WEBVTT

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"What Father among you

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if his son asks for a fish

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will instead of a fish

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give him a serpent?

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Or if he asks for an egg

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will give him a scorpion?

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If you then who are evil

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know how to give good gifts

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to your children,

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how much more will your heavenly Father

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give the Holy Spirit to 
those who ask Him?"

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Now, brethren, I would 
just challenge you here.

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How much more will your heavenly Father

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give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?

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One thing I want you to see right off

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and absolutely clearly

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and make no mistake about:

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These are saved men

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asking Jesus to teach them to pray.

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These are not lost men asking Jesus

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how to be saved.

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Now that's important

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because the way to be saved

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is not to ask God for the Holy Spirit.

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You understand that, right?

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Because there can be 
a misunderstanding here.

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People can look at this and they can say,

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well, if they're asking 
for the Holy Spirit,

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maybe that means that they 
don't have the Holy Spirit

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and people that don't have the Holy Spirit

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are lost people,

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and so you go the Father and 
you ask Him for the Spirit,

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and basically, if, you know,

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Paul says this in Roman 8,

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if you don't have the Spirit,

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you don't belong to Jesus Christ.

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Right? So maybe it's people

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who don't have the Spirit,

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who don't belong to Jesus Christ

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coming to the Father to get the Spirit

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so that they can get saved.

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I don't know if any of you 
have ever thought that,

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but that is obviously not what that means.

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What you have is you have the idea

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of a child going to his father,

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which is very consistent 
with the disciples

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asking Jesus to show them how to pray

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to their Father.

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And that's how Jesus started, right?

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Pray this way: "Father..."

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"Our Father..."

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So, what does that mean?

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Obviously every single Christian

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has the Holy Spirit,

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so if we already have the Spirit,

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and if the Spirit once 
takes up residency -

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by the way,

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one of the promises connected

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with the New Covenant

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is that God's going to 
give His Spirit to us.

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He's going to put His Spirit within us.

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And if we don't have that Spirit,

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what is it? About Romans 8:9 I think?

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If we don't have the Spirit,
we don't belong to Christ.

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And obviously, we don't go

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having the Spirit, losing the Spirit,
having the Spirit, losing the Spirit.

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Once that Spirit is given,

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He is with us always.

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Forever.

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Jesus said that.

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Jesus said that this Comforter was coming,

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and He would be with them forever.

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And so what do we make of that?

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Why are we praying for the Holy Spirit

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if we already have the Holy Spirit?

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Well, it's interesting,

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if we look at the parallel passage

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over in Matthew 7,

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it doesn't say "Holy Spirit" there,

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it says "good things."

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It almost seems to me like

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what Luke does is He reaches

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in the bag of good things

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and He brings out the best thing.

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And why would I say the best thing?

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Because Jesus, back there

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in that area where John started -

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the John 14, 15, 16 realm

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where Christ is leaving His disciples -

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do you know why He was telling them

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that He was leaving them peace

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and that they ought not to be afraid?

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Because He was telling 
them at the same time

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that He was going away.

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He was going to be taken away,

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but He said this to them:

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Look, it is more profitable for you

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that I go and the Holy Spirit come.

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There is something

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about having the Holy Spirit

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that is more profitable for the church

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than if Christ remained here bodily,

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earthly Himself.

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And Jesus realized it.

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The Holy Spirit was going to unleash

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such power into the church.

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You think about just what happened

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in the life of Peter.

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Here's Peter walking with Christ

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bodily on the earth,

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and look what he was like,

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versus when Christ leaves, 
the Spirit comes,

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now Peter's filled with the Spirit,

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where before he was denying Christ

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in front of little girls.

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Now he's standing boldly 
before the Sanhedrin

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and he's proclaiming Christ.

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And Christ Himself said

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Peter was going to go all the way

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to laying down his life for Christ.

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The Spirit of God

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endued the church of God

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with power from on high.

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And basically, I think the way

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we want to take Luke 11,

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how much more will our Father

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give the Holy Spirit to them that ask.

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It's the idea of the 
influences of the Spirit,

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and we all have to admit

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that even in that early church,

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they had the Spirit there.

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The Spirit came down on that church

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on the day of Pentecost.

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But some of those very same men

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upon whom that Spirit fell in that day,

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we find later accounts

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where filled with the Holy Spirit

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there was boldness,

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there was all sorts of things
breaking out in the church.

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The power of God is not 
static in the church.

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You can't come to that 
conclusion by the book of Acts.

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You can't come to that 
conclusion historically.

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You can't come to that conclusion probably

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if you've been a Christian 
any length of time,

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you realize it in your own life.

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In the life of the church,

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we have ebbs and flows.

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Brethren, a pastor friend has said,

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brethren, if we have such 
promise in the Scriptures,

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every time we come to pray,

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we ought to be asking for the Holy Spirit.

