The title of the message is, Something is
Missing.
Something is missing.
Have you ever felt that before?
That something is missing in your walk with
God?
Something is missing in my life.
I just can't...
I don't know quite how to explain it,
but something is missing.
I want more of God.
I want to go to church, but things
are pulling me away.
Something is missing in my life.
And let me tell you what this looks
like from the pulpit.
When a church is missing the fire, the
power, the anointing, the unction of the Holy
Spirit, this is what happens.
Preaching is lifeless and boring.
Preaching is stagnant and dull.
It lacks authority, it lacks power, it lacks
boldness.
There's a weakness, a wavering, you know, kind
of a, what do you think?
Well, here's what I think.
It lacks boldness and spiritual power.
Now, it also lacks love and compassion.
Because there's a lot of times from the
pulpit you can throw the Word of God
at people and get mad about Scripture, right?
I get pretty passionate about Scripture.
But if you don't have that element of
love and compassion, something is missing.
And you might say, well, what does that
have to do with me?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
Because the same can apply to you.
When we're missing the power of the Holy
Spirit in our life, our spiritual life is
lifeless and boring.
It's stagnant, it's dull, it's dry.
We have no spiritual power, we have no
boldness, we really have no spiritual authority.
There's not this overflowing aspect of God's presence
in my life.
I lack love and compassion.
Something is missing.
And that's what we're going to talk about
this morning.
From Acts 19.
And it happened while Apollos was at Corinth,
that Paul, having passed through the upper regions,
came to Ephesus.
And finding some disciples, here's the key, he
was up in Ephesus, it's above Jerusalem, way
up there, he's above Jerusalem, he's in Ephesus,
he finds some disciples.
And then he said this to them, did
you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?
Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you
believed?
Isn't that an interesting question?
Why would he ask that?
It'd be like me running into somebody, a
Christian in Lancaster, and, oh, we're talking, go
to this church, did you receive the Holy
Spirit when you believed?
I'm not going to get deep into the
theological ramifications here, because that would take up
the whole sermon, that's not where I'm trying
to go.
But you do have this side of it
that would interpret it different than this side
of it.
For example, you go down to Jack Hayford's
church in Van Nuys, you're going to hear
a little bit of interpretation of it than
what you would hear in John MacArthur's church,
a little ways away in Sun Valley.
They look at this a little bit differently.
But the bottom line is that Paul obviously
noticed that something was off.
I think we can all agree on that.
Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you
believed?
Also, I want to just encourage you a
little bit that you don't need to be
afraid of the terminology here this morning.
The Holy Spirit is not weirdness.
The Holy Spirit is part of the triune
nature of God.
Boldness and power and unction and anointing.
And it's the one thing that most Christians
are lacking.
The spiritual power.
So it's not weirdness, it's not a mystical
force like Star Wars.
When you talk about the baptism of the
Holy Spirit, the fire of the Holy Spirit,
these are all biblical terms.
So instead of running away from things we
don't understand, I think we need to run
to them and say, what does God's Word
say?
So we ask these believers, did you receive,
basically did you accept, did you take hold
of the Holy Spirit when you believed?
So they said to him, we have not
so much as heard whether there is a
Holy Spirit.
So these disciples said, we don't even know
what a Holy Spirit is or what is
the Holy Spirit.
And many Christians, I remember 15 years ago
or so, in a young marriage group that
me and my wife were in before we
had kids, I was teaching on this or
talking on this topic, and a pastor's son
said this to me.
He goes, Shane, I would probably ask that
same question.
I've not heard whether there is a Holy
Spirit or not.
Now it's hard to believe.
People are in the church, and I'm sure
they read the Bible and this aspect of
God's Word comes out, but many times, so
many people are afraid of what they don't
have.
That they don't talk about it.
It's the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Word.
Let's avoid this weird charismatic thing.
Let's not go there.
And because they don't have the fire, the
unction, the anointing they want to avoid something
they've never experienced.
It's also why you won't hear the gifts
of the Holy Spirit talked about often in
church, because you can't talk about what you've
never experienced.
You can't endorse what you've never experienced, even
though it lines up with Scripture.
So this is a very important topic.
Paul said to them, into what then were
you baptized?
So they were baptized into the baptism of
John the Baptist.
So they said into John's baptism.
Now granted, this is a transitionary period in
the church history.
You go from the Old Testament, now right
into the New Testament.
