Sermon
The Work & Ministry of the Holy Spirit
October 18, 2003
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'd like for you to take your notes tonight as we proceed with our study. Tonight I want to talk about the Holy Spirit as He relates to the unbeliever, and that process whereby He draws men and women, that process whereby He drew us to Himself, the work of the Holy Spirit in the act of regeneration and conversion. And then, the Lord willing, I'm going to next week talk about the work with the Holy Spirit in relation to us as believers. What's the work of the Holy Spirit as we make our journey along through this Christian life? And then we'll move to the subject the work of the Holy Spirit in the church.

When I decided on the subject I realized that I had a great amount of books in my library. In fact, I started pulling them on the Holy Spirit, and I didn't realize the vast number that I had. Going through one of them which was written in 1843, it was written by Dr. James Buchanan and it's a Banner of Trust book so I know that it has...it probably has its rooting in the Puritan faith. But this godly man who had a deep understanding of the Holy Spirit began to write and I was reading and studying all week long on his writings on the Holy Spirit, and I've come to the conclusion the subject is so broad we really do it a disservice if we do not study the Holy Spirit over a long period of time.

Now last week I don't remember if I brought in the issue of the person of the Holy Spirit, but I'd like to do it one more time tonight, and that is, we decided that probably one of the great problems within the Christian church is the misunderstanding as to the person of the Holy Spirit. And we often relegate Him to some spiritual force or influence, but we don't think of Him as the third person of the Trinity. There is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. If we diminish any one of the Trinity, we have a diminished concept of the God of the Bible. And I really believe, folks, that one of the great problems in the church today is the diminished concept of God in relation to the understanding of the Holy Spirit. That's why I want us to really understand.

Now in our comments in some of the services last weekend...I worked through the subject of the Holy Spirit as a person and the concept of the Trinity because when we deal with the Holy Spirit we've got to deal with the subject of the Trinity. And it's one of the great, great ministries and one of the great difficult parts of our Christian faith. How do you say there are three and yet three are one? The oneness of the Trinity and yet triunity is the meaning of Trinity.

And you have to understand that through the church age there has been this constant problem of...where for a period of years, maybe for decades, the church would slip away from the teachings of the early moments of our Christian faith, and as the result of that, there were counsel after counsel where the great leaders of the church throughout all of the known world at that time would gather in these councils; and some of them would last for months. And they would sit for long hours debating, is this the proper way we say our doctrine or should we really bring it...is there some way we can make it more clear?

And when we got to the second century of about 250 A.D. we found a real drifting and Origen was the church father who started this drifting away from the biblical teachings of the Trinity. And then when we got to the year 300, the church leaders across the known world at that time realized something has to be done, so they called what we now know as the Council of Nicea which was conducted in the year 325. And the reason for that council was to bring the church back to the teaching of the Trinity. And we now have as...often many times you folks in your church background you either quoted the Apostle's Creed or the Nicean Creed. Now the Nicean Creed came out of that great Council.

And here is the Nicean Creed, and remember, the reason for these creeds...and someone suggested this week -- Pastor, I think it would be extremely interesting if you went back and charted the history of the church and showed where it got off track and then the Council that brought it back into line, and then the result of the Council, the great creeds of our Christian faith.

I have a large volume and it's a volume that traces that history, and there are hundreds of creeds that have come out of these councils. And the creeds are to keep us close and dead-on when it comes to our Christian doctrine. And I think again many times we evangelicals have neglected the creeds. We have not realized the importance that they have played within the history of our church. And one of the reasons why on Saturday evening we reaffirm our faith, we want to keep knowledgeable as to what we believe and why we believe it. Now coming out of that Nicean Council was this creed, and you'll have to observe that the selections of the words are very precise. One of the things that I'm fully aware of as I stand here with you service after service, if I miss say one word, I can do great damage to the doctrines of our Christian faith.

Let me illustrate. We say as evangelical Christians, the Bible IS the word of God. We'll all agree on that. But there's a very subtle way which is happening within the evangelical church and in liberalism and they change one word IS to 'contains'. And they say the Bible 'contains' the word of God. There is a vast world of difference, because implied...not everything in the Bible is the word of God it just has... And so then they open the gateways wide-open for man to determine what are God's words and what are the words of man. And immediately you can see the Scriptures lose their authority by changing one word.

