We were having so much fun at the church campout at Burlingame State Park, that Christy forgot to take pictures. Here are a couple of snapshots of fun at the lake there. We had a wonderful time of fellowship and prayer around the campfire, made lots of s’mores, and had a great time together! Thanks for praying!!

Special thanks to the following churches for having us to present our ministry. We so enjoyed your fellowship and hospitality. Thank you for your generosity to this mission!

180 FWB Church and Pastor Chad Kivette
Clarksville, TN

Bethlehem FWB Church and Pastor Randy Corn
Ashland City, TN

First FWB Church and Pastor Joel Franks
Glasgow, KY

Special thanks to the WNAC for your generosity through the Provisions Closet!! What a wonderful blessing!
Please pray as we kick off Fantastic Fridays on September 19!  Thank you so much for your faithful prayers and continued support!
Warren Benson was a wonderful Christian man and faithful member of Beacon Church. He went home to be with the Lord last month. We will miss him tremendously!

“The Indwelling Holy Spirit”
Excerpts from a sermon by Pastor Bill Reynolds
Delivered at Beacon Church Sunday, September 7, 2014
Audio at www.BeaconFreeWillBaptist.com/Sermons

I John 3:24, NKJV Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

According to this verse, all who are trusting Jesus Christ as their Savior have the Holy Spirit indwelling them. Those who follow the Lord have His Spirit abiding in them. The Apostle John is confident of the fact that his audience has this wonderful blessing. He reminds these people of this blessing because they are in desperate need of the Holy Spirit’s discernment in their lives. They are being inundated by false teachers and are in the midst of spiritual battle. The spiritual battle against false doctrine still rages today. This “testing” can be thoroughly accomplished because we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us.
What I would like us to see from this passage today is that the Holy Spirit will equip every follower of Jesus with the ability to recognize false teachers and to stick to the truth. Let’s take a look at this passage and see how the Holy Spirit will help us in our battle against false teachers.

1 John 4:1-3 NKJV – 1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
Because we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, we can discern whether someone is a false teacher.
John has just finished talking about the need for us to love one another. However, love must never be used to overlook false doctrine. Now notice we are commanded not to believe every spirit. Just because somebody looks and sounds like a good teacher doesn’t mean he is a good teacher. Therefore, John gives a test to try these teachers to see if they are from God or the Anti-Christ. This test is focused on what a person teaches about the person and work of Jesus Christ.
I have studied many false teachers, and I can tell you that if you look closely enough, the false teachers always have a distorted view of the person or work of Jesus Christ. Some are more obvious than others. Some will come out and say things that attack Jesus’ deity or humanity. Some, however, are more subtle, simply not talking much about Jesus at all in order to avoid recognizing Who He really is. Jesus should be the center of our testimony! His incarnation, sinless life, death, burial, and resurrection are central to any Bible-believing church’s message. What I want you to know is that the Holy Spirit will help you recognized these false teachers. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you recognize false teachers. Remember “many false prophets have gone out into the world,” so we must rely on the Holy Spirit to help us recognize them.
1 John 4:4 NKJV – 4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
Because we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, we can overcome the wiles of the devil.
Now we are given three reasons why those who have the Holy Spirit indwelling them will have victory in the battle against the devil and his false teachers. The first reason is because the believer in Jesus is from God. We are His children, and He will protect us by His Spirit. Secondly, we have already experienced victory because of our trust in Jesus. And thirdly, the reason I would like to emphasize right now, is that the Holy Spirit is indwelling you. The Holy Spirit of God is greater than all the forces of the devil. We can be confident of our victory over the devil and all his false teachers because God’s Spirit is within us. We may not be able to control the forces of evil around us, but we can be confident that it will never exceed the power within us.

Romans 8:37-39 NKJV – 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you overcome the wiles of the devil.
1 John 4:5-6 NKJV – 5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Because we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, we are bound together in the truth.
Now because these false teachers are from the world, they are going to teach what the world wants to hear. This is why you can’t gauge a teacher by the size of his congregation. If someone can’t embrace the truth of God’s Word, he is of the world. If someone has the Holy Spirit indwelling him, he will accept God’s Word as truth.
Why?
Because the voice of the Holy Spirit speaks to the followers of Jesus to confirm the truth of the Bible. Look at these verses:
John 10:3-4, 16, 27-28 NKJV – 3 “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 “And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. … 16 “And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. … 27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
It is the confirming voice of the Holy Spirit that keeps us together. When someone says something to me like “I am not sure I believe everything I read in the Bible is true,” a “red flag” goes up in my mind that says, “This person may not know Jesus Christ.”
What about you?
When you read the Bible, are you convinced it is the truth, or do you greet it with skepticism? If you greet it with skepticism, ask the Lord to reveal whether you truly know Him. If you don’t, then accept Jesus and the truth of the Bible into your life.
Let’s remember that, as believers, we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us. And because the Holy Spirit is indwelling us, we can discern whether someone is a false teacher; we can overcome the wiles of the devil; and we can be bound together by the truth.