15 this morning. So if you want to take your bibles, or it will be up on the screen verse by verse for you. If you want to reference that. But once you've found John 16 four, please stand out of reverence for the reading of God's word.
I'll begin there at the end of verse four. These things I did not say to you at the beginning because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me. Not one of you asks me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you.
Sorrow has filled your heart. But 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 he, when he comes, 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 no longer see me. And concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged, I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own initiative. But whatever he hears, he will speak, and he will disclose to you what is to come.
He will glorify me, for he will take of mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are mine. Therefore I said that he takes of mine and will disclose it to you. Let's pray. Father, may your will be done.
Jesus, may your word be proclaimed. And, spirit, may your work in us be accomplished. Today. We pray. Amen.
You can be seated.
So, as promised, I was going to talk to you this morning a little bit about Pentecost and what is the big to do and why we should celebrate it. Today, many churches all over the nation and country and world are going to be decorated with red in celebration of this day of Pentecost. But before we dive into this passage, because what Jesus is referring to, to his disciples, about the role the Holy Spirit will play in our lives as believers, before we dive into that, I would like to just give you a little history, a little taste of what is going on at Pentecost. Pentecost is a greek word. It just means Penta 50 days.
And this goes all the way back to the book of Leviticus. You can even trace it back to some parts of exodus where God establishes certain feasts that he wants the nation of Israel to participate in. One of these feasts takes place right after Passover. You have Passover and then you have this feast of the harvest where the first fruits of the harvest, the grain, are supposed to be waved up and offered to God in celebration for the bountiful harvest. 50 days later, they're to do another feast called Pentecost, 50 days later, after seven sabbaths.
And at this time they're to offer bread. What do you make bread out of but the grain that was first offered in thanksgiving? And so God does something miraculous. He brings his people together in the Old Testament every year to participate in these feasts, these festivals, these seasons of rest, where he and his people come together through meal and celebrate all that has happened and been accomplished through him. God providing for his people and his people working and bringing in a harvest.
And because they present it to God, it's to say that God has caused this harvest. And so they continued every year to practice this festival. And I don't think that's by accident. And what you have on the day of Pentecost that we read in the book of acts, specifically in chapter two, they're already gathered. The people are already gathered.
The Jews are already gathered. This is why when you read acts and there's 3000 added to them, the people were gathered to celebrate this Old Testament feast. And I believe there are two things that we learn about this as we read the scriptures. One, that there is a celebration that God wants to enact, he wants to initiate so that his people will be gathered, so that when the future comes years past, his son accomplishes great work and sows his word into the ground and creates a harvest for his father. They're already gathered celebrating their own harvest.
But now they're going to gather one last time to celebrate the harvest of the work of Christ. Because that's what happens on this day of Pentecost. And this is why I often say, or you will continue to hear me say, why traditions matter. Because all the way back in Leviticus, when God institutes this celebration of the harvest, he has something in mind more than bread. He has something in mind more than just having his people acknowledge that he is the one that has provided grain for them.
He has his son, and what his son will come to do to redeem fallen man in mind. And so he starts out getting these people together in habit and tradition, and they pass along generations so that at the right time his people will already be gathered. And when his people are gathered, he will break out among them and do something very intentional and specific in the lives of those who believe in Jesus Christ. But not only that, not only is it a celebration, it's also a ceremony. Now, I gotta kind of piece some things together for you.
At the very early stages of Jesus ministry, you have John the Baptist in Luke chapter three. Let me read this. John the Baptist answered and said to them, as for me, I baptize you with water, but one is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of his sandals, and he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. The reason why the day of Pentecost is not only a celebration, but a ceremony, and why we definitely, if we're going to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries of each other, we definitely should be celebrating the anniversary of Christ's union with this church, which happens on the day of Pentecost. Let me help you flesh this out a little bit more.
What John says is, there is a baptism with water and there's a baptism with fire. What is the significance of these two symbols? What is the significance? How does this pay tribute to a ceremony? Well, I liken these two things as the exchanging of rings, as signs of commitment to one another between a groom and a bride.
