I want to get right to this point
in Acts 1.
It's Luke writing, he said, The former account
I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus
began to do and to teach until the
day in which he was taken up, after
he, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments
to the apostles whom he had chosen.
Jesus, through the Holy Spirit.
Now if Jesus needed the Holy Spirit, what
in the world makes us think we can
neglect this aspect of the triune nature of
God?
So are you filled with the Holy Spirit
is the most important question a Christian can
ask.
Besides, are you saved, of course.
But as a Christian, the most important question
you can ask is are you filled with
the Holy Spirit?
Balcony, this is for you too this morning.
Even though you feel way back there, this
is for you.
Are you truly filled with the Holy Spirit?
Because this dictates everything.
See, the Bible had many different writers but
one author.
The Holy Spirit authored the Bible.
The Holy Spirit.
And it's not some little spirit sitting next
to your heart or over by your lungs
or above your kidney.
It's the triune nature of God, God's Holy
Spirit residing in the believer in their thought
life, in the spiritual side of a person.
He comes to guard them and guide them
and lead them and direct them and fill
them with God's power, God's presence, God's authority
from that Spirit.
So if you neglect the Spirit, you are
neglecting just about everything that has to do
with Christianity because you're not filled with God's
Spirit.
And you cannot be filled with two things.
If you're filled with the world, you are
not filled with the Holy Spirit.
And if you're filled with the Holy Spirit,
you sometimes despise the things of the world.
They agitate you.
I just see it.
I'll be careful on this sermon.
Last night I let loose.
But even driving through Hollywood yesterday, I was
just...
My daughter was in a gymnastic thing at
the Staples Center.
And I was able to go down there
real quick and get back for the service.
But just seeing the billboards and the beers
everywhere.
And Victoria's Secret is like, See, there's something
shouldn't resonate.
The Spirit is crying, Abba, Father, not give
me more of the world.
And you're going to be filled with one
or the other.
But as a Christian, you do battle with
both.
The Holy Spirit wants more of you, and
so does the flesh.
But this is an interesting topic because as
we get into the book of Acts, the
distinct mark of the early church, without even...
It's not even a question in my mind.
The distinct mark of the early church of
a true born-again, Spirit-filled Christian is
Spirit-led.
They are Spirit-led.
Led by the Spirit.
Their words are chosen carefully.
Led by the Spirit.
Their actions are led by the Spirit.
The choices they make.
See, the choices you make will determine if
you're filled with the Spirit or not.
You can go watch Hillsong at the movie
right now or Jason Bourne.
You can go watch Hillsong right now at
the movie theater or Bad Mom.
It's rated R, says Bad Mom.
That's all I need to know.
I don't need to watch the trailer.
See, we make choices that we actually fill
us with the Spirit or quench and grieve
the Spirit of God.
This is the most important aspect that we
will ever cover in our lives, this area
of the filling of the Spirit and being
submitted and surrendered to the Spirit.
In Duncan Campbell's book, that I would recommend,
I think written over 100 years ago, The
Price and Power of Revival.
He said, How is it that while we
make such great claims for the power of
the Gospel, that we see so little of
the supernatural in operation?
Is there any reason why the church today
cannot everywhere equal the church at Pentecost?
I feel this is a question we ought
to face with an open mind and an
honest heart.
What did the early church have that we
do not possess today?
Nothing but the Holy Spirit.
Nothing but the power of God.
See, we need to wake up.
You need to wake up.
I need to wake up.
We were born for such a time as
this.
You were not born to just go through
life aimlessly and carefree and not concerned with
the things of God and barely getting by
in this thing we call Christianity.
You were called for such a time as
this to be filled mightily with the Holy
Spirit.
Well, Shane, that's great you're a pastor.
Yeah, but you're a parent.
If we would have more parents, more parents
filled with the Spirit of God, underscoring their
words with love and truth and being built
up and not tearing down.
What about the spouse?
If families were filled with the Spirit, the
divorce rate would plummet.
Calls into protective child care, you know, and
the state getting involved would be severely curtailed
in the Christian community because you need to
be filled with the Spirit just as much
as I do.
It's Spirit-led, Spirit-directed.
The Bible says that the Spirit intercedes, so
He will intercede for you.
He leads you, He guides you, He teaches
you, and so on.
He enables and empowers us to hunger and
thirst for righteousness and boldly live for Christ.
Charles Spurgeon said, What can a hammer do
without the hand that grasps it?
And what can we do without the Spirit
of God?
That's why I want to camp out here
for a while.
I'm going to step on toes and I'm
going to ruffle feathers.
Because, again, we need to wake up.
This is the missing element.
This is why people don't want to come
to a prayer and worship service.
They can sit and study the Bible for
two hours, but when it comes to the
prayer and worship service, why?
Because that filling of the Holy Spirit is
not taking place.
