it takes for us, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Last Sunday, we baptized five individuals, five adults. The final words that those individuals heard right before they went underneath the water was something to this effect. I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And then everything went silent, right? And they came out. And when they did that, we understand who God the Father is. We understand who God the Son is, Jesus Christ. But who is God the Holy Spirit? What exactly does he do? Our creed says, I believe in the Holy Spirit. That is a very simple statement. There's a whole lot of controversy, right, around the Holy Spirit. And by the way, it's not just controversy in 2025 about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Did you know there's always been controversy around the Holy Spirit? In the book of Exodus, the Holy Spirit is given to Moses and to the elders of Israel. And when that happens, all of a sudden, two of the elders of Israel start prophesying And someone comes up to Moses and says, hey, did you, there's two elders over there that are prophesying. They were the tattletales of the camp of Israel. And Moses' response is not to hush them or to shun them, but Moses' response is something like this. What did God that everybody had the Holy Spirit of God residing within them and prophesying? I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on them from Numbers chapter 11. You fast forward in your Bible to the book of Joel and the prophet Joel predicts this. He says, I will pour out my spirit on all people, men and women, boys and girls. And then all of a sudden in Acts chapter two, The Spirit descends in that upper room with the disciples and the additional 70 people total. And when the Holy Spirit descends, in Acts chapter 2, all of a sudden they start speaking in foreign languages. 17, if I recall correctly. And when they start speaking in foreign languages, all that are found there in Jerusalem are like, wait a second, what is this Galilean fisherman doing speaking in my language? Right? And Peter then stands up and he lifts up his voice and he addresses them and here's what he says. Men of Judea, And all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words. For these people, they're not drunk. It's only the third hour of the day. as you suppose, but this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. So what Moses desired and Joel prophesied has now become fulfilled in Acts chapter two, and it doesn't matter where it is, but there's always been controversy with the ministry of the Holy Spirit in and among God's people. Now here's what should encourage you about this. The Holy Spirit is not given to the religious elite. Pharisees don't get the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter two. The Sadducees, they don't get the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter two. The high priest doesn't get the Holy Spirit. Do you know who gets the Holy Spirit? Jewish women. Fearful, cursing fishermen. He gets the Holy Spirit. Once pagan Gentiles. Ostracized Samaritans. Doesn't that encourage you this morning, that you don't have to have this grand and glorious religious heritage of kind of the uppity-ups of the religious world in order to get the Holy Spirit, but rather that the Holy Spirit is given to a fearful and cursing fisherman? Thank God for that. And this controversy of the ministry of the Holy Spirit continues. And so I wanna ask the question this morning, who is the Holy Spirit and what does he do? We're gonna be in John chapter 14 through 16, and we're gonna kind of survey these three chapters. This is the most extended passage about the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is our teacher here. And one of the details that you will notice as we walk through John 14 through 16, The Holy Spirit is not an it, but rather a he. That is, he's the third person of the Trinity. He's a person, not an energy source. He is God, and in John 14 through 17, we will see seven activities of the Spirit. I wanna show you the very first activity Jesus is teaching, John 14, beginning in verse 16. Jesus says this, I will ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever. Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him for he dwells with you and get this and will be in you. It's the first activity of the Spirit of God, and that is this, is that the Holy Spirit indwells the child of God. Jesus is adding his voice to Moses's desire. Jesus is adding his voice to Ezekiel and Jeremiah's prophecies about the new covenant when the spirit will dwell within and grant to us, take out that heart of stone and give to us a heart of flesh. And he's adding his voice to the prophecy of Joel. He's not, but he's doing more than that. He's not just predicting the sending of the Spirit, he's also telling us that the Spirit of God is not just gonna come upon us, he's going to indwell us. He's going to indwell those who have confessed their faith in Jesus Christ. And so the Spirit's indwelling is unique to God's people in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, you read it, the Holy Spirit comes upon them. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit indwells them. We're all saved by faith in the Messiah, but you have been granted something that the Old Testament saints did not experience. What a grace, what a kindness, what a gift God has given to fearful, cursing fishermen, pagan, once pagan Gentiles, ostracized Samaritans, and fearful Jewish women. That is, the Spirit's indwelling is unique, but I want you to know this, the Bible's teaching is this, is that at the moment you were born again, you were given all the Holy Spirit that you're ever gonna receive. that there isn't another step following salvation. So it's not like after baptism, those individuals got another dose of the Holy Spirit and they were at 25% of the Holy Spirit, now they got 50 and when they hit the next stage of Christian growth, that somehow they'll get another dose of the Holy Spirit. No, at the moment of salvation, you are given all of the Holy Spirit that you're gonna get. Every child of God, every child of God in this room, no matter whether you think you're the weakest saint or you may be the strongest saint, every child of God in this room has as much of the Holy Spirit as the godliest of believers that have ever lived. You struggled this past week, you have the same amount of Holy Spirit that the Apostle Paul had. You did something this past week you shouldn't have done, you have the same amount of the Holy Spirit. If you're born again, you have the same amount of Holy Spirit as your grandmother does. There's no initiation into kind of a higher spiritual strata. The difference lies here, and the difference lies here, in how much the Holy Spirit has of you. That is, when you, let me ask you this way, when you were born again, were you aware of the Holy Spirit's role in your life? And I think the answer to that question is no. You weren't aware, unless you kind of grew up around the Christian church or you were raised in a Christian family. You weren't aware. But all of a sudden, when you came to faith in Christ, all of a sudden you began to realize you're different. Like the desires that you had before are different. The goals that you had before are different. Why? Because all of a sudden the Holy Spirit now indwells you and you're granted those new desires. And over time you understand the role of the Holy Spirit and you have greater understanding of that, but the Holy Spirit is the one who indwells the child of God. Now I want you to look at verse 16 of John 14, and I want to show you a word. You may want to circle it or underline it because there's going to be four of these in this passage. And Jesus says this, I will ask the Father, he will give you another, what's the word you have there? After another. Helper, all right, so if you have a New American Standard, if you have a New King James or an ESV, you have the word helper there. If you have the NIV in front of you, that copy in front of you, it uses the word advocate, I think. And perhaps you have another translation and maybe it says something different. Some translations even use the word counselor, I think. I want to show you the four times this word is used in this passage. So John 14, verse 16 is the first one. The second time it's used, and it's found in verse 26 of John 14, where it reads this way, John 14, 26, but the helper, that's the word, The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I have said to you. Here's the third instance, John 15, verse 26. But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me. So that's the third instance, John 15, 26. Here's the fourth instance, John 16, verse 7. It reads this way, 16.7, Jesus says, I tell you the truth, it's to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. You can go back to John 14. So here is the second activity of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps the child of God. But helps, that's kind of generic, right? Like I can help my wife in the kitchen, but how much help am I, right? In what way does the Holy Spirit help the child of God? Well, the Greek word underline, so it's translated help or advocate or counselor perhaps. The Greek word underneath that is the word paraclete. It comes from the verb parakaleo. And what that means is this, kaleo means to call. Para means to come alongside. So the paraclete is the one who is called to come alongside whom? The child of God. The Holy Spirit helps the child of God. In what way does the paraclete do this? Right, well, it's translated helper, so that's helpful. It's translated advocate, that gives us another nuance to it. In some cases, it's translated counselor, that gives us another nuance. One Bible dictionary defined the word paraclete this way. It means to call to one's aid, a friend of the accused. called to speak to his or her character to enlist sympathy in his favor. The paraclete is the friend of the accused person. Sometimes our consciences condemn us and the Holy Spirit comes alongside. to aid, to speak to our character that externally, when we were baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, that is, if you will, kind of a renaming of the individual that they now