You go from the sacrificial system, now to
Jesus Christ.
You go from the Holy Spirit coming upon
certain individuals, David, Samson, Elisha, but now the
Holy Spirit is promised to all believers.
You go from John the Baptist baptizing people
unto repentance, and now you go into the
church baptizing people in the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
There's a transitionary period that's happening.
So they said, we've been baptized into John's
baptism.
What was John's baptism?
Well, it's in his name, John the Baptist.
So what he was, Scripture talked about this,
that he was the forerunner of the Messiah.
He would go, literally it says he would
go before Jesus and prepare the way of
the Messiah.
And what would happen a lot back then
is they would go and they would clear
the roads.
If a king was coming, let's say to
Jerusalem or Herod was coming into a different
city, they would go before that king and
they would clear the roads of all the
boulders and maybe the holes there in the
dirt that have dug up or robbers were
there waiting for something.
They would go and they would clean, they
would prepare the way for the king.
So in the same way, John the Baptist
came preaching repentance to prepare the hearts of
the people for the coming Messiah.
So they would go down to the Jordan
River, they would repent of their sin and
they would be baptized before Jesus was crucified.
That was the baptism of John.
So they didn't know anything about this receiving
of the Holy Spirit.
Now, I don't want to get too technical
or blow too many people out of the
water thinking something that I'm not trying to
say, but there was John's baptism, and what
he's talking about here, I believe, is the
baptism of the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit comes upon a person
and totally engulfs them in a good way,
they become filled with the Holy Spirit.
So let's talk about three things on this.
Did Paul notice that something was off?
I think so.
If the disciples had the Holy Spirit, why
ask if they received the Holy Spirit?
And if they were not disciples, why call
them disciples?
So there's an interesting thing that's going on
here.
I'll throw this out there just so everybody
knows up front.
I don't believe that when you become a
believer, you might get something later of the
Holy Spirit.
You know, you've got to wait ten years,
five years, three years if you're really good,
and what I believe is at conversion, you
have all of the Holy Spirit.
The question, though, is does he have all
of you?
That's what the question really is, because the
old Methodist circuit riders and John Wesley and
a lot of the groups I love and
I read their books, they would believe in
or call what is a second work of
grace, a second experience, because they would become
believers, and then, brother, you've got to pray
for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
You've got to seek the baptism of the
Holy Spirit, and maybe that will happen later
on in your life, and it's a second
work of grace.
It's something that happens later.
However, I think a lot of the groups
are saying the same thing.
We're saying that many times at conversion, right,
there's something missing still.
Something is missing in the life of a
believer.
Sometimes it's not, and if we had time,
I could take you to Oswald Chambers, Adoniah
Judson, Hudson Taylor, A.W. Tozer, George Whitfield,
John Wesley, and different people, men and women,
D.L. Moody that we read, Charles Finney,
A.B. Simpson, R.A. Torrey, a lot
of the old Christian writers, the books you
read sometimes, and Charles Wesley who wrote the
hymns.
I can show you where they were Christians,
and then years later, when they finally surrendered
everything and stopped playing church, right, and saying,
I got this, I'll be a believer, I'll
get my out of hell cart here, so
I'm good, but now I still want to
play around with the things of the world.
Once they finally come to the end of
themselves, D.L. Moody, for example, said that
I've been doing the ministry in my flesh.
I was building D.L. Moody's empire, and
I cried out to God and said, God,
it's to you alone, I humble myself, I
fully surrender myself, and he was so filled
with the Holy Spirit that he had to
go into a room for a few hours
and just weep before God.
Years later, same with A.W. Tozer, years
later, Adrian Rogers, you ever listen to him?
His old Baptist pastor died about 20 years
ago.
Listen to his sermons, listen to Adrian Rogers.
He received the second work of the Holy
Spirit later on, and often, all the times
I read about, it has to do with
fully surrendering your life.
That was a changing moment in my life.
I was a believer, no power, being led
astray by the world, falling into the entrapments
of the world, loving the lust of the
world, the lust of the eye, the pride
of life, and in this carnality, but wanting
God, but stuck in this world system.
No power.
If you asked me if I was a
Christian, I'd say, sure, yeah, I'm a Christian.
If I filled out a survey, yeah, I'm
a Christian.
But dare not talk about it, because you
don't talk about something you don't have.
So I was in this prodigal state, not
wanting to be in church, not wanting to
grow, not loving worship.
