[Gary Antion] Today is a great day. One of its meanings we've heard from many individuals is God's bestowing the most precious gift that a human could ever receive upon us, the precious Holy Spirit. Think about it for a moment. It's a gift that enables us to have eternal life. It's a gift that gives us the access to both God the Father and Jesus Christ to influence our lives. It's a precious gift that God gives. Jesus Christ promised it, we already read about that with John 14:16-17.

What's interesting about this particular verse, by the way, a lot of my thunder, sort of, the thunder around the lightning, has been, somewhat, taken. Yesterday, Mr. Kubik gave almost every scripture there was on Pentecost on the Holy Spirit, and it seems like God wants us to focus on the Holy Spirit because a lot of us have come… And I had other sermons I was working on regarding this time of the year, but this one seemed to really take me but you'll see the direction I'm going in a minute.

But John 14:16-17. John 14:16. He says, "And I will pray the Father,” Christ said. Of course, we read this during Passover evening. "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter,” notice what He said, "another." Because while He walked this earth, Jesus Christ was a Paraclete. He was alongside to help and that's what that word means as was well explained. But let me give you a little more of the fullness of that in a moment. He said, "I'll give you another Comforter." Why? Because He was leaving them.

He would not be there personally with them to answer their questions, to heal the sick that they could not heal, to provide food when there was not enough food for individuals, to be able to raise the dead though seemed impossible. He was there alongside to help. But He said, "I'm not going to leave you orphans," as was brought out. He also promised to be with us always even to the end of the world. Now how can be with us if He's up in heaven in God's right hand? Through God's Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God that He was going to send when He went up to God.

So, verse 17, He says, "Send another Comforter that He may, [it] He may guide you." The word “He”, "Comforter" is in the Greek the word Paraclete is masculine. The word "Spirit" is not. Okay. So, in verse 17, "Even the Spirit of truth, whom [or which] the world cannot receive, because [it] doesn't see [it] neither knows [it]; but you know [it], for [it] dwells with you and shall be in you."

All, you, young people, you children who hear me, one day you'll have an opportunity to receive this most precious gift. God is working with you now because you're in a family of believers, and one day you'll have the opportunity to receive that precious gift of the Holy Spirit, because He says, “[It] dwells with you." He told the disciples, "It's not in you yet." But believe me, if you have God's Spirit working with you, there is much you can understand. There is much you can do. There's much you can overcome with God's Spirit with you. And may you never forget that beautiful wonderful gift that hasn't been opened yet in your life to the fullest extent.

So, He says, “[It] dwells with you and shall be in you." 1 John 2:1, Jesus Christ is called the Comforter. Notice 1 John 2:1. This is just preliminary. It's one of my main part of the sermon but I want to lay the groundwork for it. 1 John 2:1. Sticky fingers take me back and forth past chapter 2. Chapter 2 verse 1. "My little children, these things I write to you that you, also… that you cannot…” let's see… "that you sin not." Sorry, it's a little dark up here. "And if any sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,” who is that Advocate? Jesus Christ the righteous. The word "Advocate" is Paracletos.

Paracletos, let me read to you about the Paracletos real quickly. Literally, this comes from Vine's Dictionary of Biblical Words. Literally, it means, “'called to one’s side,’ to one’s aid. It was used in the court of justice to denote a legal assistant, a counsel for the defense, an advocate; then, generally, one who pleads another's cause, an intercessor, an advocate.” Christ was this to His disciples by implication of the word "another" of the same sort. “Another,” not a different one, but “another Comforter” when He was speaking of the Holy Spirit. So, Jesus Christ was our Comforter… was the Comforter to the disciples while He walked this earth. So He said, "I'm not going to leave you orphans. I'm not going to leave you off by yourself."

So we'll look at Luke 24:49, it's been read before but let's take a look at this. Jesus Christ promised something. He also promised He would be with them always, Matthew 28:20, “even to the end of the world.” But in Luke 24:49, He said this, “Behold, I send the promise of My Father" what is that promise? God promised to give you and me the Holy Spirit upon repentance, belief, and baptism. And usually, with the laying on of hands where there are a couple instances in Scripture where individuals received it before they were baptized. And, some instances, without the laying on of hands, but usually, it's the laying on of hands.

