into the family of God. Now, some folks, when I talk about this Christian's greatest gift, some folks might argue and say, well, I believe the greatest gift is the Bible. Now, I certainly would not argue with anyone who has a love for the word of God like that, but the reason that I believe that the gift of the Holy Spirit is far, not far, but superior to the gift of the Bible is for this reason. Whenever I leave and go to therapy tomorrow, and take catheter therapy tomorrow, it is likely I will leave my Bible at home. It is likely that I won't carry it with me and carry it into the therapy room and be reading it whenever she's having her therapy. Now, I have nothing wrong with doing that, but it's just not likely that I would do that. However, when we go to therapy tomorrow, though my Bible may be at home, the person of the Holy Spirit will be going with me. He goes everywhere I go. He lives inside of me and every decision that I make and every direction that I take, he is there guiding me and directing me or should be guiding me and directing me. Now the best message for tonight has been a long time in preparation. I'm honest with you, I have worked on this message, not that it's gonna be a great message, but I've worked on it for a long time. And the reason I have is because I've been wanting to allow God to work it in my own heart. I want God to do something in me through the thoughts that I wanna share with you tonight. And I confess to you that I have not arrived in this matter of the fullness and the working of the Holy Spirit of God. However, there is a longing in my heart for the fullness of the Spirit of God in my life. I'll say at the outset that I don't know all that there is to know about this person of the Holy Spirit, but I do know enough to make me desire him more and desire him greater in my life. Can I just make a statement here before we go any further? And that statement is this. God, when I talk about tonight being filled with the Spirit of God, I am not talking about the Holy Spirit of God getting, me getting more of Him. I am talking about the Holy Spirit getting more of me. You see, the fullness of the Spirit, when you got saved, you got all the Holy Ghost you're ever gonna get. He didn't come in in measurements, he didn't come in and I put his foot in, so now when you pray a little further, I'll put my knee in, and when you pray a little further, I'll put my hip in. When you pray a little further, I'll put my other knee in, my other foot in, my other hip in. That's not the way the Holy Spirit works. When he saved us, and he washed our sins away in the blood of Christ, he took his abode up, we'll talk about that in just a minute, in our lives. So when I speak about being filled with the Spirit of God in a little while, I'm not talking about getting more of him, I'm talking about him getting more of us and more of me. Now I admit that what I'm going to share with you tonight is a work in progress and there's much about this truth. that I still desire to know and still desire to learn. Now, let me just, if I were preaching a series, I would cover these things, but let me just share five or six things today that I think that we need to understand. First of all, You need to be reminded from Scripture that the Holy Spirit is not a force. He is not a feeling. He is a person. He is a person. If you don't have to look any further than John 14, 17, John 15, 26, John 16, 13, as well as Romans 8, 27, All four of those verses, as well as others in the Bible, describe the Holy Spirit as a he or a him. He is not a force, he is a person. Secondly, the Holy Spirit of God is the Spirit of God. He's the third person of the Trinity. I think that many Baptist churches have failed in understanding the work and the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. We got the idea that it's God the Father, God the Son, and then God the Holy Spirit. That's not true to Scripture. It is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Holy Spirit is as much God as God the Father is, and God the Son is as much God as God the Father is, and the point that I'm making is this. We need Him in our lives, and that's the way He takes up His abode in us, is as a person of the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, the Holy Spirit worked on Creation Day. The Bible says that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the deep. So on creation day, we find God the Father was there, we find God the Son was there, and we find God the Spirit was there, because the Bible said in John 1, I think verse 3 it says, all things were made by Him, was not without Him, was not anything made that was made. He is the Creator. And then in Genesis 1 it says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And so we find that all three were there on creation day. Fourthly, the Holy Spirit, under the Old Testament economy, did not abide in the believer. You see, under the Old Testament economy, whenever the Holy Spirit came upon the saints of God in those days, He came for a period of time, for a moment of time, and then withdrew himself from their lives. Now, you say, how do we know that? Well, I believe that explains why David prayed in the Psalm, Lord take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Because David understood that the Spirit of God came upon him and could leave them. You remember whenever Samson Whenever the Bible says he pulled that Colosseum down and he died in that, the Bible said, and the Spirit of God came upon him. And so it was a Old Testament doctrine where