The Holy Spirit
Tom Shrader teaches the fifth lesson in Christianity 101, focusing on the Holy Spirit as the third person of the Trinity. He explains that the Holy Spirit is not a substitute for God but is God Himself, examining His distinct role in giving birth to believers, enlightening minds to understand Scripture, and producing life change through the fruit of the Spirit.
“The Holy Spirit is not a substitute of God. The Holy Spirit is God.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Christianity 101 (2014)
Recorded: April 24, 2014
Duration: 37 min
Themes: trinity, spirit, transformation, understanding, scripture, fruit, growth, presence, new believer, seeking understanding, studying doctrine, spiritual confusion, growing christian, bible student, questioning faith, spiritual seeker
Scripture: Mark 1:9-12, John 3:3-8, John 16:7-13, Titus 3:3-7, 1 Corinthians 2:10-16, 1 Corinthians 2:14, Acts 1:8, Matthew 26:69-75, Acts 2-4, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 1 John 2:29, Galatians 5:22-23, Ephesians 5, 2 Timothy 3:16
Theological Themes: pneumatology, holy spirit, trinity doctrine, biblical inspiration, sanctification, spiritual gifts, fruit of spirit, divine persons
Full Transcript
We today reach the halfway point. So you have outlines in front of you for today. Let me remind you the title of this series is Christianity 101.
Quick three-minute summary. We started the first week by saying what we believe is important and we meant doctrine, kind of a body of dogma, doctrine, beliefs, tenets of the faith. So we took 45 minutes to say that. We said this doctrine is important.
Week two, where do we go to get this doctrine? And so this becomes important for us now. That becomes this book, the Bible. So we believe that the Bible is the infallible Word of God, inspired by God, and it becomes the final authority in our life. So there was a Supreme Court decision this week and once that Supreme Court rules, you're out of appeals. Well, in our thinking, cut me slack here, but in our thinking, the Bible serves the role of the Supreme Court or the Constitution that if I want to understand an issue, that's the first place I go.
I'm interested in what you think and feel, but that's not final. So there's a bumper sticker, remember a couple years ago, the Bible said it, I believe it, that settles it. We would step back and say a third of that ink is a waste. The Bible says it, that settles it, it doesn't matter whether you believe it or not.
The Foundation We've Laid
So there's people who strongly believe, looking at this Bible, that, and we'll pick an issue, salvation, that there's lots of ways to God and they believe it firmly, and we would say it doesn't matter. There's a, in the best sense of the word, you should not be that concerned about what I think and believe, except as it flows from the Scripture.
So now with doctrine and Bible, we're ready to tackle big topics, and that's what we did two weeks ago. And we looked at God. So there's a lot of opinions on God, a lot of confusion about God, but who is God as we find Him in the Bible? Now, let me acknowledge the obvious. In 45 minutes, we can hit some mountaintop points or two, but the idea of God, the thought of God, the discussion of God, has volumes and volumes written on it. Our hope is that we might whet your appetite, or at least, as Grandpa would say, jar your preserves, so you begin to think these things through.
Last time, we talked about Jesus. We said, who is Jesus? So here's what we believe. It's mystery. If you're here for the first time and you want a convincing, compelling explanation of this that takes away any questions you might have, I don't think I'm the guy for you.
The Trinity and the Holy Spirit
Because I'm going to acknowledge up front, here's what we believe. We believe in one God who manifests Himself in three different, not personalities, but three different persons. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the person that we look at today.
The Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit is active, not passive, is real, relevant, and this becomes a key point as we get into this. The Holy Spirit is not a substitute of God. The Holy Spirit is God. So on your outline are eight points. We'll cover them distinctly, but there's an overlap.
Let me tell you, if you have Bibles, I think follow along. Probably take some notes. A little more, I don't want to say theology, but a little more in-depth stuff today. A few more moments today, I think, that might have you going, hmm.
Point 1: The Holy Spirit is Distinct from the Father and the Son
Point number one, in Mark chapter 1, we see that the Holy Spirit is distinct from the Father and the Son. At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth to Galilee and was baptized by John. Now, just because of some discussions we've had lately with people it seems like should know better, this John is not John the Apostle John. This is John the Baptist. Two different people. John the Apostle wrote the Gospel of John, Book of Revelation, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John. This is John the Baptist.
