This sermon emphasizes the importance of surviving the anointing by returning to God and embracing His presence. It highlights the dangers of rejecting wisdom, standing in the path of sin, and taking the bait that leads to losing the anointing. The speaker urges believers to repent, return to God, and seek Christ in all aspects of life, emphasizing the need for prayer and a deep relationship with God.

Surviving the Anointing Part 2. I didn't get through with this message last week and there's a lot I wanted to talk to you about. And what happened is, you see the Matthew banner, you might be saying, well, what's going on here? I thought we were in Matthew. Well, we are in Matthew, but what I like to do is when God puts something on my heart that's stirring on my heart on a particular topic, I want to camp out there for a while if I can. And if there's some passion there, if there's some ways in God speaking to my own life, I want to bring it to you so I'm not in a hurry to get through Matthew. I'm really not in a hurry at all. I want to sit. And this last couple of messages on the anointing and experiencing the presence of God, we have heard from people all over as far as Denmark and New Zealand and Australia and recently here in some of the other states of people recommitting their life to God. They're on fire for God. The Bibles came alive again. So that's encouraging to know that God is using that to bring a passion again for his word. Because, you know what guys, let me just shoot you straight. I don't know how we live without God at the center of our life. I mean, as Planned Parenthood, it's coming out now that they're taking the children they've aborted and selling those aborted baby parts. The Boy Scouts are now letting gay leaders lead the kids. Big protests in Germany where homosexual activists were actually using the Bible as toilet paper. This is not going in a good direction. Now, as Christians, we're not supposed to fear, but we are supposed to discern the times. And assisted suicide is now becoming the cool thing. There are people on depression medication or different things. If a doctor can prescribe to terminate the end of life at an early age. I think there's a girl in her 20s, people in their 50s and 40s. Assisted suicide, it's now becoming the new thing. It's becoming something that's cool to remove ourselves from this life when things get difficult. So you see the way the culture's going. You see the way the world's going. And if we don't dive into the presence of God now, you will not make it. You will not thrive. The news will scare you to death. The culture will alarm you. But as believers, we should be coming out from among them and being separate. And get into God's word. Get into his presence. Get into these things that bring us back to him. So I think a message like this is desperately needed. We need that anointing of God. We need to survive the anointing. And what happened four weeks ago in Matthew, we were talking about the transfiguration, where Jesus went up onto the top of this mountain with a few of the disciples, and they saw the presence of God. They saw the manifest presence of God on Jesus. So much so that they fell on their face, and they were changed. They experienced God at a deeper level. And I'm not afraid of that. I think some Christians are concerned when you talk about the deeper life. Because there's a shallow life. We can admit that, right? There's shallow Christianity. Well, do you want the shallow or the deep water? And deeper to me really just means a more intimate relationship with God, where you can spend time praying, you can spend time worshiping, you can spend time with your Father. And it's in those times that that's where change really takes place. You don't get wet in the shallow water. My little two-year-old likes to put her feet on the first step in the pool. She's not wet. She thinks she's swimming. She tells everybody she's swimming. She's not swimming. She's about this far in the water. The kids now are swimming in the pool. The older kids. But see, that's the difference. That's the parallel. That's why you see so much. You look at Christians and go, how in the world can a Christian live like that? Shallow water. They're not into experiencing God in a deeper way. Because do you want to know why? It hurts. It's not easy. It's not easy to pursue God. Because in pursuing God, you're denying the flesh. And to embrace the flesh, the works of the flesh, God becomes a distance. Our relationship with Him, we grow at a distance. And that's why the theme of this church, really, if you've been coming here a while, you know the theme of this church is worship the Word of God in prayer. Worship the Word of God in prayer. And we're going to be doing that until the day I die. That's what God has put on my heart to lead West Side Christian Fellowship. And even yesterday, a guy asked me, he goes, well, do you think you'll ever change direction on a lot of this and just get more into this and that? And I said, you know, it's God's church, but we are in a desperate need. There's a desperate need to experience Him. I want my children to experience God. I want you to experience God. Here's the difference. You come here falling asleep, waiting to get out of here, or you sit on the edge of your seat wanting God to speak into your life and can't wait until worship and time of prayer. That's the difference. I'm just shooting you straight. That's the difference. People come because they have to. They're