The Work of the Holy Spirit - In the Church and in the World

I'll take your Bible this morning, turn with me to the Gospel of John, but I want you to turn to Chapter 14. John Chapter 14. Now we'll be in several verses, Chapter 14, 15, and Chapter 16. Right now there are some of you, you're thinking, that the next verses in our study through the Gospel of John should start in Chapter 16, verse 16. Now that is true. If we are progressing in our verse-by-verse study, we should be in verse 16 to verse 22 this morning.

But from time to time, I feel the need to pause in our verse-by-verse study, and this morning I feel the need to have one last message to wrap up this teaching on the Holy Spirit that is found in Chapter 14, Chapter 15, and Chapter 16. Now to help us here, I want to bring an image into your mind. So just help me here, use your imagination. But I want to ask you a question, and that is, do any of you know what bookends are? Now bookends are supports. They're placed at the end of a row of books, and they're designed to simply hold those books upright. We see bookends on bookshelves. We see them in offices. We see them in libraries.

And many of you, you might have a childhood memory of bookends, maybe in an old school library or an office somewhere. And some bookends are simple. They're real functional. You don't see them. I have some in my office on the top shelf, and you really don't see them. And then there are some that are decorative. Some are decorative and functional as well. Now this week I was a little curious, and I looked at some on the Internet. I saw several different types of bookends, but I saw some that were clearly for animal lovers, and they caught my eye. Some were dogs. Some were cats. Some were alligators.

They were all kinds of animals designed as bookends. Now the designers all seemed to cut the animal right in half. They would take the backside of the animal, and they'd make one bookend. And then they would take the front side of the animal, and they would make another bookend. And no matter how many books or how few books you had there in the collection, you still had the whole animal. That's what we're going to do this morning. We're going to look at the whole animal. And this morning I want to give you what I call the ending message of this series, the bookend of this series and this teaching on the Holy Spirit.

And it is simply my desire to give you the whole animal. Now I gave us the first bookends in two messages. Way back in September, when we got to Chapter 14, Verse 16, I paused. I declared to you that in Chapter 14, 15, and 16, we had the most expressive and extensive teaching on the Holy Spirit. And we paused there for two messages. The first message we had was titled, "Who is the Holy Spirit?" And the second message was titled, "What does the Holy Spirit do?" Now these messages are foundational. So much so that if we do not know the truths within those messages, we will be ill-equipped and prone to errors of many kinds.

And I strongly encourage you to go back. Go back and study your notes. Maybe re-listen to those messages. And I know personally I studied that material on more than one occasion this week. Now within those messages, we learn from the Old Testament to the New Testament, who the Holy Spirit is. And we learn proper theology concerning the person of the Holy Spirit. And we also learn the work of the Holy Spirit from the Old Testament to the New. Now I want to say something this morning that's extremely important. Proper theology is vital to proper behavior and practice in the Church. This is life and death.

You show me bad practice in a church and I will trace it back to bad theology every time. So much of what is going on in many churches emanates from bad theology. And our church practices must come from proper theology, and we get proper theology by being thoroughly, thoroughly biblical. And that is why we must work very hard to teach God's Word. It is priority. Now this morning we are working from those two messages, from that proper theology that we gained in that bookend series. We will also work through those five Holy Spirit declarations that we saw in Chapter 14, 15, and 16.

There are five different places where Jesus teaches on the Holy Spirit. And in our message this morning, we will see practically how this teaching works in our personal lives and in our church. This is just the bookend to all that we've looked at going all the way back to September the 3rd. Now this message is important for us not just because it bookends the teaching. This message is important because it will answer questions for many of you, and it will give explanations as to why we do what we do, why we don't do what many people do.

Now if you would, I want you to have in front of you your copy of God's Word, and I want you to have there Chapter 14. Now I know all of our copies of God's Word are not the same, and I don't want you to have to turn here, there, and everywhere, but I want you to know where these verses are. Now those who were in our Wednesday night Bible study, they're one step ahead, because we dealt with these five passages last Wednesday. Now I'm going to reference those, and I'm going to examine a few things here, and then we're going to dive deeper into where I feel like we need to go.

