Seven things that hinder God's work.
Acts 5, if you turn to verse 40,
let me just set the stage here.
Gamaliel is one of the religious leaders.
We talked about him a few weeks ago.
And the apostles were actually on trial, and
some men wanted to kill them.
And they were doing signs and wonders and
miracles and all these things, and the people
wanted to stone them, kill them, the religious
leaders.
So Gamaliel, this religious leader, said, listen, if
this is of God, well, let me back
up.
He actually said, if this is of man,
it will come to nothing.
But if this is of God, you will
find yourself fighting against God.
And he cautioned them, and they said, you
know what?
That's a good idea, and here's where we're
picking up.
And they agreed with him, and when they
had called for the apostles and beaten them,
they commanded they should not speak in the
name of Jesus and let them go.
So they departed for the presence of the
council, rejoicing that they were counter-worthy to
suffer the shame for his name.
And daily in the temple and every house,
they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus
as Christ.
You'll notice something.
The major calling, the primary calling of the
disciples of the apostles was to preach Christ,
to bring the word of God to people.
That was their role.
And just a side note, they were released,
let them go, but they wanted to beat
them.
Can you imagine that?
You can go ahead and go, but we're
gonna beat you first.
We're gonna get out the club and the
cat-of-nine-tails, whatever it is they
used, they beat them, and the disciples left
rejoicing that they were beaten for the cause
of Christ.
And I wanna remind you that unbelievers will
try to get that last jab in.
They will try to mock you.
They'll try to do these things, and they
want this tit-for-tat.
They wanna go back and forth.
This vicious cycle begins to happen, and while
I get the last word in, I'll get
the last word in, I'll get the last
word in, I'll get the last word in.
And this happens in marriage, too.
Here's a little marriage counseling advice.
Yeah, I know you didn't ask for it,
but we're gonna fit it in here.
Don't get the last word in.
Rejoice and just say, Lord, I'm gonna trust
in you.
I'm gonna have patience in this.
I'm not going to get the last word,
because it's a vicious cycle, isn't it?
I mean, in marriage counseling, it's like a
ping-pong match.
Okay, who, who, who, who?
And nobody wants to take the initiative and
stop that and rejoice in the fact that
we are so blessed in our nation, so
blessed in our families.
Look at what God has given us.
Just stop and rest in that.
But on a serious note here about persecution,
did you know that a Christian is killed
every six minutes in the world?
A Christian dies for their faith every six
minutes across the globe.
That's 15 people in the service.
That's 30 people since we started this morning.
Why, why is that happening, Shane?
Because the enemy wants to silence the voice
of truth, and he wants to put out
the light of the gospel.
That's the plan, to silence the voice of
truth and to put out the light of
the gospel.
So anytime you talk about truth, anytime you
talk about being the light, the enemy wants
to go after that, and he wants to
stop that.
The UN estimates that there are 5,000
honor killings every year.
You know what that is?
When a dad kills his daughter for coming
to faith in Christ.
Hindu nations, Muslims, you name it.
They die because of that.
It's honor killings.
They kill a relative because they committed their
lives to the Lord.
And it just, this, maybe it's me, but
this week I was just so convicted about
how spoiled we can be in our nation.
How unthankful, how ungrateful that we can become.
How bitter when we should be the most
thankful, joyful people on the planet.
Our blessing has become our curse, hasn't it?
The comfort we enjoy, these things we take
for granted.
I think it's important to remember that people
are losing their lives.
If I were to go and do this
in some countries, they would kill me.
I wouldn't be able to finish my sermon.
As soon as you say you're Christian, let
alone from California, you're in trouble.
But there's a price to pay.
There's a price to pay.
And I also thought of this is, if
your faith isn't costing you something, you might
want to look at your faith.
Is there genuine salvation there?
Do you have genuine faith?
Because the enemy will go after you.
You will ruffle some feathers.
Don't go trying to ruffle the feathers.
It will find you.
They'll find you.
The enemy, that's the worst.
And you can see Christians who are on
fire for God.
The enemy is going after them.
That he wants to silence the voice of
truth and silence the light that we're being
on.
It's interesting.
You guys have talked about, I've talked about
this before, but I think it's important on
this point is one of the things I'm
seeing, you know I like to read a
lot of church history, American history, revivals.
And you're seeing what the, now in America,
the pulpits are being dumbed down.
They're not wanting to offend anybody.
Don't mention these offensive things, the cross.
Don't mention repentance.
Don't talk about the blood of Christ.
Don't talk about judgment, shame, hell, that's so
passé.
Don't talk about any of these things.
Why?
Because the enemy doesn't like these things.
These are foundational truths of the Christian faith
that set people free.
Because when you avoid the truth to make
the gospel more palatable, taste better, you lose
the power.
The power's in the truth.
The power's in the proclamation of the truth.
Timothy, Paul told Timothy, preach the word.
Timothy, be ready, in season, out of season.
Preach the word because the time will come
when they will tell you, and they will
look for teachers who will tell them what
they want to hear.
So be careful who you're listening to.
Make sure that they are proclaiming the absolute
truth of God's word and the power of
the Holy Spirit with boldness.
So that's getting into where I wanted to
get with Acts 6.
That's kind of the backdrop we're working into
that.
The apostles were released, they were beaten.
So what happens?
Well, this passage, if you're in your Bible,
probably says men or seven men chosen to
serve.
Seven men chosen to serve, Acts 6.1.
