South Shore Pentecostal Church

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Apostolic Truth Radio program with Pastor Craig Ouellette, a radio ministry of South Shore Pentecostal Church located in Whitman, Massachusetts. At a time when many Christians do not know what to believe, South Shore Pentecostal is honored to bring you clear biblical teaching on which you can confidently build your faith. Thank you for joining us.

J. Craig Ouellette: Praise God. John chapter 15, we're looking at that here this morning. As I read these scriptures up there, those that were at our fall conference will recognize that Brother Little used this passage and he used the one out of Second Peter there. When Brother Little preached and had read those scriptures, God spoke to my heart and gave me a little bit different angle on it. He talked about we are connected. We're going to talk about how you must stay connected.

The Gospel of John chapter 15, verse one. Jesus speaking: "I am the true vine. My father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit. Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing."

This next verse is really the verse that the Lord was impressing upon me. "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples."

In Second Peter 3:17 and 18, the last two verses of Second Peter. Second Peter 3:17: "Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things," meaning the things he's talked about in the epistle, "before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen." You must stay connected.

Let's break down those verses we read in John a little bit and put them in the context. Jesus is saying this on the night of the Last Supper. These are words that Jesus is saying after dinner. John 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 are all part of the Last Supper night. It is important to understand that. He's had the Last Supper, they've instituted communion, and now he is saying these things here that are not recorded in the other Gospels, but he said them. He's giving us instruction, and he says, "I am the true vine." He's making an analogy, a comparison between him and us being connected to him.

The analogy indicates the following. Number one, we're supposed to bring forth fruit to the Lord. Verse two: "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he takes away, every branch in me he purges us." Verse eight: "Herein is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit." Listening and hearing the word of God can cleanse us and prune us. By coming to church and hearing the word of God preached and testified and sung, it does something to us. That's why it's important that we have the word of God and not some philosophy. If we're putting philosophies out there, something else is going to happen that's not what God wants to happen.

The word of God can cleanse us. A lot of times, we are in a frame of mind or feeling that's not right, but we're not even recognizing it. We're just going along trying to deal with life. We come into church and we hear the word of God and we go, "Wait a minute. I've been thinking that way, I've been feeling that way, and that's not the way God wants me to be." The word of God can cleanse us when we let it be applied to us. We hear that and let it be applied.

Even if we bring forth fruit, there are times of purging or pruning. One of the most important lessons a Christian can learn is seasons. No matter how dedicated a person is to God, and no matter what their calling is, we all have seasons. God created seasons to give us pictures. He could have made it so it's one season all year round and you just keep reaping and sowing and everything's just coming, but God's created seasons to give us understanding that there are times where you reap, there's times where you plant, there's times where nothing is happening. There are bad seasons.

Seasons spiritually can be of different lengths. They're not cut up into three-month segments. What I'm trying to say is sometimes we're in a season where we're not being fruitful. We'd like to, but God is purging us. God is taking things away so that we can grow better. If you talk to Brother Mark, he'll tell you about plants and people that are familiar with plants. Sometimes you have to prune off different things to make that plant grow and produce the way you'd like it to do. God does the same thing in our lives. Sometimes that's why people don't like church. We go to church and we want to have some fruit come out and God's got a pruning plan. Amen. Praise God.

Even if we bring forth fruit, there's times of purging. We must learn there are seasons for God. It's all through the Bible. We must abide in Jesus to bring forth fruit. Verses four and five: "Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing." We need the Lord. Without Jesus, we can't do anything. It doesn't matter how talented you are, what your IQ is, how charismatic you are, or what your calling is, you can't really do what God wants you to do without being connected to him.

Continuing with that analogy, those that don't bring forth fruit will be removed. God gives us time. You might be thinking about the parable where Jesus talks about a tree. The master says the tree's been here three years and nothing's happened and I'm going to chop it down. The servant says, "Let me do one more year with it and I'll dung it and if it doesn't happen, then we'll chop the tree down." God expects fruit out of us at some point. We're all different. I can't look at Brother Dwayne and say he's got to give fruit at this point, and he can't look at me and say fruit at this point. But God looks for fruit in our lives.

