3 Hinderances To Following God

So the topic this morning is what is hindering you? What's hindering you? The top three hindrances to following God from the book of Acts. We are in the book of Acts. We're going through verse by verse number 33 in the Acts series.

So if you have some extra time on your hands go back to number one two, three, four, five, all the way to 33. Again, what's hindering you? Acts. What chapter is it? Let's put the first verse.

I think it was eight and we left off a couple weeks ago, actually a month ago. So this is the story of Christ being preached to an Ethiopian. This man is not a believer and Jesus Christ is going to be preached to him.

And the Bible says, now an angel of the Lord, reading from the New King James, now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is desert. So he rose and went.

It's interesting that they said this is desert. There's some desert times in our lives and hard times that God will bring us through. Not the easy route.

I love the easy route. How about you? But the desert route is often, it's the place of wandering in the wilderness and affliction. And really when you hear from God you need to be refined and alone with Him.

And that's when we really grow, is through that wilderness experience. So anyway, I don't want to make too much of that, but he went through the desert and listened to the voice of an angel. Do angels still speak to us today? Well, we'll get to that in a little bit.

Just put that in your back pocket. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, he was a eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians. So he's technically a politician back in that day who was going to come to know the Lord.

He had charge of all of her treasury and had come to Jerusalem to worship. And he was returning back to Ethiopia. So he's sitting in his chariot and he's reading the prophet Isaiah.

Then the Spirit said to him, go near and overtake the chariot. That's why it's so important as a church, we believe in the authority of God's Word, the inerrancy of Scripture. That's our guide, that's our standard, that's the foundation.

But we also need a little help from time to time. And that's why we believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They don't take the place of obedience to God's Word.

They don't take the place of God's Word. It's a little bit of help because I can't turn to Matthew and it tells me to go overtake a car and talk to somebody. Those are what they call promptings of the Holy Spirit.

And it's very healthy. It's very biblical if done correctly. And I'm not going to get into a whole teaching about that because I have many times before.

I mean, we don't listen to every voice, every prompting, everything, because sometimes I'm confused. Is it God or is it shame? You ever have those battles? Lord, is this you or is this me? And there are competing voices. We have our own ulterior motives.

We have our own reason for doing things. And then God also has thoughts He'll plant in our hearts. Commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established.

Who else plants thoughts though? The enemy. Those aren't too hard to distinguish because you know if it's a thought that builds. Basically, here's how you'll know.

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life. And are those thoughts focusing on any of those three areas? Self-promotion, arrogance, feeding the flesh, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, things we want. I want that new Hellcat from Dodge.

I don't like the name, so I change it. But is that God? Is that you wanting to bless me? Is that you? Lord, could that be you? 800 horsepower at my disposal? Probably not. Probably not.

And so now Philip answering to that prompting of the Spirit. And here's what I need to say on this. The closer you walk with God, right, the more you're submitted to Him.

You're reading His Word. You're worshiping. There's seasons of fasting and prayer.

You're filled with the Spirit. You keep sin on a short list, repenting, full of joy and peace. And even though you're struggling, the more sensitive you're going to be to the promptings of the Spirit, the more guided you will be by the Holy Spirit.

Because now you're teachable. You're a vessel He can use. But the opposite then applies.

The more you're feeding the flesh, not in God's Word, the more you're going to be led by anger, confusion, fear. Anybody get ticked off? Every time I have to drive to LA, I'm like, Lord, please. Because why does He have to be on my bumper? Like, I'm just going to tap the brakes a little bit.

And then I get the finger going by. And then I don't have the fruit of the Spirit. The old Shane remembers.

Hey, my truck can hit a hundred, too. Let's see. Pull over, right? The flesh is always wanting to dominate.

So the more full you are with the Spirit, and the more I'm led as well, too, like, you know, like, go pray for that person at Trader Joe's or at Sprouts or Vons or just your gas station. You just feel like, hey, I know this is funny, but are you okay? Do you need anything? And sometimes, you know, I don't think I can pay for my gas today. You know, it's being open and sensitive to the leadings of the Spirit.