publicly identify with Christ, what the Spirit of God has done internally, now they have been renamed in the idea of that they are a part of the triune God. Let me ask this question, and I hope we have lots of honesty and transparency on this question, okay? I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand in just a moment. I will answer in the affirmative to myself, and I'll have my hand raised, okay? So you won't be alone on this. For those of you who have confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're born again, all right? How many of you have ever doubted your salvation? Now just keep your hands up for a moment, right? Because if you ever have doubted your salvation, you may think to yourself, am I the only one? But you're amongst friends, okay? All right, you can put your hand down for now. One of the primary roles of the Holy Spirit for those who have confessed Jesus Christ is to be your helper or your advocate specifically in that context right there. When your mind or your conscience says to you you're not a Christian, it's one of the Holy Spirit's primary responsibilities to help you at that moment. And what he will do is he will help you not in the sense of kind of being a cheerleader off to the side saying, don't worry about that, you're still a Christian. Not in that sense. He will be a cheerleader in this sense, in that he will take specific passages of scripture and say this, did you confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? And to which you would answer in the affirmative, yes. Well, then, based upon the authority of God's Word, you can have assurance because the advocate has advocated for you. You see that? The Holy Spirit helps the child of God. Did you see this in John 14? Look at it again in verse 16. Jesus says it this way in verse 16, not only is he a helper, but Jesus says, I will ask the Father and he will give you another. helper. Wait a second, another helper? Who was the first helper? Jesus. Jesus is speaking to the disciples. And in John chapter 14, verse 1, he says this, "'Let not your hearts be troubled.'" Uh-oh, why were the disciples having troubled hearts? Because in John 13, Jesus had said, "'I want you to know I'm going to leave you.'" But when I leave you, I'm going to prepare a place for you, that where I am you may be also. And in my father's house are many rooms, or if you grew up on the King James, right? In my father's house are many mansions, is the idea, right? And so the point why they have troubled hearts is because Jesus is about ready to leave them, but Jesus says, don't worry about it. I'm gonna send you another helper. The helper is the Holy Spirit of God. He's informing them that he's gonna send them someone else to accomplish for them in their lives what he will not be able to do because he is absent. That the Holy Spirit will do for the disciples via his spiritual presence what Jesus was doing for his disciples by his physical presence. So you're like, well, you know, I just really wish Jesus was around so I could ask him all these questions. And Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no. It's actually better that I go away. Right, because Jesus is coming. I mean, how do you get millions and perhaps billions, right, around Jesus, right? You can't. But the Holy Spirit of God is going to accomplish and do in your life what the ministry of Jesus was doing in the disciples' lives. So the Holy Spirit helps the child of God. Look at chapter 14 verse 17 again. It reads this way, even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. Now you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. Drop down to verse 25 of chapter 14. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you, but the helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things. and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." So the third activity of the Spirit is this, the Holy Spirit teaches the child of God. Now, the Holy Spirit can only teach you what you've been instructed in, right? You see that, look again at verse 26. Jesus says, He will teach you all things and bring to your, what's the next word? remembrance all that I have said to you." That is, the Spirit can only construct the two-by-fours that have been placed there. Part of what God is attempting to do every Lord's Day is to give you some spiritual two-by-fours. And it's the Holy Spirit who's going to come along and is going to spiritually construct what he is attempting to do in your life. You're born again, you've got all the Holy Spirit you're going to get, but he will instruct you on all the things that you are being taught. Folks, this is the value of attending an adult Sunday school class. Say, why do we have...I thought Sunday school was for kids. I'm not going to any Sunday school class. No, you would want to go to Sunday school class for an adult Sunday school class because it's in those environments that the Holy Spirit is going to equip you. One of the reasons why we have small groups that meet in various homes throughout the week is so that we can take what we've heard. If all you get is a Sunday morning sermon, that's better than