the Spirit of God would come, he would work in the life of an individual, and then he would leave. On the New Testament, whenever the Holy Spirit came, he came and took up his abode. And we'll talk about that in just a minute. Fearfully, the Holy Spirit speaks to the church. One of the things that I think that we have lost in this generation is a reminder that the Holy Spirit of God still works and still speaks if we will listen. You go to the book of Revelation chapter 2 and verse 7, chapter 2 verse 11, chapter 2 verse 17, chapter 2 verse 29, chapter 3 verse 6. chapter 3 verse 13, chapter 3 and verse 22, and it says these words, and the Spirit spoke unto the churches. I believe just as much as the Spirit of God spoke to the churches back in John's day, he speaks to the churches today. I believe that he desires to speak in our church. I believe he desires to work in Fellowship Baptist Church. and if he's going to work in this place he must first be working in our hearts and we'll see that in just a little while. This evening I want to look at Galatians 5 and study three things that every Christian needs to know and embrace about the in their lives concern the person of the Holy Spirit of God. Now the book of Galatians, let me just give you just a little bit of background, won't be lengthy, but the book of Galatians was written by the Apostle Paul and was inspired of God. These are not Paul's words, these are God's words. When we open up the Bible, by the way, anywhere you open up the Bible, it is God speaking. It's not the opinion of the human author, it is what God says. And so we find when we read Galatians 5, God is speaking to the church of Eric Glacier, and he's reminding them of what the Lord done in their life. One of the problems they were having in the church, the church of Eric Glacier was this. They were people that had come in that were trying to rob them of their liberty. They were now trying to put them back under the yoke of the law. They were saying, yes, you may be saved by grace, but you gotta do this, gotta be circumcised, you gotta do all these things under the law if you're gonna continue to be saved and truly be saved. And look at verse 12. Paul was so frustrated with those who were trying to put the church back under the law. Notice what he said. He said, I would to God that they were all cut off. Paul was saying, I wish God would kill them. Now that's pretty strong, is it not? I mean, for Paul to say these words and God God to allow these to stand in scripture. Paul said, I'm so frustrated with those who have tried now to water down the gospel and tried to put us back under the yoke of the law. He said, I wish God would just kill them and take them off out of the picture. That's pretty serious stuff, is it not? But can I say this? I'd rather God take someone on to hell if they're going to damn others to hell than to let them continue and damn souls to hell year after year, month after month, and week after week. I believe that would be better for the cause of Christ. I'd rather lose one than to lose everyone, amen? And so that's what Paul was so concerned about. and was frustrated about. Now, their Christianity, unfortunately, the Galatian Christian, had become mechanical. It had come to the place where they said, okay, we know what it is to be saved, we know what it is to go to church. In other words, they had the spiritual routine down. They knew how to tie, they knew how to read their Bible, they knew how to pray, but it had just become a mechanical, excuse me, It had just become a mechanical thing in their life. They were no longer enjoying their relationship with the Lord. So Paul, through the inspiration of the Spirit of God, pens down these words. Now there are six things that I want to look at, and then we will bear down on the very last one. First of all, Paul reminds them of their liberty. Look back, if you will, in verse 13. For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion of the flesh, but by love serve one another. Here we find that God says this. He said to these Christians there at Galatia, He said, God has set you free. Don't get back under the yoke of the bondage of the law. Don't get back under the requirements of the law. He said, God has set you free. But then he went another step further. He said, but be sure you don't take that liberty that you have as a opportunity, occasion of the flesh. He said, but serve one another in this liberty. So we can't deal with that very deeply today, but he talks about our liberty. Then in verse 14 and 15, Paul speaks about the law of kindness. He said in verse 14, for the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, but if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed, one of another. So here we find the Lord reminds these Christians, Eric Glacier, he said you've been set at liberty and you're to have, thank you brother, and you're to have the law of kindness in your heart. He said you're not to bite and devour one another. He said you're not to take one another and destroy each other. What a great truth that would be for every Christian to learn. Certainly we've got brothers and sisters that aren't where they need to be and aren't where they should be. But it's not our job to divide and devour them. It is our job to hold them up before God in prayer and seek God's help in their life and seek God to touch their lives. Then he talks about in verse 16 and 17, Paul warns them of the lust of their flesh. He talks about in verse 16 this, I say, Then walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of