Now in those days, when the number of
the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint
against the Hebrews by the Hellenists because their
window, I'm sorry, the first service should be
the trial run, right?
I should have this down by now.
Now in those days, when the number of
the disciples was multiplying, the church was growing,
there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by
the Hellenists because their widows were neglected in
the daily distribution.
What happened back then is they didn't have
like a welfare system where the government provided
different things.
They had a system in place where the
church had to provide for those in need.
That was actually, I believe, more of God's
design than the government getting involved, but that
would be a whole nother sermon.
The welfare system at its core was a
good idea to help those who genuinely need
it.
But then because it's become abused and there's
no monitoring system, then people take advantage of
the system.
That's the problem we see is now.
And that's what the complaints are, that this
thing that should be good has now turned
and corrupt and they want the government to,
in many ways, get out of certain areas.
However, they had to get involved because the
church wouldn't step up and help those within
those sphere of influence.
The church should be the one helping those
in need.
And what would happen is people would come
in for that need and the church would
be able to assess, okay, hey, I used
the word in the first service, Olga, to
make sure nobody was here by that name.
The Olga, we've seen you for the last
three weeks.
We've gave you a few job opportunities.
You haven't taken them.
We can't just keep giving you food.
You've gotta work now and you're able and
the church was able to discern who was
legitimate and who wasn't.
And they were able to help those people
because the Bible says, if you don't work,
you don't eat.
So it tells me there's a propensity in
all of us to be lazy.
And so the cure for laziness is to
work.
Now, I'm careful here because I don't wanna
get mean emails.
I'm not coming against anybody per se.
I'm saying that a system that's designed to
be okay has been corrupted because people take
advantage of it.
And the church has dropped the ball when
the church should be helping, reaching out, ministering
to people, we've dropped the ball so somebody
else has had to pick up.
So that's what's happening here.
I guess I should have just said that.
The Hellenist are people who would be probably
today, modern day churches like in the culture,
like probably this church would be.
The Hellenist were Greek speaking Jews.
So they adopted the language of the Greek
speaking community.
They also read the Septuagint, what Septuagint means
70, the books of the Bible.
They had the Old Testament books and some
of the Apocrypha.
The Apocrypha is non-authoritative books in the
Bible.
If you look at the Roman Catholic Bible,
it'll probably have the Apocrypha in it.
We don't identify with the Apocrypha because we
look at authoritative.
And what that means is if Jesus didn't
quote it and somebody who walked with Jesus
didn't write it and the church didn't use
it, the early church, it's not authoritative.
The Apocrypha will come in later, Maccabees and
different books that are historical, but they're not
authoritative.
We don't look at those for truth.
So this group would read the Septuagint in
Greek, Cornelia Greek, I believe it was.
And then this group, the Hebrews that weren't
Hellenist were all Hebrew.
They would read it in the Hebrew, the
original language of the people.
And there was kind of divide there.
Kind of like me over here, my Levi's
and shirt and this group with their suit
and tie and they're King James only.
There's kind of a divide there because we
just see things differently.
So this group, let's see one side of
my, this group, the widows were being neglected.
So the widows would come, here's your daily
distribution.
The widows would come, here's your daily distribution
of food and different things.
And this need was growing and growing and
widows were being neglected.
So they brought this to the apostles, the
12 men.
Then the 12 summoned the multitude of the
disciples and said, it is not desirable that
we have or that we should leave, which
is neglect the word of God and serve
tables.
Now for people might think, well, that's a
little arrogant.
Golly, who do these guys think they are?
Well, what he's saying here is our whole
focus is on preaching the word of God.
Yes, we serve tables from time to time.
Yes, we minister from time to time.
But we come back to our primary focus
to teach and to preach and to bring
the word of God to others because you
don't have 150 hours in the course of
a day.
You have a certain amount of time to
do what God has called you to do.
And that's what really the point I'm trying
to get at here.
So if all the apostles, the 12 were
supposed to be involved in this daily distribution
all day long, they would not be able
to preach and do their primary calling.
So this good thing would take away from
this great thing that God has called them
to do.
So that's the context there.
It's not a bad thing.
The English Standard Version, which I do recommend,
says it is not right that we should
give up preaching the word of God to
serve tables.
So we can't do, in other words, we
can't do this.
We've gotta do this.
So what's the answer?
Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven
men of good reputation, full of the Holy
Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over
this business, meaning over this responsibility.
But we will give ourselves continually to prayer
and to the ministry of the word, bringing
the word to others.
So this is very interesting.
Here is the, I better not say the
first time because I didn't research this.
It's probably the first time that we see
a difference and a distinction between elders and
deacons.
The elders, which there's not a better than
or superior.
What it is is they complement each other.
Elders, which were the apostles, are men called
of God who lead the church spiritually.
That's what they're called to do.
And as I'm leading the church spiritually, we
can't do all these other issues.
So this group comes alongside the deacons.
And what it says here in the verse,
finding these men, here's their character.
Here's, they're filled with the spirit.
You find these people who can come along
inside and serve.
So sometimes this group does do leadership things.
And sometimes the leadership people do serve.
They are kind of mixed together sometimes, but
the elders are looked upon as the spiritual
leaders of the church.
And they bring the word of God.
Their focus is on the word of God,
where deacons come alongside and help in these
areas of service.
Here's why.
This is what this would look like if
it didn't happen this way.
I would have AM morning breakfast meetings.
From nine to 12, I'd stop by all
the hospital homes.
From 12 to two, I would go here
and do that.
Three to six, I would go to the
office and organize this and oversee that.