Let me explain this. All the scriptures that speak of water baptism, the symbol of water, is about us uniting ourselves to Christ. Consider galatians 327. Listen to the language. It's about us giving ourselves to Christ.
Galatians 327 says, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Romans six three. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ have been baptized into his death? Hopefully, you see that that's a posture of us giving ourselves to Christ in baptism. So if it's a ceremony, what's the reciprocation from Christ to his bride?
If we exchange, if you would just go with the metaphor, the ring of water baptism, where we say, Christ, I am yours. And I prove that and demonstrate that through baptism. Christ says, you were mine, and I demonstrate that through the baptism of my holy, Holy Spirit and fire. Water and fire become the rings that we exchange, that represent and signify our union to Christ. Look at romans eight nine.
This is the language of Christ giving himself to us. However, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. If you do not have the spirit, you don't belong to him. Which implies if you do have the spirit, we belong to Christ.
And so baptism by water joins our lives to Christ and marks him as our husband. But the baptism of fire joins Christ to us and marks us as his bride. And these two baptisms are those symbols that exchanging a covenantal relationship that the people of God and God himself engage in on the day of Pentecost. Because on the day of Pentecost, when his people are gathered, that's when we know the Holy Spirit is sent from Christ, who ascended into heaven, marking his union with us. Christ says that his spirit will come in you.
This is the big to do with Mary, which she goes after Jesus death. She's going to the grave, she's going to the tomb, right? And it's open. She kind of freaks out a little bit. And Jesus is there, but she doesn't recognize him.
And the next thing you know, she says, mary. Mary Magdalene. Mary. And she identifies Jesus. And the next thing that Mary does is she grabs and takes hold of Christ.
Can you imagine the one whom your soul loves, who was dead and is now alive that moment? I think we all can identify what Mary is doing there. She's clinging to him so tight. And Jesus says, jesus says something so interesting to me, Mary, don't cling to me now, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
What's the big deal, Jesus, with you having to go to the Father? That is gonna be more than me clinging to you now.
And that's what we all need to wrap our minds around is we all, if we want an intimate love relationship with Jesus and we long for him to like Mary, be right there. I'm gonna cling to you. I'm never gonna let you go. He answered that and says, if you wanna cling to me and you wanna have an intimate love relationship with me, then let me go to my father because I'm going to send my spirit and it's going to come into your heart. That's the closest relationship you can ever have.
And that's what the day of Pentecost celebrates, is that moment where all those who believe in Jesus Christ receive his spirit in them. And that union that they want to have with him is satisfied, where we become his people and he becomes our God. And that's why the day of Pentecost should be celebrated with red images of fire, of Christ giving himself to us, and the dove symbolizing the spirit coming inside of us. That you don't have to look outward for Christ anymore. You can look in his word and in your heart, and the spirit tells you and fulfills in you all the hopes and dreams that you believe about Christ, he affirms all these things.
And the day of Pentecost should be not lost among us. The day of Pentecost, we should adorn the bride of Christ and dress her up to remember the anniversary of the time and the day that the spirit of Christ came to her and caused her to be born anew. The church was born on the day of Pentecost, and the church became his body. And that's the union that we celebrate. That's the ceremony that took place on the day of Pentecost, and we remember.
So Pentecost is a celebration and a ceremony where the spirit of Christ is given to those who are the firstfruits of Christ's labor. Let's not blow by that. If you were to use the analogy of grain and then making bread with the grain, that's part of the harvest. We are the people of God. The believers on that day were the bread from the fruits of the harvest of Christ's redemptive work, the death, burial, and resurrection, and his atonement on the cross, and all the work of Christ that he offered in himself, in his sacrifice.
That's what he presents to God. And what does that produce in us? It makes us new. I just find it so fascinating. This is why I love reading and studying the scriptures and want to orient my whole life around.
It is because that's the intention that God had all the way back in Leviticus when he told Moses, hey, write this down. It's very specific ingredients I got for you for this video festival. 50 days, seven sabbaths after the grain harvest. I want you to present bread to me, because it's really not about grain and bread, but you'll understand this later. It's actually about the work of my son and him plowing through all of the planet and planting the seed of my word.
