Good to see you. A lot of people have gone. Thank you for staying. It's more interesting when there are people here. I wasn't here for the morning session because I was at the Master's Manor with the young folks. They've been having a time there. And there's the remnant left. So I didn't hear that story about the cheese. But I heard about it. And I heard these people plotting. about what they might liken me to, and I had a good response, and they didn't think of anything, so I'm not gonna give you the response. I was gonna get my own back in a story that I'm not gonna tell you. But it's a good one, it's a really good one. I'll tell it to you. Because I haven't been sleeping that well, you know, this week, for various reasons, and I've been dreaming. I had a dream the other night. In my dream, I died and I went to heaven. And when I arrived, I was taken around and walked around some of those lovely streets, and I came across some people I knew. And I came across a number of folks from the Mount Tambourine Council. For instance, I came across Peter Rouse over here. I mean, Belgrade Heights, I'm sorry. What did I say, Mount Tambourine? I'm sorry, Belgrade Heights. I remember I got a, this is a two-star convention. I was thinking it was a five-star one. I'm sorry, Belgrave Heights. And I came across Peter, and Peter was married. Now, I didn't know there was going to be any marriage in heaven, but apparently there is. But he wasn't married to his lovely wife, Margaret. He was married to the ugliest girl I've ever seen in my life. I mean, she was incredible. And I said to St. Peter, who was showing me around, how come Peter Rouse is married to such an ugly woman as that? He said, well, I'm afraid there's a sad story behind this. When Peter was a little boy, he used to cut up worms with a pen knife. And this is a punishment for him. Well, that's interesting. So I went on around, and I bumped into Bill Bryce. And he was married, not to his lovely wife, Grace, but the second most ugliest woman I ever met in my life. And I said to St. Peter, how come Bill's married to such an ugly woman? He said, well, I'm afraid there's a sad story behind this. When Bill was a little boy, he used to pull the wings off butterflies. And this is a punishment for him. So I went on around, and I bumped into Robert Freeman, our chairman. And he was married, not to his wife, Lorraine, though I thought at first it might be her because it was the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life. I thought, Robert Freeman married the most incredibly good-looking woman I've ever seen. I said to St. Peter, how come Robert is married to such a beautiful woman as this? He said, I'm afraid there's a rather sad story behind that. When she was a little girl, she used to flush spiders down the floor. Well, I'm sorry that's not really fair. It's not in response to anything nasty he said. He was just nice to me. But let me say before we turn to the scriptures, it's been a very great privilege for me to be here for these few days, these five days. And I go away from here conscious that God is at work at Belgrave Heights. I believe that. I go to many different conferences and conventions. I go to places that have passed their sell by date, but nobody's noticed. But things are happening here. And I was here three and a half years ago, had a great time here that Christmas. I very much appreciated that. And coming back this time, I've seen a number of things that have been growth, positive growth, a number of young folks here. It's been thrilling to see. And the kind of attention and receptivity to the word of God has been wonderful to sense. And I'm sure Gary would share that as we've taught and spoken from this platform. This is a great facility. Not many places in the world are like this, where you can come, you can bring the whole family. It's good to have seen a lot of young couples, or couples with young families, should I say. And I hope that many of you will plan it into your annual program, twice a year maybe, to bring your whole family. A great place to build into your family, into your kids, into your teenagers. some truths that they may be hearing in your church at home, but they'll hear it in a different atmosphere. And again and again, God takes people away from their normal home environment to speak to them much more clearly than he ever does at home. I did a study on that recently in the Bible. Why was Saul of Tarsus saved in Damascus? Why wasn't he saved in Tarsus? Why did God say to Abraham, leave her at the Chaldees, go to a different place, then I'll tell you what I'm going to do with you. Why did Moses have to be out in the back saddle of desert when God spoke to him? Why does Ezekiel say, when we're away by the rivers of Babylon, God spoke to us? Because they never heard the voice of God back in Israel, in the Northern Kingdom, before they were taken into exile. And rather the Southern Kingdom, Judah. Forget the details. The point being, again and again, God takes people away from their normal environment to catch their ear. That's why some of the most effective forms of evangelism have been done amongst refugees. In Afghanistan, where so few had come to Christ, when the Russians invaded some years ago, many of them passed over the Pakistani border, and there's been a tremendous turn to Christ, or there was, in the days that those refugee camps were there, in a different environment. This is a different environment. Bring your kids, bring your family, and they'll find Christ. They'll hear the same truths, but differently. It's in a different atmosphere. And I want to encourage you to take full advantage of this facility that you've got here and the opportunity right on the doorstep for those who live in Victoria. I know some have come from further away and plan to come in January. It sounds great. It's going to be New Year's Eve, not Christmas Eve, isn't it? You said on Christmas Eve you're going to start at 11 o'clock doing something, but I'm sure you meant New Year's Eve. And they're starting boxing day night. So come and David Jackman and David Price and Graham Smith, who are going to be speaking, I know will feed you from the word of God. And I am sure that this place is going to grow and develop. And I trust many of you will take full advantage of that opportunity. It's been a great