And there are ways to check it, of course, right? Is this for somebody else? Is this going to bless them? There's no notoriety or arrogance that's building me up. And is it going to bless others? Is this something the Lord would want me to do? Am I going to help somebody that normally wouldn't help me back? There are ways to check that. And the Spirit said to Philip, go near and overtake his chariot.

So Philip ran to him. He heard him reading from Isaiah the prophet. And he said, do you understand what you are reading? And he said, how can I unless someone guides me? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.

And Philip found him reading in the book of Isaiah. He said and read, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before its shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Isaiah wrote this 700 years before Jesus.

Jesus didn't argue and debate and tell Pontius Pilate, I'm innocent and try to fight the system. And if it was me or you, we'd probably argue, wouldn't you? I mean, if you're innocent and you're going to jail, you're actually going to be crucified. You're going to throw a fit.

You're going to run. And the Roman soldiers are going to track you down. But he stood there silent.

It actually says he said his face at a different passage, like a flint, like a hard rock to the cross to Calvary could not be knocked off course. He's silent, just like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. And this he did in his humiliation and his justice and all that was taken away.

And who will declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth. In other words, where are the, you know, that that's what preaching is. The word actually comes from in the Greek and Hebrew, in the Greek and Hebrew, they are different words, but they all come back to proclaiming, proclaiming, announcing, preaching the good news.

And who will declare in this generation? Who will preach? We got a lot of preachers going on right now because of what just happened in America. A lot of people, what just is so surprising to me, thinking they would silence the voice of truth. They awakened a whole army of spokespeople for God, a whole army of preachers saying, you're not going to intimidate me.

You're not going to intimidate us. Fear man, don't fear man, fear God who can cast both body and soul in hell. And that boldness, you see, yes, cowardliness is contagious, but so is boldness.

It's very contagious. And so this eunuch answered Philip and said, well, who's he speaking about? What's he, what's he talking about himself or somebody else? And then Philip opened his mouth and beginning at the scripture, he preached Jesus to him. And for many people, they don't talk too much about Jesus because, you know, I'm not well-versed in eschatology and pneumatology and theology and soteriology.

That's okay. You're well-versed in Jesus. If you're a believer, that's all you need to do is tell people how have G how's yes, please study.

You don't get me wrong, but how has Jesus changed your heart, your life? You were once in darkness and now there's life. You once had fear and now there's peace. You were once bound, but now you're set free.

Just tell people what Jesus has done for you. That's contagious. Have you noticed that most people aren't looking for a theological discourse and a breakdown of Romans? They're, they're wanting to know how has God really changed your life, but you've got to speak the truth in order for them to hear it.

I got permission. It's kind of cool. I'm hoping they'll give their testimony a little bit, but, uh, in the first services, this young woman, probably 22, she's smiling and all excited.

I'm like, she goes, you remember praying for me? Like, I remember you about three months ago. And she goes, but do you remember what you prayed specifically? And I said, no. And she goes, well, I was in a same sex attracted relation with my girlfriend for six years.

And you prayed that that would be broken and you prayed for me. And I was in a stronghold and now she's, I've been set free. I love the Lord.

And I was like, wow. But it's, I even get caught off guard. Cause I'm like, really? That really happened? Like, I mean, we talk about it.

We know God can do it, but when you, but you, you begin to see all the fruit and now all she needs to do is tell others. She doesn't have to break it down necessarily, but look at what God has done. And I've never, I do remember three months ago, she was not happy.

Now that the joy, the difference in their, in, in, in just who they are was, was really life-changing. I mean, I was happy cause I knew it was going to be some good news, but I didn't know it'd be that good of news. And then the eunuch said, here is some water.

Here's some water. What hinders me from being baptized? So during the course of, and this is, this important guys don't miss this. In the course of Isaiah explaining the gospel to him, he must've mentioned baptism.

Cause he, oh, by the way, here's some water. Do you want to get baptized? What is that? So he was explaining Jesus, probably, I mean, this just happened, Jesus who was crucified. You probably heard about him.

We followed him. He was the Messiah. Let's go back to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, first, probably broke, broke down him in the old Testament.