The first of the Holy Spirit teaching came out of John 14 starting in verse 16, and goes all the way down to verse 18. Note that in your Bible. Jesus says, "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper." The King James uses the word "comforter," and He will be with you forever. Jesus is about to depart, and He is declaring to them that the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God will come. In verse 17, He says, "You know Him, for He dwells with you," He's speaking of Himself, and then He says, "But He will be in you." He is equating Himself with the Spirit. Then the second portion of Scripture is John 14, 26.

Jesus says, "But the Helper, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit." See, He identifies the Helper as the Holy Spirit, "Whom the Father will send in My name." So we see repetition there, but Jesus is adding to what He has been saying. And then the third portion of Scripture, John 15, 26. "But when the Helper, the Comforter, when He comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, He is," what? "the Spirit of truth." Jesus adds to that teaching again. And then the fourth portion, which is a rather lengthy portion, is what John 16, starting in verse 7. What does He say? "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.

It is for your advantage that I go away." What's Jesus talking about? He's talking about the cross. He knows that very soon He will be back with the Father, and they will be alone. And He goes on to say, "For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you." And then Jesus goes on to declare how the Holy Spirit will deal with the lost. Now let me pause there. All alone, Jesus has been telling them how the Holy Spirit will relate to them. Now He talks about how He will relate to the world through the Holy Spirit. And then the last, the fifth, is John 16, 13.

"When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will declare to you the things that are to come." That is the last of those five teaching moments about the Holy Spirit of God, and Jesus is reminding them and building upon that teaching. Why? So that they would be prepared. Now why does your pastor call you to go back over those verses? Why have I repeated them over and over? We need to know this teaching thoroughly. We need to know where it is in our Bible so that we can have it in our hearts. Now I want to notice repetition here.

I'm just mimicking Jesus. Because Jesus repeats Himself. And you know, we've learned in our study of John, every now and then Jesus says, "Truly, truly." Now what is Jesus doing? He is elevating what He's teaching. He did that in John 3 as He dealt with Nicodemus. Jesus does not give these truly, truly statements, but He repeats Himself. Why? He really wants His people to get this teaching. Now notice how He repeats Himself. Jesus uses the word "helper" or "comforter" four different times. Chapter 14 verse 16, 14-26, 15-26, and 16 verse 7.

In every one of these teaching moments, He uses the word "helper" or "comforter." Now we know who the helper is. This is the Holy Spirit of God, the one that comes alongside those believers. And He can be understood accurately as the counselor, the comforter, the helper, the encourager. That intercessor, 1 John 2 verse 1 uses this same word, but interprets that as the advocate. One of my Bible commentators, sources, declares that He is a friend, but a legal friend. Someone who comes to teach them the truths of God's Word, not just a counseling friend, but a legal friend, because He's deity.

And then Jesus repeats this term, the Spirit of Truth, three times. Chapter 14 verse 17, chapter 15 verse 26, and chapter 16 verse 13. And then there's one time where He identifies the helper as the Holy Spirit. And that is in chapter 14 verse 26. Again, you need to know where these verses are. We're going to build on these verses this morning, and then through the years to come here at Nola Baptist Church, much of what we do and don't do will come right out of this teaching. Now, I want to go a little further down this road. I'm going to use some of what we've looked at here in chapter 14, 15, and 16.

I'm going to give you some other portions of Scripture. And again, this will bookend all that we've learned. And you see what we're going to look at this morning, two major truths. We're going to look at the Holy Spirit takes us to Christ. We're going to look at the Holy Spirit works in the lost. Now, for some of you, you will know a lot of this information. Now, there's some of you. You might be rusty on some of what we're going to look at. Now, there are some of you. This will be new information to you. And for some of you, it will answer some questions. Questions about practice and why we do what we do, why we don't do what we do.

And also, it will shed light on some of your previous experiences. So let's dive right into our message. And I want us to see our first major truth. The Holy Spirit takes us to Christ. It's our first major truth in our outline, the Holy Spirit takes us to Christ. Now, we know that all of this teaching to the disciples was for the future. These things would take place in their lives after the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. You need to know chronologically how all this comes into play. But for every Christian after Pentecost, that's us, these teachings are for the present.