And it's going to produce a harvest of people and believers and a family, for my name's sake. And that's the real reason I've started this festival. And it comes to fruition later on, hundreds of years later. And I can't help but to think that if God is that intentional, how much more intentional is he in these things every time his people gather? Now, is it reasonable?
And I believe it is to think that if the Lord has asked us to gather on the Lord's day to worship him, that no matter how long it takes, we continue in our habit of doing each and every Sunday that we gather as the people of God. Maybe he initiated that so that one day we all might experience a breaking out of God in a fresh and new way. You think of all the years that Israel practiced that feast, and they did the same thing. It was just grain and bread, grain and bread. And then the one day they showed up years later, hundreds of years later, and God did something miraculous.
He used it to break out among his people. And maybe, just maybe, if we continue to not forsake the gathering together with each other, maybe God will do something among us and break out among us in a new and fresh way. So that's the day of Pentecost. That's why I spent, I don't know, 3 hours blowing up these balloons. If you know anything about me, I'm not a hobby lobby guy, and I don't like glitter, glue, scissors, crayons, markers.
I'm just not that guy. Mom took me to hobby lobby all the time, and I'd just sit in the floor and wait for her to be done. But I was like, you know, this. This needs to be done because I think it's a special day. And so I was a little nervous because I thought maybe somebody wouldn't like that.
But nonetheless, I wanted to lead this church into understanding that traditions do matter. But moving on from the day of Pentecost and understanding, I want to get specifically so we have this day of Pentecost that gives us the Holy Spirit. But what about the Holy Spirit? What does the Holy Spirit do in the life of the believer? And this is what Jesus talks to his disciples about before the day of Pentecost.
In that last supper, Jesus says a lot of things. We've been looking at that for the last few weeks, and now we're going to go all the way back to chapter 16 to look at specifically what Jesus says is the Holy Spirit is going to do in our lives. Look at John 16 seven.
Jesus says, but 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. This is a really amazing verse, one that I think is worthy enough to commit to memory. Because what Jesus is saying, the word helper here is advocate, right?
He's telling us the truth. And what I find interesting is for our christian life, there are actually two advocates in scripture that we're told about. One here, the helper, the advocate. Literal translation is the Holy Spirit. That's probably the most obvious one in this passage.
But you know who the less obvious one is? But even equally powerful is Jesus himself. Do you know, believer, that you have two advocates, two helpers in your life to help you navigate your life towards sanctification? You have what Jesus tells us here. The helper coming into you when he ascends to his father.
That's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is going to come and advocate and help you in your life. You have an ever present help in your time of need constantly, because the Holy Spirit doesn't sleep, he's in you. But notice that Jesus says, but I go to the Father. And do you know who the other advocate is?
It's Christ himself. Listen to these words in Hebrews, chapter 725. Therefore, he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives and makes intercession for them. That's by definition an advocate. One, John, two, one.
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. What a great title. Jesus Christ the righteous. Romans 827.
And he who searches the hearts knows the mind of the spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. So right out the gate, Jesus transitions his conversation with his disciples. This last meal that they're going to have together before Jesus goes off and dies. And he says, look, I'm about to go, and if I don't go, you won't have a helper. But if I do go, you will have two.
You will have my spirit in you to help you, and you'll have me to intercede on your behalf to the father. You got two advocates, one above and one within. Praise be to God. He doesn't leave his people alone. You are empowered with his spirit, and you get to raise your praises and your prayers up to him.
And he advocates for you. One of my favorite all time hymns is before the throne of God. And the reason why I love that is because often it's this court scene right before, before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea. A great high priest whose name is love, whoever lives and pleads for me. It's this court scene with God, the father, presiding.
And we're bound by Satan coming in, and Satan is going to tell the truth about us, that we're wicked, evil, rebellious sinners. And he just presents us to the father. And Christ removes him, makes him into a footstool where Jesus puts his feet on him and says, father, through me, they're innocent. There's now no condemnation because they believe in me. That's the advocate that you have.
