Chapter number 14. Go ahead and turn there, and that way we're ready to go in both places. We're going to go straight there. John 14. As soon as we're finished and making some comments out of Philippians chapter number 1. Notice the Bible said, Philippians chapter 1 verse 19, Paul says, For I know, I'm certain, that this... Talking about his imprisonment. Paul was unsure at this point how it was going to turn out, but he did believe God would deliver him. In one way or another, God's going to deliver me. That's the word salvation. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation, my deliverance, through your prayer. Aren't you glad that prayer matters? And the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. That word supply means to furnish that that's lacking. And we've been talking now for several weeks about empowered living and how that you and I can never be the Christian that God wants us to be apart from the power source that God has given to us, the indwelling Holy Spirit. We need to be connected to the power source, and we begin by knowing who the power source is. And we learned, number one, we needed to recognize His person, that the Holy Spirit is as much God as God the Father and God the Son. He is the third person of the Divine Trinity. And we need to recognize who He is and understand that He's co-equal, co-eternal, co-existent with both the Father and the Son. And He's not just some impersonal force. He's not an it. He's a Him. And He can be grieved. He can be quenched. He can be lied to like Ananias and Sapphira. And He's the one who indwells us and empowers us. And then not only do we need to recognize this person, but number two, in our notes, we need to realize His presence. And recognize that He is right now present in the heart and life of every Christian. He dwells in us. You should be in John chapter number 14. And look, if you would please, in verse number 16, He said, And I will pray the Father, and 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 ye know him. For he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." When you say, preacher, I've never seen the Holy Spirit either. That word seen doesn't mean to see with the visible eye. It doesn't know what it means. It means to perceive, to understand His presence. And the Holy Spirit is Spirit, alright? He does not possess a body like the Lord Jesus does. He never became flesh like the Lord Jesus did. And so we find that He's Spirit. And you can't see Him, but yet you can perceive Him. We'll say this. Somebody will be explaining something to us and we'll go, Oh, I see. I understand what you're saying. And that's exactly the idea right here. See, I understand my relationship to the Holy Spirit, who He is, and what He is in my life as the third person of Trinity. He is God in me, ever-present, ever-dwelling in the heart of the child of God. He's not just God with me, He's God in me according to John 14 and verse number 17. And then we wanted to maximize this position. That means I want Him to have first place in my life. I want to be yielded to the Spirit of God. Now let me just help you understand something about yielded. There is a sense in which there is an initial yielding of our lives to God. Just sort of jot that down. Romans 12.1. The Bible talks about being a living sacrifice. Holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. That's what God says. And so that is an initial yieldingness to God. God, I'm a living sacrifice. I am Yours. It's the idea of surrendering your life to God. By the way, it is a decisive moment in the life of a Christian. You say, Preacher, I don't know if I've ever done that. If you're not sure that you've yielded yourself to the Holy Spirit initially, you probably haven't. There's a time in our lives that we bow before God and we say, God, all that I am, all that I have, Lord, is Yours. I've been bought with a price. I belong to You. Now God, I'm on the altar. God, I want You to work in my life. I'm yielded to You. I'm a living sacrifice. That's initial. That's sort of like this matter of being married. There was a day in my life that I said to my wife, all that I am and all that I have is Yours and Yours is Yours too. Is that what you all said? Is that how that went? Anyway, there was this initial, I knew we were married. But then we've been growing in that relationship ever since. I don't know about you, but we didn't understand everything about being married that day we got married. We didn't understand everything about it. And we didn't understand everything that was going to entail. We didn't realize all that that would bring about, but over 32 years almost, we do know. We do know and understand. Is it 32? November? She's having to count. She's having to count. Oh, she's not telling. I'm in trouble. Okay. So anyway, if we would have gotten married in an even year, I could have kept up with that, but it was an odd year. I didn't mean that the way it sounded. Odd year. I am digging a hole and the first rule of hole digging is stop digging. I'm done. So anyway, there's this idea of the Holy Spirit and we yield ourselves to Him. But now watch this. Are you following me? There's an initial surrender of my life to the Lord. I belong to You, God. At that moment when I did that, did I understand everything about that? Was I completely and wholly, 100%, in a very real and practical way, every area of my life yielded to God? No. And can I tell you, probably there's areas of my life that still need to be yielded to God. but I've wanted to grow in that area of yieldedness. Does that make sense? That's why Paul