If you take plants and different trees, some trees you plant and they don't give any of their fruit or produce for five or seven years. We have to understand that as Christians, we go through these things. But if I want to grow, suppose I'm an almond tree and I'm not coming forth for a couple years, I shouldn't get uprooted. I should stay planted. A lot of times, people because they're not producing the way they like, they get uprooted and they leave the garden, the place that God has planted them, thinking they're going to be more fruitful some other place. You're only going to be fruitful if you're where God wants you to be. You can't go over here because your friends are there, or your family's there, or you like their programs. We have to be planted where God wants us planted.

Verse seven, our prayers will be answered when we are in the Lord and the Lord is in us. "If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you." In other words, you're in a place where you are in agreement with God and you understand God. When you get into agreement with God and you start to understand God's will, there's some things you're not going to pray because you know God doesn't want that. Because you are in agreement with God, God will put things on your heart to pray for and God's going to answer them because you're in him and he's in you. Amen. Praise God.

Verse eight, we're ordained to bring forth fruit. The Greek word for abide in these verses is meno and it means to stay in a given place, state, or condition or relation. Abiding is not visiting. If I just go to church on Sunday, I'm not really abiding in God. Abiding is not visiting. Abiding means that is where I am. That's where I live. That's where I go to. To be a Christian the way God wants us to be, we can't just go to church on Sunday. It's not just then. Abiding means that if I go to work, I'm still with God. If I go on vacation, God's still there.

If I visit family, God's still got to be in the picture, saved or unsaved. If I'm going for a career, I've got to check with God: "Is that where God wants me to be?" I've got to abide. That means I've got to be in a place where my connection stays there. My relationship stays there. That is why when you get saved, there's some places you used to go that you're not going to go anymore because God says, "You can go there if you want, but I'm not going to abide with you if you go in there." Abiding is not visiting. Abiding is referring to a continuous connection. We have to stay connected to God. We have to stay connected to the Lord.

Jesus also says further down in the same chapter, verse 10, he says that if we keep his commandments, we will abide in his love. If I want to stay abiding with Jesus, I've got to find out what his commandments are and I've got to put those into place in my life. I want to back up to verse one again. Notice Jesus says, "I am the true vine." That means there's false vines. You can make false connections. You can connect to things that are not of God. If I'm going to have what God wants me to do, if I want to be in the place God wants me to be and I want to produce the way God wants me to produce, I've got to make the right connection.

God's connections are not based on my race, my culture, my economic situation, or my friends. God's connection is based on his word and spirit. Amen. I've got to make sure I'm connected to the true vine. Remember, tares look like wheat. It can look like the true vine, but it's not. Hallelujah. Praise God. Abiding in the Lord requires following the Lord's commandments. Psalm 15, this psalm in the Jewish mind is the ideal man. The psalmist asks the question, "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?" We want to abide, don't we? He's asking the same question. "Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?" That's abiding. That's where you live.

He lists some things. He says, "He that walketh uprightly, worketh righteousness, speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned or despised, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not. He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved." Moved from where? Out of the presence of God.

Just a little background on that psalm. The rabbi say that there's 613 laws the Jews had to keep. They said all 613 are embodied in the principles in that little psalm there. If you keep that, you keep the 613. We don't have to worry about that because really the law is love of God and love of neighbor. But abiding is going to cause me to have to walk first of all in God's way. "He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaks the truth in his heart." 15 and two, the first step in abiding is living righteously and having truth in our heart.

What does that all mean? Walking uprightly and working righteousness means we must have truth in our heart to walk uprightly and work righteousness. That means I have to walk according to God's commandments and words, not according to what society says is okay, not according to the trend, not according to the likes on Instagram or X or whatever it is you're on, but according to the word of God. You hear sometimes people say, "I don't like that person because they cause division." If you really believe that, you can't be a Christian.

Jesus causes division. He said, "I'm come to send a sword." If you're going to follow Jesus, you are going to cause division with your life because the truth is going to cause a division between people. Sometimes we don't like people because of the way they say things. Sometimes the people that are saying things that we don't like are really they are who they are. Those other ones that seem so nice are clever and they know how but if you got them privately, they're worse than that person that you don't like the way is talking. They know how to be a politician. They know how to put on a face. Just because somebody causes division does not mean it's not from God.

