Shane Idleman emphasizes the necessity of being emptied of self to be filled with the Holy Spirit, highlighting that true empowerment comes from surrendering our self-will and pride. He illustrates the importance of preparing our hearts to receive God's Spirit, comparing it to tilling soil to allow rain to nourish it. Idleman warns against the dangers of besetting sins that block the Spirit's power and encourages believers to seek humility and spiritual disciplines to experience a vibrant Christian life. He stresses that the Holy Spirit empowers us to live boldly and effectively for Christ, urging the congregation to remove any barriers to the Spirit's work in their lives.

Last night I talked about being emptied to be filled. And the message was emptying yourself of yourself to be filled with God. And I'm assuming most of you here would love to be filled with God's Spirit. You're overflowing where joy and peace and contentment, long-suffering, are flowing out of you. But that requires something to be emptied inside of you. For example, how much more water can I pour in here? Not much. And that's why many of us have a lot of self in us. Self-will, self-righteousness, self-exaltation. All about self and the Spirit of God that wants to fill us and overflow in our lives. There's not room for that because of our self-will. That's why I love that song, Let It Rain. Let it rain and what we're asking God, let the power of your Spirit, let it come into our lives. Let us open our hearts, rend our hearts, not our garments. Not just rip our shirts like the Pharisees used to do. No, God says open your heart and let the Spirit of God come and fall on a dry and parched land. We have the responsibility to till the soil. Till the soil of our hearts. I don't know how many of you have farm experience. I do. I remember, well not on a farm, but actually back when Court Seal was small and they had almond orchards and everything. And my dad had one of those. You held on to it for dear life. And you started that thing up and it had the tillers. And you just, I'm 12 years old and I'm going all over. I'm hitting rocks and I'm hitting roots. And it's like a half acre. He said, I'll be back in a couple hours son. Well, thank you. And you're tilling that. But why? Because you had to prepare the soil. You had to get rid of the hard and calloused areas and the rocks that were in the way and the stones. You had to prepare the soil. That's why the prophets would say, prepare your hearts, oh Israel. Remove the fallow ground, the hard ground. Because when it rains, it can't go into hard soil. And it's up to us. Yes, the Holy Spirit is available. But it's up to us to allow Him to work into our lives. I just focused on that a lot last night. So listen to that message. This is part two of that message. And we're actually in a series here at the church. What is the true Christian? Would the true Christian please stand up. Right? Not now. But that's, would the true Christian, who is that rapper? The white rapper? MM? MM, yeah. I remember that song. I'm dating myself. But would the real Christian please stand up. Look at what's happening in our nation. Churches are not opening. Some churches are posting ungodly things and doing this. And what, many people are left confused. What's going on here? And I will tell you, there are groups that are actually paying. It's called Rent an Evangelical. You can actually fund, funding people like George Soros, let's just say it. He's funding certain organizations that will come out and act like they're Christians. And post things that are, where are they coming up with that? How are they pro-abortion? And they'll just, they'll fund these movements. And Christians are left baffled and confused. And there's so much division. So what is a true Christian? That started last week. You can listen to that message. It was on truth, the power of truth. And this one is empowered by the spirit. Empowered by the spirit. Now, as a Christian, if you truly believe, and you've repented of your sin, and you know Jesus Christ, the gift that you are given is the Holy Spirit. So every believer has the Holy Spirit. The question, though, that I often throw out there every six months or so is, but does the Holy Spirit have all of you? You have all of the Holy Spirit, I believe, at conversion, that you will ever need. But does the Holy Spirit have all of you? There's a surrendering that takes place. There's a submission that takes place. And as we empty ourselves, can you imagine if pastors would come up here and say, Well, I just spent a couple hours on this wonderful website that had all the sermons already done. I was watching Breaking Bad last night. And then I turned to Netflix for some good flicks. And I threw this together. I think it's really going to impress you. And I found some good poems here, and there's some great points here. I'm so proud of myself, I might even submit this for my dissertation. See, it's void of humility. It's void of the Spirit's power. Because you're relying on your own strength. Now, God, I believe, blesses a prepared heart. I'm not one of those people who just walk up here and say, Well, wherever the Spirit leads me, I need to be in prayer. I need to get my thoughts in order. I need to get my notes in order. But at the end of the day, I say, God, you lead me. You lead me. You direct me. So what is empowered? What do I mean by empowered by the Holy Spirit? Actually, I'm so excited about this topic because it is the key to the victorious Christian life. We can talk about theology and eschatology, you know, the end times. And soteriology, which is salvation. I love that too. And all the different ologies. But one of my favorites is pneumatology. Do any men have pneumatic tools? Air tools? Pneumatic? That's where the word comes from. Pneumatology, the study of the Holy Spirit. And without the power of the Holy Spirit, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the unction of the Holy Spirit, in your life, Christianity is dead. It's not vibrant. That's why the letter kills. It's the Spirit that gives you life. And I'm not talking about weird things happening. That guy sure is weird. He must be filled with the Holy Spirit. Actually, the one true mark of someone filled with the Holy Spirit is boldness. Empowerment. And if you're wondering, why are so many churches not opening? I can guarantee those pastors are not spending a lot of time with God. On their knees, with their Bible open, praying and worshiping and saying, God, fill me with your Spirit. Because if so, they will come out of that prayer closet like Superman. And say, we've got to do something. We're not being pushed around by the state anymore. We have to be that voice of truth. That boldness comes. And I so much appreciate you and emails. We've got just last night from Texas, Ohio, Colorado, Idaho, all over. People saying, thank you for your boldness. Thank you for your boldness. But if you knew the real Shane Idleman, I'd be sleeping at home right now. It's not me. I'm just the dumb vessel that he decided to use. Actually, I love that verse. I will choose the foolish things to confound the wise. I will use the weak to make the strong jealous. I will raise up those who have a broken and contrite. God doesn't care about your pedigree or your degree or your knowledge or your ability. He looks for a broken and contrite heart. And when you empty yourself and say, God, use me in any way you want. And then he empowers you. He fills you with the Spirit. The number one characteristic