I loved Metallica.
Right?
Our country boy can't survive.
We had Hank Williams down.
I just want to get drunk and get
on the country music.
But God, I need you.
And then when he broke everything out, and
he just broke the pride and the stubbornness,
it's still there.
It rises up, don't get me wrong.
But when he brought me to the end
of myself, and I cried out to God,
I said, God, I'm coming home.
Then the Holy Spirit, this endowment of power,
this anointing of the Holy Spirit.
I could say, no, I didn't receive the
fullness of the Holy Spirit when I believed
I was living in carnality.
But once full surrender took place, now the
Word of God becomes alive.
Now worship is exalted in my soul.
Now I can't get enough of God.
What happened?
The filling of the Holy Spirit.
The anointing, the unction, these words that we
don't want to talk about.
And here's why we don't want to talk
about it, because somebody acts weird on TV.
Or we go to a church and they're
acting crazy.
Like, this is the Holy Spirit.
I don't want anything to do with that.
So we throw out the baby with the
bath water.
That's where that saying comes from.
Not the Holy Spirit, but it comes from
giving a baby a bath.
Oh, this water's dirty, right?
And they would go throw it on the
grass.
Well, don't throw the baby on the grass,
too.
Get the good things out.
But see, the enemy will try to counterfeit
anything that is of God.
You don't think this is counterfeited?
They'll come by your house once a month
and go like this.
Can we talk to you?
Can we just share God with you?
Oh, yeah, you must be a Christian.
Oh, sure, we're a Christian like you.
And it's counterfeited.
Counterfeit worship, right?
Bells and whistles and smoke, and it's all
up there.
It's all about them and entertainment.
It's not heartfelt worship.
He'll counterfeit that.
Same thing with the work of the Holy
Spirit.
Counterfeiting.
And people that are acting weird and possessed
of the wrong spirit, representing the Holy Spirit
and looking weird.
Like, I don't want anything to do with
that.
I don't either.
And let me just give you something to
think about.
The power, the anointing, the unction of the
Holy Spirit has nothing to do with the
weirdness and charismatic excesses.
It has everything to do with power and
boldness and authority and preaching the word of
God and being bold.
Actually, not wavering, but stable.
Not weird, but explosive and dynamic.
And it's not intimidating, is it?
It's not intimidating.
It doesn't intimidate.
It doesn't back down.
It preaches with spiritual power.
I told you guys, I mentioned it last
week.
A friend of mine, a considerate friend, came
to the first service.
An atheist, high-profile atheist in our community.
He enjoyed the service, said he'll be back.
Did I back down?
Oh, no, sir.
I turned up the heat.
Got a little passionate about God's word.
Right?
Because that's the spirit wants to minister in
boldness and authority.
See, the word of God, when you preach,
you don't go, You know what?
I think it says here.
What does Rob Bell say?
What does Joel Stein say?
What does that church say?
What does that Muslim teacher say?
You know, I think this is just my
opinion.
I mean, I could be wrong, and I
don't know.
Can we just be friends?
Can't we all just hug?
I mean, come on.
That's the fear of man.
That's the fear of man in trying to
please everybody.
That's not spirit.
You think Jesus would do that?
He addressed the most powerful religious leaders of
his day, and he said, You're whitewashed tombs.
What?
Oh, yeah, you look great on the outside,
but you're full of dead man's bones on
the inside.
Why don't you repent?
You brood of vipers.
Who is this guy thinking?
Boldness.
That's really the fruit of the Holy Spirit
is boldness, not arrogance, not being mean.
Because there are a lot of people being
mean.
I was talking slang there for a minute.
There's a lot of people, they're very mean
with the Word of God.
That's not boldness.
Because if you look at somebody truly filled
with the Holy Spirit, they're on the verge
of crying many times because they have the
truth and the compassion.
They have the truth, but the love for
the people.
They feel the love.
See, they feel the heartbeat.
They feel their kids getting ready to run
into the street.
No, come back.
Come back.
I can see you getting hit by that
car.
Same thing with preaching.
Come back to the gospel.
Come back to the God who saves and
sets free.
That's why I love that song, Spirit Breakout.
King Jesus, would you come back on the
throne in this nation?
King Jesus, would you begin to restore the
families?
King Jesus, would you be proclaimed from the
mountaintops and from the pulpits again?
King Jesus, take your rightful place on the
throne.
We bow to you.
