This sermon emphasizes the importance of understanding and embracing the anointing of God. It highlights the need to surrender fully to God, allowing the Holy Spirit to govern our lives and empower us to carry out God's will with supernatural strength. The urgency of God's will is emphasized, urging listeners to reposition themselves back into the center of God's will, even if it requires humility and difficult choices.

Last week we talked about a very interesting topic. If you were here, you remember what that was. If you weren't here, I would encourage you to go back and listen to last week's message. We talked about understanding the, you ready for the word? The anointing. Understanding the anointing. And that word makes some people cringe, and it makes other people leap for joy. What's the difference? Because they've experienced it. They've experienced the anointing of God, that filling of God's presence, and they want more of that. And we also try to, I don't want to go over last week again, but we try to find the balance. It's not about being anointed by God. It simply means that you've surrendered your life to God, completely, for the most part, fully surrendered your life, and the Holy Spirit now is governing your life. And what the definition is this, the authority and the ability to perform God's will with supernatural strength. Creo. Creo is what it means in the Greek. Anointed. To perform God's will with anointing and with strength. And you, you, you who've been there know exactly what I'm talking about. And when the anointing's there, when it's not, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Church is dead, the Bible's dead, and many people live in that state. And it's interesting, Christ was called Christos, Christos, C-H-R-I-S-T-O-S, Christos, which was the anointed one. He was coming. He was the anointed one. Remember we talked about the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, upon me. He's anointed me to preach the gospel, to set captives free. So actually the anointing is nothing to be scared of. It's something to be embraced. And with, when this filling of the Holy Spirit comes, when you're filled with, with the love of God, the joy of God, sometimes joy is a byproduct. You're just excited for the things of God. Have you ever got up in the morning and wanted to read the Bible and couldn't wait? That's a good thing. And wanted to get to church, wanted to worship, because the Spirit of God is working in your life. But, but the enemy hates the anointing. He does not want people anointed with the Spirit of God. And I believe that once God saves you, he seals you with the Holy Spirit. And you're, the Holy Spirit's given to you as a guarantee. Both quoting Ephesians, I believe, from, from Paul's letters. There, that the Holy Spirit is given as a guarantee. And he's there, he seals us until the day of redemption, is the exact wording. So the enemy knows, okay, this person's saved, but I'm gonna knock them off track. I'm gonna stop that, because the enemy's worried about the anointing. The anointing is the power of God working in your life. So when you pray with the anointing, much different than when you just pray. You're praying with the anointing, you're going to work in the anointing, you're in your marriage, in the anointing, your family, fathers could lead their children in the anointing. It makes all the difference in the world. So the enemy is going after this calling of God, this filling of the Holy Spirit to sidetrack you and sidetrack me from what he's called us to do. I mean, is that the goal of a lion who goes about seeking whom he may devour? That's exactly what he does. He goes after the anointing of God on your life. And you know, people that can relate to this sermon, if you can't relate, that's why I'm preaching it. I'm trying to get that heart into the right spot to where you can be filled with God's Spirit mightily. And everything changes. The Bible comes alive. Worship comes alive. Church comes alive. You want more of God. You just can't seem to get enough of God. That's healthy. That's being filled with the Spirit. And those of you who know that, you also know that as the filling of the Holy Spirit increases, guess what else increases? Temptation. I mean, when I'm in my 20s, I thought I was a really good person. I'm a nice guy. And now, you see, my motives can be tarnished. My attitude can be tarnished. The enemy uses everything. Temptations everywhere. Because that's how he kills the anointing, quite honestly. He throws the bait out there. You take the bait and draws us away from God's anointing. So I want to talk tonight about surviving the anointing. And I can't take credit for that title. It's actually a book that David Ravenhill wrote. He's the son of Leonard Ravenhill. I don't know if you remember Leonard Ravenhill back in the 1960s, 70s, 80s. I would encourage you to read this book, Surviving the Anointing. And it talks about this whole aspect of how the enemy comes in certain areas of our life. But I'm going to use it springboarding off of what we talked about last week. And when I talk about the anointing, do you want to be filled with the Spirit of God? Do you truly want the Bible to come alive? Do you truly want worship to penetrate your heart? Do you want to be this love overflowing? The Puritans used to write of this unspeakable joy of when God finally fills us with the Spirit. And you're breathing. You're eating God. Not that you're so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. I don't even believe in that statement. The more heavily minded you can be, often the most earthly good you are. I don't think you can have enough of God. Now we can get off into weirdness, you know, and just, oh, I'm so spiritual, I'm just gonna pray all week and not do anything, not serve. You can kind of float into this, you know. But I'm talking about people who are just filled with God's Spirit, who want the anointing on their life, whatever area of a service. Whatever area of service. But I remind you again that the anointing comes with a cost. There is a price. When Jesus says, die to yourself, carry your cross, follow me. How many people do you think actually do that? I mean, I don't do it perfectly. Nobody does it perfectly. I mean, you would be Jesus if you did that perfectly. But if we think about what it requires to be filled with the Spirit of God. It requires saying no to self. It requires saying no to many of our addictions. It requires saying no to many of our attitudes. It requires saying no, I can't go there, I can't do those things because it draws me away from God. Dying to self, not having to win every argument, wanting to have peace in the home, wanting to empty myself. Lord, I empty myself. Everything is yours. My checkbook, my finances, my marriage, this church. Lord, everything is yours. There's a cost to walking in the anointing. And it's a cost that very few people want to pay. This is a shoot you straight service, right? I have to hide some of this stuff from the first service. They can't take it. I'm kidding, of course. But there's a price to pay. There's a price. You won't look like the world. You won't look like other Christians. And on this note, the anointing makes all the difference in the world. Here's where I think a lot... Do you go on Facebook or do you ever... whatever it is, and you say, how can Christians do that? I don't want to fill in the blank because you can fill it in. You know, there's a big divide in our country right now. There's this... You say, how can Christians watch that? Or how can they fill their mind? How? The Spirit of God is not in them. The Spirit of God is not in them. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the world is in them. That's why they look like the world. Anytime you go the same direction as Hollywood is going, you're not filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm not even gonna apologize for that statement. Anytime you're going towards the direction of the world, the Holy Spirit is not guiding you. Because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. The Spirit of the world is antichrist, against God. So it's going this way. So when Christian spirit-filled believers are going this way, and they go, I can't believe other Christians, that's why. They're not filled with the Spirit. They're filled with the world. So that's why there's a big divide on a lot of different issues. And you can look at people and say, how can they do that? How can they watch that? How can they conduct their life that way? Day in and day out. I'm not talking about perfection, right? We're making that clear. But you know, there's just a different lifestyle. Complete different lifestyle. And actually, they want to avoid you and your lifestyle. Because you live a certain way. Oh, snooty two-shoes, goody two-shoes, teetotaling. I mean, you know, what are all the terms? You guys know. Holy rollers. You know, all this. They don't want to be around you because you bring that Spirit of God into the whole relationship. So there's a difference. And that's why there's a lot of differences with Christians. A Christian, in the Word of God, filled with the Spirit of God, loving God, living for God, on fire for God. And a person who's not, they're not going to see through the same lens. About anything. They're probably not going to vote for the same person. No pun intended, right? They're probably not going to go to the same places. That's why there's a division. It's not judgmentalism and arrogance. It's being filled with the God Spirit. There's a difference. There's a distinction. And the anointing makes all the difference in the world. So let's get into this. Surviving the anointing. And this is interesting. We are given this gift. To me, this is a wonderful gift. If you sit, I thought about this yesterday when we were up in the mountains. I took a little walk. I was walking. And God says, when you believe on me, I'm going to give you my Spirit. My Spirit, and people that they're probably new age or, you know, atheists are like, oh man, Christians are way out there on this point. God says his Spirit is going to fill you. I'm going to fill you with my Spirit. My Spirit is going to live inside of you and cry, Abba, Father. He's going to guide you. He's going to lead you. He's going to comfort you. He's going to empower you. He's going to be with you. But you can quench and grieve that Spirit. So when you sit and think that the very Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, God's Holy Spirit, the presence of God is actually in the believer. I mean, that would change the way you live. You would think that alarm clock, ding, ding, ding, don't go there. Don't go there. Change. I mean, this Holy Spirit is such a wonderful gift. I don't know if too many Christians who make a terrible decision go, I had no clue. I didn't know that was going to hurt my marriage. I didn't know that was going to lead to financial ruin. I didn't know that was going to, I didn't know that would put me in jail. I had no idea and no clue. The truth is we have a lot of clues. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Don't go there. Don't go there. The warning system, the Holy Spirit convicting and saying, don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. So God, God's residing in a believer. And here's the interesting thing. You can spark that Holy Spirit residing in you. When Paul says, when Paul says be filled with the Spirit, first he says, do not be drunk with wine, what is debauchery, but be led by a different spirit. Be filled with the Spirit. It's a, it's a, it's a word that's, it's an active tension. It's an ongoing being filled with the Holy Spirit. So as you continue to fill yourself with God's Spirit, the hunger and the desire for God increase and increase and increase. And you're filled with God and filled with God and love the things of God. But as that spirit is quenched and grieved, you want less to do with God. That's why many Christians will walk away. It's not God. It's not, it's never God, ever. It's, it's what we do with the gift that's been given to us. The Holy Spirit and this anointing, this filling of God is a wonderful gift. It's basically God saying, how full of me do you want to be? That's why I often say you have all of the Holy Spirit that you'll ever need, but how much of him or how much of you does he have? You have, you have all, we have all of the Holy Spirit, all of, all of him. I don't think in a couple of years from now, you'll get a little more in a couple of years, you'll get a little more. The Holy Spirit is there. But how much of you does he have? How much of your life does he have? Because the more you give up, the hardest one I'll tell you right now is a checkbook. That's the hardest one. That's the last one to go. I'm not going to give him that part of my life because he might just make me do what? Do what? Be led of the Spirit? And then we don't want to give him certain relationships that we just, well, I just, I know that's my one little vice, but can I, no, he's, give me all. To the degree you surrender is to the degree you're filled. You want to know how filled you can be to the, with the Holy Spirit. How much of your life are you willing to surrender? The more you surrender, the more you feel. The less you give up, the less you're filled. So that's why you have a lot of Christians walking around in Paul would say their carnal nature, because they're not being led of the Spirit. They're being led of the flesh because they're holding on to all those things and they're not giving them over to God. So it's a wonder, in my opinion, it's a wonderful gift. I mean, can you imagine just having nothing of God in us? It's like, well, I hope my willpower is good this week. I mean, I got to read this thing. It sure is boring. And it's just, I don't even, all this is dead. I mean, it's just nothing. Sadly, that's how most Christians live. What I just described is the life for most Christians, because they're not, they're not experiencing that abundant life that Christ spoke of. Jesus Christ is not a liar. When he says, if you believe on me, as the scriptures say, out of your belly will flow rivers of living