Because the Spirit must worship.
If it were up to me, I'll be
selfish, I'll just admit it, I would just
say, Gabe, you know what, just stay on
that song for the next 30 minutes.
We're going to sit here, we're going to
get our hearts right, because Holy Spirit, you
are welcome here.
That's not bad theology, that's correct theology.
If you, being evil, know how to give
good gifts to your kids, how much more
will God give the Holy Spirit to those
who ask?
How is that a bad thing?
It just blows my mind that the whole
point of the Holy Spirit has been either
abused or neglected.
So, why the neglect of the Holy Spirit,
or why the abuse of the Holy Spirit?
And I had two sides last night, I'm
going to have two sides here too.
You guys, I know you don't like it,
but you'll be the side that neglects the
Holy Spirit.
And you'll be the side that abuses the
Holy Spirit.
And that's what we see happening in the
church.
Aren't we sometimes afraid, the Holy Spirit, uh
-oh, weirdness is going to happen.
Here's my struggle with this whole thing.
Some of what you, we can all agree
that most of that is weird, right?
But the group, uh, like, it's Wretched Radio,
and Todd Fryle, I think his name is.
And I love this guy, and their stuff,
and John MacArthur, and all that stuff.
But what they do is they throw the
baby out with the bathwater.
And they'll throw, like, Hillsong into that group.
Or, anything charismatic goes into that group.
Watching our worship this morning, they would have
thrown us in that group.
And I don't, not everything in there, some
of it's taken out of context, different things.
So I'm trying to find the middle ground.
But that's what abuse looks like.
But when God truly visits a church, you'll
be on your face before God.
You'll be weeping.
But repentance, repentance is what is forefront, not
weird manifestations.
So that's what abuse looks like, the abuse
side.
But neglect is just as dangerous.
It's just as dangerous.
I'm going to talk about three reasons why
we either neglect the Holy Spirit or abuse
the Holy Spirit.
Number one, theology without experience.
You have theology without experience.
And theology without experience is like faith without
works.
It's dead.
See, you can be straight as a gun
barrel theologically, but just as empty.
Put a round in the chamber and shoot
that.
If I had a shotgun up here and
it was empty, what would you say?
Oh Shane, that's not a good illustration, but
it's okay.
At least it's empty.
And I grab a round, put it in
there, close it.
How many of you are running for that
door?
And I'm getting fired this week.
But that's with the Holy Spirit.
You can be straight as a gun barrel.
You've got your theology down, but you're empty.
You're not doing any damage.
You can just set that gun there.
It's not doing any damage.
So a person who has theology, I know
about the Holy Spirit, but I've never experienced
Him, they will neglect that area.
Because when we read, let's say, for example,
we're going to be reading in the book
of Acts about the disciples.
And everybody loves the book of Acts.
Everybody loves chapter 2.
And they were filled with the Holy Spirit
and they spoke in tongues.
You say that today, you must be filled
with the devil.
Well, it's in the book of Acts.
Yeah, but not for today.
Well, Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians
12.
Yeah, but it's not for today.
But it's not for today.
Why do they say that?
Because they've never experienced it.
But our experiences need to line up with
theology.
Here's the key.
You don't interpret theology based on experiences.
You interpret experiences based on theology.
So if what happens lines up with what
happened to Paul, that might be a good
thing.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But this is why the Holy Spirit is
often neglected.
Because people are – they've never experienced the
powerful move of God.
And here's the second point.
When something is feared, it's often avoided.
See, I don't like a lot of that,
so I don't even want to have anything
to do with the Holy Spirit.
Don't let them misrepresent the Holy Spirit any
more than you allow Mormons to misrepresent the
Bible.
There's always a counterfeit.
And why wouldn't the devil want to counterfeit
or bring in false manifestations with something as
important as the Holy Spirit?
So my concern with this group is they
throw the baby out with the bathwater.
And let me just say some points on
this because it will help some younger people.
This group is heavily identified, or this group
of a theology without experience really goes after,
say, Jesus culture, or Bethel music, or even
Hillsong.
Now, in my opinion, what I'm seeing is
you've got Bethel, you've got Jesus culture.
They're singing songs about, Fill me up, Lord,
show me your glory.
You're present, you're welcome here.
The more I seek you, the more I
find you.
These are all Holy Spirit songs.
But this group often will just allow anything
to happen.
If it's odd, it's God.
There can be angel globes.
There can be dust falling.
There can be weird manifestations.
It doesn't matter.
If it's odd, it's God.
Brother, just don't quench the Spirit.
No, that's not good.
So I would say that these groups need
theology to come alongside of them and somebody
mature to guide them in what they're allowing
to happen in these places.
To allow somebody, don't just say these things
and do these things.
So they have experience, but without theology.
That's the other side.