obligated. Man, that guy, Shane, he really irritates me. I don't like what he's saying because it's challenging. Isn't it? Listen, when I was running multiple fitness centers, and people would come in to lose weight, do you think they liked their trainer? No, they didn't. You can do more, push-ups, sit-ups, right? Get on that bike, increase that level. It's the same thing with pursuing God. And once we pursue Him and we're pursuing Him, and some of you can relate to this, there's an anointing, there's a spirit-filled life where your prayers take on more weight, where God uses you in mighty ways, where you can just, have you ever went to a place and felt the presence of God, whether it was during worship or prayer time, you just live differently. And that's what we start in Matthew. But then with that anointing comes surviving that anointing. And David Ravenhill wrote an incredible book entitled Surviving the Anointing that I try to read once a year because that's what the enemy does. He wants to rob you of that anointing. You're on your way to heaven, but he doesn't want you to take anybody with you. Actually, he wants you to ruin your testimony. He wants you to get so depressed, maybe on the verge of suicide. He wants you to get anxious. He wants you so irritable so you just don't look anything like Christ. I mean, isn't that what he's going for, the anointing? Is David in heaven today? But what did he go after? His anointing. Is Samson in heaven today? His last words were repentance. The young boy let him put his hands to the pillars and he said, Lord, I repent basically. Avenge me for my eyes. Avenge me, Lord. I'm sorry for everything I've done. And the dead he slew at his death were more than they in which he slew at his life. He pushed down the whole little Colosseum there and it killed many people. So you see, the enemies after your anointing, the Spirit-filled life, when you're doing things for God, He's after you. And I'm very well He's after me. He would love for something to come and trip up this church. So how do we survive that anointing? Well, you stay as close to the fire of God as you can. When you make a fire in your living room, you're right there, you feel the heat, but as you get into the bedroom and the kitchen, you don't feel it anymore. And that's what happens with many believers. As they leave that fire of God, they walk away from that. And they get out from the safety and this covering. Remember what I talked about at Father's Day? About a man that wanders from his place is like a bird that wanders from its nest. There's a place there. If you want to stay in that anointing of God, you want to stay in that Spirit-filled life, you want to stay in that shelter, there's precautions that God gives us. And that's where we left off last week with surviving the anointing. And we are given this gift, but what we do with it is our responsibility. And basically it boils down to being filled with the Spirit or grieving and quenching the Spirit, doesn't it? I mean, that's what it really boils down to. And last week we talked about boldness comes from the anointing of God. When somebody's filled with the Spirit of God, a passive person becomes a bold person. Not arrogant and mean, bold. There's a byproduct of, there's a boldness there. You can stand up to the tide of the culture. You can stand up to things that are wrong. You can stand up to it because of the boldness of the Holy Spirit. Can you name one scripture where Jesus backed down? Everybody's, hmm. You will not find any scripture where he said, you know what, you're right, let me reconsider. I was a little too strong. He just spoke it. Genuine love. He loved the people, but he just spoke it. Whitewashed tombs. You lead people astray. You're stealing from widows. You make long prayers like a pretense. You're there, you want the best seats in the synagogue. Oh, Tyre and Sidon, if the good works that were done in you were done in these other cities, they would have repented long ago with sackcloth. And he just called it, he went around just loving and called it like it is. The boldness comes from the, because you want to help people. And there's no way to help unless you hurt a little. There's no way. Go tell your surgeon not to hurt you and help you. Back surgery, hip surgery. Just don't hurt me. Don't hurt you. What? I've got some pain meds and different things, but it's gonna hurt. And it's because that surgery has to take place. So boldness always follows the anointing, as well as resting in God's sovereignty and not walking according to the flesh, not relying on impulse or appearance, and not judging God's will by circumstances alone. Many times we look at our circumstances and we say, oh, I must be out of God's will. Or God's will sometimes brings us into difficult circumstances because it's in those difficult circumstances that real change happens, that the pride is chipped away and the lust is chipped away and the arrogance is chipped away, in those difficult circumstances. So don't always remember that, that sometimes God's will will bring hardship and difficult circumstances. And God's will is urgent. When a person is filled with the spirit of God, when they're anointed by God to do something, God's will is always urgent. It's not, well, let me schedule that in two months from now. When God tells you to do something, you're gonna find a way to do it. There's an urgency there. So that's what we talked about last week. And if you weren't here, I would encourage you