New Testament wasn't written yet and explained that as a, when a person believes in Jesus, then they are baptized. Remember John the Baptist? Remember? Yeah, I remember that guy. What was he doing? I heard about him.

He was baptizing unto repentance, but now Jesus came. The Bible says that he will baptize you in the Holy spirit and fire. Oh, you need that fire guys.

That's why some of you are born in church. You need the fire of the spirit to, to come and just say, Lord, engulf my heart. If there's anything blocking that hindering me, God, I want to let that go.

I want the fire of the spirit. Cause when you have the fire of the spirit, you want more worship. You want more of the word.

You want more of God. And you pray, Oh God ran the heavens. Did you know that's a prayer? Isaiah 64 one.

Oh God, would you run the heavens, break open the heavens, rip them open, come down and visit your people again so that we can rejoice in you. The fire of God, the fire of the spirit is so important. And so he must have told him about baptism.

And he said, listen, you, you go down in the water represents the old man coming up in the newness of life, baptized, baptized, a physical baptism where you're showing people I'm dead with that old system of Judaism or whatever. He was probably in Ethiopia, false gods, false idols. And you, you come out of the water.

It's a representation of what God has done in your heart. He said, you may be baptized. If there's that, if, if you, what verse 37, verse 37, or we can probably go back to it.

I wasn't done with the whole chapter reading there. Verse 37, he opened his mouth. Oh wait, no, you're probably on the right one.

I was probably on the wrong one. Bottom line is Philip said, oh yeah, you were at the right one. Sorry, Aubrey.

If you believe with all your heart, you may be baptized. If you believe with all of your heart, here's something you need to know about all of your heart. God said, if you seek me with all of your heart, you will find me.

If you love the Lord God with all of your heart, this as well, if you believe with all of your heart, and some people make the mistake of thinking that word says perfect. If it did, I would go back home and you would not see me again. It has nothing to do with perfection because we know we cannot walk perfectly before God on this side of eternity.

All your heart means when you come to the Lord or prodigal son coming home, maybe you're committing after this huge just atrocity in America. That's what it is. It's martyrdom, assassination, everything, and just complete confusion.

You're coming back to the Lord. That means Lord, here's my finances. I'm not going to worry about it anymore.

I'm not going to look at my crypto app, my gold, my silver, my stock market, and trying to do this and trying to, yeah, Lord, you'll be a good steward, of course, but Lord, take that. That's yours. I don't want that idol in my heart.

Lord, my marriage, you know what? It's not going to be about me anymore. It's about you and serving you. You've got my marriage.

Lord, my job where I wanted to be top guy, I wanted to work my way up, and I have some ulterior motives, and I'm finding fulfillment in my job, and I'm a workaholic. Lord, take that, whatever you want me to do. And you see all these areas of your life with all your heart, because doesn't it sound funny if you say, Lord, I want to follow you, but not this part of my life.

I kind of like this vice, this sin, this part of me, and I don't want to give it up. And that's what that young girl struggled with three months ago. She didn't want to give up that part of her life.

Like if I love this person or I'm born this way, I'm not going to. Everything else is okay, but not this part. That's not your whole heart.

So if there's any hindrance to you receiving the fullness of the Spirit, the fullness of God, give that up this morning. Lay it down. What is hindering you? And he said, I do.

He answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Guys, that's where everybody has to get to. Not that he was a good teacher.

How many times have you heard that? How many times have you heard Ben Shapiro talk about Jesus or Dennis Prager or other people? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's a great guy. He was a good teacher.

But so was the Hindu gods. And look at people look to Buddha. And I just had a guy tell me this yesterday in LA.

I'm hoping to reach out to him and talk to him a little bit more. And he's like, yeah, man, you seem cool. And you follow Jesus and Buddha and Hindu and all these other people.

If they would just follow somebody and get their hearts right. No, no, no. There's only one way.

There's only one way. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. You've got to get there.

What's the deal with the Son of God? Because he paid the price for your sin and for my sin. He paid that price. He is the Son of God.