See, you can have experience and all these
things going on, but without the character of
God.
See, these guys, when they say, drunk, toking
the Holy Ghost, I have a problem with
that.
You don't say the Holy Ghost is like
taking a bong hit, and you're sitting there
toking the Holy Ghost.
Brother, I feel you're drunk in glory and
you're acting all weird and you're kicking people
in the stomach for healing.
That's just wrong.
That's wrong theologically and practically.
But let's not throw the baby out with
the bathwater.
And the reason this group doesn't like a
lot of those songs is because they've never
experienced the power of the Holy Spirit breaking
them.
Because when I read those lyrics, I'm like,
fill me up, Lord, show me your glory.
The more I seek you, the more I
find you, the more I find you, the
more I love you.
That resonates with me.
I want that.
I want that worship.
So this side has theology, but not experience.
George Watson said, The true saints of God
who have clear heads and pure warm hearts
have in all generations had to walk between
the two extremes of cold formality on one
side and the wild, ranting fanaticism on the
other.
Dead formality and the false fire of fanaticism
are both Satan's counterfeits.
And he does not care into which extreme
the soul plunges.
See, theology is important to Christian living, but
so is experience.
When you are filled with the Holy Spirit,
there's no way to get around this for
you who are conservative or politically correct.
When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, your
emotions are engaged.
Is fire evident?
If this church is on fire, who's going
to say, I don't know, is it?
I can't really tell.
There's a lot of big flames and things
are happening.
The fire truck's outside.
I don't know.
Of course you know fire is evident.
So is the Holy Spirit.
When a person's filled with the Spirit, it's
evident, it's clear, because he bubbles over, I
guess is a good word.
That's the baptism of the Spirit.
There's an overwhelming, an oversense of the Holy
Spirit in your life.
So the worship, you love the worship.
You love the Word of God.
You love the things of God, where the
things of the world irritate you.
So if a person is more drawn to
the things of the world and not the
things of God, they are not filled with
the Spirit.
They are quenching and grieving the Spirit.
Quenching is like throwing water on a fire.
So besetting sin.
If you continue in a certain sin, let's
just throw pornography out there, addiction, all these
big ones.
We forget about the sins of the heart,
such as pride and stuff.
But let's say, and we're just, I'm going
to continue in this sin.
You are quenching the Holy Spirit.
That fire of God is not going to
resonate inside of you.
It's not.
And you grieve the Holy Spirit.
It's a withdraw.
That sense grieving.
Have you ever grieved your spouse and they
withdraw?
Same thing with the Holy Spirit.
Same thing.
The power is not there.
The presence of God is not there because
we're quenching and we're grieving.
And I'm not talking about quoting the Bible.
The devil can do that.
I'm talking about knowing the Bible because you've
experienced that power of God in your life.
A.W. Tozer insightfully said, if the Lord's
people were only half as eager to be
filled with the Spirit as they are to
prove that they cannot be filled, the church
would be crowded out.
I'm going to have to say that again.
You didn't get it.
If the Lord's people were only half as
eager to be filled with the Spirit as
they are to prove they cannot be filled
with the Spirit, the churches would be crowded
out.
What he's talking about is, there are many
people in Christianity who say, you've got all
the Holy Spirit at conversion.
You don't need to talk about this topic,
Shane.
You don't need to discuss it.
This is not true.
And they prove that you don't have to
be filled with the Spirit.
And then it gets interesting.
Man, there's just so much.
You have, say, charismatics.
And that just comes from the word charisma
in the Greek language, which means bestowing spiritual
gifts.
Nothing wrong with that.
Pentecostals.
They believe, like as in the day of
Pentecost, the Holy Spirit still moves in that
way.
So that's why you have these different denominations
breaking apart from each other.
And you see that stuff, and you're like,
okay, I don't want to be a part
of that.
And we polarize.
We get to the other end where we
just don't want anything to do with the
Holy Spirit.
And that's dangerous.
Because it's the Holy Spirit of God who's
going to be giving you the love for
others, the love of His truth, the ability
to overcome sin.
And it's through that Holy Spirit power.
Also, there's some confusion when a person says
you need to be baptized in the Holy
Spirit.
If you look up the incidents of that,
the Bible talks about being baptized into the
body of Christ.
So as a believer, when you believe in
Jesus, you're saved.
You are baptized into the body of Christ.
You have all of the Holy Spirit that
you will ever need.
But the question is, does He have all
of you?
You see how that works?
You have all the Holy Spirit you will
ever need, but does He have all of
you?
And you will read that Peter being filled
with the Holy Spirit and Paul being filled
with the Holy Spirit.
Also, very interesting.
Oh, let me, before I forget that point,
let me go back to it.
Baptism of the Holy Spirit is when a
person is baptized in the body of Christ.
But Paul talks about subsequent feelings of the
Holy Spirit, being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Be being filled.