to go back and listen to that message. And now here's to the other part that I didn't get to. And we left off on this point. Surviving the anointing involves admitting when something isn't working. This is very healthy, healthy Christians to say this isn't working. You can say this relationship isn't working. The direction I'm going isn't working. You can say this church isn't working. I mean, sometimes to survive what God's called you to do, you have to realize, because even somebody walking in the power and presence of God, filled with the spirit of God, is not walking a perfect path. They kind of go like this sometimes. They kind of go, and then pride says, no, you're still on the perfect path. Everybody loves you. You're on the perfect path. So part of keeping that anointing is realizing, hey, God, I'm off track here. This isn't working. This is not working. My attitude's not working. This whole thing is not working. And I would encourage you to do that because pride will tell you everything's working, everything's fine. And just keep going that direction. Because if you ever talk to a nautical engineer or in the shipping or sailing and even in the Navy, they'll tell you, if you start to get off one degree here, by the time you get to your destination, how far off are you? You're way, you're not even in the same state if you're coming back from the East Coast. You missed the whole, you're way off. So that's, many times what the enemy does, he'll keep, he likes people to be off a little and then off a little more and then off a little more. And we learned, the story we looked at was David with Goliath. Remember that story? Oh, everybody remembers that story, right? When I was a little kid, I remember all these images. And David put on the king's armor and he said, this isn't working. And then the reason we look at the Old Testament often is because Paul said that these were given to you as an example that you might not lust after evil things as they lusted. That's the purpose of drawing from the Old Testament many times is of course a foreshadowing of Christ and building on our theology. But also looking at them and saying, uh-oh, that was stupid. Let me learn from that. So let's pick up there. 1 Samuel 17, 38. 1 Samuel 17, 38. So Saul clothed with David's armor. Oh no, I'm sorry. So Saul clothed David with his armor and he put on a bronze helmet on his head. He also clothed him with a coat of mail. Does anybody know what that is? It's not a whole bunch of priority mail envelopes hanging off of you. Mail, if you probably could go online The mail is like strings of metal that are woven together. Like a bulletproof vest or something. But back then they didn't have the high-tech stuff that we have that's really heavy. But they would take metal and they would interweave it and wove it to where spears, javelins, arrows could not penetrate. So he's got this helmet. He's got this big coat of metal on. Now he's got Saul's armor on. That's how you go and you're going to fight this guy. But David fastened his sword to his armor and he tried to walk for he had not yet tested them. And David said to Saul, I cannot walk with these for I have not tested them. So David took off all the armor. Then verse 40, Then he took his staff in his hand, he's a shepherd, he had a staff, and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook. And then in the shepherd's bag he put them. It's a pouch that he had made. And he had a sling in his hand. Now you have to, let's get some imagery here. This is probably something like what he grabbed. Smooth. Why smooth? Would a baseball fly better smooth or with a whole bunch of jagged edges? Smooth, accuracy. He grabbed five, and it's pretty heavy. It's bigger than a golf ball and it's pretty heavy. And he grabbed five small smooth stones. Too big, doesn't accomplish it. Too little, little pebble. So he's choosing these five small stones from the riverbed there. And he drew near to the Philistine. And so the Philistine, this Goliath, came and he began drawing near to David. And the man who bore the shield went before him, before Goliath. And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he disdained him for he was only a youth. So the Philistine said to David, Am I a dog that you come out to me with a stick? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said to David, Come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. Boy, if you're not anointed with God, that's going to be scary. That's going to be intimidating. You see David, we're guessing here, 5'7", 5'8", 5'9", 5'10", maybe. Goliath, they estimate, was probably over nine feet tall. You say, Shane, come on. You Christians. There was the Amalek and the giants that came before. It's very possible that a person was this height. If you study the ancient eastern studies, and back then, two, three, four thousand years ago, and there's giants in Genesis, and men were tall at certain hereditary things. And you can research it. You're not just checking your brains at the door. In the same way that a whale could swallow a man. I mean, if you believe that God created the universe, I don't know why we would have a problem with these kind of things. It's not saying a butterfly beat David. God's practical here. It's a large man, fighting David, didn't beat him. Coming to fight David, this guy, nine and a half foot tall. Can you imagine that? It's probably about right here. And David. This, I stopped here for a while this week. Why five stones? Think about that