Matthew 10:34: "Think not I am come to send a peace on earth. I came not to send peace but a sword." It's not that Jesus is trying to cause division, it's just that when Jesus comes, truth is manifest. Those that choose truth end up on one side, those that reject truth end up on the other side. There's not such a thing as relative truth. Truth is either true or it's not true. He goes on to see that coming to the Lord may even cause a division in your family between father and mother, son and father, daughter and mother. To come to God, we must come to truth. And when you come to truth, you cannot abide with untruth.

In John 15:18, Jesus states the same idea just a little bit differently than he did in Matthew. He says, "If the world hate you, ye know it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love." The minute you choose Jesus, you're rejecting the world. All those that love the world are either going to have to give up the world and come to Jesus or they're going to have to reject you. We're talking about being Christian. This is what the Bible says. It's not about love, it's about truth. If you love somebody, you'll tell them the truth. Amen.

Walking uprightly means walking according to God's commandments and judgments. A person's walk and works will be directed by the truth in their heart. What's in my heart that I believe is going to direct my life. It's going to direct where I go. It's going to direct what I do. If I don't have truth, it's going to direct me to do things that are not truthful. If I've got truth, it's going to direct me to do things differently than others. It's not about them and me, it's about doing the truth. Hallelujah.

Our walk speaks of our purpose and direction of life, and our work speak of what we actually do with our life. When you come to God, you need to review your life and see, "Am I going where God wants me to go?" I came out from Michigan and came out here to be out here one or two years. I got saved and I realized the whole plan is now on hold. I better find out what God wants me to do. I didn't go back to Michigan because that wasn't the will of God. I didn't continue down the career that I had worked 10 or 15 years to get into, but I went where God wanted me to go. God is not a respecter of persons. He wasn't just singling me out. He's doing that with every one of us. I have to choose Jesus or I have to choose the world. Amen.

We must walk according to the spirit. If we're Christians, we have to follow the spirit. Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit." If I'm going to walk God's way, I've got to let the spirit be leading me. If the spirit is leading me, there's some times I might not go do what I thought I was going to do that day and I might go pray. I might find out I'm fasting next week. I might find out that God wants me to go talk to that stranger on the corner about Jesus.

I might find out that God wants me to teach a Bible study to somebody. I might find out that God wants me to take some more of my free time and start to pray more if I'm being led of the spirit. God's going to do that. When I'm letting God's spirit lead me, there's not going to be condemnation in my life. Galatians 5:25 says, "If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit." In other words, just because you got the Holy Ghost doesn't mean you're all set. I got to start letting that Holy Ghost start leading me.

That means when I'm talking, I have to listen. I have to listen to what God's saying. Sometimes you're talking and you have to be listening to what God is saying. You have to be watching your thinking. Why am I thinking that way? Does God want me thinking that way? Amen. When you get the Holy Ghost, God writes the law in your heart. Hebrews 10:16 says, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws in their heart and their minds will I write them." When you get the Holy Ghost, God puts his spirit which wrote the word of God into your heart and into your mind, and it starts to affect your thinking if you listen to God. Thinking starts to change. You set up new boundaries because you got some laws in your heart. You don't need a policeman. You got a God in you. Hallelujah.

We're talking about our walk's importance because if I walk right, I can abide with God. We read the rest of that psalm and he doesn't backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor. Be careful how you treat your neighbors. Even if they don't treat you right, be careful how you treat your neighbors. He that rejects following or honoring those that reject the Lord but honors those that fear him. Are we raising up heroes that are anti-God? Are you glorifying sports figures, or actors, or musicians, or singers that are anti-God? Amen. I want to be connected. He keeps his word.

We're not talking about a casual thing between friends. You make a commitment to do something and you made it. You find out it's going to cost a little bit more than you thought, but you keep it. The Bible wants us to be careful about what kind of commitments we make. Doesn't charge interest for loans to brethren, doesn't accept bribes, or pervert justice. You got all kinds of people today in office that are perverting justice. I don't care if they go to church every day. If you're perverting justice, you're not going to heaven. You better repent. If I do it, I better repent. Amen.

The Lord's looking for fruit in our lives, and sometimes people say the fruit is winning of souls, but it really is the fruit of the spirit God is looking for. In John 15, he starts to talk about loving the brethren. Winning souls is the fruit, but if you have the fruit of the spirit, you'll be able to win souls. If you have love, joy, and peace, I guarantee you there's a lot of people looking for love, joy, and peace. If you can show somebody you got true love, joy, and peace with all that's going on around, you'll get the attention of people that are trying to get love, joy, and peace out of drugs, sex, and alcohol because they know that doesn't really give it to them.