Now this was what came out of the Nicean Council:
I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made...remember that was placed in there because Origen said what actually happened was that God after He chose that time in eternal history He created the Son and He created the Holy Spirit. That is not spiritual. So the writers of the creed said He was not made, He was equal to an eternity. He has always been, Jesus has always been eternal with the Father and so is the Holy Spirit.

So they wanted to correct that misstatement that He was made. So it says not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And then the third person: And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. And one holy universal and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.

Now I read that different then what we mostly say it, because when it was written in 325 it said, We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceedeth from the Father; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified. Now not all theologians were happy with that wording, because it implied that only God sent the Holy Spirit and left out Jesus Christ. So what happened for a number of years there was a wrestling, they said, look at it, we did not say that right. We should have put: and the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceedeth from the Father and the Son. And they argued over that one phrase 'and the Son' because those theologians did not want in any way to diminish the act of Christ involved in the sending of the Holy Spirit.

And so the church struggled and so they had another conference in 381. It was held in Constantinople, but the interesting thing, at that conference most of the pastors were from the eastern part of the church world, not the western part, and it was overloaded in terms of representation. And so what happened at Constantinople, they added that phrase 'and the Son'. That phrase really irritated the western church, the western side of Christianity, and for 600 years there was this controversy that went on and on and on concerning that one phrase 'and the Son'. It was known as the filioque controversy.

And so in 1051 there was another conference held and at that conference, because of those wordings, the western church divided from the eastern church and thus the beginning of the Catholic side of the church, and the Orthodox, the eastern Orthodox on the other side of the church. In other words, one of the great tragic events of the church history took place in the year 1051 when the church divided over that one phrase.

Now I point that out, folks, because you must realize how precise the church leaders and the religious leaders down through the centuries of time have sought to keep our doctrine as pure as possible. So what you and I believe today as Christians has been wrestled with over and over again, and the preciseness of the words are very, very important.

But there was an interesting thing that took place in that Nicene Council in 325, there was the bishop from Alexandria, which was from North Africa, and his name was Bishop Alexander. Bishop Alexander brought with him to that Nicene Council his secretary, and that young secretary was 29 years of age. But he was a brilliant, godly man and the result was that Athanasius, being his name, Athanasius listen to those old church divines wrestle with the wording, and while during that time he is writing a simpler way of saying great eternal truth. His name Athanasius, and what we have...he died about the year 400, but he left to the church his creed which is possibly...and is recognized by most of the theologians as possibly one of the most precise and clearest way of talking about or defining the Trinity.

It's known as the Athanasian Creed. We don't refer to it much now, and what I did is I picked it out of my theology book, and listen again to this young man. Of course, he ages over time and his creed does not come into the church until after his death. But here's what he wrote:
Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that we hold the universal faith;
Which faith every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
And the universal faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
Neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance.
For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son and another of the Holy Spirit.
But the Godhead of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory is equal, and the majesty co-equal.
Such as the Father is, such is the Son and such is the Holy Spirit.
The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated.
The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.
The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal.
And yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal.
As also there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensibles, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible.
So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty;
And yet they are not three almighties, but one almighty.
So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God;
And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.
So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord;
And yet they are not three Lords, but one Lord.
For like as we are compelled by our Christian verity to acknowledge every person by himself to be God and Lord;
So we are forbidden in our faith to say: There are three Gods or three Lords.
The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten.
The Son is of the Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten.
The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; and one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
And in this Trinity none is before, none is after; none is greater, and none is less than the other.
But the whole three persons are co-equal, and co-eternal.
He therefore that will be saved must believe these truths.

And you see what he did, he wanted to make sure that as we understand God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, all are equal, but all are one. Now the reason why I've gone over this very, very slowly is because this is what's the most difficult for us to comprehend as Christians. And because of it, we often think if we understand God the Father we can understand God the Son, but to understand God the Holy Spirit as one of the Trinity, that we have almost subjected to a place of divine influence or of a divine energy and not as a person Himself. And I told you last week that until we honor the Holy Spirit as a person of the Godhead, we have diminished the biblical concept of God, as we believe it.

