The Command For A Spirit Filled Life

As my brother was talking about being a weeper and a worshiper and a warrior, I thought of that other W, worker, but what can make all of those things really happen with God's power and grace? It's possible to be just a weeper and not have it have any power at all because you're emotionally raw and you want God's help. You just weep. It's possible to be a warrior going out in shadow boxing and fighting in your own strength. It's possible to be a worshiper but you're worshiping what you know not, ignorantly, not according to the Word of God. It's possible to be a worker just going out like the Peace Corps to help people and it's a good thing, but you see, God has a specific thing. I was just thinking about the account of what I feel God would do here at your church. You have an unusual calling on your assembly here. Did you know that in 555 AD, a couple of hundred years after the Lord made His appearance in Bangor, Ireland there was a community there. Some say that Joseph of Arimathea went to Ireland and the Iconian coast there and set up churches up in Ireland. As all the disciples went to all the world and they all died on those mission fields. I saw where Thomas the ex-doubter died in India. They said they put hot plates on him years ago. And Matthew dragged through the streets with ropes. I mean you read these accounts of how all the Apostles died. For the glory of God, living sacrifices, it will change your life. Well in Ireland the Gospel was planted on that northern coast there and they sent missionaries to all of what is now Europe. And you can read these old stories. They are lost however to the church of our day. But let me tell you what happened in Bangor, Ireland in 555 AD. There was a community of 2,000 or 3,000 that set up worship in their community, in their church, much they modeled it after the Temple in the Scripture. And here's what they said, these 2,000 or 3,000 people who loved Jesus, let the many keep awake in community a third of all the nights in the year in order to read aloud from the Bible, the book of God, and to expound His judgment and to sing blessings together and to pray. And so alternating each 24-hour period one-third of the community, one-third of them would be praying, reading Scripture, and worshiping in shifts and praying. And this went on around the clock for 300 years. Did you know that? Until 855 AD. They prayed for all of Europe. They sent missionaries to all of Europe. Well some of those missionaries that went to Europe saw God's seed planted there. And there was a German man in Bavaria named Count Zinzendorf, you might have heard of him. He was a young man, he was wealthy, and he had an estate in Bavaria there. And he was looking in Germany at a, you can see the painting still in the museum there, at a picture of Jesus on the cross. And it said, Ese Homo, this is the man. And there he heard the Holy Spirit saying, this is what I've done for you. What have you done for me? And he was so moved. And he went back to his estate. And there at his estate he said, I want to serve you. And what happened was about that time persecution broke out on the church in Europe. And there were fragmentation of churches and people began to find, seek refuge. And so he opened up his great estate to a group of Christians. And these were different people. They didn't all believe just exactly the same, they had differences like today. But they found refuge in this place and they named this place, Hernhut. Have you ever heard of that? You know what it means? The Lord's Watch. And there this group began to farm and be a fellowship together. But there was a lot of fighting and not much unity. And the way the first miracle of Pentecost was the supernatural unity. And that was really the first miracle of all. And God made them one there in that upper room. But here they didn't have unity. So they decided they must have prayer together, a real prayer meeting. And so in Hernhut it was in the year of the 1500's, in the 1700's they actually in the area of North Germany and Czechoslovakia 300 people came to this place at Hernhut. And they began to have a Wednesday morning prayer meeting. And they prayed, and they prayed. And one morning in August of 1727 the Lord's Spirit fell upon them. They'd been worshiping but the Lord's Spirit fell upon them. And the Moravian Church was born. And they began a prayer meeting that went 24 hours a day. And you know how long it lasted? For the next 125 years. And out of this prayer meeting they sent missionaries. You can go to Alaska and see back in the frozen tundra an abandoned building. You say, what is that? And they say, oh that's a church that one of the Moravians started a couple of hundred years ago. You can go up in the areas around. They sent more missionaries out of that place in Moravia there in Bavaria than all of Europe sent out in the next 125 years. They sent out more missionaries than all of Europe put together. People would go and lay their lives down because they were birthed out of real prayer. And their theme was that God would send. Like you've seen that word, may the lamb who was slain receive the reward of his suffering. You've seen that? You've heard that ever? That was their motto as they went. One of the men that was affected by that was a man named Peter Bowler. And he had a tremendous influence on someone you know named John Wesley. And Peter Bowler preached and he said to Wesley, preach faith until you have faith and then you'll preach it because you have faith. And Wesley had been on missionary work and he had been to America a couple of times. But he did it in his own strength a lot of it. And then one day he was on a ship coming to America and he saw the Moravians there. And they had peace. They had peace. And they weren't afraid of the storm that was about to sink the ship. And he realized that what he had wasn't deep enough. And when he got back to a place called Aldersgate he heard that word that Habakkuk got in the watchtower years before. The just shall live by faith. And Wesley's heart was strangely warmed. I wonder what the warmth was. It was the presence of the Holy Spirit. So this morning what I want to talk to you, you know, what's the greatest need of the church in America? What is it? What will make it work when we worship, when we weep, when we war, when we actually are together? And what is the world waiting to see from the church in America? Is it just to hear more radio? I'm not criticizing your radio. Is it just to hear messages? I mean that slipped out but I didn't mean it the wrong way brother. But I'm saying, you know, we've had 75 years in America of the most expensive evangelism and gimmicks and trying to draw the world into what we call our version of worship and Christianity. And yet the church in America today, they say that 40% now of America are what we call nunners. N-O-N-E-R-S. Nunners. They don't have anything. They don't believe anything. And 80% of the kids that are in churches that grow up, they go off to college and it says 80% of them turn away now. They grew up in conservative and real Bible-believing churches. They're leaving and turning away and turning into a snowflake. What do we need? What's wrong? What's wrong? It's not that we're not sincere. You see, what's the world waiting to see and what's the great need of my family? What's the greatest need of my family through me? What does my wife need from me more than anything else? And my children as a father, what do they need to see? This is what I feel the Lord wants me to talk about this morning. Let me read some scripture and then I want to pray with you. Listen to these. Just listen. Exodus 15 11. Who is like to thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like to thee? Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. And in 1st Chronicles 16, give to the Lord the glory. Do his name. Bring yourself as an offering and come before him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Psalm 47 verse 8. God reigns over the nations. God sits upon the throne of his holiness. Psalm 48 verse 1. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised the psalm says. In the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Psalm 60 verse 6. God has spoken in his holiness. Psalm 145 verse 17. God is righteous in all his ways and holy in all of his works. Psalm 93 verse 5. Thy testimonies are very sure. Holiness is becoming to your house forever, O Lord. Leviticus 27. Sanctify yourselves therefore and be ye holy. It says, become ye holy. For I am holy, saith the Lord. And so Peter says, become holy for I am holy. He picks up that same verse and in that stirring verse in Hebrews 12 when it says, pursue peace with all men and holiness without which no man will see God. So what is this great essential? What does it really mean? You see because everyone is holy by their own standards. What we hear and what we've heard all along it's easy to think that I'm holy and right by my own standards but he says become holy as I am holy in the same measure and character you see every way of man is right in his own eyes but the Lord tests the spirits it says in Proverbs. A lot of very unholy people have a great familiarity with the things of God. Look through history and you see the war between those who think they're righteous or holy and they persecute and kill those who really are. They don't like it. You see service is no substitute for a clean heart and singing is no substitute for consecration. And religious feelings have very little to do with real holiness. One of the symptoms of the last days is unholiness. Man will be unthankful, unholy. Lovers of self more than lovers of God. And you listen to so much that's being talked about and sung and it's all about man. It's what God can do for us and for me, for me all working together for my good and very seldom is the self broken and gone. Especially in the community like it was in Herndon and Bangor where they did that kind of thing for hundreds of years. When God moves it is always in holiness. If you see something that looks like a miracle and it goes on and it may be supernatural but if it's not holy and doesn't have his character in it then you can you can know this it's some other spirit than the Holy Spirit. Just because a person does something that's supernatural and gets the attention of people doesn't mean that it's really of God. So the Bible says we're called unto holiness. We're to have our fruit unto holiness. We're to be established unblameable in His holiness. We're to abound in all holy way of life and godliness. Those are scriptures I'm quoting. We're to have a holy priesthood. We're holy in all manner of conversation. We're to be called to a holy calling. We're holy without blame in His presence and souls and bodies presented to Him. A holy sacrifice to prove the holy will of God. A temple of the Holy Ghost. You think it's almost redundant because it's the message you see perfecting holiness in the fear of God it says right here and without holiness God cannot be pleased with our lives. It's His command to us. And so what I want to talk about this morning is see prayer like we heard last night and the warning to America that we heard last night and the warning to any nation that forgets God, any country, any church, any family is the same. That God will let us have what we think we want and we'll begin to sing our songs louder trying to convince ourselves that no matter what we do God is always with us. But there is a time when God says have it your way and it's a deadly time. It is two words for wrath. One of them means to come in flaming fire and the other means like to fold your arms like in Romans 1 and let you have what you think you want and stop having an appetite for the Word of God and stop wanting to pray. That is a judgment whom we said no to His Spirit. And so the gospel of our salvation is much more than the forgiveness of sins. It's this. The gospel is the restoration of the very life of God into the spirit and the soul of man based upon the forgiveness of sins. Based upon what you've done. Now Lord restore me, reconcile me, put me back in your plan and your purposes you see. And when I receive eternal life I receive not a thing, it's not a thing God gives, it's a person who comes to live his life inside of me and he will be himself and he will fulfill his nature and to the degree that we allow him to be himself and fulfill his nature is the degree to which I'm abiding in him. As it says back in that youth room, ignite. John 15, remain in him. I loved it. I was back there praying for us. So the moment that I dare to become a true believer and receive forgiveness of sins based upon the blood of Jesus the Lord God says He by His Spirit seals me in my spirit with His Spirit and I become a receptacle, a container of the life of God and He comes to inhabit my humanity with His very own life and at that moment whether I understand it fully or not I cease to be my own property. I've been bought with a price. The blood of Jesus and the only person who really has a right now to live in me is Him. Now I understand that. There's a time of growing. God is gracious and He doesn't scold us for our stupidity so much. But you see we sang this song, though our sins are many your grace is greater and that's true. But He doesn't say when we sin. He said if we sin we have an advocate with the Father. He wants us to come into a relationship where sin happens to us all. If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves. But it's not the norm. We are seeking to walk in the beauty of His will and His purposes and His character and to please Him no matter what. We become a suit of clothes for Him to put on. And this kind of relationship that He calls with Him it's called holiness. That's what it is in His mind. You see it is holiness. Now what do you think of when you hear that word holy? Maybe you think it means that somebody carries a big black Bible and walks around saying praise the Lord, hallelujah all the time. Is that what holiness means? Maybe it's somebody that sort of sissy and has lace cuffs maybe and you know is always kind of genteel I think. Is that what it means to be holy? To do all that or maybe a little weird or vague or having kind of a say dude glory to God. You know is that holy? Kind of otherworldly and kind of a prune face act like you always been baptized in pickle juice pickle juice or are you just think you're always hopping around praising God always happy like Paul and Silas in prison. They're in stocks with their backs bleeding and Silas looks over and Paul says, hey dude you got a song? No he didn't say that. They began to sing praises at midnight and God shook the place. There's so many misconceptions about what it means to be holy today you see but the Bible says the meaning of that word is it does mean a separated life. It does mean that but it means more than that. It doesn't mean that you just don't smoke, you don't chew, you don't do the things you used to do. It means a whole lot more than what you don't do. Holiness has something to do with what you do do and it does mean separation from evil but it means this it means not just separated from it means separated unto. Separated unto Him. Our bodies become a temple and our eyes and our ears and our hands and our lips are reserved for Him. That's what it means. It's like my shoe is holy unto me. It means reserved for the exclusive use of. Nobody can use your hands but Jesus. Nobody can use my mind anymore. I can't just use it the way I used to the way I want to just whatever but I've got to have it changed to where it's honoring and pleasing to Him. That's what He means when He says holiness and it's not just the absence of sin that makes a person holy it's the presence of God. The presence of God. You see Jesus is given to me and His fullness and who He is and to the degree I understand that and walk in that is the degree to which I'm holy. The trumpet call of Scripture is to holiness. Don't let anybody talk you out of it. He's not calling you to be an old self-righteous prune-faced starchy kind of person that's always walking around wagging their finger but He's calling you to be a living sacrifice so that you don't let things in your mind that don't that that aren't going to be in His mind and so that you don't listen to music that won't make it through the filter of that throne room in heaven. Don't listen to what won't be in that atmosphere. If it's not in that atmosphere don't put it in this heart of yours. God has two throne rooms one in the highest heaven and one in the humble heart of man that trembles at His Word and He wants the atmosphere in here to be in harmony. Like that old song we don't sing it because we don't understand it. Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy praise. Let it be matching your courts above. Show me how to honor you in all things. So the Bible said holiness is God's will for me. I'm called unto holiness. It's the very word for Ecclesia. It means assembly but it also means called out. Called out of darkness. Called out of the power of the pressure of this world. Called out of individualism and pride. Living by the life of the Son of God. This is life eternal that we might know Thee and live the life as a person. Whoever has the Son has life and whoever doesn't have the Son will never even see life you see. The first work that God ever does in a man when he brings him to himself is convict him of unholiness. That's what he does and where there's not that conviction you can think that it's probably not God. Yes he calls him to the love of God. Yes he loves him but that man begins to feel like something is wrong with me and God says my child that's why I came to erase that wrong with you. To erase that pride. Your own wayness. I want you to come to my way. I'm the way. I'm the truth. I'm the life and you can't come to the Father but by me. So it's absolutely critical in these last days that the church be seen by the world as holy. So here's what happens. Excuse me. I need to get a Kleenex. If somebody has one. Here's one right here. Excuse me. How do you bling in those without having it sound terrible to the mic? And the Lord's faithful to humble us. We have the privilege. When a new birth takes place holiness is not automatic in its practical sense. It's of God that he places us in Christ and he's made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. But God wants to forge your heart and your mind on the anvil of his person. A holy life that's a fearful weapon as the Scottishman said in the hand of God. He wants to turn you into a weapon in the hand of God. You see it's not automatic that you become an Olympic runner just because you run high school track. You have to absolutely give yourself to it with all your heart and it's not automatic that you become a weeper or a worker or a worshiper in spirit and in truth. It's not automatic but it takes continual diligently seeking of his face and walking with him. And he wants you to because it's the exercise yourself unto godliness that makes you grow. And so the Bible says you can grieve the Holy Spirit. He may live in you but you can grieve him. You can go through your day and do thing after thing but you just don't pay attention. Ephesians 430 says grieve not the Holy Spirit of God by whom you've been sealed for that coming day. You can also resist the Holy Spirit. He can be speaking to you and you can push him away and you can say like Stephen said to them you always resist the Holy Spirit. You always continue your own way. You can quench the Holy Spirit. He says in Thessalonians quench not the Spirit. He's like a fire in your bones and you're in a group of people and the Holy Spirit begins to burn and say stand up and say something and you pour water on that. It's too dangerous. You wouldn't be kind. They would think I don't care about them. And you quench that. It's not just standing and making a fool of yourself or just blowing it away. It's being led by the Spirit of God and you can't do that unless you're filled with the Holy Spirit. You can insult the Holy Spirit. I've done that. Have you done that? Have you ever done that? And when afterwards you felt you said Lord I know I grieved you I insulted you and He'll forgive you. He'll restore you. I want to take you to the book of Ephesians chapter 5 for what is often called the most important command in the New Testament. That's a big statement because you see the reason it is not because that there's difference in what God says is one being more important than the other but if you obey this command you will find in the obeying of it other commands flowing inside of you and they'll be easier to honor with all your life. In the book of Ephesians chapter 5 I want to read first of all then verse 14. Wherefore he says awake you who are asleep and rise up from the dead meaning like a group of dead people and Christ will give you the light the understanding. See that you walk wisely circumspectly not as a fool and a fool he didn't have to say there's no God he can just act like there's no God in his heart. He says in his heart there's no God. He acts like he can be a professing Christian and live like God's dead. Don't be like a fool but be a wise person. The wisdom in the Bible is the practical implementation of spiritual truth that he shows you. It's how to make it work. So he says here don't be drunk with wine wherein is excess. Wine affects your faculties. It takes over slowly and it begins to make you feel happy when you might not be. It begins to make you feel generous when you might not be. It begins to make you have courage. Stand up in a bar and start a fight when you know you're gonna get your rear end kicked. It gives you all those false feelings of everything's all right. Don't be drunk with wine where it is excess but be filled with the Spirit. And then it talks about speaking and singing and giving and saying and it talks about how that works out in wisdom. It talks about wives. Submit yourself. If you're filled with the Spirit here's what will happen. Wives submit yourselves to your own husband. Husbands love your wives sacrificially. Lay your life down for her. Children obey your parents of the Lord. Servants obey your masters. Be the best servant in the universe. Don't walk around picketing saying you shouldn't be a servant. Be the best servant. And then it talks about the devil. Resist the devil. It's how the Christian behaves and acts and works out the filling of the Spirit of God you see. So this is sometimes called that important command. He's contrasting the intoxication with the world and what it offers with the things of God and what it offers to us and who He is. You see what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit of God? I want to talk about that for a moment you see. Because you see this command, this command is given to a group of people. It's a plural. All of you who read this or hear this do this. It's also in the passive tense. It's a passive. It means this is something done to you. It's not something you can work out just singing a little louder. It's something that God must do and He will do it. All of you, each one specifically, present tense, be being filled with the Spirit of God. It's an imperative. And so what does it mean you see? And the question is, have you done this? Are we doing this? The greatest need on earth is a Spirit-filled church. The greatest need of my family is a Spirit-filled daddy. That's what they need. Not just truth, knowledge coming to them. They need to also see it. Like that's why Jesus, the Word became flesh. He dwelt among us. We beheld His glory, full of grace, truth. But He put His hands where other people wouldn't put them on lepers. He did this. So what does it mean to be Spirit-filled church? You want to bless your family? You want to bless your church? You want to be a blessing, a warrior, a weeper, a worker, a worshiper? You want to be that? There's only one way. Only one way. Well first of all it means to be Holy Spirit-filled. I call church sometimes, hello this is Spirit-filled Second Baptist Church, and I say I have no doubt you're full of spirits, but is it Holy Spirit? Because it's the Holy Spirit of God. And what it means then, Holy Spirit, is to be filled with the personality of God. It's not just a feeling. It's not just something. God is light. So to be filled with who God is, is to be filled with light. He is, God is truth. God is consuming fire. God is love. So it's to be having who he is in those dimensions come and fill me, to be filled with the very personality of God. The Holy Spirit is a he, not an it. Well I just didn't feel it today, the Holy Spirit. No. He is a he, just as much as Jesus is a he. And he is the one that gives you the power to even worship Jesus. By one spirit we have access to the Father in his name. That's the trinity in action right there. So