For us who are converted, the Holy Spirit is a real part of our lives now, whereas for them, it was to come. Now, there are three observations I want to make here, three sub-points in the outline, and I want us to follow them. First, I want us to see that the Holy Spirit takes us to the person of Christ. Now, you might say, "Pastor, you're very similar to what you said earlier." No, you need to see something here. The Holy Spirit takes us to the person of Christ. John 14, 26, what does he say?

"He, the Spirit, will teach you all things and bring them to your remembrance, all that I have said to you." And then chapter 15, verse 26, what does he say? "And he, the Holy Spirit, will bear witness about who? About me. That is Christ." Here we see that the Holy Spirit would bring those disciples back to Christ. When the Spirit came and the Spirit dwelled in their lives and filled them, everything that the Spirit did was bringing that back to Christ. Now, why do I use that word back? Because for them, Jesus had left them. There was an absence of Christ in their life.

But spiritually, Jesus was with them in the person of the Holy Spirit when He did come. And when the Spirit came, the Spirit always took them back to Christ. And then second, I want us to see, the Holy Spirit takes us to the truth of Christ. The Holy Spirit takes us to the truth of Christ. Now, here we see two different things about the Holy Spirit taking the believer to truth. First, we see that the Holy Spirit is, is the Spirit of truth. We see that in John 14, starting in verse 16. What do we see here? Jesus says that He is the Spirit of truth. And then in chapter 15, verse 26, He is the Spirit of truth.

Because the Holy Spirit is God, He knows the mind of God, therefore He can be called the Spirit of truth. So He is what He is, and He is the Spirit of truth. But then notice second, we see that the Holy Spirit would take those disciples into the truth of God's word. Is it that what we see in chapter 16? In verse 13, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. This poses a question, what is this truth? This is the truth of the Word of God. The Holy Spirit always took those disciples into God's word, which for them was being revealed. It was being written. It was being lived out.

But the Spirit took them to Christ, to the truth of Christ. And then third, He works in our sanctification. Now you might say, "This is new material, Pastor." Yes, but it all goes together. Now question, what is sanctification? Sanctification is a church word that many of you have heard, but you need to understand what it is. Sanctification is the process by which we are made holy or Christ-like. One of the Bible scholars that I study sometimes, his name is Wayne Grudem. Very simplistic definition.

He says sanctification is this, "Growth, in likeness to Christ." Now unlike salvation, which is a historical one-time event, sanctification is a process. This takes place all throughout the Christian life, and we participate in this work. We have a responsibility in the matter, and the Holy Spirit works in the process as well. I'll read you a verse out of Romans that sheds light onto this. Starting in verse 17 of chapter 6, Paul says, "But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves to sin, have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed." In other words, he's saying you're born again.

Verse 18, "And having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness." I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. "For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and the lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness." Now notice, "leading to sanctification." That is the process of being more Christ-like. So in summary, what are we seeing here? The Holy Spirit abides in works in believers. He leads believers to the person of Christ, and he leads believers to the truth of God's Word. He works in us for our sanctification.

This is personal. This is Word of God-centered. This is an integral work of growth to what? To Christ-likeness. Now there are several things that I want to apply here, and this will answer some questions about why we do what we do. We here at Nola Baptist Church emphasize the personal nature of Christianity. In other words, you must be born again. We are inundated with cultural Christianity. Everybody we know declares Christ can tell you when they walk down the aisle, and they will identify as Christian. But many have never been born again. They are not personally right with God.

And we emphasize that need, that we must personally know Christ. But one step further, we emphasize the Word of God here. It is preeminent in all that we do. Every time we gather for the most part, we are gathered to be under the Word of God. It dominates our corporate worship. That's why it is so important for you to be faithful to attending worship services. Because you need the Word of God. That's why we make the Word of God central. Because it is the Word of Truth that will form you into the Christ-like person God wants you to be.

