Speaker 1: 0:13

Okay, it's going to be good.

Speaker 2: 0:20

Now 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 else can do the things you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered him. Nicodemus said to him. Jesus answered, truly truly, 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 its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

Speaker 2: 1:26

Nicodemus said to him how can these things be? And Jesus answered him Are you of the teacher of Israel? And yet you do not understand these things. Truly, truly, I say to you we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things. No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up that whomever believes in him may have eternal life. Thank you.

Speaker 3: 4:19

I'm going to go ahead and do that, all right, thank you, all right, thank you. We not only heard the Word, we felt it too, didn't we? You feel the Holy Spirit work through that. It's just powerful, just powerful. Well, I'm Joe Grano. I'm glad to be back with you.

Speaker 3: 4:35

I was here a few weeks ago in this Holy Spirit study. I talked about the word study. The word ruach in Hebrew and pneuma in Greek are translated as breath, wind and spirit, and they refer to the Holy Spirit, do so by looking at the person of Nicodemus. Nicodemus' story comes in the Gospel of John. Gospel of John is a powerful, wonderful book. It's so different than the other ones. Most of his book has to deal with the last week of Jesus and a lot of that is just the last 12 hours of Jesus' life. And he is structured in a way that some scholars would look at it this way that there are seven signs, there are seven I Am statements and there are seven discourses.

Speaker 3: 5:25

Seven signs, miracles. The Greek word that's used here just a little tangent is samea, and I have a granddaughter by the name of Samea and she was given that name because she was a sign or miracle for our family. She was born with a bilateral cleft, palate and lip. Her lip was stuck up on her nose, she had a brain cyst, she had a heart murmur, had an extra thumb on her hand and she has had to go through a lot of surgeries. But she's just been a miracle in our lives. She's 16 years old now, going to be a junior this coming week, and we just thank God for her. So that's one of the signs.

Speaker 3: 6:10

So Jesus did seven miracles that are in John. He had seven. I Am statements where he says I am the door, I am the good shepherd, I am the way, the truth, the life. Seven I am statements where he says I am the door, I am the good shepherd, I am the way, the truth, the life, I am the resurrection and the life. And it's more than just saying I am those things. The word I am is actually the name for God, that's God's name, and I believe that he's saying that he is God by using those terms. And then he has seven discourses, that is, seven major teachings. If you have a red-letter Bible in which the words of Jesus are in red letters, you'll see seven major sections, In contrast to Matthew who only has five. They chose them for a particular reason. You see, these were structured together to make a point. And so why is it 777? Seven is the holy number, it's God's number and he's making a point of these. Jesus did more than seven miracles. He did I Am more than seven times. He taught more than seven times.

Speaker 3: 7:07

But John, because of what he's trying to do, puts it together this way. But then we look at the characteristics of John, and John's characteristics are that he is much more metaphorical, he is much more theological than the other writers. In fact, he begins that way In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God. He's referencing Jesus, but he's using a metaphorical word to express this, and part of his reason is because of the audiences to whom he is writing. He's writing partially to a Jewish audience and that's why he says in the beginning, which refers back to Genesis 1.1. In the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth. But then he uses this word word in the Greek it's logos because he's also speaking to a Greek audience and this Greek audience believed that the Logos had created the world. So John is saying that the Logos I'm going to show you that created the world is this Jesus. And in verse 14, he makes it clear and says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. So he's much more metaphorical in his approach. Also, he is 90% unique.

Speaker 3: 8:24

90% of John is not in Matthew, mark or Luke. Why? Well, I think he's writing 20, 30 years after they are. He's had more time to reflect, more time to have a relationship with God. But also he decided to take a different approach, to do things differently than the other ones had done. So one other thing I want to point out, because it fits into our text today, is his development. He has a way that he developed things and he developed, for instance, the word dark or night.