nothing, but that's not all there is to following Jesus and understanding the scriptures. You need other instances of education, that is, i.e., Sunday school, and other instances of spiritual formation, i.e., small life groups, to help shape so that the Spirit of God can begin to equip and construct what He's attempting to do in our lives. Now, the Holy Spirit will be your teacher. Some Christians will take a passage like this, and perhaps you've met one, will say something like this, I don't need the church. I have the Holy Spirit as my teacher. Sounds so good, doesn't it? Kind of arrogant, but nonetheless, it sounds like I got the Holy Spirit as my teacher. Folks, in Ephesians 4, the Bible reveals to us this, that the Holy Spirit actually gives gifts to the church. And one of the gifts that he gives are pastors, it actually says this, pastors, teachers. It doesn't say pastors and teachers, it's actually, he gives pastors, teachers. That is, one of the primary responsibilities of a faithful pastor is to stand up and to teach the Word of God, and faithful pastor teachers who are teaching the Word of God, the Holy Spirit comes alongside and gives understanding to it. So for someone to say, well, you know, I don't need the church, I've got the Spirit of God. Well, you don't have all of the teaching because God has specifically given to the local church faithful pastor teachers to proclaim the word of God. Now, I also want to say this, that not only has he given faithful pastors teachers to proclaim the word of God, do you know that in every local church, God has gifted men and women to teach God's word? that one of the spiritual gifts that God has disseminated to this assembly isn't just faithful pastor-teachers, but he's also given other men in this church the gift of teaching, and not only do they need to exercise that gift, you need to receive the benefit of that gift. That's why you would want to carve out time in your schedule too, to be a part of that teaching, to receive that teaching, not only to encourage them, but to be edified yourself. And some of the best teachers that we have are some of our godly women. And so when we kick up the ladies' Bible study this fall, man, avail yourself to that because the Spirit of God will take these spiritual two-by-fours that you are receiving and he will bring all things into remembrance. That is, the Holy Spirit will teach you. Here's the next activity of the Spirit. It's found in John 15 verse 26. Jesus says this, John 15, 26, "'But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me.'" So here's the next activity of the Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit bears witness of Jesus. And to bear witness, again, the underlying word there is the word martyreo. Can you hear an English word in there, martyr? The Holy Spirit will martyreo, that is, he will bear witness. What do martyrs do? Not what happens to martyrs. I'm not asking that question, right? We know they're burned at the stake, they're beheaded. I'm not asking that. What do martyrs do? They give a positive witness. That's oftentimes why they are killed, right? Why our brothers and sisters around the world or in church history have been killed. Because they give a positive witness that they are testifying to Jesus. But in time, as individuals are faithful witness, a martyr, right, as he witnesses or she witnesses, a witness recedes to the background as they discuss what they've been called to the witness stand to testify about. The spirit of truth has eternally sworn by his own name to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about Jesus. He will bear witness about Jesus. He bears witness about his ministry, Jesus' ministry. And so the Holy Spirit's ministry then is to take a back seat and accentuate the ministry of Christ. The Spirit of God affirms Jesus' teachings. He affirms Jesus' identity. He convinces the skeptical. This is what it means to bear witness. He brings the historical into the present. He provides light to darken minds. The Holy Spirit is like a Las Vegas lighted directional arrow pointing at Jesus. And so the Holy Spirit bears witness of Jesus. There's the next activity of the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit convicts the child of God. He convicts the child of God. We're going to read the passage in just a moment, but do you know this, that there is a difference between a Christian's conscience and the Holy Spirit? Not every time your conscience pings, is that the Holy Spirit? Sometimes it is. You say, well, Pastor Joel, how would I know if that's my conscience or if that's the Holy Spirit? Well, I'll answer that in just a moment. But a conscience, a Christian conscience is like a sundial, right? We don't use sundials anymore. Maybe some of you have one in your backyard, right? A sundial, you know, doesn't have batteries. You don't have to power it up or anything like that. You keep it in a part of your yard, your front yard or backyard where there's a lot of sunlight, and you can tell what time it is based upon the sundial, right? But a sundial is only helpful, it's only accurate when what? When it's sitting in the full