16:1 “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.
The Work of the Holy Spirit
“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.5 But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me;10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer;11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.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.14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
16:1 “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away.2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.
The Work of the Holy Spirit
“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you.5 But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me;10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer;11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.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.14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:
You would open your bibles to John 16. As you're opening there, let me begin with this powerful statement. If you own a white Mazda SUV with a Louisiana tag, you're blocking somebody's driveway. We're just gonna keep looking at our Bibles. We're not gonna look up, see who leaves to move their car.
Joel Brooks:
But if you would move that, that would be fantastic. I also have the license tag, but I won't embarrass you too much. So white Mazda SUV, Louisiana tag. I wanna thank, many of you who prayed for my wife and I this past week. We were part of the Sojourn conference for lead pastors, and we we spent a week meeting with other pastors and church planters.
Joel Brooks:
Our church is part of the Sojourn network, and it was great. I got to meet with 7 different church planters this past week, that our church is sponsoring. And it was just such an encouraging time to go through the the highs and the lows of this past year with them. And it's pretty incredible to see what the Lord is doing, across this country, with other churches very similar to Redeemer being planted all around. And I just left with a great appreciation and thankfulness that we get to be a part of that network.
Joel Brooks:
So thank you, those who were praying for Lauren and I during that time. So John 16, we'll begin reading in verse 1. I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away, and they will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the father nor me.
Joel Brooks:
But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told them to you. I did not say these things to you from the beginning because I was with you. But now, I'm going to him who sent me. And none of you asked me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
Joel Brooks:
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.
Joel Brooks:
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. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.
Joel Brooks:
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. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the father has is mine. Therefore, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. This is the word of the Lord.
Joel Brooks:
And pray with me. Jesus in our midst. That he would make Jesus's presence real to us. Real to us through the words that we hear, the scripture we read, the songs that we sing, the prayers that we pray. Jesus, this service, this evening is all about you.
Joel Brooks:
We are gathered for no other reason. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:
Last week, we looked at the Ascension of Jesus, how 40 days after His resurrection, Jesus ascended to heaven where He sat down at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, and He is now currently reigning. Now we didn't talk about it much last week, but it's kind of fun to imagine what those 40 days would have been like, with the disciples hanging out with the risen Jesus. I mean, 41 days before the ascension, they were frightened. They were defeated. They were scattered all about.
Joel Brooks:
But then 40 days ago, everything changed. And they had Jesus by their side, and Jesus, he was there, and they were eating with him. He was teaching them. They were they were just watching him breathe. He was very much alive.
Joel Brooks:
And now that they had Jesus with him, they thought, certainly, it's time for us to, to begin the real mission. It's time for us to bring about the kingdom. After all, when Jesus resurrected and with him victorious by their side, it was time to take on the world. And so the disciples, they said to Jesus, you find this in Luke, they said, is it now time for you to restore the kingdom to Israel? Isn't it time for this?
Joel Brooks:
But then then to their great astonishment, Jesus left. And he's been preparing them for this all along over and over again. He has reminded them, I am leaving, I am leaving. But then when it actually happens, it still took them off guard. The disciples did not expect Jesus to leave.
Joel Brooks:
You don't ask somebody, now are you gonna establish the kingdom, if you expect them to take off and leave? But he did leave. He left. In front of their very eyes, he ascended to the father. And as they watched him go and they couldn't really believe what was happening, this loneliness and this sorrow creeped in.
Joel Brooks:
They thought, this isn't how the story is supposed to go. I mean, we've got the resurrected Jesus with us now. I mean, it's Jesus with his new body, and he can like walk through walls. He can He can appear in one place and then disappear and appear in another. He's like the ninja Jesus, you know, we're ready to go to battle.
Joel Brooks:
We're ready to go to Pilate and teach him a lesson. We're ready to go to the Pharisees and tell them all the ways that they were wrong. And with Jesus at our side, victory is assured. That's what they had in mind, but then Jesus leaves. To make things a little more confusing, just one chapter earlier in John 15, Jesus said these words.
Joel Brooks:
He goes, apart from me, you can do nothing. Apart from me, you could do nothing. Apart from me, you can have no joy, you can have no purpose, there's no meaning in your life. Apart from me, you cannot bear any fruit. Apart from me, you can't have any life.