Speaker 3: 8:56

He uses several passages where Jesus is quoting and he says that people walk in the night, in the darkness, and they stumble and they fall, so you need to walk in the day. He is using something literally, but also figuratively, and John uses the night darkness in a literal and a figurative manner. So one of the most poignant and one of the most powerful statements are at the Last Supper, the Passover feast, jesus is saying somebody's going to betray him, judas leaves, and at the end of that passage in John 13, 30, it says, and it was night. Now, it was night as far as the daylight was concerned, but he was saying more than it was just night. He is saying this is a dark moment, this is an evil moment. Evil is about to do its work, and in Luke he actually clarifies that, because when he is being arrested, he says to the soldiers why didn't you do this in the daylight? I was down at the temple every day, you could have easily arrested me. But evil does its work in darkness, and so that concept is going to fit into what I want to talk about with Nicodemus in just a moment.

Speaker 3: 10:16

Also, he does some character development. It's very interesting. He does some character development. It's very interesting how he develops some characters. And then one example, before I get to Nicodemus, is Mary. Mary is mentioned in chapter 2, where he is at a marriage feast in Cana and that they have a dialogue and she encourages him to help out because they don't have enough wine, and Jesus says to her don't you know, my time has not come yet. The next time that we see Mary in the Gospel of John is in the 19th chapter, when Jesus is on the cross, because his time has come, and so there's a statement, even in the character of Mary, of where she is placed in that book to be able to say something about why Jesus came and what his hour was.

Speaker 3: 11:02

Now we come now to Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a teacher of the law. He is a Pharisee, a Pharisee who was very religious. They were very particular in the things that they did, and he was a part of what's called the Sanhedrin. He was in the ruling group of people, he was in the Supreme Court Congress group, altogether in the Sanhedrin, and he comes to Jesus at night. Now he does come, literally at night. And why does he do that? I think he does it because the Sanhedrin as a whole did not believe in Jesus. In fact, they want to have him arrested, they want to do him in, and so for him to say that he might have some questions and he wants to talk to Jesus is not something he would want the other members of the Sanhedrin to know about. So he comes in the night, so he's in the cover of night, if you will. But I think that there is more there and that in the dialogue that they have, it shows that Nicodemus is in the dark. He doesn't understand. He doesn't understand those things that Jesus has taught, but he doesn't comprehend them, and so he has some questions for clarification, and even as he talks to Jesus, he still doesn't get it. In fact, he makes.

Speaker 3: 12:15

A mistake that we often make when we read Scripture is he took Jesus' words completely literally and you say well, joe, don't you believe in the Bible literally? I say yes, I do believe in the Bible literally where it is meant to be taken literally, but it is not always meant to be taken literally. There are figurative aspects, and so the Bible is a beautiful library. There are different kinds of literature. There is history and there is biography, and there is poetry, and there's what's called apocalyptic literature and, as you know, each kind of literature needs to be read in light of the genre of that literature. So, when you read the Bible, one question you need to ask is what kind of literature is this? How do I interpret it? So, if you read the Bible, one question you need to ask is what kind of literature is this? How do I interpret it? So, if you're reading Psalms, for example, the Psalms are poetry, and you know that you don't take poetry literally.

Speaker 3: 13:08

You take the point literally, but not necessarily the image literally, because it's saying something. And Jesus taught like that. He taught in parables. The parables weren't to be taken literally, they had a point, there was something behind them and so, as Nicodemus is talking to Jesus, he's taking Jesus literally. Oh, am I supposed to go back in my mother's womb and be born again? How is that possible? Jesus didn't mean it literally. He meant it metaphorically, figuratively.

Speaker 3: 13:38

But Nicodemus is in the dark. The next time we see him is in the seventh chapter. The Sanhedrin is gathered together. They have sent some guards to go arrest Jesus and they're waiting for those guards to bring him to Jesus. They come I mean to bring them to the Sanhedrin. They come to the Sanhedrin, the guards do, and they don't have Jesus and they say where is Jesus? He said no man has ever spoken like this. And he said are you following him too? Are you like the mob out there that has no knowledge? Don't you realize that no one of the religious leaders is a follower of Jesus, that he needs to be dealt with as a follower of Jesus, that he needs to be dealt with? But Nicodemus inserts something. He says do we do due process without bringing a person in and talking to them and giving them an opportunity to say what they have to say. You see what he's doing. He had been in the dark.