personal privilege, too, for me to share with Gary and Elizabeth Inrig. I've heard of Gary for a number of years, but we'd never met personally until this week. And every time I heard about him, people said good things and positive things about his ministry, the word of God. So when I heard that he would be here, I looked forward very much to coming just for that. And it's been great to share the ministry with Gary and Elizabeth. I leave here straight after this meeting tonight, and I go up to Sydney this evening, and will be there overnight and then go on home to England tomorrow. And on Saturday this week, as Robert just said, we begin an eight-week spring Bible school. We have students who come to our Bible school at Cape and Ray Hall from all over the world, and we have a short spring term. A lot of our students come from the six-month winter Bible school for that. Some come just for the eight weeks. And it's my privilege every year to lead that eight-week school, so it keeps me at home for eight weeks. And we have students from 25 nationalities with us coming on Saturday. And we have a number coming this time from parts of the world we've had only very few from before. We have some students from Russia for the very first time who will be with us this Saturday. We have about a dozen from Romania. Some of them are pastors involved in full-time ministry, but have never had any proper training. And they've taken time off to come and join us, as also from Poland and Hungary. And we have folks from other parts of the world as well, including some Australians. Maybe some of you would join them one year. But I'm not allowed to plug things, because that's not my brief here. But come. Now if you've got your Bible, let's turn to Acts chapter 19. I'm going to read from Acts chapter 19. I'm going to read the first seven verses in just a moment. Now I was asked to give titles for these addresses before I prepared them, so that's playing dangerously. And I gave a title for tonight, for this afternoon rather, Entering into God's Fullness. I had something in particular in mind that has not developed in the way that I feel is right for this final meeting. However, the title will fit. I'm gonna talk about something that has a similar objective to what I originally planned because part of the ministry that is indispensable to the Belgrave Heights Convention is to talk about the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian. We cannot live the Christian life apart from by the presence and the working and the empowering of the Holy Spirit of God. Now we talked a little about that on Saturday night. I talked about the law of the spirit of life in Christ, which sets us free from the law of sin that is pulling us down all the time. Now I'm going to talk about the presence, the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives in a way this afternoon I trust will encourage you. I'm not out tonight, this afternoon, to make you uncomfortable. That hasn't been our objective any night. about simply to proclaim what it means to live in Christ, but I want to encourage some of you this afternoon about what the Holy Spirit is already doing in many of your lives. At the same time, I do want to challenge many to give the Holy Spirit greater freedom to do what he's been given by God to do in your life and in your heart. And I'm going to read Acts 19 verses 1 to 7 and take one thing from that. I want to talk about a very simple thing this afternoon. One thing from this and then we'll go to other parts of the scripture to explain it. But verse 1, reading from the New International Version, it says, when Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? They answered, No. We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. So Paul asked, Then what baptism did you receive? John's baptism, they replied. Paul said, John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is in Jesus. On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. There were about 12 men in all. That's as far as we'll read this. Mark's Paul's third missionary journey on the return from his second journey, he stopped very briefly in the city of Ephesus and promised that he'd come back. And when he came back on this occasion, he found a group of men, 12 men, it says, and he asked them a very interesting question. They're described as disciples. And he said to them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Now don't be unduly frightened by that question. It's actually a very straightforward, a very basic question he was asking them. He was asking them, are you Christians? Because what makes a man, a woman, a young person, a genuine Christian is the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Paul wrote in Romans 8 and verse 9, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ. Now, please don't make a distinction between the Spirit of Christ and the Holy Spirit. The Trinity, of course, are three distinct separate persons, and yet they are at the same time one. In the letter to Ephesians, he speaks of the fullness of God, Paul speaks of the fullness of Christ, and he speaks that we should be filled with the Spirit. He's not speaking of three fullnesses there. It's the fullness of the Godhead. Of course, it is the Holy Spirit who is the member of the Godhead who indwells us. He indwells us to live the life of Christ in us. But it's the Spirit that you receive, the Holy Spirit who comes to live and reign in you. In fact, Romans 8 verse 16 says it is the Spirit himself that testifies with our spirits that we are God's children. How do you know you're a child of God? The Holy Spirit tells you, says Paul in that verse. There are objective reasons for believing I'm a child of God, as I read the Word of God, but there are subjective reasons. The Spirit bears witness. When I have the joy of leading a person to Christ, I pray for them and I ask God that he will cause the Holy Spirit himself, as this verse says, to let them know they're a Christian. Not know they're a Christian because somebody told them, but because God told them by the indwelling Spirit in their hearts. And therefore, if it's the presence of the spirit that makes us a Christian, if it's he who comes to live the new life, it's his life in us. Then when Paul asked them, did you receive the Holy Spirit? He is saying, has God come