That's who it is. And as a phrase I would like to coin is, if it's good enough for king Jesus, then it should be good enough for you. So if the world or anybody wants to come out here and point out sin in your life, there's only one person that points out sin. And the other person is Christ who redeems you out of it. And if it's good enough for King Jesus, it's good enough for me.
But not only do we have advocates, Jesus goes on to explain what else the Holy Spirit's going to do. Look at verse eight. And he, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Now I don't have time to go into all of this, but this is exactly what happens on the day of Pentecost when the spirit rushes onto Peter and he begins to preach. And 3000 were added to the church that day.
In his sermon are those three things. He tells the people that they have committed sin because they have not believed in Jesus Christ. The one whom God the Father has sent to redeem fallen man. He points that out to him. Everybody's gathered, Jews and everybody gathered together to celebrate this feast.
And Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, stands up and says, hey, you killed God. You killed Jesus Christ, the one that the father has sent. And the Holy Spirit convicts them of this sin. But then he also goes on in his sermon and he speaks about the righteousness of Christ. And one of the identifying factors and the evidence that Christ is righteous is the fact that the Father raised him from the dead.
Resurrection is a sign of righteousness. Whoa. Is a sign of righteousness because only the Father is going to vindicate and raise and bring life back to those who are righteous. And Christ is the first among the dead. He is Christ the righteous.
And when he sits at the right hand of the Father, that's a position of power and authority and worthy of high honor. That's what all that signifies. Peter talks to the fact that Christ, now you don't see him, but he's alive because he's at the right hand of the Father. And Peter testifies to the righteousness of Christ. Then he also talks about judgment.
He talks about, and he gives us those scriptures where Christ has made his enemy a footstool for his feet.
So there's judgment there that Christ has judged the ruler of this world and has bound him. So the Holy Spirit's a convicter. He convicts people of their sin. He testifies to the righteousness of Christ and it reveals the judgment of God and what that verdict is. And for those who believe, it's no condemnation, but for the princes and powers of this world.
And for all those who don't believe, he will make his enemies a footstool for his feet. He has overcome them. He has conquered them. And you know, when Peter preaches these three things which fall in line with what Jesus says about what the spirit will do, do you know what happens? It says the people's hearts were ran through, were pierced and they said, what must we do to be saved?
And 3000 were added to them. So in the midst of the Holy Spirit being a convicter, it's always to a means to an end. He convicts us so that we might be saved. That's the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives. So when you feel convicted of your sin, that's its purpose is to lead you closer to Christ.
And that's what happens. A lot of times you might think like your neighbor or somebody in the community is trying to act like the Holy Spirit to convict you of your sin. But a person who's been born again, who has the Holy Spirit residing in them, the Holy Spirit is going to testify, hey, you have sin you need to confess. But hear the good news. If in faith you will just confess your sin, he, Jesus Christ is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
That's what the Holy Spirit does in our lives because we're going to continue to struggle with that old guy flesh and we're going to sin. And the spirit doesn't beat you down with it, but he does bring it to your attention and says, you have to confess this, cast your burden off and put it on the back of Christ and let it be done. Away with. And now go and sin no more, and I will empower you to do so. That's what the spirit does.
And just to confirm this, let me read first Corinthians 611 to you. Such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit. Paul says, because you've received the spirit, those three things that it sought to accomplish in you does become accomplished. It's right there. First Corinthians six, verse eleven.
But not only that, not only is he a convicter, not only is he an advocate, he's also a truth teller. Verse 13 of chapter 16. But when he, the spirit of truth, comes he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own initiative, but whatever he hears, he will speak and he will disclose to you what is to come. The Holy Spirit is to guide you in all the truth. You can't understand this on your own.
An infinite God has communicated using our words, but we oftentimes struggle to understand it. The only way is for the Holy Spirit to help us understand it rightly, to illuminate our minds to its understanding, its significance. The world can understand an innocent guy dying for people who would believe in him. That makes logical sense. The problem is they're devoid of the Holy Spirit and significance.
