Hope Church LV Sermons
Guest Speaker: Mike Laughrun
- Well, hey man, good evening church. (audience applauds) Aaron did do a good job, didn't he? Way to go, man, that was awesome. (audience applauds) Oh man, it is good to be back in Sin City, Las Vegas, Nevada. That always sounds funny to say that, done it. It is good to be back in Sin City, but it is. I wanna say hello to you, and it's great to be here, great to see some familiar faces, and it's great to see some brand new faces. If you're a brand new face around, and you're wondering who is that guy, well I'll tell you real quick, my name's Mike Lauren, and God allowed me to be a part of a team that planted this church almost 12 years ago. And this place will always have a very special place in my heart, my family's heart, and it really is a joy to be back here and to see what God is doing here. And I wanna say a big congratulations to you guys for a couple things. We got to drive by the property over there on cactus and saw the ground breaking and the concrete poured and all that stuff, praise the Lord for that. And I've been talking to Joe and being about Boulder City, good things going on out there, so just a lot happening here in Las Vegas. And folks are asking me two questions, so I'm just gonna go ahead and answer those questions really quick to make it easy. First question is, how is Tennessee? 'Cause if you don't know, God has called my family to pastor Tri-Cities Baptist Church in Tennessee. And I just wanna tell you, we absolutely love where we are. God has humbled us by letting us be at a fabulous church. They're in the Upper East Tennessee area, just a church that's alive with the activity of God. And we really have to pinch ourselves sometimes and say, it's gotta really let us do something that we love so much. So we're exactly where we're supposed to be, but we're who we are really because of what God did in our lives at this church and through you. So we love you, we love what God has done here. And that's kind of the first question folks ask. How are you doing? Second question, what they really wanna know is, did Jennifer come with you? Yes, my wife is here, she's out there somewhere, where is she? Waves, everybody, my sweet wife is here. Everybody's like, yeah, we're really glad you're here pastor Mike, but where's your wife? We really wanna see her. So she's here, our kids are doing great, our three kids and they're home back in Tennessee with grandparents, which is a huge blessing there. So it's a joy to be with you guys tonight. So let's take a look at God's word, how does that sound? Let me ask you to take the Bible and turn. And if you guys have been in hope for a while, you're probably gonna chuckle when I say the book that I want you to turn to, but turn to the gospel of John, if you will. Chapter eight. And if you're new and have no idea why they're laughing, that's because at the beginning of this church, many, many years ago, we took five years to walk through the gospel of John. So we're gonna revisit a couple verses here. So find your place in John chapter seven. I said chapter eight, but turn to John chapter seven, verse 38. Really wanna begin with a question for you tonight to kind of ponder there for a second. That's this question. Why is it, and you guys can just be very honest in your own heart here and kind of answer this before the Lord, but why is it in our lives that so often there's a gap. There is a large gap that exists between what we read on the pages of this book and the life that we really live out on a day in and day out basis. You all ever wonder that? You know, there's some passages that you'll read and you'll come across these passages and you'll read those and you'll become so excited. And then if you're real honest, you'll look at what the Bible says of the kind of life that we could be living as Jesus followers. And then you're real honest and you take an assessment of the life that we are living out on a day in and day out basis and you realize there's a huge gap between the two. Or maybe you hear a preacher kind of waxing eloquent or you know another brother or sister in Christ and you look at what God may be doing in their life or you hear a message and you go, "Oh God, I see that and I think that could be my life." And but what I'm experiencing on a day in and day out basis is just very different from that. For example, you read a verse like this, 2 Timothy 1, 7, I'm just going to read this too. You don't have to look there. But Paul says, "You have not received a spirit of fear "but of power and of love and of self control." And you read that verse and you go, "Man as a believer, I've received a spirit of power. "But if I look at my life and I was real honest "and we took the spiritual, you know the face, "the church face off and we said, "my life to be real honest is probably characterized "by more something like fear than power." Or best of luck, if I were real honest, it's not characterized by the love that God is talking about there, that supernatural love that, and I read about it, I hear about it, but on a day in and day out basis, that's just not what I'm experiencing here. Self-controller, or are we read Philippians 4-6? You know that one, be anxious for nothing, right? Oh, and everything through prayer and supplication, let your request be made known to God and the what's the next word? Peace of God. And we read that and we think the peace of God will surround my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus. My life can be characterized by supernatural peace, regardless of the