He talks about people in the Old Testament having the Spirit of Christ, the prophets. But He says here, "The usual way is by belief, repentance, baptism, laying on of hands to receive God's Holy Spirit." Verse 29… or 49, sorry. "And behold, I send the promise of My Father to you; but remain in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high." So God promised… Jesus Christ promised you're going to receive that very special gift.

You find in Acts 2, a partial fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel. This has already been gone over so I'm not going to go through it except to say, it was a great day. Mr. McNeely described it pretty well for all of us to understand. So, I'm not going to go through it and rehearse that was in my notes to do. But Acts 2, you find a mighty rushing sound did not come from the people, it came from God, and they were real languages that they were speaking not some type of unintelligible words or sounds. They were real languages.

People said, "How do we even hear in our own dialect? We hear in Georgian, Georgian we don't just hear in Pennsylvanian, or Ohio language, and dialect, we hear it in our own dialect." Glossa and dialectos, two different words are used. So, we hear them speaking so it was a wonderful miracle to show for God to bestow upon them. I'm sure they had no idea but they did know what they were saying. They weren't overtaken by something as Mr. Clore mentioned, God Spirit does not possess you, God's Spirit is there to help us. God's Spirit is there to guide us. God's Spirit is there to influence us, but we still have to use it. We can't say, "I got it." I was going to bring up here a gift that I received that actually was a gift from Tiffany's.

I don't get any gift from Tiffany's. American Express was the first credit card to ever give me every major credit card. When we were first married we had’t applied… the only card credit card we ever got was a Shell credit card for gasoline, and that was all. None of the other gasoline places would give us any. So, I filled my car up with Shell gasoline a lot in those early years. But through Pasadena and the business office there who had an American Express card, they signed for me, in a sense to say, "He's a good guy." And so they gave me an American Express. So, I had an American Express credit card for over 50 years.

All of a sudden in the mail comes a package, a gift, "What is this gift?" I open it up. There is this blue box, symbolic of Tiffany, on the top, it said “Tiffany…” Well, it had a bow and I took the bow. “Tiffany? What could I be getting? I didn't order anything from Tiffany…” “Honey, did you order anything?” We don't normally shop at Tiffany's, right? That is not our typical store. Opened it up, take off the plastic bubble on it. Two fluted champagne glasses engraved with Gary Antion, 50 years. Two fluted glass. I didn't know that was coming. So, it was a beautiful gift, but nowhere near the gift of God's Holy Spirit that He promises to give it to us. We already talk about how you receive it through faith, repentance, baptism. God promises to give us the Holy Spirit.

I have a hand out for you. I'd like our ushers to pass it up. And I'll share with you while they're passing it out what it is, and it has a little gift on the top. This is a gift for you. I did a lot of study on it, and I put scriptures beside various aspects of the Holy Spirit. What God's gift enables us to receive or do is not exhaustive by any means. Okay? So, please take one, there should be one for every person. I have 250 of them so it should be one for every person. I don't say this is exhaustive because I already thought of 1 Corinthians 12, gifts of the Spirit, I didn't put that on here.

And there are others that you might think of, and I ask you to please do so or even to do some study on each one of these. For instance, what does God's Spirit enable us to do? It enables us to have God and Christ in us. I’ll give a couple of scriptures. It enables us to have the mind of Christ, scripture. It gives us will and do power, scripture. Helps us have the love of God, scripture. Intimate relationship with God like we’re His children, Romans 8. Inspired the Scriptures, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” And you find that the prophets who wrote wrote under inspiration of God.

It gives hope. It's a Spirit that gives hope. It's the down payment of eternal life as we've already heard. It leads us, Romans 8:14, “as many as are led by the Spirit.” It leads us, it does not usually drive us or control us. It can bring up circumstances to prevent us from certain things as we read in the Scriptures, but it leads us usually, Romans 8:14. It guides us into the truth. It gives us understanding. As we heard today. It makes us Christians. It puts us into the Church. By one Spirit you're all baptized into the Church. It enables fellowship. It is our Advocate one alongside to help. It gives us the ability to bear fruit, good fruit.

Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, what's missing in this world, it gives us the opportunity. It enables us to bear much fruit. It brings us grace, the Spirit of grace into our lives. It brings us comfort the word "Helper," sometimes Paraclete is translated "Comforter." God's Spirit can provide us with comfort. It gives us power. It helps us with prayer. Sometimes we pray and we sometimes get stumbled up, maybe tongue-tied, we don't know what to say, maybe our heart wants the say something but our brain, our mind, our words, our tongue will not quite verbalize it. God's Spirit helps us with that.

It convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Just the fact that God's Holy Spirit is in this world, it convicts this world of righteousness, judgment, and sin. And it helps us with the defense of the faith. Sometimes you might not know what to say.

As a minister, oftentimes we call on new people cold. We don't know what's going to be at the other end of it. When we knock on the door, who's going to be in or what questions are we going to ask, we don't know. And I've been in some situations where, “Well, I had that same question myself. What's the answer here?” And as I looked at the Scriptures, “Let's read this over, let's understand what it says.” It came to me, but I had a question about the same thing before. And I, believe me, there are times when I've just said, "I don't know, but I'll try to find the answer for you."

But God's Spirit can help us with defense and, of course, this is when you're brought before judges, it says, "Don't meditate on what you're going to say, don't plan it, I'll give you what to say when you're defending your faith." It's not an exhaustive list, but one which directly ties these aspects of the gift of God to the Holy Spirit. Please search for more. So, that's my gift to you, is God's gift scripturally, it's my gift to you for putting it together.

So, here's the handout for you and I hope you will be able to use it and utilize it. Put it in your Pentecost file or whatever, and you can review it every year if you want to, or do Bible studies on Friday night and add more scriptures to it, and add more areas of the aspects of what the Spirit does for us.

For this sermon, I'm going to focus on one scripture. It doesn't mean I'll give only one scripture but I'm going to focus on one and it was brought up by a Mr. Clore. You can tell we did not collaborate in a sense, "Don't go over. Don't touch that." I let God's Spirit guide us.

In 2 Timothy 1:6-7, I want to expound fully to you. 2 Timothy 1:6-7, let's turn there and read it and then I'll expound it. 2 Timothy 1: 6-7. I'm going to focus on just these three points. The day of Pentecost has many meanings, you know, you can go on many directions and still be on target. And I certainly appreciated the sermon this morning by Mr. McNeely, and the sermonette by Mr… The firstfruits certainly appreciated the sermonette by Mr. Clore. 2 Timothy 1:6-7, Paul's writing to Timothy this evangelist, young evangelist. He told people, "Don't despise your youth."

What's youth? Youth to me is 40s and 50s. Youth to you in your 50 is like 30, and youth to you when you're 30 is maybe teenage. When you're a teenager, youth is a baby in somebody's arms. All right. So, 2 Timothy 1:6, "Wherefore I put you in remembrance." Paul writes to Timothy. "I want you to remember." He said, "That you stir up. I will put you in remembrance that you stir up the gift of God."

Now, some think it might be a gift of prophecy, that's a possibility, but I do know that the gift of God was also the Holy Spirit, “stir up the gift of God which is in you by the putting on of my hands.” When you lay hands on people, it usually is to receive the Holy Spirit not to necessarily bestow a gift. However, some translations say it might be talking about gifts that are bestowed. Verse 7, "For God has not given us the spirit of fear,” "God has not given us a spirit of fear."

I want to read something to you about the word for “fear.” The word for "fear" and this comes from Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words in the New Testament. And the word is deilia. And that means “fearfulness,” it means “fright,” and it's “rightly rendered fearfulness” in the revised version or “fear” “That spirit is not given to us of God.” That's not the same fear where it says, "Have the fear of God” or “fear not little flock." Listen to their explanation, "The word denotes ‘cowardice and timidity’ and is never used in a good sense."

So, the word he uses here deilia is a word that means “timidity, cowardice,” “I'm afraid. I don't want to go forward. I'm afraid.” God doesn't want us to have that kind of a fear in life. He does not want us to have that kind of fear as Christians. He wants us to be able to go forward. He wants us to be able to be courageous.

Remember how many times He told Joshua? "Joshua, and be courageous." You can read it, end of Deuteronomy, beginning of Joshua. How many times? He says, "Be of good courage. Be of good courage. Be of good courage." Because he was following up a legend, Moses, and he had an awesome job to do to lead the Israelites to the Promised Land through into the Promised Land when Moses was barred from entering. And so he was able to say, "Be of good courage. Don't be afraid. Don't be timid."