As we are journeying through life, it is God's Word that teaches us how we should live in our homes, in our neighborhoods, and in our places of work. And you have a responsibility. Just like these disciples have a responsibility in their own sanctification. And you need to be here to be under the Word of God. Now you might say, "Pastor, you're guilt-tripping us." No, no, no. I'm encouraging you. We love you. We love you, and we know what's best for you. We all desperately need the Word of God. And what did Jesus tell them? He said, "You will not be orphans. The Spirit will come." And He will guide you into truth. And He will guide you to Me.

And I, in the person of the Spirit, will apply that to your life. And that's what we're doing here. We're under the Word of God personally. This will help you see why I always encourage you to take notes. This will help you to see why we encourage you. To exercise responsibility when we're in the Word. Write down the notes of the message. Re-listen to the notes of the sermons. Digest the truth of His Word. Because when you go into your personal life, you're responsible for feeding on God's Word. And look, this is part of our sanctification. Growing in Christ-likeness. We know God because we've been born again. We love God.

And we are Word-centered. And we work hard to know the Word. I'll give you an example that will help you here. If you do some work in church history, and you go back in time to what's called the Reformation, and you study how God used men, different men, to bring about Reformation in the life of the church, you will see that there was one thing that they all did. They all became Word-centered. And even in how they decorated, if I can use that language, and arranged the physical church, it changed. Prior to that, the pulpit was relegated to the corner. But during the Reformation, the pulpit became central.

It became the focal point of the worship service. Why? Because the music wasn't the most important. The offering wasn't the most important. The gathering with the believers wasn't the most important. The Word of God was elevated. So the Holy Spirit, He takes us to Christ. He takes us to Christ personally. He takes us to His truth. And then He takes us to Christ as He is working to sanctify us. And God uses His Word for that work. And that's why we do what we do. As long as I'm here, I'm going to call you to God's Word, and we're going to teach God's Word, and we're going to be in God's Word till we're either Christlike or blue in the face.

Our second major truth, let's notice, the Holy Spirit works in lost sinners. The Holy Spirit works in lost sinners. Now to understand the work of the Spirit in the lost, we must work from our John 16 passage as well as a few others. Now, it is not just seeing how the Holy Spirit works, but also understanding mankind. Now, I'm going to go a little further here, and I'm going to make three observations here as well. First, I want us to see the Holy Spirit reveals the sinners' plight. The Holy Spirit reveals the sinners' plight. Now, for us to understand this, we must understand the condition of man in the natural or pre-salvation state.

The Word of God tells us many times and in many different ways that man is alienated or separated from God. Let me read you two verses. Ephesians 2 starting in verse 1. Paul says, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins." Who was he talking to? Those Ephesian believers post or pre-Christ, "In which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that is now at work in the sons of what? Disobedience." So he is saying, "Before you were born again, you were dead, and you were alienated to God, and you were sons of disobedience." We see this also in Romans 5, 12.

Paul is writing to the Roman church. He says, "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man," now that's Adam, "and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sin." Now, what is Paul saying? All mankind are born with the nature of Adam, that sin nature, that propensity to sin. And then he goes on to say, "Not only were you born with that sin nature, all have sinned, you all have sinned." So what is Paul saying to the Romans? "You were dead also." In this verse, and many, many more describe the condition of man before Christ. Man is dead spiritually. Jesus describes mankind as lost.

In Luke 19, 10, Jesus says, "I have come to seek and save that which is lost," meaning that man is alienated from God. Now, notice what the Holy Spirit does for the lost man and for the dead man, going back to John 16 starting in verse 8. "And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment concerning sin because they do not believe in me, concerning righteousness because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged." We see that the Holy Spirit convicts. Now, this is courtroom language. This is a judicial term.

The Holy Spirit convicts of sin, and ultimately that sin is not believing in Christ. He convicts in God's righteousness and God's judgment. So he reveals to the sinner his plight before God. He is guilty. Now, let me show you how this is revealed. There is a general revelation and a personal revelation. Now, let me explain. There are many lost people around the world. They hear vaguely of Christ. Maybe they hear a lot about Christ. They might know the historicity of the church and the Bible, and there are many people who have heard of Christ, and that is a general revelation, and they still reject Christ.