circumstances. But then we step back and we look at our day in and day out, life that we're living and we say that's really what characterizes my life, I wish it were. Why is that? Well, Jesus makes a statement here in John chapter seven, it's very compelling for us tonight, and I want us to take a look at that. John chapter seven, beginning of verse 38, Jesus makes one of those statements. Makes one of those statements that you hear it and we read it and you go, Lord, I believe that's true, I know it's in your word, but I wish that we're really more true in my life. Bible says there in verse 37, Jesus says now on the last day of the great feast, Jesus is there in Jerusalem, it's been a great feast, there's thousands of people around. Bible says that Jesus stood up and he cried out. He doesn't just whisper here, Jesus makes a statement and he shouting it to the people who are around and listen what he says. He says, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. And then he makes a characteristic statement that can be true of every Jesus follower, verse 38, he says, he who believes in me, that's a Jesus follower, that's those of us that have come to know Christ, place our faith in Christ, he who believes in me, and I watch this as the scripture says, from his innermost being, the literal translation there and your translation may say from his gut, from his belly, from the inner deep core of who he is, Jesus says there will be a river, there'll be a flow of a river of living water from his innermost being. Now what is Jesus saying there? If you were in Jesus' day, you might understand what he was saying a little bit more. Jesus, Jesus is describing a potential condition of the human heart and Jesus lived in a barren wasteland. Jesus lived in the area of Judea, Jerusalem, and it was a desert land. Does anybody know anything about a desert land? It was dry and it was kind of a wasteland and, you know, I just moved to Tennessee, and I don't know if you know, but there's a big difference between Tennessee and Las Vegas. You know, out here, there's not a lot of green, and God's let us go to a place where there is a lot of green, and I lived here for 12 years and worked real hard to get grass to grow. And now we're working real hard in Tennessee to get it to stop growing. You know what the difference is? Rain. Now listen, water. So to live in a desert, what you understand is to live in a desert, you know that where there's water, there's life, where there is no water, there is no life. Jesus is saying there's a potential condition of the human heart that's not just a trickle of life, it is a flow of life. It's like a stream of living water. It's if you can picture in your mind's eye, this mountain stream just flowing with life, and all around this mountain stream is life. And it's flowing from my life into the lives of other people. Jesus is saying, for those who believe in me, those who follow me, there is a way of life that's characterized like a mountain stream. It's a place of life. And man, it's not superficial. It's not just on the surface. It's not just a church mask that you wear. It's a quality of life that flows from your core, your gut, your innermost being. He says that kind of way is possible. That kind of life is possible. Now listen, we read that verse and here's what we think, if we're real honest. We hear what Jesus is saying. There's a quality of life that's available. And then if we're real honest, we look at our own lives and we go, there's a gap there. Why is that? Well, Jesus is gonna explain it a little bit why as believers, it doesn't have to be that way. He goes on and he says in verse 39, "But of this, he spoke of the Spirit." Jesus is speaking of the Holy Spirit of God. And he's saying, there is a kind of life that's available to every believer that can be characterized by this. The spirit-filled life. The life that is characterized by the activity of the very spirit of Jesus living within us. Listen to some promises the Bible makes about our life. Philippians 1, 6, Paul says, "For I'm confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. God is it working you." Philippians chapter two says, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." Second Corinthians chapter three says, "Be holding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image from glory from the glory." Now listen, not just from the Lord, the spirit. The spirit of God is alive. He is at work in you, child of God, if you know Jesus today. And he is at work in you to take what we read in this book, to take the life of Jesus that we look at, the life of Jesus that we read about and to flesh out the life of Jesus in our life so that our lives are like a gushing river of living water that's flowing from our innermost being. Henry Blackaby said it this way. He said, "From the moment you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit began a divine work in you to produce the character of Jesus Christ." Listen, regardless of who you are, the spirit works from the same model Jesus Christ. He has a pattern. He has a model. It's the person of Christ. And he is fleshing the life of Jesus Christ out through you. Now listen, he's doing it through the activity and the work of the very spirit of Jesus living inside of you. That's the work of God. So really the question for us then on a day in and day out basis, Jesus, if this is what you're saying here is true. And there is a quality of life in me that is characterized by rivers of living water flowing from my innermost being. Here's the question, how do I then respond