to be spirit-filled is to be self-empty. It won't work any other way. There's only one room for one person to run my life. He's a gentleman. He'll back up and let you do it. Like your kid wants to put this square peg in a round hole and those little things they used to have in your head. You let them do it. You try to help them. No. And you let them just try to do that until they get exhausted and finally they say like, you help them. God will wait on you. He'll wait on me to come to the end of my own feeble efforts. That's what's happening. So many sides of us you see. It's to be emptying of ourselves. Thy kingdom come. But to say that you got to say my kingdom's got to go. What does it mean to be spirit-filled? It means to be spirit-controlled. It's a synonym. It's a synonym which means to say this question to you or me, who or what controls you? Is it your man-made priorities or is it the Word of God or the Spirit making that real and said, this is the way. Walk ye in it. That's how a person lives in this. See, God designed the real Christian life to be impossible. But the impossible is Him possible. He makes it real. He. You see, it's receiving His life, not my life for Him. It's His life in me. And the more that I understand this and let Him be God, the more true the witness is of who He is in me. Human explanations fail for this. You see, not by power, not by might, but by my spirit says the Lord. So let's answer this question. Am I filled with Him? Each one of us. Have I obeyed this command? It's easy to think we have and when we really haven't done this. Now could I get you to come up here for just a second? I'm going to baptize you. No, I'm kidding. Stand right here. Thank you. She's very, I didn't tell her about this. So she's real, real, real nervous. What's this in my hand? That's good. Okay. I want you to grab my arm. Now shake it. Shake it. There you go. That's good. That's good. Okay. Now what came out? What happened when you shook my arm? Okay. I poured out lots of water. And what happened? You got wet. I got wet. Okay. Why did water come out of here when you shook it? Simple question. Why did water come out when you shook it? See, it's so simple. It tricks us. You know, she might say, because you shook it like crazy. That's right. But why did water come out when you shook it like crazy? You can sit down. That's good. Thank you. The reason that water came out of it is because water was in it. So I've got to ask myself, what came out of me the last time I was shaken? Well, I'll tell you what comes out. Whatever comes out, it's what's in you. No matter what you say, no matter how you advertise. You see, God wants our life to be like this. We are easily, put this outside the windmill, sweep it away, carry it away. Insignificant. It'll blow and sit in the curb. Nobody will ever notice it. But when God puts his hand on the inside, this glove can do all things that the hand in it can do. And it's possible. It's possible that I could try to put this on like this. And it's limited because it's not a full expression of the hand that's on the inside. So I want to ask you what happened when you were shaken last time? This is painful for us, but it's necessary. I wrestled with bringing this word this morning, because I know you love the Lord and I know that you have a vision, but the Lord wants, as I said, I said to shake, he wants to temper this thing. He wants to bring it into this weeping, worshiping and warring and working discipline, this mold of the Spirit of God and the Word of God that is only possible as you pray and allow this to become a reality where you're filled with the very Spirit of God. Are you filled with him? Are you? Are you? I'm not speaking of being born of his Spirit. You have the Spirit in you because he sealed you, but I'm not saying do you have the Holy Spirit. I'm saying does the Holy Spirit have you? Does he have you? And does he possess you? And the question is, do you want him to? Do you really want him to? A lot of people have a vague hope for years. They see all the things around them and they admire in others what's happening, but you see there are things that can't really, that blocks it. Every true believer is indwelt by the Spirit, but not every true believer is being filled with the Spirit. That's why he gave this command to the church he was at more than any other church. He says, to the holy in Christ Jesus, to the faithful in Christ Jesus, at the first very verse of Ephesians he says that, to the faithful and the holy brothers and sisters in Christ. And then he commands them in chapter 5, be being filled with the Holy Spirit of God. All these things won't happen any other way it's just got to happen this way. So if you're not filled with the Spirit what will happen is you'll come in here each week and you'll sing louder because that'll make you do better. And you'll do a lot more things on a tangible level maybe volunteer for children's nursery, or mow the yard, or do all these things to help Shane. I mean it's a studly conquest. I'm telling you, I admire your pastor. But just because you help him does not mean you're filled with the Spirit of God personally. So if you don't let him fill you, you'll have no power in living and the world will be amazed and offended by the weakness they see in a church that goes by his name. You'll have no power over sin. You'll make promises and resolutions and you'll go right back to the same hog trough. But you'll come and weep at the altar and say, I did it again Lord, thank you for your mercy. He wants you to be changed. He wants you to be full repentance. Yes, there's mercy for homosexuals and lesbians, but there's full repentance that's needed. And if it's not full repentance there'll always be an embarrassment to God. They'll profane his name. Same thing for the businessmen. Same thing for the housewife that's Emily Post at Marie. I shouldn't be saying all this, but I don't care. Look, God wants to fill me with the Holy Spirit more than I want to be filled. That's why he left me on earth and then drowned me in baptism. He wants to fill me with the Holy Spirit and make my life tell the truth. I'm the temple of the Holy Spirit. And so if I'm not filled with the Holy Spirit as a Christian, I'm more to be blamed than a lost man who's still being lost is to be blamed. Because I have everything and I've been told these things and the Lord has shown me and there's a reluctance and you might not call it that, but that's what he wants me to deal with. You see, why are so many people not filled with the Spirit? Because they're gracious conditions to be filled with the Spirit of God. They're faith conditions, not legal conditions. They're faith conditions and it's easy to allow them to remain there. There are five simple conditions and I'm going to give them to you now. I hope you write them down. Anyone who honestly faces these today, today if you're a believer, you can leave this place expecting God to do what he's wanted to do and that's express himself and fill you with this very life continually walking out of here. And you can do this, you see. The great hindrance is sin and the self-life, but here they are. Here they are now and I'm elaborating on each one. Confess, that's the first one. Second, renounce. Third, surrender. If you don't get them, don't worry, I'm giving them back to them. Confess, renounce, surrender, obey, and believe. Simple, simple conditions. Never to be altered. Same thing in the Old as the New Testaments. He's called me to holiness and first of all then, let's talk about confession. The vessel must be clean. Your vessel, my vessel must be clean. Doesn't mean perfect, but it means clean. Clean, you see. Confess. See, a lot of people are out of fellowship with God and they're being chastened, but you see, we will never confess what we're not going to face. We won't do it. Sin, conscious sin, and the Holy Spirit cannot live and move in the same heart. You can't do it. No matter what we want, no matter how much we plead and cry, it says in Hosea that you've covered your bed with tears and you've prayed to me, but you're still in your sin. Deal with your sin. Deal with it and quit calling human emotion spirit-filled living. That's what he says to them. So, it's the Christian that is commanded to confess sin, not the lost