Joel Brooks:
Apart from me, you can do absolutely nothing. From me, you could do nothing. And now, I am leaving you. No. You can certainly understand why the disciples at this point were astonished and they were filled with despair.
Joel Brooks:
John 16:7, Jesus tells him why he's leaving. He says, I tell you the truth. It is for your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you, But if I go, I will send him to you. Jesus said that it was for their good, for our good, that he goes away.
Joel Brooks:
Now, I think if if we're all honest here, we would all have to admit that there are at least times that we struggle with this. Many of us would confess, just like the disciples here, that we have a hard time believing Jesus when he says it's better that he would leave us. I mean, how many of you at times have wished you could have Jesus physically present right next to you? I mean, wouldn't that be great? I went to the University of Georgia, and I took a lot of Bible classes.
Joel Brooks:
Georgia is known for its solid evangelical scholarship, in case you didn't know, and so I took a lot of classes. One of my classes, I kid you not, was from a doctor Godless. That was actually his name, doctor Godless, And, most of my professors just took great delight in pretty much tearing the Bible to shreds. Just tearing it to shreds and saying, Jesus, he really didn't do this. Jesus, he really didn't say this.
Joel Brooks:
You can't you can't believe this story here. Now how great would it have been if my professor, maybe Professor Godless, as he was saying, you know, Jesus really didn't do this miracle. Jesus really didn't teach this for Jesus to go, excuse me. Actually, I did. I did.
Joel Brooks:
To to have Jesus physically present to rebuke Doctor. Godless, I would have paid an enormous amount of money to watch that happen. To have watched that happen. What about when you're with one of your friends who doesn't know the Lord, and you're trying to share the gospel with them, maybe it's a coworker, wouldn't it be nice to actually say, you know, if the maybe it's maybe it's Sally, and you're like, hey, Sally, I'd like you to meet Jesus. Jesus, Sally, you'll talk.
Joel Brooks:
You know, it would just it'd be so evangelism would be so much easier if there was actually the physically present Jesus who was with us. What about when you're going through a time of grief and sorrow? Wouldn't it be nice to have Jesus there physically holding you as you hurt? Jesus would make an incredible prayer partner. You just basically go and get coffee.
Joel Brooks:
You just kinda get coffee, and you talk to one another. It's prayer right there. I've thought first, I thought he would make a good accountability partner. Then I just thought that'd be terrible, absolutely terrible. Every time, Jesus, you struggle with anything this week.
Joel Brooks:
No? Okay, well. As you're just thinking through these scenarios, as I am at least, I'm thinking, how exactly is it for my good Jesus is not physically with me. When you read through commentaries, they're very quick to point out that of course, one of the benefits of Jesus going away and sending his spirit is that when Jesus was just here physically, he was limited by his physical body. When he was in Nazareth, he couldn't be in Jerusalem, and when he was in Jerusalem, of course, he couldn't be in Nazareth.
Joel Brooks:
And so there were limitations to actually the ministry he could do. I started thinking some about this and trying to do the math, and so if we all wanted to spend just a little personal time with with Jesus in the flesh. There's 2,000,000,000 Christians, professed Christians in the world. I'm gonna just cut that in half, just cut it in half. That's probably a more realistic number.
Joel Brooks:
A 1000000000 Christians in the world. And if each one of us were to just get one minute with Jesus, just one minute sitting across from Jesus, maybe having coffee, you would get to meet with Jesus once every 1900 years. Once every 1900 years for one minute. Can you think of the pressure, like, in that one minute too? Like, the the questions you gotta ask, you gotta cram in there, and and Jesus gives very slow responses.
Joel Brooks:
He'd probably answer whatever question he had with, well, there was a vineyard, and 2 people lived in it, and he would just, you know, he would never get to the end, and he'd say I'll tell you again, 1900 years. But yes, there's definitely limitations to the physical Jesus here, and so so of course, that's one of the reasons, but there's there's more. There's more. Let's read verse 7. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.
Joel Brooks:
It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. When Jesus tells his disciples he's going away, he says he's going to send in his in his replacement, as his replacement, the helper, the helper. You might have a different version of this, in your Bible, and the actual Greek word is paraclete, and it's a hard word to translate.
Joel Brooks:
And so sometimes, the translators just use the word paraclete. Others might use the words counselor or comforter or the advocate. It's really in Greek, it's a combination of 2 words. It's the word, which means to come alongside of, and kaleo, which means to call someone to truth or to exhort. And so this is, it's to come alongside of somebody and to call them to truth.