is always boldness. Boldness to testify. Boldness to witness. Boldness to stand up for the truth. Bold. Who's going to back down the Holy Spirit? You think the Holy Spirit in me and in you is cowering back? Oh, if you could let him loose, you'd be amazed at what the Spirit does with an empty vessel. So what does empowered mean? What am I talking about? Empowered by the Spirit. The power to do something or the power to make someone stronger. And I know many of us want to live that victorious Christian life. Now, please understand, I'm not talking about you're going to be perfect. There was something, I believe, in Methodist theology, John Wesley. Some of them gravitated towards perfectionism. Perfectionism. That at some point in your life, you can be perfect. Now, it's interesting because the Scriptures teach that you do not have to sin. That you can say no. That you can lead a victorious life. But we also see all the Scriptures talk about, oh, wretched man that I am. Paul said, who will deliver me from this body of sin and death? For with the mind, I serve the law of God. But with the flesh, the law of sin. And we see this depravity pulling us in the wrong direction. And so I don't see perfectionism in the New Testament other than in the life of Jesus Christ. Where he is our model. He is our example. But there's a big difference between being defeated and staying defeated. And being hit with the right hook and getting back up and fighting again. That's the Spirit-filled life. You might have got me, devil, last week. You might have got me a month ago. You might have tried to take me out. But by the Spirit of God, I'm going to be empowered. The power to do something. And so I'm just going to talk about three points that I want to leave you with. Empowered through humility. I'm not going to cover a lot there because I talked about that last night. You have to be empowered through humility. And this is one of my concerns for a younger generation. Those who love the Word of God. They might want to be pastors. They might want to be Christian leaders. They love the Word of God. But they have to be careful because as they read and study, that knowledge begins to puff you up. And, ah, look at what I know. Oh, you're so great. Look at what he knows. He's so spiritual, he can quote the whole book of James. Yes, I can. And that knowledge begins to puff you up. And there's not any more humility. And you will lose that spiritual power. Isn't it interesting? Jesus rebuked the church in Revelation, I believe it was chapter 3. He said, I see your works. I see what you're doing. But you've left your first love. A hard heart has crept in. And that's why I use the word modern day Pharisee. Because we can become critical and judgmental. And God calls us back to that place of humility and brokenness. And I think, you know, I'll just promote it. The worship mornings and the prayer times. The reason those are so important, it's not just to come and pray corporately. Or to worship corporately. Or to find yourself on the altar. That's all great. But it's actually, to me anyway, it's a step of humility. It's a step of humility in saying, God, I'm going to come and I'm going to worship you. I'm humbling myself before you. And God begins to bless those humble moves of our spirit that we make. We talked about last night, when I am weak, I am strong. And it's an oxymoron to the world. But to us, we realize. See, when you admit your weakness, God, I'm weak in this area. I need your strength. And that's humbling yourself. And that's why we have to be careful when we make excuses. Because excuses often mean there's a lack of humility. Yeah, I know. But we know excuses, right? When God's wanting to challenge us and us to change. And excuses begin to rise up. We lose that element of humility. I'll never forget. Maybe I should share this with you guys. I've been wanting to, but I'm a little nervous. But I think it's okay. My wife will remember this. Probably five years ago, I remember the chair I was sitting in. I remember the office I was sitting in. And this lady called. And she goes, I need to talk to you, God. Put this on my heart. I normally don't do this. And she was right. She never did. My wife. We're on a three-way call. And she goes, there's a hardness in your heart. And I was pastoring in Lancaster. And my wife said, you didn't say anything. You just sat there quiet. And I said, yeah, if it's God. If it's God, I want to be open to that. I didn't defend it. Didn't make excuses. Took it to the Lord. And that's what God does to change us. Is to take that. I wish I could tell you I always do that. Right? But I'll never forget that. Because my wife said, well, you didn't say anything. You're just quiet. I don't know if I see that. But she never does this. She's timid. This isn't normal for her. So I need to see if God is convicting me in this area. No doubt he was. How many of us know that we can let a hard heart creep in? When we start to become unloving. I better see a lot of heads shaking right now. We can become unloving. Unforgiving. Bitter. Resentful. And I think at that point, I don't know exactly. But I was becoming pretty bitter. Because you get hurt a lot in ministry. Did you know that? If you get hurt a lot as Christians, you can times that by 10. When you're leading a church. And you start to allow that bitterness to come in. And you get a hard heart. And you lose that tenderness. You lose that love. And you start to preach out of anger. And that's not healthy. And so it was a good turning point in my life. But I wanted to pick up where I left off last night. Because I know a lot of you are waiting for this. 2 Corinthians 12. Paul had this vision of heaven. Paul was touched by the Spirit of God. At any time there are mountaintop experiences, get ready for the valley. Because there are so many times where, I mean, I can think of so many times when I flew, me and my wife flew to be on Fox News in New York. We were on a high for like three days. And this is incredible. Kirk Cameron is there and the Fox News anchors. And meeting Jim Cimbala and his church. And Brooklyn Tabernacle. And touring Times Square Church. And I'm walking on clouds. And then we get home, the valley of despair. Back to the grind. I don't remember what happened. But it was just a difficult season. I think it was the topic I talked on that week. I was getting tagged by like right-wing news watch. These left-leaning liberal organizations that want to tear you down and make up stuff. And it was just an attack after a mountaintop experience. And often when you experience God and you're excited about God. Anybody ever leave here just on cloud nine when you leave church and then come Sunday night? Or Monday morning? It is a whole, I want to go back to church. Me and my wife say, can we go back to church? Can we just worship again? And so Paul had this incredible experience where I believe he was taken up. And saw visions that not many are privileged to. And saw the glory of God. And Paul said, therefore to keep me from becoming prideful. To keep me from becoming conceited. I was given a thorn in my flesh. A messenger of Satan to torment me. To harass me. And now nobody really knows exactly what this is. But it's obviously Satan was allowed to keep Paul humble. And I believe, just personal opinion, you can say it yourself. A messenger of Satan is often a demonic type of oppression. A messenger from Satan. Whether it could be persecution possibly. Or some type of demonic oppression. I don't believe a