This transcript was generated automatically and may contain minor errors.

Initially, they just had a gold star for Harold and a red star for me. Draw your own conclusions. And then they put my name on mine, and I still managed to mix them up. So, if you have your bible with you, would you take it out please and turn to Acts 19? Acts 19, we'll read verses one and two here in just a moment.

Acts chapter 19 verses one and two. Let's begin as we customarily do with the word of prayer. If you'll bow with me, please. Dear God, our father in heaven, thank you for this day. Thank you for the blessings that you've showered upon us.

Thank you for these good people in this room and all those who love you around the world. I pray your blessings upon us, may your spiritual good be pursued, may you work providentially in our lives to bring about what is best for us. And I pray as we study about the holy spirit and who he is and what he does and has done, I pray that we would understand correctly the things that you would have us to know and make right application to those things. We love you. We love the holy spirit.

We love your son. And thank you for revealing yourselves to us. We thank you for Christ's sacrifice and it's in his name we pray. Amen. In most classes that I teach, especially for the first class, know, introductory class, I try to have a catchy introduction to hook everybody's attention and make them think, man, I really wanna be a part of this class.

This is something that I really wanna figure out and be a part of. In this class, for my catchy introduction, I just have to give the subject to the holy spirit. When I say the holy spirit, what's your immediate reaction to that? Do we have mic runners tonight? We have some people running with the mics.

Okay. So raise your hand. What's your immediate reaction or you can just say it and I'll repeat it for everybody else to hear. The trinity? K.

What else? Misunderstood. Misunderstood. K. What else?

Counselor. Counselor. Okay. What else? I mean, visceral.

What's your immediate reaction? I say Holy Spirit, what what do you feel? What what what happens in that moment? Okay. We got the inspired word of God.

Okay. What else? Mysterious. Mysterious. Pentecost.

Helper. Helper. Comforter. I think all of those are appropriate. Raise your hand if I say holy spirit, the first reaction at least in part is joy.

Okay? Good. What about hope? What about gratitude? Yeah.

And I think if we thought about it for a while, those things would come into our mind and heart. But I'm afraid also there are things like fear, misunderstanding that sometimes come into our hearts also. The holy spirit is equal to God the father and God the son, but I think in many ways, he is the most neglected, most feared and least well understood or at least conceptualized of the godhood. And I'm afraid sometimes we're like those disciples in Acts chapter 19. Read with me verses one and two.

And it happened while Apollos was at Corinth that Paul having passed through the upper regions came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples, he said to them, did you receive the holy spirit when you believed? And they said to him, we have not so much as heard whether there is a holy spirit. Now maybe it's not quite that bad, but hopefully our understanding of the holy spirit is something that is going to grow. It is something that that won't be a source of uncomfortableness or fear, but something that does give us those thoughts of comfort and joy and hope and understanding.

So why is it that the holy spirit is neglected or feared or less well under Let me suggest a few things. The reasons why the holy spirit is neglected. I think, first of all, there's just the reality that he's mentioned less than less than the text than God the father or God the son. God the father is explicitly explicitly mentioned in the New Testament over 1,300 times. Jesus is mentioned about 4,000 times in the New Testament.

And the Holy Spirit is only explicitly mentioned 300 times or so. And there's some debate about all of those references because the word spirit is used so many different ways by Paul and others. Clearly, the focus of the New Testament is on Jesus, God the son. But certain books have a greater emphasis on the Holy Spirit as well. Raise your hand if you did not get one of the handouts either on the table or as people were handing them out.

If you would like one of those, raise your hand. Daniel, such a good man. I appreciate you. Keep your hand up and we'll we'll have those that go around. If you have one of those handouts may I borrow yours for just a moment?

If you have one of those handouts, here's what this first side does. This is pneuma, the Greek word for spirit and this is all of the times that that word is found in the New Testament. The references to those things. Now what I did myself is I actually printed off every single one of these scriptures. So there are 385 occurrences and 350 verses.

And I just went through every single one of those and that seems like a lot. And it is a lot. But it's not a lot compared to 4,000 occurrences like what we see with Jesus. This lady is really important, Daniel. If get one to her, I'd appreciate that.