Speaker 3: 14:35

Now he is coming out a little bit. He's coming to a degree of belief enough so that he makes a question in favor of Jesus. And then, when we get to the 19th chapter, we find him through the third and final time. Jesus has been on the cross, he has died. Joseph of Arimathea has a grave, has a tomb that he wants to put Jesus in. They go to Pilate to get permission for that and Nicodemus helps him bury Jesus. He brings the kinds of spices that would be used in burial then and some scholars say he brought enough to honor a king, which he was doing even though he didn't fully understand that.

Speaker 3: 15:23

Now some people would say Nicodemus never came out overtly and said his faith in Jesus. But my personal opinion is that by doing what he did at the death of Jesus, he is making a public statement. He was doing for Jesus what the family should be doing and that he has taken care of his body out of love and respect. So, if you will, I see him as being a man in a spiritual closet. He's in the dark, he's not a believer. He starts asking questions. He then opens the door a little bit and stands up for Jesus, and then he comes to a point of making a commitment to him, and so that's part of the question that I have for you today.

Speaker 3: 16:08

Where are you in that regard? Are you here today and you're in the dark and you don't understand, and maybe you're just kind of wondering? You're doubting these things, and that's okay. It's a good place to be, because that's how you find Jesus is by seeking, asking and being in a place with some people that you can dialogue with. Maybe you're here today and that you're doubting, and rather than discourage that, I encourage people to doubt.

Speaker 3: 16:38

I think doubting helps your faith to grow. Everybody goes through a desert, but I want you to know that if you keep crawling, you'll find the oasis. You just keep on crawling. You could die in the desert, but you don't have to. Doubting can help you become stronger in your faith and then, if you're here today and you're committed, I just hope and pray that the Holy Spirit would work in your life day by day, which is what we're going to talk about. But here's how the Holy Spirit worked in Nicodemus he first drew him to Jesus. He had him stand up for him a little bit, and then he committed his life to him. And I think my time is up, do you think—what's going on here?

Speaker 1: 17:23

Let's wrap it up, buddy.

Speaker 3: 17:24

Wrap it up, all right.

Speaker 1: 17:25

All right, that was a good talk, Good talk, Good job. This is—so it was 25 years ago. I was in—.

Speaker 3: 17:37

He's just getting back at me. That's all he's doing, I am.

Speaker 1: 17:39

It was 25 years ago. I was in Dr Joe Grinna's homiletics class and he used to make us do a five minute message, which was like the hardest ever. So I was like you got 10 minutes, buddy, let's do this. We got things to do. So some of you guys saw the email Questions. You know we finished three and a half years on the Gospel of Matthew. We take a long time to read something that should have taken two hours to read. Yeah, you're right, and I know how are we ever going to get through anything else Three and a half years. So then it was like, okay, so now what? We just finished that.

Speaker 1: 18:09

So we've spent seven weeks now talking about the Holy Spirit and there's so much more to talk about. We're going to be jumping into some other stuff. I'll tell you about that at the end. But I had talked to Dr Grant and said, hey, what if we just take some, you know, q and a time? Because there's things that you're like, oh, I really wish you would have talked about this, or can we understand this a little bit more? Or just even like our personal growth or experiences, and so wanted to bring that to life a little bit. So we got some questions out here. We're going to try to get through as many as we can. You ready for just a couple of minutes? We'll wrap it up All right. So let's just jump in the deep end. Let's talk about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 3: 18:46

Unforgivable sin. Unforgivable sin. Yeah, you done that one fearful that I've committed the unpardonable sin.

Speaker 1: 18:55

Yeah, how many of us felt like that, Like ugh.