He said, I am the only way. So God himself, we don't quite understand it, how fully God fully manned it came down, he paid the price, he died on the cross. I believe that he died for my sin.

He is the only way the only truth, the only life. There is no weather God, there is no way to the Father. Yeah, boy, that seems pretty narrow.

Well, so does gravity. Two plus two is not five. Have you ever had anybody tell you that's pretty narrow? I wish to change that today.

Of course not. Because it's moral truth. It upsets.

It upsets the demonic realm. Be clear, what we're seeing right now in our nation is so demonic. People laughing over his death, mocking it, mocking God, putting their fist in God's face.

He is the Son of God. I love this part because he didn't say, okay, let's schedule my baptism next time I'm in town. He said, chariots stand still.

Here's the water. Let's go. He was excited to be baptized.

And that's truly a fruit of genuine faith, is it not? You're excited to follow God. And you're not embarrassed. If you're embarrassed to follow God, you might want to check your heart.

Now I know sometimes kids struggle with the youth. And I understand that because there's still identity, you know, and wanting to be cool. And you still have that internal struggle of the old man and the new man.

But the bottom line is there should be an urgency to wanting to follow God. And so they baptized him. And he came up out of the water.

And the Spirit of the Lord took Philip away. And he saw him no more. The eunuch saw him no more.

And the eunuch went away in a bad mood. Look at that word. That word is key, rejoicing.

Rejoicing. Abram, if I'm wrong, just let me know after service. But I don't think we've ever seen anybody after a baptism get upset.

Like, why did I get all wet? I can't believe this. Man, what did I do? I ruined my life. Never.

Just Sunday, one lady was crying, saying, this is the best day of my life. And everybody, other people hugging. You don't want to let go.

And what God is doing, there's a rejoicing there. See, that's the fruit and the filling of the Holy Spirit. A sign that you're full of the Holy Spirit.

Listen, I talked about this before. One sign of the Holy Spirit is not that you're weird and loud. And the Holy Spirit, oh, and I'm acting weird.

Oh, man, he's really full. No, he's really weird. Sometimes you don't look normal.

I got it. But a true sign of someone filled is bold for the faith. They are bold.

Stephen was bold. Paul was bold. Peter was bold.

That's what got them killed. Somebody else, the life they're celebrating today, he was very bold. Very bold.

But also joy, rejoicing. When somebody's filled with the Spirit, you can't contain it. Why? Because the fullness of the Spirit is coming out.

It just bubbles out. The Holy Spirit, epi, overflowing has come upon the believer. I'm so excited about this topic.

Can you tell? Over the years, because that's the difference maker, is it not? That's the difference maker. And some of you, maybe you're at where I was in my 20s. I was a Christian.

Nobody would know it. I had no joy. I was full of the world.

I was happy, happy stance happening when things are happening to me. But there's no joy. I'm not leading people to the Lord.

I don't really want to talk about the Lord. And then the Holy Spirit really grabs your heart and comes in that fullness of joy, that obedience to the Word of God. It brings incredible, incredible seasons of all the fruit, love, joy, peace, contentment, long-suffering, gentleness, kindness, all of those things, and self-control, by the way.

These are fruits of the Spirit. But be encouraged, that fruit gets bad sometimes. Love has been a hard one lately, hasn't it? I opened up about that last Sunday.

Love your enemies. That's been a tough one. I'm not really full of love the last week.

I'm full of vengeance, as mine say to the Lord, go get them. Go get them, God. But the closer you get to God, the more you actually are broken.

That's where that love comes from, a brokenness and a love. God, you've got to save these people. Oh, God, help us.

He really does. He rejoiced, and He went preaching in all cities. Oh, but Philip went continued preaching in all the cities.

A few things I want to talk about before we head out. Verse 26, Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip. Oh, boy.

I mean, I could have just glossed over it. Let's just gloss over that. But I think we can all agree, can God still use angels? Of course.

Do we need to be careful? How many of you are not aware that two of the biggest religions started because an angel spoke to somebody? Islam and Mormonism. They both go back to an angel speaking to them. The problem is what the angel said is different from what the Bible said.