Seven p.m., I would get home, answer
emails and go to bed and repeat.
Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Well, my walk with God would suffer.
The sermon would stink and my wife and
kids would be neglected.
Why Shane?
All those are good things, right?
But it's not what God's called me to
do.
It's not the main calling of what he's
called me to do.
So I can't do all those things.
We need to find people filled with the
spirit of God who can come alongside and
compliment us in this area.
So this is where you see the difference
between deacons and elders.
And what happens if you're not doing what
God has called you to do, that's what
we're gonna talk about when I finally, finally,
finally get to these seven hindrances.
I'm just trying to build this whole case
up.
When you finally get to it, you'll see
that a lot of what we call burnout
or depression or anxiety or caring too much
is because we are caring too much.
We're not doing what God has called us
to do, what God wants us to do.
We're taking on all these other things.
And a person I look up to, his
name is H.B. London.
He was over pastoral ministry at Focus on
the Family.
I was able to meet with him when
we first started the church and got a
lot of good counsel.
I actually emailed him this week just to
confirm some of these stats and he said
it's actually worse now.
But he said 40% of pastors and
47% of spouses are suffering from burnout,
frantic schedules and or unrealistic expectations.
45% of pastors' wives say the greatest
danger to them and their family is physical,
emotional, mental and spiritual burnout.
56% of pastors' wives say they have
no close friends and 70% of pastors
say they don't have any close friends either.
75% report severe stress causing anguish, worry,
belittlement, anger, depression, fear and alienation.
80% of pastors say they have insufficient
time with their spouse.
80% believe that pastoral ministry affects their
family negatively.
Many of you are going, why in the
world do you do that?
Well, I'm getting to the good news.
94% feel under pressure to have a
perfect family.
That's probably 100%, 6% is lying.
1,500 pastors leave their ministry each month
due to burnout, conflict or moral failure.
But then what I did is you look
at people like Chuck Smith who went on
to be at the Lord recently or John
MacArthur or Chuck Swindoll or Charles Stanley or
Jack Hayford or I can set up your
name a lot and so can you.
What's the difference?
They're not burning out.
I remember Chuck Smith talked on, I'll never
forget what he said.
He said, I don't get burned out because
I don't do what God hasn't called me
to do.
When you focus on, Lord, this is what
you've called me to do.
I mean, of course you gotta have a
little flexibility in here, don't get me wrong.
But when you focus on all these other
things, you were not created to carry all
the loads of all these different people without
support.
You will get burned out.
You will have conflict in your home.
Life is hard enough as it already.
Why keep adding?
It's interesting, I studied that scripture a while
back when it says remove every weight and
sin that so easily ensnares us.
That weight isn't necessarily a huge sinful habit.
That weight is a burden you shouldn't be
carrying that you're carrying.
Remove that burden.
Remove the sin that you're entrapped in and
run the race with endurance and strength.
Removing those things.
And the reason is these people, the pastors
I just mentioned, and like you too, same
thing.
This isn't just for pastors.
They focus primarily on what God has called
them to do.
Ephesians 4.12, to equip the saints for
the work of the ministry, for building up
the body of Christ.
To equip the saints for the work of
the ministry, for the building, that's my job.
That's why people say, go call Shane.
He can go do it.
Go call, go call, go call.
Well, hold on, hold on.
The primary responsibility is to equip you for
the work of the ministry and to build
up the body.
So, but let's not forget about this quick
thoughts on the office of deacon.
I actually have three sermons in here.
I'm like, I don't wanna make this into
three sermons.
So let me just pull out some of
the things before I get to the seven
things everybody's waiting for.
It's just a long movie trailer, but we're
getting there.
So quick thoughts on the office of deacon.
Quick thoughts on the office of deacon.
Diakonos is what it is in the Greek
language.
It means servant.
So you'll see that Phoebe was given diakonos.
She was called a servant.
And you'll see these people were called to
be deacons.
So this office, quick thoughts on those who
are called to be deacons.
Here's the difference.
Everybody's called to be in service, but then
God identifies those who can oversee a certain
area of service, and that fulfills an office,
the office of deacon.
We have deacons over ushering, over building maintenance,
over certain areas.
So there's difference between a person serving, diakonos,
or deacon, and then also this other person
who's in the office of being a deacon.
First Timothy 3.8, here's the guidelines.
Likewise, these people who Acts is talking about,
likewise, deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued,
not given to much wine, not greedy for
money, holding the mystery of faith with a
pure conscience.
But let these also first be tested, then
let them serve as deacons.
In other words, test them in the character
of the church.
That's why we tell people, we need to,
to usually to get involved, we wanna see
you have a consistent track record of attendance
and to know who you are.
We're not gonna let you watch the kids
on your first visit.
It's just not gonna happen.
It's gonna be a consistent track record of
watching and knowing who you are.
Then once they prove themselves, they can become
deacons and they're being found blameless.
Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanders,
temperate, faithful in all things, and let deacons
be the husband of one wife, ruling their
children and their household well.
That's for the office of deacon.
It's interesting, they said likewise their wives.
And this might be a good time to
remind you that wives cannot qualify a man
for leadership, but they can disqualify him.
They can't qualify, but they can disqualify.
For example, let's say I'm qualified according to
elder guidelines.
But if, this might not be a good
example.
Let me use some other pastor, other pastor.
Somebody else I know in Lancaster.
If their wives, this is easy.
You weren't here at the 9 a.m.,
so this is easier.
And this doesn't fit our scenario.