Jesus is coming to be baptized. And as Jesus was coming out of the water, He saw heaven being torn open and the Holy Spirit descended like a dove. Doesn't say the Holy Spirit is a dove. The Holy Spirit descended like a dove and a voice came from heaven, you are My son, who I love, and I am with you, and I am well pleased with you. At once the Spirit sent Him into the desert.
So here are the three distinct persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All are God. The Father is not more God than the Son, and the Son not more than the Spirit. They're all equal in status. But we see a picture of them in different roles. The Son does as the Father tells Him. You see a picture of perfect love.
A Practical Application: Marriage as a Model
If you were to take this and say this becomes a model for something very, very practical in our life, it would be a wonderful model for marriage. So God has a plan for marriage. It's to be permanent, heterosexual, monogamous. That's God's plan. He designed it. And anything other than that is a perversion of God's plan. So that's God's design for marriage.
Now, how does that marriage function? Well in Ephesians 5, God tells us in His word, Wives, submit to your husbands. Husbands, love your wives. I've taught that a lot. I find that generally 50% of the people here resist that a little bit. And they'll want to come. Husbands, you know, love your wives. Wives, submit to your husbands. That wives, submit to your husbands, that's such a cultural thing. And it's always interesting to me, they want to throw out the first part of the verse, wives, submit to your husbands, but not the second part, husbands, love your wives.
And God designed it this way. And the amazing thing is, marriages work well this way. Very hard, ladies, and I know, to submit to your husbands. I've met them, you know. I wouldn't let him pick out dinner for me, let alone a life. But you're the one who said I do. Three billion fish in the sea, and this is the guy you chose. It seems like an endless discussion.
So I have a lady that said to me, I have no problem submitting to my husband when he's right. That's not the test. So I used to do more counseling when the church was small. I don't anymore. But I'm in there one day, husband, wife, they wouldn't
be in there if there weren't some problems. And I said, well, how does your marriage work? So here's what the guy said. We have a 50-50 marriage. Right, honey? So that's a little tip off there. One's got a little more 50 than the other, I think.
And I said, well, how does it work when you disagree? Now, here's, just think the practical side of this. He said, whoever cares the most and argues the most passionately wins. Well, what kind of an environment is that? I turn up the volume. I'd rather have a possession arrow that said, you got the last one, I get the next one, you got the last one, I get the next one. I'd rather do that.
Let me give you just this much. Sandy's not here. Sandy's swimming today, and then she's been working for two years on this, the swim meet that starts today. I'm going to go out and watch Michael Phelps swim. I'm going to watch Michael Phelps swim a 50. That should be like two strokes would be my guess. And I'm driving out to watch this. But if Sandy were here, and you said, Sandy, are you in submission to Tom? I think what she would say is yes. And if you said, give me an example, I think she'd go, well, I don't know if I really have an example. Because as much as action, this idea of submission is an attitude.
Now, that's a sidebar to this. What we're emphasizing are one God, three persons, equal status, different role.
The Holy Spirit Gives Birth to All Believers
Here's the second thing. The Holy Spirit gives birth to all believers. John chapter 3. I've encouraged you over the years to start logging in the front of your Bibles. This is my first study Bible, and I've done this with you before, but I'll keep doing it till you do it. You can't read it. The point is not that you can read it. It's just that you can see it. But I found myself early on sitting in studies or reading and going, boy, Larry goes.
So the first entry in here is 2 Timothy 3:16, which is all scriptures inspired by God. Wouldn't have to look it up now, but in 1981 I did. And I found Larry went there over and over again, and I would just start making notes. And even to this day, there'll be times when I'm sitting and I'll just go through these. And I'd encourage you, when there's a passage that either we go to over and over again, or in your church, or your study, or it hits you particularly strong, you make a note of it.
Today, we've got two or three of those passages. And one is the second point, John 3. So John 3 is packed. John 3 right away triggers this discussion between Jesus and Nicodemus. And obviously the classic, "For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. Whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." So John 3 is important.