Who cares? I don't care that a guy did that. But to someone who's being saved and the spirit is stirring, it becomes great, it becomes transforming.
Christ's death cuts you and pierces you, and you give him your faith and allegiance to him. That's what it does. That's what the Holy Spirit, he guides us into all the truth. The Holy Spirit accompanies God's word. That's how he guides the Holy Spirit.
If you. The best imagery I always use comes from scripture itself, which is in Genesis, the very beginning. The spirit's hovering over the deep, a blank canvas, and God the Father just starts talking and the Holy Spirit starts creating. And that goes to show us. The Holy Spirit always accompanies the word of God.
It makes it a reality. The Father says, let there be light. The Holy Spirit turns the lights on. Let there be water, let there be land, let there be birds, let there be animals. And the Holy Spirit causes it to be so.
And that's how they operate. The Holy Spirit always accompanies the word of God. So we should be mindful of reading the word of God because the Holy Spirit will be there. And lastly, in this passage, Jesus refers to the fact that the Holy Spirit is also a glorifier. So not only is he an advocate, not only is he there to convict, but he's also there to guide you in the truth.
And he's also there to glorify Christ. Verse 14. He will glorify me, for he will take of mine and disclose it to you. The work of the Holy Spirit always glorifies Jesus Christ. He's not going to make more of you.
He's going to make more of Jesus in you. That's what we have to wrap our minds around. We don't get to use the power of the Holy Spirit to make us greater. The power of the Holy Spirit is going to make you decrease so Christ can increase in your life. Jesus says he will glorify me.
If anything else is being glorified, it's not of the Holy Spirit. That's another evidence that we know if the Holy Spirit's at work or not. He glorifies Christ Jesus by Jesus own words. Not only that, for he will take what's from Christ and he will disclose it to you. These are those moments when you're really trying to make a big decision and you're really wanting to know what it is that Christ wants you to do.
How is it that you will come to know that through the Holy Spirit? Because the Holy Spirit will hear what Christ wants. See what Christ wants. Christ will tell the Holy Spirit and he will disclose it to you. And you have to be one who has been growing in the Holy Spirit in order to identify and recognize the spirit's voice.
So he's a glorifier of Christ in your life. If you want to be more about Jesus, you have to be growing more in the Holy Spirit. He will work that in you. If you want your life to be poured out as an offering to Christ so that he might be glorified, you have to be growing in the Holy Spirit so that he could be more glorified. Because that's what he does.
It's his thing. It's how he rolls. He doesn't operate any other way. He does exactly, perfectly this type of work in us, and that's good news. So just a few mentions in closing on how this is evident, how this might apply to our lives, because the question is, well, that's fine and dandy.
I'm cool with celebrating this celebration and ceremony of our union with Christ called the day of Pentecost, when he sends his spirit and we're given the Spirit. It's great to know what the Holy Spirit does, but how do we apply this specifically to our lives? And the first thing that we get is understanding how the Spirit works. What his job is in us also provides us evidence of whether or not we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Does that make sense?
This passage in John, chapter 16, as Jesus is saying, here's the work of the Holy Spirit and here's what he's going to do in you. Well then, now we have a measuring stick to see how much of the Holy Spirit's work is being accomplished in our life.
We have evidence. Is my life glorifying Christ or myself more? Am I decreasing and Christ increasing? Am I constantly being convicted of my sin and confessing it to Jesus? Am I being guided in the truth?
Am I growing in my knowledge and receiving eternal life as we talked about the last couple weeks? Am I knowing God more through his word? And the Spirit is illuminating my mind to these things. I told the guys I was doing a Bible study on Friday night at chain breakers ministry down here, and I talked to them a little bit about this and the role of the Holy Spirit, and I told them because one of them mentioned is like, man, I have read this verse over and over and over again. I just like, I haven't got it.
And then one day I got it, I go, that's how the Holy Spirit works, right? You kind of don't get to decide when something becomes significant to you or that you come to understand something because you need the Holy Spirit. And maybe it's not for you at this time, but it comes later when Jesus tells his disciples to go and make fissures of men from junior high through high school. I had no clue what that meant. That sounds pretty dumb.