water. Now those are conditions he meant for true disciples. He's assuming if you die to yourself, if you follow me, if you pick up your cross like his initial disciples did, once you believe in him, you give up, because when you believe in Jesus back then, you were ostracized, you were criticized, you're removed from the temple. It was true, it was true, genuine conversion. Nowadays, people are like, yeah, I think I'll try Jesus out like you try in that burger. Yeah, I mean, okay, what's wrong? I mean, you can't hurt. You don't try Jesus out. And that's what when Jesus said, if you believe in me, truly believe and repent and fill with the Spirit, you will have rivers of living water. Not all the time. But as you seek God, the more you seek him, the more you find him, the more you find him, the more you seek him. There's a diligence there. There's a discipline there. Whoever came up with five minute devotionals. They're good now and then, but that's not gonna cut it in these dire times. Five minutes. You just gave Hannity and O'Reilly and Fox News three hours, and you're gonna give God five minutes. You just gave Facebook two hours, and you're gonna give God. See, that's why people aren't filled with the Spirit. Including, this can happen to me. If I slip on, get on that slippery soap of Facebook, the media, Twitter, sleeping a lot, doing this, just getting back into the world, back into this, and let's go watch all these movies, and let's do this. And just getting away from God, that spiritual power, that boldness will leave. And then what's funny is you don't get humble, you start getting defensive. When God's Spirit begins to leave you, you don't go home, oh, Lord, I need you back. You start going, no, you're judgmental. You're Mr. Holy Roller. You're prideful. You're arrogant. And you begin to, because you don't want conviction. When a person's drifting from God, the last thing they want is conviction. They avoid that like the plague. But somebody filled with the Spirit, they know exactly what I'm talking about. There's a difference there. And you also know some of people, I've talked about this topic before at men's conferences, and you'll see guys just, I mean, they'll start crying. And just, after I ask them afterwards, and they say, man, I had that 10 years ago, and they start reminiscing. I remember one guy, man, their stories are powerful. And I remind them, but you can be right there again, right there. And nine times out of 10, they don't want to give up something. The cost is too great. The cost is too great. But is it really? So that's what the anointing is. It's this wonderful gift of God. I want to show how it's used in 1 Samuel 16. Now, the Lord said to Samuel, and Samuel is a great prophet of God. He was raised under a priest named Eli. And his whole life, this man walked in the anointing of God. But God rebuked him right here. He said, now the Lord said to Samuel, how long will you mourn for Saul, seeing that I have rejected him over Israel? And something I thought of at the first service right before I was going over this message, it's not even my notes, but I'm wondering how many of us are mourning over our past and not moving forward? How many of us are looking at our past and not moving forward, caught, if you were caught in this past, and the walls we build to protect us end up imprisoning us. And we're caught in this past. It's almost like God saying, how long are you going to mourn over that? How long are you going to look back to that? How long are you going to allow that to keep you in bondage? This is one, this would be a great thing to tell 12-step programs and celebrate recovery. Don't live in your past of regret. Yes, you've lost a great deal, but God wants to get back on track. Don't live in the past and don't allow the past to keep influencing you. So he rebukes Samuel. How long will you mourn for Saul, seeing that I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? Last week we talked about Saul was a king. God rejected him. You might say, well, that's pretty harsh. Well, no, Saul kept rejecting God. This is that famous passage we talked about earlier last week where God says that I desire mercy, not sacrifice, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. So he was rebelling against God. And God said, okay, I've had enough. I'm rejecting you as king. So God told Samuel to fill your horn with oil and go. I'm sending you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite, for I have provided myself a king among his sons. So God says, get this guy Saul out of the way. I've anointed, I've called somebody else to be king. So Samuel did what the Lord said. Contrast that with Saul. Saul did not do what the Lord said. Samuel did what the Lord said and continued to walk in God's anointing. Saul didn't do what God said and lost his anointing. Very interesting parallel. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming. And they said, do you come peaceably? And he said, yes, I've come to sacrifice. Sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. So it was when they came that he looked at Eliad. He looked at Eliad and said, surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees. For the Lord looks at outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. Wow. There's a lot right there. But the first thing I want to pull out of this is number one point, boldness always follows the anointing. Boldness always. There's no way around it. You can try to skip around it because you're not a bold person, but it will follow. When somebody is anointed by God, there's a boldness. There's a spiritual authority. It doesn't have to be mean or rebuking, but there's a boldness. There's a confidence there because you're going in God's anointing. So did you hear what this said? The people trembled when they say, Samuel, do you come peaceably? Why? Because he's been anointed of God. This is a mighty man of God, a prophet of God coming. And the people are like, oh no, they're trembling because the anointing brings boldness. That's a byproduct. And they say, well, that's okay for you, Shane. You need it. Well, no, so do you. A mom with boldness, a father with a little bit of boldness and a lot less passivity. Somebody, when you're at work, here's what happens all the time, all the time without the Holy Spirit, without the anointing, you're at work or you're a Christian. Yeah. Well, why is this? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Go talk to my pastor. Well, you Christians are always doing, I don't know. I can't answer. I have no, you know, well, the Bible says something. Oh, the Bible's written by men and did this and the Catholic church changed this and like, oh, I didn't know that. And it just, there's this timidity. But when a person is filled with the anointing of God, they can say, no, you're wrong. You're wrong. Here's why. Scripture's crystal clear. Truth is crystal clear. You're wrong. I love you, but you're wrong. There's, there's, but it's a backing down. It's a backing down. And that's why you're seeing in the culture, this push, push, push on the church. The church is cowering down. We don't want to offend. We don't want to upset. We don't want to hurt anybody. And they think love is this turn the other cheek, passive form of Christianity that never hurts, never offends. Let me remind you that Jesus walked into the temple. He drove them out with boldness. He told the religious leaders, you whitewashed tombs. You're dead on the inside. They said that no man ever spoke like this man. Were they talking about his passivity? When the Bible says no man ever spoke like this man, were they talking about his gentle, quiet demeanor, which thank God for it? Or are they talking about his boldness? He would tell the religious leaders, oh, you don't even know what you're talking about. You're sons of Satan. What? Religious leaders. He said, you, you travel land and sea. And when you win one convert, you make him twice as son of hell as you. You try that next time to the next pastor, you know, go to a pastor who doesn't want to talk about anything controversial. And you say, you are, you are leading people astray. You are not, you are not filled the spirit of God. That takes a lot of guts. I'm not recommending you do that. But that's where that's where boldness comes from the whole, you're able to defend, defend a position, but lovingly, lovingly. Because actually, I truly believe that when we cower down and back away, that's not being filled with the spirit. That's being a coward. And by default, my nature wants to do that. You want me to be transparent tonight? People think I just get a kick out of preaching like this. I don't. If God didn't call me to do it, I wouldn't be doing this. I'd be everybody's friend. My mom would tell you he's a people pleaser. I want to be a motivational speaker, not upset anybody. Isn't that good? Right? Everybody leave here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was good. And that's the truth. My flesh wants to please everybody. My flesh, I don't want to argue. I don't want to debate. I don't want to call out things. I don't want to say this is wrong in God. But when you're filled with God's spirit, it's like, oh, Jeremiah, his word is in my heart like a lamb that went to sleep. His word is in my heart like a burning fire. It's shut up in my bones. I'm worried of holding it back, but I cannot. I've got to speak his truth. They were beaten. Disciples were beaten. They said, stop talking about Jesus. They said, we can't. We can't. Why can't they? Because they're filled with the spirit of God. So boldness is directly related to being filled with the spirit of God. So when somebody confronted recently Joel Osteen why he doesn't say anything bad and upset people say, well, I'm not called to do that. When you're not called to be a pastor, then I'll tell you that right now. You're called to be a motivational speaker because boldness is a byproduct. Don't be mean. I'm not being mean. I'm being honest. I'm being as honest as I can. When pastors in our culture say we don't talk about sin, we don't talk about repentance, we don't talk about judgment. We don't talk about the sins that are going to make people feel bad. Then I say you're not a pastor. You're a motivational speaker and you need to resign and go do something different then. Because I can stand before God and say that. I guarantee it. When Paul says, Timothy, preach the word. What's the word mean? Just the good things. No, it doesn't. Preach the word. How do you know it doesn't mean just the good things, Shane? Because he goes on to say, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Meaning they don't like difficult truths. Everybody likes God is love. Everybody. Everybody. Tell me somebody who doesn't. God's just love. Do whatever you want. Everybody loves that God. But when he said, Timothy, preach the truth. Be ready in and out of season because the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. They will not like difficult things. But you must convince. You must rebuke. What? Rebuke? Yeah. Exhort. All these things. That's what the scripture does. See, here's the wonderful thing about the Bible. It doesn't. You don't fall in love with the word of God and fall in love with God until you repent and you're convicted of the sin you're doing. So in order to have a deep, meaningful relationship with the God of love, I have to first see the God of wrath. Because the God of love makes no sense unless you see the wrath of God. Think about this for a minute. If Jesus, who spoke more about hell than on heaven. Jesus, turn the other cheek, Jesus, spoke more about hell than he did on heaven. And we paint, when Jesus came, not Shane, Jesus paints hell as outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth, where the fire never goes out. When he paints this picture of eternal torment, separation from God for eternity, and then he says, but the grace of God, do you think I love God's grace more now? Or when I just say, oh, it's a God of love, a God of grace, whatever you want to do, it's like, you know, whatever. You love, you have to, you can only appreciate the good news with that bad news as a backdrop. When I was born, when I came out of the womb, in Courtsill, California, I was hell bent, like ACDC song, I'm on a highway to hell. That's where I was going. By default, I was going there. God says, because of my love, because of my grace, because of my mercy, I sent my son to die for you, just repent and believe. And then once you do that, the grace of God is precious. So we don't mock the grace of God. We love the grace of God, but you have to understand it with the bad news as a backdrop. Do you think you would see the stars if the night wasn't so black? How many stars can you see when the sun's out? Zero. Why? Same thing. That's why Christians love God's love so much. And that's why I laugh when people say, oh, you just don't know God's love. Oh, brother, you have never been more misled in your whole life. I love God's love. But it's because of God's love, I have to tell you the other side of the story. We have to tell you the difficult things. So this God of love that just allows people to do whatever they want, when they want, to who they want, and this God of love we've created is a God who allows us to continue in our sin, that's not a God of love. A God of love would never allow somebody to continue in their sin and parade it around. It's called blasphemy. It's called mocking God. Very dangerous spot to be. So don't ever question people that we love the grace of God, the power of God. We love that side of Him because we understand the other side. That's the difference. So boldness is always a characteristic. You will not see in all of Scripture timidity, being somebody filled with God's Spirit. Actually, you'll see Gideon, timid until he was filled with the Spirit. You'll see David, timid until he was filled with the Spirit. You'll see Samson, timid until he was filled with the Holy Spirit. You'll see Peter, warming himself by a fire that denied Christ three times. And then when he was filled with the Spirit, you couldn't shut him up. He was beaten, he was imprisoned, he was martyred. What was the