to live in you? Now, his question was interesting. He did not say, do you believe in the Holy Spirit? Do you have an accurate doctrine of the spirit? But he said, did you receive the Spirit? And the thrust of the question is, is there living evidence in your experience that the Holy Spirit lives in you? Because it's possible to have a correct doctrine of the Spirit with your eyes dotted and your T's crossed, but know nothing of the reality of the Spirit living in you as a living daily experience. I want to ask you tonight, this afternoon, not do you believe in the Holy Spirit, but is there evidence in your life that the Spirit of God is there? Because that is what Paul is asking these twelve in Ephesus. Is there some giveaway evidences in your life that the Spirit of God is there? Let me read you a verse that Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 13 when he invited the Corinthians to examine themselves. Now, I'm not a great one for introspection. When I look inside me, I see all the old me, the Charles Price that is alive and well and loves the dirt. I talked to you about that the other night. But Paul says to the Corinthians here, in 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5, he says, examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith. Test yourselves. Notice his challenge. He didn't say examine your Bible to see if you're in the faith. He said, examine yourselves. In other words, for a moment, says Paul, close your Bible and look into your own heart. Examine yourself to see if you're in your faith, if you're in the faith. Test yourselves. Now here's the evidence. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, of course, you fail the test. He says, now examine yourself and see the life of Jesus Christ in you. And if you cannot find the life of Jesus Christ in you, says Paul, you've failed the test. You're not in the faith. You're not genuine in your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what kind of things might we expect to find when you examine yourself to see if Christ is in you, if his Holy Spirit is in you? What are the evidences of the Spirit in your heart, in your life? I want to give you three. this afternoon. And I suggest that these three evidences of the Holy Spirit in you that I want to give you encompass the entire work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian. Now, the first evidence I want to give is something from the lips of the Lord Jesus. If you turn to John chapter 15, and we have been studying this this week and this verse, although I wasn't here this morning because of being in the other session, you will have looked at this verse this morning, John 15 verse 26. Let me read you something Jesus said about the Holy Spirit. He said, when the counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the father, the spirit of truth who goes out from the father, he will testify about me. And let me take you to chapter 16 of John and verse 14 and 15. He says there, the Holy Spirit, He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. Now in those verses, Jesus said several things about the Holy Spirit. He said, He will testify about me. He will bring glory to me, said Jesus. The Spirit will take what is mine and make it known to you. And I would suggest to you the first evidence of the Holy Spirit in your life is that there is a hunger to know Jesus better. Because the work of the Spirit is Christ-centered. He testifies about Christ. He brings glory to Christ. He takes the things of Christ. He makes them known to us. And the ministry of the Holy Spirit, part of His ministry and the beginning of His ministry, is to reveal the Lord Jesus, to testify of the Lord Jesus, to bring glory to the Lord Jesus, and to make us conscious of the Lord Jesus. And the Holy Spirit in your heart is whispering all the time, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. You love Him. You want to know Him better. The mark of the Holy Spirit in your life is that Jesus steps out of history, he steps out of the Bible, he becomes a living person to you. I think it's very important that we recognize that the Christian life is centered around the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't think we can stress that enough. Paul said to the Corinthians, I promised you to one husband to Christ. He is the one that you're married to. Now it's the Holy Spirit who will make him real and the Holy Spirit will bring you to him. But it is Christ that you love and it is Christ that you'll sing about. It's Christ that you'll want to be like because the Holy Spirit will bring you to that one husband to Christ. Campbell Morgan said in one of his books that the prime evidence of the Holy Spirit is not that we are preoccupied with the Holy Spirit, but that we are preoccupied with Christ. Now, of course, we must talk about the Spirit. We're doing so this afternoon. We must understand the Spirit and His work. But the ultimate evidence of the Spirit in a person's life is in a preoccupation with Christ. Now, I travel widely. I meet every size and shape and breed and brand and smell of Christian that you could imagine. I always get concerned when I make Christians and all they can talk about is the spirit. And I believe in the spirit, but all they can talk about is the spirit. Everything's from the spirit and to the spirit and for the spirit and by the spirit and around the spirit and up the spirit and down the spirit and along the spirit. And that's all they talk about. Something inside me says something isn't right. Because the task of the spirit is to exalt Christ. I think it's very interesting that right through scripture, the Holy Spirit is anonymous as far as his personal name is concerned. The Father is given personal names, Jehovah. In the Hebrew, there are other names like Elohim and so on that don't come across in the English translations. The Father has personal names. The Son has personal names. Jesus, it means Savior. Emmanuel, God with us. The writer of Scripture, the Holy Spirit, is never given a personal name. He has various titles. He's the Spirit of Truth. He's the Counselor or the Comforter. He's the Holy Spirit. But he's never given a personal name. Now, he's every much a person as the Father is and as the Son is. And I'm sure in heaven we may know his personal name. I'm sure he's got