So do we believe the angel or the Word of God? We go back obviously to the Word of God. Might as well put it up there now. Galatians 1.8. There we go.

Paul was saying to the church in Galatia, if you hear anybody among us or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel, then this message of Christ crucified Him, the Savior, the Son of God, let them be accursed. The word is anathema in the Greek language. It's a very strong word.

Let them be accursed. That's why you have to take the Word of God very seriously, very seriously. And so when I say things like I said with Mormonism or even when I talk about Jehovah Witnesses or different things, if they're saying a lot of things that are way off from the main thing, because it's to be accursed.

If there's another gospel, God's not happy with another gospel. And this is also when I talk about this often, it's only to just have people think and look into it themselves. When I talk about being a former altar boy, so I kind of know what I'm talking about.

Roman Catholicism, right? When they start, they broke up Eastern Western Orthodox and you've got the early church and now it's Roman Catholicism. Now the government is involved and you can pay for the papacy. And then you begin to teach Mariology.

That Mary's co-redeemer, you pray to Mary. I mean, Bible students, doesn't that seem off? It's not biblical at all. So if a person gets obsessed, they go, go read the Bible.

Just read the Bible. And she was also perpetual virginity of Mary. She was always a marriage.

Mary's consummation or Mary, where she goes up into heaven sinless. Really? Not only that, you have to go to purgatory as a Christian to be purged of your sins before heaven. Wait, wait a minute.

I kind of have a different way. I don't see that anywhere, anywhere. Right? Because it's papal decrees and they put tradition often over the word of God.

Shouldn't you tell people that? I don't know. Call me stupid, but they should know. Hey, you might want to, you might want to research what you're following there.

And so it's not out of hatred. It's out of true concern, because if you're, if Mary is your co-redeemer and you're praying to her and you have your bumper sticker that says, can't find Jesus, go, go to his mother. Those, those, those are, that's blasphemous to, to go into purgatory and be purged before heaven.

As if Jesus's sins weren't enough. When he said it's finished, I paid the full price paid in full. That, that, that, that's blasphemy.

So here's my challenge. Do I not offend you or do I not offend God? Because I know what the truth is. And if I don't tell you, cause I'm afraid you're going to friend me or be unfriend me, you know, right? It's, it's, it's important to tell the truth.

Even with Mormonism, both Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ cannot both be right. Guys, just, just read, read, read the Bible, read the Bible. It's all right there.

So on angels, just be very, very careful when it comes to angels. Chris Vallaton at Bethel church was visited by Mark, the Archangel Michael, he said, who was wearing wrestling tights and was muscular. That gives me great pause for concern.

Great pause for concern. That whole church where they're going now gives me great pause for concern. Absolutely.

Number one, I don't think you'd see Michael, the Archangel. He has specific things where he deals with principalities and powers or Lee Strobel. He describes having a powerful prophetic experience with the celestial being during a childhood dream that he believes was an angel, which influenced his spiritual journey and faith.

I believe that one over Hulk Hogan one. I mean, this is beyond bizarre. These guys, and they have to be held accountable.

See, nobody holds them accountable. Oh, that was, oh, that was so wonderful. They talk to angels all the time and they go and do these.

It's just, where's our discernment? Where's our fear? That's my concern with a lot of these people. There's no fear of God in this place. They have no fear of God.

There's no, there's mockery and there's showmanship and you've got to fear God, fear God and live and reverence God. It's a, it's a powerful time that we have right now in our country to go back and fear the Lord. God leads us primarily through his word.

Obedience meets wisdom. That's primarily how God leads. They hear the right voice, hear the right voice.

My sheep hear my voice. And the number of verse 36, what hinders me from being baptized or what hinders me from obeying God? That's what he's asking here. What does hinder me? It means to cut into, is anything cutting into your life that's slowing you down or preventing you from following God? Is there anything impeding you or detaining you or cutting off or stopping your progress or cutting you short from obeying and following God? Here's the top three hindrances in case you're taking notes.

Attitudes. My attitudes and hindrance? More than you realize. More than you realize.

