Shane Idleman emphasizes the necessity of a Spirit-drenching experience for believers, likening it to the joy of being drenched in water. He discusses the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit to foster unity, hope, and boldness in the church and the world, contrasting the extremes of emotionalism and dead formalism. Idleman encourages believers to seek a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit, highlighting that true spiritual life comes from humility, brokenness, and a willingness to be filled. He warns against the dangers of materialism, pride, and besetting sin that can quench the Spirit's work in our lives. Ultimately, he calls for a heartfelt request for the Holy Spirit's presence, urging the congregation to ask for this transformative experience.

The title is A Spirit Drenching Experience. A Spirit Drenching Experience. And I even see this out back when I'm watering the grass. One of my, two of my kids wanna get really wet, and two of the kids run in the house. Right, what's the difference? Don't touch my clothes with that water. And the other one, spray me, spray me, I wanna get wet. But see, there's a difference there too, and there's a parallel in the church. Many people want to receive all that God has for them, be drenched in God's Spirit. And if you've been following us for any length of time, you know I'm not talking about weirdness. I'm talking about people being filled with the Spirit of God. That's what we desperately need. More than anything, that's what's gonna bring unity to our nation. That's what's gonna bring hope to our world and in the church. And there's so much bickering and complaining, even in the church, right? What's gonna change that? You think the Holy Spirit bickers and complains with the Holy Spirit and me and the Holy Spirit and you or vice versa? The Holy Spirit's not divided. The Holy Spirit brings a sense of unity and of peace. And I remember as I was actually coming up here reading Charles Haddon Spurgeon, C.H. Spurgeon's biography, every time he'd walk up the great steps at the tabernacle, he'd say, I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit, knowing that he needs that unction, that power, that fire in order for God's Word to penetrate the hearts. And that's what we're gonna talk about this morning in theology, theology on fire is where we've been at. We're gonna be at a little bit longer. We're talking about theology, the study of God. It's very healthy for a church to have a good, deep, rich theological basis. But they better have the fire. They better have the unction of the Holy Spirit and to be Spirit-led. Many of you might not know this, but sometimes I don't know what song I'm coming up after. Maybe this one, maybe the next one, and we just were flexible with that. How long worship is going to continue? I might shut my message down and go into worship. I mean, trying to be sensitive to what God wants to do in the church, having, of course, order. Paul talks about order and decency, but at the same time being open to the work of the Spirit. And if I could preach on this topic every week, I would. My top two favorite are salvation for unbelievers and the Spirit-filled life for Christians, because it's the difference maker. And as we said earlier, we acknowledge Memorial Day coming up on Monday, acknowledging those who have came before us and have actually died for the freedoms we can now enjoy. And I remember seeing a sign many years ago somewhere on Iwo Jima, the island there, Iwo Jima, off of Japan, right? We're close. And it said, when you go home, tell them that for your tomorrows, we gave our todays. And it just really stuck with me, because that's, we failed to realize the cost. Freedom never has a, freedom is never free, never free. I want to be free in the Spirit. That has, it comes with a cost. What's that cost? Dying to self. And to be filled with the Spirit of God. I'm gonna be quoting a little bit from Wayne Grudem in his book, Systematic Theology. And I'm actually gonna be talking about the Holy Spirit in the summer, mid-June through July, on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. What some people would say, don't exist today. Others get too carried away with them. We're gonna try to find balance. What does the Bible say? Anytime you're confused about something, open this. Now, it's not always clear on some things, like salvation, how does that work? God's sovereignty, man's free will, different things. But for the most part, we can glean that the Spirit desires for us to operate in certain gifts, and to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. So, be here on Wednesdays if you can. We're gonna go through that summer series. And when I quote people like Wayne Grudem, or look at his book, I have his book on Systematic Theology, John MacArthur, of course, on Systematic Theology, Hodge on Systematic Theology, Norman Geisler on Theology, and when you look to these people, we have to remember, we look to godly Christians for wisdom, but you must experience God yourself. So, it's one thing for me to read them, but I have to go to this. And I usually look at commentaries, just say, okay, am I kind of in the right direction here? I do have others felt this way. But you want to experience God for yourself. And two examples, two extremes you've heard me talk about before, the circus and the cemetery, right? Church is either a circus, they think, and no matter, or the Holy Spirit, if we can get really loud, the Holy Spirit will be here. And we can do odd things. The Holy Spirit, that's gonna bring him here. No, that's not. But if you're also a cemetery, he's already gone. Like Samson, they know not that the Spirit of the Lord has departed. Did you know that many churches throughout our landscape, the Holy Spirit's not even there? I mean, technically he is, right? Omnipresent, you know, God's everywhere, but the Spirit's power, the Spirit's presence is no longer in many churches. That's why it's dead formalism. And people just go through the motions. So I'm hoping you want spiritual life this morning. So the two extremes, either people don't want to talk about what they've never experienced. Have you thought about that? Many churches, I have people come to me all the time, Shane, I've never heard about the Holy Spirit in our churches. I had a pastor's son tell me that 15 years ago when I was teaching a Bible study on the disciples saying, later in the book of Acts, Paul comes to the disciples. He says, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, we don't even know if there's a Holy Spirit. And because it's hard to talk about what you've never experienced, right? And the only thing, the only impression that people often have of the Holy Spirit is what they see on TV or around hyper charismatic churches. And oh Lord, if that's the Holy Spirit, uh-uh. I don't want any part of that. So the rule then is don't talk about it. Don't talk about him. Don't talk about, and the reason we say him, because God uses the noun there in a masculine form, talking about himself. And there's Bibles out there, the gender neutral Bible. God's not he or she or, they're trying to be politically correct, but God uses his nouns, the noun to describe a masculine sense there often. So the Holy Spirit is a person. It's a part of the triune nature of God. I'm wanting to go through that