to the activity of the spirit in my life on a day in and day out basis? Jesus follower, if you follow Christ, the reality is the spirit is alive in you. He's at work in you, but listen, let me just share with you. Here's how we respond sometimes. We hear about the work of the spirit and we hear a message or we read our Bibles and we hear about what's offered to us, this life that's offered to us of joy and peace and meaning and purpose. And here's what we do. We say, all right, I'm going to bridge this gap that exists between what the Bible says can be my life and the actual life that I experience on a day in and day out basis. Here's how I'm going to bridge this gap and we've all lived there ready. One thing we do is we say, man, I'm going to bridge that gap by sheer human effort. Watch me go. And you say, man, I'm going to try harder. I'm going to do more. Man, I'm not much of a morning person, but I'm going to sit my alarm clock and I'm going to get up at 4 AM. I'm going to read a book of the Bible every single day and I'm going to start in Leviticus. I'm going to make it hard as it can be. And you're not much of a morning person. I mean, nobody really wants to be around you at 4 AM. Jesus doesn't want to be around you at 4 AM, but you say, man, I'm going to get up. So we start all this human effort and this list of things, man, we're going to do to bridge that gap. You all ever been there? Does it bridge the gap? So we come up with another idea. We say, OK, here's what I'll do is I know there's a gap between what I read in Scripture and what I live out in my life. So I'm going to pretend that there is no gap. And here's what I'll do. I'll put my church mask on and the issue for me then becomes not what kind of person I really am in my innermost being. The question is, what kind of person can I appear to be to those around me and we'll put on the church mask? You ever been there? Or then we'll do this. We'll live on the merry-go-round of recommitment. Oh, man, every time a new speaker comes in or every time you say, man, I'm going to recommit my life. Next week we'll recommit my life again. That one didn't take. I'll try it again. Listen, God's not looking for a recommitment. And then here's what some other people do. They change spiritual venues. They say, man, the gap is not getting any closer between what I read as possible in this book and my life. So I know what I'll do. I'll just change churches. This church is not working for me. I'll find another one. So we change spiritual venues. We try all these things to bridge the gap. And here's what Jesus is saying. There's one who is at work in you to bridge that gap. It is God through his spirit who is at work in you to bridge that gap. It is the spirit of Jesus Christ. You say, when did the spirit come to live inside of me? The moment you became a believer, the spirit of Jesus Christ came to live inside of you and to indwell you. What is he doing? He is at work moment by moment by moment by moment to conform you to the image of Jesus so that that gap is becoming less and less and less. And you're becoming less of like what you used to be and more and more like the very person of Jesus Christ. So here's the question for you and me. Jesus says it's like a flow. It's like a river, if you will, a river of living water. It's like this, the spirit of God is constantly and work in my life. John Orpberg says it this way. What if the spirit of God is like a river and he is flowing, if you will, all the time through my life? My job is simply to jump in the river. How do I from one moment to the next stay in the flow of the Holy Spirit of God? How do I avoid those things that close me off from the work of the spirit and how do I keep myself submitted to the activity of the supernatural spirit of God living inside of me? So that's our question tonight. We're going to ask this question and we're going to try to answer it and we'll be done. The question is this, how do you and how do I relate to the activity of the spirit of God in my life moment to moment to moment to moment to moment? Okay, and I'm going to give you three ways we relate to the activity of the Holy Spirit. Two of them is the way we don't want to relate to him and then the other one is how we do relate to the spirit of God in our life. Okay, let me give you these. How do we relate to the Holy Spirit? You can write these down. We're kind of going unplugged tonight. We don't have a PowerPoint or anything like that. So you're just going to have to listen to them. You're all right, I'm going to give you these. How do we relate to the Holy Spirit? Number one, we quench the activity of the spirit of God. You can write this verse down. We won't take the time to look it up. First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 19 says this. Paul speaking to the church at Thessalonica, he says, "Do not," in other words, you don't want to do this. Don't quench the activity of the spirit. Do not quench the spirit, Paul says. In other words, what he's saying is it's very possible. We have the capacity as human beings for the spirit of God to be at work in your heart and in my life, to be prompting, guiding, leading, directing, speaking to us. And we have the capacity, the word quench is this. We have the capacity to go like this. It's like if you could picture the activity of the Holy Spirit like a match. When you strike a match and it's the glow in the activity of the spirit, the spirit's not an it, it's a he. It's a third member of the Trinity. God Almighty, living inside of you, but you can quench his