As a matter of fact, Romans chapter 1 says that they are guilty before God because they reject the God through the creation that is around them. Now, that is a general revelation. That will not save. But then there is a personal revelation where the Spirit of God comes to that individual and works in them personally. That is what leads man to salvation. So what do we see? The Holy Spirit reveals the sinner's plight, his condition before God. A lot of people say he is bankrupt. A lot of people say he is lost. But accurately, he is dead and unable to come to God. Then our second observation, the Holy Spirit draws that sinner to Christ.

Remember, this is the one that receives that personal revelation? Now, we learned this truth back in John chapter 6. But before we can look at this verse, we must remember what we have learned. Again, men are dead. People without Christ are lost and they are dead. And dead men cannot come to Christ on their own. That is why Jesus said what he said in John 6.44. "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day." Now, a question here. How does the Father draw sinners to Christ? How? You probably got the answer right. Through the work of the Holy Spirit.

See, we see how all of this comes together. The Holy Spirit draws that dead man to salvation in Christ, that personal revelation. And then third, the Holy Spirit, he regenerates that sinner. He regenerates that sinner. Now, this is a word many of us might be familiar with, but we might not understand it. Another definition from Wayne Grudem about regeneration. He says, "Regeneration is a secret act of God in which he imparts new life to us." And he goes on to say, "This is sometimes called being born again using the language of John 3." And I want us to take a moment just to look at a few verses here with regeneration.

The first verse is Acts 11, verse 18. The verse says, "When they heard these things, they fell silent, and they glorified God, saying, 'Then to the Gentiles also, God has granted repentance that leads to life.'" What do we see here? They are praising God because of the gift of repentance that leads to regeneration. And then the second verse is what we've looked at in John 3. We know that story. Jesus is dealing with Nicodemus. He's religious, but he's lost. He knows all about the Word of God, but he is a dead man. And what does Jesus say to Nicodemus?

Starting in verse 3, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, or born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God." He goes on. He repeats in verse 5, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Then in verse 6, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born from above." What is Jesus telling him? You must be born of God. You need regeneration is what he's saying. And then notice verse 8. This is a reference to the Spirit.

"The wind blows wherever it wishes, and you hear the sound of it. But we do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." That is the Holy Spirit of God. So here we see that it is the Holy Spirit that brings life to the sinner, the dead individual. Bible scholars call this regeneration. Simply, this is life. So in summary, what do we see here? The Holy Spirit is very, very busy. The Holy Spirit is the one who reveals to the sinner his awful situation, his condition before God. He is the one who draws that sinner personally to Christ for their salvation.

And he, the Holy Spirit, is the active agent for God to bring new life to that dead, lost sinner. Regeneration. And without regeneration from the Holy Spirit, we have no salvation. Now, how does that apply to us? Again, a big part of this message is answering questions, explaining to you why we teach what we teach and why we do what we do and why we don't do certain things. You need to see that we teach and we believe that all men, all women, and young people are dead. Listen, our children are not good kids. Our brothers who do not know Christ, they're not good guys. Our moms and dads who are outside of Christ, they are not good people.

Now, by the world standards, they might be good. But we're dealing with God's standards here. No man, no woman is a good person. They're dead and they're lost and they're headed for a devil's hell. Why? Because they are rejecting Christ. And we teach that. Because listen, this is an oversimplification, but it's true. Nobody will ever be saved unless they know they're lost. You can't get saved unless you know you're lost. But also, we trust in the Holy Spirit. We believe in the new birth. We believe in the working of the Spirit of God to bring about new life in men. And that's what we teach. Now, let me flesh this out a little more.

That's why you will hear me say negative things many times about this term and practice of the profession of faith. Now listen, can somebody be saved through the profession of faith? Yes. But it has been abused and it has been ridden down the road far too long. And it has been watered down and changed. And this is what you hear. You know, if you'll make that profession of faith, make that profession of faith. I mean, for many, it's just like joining a club. That's not Bible Christianity.

