars to go to a place for a few days called the Magic Kingdom. our Disney World, and here's what they say, it's the land of make-believe. That's what they tell you. And they go there for a few days, the kids have fun, they ride rides, they meet Mickey and they play the games and they do all that is. But whenever that family gets back to the motel room that night, oh, they might have had a few hours where the pressures and the burdens of life have escaped them. But when they get back to the motel room that night and they pull the sheets up under their chin, their mind begins to go back to the problems of home, dreading having to go home, the struggles and the difficulties of life. And I want to say this to you, blessed be God, that there's going to come a time in our life that we're going to place, and it's not a magic kingdom, and it's not a figment of our imagination, and it's not for just a few days, and it's not a place of make-believe. It's a place where one day we will lay aside the sorrows, the heartaches, the burdens, and the trials, and the difficulties, and we will rejoice in the presence of Jesus forever. That's a real place. Amen. I'm going to it. Aren't you? If you're not getting ready to go, I can tell you how to do that. Heaven has streets. It has gates. It has mansions. It has people. It has a location. It has a ruler. Sounds like a real place to me. Amen? Not only is it a real place, it's a regal place. It's a place of magnificence. You see, Jesus said, I go, and look at this phrase, prepare a place for you. So what's Jesus doing now? Well, there's several things he's doing. Number one, he's seated at the right hand of the Father, making an intercession for us. Thank God for that. But at the same time, he's preparing a place for us to come to. I read this, the Biltmore House, I've been there a few times and it's outside of Asheville, North Carolina. It took them six years to build it and at today's prices it would cost $168 million. Now I'm talking about the length of the preparation that Jesus has had. Now think about this Biltmore House. It would cost $168 million to build it. And when you look at its magnificence, this mansion that was built by George Vanderbilt, realize it took him only six years. I'm not a rocket scientist, but I just wonder what Jesus could do in 2000. Is that a pretty good question? I mean, I just kind of got a question. The length of the preparation. Notice the love of this preparation. I love what it says in the verse. I go and prepare a place for You, what about that? I'm so grateful that when the Lord took Jill to heaven, that God gave Kathy to be a part of my life. I cannot explain to you, nor can I express to God, the gratitude that I have that God brought her into my life. She brought joy. One of the most joyful things, whenever she and I were dating after Jill died, and I was pastoring at Linwood in Lafayette, one of the ladies told her, and it still moves me to tears when I hear this, one of the ladies told her, she said, It's so good to see our preacher smile again. That blessed man, he's coming to get us because he wants us to be with him. Oh, what a Savior. Oh, what a Lord. Longing of this preparation. I want you to see this. Jesus said, I'm going to prepare a place for you that where I am there, ye may be also there. Jesus said, it ain't enough, I'm up here by myself, won't you by me? I want you with me. Kathy has a, I don't know if it's a bad habit, but she has a habit. That habit is this, I'm gonna go somewhere, do something, and I said, are you going? She said, I haven't been invited. You don't need an invitation. We're one according to the Bible, amen? And I said, you know, you don't have to be invited. She said, well, I just want them on impose. Makes me nuts. And here's what I told her. I said, Kathy, I said, I did not marry you to be alone. Is that good preaching or what? Amen. If I wanted to be alone, I'd have stayed alone. By the way, I learned some things through Jill's death and sickness. I learned how to appreciate the wife that God gives you. I learned it. I learned it. And I think I always loved Jill and appreciated her, but not to the point that I think I should have when I look back on it. But I've learned some things now. Not only is the Lord longing to be with us, but we should be longing to be with Him as well. Philippians 1, 23 and 24, Paul said this. For I am in a strait between two, having desired to part and be with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide with you in the flesh is more needful for you. Paul says, I need to be here, but I really want to be there. I need to help you, but I want to be over there with him. I want to say, you ought to have that longing in your heart. And if you believe biblically, you will have that longing in your heart. We're going to a rewarding place. I'm going to prepare a place for you. What kind of place is the Lord preparing for us? Suffice it to say that it's a place beyond our ability to describe. I read this quote. I love Adrian Rogers. I've got all of his sermons on my computer. On my computer. I mean, I love him, man. I do. I mean, he has such insights and such truth. And I noticed in the bulletin, somebody around here loves him too, because I've seen some quotes in the bulletin from him. But I read this, and here was this quote. He said, heaven is all that a loving heart of God would desire for us. It's all the incredible mind of God can conceive for us. And it's all that the almighty hand of God can create for us. Man, when I read it, I thought, goodnight, that's just more than my little peanut brain can wrap around. 