John 15:10: "If you love me, keep my commandments. If you keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love even as I've kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends." If I love the brethren, if I love the church, if I love those that God loves, this is going to help bring forth fruit. God wants the fruit of the spirit in us.

I think the fruit's more important than the gifts, though the gifts are necessary. Paul tells us even if I have gifts, I have tongues, I have prophecy, I can move mountains, and I understand all mysteries, if I don't have love, I am nothing. Nothing. I can pray and people are healed, but if I don't have love, I'm nothing. Zero. Let's give God praise. Lord God, [speaking in tongues] help us God, help me Lord God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Galatians 5:22 and 23: Love, joy, peace, long-suffering. The first three come kind of easy when you get into God's presence. Long-suffering takes some work. Gentleness takes some work. As Sister Ouellette said, she was reading recently, "Gifts are given. Fruit is developed." God will give you the gift according to your calling, but I'm going to have to work to develop fruit. Sometimes when we're saying, "God, I want to serve you, teach me," all of a sudden God puts us into situations where we have to be long-suffering. Puts us into situations where we have to be gentle.

In other words, what's going on inside of me is good in God's sense. Faith, meekness, temperance. That's self-control. God will put you into situations where you feel like you're just going to blow up. You feel like if you take another second, you're going to burst. God wants to say, "Are you going to develop some fruit or are you going to blow?" It takes work to develop fruit. Hallelujah.

Jesus said, "Abide in my love." When someone doesn't produce fruit, eventually the spirit, God takes you away out of the church. When we lose our connection, it's John 15, verse six: "If a man abideth not in me, he's cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." It's not talking about going to hell because no human being can throw another person into hell. But what it is talking about is if I don't keep my connection with the Lord, eventually I will lose my connection with the church and I'll go out into the world and I'm going to wither up. The world is going to start to influence me and draw me in and I'm going to start to be like the world.

When he says abide in me and I in you, him in us is spirit. Us in him is the church. It's the body. I have to stay connected to the church. Bearing the fruit God wants is not just a matter of getting the Holy Ghost, but it's a matter of getting the Holy Ghost and getting connected. The church is the body of Christ. I have to make a connection with the body and have the spirit to bring forth the fruit that God wants me to bring forth. I've seen it too much lately. I've seen people lose their connection to the church. They say, "Oh, we're still praying." But you see the world start to influence their life. You see them start to do things that they weren't doing when they were going to church. They lose their connection and slowly things go out of their life that were boundaries, markers, because they don't have the connection with God and the church.

Get not it's not just about getting the Holy Ghost, but it's about getting into the body of Christ and making a connection with the church. We do not live to ourselves. The book of Romans says no man lives to himself. We're not islands. Just this morning before church, somebody that's not here said, "I'm by myself with God." I said, "No, you got to get connected to the church. It's a body." None of us has all of it. One is a foot, one is a finger, one is a head, one is an eye, one is an ear. We need all of that to be the body. I have to get connected. I might have an eye, but I still need a head to get into so I can go some place. Hallelujah.

He's telling his disciples that if you don't maintain your connection with him, you're going to wither up. You're going to be gathered by the world and burned. It's not enough to know Jesus and have an experience with Jesus or just believe in Jesus. You need a connection with the church. Being part of the church is not just coming to services, but it's getting connection with other people in the church, developing relationships, gathering together to worship, having a common burden and goal for what God has a burden for.

The reason a lot of times people won't get connected is because you have to sacrifice. If the body is going that way, you can't decide to go some other way. You have to go where the body is. That means you have to make commitments and hold up on those commitments. That means you may have to do some things different, reorder your life, your schedule, your priorities. Let's give God praise. Lord God, we thank you, Jesus. Lord, we worship you. We give you glory and honor, Lord Jesus. Oh, help us to understand and give us strength to do your will, Lord God. Hallelujah. Help us understand and give us strength. Hallelujah.

