This sermon emphasizes the importance of worshiping God with a surrendered heart, highlighting the need for emotional healing and the power of the Holy Spirit in transforming lives. It challenges the audience to stop making excuses for lack of passion, to seek God in worship, and to fully surrender to His authority. The message addresses the distinction between Spirit-filled living and carnal living, urging listeners to engage in heartfelt worship that leads to healing and revival.

The topic, as you can see, is healing, seeker or skeptic. And we are going to pick up in Matthew chapter seven. I'm gonna kind of bring this in, hopefully with this title. But what we've been doing, if you have your Bibles, we've been in Matthew chapter seven, and we're ending chapter seven. And Jesus has been talking about the narrow road. He's been talking about false teachers. He's been talking about genuine fruit. He's been talking about solid foundations. Do you have a solid foundation or don't you? Do you know what a false teacher looks like or don't you? Are you on the broad road or are you on the narrow road? So after all these teachings, now he's gonna do some ministry. And that's what Matthew eight goes into detail about. But before Matthew seven ends, something very interesting here I wanted to bring to your attention. The Bible records Matthew seven, verse 28. And so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings that the people were absolutely astonished at his teaching. I threw the word absolutely in there to bring a little more significance. The people were astonished at his teaching for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes. So what these people notice is there's something different about that man. He doesn't speak like the normal religious leaders of Jesus' day, like the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the legal, the lawyers. Because what they would do is they would say, well, such and such says this, and such and such says this. And have you considered this? And Gamaliel says this. And it was just this pondering and this thinking about and reading a scripture kind of, here's what Ezra. It was, there was nothing really distinct or different, but then Jesus comes on the scene. And one account in the gospels records that when Jesus came on the scene, they said, why didn't you arrest him? They said, no man ever spoke like this man. And after all these sayings, people were standing there astonished because he spoke with authority. And let's look at that word right there, authority. Authority, here's the definition of it. The unimpeded power to act or to control or to dispose of something or somebody. Exousia in the Greek, exousia. It's an uninterrupted. He doesn't have to go and ask permission of anybody. He's got this authority. It's uninterrupted. Nobody can control it. Nobody can stop him. He has that type of authority. When he speaks, the word of God goes and it penetrates the heart. That's really what authority is in this context. It's speaking the word of God with authority so that lives are changed. They are shattered. They are rattled. They are shaken to the core because of this authority. No man ever spoke like this man. And this is the difference between Holy Spirit living and carnal living. Your life is marked by power and control or it's not. This is also the difference between Spirit-empowered preaching and preaching that entertains. There's a difference. There's a distinction. There's a mark. Listen, that guy speaks with authority. That woman speaks with authority because what are they doing? They have the Spirit of God in them speaking the counsel of God, the word of God that pierces the heart. And in your bulletin there, I think this quote is marked in the notes by Samuel Chaddock. He said, the sign of Christianity is not a cross but a tongue of fire. And of course we know that the sign of Christianity is a cross, but his point is it's a tongue of fire, of a man, a woman filled with the Spirit of God speaking boldly that fire in my bosom that the prophet said, his word is in my heart like a burning fire, it's shut up in my bones. You read the Bible. You compare this with any other book of religion out there and I spoke on that last few weeks. Check out those messages if you wanna see some of the distinctions. But the Bible has authority, the other ones don't. There's a distinction, there's a mark of something, something that irritates, something that upsets. Why, because it's got the authority of God on it. So there's something about that authority. And it's interesting on this issue of preaching and authority and what Christ was doing. If you look at coast guards, what do they see? They see a vessel going under, they rush to the scene and they rescue those people. Or a fireman, see a building that is burning, they run in, grab the people. We see this in the emergency room, those who work in the hospital. Somebody comes in, needs attention. What do we do? We jump right on it. Then how can the pulpit sit at ease when the world around us is damned? There's a burning building, there's somebody sinking. And the only way you can rescue them is with that spiritual authority, that God-given authority. As a man or woman surrenders to the work of the Holy Spirit, then they are filled mightily with the Spirit. Many of you won't be doing what I'm doing, I'm not talking about that, but you need God's Spirit and power in your life. For daily living, woe be the man or the woman who enters into life unarmed and untrained and unprepared for battle. The sword of the Spirit is left at home. The