Every knee will bow and every tongue will
confess that he is Lord.
Praise God.
Oh, my goodness.
This sermon's been burning me all week.
I'll tell you what.
Something is missing.
And we're still on the first point.
Let me get, let me, where was I?
Okay.
That was a good rabbit trail, though.
Something is missing.
And that's, I'll just tell you up front
why I'm so passionate about this topic is
because, and I'll get a little personal here,
this is what many of you in this
room are missing.
Many of you are not filled mightily with
the Holy Spirit.
And I don't say it as judgment.
I say it as love.
Just being straight with you because I've been
there.
And guess where I can slide right back
to?
Can I?
Slide right back to that.
Go right back into that carnal state.
And just get, you know, it goes, and
we can drift back.
So be careful in this area.
So let's talk about this for a minute.
Did Paul notice that something was off?
Hey, your disciples, great.
Did you believe, did you receive the Holy
Spirit when you believed?
And let's just throw that question out this
morning.
Did you receive something when you believed?
Is there, did you receive something when you
believed?
So what happened here?
Well, three things probably happened, or one of
three things.
You choose whatever one you want.
I'm not convinced either way yet.
In my opinion, the first one is probably
what happened.
They lacked spiritual power and there was no
fruit.
Paul said, did you receive, your disciples, maybe
he's hanging around them, your disciples, you believe,
but you're not witnessing for Christ.
You're not, wait a minute, this is different
from the disciples in Jerusalem who met the
Lord, who received the empowerment of the Spirit,
who were at Pentecost.
There's something missing here.
Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you
believed?
Because something is missing.
So if you're lacking spiritual power and fruit,
right, if there's a cherry tree, you see
these cherry trees out here?
Right?
It's a wonderful business.
You work one month a year and you
can, you know, do pretty well.
Now, those who own that, no, it's a
year-round thing.
I know it is.
I'm just joking.
But what do you do if you go
out there and there's no cherries?
Is that a cherry tree?
It's something.
I mean, there's no fruit.
There's no, and I should probably clarify.
What I mean by spiritual power is not,
you know, we think of power, you know,
a big hemi motor or a race car.
And it can't, it's along those lines.
But spiritual power is you're meek when you
need to be meek.
You're loving when you need to be loving.
You're not angry and hot-headed at home.
You can speak to the demonic realm in
somebody.
I speak to people that you can tell
there's demonic strongholds in their life.
You have the authority to say, you, out.
You, leave.
You work for my boss, not the other
way around.
And you walk into the confidence of God's
word.
See, you can say, you can counsel and
employ.
Here's what God's word says.
You can counsel a friend.
Here's what God's word says.
There's spiritual authority and power behind your words
because it's the Holy Spirit bringing that weight.
Or they did not hear about Pentecost that
happened earlier in Acts 1.8. Jesus said,
but you will receive power.
Now, this is Jesus.
But you will receive power when the Holy
Spirit has come upon you and you will
be my witness in Jerusalem, in all Judea
and Samaria, and to the end of the
earth.
So they didn't know about this Pentecost.
They didn't know that there was something else
that could take place in their life as
they fully submit to God.
You shall receive power.
That's a clear teaching of the Bible on
what happens when the Holy Spirit empowers somebody.
Or, number three, they said they believed, but
they didn't have a relationship with God.
So it's possible they said they were disciples,
but Paul's seeing there's zero fruit.
He goes, well, what were you baptized into?
Did you receive the Holy Spirit?
Because something is wrong here.
And that also applies to many people who
come to church.
They believe intellectually, but they've never given their
heart to Christ in repentance and surrender and
belief.
Because that belief, that word belief is interesting.
Right?
I can believe that a plane is going
to England.
But if I don't jump on it, I'm
not getting there.
I'm not going.
So I can believe.
I remember hearing a story.
It was many years ago.
It was this guy who was a tightrope
walker.
He walked on the tightropes from building to
building.
And he was able to push a wheelbarrow
across and turn around and come back.
And he's been doing this, so he set
it up in a city.
And he ran to a guy the morning
of, and the guy said, I truly believe
you can do that.
I've heard about you.
I think that is possible.
I believe it.
And the guy said, good, I need someone
to sit in the wheelbarrow.
Did he?
No.
That's the same thing that happens in the
life of believers.
Or those professing believers.
They profess.
They profess to know God.
But they don't know Him.
There's no fruit.