So I went on to say: Is it right for us to pray to the Holy Spirit? And I concluded it's proper for us to pray to the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is equal with the Father and equal with the Son, then that coequalness gives us the right to pray to the Holy Spirit. Now that may seem new to you because, you say, no; we're taught to pray to the Father through the Son. I understand that, but it's not improper to pray to the Holy Spirit. And we have many songs...and as I shared last week, sometimes I find myself saying, spirit of God, spirit of God fall fresh upon us.

So as we understand the work of the Holy Spirit, I believe when we now go into the subject of the Holy Spirit's work with the nonbeliever, you'll be able to immediately identify how He works in the heart and in the mind and the conscience, of how the Holy Spirit worked with us to bring us to faith.

Now let's take our notes with that introduction. We begin our notes: "There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."
Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?
Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not marvel that I said to you, "You must be born again.
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

So here's the designation, we are born into the family of God through the work of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians: "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us."

Now in our previous study, as I noted, we considered the Person of the Holy Spirit, and we concluded that the work of the Holy Spirit seems to bring to completion the work that has been planned by God the Father and begun by God the Son. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, active in the creation of the world, and possessing all the characteristics of personality. The Holy Spirit is not a mere something, but He is a divine someone.

In our lesson today, we want to explore the Scriptures and observe the work and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the sinner and in the life of the believer. Now John 16 says: Nevertheless 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 depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
of sin, because they do not believe in Me;
of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; and
of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He the Spirit of Truth, that's the Holy Spirit, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His authority, but what ever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He, that is the Holy Spirit, will take of what is Mine and declare it unto you.

Now an unbeliever is incapable of understanding are receiving spiritual truth. But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart, writes Paul to the Corinthians, the gifts and the teachings and the revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly, that is they are meaningless nonsense to him; and he is incapable of knowing them (or progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them) because they are spiritually discerned or spiritually understood and estimated and appreciated.

So we as nonbelievers, we as natural people, that is, sinners, anything that had to do with the spiritual before we became a Christian was foolishness; it was meaningless nonsense. And you understand that when you try to explain your faith to a nonbeliever, if the Spirit of God has not worked in their heart, everything you say...they don't understand it; it's nonsense to them. So the spiritual eyes of the sinner are blinded to eternal truth and the claims of the gospel.

And Paul writes again: If our Gospel (the glad tidings) also be hidden (obscured and covered up with a veil that hinders the knowledge of God), it is hidden [only] to those who are perishing and obscured [only] to those who are spiritually dying and veiled [only to those who are lost. For the god of this world has blinded the unbeliever's minds [that they should not discern the truth], preventing them from seeing the illuminating light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ (the Messiah), Who is the Image and Likeness of God.

So the natural man doesn't have the capacity. Before we became Christians there was no possibility, absolutely none, no capability on our behalf to in any way understand spiritual things and respond. And the Bible tells us the reason for that is because Satan, the god of this world, has blinded the eyes of men and women to the glorious truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the only way those eyes can be opened is through the work of the Holy Spirit.

The unbeliever considers spiritual things as foolishness and folly, and he has no spiritual capacity to see and understand eternal values. The unbeliever is spiritually dead and cannot receive the impartation of spiritual life without the work of the Holy Spirit in the ministry of regeneration. I put that word in there because it's a word that we often hear, regeneration. What does it mean?

Regeneration is an act of God in which He imparts new spiritual life to us. It is totally a work of God. So what I want you to follow is, as an unbeliever I have no ability to understand; my spiritual eyes have been blinded, and the work of the Holy Spirit begins with regeneration.

Look at what John says: "He came to that which belonged to Him [to His own-His domain, creation, things, world], and they who were His own did not receive Him and did not welcome Him. But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name. Who owe their birth neither to bloods, nor to the will of the flesh [that of physical impulse] nor to the will of man [that of a natural father], but to God. [They are born of God]."

So John is saying, I have written it here from the Amplified text... You know, when I was reading that do you notice it says, Who owe their birth neither to bloods? And I looked at that and then studied, and in the original text, in the original Greek, it's plural, and we don't have that in the English translation. You say, what does it mean Pastor? I think the implied was simply, that children of course, their blood comes from both Father and Mother and so you have plurality here in the explanation; nor of the will of the flesh, but they are born of God. So in is passage we quoted from John, we have a summary of the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration.