Speaker 3: 18:58

I don't know. And then one day it was helpful for me when someone said if you've committed the unpardonable sin, if you think you've committed it, if you're worried about committing the unpardonable sin, you have not committed it, because if you had committed it you wouldn't be worried about it. So that was very comforting and helpful. And then I came to realize that the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is not an act. You can't do something to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. It is an attitude, it is a lifestyle, it's an absence.

Speaker 3: 19:34

Yes, and so the Holy spirit points to Jesus. If you continually reject Jesus, you're committing blasphemy of the Holy spirit. Yeah, but you can be forgiven of that.

Speaker 1: 19:47

Well said, there you go. So some of you can rest easy right now Thinking about it. You're in the clear. Um so in. Uh, here's a good question. Um. Um, so in. Uh, here's a good question. Um. In matthew, chapter 3, john the baptist talks about baptizing with water, uh, but mentions one is coming that can baptize with the holy spirit, uh. So the question is are these two different kinds of baptism? Um, paul refers to it again in acts 19 uh. So when we get baptized today, which baptism do we participate in?

Speaker 3: 20:17

Well, neither of the first two, Okay. Okay, One thing that we forget is that Jesus lived during Old Testament times. The New Testament didn't happen. Actually, the Gospels, most of the story of the Gospels, during the Old Testament time. It's after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. We have the New Testament. It's a transition time.

Speaker 3: 20:40

So you have the baptism of John, John the Baptist, of repentance, Then Jesus' disciples baptized. In fact it's a little thing in John 3 and 4 where it says that they claim Jesus is baptizing people. That's what the rumor is. And then John clarifies that in the fourth chapter he said well, Jesus didn't actually baptize, but his disciples did. But you could still say that Jesus baptized because they baptized under his authority. So when somebody has authority and somebody else do it, it's like they've done it. So Christian baptism doesn't happen until afterwards, after the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus, In the day of Pentecost. It begins afterwards, after the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus and the day of Pentecost it begins. What we find in the 19th chapter of Acts is that some people who are believers in Jesus had only had the baptism of John the Baptist. They didn't know anything about the Holy Spirit, they said, and they didn't know anything about Christian baptism, so Paul baptizes them then into Christian baptism.

Speaker 1: 21:36

Yeah, it's great, great question.

Speaker 3: 21:39

Here's another one.

Speaker 3: 21:42

This one is, I think— which, by the way, I'm going to throw this in we didn't have this. Just about the baptism thing. Some people say, well, you don't need to be baptized, because, after all, the thief on the cross wasn't baptized. Well, a couple things. One is we don't know whether he'd been baptized or not. We don't know if he'd been John or Jesus' baptism. Maybe that's why he came around on the cross. But secondly, again, this is during Old Testament time he couldn't have been baptized in the Christian baptism, because it didn't exist yet, because Jesus hadn't died, been buried and resurrected yet.

Speaker 1: 22:16

Thanks for adding that. Yeah, Okay, so this was a good question. This goes to like how do you go about hearing the Holy Spirit and interacting Specifically, how do you go about hearing and discerning the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to you about something, versus your inner me speaking to you about something Even? Moreover let me just paint this as a broader picture. What do we do then? When you have two followers, let's say, and someone says I really feel like the Holy Spirit said this to me, and it's in conflict with another person saying, well, I feel like the Holy Spirit said this to me, or the Holy Spirit told me you're going to marry me.

Speaker 3: 22:59

Yeah and I'm like no, he did not tell me that he didn't tell me that I didn't know that I'm still waiting on that phone call? Yeah, it's not being clear, right? Yeah, something like that.

Speaker 1: 23:09

How do we discern that? What do we do?

Speaker 3: 23:10

with that.

Speaker 3: 23:20

It's hard because we put into our own minds what we want to happen and we say God did it, but other times we're being sincere, we just really want to know, and so I think that's where there's wisdom, in counselors, and so you can talk to godly people, people that you respect. God speaks to us in a lot of different ways. Some people would say he speaks audibly to them, others through his mind, others through Scripture, through Jesus, through creation, through other people. I think you'd find a confirmation from those sources to see whether it's really from the Spirit or not.