difference? He's warming himself by the fire. Oh, you're with him, Jesus. No, no, no. Your speech betrays you. You're a Galilean, you're with him. No, no, I wasn't. And he cursed the lady. Timidity, timidity. And the Bible talks about the great falling away that you are actually seeing right before your eyes. These are timid, timidity. We don't want to confront anything. Let the culture, let the courts, let everybody just push everything on us. And timid, we don't care. So that boldness is always, always a byproduct of the anointing. Now, here's the key. It's got to be underscored with love. When you take boldness with love, that's Christ. When you take love away, that's just a mean, Bible-thumping Pharisee. But when you take the boldness away and it's all love, you're a coward. I will tell you right now, a person that is afraid to talk about the truth of God's Word is a coward. They're not filled with the Spirit of God. And I can say that because I am one. If I'm not filled with the Spirit, I'm the biggest baby you've ever seen. I don't want to upset, I don't want to upset, I don't want to upset anybody. That's what the flesh wants to be like. It wants to be loved by everybody. And we cave in to these certain issues. But succumbing to fear and cowardliness quenches and grieves the Spirit. That's the one thing I wanted to get to. When we're confronted with things, when we cave in to fear, we cave in to being cowards, when we cave in to saying nothing, we quench and grieve the Spirit because He wants us to, He wants the boldness. There's nothing wrong with Jesus being compared to a lion. There's nothing wrong with Jesus being compared to a warrior. Remember John in Revelation saw heaven open and on a white horse he's riding, and out of his mouth is going to come a sword that he strikes the nations, and he'll rule the nations with a rod of iron, and he himself will tread the winepress and fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. Why don't you put that on the screen next time, Mr. Osteen? I mean, think, where's the boldness? Where's the truth of what God's Word says? It's a byproduct, so fear and backing away quenches and grieves the Spirit. Now I'm not, I'm not, this is a huge disclaimer, as big as this banner. This does not mean we go forward and become jerks, and we tell everybody off. One reason before my articles go public, one reason I send them to my mom is so she takes off all those little, you might want to say that differently. You might want to bring a little bit more love. You might want to, you know, you season it with grace. Season it with grace. It's boldness. That's why most people don't like what I'm saying, to be honest with you. They don't like the boldness and the conviction in your face. They don't like the, in your face, leave me alone. And you ever thought of this, that darkness loves the darkness. It hates the light. So when you bring the light in, they hate it. Conviction, get away from me. And it convicts people, doesn't it? When you're bold for Christ, it convicts people. When you're bold for Christ, watch how many friends stick by you. When you say, I'm not doing that anymore. I'm living my life for Christ. Are they going to go, you know what, that's so awesome. Me too. Nope. It's called either unfollow or unfriend. Trust me, I've unfollowed about 300 people. They just don't know it because I'm tired of, I'm tired of the junk on Facebook. And you just, the closer you draw to God, you'll see who the real, your real friends are. They're real followers, the real followers of Christ. Because there's a difference here. There's a distinction. Surviving the anointing by resting in God's sovereignty. This is huge. When you're filled with the Spirit of God, to keep that anointing. Now I'm talking, I know not everybody, but those who want to be filled with God's power, His presence, and after you're there walking with Him, you have to be very careful of this. You have to rely on His sovereignty. God says, Samuel, I have provided myself a king. So Samuel says, the oil's not flowing. The oil's not flowing. There must be another one. There must be another one. There must be another one. Nothing's working here. God says, no, no, no, you guys got it wrong. You're judging by appearance. So you have to trust His sovereignty because many times we go through life by what's happening. What's happening to us. Actually, did you know that's where the word happy comes from? Happenstance. What's happening to me, I'm happy. And a Christian's supposed to have joy, not happiness. Because if you try to have happiness, oh, get ready. You're like, why am I always miserable? Because you're measuring your happiness by what's happening to you. And God is sovereign. God's in control. We can get up in the morning and say, Lord, you're in control. You are sovereign. And once we begin to doubt His sovereignty, then we start to make decisions based on how things look. God's not quick enough. He's not moving fast enough. And I need to do this and I need to do that. And once you drift from sovereignty, then it gets ugly. Because then I make decisions based on my impulse, or my reaction to things, or how I feel, or how things look. So you have to rest in God's sovereignty. The enemy wants to take you away from that. He wants you to be sovereign. Do you ever feel that God's not moving quick enough? Or is it just me? All the time. What is His problem? Golly. We've been in this building five years. I thought we had a building three years ago. What is His problem? That's a big one I struggle with. Not anymore, right? Resting in sovereignty. But come on, Lord, you've got to make this happen. We want this to happen. It should be next week, and next month gets here, and nothing's happened. But His timing, let me tell you right now, His timing is always right. I don't even remember the hymn, but the old folks used to sing about God is right all the time. His timing is right all the time. You can never go wrong with His sovereignty. And sometimes we just glance over this, but this makes a big difference. Those who are trusting in God's sovereignty, they trust, and their circumstances don't look good, but they're trusting in God. This is happening, but they're trusting in God. It's very healthy. But when God wants us to go through things, sometimes we pull ourselves out. And we don't trust in God's sovereignty, we trust in, you know, let me put this on Visa. Let me try to send an email, manipulate things, and try to, you know, do this and make this happen. And every time we get slapped in the face. Just resting in God's sovereignty. See, I can't stress that enough. And then we learned here, even Samuel said, surely this guy is king. He looks like a king. He looks just like a king. This must be him. Come here, let's anoint him. And the oil did not flow. And God says, you judge by appearance, but I judge by the heart. So another thing to learn, to survive the anointing. Do not walk according to the flesh. Do not rely on impulse or appearance or feelings. Never. Never take a job based on money alone. Never move somewhere because you want to get the