Our attitudes, our actions. What about weight? Anybody have any weights that might be hindering their walk with the Lord? Hebrews 12, 1, it says, amplified version, take away, strip off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us. Many of you have heard that verse differently, remove the weight and sin that ensnares us or different translations, but to me it's making a distinction there.

There's sin that must be repented of and avoided, but then there's weight that has to be let go of because there's weights sometimes that can slow us down. Okay. Analogy time.

There you go. Pick it up. You can do it.

Oh, it's heavy. All right. How many of you seen these? Oh my goodness.

Huh? They're like full of concrete or sand or something. And what you do, I tried to do on the first service, but it's hard to go, but they put these on and it's weighted, weighted down. No, it's got good benefits, right? But I could tell my knees were hurting more.

My ankles, my lower back. There's nothing wrong with this. Isn't this a vest with 20, 25 pounds of weight in it, but it's hindering me.

What about if I have to run or flee or fight? Oops. Sorry, John. I don't want to do that.

Fight somebody or what? Right. It's good. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's hindering my walk.

What is hindering you in your walk? The Bible wants it. Now, if it's a spouse, nothing you can do about that. Okay.

I want to clarify, but what's hindering you in your walk with the Lord? Attitudes, grumbling and complaining, they are toxic. Grumbling and complaining, they're toxic. Pride hinders spiritual vision.

I know it looks funny hanging around me, but it'll stick for a minute. Well, here's what's ironic. When I was wearing it a lot and it eventually became comfortable, I didn't know what the weight was until I took it off and felt the freedom.

I'm walking around my house. It's comfortable. I didn't even really realize.

And you become comfortable with that weight, and it's even harder to remove at that point. What about pride? Pride hinders spiritual vision. Pride will hinder your walk with the Lord.

Jealousy and envy, they rob you of joy, and they create ulterior motives. Doubt and fear hinder you. They paralyze you.

See, these are all the things that aren't... We think of sin, active sin. We know certain bad things. But what about the attitude of the heart that people can't see? You can't see grumbling, complaining, sometimes in posts, Facebook, social media.

But sometimes these are internal things. Pride. Pride's kind of hard to spot, isn't it? Because you don't know if somebody's being genuinely sincere or if they're jockeying for position.

They're trying to build their own name, their own recognition. They're trying to... There's ulterior motives behind it. Jealousy and envy rob that joy.

How many of you ever go on Instagram and you get jealous? Everybody's on dates and vacation and everything's going great. Don't let that deceive you. We did a picture on our way to Arizona, and we were in bad moods, but Morgan said, smile, let's do a picture for Instagram.

Like, oh, look at the idols. They're having so much fun. Facade.

AI. But you have to let those weights go. Doubt and fear, they hinder and they paralyze.

And then, of course, our actions. Sin actually means missing the mark. It's like an archer shooting an arrow, and they miss that mark.

It hinders us from doing God's will. It's a serious thing. We need to get back to sin being serious.

Some of the older folks, can I get an amen? You remember the church in the old days? You remember? Church was... Sin was dealt with. You approached it in the right biblical way. What do you mean? It put Christ on the cross.

It's God hates sin. It divides us. It breaks families apart.

It keeps people from heaven. Sin needs to be dealt a swift blow. Be killing sin or sin be killing you.

John Owen said that, the Puritan author. If sin impedes us and detains us and stops progress, repentance opens. It releases and advances God's will.

Repentance of sin is beautiful. Listen guys, I had to make a decision a long time ago when we first started this church. Was I going to please man or God? Please man or please God? Absolutely.

Obviously. And in doing so, we knew we might not ever have a big mega church, because you can preach it down to a manageable size. Rob McCoy's famous words, probably up at the stage right now, giving the gospel message.

I just thought of that. Let's pray for that too. Lord, I pray for that anointing to be on him.

Millions need to hear the message. I pray a spiritual awakening occurs. Lord, please don't let church go back to normal.

Awaken. Disrupt the whole political climate in Washington and California. Bring Newsome to his knees and some of these senators that are hell-bent on wickedness.

God, wake them up. We know you set up the political institution and the family and the church. God, break us and humble us and bring a season of revival here in Jesus' name.