said, I die daily. There was an initial death. He was crucified with Christ. He's dead. Then there's the practicality of living that out in everyday life. And so there's this initial, Lord, I'm Yours! And then there's a practicality of making that a reality in my life every day that I live a fuller, deeper surrender of God. We call that spiritual growth. Call it sanctification. Call it growth in grace. Call it whatever you want to, but it's an idea of yieldedness. of giving Him complete control. We're going to talk more about that when we get to the actual discussion of being connected to the power source, of being yielded to the Spirit of God, being filled with the Spirit. But let's understand how He works in our lives as the third person of the Trinity, His office work. And last week, number four, we talked about utilizing His purpose. And so we learned that He assures us. He assures us. that He's our seal and our earnest and He sealed us into the day of redemption. He has secured our salvation so that we're eternally secure in the Lord Jesus Christ through the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Lord said He saved us to the uttermost, completely, them that come unto God by Him. But then letter B tonight, He comforts us. Look, if you would, verse 16 of John 14, what we just read. Jesus said, And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter. Did you see that? And we know who He is. Verse 17, Even the Spirit of Truth. That word Comforter is the idea of Helper. He's my Enabler. He's my Comforter. He's my Advocate. He's the one called on alongside to Help me. Think about the context of these verses hours earlier. You realize that when you come to John 14, they've left the upper room. They're making their way to the Garden of Gethsemane. Within hours, Jesus will be betrayed, arrested, tried, crucified. Three days later, He'll rise again. We're in that time. He's giving His final teaching and instruction to His disciples. He's helping them to understand. I'm going away. I'm leaving you. But I'm not going to leave you an orphan. I'm going back to the Father's house. Imagine how they must have felt. Three and a half years, the Lord's been the supplier of every need, and now I'm going away, but I'm going to send another comforter. I'm not going to leave you. Verse 18, look at this. I will not leave you comfortless. It's literally saying, I'm not going to leave you an orphan in the world. I will come to you. I'm not going to abandon you. How does He come to us in the person of the indwelling Holy Spirit? Look at that word another. Verse 16, and He shall give you another. That word there is a word that means another of the same kind. One just like Me. You realize the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus are not the same person. They're two separate persons of the Godhead, third person, second person. They're not one in person, but they're one in essence. All that God the Son is, all that God the Spirit is, all that God the Spirit is, God the Son is. And therefore when He said, I'm going to send you one just like Me, He was sending us the Holy Spirit who is just like Him. That's what He's saying. So that when you walk with the Holy Spirit, you walk with the Lord Jesus and with the Father. Somebody said, the Holy Spirit was given to be to us on earth all that our Lord would be were He here personally present with us. Another comforter, not a different comforter. One like Himself who would take His place and do His work in His absence. He said, "...even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him, not neither knoweth Him. But ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." Remember the Lord Jesus when He became man, when He took to Himself a human body, a human nature, He limited Himself geographically by that body. The Holy Spirit is not limited geographically. Being omnipresent, the Holy Spirit does not know the limitations of a human body, but is equally accessible to all God's people wherever they are and whatever their need. He is an internal presence and not an external one, says Oswald Sanders. I thought that was a powerful quote and statement. The Holy Spirit is God in you, for you, and on your side. So the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is the divine comforter dwelling inside of us who comes to our aid to help us, to encourage us, to comfort us. You see, He's the one who comes alongside the graveside. He's the one who comes along the life of a dying Christian. He's the one who comes along the Christian getting ready to go into surgery. He's the one who comes along the Christian who is emotionally distraught and in despair. He's the one who comes along the Christian who's wanting to to be used of God in an area of service. He's the one who comes alongside you to help you to be the man, the woman, the husband, the father, the mother, the wife that God wants you to be. He's the one who enables you to do that. We need Him. Exactly what Paul experienced in this Roman jail is exactly what you and I can experience in our times of difficulty. Someone said it is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to meet you in the depths of your difficulty and to console you with His hope and grace. Can I give you very quickly one more beautiful picture of the Comforter? Turn, if you would, in your Bibles to Romans 8. Would you turn there? He's my helper. But let me tell you another place He comforts me. He comforts me in prayer. He's our prayer helper. He helps me as I preach. He helps you as you teach. He helps us as you parent. He helps you on your job. Listen, you need the Holy Spirit. You say, well, I'm just a painter. I'm just a carpenter. I just work on an assembly line. Listen, whatever we're doing, we need the Holy Spirit of God. He enables us. God can help you do more than you can ever do on your own. I lose my keys, I ask God to help me to find them. He knows where they're at. Now sometimes I feel like I'm on a wild goose chase. How many of you know what I'm talking about? I think maybe that's to help me pray more and depend more. Ain't it amazing when your kids... I'll give $10 to the first kid to find my keys. It's almost like they were in their pocket. Here they are! Where's that $10? Look at Romans 8, chapter 8, verse 26. Likewise the Spirit also helpeth. That's the same word. Comforter. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, our weaknesses, our human frailties. For we know not, we perceive not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us." I thought you said he wasn't an it. Let me help you understand that it's a very complicated form of speech. Only in Romans do you find the word it or itself. and it's accurate because the word spirit is not... the tense of the word and the framework of that word, it's proper English to use that, but it doesn't take away from the personality of the Holy Spirit because there's so many other places that it's He and Him, using those masculine personal pronouns, maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind. Did you notice this is capitalized of the Spirit? Because He, there it is, maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Not only does He help me pray, but He comforts me because He prays for me. I don't always know how to pray. I don't always know what to pray for. But He does. And in those moments when all I can do is groan and say, Oh God, help me. Oh God, I need You. Oh God. He knows my need. He prays it to the Father. And the answer comes. Isn't that powerful? It's amazing. I'm so grateful for my prayer helper. He'll help you pray. But thank God when I can't pray, He prays for me. He comforts us. Notice if you would, let her see in your notes, He sanctifies us. That word sanctification simply means to make holy. That's what it means. And look down if you would, John 14. I guess we've moved, but we can go back to John. I can just tell you for sake of time, John 14.26, He's called the Spirit of Holiness. The Holy Ghost. The most frequently used name for the Spirit. And let me remind you, the Holy Spirit was not sent primarily to make us happy. Now does He give me joy? Yes, He does. But He's not called the Happy Spirit. I'm sorry Pentecostals. That's not what He came to do. Now does He give me joy? Absolutely. Does He give me love? Absolutely. Give me peace? Absolutely. Give me patience? Absolutely. All that I need, He is. Let me tell you what He came to do. He came to make you holy. He came to make me holy. He's the Spirit of Holiness, Romans 1-4. the Holy Spirit of God, when He's in control of your life, then holiness will be a primary characteristic, a desire for holiness. We will dislike that that's sinful and defiling and wrong in the eyes of God. And holiness is something that we will desire in our lives. It is that that God demands because He's holy. But it's also something that you and I should desire. And it's the Holy Spirit that accomplishes it in our lives. He is our sanctifier. He's continually working in your life to sanctify you, to make you less and less of who you are by nature before God saves you and more and more of who you should be or need to be since God saved you. Make me less and less of who I am and more and more of who He is. That's what He's come to do. and manifest His fruit in our lives. Galatians 5, 22 and 23. Letter D. He empowers us. He empowers us. Let's go to Acts 1, verse 8. Can we do that? Now you say, Preacher, you're moving a little quick tonight. I am on purpose because I've been preaching this for four weeks. And it's okay, but I felt like I was getting bogged down. I need to move us along just a little bit. Acts 1 and verse number 8. Here's the day of Pentecost. The Holy Ghost has come. And we find that in verse number 2, could we look there? Chapter 2. Actually, I'm looking at the wrong passage, but that's a good passage. Let's look at it real quick. Can we do that? So the day of Pentecost was fully come. There comes a sound rushing mighty wind. It filled the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them cloven tongues like the fire set upon each of them. And they were filled with the Holy Ghost, the supply of the Spirit. There it is. Alright? They began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. You'll find as you read on in the chapter, He lists the tongues, the languages that they spoke. Not gibberish, not unintelligible words, but words that make up sentences of a known language that was unknown by those who spoke it. That is always the gift of tongues in the New Testament. Alright? And then you come over to Acts chapter 1 verse 8, and here's the prophecy of the Lord of Acts chapter 2. Look what He says. Now they received Him in Acts 2. But you shall receive what, church? Power. after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and in the uttermost part of the earth." You know what that just said to me right there? That I can't effectively witness for Him if I don't have His power. He empowers us. Spiritual work requires spiritual resources. God never intended for us to live the Christian life in our own strength, our own mind, our own power when He's given us the supply of the Spirit. He's given us the enabling ministry