Speaker 1: 23:50

Yeah, some of you may have experienced this. I know that the Holy Spirit is—God has spoken in the Holy Spirit to me through Joe. I've talked to him about some stuff and it wasn't even but a few months ago that he texted me and you started out with I don't know if this is from God, but here's what occurs to me, and it was so affirming because I was like yeah, absolutely, because it also, in turn, was kind of spoken through other things and circumstances to give that affirmation. And there's another spot we talked about this last service. That is really important. I think it's actually an important practice that all of us can kind of flex this muscle or, you know, put some more weight on the bar, which is when you feel like the Holy Spirit is prompting you about something, the action that you should do, and you can talk to that a little bit Sure.

Speaker 3: 24:40

Now, you know, sometimes we wonder if the Holy Spirit is just in daily things or it's always the big stuff.

Speaker 1: 24:46

The mundane, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 24:48

But here's—this is an everyday type of thing, right, for many people, it's every minute, every hour, but this could be used by the Holy Spirit. And let me give you two examples. This week which fits into, I think, what you're saying I texted a former student who's a pastor, just like I had done with Larry, and he wrote me back. I just said I prayed for you, your family and your ministry this morning and he wrote back. He said I felt that and I needed it. I'm struggling with my aging father, and that was all specific that he was, and I'm assuming that means health and or mental issues with his aging father. And so the Holy Spirit prompted me and I gave a prayer, and it was a general prayer but it had a specific need, because the Holy Spirit was able to meet that specific need.

Speaker 3: 25:45

And so then there was another incident where I have a student who was in danger of losing his credential to teach school. He's a high school history teacher in Los Angeles and there was circumstances going on and there's a lot of issues, legal issues going on. And so I texted him and he said when he got my text, he got chills. And he said just an hour before my text. He got a letter saying that everything was clear and it was okay, and so God knows what he's doing and he takes things where when he puts. When God puts somebody on your heart, it's because that person is on God's heart, and then God can use you in even a small way to be able to touch them and to help them.

Speaker 1: 26:37

Yeah, so that's that muscle I'm talking about. Don't let that pass by. You see, speaking of passing by, you see, throughout Scripture where God kind of tells you like he's about to pass by right, and even the story of Elijah, like I'm about to pass by and he goes and it's an earthquake and fire and wind. But he wasn't in that and it was in this small whisper Later in the New Testament. You see, you know Jesus was about to pass by his disciples. These moments where God's just on the move and it's, are we able to slow down enough or be open enough to catch the small whisper and the prompting. And so for you, maybe you've had that happen before, maybe you've had someone just reach out to you or give you a word or, like you said, nature or a dream or something that you just needed. Don't let that pass you by. Pay attention to that small whisper and just try it out and see what takes place there. This is something to work with and not just to read about but to actually interact with. And so when that person and you guys, I'm sure you've experienced this when you're like driving along and that person comes to mind, act on it Like it's oftentimes you might even find you're like.

Speaker 1: 27:53

I thought I should have just texted him and said, hey, I was thinking about you, this thing, and oftentimes we just feel like we're so offensive you know, we're so nervous about stuff, like I'm not going to do anything, and then it passes by and we don't do anything with it. And that could be something really important to somebody else needs. It's theirs to choose to do with it what they will and how God's going to use it. But you can find, even like man, it kept being on my heart, it kept being on my heart. Oh, they kept being on my mind and then it just passed by and then you realize, like they actually really needed it and you're like man, I kept thinking of that, we just didn't do anything with it, and vice versa. Some of you may have experienced the other side of that and the impact that it can make. So let's see, Jesus taught us to pray to the Father.

Speaker 3: 28:39

We pray in Jesus's name. Should we pray to the Holy Spirit? How do we interact with the Holy Spirit? Well, I did this morning because I knew we were talking about the Holy Spirit, so I asked the Holy Spirit to guide me and to help me and to be among all of us. We did it in our worship song today Holy Spirit, you're welcome here. So we prayed a song to Him. So, because I knew this was coming too, during the communion time, I prayed to the Father and I thanked Him for being Creator and Sovereign and being Father. I thanked Jesus for what he did on the—for being a human being and what he did on the cross, and I prayed for the Holy Spirit, thanking Him for being a comforter and a counselor, as well as one who convicts once in a while of sin.