But if their wife, let's just be honest,
if the person's a pastor and their wife
isn't reverent, like that, God, I don't know
why I married that guy.
He's such a clown, he can't even fix
the front door when it's not broke.
And they're not reverent, they're not respectful, they're
putting down people.
And they're double-tongued, they're slander, and they
like to put away that bottle or two
of wine every night, and all these things.
And they're not faithful in all things, they're
flaky.
That disqualifies me from leading the church.
Or this pastor, not me, another pastor.
That will disqualify them, because a wife has
to have these characters because it's a package.
There's no way around that.
You come to serve as a package.
So here's, deacons meet these qualifications, wives meet
these qualifications.
A wife cannot qualify, but she can disqualify
her husband in these areas.
So, if it hasn't got controversial, it will
right now.
The role of women in the church.
You guys ready to unpack this thing?
It's actually a good thing, don't worry.
Why is this such a big deal?
Well, here's a couple things.
There's denominations out there that, I said the
first service, maybe I shouldn't have said the
denominations, but you can watch on video if
we choose that video.
I won't say the denominations, but they have
women pastors, and people always say, I got
an email this week, last week, and the
week before, and what's your stance, what's going
on here?
Women deacons, where's their qualifications at?
And so, let me just try to unpack
this with God's grace, and praying it goes
as well as it did at the first
service.
If it doesn't, I'll use that clip, and
then you can watch this on the video.
Here's why this is a big deal.
For, from back, probably since, I don't know
when, time began with humanity.
Women have been taken advantage of.
Women, look in Jesus' day, look in Muslim
nations.
They're covered, and they're disrespected, the property.
Look at even in America with voting rights,
and different things.
So, women write equality, equality, and God has
made us equal in how he's created us,
but he's given us different roles in how
we are to conduct ourselves.
So, the problem is, yes, let's fight for
equality, but let's don't twist the roles that
God has designed in order to fight for
equality, if that makes sense.
When Paul, I believe it was Paul, said
that men, in talking about your home, treat
your wife well, because she's the weaker vessel.
That Greek word is a valuable, like a
vas, a vase.
Depends if you're from France, right?
Whatever this thing is, this picassio, this valuable,
it's supposed to be behind you, and you
guard it.
So, being the head of the family is
not looking down on my family, it's leading
my family into battle, to die for them,
to guard them, to shelter them.
So, God has given me the headship, not
to dominate, but to protect and lead.
But just this topic, I'm gonna get people
mad at me, just because they don't agree
with that.
And what we believe in is we are
not egalitarian, we are complementarian.
What that means is we don't believe in
the role of women pastors.
Number one, there's zero guidelines, there's nothing.
What are their qualifications?
Nothing, if it was in the Bible, let's
do it.
But God, and the reason is, because pastoral
leadership is servant leadership.
It's dying for the church, dying for your
family, leading them in the fear and admonition
of the Lord.
It's not a male chauvinistic dominating position.
People have abused it, but how God created
it was I will give you a helpmeet
to come alongside, and you're created to do
this, she's created to do this.
You look in marriage, it is equal in
regard to how the family functions.
The role of the wife is absolutely important,
the role of the husband is absolutely important.
That's why it's so difficult.
Did you know one of the biggest problems
in the church is getting men to lead
their family spiritually for the love of God?
Would you wake up and turn off that
TV and get a job?
My goodness, folks, that's why this is such
a hard area, because men have dropped the
ball, men have dropped the ball so we
don't look at it as okay, I'm dominating
on the head, you're down here, they're behind
me, I would die for them.
I have to die for them and protect
them.
You go into spiritual battle protecting that cherished
vessel.
That's how the approach is.
So once you understand that's the foundation, then
you look at scripture.
Okay, what's the scripture used to define women
pastors?
And a pastor is an elder, bishop, overseer,
pastor.
Those are the four terms in the Greek
language that is used.
What scripture do we have that says here's
the qualifications for a woman pastor?
There aren't any, there's zero.
Well, what about Deborah in the Old Testament?
Okay, good example, but that's because Barak would
not step up and lead the children of
Israel, she delivered them.
And it's funny, there are exceptions.
And I talked to another person this week
that I look up to for advice, Dr.
Michael Brown.
I don't know if you follow his podcast
at all, he's got a pretty following, he
gets right back to me, I so appreciate
him.
But I said, but what about the exceptions?
He said, but Shane, you gotta remember the
exceptions only prove that there is a rule.
Because there's an exception, that means there's an
exception to what?
To a rule, to a standard.
If I say, okay, kids, I'll make an
exception, that means there's a rule I'm making
exception to.
So just because God, and I know of
pastors, women pastors in South America, or in
Mexico, or in other places that started to
work because nobody would step up.
They are exceptions, wonderful, God's working for you.
But let's not throw out the baby with
the bathwater.
People get upset, people left the church, and
we say we just, we feel that women
are vitally important to the church, not below,
co-equal in all regards, cherished, wonderful, we
come together, but we just feel that men
have given, looking through scripture, the God created
us to guide and lead them in that
direction.
They also help to guide and lead though,
don't they?
Do you ever ask advice?
Do you ever seek support?
Do you ever go to, it's like working
together.
So this is how God created us.
Now, when it comes to deacons, a lot
of churches do have deaconesses.
And it's an issue I've been working through,
I was challenged a few years ago when
somebody said, what is the qualification for a
woman deacon in the office of deacon?
I said, well, I'll tell you, it's right
here.
Oh, no, it's not right, hmm.