Sometimes we might be afraid of our beliefs. We might be afraid that we follow a way that's not biblically sound. "Hey, let's find it in the Bible." It's biblically sound. You can never go wrong by following the Bible. You can never go wrong. It's God's Word as we heard from Mr. McNeely this morning. So, be bold. It's what He encourages us to be. Be bold. Proverbs 28:1. Proverbs 28:1, and this still on this leading up to the three points. Proverbs 28:1, He tells us, "The righteous are bold.” “The wicked flee when no man pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion." "The righteous are bold as a lion."

Are you bold? We should be bold but not obnoxious. We should be bold but not pushy. We should be bold. We should be courageous. Paul and Barnabas were courageous in Acts 13:46, I'm not going to go there but you can write it down if you want. They were bold. They spoke the word with boldness. They weren't afraid. They preached the truth. They taught the truth.

So, let's look at the rest of the… examine the 2 Timothy 1:7, more clearly now that we know that we should not have a spirit of fear, timidity. "I'm afraid. There are demon around every corner. I'm afraid to go out to go out to somebody’s…” You've got to be bold. You've got to be courageous. You certainly have to be prudent. Nobody says you be foolhardy. We've got to be prudent. But we should not be fearful.

So, let's take a look at some of the other word, some of the other areas that are expounded here and 2 Timothy 1:7, "For God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power" that word "power" you know what that is? It is dunamis, it's dynamite. You can look it up 1411, Strong’s. It's dynamite. It means “force.” It means “power.” It means “might.” It means “strength.” It means “mighty works and deeds.” It means “good works.” It's used for all those for mighty not for good works, but for “mighty works.” It's used for “strength.” It's used for “power.” It's used for “force.” So, we need to use that power.

He promised it to disciples, Acts 1:8, it's already been written. He gave them power to do the work. 1 Peter 1:3-5, that was also taken but I'll read it anyway. 1 Peter 1:3-5, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God” How will we be sustained through all the difficulties in the world? We're entering a very difficult world. It's getting worse, and worse, and worse. Humans don't get better. Humans degenerate. Humans don't improve naturally and normally. Humans retrogress. Humans become more degraded, not upgraded. We live in a world of difficulty. We live in a world that's struggling, not just the United States, the world.

We need to have the power of God with us, for us, in us, to sustain us and help us through. Notice also what Micah realized in Micah 3:8. And this word is roach… or, sorry koach. Koach, K-O-A-C-H, in the Hebrew and you could look it up. But it means the same, similar that dunamis means. Dunamis from which dynamite comes. It means “power and force, and might, and strength,” koach. But notice Micah 3:8, Micah did not have an easy time in the time period in which he lived, as he prophesied before and after the fall of Israel. But Micah 3:8, "But truly" he said, "truly I am full of power" how? "by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment and of might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin."

God says He gives us a might. He gives us power to be able to proclaim His message. Power to give the message out. That power doesn't mean you yell. Power is in the way those words come across. God's power is there. So, again, Micah said the source of his power? God's Spirit. We can have the same power, the same strength. Power to do what? Power to do the works of God. Power to grow and change. Power to overcome. Power to resist sin. Power to resist Satan, the Devil. Power to endure when the going gets rough. Power to bear good fruit, and power to press into the Kingdom. It says “the violent take it by force.”

Do you have the power to keep plodding away, heading toward the Kingdom even though you go down the twisting, winding, narrow road, the gate that leads to eternal life? The road that's twisting and winding and full of potholes? That's a road God sends us on, not the highway, not the smooth superhighway, but He sends us down a road with bumpy and rocky, and rough to negotiate. But we can endure, and we can press into the Kingdom.

So, have the power of God from the Holy Spirit. Do you ever pray to God and say, "Father, I can't do this myself." I pray that when I go to give a sermon right before I came up. "Father, I can't do this myself. I did my part. I worked on this. I ask for Your help. I can't do this by myself, give me Your power and strength." And He does. He helps us, He guides us, He strengthens us.