in this area of systematic theology because many people don't quite understand the Holy Spirit. They either, again, see what they've seen on TV or they've seen friends. Have you ever seen friends that say that the Spirit told them to do something? You know, there's people that shoot people. God told me to go blow up the abortion clinic. No, that wasn't God. No, it was the wrong spirit. And you see this, and just, oh, recently somebody sent me something on Big News Channel. I don't know what, Dateline or something, where they're interviewing, of course, of all people, the Pentecostal pastors who like to hold rattlesnakes while they're preaching. You know, and dancing around and holding that rattlesnake. If he bites me, and he actually died recently. I think a year ago he got bit in the rattlesnake and he died. But they say that they'll do this documentary and they'll say, and this man bringing in the Spirit's presence, he believes in the Holy Spirit, and that's gonna keep him from the snake biting him and dying, and people get this weird, no wonder the Holy Spirit is misused and abused. The reason why I believe, also God can be, you know, redefined by people, but the reason is I believe the Holy Spirit is God's agent where that's where the power comes from. The power to witness, the power to testify, the power to live the victorious Christian life comes from that. So the enemy wants to counterfeit the original so you don't seek it. Now the other side, though, and I've been to many churches, they think that if you just get loud enough and you just whip it up in a Holy Spirit frenzy and you just loud worship and praise and brothers, and that's good if God's truly doing it, but somehow we think the move of the Spirit has to do with volume, and actually, the more I read revivals and different things, I don't see a lot of volume. I see a lot of brokenness on the altar, and that's where God's moved, because usually when the Holy Spirit hits a person, it's deep repentance, but it's also joy, joy unspeakable. The Bible says when the Holy Spirit fell upon the 120 believers in the book of Acts that they came out and they were joy-filled, joyful, praising God, just praising God, they're joy-filled, but they said, ah, there's a problem there, they're drunk with wine. They said, no, they're not drunk, they're filled with the Holy Spirit. This is that what the prophet Joel spoke of, that in the last days I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have visions and dreams, and on my men servants and on my maid servants I will pour out my Spirit in those days. So what they were doing, they were speaking in tongues, this language that they didn't know, and they were glorifying and praising God. So people didn't know what to say, so they said they must be drunk, because what are they doing? I don't understand, they've never experienced it. And it's ironic, Paul would later say, do not be drunk with wine, which is debauchery, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. I don't think it's an accident there that he shows the example of drunk, giving yourself over to the wrong spirit to be controlled and giving yourself over to the right spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit. Now a topic comes up I don't even wanna touch on right now. People talk about drunk in the Spirit. I don't think that's what Paul was saying. He didn't say, don't be drunk with wine, but be drunk in the Spirit. You know, he used the word filled there, filled capacity, filled with the Holy Spirit, because one of the byproducts of the Holy Spirit is self-control and boldness and different things. Now I walk slowly here, or easily I should say, on eggshells a little bit, because when the Holy Spirit hits a place, it's not pretty. I'm not talking about weird, I'm talking about people on their face before God, revivals breaking out in Welsh in the 1700s. Evan Roberts, the Welsh revivals in 1904, 1856, the Keswick Conferences they've had, revivals off the islands of the Hebrides, the First Great Awakening, the Second Great Awakening. You see, it's not just people sitting at church singing a few songs and going home. God moves in a place and people feel His power and His presence, and they're on the altar. They're singing, they're worshiping, because God is filling them with His presence. So either the book of Acts and all these things I read are wrong, or we've got it wrong sometimes. We don't want to experience God. Now I'm not talking about many of you, but overall as a church and our nation, people are scared of this topic. But I also realize, and I'm telling you up front, you can't just whip it up, you can't just bring it down. You can't have a revival conference and have revival if you're defining revival the way the Bible does. Now I like revival conferences. We're actually having that type of conference in October, 12 speakers coming from all over, paying their own way. And we want to seek God in this area. And Charles Finney, the reason he caught a lot of feedback, or a lot of negative feedback, is because he thought you could have certain measures take place in a church that would actually usher in revival. Almost like God was forced to bring revival if these certain conditions are met. However, I think he catches a little too much heat because in one aspect he is correct. God will fall on an empty, not an empty altar, but he will fall on a person who empties themselves. If certain conditions are met in the Bible, you will be filled with the Holy Spirit. There's no way around it. God's not going, nope, nope, not gonna fill you. He's waiting. The problem isn't him, it's us. The more we empty ourselves of ourselves, we will be filled with his Spirit. So again, volume doesn't fill you with his Spirit, humility does. Loud doesn't usher in the presence, brokenness does. But sometimes you will get a little loud, right? Joy-filled, joy-filled. This morning I just found, I was up here, we meet at 6.30 in the morning, now it's six in the morning because you guys keep coming too early. But, and the song came on, Reckless Love, that some people have a problem with that word, reckless love, God's reckless love, and according to how people look at it, could have the wrong thing there, because it's not reckless, but according to the world standard, it's very reckless. Or when God leaves the one sheep and goes after the 99 that appears to, or I'm sorry, when he leaves the 99, he goes after the one that appears to be reckless. And that's actually why the author wrote this song, that you would leave the 99 and come and find me, oh, God's reckless. And I just found myself just joy-filled my heart and singing, I hope there's nobody next to me, because this is loud, and I'm just, I'm so joy-filled, I'm praising God. I can't, you might as well, you might as well stop, oh, big water leak, then stop somebody praising God. I remember this, this is so funny. This is what happens. We're on 50th Street West, 15, 16 years ago, and a bulldozer hit a 10-inch, 12-inch water main. And the guy goes, Shane, I'm driving this huge loader, you know, the kind you have to crawl up in the seats, like, by that speaker. He goes, Shane, pour a lot of dirt on it. Pour a lot of dirt on it, that's not gonna do anything. This thing, you're losing 1,000 gallons per minute. Throw a bunch of dirt on it. And next thing I know, it's down the