I guess there aren't, I have no clue.
So that, again, we use scripture.
Now, if there are women deacons, fine, that's,
but in other words, should there be a
woman deacon over the men ushers?
It just, you know, it shouldn't, that's not
how God created.
Not bad or good, it's just creation.
How did God create us?
And people will say, well, Shane, the culture
back then, come on, buddy, get up to
the speed, it's 2016.
But you forget, this isn't about culture, it's
about creation.
This goes back into Adam and Eve and
how he created us and how he designed
us to come alongside and complement each other.
That's the whole point.
So it shouldn't be a heated, debated argument.
And I know I get emails from women
pastors who get upset.
And simple things show me one scripture, just
one, that supports that role.
And they go grab an Old Testament example,
they'll say, well, these, Priscilla and Akula had
a church in their house, and well, okay,
that's, why do men have all these qualifications
if there are no qualifications?
So I don't wanna make a mountain out
of a molehill.
Suffice it to say that it's the man
that goes forward and dies for his family,
that leads his family, so the head is
not above, often, the head is in front,
guarding and sheltering and leading as a servant
dying to self.
That's the example.
So that's what we believe.
Hopefully that clears all the air.
And probably won't, but if you have questions,
talk to me, talk to one of the
elders afterwards, and we would love to answer
those.
So now I'm gonna get to the points.
Regardless of who you are, these are seven
hindrances.
You might say, oh no, another half hour
sermon.
No, I'm gonna try to go quick.
Very quick here.
Regardless, this is funny, I had somebody tell
me, I gotta get my services down to
an hour.
With worship, the message, and out.
Come on, Shane, quick times are moving.
People are media-driven now, short attention span.
I'm like, I don't care, I'm not doing
an hour service.
That's like microwave Christianity.
You still got the NFL game on, which
come on later.
By that time, it's gonna take 30 minutes
of worship to get that junk out and
to start focusing on God and being filled
with the spirit of God.
We're too busy, folks.
You gotta stop being so busy.
Slow down, wait on God.
What do you do with all the scriptures?
Those who wait upon me shall renew their
strength.
This isn't a five-minute wait.
You don't just sit down, I gave you
five minutes.
This is a heart seeking God and saying,
Lord, I don't care what it costs me,
I'm gonna wait on you if that computer's
going in the garage if it's causing me
distraction.
That TV, forget it.
These relationships that are pulling me down, I'm
removing these things and I'm seeking you with
all of my heart, with all of my
soul, with all of my strength and God
says, when you seek me under those conditions,
you will find me.
You can take God to the bank, say,
Lord, your honor is at stake.
Your word is at stake, you told me
this.
And you seek him, you will find him.
So where I'm going with this is the
majority of people who have hindrances, they're depressed,
they don't know what God's will is for
their life, they're carrying this load, they're hindered.
There's a hindrance to doing God's will.
Here's where they are usually.
Too busy with the wrong things.
If these apostles that we just read were,
they noticed they would be too busy, right?
But this isn't with the wrong things.
They were too busy but many of us
get too busy with the wrong things.
So take inventory, look at your life and
say, this has gotta go immediately.
But reduction hurts, doesn't it?
You ever tried to lose weight?
Reduce, it hurts.
Same thing with removing things from our life.
If you wanna remove hindrances, you're too busy
doing the wrong things.
Shane, how do I know?
Does it lead you to a more intimate
relationship with Jesus Christ?
Does it build you up spiritually or does
it pull you down?
And this is a funny area.
This is when I talk to young adults,
a lot of times they're cutting and depression
and suicide and all these things.
Well, you might wanna stop watching all those
movies about the occult and witchcraft and horoscope.
I don't know, call me stupid, but you
might wanna remove this darkness that you're allowing
and remove these things that are drawing you
away from Christ.
That's biblical.
Make no provision for the flesh that you
will fulfill its lust.
Finally, brethren, when things are pure and noble
and honest, meditate on these things.
Be not conformed to this world but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind that
you may prove what is that good and
acceptable will of God.
David said, I will set nothing wicked before
my eyes.
Job says, I have set nothing wicked before
my eyes.
You have to take the scripture for what
it means.
It's literal, not figured terribly in these areas.
People say, this spiritualized everything.
Well, that didn't really mean that.
Yeah, it did.
It did.
Take God for his word.
Remove those things that are distracting to you.
There are so many people that I know
that need to remove wrong relationships out of
their life, but they are not doing it.
How long will you continue to play with
that bait?
Remove it.
Number two, assuming that if it's good, it
must be God.
No, no, no, no.
I shared at the first service.
Well, I guess I shared everything at the
first service.
I shouldn't say that.
But I've been asked a couple times to
run for the hospital board, local hospital board.
Who has that much time?
Well, Shane, it's a good thing.
You'd make a difference.
You gotta do this.
You gotta do the good things.
And we get busy with good things.
And by the time I'm doing good things,
I'm like, wait a minute, where's the pulpit?
Where's the pulpit?
I'm doing all these good things.
No, but Shane, come back to what I
called you to do.
The enemy will get you off track with
so-called good things to get you focused
away from what God really wants you to
do.
Think about it, prayer and study.
Oh, every morning about within three minutes, oh,
I gotta do that email.
Oh, shoot, the trash.
Did I take out the trash?
Is the heater still on?
These are all good things.
You'd be amazed at what comes in my
mind to stop my prayer life.
The big one is go back to sleep.
My goodness, that's a good thing.
I tried to find out who the author
was.