your flesh. I want to remind you today that your flesh is as rotten as my flesh. And my flesh wants to do wickedness, and my flesh wants to do ungodliness. My flesh wants to walk in the things that please me, rather than the things that please God. But God said, I've got an answer for your flesh, and that is this, walk in the Spirit. And if you walk in the Spirit, Spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of our flesh. Anytime I step outside walking in the Spirit of God and I get wrapped up in the things of this world and I begin to walk in my flesh, it's because I've chosen to walk away from the Spirit of God and walk in the lust of my flesh. We don't have time to deal with that. Look at verse 18. Paul tells them they're to be led by the Spirit. So we find that they've been given liberty. We find that they're talking about the law of kindness. He talks about the lust of the flesh. He talks about verse 18, that they're to be led by the Spirit. Verse 19 and 20 probably reminds them of what the lost are, and he gives a list of what happens in the lives of people that are lost. But here's where I want to really begin to look at this message for tonight. In verse 22 through 26, we find the Lord here begins to teach us about the principles of spiritual living. I'm convinced today that the majority of us Christians do not live spiritual lives. We walk after the flesh. And we're gonna see three things in verse 25 where we'll start and then we'll back up to verse 22. And first thing I want you to look at is the fellowship of the spirit. Look in verse 25. If we live in the spirit. Notice that phrase. Here the Lord is saying to us and to the Galatian church, He said, if you live in the Spirit, then He goes on and says, and we'll come back to this in a minute, then let us also walk in the Spirit. What He was saying is that if you're saved by the grace of God, if you're born again, if you live in the Spirit, then He said we must then walk in the Spirit. Now, Let's think about this fellowshipping of the Spirit. When the Lord saved us, He did the saving through the person of the Holy Spirit of God. To be sure, we're saved by the finished work of Calvary. Our sins are washed away in the blood of Christ. We know that our sins were atoned for through Jesus' death. his burial and his resurrection. But it was the Holy Spirit of God that opened our eyes to the reality that we were lost and undone without Christ, and that we were going to hell, and it was the Holy Spirit of God that brought us into a proper relationship with God through the new birth. Let me show you three or four things about this. Number one, it was the Holy Spirit of God that convicted us. If you have never felt the convicting power of the Holy Spirit of God, you've never been saved. The Bible says in John 16, seven and eight, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it's expected of you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send unto you, and when he has come, listen to this, he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. God said when the Holy Spirit comes, he will reprove, he will show truth, he will convict, he will bring people to understand what judgment is, what sinfulness is, and what righteousness is. And when I got saved, when I was in the third grade, I didn't know a whole lot about the Holy Ghost of God. I didn't know much about the Bible. I didn't know a whole lot about church membership. I knew nothing about baptism. I mean, I was dumb as a box of rocks. I didn't know nothing. I didn't know squat. But I'll tell you what, on that Sunday night, the Holy Ghost of God parked by my pew and he said, hey, you need to be saved. You need to be born again. That was the Holy Ghost of God convicting me of my sin and bringing me to the saving knowledge of Christ. I remember that day vividly. And I want to tell you something, if you don't remember that convicting power, you've never been saved by the grace of God. If you don't remember the Holy Ghost of God drawing you, I'm honest with you, I have a hard time with these people. who come down the altar and pray a little prayer, and they're popping chewing gum, and they're laughing on the way down to the altar. That wasn't the way it worked for me, buddy. I mean, I felt like I was the lowest person to ever live, and I couldn't hardly make it to the altar before I bawled up on my knees and said, oh, Jesus, save me. That's the Holy Ghost of God that did that. The Holy Spirit of God convicts of sin. Secondly, the Holy Spirit of God converted and placed us in the family of God. Now, the Bible says in Ephesians 1, 13, in whom we also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, whom also after you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Here's what he's saying, that when God saved us, he placed us in the family of God and sealed us with the Holy Ghost. So the Spirit of God convicts us. The Spirit of God converts us. Then here's what I want you to see, and this is the reason for this point. The Holy Spirit of God became our companion. He lives in me. This is the idea of fellowshipping of the Spirit. Back to John chapter 14 verse 16. I will pray the Father and he will give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. That word abide means he took up his abode in our lives. You're looking at a preacher that has God living in him through the person of the Holy Spirit of God. And can I say this? If you're saved by the grace of God, I'm looking at a church member that has God living in them through the person