Joel Brooks:
That's the paraclete. It's actually a combination of what I would call a soft term and a hard term. The soft term is para, which is to come along side of. This is the soothing, comforting presence of the Holy Spirit. And then kaleo is the hard term.
Joel Brooks:
It's the speaking truth into someone's life even when they don't wanna hear it. And so the Holy Spirit, who is the paraclete, He's the one who comes alongside us, but He doesn't just soothe us, He speaks hard truth into our life, and he presses it in. He exhorts us to believe this, to believe who he is. Sometimes it's painful truth. This is why some of your translations prefer the word counselor, is gonna push truth into you, gonna tell you things that you're gonna ask you hard questions, is gonna push truth into you, gonna tell you things that you don't want to hear, but you need to hear.
Joel Brooks:
That's what a counselor does. Counselor is gonna confront you in order to change you. And this is exactly what the disciples need. It's what we need. Despite these disciples being with Jesus for 3 years, hearing him teach, seeing him do all the miracles, you know, calm a hurricane, feed 5,000, walk on water, raise people from the dead, these disciples still didn't get it.
Joel Brooks:
That the truth about who Jesus is never really penetrated their inner being. So they needed the spirit of God to come alongside them and press that truth into them to make the presence of Jesus real in their life. Otherwise, they would be no different. This is why Jesus says that it would be for a good to go away. You you know, we need to remove that modern thought that we have that says, if only I'd been there, if only I'd seen the miracles that Jesus saw, if only I actually watched him raise Lazarus from the dead, and I heard him teach the sermon on the mouth.
Joel Brooks:
If only I was there, then I would really believe. That is completely false. That is completely false. The disciples prove that. Believing is a gift that comes from the Holy Spirit coming alongside us and pressing in the truth of who Jesus is.
Joel Brooks:
Unless he opens our hearts, unless he opens our minds, we we simply cannot understand. This is why Jesus says it's for his good that he goes away. He's gonna send the counselor to make his presence real to us. In verse 14, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will glorify him. If you've been here for any amount of time, you've heard me talk about the word glory, which literally means weighty, heavy, solid.
Joel Brooks:
Glory is something that has substance. So when Jesus says that the spirit will glorify him, he is saying that the spirit will make Jesus real to us, substantial to us. That's the purpose of the spirit, to to make us believe in Jesus by making him real to us. All you have to do is look at Pentecost to understand how this happens, to see this happening. Because what really happened at Pentecost?
Joel Brooks:
I mean, really what happened? What happened to Peter? Did he gain any new knowledge? And that's what set him on fire to go out and preach, was it new knowledge? Did he hear a new sermon?
Joel Brooks:
Did somebody give him a new book? Say, you know, here, read Tim Keller's reason for God and, you know, Peter's thumbing through it like this makes sense. And that was the last ingredient he needed. He is absolutely real. And at that moment, Jesus had far more substance than the world did.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus was far more solid than any threat the world could throw at him. Jesus became glorified to him. That's what you see at Pentecost. Can I just say that more than any other thing that we need in our life right now is for the spirit of God to make Jesus real to us? We've been going through the life of Jesus, the gospel of John for a while, so there's many of you who have been hearing the stories of Jesus, been hearing the teachings of Jesus, But the question is, has Jesus become real to you?
Joel Brooks:
Do you actually hear Jesus calling you? I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with people after a service, and they've come up to me, and, literally, they got saved at the service. They have come to know the Lord during this time, and I'm talking with them and they're like, this is amazing. How come I never heard this before? How come I never heard the gospel before?
Joel Brooks:
I grew up in church my entire life, Sunday after Sunday, but how come I never heard this before? And I tell them, usually you did hear this. I'm sure if you went to church your whole life, you probably heard it over and over and over again. But this is the first time that the spirit came alongside you the sermon a 1000 times, but this one time it just clicks, that's the Spirit's work. You see that in the book of Acts at Pentecost when Peter runs out and he's preaching.
Joel Brooks:
And it says that after he said that Jesus is Lord and he is Christ, it says, and they were cut to the heart. That's what the spirit's doing, cutting these people to the heart, opening up their heart to now receive this truth about who Jesus is. This is what we need in our life for Jesus to be absolutely real to us. Jesus further explains the role and the mission of the spirit verses 8 through 11. Read those with me.