First of all, the Holy Spirit will convict men of sin. In the process where now the spirit of God has settled upon us and the work of regeneration has commenced, oft times, just for a moment, oft times when that moment comes in our life, there comes deep conviction, deep conviction upon our soul, and we all of a sudden realize our sinfulness and our desperate need of God and a deep conviction as to the way we're living our lives. That is the beginning process of the work of the Holy Spirit to draw us to God. He must convict us and bring us under a deep sense of guilt.

And the Bible says the Holy Spirit will convict men of sin. Now when the Jews crucified Jesus, they did not believe that they were sinning; they believed that they were serving God. But when the story of that crucifixion was later preached, they were pricked in their heart. You remember when Peter preached, they suddenly had the terrible conviction that the crucifixion was the greatest crime in history and their sin has caused it. What is it that gives a man or a woman a sense of sin? It is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Now I watch that from time to time. People who live their lives in a society which is promiscuous, and they abide by the freedom of a society, and they do their thing; and then they come in contact either with a church or come to a service...all of a sudden because of the presence of the spirit of God, not because I say anything. And I used this illustration before: we've had couples who come who have lived together without the benefits of a Christian marriage. And in our society in a world they don't see anything wrong with that, I mean, to talk about it is a very strange thing to them because it's so acceptable in our world. But they walk into the presence of God and the Holy Spirit begins the work of regeneration, the first thing that strikes them is their sin in living in sin. And you know, I've watched it over and over again were couples have come up to me after being with us just for a few times, and even though I have never made a comment as to living in fornication, yet all of a sudden they know what they're doing is wrong. What brought them to that conviction? Not the preacher, but the work of the Holy Spirit in that process of regenerating them and drawing them to God.

Now the Holy Spirit will also convince men of righteous. It becomes clear what this means when we see that it is Jesus Christ's righteousness of which men will be convinced. Jesus was crucified as a criminal. He was tried; he was found guilty; he was regarded by the Jews as an evil heretic, and by the Romans as a dangerous character; he was given the punishment that the worst criminals had to suffer, branded as a felon and an enemy of God. What changed that? What made men see in this crucified figure the Son of God, as the centurion saw at the Cross when he said: "Truly this was the Son of God." It was the work of the Holy Spirit. It is He who convinces men of the sheer righteousness of Christ, backed by the fact that Jesus rose again and went to His Father.

What it means here is the Holy Spirit will convict of righteousness. What brings us as a heart to that point where all of a sudden the person that meant so little to us, a person of history, all of a sudden Jesus becomes foremost in our lives and we must deal with Him and we realized Him to be the perfect righteous Son of God? What is it that brings us to that understanding of who the person of Jesus Christ is and what He accomplished at the cross? It's the work of the Holy Spirit.

Do you see what I'm trying to say, folks? When we don't understand the Holy Spirit and His work and His ministry amongst us, we really have a diminished concept of the God of the Bible. But it's the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, that brings into fruition and to completion what Christ accomplished at the cross. He's the one that draws us. He's the one that opens our minds. He's the one that convict us. He's the one that convinces us of the righteousness of Christ. Let's go on.

The Holy Spirit convinces men of judgment. On the cross, evil stands condemned and defeated. What makes a man feel certain that judgment lies ahead? It is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is He Who gives us the inner and unshakeable conviction that we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. It's the work of the Holy Spirit that implants within the human breast the knowledge that someday we're going to have to stand in the presence of God. There will be a judgment and all of us will stand there and give an account for our deeds done in the flesh. Now what makes us to believe that? What makes us to know beyond the shadow of a doubt, and is built within the very nature of man that there is a judgment day coming, and that sin must be judged?

You talk to sinner on the street... very few in the recent report that was done by Barna, as he did a survey, I think it's 94 or 95 percent of people that they interviewed said there will be a judgment day and all of us will give an account on that day of judgment. What makes that truth so pronounced and so real? It's the Holy Spirit that imprints that truth deep on our heart and the heart of all mankind. So Jesus said when the Holy Spirit comes, it will be He that will convince you of sin, convince you of righteousness as to the person of Christ, and it will be He that will make judgment's day very real. We will all stand there someday.

It is the Holy Spirit who places a new heart within us. Who opens our minds to receive the spiritual truths of eternity and the gospel, and takes off the blindfold that Satan has blinded our eyes to the glorious person of Jesus Christ. It's the Holy Spirit Who imparts life. Now let's put down our notes and just let me close.