K? But if you look on there, can see there are certain books where the holy spirit and this idea of spirit appears a little more than others. The gospel of Luke and the companion writing of acts, also written by Luke as the second volume about what Jesus did and was continuing to do. The book of Romans and first Corinthians written by Paul, deal a great deal about the spirit, and the works of the spirit. But even those books are focused more on Christ than they are the holy spirit.

Secondly, I think the holy spirit is neglected because he is more outside of our physical experience. It's a matter of our experience. That is the ability that we have as physical creatures living in a physical world to conceptualize the spiritual. I'll I'll admit, as I've grown older, that's become easier and easier and easier to do. But especially when I was younger, the idea of a spiritual realm was was difficult to try and think about, certainly difficult to conceptualize.

And so we think about the personification of God as our father. Raise your hand if you can imagine God as a father. Yeah. I mean that's something that we can imagine. And whether that's you have a good relationship with your father and thus you have that positive association or you have a bad relationship with your father and so you can kind of imagine what a good relationship would look like.

We think about God the father and that's something that we can put our hands on, wrap our arms around and say, okay, I kinda get that. We think about Jesus. Well, came in the flesh. He was a man like us. He was tempted in all points as we are yet without sin.

And while he was still divine and didn't give up his divinity in order to become a man, he was a man on this earth and that's easier for us to conceptualize and think about. Now you compare that with the more spiritual and less concrete description of God the spirit. Well, we all have a spirit. But that doesn't help us a ton either because we struggle conceptualizing even that idea of our own spirit that we have ourselves. And then obviously, number three, he's neglected sometimes because he is more abused, misused in terms of doctrine and teaching.

And that's true in a lot of different senses. We think about humanism and modernism and demythologizing the bible. Anything spiritual is denied or rejected or deemphasized. We must be some sort of superstitious coop to think there's a holy spirit running around doing things. And even some believers have been influenced by this kind of thinking.

God the father, we can allow. Christ was a man. But the holy spirit smacks of an actual spiritual existence beyond this world. And that may be the issue for some, but I think oftentimes it's more a reaction to the next three abuses of the spirit. We think about the holiness movement, especially here in The United States.

Applying the baptism of the holy spirit to all Christians throughout all time. Applying the miraculous gifts of the holy spirit to all Christians throughout time. And I think this kind of thinking has probably influenced all other parts of Christendom, at least in The United States, more than we realize. You know, I talked a lot about a lot with Bill Reeves through the years when he was still with us. And he worked a ton in Latin And South America, primarily dealing with with Catholics.

And this idea of the Holy Spirit miraculously guiding you in some way apart from the church in their thinking was something that none of them really believed. But in the last few years of his life, that was something that changed even among Catholicism, even in other countries. And certainly, we see that here in The United States as well. And in a reaction to that, perhaps we don't talk about the Holy Spirit as much. We think about the doctrine of Calvinism, specifically, the total depravity of man and the irresistible grace that this doctrine teaches needed to save man.

That that you couldn't choose to do what's right even if you wanted to. And so God has act upon you in some way to allow you to do what's right miraculously outside of his word or anything else. He has to act upon you miraculously in order for you to do right. To do any right, to do any good, that's what God has to do. And usually, the way that's conceptualized is, well, that's the holy spirit working in your life and in your heart in order to bring that about.

And then we think about the in broader terms, subjective personal revelation or guiding and maybe that's a result of both of the two above it, the holiness movement and Calvinism. This idea of God speaking to us directly through a still small voice perhaps or through feelings and emotions and signs and dreams. God can of course speak to us directly however he chooses to do so. God has that power, there's no doubt. And as God, the holy spirit can speak to us and guide us directly if he so chose.

The question really is, does he choose to do that? Is that the way God has chosen to communicate and direct his people? And we think about those things and the danger of a pendulum swing is certainly a real thing. And we have to be careful not to swing away from these unbiblical teachings in such a way that we fear discussing the Holy Spirit or we avoid the subject or we are critical of those who want to ask honest questions about the Holy Spirit, how he's in us and how he works in the world today among Christians. So let's all try as best we can to move past these barriers and come to love and appreciate the holy spirit in the same way we do God the father and God the son.

And I want you to be willing and comfortable to ask any question. Now I would prefer getting those questions in advance so I can meditate on them and answer them adequately. Or even so that I can feel more confident when I say, I don't know. And it's I don't know because I've studied this and I can't find the answer in scripture versus I've never really thought about that. Give me a few days to come back to you.