Christian, I've taught on this. I don't want to get into detail. But a Christian cannot be possessed as you think of walking around. Like I can't do anything. I'm possessed. Like the Exorcist movie. I've never watched it. But I don't want to watch it. But I believe though you can be oppressed. You can open up doors in your life. If you just start. Well let me just start experimenting again with Ouija boards. And let me watch all this darkness on TV. And this occult. And the witchcraft. And vampires. Let me see what my horoscope says today. And you can start to open doors. That maybe got shut a long time ago. And that gives the demonic realm. That gives them some leverage. Because now you've opened the door. Anybody ever overcome an addiction? And then you think you can handle it again? And you open that door? Mine right now, I'll just tell you, is chocolate. I told my wife to hide a bag of chocolate I bought at Costco. And she did not hide it. Two days ago, two days ago. I'm like, oh I know I shouldn't get this. But it's the almond clusters with chai seeds and just dark chocolate. And the whole bag is gone in two days. By yours truly. And I looked. There's 160 calories per serving. 16 servings. That's like 2,000 calories. I just ate chocolate and walnuts in two days. Hide this bag. That's why I like fasting. Because after a few days, you just lose the appetite for food. And I'm actually going to do that again. Coming up on our election. Our nation needs it. And I won't go into detail. But there's somebody from our church here that fasted for 40 days water only recently. And you will not die. You will be okay. Your body switches from burning your glucose in your food and your glycogen to your fat storage. And that's what this is for sometimes is a lot of extra energy that we're carrying around. And that was a rabbit trail. Where in the world am I going with that thing? Oh, my point was if you open the door. Right? If you open the door to something that you used to struggle with, there's a stronghold. And often, if you ever hear that term, a family generational curse, we really don't believe that or teach that. Because that's strong language. And you have to go into the Old Testament and explain how God cursed generation down to fourth generation. But we do see now, I believe, that predisposition. So if your father, your grandfather was predisposition to a certain lust or alcoholism or something, that could be still. That DNA could still be then passed on to you. So that's going to be an area of struggle you struggle with. We often see this in sexual abuse cases. When people are abused sexually at a young age, guess what? The person who did it was often abused at a very young age. And so we see there is a predisposition. You have to be on guard in those areas. So that's what we believe in the area of demonic oppression, demonic harassment. So a messenger of Satan was given to Paul to keep Paul humble. So since we don't know what it is, it can apply to all areas of our life. Isn't that good? If we knew, okay, well, Paul's eyesight, he was physically challenged by the devil. Well, that's Paul. Good. I'm off the hook. No, it can be in any area of our life. The principle is this. God will allow certain weaknesses in our lives to keep us humble. Can you imagine if we mastered everything? I haven't struggled with that in 20 years. I'm sorry for all of you. I don't struggle with this. I don't do this. I don't do this. I've mastered everything. And you begin to be kind of conceited. God says, touches that area. See that weakness? See that weakness? And that weakness is not given to you so you live in defeat and succumb to it. It's given often or allowed so you realize, God, I am weak. I can't overcome this. I'm just a frail man and I need your help. So in your weakness, then you are strong. And so something was given to keep Paul humble. And he said, oh, he prayed three times to take this away. I know everyone in this room can relate to that. Have you ever prayed, God, please take this away? Please take this away. Why do I want to stop at Starbucks again? Why do I want to stop at Panda Express? Why do I want to stop there? Why can't I get off the internet? Why is the internet calling me? Why is this certain thing calling me? Why is this substance calling me? Why is this depression calling my name again? And we, Lord, please take this away. And sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes there's a fight until the day you're buried in the ground and with your Savior. And that fight sometimes is to keep you humble and broken and on your knees. And that weight of that challenge begins to put you in the right position as you seek God with all of your heart and strength. So these things that you keep beating yourself up about, I'm not encouraging sin. But I'm encouraging you to point your heart in the right direction through the struggle. I mean, if a struggle comes in, you can say, okay, I'm going to prayer. Lord, I'm going to prayer in this area. I need you. In this weakness, I need you. And you need to know this about temptation. There's a peak where it comes, but then it often drops. Resist the devil at that peak, and he will flee from you. So we are allowed difficult situations. Or maybe a lust that keeps battering you. I mean, I've opened up before that even when I was younger, people would tease me I was overweight and things. And so food has always been. Now, I know you can't relate, but it's always, you know, it's like, ah. You know, if it's good, I want double. And so it's very hard for me. I have to live a very disciplined life. And people do say, why are you so hardcore? Because if I get soft core, I'm going to go back to where I used to be. So I have to, I have to remain that, that, that try to keep that discipline down. I discipline my body and bring it under subjection. Less when I preach to others, I myself should become disqualified. But God uses that weakness to strengthen us. But here is the danger I will tell you up front. Many people use this as an excuse to keep sinning. Well, that's just my one little vice. Well, that's my thorn in the flesh. I better just cave into it. No, it's not. It's not there to cave into. It's there for you to keep you humble and to fight and move away from. And through that humility and that pushing away. Lord, I'm weak in this area. I've got something that's going to pull me down. I've got something that is lurking inside. And Lord, I need you. I can't handle this on my own. I am not as strong as I thought. Lord, please help me in this area. And in that weakness, you are strong. But let this be an encouragement too. Often the greater anointing, I've seen this in the Bible. I've seen this in our own personal lives and many people in the church. The greater the anointing. What I mean by that is the greater the calling that God has on your life. Often the greater the challenges will be. That's just the truth. When you're on the enemy's hit list. And God wants to do a good thing in your life. A great thing in your life. Wants maybe you to become a prayer warrior and intercede for your family. And God's called you to do a certain thing. And you'll see the challenges increase. I believe it's spiritual warfare. That's what's happening in our nation. Is it not? It's clearly spiritual warfare. If you go on my YouTube channel, I just made a YouTube video yesterday. Just having fun on the aqueduct. Responding to J-Lo and A-Rod. Saying if we could just get the right person in office, all this violence would be