But for your younger crowd, there was a time when sin was serious. All the great books written over 100 years ago were on deep, deep on sin and repentance. Look up the Puritan author, and the title is The Complete Armor of God.

Get the abridged version with modern language, or pick up any book by A.W. Tozer, any book by Leonard Ravenhill. Man, you'll reignite that passion again, because when we go shallow biblically, we stay shallow. That's why I do this, to go deep with God, that deep, heart-searching healing that takes place.

I saw it early on. I met with a pastor of a large church, and he didn't like my stance on a lot of things. Why are you so this and that? I'll never forget, it was lunch at a place that used to be called The Whole Eatery.

I remember the table. He said, who do you read and listen to? I listed those people. He said, oh, now I see the problem.

Maybe not that direct, but now I see. There's a clear divide. Well, who do you read? Names like Brian Paget, Doug Paget, Brian McLaren, Tony Jones.

Some of you won't know this, but it's called the Emergent Church Movement. There's a reason it's dead 15 years later, because they want to have a conversation and add a couch and get rid of the pulpit. Let's talk.

Let's have a conversation. We don't need to call people to repentance. Let's understand where they're coming from and have dialogue.

That's not preaching. That's wimpiness, if I just realize this huge divide. Then, of course, you start to see the drift.

There's no hell. Active sinners, actively in same-sex marriages, actively in adultery can serve. It's not that big a deal.

Shane, let the Lord convict them. No, I think that's your job too. Right? As a leader, you steward the environment of the church.

Once we made those decisions, people don't know, but God began to explode the ministry. We got emails from Africa and Australia. Just this week, God's moving in a powerful way for those who are hungry for repentance.

That's the key. Then again, weight. Removing the weights.

They are not necessarily wrong things. This wasn't wrong, but it was heavy. It actually impeded my preaching.

Did it? I had to remove that weight. Sometimes though, weights are God's will. I don't want you thinking every weight is not of God.

Sometimes He allows those weights, doesn't He, to crush us. But it's between you and the Lord. Is there anything hindering you this morning? Is there anything hindering you this morning? Then verse 37, final one, will be done.

He answered him. He said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He believed before He was baptized.

He believed in God before He was baptized. So what hinders you this morning from knowing God? Or what hinders you from following God unconditionally? Guys, you'd be so much more excited at church if you were fully surrendered. You'd be more excited at work and during worship and reading the Bible if you're fully surrendered to God.

And maybe some of you need to get baptized this morning. You've been playing games with God. Maybe your prodigal son or daughter coming home.

Back to the Lord. Maybe this experience and what America has went through has woke you up. It's waking up the woke, that's for sure.

And you need to do this. But before you think about this, let me share the top three hindrances to being baptized. I'll go quickly.

Number one, the person is not genuinely saved. They're not genuinely saved. And that's why they don't want to get baptized.

Or number two, they don't think it's a big deal. They don't think it's a big deal. Well, I don't know.

Jesus said to do it. How many of you are not? We're not aware that Jesus himself got baptized. Jesus got baptized.

Why? If he wasn't a sinner. Well, we passed out the article. Make sure to get it on the way out.

That will tell you all of that information. But he led by example. Or number three, probably one of the worst ones.

They're embarrassed. They're embarrassed. And I know it's hard as a young adult, especially in your teens and stuff, your self-image and what people think.

But you've got to say, you know what? What does God think? What does God think? So I remind my kids all the time, hey, those those kids that are bothering you, guess what? Next year, you won't even know them. Remember in high school, we had to please all these people. I don't know any of my high school friends are like decades ago.

I don't. I know a few are, but like, I'm so worried about their opinion. That's what got me into drinking and partying because I wanted to impress them and hang with the cool kids.

Now the cool kids are either dead, addicted on divorce. Or divorced, terrible, rejected God. That's who I was following.

That's who I wanted to. Can you imagine if you could go back to that? If you could go back to that? You would follow that. That's one thing I would do when I was 12 years old.

I would have, I would have at 12 years old. I said, Lord, I give you everything. I don't care about these, these people that are that are distracting me.