So with that in mind, are a couple of things. Some of you maybe picked these up on the way in, but there are those little note cards. You can write your questions on that. Maybe just keep that handy. If a question comes to mind as we're going through class, just write it down, put it in the mailbox in the at the welcome center there in the foyer and we'll try and address those questions as best we can.

If you are a little more technically savvy, as I know all of you are, there's this QR code right here. Adam or Justin, can you pull that up and see if that reaches from back where you are, if you're able to pull that up me. And just give me a thumbs up if you are. If not, that's gonna be on the screen. I'll put up there for you to alright.

Got a thumbs up. So probably everybody in here should be able to zoom in on that. That'll take you straight to the Google form where you can put those questions in digitally. Now the great thing about that is the chances of me losing those questions go down to about 1% instead of maybe 30% like the physical ones that you might give. That's a joke, but not really.

So if you'd like to do that, I'll try and address all of those questions over the course of this quarter. Okay. So what is it that we're gonna try and cover? What's our what's our objective? Well, here are some topics that we're gonna try and cover.

Number one, the Greek word for spirit, panuma. You have that hand out there. I would encourage you to go through those references in your own time. It's gonna take a while to do that, but go through and say, okay, which kind of spirit is this? And we'll talk about that more in just a second.

The spirit is deity and the spirit as a person as opposed to this idea of the spirit just being an expression of the father's will or working or power, as opposed to the spirit just being the word of God. We think about a person who is working in that discussion. Number three, the spirit in the old testament. How the spirit worked in that word spirit in the old testament which I think is a great groundwork foundation for this idea of the dwelling of God with man. The dwelling of deity with man, God the father, God the son, but then also the holy spirit and how he dwells with us and specifically this idea of the indwelling of the spirit, how does the spirit dwell in man.

Number five, the spirit and the apostles and how the spirit is manifested to the apostles and is promised to the apostles versus how it's manifested in every christian and promised to every christian. The working of the spirit, we think about the objective working of the spirit versus a subject of working of the spirit. The working of the spirit in the old testament, the new testament age, and then today. The miraculous works of the spirit, so we think signs and miracles and speaking in tongues and the inspiration of the word of God, those sorts of things. The baptism of the holy spirit, what was it?

When did it happen? How many times did it happen? Sins against the holy spirit, specifically this idea of blasphemy against the holy spirit, what some people call the unpardonable sin. And then worshiping the spirit, we, can we, what does that look like? So that's class one and then I'll have another list for class two.

No, I'm just kidding. We will do well if we cover all of those topics over the course of this quarter. If you look at that list and you say, well my question is outside of those 10 things, I really wanna know what your question is and we will try to address that as well. Okay. Here's the way I've approached this as I've been studying specifically for this class.

I've done lots of lessons, sermons dealing with the Holy Spirit or specific passages pertaining to the Holy Spirit, but this is the first time in my preaching life that I've done a whole class, a whole quarter just focused on the Holy Spirit. And so as I've gone about that trying to conceptualize the Holy Spirit, not just in a particular passage or regarding a particular question, but getting my arms all the way around the Holy Spirit, here are two images of how I've approached that that I think maybe might be helpful to you as well. This is Beau. We had dogs growing up, when I was a little boy we had white German Shepherds frosty and snowy. And this is Beau, and believe it or not, Beau is part German Shepherd.

If I if I get the story right, Beau's mother was a registered full blood boxer and then this German Shepherd mix with some other whatever, hopped the fence one day and Bo was part of that litter. And so we got him at a very cheap rate, but he was an awesome dog. And we see this fence that we had, there's my sister and I, we're petting Bo back in the year 2000. I was four then. No, that's not right.

So this is Bo, he was a big dog, he was a tough dog. He didn't like not being able to see out of his fence, he would do two things. He would run and this is a six foot tall fence. He would run and jump and you would see his little head come over the fence. Kinda like that, you know, he wants to look over.

And then finally, he'd had enough of trying to do that, so he just hit the fence enough that he broke out. In fact, he did this, my dad replaced it a couple of times and finally just left it, that one of the pickets in that fence was broken where he could just look out. But before we moved to this house that had the big dog run-in the high six foot fence, for a little while, while he was a puppy, we lived in a house that was not fenced. And so he was on a chain, a very long chain, again for a short period of time, statutes of limitations, don't go calling anybody on us. He was a great dog, I only heard him growl, really growl at somebody one time, turns out he was a great judge of character also with that particular person.