Everybody in here knows it, you've seen people out there with good morals and good beliefs. A lot of people think if they have good morals and good beliefs, they are going to be okay. But good morals and good beliefs will not protect you from being affected by the world. That attraction is a supernatural attraction driven by hell and you need something supernatural to fight it off. You have to be connected to the body of Christ. You not only need the Holy Ghost, but you need the blood of the church flowing through your body so that you are not taken away by what's going on in the world. Good thinking and philosophy is not going to get you to heaven. Even any baby that's born, if we leave it on the sidewalk, it's going to die. It has to get connected to a family. Hallelujah.

The Bible says we're not wrestling against flesh and blood. Ephesians 6:12: You're trying to live for God, those forces coming against you are aligned against the word and the power of God. They do not want you living for God because if you live for God, you're going to influence somebody else to live for God. You are wrestling with spirits. It's not flesh and blood, but spirits and wicked things putting ideas into you trying to water you down, trying to keep you from making a commitment. You have to let go of your life and let God have your life. You must be born again. Hallelujah. Give him praise. Hallelujah.

Apostle Peter is writing to believers and he's warning them: "Be careful so that you're not carried away with the error of the wicked." Second Peter 3:17: "Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware." He's writing to the church. They're in the church. They're already saved. They have the Holy Ghost. They've been baptized in Jesus' name. And he's still telling them, "Beware that you're not carried away with the error of the wicked." That means the error of the wicked is deceitful, seductive, and can be appealing.

If we were to read that whole epistle, you would see that he starts out: "Give diligence to make your calling and election sure." He goes on and gives a list of things you ought to add. He says add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly love, and to brotherly love godly love. The point is I have to work with God. I have to get what God wants me to do and I have to let God add it into me. Hallelujah. Like any house, you only have so much space, so sometimes you have to throw some things out to put something new in.

I have to keep my connection. Again, he says there's going to be false prophets. Second Peter 2:1 and 2: "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction." You have people calling themselves Christians that don't believe in Jesus. That's the first test. Are you Christian? Yeah. Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe he's God? No. Well, you're not a Christian. You might be some kind of in, but you're not a Christian because Christian means the follower of Christ. If I'm going to follow him, I have to believe something about him. Hallelujah.

He said, "And many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." When you start to speak the truth, if you have people that think they're Christians or trying to be Christians, they're not going to like the truth. They may even speak evil of the truth. That's what the Bible says. So, with all that, Peter warned them. He said in the next chapter 3 verse 3 and 4, "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts." In other words, as we get closer to the coming of the Lord, you're going to see people that think they're smarter than God. You're going to find people that think they know better than God and the Bible.

They're not ashamed to mock God. They're scoffers walking in their own desires. If you study history or philosophy, you find plenty of people like that who have been teaching in universities that are not ashamed to promote things that are opposite of the Bible and they will not blush because they're not looking for God, they're looking for their own satisfaction and desire. Peter says these people are willingly ignorant. There are people out there that even if it's not the truth, they don't want to know. They want to do things their own way.

After Peter says all that, he says be careful lest you're carried away with the error of the wicked. The only reason Peter says that is it is possible for believers to be carried away with the error of the wicked. There are evil people that will promote ideas that are contrary to the Bible, but they'll use our love of God, our desire to do the right thing, our desire to love others, our desire to be good, our desire to care. They'll use those to make a hook to bring a person in and bring them under the bondage of guilt and false ideas and undermine Christianity.

Peter's saying you have to stay connected to Jesus. Connection starts first when you get born again. But that's not the end of it. You have to get connected to the body. If we abide in him, the body, and he abides in us, his spirit. That is one of the reasons for baptism. Baptism is part of putting a person in the body. Holy Ghost is part of it, too, baptized by one spirit into the body. First Corinthians 12:13. You can't get in the body without the baptism of the Holy Ghost, but you also need a baptism in water in the name of Jesus. Praise God.

Our connection starts first of all with being born again. This is why we always say repent, get baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. You might have to seek the Holy Ghost. God wants to give you the Holy Ghost, but you don't always automatically get it because sometimes we will repent, but we're not really yielding to God. We're self-conscious and afraid of what other people say. We still have some things we're holding onto that we didn't give to God. Amen. Just because you're doing good things and believing God doesn't mean you have the Holy Ghost. Cornelius was doing a lot of good things and he didn't have the Holy Ghost until Peter came.