breastplate of righteousness is nowhere to be found. With warfare, the man whose sermon is repent sets himself against the world and will be battered mercifully by those he challenges. There's but one end for such a man, off with his head. You'd better not try to preach repentance until you've pledged your heart or your head to heaven. And that's so true because of that authority, that God-given authority, when you upset people, they don't like it. And really, it's spiritual authority, this word authority. It's not like we're thinking sometimes the police or the sheriff, and although it is, this is spiritual authority. This shakes the spiritual realm. That's why when you worship, and she was saying Jesus is that name, Jesus is that name, I guarantee you anybody possessed or oppressed by demonic influence would run for cover at the sound of that name. They wouldn't enter this building. They wouldn't even get to the front door. Why? It's that spiritual authority of Christ. You name the name of Christ, people get upset, demons flee. So that's what that authority is. And there's a great danger to preach about the Holy Spirit without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Many people are talking about the fire of God as if they're sitting on an iceberg, and it's that authority, that spiritual authority. Now, here's where the sermon made a complete 180, and it's gonna step on some toes, but that's okay. I've been good at doing that lately. And on this topic of are you a seeker or are you a skeptic, and I do wanna tie in healing, because a lot of times we think of healing as physical. And of course it is, right? When we pray, God, heal me, or heal this person, we think of physical. But I wanna talk about something a little bit different tonight. I wanna talk about healing of the heart. How many of us have emotional wounds? Just me? Boy, that's embarrassing. I know there's a lot more. And if you read the article in today's Antelope Valley Press, if not, go home and on your way home, grab it in Saturday's edition. It's in Victorville. It's on Facebook, The Christian Post. But I opened up about my own confession of aborting a child 22 years ago. And it was the hardest article I've ever written. I spoke on it here before about a year and a half ago on a sermon I gave. And to carry that emotional baggage around, you can't think how old would they be. Would it be a boy or a girl? Would they be, what would they look like? And that emotional weight. And then you go through a difficult, God breaking me in the 1990s and experiencing all kinds of issues and this emotional baggage that we carry around. God can heal us of that. God can heal those emotional wounds, those emotional scars. The person who's been abused, the person who's been neglected, the person who's been, you fill in the blank. Anything, Shane, anything. Molestation, abortion, rape, all of that. His healing power can set you free. And that's what I want to talk about tonight. And I want to ask for the usher's attention. I want to ask for the greeter's attention. I want to ask for the worship team's attention and the media and the sound. I want everybody, check your phones. We're going to focus in on this important issue about worship and what that does to the heart. And are you a seeker or are you skeptic? In other words, say worship like this. It's kind of emotional, right? Are you a seeker or are you skeptical? Well, my question is, why don't you go to the one who has the answer? Well, I can't open myself up, I'll be deceived. No, you won't. If, it's in your bulletin, you cannot be deceived if you're filled with the Spirit, living in His Word and making prayer and worship an important part of your day and you remain broken and humble before Him, you cannot be led astray. Actually, the Lord is seeking those who will worship Him, who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. So if you came in as skeptic to God's healing power, to heartfelt worship, I want to challenge that skepticism tonight. And I'm going to step on some toes. He heals our emotions, but He also awakens our soul. And a lot of that is done through worship. And I believe that worship is one of the most neglected areas of the Christian walk. This is where the disconnect is happening. This is where a lot of times we don't see healing, we don't see deliverance, we don't see prayers answered, we don't see this, because worship, there's a disconnect in our worship with God. And let me remind everybody in this room that worship heals, worship sets us free, worship releases. It's the heart being released to worship God. And that is the major disconnect, I believe. People can have a somewhat of a prayer life, you can read your Bible, but unless you have that heart of worship, there's not going to feel that connection with God. So let's talk about that briefly. And what I want to do is parallel this with the drought that we're seeing in California, right? That nobody's really worried about yet, but trust me, if it keeps going like this, you want to talk about water rationing and all kinds of things, you see the parched ground, you see everything barren, you see the drought up in the high Sierras, and what's going on? Well, to me, it parallels dead worship. People are dying spiritually, emotionally, they're dying, just like that parched ground, their hearts are getting hard like that. They need that living water, but because they're not worshiping, because they have a dead formality, a dead worship, they're staying stagnant and they're not growing, their heart's not reviving. Remember when Jesus