light of the sun. Your conscience is like a sundial. It only functions correctly when it's under the full light of the word of God. That's why, right, you can have one Christian, you can have a Christian who has an overly restrictive conscience. It's rigid. and unbending and unyielding, but it's in an area that actually your applications are tighter than the Word of God. That doesn't make you more spiritual. What that really means is your conscience needs to be corrected according to the Word of God. Now, on the other hand, in a church like ours, right, we can have consciences in our church that are overly restrictive and they're too harsh on applications. But in the same church, you can have Christians whose consciences aren't overly restrictive, they're actually looser than the Bibles. Well, that's not good either, right? Both of them are not helpful. And so, our entire lives, from now until the day you and I die, the Holy Spirit is going to continually adjust our consciences to the Word of God. And so, as you age, right? I mean, there are some things that don't change, right? The deity of Christ, the inerrancy of Scripture, the virgin birth, the apostles, right? There are some things that don't change. But folks, over time, if your mind and your applications aren't changing, It probably means that you're not allowing the Holy Spirit to inform your mind, your conscience, in a way that comes underneath the Word of God. So that's why I say that not every time your conscience pings, is that the Holy Spirit. But here, the Holy Spirit convicts the child of God. Specifically, what is the Holy Spirit going to do? Well, in Jesus' day, the vast majority rejected his identity. Ah, he says he's the son of God. He's just some backwoods rabbi from Nazareth, right? And so, Jesus says, no, I'm the son of God. In Jesus' day, the vast majority rejected the righteousness of Christ. He says he's born of a Virgin Mary, viral. In Jesus' day, they rejected the warnings of the coming judgment, but look what the Spirit's ministry is going to do. Look at John 16, verses seven and eight. Jesus says this, I tell you the truth, John 16, verse seven, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you, but if I go, I'll send him to you, and when he comes, he will convict the world, that is not the entire world, but individuals, right? He will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness and judgment. You say, well, what type of sin? Well, verse nine talks about it, concerning sin, the specific sin, because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, I really am who I say I am. And verse 11, concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. And so the paraclete, the one called to come alongside the Holy Spirit, will continue the ministry of Jesus in his absence. So if you have confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, praise God for the ministry of the Holy Spirit who convicts the child of God to believe Jesus is who he says he is, that he really is the Son of God, he really is righteous, and there is a coming judgment that I can escape if I will call, repent of my sins, and trust in Jesus Christ. It's a ministry of the Spirit of God. So this conviction by the Holy Spirit leads us to confess our sins, to confess Jesus is righteous, to escape the coming judgment. So I have a question for you. Is the Holy Spirit's ministry intellectual or experiential? And I hope that you're going to say, well, it's both, right? Yes, the Spirit's ministry is intellectual in the sense that it's going to attempt to rewire our brain to think according to Scripture, but it's also experiential. Baptist people get nervous about that, right? Oh, where's he going with this one? It is experiential. The Holy Spirit is experiential, not in a sense of getting tingling vibes or anything like that, but the Holy Spirit is the one who regenerates us, who saves us. So you do need to experience the Holy Spirit, not in some kind of weird, emotional way, but in a sense where the Spirit of God does a saving work and a sanctifying work in your life. The next activity of the Spirit of God, it is the Holy Spirit who guides the child of God, and I see this in John 16, verse 13. Jesus says, when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own authority. Whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. The Spirit shows the way. Now, he never shows the way apart from the Word of God. The Spirit's guidance is dependent upon that book in front of you or that app that's opened up on your phone right now. He will not and cannot guide you into truth apart from the Word of God. It is impossible for you to say, well, the Holy Spirit led me this way, when the word of God says, this is the way, walk in it. Because he will guide you, according to the text, right? He'll guide you into all truth, because he's not, he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak. That is, the Spirit of God simply reflects the Trinity. and the words that God the Father and that God the Son have spoken to us. Saints, do you understand that you can turn on your TV, or for sure, YouTube, right? There are entire ministries, so-called