Don't be drunk with wine, as in dispensation,
but be filled with the Spirit.
So it's a command.
So you don't say, I'm filled with the
Spirit, I'm good for the rest of my
life.
That's like saying I ate breakfast, I don't
need to eat again.
So it's an ongoing, the devil goes after
that filling of the Holy Spirit.
You can be on fire for God, and
He's going to go after that.
By bringing things into your life, it will
quench and grieve the Spirit's work.
So I don't necessarily use the term baptized
in the Holy Spirit, even though I personally
don't have a problem with it.
I refer often to the word filling of
the Holy Spirit.
However, I like what R.A. Torrey said.
He said, I'd rather get the theological term
wrong and have the Spirit's power than get
the terminology just right but miss the Spirit's
power.
See, we like to argue over all these
little things, and usually it's this camp with
theology but no experiences who likes to argue
all these little things.
It's funny, I used to read books, or
actually I still read books, but written...
I've got to bring some humor here, because
this is weighty.
You guys are...
We're stepping on some toes, but that's a
good thing.
Do you know a hundred years ago or
so, like let's say when this church was
looking for a pastor, or if they ever
went that direction, they'd hire a pastor search
committee and different things, and it happens.
They search for a pastor.
Well, a hundred years ago, they wouldn't ask,
does he have his PhD in theology, does
he have a master's in counseling?
They would ask one question, has he received
his baptism of fire?
That's what the main...
See, you can get...
I love theology, but if all you come
up here with is sound doctrine with no
power, you're going to fall asleep.
The Spirit's power is not going to be
there.
You need to have both of them.
So they would...
Before they even called a pastor, they'd say,
has he received his baptism of fire?
Has he been empowered by the Holy Spirit
of God?
Is he filled with the Spirit?
See, our choices allow us to be filled
or we quench the Spirit.
How good do you think this sermon will
be this morning if I got up and
put on CNN and Fox News and watched
what's going on with ISIS and everything else
in North Carolina and got on Facebook and
started to gossip and then just strolled over
to Victoria's Secret page?
What would happen?
The Holy Spirit is quenched and grieved to
such a degree that you lose that connection
with God.
You lose that power.
And that's what the enemy's going after.
That's why I tell you, the enemy's got
his sights right here with the 30 hot
sticks on me every single day.
I'm well aware of what his schemes are.
Why does he want to do it?
He wants to take the Spirit's power out.
Think about it.
When is the last time you talked to
anybody, anybody seriously about Jesus, let alone led
them to the Lord?
That's one thing about the Spirit.
Everywhere I go, God seems to prompt me.
And the flesh hates it.
But the Spirit, ask Him about God.
Ask Him about church.
Whether it's five in the morning or five
at night, where are you at?
See, there's this filling.
What is in comes out.
That's why this is the most important question
we can ever ask.
So if you're on this side and you
have theology, you love to study about the
Holy Spirit, but you don't know anything about
the Spirit's power, you don't like to worship,
you're a worker, not a worshiper, you don't
have anything to do with emotionalism in these
songs and this and that, you've got a
problem in the heart.
You need to have both theology and that
spiritual power.
Because when the Spirit cries, Abba, Father, when
you see a baby born, are you not
emotional?
I hope so.
What's the difference from the Holy Spirit within
you crying, Abba, Father, and saying, God, I
come before you and I sing these songs,
Lord, Your presence, You're welcome here.
And something is happening in your heart.
You get all excited over the NFL.
What's the difference?
It's what you're filled with.
It's what you're filled with, what I'm filled
with.
So the second point, why the Holy Spirit
is either abused or neglected, is they have
experience, this side, but you have no theology.
You can't just say if it's odd, it's
God, let whatever happen.
Happens.
And just God take over and just don't
let, just whatever.
Well, John says to test the spirits.
He says to discern all things.
And this group cracks me up because when
I ask them about some of these things,
hey, brother, whatever, you're quenching and grieving the
Spirit of God.
I said, when did discernment become quenching and
grieving the Spirit of God?
God gives us discernment to discern the spirits
because I don't know what spirit you have,
but I don't have that one.
To be drunk in the Holy Spirit, to
toke the Holy Spirit, all these weird manifestations.
They have, anything goes.
It's odd, it's God.
Now, again, I'm careful because when God truly
moves in a group of people, you, it's
not gonna look, it's not gonna look normal.
I've been in places where men are literally
on their faces before God on this altar
while I'm preaching.
Sometimes people are crying.
You can hear them sobbing.
You can hear God working.
Oh my, you can hear this is not,
Shane, this is not good.
This is not conservative right.
God is working, but the fruit is repentance,
not hysteria.
That's the big difference.
What is the fruit of what is happening?
And we don't, nobody has perfect theology.
Nobody does.