this week. Because there's a couple different answers I gave last week. There were five lords of the Philistines. There's Ashlon, Ashgod, Ekron, Gaza, and Gath. Goliath of Gath. Like that old Wyatt Earp movie. I've got one for the Echevia. Right? I mean, he's coming out there with five. That wasn't a good impression. I'm not saying go see that movie. I'm just saying it was a classic. And that's kind of made me think of that. And he's got five stones. Now, there's another thought here. God used the first stone. And he's a sling. Have you seen these slings before? If you go online, you can see they've done different studies. It's like a whole bunch of leather, and it's got a little pouch. And the rock sits in a pouch. And these guys will practice all day long. And if you start swinging that thing, and you let it go like a softball pitcher, or overhead like that, 80 miles an hour. This thing's going to hit somebody in the head 80 miles an hour. They're dead. And this is just, again, not in the Bible. This is the Idleman translation, Idleman paraphrase. I have a feeling, Dave said, I better have some backup. You know, I'm not going to just grab one stone. And it's interesting. You grab, I mean, you'd think you'd just grab a whole pouch. But then that's not very, you've got all this rock weighted down. Five is just enough to get the job done, much like a shotgun, right? If you pull out the plug, it's got five shells, many old revolvers, five. I mean, it's a good number. And I'm thinking, David's saying, I might not hit him with the first one. I might miss with this. I better be prepared. But doesn't it beg the question, if you're trusting in God, why not just grab it? God's going to use one. And I think there's a lesson here. Why? Why five stones? And I don't think we'll ever really know the true answer. But it is interesting. Because I can see David saying, Lord, I trust in you 100%. I'm going out to fight this guy. But I don't trust me. See, there's wisdom there. And I really want to get this point across because the more I look back over my life, wisdom is the principle thing. And all you're getting, get understanding. She will exalt you. She will promote you. I just quoted Proverbs 1. It says wisdom is the principle thing. The principle, the main thing. And I think many times we overlook wisdom. David is preparing, basically. I mean, who doesn't use wisdom? It's a dilemma here, even as a Christian. How much do I trust in God? And then how much do I use wisdom? And I think God has given us wisdom as one of the main resources how he's created us. Listen, use wisdom. I mean, you can take this argument all the way out. Even on this topic, people talk about self-defense. Guns, self-defense, weapons, no, yes. You know, there's a big debate here, all this. And I sometimes ask people that aren't for self-defense, just trusting in God, well, why do you lock your front door? Why not just take the front door off the hinges? I mean, well, no, I can't do that. Why? Because there's a little wisdom there, right? Everybody locks their front door now. When I grew up, you didn't. Left the car door unlocked. But now we lock the front door. But are we not trusting in God? Are you trusting in God for your finances? Hope so, right? Why don't you go ahead and get rid of the 401K? Get rid of the retirement? Do you need insurance? Get rid of it? I mean, you see how you can think this through? How wisdom comes into play. What is wise? God has given us our mind, our intellect, and, don't trust that alone, through the Word of God. The Word of God is where the wisdom is. See, here's the difference. Knowledge is knowing what to do. Wisdom is applying that knowledge. So wisdom would tell David, I better grab a few stones. I don't think God was displeased, but God said, I'm just going to need one. And that can filter into other areas of our life, too. God is wanting us to use wisdom. So the next time you think about this or think about a decision, what does wisdom say? Wisdom is God's Word revealed and that you put into practice. And sometimes we get off on this, well, God will just direct me, I know I made a foolish decision, I know, but God, but no, He usually has us lead our lives and make choices based on wisdom. I mean, I've counseled people before, they made terrible financial decisions thinking that God was leading them. Or they get married and want an annulment three months later thinking God was leading them. Or they move out of state because they hate California and then they're moving back but they thought that God was leading them. And here's the interesting thing is God doesn't lead us contrary to wisdom. He doesn't lead us contrary to wisdom. For example, when we first planted this church in September of 2010, wisdom. You don't go out and get a huge debt, you don't go out and do things, you use wisdom and you allow God to open the door. Same thing in your life. So that's what I wanted to try to get at. I think David was using wisdom. What about if he missed him with the first one? He's got a backup, got a backup. So he's trusting God, but at the same time not trusting himself using wisdom because it's a principle thing. And also, think about this, there was also wisdom in not using a sword and a shield and all this armor. There was wisdom in that. Can you imagine, how long would Goliath's arm be? Four feet? Four and a half feet his arm? And how long is the sword? Another four feet? So you've got this thing, eight and a half feet, coming at David, there's