Christian ministries that emphasize the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Like, their entire ministry is about the ministry of the Spirit. And with the exception of a few verses taken out of context, the Word of God is absent from their ministry. You follow that? There's whole ministries given to, let me tell you about the Spirit. And they'll take kind of a verse here and a verse there and a verse there, kind of bring them together and bring into this kind of theological soup. And other than those handful of verses, there's no other verses in the scripture that bear or testify or give understanding to their ministry. And I just wanna say this to you declaratively, when the word of God is absent, the spirit of God is absent. that where the Word of God resides, the Spirit resides. God's guidance is always rooted in his ministry. So just because somebody claims the Spirit, right, test the Spirit's plural, is their ministry of God? Now, the Holy Spirit guides the child of God. But what about decisions that I have to make in life that I don't know what to do? There's not Bible verses for every decision that you're going to need to make, right? It'd be really great, right, ladies? If that guy who you're interested in, his name was found in Psalm 73, and it says, date Robert. God, thank you. That's really helpful. But it's not, right? What do you do if the Spirit guides you into all truth, but there aren't Bible verses that actually give wisdom, there aren't Bible verses that speak exactly to your situation? How about this one? How many children should we have? I don't know any Bible verses that tell me there, right? Do I take this job or that job? Do I purchase a new car, a used car, or do I put more money into this bucket of bolts, right? How do you know? And it is here that we try to live according to Bible principles and make wise application given our life circumstances. We bring in wise counsel, not just kind of grandma's counsel, that may be helpful, but wise counsel that reflects Bible principles. So, dating. Right, kind of the old adage, you know, is not, the old adage is, well, are they a Christian? Well, again, saints, anyone can put Jesus in their social media bio, right? That doesn't take a lot of work. So the question that I would encourage you to ask is not, are they a Christian? The question I would want you to ask is this, are they a growing Christian? That would be more helpful. Are they a serving Christian? That would be helpful for you. How about when it comes to children, right, on family size, right? We want to acknowledge children are a blessing. They're not a curse. Children are not a burden. There can be times where children are a burden some, right, but they're not a burden. Right? And so you're thinking, okay, what is my capacity? You know, financially, what's it going to cost? All those types of things. That's part of just wise decision making. You think about a car. Should I purchase that new car or the used car or put more money in? It's not how much of a payment can I afford, but I'm trying to take the principles of the scriptures to stay out of debt. Will I still be able to save for the future and put money aside? Will I be able to invest? Will I be able to give? Will I still be able to do all these things? That's just biblical principles at place. And the Holy Spirit will guide you according to Bible principles. Here's the final activity of the Spirit. And that is this, is that the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus. And I would see this in John 16, verse 14. John 16, verse 14, Jesus says that when the Spirit of truth comes, he will glorify me, for he will take what is mine, the words of God, and declare it to you. The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus. Now, we don't use language like, So, what did you glorify this past week? You don't use language like that. Well, I don't use language like that, but everyone of us in this room has glorified something this past week, right? And so, and hopefully, pretty soon here, Mosher will wrap it up and y'all go for lunch, right? And you will go to, I don't know where you go to lunch, go to House of Pies there, right, off 290, or you'll have leftover meatloaf from this past week. Whatever it is that you're gonna have, right? And you'll... I'll say this to my wife, I don't know what we're having for lunch, but like, babe, this leftover meatloaf is phenomenal, right? She didn't make meatloaf this past week. But you get my point, right? I'm glorifying my spouse, right, my wife. And you're gonna glorify whoever brings that food out to you, or when you microwave it, right? And like, man, this is a great corn dog here. Whatever it is, right, you're gonna glorify it. Well, you glorify, and so the ministry, so you do, you understand the concept that just as you bring attention to the creator or to the server, the Holy Spirit is gonna bring attention and is gonna glorify Jesus. He's gonna shine a spotlight on the ministry of Jesus. And so once again, the Holy Spirit takes a back seat and accentuates the ministry of Jesus. Now, unless you think, well, you know, that's not very