man. He's commanded to repent. But the Christian, if we sin, not when we sin, if I get on the airplane going home in the airport at LAX on Monday and they say, the stewardess is up, they said, this vest here is for when this airplane goes down. Excuse me, I'm off. No, it's not for when, it's for if, and nobody thinks the if will ever happen. It's a rare thing. If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father. The advocate is the same word at the throne of God above as the advocate that he puts in your heart on your throne, the Holy Ghost of God, the Comforter. Comforter does not mean soothe, it means strengthen. He's not just soothing. Oh, you poor thing, you've tried so hard, you've failed. No, you need to get up off of that and say, Lord, I'm going to trust you. I'm weak. I have no power, but thank God I haven't been the master of the universe. Like we sang the champion, and he became the champion when he sat down on the throne of all. So, it's the Christian commanded to commit, confess sin. It says in Psalm 66 verse 18, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. That means the word regard is the sexual word, means to fondle. If I play around with things that I know God hates and he's against in my heart, then I've shut the door and bolted it on prayer, and I'll never see the kind of answers we've been talking about. Changing the nations, I'm still trying just to feel better about myself, because I hadn't really dealt with it. You got to confess it, you see, conviction, you see, you come to a good service, and Shane preaches, and you leave here, you're so convicted, you think that's enough. I'm convicted, that must mean it's all right. No, conviction is God's part. Confession is my part, and it means homologeo. It means to say it, call it what it is, to quit using it like, oh, I made a mistake. No, it's a sin before God. You got to call it what God calls it if you're really going to be free, you see. The devil is trying to destroy you, you see. He knows if he can't keep you from coming to Christ, then what he wants to do is to demolish you, or keep you a spiritual dwarf, or some pygmy, or make a breach to where you're always walking around making excuses for things, and blaming God, really, and not yourself. You know, I'm sorry, Lord, like as if, please give me the power to get rid of this. You're blaming God that he's holding out on you. Lord, I have the power. It's just my own stubborn pride and will, and I bow before you. That's where you get started. Now you're getting somewhere. This is about as popular as going to the dentist right here, or maybe I should say the proctologist for the men. You see, it's all matter. You've set our secret sins in the light of your face. The things that I'll think nobody, see, it's the hidden behavior of the heart, not just the outward things that are so obvious. It's what's on the inside. Jesus said to look at a woman and think one way. That's where it all begins, and that's the seed of it all. You can pass a zillion laws in America against sin. We can be all, you know, suppose we pass all these laws. Laws will never change a heart. That's why the law was given, to show the heart needed to be changed. God gave it to show that we needed to confess and get before him, and come down and be broken, you see. He says, confess your sin, and as wide as the sphere of sin, so must be the wideness of your confession. It's got to be that way. You've affected this person. They've seen it. You've got to confess it. Confess, this is sin. I'm sorry I've wronged you. Please forgive me. You've got to be willing to confess, and you've got to be specific. Lord, forgive me. One of the favorite things the Baptists say, forgive us of our many, many sins. We confess sins wholesale. God says, I want retail. What are you talking about? Which one is it? I always say, Lord, I confess this and this sin right here, not many, many sins. I want to be honest about what I've done in your presence, and knowing that you're faithful. There's forgiveness with you that you might be feared. Verily, there's forgiveness with you, O God, that you might be feared. Maybe you've been involved in hidden things, or occult things. Maybe you've been dishonest. Maybe you have wrong relationships. Maybe there's gossip, and the Holy Ghost has told you about it. You've chosen to think where you haven't a lot of good stuff at church going on. You see, I'm just saying, you can have a walk with God, but you'll be part of the group, not the remnant of God. He won't be on the cutting edge. It's like in Gideon's day, you'll go home to mama and live in the tent. When the cutting edge of the battle, He can't trust you. You've got to confess your sin. Well, how do I know? Look, you know. If the Holy Spirit points it out, it's got to be done. And it won't go away with time. You say, oh, that was years ago the Lord told me that. No, you come back the first time you really get right with God and get His presence, He'll say, remember that. I want that gone. I want you to deal with this. I want you to let me cut it out with the Word of God. You're like a living sacrifice, you see. There's no such thing as little to God. That's a thing of man. You say, it's a little thing. No, it's little to you. That's why you're still in it. But if God points it out, it's a huge thing. You got to deal with it. But you see, how do you deal with it? Well, well, it's like the woman that comes to the pastor and she says, Pastor, I have a terrible problem with exaggeration. And she tells all these things. The pastor says, well, you're right, man. Lying is a terrible sin. I wouldn't want to call it lying. But you see, I'm just saying, that's what happens. Well, because you don't want to call it what it is, because you don't want to call this thing that the Word of God says is that thing. You don't want to say it. You want to still retain your own sense of worth and righteousness. You're not willing to humble yourself and come down and confess your sins honestly. Then the blood doesn't touch it yet until you confess your sin. But if we confess our sin, He's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from the unrighteousness of it. He doesn't just forgive it. He cleanses us from the thing we had to confess. That's the whole goal. Not just to have you live a life of constant, I'm sorry Lord, but to walk in the beauty of holiness as we said and read in those earlier. So first of all is confess. And we have to deal with it. You see, there's plenty of hidden behavior going on on the inside, even in this room probably as we're talking. Pictures that come into the mind that come up from the heart. God says, that's the root of it. I want you to deal with the hidden behavior of the heart. You have dignified defilement. You have zealous foolishness. You have industrious idolatry. It's possible to have all those things you know. I'm not trying to thrash you here. I'm trying to call you to what the Lord's been. I mean I just turned 70 and I look back at my life and I say, Lord I'm amazed that you've ever used me. How could you have done this? How could you have done this? And I go to my wife and I say, Honey, the Lord showed me this. Do you see this in me? And she just smiles. I don't think anything could hurt you more than that. And you say, and you've borne up under this. Oh God, thank you for a wife like this. Thank you for forgiving me. It's easy for me to look at her and see what I think I would change or whatever else instead of cherish her for the gift. Just yesterday we were talking about how the Lord has blessed Brian. We were talking about how the Lord's blessed us with mothers in Israel who care for their children and they had gifts that men never have. And I tell you, I called my wife and she cried. Just to tell her again from California. So I'm saying confess. Not just negative but positive. Confess. But secondly, renounce. That's the second thing. And it says in Proverbs 28 verse 13. Whoever covers his sin will not prosper. I remember one time I went to this huge charismatic church in Greensboro, North Carolina. The reason I went there was because the pastor, I think he'd gone off the deep end and some of the things he was in, but he was preaching years ago when I got saved. And he asked me to come to his church because they were just raking