As I look back on it, I'm like, man, that was a buffoon. How do you not get that? But for whatever reason, I read it and I didn't understand it. Like, what does this mean? And then one day, somebody just said it.
I was like, fissures of men. I got it. Evangelism. Ah, it's like fishing. All of a sudden, my life changed on that verse.
And that's how the Holy Spirit works. And that's evidence. That's a little, hey, buddy, I'm working on you. That's it. The work that if we can understand all that the Holy Spirit is to do in the life of the believer, we are given these evidences that he is working right, he's convicting.
And another point is, and it's a sad reality, is a lot of us might be quenching the Holy Spirit because the scriptures speak about that. And this will be my last point of application. But this is one I think a lot of people are enduring because we live this life of the flesh and of the spirit, and oftentimes like, we're going back and forth between the two. And how you quench the Holy Spirit is this. Every time he's seeking to work into your life, you ignore him, you shut him off.
Every time you do something you know you shouldn't be doing, his voice in your conscience diminishes, not because he's removing his presence, but because God gives you over to yourself. He's given you everything you need for life and godliness right here. But if you don't read it. Guess what? You aren't participating in a life towards godliness.
You're trying to do it in your own strength, in your own wisdom. God says, no, do it by my wisdom and empowered with my spirit. Don't walk according to your flesh. Walk according to the spirit and you will not satisfy those desires. But every time you're prompted by the Holy Spirit, every time you're convicted and you don't confess, every time that you're not seeking God's word, every time you're trying to make more of yourself and less of Christ in your life, the Holy Spirit's work is still working, but you're denying him access and you're quenching him.
And you might be saying, well then, Bruce, how do I get more of the Holy Spirit? I think maybe I have been quenching him and I want his power to become more real. Do you know you wouldn't even say that if the Holy Spirit wasn't already convicting you of that. Begin there. If you want more of the Holy Spirit, you know, we often talk about you need to grow in grace and the knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Christ.
You also grow in the Holy Spirit. You just don't get dumped on once. And then that's the level of the Holy Spirit's impact in your life. You are given the Holy Spirit and he is going to begin to recreate you and make you look more like Jesus each and every day. And you can grow.
The more sensitive you are to listening to the voice of the spirit and walking according to the Spirit, the more he's going to say, okay, I got your ear, let's go. I got some other things we're going to work on to make you look more like Jesus Christ. That's what the spirit does. If you want to participate along with the Holy Spirit, you got to grow in the Holy Spirit and you've got to participate in the ways that he works.
And if you've been quenching the Holy Spirit in your life so he's not guiding your life, get that old man, which all of us struggle with, has attached himself to your leg. You just gotta kick him off. You gotta say, enough's enough. Spirit, I hear you accompany the word. So I wanna get the word in my life.
I hear that you make more of Jesus than myself. So whatever I need to get rid of out of my life that robs Christ's presence in my life, I'm going to get rid of it. And as you begin to step forward in faith and practice those things and join the Holy Spirit where he's already at work in you, the more you'll be encouraged and growing in the Holy Spirit.
So today, I think it was a great day. I was excited for today. Even got a red shirt and everything for it. Because today is a big day. It's the day of Pentecost.
It's where Christ remembers his covenant with you. Send my people who believe in me, who have been baptized and said, I'm yours. I'm giving myself over to you. Christ says, I gave myself over for you. And now we're together.
What a marvelous day. Kind of envious of Bill and Mary because they get to celebrate their anniversary and Christ's anniversary with us together in one day. Let's pray.
Jesus, we thank you for your words. You have not left us blind or to live life blindly, but you have guided us in all the truth. And the Holy Spirit has caused us to remember and to reflect upon these truths. I pray that it would impact the lives of every believer here, that they would be encouraged to grow in the Holy Spirit, and that they would also be caused to remember their union and intimate relationship with you through the symbols of remembering their baptism and their union to you, and remembering receiving the Holy Spirit from you and your union with them. I pray that as we continue this day, that it would be a day of feasting, a day of celebration, where we reflect upon the ceremony of our union with you.