And I just, I don't care what people think. I want to be on fire for you. I want to know you, God.

That's I would, I would have followed him and never looked back. But instead I wasted 17 years of my life because I wanted to impress people. Wanted to be cool.

So I went with my friend and his dad to take an eight ball of crystal myth to Vegas. Their house was raided by the police shortly after. Again, all my friends, it got me in lots of trouble.

Looking back, I mean, God uses Romans 8.28 for good. I probably wouldn't have this much passion had I not been that close to hell. Because isn't that true? Those who have been forgiven much, love much.

The deepest, this is something a lot of you, you don't get to see, but the deepest worshipers over the years are those who have been hurt the most, wounded the most, have fallen away the deepest in their sin, the prodigal sons, the daughter. Those are the worshipers. Those are the worshipers.

They will never take back that relationship if you paid them. And I see them up there. I know molested at age five out of Mormonism, a broken marriage, physical abuse.

The husband is physically abusive and left him. And this person, oh, I know this person, oh my, they almost lost it all. This person's weeping over the son they lost or the daughter they lost.

This person almost ruined, couldn't see their kids for two years because of their addiction. And now they get their kids back. Oh, you think they'll become a worshiper? So be careful who you make fun of who's up here.

Be careful you make fun of the worshipers. Could it be that God has brought them through hell and back? No, of course they're going to worship. Of course they're going to worship.

The evidence, that song evidence, that Maddie's going to sing, I believe it, the evidence of what God has done in their life and in your life. Do not be embarrassed. He went through, Jesus went through hell so you don't have to go to hell.

Jesus went through hell so you don't have to go through hell. The saddest thing about Judas Iscariot is he betrayed the only one that could have saved him. So guys, if you're halfway on the fence, one quarter of the way on the fence, considering, contemplating, seeking, pondering, make that decision today.

There's a frightening verse, Jesus, many will seek to enter the narrow gate and not be able to enter. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

Hold on. Jane, you just told us the opposite. Have you, how many of you have never heard that verse? Well, maybe don't raise your hand, but think about it.

Jesus said, many will seek, seek me or seek to enter and they won't be able to enter the heaven, the narrow road. That just makes no sense. But again, as we often do, you have to look up the word, seek.

Many will seek, seek, but they won't be able to enter. Well, the word means ponder. I wish, actually, that's one of the areas I wish they would have used a different word.

Many will ponder. They'll think about it, but they will not be able to enter because broad is the road that leads to destruction and narrow is the path that leads to eternal life. And there are few who find it.

How many people ponder? They think about, yeah, I'm hearing what you're saying. That makes sense. Yeah.

Pondering gets you nowhere. The Bible's clear. You have to repent and believe.

It actually says, many of you know, those who seek will not, but those who strive, strive to enter the gate. That word is where we go to our word agonize, from agonizo, to agonize. And it's not a work.

It's not a work. It's a pulling against the flesh. The flesh says, no, no God.

No, I don't want there to be God. And you have to agonize. You have to repent of pride and arrogance and you agonize and you turn to God and you repent and you believe.

And then who the son sets free is free indeed. Agonize. It's praying for marriages, praying for healing, praying for restoration, praying to be set free like that young girl did three months ago.

We believe in the power of prayer. Exactly what John said. You are intercessors, whether you want to or not, you are an intercessor.

What's the intercessor you enter. God loves it when you intercede on behalf of someone. That's true love.

He told Ezekiel, I sought for a man from among them who would stand in the gap and build a wall and stand before me and the nation so I would not destroy the nation. I'm just looking for someone to stand in the gap. Is there an intercessor who's going to intercede between you and your kids on their way to hell or your grandkids? Who's going to intercede? And he said, I sought for a man from among them and there was no one.

I'm looking for it. Moses interceded. Elisha interceded.

Jesus sits and intercedes. Intercession, it's because you say, Lord, I'm going to humble myself and go between you and them. I'm going to bridge that gap.

Father, have mercy. Have mercy. Wake them up.

Wake up my spouse. Wake up my child. Lord, bring them home.

God, intercession is powerful. It's powerful.