him over the coals. He was going through torture. And he says, would you come in and preach? I said, yeah, I'll be there. And I got up and I said, I want to talk to you about a promise in the Word of God that's just as real as John 3 16. And I preached on that verse. Whoever covers his sin will not prosper. No matter how much you name it and claim it. You can cover your sin and God will never prosper you. You'll have an artificial, twinkle-toes kind of blessing. But the kind of blessing that changes Europe and gets people praying and makes them weep before God in sympathy of heart with the high priest because they're a priest. It's just elusive. You'll always be chasing some new book, some new worship leader, some new preacher, somebody that does it the way that makes you holy in your own eyes. Sometimes you say things you can't believe. I said, Lord, I can't believe I just said that. You can't run a race with a ball and chain on your feet. And let me tell you, chains are chains even if they're made of gold. They're chains. Abhor that which is evil and cleave to what is good. Romans 12 9. See, separation is God's call. Come out of the world. You are not of the world. And the world hates you, but it can't really hate you. It hates me in you. Then I testify that its deeds are evil. Well, is the world afraid? I mean, is the church afraid to be hated by the world? All they have to say one time is, you're a bigot. And we just shy away. Your pastor is not afraid to stand in the firing line. But I'll tell you one thing, the real artillery hadn't begun just yet. And it's gonna not just be on the front line, it's gonna come back into where we're living. And we're gonna have to be willing to take and stand, take the heat. I remember one night I was studying and the Lord said, love will keep you in the fire. You want to run away, you want to get out of it, but love will keep you in the fire. Confess, renounce. Unless I forsake, that means to forsake, whoever confesses his sin shall obtain mercy and leave it. You see, so unless I forsake what I confess, I end up mocking God. Do you realize that? Lord, I've done it again. Lord, I've done it again. Lord, I've done it again. You're mocking God. Let Him deal with it. Pay the price of your own life. Lay it down. Well, I really don't like the way these people over there, all they do is, they're just so serious. I want to be a happy Christian. Well, you can be a happy Christian, but when He puts you in the fire, what are you gonna have if all you have is your emotion? Let Him give you His presence. Renounce your own ideas. You see, it may be hard, but it must be done. I love this person, but they're not saved. I just love them. Cut them off and let them see you love Jesus more than them. I've had guys come to me and say, I love this girl, but she won't give me her life to be my wife. And I said, of course she won't. She's serious about Jesus and you're just playing around the outskirts. You say, you're so mean. No, no, the guy gets, he repents. They get married and live semi-happily together ever after. Because, you see, he's still dealing with things. But I'm just saying, his norm is that we would be his, you see, his, his. You know, they had 38 kings in Israel. Only eight of them were good and only four finished well. Renounce. Sometimes we think that sorrow over sin is enough. Lord, I'm so sorry I let you down. I did this again. And we think that's enough. No, he said sorrow is not enough. Dry your eyes and confess. Joshua before God. Lord, we saw Jericho fall and now we go to this little town called Ai and the enemy's defeated us. What's wrong? And the Lord says, get up off your face. Why are you crying? Israel has sinned. Take care of the sin and I'll be with you. And he did. He had some hard lessons. We've got some lessons to learn. And he's, the good thing about our God is he's not just whimsical. He's not just in it for a few. He's in it for the long haul. He sees the end from the beginning. And he who started a good work in you will complete it. But you could be ashamed of how you've responded at his coming. Abide in him. Love him with all your heart so you won't be ashamed at his coming. When the heavens open and there you see Jesus and all of a sudden you realize, so confess. Renounce. And what a good word for that is, you got to close the door on the things you've let in your life. Close the door and move away from it. Close the doors that you've opened in your past. And you got a crowd inside. Close the door and confess it you see. And it's not even just, do you take part in this anymore? But do you want to? Why do you want to? I'm talking about real holiness. The kind that the Lord looks at and says, that's my child. I'm well pleased in him. Why? Because I see Jesus in him. I see the way he responded to that person who just slapped him. He used to be a person that would take down that person because he was in the MLA. But now he turns the other cheek to him. I'm not saying you always should. I mean I think it's time you level somebody. I do. But you got to be led of God. I'm wrestling right now what I would do. You know they say, I mean if the church had used guns in the book of Acts, there wouldn't be a book of Acts. I have a gun. And I've often wrestled. What would I do if somebody comes and they says on my door? I said, well if they came to persecute me as a Christian, I'd let them do it. I'd go off to jail. I'd suffer because that's what God wants. But if they come to hurt my wife and children, goodbye. But you see it's not gonna be that simple. We're coming in. Have you come to rape and pillage and destroy? Or have you come because of a Christian? We've come because you're a Christian. Oh okay, well here, come on in. It's not gonna be that simple. You've got to be led of God. There's a time to stay and there's a time to run. There's a time to flee to the mountains and there's a time to stay and die. There's a time for every purpose under season. I mean every, you know what I'm trying to say. There's a purpose for everything under heaven. Anyway, I'm getting off on a lot of stuff here. It is not hard to deny yourself something you don't want. What is really hard is to deny yourself when the old man is saying, you've done this for years, do it, do it. But when you say, Lord Jesus, my Isaac, I lay down. The thing you've used to bless me, I lay it down. My life is over. I thought I would have this and this. But now is the moment of truth, I see. You renounce your own life. You confess sin. You renounce, you see. You close the door. Maybe it's a besetting sin that you are not willing to deal with. It's robbed you for years. A shadow of the way it used to be. Get in the light and shadows will go away. Confess, renounce. That's the two negatives. But now we come to the great surrender. Surrender. And this then is not closing the doors. This is opening the doors to the things you've always shut out. To let God move in, you see. Opening the doors. He's knocking, he says, to the church in Revelation. These are people, believers. We use it for lost people, but it's to the church. I'm standing outside the door. You've forgotten me and all you're doing. You say you're rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, but I want you to look in my mirror and you see you're poor, rich, and naked, and miserable. Repent. I love you. I love you. Repent. And I will come in, open the door, and I will come in and we'll have real coin under your fellowship. You'll know me. What you say you want, you will really know. And you'll be joy unspeakable and full of glory. Surrender, you see. It's an exclusive relationship. The property of God. I'm utterly yours, Lord. This is what he wants, you see, to surrender to him. Romans 6.13 says, to yield yourselves to God as those that are alive from the dead. You have your own, what Oswald Chambers called a white funeral. You got to be careful about saying stuff like that, but it means it's not a dress in dark. It's a white funeral for your life. It's over. Somebody said to Mueller one time, Mueller, what's the secret of your prayer life and your success? And he got silent and he looked at him and said, there was a day that George Mueller died. Romans 6.13. All on the altar. All on the altar. See, just because you come and have tears and say, I want