We don't, we don't know true, because John
MacArthur says the spiritual gifts don't exist anymore.
Jack Kayford says they do.
Well, who's right?
What's the Bible say?
What's, what's the Word of God say?
So see, when I see the, the, the
disciples in an upper room praying and fasting
and worshiping and the Spirit of God moved
mightily on them and they changed the whole
world upside down.
And now they say, no, no, no, that
today doesn't really happen.
But if you've experienced that, you will, it
doesn't matter what this site says, you will
disagree because you've experienced it.
So how can it be a bad thing
if Paul experienced it?
You can't have somebody worshiping God and let's
say like Paul, Paul says, I pray that
you speak in tongues.
So that doesn't exist anymore.
Well, it existed for Paul's day, but now
it's of the devil.
How do you make that connection?
Now, granted, there's been abuses.
There's, this is a very controversial topic, but
I just want to be careful that we
don't quench and grieve the Spirit of God
because last I checked, he's the same yesterday,
today and forevermore.
There's no reason why the supernatural act, why
could he go and somebody be healed during
worship?
Why?
Because we're scared?
Because we don't want this to happen.
So this group experienced without theology.
And I did see, I've seen guys kick
people in the stomachs for healing.
Just, bam, right in the stomach with a
boot.
Like, really?
That, I mean.
Again, the devil mimics a true work of
God.
They allow very odd things but fail to
look at the Word.
So here's three signs of false fire.
Number one, people are acting bizarre without repenting.
Just alluded to that.
Number two, sound doctrine is called divisive.
Whenever you bring, oh, let's look at what
this looks like at God's truth.
For example, that girl who said, you know,
the Holy Spirit, Father, Son is my genie
in a bottle.
Well, let's look what theology says.
It doesn't say that's not, he's not your
genie in a bottle.
He's the Lord Jesus Christ.
You better bow your knee and confess and
get correct theology.
But when you tell them that, they're just
being divisive.
No, I'm not.
How can looking what God's, see, you look
at the character of God.
You look at the nature of God.
And that's what we allow to take place.
Discernment is not of the devil.
Actually, the devil would love that nothing be
discerned.
Just let whatever happens.
Number three, the so-called love replaces truth.
This side often says, but Shane, it's all
about love and unity, man.
Just chill out.
You're quenching, grieving the Spirit of God.
I'm like, well, that's what the hippies said
in the 60s.
Just love and unity, just chill out.
Well, that's not God.
So see, they'll allow weird behavior.
They'll say it's love and unity.
Leave us alone.
They'll allow weird behavior and say, we don't
want sound doctrine.
It's divisive.
So this group is just as prideful and
arrogant as that group.
It's what it boils down to.
We don't want to submit underneath the guidance
and direction of the Holy Spirit.
The last I checked, the fruit of the
Holy Spirit was self-control.
That's why Paul said, with this issue of
tongues, have an interpreter.
Don't do certain things because people are going
to come in from outside and think you're
out of your mind.
That's what the Bible says.
So it tells me I've got to discern.
Not every spirit is of God.
I've had people come up.
I've never met before.
It's the first time.
I've got a word for God for your
church.
They say, no, you don't.
He didn't tell me anything.
I don't know you.
It doesn't check out.
It doesn't register with me.
There's been other times where people have wanted
to do that.
And you've got to run that through the
filter of discernment because God has given the
leadership this enormous responsibility of making sure and
like some, I can gravitate to this more
conservative side.
I'd rather hide over here than hide over
there.
There's people acting bizarre and different things.
So with that said, let's go to the
third point.
Theology without humility.
Here's why the Holy Spirit is neglected or
grieved.
We have theology without humility.
So when you have theology, but you're not
humble, you're not obeying God's word, you're not
submitting to the work of the Holy Spirit,
He's not going to fill you.
Submission is a very difficult thing, isn't it?
We don't want to submit to the work
of the Spirit.
We don't want to submit to certain areas
of our lives.
We want to hang on to these things.
And if you want to be filled mightily
with the Spirit of God, listen, I know
I'm not talking to this whole room.
I know in this whole room there's going
to be people that go back and nothing
changes.
But I'm talking to the small percentage of
people who want to wake up and be
filled with the Spirit of God that you
were called for such a time as this.
To stop playing games.
Stop being in a hurry and put God
back on the pedestal.
Get yourself off that pedestal.
It's not comfortable up there.
And come down from that pedestal and humble
yourself.
Just as, I like what Andrew Murray said,
just as water, water ever seeks and fills
the lowest place, so the moment God finds
you abased and empty, His glory and power
flow in.
If that baptismal overflows, where's it coming?
Same thing with you.
As soon as God finds you humble and
abased, which means it goes along with that
scripture, humble yourself under the mighty hand of
God.
In due time, He will exalt you.