of the Spirit to enable us to live for Him successfully and serve Him effectively. But what about those times when our strength runs low? We feel as if we've expended all of our energy. We're running on fumes. You ever felt that way? And feel as if we just can't take another step. We just can't go on. What do we do then? I've got good news for you. You say, Preacher, what is it? The Holy Spirit enables you. You ever heard of what runners speak of a phenomena called the second wind? Or we'll say, boy, they got their second wind. Might be a person just talks a lot. Boy, they hit their second wind. A second wind happens when an athlete who is too weary to continue unexpectedly finds a sudden surge or boost of adrenaline, of energy to go on. It's almost like the body at that moment when they feel like they're almost to the mat, suddenly something surges through them and they cross the finish line. Medical experts believe that the second wind is part physiological and part psychological. A second wind allows an athlete to perform beyond their expected capacity. In the spiritual life, the Holy Spirit is our second wind, so to speak. Look at Ephesians 3 and verse number 6. Is that in your notes? The verse written out? Okay, let's go there and look. Look at Ephesians 3. You know what it's saying, Mom? When you don't think you can take another step, He can help you go on. Dad? When you don't know which way to turn, He can help you. Christian, when you don't think you can make it, He'll enable you to surge forward. That's what He's saying. Isn't that powerful? That's the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. It's a strength outside of myself. Look at Ephesians chapter 3 and verse number 6. I believe that's the wrong verse. Sorry. Yeah, my computer made a mistake. I don't know why it did that. I'm there. Thank you. I appreciate that. I got you. Yeah, I heard you. Thank you. "...that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might," watch this, "...by His Spirit in the inner man." So, we're strengthened with might, strengthened with power by His Spirit in the inner man. And then if you would, look down in verse number 20. Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us." Did you notice how many times he talks about able, power, worketh. Did you see that? All the different words for energy. And then notice he could have just said, now to him that is able, but he didn't do that. He said, now to him that is able to do, All. But He didn't just say that. He said, now in Him that is able to do above all. But He didn't stop there. He said, now in Him that is able to do abundantly above all. That would have been pretty good, wouldn't it? But He didn't stop there. Now in Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. Did you see that? It's all there. Everything that we need is there. When we don't think that we can take another step, the divine comforter comes to our side and breathes a second wind into our spiritual lungs enabling us to go on. We'll look at an individual that maybe has went through a very trying time. Maybe it's extreme sickness. Maybe it's the loss of a loved one. It could be any number of things. And what we'll say, we'll understand how you're making it. And all they can do is say, the Lord. The Lord. That's the work of the Holy Spirit, second wind. second wind, enabling to go on. In ministry, there are times that are beyond me. They're beyond my capacity. I just promise you. Somebody asked me today, said, I don't know how you keep up with what you keep up with. I don't know how you do this or do that or this or the other. Or how do you do this or that? And I don't think about it. I really don't. If I thought about it, I'd probably get tired. But I don't think about it. Okay? It's just called the second wind. The Holy Spirit helps us to do that that's beyond our capacity to do. Preachers are not an exception to the rule. What I mean by that, we're not special. What God might do in my life, He does in your life. The key is are you tapped into the power source tonight? That's it. Because He's come. He dwells in you to comfort you, to help you, to be there for you. to sense His presence. And there's times that maybe I don't even sense His presence, but I know He's there because He said He was. And He told me He would enable me. He told me. And so I look to Him, lean on Him, find help and hope in Him. That's what we do is we move forward for Him. He works to assure me that He's my seal and He's my earnest pledge that what God's promised He's going to perform. And then He's continually at work in me, sanctifying, working in my life to help me to be what He wants me to be, using the different circumstances and situations of life to bring about God's desired purposes in me. We've been preaching on the life of Joseph. He's still working on me. He's got one more installment in that, by the way. He's still working on me. Who's He? Well, it's God. and the Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit working on me to make me what I need to be, molding me, fashioning me, working in my life. The supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is sufficient to make you who He wants you to be and then to enable me. Philippians 1.19 Paul said, this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Christian, I'm just here to tell you, when you don't think you can go on, The Holy Spirit can help you to not just survive. He can help you thrive and take that next step. I'm going to look at one more passage tonight and I'm going to be done. Can we do that? Look if we could at 2 Corinthians 12. Paul has