In John 3, Jesus answers Nicodemus, who doesn't ask a question, but God, in this case, Jesus knows his heart, said, "I tell you the truth." Language important here now. Look at verse 5. "I tell you the truth. No one can," so we speak here of ability, "no one can enter the kingdom of God unless," so there has to be a pre-existing condition before he can enter the kingdom of God, "born of water and born of the Spirit." You'll see in all likelihood, in your Bible, that word Spirit is capitalized. He speaks of the Holy Spirit.
"Flesh begets flesh. Spirit gives birth to Spirit. Don't be surprised at my saying, you must be born again." He's talking about the Spirit now. "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear it sound, you can't see where it comes from, where it's going. So it is with everyone who's born of the Spirit."
Fundamental Gospel Truth
I am a week from tomorrow going to Colorado Springs to do a FCA pro-athletes outreach coaches conference. So this will be, we did one here last, I don't know what it was, July or August. Had a great time. What I've learned to do, even at Cannon Beach, we'll be in Cannon Beach in July, and even there in the Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center, with families that have been there for 90 years, many conceived in a baptismal, I think, they go all the way back. Even there, that might have been over the edge. Even there, even there, I'll start with, let's get on the same page. And let's get on the same page means the Bible is the Word of God and Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
So here's the sentence we used all the time. Fundamental, it'll be repetitive for you, that tells you, at least in my mind, hopefully it doesn't tell you I only have one message, although I really do, but hopefully it tells you this is important, that we have a sentence, God saves sinners. God, noun, subject, saves, verb, predicate, sinners. What must I do? One of the guys after Easter service on Sunday had a lady come up to him and said, "What must I do to be saved?" So in the midst of this, here's what we say, confess upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved.
What happened in that lady's life? Let's connect point two and point three. He gives birth to all believers. And point three, He's the source of life within us.
The Holy Spirit Enables Faith
The Holy Spirit is the one that gives us the capacity to believe. Look at, and I don't know if you, you don't need to keep your finger, look at Titus chapter 3. Titus chapter 3 is a wonderful book, if you'd allow this, that Ephesians is kind of cliff notes of Romans. In many ways, Titus is a bit of the cliff notes of Ephesians, at least as we're looking at it.
Titus chapter 3, Paul's writing and he's writing to believers and here's what he says about them. Titus 3:3, "For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved the various lusts and pleasure, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another." So when you're describing natural man, so by that we mean every man, woman, boy, girl, every person in the world who has not yet come to Christ, when you're describing them in their natural state, this is who they are. They are by nature disobedient. Paul says in Ephesians 2, they were by nature children of wrath.
So last night, Brayden's got a game last night and Yale will be in the dugout with Brayden,
But that leaves Lucy's three, Harmony's two, and Haley. Haley's come up with this system and it's brilliant, really. She walks out to center field and keeps the girls out there. There's trees, there's shade, there's not other people around and Haley will say, "I'm seeing more of the ballgame now than I did before."
So last night she said, "All right, Lucy, let's go. We're going to go out to center field." "I don't want to go." So I'm going, wow, I better walk away from this. I don't want to watch this. And Lucy said, "Where's Sandy? Is Sandy going to go?" And Sandy's kind of there and looking pretty comfortable in that chair she's in and Sandy said, "Yeah, I'm going to go." And Lucy had a little moment in there. What's that little moment? That little moment is, "What about me?" That's who you are by nature.
How We Move from Natural State to Believer
Well, how do I move from that state into the state of a believer? Verse four: "For when the kindness of God, our Savior, and His love for mankind appeared." What's His love for mankind? Jesus. "He saved us, not on the basis of deeds, which we've done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus."
Here's what saves me, and this verse, I would think, would be a stake in the heart of those who say there's something you do to earn salvation. Titus 3:5: "He saved us, not on the basis of deeds." I'm saved by grace through faith. That grace is from God.
That's the thing—let's hang here—that's the thing, that ingredient, the word that separates biblical Christianity from everything else. Everything else has you doing something.