2 Corinthians 12, Paul was caught up into heaven before he was dispatched back to the earth. And the Bible said he heard things that were unspeakable for him to utter. I don't have any doubt he saw things, too, that he just could not describe. I read of a little girl one time, she was born blind. And she was blind all of her life, about 12 years old. Her parents, in that time, she'd hear the planes flying overhead and they'd try to explain to her what a plane was. And she'd hear a dog barking, they'd try to describe a bark of a dog. She would hear a cat meow, they'd try to describe a cat. I mean, think about how difficult it would be to describe something you cannot see. This little girl, after 12 years, they took her to the eye doctor, and the eye doctor said, I'm not sure, but I think there's a surgical procedure that we can do that would help her to see. And so, of course, any parent would do this. Well, let's do it. And so they did surgery on her. They bandaged her eyes up. They said, now you got to stay bandaged for a week, but when you come back, And they, when you come back, said, I want you to just be patient. When you come back, we'll unwrap her eyes, and we will not know if it was a success until we get her eyes unwrapped. They come back on that week later, and they start unbandaging her eyes. And the doctor said, close your eyes. And she closed her eyes, and then he took the galls from her eyes, and her eyes, of course, were all puffy and red. But he said, OK, open your eyes. And after, in a moment, she opened her eyes and batted her eyes and she got up and she walked over to the window and looked out and she saw the beautiful skies. She saw the birds flying and she saw the grass and the trees. She turned around and said to her mom and dad, why didn't you tell me it was this pretty? Why didn't you tell me it was this pretty? Mom, with tears streaming down her face, said, honey, I tried. I really tried. I believe when we get to heaven, we're going to look Paul up and we see all the glories of heaven. We're going to say, why didn't you tell us it was this pretty? Why didn't you tell us it was this glorious? And I believe he's going to say, I tried. I really tried. But words cannot express the beauty of that place that God has prepared for us. I want you to think about this, I'm going to hurry on, the only limit that heaven has, you think about the one I'm about to say, the only limits that heaven has are the limits to the abilities of the Lord Jesus Christ. And since he has no limit to his abilities, what you think it's going to be like? I mean 2,000 years of preparing a place for us. It's going to be pretty good. I believe in a person. I believe in a place. Look at verse 3. I believe in a promise. He said, I go and prepare a place for you. And if, Jesus speaking, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there may be also If you have never biblically believed in a person, you cannot believe in a place, and you cannot believe in this promise. But since I have biblically believed in a person, I biblically believe in a place, and I biblically believe in a promise that Jesus is coming again. Titus chapter 2, verses 11 through 14. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. teaching us that knowing ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world. Look at verse 13 says, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and our Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that we might redeem us from all iniquity and purifying himself, a peculiar people zealous of good work. I'm saying Jesus said that he's coming and Titus tells us we're looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Are you looking? Amen. You wake up some morning and say, wow, he didn't come yet. Man. Well, maybe he'll come today. I believe we ought to be looking. I appreciate what the pastor said a few weeks ago, or a few services ago, or a few years ago, I don't know, but I appreciate what he said. And he said, you know, we ought to prepare like we're going to be here for years, and we ought to plan like we're going to be here for years, but prepare as if he's coming back today. Amen? We ought to do that. I don't have time to deal with it, but the Bible talks about in the last days that people will be crying out, where's the promise of his coming? For all things fall asleep. You see, this world has been rocked to sleep. They've heard that Jesus is coming all their lives. That's what they said. And the book was 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 of the 2. And it said that they've been saying, where is the promise? 