Number two, second part of 2 Timothy. It's not number two, but the second part of this verse 2 Timothy 1:7, He talks about God's Spirit providing for us love. "Wherefore put you in remembrance that you stir up the gift of God which is in you…” verse 7, "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love…” The word there is, agape. You could check it out number 26, agape. And the verb, agapao, agapao, rather, is the verb “to love somebody, to love.”

God gives us outgoing concern for others. Outgoing concern for others not doing good for any reason or advantage. Loving not expecting anything back. Love for love's sake, and love that benefits others. Outgoing concern why do I say that? Because that's the way God is. “For God so loved the world” same word, “that He gave His only begotten Son,” God loved, God gave. Jesus Christ loved His disciples. Jesus Christ did for them. We need to have that same kind of love in us. And God's Holy Spirit, that precious gift, as we unwrap it, gives us that love.

Do we claim it? Do we use it? If we don't, we're hindering it in our bodies. We're stopping it. Don't neglect it. 1 John 4:8. 1 John 4:8, We find why the Spirit of God gives us love Because it comes from God. 1 John 4:8, "He that loves not, knows not God." "He that loves not, knows not God." Why not? Because God is love. And if you don't exercise God's Spirit in a way of love toward Him and towards your fellow man, then you don't know God. You don't know the way God is because that's what God does. He exercises Himself in loving toward others. Do we love? Do we have that love?

Romans 5:5. Romans 5:5, one of my favorite scriptures. Romans 5:5, "And hope doesn't make ashamed,” don't ever be ashamed for being hopeful “because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.” It's not our own selfish love. It's not our own mother-father love toward our children which can be somewhat selfish. Probably God expects you to, at least, pay attention to your kids look after them, and bless them. But it's our love for others that transcends your humanity because God is love and His Spirit enables us to have that same love that you do it for because it's the right thing to do. You do it because it's what you need to do.

And, of course, 1 John 5:3 tells us, "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments." And what do His commandments do? They teach you to love God the Father, teach you to love your fellow man. You don't tell me you love your fellow man if you go steal something from him. Don't tell me you love your fellow man if you can lie about him. Don't tell me that you love your fellow man if you can dishonor your parents. You don't. Love of God. The love of God that we keep His commandments because His commandments are done in love for you. They are more than that, of course, the Word of God is for us to follow and yield to.

John 13:35, the love of God is not just to keep bottled up inside, "Oh, I have it. Oh, I've got it." Do you use it? John 13:35… verse 34, let's read, the type of love that we need to have, "A new command that I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you,” that's the new commandment. He didn't say, "Love others as your own self." He said, "Love others as I have loved you." Not expecting anything in return. Love for love's sake, not love because you want something back.

And verse 35, He said, "If you have this kind of love by this" Mr. Clore was saying people will see it in you your example will make a difference. "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another." By this, the love of God that He gives is not supposed to be kept by us, it's supposed to be shared giving to others, benefiting others.

When I think about Jesus Christ’s last prayer, John 17, just a couple of chapters over. John 17:26 right at the very end He said this, "I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it.” “And I'm going to tell them all about you, Father!” "That the love wherewith You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them." How much do you think God the Father loved Jesus Christ? How much do you think Jesus Christ loves His Father? "May you have the same love," is what He's saying. Same love is what He prayed.

Let's look at one other thing I want to share with you. I see what a wonderful world it can be. You know where I see it? In Isaiah 19. Where he talks of God three enemies, three enemy nations: Egypt, Assyria, and Israel, all serving God together. What a great world it will be when this whole world has the Spirit of God and the love of God. What a world it will be when God has called us to be firstfruits of what that world will ultimately have when the full crop comes in.

The third area, 2 Timothy 1:7, "God has not given us a spirit of fear.” That's timidity, cowardice, “but of power of” dunamis, dynamite, "of love," agape, outgoing concern for others “and of a sound mind.” A sound mind. What does he mean by sound mind? Number 4995. It's pronounced, sophronismos. Sophronismos. And it means, “self-controlled.” It means “self-discipline.” It means “sane.” It means “sound.” Someone who's sound, and stable, and sane, and controlled… self-controlled, self-disciplined.

God's Spirit gives us the strength to say no to what's wrong, and the strength, and the ability, the mental ability, to say yes to the things that are right. It helps us filter what comes in from the world. It helps us filter the words, the thoughts, the temptations, the lusts that come our way because we're supposed to “bring every thought into captivity.” Where do those thoughts go? They go in our mind. A Spirit of a sound mind says, "Oh, no. I reject that. That's a wrong thought."