Can a Christian Lose Their Salvation?
So here you go. This is my argument now, because this is a question we get a ton. If I'm a Christian, can I lose my salvation? No. No, because you didn't get yourself into this, you can't get yourself out of it. If you can get yourself out of it, it's based on your deeds.
I'm walking along one day with a man down here, we're at McDonald and Granite Reef, right in front of Bash's—never forget it—walking along and we're having this discussion. I happen to be from a Roman Catholic grade school, high school, college background. This gentleman, in that faith, mass daily, very, very, very devout. So he's saying, and he'd been in the Bible study a little bit, he's saying, "I don't know if I get this or not." I said, "Well, that's all right, we can go through it again," and I explained, "I'm saved by grace, and the evidence of that grace is that I have faith. And I can know that I am saved, and if the action of the body is present with the Lord, I know I'm going to heaven."
And he's walking along, and he stops, and he said to me, "Are you telling me that if I really believe"—so that's a key word in here—"really believe, and yet I kill somebody tonight, I'm still going to go to heaven?" And I said, "Yes." Now, that's not part of our discipleship process, arbitrarily kill people, but those are great moments, because at that moment, here's what I know, is that I've explained grace, because there should be that natural, or at least often is, that natural pushback.
The Holy Spirit's Role in Salvation and Enlightenment
But the Holy Spirit comes along, and as God saves sinners, it's the Holy Spirit that does that work in your life. Can we go to the fourth point? It's John 16. Turn there, and the idea is the Holy Spirit is the instrument that's used to, if you will, enlighten you.
John 16 has one of those verses in it that to me is one of those wow verses. Sandy's mom had heart surgery on Tuesday. So Sandy is—Sandy learned a lot from my experience, and what she learned is you don't need to be there when they're in the hospital. There's a lot of care then. It's when you go home that's the challenge. And so Sandy's flying out Saturday to St. Louis to be with her mom.
She teaches a Bible study up here on Monday morning, and so it's a group of ladies, and so I'll teach it this Monday, Monday morning, and it's John 16. Well, in John 16 verse 7, it's one of those verses that kind of should make you go, "That's interesting." "I tell you the truth"—this is Jesus—"It's your advantage that I go away."
Now, if you stop right there, here's Jesus with them, and He says to them, "You're better off if I'm gone," which is kind of contrary to how we think, because we would kind of picture it and say, "No, the best they can get is to have Him here." "It's your advantage that I go away." Why? "That the Helper shall come to you." The Holy Spirit.
The Amazing Power We Have
This is this power that we have. We have this amazing power. I was in Cannon Beach, I think it was last year, if not the year before, and Brian LaRitche—some of you know Brian—was teaching at night. I was teaching in the morning, and every night after he would finish, he and I, and usually he and I and Sandy would go out and get a burger or something, and we're talking. And it's right when I was stepping down from teaching, he said, "Not so much regrets, but if you could do it differently, do you have something else that you would teach or some different emphasis?"
And I was caught off guard by his question, and I was stunned by my answer that came out immediately. It was not thought through or calculated. I said, "Yes, I would have taught more on the Holy Spirit."
Underemphasizing the Holy Spirit
Now, if you go back, and I spent a lot of time doing this, if you go back 20, 25 years, and in a lot of ways it hasn't changed a ton. Conservative—not political, but theological—guys like me, I think tend to underemphasize, I'm trying to pick the words here without being too indicting, ignore the Holy Spirit. Almost always as a reaction to the overemphasis we saw in certain segments of the body of Christ around us.
So whenever you're responding to something, which is almost always, you have to be careful that in the response to it, you don't miss that boat. You have a force here, the most powerful force you can have in your life. It's more powerful than Putin in the Ukraine. We're going to warn him again today, by the way. The power of the Holy Spirit causes you to be born
Again, gives you the life within You. It's to your advantage that Jesus is gone. You're now indwelled by that Spirit of God, and in John 16:13, the Holy Spirit, the truth, the Spirit of truth, comes upon you and will guide you in all truth.
Here's one of those verses for the front of your Bible. It's 1 Corinthians 2:14: "But natural man"—again, that's the person apart from Christ—"natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and they can't be understood." Why? Because they are spiritually appraised.