street, heading towards Edwards Air Force Base. All this water gushing down the street. See, you can't contain the power of the Spirit when He falls on a person, it just gushes out. You can, the Supreme Court, the courts will try to silence the voice of truth. Won't happen. Politicians try to silence the voice of truth. It will not happen. It must speak. That is the spirit of boldness. How are you gonna stop that? You can't. I'm still in the introduction. I'm trying, I promised myself, I'm not gonna do a long introduction. A spirit-drenching, I'm telling you guys, I'm fired up about this message. All week, all week, when it was, when it was, when it was on Wednesday night, I was, why isn't this Sunday morning? Thursday, why isn't this Sunday morning? Saturday, why isn't this Sunday morning? I mean, I'm ready because I've seen, this is the difference maker. This is the difference maker. Right here. This will make the difference in your life. Why can't I seem to find God? Why am I so bored with church? Why don't I have what others have? Right here. A spirit-drenching experience. Do you know that Jesus had one? John the Baptist was filled with the Spirit from his mother's womb. Now, you might not agree with me on this, but I've prayed that for every one of our kids when it's in the womb. Lord, fill that child with your Spirit in the womb. You did it for John the Baptist. I have a similar calling, right? And the voice crying in the wilderness could do it for me too, Lord, and that's a good prayer to pray. Lord, fill my children with your Spirit. Do you know if our kids would be filled with God's Spirit, you'd just end bullying? You'd end half their problems if they're filled with the Spirit of God, training up a child in the way they should go, helping them be filled with the Spirit. The disciples, men and women, were filled with the Spirit. Peter, Paul, Stephen, a spirit-drenching experience. They all had it. Everybody you read about in the New Testament that you liked that was a hero of our faith, guess what? They had a spirit-drenching experience. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, if you're wondering what this is, in a nutshell, it's where love and boldness meet, because you don't want one over the other, right? I just love you, but I'm not bold. I don't know if you're filled with the Spirit. But I'm just bold, I just love the truth. Do you have any love? You might just love the truth like the Pharisees. So it's where love and truth meet. And I've noticed the more broken I get before God, the more filled I am with the Spirit, the more I love people. The more my heart breaks. Why? Because the Spirit groans for things so deep that cannot be uttered. People say, what does that Scripture mean? I know exactly what it means, because the Holy Spirit's groaning for righteousness. Look around us, he's groaning for love and for unity and the things that upset the heart of God. He's groaning for that. And so that groan goes out in our own spirits. Oh God, would you change things? Would you change things for the better? And we start to see the heart of God. This is vitally important. So let me just ask you right out of the gate, have you had a Spirit-drenching experience? Or do you need to be refilled this morning? This service this morning is designed to refill your tank. What we're doing at the first service, this is just flowing into the second service. The ending worship here is gonna flow right into the beginning of the second service. I did that in Lancaster for many years. And then we got here, people said, well, parking won't work and children ministry don't work. I'm like, yeah, let's stop worshiping God so we can park closer. It's a good idea, I fell for it. Now all of us had good intentions, and nobody's, but it was hard for me to keep, I'm not gonna keep beating this one because it doesn't seem like it's gonna go very far. But I've been convicted lately that we just gotta get back to where, who cares if you park down the street? Remember, I don't know if I told the first, but the second service, me and my wife visit a church in Los Angeles. Oh, this parking garage, I don't like parking garages, by the way. It says six foot eight, my truck's six two, and I always think I'm hitting something. So I'm driving really slow. So I get up there and you actually pull in and somebody pulls behind you. And you're blocked in. So what do you do? You leave your cell phone number on the dash. So we get up there, I'm sitting on my tailgate, I'm texting the person, hey, we're ready to leave. 20 minutes later, we're ready to leave. What is going on? And then finally, she walks up there, we're sitting on the tailgate. Oh, sorry, I didn't have my cell phone with me. Oh, well, thank you. I've been hungry for 30 minutes, where have you been? So I left there and I look at all this land out there and parking, I just look how blessed we are. And sometimes we just gotta think a little bit differently. What's the priority? And the reason we designed it like this is because to be filled with the Spirit, it takes a little time. Does it take time to be filled? This morning, I was heading here kind of in a hurry already and guess what light was on? The gas light. So I go in the Chevron, come on, come on, one gallon. One gallon and a half. Come on, one gallon and three quarters. Come on, come on, come on. Two gallons, oh, Lord. But see, it takes time to be filled up. I remember this when I was driving heavy equipment and I had a big semi truck, 50 gallons on each side. And then I'd fill up the backhoe on the back. I was at the gas station quite a while. One gallon, two gallon. I mean, it was just, but see, the same thing. We see it's the same thing spiritually. It takes time to be filled up. To be filled with God's presence, it takes time. It's almost like God's saying, how bad do you want it? When you seek me, you will find me. You can't just seek him for five minutes. It takes time because here's what happens. We come in bored, we come in tired, we come in with attitudes. Oh, there's a first song, there's a second, there's, oh, wow, the lyrics are really make, oh, and then God starts to move as the flesh is starved. And now the music's over, now here comes Shane. I could have just kept worshiping because God's working on the heart. So it takes time. Acts 13, 52. And the disciples were continually, continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit. It changes everything. And I wasn't joking about bowling because they're learning about that next door, about bowling kids, and we're not gonna, we have a zero-tolerance policy here for that. Of course, we love the kids, we talk with them, we work with them, and we wanna make sure everything's going on good with them, but we can't tolerate certain things here at the church. But if kids are filled with the Spirit, if families are filled with the Spirit, it does make a difference. Because you wanna go hug them instead of hit them when you're filled with God's Spirit. So here's where I was trying to get to. Seven primary activities of the Holy Spirit. Okay, you wanna learn who the Holy Spirit is, we look to the Bible. Seven primary activities of the Holy Spirit. As hard as I tried, I got through number one. So you know it's coming next week, right? So let's look at who is the Holy Spirit. Well, the first one is this. The Holy Spirit is a person, not