one. But it's never revealed to us in Scripture. That seems like a very strange omission, don't you think? Wouldn't it be strange if I came here to this convention and I was never given a name. I was just introduced as the speaker. After this song, the speaker will speak. You say, good evening, speaker. How are you today? Did you have a good speak? Wouldn't that be strange? And yet from Genesis to Revelation, the Spirit of God is never given a personal name. Why? I would suggest to you it's because the Holy Spirit's task is to make us conscious of Christ. The Holy Spirit's preoccupation is to glorify and bring glory to Christ, that you and I are aware of him and we love him as a consequence. Let me throw in a warning. I heard a story one day of a man who went overseas to work for two years. He left behind at home a girl that he loved, girlfriend. He promised his girlfriend he'd write to her every day, and every day he did. Every day he sat down and wrote her a letter. And every day the postman arrived at the girl's door and delivered a letter to her. This went on without a break for two years. And at the end of two years, the man came home, and do you know what he discovered? He discovered the girl had married the postman. Isn't that a shame? It was he who sent him to her door every day. She married the postman. When Jesus said, I'm going to my father, but don't panic. I'm going to send you the counselor, the comforter. He will take the things of me, mine, and make them known to you. He will glorify me. Don't marry the postman. It is the Holy Spirit who brings us to Christ and who brings Christ to us. And we trust the Spirit of God. He's the power that enables us to live the Christian life. But it's always the character of Christ that he produces. Because the fruit of the Spirit is the character of Christ. Now, what does this mean in practical terms? When the Holy Spirit comes to live in a person's life, Jesus becomes real. In practical terms, it means, amongst other things, this. You discover you have a Bible that's alive. It's interesting. Why does the Bible become interesting when you become a Christian? Because the scriptures are a revelation of Christ, and the Spirit who's come to live in you puts in your heart a hunger to know Christ. Let me tell you, if your Bible is a closed book, if it's a dull book, if it's a boring book to you, you know little of the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart. I meet people who tell me the Bible is boring and they're absolutely true. Truthful when they say that. It's utterly boring to them. But when the spirit of God comes to live in their hearts, suddenly the book comes alive. Because the supreme purpose of the scripture is that it's a revelation of Christ. And now the Holy Spirit in your heart hungers to know Christ. and you begin to seek him in the book. That's why you're here at this convention. This would be the most boring hour for many people living in Melbourne if they came here this afternoon. Maybe somebody here this afternoon is already right now thoroughly bored. I'll tell you something, you probably need to be born again. Then you'll discover a new appetite, a new hunger that is supernatural. Let me illustrate what I mean by that. I travel away from home a lot of the time, and my wife and I write letters to each other. Now, most couples don't do that. They normally just leave notes, you know, when they want to say something nasty. But we write to each other once in a while. Supposing I was staying in your home, and I got a letter from Hillary. Maybe it came with some other mail, so I have a quick look at the other mail, and then what I might well do is sit down and read her letter properly. I'll probably read it again after lunch. I'll probably read it again before I go to bed. I'll probably read it again when I get up the next morning, and I'll probably take it home with me at the end of my trip. Now, supposing I was staying in your home, and I got a letter from Hillary, and I said to you, hey, I just had a letter from Hillary. Would you like to read it? You'd probably say, well, not particularly. I'd say, well, go on. I've just read it. I'd love you to read it. It's a great letter. And so you don't want to offend me, so you take it, and you read it, and you read about how the washing blew away and the postman ran over the cat. And I've never mentioned cats so much as I have this week. I don't know why. When the children fell off the roof, and all this kind of detail, and you read that, and you, having read it, you hand it back and say, I'm sorry about the cat, but, you know, thanks for letting me read it. Supposing after lunch, I said to you, look, I'm just going to go and read Hitler's letter again. Would you like to read it the second time? You say, well, no, I don't, actually. I read it this morning, and I already said I was sorry about the cat, remember? Supposing before I go to bed that night, I come to you and say, look, I'm just going to go to bed, but before I sleep, I'll probably read Hilary's letter. Would you like to read it first and then give it to me? You probably say, well, no, I really don't need to read it again. I read it already this morning. If I get up at breakfast next morning and I come into your kitchen, I say, look, would you like to read Hilary's letter? You'd say to me, listen, I am sick of Hilary's letter. Why are you sick of Hillary's letter? You've read it once. And even then it wasn't very interesting. I've already read it four times and I'll take it home with me. What's the difference? Is it because I appreciate her literary skills and style? No. I'm not actually interested in the cat or the washing blowing away. Well, I am, but I mean, that's secondary. But the letter is a revelation of her. It tells me about her and I love her. And on the written, the page of her letter is a revelation, it's her to me. And so it is with the scripture. You read the Bible, you do not know Christ, it is dull, it is boring, it is uninteresting. But when the Holy Spirit comes to reign and live in your heart, suddenly there's an appetite to know Jesus Christ. This is the first evidence of the Holy Spirit. I want to ask you how healthy The Holy Spirit's presence in your heart is this afternoon. Is there a hunger to know Jesus Christ better? Because that's the first evidence. Secondly, let