And so the chain didn't make him mean or anything like that, but it was funny how quickly, this is just like a couple of months after he was chained here. You see like like everything is just destroyed and there was this run-in a big circle or semi circle where he would be on the very edge of that chain and he would stake to it and then he would run on the edge. You say, what does this have to do with your approach to the holy spirit? Well, he could see everything on that chain and he explored within the limits of that stake and chain but ultimately, was limited by where he was staked. Now with the fence, he wanted to see but he couldn't.

And my grandmother who's still living, my grandmother on my mother's side, she felt so bad about him not being able to see. So there were a couple of times that she left, not the chain link, let me go back to it, not this chain link but this door here, she left that open so he could see out. What do you think he did? He just jumped that chain link like it was nothing and he ran and he explored West Texas. Right?

Well, in regards to my approach to studying the holy spirit, it's like that stake in chain. There are some things that I know to be true from my study about the holy spirit. And I wanna drive a stake in the ground and everything to be tethered to those things that I know to be true about the holy spirit. Now I wanna be able to see everything else. I wanna be able to explore to a certain degree away from what I know to be true, but I want everything else to come back to however many stakes I drive in the ground that I know this is true.

I know this about the holy spirit. I think Paul does something similar when it comes to deity and specifically Jesus Christ in first Timothy chapter three. Will you turn over there with me? First Timothy chapter three and verse 16. Likely in your bible like mine, this is set aside in your margin, maybe it's even in italics.

That just shows that this is poetry instead of prose. It's possible that this was an early christian hymn, it's possible that the apostle Paul just wrote this in poetry, so it would be easy to remember. But this is what the apostle Paul says in first Timothy chapter three verse 16. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. Now, let me open it up to all of you for just a second.

What is in a New Testament sense, what's a mystery? It's unknown, it's unrevealed specifically and then once it's revealed, well, now it's the revealed mystery, so it's a hidden truth that has been revealed. So the mystery of godliness, God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. Now there is a lot of things that we don't know about the mystery of godliness. There are lots of things that we don't know about Jesus being manifested in flesh but what do we know?

That he was manifested in the flesh. And anything else that we believe or understand about Jesus and his incarnation and who he was has to come back to that reality that God was manifested in the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. That makes sense? And he has a list of other things, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the gentiles, believed in the world, received up in glory. And anything else that I believe about the mystery of godliness has to come back to those things that Paul listed.

I think we should approach our study of the holy spirit in a similar way. Maybe I would put it in this these terms. I've got three boxes. Box one is what I know. I know with certainty.

This is the stake in the ground. And then the second box is what I think I know. You know, I've studied this, I'm pretty sure about it but there's still some things where I'm like, you know, this passage could be understood in a different way and maybe I'm not an entirely a 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure that I know this. And then there's a big box, I put these boxes the same size, I thought about making them different sizes, I'm like, Reagan, you're doing too much. But there's the third box what I don't know.

So what happens? Well, it starts here in this box, and then I move it here into this box, what I think I know, and then eventually it's what I know. And when I'm certain about something, I'm gonna have to be pretty convinced by somebody else to move it back into that other box. Drive some stakes in the ground about what you know about the holy spirit and then interpret everything else in light of that. For example, in box one, what I know.

This is just an example, but there is a very clear difference in what is promised and received by Jesus in regard to the holy spirit. What is promised and received by the apostles in regard to the holy spirit. And what was promised and received by other christians in regard to the Holy Spirit. There is a very clear difference between those three things. In box two, I would say, well, I think I know this about that.

Clearly there's a difference between those three things. Would you agree with that? Can I hear your head rattle or give me a thumbs up on that? I think we can all agree on that. Here's what I think I know about that.

Turn to John chapter three, if you would. John chapter three. And I'm trying to express things in biblical terms, though sometimes it isn't possible for us to conceptualize just using terms in the bible. I'm trying to use biblical terms and speak about bible things in bible ways. And in John chapter three, let's read verses 33 through 35.

John three thirty three. He who has received his testimony has certified that God is true. For he, Jesus, whom God has sent speaks the words of God. For God does not give the spirit by measure. For the father loves the son and has given all things into his hand.