You exalt yourself and He will abase you.
He's bringing you to a low, embarrassing point.
Has God ever embarrassed you and spanked you?
Or is it just me?
That's not fun.
I'd rather humble myself.
Thank you, Lord, I will humble myself.
And you don't, because that's what happens.
He will humble you.
Just as water looks for that lowest place.
If you get to the lowest place and
you say, God, fill me with your spirit,
I'm not leaving here.
He will do that.
He's bound to do it.
He says, if you seek me, you will
find me.
And if you find me, you'll continually seek
me.
And then you'll have this seeking hunger.
It's a hunger that is never satisfied.
He who drinks of this water will never
thirst again, Jesus said.
Out of your belly will flow rivers of
living water.
So it begs the question, where is this
living water?
All I see half the time is a
cemetery from the churches across America.
If they're filled with the spirit, where is
it?
Where is this living water?
Jeremiah said, His word is in my heart
like a burning fire.
It's shut up in my bones.
I have to give it out.
Jesus said, Believe on me as the scriptures
say, and out of your belly will flow
rivers of living water.
So if we sit there and go, I
don't know where these rivers of living water
are, it's because you're not filled with the
spirit.
Truth be told, same thing with me.
Sometimes I wonder, was I even saved before
I was filled with the spirit?
I would go to church, same thing.
Sing the songs, listen to sermons, sit in
the back row, get out quick, come in
late, miss his worship, you know, it's just
nothing.
God is, all right, I'll pray if I
need anything.
God was just not even on the top
ten list of agenda things.
But I came to church because that's what
good people do, right?
Good people go to church.
And then when he humbled me, the spanking
of God, thank God for it.
When he does it, humble yourself, don't argue,
don't fight, don't make excuses, just humble yourself.
And he filled me with his spirit.
I couldn't get enough worship.
I'm talking hours a day.
I'm talking God's word just came alive.
I was just joy unspeakable and bubbling over.
All these things that Paul talks about, the
gifts of the Holy Spirit were revealed.
And I'm just crying out to God, drawing
closer to him.
If that's of the devil, then I don't
think that is.
None of that's of the devil because you're
drawing closer to God.
Anything that draws you closer to God is
not of the devil, it's of the Holy
Spirit.
Make the distinction early on so you know.
And so I was wondering, was I even
saved?
Was I even saved?
The reason is because it's such a dramatic
experience that you have to look back and
go, I was living on this much water
instead of the whole baptismal being full.
When it talks about, John said, he will
baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with
fire.
That fire in the belly.
That's why there's martyrs.
They die for their faith.
They're filled with the Spirit of God.
This is the most important thing and it's
going to hurt.
It's going to hurt.
It's going to take extreme submission.
I'm an extreme kind of guy.
I don't mind using that word because that
cross was an extreme price.
To follow Jesus, pick up your cross, follow
me, and die to self is very extreme.
If I had time, I would show you
what that looks like and it's not pretty.
It's extreme Christianity.
To die to self, but it's the most
fulfilling.
Because we live in the middle.
If it's not, we're miserable.
Do you know how many Christians are just
miserable?
Miserable.
And they're medicating because they're miserable.
And God says, just humble yourself.
Be filled with the Spirit of God.
And I will restore that joy that you
used to have.
And if you're not sure, let me just
go over this real quick.
Are you filled with the Spirit?
Well, Galatians 5.
The fruit of the Spirit is love.
Do you have love or do you pounce
on people?
Are you loving?
Are you a loving, gentle person?
The fruit of the Spirit is joy.
You can't suppress that joy as much as
you can try to suppress Niagara Falls.
It has to come out.
Joy filled.
Joy in the midst of adversity.
Or are you sour faced?
Fruit of the Spirit.
Love, joy, peace.
Or are you always disgruntled?
Patience.
Or are you irritable and restless?
Kind.
Or are you heavy handed?
Goodness.
Do you have sympathy for people?
Do you truly have sympathy?
Because there's a lot of sin sniffers.
Let's apply Matthew 18 really quick.
That's not good.
You don't have sympathy.
You're not filled with the Spirit of God.
Because the whole point of confronting somebody or
Matthew 18, for example, is restoration.
Not to go get them, church.
It's restoration.
So the fruit of the Spirit.
Faithfulness.
Are you loyal?
Gentle?
Or are you heavy handed?
And is there self control?
Well, we could put our names in there,
couldn't we?
Is Shane loving?
Joy filled?
Peaceful?
Patience?
Kind?
Good?
Faithful?
Gentle?
And has self control?
Or do we lack these things?
You have to take the test.
You have to examine yourself.
Often the Bible talks about examining yourself before
God.
Are you filled with His Spirit?
And it does take some changes.
I'll just share a few.
I remember D.L. Moody reading about his
life.
Many of you know who D.L. Moody
is.