to, it's not the same thing as surrender. That can trick you. You see, an emotional desire is not surrender. Surrender is when the struggle between your will and God's will stops and you choose his. You choose his. It may include for some of you public confession, being willing to get up and say, Jesus is Lord. I know people that say they love Jesus, and they've never said, Jesus is my Lord. What a great privilege. I've seen guys in church for years stuck. And I said, you need to confess the Lord. And they'll stand up in church one day and say, may I say something, Pastor? Jesus is my Lord. And they start weeping. They just weep because it's something unplugged, something unstopped. They surrendered. And God said, now I've got access. This is what I want. The purpose is no more I. So, you see, you got to be broken. Otherwise, God can't trust you with the power of the Holy Spirit. We can do all these things, call it the power of God. And we can do some amazing things on our own. We can build a tower that almost reached to heaven. Look, they can do anything if they set their mind. Let's go confuse them. Babel. Take it up. Lord says, look, I don't want you just to do a bunch of things for me. I want you to find out what I'm doing and be part of it. I want you to pray the next 300 years. 300 years? I don't live that long. That's right. But it's my life I'm talking about. Confess, renounce, surrender to get down before God and really say, Lord, I'm yours. And the fourth thing is obey. Confess, renounce, surrender. And the third, fourth thing is obey. See, this is not just a legal outside. This is an attitude. It's an attitude and an act that bids the eternal truth be fact. Acts 5.32 says, God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey Him. And that's not talking about salvation. Otherwise, it'd be based on obedience that you're saying. It's God saying, I'm gonna pour out my spirit to the obedient in heart. It's like you wouldn't give your son, I certainly wouldn't give several of my grandsons a sharp knife. My daughter walks into her living room and she finds this guy, Jude. He's a little, he's a little stud at a young age. I'm telling you. But he's standing on their couch bouncing. He's got kitchen knives and he's going like this. And she runs over. And she doesn't let her son have kitchen knives. Why? Because he's gonna cut himself or cut somebody. But he means well. God loves you enough to hold back the stuff that could harm others or you. You gotta obey. It's got to be a spirit of obedience. That's what, that's what it says in Peter. The spirit of obedience. There's a spirit behind it, you see. And obedience is the proof of your love. Not how much you tell him you love him. Not how many times you come to prayer meeting only. But in John 14, this, this is how you can tell if you love me. Whoever has my words and is keeping them is the one who loves me. And knowing it would shock them, he said, and the word I just said straight from the Father, not from me. Whoever has my words and does not keep them, does not love me. Jesus said that in John 14, verse 23 and 24. The resident must be present. He needs to have preeminence in all things. This means you give up your rights. There's a lot of talk about Christian rights today. There's a lot of talk about everybody having certain kind of rights. And they're all demanding it. We feel entitled. But when you're a Christian, you say, I have no rights. You talk about conviction on the freeway. I'm always convicted on the freeway because I just, I, I find myself wanting to cuss. I'm telling you. I mean, I'm just telling you the truth. And I will sit there and I'll say, Lord. And then the ambulance goes by. The Lord says, pray for them. Who are they? You don't have to know. Just pray for them. And some idiot, a woman, will put out, a man, will pull that in front of me. And I find myself saying, you're going to kill somebody. Stop that. You know, and I want to pull up beside him and say, like, like this, you know. And the Lord says, I sent you to serve all people. You pray for them. And you quit making yourself superior. Thinking you're some kind of race car driver that's limited by the, the whatever this thing is out here on the way to the, you're not a race car driver. You're my servant. And I want you to, would you wash their feet out? So, I'm just telling you, there's a spirit of obedience that God wants us to receive. It's the attitude of, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. You know, there's a, when the sheep was let down with all the vision, it was a vision, so he never ate it, but it was let down to Peter. And he said, not so, Lord. I've never consumed anything unclean. I've gotten my Bible, what a, that's a contradiction. Not, no, Lord. You can't say no, Lord. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Now, he could ask you a question. You can say no, Lord. But I'm saying, you don't say no when he tells you to do something. No, Lord. You don't do that. So, confess, renounce, surrender, obey. It's when you act on his word, you act in his ways, you act in his will, and the Holy Spirit indwells you so that he can control you. That's what he does. And make you a weeper, and a worshiper, and a warrior, and a worker that's full of the faith of the Son of God, and that he's in fellowship. He's the head, and you're the body. And let me tell you, when the head finishes, the whole body wins the race. Here's a steeplechase. They're running down there at the end of the Kentucky Derby, and everybody's saying, who's gonna win? And across the line he goes, that great movie, Seabiscuit. And Seabiscuit crosses the line. I was watching that movie, and I realized that I'm going like this the last bit. He's going like that, watching Seabiscuit, and he says, Seabiscuit, by the nose! And I remember the Lord said, when the nose wins, the tail wins, too. The tail was behind the other horses. But see, when Jesus is on the throne, when the head's above water, the body can't drown. You're in him. You're in him. Confess, renounce, surrender, obey, believe. In that great verse, when the Lord says, teach us to pray, when they say to him in Luke 11, Lord, teach us to pray. And he gives that parable about the person who comes at night, knocking on the door. It's about persistence and coming in. And then he talks about asking and seeking and knocking. And in verse 13 of that chapter 11, he says, listen, if those of you that are a father, your son comes and asks you for an egg, would you give him a snake instead? Have a nice breakfast, son. Or would you give him a stone instead of something that was nice? And the reaction of all of us, of course I would never give my son a snake when he wants an egg. Of course not. And he says then, if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father, your son, give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? That's for believers. And that's how he'll teach us to pray. Because the Spirit of God, who will have control on the inside, and Jesus who knows the mind of the Spirit, those two together, as you will pray. We know not the what to pray, the how to pray, but the Spirit of God inside, with groanings often that can't even be uttered, will lift the petitions to God and they'll be animated and perfected. And Jesus will take them as the high priest and they'll be perfectly received before the Father. Believe God. So when you face the first four conditions, confess, renounce, surrender, obey, don't skip first base, second base, third base to get to home, you'll be out. But you take these simple things, they're so simple, it's almost crazy, I feel funny saying them to you. You believe God. The promise is not only unto you and your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. You come, you repent, turn from your sins, and he will fill you with the very life of God. From the throne of God, the Spirit of God, the risen Lord Jesus, not just some force, but the risen Lord Jesus himself living in you. It's no more I, but Christ living in me. And so you see, you come to him and you quit asking over and over and over, and you come to a point in your life when you fill these conditions. You say, Lord, I believe and I see this is why you did all these things and what you want, and so I dare to believe you. The same way I came when