We're made up of three distinct parts to our personality; we have a mind, we have a conscience, and we have a heart. The Holy Spirit in that process of regenerating us bringing us into God's family, deals with all three of those aspects of our personality. The Bible says the mind is blinded, we cannot understand spiritual truths. The work of the Holy Spirit is to cause our minds to begin to comprehend eternal truth. That's the Holy Spirit.

Some of you sitting here tonight, you can remember back when you lived in sin, but then you came in contact with the gospel, somehow either through a radio program, through the reading of the Bible, through a friend, through the family, through a church service, but you watched a process begin or you experienced a process where spiritual truth bit by a bit became clear to you. That's the work of the Holy Spirit; taking the mind and opening up the mind to comprehend. It's an amazing thing. We call it the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit in divine revelation.

And I watch this as new people come in and they're just searching for God then little bits of eternal truth start trickling into their mind. It's almost like a flower beginning to bloom. What becomes very precious to them is the word of God because it's the Holy Spirit takes the word of God and illuminates those truths to our hearts. And you watch a new person in that process of coming into the knowledge of God; the Bible, they've got it marked everywhere, and all kinds of questions. What's happened? It's the Holy Spirit in that the work of regeneration beginning to open up that blinded mind and to make it see.

Now there's another aspect; we have a conscience. And that is part of us that God placed there to give us a moral direction. But because of the fall, because of our sinful nature, the conscience has suffered a ruinous effect. And Paul speaks of the conscience being like seared with a hot iron. And that's why as a nonbeliever the conscience is almost dead there is no real...I mean, you know what's wrong to kill somebody or you know it's wrong when it comes to a major thing, but as to having a sensitivity to the things that come in human relationships and our relationship with God, there's very little. What happens is the Holy Spirit begins to take the conscience and to begin to prick it, and what you find is the closer you get to God the more sensitive the conscience becomes of right and wrong. It's amazing.

That is the work of the Holy Spirit. And when it comes to the heart the Bible says that our heart...we're set at enmity, we're against God because the heart is the seat of affection and the will. But the Holy Spirit begins working on the heart, and the affections, and the will, and begins to change all of that. You know, when you start thinking through this whole process. Now, regeneration is instantaneous when God has dealt with us, revealed, opens our minds and caused our conscious and our hearts to be opened; (Pastor claps his hands) that moment when we say, Lord Jesus, I want to turn my life over to You I want You to be the Savior of my life. That's the culmination of the work of the Holy Spirit that has brought us to that point know as regeneration.

And God takes, by His gracious love and mercy, forgives us through Jesus Christ, puts a new heart within us, and at that moment we become born-again, but it's the Holy Spirit that started that process opening our minds, opening our hearts. That's why you can with every sense of thanksgiving say Holy Spirit of God I thank you for drawing me to Jesus to the knowledge of the cross and to forgiveness. It's the work of the Holy Spirit that does all that. That's why we should honor, I believe, more, honor more the Holy Spirit than we've ever done in the past, because if the Holy Spirit isn't at work, it doesn't get done.

You know, I stand here week after week and I know one thing, I can preach, I can give the truth of the gospel, I can tell the gospel story, I can preach with all my heart, but I know one thing; if the Holy Spirit isn't present it's just words. It's when the Holy Spirit's presence is so mighty those truths, those words, become alive and lives are transformed. And that's why I pray every time we gather together: Holy Spirit of God when we gather this weekend come and open the hearts and minds of those who come for worship so we can understand, so we can believe, so we can grow, O Holy Spirit of God do that. Amen?

Lord Jesus, we're trying to grasp, we're trying to understand...this one thing we do know, O Holy Spirit of God, we're here tonight because You've done a work in our hearts, You opened our minds, You made our hearts tender, You quickened our conscience to spiritual matters. You've opened us up so that we can believe and we can trust You dear Jesus as Lord and Savior. Holy Spirit of God we thank you for that, we thank you for that. And my prayer is that as this weekend, tomorrow the services come and people will come for worship, Holy Spirit of God I ask You to come in all of Your glory, in all of Your power, in all of Your majesty and work in the hearts and lives of all of us, O Holy Spirit of God I pray. And everybody said...amen. God bless you folks, God bless you.