It sounds like C.S. Lewis, but I
don't think it was.
They wrote this.
Satan called a worldwide convention in his opening
address to his evil angels.
And he said, we can't keep Christians from
going to church.
We can't keep them from reading their Bibles
and knowing the truth.
We can't even keep them from conservative values.
But we can do something else.
We can keep them from forming an intimate,
abiding experience in Christ.
If they gain that connection with Jesus, our
power over them is broken.
So let them go to church.
Let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal
their time so they can't gain that experience
in Jesus Christ.
Here is how I want you to do
this.
Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior
and maintaining that vital connection throughout the day.
But how shall we do this, shouted one
angel?
Keep them busy in the non-essentials of
life and invent numerous schemes to occupy their
minds and they will drift from their Savior.
That's true.
Because a good thing isn't always a God
thing.
And we get so busy.
That's why these pastors, majority of them burn
out.
I can list three or four pastors who
started churches the time I did and none
of them are still pastoring their church.
And they're all good men, but focused on
the wrong things.
The best thing you can do, the best
thing I can do is make Christ the
absolute priority of my life.
Absolute priority of my life.
Dave, I think it was actually you said
this when I was dating Morgan.
He said, follow wholeheartedly after Christ and see
if she keeps up.
That's a good rule of thumb.
If you're dating somebody, that's a good nugget
right there.
Follow wholeheartedly after Christ.
Here's why.
Christ and my relationship with Him and being
filled with the Spirit is the foundation of
everything I do.
Everything else, everything else.
From that, I become a better husband, a
better pastor, a better father.
From that, I can go and minister.
See, you're neglecting the foundation.
Go build a house out in the desert
on the sand.
Oh, Shane, we would never do that.
Exactly, so why are we building our lives
without the foundation?
But I have a relationship.
Are you following Him wholeheartedly in full surrender
and giving Him everything and allow Him?
See, I used to, maybe it's me, but
I read old authors like Andrew Murray, A
.W. Tozer.
They messed me up.
Because these guys would seek God.
The Puritans, Whitefield, Wesley, Spurgeon, all these, they
would seek the heart of God.
And as a result, they would have this
overfilling power and presence of Christ.
That's what I want.
Don't you want the aroma of Christ?
Or the NFL and Sharky's?
You know what Sharky's is, let me think.
Pizza Hut.
We gotta remind, oh, I better get off
that topic.
I know you're already getting mad.
Number three, lacking faith, lacking faith.
And most of us here would say, well,
I don't lack faith.
But faith hopes and waits on God.
When I have faith, I hope and I
wait on God.
I'm thankful and not a complainer.
See, if you say, I have faith, but
you're not waiting, hoping on God.
That's why I say we should be the
most joy-filled people on the planet.
And we're complaining all the time.
And we're not joy-filled, we're lacking faith.
Because faith trusts in the promises of God.
Faith trusts who God is.
He's an all-sufficient Savior.
He encapsulates everything, so I look to Him.
Number four, not applying wisdom to your daily
life.
Not applying, these people were full of wisdom.
Full of wisdom, they chose.
If the number one, here's the number one
problem in the church, if a person's being
converted, the number one problem in the church
is people are not filled with the Holy
Spirit.
They have the Holy Spirit, but does the
Holy Spirit have all of you?
They're not filled.
If that's the first problem, then the second
problem is this area of wisdom.
Not applying wisdom to our daily lives.
Do you know what wisdom is?
We've talked about this many times before.
Knowledge is knowing what to do.
I know this, I know this, everybody's, people
are yawning, I'm gonna start being louder.
I know this, right?
I know this, that's knowledge.
Wisdom is working it out and doing it
and applying it.
Obedience is not a bad word.
It's not, see, that's another thing.
Any time I talk about obedience, they say
legalistic, legalistic.
Obedience, obey, no, you're being a Pharisee.
Let's clarify terms real quick.
Legalism is self-righteousness and opposing rules on
people to become more spiritual.
That's not obedience.
Christ was obedience until the point of death.
Obey the word of God and there's life.
There's life.
It reminds me, like, son, don't put that
knife, don't put that knife in that socket.
Obey me, oh, that's no fun.
That's what, but that's what, no, God, you're
not letting me have fun.
No, son, don't do that.
You're not letting me have fun.
No, son, don't do that, don't do that.
Obey me, obey my principles.
They're guardrails through the canyons of life.
Stop calling it legalism because you wanna excuse
your actions.
Allow the word of God to penetrate your
heart and obey.
Let this mind be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the
form of God, did not consider robbery to
be equal with God, but he made himself
of no reputation.
He humbled himself and he took on the
form of filthy man and became obedient to
the point of death.
Obedience is powerful.
So once you focus on applying the word
of God, Lord, here's what your word says,
I'm going to apply it.
You're set free.
Because the reason is, personal testimony here, God
knows this, the main reason many of us
often are caught in depression and we lose
our zeal, we lose our passion, we're dead
spiritually, is because we are not obeying.
And the Bible says hard is the way
of the transgressor.
When we're caught in sin, we're miserable.
When you're caught in sin, you are miserable.
And we'll think of every excuse in the
book to continue, won't we?
Six and then seven and I'll be done.
Prayer is an afterthought.
This is why many of people are hindered.
Prayer is an afterthought.
These people, did you hear what it said?
We will give ourselves continually to prayer.
It's like breathing, like oxygen.
Prayer brings life, like water it replenishes, like
food it nourishes, like rest it recharges.