a power. So you have to remember that. The Holy Spirit is a person, not a power. Baptizing them, Jesus said baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. You see, we know this, a person's name in Scripture represents the character of that person, doesn't it? If somebody's name, when I say David, what do you think of? When I say Jezebel, Delilah, Moses, see the name represents the character. The Holy Spirit represents holiness, and purity, and righteousness. That's why those filled with the Spirit have to contend for those things in our culture, and in the church. They're filled with holiness, and righteousness, and what the Bible calls righteous indignation. For sin that goes against those things. The Holy Spirit gives us that passion, and that desire. Also, when Peter confronted Ananias with the fact that he had told a lie to the Holy Spirit, he said, you have not lied to men, but to God. You have not lied to men, but you've lied to God, to the Holy Spirit. Now, it is a mystery, and if I were to try to attempt to explain this, I would probably fall flat on my face. Because we worship one God. God said, hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. I am one God. But then he expresses himself as Elohim, which is a dual, not a dual, dual is Elah. El is singular, Elah is dual, and Elohim is the plural, the plurality of God. So we see God as one. So theologians explain it like this. One essence, three persons. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. We see them working differently. The Father in creation, the Son in redemption, the Holy Spirit in regeneration. These three are one. So there is different teachings out there. One is called oneness Pentecostal, or modalism. They believe that God is one mode. So that when Jesus was in the river, Jordan being baptized, and the Father spoke from heaven, the Holy Spirit descended upon him as a dove, and Jesus was in the river, they said that Jesus was a ventriloquist. There's really God, everybody right there in the river. But hermeneutically, you have a problem with that? Because the Father spoke from heaven, the Holy Spirit descended upon him. And Jesus said, when I leave, a comforter is going to come. But we also don't want to walk the line of worshiping three different gods. Polytheistic, I believe that is, and different religions. So we're not worshiping, oh, here's the Holy Spirit over here, here's Jesus, and here's God the Father. They are one, but revealed in three different and distinct persons. You might want to leave it at that. Right, because you start getting, well, is it like an egg? You got the shell, you got the yolk, you got the egg white. Is it like water? You have the vapor, you have the ice, and you have the liquid. But what can describe the Trinity? Nothing, really. So people attempt to, people try to. What we need to know is it's one God revealing himself in three different persons. Here's the key about this. Because the Holy Spirit is a person, a person can be quenched and grieved, correct? Can a person be quenched or grieved? This happens all the time. A couple is newly married, okay, for you dating or newly married. You're filled with passion. If you're not careful, you can grieve that spouse. Not love that spouse anymore. And the person is grieved because excitement has turned into barrenness. Just like the Holy Spirit, there's a grieving there. There's also a quenching that takes place, right? People say, I just don't love you anymore. Where did that come from? They're quenched, they're hurt. So the fire they once had is quenched. A person can experience that. So the Holy Spirit can be quenched and grieved. This was just amazing, just thinking of this concept this week. Because things we do either fill us with the Holy Spirit or quench his fire. And if we keep quenching the fire, we're going to walk around with this Holy Spirit presence and power, just a heartbeat there. Nothing more, nothing less, because we've quenched and grieved the Spirit. Now you think the Holy Spirit would just take over, but often that's not the case. He is allowing you to make certain choices that would either fill you with his presence and power or that you would quench and grieve him in sin. But it's not just sin. There's a couple things I want to just throw out to you. One thing that definitely quenches and grieves the Holy Spirit, especially in America, what I think does probably one of the biggest damages, whether it's God healing through the Holy Spirit, whether it's the Holy Spirit moving in somebody's life, is materialism. The more we want things and the less we want God, that will quench and grieve. When you say, God, I'm going to give up this, I'm not going to do this, I'm going to live below my means, because I can seek you with all of my heart, that you begin to be filled with the Spirit. And the more we seek other things, right, there's so many people this summer, what are they looking forward to? No, take vacations, have breaks, please. But when it becomes an all-consuming passion, right? I have to have all the jet skis and the boat and this, and I've got to have the big house, and I've got to work seven days a week so I can take off two weeks and just vacation and party. It's material, we're living for those things. So that lifestyle will quench and grieve the Spirit of God. Materialism does it every time. It's really, you know what it's called in the Bible? It starts with an I, idolatry. And that can come into all of our lives. Can it? A person's working hard, working really hard. I remember in my case, I quit my corporate job and started working construction and wasn't making hardly anything, and then started my own construction company and heavy equipment, and the money was flowing in because the market was booming, and it began to draw me away from time with God because now I'm too busy, right? And I could tell, it was quenching and grieving. The Bible wasn't alive anymore. I didn't want to go to church as much, made excuses. So it can creep in in all of our lives. And then another hindrance is pride. Being full of the Holy Spirit and full of pride is not gonna work. They're not gonna be in the same room. The Holy Spirit will say, well, I'm out of this room. You come get me when you need me, hot shot. And we get prideful about things. We get arrogant about things. And anytime, like when I debated the atheists at the college or when I'm debating or talking to people, I have to get into a spot of humility before I go. On Fox News, many of you watched a Fox News clip where I debated a pastor who agrees with same-sex attraction. And I had to go in there, I asked my wife, fasting, praying that day. It's hard to fast in New York, by the way. There's hot dog stands and everything. You had one, didn't you? You had one right in front of me. Right in front of me. Right in front of me. That was, what was I at? Oh, so I had to, yeah, fasting and going, okay, Lord, I know what Your Word says. Don't let me go in there and be haughty and arrogant and not seeking to listen but still being bold. So you have to go into these things because as soon as you get all, well, I've read the Bible. I know what it says. I can, you know, let me show Him my natural debating abilities. And you know, you're just falling flat on your face. Because pride, humility, the Holy Spirit falls upon a broken, humble vessel. Yes, it's