gone. No, no, no, no. Oh, Lord. If we could just get this right person in office, we'd be back to financial success. We were just at financial success six months ago before the pandemic. The pandemic, I mean. Sorry, guys. It's... Uh-oh. Edit that out. Of course I'm joking. Keep it in there. This is ridiculous. This is ridiculous. And we're seeing these false narratives. We're seeing all these things that are not true. And the Christian has to be on high alert. But Paul said, but he said to me. God said to Paul, isn't this awesome? My grace is sufficient for you. My grace is sufficient for you. I was going to highlight this. And I'll just tell you now. Just write it down if you want. You can text it out. I want you leaving here knowing this. His grace is sufficient. His grace is sufficient. It's made perfect in your weakness. But isn't that good? He said, my grace is sufficient for you. For my power. God says, my power. Empowerment. Empowered by the spirit. My power is made perfect in your weakness. So although I will not just take it away. Although I will not just take it away. My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect in weakness. And this is where I think the church gets in trouble sometimes. Especially talking about the LGBTQ movement or agenda. Or telling people, hey man, just pray. Get in church. God will take that away. What about if he doesn't? No, he does often. Especially if there's a father figure or something. But what about if that challenge stays for a while? You need to be able to offer that person hope. Because many times they get frustrated. Why isn't this leaving? Why isn't something you've been struggling with leaving? Sometimes God doesn't just pull that away. But it gets us. Thank God sometimes for those difficulties. Because it gets us to turn back to him. Can you imagine if life was carefree? No challenges. No difficulty. We say, okay God, I'll see you when I die. Thank you. I can take it from here. But he uses these difficulties in our lives. Paul said, therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses. I will boast in my weaknesses. Isn't that interesting? Just yes, I am not educated. People would say to some of you and some of us. I'm not educated. I'm not this. I'm weak in this area. I stutter. Some people have stuttering problems. I do this. I have a learning disability or whatever. I'm going to boast in my weakness because then God is even more glorified. So you boast in that what God is allowing in your life. And boasting is not prideful boasting. It's yes, these weaknesses are true. But God is greater. And I've found that people love transparency. Love transparency. I mean you look at certain people on YouTube or you listen to them on radio. And you think, oh man, I bet they've just rise to the top. No, they're just like you. Same problems. Same issues. They just have a different calling, a different gifting. And that's what we talked about last night. Blessed are the poor in spirit. The broken and humble in spirit. So my point was, and all of that long point is empowerment through the Holy Spirit through humility. Humbling yourself under the mighty hand of God. Especially, I would even direct this to men. Sometimes men think that they are to rule their house with a rod of iron. That they are the final authority. That they are this and they are arrogant really. And they need to humble themselves and become gentle. Bold, yes, but gentle and loving and serving. And then from that humility, God can really work in your marriage and in your life. And then we move into empowered. Empowered by the Spirit. Empowered through spiritual disciplines. Amen. If I remove this point, we would be in trouble. Because you can humble yourself on Sunday and by Monday you're in trouble. Spiritual discipline. Spiritual power. Talking about the Spirit's power. It's like a bank account. What's being deposited eventually can be withdrawn. It's also like, spiritual power is like a generator. We almost had to do that this morning. Do you know we had no power until 8.30 this morning? Woo-hoo, cutting it close. Lord, but I had perfect peace. I'm driving here saying, Lord, if you want us to be live and microphone, you'll do it. If not, I'm fine with it. And there's just peace trusting in God. But it's like a generator. What is plugged into that generator? What's being plugged into your life? What's being deposited into your life? Because all of us are simply a product of what's been going in. Correct? What's been going in our heart? What's been going in our mind? What have we been absorbing? What have we been conformed to? What have we been transformed by? What have we been reading? What have we been accepting? What have we been doing? How have we been living? All of that that's being deposited is going to be how we live. What's being withdrawn from our spiritual bank accounts. So I don't want to leave here this morning without reminding you this. The Word of God implants God's truth. To be empowered by the Spirit, you have to allow that truth to penetrate your heart. Do you know when I step up here on Sunday mornings when Pastor Abraham steps up, all we're doing is preaching from the outflow of what was deposited into our heart by the truth. If we come up and just give opinions or what I think, it'll be a spiritually dead church. The Word of God implants God's truth. All of his truth, by the way. Not just the nice feely things that feel good. Do you know there's so many churches that just, I'm just going to focus on the good things. I'm just going to focus on the candy. That's why they call it candy coating. Or making things taste good. But you have to allow all of the truth. All of the truth to come into your heart. And then give that out to the people. And then you have to have a spiritual discipline in your life of prayer. Prayer strengthens you. And it fortifies you. So to be empowered by the Spirit, what you're doing, sometimes I say, God, we want to pull down heaven. There's a connection that takes place with prayer. So as I'm humbling myself, as I'm broken, as I'm taking the Word in, and then I get in prayer, sometimes before Saturday night services, I'll find myself on my knees saying, God, move tonight. Bring people there who need to hear you. Lord, let me get there with the fire of the Spirit in my heart. And you pray, and God begins to hear those prayers and answer those prayers. And you become empowered by the Spirit. I read a lot of books. And one of those books was written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was killed by Adolf Hitler. And also William Tyndale, John Hus, John Wycliffe, Tyndale Bible, Wycliffe Study Bible. Two of those three were burned at the stake that I just mentioned. And before people, before they go to their martyrdom, when they know about it, they're spending the whole day just about in prayer. They're not watching TV. They didn't have TV back then, seeing if you're paying attention. They were spending their whole day in prayer while being strengthened up spiritually, empowered by the Spirit. And then, of course, worship. What we do before the service, after the service, what you can do at home. Worship through singing prepares the soil of your heart. I don't know why God did it, but He created music that does something to our hearts. Kids, you listen to the wrong music, it can really influence you. Adults, you listen to the wrong music as well, it can really influence you. I don't know why God did it, but He did it. The music of heaven, the angels cry out, and they