Joel Brooks:
And when he comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and 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. Jesus is not only sending his disciples on a mission, he is sending his Holy Spirit on a mission as well.
Joel Brooks:
And the mission of the holy spirit is to bring about real change, not only in the disciples, but to actually bring about change in the world. This is one of the very few places in scripture that we see the spirit's role outside of the church. What is the holy spirit doing outside of the church? And his role is to convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. This word convict here, it's a legal term which means to point out the error in someone, to prove beyond reasonable doubt that this person is an error, that they are wrong.
Joel Brooks:
And so what Jesus is saying here, if you really wanna simplify this, is through the Holy Spirit, he's gonna show the world what is wrong and what is right and who wins. What is wrong, what is right, and who wins. Let's look at those three things. What is wrong? The Holy Spirit will convict the world concerning sin.
Joel Brooks:
Verse 9 says this, says concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. Very important to to hear Jesus at this, because I think if I were to just hand you a blank sheet of paper, hand the world a blank sheet of paper and say y'all just make a list of sins, there would probably be some overlap. Ours would probably be a little different than theirs, but there would be a lot of sins out there listed on these sheets of paper. But Jesus is saying the sin, the world doesn't believe who I am. That's the sin that in which all other sins flow from, unbelief.
Joel Brooks:
And the role of the holy spirit is to convict people to show them that Jesus is the son of God. He is who he says he is, and we should listen to him. What is right? The holy spirit is to convict us about what is right. Look at verse 10.
Joel Brooks:
Says, concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer. It's kind of odd odd phrase there. He's gonna convict us concerning righteousness because he's going to the father and we see him no more. And I believe what Jesus is saying here when he says, I wanna convict you of righteousness because I go to the Father, and you're not gonna see me anymore. How is Jesus going to the Father?
Joel Brooks:
Well, he's going to the Father through his death and his resurrection is in his ascension. What he is saying is the gospel. I will convict the world concerning righteousness, which is the gospel and my ascension here. So if you were to hand out a blank sheet of paper to the world, and you were to say, tell me what is right, tell me what is righteousness, they would probably give a bunch of, you know, they would list a bunch of things. If you were to ask them, how can you become righteous?
Joel Brooks:
They would list all these good moral things. And Jesus says, that's the world's righteousness. My righteousness is this. You believe in my death, my burial, my resurrection, and my ascension. It's not what you do.
Joel Brooks:
It's what I'm going to do, or now it's what he has done. And when he says, you will see me no more, that's also that's talking about his ascension, but it's also talking about how we have to believe these things by faith. We're trusting in the work of Jesus
Jeffrey Heine:
for our righteousness
Joel Brooks:
and not in what we are doing. Now, let's look at who won or concerning judgment. Look at verse 11. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. Jesus says here that the spirit of God will convict us or convince us that the evil in this world is judged.
Joel Brooks:
That although it seems like satan is winning in this world, he is not. He has been dealt the decisive blow at Calvary. And Jesus has won and he is reigning. We're in the period of cleanup duty right now. That's the age in which the church lives in, but the victory of Jesus is assured.
Joel Brooks:
Now the question is, how does the holy spirit convict the world of these things? And and I really want us to think about this because I think the church makes a major mistake in thinking how the spirit how the spirit convicts the world concerning these things, because we kinda think that the spirit of God, he's just out there, and he's just going to do it. He's just out there and he is just left and right, he's just on his own, he is just convicting people, he's telling them of their sins. He's convincing them of who Jesus is. He's telling them about their false righteousness and to trust the gospel.
Joel Brooks:
We just kind of think that the spirit of God is just doing this. But although this is the role of the spirit outside of the church, you need to understand that he does this through the church. The spirit of God does these things through the church. That's what we're celebrating. At Pentecost, The Spirit of God came down on these apostles, and then they went out.
Joel Brooks:
And as they went out, Peter proclaimed these things. And when he proclaimed these truths, then the spirit of God came and did his work. And he convicted the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. But we are to go and be on mission, and we are to be proclaimers. Can I just say that's that's so much more than just inviting people to church?
Joel Brooks:
That is telling people about Jesus. I still get calls and emails to this day. I hope this doesn't embarrass you. Those of you who have done it, it's going to embarrass you, but it's just between us. I will get these emails just saying, Hey, I'm bringing, I'm bringing my neighbor to church this week.