heck out of Southern California. Never do something just based on feelings. You feel a certain way. The feelings come later, right? I'm not going to talk a lot about that. But on this point, this is actually very simple, but extremely hard. And God's word is actually very simple. People think it's very simple. Stay, pray, and obey, right? But it's very hard. Romans 8.6, the mind governed by the flesh is death. So when the mind is governed by the flesh, it leads to death, separation. Things fall apart. But the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. And this is what I noted. Our mental diet is a thermometer of the anointing or lack thereof. All you have to do is look at your mental diet throughout the week, and I can tell you exactly what you're filled with. Do you have a perfect mental diet? No, I sure don't. A bunch of garbage gets in there all the time. You've got to remove it with this. But you can look at your mental diet. What's your mind focused on? I mean, I'm amazed that the people don't have time for prayer and God's word, but they have three hours for Facebook or three hours for television. I talk about this often, but it's fitting the sermon perfectly because this is how you survive the anointing. You aren't led by the flesh. Anytime you're led by the flesh, led by impulse, led by the flesh, it never works out good. But how is that flesh brought under control? For when my mind is set on the things of God, I'm governed by the Spirit. And there's life, and there's joy, and there's peace. But when I'm set on the flesh... Listen, this starts first thing in the morning. First thing in the morning. Where does your mind go? John Piper has a wonderful podcast, if you can find it, on why you should not check your phone first thing in the morning. Because most people stay on it at least an hour. Their mind's here. How many people liked my post? How many people commented? How many people got back to me? What's going on in the news? What's going on in this? And we're so inundated with this. And we get up with that. And then we get to work with that. And our mind never gets on the things of God. For any significant amount of time, it might say, oh, that's why I need to do that tonight. And that's about it. So if your mind is governed by the flesh, you will not be filled with the Spirit. Now also, what goes on up here? Bitterness? Anger? Unforgiveness? Come on, guys, help me out here. I'm being real transparent. Shane, you think of that stuff? Oh, yeah, there's some people I'm pretty mad at right now. Hurt me and my family. Said some things, did some things. Oh, man, if I run to... You know, I got to set up a lunch appointment. I'm going to let them have it. Do I just keep... Man, those three pastors that wrote about me in the paper last month, I just... Man, I'd love to go visit their churches and tell them off. You know, just... Here it comes. Here it comes. Why don't you let them have it in the paper? No, why don't I not mention anything? Here it comes again. Unforgiveness. Unforgiveness. Bitterness. Anger. Anger. You just keep feeding on this stuff. So if my mind is governed by that, there is death. People say, oh, you're not going to die. Well, look at the word death. Do a Greek study. Do an Old Testament study. It is a sensation of something. Often it's a sensation of life or a departure of God's... A relationship with God. So in the end result is death of something. So it's not just you're physically going to die. If your mind is governed by the flesh, you will see the death of your marriage. I'll tell you that as sure as God is my witness. Or you might stick together, but it'll be hell on earth when it's governed by the flesh. When a person is governed by the spirit, a whole new dynamic takes place. There's peace. Listen, either the Bible is true or it's not, folks. You've got to come to a point in your life where you say, either this is true or it's a lie. The mind governed by the flesh is death. Either that's true or it's not. But the mind governed by the spirit is life and peace. Either that's true or it's not. So stop trying to debate. Stop trying to throw in this. Stop trying to pull in this. Stop. Whatever. It just says it. That's the truth. But you don't know what I went through. No, I don't. But you don't know what I went through either. I mean, when are we going to start saying this is either true or it's not? What we focus our mind on. What we focus. Fleshly things or the things of the spirit. Verse 8. So Jesse called Abinadad and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, neither has the Lord chosen this one. Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, neither has the Lord chosen this one. And seven sons kept going and going and going. And Samuel said to Jesse, who is the father. Jesse is the father. Are all the young men here? You think they would be, right? He told him to gather all his men. And he said, well, there's some guy out there. Way out there. See him tending sheep. He's just this young kid. And Samuel said, go get him now. Don't even sit down. Here's the exact wording. And Samuel said to Jesse, send and bring him for we will not even sit down until he comes. Don't even sit down until he comes. Go get him. So surviving the anointing. Don't judge God's will by circumstances alone. Many of you in this room. I've done this before. You're judging God's will. You're judging his character and his nature by your circumstances alone. I mean, Samuel's like, okay, here's all your sons. Oil didn't flow. We missed it. God, did I not hear your voice? There's nobody here. All these guys look like kings. Nobody here is anointed. So Samuel gets smart. Was there anybody else? We missed it. We must have missed it. He goes, yeah, but he's out and tending the field. He's not qualified. God's not obviously going to anoint him king, is he? Interesting side note. God often uses the least likely, the least qualified. He is looking for least qualified. I'm not saying don't get an education. The least qualified, the least likely, God says, I want to use you because now you won't think so highly of yourself than you should. Now you know it's all me. That's one thing I can say about this church and all the emails we get now from all over. We got some from Arizona this weekend and India and another guy in Canada. Just people just being transformed to say, God, thank God. That's all this is, is God. Trust me, I'm not just saying it to say it. We would have failed the first month if it was just me. This is all God's work. God said, I want the church here. I want people to come together and we want to do this. It's God anointing it. I remember about 10 years ago, there was a church, their young adult pastor moved. And there's about 200 young adults. And I went to the associate pastor. I said, hey, I'd like to be considered for this position. You know, maybe let me speak a couple of times and interview and see if I'd be a good fit for this. And we didn't get any farther than that. He said, oh no, we can't use you. You don't have a degree. A degree? That's why I often say it. You don't have to have a master's