said, you've got all this, but you've left your first love, return to me. Do you think that might have something to do with it? Do you think that might have something to do with worship? Just a little bit. Everything, that's worship. You have all this stuff, but return to your first love and worship me. Let humility and brokenness reign again, stop judging and backbiting and bickering, complaining, worship me, spend time at the foot of the cross. That's how you return to your first love. You don't return to your first love, I'm gonna upset some people, but you don't return to your first love starting here. You return to your first love starting here as the heart breaks and then the word of God opens up and then the prayer life becomes dynamic and powerful. Everything flows from that broken heart. That's why Jesus said, you draw nigh unto me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. You know the scripture, but you don't know the author. Oh my Lord. Emotions are good and God given. You realize that. Emotions are good and God given. I think sometimes we're embarrassed by the emotions we see in the Bible. You read the Psalms, seeking after God, or as a deer pants after living at the water, I'll pan after God, consuming fire, I desire everything. And it's embarrassing. And so Paul offends us because they're too emotional. No, they're drawing close to God. Everybody got excited last Sunday, right? Maybe not if your team didn't win. Where's that emotional? Why aren't the emotions being engaged? We're embarrassed by Paul. We're embarrassed by the depth of the Psalm, panting after God as a deer pants after water consuming. What is this? The reason is you've never experienced it because once you experience it, you read and say, amen, my soul cries out for the one true and living God. One thing have I desired, one thing that I may dwell in the house of the Lord. All the days of my life, He's everything. That's all I want. You can take my money, you can take my reputation, but don't take God. So when we read those things, we don't mock them because we've experienced them. Heartfelt worship, desiring, seeking God. Many people, here's the problem, I'll list two problems. Many people worship the Word and not the author. Uh-oh, it's stepping on toes, isn't it? Many people worship the Word. They've got the Bible down. They've got their pneumatology and eschatology and theology and sotrology. They've got it down, but they forget the author. Worship Him. The next point could be this, or you need a mighty filling of the Spirit. You need a mighty filling of the Holy Spirit. You might say, oh, Shane, I don't know about that. Well, let me tell you, the Bible talks repeatedly about being filled with the Spirit of God, that the Spirit of God came upon such and such. The Spirit of God came upon such and such. Peter being filled with the Spirit of God. Paul being filled with the Spirit of God. Jesus Himself being filled with the Spirit of God. After the temptation, after the wilderness, being filled with the Spirit of God. Because that's worship. Heartfelt worship is a byproduct of somebody who's filled with the Spirit of God. And what happens is the walls that we built to protect us have imprisoned us, right? The walls we built to protect us have imprisoned us. I'm not gonna get carried away like that Looney Tune. I'm not gonna be that fanatical. I'm not a Jesus freak. That guy's out there. What the heck does this mean? What the heck does this mean? Why are they so emotional about it? I don't know, we're worshiping God. We're not lying at the DMV. Think about that. We're at a powerful worship service, but it's not a cemetery, and it's really not funny, it's sad, right? Listen, I gave you a fair warning 20 minutes ago. You need to get up and leave and understand. But I told my wife a couple weeks ago, we joked, I said, if I ever meet a heart surgeon, I'm gonna tell him, hey, I do that too. He does it physically, I do it spiritually. See, heart surgery is not fun. It hurts, but we need that. And just think of that song. I've heard people mock that song. The more I seek him, the more I find him. The more I find him, the more I seek him. The more I seek him, the more I love him. They mock it, they make fun of it. Oh, you emotional, this and that. You emotional, oh, you Christian. And they're Christians, and they mock it. I must've heard that song seven times this morning. Rewind, rewind, rewind, because it takes 10, 20 minutes to get the carnality and the sin out of my heart and to start worshiping God. Hit the rewind button, and worthy is the lamb. Worthy is the lamb. The more I seek him, the more I find him. The more I find him, the more I seek him. Shane, that's brainwashing. No, it's brain repairing. It's not brainwashing, it's brain repairing, and our brains need to be repaired. Sometimes, what do you think meditate on the word of God means? Meditate on the word of God. He who meditates on the word of God will be like a tree planted by living waters who will bear its fruit in season and whose leaves will not wither, and everything he does will prosper. Why? Because he meditated on the word of God. Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Do you think it's a five-minute wait as if you put a dish in the microwave? You think that's what that word means? Oh, one-minute cycle. Okay, I'm waiting. No, no, no, no, no, no, sir. Waiting is travail of the soul. It's seeking God. The more I seek him, the more I find. That's why I can sing that song, because I've experienced it. I've experienced him waking me up early in the morning and pouring his grace upon me so that everything changes. I come out of the prayer closet a better husband, a better father, a better pastor, a better leader, a better person, a better man. If that's bad, then bring it on. We need more of that. We need more of that heartfelt worship, breaking the heart. Emotions are good and God-given. They're not bad. So where is that emotional, heartfelt worship? Show me one time in the Scriptures where true worship was not emotional or heart-gaging. It's a test. Go through the whole Scripture. Show me one time where true worship was not emotional and heartfelt. Oh, you'll find many times where it wasn't. In every case, it was rebuked by God. Jesus rebuked them because of their fake and phony worship. Now, please don't misunderstand. I'm not talking about necessarily a posture. I'm talking about a heart. I've been around the block long enough. I was a church sitter in those pews just three years ago. I know that many people are not worshiping God. They're worshiping the one true living God, but it seems like they're lying at the DMV. Is that not true? How quick can we get out of here? Oh, come on, oh, another song. Jesus, oh yeah. I wish I had two hours to show you underground footage from the house churches in China. Unbelievable. But it probably wouldn't work in respectable Christianity when you see Chinese believers on their knees worshiping as tears are falling down onto the ground, worshiping God, getting more of God. That's biblical historical Christianity. What we have today is not. What we have today is American version of Christianity. Let's get them in, let's get them out as quick as we can. Do you realize that I go to, I've been to conferences where they tell me to get my sermons down to 25 minutes because we live now in an age where people's perception, their depth, and their way to keep their attention, you can't go past 25 minutes. We gotta get our services down to an hour. I leave there thinking, they know not that the Spirit of the Lord has departed from them because when you're truly worshiping God, you can't put a time limit on it. I think that's a problem with many churches, including this one from Chinatown, is we're in a hurry. God says, no, wait, wait on me. Granted, I have the advantage. I'm in a three-hour worship service that start at four o'clock and I'll encourage you, if you can make it at four o'clock, both services, try to get here as we press in and worship God. Now, when I talk about this thing about emotions, you have to understand that this isn't coming from an emotional guy, some little loose cannon crybaby. Oh, you guys know my story, right? When I was younger, I was bench pressing 400 pounds. I had a name around town as a steamroller. And my family, my dad's side came from the farms of Oklahoma, not very emotional. You know what my dad would say? Boy, you don't cry. Six years old, got hurt. Daddy, I'm hurt. Boy, you don't cry. Get up. 10 years old, 12 years old, arm surgery, going to the hospital. Daddy, I wanna cry, I'm a little boy. Boys don't cry, men don't cry, man up. They would rule their house with a rod of iron, but they knew nothing about the compassion of God. And then what happens at 18, suppressing those emotions. Can't be emotional, can't cry, can't do anything. Then you become a volcano and you erupt and it's not pretty. Most anger you see in men are little boys inside, needing to release the emotion that was never released when they were younger. Fighting mad at their father for never telling them, Daddy, who am I? Who am I? I can remember my dad saying that probably more than anything else. Boy, you don't cry. Men don't cry. So this isn't coming from some emotional loose cannon up here. This is coming from somebody who has met the risen Savior and he's radically changed my life. And there are mornings, and there are mornings I can't stop weeping. And I'm not gonna apologize for it, I'm gonna praise him. Because then I come out of there holding my wife instead of hitting her. You understand? You understand the significance here of when God radically changes a life? And we're not gonna get emotional? Really? You're just not emotional? You express anger real well. Is anger not an emotion? Oh, I can keep stepping on some toes. You express lust and passion real well. Are those not emotions? I'm just not emotional is an excuse to hide our hard, callous hearts because we don't know how to worship. And it's okay. It's okay. God says just come with a broken heart, I'll teach you how to worship. I have to worship him. Sometimes there's joy, sometimes there's tears, sometimes there's nothing, sometimes just waiting on God to move and to break and to restore and to rebuild. Because when I read the Bible comes to life, I'm not embarrassed by the Psalms, I wanna embrace the Psalms. I'm not embarrassed by Paul because I can relate to Paul. Experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit in a person's life is powerful. And it goes back to the whole point of the sermon. The Father is looking for those who will worship him for God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Did you catch that? The Father is looking, looking for those who worship him. Jesus had the discourse with this woman. He said, listen, you don't know what you worship. God the Father is spirit. He's spirit and he's looking for those to worship him in spirit and in truth. The Old Testament says the eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to him. I guarantee those hearts that are loyal to him are hearts that are worshiping him. You don't see hearts that are loyal