just, I mean, it's just not wise. He's going to need something where he's back, I don't know, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five feet, and he's just slinging that thing, he's ready to go and eighty miles an hour, this rock hits you in the head, you're dead. And there's some helmets that leave the forehead open, we don't really know exactly where it hit. Could it hit the helmet and still penetrate the skull? We just don't know, but we do know that David used wisdom. But just chew on that this week. Why five stones? God used the first one. So is David not trusting in God? If you get that from this text, you better read it. A teenage boy coming to battle, the Bible said earlier that one of the reasons Goliath laughed, Saul even said that, you're just a youth, and this man has been a warrior since his youth. You're not going to fight this guy and win. So to say David wasn't trusting God doesn't make any sense. I think he was using wisdom in this area, and grabbing smooth stones, again wisdom. You have to find something that's going to be accurate. If you get a big chunky rock, same size, but it's all tweaked and messed up, it's probably going to fly like this. So everything he did, he used wisdom. I can't use the king's clothes, it's not going to work. I take it off, I'm using wisdom. I can't use a sword, it's not going to work. I'm using wisdom. I'm grabbing five small stones. I trust in God, but I don't trust me. I'm going to make sure they're smooth stones. The whole time he's using wisdom. And how we defeated Goliath was wisdom. There was wisdom there. Verse 45, Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defiled. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. Boy, the Old Testament was hardcore. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. That all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword or spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands. And what he's saying here, I believe, you look at the priority. David said, You come to me with the sword and the spear. That was the priority. That's what Saul was using. Where David came in the name of the Lord, so God was the priority, and then God used the stone as the weapon. So see how God's the priority. He's the deliverer. He's going to set them free. They're looking to him. They're leaning on him. But the weaponry is the second, the byproduct. Where Goliath came to David with the sword, with the javelin, with the spear. That's what he was looking at. He was looking at the Ashdod. He was looking at the gods of the Philistines to save him. And we all know what happened. Also interesting scripture, Proverbs 21-31. The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord. So see, you must be, I think it's important to be prepared. We should be prepared. Yes, victory is of the Lord, but be prepared for what's coming. Verse 48, So it was when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine. So you see these armies divided, is what you have. And each of them chose one person to fight. That way there wouldn't be a lot of bloodshed. Whoever won, won. Goliath, you've got David. And David's running at him. You can picture him running. He knows what he's doing. He's been throwing these rocks probably thousands and thousands of times, guarding the sheep and practicing hitting flies off of rocks or hitting snakes. You can imagine, he's running with the power, that anointing of God. So he ran towards him. Then David put his hand in his bag. Okay, I guess he was doing that. Not yet. As he's running, he puts his hand in his bag, then grabs the stone, and then he puts it in the sling there and he slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead so that the stone sank into his forehead and he fell on his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in David's hand. So he ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword out of Goliath's sheath, took it out, killed him, and cut off his head with it. And when the Philistine saw that their champion was dead, they fled. So surviving the anointing, I want to draw from this again, surviving the anointing involves a fight. There is a fight. Christian, let me tell you, right now, there's no comfort zone. There's no comfort zone. There's a fight. Submit yourself. Submit yourself to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. James 4.7 There's a fight. There's a fight going on. And I think that's important to know because everybody in this room prays this prayer. You want to know the prayer that everybody prays? Lord, take this away. And when you pray it, you mean something different. When I pray it, I mean, there's similarities. But all of us, somewhere, somehow, Lord, take this away. Lord, take this jealousy away. Take this anger away. And we pray, take this lust away. Take this pride away. Lord, take this fear away. Lord, take this lying away, this gossip. Why do I have a tendency to do all this? And that's how we get defeated. Realizing that there's a fight. There is a fight. The fight shows you how precious your relationship with Christ is just because there's a fight. It shows you that the enemy is coming in in that direction. That's where he's coming. Through that entrance. Everybody prays that. Lord, take this away. There's a blank. You fill it in. But I just want to encourage you. Resist the devil. And resisting tells me there's something forcing or coming at me or you. Right? It's coming. So the Bible says, resist and resist and resist and the devil