activity according to Paul. What does that mean? What does that look like? The word quench means to extinguish. It means to put out the fire. Does that mean the spirit ever leaves a believer? No, but it is possible to diminish his activity in your life. In other words, some of us are living there right now. And we're in a place that we've been opening our Bibles and we've been spending time with the Lord or we've been coming to this place and we've been hearing the word of God being taught and we sense the activity in God and God's prompting us to something. If you ever experienced one of those times when the Holy Spirit of God is just giving you a little nudge or He's giving you a little prompting, maybe it's from the Scripture, maybe it's from another believer, maybe it's from a pastor or a friend, and you can sense God is prompting you to something. We see that in the book of Acts. You don't have to turn there again. The Acts chapter 8, it says of Philip. That Philip was walking along a desert road and there was a Ethiopian unique there and the Bible says the Spirit of God prompted Philip to go join him up in that chariot. The Spirit of God often prompts us to activity. He prompts us to take a step of obedience. But here's what we have the capacity to do in that moment. The Holy Spirit speaks. He guides us. He prompts our hearts to action. But in that moment of prompting, leading, guiding, directing, whatever it is, we have the choice to simply step out of obedience or to say, "No Holy Spirit of God, I'm not going to do that today." And here's what you've done. The Holy Spirit of God is flowing like a river and you've simply tried to dam up that river and to stop His activity in your life. You say, "Why is it that there are some people that I see and I look at their Christian life?" And it just seems like God's all over them. God's using them. The fruit of the Spirit is so evident in their life and God is so working their life. Here's the difference. Often the difference is there are some people who will place themselves in a position to hear the voice of God, to hear God speak through His Word. Listen, is God still speaking today? Yes. God is alive and well and He speaks to His children. Most often through His Word and the activity of the Holy Spirit. People place themselves in a position to hear God speak. But then when He speaks, they step out in obedience and say, "Yes Lord, I hear Your voice and I'm going to obey." Now let me just give a word of caution. It is a dangerous thing to be a child of God and to pray something like this. "Oh Lord, would You lead me today?" "Oh Lord, I pray You'll guide me today and I pray You'll direct me because listen, He'll do it." And it's a dangerous thing to be in a church like this where the Word of God is preached faithfully day in and day out weekly basis and you're hearing from God because God will lead. He will direct. He will nudge. He will guide. He is guiding you. That's the activity of the Spirit. But each of us have a decision to make when God speaks. "Yes Lord, I'm going to go on with You in this flow of the Spirit or I'm going to quench the activity of God in my life." Where are you today? Is there any area of your life right now? Small, large, whatever it is. It may be a teeny little timesy area and you think, "Man, that's no big deal." Listen, the Bible teaches clearly the principle that when we're faithful with what we're given, God gives us more. You say, "I wish God would lead me. I wish God would direct me. I wish God would speak." Listen, if we're not listening to the voice of God in the small things, he'll never speak to you about the bigger things. Why would he? So is God speaking? Is he prompting at that moment, "Have you quenched the activity of the Spirit?" Number two. Not only do we have the capacity to quench the activity of the Spirit, secondly, we have the capacity Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4 to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. What does that mean? Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30, Paul says, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." There's a second way we can relate to the Spirit, we can grieve Him. The word grieve here literally means to afflict with sorrow, to be saddened. The word grieve is a very powerful word, but it's literally a relational word. What does that mean? That means you can only be grieved by those whom you have a deep relationship. Somebody else can make you sad. Somebody else can kind of hurt your feelings from time to time. But it's the difference, the depth of the relationships determines how deep you can be grieved by somebody. For example, it's one thing to hear about the drug problem in our schools, and you hear that and you go, "Oh man, that breaks my heart, I hate to hear that." But it's another thing to get that call from the principle and say, "It's not just a problem, it's your child." And then it's gone from just being hurt to being grieved. Listen, here's what God's saying. He loves you so much. And because of the depth of the relationship you have with God Almighty, when we choose to sin and we choose to go against the will of God, and we choose to be involved in things that we know are not God's best for us, God loves us so much it grieves the very heart of God. We have the capacity to grieve the Spirit of God who is living inside of us. John MacArthur says this, "All sin is painful to God, but sin in the life of His children breaks His heart." Here's what that means as far as the flow and the activity of the Spirit of God in