A Personal Story of Spiritual Blindness
In my life, I look back and I'm not sure I heard the gospel until I got out here and went to work. I went to work at Motorola, and I had a guy there. My career at Motorola was somewhat limited, and limited by me, really. I was there two weeks, and I went in to my boss and said, "Listen, this thing"—at the time they were the largest employer in the state, 56,000 employees—"this is apparently a fine company, but I've spotted a few things that I think we can improve here." He said, "Well, you're going to put that in memo form and slide it under the door on your way out."
But I had a guy next to me. His name was Greg McInter, and he was this smiley, upbeat, positive—you know, "How you doing?" "Great." "Any better?" "There'd be two of me"—kind of a guy. He said, "Would you and your wife like to come over to our house for dinner?" I said, "Sure, that'd be great. You know, don't do that much, but what are we going to have?" He said, "Well, my wife will call."
So she called. She said, "What do you like?" I said, "I like meatloaf." She said, "I make a great meatloaf. Everybody says that." I said, "A little mashed potato and some corn. Corn is the only vegetable I like. It's the one I can't have." She said, "How about dessert?" I said, "Brownies. I mean, brownies are the best with a little ice cream." She said, "All right, we'll have it."
So we're driving over and Susan said, "What's this about? We don't need to meet more people." I said, "Yeah, well, maybe change that attitude by the time we get there because we're going to go meet these people."
The Gospel Presentation
So we go in and we play some aggravation, which it was, or something, and now it's time to eat. So we're eating. We got meatloaf. He starts with, "Do you guys know you're sinners?"
Well, that was an easier question for me than Susan. I don't even have to swallow. I said, "Sure." Susan was offended by this, but he didn't stop because all of us have sinned. So now we're in the middle of this and Jesus is the answer and we fire something. Like I said, I got a Catholic background. Susan has no background. The only time she'd been in a church were for her sister's weddings. So she's doing some Baháʼí gig or whatever it is.
So they clear the plate. She said, "Let's get out of here." I said, "They got brownies." I don't know if there's hell or not, but there is if we leave now. She said, "I'm not going to listen to this. Let's get out of here." So I said, "You know, we have to go. Susan's not feeling well. You could wrap up those brownies though and send them to work tomorrow."
The Moment of Spiritual Awakening
Well, I had that same attitude on March 5th, 1980. But on March 6th, 1980, I wanted that gospel desperately. If I gave it to you humanly, here's what I would say: On March 6th, I made a decision for Christ. I heard the gospel and responded. That's the experience I had.
So if I said to you, "How did these lights get on today?" you would say, "Well, one of the guys came over and threw the switch." Indeed, experientially, that's true. But in reality, and this is where this always breaks down, there had to be Palo Verde, which had to generate, which had to transmit, which had to do some other stuff. That's the inner workings of how this light came on.
The Theology Behind Salvation
The theology of how you came to believe is that at some point before the foundations of the earth, God decided He would save you. Good Friday, when Christ died on the cross, He said, "It is finished." He died to pay the price for your sin. At some point in time, the Holy Spirit opened your eyes, and you now can take things you thought were foolish and commit your life to them, because they're spiritually ascertained, and now you have the Spirit of God in you.
That's why salvation is utterly, entirely, completely a work of God. The sovereignty of God. Now again, for some of you, you go, "Ho-hum, I already know it." For others of you, that didn't make much sense. For others of you right now, you're kind of burning on the inside. You're kind of percolating a little bit, because it's striking against a little bit of what you either believe or been taught.
God as the Active Agent in Salvation
When we say God saves sinners, we mean that sentence is true, in that God does everything, saves, and you are the direct object. You're the recipient of the mover of the actor in His action. Do you have a power within you today to understand spiritual things? No. But the Spirit is alive within you.
The gospel, according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 1, the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing. There's a guy talking the other day, and he was talking about a friend of his who's an atheist, and he said, "He mocks me because I believe in a God I cannot see, but this guy is offended by a God he doesn't believe exists."