will flee. And after a season of great victory, often comes great defeat because we don't continue in the anointing. We don't continue in what got us there in the first place. And here's kind of where I wanted to really get to. When we lose the anointing, when we get defeated, it's because we don't continue in the things that got us there in the first place. And only some of you can relate to this. I realize that. But do you remember when there was a time, maybe some of you are there now and that's great. But there was a time, and if you've never experienced this, and I would encourage you to listen up, but there was a time when you felt close to God. There was a time when you couldn't get enough of the Bible. There was a time when you loved worship and you just felt, drew near to God and he drew near to you. And it was this wonderful time of getting to that spiritual life, getting to that anointing. You get there and that's what the devil wants. He wants to rob you of that. And so what happens is when we get away from the same things that brought us there, that's when the anointing departs. Because you have to stay close to that fire. Folks, there's no easy way out. And that's what happens many times. After a season of great victory, walking closely with God, but we don't continue in the anointing. And that's where we go down the wrong path. And I pulled from Proverbs again. I just looked at chapter 1, 2, and 3. Here's what happens to get off this path. Number one, we reject wisdom. That we reject wisdom. And that's how we got there in the first place. We embraced wisdom. We embraced wise decisions. We embraced, here's a word we don't want to use much, obedience. Obedience to God. And that brings us to Him. But once we begin to reject wisdom, then the next step is we start to stand in the place of sin. You know the Scripture and Psalm, blessed is the man. Psalm 1, I believe it's Psalm 1.1. Blessed is the man or woman who stands not in the counsel of the ungodly. Or, I'm sorry, they don't listen to the counsel of the ungodly, nor do they stand in the path of sin. Nor in the seat of the scornful. So it's a positioning there. Once you reject wisdom, then you begin to position yourself in the wrong spot. You're still not quite there yet. The final thing is, and then you take, or I take the bait. And this isn't difficult. We reject wisdom. Then what happens? We stand in the path of sin. We put ourselves in positions of compromise. And that's why often when I talk to young couples or any couples that are dating, or now if you want to use a recording, or whatever you want to call it, you better avoid those compromising positions. Because the enemy, nothing, there's nothing that quenches and greets the spirit of God more than sex outside of the context of marriage. Premarital, post, this, adultery, all those things, everything, it's lumped into this. It's a sin against the body. And nothing, nothing will put that smokescreen in front of your eyes more than sexual sin. And so young adults, they reject wisdom. They begin to stand in the path of sin. Hey, we're making stupid choices. We're about ready to fall. And when you're in that position, you fall. And you fall hard. And you take the bait. And that's how you get away from that. And then as Christian couples, what usually happens is they start questioning God's will. And there's anger. There's irritability. There's frustration because they're out of God's will. And they're trying to see, Lord, what is your will for this relationship? But they can't see for the smoke. They can't see clearly because they're living in a way that is compromising. And to walk in God's will, you have to remove the weight. You have to remove the sin that ensnares. You have to repent and get back on track and say, Lord, what's your will for my life? Then you can see clearly, more clearly. We see dim right now, Paul says, looking through a glass dimly or a mirror that's kind of jarred. We don't have perfect vision right now, but you can remove a lot of the things that are clouding your vision if you get back on track with wisdom. Don't stand in the path of sin and avoid the bait when it comes. Just look at a few examples of people who are highly anointed, incredible anointings of God. What about David and Bathsheba? What happened there? David rejected wisdom. Stand in the path of the sin and took the bait. And what do you think happened to the anointing? Did it stay with him? No, it didn't. He was miserable for a year. But look at Psalms 23. Read some of the psalms. What about Saul? Look at this. Saul was anointed king. God anointed him king, and he began to prophesy. What happened? He disobeyed. He rejected wisdom and lost that anointing, lost that calling. What about the most dramatic story, I believe, in all of the Old Testament? Samson and Delilah. You can ask an unbeliever about Samson. They know. They know. And why this story is so amazing, I think, is because you have Samson, incredible, anointed, called from his mother's womb, anointed. And he just slew men by the hundreds. His strength. God anointed this person. And then he brought in Delilah. But what's interesting here, I don't know if you've ever noticed this, is Delilah was sent. Delilah was sent. And I often ask men at men's conferences that as well. What's your Delilah? Because the enemy will send certain things. She didn't just mosey on in there. She was sent. They paid her. She was sent to take this man down. And why it's so dramatic is three times he lied