We need to have a clean break from sin and the old life. Water baptism gives you that break. It remits your sins. It gives you freedom from sin. Sin has a hold on every human being until the blood of Jesus breaks it. Ceremony doesn't break it, the blood of Jesus and the spirit of God breaks it. If you're really coming to God and you want to follow Jesus, why not let him put his name on you? The name of Jesus. That's why you get baptized in Jesus' name. It breaks that sin. The chains are gone. Hallelujah. Amen, sin has no hold on you. It's removed as far as east is from the west. God has buried it in the blood of Calvary.

The devil will bring it up, but you can tell the devil, "I got buried in Jesus' name and I got the Holy Ghost." Hallelujah. And I'm walking as a new creature. Satan, you have no authority over me. You have no hold over me. Greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world. I have power over you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You need to have the spirit leading you and you need that connection with God in your life.

Jesus said to them, "If you keep my commandments, you'll stay in my love." Jesus told them to go back to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Ghost. He said, "You'll receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." Jesus told Peter, "Satan's desired to sift you, but I've prayed for you that your faith fail not. And when thou art converted..." that's Jesus speaking to Peter in the Gospel of Luke before his ascension. That means Peter did not have the Holy Ghost yet. You can get revelations from God, but Peter needed the Holy Ghost. You need the Holy Ghost, I need the Holy Ghost. Amen. We need to be converted to God.

Our connection with Jesus is a supernatural connection. Let's stand here this morning. Amen. We're getting ready to open this altar. Being born again, the connection with the Lord is twofold: water baptism, Holy Ghost baptism, and that implies you repented first. Then it's getting connected to the body. We need to be connected to the body. We need to be some place where we're doing something for God. Amen. Fellowship one with another. Jesus said abide in me and I in you. Abide means being in the church.

Get connected to the church. What else do I need? I need to have regular prayer and Bible reading in my life. Amen. Not just church. If you're going to live for God, it's a commitment. You need to study the word of God. You need to read it. You need to seek the Lord and follow him. You need to be a witness for God. Amen. You have to stay connected to that body. "He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit." Amen. Question to all of us today: Are we connected? This altar is open. Amen. You may come and pray.

Lord God, am I connected the way you want me to be connected? Lord God, my connection doesn't seem secure. I feel like I need to secure it up again. Lord, have I let some other connections come into my life that's preventing me from being connected to you? Are there some things in the world that have anchored me into the world that need to be broken so that I can be connected in you? Hallelujah. Lord, am I walking in you in the way that I need to be walking in you? Am I connected in the body? Lord, speak to me. Lord, guide me. Loose me from things that are not of you, Lord God. Oh, we praise you, Lord God. We thank you. We thank you, Lord, knowing that you're for us and you're not against us, Lord God.

We give you praise, Lord God. Come on, ask him: "Lord, do I have connections that I shouldn't have? Lord, if there's connections in my life I shouldn't have and I need some other connections made, show me what those connections are." Hallelujah. Lord, I want to be connected with you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Lord God, there's some connections I know shouldn't be there, but I'm having a hard time breaking them. Lord, break those. Help me to break those connections that ought not to be there. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Come on, God's speaking. Hallelujah. Sometimes we desire to serve God, but we have some things that need to be broken out of our life, our thinking, our emotions. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Maybe you have a connection to unforgiveness. God can break that. Hallelujah. Let that blood work. Hallelujah. Maybe you have a connection to some kind of abuse in the past. God can liberate you out of that and heal that and turn that into a witness. Hallelujah. Maybe there's some connections that you made. You didn't expect that they were going to create the problems they are. But God is not against you. God is for you today. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Come on, we need a connection with him today. We need a connection with him.

Tina Ouellette: Thank you for joining us today as we have studied the word on Apostolic Truth Radio. My name is Tina Ouellette, wife of Pastor Craig Ouellette of South Shore Pentecostal Church located at 58 West Street in Whitman, Massachusetts. If you love praise and worship, you will love services at South Shore Pentecostal Church and we invite you to come and worship with us.

Sunday School for all ages begins at 10:00 a.m. and our Sunday evening service begins at 6:00 p.m. Adult Bible study and children's church are held on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. You can learn more about our church on our website at southshorepentecostal.com or you may call us at 781-447-1668. If you have been blessed by this radio ministry, you can help support Apostolic Truth Radio via online giving through Venmo @SSPCWhitman. Write us today and request a free copy of today's message and join us for another broadcast of Apostolic Truth.