sing worship. And you see in the early church, they were singing the Psalms, and there's something about worship, preparing the soil, and giving to God. In the worship, you are joy-filled, filled with joy. You're expressing thanks and thanksgiving to God. And as you're worshiping, as you're praying, as the Word strengthens you, you come out of there a mighty prayer warrior. You come out of there filled up with the Spirit of God. So spiritual disciplines are so important. Are you seeing now how this empowerment works? And it's ironic, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, what I'm talking about, anytime I talk about the Holy Spirit in a profound way, the Holy Spirit leading you, the Holy Spirit moving you, the Holy Spirit convicting you, God, we need the Holy Spirit this morning. Anytime you do that, it's often offensive to those who don't know much about the Spirit's work. We don't want to get charismatic, Shane. We don't want to get Pentecostal. Don't go there. I can't. I can't go there. They often get offended by this doctrine. Why is that? Often because it reminds people of something they don't have. So when you go around, the joy of the Lord is in your hearts, and you go around saying, the Spirit of the Lord is moving in my life. Do you ever say, the Spirit of God is moving in my life. I had an incredible time this week. And they say, no, I don't know about that. The Spirit of the Lord is moving in your life? What is that? Come on. Just stay in the Bible. Just read the Bible. That's good enough. Well, I don't know. I have this excitement. The Spirit of the Lord led me to do this. Oh, gosh. Hearing voices. Oh, Lord. Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo. The Spirit of the Lord led you. Yeah. Of course they're going to make fun, because the Spirit of the Lord has never led them. They're absent of spiritual strength, spiritual power, spiritual insight, and they mock what they do not have. And I truly believe that's why many churches are against the gifts of the Holy Spirit, because they are jealous of something they've never had or experienced. So because I've never experienced this, and I've seen weird things on YouTube, I'm going to put it down. And you have a very hard time saying that those are not relevant today, because Scripture teaches that they are. So you have to do a very good job of proving that they're not relevant. A lot harder job than I have proving that they are relevant. Because I just read Paul's words. I just read 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14. You see church history. You see the confirmation of the Spirit working. And if you say, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. That's what we read in the Bible a lot. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. That word, upon, I've talked about before. I won't go into detail, but it's an overflowing. It's an empowerment of the Holy Spirit. And I love that verse. I believe it was in Luke chapter 4. I didn't write down the exact chapter here. But it said that Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit. So if he needs to be filled, he was led by the Holy Spirit after his baptism, after the wilderness experience. Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee of news spread all about around him. Isn't this interesting? You have him 30 years. You don't even hear of Jesus doing much. Nothing. Who's just Jesus guy? Nothing. But then he receives this mighty filling of the Holy Spirit. Goes into the wilderness. Now he goes from obscurity in the wilderness to notoriety. Why? Because the Spirit of God is moving. And then he walks into the temple. Many people would love to visit Noah or Moses or whatever. I would love to. This is one of my top three or four things I would have loved to been here. When Jesus walks into church. He walks into the temple. And he opens the scroll of Isaiah. And he said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives. He has sent me to give recovery of the sight to the blind. To set liberty those who are oppressed. And to proclaim that this is acceptable year of the Lord. Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. He says after 30 years of waiting. 30 years of waiting on God's perfect timing. Now the Spirit of the living God is upon me. Overwhelming me. And now I can anoint those who need to know the gospel. I can go and heal the broken hearted. I can proclaim liberty to those who are in bondage. I can preach to those and heal those who need to see again. Did you know that same ministry is available to every believer? That same ministry of reconciliation is available to every believer. As long as they are filled with the Spirit of God. It's interesting at the end he said to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And that word acceptable if you look it up in other places. Primarily the King James translation of the Bible. It says the year when the Lord will show his favor. The year that is favorable to the Lord. The year of the Lord's good pleasure. This is when the Messiah was coming. All of that was fulfilled. But Jesus could not do anything without this power of the Holy Spirit in his life. It's amazing. We don't quite understand it. Fully God. Fully man. I get a headache sometimes thinking about this fullness. The deity of Christ dwelt. The fullness of the Godhead dwelt in the body of Christ. It's a very interesting doctrine. But it's true. But we also see that he needed this empowerment. That's why the prophets would say not by might. Don't go out there in your own strength. Not by your power. Don't go out there by your power. But by my Spirit thus saith the Lord. So Zerubbabel wanted to go out in his own might. In his own power. Let's take this great army. Let's go do this for God. And God said always remember this key principle. Even to us today. It's not by your might or your power. It is by the Spirit of the living God. Thus saith the Lord. That's how we exceed in ministry. That's how we succeed in ministry. So the great question this morning. Before we go to the second service. Are you resisting the Holy Spirit? Are you resisting the Holy Spirit this morning? Maybe there are certain areas I've been talking about the last 30 minutes. That God has been convicting you of. Certain areas you need to work on. Certain areas God wants you to give to Him. That's why I believe fasting is so important. It's very difficult. But it starves the flesh in order to hear clearly from God. And get direction from God. And I talked last night about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. How many of you have heard that in the Bible? And of course we know it can involve and it does involve rejecting the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit is convicting people to repent and turn their lives over to Jesus as Lord and Savior. But the context is very interesting. Jesus was healing people. God forbid. He's healing people. Healing them. The blind. The leopards. Leopards. Not leopards. It's funny. Just a side note. People talk about churches should still be closed because of the rules and the California different things. But Jesus broke the law. You weren't supposed to go touch a leopard. Leopard. You weren't supposed to go do that. No, no, no. That's like really bad. Like that's unclean, unclean. Don't go near them. He will go to them, touch them, and heal them. Because there is a higher law. There's a higher law. You submit when it's time to submit. But at some point you say, okay, now I have to submit to a higher law that