me read you a verse in Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5 and verse 22, we read this of course the other day when Paul talks about the battle between the flesh and the spirit. And then he says in verse 22, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Paul says these things are the fruit of the Spirit. He lists nine things. I would like to sum it up in one word. The fruit of the Spirit is character. And in particular, it is the character of Christ. And the second evidence of the Holy Spirit in your heart is that there is a hunger to be like Jesus Christ. There's a hunger to know Jesus Christ better. First of all, there's a hunger to be like Jesus Christ more. Secondly, Because God's ambition in you is to make you like his son. The end product of the gospel is that once again, the character of Christ is seen in the way you live and the way you behave and the way you talk to your wife and the way you treat your kids and the way you talk to the neighbors next door. And the way you talk about them when they're not listening. It's Christ likeness. The Holy Spirit is gonna bring a revolution into our behavior patterns. That's why on Judgment Day, the issues that are gonna be addressed are not gonna be our doctrines. Rather, God won't ask you on Judgment Day, what did you believe about baptism? Which is a great shame if you got it right. He won't be interested in that. What was your doctrine of the Holy Spirit? That was a controversial one when you were around. Did you get that one right? He won't ask you that question. Did you get the second coming worked out or were you taken by surprise? He'll ask you things like this. I was hungry. Did you feed me? I was thirsty. Did you give me to drink? I was in prison. Did you visit me? I was naked. Did you clothe me? You'll say, when were you like this? And as much as you did this, the least of these, my brothers, you were doing it to me because the Holy Spirit in you will create the character of Jesus, and you begin to see people through the eyes of Jesus, and you begin to love them. And on Judgment Day, those are the issues that God will be concerned with. We're never saved by our works, we're saved for works, we're told that. Don't ever think, as some Christians seem to have the idea, that good works are something unpleasant. God loves good works, they never save you, but they're the end product of the Spirit of God living in your heart. Now, I think it's very interesting that Paul calls these the fruit of the spirit. He doesn't call them the flowers of the spirit, and there's a difference. Because I think many of us as Christians have a mentality, these are really the flowers of the spirit. What is the difference between flowers and fruit? Well, flowers, you see, are decorative. They're nice to look at, they improve the atmosphere, they make... the place a bit more attractive. That's why they have flowers here, because they knew that Peter Rouse would be sitting on the platform, and you need to make it look good. Because he doesn't. Now these aren't the flowers of the Spirit. That is, aren't Christians lovely people to have around? It's nice having Christians as your neighbors. They don't play their music at one o'clock in the morning, full volume. They cut their lawn. Don't they? They put their rubbish in bags first before they put it on the street. I mean, Christians are nice. They're lovely people to have around. It's lovely having Christians working in the office because they don't use bad language. You know, we have the mentality, these are flowers. Isn't it nice having Christians around? They make the place so much nicer. That's what flowers are for. Fruit are for something different. What are fruit for? Fruit are for eating. Fruit are for consumption. Fruit are for feeding hungry people. Fruit aren't decorative. You don't say, this place is a bit drab. Somebody hang up a few bananas somewhere. Bananas won't help. But you say, I'm hungry. Give me a banana. Sometimes we've looked at these qualities that the Spirit produces, and we have little cliques. Aren't Christians nice in that little circle? And Gary talked about that the other morning. The exclusive clique, where you're all, your Lego blocks all built together, if you remember. There's no place left for anybody else. If we talk about being Christ-like, I'll tell you something that you need to think about. One of the evidences of Christ-likeness is how many non-Christian friends you have. Because that was Jesus. How many times you sit in the home of a Zacchaeus, the little skunk? Isn't that what the people thought of him? He's the tax collector. He's the cheat. He's the thief. We won't even let him get close to Jesus. He's too dirty. Send him up a tree like a possum. Jesus came by and said, hi Zacchaeus, I'm your friend. I'm coming to your house for supper tonight. I remember once being invited to share in a conference in Boston, United States, organized by the New England Association of Evangelicals, and they invite every year pastors and church leaders to come together. They had about 3000 of them. I had no idea when they invited me to speak. I thought it was just a little handful. And I got there, there was 3000 of them. And one of the other speakers on that particular conference, I mentioned last night, Tony Campala, he was there too at that conference. One of them was a man called Juan Carlos Ortiz. Some of you may know him. He was the pastor of a very large Pentecostal church in Buenos Aires in Argentina. Then he, became involved in itinerant Bible teaching ministry. He was then located in California when we were at this conference, but more recently he has now gone back to Argentina and is back in the pastoral ministry. He told us a very interesting story one night. He had planned to preach a message on love in his church one Sunday morning. He looked at all the different Greek words for love and he was going to explain them and point out the distinctions between them. And he had his message prepared. He felt it was a good message. He was pleased with it. And he said that during the preliminaries, as he sat on the platform, as they were having a time of singing and worship, he sensed very clearly in his own heart, he shouldn't preach his message. And they got to the end of the time of worship and singing when the song leader said, now