to God on passion and on fire for God that aren't worshiping. You don't see it. You know what the Bible calls a passionate heart that's not worshiping God? Lukewarm. And Jesus said, I wish you were cold nor hot that because you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth. Jesus Christ? Yeah, the little mild meek lamb that says turn the other cheek, that Jesus Christ. The literal translation is vomit. I will vomit you out of my mouth because that lukewarm, you have lukewarm tea, lukewarm milk. I can't stand this. So it's a loving father. It's rebuking so that our hearts will turn. Many people go through church year in and year out. Nothing changes. Nothing changes. They'll come one Saturday, they'll miss three. They'll come another Saturday, they'll miss four. It's just nothing. They're just as dead as a doornail. They're just as frigid as a Frigidaire refrigerator. There's nothing in their heart that's hard after God. They're searching, they're looking, they want it, but they're bound. The reason you don't worship is the enemy's got you bound. He's got you just thinking, oh, that's just for women. That's just for emotional people. No, that's for you, and that's for me. Worship is the heart of God. Worship is how you connect with the Father. Actually, my prayer life is dead if I don't worship. Dead prayer life without worship, but you turn the worship gauge on, and that's powerful. That's a heart on fire for God, is when prayer and worship meet. That's a Spirit-filled life. And I notice that worship often preceded healing. Do you need healing? Not just physically, what about mentally? Depression, anxiety, fear, all these things. Shane, I'm about to lose it mentally. I'm about to have a nervous breakdown. I'm not gonna, I'm about ready to, you fill in the blank. What do you need more than anything? You need God, you need worship. I don't know, I can't explain it fully, but God restores the heart. He restores the emotions as we worship Him, as we don't let fear and all this bondage take control of us. Fear often precedes healing. Come on, there's a plethora of examples in the New Testament. The leper, he was a leper. He came to Jesus, and he fell down, he worshiped Him. He said, Lord, teacher, good teacher, if you are willing, will you heal me? What about the synagogue official who came in and said, Jesus, he fell down, he worshiped Him. He said, my daughter is dead. Good teacher, would you come, just speak a word. My daughter is dead, would you come? But he fell down and worshiped Him. What about the distraught mother who said, Jesus, she fell down and worshiped Him. My daughter severely vexed with the devil. That's not a good thing. Watching a child being demonically possessed is heart-wrenching. She didn't come and give him a lecture, she came down and worshiped Him. She didn't come and say, why does God do this, and why does God do that, and I can't worship a God who does this, she came and worshiped Him. He said, go, woman, for that very hour, your daughter's healed. What about the man who was bound by demonic, not oppression, this is demonic, he was possessed by a legion of demons. He said, my name is Legion. They couldn't even chain him, he lived in the tombs. What's the Bible say? He came and worshiped Christ. Worship is powerful, worship often precedes the blessing. Worship often precedes the healing. That's why the enemy wants to get our worship, he wants to get us out of the line of communication with God. Don't worship like those fanaticals, don't do this, don't raise your hands, everybody's gonna look at you. Don't be on your face weeping to God, everybody's gonna look at you. You need to come in here as some good, conservative Christian, and then leave here no different than when you arrived. The heart's not changing. And I'm pretty sure I might lose about a half dozen people after this message, but I'm not concerned with that because God's bringing people from the east and west and north and south, He's building His church. When you proclaim His truth to help people, He'll add to the church. You don't have to worry about crowd appeal. That's one thing I love about West Side Christian Fellowship is everybody's here because they wanna hear what's being said. I don't have to come in and answer to a board of directors, sit and listen to an elder board because they don't say this and don't say that. We might lose our big givers, we might lose this, don't wanna say that, you're gonna lose half your national audience. Don't do this, you better not. We just come and we preach the word of God. If you want it, come and be a part of this and worship God in spirit and in truth. I like what David said, one thing if I desire, one thing if I desire, that will I seek to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. And this type of message will feed the seeker, but it's gonna upset the skeptic. This type of message is meant to offend. Do you realize that? This message will offend and rightly so because change will not take place until I offend you according to the word of God in a loving way. This message offended me. I had my sermon all three point, hole-punched in this folder, ready to go. 4.30 this morning, Lord, you gotta be kidding me. So I told Morgan, I'm gonna be in there for about till 10 o'clock this morning. I gotta, and everything's just pouring out, just writing all these points down, just writing it down. I don't know, I could leave here and say, well, I don't know if God was in or not, but he sure was tugging on my heart this morning. And based by the looks on some of your faces, I can tell he's