Wrong thoughts will come and you just hear them in your ear, they approach your brain, kick them out again. Don't entertain them, kick them out. And that's what a sound mind will do. God's Spirit will help you. Let me read to you, real quickly, a quote on the mind, sophronismos. And by the way, sophronismos, I believe this is the only place in the New Testament where this word is actually used, sound mind. It means “to be of sound mind” from, again, Vine's Dictionary the Biblical Words, “or in one's right mind, or to be sober minded,” that means serious about life because it comes from the word “sozo, which means ‘to save,’ and, phren, which means ‘the mind.’”

So, sozo, phrens, that are… sophronismos. He said it means, to save your mind. It saves your mind. God's Spirit gives us the strength. It talks about people being right-minded, people being sober minded, people being temperate, people being self-controlled. So, being of sound mind is what He's talking about. And, of course, there is another word for mind, phroneo which means, “to think in a certain way.” We'll see that in a moment. So, again, what does this mean? What does it meaning for us? A sound mind.

Philippians 2:5, it means having the attitude, the outlook, the approach, of Jesus Christ. Do you have His intellect? I doubt any of us have the intellect of Jesus Christ? But I do believe we could have His attitude, His approach to life, Philippians 2:5, "Let this mind be in you,” that's the word phroneo. And it means, to think, to be minded in a certain way. It implies moral interests and reflection, not mere unreasoning opinion. “Let this mind be in you.”

It means you're minding this, you're thinking about this, you're paying attention to this. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Christ Jesus’ mind never allowed sin in His life. Jesus learned to resist the temptations of Satan the devil, though He was tempted, He was able to resist them. He was able to resist vanity when Satan said, "Hey if you want I'll give you the kingdoms. Look at all these, you can have them if you just bow down and worship me." He resisted it.

Mark 5:15, we find this man had a right mind. He was called right-minded. It doesn't mean right versus left, but Mark 5:15, it means a correct mind, that means a mind that's sane. Mind that thinks about right things. Mark 5:15, "They came to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion,” here he was “sitting, and clothed and in his right mind.” The word there is phroneo. He was in his right mind. Sorry it's not phroneo, it's sophroneo, it means right-minded, but not the same as sophronismos.

Titus 2:6, can mean sober minded. Sober mind. Let's answer a question. Can a person who has God's Spirit ever have a mental disorder? Yes. Can you, who are supposed to be healthy and fit, can you ever have a physical disorder? Yes. We all have aches and pains, some of us more than others. But, we know that you can be healed. People who have mental difficulties can be healed. It doesn't mean they've lost God's Spirit.

Now, if a demon enters into them, it's trying to push out God's Spirit. I'm not sure it always pushes it up but it certainly has taken them over. Sometimes it's their fault, it's the way they're thinking, sometimes it's not their fault. They just, maybe, have an open… let their minds to open to things maybe there’s sins in their lives have been akin to say that maybe they get into an attitude like Satan the devil, and they allowed him to come. But don't think because someones had a mental issue “They’ve lost God's Spirit, they're gone, they're finished.” No, they aren't. I know I've dealt with people like that. They have not lost it. They just need help.

Titus 2:6, we see we're supposed to be sober minded. Titus 2:6, here he talks to young people. Now, taking life seriously does not mean, young persons, that you don't have any fun. It doesn't mean you need to grow up really fast. In fact, you're better off to live your age. You will grow up all too fast. Titus 2:6. "Young men," he says, "likewise exhort to be sober minded." Sophroneo. They have a right mind. It's not the same as being insane, he’s just saying, “Take life seriously. Take life soberly. Think about life. Think about consequence. Think about future.”

In Colossians 3:2, it can also mean set your mind in the right direction. It can mean set your mind in the right direction. Look at Colossians 3:2, so, we have a sound mind, we're going to be choosing to do the right things. If we have a sound mind, we're going to be rejecting that which tries to come in and corrupt our minds. In Colossians 3:2, we read this. "Set your affection" actually, word "mind" is better, "on things above, not on things on the earth."