brother Juan Carlos will bring us his message. Juan Carlos Ortiz said he came up to the desk, the pulpit, and he said, brothers and sisters, my text this morning is love one another. Then he turned around and went back and sat down in his seat. People thought, what's happening? He stayed there for about two minutes, which is a long time when people don't know what's happening. The song leader said, are we supposed to sing another song? He just sat there quietly. After about two minutes, he got up, he said, came back to the desk, and he said, brothers and sisters, my text this morning is love one another. Went and sat down again. His wife sitting down there thought, the man's flipped. He got up a third time, he said, brothers and sisters, my text this morning is love one another. Went and sat down again. I think it was on the fourth time he got up and said, brothers and sisters, my text this morning is love one another. He went back to his seat and as he went back to his seat, he said, somebody sitting up in the balcony turned to the neighbor next to them and said, excuse me, is there any way I can love you? Do you have any needs? Somebody else turned to somebody else and say, is there any way that I can show you love this morning? In a few moments said the whole church was alive with people talking. He said there were 28 unemployed people in the church that morning. Every one of them had a job before they went home. He listed some other needs that were met that morning. He said, I could have preached my message on love and they would have shaken my hand, said, thank you. That was a wonderful message on love. But 28 unemployed people would have gone home unemployed. He said, you see, our church had been growing, and I was driving past the cemetery one day, and I noticed that was growing too. I'd been impressed with growth until I noticed that, and I thought, what does growth mean? He said, we used to have 300 unloving Christians in our church. Now we had 1,000 unloving Christians. He said, every Sunday for three months, I think it was, he got up when it came to the mess and said, brothers and sisters, my text this morning is love one another, sat down, and immediately they would turn and say, can I help you? Who needs help this morning? He said something like two or 300 people left the church. They didn't like it. They said, we pay you to preach, not to stand up and say, love one another. They were uncomfortable. He said, after three months, he got up one day and he said, brothers and sisters, my text this morning is, sorry, he got up and said, brothers and sisters, the Lord has given me a new text this morning. And they all broke out in applause. He said, my text this morning is love your neighbor as yourself. And there was silence. And he stood there in the silence and looked around at the congregation. He said, and then somebody got up from their seat, went out to the door. Somebody else got up, somebody else got up. They went out, got into their cars in the car park outside and they drove out. And within a few moments, the car park was empty. People had driven home, parked their car, went next door, knocked on the door and said, good morning. I'm a Christian. Is there any way I can help you? He said it was a bad time to do it. It was just before Christmas. He said, my wife and I and our two daughters went home and we'd got presents we were going to give each other on Christmas day. We went down the road where we live and we found people in incredible needs we had no idea about. We gave away our Christmas presents before we'd opened them to people that needs were greater. Now don't try that when you get home. I'm sure that only worked because God, the Holy Spirit said that to Juan Carlos Ortiz in that particular situation. But I tell you when I heard that, I felt very humbled. Because I know what it's like to be able to say all the right things about all the right things. Go home with nobody ever feeling the touch of the Lord Jesus. And if the fruit of the Spirit, fruit is for eating. is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control. There are people you will meet when you go home from this convention who are hungry for love. And it's in you, the Holy Spirit, begin to feed them. You begin to love them, hungry to share in your joy, peace, your long-suffering. I know people who need to eat my long-suffering. Patience, self-control. You see, this is the character of the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is gonna produce in you the character of Christ. Second evidence of the Holy Spirit in your heart is a hunger to be like Jesus. And thirdly, John chapter seven, verse 37 to 39. John seven, 37 to 39. Jesus speaking there in Jerusalem. During one of the festivals, stood up, and it says in verse 37 of John 7, on the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. That's where the quotation ends. And then John adds this, by this, he meant the spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time, the spirit had not yet been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. Now said, Jesus, if you're thirsty, don't stay thirsty. Come to me and drink and be satisfied. But that is not the end of the story. He then said, out of your heart, there will flow a river of living water. And John says he's talking about the Holy Spirit. The third evidence I suggest you of the Holy Spirit in your life is that there's a hunger to serve Jesus Christ more. Not only a hunger to know him better, or a hunger to be like him, but a hunger to serve him. Because out of your heart, there's gonna flow a river. There's gonna be an overflow of the Holy Spirit. There's gonna be a new compassion for the world in which we live, a new desire to be his channel. Or as we heard the other day, To be the branches from which the life of the vine produces its fruit. And things happen through my life. Things happen. Because genuine, authentic Christianity is something which makes things happen through your life. Not simply join a holy club once a week. Get away to a convention for a spiritual massage once a year. but that we go back home to allow the Spirit of God to flow out in a river that's going to bring blessing and life to other people because the Holy Spirit will breed in you and in me a servant spirit. You make us serve, we all serve differently, that's why there are gifts of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts spoken of. We're one body, said Paul, but we all have different gifts. The ear cannot say, I don't need the eye. The foot cannot say, I don't need the hand. We're different. We need each other. But the spirit of God will put into you that hunger to serve. Jesus said in Acts 1 and verse 8, his final words before he ascended, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. For what purpose? Simply a little exhibition of power to those who want to see? No. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria until the ends of the earth because out of your heart when the spirit comes as he came on the day of Pentecost, there's a river that will impact Jerusalem and it'll go out into Judea and it'll spread into Samaria and its repercussions will go to the end of the earth. And the Holy Spirit is going to lead you and lead me into service. That's part of his task. That's part of his ministry. When the Holy Spirit is in our lives and he's filling our lives and we are rightly related to him, we're allowing him the freedom to reign in us. Service will be an appetite that the Spirit has put there into your heart. And so in those missionary sessions we had yesterday, when the offering bag comes along, you won't say, what can I get away with today? You'll say, here's my opportunity to serve. I can never go to Erie and Jaya, wherever it is. But this money will go and it's my means of sharing in the work of God. Back in our home church, we'll be saying, Lord, what should I do? And you'll go to some of the leaders and say, anyway, I can be of any help. I think it's important in the New Testament to realize that spiritual gifts were not discovered by the individual sitting in a corner saying, what do I like? But those in leadership as well recognized and said, this is what God has called you to do. We had that verse read to us in the mystery meeting yesterday afternoon from Acts 13, where the Holy Spirit said to the church in Antioch, set apart Barnabas and Saul. Paul wrote to Timothy, he said, stir up the gift that's in you, which was given when the elders laid their hands upon you. I don't think it means the gift came down in the arms of the elders and out through their fingers into Timothy. I think he means it was recognized and acknowledged and you were set apart when the elders saw that. in the context of the local church. We don't just do our own thing. We're not lone rangers. We say, how is it that you recognize that I could serve? Where does that fit in with my own sense of calling, my own sense of belonging? Because these are practical things, but it's the work of the spirit. We have a very, very, very defective understanding of the spirit if we think primarily in terms of tingling up your spine when you talk about the Holy Spirit working in your life. We're talking about the Holy Spirit putting into us an appetite for Christ, a desire to be like Christ, and that means getting your hands dirty, and a willingness and a desire and a hunger to serve Christ, and to be a channel out of which that river flows to bring life and blessing to others. Now, I have deliberately, Speaking to you this afternoon, I've deliberately used the word hunger. A hunger to know Christ, a hunger to be like Christ, a hunger to serve Christ. I'll tell you why I used that word. At about 12 o'clock today, I was hungry. And most of you probably were. What did that mean? It meant I wanted to eat. It meant I was wanting something I hadn't yet received. By one o'clock today, I was not hungry and I've not been hungry since. I'm not hungry now. You see, to be hungry means not that I've got what I'm looking for, but I want it. The evidence of the Holy Spirit in your life is not that you say, I love Jesus completely. It's not that you say, I am like Jesus. I'm sure you'd never say that. Neither does the Holy Spirit make that possible in this life. We're being changed from one degree of glory to another into his image until one day in heaven, of course, we will be glorified. It's not that we say, well, I serve Jesus fully. The evidence of the spirit is that you want to. You may say this afternoon, my life is a mess. But the evidence of the spirit in your heart is that you hunger to know him and be like him and to serve him. Now, of course, you can grieve the Spirit of God, you can quench the Spirit of God, and you can know the appetite of the Spirit, but disobey Him. But my challenge to you this afternoon is that we go back home from this convention, not simply to say, well, it was a wonderful time, can't wait till Christmas. We go back home saying we've met with God at Belgrave Heights. And the end result of meeting with God, as he has spoken to us and encouraged us and enriched us and challenged us, is that I go home equipped to be a man, a woman, a young person who is more in love with Jesus than I ever was before, with a greater appetite to know him, more concerned to be like him, that the life I live is a life that begins to resemble something of the Lord Jesus. as his character is being produced, it is supernatural, it's the spirit of God who produces the character of Christ in you. But I go home with a river that's bursting to get out, and going home to serve, and to seek where it is that I can be equipped and exercise those gifts that the Holy Spirit's prerogative to give, to serve him, to build up the church, and to bring other men and women and boys and girls to know him for themselves. May well be this afternoon some of you have realized for the first time you really are a Christian. There's some of you who came here this afternoon, you've got doubts. Am I really a Christian? I meet people all the time, I have that kind of doubt. Am I really a Christian? Do I really know Christ? Am I really born again? You've discovered you are because those appetites are right there in your heart. Isn't that right? That's thrilling. Now believe that. You're a Christian, all right? That appetite is there. but there are others of us here this afternoon maybe. You say, well, that's going a bit beyond what I normally am interested in. Yeah, I like encounters with the spirit of God. I like, as I described before, a spiritual massage once in a while, a bit of conviction, a few tears, you know, a bit of a feeling different, but not going home