your life right now. Some of us, and I live there from time to time too, we're wanting the Spirit to work in our lives, we're wanting to become more like Christ, we're wanting to see God use us, but if we were real honest, it's like we've placed some things in the flow of that river that are just damming up that river. And until we get to the place that we're real honest with God, and we'll go before God in a spirit of brokenness, and a spirit of confession, and a spirit of repentance, you're not experiencing the flow of the Spirit, you're experiencing a little trickle of the Spirit of God at best. That can be an attitude. That can be an attitude of bitterness. That can be an attitude of an ungrateful heart. That can be something ongoing in your life that you know is not pleasing to the Lord, and it's not that you're struggling, it's that you're unwilling to even admit it's wrong. Listen, we all struggle with things, but these are the things we're hiding back in our closet, we don't want anybody to know about them, and we don't think it affects anybody but us. Listen, God knows your heart so deeply, He knows every thought, He knows everything in your life, and when we choose to do those things, God loves us so much. It grieves the very heart of the Spirit of God in our life. Some of you guys are living there tonight. Listen, I think one of the things that grieves the heart of God more than anything in our lives is when we respond to His activity with unbelief. Our God leads us, our God prompts us, and we simply will not step out in obedience, we simply will not trust Him, and we simply just stop, and we grieve the heart of God. Some of you guys are living there tonight, you just trust Him. Spirit of God wants to bridge that gap, the Spirit of God wants to produce the life of Jesus Christ in you, and we're quenching the Spirit, we're grieving the Spirit of God, but listen, there's a better way. Jesus says there's a better way, He says from our innermost being we can experience the flow of the activity of the Spirit of Jesus Christ in our life, what does that look like? Here's your third option. We can quench the Spirit, we can grieve the Spirit, our number three, very simply, we submit to the control of the Spirit of God in our lives. Paul says in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 18, I'm going to read this out of the new living translation, he gives us a word picture here, he includes an illustration, and here's what he says, Paul speaking to the believers there, he says don't be drunk with wine, he says instead, because that'll ruin your life, he said instead be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. And then we hear that sometime in Christian circles and we said the Spirit filled life or be filled with the Spirit, and I don't think sometimes we really have a good grasp of what that literally means in our life, that doesn't mean gaining the Spirit, we gain the Spirit at the moment of salvation, he comes to live inside of you, but what does it mean to live under the control and the direction and the guidance of the Spirit of God moment by moment by moment in your life, I'm going to give you three words real quick, we're done. Paul says do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit, the first word is influence. See Paul uses this illustration because I'm not in any way saying that any of you all have ever experienced this, okay? But it's possible if I were to go out of here tonight, and you know, it is Vegas, right? And I go down on the strip and my wife and I go down, we go to this restaurant, we drink a little bit too much alcohol, we get a little tipsy, you know, and pretty soon that alcohol is going to be what, controlling us, right? It's going to be guiding our decisions, it's going to be guiding our reactions, it's going to be guiding the way we talk, the way we walk, it's going to be guiding the way we act because we have placed ourselves under the influence of alcohol. Paul says listen, child of God, you don't have to be under the influence of anything but the Spirit of Jesus. He is prompting, he is guiding, he is leading. The question for you tonight, right now on a day in and day out basis, who is the greatest influence in your life, or what is influencing your life? What is influencing your attitudes? Is it your situation? Is it your job? Is it your spouse? Is it things that aren't going right? Is it your present circumstances? What you're doing is you're letting something else control your life when the Bible says listen, submit yourself to the control of the Spirit of God in your life. Don't let alcohol or anything else for that matter be in charge. The Spirit of God wants to guide and lead and prompt your life. You say what does that look like? Colossians 3 16 says let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. How does the Spirit of God control us? Practically speaking, we place ourselves where we can hear from the Spirit of God on a regular day by day basis. We're in the Word of God and the Spirit speaks and we submit and we listen to His guidance. John MacArthur again said practically speaking the Spirit-filled life as a matter of hearing God's voice and obeying what He says. It's not some euphoric ecstatic experience where we're slain in the Spirit or we go through some, it's simply hearing the voice of God on a moment by moment basis or being so filled with the Word of God at that moment of decision about our finances or a moment of decision about our family or that moment of decision about our future. Who's the major influence in our