Here's what happens, my life is brought back
into focus when I pray.
Here's the interesting thing about prayer.
Soon as I say this point, people are
like, oh, I've heard this before in church.
You hear love and prayer, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah.
This is the most powerful weapon you will
ever possess.
The reason you're not living for God is
because you're not dying on your knees in
the prayer closet.
The reason you're not filled with the spirit
of God is you're not men and women
of prayer.
Shane, you're being hard.
It's time to be hard sometimes.
It's time to be hard.
You don't have to always put on little
kid gloves.
We need to all hear this, that we
need to petition God more, we need to
pray more.
Prayer moves the hand of God.
Prayer, prayer, through prayer, my life is brought
back into focus.
I don't remember who said it, but maybe
it was Tozer, but he said, one hour
with God, one hour with God in prayer
can change a man's entire life in a
year's worth of sermons.
One hour with God praying, because it's hard.
You don't want that time, you don't want
that quiet time.
Your flesh wants to fight it.
Just a couple years ago, I was up
at, I went to the Oaks on January
1st, New Year's Eve.
They let me go there, it was just,
it was dark outside and scary, and coyotes
and stuff.
And I was like, okay, I'm in this
cabin for two days, just me and the
Bible.
And guess who wanted to go home after
three hours?
This is boring.
Just go, oh, man, what am I gonna
do?
What am I gonna do?
Where's my phone, where's my phone?
It doesn't work, oh, God.
But once that flesh was brought in submission,
he gave me the entire sermon series for
the marriage series that followed in 2000, I
think it was 2012 now, it's been a
while, four years.
All from that, I didn't want to leave
that mountain.
But you have to press in, you have
to fight, you have to say, God, I
want you more than breakfast.
I want you more than Facebook.
I don't care how many people are following
me.
Well, they commented negatively.
I'm gonna have a nervous breakdown.
And we miss this focus.
We've gotta get back, listen, this is the
biggie.
We will give ourselves continually to prayer.
You don't just sit at home and pray,
but it's a life of prayer.
Who cares who's gonna win up in the
NFL?
Just go and pray and say, Lord, help
me today.
Let me be a blessing, help my children.
And it becomes a life of prayer.
Prayer just flows out of you because the
essence of Christ is in you, the indwelling
power of the Holy Spirit is in you.
And out of that, you have to pray.
You have, it's the crying, Abba, Father.
Not get away from me, Father.
Abba, Father, this life of prayer, finally number
seven.
And you can go eat.
Not full of the Holy Spirit.
Are you overflowing with God?
These men, isn't it interesting?
I was regretting this in my mind if
I should have said this first, but I
did.
So I might as well blow it at
the second service.
It doesn't matter.
We've had people leave, when we were in
Lancaster, they'd say, this is gone on as
truth.
Shane, you talk too much about the Holy
Spirit.
And somebody just left here when we first
came together.
There's too much focus on the Holy Spirit.
And guess what?
In every single case, those people need to
hear exactly what they're running from.
I've never had, and this will offend people
good.
I'm sick and tired of being politically correct.
Let's offend for a minute.
Oh, there we go.
Thank you.
I have, and just being honest, because I
like people go home, I don't like what
he said, but you know what?
I need to think about that.
I have never seen a man or woman
filled mightily with the Spirit of God, prayer
warriors, loving the Lord who have ever said
you talk too much about the Holy Spirit.
Now granted, you can get on topics and
come back to, okay, hold on.
But the whole book of Acts, you know
what the book of Acts is?
The Holy Spirit working in the church, the
Holy Spirit working in your life.
Why is there no Acts 29?
Because you're Acts 29.
We're Acts 29, and the work of the
church continues.
Listen, Jesus Christ will build his church, and
the gates of hell will not prevail.
Nothing Satan can do, nothing the demonic realm
can do will stop the work of God
unless we, in our brokenness and in our
misery and our sin, turn from our Savior.
That's all a stronghold is.
You read in the Bible, stronghold is when
Satan gets a stronghold in your life and
re-twists and turns you into a direction
away from Christ.
The fully surrendered life.
I remember it was said before D.L.
Moody was filled mightily with the Spirit.
I'll recommend a book.
It's called They Found the Secret, and it
gives short biographies of men and women filled
with the Spirit of God.
They were in ministry, they were dying spiritually,
and then they were mightily filled with the
Spirit of God once full surrender took place.
That's a whole nother topic we'll talk about
some other time on being filled with the
Spirit, but let me just say this.
It's the most important decision a person can
make to be filled with the Spirit.
That's how you become a better husband, a
better father, a better mother.
You're filled with God's Spirit.
Here's a testimony I got from a man.
He wrote a while back, I'd become someone
I never thought I would become.
I was in complete darkness.
I would sleep in my clothes for as
long as I could.
I began wishing that I would die.
The emotional pain was unbearable.
And I talked to him about this Spirit
-filled life and fully surrendering everything.
And some of you might be confused on
what I'm talking about.
As a believer, I believe you have all
of the Spirit at conversion, you have the
Spirit.
I don't believe in a second work of
grace that might happen years from now that
you might get filled again.
I believe a person at conversion has the
Spirit.
You have all the Spirit, but does he
have all of you?
In many cases, no, he doesn't.
We quench and we grieve the Spirit to
such a degree that we die spiritually.
So once that quenching and grieving is freed
and you allow that freedom of the Holy
Spirit to reign, you've repented those besetting sins,
you give Christ everything.
There's this overflowing, overfilling, the Bible uses a
Greek preposition called epi, E-P-I.