of the Holy Spirit of God. When God saved us, he took up his It's a boat in our life and we have fellowship with him. The Holy Spirit, not only do we find that he is our companion, but fourthly, the Holy Spirit is there to comfort us. In John 16, 7, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, He said, it's expedient for you that I go away, for if I go away, if I do not go away, I'm sorry, go away, for if I go away, the comforter will come unto you, but if I depart, it will not come to you, but if I depart, I will send him to you. Now, I butchered that, so I'm gonna read it again. Amen. All right, let me read it one more time. Nevertheless, to 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 if I depart, I will send him unto you. Now think about that word comforter. How many of you ladies got a comforter on your bed? Amen. You know what that's for? It's to bring comfort, is it not? I mean, I'm honest with you, Kathy, she's got every blanket in the house on her side of the bed. I need a forklift just to get her in the bed and get her out. Not because of her, because of them blankets. I promise you, I counted them yesterday, I think it was, there's I think seven blankets on her side of the bed. Now that's cold, amen? The comforters are given to bring the warmth. and to bring comfort. Can I tell you that the Holy Spirit of God does exactly that in my life? He brings me warmth, he brings me comfort, he embraces me, he puts his arms around me and gives me the help that I need. I can't tell you how many times in my life that the Holy Spirit of God has come to comfort me in dark days. when days when no one else understood because honestly, I didn't understand. When I could not even explain it to the nearest of my dearest friend because I could not figure it out myself. I remember many years ago, Jill, my first wife, was in the hospital in North Carolina and I was traveling back and forth every week I was pastoring in Lafayette, and I would drive on Monday to go to be with her, and then on Friday, middle afternoon, I'd drive home, and I'd get things, get the grass cut, and I'd do everything I had to do on Saturday, and preach on Sunday, get up early Monday morning, drive back to North Carolina, did that for nine months in that, not the last year, but one of the years of her lives. I remember one Sunday morning, I had to preach, and it'd be one of them Sunday mornings, I wished I had an assistant pastor, Hello? Can you carry this torch today? I don't have nobody. And I remember that Sunday morning, I was getting dressed and I walked in our bathroom. We had kind of a long bathroom, the sinks on this side and the master closet was here and it was kind of a little alleyway, a galley that went down through here to the toilet and the shower. I remember I was walking down through there And I'd gone as far as I could go. And I remembered as if it were yesterday, I fell on my knees and my face, literally not my knees, but my face in the floor there in the bathroom. And I said, God, I can't go any further. I've gone as far as I can go. God, I've done everything I know to do. And God, if you don't help me today, I'm not going to survive. After a few minutes, that heavenly comforter, that lives inside of me, put his arms around me and drew me to the breast of the Lord Jesus and he loved on me and he said, hey, everything's gonna be okay. And I wanna tell you, I got up that day and I kept serving the Lord Jesus all because the comforter lived within me. The first truth is this, we have fellowship with the Holy Spirit. that come about the day where we're saved. Most of us know that. But here's where the rubber meets the road. Not only do we have fellowship with the Holy Spirit, we need to have the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Look back in verse 25. If we live in the Spirit, let us also, look at this, walk in the Spirit. I wanna say a few things and try to deal with this and get on to the last thought. It's impossible for a person to walk in the Spirit. I'm sorry, it is impossible for a person to walk in the Spirit without being filled with the Spirit. You cannot walk in the Spirit without being filled with the Spirit. A person, listen to this, can have fellowship with the Spirit and not have the fullness of the Spirit. In other words, a person can be saved, a person can have their sins washed away in the blood of Christ, know the fellowship of the Spirit without being filled with the Spirit of God. I want to remind you of this truth. We should seek the fullness of the Spirit of God. I'm not telling you you need a second blessing. I'm telling you you need a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, twentieth, thirtieth, fiftieth blessing, amen? It's a constant need to be constantly filled with the Spirit of God. We are leaky vessels. Have you ever been spirit-filled on one day and feel like, man, I'm just for the devil the next day? You ever been there? So, well, not me. Well, bless God, why don't you come finish his sermon then? I found in my life, there are times I can go for days, weeks, maybe months, being filled with the Spirit of God. And then all of a sudden one day I crash and burn. Now, we should seek God to fill us up again. Let me give you some scripture. Luke chapter 11 verse 13, this is the model prayer. I don't call it the Lord's prayer because it was a model prayer. It was an example of a prayer. If you want the Lord's prayer, you go to John 17. This is teaching the disciples to pray. He said, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. And