calls us to be the church. And the church must be the church in these dire times. If not, now when? Answer me that. If not, now when? Oh, I can keep going on. If not, you who? If not, here where? The church has to be the church. If they don't open up soon, what are you going to do when flu season gets here? Everybody's got the sniffles. Everybody's sneezing. Everybody's coughing. Are we going to go into COVID mode and fear and go live and dwell in our homes for six months? At some point we got to say, Lord, we want to use wisdom. We want to be considerate. But we have to be the church. But back to this point of blasphemy. He was healing people. And the Pharisee said, you are doing that by Satan's power. Can you imagine that? They're telling Jesus, you are of Satan. And, of course, he goes, I cannot be of Satan because his kingdom is not divided. But he said, you're blaspheming the Holy Spirit. The context also is you're attributing the works of God to the works of Satan. That's why I kind of cringe sometimes when real conservative churches begin to put down churches like ours. Or churches where maybe the Holy Spirit is making them a little uncomfortable. And they start to say, that's just demonic. That's just demonic. Are you sure? Are you sure? Because that's what the Pharisees did. What's the fruit? What's the fruit? Well, that worship music is demonic. Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain. Well, that's not an old hymn. Why are they singing it for ten minutes? That's brainwashing. Oh, I've heard all of this. You'd be amazed. I'm talking conservative churches came here. That's just way too emotional. Those guys are out there. Are you sure? Because you could be attributing the works of God to Satan. You rewind Dierks Bentley, why can't we rewind worship? You rewind your favorite country, your favorite secular, and you sit and you listen and you worship the world. Why can't we worship God? Who said a song needs to be four minutes? Yes, I'm going on a rabbit trail. Just go with me here. But we do have to be careful. I understand. You can get caught up. You can sing songs that aren't Christ honoring. I remember that old song. It was years ago. I said, no, we can't do that. When it was like, when heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss. No, I don't think that's going to fly. Or the worship team, I'll never forgive the Lancaster. I come up here and I'm reading, and the leader at that time was singing. He's saying, I come running to you, my lover. I'm like, what are we singing here? Oh, that's from the book of Solomon. I'm like, well, you better take some time to explain that before we can start singing that song. So we want to look at lyrics. We want songs that are doctrinally sound. But at the end of the day, if the lyrics draw you closer to Jesus Christ, and you find yourself broken and humble in his awe and in his majesty, and there's fruit there, then God is moving. And people say, why do we sing songs? Holy Spirit, you're welcome here. Shane, that doesn't seem, that's not good. Well, OK, so he's not welcome here? Well, he's already here. Yeah, but you can, there's a deeper manifestation of God's presence and power often. There's a deeper proportion that he can, Holy Spirit, you are welcome here. God, move among us. Your Holy Spirit can convict and draw emptiest of ourselves. Lord, I come to you broken and humble. Holy Spirit, would you begin to anoint and convict and draw and resurrect dead dreams and revive the heart of the humble and begin to remove suicidal thoughts. Holy Spirit, because if you don't call down the Holy Spirit of God, there might be the wrong spirit that's trying to go into the demonic influences. Even in church, did you know that the demonic realm is still active in the church? Oh, you better believe it. He whispers, don't listen to that loud guy. Don't listen to that guy. Don't turn your heart over to Jesus Christ. There have been people in the stadium I heard about that had to just get up and leave. They couldn't sit there any longer. Right, Polly? You remember that one? One had to, I just have to get out here. Paula caught her and prayed with her, came to know the Lord, I believe. Why? Because the demonic realm hates that. She was baptized that day. See, there's other, the spirit's working so to say, Holy Spirit, you are welcome in this place. As a matter of fact, God has given us, I might get a little bit too much for you, but God has given us the ability to take authority over the demonic realm. And when we pray in the mornings, when we pray in the mornings, we say, Lord, watch this building, protect our children. We take authority. No wicked spirit will come in and bring thoughts of suicide and depression. No wicked spirit will keep certain marriages home that need to be here. We take authority over the darkness because Christ has conquered. He is ruling and reigning. And by the authority of the blood of Jesus Christ, we take authority over these things. And you can do that. But see, that's just too much for some people. You know why it is? Because they've never experienced the power of God. They never experienced a mighty filling. A mighty filling of the Holy Spirit when God's word becomes alive. I've seen it so many times. We're so scared to even pray for people now. I mean, you see an old person, they're kind of bent over, and the Lord prompts you to pray for them. No, I can't heal them. We walk around in fear more than in victory. The Spirit-powered, empowered life. Have you been rejecting the filling of the Holy Spirit because it doesn't fit your box of comfortable Christianity? I've covered a lot of this last night. You can listen to that message. But my thought on this is the filling of the Holy Spirit is something that should be sought after. Because you're filled with God's Spirit. And anytime you start to say, well, I don't want to get weird. You think God's going to make you weird? No. He makes you bold. And the world's going to call you weird. Well, I think it's pretty weird that they can stay locked up in the house for six months and watch 14 hours of Netflix and gain 45 pounds. And I'm the weird one. Because I want to experience God. Shane, you are so weird. You go to early morning worship, and that's just weird. Yeah, well, you sleep for 12 hours. And smoke a joint when you get up. That was weird to me. What's weird? How are we judging weirdness? And now there's 12 different genders? I was at the DMV, and they said, well, there's choices. Choices? Boy or girl? What do you mean? How do you? We've lost our mind. We have lost our mind. The moral compass went bye-bye a long time ago. And they call Christians weird. Guess what? You will be called holy rollers. Weird. Jesus freak. You'll actually be hated. You'll be hated. Somebody, I'll share with you how many emails I get with the F word in it. Hate it. Why? Because you stand for the truth. The world will hate you. Jesus said, but they hated me first. And all these pastors who like to be loved by the world, I said, why do they never hate you? Why? Because they can go to your church and feel comfortable in their sin and never repent. That's not the true church. We should be very welcoming and loving but not affirming. People say, well, Shane, can someone who struggles with this or this or this come to your church? Anybody can come to our church. They're welcome. But they're going to get convicted eventually. I'll tell you that much. Because God doesn't want people to live in sin. He wants them to experience freedom and