degree, but you do have to have, have a degree from the master. See, they're looking, ah, you don't have a degree from the, this certain university or the certain, you know, and I'm not minimizing education because you, you, I mean, it's, it's, it, here's why I crack up when people say, oh, you didn't go to seminary. Do they just think I sat at home and ate donuts and had my foot up on couch watching TV all day long? I mean, don't they think just because you, you don't go somewhere that you can't study, that you're not self-disciplined, that you can't read the same books, the same literature, the same material? Actually, I truly believe many instances you can do it from a better heart because I don't want to put this PhD on my business card. I've probably, my wife will tell you, I've read, I've read enough books to have a master's degree of theology and a PhD in church history. I, I, I've read enough and studied enough to know the character and nature of God. I can tell you Calvinist. I can tell you Arminian. I can tell you Reformed. I can tell you Pentecostal. I can tell you about revivals. I can tell you about the early church. All because God began to give me this desire and this hunger for him. That's where it comes from. So when I step up here, I, I don't have a degree from Talbot, a degree from Westminster Theological Seminary, a degree from the master's. No, it's just, God, here's what he's poured into my heart. But we look at outward appearance and this gets me a lot too sometimes. I'm thinking, God, man, these guys, they've got PhDs. I'm gonna go speak. I'm speaking with a guy with a PhD. We're tag teaming up at Hume Lake next summer. And I'm like, what do you want to put on your bio? I just changed from Lancaster, I guess. You know, I mean, PhD and all this stuff is Josh McDowell's son, Sean McDowell. And it's, you know, it's all in like, man, just intimidate a little bit. Maybe we'll edit that out. But you know, it's just intimidating and go and speak and say, but, but the guys there recognize, no, we need what God's pouring into your heart. This is what the men need. I don't care about a degree. We need to know that God has called you. See, very interesting thing that a lot of people don't know. 100 years ago, when churches would call a pastor, you know, they needed a pastor, they would come, they would call the pastor. And they would, they would, the people would say, we don't care where what school he's come from. We want to know one thing. Has he received his baptism of fire? That's all they would ask. Has that young man received his baptism of fire? That's a good qualification. In other words, they're saying back to the scripture, Jesus Christ will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire, boldness, anointing, unction. So they would say, has that person been called of God? You will know it by their boldness, their fire, their passion. You can, you can see the spirit of Christ in them. That's, and that's truly how you, you discern if somebody has been called to the pastorate. You don't say, oh, you have a degree or you've been accredited or you've been ordained. It doesn't matter what man ordains. A lot of churches right now are ordaining, just leave it at that, are ordaining pastors that is a mockery to God. It's blasphemy. And I will say it from this pulpit. It's a mockery. It's a sham. You cannot ordain what God does not ordain. They know not that the spirit of the Lord has departed from them. That's why their churches are shrinking. That's why they don't have anything to talk about except God is love at every sermon. That's all they can talk about. God is love at every sermon and nobody changes. Nobody's convicted because the spirit of God is not in that. It's in a person who's been surrendered and submitted to the truth. So always keep that mind. God often calls the least likely, the least qualified. If the truth be told, I am the least qualified according to man's design to lead a church. What high school did you go to? Where did you graduate? Remember I told you 1.8. I was proud of you. I look at letters I wrote in my early 20s. My mom would remember. I couldn't spell. Sometimes it's still hard. I miss stuff with reading and learning. But by far the least qualified. But see that makes me, I didn't have the right word, that makes me rely on Him more than anything else. It's almost, I can't explain, it's almost like when they say Christianity is a crutch and I say no it's a whole hospital. I have to rely on God for everything. For sermon prep, Lord if you don't come alive in this, this is, I can't even spell some of these words. I don't even know what this means. Lord you need to come alive in my heart and there's a relying because you notice your dependency. That's wrong with a lot of people. They don't rely, they don't have their dependency on God. They've got a master's degree and they've read 14 books on the Pauline epistles and they've got their pneumatology and soteriology terms down. But they don't know the Spirit of God. They don't know the Christ in the Bible. They've never truly experienced Him. They're so caught up on their pride and arrogance that God can't preach through them. He can't minister to them because they're in the way. They're in the way. That's the word for today. There's too many people in the way. God says just move. Get out of the way. That's the anointing. That's the filling of the Spirit of God. When you say get out of the way and God fills you with the Spirit. That's a good definition of the anointing. Anytime anybody asks you what do you talk about the church this week and the anointing? Oh that's a weird word. No it just means get out of the way. Get out of the way and let God empower you. Let God anoint you. Let God do what He wants to do. And there's a cost. There's a cost to pay, isn't there? You do lose friends. I'll shoot you as straight as an arrow right now. You will lose friends. You will lose friends. You will lose relationships. There's things you used to enjoy. There's a cost. Because there's no way in the world you can enjoy the pleasant, what the Bible calls the fleeting enjoyments of this world and still be anointed by God. Because these things bring misery. Now can we enjoy certain things temporarily? Yeah, but I'm talking about lifestyle. You know the lifestyle. Come on. This is America. Big boat, big house, big car, jet skis, almighty dollar, Vegas, Laughlin, Hawaii all in the same month. You know this is this whole lifestyle. You can't. They run against each other. Because what we don't realize is the more you own, the more owns you. The more you have to keep up with the Joneses, the less God's going to be in your life. So you have to break away and people call you fanatical, extreme. I boy, that guy. Just trying to live like the New Testament tells us to live. That's extreme. No, what's happened is you've drifted so far from the truth that what used to be normal Christianity is now viewed as extreme. Do you realize that in our culture? What was normal Christianity is now extreme. I don't watch a lot of those shows. Why? That's weird. No, because