Whose hand? Christ, the son's. He's given all things into his hand, so he does not given the spirit by measure. Now what I think of that means is God gave the Holy Spirit to Jesus without limit, without measure. Jesus had access to and the power of the Holy Spirit fully.

Well, what does that imply? The Holy Spirit to a lesser measure was given to the apostles and the old testament prophets which is really more what John the Baptist is probably talking about here, to a lesser measure was given to the old testament prophet. Because they did not have all the power of the holy spirit nor did they even see all of the revelation. Right? Things that prophets and angels desired to look into, they didn't have all of that.

And then, we think about the apostles, they were they were limited to some degree in the gifts bestowed upon them in relation to what Jesus received and certainly that's the case when it comes to others who received miraculous powers of the holy spirit. I'm pretty sure that's the way it works. I haven't moved it over here yet, but I'm pretty sure that's the way it worked. Now in regard to those things, are there some things that I don't know? You better believe it.

How the holy spirit worked with the different personalities and minds of the apostles and prophets and others to lesser degrees to work miracles and reveal all truth and inspire them to write the word of God. I'm gonna drown if I get that deep in the pool. How the holy spirit did that, I don't know. I believe that he did and I believe that he gave it by measure. I know that there's a difference between what Jesus received, the apostles received and all that the Christians received.

That makes sense? That's the way I've approached it. Okay. We have, about twelve minutes left. So let's do this, for the rest of our time tonight.

The Greek word for spirit. Let's run through this really quickly and then I have a couple of activities. We'll see how much we get to do in class and how much I'll have you do on your own time before we come back to class next time. So here are some possible uses of the word spirit, pneuma in Greek. So we're thinking about in the New Testament.

Obviously, that word is used of the Holy Spirit. And I think it's worth mentioning at this point, most of you are good bible students, you already know this, but I had to learn this just as all of us have to learn it at some point. When we think about Koine Greek, the kind of Greek in which the New Testament was written, it was written without punctuation, It was written without capital or lower case letters. It was written in just big long, what looked to be run on sentences though the syntax tells us what the sentences are. And so that means that that didn't have capital letters to say, well this is a proper name or this is deity.

Now our translators in our English versions, I think as a sign of respect, but also hopefully to avoid some confusion, they capitalize the names and pronouns of deity. So God is capitalized. Christ is capitalized. But also in some translations, even the pronouns are capitalized. He or him or himself would be translated with a capital letter.

So when you see a capital s for spirit in your translation, that means the translator whoever it was or the committee or person who translated your version thinks that's talking about the holy spirit. And they are a 100% right on that all the time. Right? No, of course not. They're not inspired.

They're not perfect in terms of translation. So it's a good place to start but just because it's a capital s doesn't mean that it's actually referring to the holy spirit. Unless there's a holy in front of spirit, the context determines whether it's the holy spirit or another use of the word spirit in these uses. I'll also say this and this is reflected on your handout. You do see the holy spirit referred to by two other names, the helper or comforter in John 14 through 16, and then the promise of the father in Luke 24 and acts one.

Otherwise, when we think about the holy spirit, we can find that word spirit there in the context. Secondly, this word is used for evil spirits, we might call demons, it's even used of Satan himself. Matthew eight and verse 16, they brought to him many who were demon possessed and he cast out the spirits with a word. These demons, these evil spirits, unclean spirits. But in Ephesians two and verse two, this word spirit refers to Satan himself, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.

Who is that spirit? That's the devil, right? Working in that way. Number three, it's used of good spirits. We think about spiritual beings like angels and the seraphim and those sorts of things.

An example of this Oh, this died on me. Alright. I'll move would be acts chapter 23 and verse nine. But if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against God. Now, that's not an inspired statement, that's just a recorded statement because these are those, who are putting the apostle Paul specifically on trial.

If a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against God. The Pharisees said that against the Sadducees. Sometimes it refers to what we would call a ghost. Old King James usually renders it that way. But they were terrified and frightened and supposed they had seen a spirit.

Again, what we would call a ghost. And then Jesus says to them, I'm not a ghost for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And that's Luke 24 verses thirty seven and thirty nine. This word as we see a lot in the old testament can be translated breath. So second Thessalonians two and verse eight, whom the Lord will consume with the spirit, the breath of his mouth.

This word can be translated wind, John three and verse eight. The wind, same word, pneuma, blows where it wishes. This word can be translated or can be understood to refer to the life that is in us. So we have life inside our bodies. A good example of this would be Luke chapter eight and verse five.