fair. What about God the Father? Like God the Father's kind of being left out. Remember what God the Father said in John chapter five, verse 23. He said this, the Father has declared that all should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. That is, God the Father says, this is actually exactly what I want you to do, to honor the Son in this way. And so when we think about, so think about this, think about a Christian church, and I hope you stay at Grace Life forever and ever, and you never leave, and you never move anywhere else, but when you're going to consider another church someday, one of the things that you wanna know is, is Jesus at the center? Like, do they sing about? Jesus specifically, is the preaching, does it bring us back to Christ? And the reason for that is this, is because faithful preaching attempts to proclaim Christ-centered sermons. Why? Because Jesus is the focal point of scriptures, but here's another reason why. Because the Holy Spirit's ministry is to magnify Christ. And so it is my desire as your pastor, not for you to walk out and go, wow, that was a really good sermon, but rather is for you to walk out and say, wow, we have a really great Savior, Jesus Christ. And so the Holy Spirit's responsibility is to glorify Jesus. Now, did you notice what I did not say this morning about the role and ministry of the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit does not produce cold chills up and down your spine. Like, ooh, that was a great worship service. It's got some tingles back there. The Holy Spirit is present. No, folks, we have been sold a bill of goods when it comes to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And that somehow we think that if our heart starts racing during worship music, that's the Holy Spirit. Well, you may be excited about the truths of God, but you don't need your heart to race to experience the ministry of the Spirit. Right? We don't, right? The Holy Spirit is not more alive when the lights go off, right? And there's a fog machine and there's a guitarist who can kind of slowly riff and like, oh, wow. That is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. No, folks, the Holy Spirit does not occupy rooms. He doesn't come to places that are kind of smoke filled with guitarists in the background or anything like that. He indwells the people of God. He indwells faithful proclamation of the word of God as it reflects what God has said, the way he has said it, to the degree he says it, and he glorifies Jesus in that. And so put conviction in your soul that the Holy Spirit is not what you feel, but it reflects the teachings of the word of God. That where the word of God is faithfully proclaimed, then God's spirit is present amongst his people. That is, the Holy Spirit's role and activity is directly tied to the work of Christ, through the word of Christ, to honor the person of Christ. So why is the Holy Spirit important? Why would we say, I baptize you, my brother, my sister, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, right? Gulp, gulp, gulp, come back up. Why would we do something like that? Because without the Holy Spirit, God is distant. Christ is in the past. The gospel is a dead message. The church is nothing more than an organization. Authority becomes domination. Mission becomes nothing more than propaganda. Worship becomes the summoning of small-ass spirits. And Christian activity becomes the morality of slaves. But when the Spirit is at work and reflecting the Word of God, now God is not distant, now he is present. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, as the unbeliever comes into the Lord's day service and worships and says, ah, truly God is among them. How does he know that? Because the spirit of the living God is active as he reflects the word of God. Holy Spirit is present because Christ is no longer in the past but now he's in the present and the gospel message that is a message of death to some becomes a message of life to those who believe it and the church is not an organization but now is the gathering of God's people who are spirit empowered and who lift their voices and perhaps even their hands, and praise to the one God who saves us from beginning to end. It is the Holy Spirit who does this. It is the spirit of worship that actually becomes now, it's not the summoning of spirits, but is actually empowered by the Spirit of Christ. And the Christian activity empowered by the Spirit is not somehow a message of morality, but is now a message of sins forgiven and a home in heaven and new affections and new loves because of Christ. Christian, you do not need to fear the Spirit of God. You don't need to be nervous because the Spirit of God, when guided by the Word, He will act on the Word for the glory of the Word. We believe in the Holy Spirit. Let's pray. Father, grant to these, my brothers and sisters, a growing understanding of the Spirit's role and ministry in their lives. May we not be duped. May we allow our consciences to be guided on this teaching itself about the Holy Spirit by the Word of God. And I pray this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.