Speaker 1: 29:19

Yeah, every once in a while.

Speaker 3: 29:21

So the answer is yes. Okay so yeah, but along with that you're praying to the whole Godhead as well. Can I throw in about the Trinity?

Speaker 1: 29:30

The Trinity?

Speaker 3: 29:30

yeah, and you talked about that a couple weeks ago, yeah, I mentioned this when I was here last time, but many of you weren't here then and all of you have slept since then.

Speaker 1: 29:42

Or they were sleeping then, or they might have been sleeping, then Exactly, or both.

Speaker 3: 29:47

So this is something that's helped me, because the Trinity, the Godhead, is so difficult to truly comprehend. And that's why this question do we pray to individuals within the Godhead? And so Judaism and Islam think we're polytheistic. They think that we believe in three gods and it sounds like it—God the Father, god the Son, god the Spirit. One plus one plus one is three, but, as Deuteronomy says, god is 1. And so I thought about this in regard to mathematics, that, rather than adding, use multiplication, 1 times 1 times 1 equals 1. So, mathematically, you could have three entities but still have one. So, mathematically, you could have three entities but still have one. So that opens a door philosophically, theologically, that there could be a God who is three in one Three entities but they're one. And so that was something that helped me deal with that a little bit more.

Speaker 1: 30:55

That was way better than what I used to do with my kids. I used to be like it's like a three-headed monster. They're like what? It's nighttime stuff, oh great, okay. So here's kind of a fun one no-transcript. In Galatians, paul's talking to kind of he's a frustrated group and he talks about the fruit of the Spirit and I think to a degree people are like nah, that doesn't sound really fancy. It's love and kindness and gentleness and peace and all of this stuff. But then people get really jacked up when in Corinthians he talks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and you're like, ooh, now we're doing something, like you got zappers, and you're like, do this and I can do that and I can speak in this special language. Or specifically, the question was around tongues or the gifts of the Spirit. What is that used for? Can we elaborate on some of that? So I'll let you take the first little.

Speaker 3: 31:54

Yeah, okay. Well, megan mentioned about the Day of Pentecost and the speaking of tongues and about the Day of Pentecost and the speaking in tongues, and there is a debate among theologians was the miracle tongues or was the miracle hearing that people just heard in their own language? But I think it was the tongues. I think that the apostles were speaking in languages they did not know to people who did know that language and I think, generally speaking, that's the gift of tongues.

Speaker 3: 32:19

To give an example of my own, is is in Corinth, the people speak Greek, but that particular Sunday there's a whole section of Italians there. They don't speak Greek, so someone is able to get up and speak Greek I mean Italian, even though they didn't know Italian to be able to edify those people. Somebody else interpreted that back into Greek for the people who did understand Greek but didn't understand the Italian, and so the purpose of tongues was for edification. I think that's how it generally was used. But Paul does talk about a heavenly language, a prayer language, and so anytime any tongue would be done in the assembly, there had to be an interpreter, and Paul was very strict with saying it should be done one by one. It needs to be done in decency and order. There's not all kinds of chaos going on Individually. If somebody has a gift of tongues, then they could pray personally to God.

Speaker 1: 33:17

Yeah, that's a great clear example. I mean Guineveve, who's an interpreter here for American Sign Language, is just an example exactly of someone standing just even here in our Western culture interpreting or Spanish services. You go to other places, etc. So hopefully it's really helpful. We can kind of use that to transition of some of the gifts. Is it like you're given a gift and then that's the marker that's your gift, or is it like you get a gift and then you don't have the gift? How is the Holy Spirit kind of working through that space?

Speaker 3: 33:51

Well, first of all, you know, in Corinthians, paul says that the Holy Spirit determines what gift you have. Everybody's not going to have the same gift, but you may have different gifts at one time. You may have them seasonally, so it could be a new gift arrives. Yeah, as needed.