with the desire of the Holy Spirit in filling my life and flow through my life and bring blessing and power to other people as they see in me something of the fruit of the character of Jesus. They'll come knocking on your door because they're hungry and you can feed them and bring them to Christ. We're going to close in a word of prayer. May well be that some of you here this afternoon and you say, well, God has spoken to me. Maybe some of you this afternoon have said, well, I realize that I really am a Christian. I have that assurance this afternoon. I've been assured of my salvation because I've seen and I know those appetites are there in me. And you can relax now. Don't ask the question again, am I really saved? Be assured that you are. Others of you this afternoon, And you know you've been grieving the spirit. You've not allowed him to produce these things which are his purpose in your life. I'm gonna pray for you. I'm gonna do something I hadn't planned at all to do before I came here. This afternoon, I'm gonna ask you, if you want to be included, particularly in that closing prayer, to just stand to your feet. I'm not gonna ask you to walk forward, nothing like that, just stand individually. God has spoken, you need a new release of his spirit in your life. You've been blocking the flow. Father, forgive me, you're gonna say, cleanse me. By your Holy Spirit, fill my life. Let that river flow from my heart. Be a source of blessing to others. All you're saying this afternoon, thank you, Father, you've assured me I really am a Christian, because of that appetite. You want me to pray for you, because God has filled you in those two ways. I'm gonna pray in just a moment, but just stand to your feet, and I'll pray for you. In particular, God will give you that deep inner assurance in your own spirit. and you've done business with him. If you need me to pray for you, and you're responding to God in that way, stand to your feet, and I'll give you just a few moments to do so, and I'm gonna pray for you. Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you from our hearts this afternoon for the gracious gift of your Holy Spirit to live in our hearts the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for the day we were born again of the Holy Spirit. We came in repentance. We put our faith in Christ. We did not know what incredible Changes would result from that. That day we were just glad to know we were going to heaven. We were just glad to know our guilt had been removed. But over the days and months and maybe years that have followed, you have increasingly unfolded to us the incredible riches that are ours in Christ. And that the Holy Spirit in us is there to produce and reproduce the character of Jesus and do the work of Jesus and give us a love for Jesus. Thank you for each person here tonight, but I want to thank you very particularly for those who are on their feet. Those, Lord Jesus, whom you've spoken to in some way, to those whom you brought a word of encouragement and you've reassured them and given to them a deep assurance that they really are in Christ because the evidence of the Spirit in their hearts is there and they've recognized it. For those who have grieved you in some way and they've blocked the overflow, the flow of the Spirit out of the heart, And I pray, Lord Jesus, that you'll bring them to a deep consciousness of their cleansing, that they will bring them to repentance, they will turn from that, they will cease to grieve you. And instead, repenting of their sin, allow you to fill their lives with your Holy Spirit. work in them and work through them. The men, women, boys, and girls in the days and months that will follow this afternoon will see in them the reality of Christ and hear from them the truths about Christ. And other people will be blessed because they bump into these folks. and you overflow their hearts and you minister to them. For the rest of us, Lord Jesus, many here this afternoon know you and have known you for years and have demonstrated your fullness in their lives. We thank you for them. We rejoice in every evidence of your working in their hearts. Thank you for those who yet may not know you at all. I pray for them that you'll bring them into that glorious liberty this afternoon of knowing Christ is their Lord and the Spirit is their life. but we ask it in Jesus name and for his sake and for his glory. Amen. Please be seated. There are still the opportunity for counseling. I believe that's right, isn't it? The counseling facilities that the folks who hit a cancer, if you want to come later, there are those here to speak. You just come down here to the front on the left side here. There's a counseling room. Uh, I have to go, I have to go to the airport and they told me if we went through by four 30, I have to run and it's just four 30. So I think I have to leave as we sing our closing hymn. Sorry to do that. But God bless you. It's been lovely to share with you. And we'll meet you, as they say, here, there, or in the sky, in the air. Although I'm hoping and trusting that the Lord doesn't come back while I'm in Australia, because I've always been told in England, when the Lord comes back, we're going up to meet him in the air. Well, if you're going up, you're going the wrong way. I hope you realize that. So I'm trusting that he'll wait until I get home to England. But however you manage to get around to the right side of the world, I don't know. But however it is, we'll meet again. And we'll meet. Maybe there'll be a Belgrave Heights mansion that's really, you know, updated facilities. And we'll meet, have a reunion. Maybe a million years. How about planning it a million years from now? Bill will be young again. But it's been lovely to share with you and God bless you and allow the truths you've heard all this weekend to become life, flesh and blood, not only doctrine, but living truth that will bless the folks you'll go home to this afternoon. So God bless you. So let's stand for the benediction. And we'll sing it all together to one another. Now unto him who is able to keep us from falling. Ken, thanks for leading our singing, brother. Would you lead us in this benediction together? I'll give you the glory, and the sanctity of the sacrifices of His glory we'll receive. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.