good to have knowledge, but you better be trusting in God, not the knowledge. Another thing that quenches and grieves is self-confidence. Trust in self. You know who you are, you self-confident people out there, right? I got this. I got this. Oh, if it gets tough, I'll go to God then. I can fix this problem. I can fix this relationship. I can fix this issue of my work. I can go into my job and I can fix this. I can make a difference. Instead of spending time with God in prayer, being emptied of yourself to be filled with the Spirit. So this self-confidence, who is confident in self? Just the word makes me sick. Right, just self-confident. Think about this church. We're gonna be self-confident that God's just gonna keep building and adding and building. Self, look at what we're doing. Oh, Lord, help us. Because God says, okay, I'm no longer welcome in that place because you've got this down. And many people are self-confident. They'll have their life laid out a certain way and they don't wanna deviate from that. Another way that you can quench and grieve the Spirit, because again, we're talking about the Holy Spirit as a person. You can hold back on things that God is calling you to do. Hold back on things that God is calling you to do. Anybody relate to that? God, I know you're wanting me to step out and do this, but I'm holding back. I know you're wanting me to do this or that, and I'm just gonna, I don't feel qualified. Anybody say that? Hello? That's what I said before starting the church. Are you kidding me? Where's the denominational backing? Where's six years of seminary? Where's speech lessons? And how do you speak to people? Well, I'm qualified. God, I can't do this. And then I turn to that funny scripture when they saw that they were untrained and unlearned men, but they knew they had been with Jesus. They spoke with power, they spoke with boldness, they spoke with authority because they were with Jesus and they were filled with His Spirit. So any time we hold back because God, I can't do that, because I'm not, I know you want me to do it, but I can't do that. And it's funny, churches often will look for board members with a big pedigree. That's a real estate investor in our city. Let's get him on the board. That's a business owner. Let's get him on the board. Now, there's nothing wrong with good advice, but see self-confidence. And if God's telling you to do something and you're saying, no, I'm not qualified. Lord, I don't wanna step out and do that. Do you think you're gonna be more filled with the Spirit or less filled with the Spirit? Because the Holy Spirit comes upon a person who has deep faith and belief in what God is going to do. Now, here's the biggie. What quenches and grieves the Spirit probably more than anything? Well, materialism is this, so we can nail two with one. Besetting sin, besetting sin, or sin that is continued, sin that is allowed. A person knows I've gotta get this out of my life. I can't be keeping angry and explosive. I can't keep giving into this. I can't keep being addicted to this. I keep giving into this perversion. I keep, I keep, I keep. Lord, I want you, I want more of you, but we keep giving into a certain thing that God wants us to remove. So if a person keeps doing that, are they going to be filled mightily with His Spirit? It was so bad that David wanted to die when he committed adultery and murder. He was just, he was not, he actually prayed. He actually prayed that the Holy Spirit, Lord, don't take your Spirit from me. Would you restore? God, would you restore the joy of my salvation? God, my bones feel like, even my bones are hurting. The bones you have broken, Lord, that the bones you have broken, and God didn't break any bones, but there's such a deep pain and such a deep hurting. He said, the bones you have broken are going to rejoice. Create in me a clean heart, Lord. Renew a right spirit within me. I've fallen back so much, so somebody caught in sin is not gonna have the Spirit of God upon them, Samson. Isn't it interesting? Well, there's kids in here, I won't say too much, but he gave in to a certain area of his life, and people think it was immorality, sexual immorality, and it was, no doubt, but what actually took the power from him was his concentration was compromised. What I mean by that is God said, don't shave your hair. Don't take this in, don't drink that. I want you to be holy and set apart from me. Consecrate yourself. It reminds me of Joel. Consecrate yourself. Call a sacred assembly. Call a holy gathering of my people. So Samson began to walk away from what God has called him to do. He began to compromise, and they cut off his hair. I don't know how this is. Maybe it resembles, it was a reflection on his Nazarite vow, it was a reflection on what God has called him to do. He got to such a low point, he slept with someone in Gaza, and then he gets with Delilah, and then he's just not doing good, sexual purity, and then now she allows him to cut his hair. See, it's often one step at a time. Finally, gives in. His hair is gone. The consecration really, God said, okay, enough is enough. And that's one thing you have to realize about God. I love God so much because He is patient. He is long-suffering, but there comes a time when He's gonna say, okay, you want it, you got it. Shane, go ahead and handle this service. God forbid that day. Or in our own lives, you want it, you got it. You keep giving into this, I'm going to give you up to that desire. And so there comes a point where you have to eradicate things in your life that God is calling you to eradicate. So Samson, he said, okay, I will come upon the Philistines, just like times before. Delilah said, the Philistines are upon you. Samson, get up, and he got up. I don't know if he looked like the guy in the movie, but he just got up, and he went, and he couldn't do anything because the power of God had left him. The Bible says something interesting in the Quran. The King James says, he wist not. He wist not that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him. New King James, he knew not that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him. And I often think, how many of us are still thinking we're doing things, but we don't know that the Spirit is no longer in that? I think it was A.W. Tozer, he said, in the early church, if the Holy Spirit would have vanished from their presence, 90% of the work would have ceased. Today, when the Holy Spirit vanishes from our presence, 90% of the work continues. Because we count on advertising, we count on gifted speakers, or filling in the churches with these games and gimmicks and entertainment and worship that suits my style, as long as it doesn't hurt me too bad or too deep, and as long as you don't talk about offensive things, and God says, I'm not in that. I'm in the truth. So be setting sin, but on the flip side, be encouraged, because you can go from empty to filled in 0.0 seconds. As long as the heart is saying, God, I'm confessing, I'm repenting, I want all of you again, I need to remove these things from my life, and depression will turn to joy. Fear and discouragement will turn to overwhelming encouragement. Doesn't mean you'll be perfect when you leave here, but it does mean that God can begin to work in your heart also something that quenches and grieves the spirit is toxic attitudes. We don't