that's in John chapter 11. In John chapter 11 and verse 13, here whenever he finished up with this model prayer, the Lord said this, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? that tells me that I am to be asking God to fill me with the Spirit of God. I don't have to ask him to come take up his abode in my life. He did that when he saved me. What I must ask him to do, however, is to fill me with the Holy Spirit of God so that I can walk in the power of the Spirit of God in my life. Ephesians chapter five, verse 18. It says, and be not drunk where he is in excess, but be ye filled with the Spirit of God. So that tells me that literally that I am to seek God for this fullness. And I'm not a Greek scholar. I'm not even a Greek, I'm not a Greek first grader. But I've done a little bit of study there, and they tell me that what they're saying is, but be ye filled with the Spirit of God, that's a continuation of a verb, and it says, be ye being filled with the Spirit of God, is what they're saying. Another word they're saying, don't just get filled up once and walk around and say, oh, I'm full, I'm full. He said continually be filled up with the Spirit of God. I've got a Ford truck sitting out there, and That truck and Costco are good friends. Amen. Say, how come? Because about every, it's got a 35 gallon tank, I have to take a loan out to fill it up. But about every 600 miles, they have to, I have to go back, I'm needing it now, so I'm gonna take up an offering. I'm gonna go and fill that thing up tomorrow. But here's what I want you to understand, is that truck uses the energy it gets from that gasoline, it uses it up, and it's gotta be replenished. And as we walk in the spirit of God, and as we serve God, and as we use that energy through the power of the spirit of God, we gotta go back and get filled up again. We need to be constantly filled with the spirit of God. Go back to Ephesians chapter five, I wanna show you some things, and this is just, we haven't got to the important part of the sermon yet. Well, we have to, but to the part I wanna really bear down on. Ephesians chapter five, verse 18, very familiar scripture. We all know this. And be not drunk with wine, where is it excessive? Be ye filled with the Spirit of God. Now, when you pick up verse 19, we begin to see what are some of the evidences. of a person that is filled with the Spirit of God. Look what he said in Ephesians 5 verse 19. Speaking to yourself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing, make it melt in your heart to the Lord. I asked you a question. If you're saying, do you speak to yourself often in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs? Are you singing and making it melt in your heart to the Lord? Are you listening to Conway Twitty? Hello? Is anybody listening? Amen? because the fruit, I'm sorry, that's not the word I'm looking for. One of the outflows of being filled with the Spirit of God is that we've got a song of the Lord in our heart. Go back to Psalms 40, where it said he put a new song in our mouth, even praise under our God, and many shall see it and fear and trust in the Lord. I'm thankful that I have a song of God in my heart. That's one of the evidences that I'm, filled with the Spirit of God. Look in verse 20. I gotta hurry up. Giving thanks. You say, yeah, I give God thanks on Thanksgiving. What's that next word? Oh, mercy. The fruit, now I'm getting ahead of myself. The evidence is of the fullness of the Spirit of God is that we are giving thanks always for all, how many things? Uh-oh, well, I've got cancer. Hello? You say, well, how are you supposed to give God thanks for that? Well, here's the way I found to do it, and that is simply this, to say, God, I don't know what you're doing. I don't know direction you're taking. I don't know what you're gonna do through this, but I wanna thank you that you know what's best for me, and I'm gonna trust you in this, and whatever come, what may, I'm gonna serve you. That's what he's talking about. And you don't do that by just walking in the flesh. You don't do that. This is funny, you'll like this. And I used to love doing mechanic and stuff. Now my body is rebelling. It's saying, hey, no more of that stuff, okay? I remember I used to have a little garage and I had a preacher who lived in North Carolina who had one of them old Dodge vans. And the motor blew up in it. And so he called and he said, hey, brother. They always call you brother when they want a favor, man. Hey, brother, how you doing? Doing great, man, doing great. How are you? I'm doing good, but brother, I'm down here in Chattanooga and said, man, my motor blowed up on this Dodge van. Now, I'm gonna tell you what, when you was a mechanic back in the 70s and somebody brought a Dodge van, you pulled the door down and said, I'm closed. I mean, they were just tough to get, especially on the motor. And he says, I've got a motor, won't know if you'd put it in for me. I said, well, brother, I will. I said, I'd be glad to, but I said, I really don't want to, but I'll be glad to do it. So he brings it down there. I said, if I'm lying, I'm dying. He brought it down there and had a wrecker bring it to the shop and had the engine already there. And he said, wait a minute, preacher, before you start, Let's have a word of prayer. I thought, bless God, we're working on a Dodge van. Let's do pray. Amen. I said, okay, let's pray. We got on our knees down on the shop floor, and here's what he said, Lord, thank you so much for letting my motor blow up. Okay, it works for