Your emotions, your thoughts, your feelings, set those on God. Set your sights for the Kingdom of God. Point yourself in the right direction. Did the apostle Paul have to say, "I've got to keep myself in check lest after I've preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. I've got to keep myself, I keep my body under, I keep myself in check."

Colossians 3:2. So, what does a sound mind do for us? We can choose. Remember, God “puts before you life and death, blessing and cursing, choose life.” A sound mind will say, "I want the way of life. I don't want the way of death." That's sound mind. Sound mind will make wise decisions, will not make snap judgments, will take the time to get the facts, and think them over and weigh them carefully, and inspect to get all the facts before it makes that decision. A sound mind will understand.

“God give me understanding. Help me to see it, look at this from all points of view,” and will give you soundness. People will say, "There's a man or a woman of soundness." It will help you have a can-do attitude. Do you have a can-do attitude or a can't-do, attitude? "I can't do that. I can't do that. I can’t…” Develop a can-do attitude, spiritually. "I can do that. I can do that." Part of the issue is setting our mind to do what we need to do and to do it right.

Luke 11:11-13, my next to the last scripture. Luke 11:11-13, how willing is God to give you of this most precious gift? Luke 11:11-13, "If a son shall ask any bread of any of you that is the father, will he give him a stone?" If your son comes in and says, "I am really hungry mom, can I have a piece of that fresh bread you made?" She says, "Sure son, have of a brick." Or maybe it was a brick. Well, at least, she made a brick instead of a… but, I mean, normally your bread would be pretty good. All right? So she gives him gives him good bread. She can't give him a brick. "Here son, chew on this for a while maybe you will sharpen your teeth, maybe I'll ruin your teeth." All right. No, he won't give him that.

“Or if he asks for a fish,” we say, "Here, have a snake." You won't give him a snake when he asked for fish. "Hey, give me some cod, or give me some haddock, or give me some halibut, or give me some salmon." "Oh, here son. Have a boa constrictor. Here son, have an asp. Here son, have a cobra." He’s not going to do that. He said, “Or if he shall ask for an egg,” "Hey, Mom. How about some scrambled eggs?" Would she give them a scorpion? "How about scrambled scorpions?" I don't think he'd be too happy about that, be too happy.

Verse 13, "If you then, being evil,” you then doing your own thing, “being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?" God is more willing to give us His Holy Spirit than a father is to give his hungry children food. It's available and it's precious. It contains the down payment of eternal life.

So, as we think about the Holy Spirit on this day when the Holy Spirit came, and with all that it enables us to do, and, by the way, I do believe you have to use it. I don't believe it's going to drive you to do things. You go, "Okay, God, make me be loving now." Not going to make you be a loving. "Okay God, I'm on a negative attitude make me in a positive." It’s not going to make you. You got to do something, too.

“By their works, you shall know them.” You've got some effort, you've got to put some effort to it as well. But God supplies the means, the power, the love, the sound mind. You see, He says, "Don't be afraid, be courageous.” Have the power to change, to grow, to resist Satan and sin, to do good works, to bear much fruit, to endure to the end, and the press toward God's Kingdom.

He tells us, "Be bold." Use the love of God to love God and our fellow men, to love God with all of our hearts, and to love our fellow men as Christ loved. To benefit others even our enemies. If you consider somebody an enemy, love them. It doesn't say, "Hate your enemy." That's old Testament. New Testament, Christ said, no, "Oh, no. You love your enemies, too." Benefit others. Be concern for them even our enemies.

“God gives us a Spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind” to have a disciplined, self-controlled, sane, sound, stable mind, to make wise choices. To set your Garmin for the Kingdom of God, and to have a can-do attitude. We've never known a world… never known a world with these dynamic traits, but it's coming. Joel 2 says, "Day is coming, and I'm going to pour out My Spirit upon all flesh."

And in Revelation 22, last asked book of the Bible, the last chapter in the Bible verse 16-17 my final scripture. Revelation 22:16-17, “I Jesus have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the Bright and Shining Star. And the Spirit and the bride, ‘Come!’ And let him that hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him that is athirst come. And whoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." Jesus Christ said that His Holy Spirit would flow to us and out of us like rivers of living water. God gives it to us, we need to let it flow out. What a wonderful day it will be when all people will have God's Holy Spirit, and realize what a wonderful precious gift it is.