The Seeming Foolishness of the Gospel
When you think about this, just for a second, let me give you the gospel, and see how easily you could go, "Well, that's kind of silly." That when Adam sinned, all of us sinned. As a result of Adam's sin, that took paradise, destroyed it, brought death into the world, separated us from God, and the remedy for that was for God to become human, die about 2,000 years ago, and when He died, He paid the price, your price today for you, and there's nothing you can or need to do beyond believe.
That even strikes against your core as an American.
There's no free lunch. I got to do something. We instinctively want to do something. This salvation is completely a work of God, and the Holy Spirit is the one who enlightens you.
Let me take points five, six, seven, and eight quickly, and you can look these up. Acts chapter 1, verse 8, Jesus is telling the disciples, you will have power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. If you need an illustration of that, let me give you a guy, Peter.
The Power of the Holy Spirit
In Matthew 26, verses 69 through 75, is Peter being confronted by the little servant girl, and Peter denies Christ. When you get to Acts chapter 2, 3, 4, Peter delivers this extraordinary sermon. 3,000 people are saved. He's in front of the powers of the day, and they tell him to quit preaching, and he said, I can't do that. There's no other name by which man can be saved but Jesus.
What's the difference between Peter in Matthew 26 and Peter in Acts 2, 3, 4? The power of the Holy Spirit. The power of the Holy Spirit gives you the power to proclaim the truth, not to save people. It's not your job, frankly, nor do you have the ability to save a soul. Your job is strictly to proclaim the truth, which is going to require a combination of action and words.
The Holy Spirit, point six, intercedes for us, literally prays for us. Point seven, He's the source of wisdom for us.
The Source of Divine Wisdom
It's 1 Corinthians 2:10, the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way, no one can know the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We haven't received a spirit of the world, but a spirit who's from God that we may understand what God has freely given us.
When we talk about wisdom, it's not just the wisdom to figure out whether to go with plan A or plan B, or buy the green house or the red house, or who to marry. It's wisdom to understand what God has given us, to put things in their perspective, my informal definition, to connect the dots. And when I have a knowledge of God and who He is, I'm prepared to live life.
The Source of Life Change
His last point is He's the source of life change, the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.
In 1991, I was instrumental in writing the mission statement for East Valley Bible Church in Priority Living. Priority Living was to cause life change, biblical life change, in businessmen and women by teaching the timeless Word of God in a contemporary context. East Valley Bible Church was to help one another learn God's truths and live biblically changed lives. What you see is common in both of them is that the scriptures taught and the end result is not head knowledge, but biblical life change.
There should be in your life a change. And He doesn't say the change is all of a sudden you get up at 5:30 on a Thursday morning and go to a study. He doesn't say all of a sudden you start to pray or you start to give or you start to do many of the things we talked about.
The Evidence of Transformation
Here's what He says, all of a sudden, here's how you know your life has changed. You have love. And that is love for the unlovable. Love, joy. You can rejoice in that relationship with God regardless of circumstances. You have peace, not the absence of turmoil, but the presence of God.
You have patience. Patience isn't tested when every light is green. Patience isn't tested when everything goes according to your schedule. All of a sudden you have that. You are what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, a new creature. In 1 John 2:29, you have a new life. It's the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, the evidence of the Holy Spirit in your life.
The evidence that you're a Christian is not that you were in church on Sunday, though you should be. The evidence of it is your life is transformed. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.
Looking Ahead
Again, as with the Son and with the Father, this is not an in-depth study on the Holy Spirit, but it certainly is something that should tweak your mind, imagination, hopefully cause you to want to study more. Next week, you got to love it, because next week we're going to talk about you. Next week, we're going to talk about the depravity of man.
Let's pray. Father, thank You for this awesome and amazing truth. Help us understand that You've given us life, that we're new creatures, that we can become the men and women You want us to be, based on Your work in our life. God, help us obey. You tell us if we love You, we will be obedient. You'll produce this fruit. God, help us continue. Thank You for the promise that You who began a good work in us, You will continue it, until either Jesus comes or we go to be with Him. Father, thank You for that truth. We pray to You in Christ's name. Amen.