The profession of faith has tricked and fooled more people into thinking they are right with God when actually they are still by their nature the same person they've always been. They just might have gotten a little religious for a little while. People who make the profession of faith, a lot of times they go back into the world and they don't live for God. We know tons of people who've made that profession of faith. This is why you'll hear us preach against that, you know, that hour of decision. You know, just play one more verse and let's just string that invitation out. This is the hour of decision. No, it's not.

I can't decide to give my life to Jesus no more than I can decide to fly. The Bible teaches that. I will be leading you astray if I lead you to make a decision. How many people do we know have made decision after decision after decision? I know people have done it four or five or six times and people will just say, "Well, they haven't got Jesus yet." That's not salvation. All that does is confuse people. That's why we don't do those things. Why? Because we believe in the new birth. Another thing that's prevalent in our culture is, you know, revivals and revivalism. There's such a thing as revivalism. I've been a part of that and I've seen it.

I mean, if you have a revival and the right preacher preaches and the emotional pitch is just a certain way, you know, you'll get 15 decisions for Jesus. Now, do people sometimes get saved in some of these things? Yeah. But revival and revivalism, lots of times, it produces decisions and produces the profession of faith. A lot of churches will get off into some other types of events. I'll tell you one that's popular in certain places. It's called Heaven's Gates and Hell's Flames. It whips people up into an emotional frenzy. They get scared to death and they make decision after decision. Where are those people six months later?

A lot of people will have concerts and emotional events and at the end they get people to raise their hands and look, it plays on people's emotions. And that is not salvation. Look, you come to Christ when He draws you and He enables you to come to Christ. And any teaching, listen, that is not New Testament from the Scripture and any of these types of events that don't emphasize the new birth, many times they lead people astray. This is why we don't do a lot of what other people do. I share with you personally how I got to this place. When I was in vocational ministry, I began to see how fruitless many of my efforts were.

I began to see how I participated in much of this and I began to see how many people did not truly know Christ and I began to question and I began to examine and I began to get in the Word of God and I remember distinctly verses like what we've covered, how God began to show me what that meant and I began to study who the Holy Spirit is and I remember when I discovered that the Holy Spirit is God. He's God. And then I began to discover after that what the Holy Spirit did and what was His job and I began to repent of all of my efforts and all of what I had done and how many people, yes, I had led astray with these cheap counterfeits.

It's a bitter pill to swallow. And I remember coming to the place where I just said, "Lord, if you don't save people, they're not going to be saved and I quit." And that's where we are. And that's why we need to understand these truths because they dictate why we do what we do. Now, I haven't mentioned the title of the message. I know it might be lengthy, but it describes what I'm attempting to communicate. What do we see here? We see the work of the Holy Spirit and we see the work of the Holy Spirit in the church and in the world. Isn't that accurate? This is the work of the Spirit in you. This is the work of the Spirit in me.

This is the work of the Spirit in us, the church. Guiding us to Jesus, guiding us to the truth, making the Word a central part of everything that we do. And we see this is the work of the Spirit of God in the world, in the lost. Now, I'll go back to what I said earlier. We began with two bookend sermons. I put them together. Who is the Holy Spirit? We looked at the person of the Holy Spirit, discovering maybe for the very first time that he's God. We looked at the deity of the Holy Spirit, emphasizing his place in the Trinity. It's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

And then our second message is, we looked at what the Holy Spirit does. And we went from Old Testament to New Testament, seeing everything that the Spirit has been doing and everything that the Spirit does. And then in these verses in Chapter 14, 15, and 16, they are between the two bookends. And then this morning we're looking at the work of the Holy Spirit in us, in the church, and in the world. And yes, we must know the Holy Spirit theologically. And we must know the Holy Spirit works practically. Because if we know theologically, it will adjust our practice. And listen, we must know this as it applies to you and me and the lost.

And this turns into sound biblical practice in the life of Nola Baptist Church. It's been a long journey dealing with the Holy Spirit. Started in September. We've just taken it one verse at a time. And I trust and pray that the Lord has formed in you the right knowledge that will turn into the right practice. I want that for you, for me, and for us. Let's pray.