And he was in ministry, depressed.
Nothing was happening.
Nobody was coming to know the Lord.
And he realized that he was in ministry
for the wrong reason.
He was trying to build the name of
D.L. Moody.
Not God's kingdom.
He repented of that.
And he asked God to fill him with
His Spirit.
And he couldn't even.
He had to run into a room.
I believe it was in New York City.
And just fell on his face before God.
And he said, God, take your hand away
from me.
This love, this overpowering work of the Holy
Spirit is too much for me to bear.
And then he came out of that room
a different man.
Have any of you read My Utmost for
His Highest?
Most read devotional book of all time by
Oswald Chambers.
Many people don't know he was a seminary
teacher, I believe, for four years.
He was miserable.
He had theology.
But not the Spirit.
He repented.
God filled him.
Who do we hear about now?
I've read books and stories.
D.L. Moody lists different stories of people
being filled mightily with the Holy Spirit.
One I remember was this lady was so
worried about her appearance.
And her dress.
And her make.
Everything.
1800s.
I think this was.
Did I make it back then?
I guess so.
But anyway, she was so worried about her
appearance.
And God was convicting her of that.
And once she repented, then she came to
church on fire for God.
She loved the Word.
Everything changed.
She goes, just from allowing.
See, we don't realize these are idols.
Anything you put before God is an idol.
Whether it's about ministry or whether you're a
worker and not a worshiper.
Or whether, no, I'm not letting that go.
Nope, I'm holding in this bitterness.
My father did.
You don't know what he did.
I'm holding in this bitterness and this anger
and this rage until the day I die.
Well, you won't be filled with the Spirit.
Because we have to empty ourselves completely and
allow God to fill us with the Spirit.
Church, this is the most important topic we
can face.
Are you filled with the Spirit of God?
Do you want more of God?
And it's a good thing if you go,
yes, you don't want that.
Well, it requires four things.
You have to ask.
Lord, I want to be filled with your
Spirit.
And He'll begin to show you things you
might need to remove.
Because we can't quench and grieve the Spirit
and then want to be filled with the
Spirit.
I talk to people often who are hooked
on certain things.
Addictions, pills, drink, whatever it is.
And they just, I know, but I can't
give that up.
Well, you're not going to be filled with
the Spirit of God.
You can't hold on to the bottle and
still be filled with God.
Now, nobody is perfect.
So as you're struggling sometimes through things, the
Spirit can fill you.
And you're struggling through these things.
And the Holy Spirit actually comes to help
you in the struggle.
Paraclete, a comforter.
It's actually an advocate to come alongside you.
The Holy Spirit comes alongside.
The Holy Spirit seals me.
The Holy Spirit saves me.
The Holy Spirit convicts me.
The Holy Spirit draws me.
The Holy Spirit is my comforter.
He steals my anxious heart.
He will make the Scriptures become crystal clear.
When I don't even know what to pray
for, the Spirit makes groanings and things to
the Father that I don't even know what
to pray for.
You see how vital the role of the
Holy Spirit is?
He's a person, the person of the Godhead.
Now, this is a whole other topic, but
God is one.
We don't worship three gods.
We worship God the Father, the essence of
God.
But he reveals himself in Father, Son, and
the Holy Spirit.
Paul says it's a mystery.
Let's just leave it at that.
Because the more I talk about it, the
more I go, this doesn't make sense.
I mean, I can't explain this adequately.
I mean, I've heard people say it's like
an egg.
You've got the shell.
You've got the yolk.
You've got the white.
Or like water.
You've got vapor.
You've got ice.
You've got water.
But those analogies fall short.
We can't understand, but we accept it.
We can't say that when Jesus was baptized,
the Father spoke from heaven, and the Holy
Spirit descended as a dove.
So is all that really didn't happen?
Was Jesus a ventriloquist?
Because there's another belief out there, modalism, that
would say oneness, Pentecostalism, or different things.
That was Jesus only.
That God actually went on the cross.
The God the Father, everything was on the
cross.
There's no God the Father.
It's just one, because they have a problem
with worshiping three gods.
But I tell them we're not worshiping three
gods.
We're worshiping God, who he is, the nature,
the character of God.
But he chose to reveal himself, a Father
in creation, Son in redemption, Holy Spirit regenerating
us.
That's how he's chosen.
It's throughout the entire Bible.
I'm going to leave you with this for
food for thought.
Jesus, we didn't even hear of him for
30 years.
12 years old, decided to stay back, taught
the rabbis a thing or two at 12
years old.
Just vanishes, nothing.
And then he comes on the scene, and
he says, John the Baptist, I want you
to baptize me.
Could you imagine?
If Jesus, I would just, I would weep
and run.
I would just, there's not, it doesn't make
any sense.
But he said, suffer it so that all
righteousness might be fulfilled.