to her. Samson, where does your great strength lie? Oh, if you do this, I'll be like all the other men. And she did it. I mean, this is the stupidest man on the planet. So he said, well, I don't know if you tie my hair. I mean, we don't have time to go in there, but if you put my hair in some kind of thing and tighten it up, that'll do it. And she goes, she did it to him. She goes, Samson, look, the Philistines are upon you. He got up, brushed himself off, and destroyed the Philistines. Samson, where's your great strength lie? Oh, if you tie my hands with fresh bowstring that hasn't been dried, just wet, then I'll be just like any other man. And so she did that, probably while he's sleeping. And she goes, look, Samson, the Philistines are upon you. And then kills him. And then a third time. I mean, at what point do you say, you know what, woman? Don't ever call me again. You are an assassin. You are a hired hitman. Get out of this house. I mean, how stupid is this guy? Three times. And in the Bible, she says she kept nagging and nagging and nagging until he eventually told her where his great strength lies. And again, the Bible isn't clear here. This is just my opinion. But I think, I better read it exactly. I think that he didn't believe he would actually lose the anointing. He was apprehensive in telling her, but he was not serious. See, I don't, once you get to a point of pride and arrogance, this man had defeated thousands of, there's no way, there's no way you can tell me that after three attempts to take his life, he's finally going to say, you know what, I'll tell you really, I know you're just joking those last three times. I don't, I think he knew, he knew, his mom probably told him from when he was a boy, don't ever shave your hair, don't ever, I'm in trouble, right, don't ever shave your hair, don't drink wine, strong drink, don't do, you are consecrated, you are set apart for God. And I don't know if he ever challenged that, so when he finally told her, he was apprehensive, he didn't tell her, but I don't think he really believed that he would lose all his strength and the Philistines would take him and they would gouge out his eyes. Have you ever had your eyes removed? Of course not. I can't even imagine it. We could talk about how they do it, how they hold you, strap you down and take these little things and gouge out your eyes, just remove your eyes. Talk about pain. So he honestly knew this, but see, that's the warning to me, is you can get so far into living in God's victory, you can be, God's anointed man or woman, you can be doing all these things, but if you don't watch out for pride and you begin to cross that line, and the interesting thing, if you look up the word nagging, she kept nagging him, the definition of it meant a consistently and constant harassing of someone to do something. And I immediately thought, that's exactly what sin does. That's exactly what the enemy's doing. He's constantly harassing until you do it. Do you see the parallel there? And oftentimes, like Samson, we say, but that's not going to affect me. That's really not going to hurt. I mean, that's not, come on, God. Look, we're just saying God's grace covers me. His grace covers me. I mean, come on. And he leads us down one step at a time, one compromise at a time, one wrong decision at a time, until theoretically speaking, the eyes, the eyes are gorged out. We're grinding. This mighty man of God was grinding in the mill. What that is, with oxen. He was grinding the wheat. You're turning, you're walking, and you're turning this big thing that's just grinding the wheat down with no eyes. This mighty man of God, they were mocking him. They were laughing at him. What happened? So can you tell me that he really believed that God would take his strength away? He fell asleep. She cut his hair. Here's how you know. She cut his hair. She woke him up and said, Samson, the Philistines are upon you. And he didn't say, oh my God, I'm done. He thought, the Bible says something like, he got up like at other times and thought he would destroy the Philistines, but instead they took him. And he knew not, he knew not that the Spirit of the Lord had departed. He wist not, the King James says he wist not that the Spirit of the Lord had departed. Because what he used as his anointing and his consecration, he allowed the enemy to come in and take that. And that works in our same way, folks. There's a parallel here for us. That we can keep crossing the line and crossing the line, but at some point, you know not that the Spirit of the Lord has departed. And the Spirit doesn't leave us, but you do quench and you grieve the Spirit. Think about this. Gels are filled. Go to some of the gels. I've been there. I've been to Twin Towers down there. They are filled with men and women saying, what happened? Millions, and I'm not exaggerating, millions of homes. We've got two or three in our own church. Millions of homes across our nation are partially empty tonight with men and women saying, what happened? How are we heading to divorce court? What happened? This. This right here. Everything we've just been talking about. Rejecting wisdom. Standing in the path of sin. Going away from God. Millions of kids are even saying, what's wrong with mommy? What's wrong with daddy? As they drink, snort, or inject their life away. What happened? They got out of that safety and that shelter and that covering. It's interesting. On this point, many people say, yeah, but Shane, I don't do those