talk about this much in the church, and we should. Toxic attitudes. This is hard to spot, isn't it? Can I tell if you're a gossip, and a backbiter, and hatred, can we see that in your spirit? Not really. Oh, pastor, how's it going, I love you, brother, thank you. Right? Same with you, I'm not saying just me here, but we can't, those toxic attitudes need to be removed and repented of, because here's what happens in the attitude of a person who has toxic emotions. They can come to the altar, they can worship, and they still hold on to that. They still hold on to that toxic tongue. They're not peacemakers, they're looking for any type of, you know what I've noticed? If you go to church looking for something, you're gonna find something. If you follow me around, I'll follow you around, you're gonna find something. If you're a sin sniffer, and you are a fault finder, you will find anything. Did they misspell one of those words? I don't think that's grammatically correct. What is this? That song about the Holy Spirit, are you sure that's doctrinally sound? Holy Spirit, you are welcome in this place. I've had people critique that song. Shane, he's already welcome in that place. Yeah, I can tell why you've never experienced him. You're just as rigid as a two by four. My Lord. There's a church in town that removed all the songs about the Holy Spirit, or most of the songs about the Holy Spirit. Because they're worried about this side, right? I see that guy on TV, wiping, you know, with his jacket around, everybody falling down. Spirit's on me, brother. Just bring in your offering to the front. Make sure it's 100 or more. I mean, come on. The Holy Spirit truly hit that place. That man would be on his face before God. So we see, Wayne Grudem said this nicely. God the Father speaks from heaven during Jesus' baptism. This is my beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit descends from heaven on him. And Jesus saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. Each person of the Trinity is doing something different at exactly the same time. Here's my thing about the Holy Spirit, my passion about the Holy Spirit. God the Father, distinct, separate part of the Trinity, Jesus Christ sitting next to the Father on the right hand of God. We're going to see Christ someday, but the Holy Spirit is the active agent presence of God right now in this place and in our hearts and in our lives. So if you remove the active and you forget about the activity of the Spirit, oh, by the way, did you know that the Holy Spirit guides, the Holy Spirit leads, the Holy Spirit directs, the Holy Spirit fills, the Holy Spirit comforts, and you remove all of that, and you're just gonna worship God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Word. You miss the Holy Spirit. Then you'll miss the power of the Spirit. You will not do anything significant for God unless you're filled with his Spirit. I'll go on record saying that. Do you have proof texting? Every single person in the New Testament. How's that for proof text? Everybody. You see people who are not filled, didn't do anything. You see people filled, did everything for God. Again, not perfectly. I wanna make sure I clear that up because people leave here, oh, I'll never measure up. Me neither. That's why I call it like Spurgeon. Lord, I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit every step. I go, Lord, it's your power, it's your presence. Don't let me go beyond what you want me to say. This isn't my opinion, and don't let me cower back from saying the things that need to be said. God, what do you want to say? That's why I don't understand people. People, they're all preaching. It's so, I don't know. Just be filled with the Spirit of God and let it come out. Look at the Bible, and then God, Holy Spirit, what do you wanna say through your people because your word is living and active. It's sharper than any double-edged sword. I don't know what to say. God says, good, now I can speak through you because your opinions, your agenda is out of the way. We're not trying to build a church on tickling the ears. We're not trying to build a church on tickling the ears. You've noticed that, right? That's probably one of the number one complaints I hear around town. Oh, I don't wanna go there anymore. You're not living right, are you? No, I'm not. Of course you don't wanna come there anymore. Of course not. Get me away from the Holy Spirit's influence. Holy Spirit's work. Those who are hungry for God will come. Those who are not don't want to. They'll find a church that doesn't convict, it doesn't startle, it doesn't upset. They're never exposed to the white light of the gospel because when that message hits, your heart is ripped and torn in two and you have to pray and worship God. You can't leave with besetting sin all the time. God moves in a powerful way. I told you preaching's like being pregnant. I'm almost delivering here. I'm dilated, number five. Yeah, my goodness. All right, I don't know if that's okay to say. No, what's the saying? Ask for forgiveness instead of permission. So the work of the Spirit is next week. We're gonna talk about he teaches and he bears witness. Did you know that? The Holy Spirit teaches and bears witness. It's interesting how people take this scripture out of context. People say, I don't learn from no man. God teaches me, I don't learn from no man. Really? That's not biblical either because in the multitude accounts of their safety, he learned from others. Because what happens when I don't learn from no man, I just hear from God, then you'll become very prideful, very arrogant. Every little voice you hear, you'll think it's God speaking to you because you don't take advice from man. That means you can't sit under spiritual authority. Well, it's easier for you to say, no, I sit under spiritual authority. I run things by the elders. I make sure my speaking engagements aren't gonna take me away too much and ask for direction and comfort and sit under counsel and sit under leadership. We submit to people. I have to submit to the needs of my family. There is multiple areas of submission. So the Holy Spirit prays to the Father on our behalf. Oh my goodness. Can you just think about that for a minute? The Holy Spirit can pray on your behalf to God the Father with groaning so deep that they cannot be uttered. There's a, oh God, help me. Have you ever been there or is it just me? You don't know, I don't know what to pray for. I can't, I can't get the Holy Spirit. Would you go directly to God because this vessel needs to get out of the way. I don't know what to pray for, groaning so deep for righteousness, for peace, for joy. Oh God, I feel so much pain. What do I do? And the Holy Spirit can intercede on behalf of the believer. Ask for permission. I mean, ask for forgiveness, permission later. So Linda, hopefully I can tell this story briefly. I won't say names or anything, but I went down to visit somebody at a hospital yesterday. And in addition to visiting them, there was a couple there, a young couple who's had to remove life support from their child in a few hours. And she asked if I could go in and pray with them. Hold on, what's the situation here? What am I, I don't even know what to say. I can't, praying for the child that's gonna be gone a few hours, sitting with the mom, the dad, praying with them. I mean, it just wrecked my whole day thinking about this. I don't know how to, oh yeah, let me just pray. Pray what? Pray what? Pray for healing, I got it. Pray for this, pray for comfort. I know, but when you're on that, when you're faced with that directly, it's hard to just, oh, let me just pop on the switch that knows exactly what to do. And you have, there's times where the Holy Spirit intercedes on your behalf. And that's why the person who tells me, Shane, I don't know what to pray for. Good, get on your face before God and say, Holy Spirit, would you intercede? Pray for me, you won't get out of there for at least an hour. Because the Holy Spirit has given permission now to wreck your life and to pray for things and to direct things and groan. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but groanings. The Holy Spirit, Romans says the Holy Spirit groans. Labor pains. There's a groaning, it's a true prayer. You haven't, most people haven't seen true prayer. True prayer meetings aren't like, Lord, just help us this week and help Brother Bob. Thank you for our coffee room and, you know. We just, you know, just go around and okay, see you next week. Prayer is like travailing. It's a birth room. It's God-inspired prayer. You're travailing, you're moaning. Oh, God, would you move in this place? God, would you move in my heart? Would you move in my life? Shane, I don't feel that, I can't manufacture that. I can't either, but the more you submit to God and the work of the Spirit, it'll bubble over. Remember the water main? Pour dirt on it, come on! It'll start to, it still cracks me up. It just, just pouring, just pouring, pouring into you, God, Holy Spirit. And it takes time, you gotta let the pump start pumping it in. You've gotta get on your face before, God, not be in a hurry. See, I think we're always in a hurry. Oh, let's get a few songs in, I've gotta be here, I gotta hit Home Depot later, we've got an event later. And God, we're always on the run. God says, hey, I'm right here, would you stop all of your agenda and come and seek me for a minute? That's being filled with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit knows the thoughts of God. He makes personal decisions about what spiritual gifts to distribute to us. He personally guides Christians. As in Jesus's case, I gotta tell you this story before I close in a little bit. As in Jesus's case, he fills and comes upon a person. The difference is night and day. I wanna tell you a minute, many of you know, some of you don't know, but Jesus had a Spirit-drenching experience. Did you know that? Jesus himself, you have the born, oh, look at born, we celebrate Christmastime, that's great. Did you know we didn't hear about him for 30 years? Oh, except when he was 12 and decided to ask the hard questions in the temple and his parents forgot him. But 30 years, the Son of God on the face of the earth for 30 years, he goes from obscurity to notoriety like that. He goes to the Jordan River. Man, this got me choked up this morning because I could not even have believed, I would just love to see, he goes to the Jordan River and asks John the Baptist to baptize him. Can you imagine baptizing Jesus? Now think, okay, I'm gonna, I mean, I'd start crying. Well, we'll baptize you. Well, first, I went in the name of what? Right, him, but why am I, see, and I would start crying. Why am I? Why am I? Oh, God, I have undone lips like Isaiah. I can't, my hands are dirty like Peter. God, I can't baptize you. Are you kidding me? And he said, suffer it so that all righteousness might be fulfilled. And John the Baptist baptizes Jesus, representing death, burial, and resurrection. He comes up, the Spirit of God descends upon him. See, that's the key. The Spirit was in him possibly, but now he's upon him, he's overflowing. Now is he ready? No. And then the Spirit takes him in the wilderness for 40 days to fast. And the Bible says something very interesting. He came out of the wilderness full of. Why would it say that? Have you ever thought, why would it just say full of the Holy Spirit? Because it wants you to know something. He wants you to know something. Jesus Christ was baptized. Some of you need to be baptized, by the way. And he fasted. Some of you need to be fasted. Fasting, by the way, that's a powerful combination. So he fasted, he came out. It says in the fullness, another translation, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Then he walks in to the temple, takes out the scroll of Isaiah. And the Bible says the people's eyes were fixed on him. And he says this, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. And he sits down. That made all the difference in the world. That's what many of you need. You need the Holy Spirit to come upon you. If you think that's weird, then you think Jesus was weird. That's how you witness, that's how you're bold, that's how you love the word of God, that's how you want to worship, that's how you'd rather go to church than a bar. That's why you're not embarrassed about God around your friends. When you follow the Holy Spirit, you can't contain it. You might as well try to throw a bucket of dirt on a broken water main. The Holy Spirit, the Lord is upon me. So Jesus said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has what? He has anointed. See, all these words that people like, oh, anointed, oh, Holy Spirit, going that way. That's Jesus. Anointed just means God's got his mark on your life and you are in the devil's crosshairs and you are anointed by God to make a difference. That's what it means. God says, I'm gonna have, I'll go down the line. I don't wanna say your names, but you know. Tony, Bill, Chris, Mike, Morgan, Josh, Bill, Fred, Diane, Meredith, Tito. When you follow the Spirit, you are anointed to do something. God's got his mark on you. How else can we plant a church like this on Saturdays? God anoints the project. God anoints the work. How else can people do something in ministry? But I'm not gonna be a pastor. I'm not gonna be Billy Graham. You don't have to. God doesn't care about numbers. He cares about faithfulness. The Spirit of the Lord is upon you so you can go to the hospital homes and make a difference. The Spirit of the Lord is upon you. He has anointed you to preach or to witness to the little children in your school. He has anointed you to go next door and make a difference with the little children. He's called you to do something, to preach the gospel to the poor, not just the poor financially, the poor in what? Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is upon you, you do all of these things. See, to heal the brokenhearted, that's something interesting, something that's one of the most mind-boggling things about me preaching is this. I've always thought this. For some people, it cuts like a razor cutting their skin or something like just, oh, I'm so cut. Oh, I can't stand that anymore. I don't wanna ever come back to this church. But you have the same lady there who's being encouraged, who's brokenhearted, whose husband just left. How did this person, never coming back, and this single mom is crying at the altar, saying, I need to hear this today. How is that possible? One's PO'd, one's coming back. Because it's the Spirit of the Lord who's healing the brokenhearted. Because if you preach God's word hard, but you also have love and you season things with love and gentleness and grace and truly loving the people, it will cure the brokenhearted. It will heal them because it's what they need. To proclaim liberty to the captives who is bound in sin. God's word, when the Spirit of God, have you ever heard a boring dead sermon? I mean, it's like, you're not letting anybody free. And that's my, you're just keeping them bound. They're bored, they're falling asleep. You go try this. Find a powerful, and you send it to me. You send it to me, find me a powerful, powerful sermon with the anointing of God from a Mormon person, a Mormon preacher. You send me one from a Roman Catholic church who is embraced in Mariology and all the beliefs of the Catholic church. You show me a powerful sermon. You send me one of a Jehovah's Witness. I mean, powerful, God saturated. You won't find it. Because the Spirit of God is not upon them. He's not anointing them to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind. And to set to liberty all who are oppressed. That's what the Word of God does. And that's what you will do when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. You can do the same exact ministry. We're called to do that. Oh, I don't know how that works. You can be in Trader Joe's, and the Holy Spirit will say, hey, go talk to her. Right? I told you about a guy I met at that tent revival. I'm standing back here, he's over there by the, about 20 feet away, and I'm like, Lord, I don't know what I'm gonna say to him. I feel prompted. Because you know, I'm like, oh, how's it going? I'm talking to him, it's construction, and come to find out he's looking for work, and I made a phone call and got him a job. He's working. And then, you know, and just got, so how, who does that? God's Spirit. He's a, wherever you're at, shopping, in your schools, in your neighborhood, you think your neighbor needs any of this? I'll tell you what, there's about half dozen on my street that need all of this. So God has anointed you, He's called you, if the Holy Spirit comes upon you. See, and that's the difference I hope to talk about next time, or in the future. The Holy Spirit can come alongside someone. It's where we get a word, paracletus, paraclete. That school out there is different. But para, para means para, para, para, come alongside of a person. That's the Holy Spirit comes alongside. And then the Holy Spirit is in a person as a believer, en. It's a preposition in the Greek, en, it means in a person. But you can be in and not full of. So the final part is epi, E-P-I, you can look it up. It means upon, overwhelming, the Holy Spirit coming out of a person. Because if you're truly full of the Spirit, how can you contain that? It's impossible. He quoted Isaiah, and I thought of Isaiah 64. Oh, that you would rend the heavens. Isaiah's praying this to God. I hope some of you pray this. Oh, that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down. Do you ever pray that? God, do you know what rend mean? It means rip. God, would you rip the heavens? Would you rend the heavens, and would you come down and fall upon this place? Your people, we are a dry and thirsty land. God, come down and rend. I don't want churches normal. I don't wanna come back next week and nothing happen. God, I want you to rend the heavens, break the heavens, come down, that the mountains might shake at your presence. See, we are too proud to cry out to God. I'm just telling you the truth. Most people are too proud to cry out to God and say, God, I need you, because pride says I don't need you, and I'll look less spiritual. I've told you this before. I think it's been a while, but I was at a speaking engagement, and God was clear. Go to that altar. I'm the speaker. I'm not gonna go to the altar. Lord, I'm the speaker. That's gonna, how embarrassing is that? It was like, if you don't go to that altar, I will not fall upon your message, okay? I don't care who's looking, and I got on that altar, and the people followed, and God's presence was so powerful. It was a little church setting. It wasn't anything big, but there's that step of, the pride was in my heart. I'm not going to the altar. I'm calling people to the altar. I'm not going to the altar. Pride, arrogance. He's gotta break all of that out of you to be filled with the Spirit. Pride is preventing the Holy Spirit from moving in most of you, especially men. I don't do that. I don't, where do we get our definition from? Men are looking to GQ, and women to Cosmopolitan. No wonder the Spirit's not moving in our churches. We're dressing like Delilah, and we're acting like Samson. I can't imagine going through life with the heavens never opening. Sure, you're a good Christian. You know your Bible, but have you ever received a mighty filling of the Holy Spirit? The very thing you need is the very thing you're running from. Okay, Shane, what do I do? All you do is this. Don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. Be filled. You have to make, you have to turn that over to God and say, okay, Lord, I don't care what it costs me. I want to be filled with your Spirit. Luke 11, 13. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? Now, what do you do with that verse? Well, I have the Holy Spirit as a believer. You do, but does he have all of you? You ask, Lord, give me that filling of the Holy Spirit. I'm asking, God, whatever it is, I want more of you. Ask, ask, ask for the fountains of living water that will never dry up. Ask for the well of living water that will never leave you thirsty again. Ask for the ever-present help of God in time of need. Ask, ask, ask. You do not receive because you do not ask. Ask for the Spirit's power. Ask for the Spirit's presence in your life because most of you in this room need it. How do you know that? Because I do, too. I was about ready to say all of you in this room, but I don't want somebody to go, oh, he's not talking about me. Right? All of us in this room need the power of God. You have to cry out. We have to ask for it. Ask for it. Because sometimes we, well, if I just sit there during worship, it'll happen. No, it won't happen unless you open your heart to it and say, God, fill me with your Spirit. I love what William Booth said. William Booth with the Salvation Army. He said, thou Christ, the burning, cleansing flame, send the fire. Can you say that? Think that. Thou Christ, the burning and cleansing flame, would you send your fire? Thy blood-bought gift today we claim. Send the fire. Look down and see this waiting host. Oh, God, give us the promised Holy Ghost that's asking and receiving as the heart is opened up. Ah, I better stop, because I'm going to explode in a minute. It's so right there. See, that's what frustrates me most about pastoring. It's right there. It's right there. Living water. You just take of it and drink. You just take of it and say, God, fill me with your Spirit. That's what you need. The very thing you need is the very thing you're afraid of. Drink of the living water, or you will never thirst again. Don't allow the enemy to come in and plant those thoughts. Now you're going to act weird, like such and such. Now you'll have to give up that alcohol habit. Now you'll have to give up that habit. Now you know no more fun. Now you just sit at church all day, bored to death. Oh, what a life from the pit of the death hell. You have to want that filling of the Spirit.