me, because I needed the money. Say amen right there. And I said, yes, Lord, answer that prayer. Thank you, Lord. And he said, thank you for giving me Brother Eddie that will put this in. And thank you, Lord. And he went on down the line. Wonderful. Well, he come to pick the van up. And I remember I charged him $150 to swap an engine out. And he started whining and belly aching. Oh, brother, I just didn't know it was gonna cost me this much. I work for missionaries all the time at home, and I didn't know. And I thought, what happened to all that thank you, Lord Jesus, for my motor blowing up? Amen? Sometimes our little prayers can become platitudes. That's not what he's talking about here. He's talking about filling in your heart, God, I don't know what you're doing. Can I be honest with you there? God moves in ways I ain't got him figured out. I don't know what he's doing, but if I'm filled with the spirit, I'm gonna give thanks. Look at verse 21, I gotta hurry. submitting yourselves one to another. Another evidence of a person that is walking the spirit is they submit to one another and they submit to the authority that's over them. You keep reading on down. It talks about wives submitting to their own husbands. You know, that is the evidence of a person that is spirit-filled. You show me a lady that is not submitted to her husband, I'll show you a lady that is not spirit-filled. Well, it got quiet right there. Praise God, it got quiet. Am I preaching the Bible? Let me make something clear here. There's a difference in submitting to sinful things and submitting to biblical things. I believe that scripture that says, render to the things under Caesar, things that are Caesar's, under God, the things that are God's. If a husband wants his wife to do wickedness, then she is to rebel against that and do what pleases God. We're talking to church ladies tonight. Amen. You say, well, you know, that sorry old man of mine. Can I tell you, I'd want to knock a knot on his head if he called you an old lady. Amen. She's not your old lady. She is your bride. She's a gift from God. Amen. Well, you know that old crotchety old woman I'm married to. You sorry, knothead. That's wicked. So, no man ought to talk about his wife that way. You're exactly right. And no woman ought to talk about her husband that way either. We're talking about a love relationship here, amen? Where men love their wives and wives love their husbands. He says here, verse 25, and by the way, verse 24, Therefore, the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wise be to their own husband and everything. One of the indications of spirit-filled life is their subjection. Now, Paul admonished the church of Corinth because they were carnal and walked as men. You read it in 1 Corinthians chapter three, verse one through three, and our brethren cannot speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. So one of the indications of a person that isn't spirit-filled is they're babies. You gotta pamper them to keep them in church. Bless your little heart. That's not the indication of a spirit-filled individual. He goes on to say, he said, they can't stand meat. He said, you gotta feed them with milk. A spirit-filled Christian does have a problem with what I'm preaching tonight. Amen? And he says, you walk as men, that's the indication of a carnal individual. So let me show you this, I'll finish. Number one, we fellowship with the Spirit. Verse 25, when he says, if we live in the Spirit, that's fellowship in the Spirit. Let us also walk in the Spirit, that is fullness of the Spirit. Now let's back at verse 22. I wanna speak to you just a few minutes on this thought, the fruit of the Spirit. What does being Spirit-filled do? Look what it says, verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit, I want to remind you of this, it did not say fruits plural. It said fruits singular. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace on suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance against such, there is no law. And here's what I believe the Lord is trying to get us to see. That when we are Spirit-filled individuals, We have these nine different fruits hanging from our branches. If someone needs somebody to love on them, they can come pluck that from our branches. If they need someone to be gentle or good, show them goodness, they can pluck that from our branches. And we're gonna talk about these individually in just a minute. The fruit of the Spirit, he says, is this, it is love. I did a study many years ago on the word love in scripture. There are several words that God uses for the word love, Greek words for the word love. But I was fascinated as I've been praying and asking God to help me to be filled with the spirit of God, that I would have boldness, that I would have compassion, that I would have wisdom and I have discernment. And then I pray these nine things, God, let these nine things be true in my life. And I looked up that word love. It's not the word phileo means brotherly love. It's the word agape. That means a God kind of love. You see, phileo love is a love that loves you when you love them. Agape love is an unconditional love that you love them even when they don't love you. You can't do that in the flesh. I cannot do that in the flesh. When someone does me wrong, the only way that I can love them the way God says me to love them with that God kind of love is to be walking in the fullness of the Spirit of God. Have you ever been mistreated? Oh, mercy. How did you feel about the person who mistreated