life? Paul says let it be the Spirit of God. He wants to bridge that lap for you to have that kind of life that He promises. First word is influence. Second word is decision. Paul says be filled with the Spirit. It's an imperative. It's a command. It's a choice. And that moments of decision throughout your day to speak that word or not speak that word, to help that person or not help that person, to share the gospel or not share the gospel, to turn it over to God or to try to walk in anxiety and fear. Those moment by moment, second by second decisions, either to submit to the control of the Spirit or to just bear it on your own walk in the flesh. That's our two choices. And then the third word is simply this moment by moment. Moment by moment. See basically living in the Spirit and walking in the power of the Spirit of God is this, to be filled with the Spirit is a moment by moment day by day decision to submit every area of our lives to greater and greater control of the Spirit of God who lives within us. Listen, living the kind of life that Jesus promises is not us getting more of the Spirit. It's the Spirit of God getting more of us and having greater and greater and greater and greater control of every area of our lives. See that? So for you, child of God tonight, who's that influence in your life? That flow of the Spirit in your life, is there something that's damming up the flow of the Spirit? Is there a place in your life right now if you realize you've quenched the activity of the Spirit? I don't know. We don't get to do this in Tennessee very much because we live about six hours from the ocean, but when we lived here every now and then a couple of times a year we would go out to the Pacific Ocean and there was a couple of times women out there and I tried my hand at boogie boarding. Why are y'all laughing? And I didn't really know how to boogie board, but there is something I learned about boogie boarding. The size of the board didn't really matter a lot or the weather or even a whole lot of skill level, but here's what mattered in boogie boarding and I learned this a little bit about surfing too, is to catch that wave and get that thing to bring me from where I am to where I want to be back in the shore. It really is all about positioning myself on this board to being rightly controlled as that wave comes in. And here was the good thing I learned about boogie boarding is every time I would fall off, which was most of the time, listen, you know what was coming again? Another wave. And listen, what does that have to do with walking in the spirit? Here's what it has to do. Listen, God loves you so much. The activity of the spirit is like those waves. When we blow it and we quench his spirit, or we grieve his spirit and we say, God, I'm sorry, I blew it. Lord forgive me. Lord, I confess that. You know what's coming? Another wave. You know what that's called? Grace. You say, Lord, I've blown it more than I've gotten it right, me too. But man, the waves just keep coming because the spirit of God has made a commitment. He's going to make you like Jesus. He's at work in you. I don't want to quench him. I don't want to grieve him. I want to submit and cooperate with the activity of the spirit of God in my life. And he's going to bridge that gap between the kind of life that's promised for me in this book and the kind of life that I'm experiencing on a day in and day out basis. That's the grace of God. Amen. Church, I want to ask you about your heads right there tonight. And I'm not sure where you are tonight, but right there's your heads are bowed and as Aaron comes and plays softly for just a minute, I want to ask you just to have a time of decision tonight. And it simply may mean this before the Lord right now, if you are a Jesus follower, be honest with God enough to ask him this question, Lord, am I grieving your spirit? Lord, is there anywhere in my life right now that I'm not experiencing what I could because I'm quenching your spirit? And just be honest with God. He already knows anyway. Lord, forgive me for that. Forgive me for trusting myself. Forgive me for holding on tightly to that. Forgive me for yielding to the influence of this or that in my life. Lord, I want you to be in control of every area of my life. Just a moment we're all going to stand and sing together and some of you may need to sit right there and continue to do business with God. Some of you may want to come forward and pray with one of these guys that's down front or come forward and let me pray with you. Some of you tonight, you hear about the activity of the Spirit and you can't even relate to that and listen to what Scripture says, "He who does not have the Spirit does not belong to Christ." It's not an issue of the Spirit. It's an issue that you've never come to know Jesus. Never surrendered your life to Christ. Not that you had the Spirit and He left. Once you know Christ, He says, "I'll never leave your forsake you." The question is, have you ever come to know Jesus? Have you ever submitted your life to Him in repentance of faith and embraced the gift of God, of salvation through Christ? If not tonight when we stand, come and take one of these guys by the hand or me and we'll explain to you what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Lord, we love you tonight. We thank you for this time. God, do a great work in our hearts. Lord, we want to be a people. We want to be a church that's led, God had directed, promised, prompted by the Spirit of God. We yield to you. In Jesus' mighty name, we pray together. Amen and amen.