Joel Brooks:
I have been working on my neighbor for years. They don't know the Lord at all, and so I'm bringing them. I was like, well, that's great. And they're like, Anne, I was kinda hoping you could maybe do a little, you know, if you could kinda land the plane this week. You know, just just just land the plane, really bring home the gospel.
Joel Brooks:
And I'm always thinking, I think 2 things. 1, do I not normally bring the gospel each week? And then 2 is like why aren't you landing the plane? You just said you've been building a relationship with this person for 3 years. You've been trying to get them to come to church for 3 years.
Joel Brooks:
How about telling them about Jesus for 3 years? Actually telling them the gospel. And not just bringing them here so the professional can take care of them. This is our job as the church. I remember when the tornadoes, they came through a few years ago, and I can't remember which city I went up to to help with the aid there.
Joel Brooks:
I brought a few of my friends, some other pastors with me, and we were going to help out. And immediately when we got there, we were thrown in some lines to kind of hand out food. Another church had organized this, And so we're handing out all this food to people who've just lost their homes. And we had to tape a business card on top of the food with the church's logo, and with the church's service times on it. And we would give it to them.
Joel Brooks:
And supposed to invite them to church. I got sick to my stomach. So I'm like, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that. What these people need who have just lost their homes and been devastated is not to tell them about the service times that they could go to at the church.
Joel Brooks:
They need to be told that Jesus loves them. That's what they need. They need to hear the gospel, That even though it looks like the world was just ripped out from underneath them, that there is a solid rock on which they could stand, and his name is Jesus. That's what they need to hear. They don't need to be just invited to church.
Joel Brooks:
Do not mistake evangelism with just inviting somebody to church. Trust that the spirit of God who is empowering you to boldly proclaim the gospel, He will be, and them, cutting open their heart, making them receptive to receive the gospel. We are to proclaim his word. We are to pray for his spirit to move. This past week when I was at this conference, with all these surgeon pastors, we're all talking about different strategies that we can use to plant more churches, to reach the lost.
Joel Brooks:
And you can begin just thinking through so many different operations and so many different method methods that you kinda forget what's important. I fall into this trap as a pastor of wishing that Jesus at times, I wish this, that he would have sent something else other than his spirit, because I found my size myself wishing and praying more often for things like a better facility. Now, that's great that you sent your spirit, but I would have really loved Jesus actually if you had sent a better facility, maybe with some parking and more than 2 toilets. That would that would really be nice. And if we had a facility like that, watch out, Birmingham.
Joel Brooks:
Or maybe you know, I'm thinking instead of your spirit, it'd be nice to just send us a lot of cash. I mean, just send us a lot of money where we don't even have to worry about our budget anymore. We could just fund tons of missions. That will reach the world. That will win people to you, Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
If I had to be real honest, I could think this, I would rather of you, Lord, to have just sent maybe a greater gift of preaching. Make make people enthralled with my words, so where they really wanna come in from all around town just to hear me speak, then so many people I could win to the Lord. But what we need is the Holy Spirit to work more than what would which would we miss more if if we didn't have a facility or we didn't have the Holy Spirit show up? Which is more critical to the ministry of the church? And I have to realize as a pastor that the Holy Spirit can do more in one second than I can do a 100 years running as hard as I can with the best facility.
Joel Brooks:
He can convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment like that. And we talked about this at our at our conference. And the pastors, we decided, hey, let's just take a time out. Forget teaching anymore. We just need to pray.
Joel Brooks:
And we just spent the evening just pleading the Lord to send his spirit and basically to revive us. That's what Birmingham needs. That's what Avondale needs. It's just for the spirit of God to come and to open up hearts and to revive us in a way that we can never do on our own. And so what I want us to do as a church is to get down on our knees.
Joel Brooks:
I want us to gather together. I want us to pray. I want us to seek God to move among his people in this city. And so what we're gonna do is we're gonna take time to pray guys. You know, you know the routine.
Joel Brooks:
You've been here long enough. We're gonna break up in groups 8, 10, whatever it is. And I want us to take time to pray that God would send his spirit. Plead for his spirit to convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Plead that the Lord would, even with the people here who have heard the gospel for so many years and yet Jesus has not become real to them, pray at this moment that the spirit of God would make Jesus real.
Joel Brooks:
So take some time to pray, and then we will close in a bit.