1 Peter, I think it is, chapter 3. He said, where's the promise of coming? He said, all things continue. We've heard this all of our lives. Now I tell you, how many of you grew up in church? Raise your hand. I grew up in church. I grew up in Fellowship Baptist Church, got saved here. I heard the preacher preach when I was seven, eight, nine years old that Jesus was coming. That has been now right at 60 years. You say, well, he hasn't come yet. No, but he's 60 years closer than he was then. Amen. I don't know, I mean I'm honest with you. I appreciate the lesson that Brother Dale is teaching us about the coming of the Lord this morning and this aligning of the nations and all that's going on. What a blessing that is. And we ought to wake up and say, whoa, Jesus is coming. I better be a peculiar person, zealous of good works because Jesus is coming. We not only see his promise, but we see his passion. Look at this phrase, what a blessing. He said that in verse three, and I go to a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and look at this phrase, and receive you unto myself. You know what he's saying? I want to put my arms around you. That's what he's saying. I want to love on you. I want you to be with me. I want you to be next to me. I want to embrace you. What he's saying is I want you to be where I'm at. I wouldn't give a dime for a man who gets married and don't want to be around his spouse. Amen. If a man's looking for a reason not to be around his wife, there's a problem in that family. Vice versa too, by the way. That's not the way Jesus loves us. He said, I want you to be with me. He said in these verses, he said, he said, I want to receive you unto myself. And Jill and I, we were 18 years old when we got married and we were married for 37 years before the Lord took her to heaven. Brother T.D. Burgess married us. I was a member of Temple Baptist Church. Has a pastor ever given you some advice that was just, we won't call it dumb, but it's kind of unnecessary? We were standing over here on this side, and waiting for Jill to make her entrance. No, we were gonna make our entrance, then Jill would make her entrance. Brother Burger just standing beside me over here, and here's what he said. He said, now Eddie, whenever they start playing the wedding march and Jill is coming down the aisle, I want you to look at her with great joy and great anticipation. I thought, how dumb advice is that? Amen. He had to tell me that. I mean, praise God. By the way, I didn't get her on the rebound either. Amen. Amen. I believe that's exactly what the Lord feels about us. He longs for us to be there. He longs, I don't believe the Lord, God is gonna have to tell Jesus twice to come get us. I believe he said, now? Now? Because he longs for us to be with him. We'll see his purpose. He said, where I am. There you may be also. Isn't it wonderful to know that the Lord wants us to be where He is? And until we can be physically where He is, we surely ought to be spiritually where He is. Let me show you this, and this is an add-on, okay? I don't want to believe in a person, not just being persuaded, but I am convinced in my soul, and I have put my eternal being into the fact that Jesus is my Savior. And I believe in a place, and I believe in the person, or the promise. But look in verse 15 through 18. I want to read this to you. If you love me, Jesus said, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father that he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but you know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you." I not only believe in a promise and a person and a place, but I believe in a possession. Now, when I was working with this sermon to preach it last Sunday morning, And I jotted down those first three things. I thought, well, that'll be more than enough. And then I didn't get with the first and done. I thought, good night. And then I got to reading the rest of this chapter. And boy, I got to thinking, thank God, not only have I experienced the person, not only am I going to experience a place, And not only am I going to experience the promise being fulfilled, but I have already experienced a possession. Today we're seeing people live in such a way that it makes us know that they're possessed by devils or demons. There's no question. Brother Chris was talking about this morning all the mess that our world is in and the and all of this violence that we're seeing everywhere we look, that has to be motivated by demonic powers. No question. This explains why our leaders think nothing of killing babies in their wombs. Up until and in California, even after their birth. This past governor of Virginia had no problem with killing babies after they're born. That has to be demonic. Think about it, the Muslims are possessed by devils and demons. When you can take people and put them in cages, Christians, and set them on fire, that has to be demonic. Or you can put them in a cage and you put them in the sea and start lowering them down in the sea to drown them, that's demonic. Cutting their heads off, that's demonic. Abortionists are possessed by devils and demons, and Muslims are possessed with devils and demons. However, I got good news for you. Those of us that are saved, we're possessed by the divine person of the Holy Spirit. He lives in me. He lives inside of me. The God who spoke the world on which we live into existence. lives in us the person of the Holy Spirit of God. I would hate to think that somebody as big as God could live in me and me not know it. Amen? I'm telling you, I know He lives in me! And I know through many reasons, and we'll see a few of them here in just a second, the God who saved us, took up his abode in our life. Here's what the Bible says in Romans 8, verse 9. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. A person that does not have Christ's Spirit living in them, they're not saved by the grace of God. That's what he said. Now let me look at verse 6 and 7 quickly. He dwells in us. He dwells in us. He lives inside of us. The Bible says, I'll send you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. I'm gonna be honest. There's some days I give up, get up, I don't feel saved. Amen? Don't mean I'm not. There's days that I have struggles in life that I wonder where God is. Just because I don't sense him and I don't feel him, it does not mean he's not there. Because he made me a promise. He said, I will abide with you forever. Now these people believe you can lose your salvation, they got a problem with that verse. Amen? If the Holy Spirit's gonna abide with us forever, if we lose our salvation and we go to hell, the Holy Spirit has to go with us. That's kind of dumb as a box of rocks. Amen? It's crazy. He indwells us. Look at verse 18. The Holy Spirit encourages us. He said, I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Isn't it good to know that he encourages us in the journey? That whenever troubles and trials come and burdens come and heartaches come and difficulties come and disappointments come, and man, even death and disease invades our families and our loved ones. Isn't it good we've got someone that lives in us that encourages us in the journey? I can't tell you through some of the storms that I have traveled how the Holy Spirit just nudged my heart and opened up a scripture to me and blessed me as I would read the Word of God. I can remember time after time I was sitting in a in the intensive care waiting room when Jill was so sick. I can remember all I had, I was in North Carolina because that's where it all began and I was passing in Lafayette and I'd come home on Friday, preach in Lafayette on Sunday morning, Sunday night, I'd get in my car, drive back to North Carolina, I'd be there in the intensive care, that went on for nine months for one year. For nine months, every week, that was my, Had no one there except me and Jill and Jesus. Amen. I can't tell you how many times I've said it in the intensive care waiting room, open up God's book, read a verse of scripture, and all of a sudden that Holy Spirit who lives in me said, I'm here. I'm with you. I want to say thank God for that truth in scripture. You say, Preacher, you don't know what I'm going through. I don't, but I know one thing. If you're saved by the grace of God, I know who lives in you. And I know he's able to comfort you in all your trials. He not only encourages us, look in Acts 1.8, I'll just read it to you for the sake of time. He empowers us. The Bible says, but you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witness to me both in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world. I want you to know the Holy Spirit empowers us to be witnesses. I'll be honest with you, I wanted to preach tonight on the things that we need to pray for. And I'll come back, I don't wanna steal the thunder of that sermon, because I might preach it someday. But one of the things that I pray for daily is the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Can I tell you what that really means? And this is just simplifying it, bringing it down to a easy understood mentality. The Holy Spirit, we don't need more of Him. He needs more of us. Because when you got saved, you got all the Holy Spirit you're ever going to get. But our problem is, and the reason there's problems in our life and we don't find the comfort and the power that we need to overcome them is because He doesn't have all of us. If we don't learn to surrender, I say, well, I'll quit on that because I might preach that someday. If the pastor don't steal it from me and preach it, then I'm done, I'm cooked. Amen? He empowers us. Galatians 5, verse 22 through 23, he exhibits himself through us. The Bible says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. Last three weeks, I guess about three weeks, I've been dealing with a family whose husband is abusive, not so much physically, but in most aspects of the world, hard and harsh and hateful and cursing and just being unkind to the family. And as I've dealt with that, and by the way we we visited uh... there's a lady that she lives next door to us now that we talked to about this and i think and and this man professes to be saved and this man doesn't feel like he can overcome this in his life can i tell you there's a way to overcome this stuff if you're saying this is the power of the holy spirit of god He exhibits himself through us. And he enlightens us. By the way, this neighbor of ours, she just moved in. She's in her 70s. And then we went to visit her and just took her a little thing, you know, just a welcome to the community and just get to know her a little bit. She said, I've been living with this for years and years and years and years and years. I said, does your husband go to church? He said, he used to, but he don't anymore, because he said it doesn't help him none. I said, well, I'll be honest with you. If he's saved, his need is the fullness of the spirit of God. Let me just make another statement here. Being filled with the spirit of God is not talking in tongues either. Amen. He exhibits himself through us. Let me show you this, and I'm done. John 16, verse 7 through 11. He enlightens us. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it's expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But after the part, I will send him unto you, and when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness because I go to my Father, and you see me no more, of judgment because the Prince of this world is judged. Now, just throw this in, and I'll be done. The Holy Spirit works in our life, and He convicts us and convinces us of sin. He says, oh, whoa, whoa, that's wrong. That's wrong. I'll share this illustration, I'm done. When I pastored in Florida, we had a Christian school. We had a great basketball team. And we went to state. We were number one in our, what do they call it? We were number one, so we went in top seed. Well, the second per seed in our conference, they somehow that they couldn't go. So the third seat of our conference was a man who was over our conference and he is a principal and a director of their sports program in their Christian school. He was also their basketball coach. So anyhow, they, since the second seat didn't get to go, the third seat popped up and got to go. Well, when they got there, He had worked it out to where they gotta buy. I'm honest with you, I just think fair's fair, amen? Right is right, wrong is wrong, and it don't really matter to me who's on which end of that thing, just right is right and wrong is wrong. And we got there and our team had to play at eight o'clock in the morning. I think that's just unfair. and we had to play uh... uh... from your eyes and work to more games and they had to play our boys were cramping up from uh... you know from as a much this way to know i remember that just didn't sit real well i wouldn't have to camp so i'm sitting on the bleachers in this guy that's ahead of our conference over on the other side the more i said down the angrier i got I get my little self up. I walk over there and I just let him have it. I tell him how sorry a Christian he is. I mean, I bust him in the chops. I mean, I let him have it with both barrels. He's just looking at me like, man, I don't want to mess with him. He might hit me. I was not a happy camper. I turned around. I walked back over to the other side. I'm proud of myself. I still remember it. Just as I sat down on the bleachers, the Holy Spirit said, you ain't gonna get by with that. That ain't right. Now he used better grammar than that, but that's what he was saying. You cannot do that. That is unchristian. By the way, everybody on my team thought I did a good thing. But the one that really matters knew I didn't. Boy, he convicted me and I'm sitting there and God says, Holy Ghost said, you gotta go apologize. I don't wanna apologize. I mean, God, I am right. By the way, I was right. But my spirit sure wasn't. My attitude sure wasn't. and I keep fighting with the Lord and dealing with that in my heart and finally I said, okay God. And I walk across over there and by this time he's a little leery. By this time he's a little uncomfortable. I said, Brother Bruce, I want to apologize to you. I said what I did was wrong. I won't The Holy Ghost convicted me. I want God to forgive me and I want you to forgive me. He was a lot better Christian than I was. He embraced me and forgave me. And I got to thinking, I sure do wish I'd learned to keep my mouth shut because I sure do hate to apologize. Hello? Is anybody else in here that way? So why'd you share that? It certainly wouldn't tell you how spiritual I am, that's for sure. But to show you what the Holy Spirit does in the heart of a true believer. I believe. Do you? Father, we're grateful for your word. Lord, I appreciate the liberty you give me in preaching. I pray that it was of help and a blessing and encouragement. I would ask you that you administer to the needs of every person in this building tonight. I ask you, Lord, if there's one tonight that has not believed in the person of the Lord Jesus, biblically speaking, that you prick their heart and bring them, Lord, to repentance and salvation through the blood of Christ. Lord, if there's people here that have believed, but truly believe in the biblical sense and the person of the Lord Jesus, happen more to take a rest in the concept of the of the uh... of the promise of the lord jesus that he's coming to get us and the place that he's taken us to and lord that possession the holy spirit has of us when he saved us or there may be some hurting people in this building today would you minister to him tonight ask it in jesus name Our heads are bound, our eyes are closed.