you? When you're filled with the Spirit, your heart is broken, you're disappointed, but you pray for them. I went through a real dark time, Kath and I did, about five years ago. And there were people that just broke our hearts. I mean, just broke our hearts. And I'm honest with you, it just crushed me to the point that I honestly did not know if I was going to survive it or not. When I prayed, every day I'd pray, I said, God, if there's bitterness in my heart, please show it to me. Because I know you can't bless me with bitterness in my heart. And the way that I knew there wasn't bitterness, I was asking God to be gracious to those who hurt me. To be kind to those who did me wrong. You say, oh, you must be spiritual. No, to be honest with you, I ain't that spiritual. The only thing that made me do that was God in me. I grew up in a family, this was our motto. We don't get mad, we get even. Amen. I'm serious. My dad, you could always tell when he was getting mad, it was funny. You'd love my family if you ever got to know them, got to known them. My dad, when he'd get mad, he'd always be stuffing his shirt tail down in his breeches. Now when he was stuffing his shirt tail down in his breeches, it was on. I mean, it was on. I remember I was at a baseball game one time, and dad come to see me play, and something didn't go to suit him. It scared me to death. Dad come off them bleachers, stuffing his shirt down in his britches. I thought, this ain't good. Amen. Yeah, this is not good. That's not a spirit-filled life. Spirit, let it fill life, loves those who harm us. The fruit of the Spirit, not only is love, but he says this, notice this, the word joy. He did not use the word happiness here, he used the word joy. Can I give you the EOK version of why I think that happened? You say, what's the EOK version? That's Edward Lee Killian, okay? Because I believe that happiness is external. What causes my happiness is what happens outside. If I go to the bank, I'm sorry, if I go to my mailbox tomorrow and I get a check for $10,000, I'm happy. It's control banks. If I go to the mailbox tomorrow and I get a bill for $10,000, hello, I ain't so happy. God used the word joy. By the way, the word happiness is found, our word happy is found 28 times in the Bible. The word joy is found a total of 165 times in the Bible. Joy is internal. Happiness is controlled by what happens out here. Joy is controlled by what's happening in here. And when things are right in here, there's joy. It doesn't matter what the external circumstances are. When the things are right in your heart and the Holy Ghost is encouraging your heart, I wanna tell you what, there's joy in serving the Lord. This morning we were driving to church and I was listening to, on my radio, it wasn't a radio, it's on a USB drive, a song. It talks about, you probably heard it, about the touch, the song's entitled The Touch of the Master's Hand. It talks about a violin that was for sale. And I got to thinking about that as I was playing. And I had to take my glasses off to wipe my eyes, and Kathy's trying to take care of her business over there. And she said, you want me to clean your glasses? I thought, that's a good excuse. You won't know what's going on here. So I handed her my glasses. She's cleaning my glasses. And I got to thinking of how worthless I am apart from the touch of the master's hand. Can I tell you today that that brought joy in my heart? I didn't get a $10,000 check, but I had joy. Go back to the book of Nehemiah. The Bible says this, the joy of the Lord is our strength. You lose joy, you lose strength. So there's joy. Then he said, the fruit of the Spirit is peace. A person that is filled with the Spirit of God has a life of peace. Now when we got saved, we made peace with God. But when we're Spirit-filled, we have the peace of God. And when someone doesn't enjoy the peace of God, it's because they are walking in the flesh and not in the Spirit. I like this next one. The fruit of the Spirit is long-suffering. That word, I looked it up and let's cut it into two words, long-suffering. Literally it means to suffer long. Now let's think about that word suffer. You know what happens whenever we're spirit-filled? We suffer with people. When their heart aches, our heart aches. When they're burdened, we're burdened. When they're troubled, we're troubled. We suffer with them. We carry the load. Some of you don't know me, probably the folks that came here with us know this, but I am so regimented, it's pathetic. And I'm asking God to help me quit that. But let me tell you why it happened. is when Jill was sick, I had little windows that I had to do everything in. And I only had a few minutes to do this, had a few minutes to eat, had a few minutes to shower, had a few minutes to brush my teeth, had a few minutes to mow the grass, and I was so regimented, and I just had to do everything just almost on a time scale. And can I tell you, I'm still battling that. and see what I, I am task oriented. Let's do it and go on about our business, do something else. But you know what I've learned, and this is why I'm asking God to change me, is that there's people that are around me that are hurting, and they need me to take some time, and to stop, and to hurt with them. I've got a neighbor yesterday, he came over and I cut hay for my cows and he buys hay from me and I leave it in my barn. He sent me a text, said, do you need me to get hay out for your cows? I said, no, I'm fine. I got to thinking it's difficult for him to get in, get the hay because my cows