I don't want to lust after women other than my wife. I don't want pornography filling my mind on a daily basis all day long. I don't watch those shows. That's weird. No, I don't want twilight and darkness and vampires and the occult and witchcraft filling my mind and the hearts of my children and loving evil and loving this darkness. The Spirit of God doesn't testify with that. Call it weird. Call it whatever you want. But Paul is crystal clear that the carnal mind, the carnal mind that is led by the flesh will be death. There will be death, but the mind that is governed by the Holy Spirit brings life and peace. That's when you can hear a pin drop because it hits home, right? Surviving the anointing. This is critical. God's will is urgent. You can tell somebody to fill with the Spirit of God because God's will is urgent. What happens when God's will is not urgent? Just back up. God says, I want you to live a certain way. I want you to remove these things from your life. I want you to mend this relationship. I want you to fix this. I want you to humble yourself. This is God's will and it's urgent. David wasn't just out on the front porch. We've got track homes right now with backyards big 15 feet long and then there's a block wall on the street. Back then, David could have been, for all we know, he could have been out by the prison. He's out there tending sheep. Samuel said, don't even sit down. Go get that boy right now because God's called me to anoint a king. This is urgent. Same thing with God's will in your life, folks. I can tell you most people, God is not urgent. His will is not up on the urgency scale. Is it? No, I'll get to it when I get to it. What's urgent? Here's what you find out urgent. Look at your calendar. Look at your checkbook. How do you spend your time? How do you spend your money? We'll tell you. We'll show you what's urgent in your life. And God says, this anointing, to survive this anointing, to have this anointing, God's will is urgent. And you know right now, you're being convicted, as am I. There's relationship issues I have to deal with. There are certain areas in my life, Lord, keep removing it, keep removing it, keep removing it, keep removing it. And your will is urgent. I want you to do this. I want you to talk to this person. Months go by. You think the anointing grows stronger or weaker? Especially, God says, I want you to cut out this relationship. I want you to remove this thing that's distracting you. I want you to remove this thing that's pulling you down. I want you to leave whatever it is, work, a place, whatever you're at. You know He does, but there's no urgency. There's no urgency. One of the best ways you can be filled with the Spirit of God and actually wake up with a smile on your face and feel the joy of God is to be in the will of God. Most of us in this room are miserable because we're outside of God's will in some area. And I know most of you well enough to pinpoint some of it. My wife knows me well enough to pinpoint. We were preaching up there, you better live it. Right, 24 kids watching me this weekend. I didn't know he could throw so hard in war ball. He played dodgeball. I played dodgeball with little kids. And I got the old pitching arm out and threw some 80 mile an hour. The balls were soft, so it was okay. But back to seriousness, we're getting off track. But there's a seriousness there. God's will is urgent. God's will is urgent. I could say there's probably 25% of this room, you know you need to go and apologize, or you need to ask for forgiveness, or you need to humble yourself. How long are you going to keep fighting God? His will is urgent. We think God's like a used car salesman. I'm not going to take that price, I'll come back tomorrow. And we just keep negotiating. You can't negotiate with God, ever. You never win. He says, here's what I want you to do, how long are you going to wander in the wilderness? Do you remember how long the journey of 40 years took the children of Israel? Could it have taken them 11 days? 11 days to reach a promised land. 40 years. Why? Because God said, I had to show you what was in your heart. You stiff neck people, you prideful people always resisting the Holy Spirit. If that doesn't mean being outside of God's will, I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. Now, of course, with something of this magnitude, let me bring in the encouragement. God says, reposition yourself. Everybody in this room, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart, everybody in this room could reposition their self back in the center of God's will. Yes, there's circumstances. Yes, there's consequences. Yes, it will be difficult. Yes, it will mean swallowing a lot of pride. And I don't like to swallow pride, do you? I'm a prideful man, working on humility daily. But every one of us could be back in the center of God's will if we listen to what God is telling us and we do it. That would be my counseling. People say, do you do counseling? I say, yes, Saturday nights, four and 530. I do a lot of counseling. This is it. This would change a lot of, because when it comes down to it, well, I don't want to minimize this. I'm going to get myself in trouble. A lot of counseling, a lot, not all. My mom used to say, don't ever say all. A lot of counseling is telling people stuff in private that they didn't want to hear in public. Same thing. I've never said, you know what I say on Saturday? Disregard all that. I brought in 10 new points that you've got to really consider these. Never, ever. Always go back. Did you ever hear that sermon? It's the same thing. So the good news is we just have to reposition ourself back in God's will. I have Chelsea come back up and there's no better time than doing that during worship and prayer and communion. You know what communion is, right? This is for those who are believers. They believe in Jesus. They're followers. Jesus himself said, this is my body and this is my blood. Not the literal. That's not actually Jesus's blood. Some churches teach that. I'll just leave it at that. It's a memorial. This is my body. This is my blood that was shed for you. For you. I mean, that's what I really drove home with the kids. Some of them are crying up there this weekend realizing that Jesus died for me. That would stop cutting. That would stop the shame, the guilt saying Jesus died for you. Now walk in that freedom. And that's what communion is. We're remembering. This shouldn't be all here as a communion. This should be, Lord, thank you for the cross. Thank you for your stripes. Thank you for shedding your blood. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't even be here. If it wasn't for that, God might have erased humanity and said, let me start over. So when it comes to prayer and worship and communion, remembering what Christ did on the cross. This is a wonderful time to reposition your heart. And I'm not coming from a judgmental spirit. I have to do this daily. Daily. Because there's so much. Like D.O. Moody said, we're leaky vessels. We need to sit under the fountain of life every day and be filled with the Spirit.