Jesus raises this girl from the dead and it says, then her spirit returned and she arose immediately. Now maybe you could say that's her spirit, like we're gonna talk about here in just a second, but I think that's just saying she came to life again. Her life returned. And in Revelation 11 and verse 11, now after three and a half days, the breath of life, same word, from God entered them and they stood on their feet. So we think about the spirit given to Adam when he became a living being, it's used in that way.

It's also used just of things that are spiritual in nature as opposed to physical. Some things are flesh, physical, some some things are spirit, spiritual. Jesus says this in John chapter three and verse six, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit, now that one might be holy spirit there, but that which is born of the spirit is spirit. That is, it's spiritual in nature as opposed to physical in nature. We think about spirit in terms of the manner or the way of something.

Give you a couple of examples of that. The spirit and power of Elijah was in John the Baptist. In other words, he had the same way, the same manner, the same spirit about him. In Acts chapter six and verse 10, it talks about the spirit by which he spoke those things, the way in which he spoke those things. And then finally number 11, we think about a mental disposition, an attitude, a state of mind, a character.

And usually there's another modifying word that says it's the spirit of this. So we think about the spirit of holiness. That means you have a disposition, an attitude, a way about you of holiness. The spirit of bondage versus the spirit of adoption. The spirit of stupor.

You know some people that have that spirit, I do too. Hopefully not me. Being fervent in spirit, that your attitude is one of fervency. The spirit of gentleness in a couple of different places. The spirit of faith.

The spirit of wisdom and revelation. Paul tells Timothy that he needs to be an example to the believers in all these different ways, in his faith and in his conduct, but included in that is he needs to be an example in spirit. And what is your spirit like as you go about doing things? God has not given us a spirit of fear or timidity, that should not be in our heart or mind. And then we think about first Peter chapter three and verse four, and wives can win their husbands because of their gentle and quiet spirit which is very precious in the sight of God.

So all of those things refer to our mental disposition, attitude, state of mind and our character. So we've got these 11 different uses as I've counted them up of this word spirit. Well, we think about this last one, mental disposition, attitude, state of mind, even character, that can also refer to the spirit of God. We read that sometimes that's talking about the holy spirit. But sometimes when we read spirit of God or spirit of Christ, it's actually referring to God the father and his disposition, his attitude, his character or Christ.

His disposition, his character and that we need to put on a similar kind of character, not put on the holy spirit, at least not in that context, but we need to be like God. We need to be like Christ as we go about doing things. So, here's our first activity. If you wanna look on the backside of your sheet, we've got a four and a half minutes left based on that clock back there. I want you to look at first John chapter four.

First John chapter four, and look at verses seven through 17. Now I'm gonna read that. We've got one use of the word spirit and these are the two questions I want you to answer as we look at this passage. So first John chapter four verse 13, if we were to just read that out of context, first John chapter four and verse 13, for by this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. Now, as I was going through all those passages that I've got listed for you, the first time I read through that, well, it must be talking about the holy spirit.

Then I open up my bible, I look at the context, I say, wait a second, is that really what it's talking about? Let's read starting in verse seven together. Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God for God is love. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us that God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him.

In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation, the paid price for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love has been perfected in us. By this, we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit.

And if we have seen and testify that the father has sent the son as savior of the world, Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. We have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. Okay.

We've got just a minute left. So this is where we'll pick up next time. I want you to take that activity and then the next activity after it, and apply these things that we've been talking about. What is being talked about when we talk about in verse 13, he has given us of his spirit. What spirit is that that has been given of to us from God?

And look at the context and answer these two questions that I think will be very helpful to you in determining that. What are all the words and phrases that connect God to love in this passage? And what words and phrases are used to describe us being like God when we love in this passage? And I think that'll help you in seeing what this is talking about here. So we'll cover that and then we'll go into Romans chapter eight next time and talk about the uses of that word spirit in Romans chapter eight.

I've given you five possibilities there at the bottom of your handout. Just look through there and say, okay, every time the word spirit is used, which of these five is being used by the apostle Paul? As I say to the high school kids, give me a thumbs up if you understand the assignment. Give me a thumbs down if you don't, well, come see me if you don't if you don't understand what we're doing. But I hope that'll be helpful to us and then, we'll get into further manifestations of the spirit next time.

Thank you for your good