wholeness. That's why Jesus said the spirit of the living God. And I believe that. Not to the same degree. He was perfect. He was sinless. He could hear the voice of the father without even speaking a word. He said, I know you're going to raise Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus, come forth. I don't say this because I doubt. I say this so they can see the miracles and the working power of God. But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you can set at liberty those who are captive. You can set free those who are bound up. And you can restore those who are broken. Why? Because it's not you. It's the Holy Spirit working through you. That's why Jesus said greater things. Greater things that I do that you will do. Did you know he said that? And I've seen some people butcher that. Like, yeah, we can do that. No, no, no, no, no. It just means greater meaning of more magnitude. Not limited to Samaria, Judea, and Jerusalem. Greater throughout the whole world. You should hear. I'm hoping I can get her back again from the persecuted church in China. Sister Sarah. Do you know they see miracles? Yes. Blind eyes are open. Limbs are restored. All these. It's just like that's commonplace. They come to America. Why don't you guys believe anything? You just come to church. You sing some songs. You go home. Where's the power of God? I'm like, could you come preach at some time? That's exactly what I'm saying. But please don't understand. I'm in this battle with you. I don't walk around seeing all these things all the time. Sometimes I think America's version of Christianity really hinders us. On what true Bible believing Christians are. This is the pep rally. This is the pep rally. This isn't the game. The game begins tomorrow. Or tonight. In your local grocery store. To your neighbor. To the person pulled over at the flat tire. At the Chevron gas station. Wherever you're at. The empowerment of the Holy Spirit. And then the final point. Empowered. Empowered. Oh, this is ringing true. This is ringing just. This is, I guess, a point where God really wants to get home. But many of you are limited in the Spirit's power because you're not repenting of besetting sin. I just said it. I'm free now. Sin will keep you from God. Knowing the fullness of God. Besetting sin. What is that? Sin I continue in. I know this is wrong, but. I'm actually planning on doing it tonight. I know this is wrong, but. I know God wants me to change this, but. And you keep allowing that. That will. It's like a water hose. I gave this analogy a couple years ago. I just thought about. When my boy. My son was little. He had the water on full blast. And I was waiting to see this. This is going to be good. But nothing was happening. He's like, oh, look, dad. He's drinking. I'm like. I thought he'd get sprayed everywhere. I go and look. And what is there? Three or four kinks in the hose. That's what sin will do to your life. Your kinks in the hose. You feel no power of God. You don't have the spirit of God. You don't know really what I'm talking about. You want this. You desire this. You don't have that spirit's baptism. Early morning prayer. That sounds boring. Worship? No way. Check me out. Because there's too many kinks in the hose. And experience the empowerment of the spirit. I want to just have you take this to the Lord this morning. Is there something you need to repent from and turn from? Listen, I'm not talking about perfection. You may blow it again. That might come and get you. But you're fighting this time. You're fighting. You're not giving in. You've repented. See, God just. David killed a man and committed adultery. And still, God said, a man after my own heart. Now, I'm not encouraging you to do that. I better just. Disclaimer. But the principle is, David was in misery. Was in sin. God was nowhere to be found. And Nathan came in to him. And he challenged. He said, David, you're the man. You're an unrepentant sin. David repented. And he said, oh, the joy of my salvation. What a return. God, the bones that you have broken. Would they rejoice? God created me a clean heart. Renewing me a right spirit. So I can teach sinners the errors of your way. And I've been built up again. I've been strengthened again. Oh, I feel the joy of the Lord again. It has returned. And I will go out and do great exploits for God. Because repentance has cleaned up the line of communication in my heart. Praise God. I remember. How many of you have heard of D.O. Moody? Okay. A lot of people. He's a famous Christian. He was trying to do ministry in his own strength. I want to build up D.O. Moody's kingdom. I want to build up my ministry. I want to be known. I want to be recognized. And God humbled him. And he realized that he was in it for the wrong reasons. He surrendered everything. He said, God, I don't care if it's just me and you. I want to follow you. And the spirit of God came upon him that day. And now we hear of D.O. Moody. And there's other stories and books that I read where women wanting the Holy Spirit. Wanting this Holy Spirit. And there's little things. Like I remember one woman. I can't remember her name. But she was so concerned about her attire. Her dress and her hair. I guess they wore hats back then. She had this hat. She loved it. It was all about her looks. And God kept convicting her of that. She's like, no. I'm holding on to. No. No. This is who I am. And then finally she let that go. And the spirit of God fell upon her life. And she was changed. And you can call it baptism of the Holy Spirit. You can call it the unction. The filling. Whatever you want to call it. That's not the point. The point is, do you have it? And once she removed that blockage, the spirit of God moved in a powerful way. There's other people, once they've gotten rid of things that God was convicting them on, the power, the presence of the Holy Spirit is so real. So I just want to leave you at that point. Is there something in your life that needs to be repented of? Is something blocking the power of God in your life? Well, Shane, what is it? You ask God. From experience, I'll just tell you from experience, we usually know what it is because people notice it. We have blind spots. People don't, right, that see us. It's probably been pointed out in our lives. It's probably something we know we have an issue with. We know we need to get rid of it. But what do we do? We deflect it. Well, yeah, but you, right? It'd be like saying, Shane, you need to work on this with your wife, with your marriage, with Morgan, God. Yeah, but her, you don't know her, okay? Okay, once she gets fixed, what, what, then, then, then you can talk to me. You'll never know the filling and power of the Spirit. You'll never get that joy back, that anointing back in your life unless you take it and you own it. Same thing happens with pastors and preaching. They want to come up and impress, and they're a great speaker, and they have a master's degree in this, and a PhD in this, and it's just this ambiance of arrogance. They will never know the true Spirit's power. I remember there was a man, Samuel Chadwick, I think you can still get his book, something about the fire of Pentecost, and on the back it says, the pastor who threw all his sermons in the fire and received the fire of the Holy Spirit because he had all these polished sermons, like this is great, and this is the Greek and the Hebrew and this, and I'm just, people are gonna be so impressed by my preaching, right? And he just, God was convicting him, he threw them all