Speaker 1: 34:10

Yeah, last thing, as you know, we could sit here and talk for probably hours about some of this stuff, but as a practice, as you're discerning because I think that's one of the toughest parts that people struggle with is just discerning like, who is the Holy Spirit? What is he saying? What is he saying to me, about me, about this person?

Speaker 1: 34:33

I think and you can expand on this some really important things to understand is that when you're listening and something's being spoken either to you from someone else as you know, they're a representative and they're saying I feel like this is from the Holy Spirit, or you have a voice or you feel like you're having an interaction. It was used and we see this throughout scripture to unify, to edify and to glorify God and what he's doing and his people. It's full of love. So this is just maybe helpful for some of you. If the things you are hearing aren't doing that, it most likely, as it occurs to me, is not of the Holy Spirit. The same thing as it comes to you through someone else, and where have maybe you experienced the gift of knowing that and maybe seeing the detriment of not believing that truth?

Speaker 3: 35:23

Sure, when I was a pastor for 10 years in Downey California, I had a man in the church who claimed to be a New Testament prophet and he would say God told me. And then he would tell me or tell other people what God had said to him, to tell whichever individual he was talking to. And as I listened to him, 95% of what he said was negative. It was critical, it was knocking people down, it was putting them in their place, and I got observing that. I said you know, the Holy Spirit does convict us and sometimes we need to be confronted. Okay, that's true, but not 95% of the time. The Holy Spirit is a comforter, he's a guider, he's one to help us, and so there's got to be some balance in there. And there was no balance in this guy's life and I finally had to tell him that it really is.

Speaker 1: 36:20

It's like the 5%-er, yeah, and often we find people or ourselves living in the 5% and not experiencing the 95%.

Speaker 3: 36:28

So then, I question whether the other part is of the Holy Spirit or not.

Speaker 1: 36:31

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 36:32

Or just a mean spirit.

Speaker 1: 36:34

Well, this series has been a gift. Dr Granite gave me some materials. I'm going to actually send that in like an email to everyone more information about the names, some theological kind of breakdown and study where we see and experience the Holy Spirit. So I'll send that out to you guys.

Speaker 3: 36:50

And I just want to clarify that the main part of the study was done by a good friend of mine, dr Don Green, and then I did a little bit. So I actually just wrote his name, because when he did the paper he didn't put his name on it, so I just wrote it in. So it's Don Green. And then there's a little stuff I did, but he did major work.

Speaker 1: 37:08

All right, we won't give you credit, it's fine. Well, you guys, thank Dr Grano for being with us these few weeks. So this has been a really fun series. We're going to continue having these types of conversations and just to let you guys know it's coming up. Starting next week we're going to kick back into some expository teaching where we're going to go verse by verse.

Speaker 1: 37:32

So we spent three and a half years in the gospel of Matthew. We learned about who Jesus was, and so then we kind of came into this. Okay, so Jesus happened. Now what the Holy Spirit? So of came into this. Okay, so Jesus happened. Now what the Holy Spirit? So then it's like okay, so Holy Spirit, this is interaction. And so now we're going to jump to actually and Dr Grant has set up really well today we're going to jump to the three letters from John to the church, which was written 60 years later to the church of like okay, so now you understand Jesus, now you know this is actually how you live. And so we're going to hop into first John, chapter one.

Speaker 1: 38:04

Next week we're going to take that verse by verse. Don't worry, we're not going to spend three and a half years on literally five pages of scripture, um, but we're going to spend like 14 weeks. It'll be good, um, so I want to invite you back to that because I think it's just going to be powerful for us to be like okay, so now what as we walk into this next season? So, um, for now, the now what is? Um? We're going to just finish what we've been doing here together as a faith community, as response to worship to the Holy Spirit, uh, to God, the Father, jesus, the Son, uh, for everything he's done for us as we get to interact with him before we get into the rest of our day, into the week. So would you stand as we just respond in song and worship?