I don't completely understand the concept, neither do
theologians.
If you read Calvin, if you read John
Knox, if you read McCarthy, if you read
Jack, it doesn't matter who you read.
Nobody's really crystal clear on why Jesus had
to get baptized other than a step of
obedience.
Suffer it so that all righteousness might be
fulfilled.
So John the Baptist baptizes Jesus.
Jesus comes up out of that baptism, led
by the Holy Spirit, and the Bible is
very clear on this, and Jesus being filled
with the Holy Spirit.
So he didn't begin his ministry until he
was filled with the Holy Spirit.
So what in the world makes us think
we can just get through this thing called
life without the Holy Spirit?
If Jesus, Jesus was filled mightily with the
Holy Spirit, doing great miracles, now they hear
of this man.
And it was a step of obedience.
So on that note, yes, I'm tying in
baptism.
Because guess what we're doing afterwards?
With about five or six people, we're getting
baptized.
I'm actually going to do something different.
I'm just going to wear this.
You want to know why?
Because I'm inviting you.
If you've never been baptized, or if you
did it when you were four and you
don't remember a thing, I would encourage you,
be baptized.
Take that step, because I drifted from God.
I was baptized at 12.
I don't know, I think my mom dunked
me in a pool with some people.
I don't really remember.
But then at 30 years old, at Hope
Chapel, in 2000, Christmas time, I said, I'm
going to be baptized.
I'm convicted.
I want to be baptized.
But you know what stopped me?
The opinions of people.
Here's a 30-year-old man.
I'm starting to write books.
I'm speaking.
And I'm not going to get baptized.
People are going to know.
And just every scripture I read, get baptized.
Oh, man.
But once I finally took that step of
obedience, and nobody cares.
They don't even know.
It was my own pride and arrogance.
Once I took that step of obedience, things
changed.
The Word of God came alive even more.
The preaching.
Now instead of calling me from working with
fitness, he called me to preach.
It was a step of obedience, came out
filled with the Spirit of God.
So baptism isn't this thing you have to
do to be filled with the Spirit, but
if you're not being baptized, why aren't you?
And I think it will inhibit the filling
of the Holy Spirit, because it's a commandment
that's not being obeyed.
Why wouldn't we want to get baptized if
it wasn't just because of the opinions of
others?
So we have towels.
You can wear what you're wearing now.
It's still hot out.
The water's like 80 degrees.
And I would encourage you to be baptized.
Say, Lord, I don't care what people think.
I'm taking that step of obedience.
Because if you want to be filled with
the Spirit, there's got to be a first
step.
What's the old saying?
A journey of a thousand miles starts with
that first step.
If you want to be filled with the
Spirit, and God is convicting you in this
area to go before people, that's what baptism
is.
If Jesus Christ hung on a cross, suffered
for the sins of the world, including mine
and yours, if He went naked before the
entire world, if the God of the universe
humbled Himself to the point of being beaten
and crucified, surely we can take that step
and say, I don't care who's watching.
I don't care what people think.
I'm getting baptized.
I'm making a public profession of my faith
in Christ.
It's a very healthy thing.
So those four things, quick.
You have to ask for the Holy Spirit.
You have to obey.
To be filled with the Holy Spirit without
obeying, it's like a car without an engine.
You're not going anywhere.
And you have to seek.
You have to seek that filling.
You have to say, God, I'm seeking You.
I'm going to search for You until I
find You.
The Bible says when you seek Him, you
will find Him.
And you have to submit.
You have to submit to the work of
the Spirit.
And this is the hardest point for many
people.
Life's comfortable.
We don't want to submit to the work
of the Spirit.
But God says, humble yourself.
Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God,
and He will exalt you.
It's hard.
That's why I got here early this morning,
530 in the morning, and I just put
on worship, and I'm here on the altar.
I'm praying, and I want you to go,
oh, that's so spiritual.
No, it's not.
I need Him.
I mean, I need Him.
I have to submit and surrender my life,
my sermon, everything to God.
You have to submit.
Folks, how long are some of you going
to keep playing church?
Just to let you know, your spouse knows,
and so does God.
And I probably do too.
I can spot those filled with the Spirit,
and those who are not, just like a
dog can spot a, you know what?
Rabbit.
Something.
Just like, right?
I take my dog jogging in the desert.
He's gone.
I don't even know what he saw.
He saw a little tiny rabbit, and he
just chases him.
But it's the same thing.
You can spot somebody filled with the Spirit.
Fire is evident.
Is it evident?
If you're arrested for being a Christian, is
there enough evidence in your life to convict
you?
Is there a fruit of the Spirit there?
God is wanting to do, how can we
begin the book of Acts, and forget this
point.
We're going to talk about what the church
could be, what the church should be, what
the early church, and not be filled with
the Spirit?