in the fire, said, God, I just want you, and now we hear of this person. Did you know the same thing would happen with all areas of ministry? If somebody really wants, if a worship leader really wants to be filled with the Spirit of God and usher people into the presence and power of God, they need to be very broke and very humble. If it's about, look at me, look at my voice. Aren't I eloquent and don't I sound good? They'll miss, you might have ability. You might have ability and gifting, but you won't have the fire of the Spirit. Listen, there's worship leaders so broke and humble, when you go in, I remember this one couple, I don't remember their name, we went to a conference, and just in their practicing, I fell on my knees. Just walking, you feel the anointing is strong because it's not about them, it's about God. Robert Murray McShaney, he was in Scotland, I think in the 1800s. He died when he was only 29. But there would be lines waiting out the door. And when people come into the sanctuary, when he would come to the pulpit, he'd spent so much time with God, hours in prayer, hours in fasting, that the Spirit of God would descend. He wouldn't even start yet, and people would begin to weep. That's the anointing, the tangible presence of God. Oh folks, that's what we need. Show me your glory. God, I don't want to just play church. I don't want to get to normal church. I can just come up here and give a message based on my experience, based on my knowledge of the Bible. Oh, Shane's a motivational speaker, that's great, let's go have lunch. But I want God to move in this place. I want hearts to be ripped open and ran and convicted. I want people to be challenged and built up and strengthened. You might even hear that, Shane, I've been set free this morning. This addiction I've been dealing with, this healing, I've been healed this morning. Why? Why can't God heal during worship? Why can't He heal during the preaching and proclaiming of His Word? That's actually, if you want to know what genuine healing is in the Bible, it's not somebody running around, throwing their coat on people, blowing on them. See some weird stuff on TV. Often you will see healing take place during worship or during something. God will put something on somebody's heart and there's a strong impression and they'll go and they'll pray for that person. But why? Because they're exercising their faith and their gift of healing and they pray for that person and God begins to heal because that person was humble, that vessel was being used, they were open and God began to direct where He wants to heal. It's not just, if some of these people truly had a healing ministry, why don't they go to the hospital? If the strength and power is in you and wherever you go there's healing and you're like a genie in a bottle and you can just heal on demand, go to the hospital. I believe in the gift of healing, I believe that God moves through people who are humble and submitted and broken during worship, during times of prayer, God will put it on their heart and God begins to heal through people who are open to that. So we're not opposed to any of that. What about prophetic words? Uh-oh, he's getting out there. Well, it's just in the Bible. Well, Paul said it so, if you don't like it, get some scissors and cut out 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14. That's what your scripture teaches. The Holy Spirit gives words of wisdom, words of knowledge. He'll put something on somebody's heart who's humble and submitted and that person will feel that and say, I don't know if it's me, but God, I feel God wants to tell you this and it will confirm because that's the Holy Spirit moving. But Shane, we have the word, isn't that enough? Yeah, but sometimes I need a little encouragement to know I'm grounded and strengthened because I don't trust Shane Eidelman. I need some confirmation from God sometimes and we're gonna honor a powerful woman of God, Marilyn Enos. We're having her service here on the 7th, on a Saturday, I believe. I'll never forget this morning, this day, it was October 2018. Oh, there we go, two years ago. And I'm back in there. I had to deliver some hard things to the congregation. I was struggling for about two days. Lord, I can't do this. I cannot do this. I do not trust me. Am I just angry? Am I just hurt? I'm not, I can't do this. And I'm back there. It's early morning worship. She's right here on the altar, I believe. And I see her, she gets up, walks around, comes over, tells me, God wants you to not hold anything back. What you need to say today, you say it. And she came back down like, what is that? Oh, Shane, that's just coincidence. Oh, good for you. You can believe that, I don't. See, that's God working prophetically. That's how the Holy Spirit works. I remember David Ravenhill. Also, I gave some of you example, but we've seen a lot of new faces. I'll give it again. He was at a dinner where this missionary, full of the Spirit of God, had this impression to share with another missionary. Had one to say, this is so bizarre, I can't even say it. So for like an hour, they didn't say anything. They just ate dinner, and it's like, oh, I have this burden. I've got to just say this. Okay, I know this is gonna weird, but I'm just gonna say this. And he told this girl, she was about 22, he said, God wants you to know that he also hates mommies and daddies. And this girl started breaking down, crying, and weeping. And come to find out, her uncle used to sexually abuse her and say, let's play mommies and daddies. And that prophetic word set her free. See, that's not clean, is it? That's not tidy. Oh, God doesn't do that anymore. Well, I don't believe that. See, that's what the gifts of the Spirit are for. We have the Word of God. We love the Word of God, but we don't elevate the Word of God before the Holy Spirit. It confirms what the Holy Spirit works. It confirms what the Word of God says. So I trust the Word. I just don't trust me. I need sometimes, I need the Holy Spirit to lead me, to guide me, to give me some confirmation. I've prayed many times, God, give me confirmation. I could share a story for the next couple of hours. See, that's what the Holy Spirit life is. It's filled by the Spirit, led by the Spirit, guided by the Spirit, infused by the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit. The Spirit-filled life. So if something is blocking that work of the Spirit, I just want to ask you to repent this morning of that. But I also want to encourage those who don't know who Jesus is this morning. You don't have the Holy Spirit in you. The Holy Spirit's alongside, I believe, convicting, drawing you. You maybe go to church, and maybe your parents are Christians, your spouse is a Christian, you listen to Shane on the radio, or other people, you hear it, but your heart is not engaged. I want to encourage you this morning, if that's you, to repent. The Bible says, repent, repent. It means change the way you see sin. And you say, God, back to point number one, I humble myself, I need the cross. Do you know why it's so hard for people to say? I need the cross. I need Christ. He's my Lord and my Savior. Why can't they say that? Because of pride. As I shared with you last night, that pride cometh before a fall. That word actually is destruction. Pride comes before destruction. So when people say, how can a loving God send someone to hell? He doesn't send them to hell. Their pride and their arrogance reject the gracious gift of God. That's why it's on them, not on God.