The Ghost Who is Ignored

Our young people today are leaving the church and droves. It's mainly our fault. We gave them pizza nights and movie nights and mud fights, and we gave them rock music to entertain them.

In short, we gave them what they wanted instead of what they needed. It was a sad day in our churches when activity replaced authority. The pulpit, which in former times rang with a voice of authority, was replaced with funny stories and stale jokes and man-centered methodologies.

Our kids eventually became bored with all the man-made activities at church, and in the home, we parents told them, do as I say, rather than lead them by do as I do. And the teenagers saw right through our hypocrisy, where we were one way at church on Sunday, and quite another way at home during the week. But what destroyed their faith more than anything else was the fact that the kids saw no reality of God in the lives of their parents.

The bottom line, friends, is the Christian life is impossible to live in the flesh. And when the church started to operate on money and manpower instead of God and holy ghost power, we all ran out of gas. It was Samuel Chadwick, the great Methodist minister, who said, the church still has a theology of the holy ghost, but it has no living consciousness of his presence and power.

The title of my message today, friends, is the ghost who is ignored because we sure have ignored him today in our churches. Listen, friends, there can be only one answer to the question, why has the church lost her power? The answer lies in the reality that the church has forsaken the third person of the Trinity, replacing him with programs, money, and man-centered methodologies. Our reliance is one of self rather than reliance upon the Holy Spirit to empower us to pray, preach, and witness with an endowment from on high.

Let me ask you a question, friend. When was the last time you saw the power of God in a meeting? I remember years ago, holding a chapel service for a group of high school kids in a private Christian school, and as I preached to them, my words seemed to bounce back at me like a boomerang. I wasn't making any headway with them, and most of them were either on their phones or laughing with one another, but they weren't paying me no never mind.

Afterwards, the old pastor who invited me to speak apologized for his students' bad behavior, but as he spoke to me, I saw a tear in his eye as he commented, I just feel sorry for these kids. They don't know what it's like to be in a meeting where the Holy Ghost is taking charge. But then he went on to say that when he was a teenager in church, there was still revival taking place in some of the churches in the land, and he told me back then the teenagers couldn't wait to get to church to feel the presence of God because it was so mightily felt back then, but he felt sorry for these kids today who knew nothing about that.

Church to them was like going to the doctor for a shot. Right now, it just had to be endured. That's why so many college-aged kids refused to attend church anymore.

They were simply bored to tears by a pastor who was just doing his best to keep them occupied. I want to direct your attention, friends, to Luke chapter 3 in verse 16, which reads, John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I cometh, the lachet of whose shoes I'm not worthy to unloose. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.

And it is here, friends, where the church needs to reclaim its missing ingredient, and that is a Holy Ghost fire. We need a consciousness of God in our churches again, and this only comes through lives of surrender to the Lordship of Christ Jesus. We need to repent before Almighty God and admit we have replaced him with sports and entertainment.

We have become a self-reliant church run on denominational programs that is bankrupt without his purpose and power. I've known some men who preached with this Holy Ghost fire that is mentioned here in our text. Let me ask you, what does a fire do? If you were asleep in your bed and a fire broke out in your home, what would occur? You would be suddenly awakened and alarmed and made sensible to your danger.

Well, good preaching is like that. When anointed by this fire of the Spirit of God, it will awaken you to your lost condition and alarm you to your great danger of dying in your sins. When was the last time, friend, somebody was tugging on our sleeve at church with alarms saying, oh, what must I do to be saved? I submit to you, brother pastor, that if you want the teenagers to pack out your church, then start preaching with fire.

Preach the strictness and severity of God's holy law until they feel the condemnation of their sins. Preach the blazes of hell's fire until they feel the heat of that furnace singe them. Stop worrying about disturbing the good deacons and preach the solemnity of God's final judgment so some of them can be saved.

Begin each day with a vibrant, quiet time with God where all is placed upon the altar and you ask God to make Ephesians 5.18 a reality in your life. We are commanded and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Ask God each morning to fill you consciously with the Spirit and to fill you continually throughout the day with the Spirit and to fill you conspicuously with the Spirit so others can take notice of the change.

This way our pulpits can once again ring with a voice of authority and sinners can fall under holy spirit conviction whereby all false refuges are broken up and they're appointed to the one and only refuge from sin, the Lord Christ. This fire will draw the young people back to church and bring them back to the Savior, the pearl of great price, who's worth selling off for and losing all for so he may be gained. Let us pray.