a thorn. You know it's interesting that Paul could not heal himself of his thorn. Paul could heal a lot of people. He couldn't heal everybody, but he couldn't heal himself. Isn't it amazing every faith healer has died? Isn't that an amazing thing? You'd think if they could divinely heal all the time that they'd just keep healing themselves. Wouldn't you think? It's what I'd do. Isn't that what you'd do? You're a preacher, you're being facetious. No, I just thought about that. Look at chapter 12, verse 7. Paul has a thorn. You know it'd help me if I'd get on the same page as you guys are half the time. I appreciate it. I appreciate Mrs. Foote helping me out, or we'd have been running around like a termite in a yo-yo trying to find that verse. Look at chapter 12, verse 7. And lest I should be exalted above measure, Through the abundance of the revelations, Paul said, I've been given so much so that I would not be lifted up with pride. There was given to me... that means to give as a gift... a thorn in the flesh. You know, God didn't tell us what the thorn was. I've read all kinds of things. I'm sure y'all who've studied the Bible, you've read all kinds of things. I've heard eye problems, this, that, the other. God doesn't tell us what it is. Therefore, I don't try to surmise what it was. If God had told Paul what his thorn was and put it in Scripture, you and I might not be able to relate to him because we'd say, well, that's not what's going on in my life. So he left it general because we all have thorns in life. It's not your husband, ladies. I was helping my wife out right there. I'm not her thorn. We have a thorn. That means to be impelled. It's not like a rose thorn. It's like a stake. It's being impelled on a stake. the messenger of Satan to buff at me, to beat me back and forth, lest I should be exalted above measure. Look at verse 8. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice. Three times I prayed about it, that it might depart from me. I can imagine His prayer. Lord, I could plant more churches. I could reach more people. I could travel further distances. I could write more books and letters. I could do all these things. More, Lord, if I didn't have this thorn. Verse 9, And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Listen to what Paul says, Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong. You know what Paul just said? When I'm the weakest, He's the strongest. It's during those difficult times that the Holy Spirit, our divine comforter, our divine helper, our divine strengthener, enables us to bear up, to persevere, to press on to the glory of God, to not give up, to not quit. 2 Corinthians 4.16. It might be in your notes. You jot it down if not. 2 Corinthians 4.16. For which cause we faint not. What happens when you faint? I've never fainted. Anybody ever fainted? Just faint. Yeah. There's Christians that faint. They're out. That means they've dropped out. They've quit. They've stopped the race. They give up. For which cause we faint not. We don't give up. But though our outward man perish. Yet the inward man is renewed day by day. This old body, listen, I'm about done. This old body is going to perish. It's going to get older and more feeble and greater infirmity and more difficulty as we go along. Somebody said getting old was not for sissies. Our outward man perishes. It fades. Inward man. inward man renewed day by day. That means while this outward flesh gets weaker and weaker and weaker, the inward spiritual man can get stronger and stronger and stronger. Isn't that powerful? Isn't that amazing? Listen, you want to live an empowered life tonight? Recognize the Spirit's person. Realize the Spirit's presence. Maximize His position in your life. Give Him His rightful place. Maybe tonight for the very first time there's a Christian in this room that you need to slip forward and have a crisis moment in your life where you say, God, I'm giving You all of me tonight. Whatever that means, whatever it looks like. I don't know God, but I know I'm Yours. You bought me with a price and I give myself back to You. Once you do that, it's just like being saved. It's a crisis moment that you remember. I remember. I remember when I told the Lord I was His. You know how many times He's took me back there? On a regular basis. You told me you were mine. You told me you were mine. You told me you were mine. It's just a reminder. Maybe you need to do that tonight. Maximize and then begin to yield yourself. We're going to understand a little more what this yielding looks like in the next message. And utilize His purposes. Do you realize what we talked about? And listen, we just touched the tip of the iceberg. We could preach several weeks just on who the Holy Spirit is in your life. These are some of the main areas. Let's realize who He is to us and utilize His purposes in our lives and realize He's there for our benefit, for our good, our enablement, our help, our strength to enable us to be what God wants us to be in every moment, every hour, every circumstance, every location. Whatever it looks like, the Holy Spirit's our enabler. Maybe tonight you need to come to Him. Maybe tonight your outward man is perishing. Maybe you just feel like you can't take another step. Maybe you feel like you're about ready to give up. Maybe you feel like you don't have the answer. Maybe you feel like you're about ready to give up. I have no idea. Maybe you're saying, Preacher, I just need something outside of me. You have Him. He's called the Holy Spirit. Now why don't you tap into Him and let Him work powerfully in your life tonight.