things. Well, be careful. Because that's pride talking. That's pride talking. And let me remind everyone in this room that pride is destructive. Jesus rebuked the man who came and said, I do everything right. I'm good. And Jesus said, no, there's more hope for that sinner who comes and beats his chest and say, Lord, save me a sinner. So the next time you don't do some of those things, you should thank God and get on your face because with pride it can lead you astray. And it will. Unless pride is repented from. This sin is so deadly. Unless it's repented from and acknowledged, it just gets bigger and bigger. And you begin to think you're God's hero. He judges people for those sins. He's not judging me. And you just think you're a God's gift to mankind. That's it keeps puffing. It keeps puffing until something explodes. And I hear people say, well, Shane, yeah, but I don't do any of those things. Well, that's just as deadly. Do we have time to go through the Bible where it talks about judgmentalism? I mean, that's basically what a judgmental person is saying, how could they? I don't do those things. Okay, you might not do those things, but you're doing something else where pride is just dripping off of you. And you're just as arrogant as a modern day Pharisee. And that's dangerous. That's Delilah. It doesn't say she was five foot six and blonde hair. It doesn't say anything about Delilah. Delilah can be a cold drink for somebody. It can be something for somebody else. It can be a power trip for somebody else. Delilah is sent to kill, to steal, and to destroy. And losing that anointing. Basically they lost the anointing. They lost the call of God on their life. They walked away from truth, and they embraced the lie. So here's the hope, closing, for the believer. If you find yourself in this spot, the Bible is crystal clear. It's what we talk about often. This is always the answer. And this is why we talk about it often. This is always the answer. Returning back to God. See, I can't come up, you know what? I haven't talked about this in six months. Here's a new truth that I kind of discovered. You know, it's always, God's people come back. Come back. Come back. The interesting thing is, a person who didn't need to hear this two months ago, desperately needs to hear it tonight. They are one click away from destroying their marriage. They are one this away from destroying something else. So they need to hear this come back. That's how you get the anointing back. That's what David did. Read Psalm 23. Read Psalm 51. Read all these encouraging psalms. I think it's later in 51 where he talks about the bones you have broken may rejoice. Create in me a clean heart. Renew a right spirit within me, Lord. Return. Let the joy of your salvation return. And they return to God. That's very powerful. That's what the majority of this room needs to hear. Return to God. If the anointing has been slipping, if that time with God has been slipping, return. Return. That's the key. And then it goes on to say that this is also available for the unbeliever. But the unbeliever must repent and believe. And I like what Spurgeon said. The motto of all true servants of God must be we preach Christ and Him crucified. A sermon without Christ in it is like a loaf of bread without any flour. No Christ in your sermon, sir, then you better go home and never preach again until you have something worth preaching. And he's absolutely correct. If I spend a whole sermon and don't talk about Christ, the solution, the answer, then I failed. This isn't about feel-good stories and just getting helping people get back and motivational stuff. This is about Christ and Him crucified. So if you're hearing this today and you don't even know what the anointing is, you don't even know what God's presence is, you've never embraced Him, I would encourage you to do that. And to repent of your sin and say, Lord, I need you. I need to confess Christ as Lord. I don't want to stay in the enemy's camp anymore. Lord, I need you. And you repent and you embrace that gift that He offers. It's that simple. And I know a group this size that people, coming in Second Service too, there's people that need to hear this. They might not need to hear it last week or last month but you've got to bring it in. You've got to give them the opportunity. So I would just encourage you, if that's you, to do that tonight and embrace His gift. Or, most of us in this room, we're believers, but some of us need to return. We need to just come home during worship, during that time of prayer, and come home and let God rebuild your life. So I'm going to have Chelsea come up and we're going to close, but I want to read Ian Bounds. He said the little estimate we put on prayer is evidence from the little time we give to it. Did you catch that? The little estimate that we put on prayer is evidence from the little time we give to it. What he's saying is, we can tell by how valuable prayer is to most of us by looking at how much time we actually give to prayer, which is very little. And he also said every mighty move of the Spirit of God has had its source in the prayer chamber. Everything starts with prayer. That's why it's so difficult. That's why it's so boring for many people. That's why they just can't connect. It's because there's something wrong there. There's something broken. So I would just encourage you during this time of prayer and worship to seek God, to pray, to get back on track and say, Lord, I need you. I need you again.