It's an overflowing endowment.
When Jesus came out of the wilderness, he
was filled with the Spirit and the Spirit
of the Lord came upon Peter, came upon
Paul.
This word is different from para, paracletus, running
alongside, and it's different from E-N, in
the person.
This is an overpowering endowment of the Spirit's
power.
All these people you like to read that
are dead, all of them, oh, I love
this Christian author, I love this, they were
filled mightily with the Spirit of God.
All the people dying spiritually in the church
today and in years past are not filled
with the Spirit of God.
And folks, that's my heart, that's my wife.
My heart beats for those who are dying
spiritually because it's one step away.
Rabbi says, living water.
Christ said, come, take of the living water.
Just come.
Would you come?
And I watch people die spiritually everywhere.
Homes fall apart.
And I wanna say, come, come and drink
of the water freely.
Freely, just drink of it.
Out of your belly will flow rivers of
living water.
Christ says, just come, just come.
He's not gonna force you.
You're not a robot.
But the human heart is so arrogant that
the preaching, the same sermon I'm preaching right
now, just like the sun, the same sun
that hardens the clay will melt the wax.
And as preaching goes out, the same word
of God will either harden your heart or
it'll melt your heart.
It's your decision.
You've gotta be filled with the Spirit.
This young man wrote me back, I only
wish that everyone could feel the love that
I experienced.
I'm able to forgive others and genuinely love
them.
I feel like I have been reborn.
Elusive peace has now been found.
Comment after I fully surrendered my life.
I mean, I might just be way out
there, but that's a big difference to go
from darkness to light, from suicide to a
tremendous peace.
Where does that come from?
Only from the peace of God.
Listen, you say, if I could just try
harder.
The problem is we're broken.
People, we're broken.
I just try harder, you're broken.
A broken mom cannot fix her broken daughter.
A broken dad cannot fix his broken son.
You cannot fix your broken spouse.
You can't fix a broken church.
We can't fix a broken nation.
Only through the power of the Holy Spirit
working through my heart and your heart can
we accomplish what God wants us to accomplish.
And when you're filled with the Spirit and
it's overflowing hindrances, what hindrances?
I'm on fire for God.
I'm not gonna burn out.
I'm gonna keep preaching until the day I
die because it's Christ carrying that burden.
That's the imagery coming to me.
All that are weak and heavy laden, and
I will give you rest.
Rest from what?
From your burdens.
And he carries those burdens.
And that's what happens.
That's a fully surrendered life.
That's, shoot, I could go another hour if
you guys want.
Because God is drawing and convicting.
Just think about this for a minute.
If God wanted you to make some changes
and God wants you to be filled with
the Holy Spirit, everything I'm talking about, how
would he go about doing that?
Number one, he'll convict you.
Number two, he'll bring his word to penetrate
your heart.
That's how he does it.
You're not gonna walk, oh, look at that
lightning.
Look at that rainbow.
Olga needs to fully surrender her life.
Oh, he does want me to do that.
It doesn't work that way.
Folks, I love you guys.
I pray for you guys.
I'm here in the morning praying, guys, say,
Lord, move on the hearts of these people.
I wanna see revival.
I wanna see broken people before the Lord,
humble in his presence.
I remember when the church would pray.
I remember the church wasn't in a hurry.
Hurry up an hour, hurry up an hour
and a half.
Hurry, when was the church gonna sit and
wait on God?
We'll sit there and we'll watch a pigskin
go 100 yards for three hours.
But then, when it comes to church, we're
bored.
How long's this guy going?
Oh my goodness, I didn't know the service
would go this long.
Like Charles Wesley said, I love what he
said.
How do you build a church?
You come and you light yourself on fire
and people will watch and come and watch
you burn.
You light yourself on fire and people will
come and they'll watch you burn.
It's contagious.
See, I understand something.
What awoken something in me was passionate, Spirit
-filled preaching.
Passionate, Spirit-filled preaching.
Took a man, hung over, waiting to go
to the liquor store, would be dead by
now, depressed, no direction, hated my life.
I still remember the couch, I remember the
address, I know where I was laying.
And Spirit-filled preaching hit me and it
hit me hard.
I cried, I ordered the CDs and the
tapes, I ordered more, I got on my
knees and I said, God, fill me with
your Spirit, I need to come home.
I need to come home, God, please.
And I just cried and cried and He
filled me with such love.
The Word of God just became alive and
living.
I couldn't get enough of it.
Turned off, what a great American country.
What's it called now?
A country that just listens all day long.
Tim McGraw, ah, ah, ah.
Actually, my wife, you guys don't know this,
hope I can say this, was in, what's
his name?
Okay, I won't say it.
I don't forget his name now, what's his
name?
Huh?
Oh yeah, Craig Morgan's first video.
So I'm sitting there, Craig Morgan's first video,
I'm like, oh, I'd love to meet someone
like that.
Lord, please help me.
And it's not a joke, I mean, it
seriously happened.
But that's what I said.
But Morgan was coming out of that, God
was changing her heart out of that Hollywood
lifestyle, and God was changing my heart out
of the party, make big money, you know,
steamroller, get out of my way, I'm gonna
steamroll you.
And God was working on both of our
hearts.
But it took spirit-filled, passionate preaching that
called me on the carpet and said, man,
you're failing, you need to get up.
You're on a detour to destiny, you need
to turn around.
And I just praised God.
So I see that's my heart for you,
is you be convicted and fully surrender your
life.