want to go in the barn and eat my hay. So I said, I told Kathy, I said, I'll be back in a minute. I went out and I let him in and he got the hay. He started out and I'm thinking, okay, going home. Going home, man, I wanna get back inside now. And he says, I need you to help me pray for something. I said, what's that? And I remember I was standing way off over here thinking he'll go home in a minute, you know, and I can go back to the house. And he said, he told me about his two daughters. They've got some health issues and they're just little bitty girls, sweetheart little girls. They gotta have a specific type of formula and they'll have to have it the rest of their life because of proteins that they don't have. He said, my wife's insurance, they've changed it, it's no longer gonna cover it. He says, $2,500 a month that we're gonna have to pay. And he says, I don't know how we're gonna do it. It reminded me that God's still working in my heart. I walked over next to his tractor and I put my arm out and I laid it on his tractor and I said, tell me more about it. And I spent some time suffering with him. I'm not telling you how spiritual I am. I wish that were true every day of my life, but I want it to be. I want it to be. Suffer long. Don't get so busy with your world that you forget how to hurt with people around you. You and I both know they're hurting people all around us. He goes on and says, gentleness. That's a softness when dealing with others. Goodness, doing good, being good to those around us. Faith. Well, a preacher preached on that this morning. Faith, spirit-filled individual has faith. They believe and act on what God says in his word regardless of how they feel. I believe that's one of the greatest truths that God ever showed me was this. Great faith is taking God in his word regardless of how I feel. When God says it, that settles it. Meekness, it's not thinking, oh, this is a truth. A spirit-filled individual Someone says, oh, meekness is thinking little of oneself. No, meekness is not thinking of oneself at all. Amen. How many of you have the same trouble I do? We kind of like us. Ain't nobody likes me as good as I like me. That's not the fruit of the spirit. Meekness is not thinking of yourself. He's thinking of those. And then the last thing he says here is temperance. The word temperance means self-control. You know, we're living in a world where we're guided by our emotions instead of what the Bible says. It is. I guess if I've gotten in trouble over one statement, consistently, over and over again, it is this statement. I don't care how you feel, what does the Bible say? Amen? That's not being unkind. Because the Bible is the final authority. My feelings change. How about yours? Man, I wake up some days and man, I'm happy as a lark. There's some days I wake up and I'm miserable. You say, how do you know? Because everybody around me is miserable. Amen. But if I will ever learn to be led by the Spirit of God and full of the Spirit of God, have the fruit of the Spirit of God, I will develop self-control. You ever run across a man and said, well, I gave him a piece of my mind. Is that why you're half-minded? You didn't give so much away, you ain't got much left. The world doesn't need a piece of our minds. The world needs a spirit-filled believer that when we speak to someone, we have the law of kindness on our tongues. Certainly, sometimes the conversation will be hard. Certainly, sometimes the conversation will be difficult to swallow. But I want to say this, the fruit of the Spirit is kindness. and temperance, control. Now here's the invitation. Do you know what the difference in teaching and preaching is? Teaching is very important. It feeds the intellect. But preaching puts a charge to you. Teaching says this is information, you need it, it'll help you. I love it. Matter of fact, the Bible says a pastor is to be apt to teach. I think it's right. But what preaching does, it says, okay, here's the truth, now what are you gonna do with it? Here's my question. We've just preached on the Holy Spirit of God. What are you gonna do with it? You say, well, you know, are you keeping track of how many responses you get? Nope. It's between you and God. But I believe that every Christian in this building ought to be asking God on a daily basis. And if you're not, you ought to start tonight in this altar. Dear God, fill me with the Holy Spirit of God. You ought to be asking God for that. You say, well, preacher, I'll do it when I get home. Yeah, the devil will try to rob you of it. I think tonight is a good night to start that. And I've got right here, this is my prayer list. And I wrote this down over a year ago when I started thinking about this. I'm not gonna tell you all that's on it, man. But the fourth line down, and I pray it every day, Lord, I need to be filled with the spirit of God. And can I tell you, I need him as much today or more today than I ever have in my life. as do you. Now, Father, we've come to the end of the message. I pray we've not come to the end of the truth. That the truth that I presented tonight would be used of the Holy Spirit to draw us to himself and to seek you and to ask you, Lord, to fill us with that spirit that lives within us. It's not enough we fellowship with the Spirit. God, we need to be filled with the Spirit so that we can now have the fruit of the Spirit. I ask this in Jesus' name. Again, preaching puts a charge. I don't know what God may have spoken to your heart about tonight, but I do know this, every believer in this building needs