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For what?

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What does the Holy Spirit 
bring to the church?

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It brought to that early church

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boldness and courage

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to proclaim the Gospel.

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The Holy Spirit brings the Word to mind.

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Remember? He said if they get imprisoned

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or they're brought before these leaders

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that don't worry ahead of time

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what you're going to say?

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Have you guys ever experienced that?

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You've been in a situation -

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maybe you haven't been in prison,

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but you've been in a situation

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where immediately you needed something

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and God gave it to you.

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Brethren, He brings the 
fruits of the Spirit.

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The chief one is love.

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You just can't get away from it.

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The New Testament is basically this:

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Christ gave a new commandment.

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That commandment is a commandment of love.

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That is the greatest test of Christianity.

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Love.

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And the Spirit is the one 
Who gives it to us.

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A love for Christ Himself.

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A love on the horizontal 
plane for one another.

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A love in the church.

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We heard about peace.

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He gives that peace.

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My peace I leave with you.

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Where does that peace come from?

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We find in Galatians 5 distinctly

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that peace comes from the Spirit of God.

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This Spirit is the one Who gives gifts

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to the church.

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Do we want gifts?

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Do we want laborers?

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Do we want men and women

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who have abilities to minister,

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to show mercy,

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to give, to teach, to serve?

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Absolutely!

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All that gamut of gifts.

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Even the supernatural element.

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Brethren, it's the Spirit of God

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that gives those things.

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The Spirit of God is that Spirit

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which we are warned against quenching.

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Quenching has the idea

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of throwing water on a fire.

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You throw water on a fire,

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it diminishes its heat.

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It diminishes its light.

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The Spirit is what infuses the church

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with light and heat.

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We need to pray for the Spirit.

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When the Spirit helps us,

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when the Spirit empowers us,

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it's only then, brethren,

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that we can advance

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and we can take ground.

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It's the Spirit of God

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that puts that fire in the 
hearts of men and women

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to go forth, to lay down their lives

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for the Gospel's sake,

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to sacrifice.

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It's the Holy Spirit that we need

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in order to have a powerful Gospel.

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It's the Holy Spirit

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that causes men to be born again.

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We want to see life in this church.

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We want to see growth.

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Don't we find also,

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what is it about 2 Thessalonians 2:13?

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1 Thessalonians 2:13

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We find there, brethren,

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we are sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

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Sanctification. Any kind of growth.

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Don't we also find in 2 Corinthians 3:18,

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that by the Lord Who is the Spirit,

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that's how we behold the glory of Christ?

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And are transformed into His image

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from one degree of glory to another?

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Brethren, the Spirit of God

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is also an intercessor in our prayers.

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We find that in Romans 8.

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The Spirit is a Spirit of adoption.

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And He bears witness with our spirits

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that we're children of God.

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Beloved, do we want 
assurance in this church?

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I'll tell you what,

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it's when we have a hope of salvation,

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and a deep-founded assurance

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that you can lay your 
life down for Christ.

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People would go around

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doubting, wondering,

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not sure if they're in, 
sure if they're out,

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very difficult for people like that

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to really launch out and 
do anything for Christ.

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Brethren, we need the Spirit's power

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and His working in our midst.

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And what we have here is a promise.

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What we have here is disciples

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coming to Christ and saying,

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"Teach us to pray."

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And He wraps up this whole 
instruction on prayer

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with this: be persistent.

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Ask and seek and knock.

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And above every other thing

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that He talks to us about asking for,

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He says seek from your 
Father the Holy Spirit.

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I believe that when it says 
ask for the Holy Spirit,

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the idea is that we are to ask

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for His influences,

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for His fiery influences.

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Brethren, we don't want 
to quench that Spirit.

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We want to ask for it.

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Did that about use up that 20 minutes?

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Pretty close.

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I just leave you with this thought.

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"How much more will the heavenly Father

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give the Holy Spirit to 
those who ask Him?"

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Did you catch those last words?

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To those who ask Him.

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Brethren, you let your Calvinism

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take you in a direction

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where you logically start to conclude

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that your prayers don't matter -

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James says you have not 
because you do not ask.

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Brethren, if you've got 
a sort of Calvinism

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that doesn't believe that statement,

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then dump it.

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Prayer matters.

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God hears prayer.

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God gives the Holy Spirit 
to those who ask.

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Jesus does not say

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that if you don't ask, don't seek,

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don't knock, God is sovereign,

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God has His decrees,

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and He's going to do it anyways.

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He doesn't say that.

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He says He gives the Holy Spirit

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to them that ask.

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Brethren, God forbid we get to the end

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and we find we could have had more

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if we would have asked for it,

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but we just didn't ask.

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God help us to not get to that place.

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Amen.

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You're dismissed for the moment.