tugging on yours as well because this is a very good thing. This type of message is the type of message where you get a Tyson right hook and you just, oh, that's what I needed. Lord, I need that. I need you. I need to worship you. If you seek me, you will find me. If you find me, you will seek, Lord, that's what I need. I need to seek you. I need to find you with all of my heart, with all of my soul, with all of my strength. And that's what we're trying to do. He's called me to revive hearts, not put them to sleep. You catch that? I know he's called me to revive hearts, not put them to sleep. And some people don't want their hearts revived. I've told you before, the majority of negative emails I get, including this week, are from Christians. You say, what in the world? That's what I ask myself too. But it basically comes down to any time you call somebody to that holy life, that devoted life, that life for Christ, the transformed life, the exchanged life, the fully surrendered life, people don't wanna hear it because they don't want it. Yeah, you don't wanna change. Don't challenge my viewing habits. Don't challenge my dating habits. You better not challenge my drinking habits. And when you challenge all the habits, you get in trouble, and rightly so. Do you realize that the Old Testament prophets were not popular people a lot of times with the kings and the leaders? Elisha, remember I told that story a few weeks ago, came and told wicked King Ahab. He killed all his prophets. He prophesied against Jezebel, she's gonna die. And all he's doing is proclaiming the truth of God's word. He's calling the people back. The same Elisha that said, how long will you waver between two opinions? If God is God, follow him. Do you know the same cry goes out today? Church, how long will you falter between two opinions? If God is God, follow him. There's no middle ground. The middle ground's called the lukewarm ground. And then what do you think the king said? Thank you, Elisha, for bringing the people back. No, he said, oh, troubler of Israel. My wife will kill you by tomorrow. And he fled. And you know the rest of the story? God spoke to him. He wasn't in the wind, he wasn't in the fire, he wasn't in the earthquake. He was in the still, small voice that followed. Many of you never hear the still, small voice of God because you're too busy. You're too busy doing everything but worshiping. Should it take up all your day? Of course not, I'm practical. But there should be a time where you're worshiping God and where your heart's seeking after him and you're being edified, you're being built up. So let me get to the point. Stop making excuses. We need to stop making excuses for our lack of passion. Did you catch that? We need to stop making excuses for our lack of passion. Many people say, I'm just not emotional. We've already covered that, did we not? We express emotion real well in other areas. We have the word of God now. We don't need all those emotions. No, actually the word of God draws me even closer to Christ. The bottom line is, man by nature has a prideful, arrogant heart. And you can't worship God when you're prideful. I'm just shooting you straight. You cannot truly worship God when you're prideful. Many people come in here, all churches, and they're judging when they walk in. Well, those lyrics wouldn't meet the Westminster Confession of Faith. Why are the lights dim? Why are they doing all this stuff? Why are they worshiping more than four songs? Isn't that brainwashing? What's Chelsea doing saying Jesus, Jesus? What's wrong with her? Nothing's wrong with her. Something's wrong with you. Something's wrong with you. You read this and you go, something's wrong with you. Because fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, kindness, self-control. The fruit of the Spirit, goodness. So these are very good things. Thousands will hear the word of God this weekend, but they will not experience God. People will arrive hungry and they'll leave starving. You realize that? Millions of people will go to church hungry and they'll come home starving to death. What happened? The Spirit of God was not moving. This is a very important issue. And the pastors will hear, Pastor, that was a wonderful sermon. It was grammatically correct and historically correct. Your humanudic and homiletic approach was second to none. You uncovered the Greek ambiances and the Hebrew verb tense is wonderful, but they leave starving. Don't get me wrong, I love homiletics. It's a study of how to prepare a sermon. I love those kind of books. Hermeneutics, how to study your Bible. Yeah, real popular on my reading list, but too many people are worried about a master's degree instead of a degree from the master. They're just dying on the vine and this is why. Think about it. You go and you teach theology students how to interpret the Greek language, but you never teach them to pray and to fast and to fully surrender their lives. Listen, the Pharisees knew the Hebrew, Aramaic. They knew the language. They had the first five books of the Bible memorized. Why did Christ rebuke them? Because they didn't know the author. This is vitally important, but on that note, just a word to my charismatic friends. I love you, but if it's odd, it's God, it's not biblical. What I mean by that is emotions should not be the engine of the train. They are the caboose. So we don't get emotional and work God up into a Holy Spirit pep rally. You don't whip God up. God brings revival down upon his people. Fire falls on an altar. Therefore, Paul would say to the church in