I was saved, I was not worthy, I couldn't even have anything to offer you, I come now bankrupt and I ask you, Lord, to fill me by grace. And I've kept these first four, and I've dealt with this. Fill me with the Holy Spirit, Lord, it's what I really believe I want, and I want you, and I want to know you like this. See, but unbelief can rob you of victory. Unbelief robs people of the Scriptures over and over of victory. He says in Ephesians that the eyes of your heart would be opened, that you'd know the greatness of his calling as high priest, and his inheritance in you as the Lord of your life, and his mighty power that he demonstrated when he raised Jesus from the dead, and he'll do it to those who believe. And in chapter 3, the other prayer in Ephesians, he says he is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in you. So you receive and say, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit, and I'm coming to you, Father, not to get what I deserve. I'm coming to get what Jesus deserves. Lord, he deserves a house that feels like a home to him instead of a Motel 6. He wants to live in me and abide in me. He wants me to abide in him and have his Word in me. And you quit looking for reasons in yourself to be blessed. Receive this by grace. You can do it today, but you may have to take some time. You may have to write some letters. You may have to make some phone calls. You may have to make some things right. Have you forgiven everyone? Last night someone prayed some powerful things, different people. Have you dealt with the ramifications of that? Does God see your heart? It may take you years to undo some terrible things, but you see, the moment, like Daniel, when you begin to chasten yourself and deal with it truly, God says it's a done deal. I remember I'd stolen some money as a lost man. Not big money, I mean like $25. And the Lord had me write a letter to the county hall where I grew up and I said I did this when I was a kid. And I'm sorry, God convicted me. I know I don't really, it's been a long time, but I mean I tried to make my past as right as I could when the Lord brought it to me. I remember I got back some weird letters like, okay, thank you very much. You know because when you go to someone and say, please forgive me. If they say, oh they'll say, oh that's water under the bridge. You see, if they say that you, like if you go to a person you were with before you're married and you had a wrong relationship and you go to them and say, I'm sorry that was wrong. Will you please forgive me? I'm sorry I wronged you. I've become a Christian and I love Jesus and please forgive me. For them to say I forgive you is for them to be dealt with by God and say what we did was wrong. So it's not always easy to do all this, but you still have to do it because that's part of your testimony. Purpose to obey and say, Lord I believe. And you live looking. You want to be filled. You're seeking his face. You're expecting of him and you don't let the devil cheat you out of it by saying you've got mud on your feet or something. You know, it's just crazy. Have you ever asked him? Have you ever really asked him? Have you? Ask. He'll fill those. He'll give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. And you receive by faith. It may not come with bells and whistles, but you receive by faith the same way you received salvation. So who's living in your body? Who controls you? On what basis do you make your decisions? Have you settled it for the rest of your breathing time on earth and everything there? As I said, everybody's holy by their own standards. Don't boast of Christ's work for you if you can't also point to his work in you. That was an expression they used in the early church. Boast not of Christ's work for you if you cannot show his work in you. Last thing I'll say. We've heard a lot about people in the hospital these days. There's a lot of people getting, a lot of people having trouble. There was an eight-year-old boy who got leukemia. His daddy and mama loved Jesus. You see, they had prayed for a long time and couldn't have children. And then the Lord gave him this child and this dad poured into this child all his life and taught him the Word. This little boy at six years old trusted the Lord and the dad. They'd take him to conferences. It was a wonderful thing. But when he was eight years old he got leukemia. And the doctor said we can't do a thing for him. This is a bad one. And so as this boy began to get weaker and weaker, he went in the hospital. The parents were there. You can imagine the sorrow of the dad's heart. And he loved this boy and he'd always taught him about Jesus and been an example to him. This boy's dying. You can't do a thing. When somebody you love suffers, it kills you. You can't do anything about it. And so the doctors come in and the boy's dying. He's really weak. And he says, the doctor says to him, it won't be long now till he goes. And he stands over his son and he says, son, you know, I've told you about Jesus all these years. And you know him. I've seen him in your life. And I've seen the way you've loved him back. And pretty soon you're gonna go. You're gonna go see him. And the boy, he looks at his dad, this young boy, eight years old, looks at his dad and sees the tears in his eyes. He says, well dad, don't worry. If he's like you, I want to go. Happy dad. These short years won't last that long. No redos. But you have a few moments. Let me tell you, seconds can turn into minutes, can turn into days, can turn into weeks, can turn into months, can turn into years of slowness to believe. But today, if you will hear his voice, let him be God. Well let's bow for prayer together. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. We know that you have not called us to a normal life. If we were filled with your Spirit, we wouldn't be normal. But you haven't called us to a normal life. You've called us to be full of your Spirit. Be ye being filled with your Spirit. Lord, you said this to us. And this can't be worked up. It's got to be real. Confess, renounce, surrender, obey, and dare to believe. Dare to believe. And so in the name of Jesus, Father, we ask that you will have mercy on us. May we quit offering you half-heart and lukewarmness and may we dare to let you purge these things from our life and really become a church that you look at and say, they're a pleasure to me. Would you speak to hearts right here now and allow us the freedom of pure grace but also the fear of God, walking in the fear of God and the comfort of the Holy Spirit? That's when church life multiplies. So cause us to become fruitful and fertile because of the filling of the Holy Spirit. And as we sit in quietness, quietness, maybe some people need to say some things to you, Lord, and say, Lord, I want this. I want this. I want to be filled with your Spirit. So while we're sitting in quietness, I want to ask you, would you come to this altar and would you dare to say those conditions? Lord, I want to honor. Give me the grace to honor these things. You've said some things to me today and I purpose to obey. I purpose and you can confess the immediate things and you can renounce them but you can surrender afresh and you can purpose to obey and let it carry out to all your life and all the areas when you leave. And you can dare to believe God and say, Lord, by faith I ask you this day, make me a different man or woman. Change me forever and make me a glory to your name. May I quit just wanting something and thinking about it and dare to possess it, possess the life, possess the land to claim what you've given. Give us the grace to do this. And so in this total silence right now, I'm asking you, if you're here, this is your desire, just to get up and come to the altar and do business with Him. We'll wait in silence because this is the beautiful part. We don't need anything to cover it right now. We just need raw, yes Lord. So you come as you're led and don't be condemned if you can't come. Deal with it when you go home. We're not looking for visible numbers to prove anything but we are saying it is appropriate when the Lord says something for us to tie it down with a faith, yes Lord. I want this. I want blaming others or blaming myself even and blaming the Lord for a life that's less than a light to the people.