Rome, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Before that, he says, I beseech you, brethren, to present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy what is your reasonable service to God. And then when you present your body as a reasonable sacrifice, fire falls. I would bet the majority of the people in this room have never said something like this. Lord, I surrender all of my life. Everything is yours. My finances, my marriage, my parenting, my leadership. Lord, my heart, everything is yours. Would you fill me mightily with your Spirit? I wanna worship you. I wanna know you in the power of your resurrection, the fellowship of your suffering. I want the Bible to come alive in my life. Lord, I'm giving you everything tonight. I submit and I surrender. It is all yours. And I bet most of you have never said that. You see where the problem is now? The problem is not in the message. It's in the receiver. And to my Reformed friends, what I call theological friends, listen, we have the same heroes, the Reformation, we read the same authors. I love those guys. But the very thing you need is the very thing you're avoiding, the power and the presence of the Spirit of God. For some people, the word Holy Spirit and filled is something they want to avoid. Me, it's something I want to run to because the Bible is all about the Spirit-filled life, a life guided and directed by the Spirit, not weirdness, power, exousia, that Christ had, that authority. That when you speak, you speak by the authority of God. When you pray, you're praying with the authority of God. When you worship, that authority comes and reigns and rules in your heart. As a matter of fact, the Spirit-filled believers are the most discerning people I've ever met in my life. The people who worship the Bible and are so into theology have to be careful because sometimes they become overly judgmental and hypercritical and they quench and grieve any type of work that God's gonna do in their heart. So we have to be careful here. You might say, how dare you challenge me, Shane? I say, no, how dare you continue to keep running from the very thing you need? Do you realize that? The very thing you need is the very thing you keep running from. I don't want to become some holy roller fanatical. Would you rather be miserable? Because I know the Christian life that's not surrendered to God is not a very fun life. It's a miserable life because you're trying to serve two masters and you can't. You'll either be loyal to one, you'll hate the other, or you'll despise the one and love the other. You cannot serve two masters. That's why I believe many people are frustrated. That's why I believe they're angry. That's why I believe they deal with a lot of emotional issues because they haven't fully surrendered their life. Is a Spirit-filled life free of dilemma and challenges? Oh, Lord, no. I wish it was. I wish it was. But that's really the thrust of this message. The very thing you need is the very thing you're mocking. Do you realize that David's wife mocked him? King David, when they brought the Ark of the Covenant, the Philistines, they took it, and David was bringing it back in. You might get a little bit excited about that, you think. I don't know. Here comes the power and presence of God. And his wife mocked him. Oh, you king of Israel. You're making a fool in front of the people. And in that same area, this is what the Bible says. This is words taken from David, I believe. Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Just think about this. Listen to what I'm saying. Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon his name. Make known his deeds among the people. Sing to him. Sing psalms to him. Talk of all his wondrous works. Glory in his holy name. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his wonder among all peoples. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He is also to be feared above all other gods. Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and gladness are in his place. Gift to the Lord, oh, families of the people. Gift to the Lord, glory and strength. Gift to the Lord, the glory due his name. Bring an offering and come before him. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. So it begs the question, and I want to leave you with this. When was the last time you wept in the presence of God? I say, oh, I'm not emotional. Neither am I. But when sinful fallen man encounters the one true and living God, there should be some type of emotion. Joseph wept, men of war in the Bible wept, David wept, Nehemiah wept, kings wept, prophets wept, priests wept. They fell down in the holy presence of God. When was the last time you truly worshiped him? I'm not saying somebody has to weep in God's, I'm just saying, but when was the last time you worshiped him, when the heart was engaged, not disengaged, not worried about what we're gonna eat or how late is this gonna go and things, worshiped him, removed everything, let's turn the clock around. Can we turn the clock around? Children's ministry would say no because we need to pick up the kids. We'll go bring them back in here. But that's the heart of worship. And I'll leave you with this question. Are you a seeker or are you a skeptic? Are you a seeker or are you a skeptic? Because that question demands an answer. Think about that. Either way, you're giving your answer. So I'm asking the question, are you a seeker or are you skeptic? And if you were a skeptic, can you come over to our side? It's a little bit more enjoyable. Life being filled with the spirit of God, worshiping him, it's not a bad thing.