Oh Lord, Ignite My Soul - More From Acts

We've been kind of building on this theme of revival from the book of Acts. Many of you know that's where my heart is at on this theme of revival, and the reason is it's not a weird word. You know, you hear the word sometimes, you think of interesting people, but biblically speaking, the word is to bring life back into a believer.

It's to resuscitate them spiritually. Have you ever been wavering from God or distant from God? And you need that breath of spiritual life again to come in and like the prophets would say, oh God, would you not revive us again so we can rejoice in you? Revive your people. Ezra said, give us a measure of revival in our bondage.

And so that's what I'll be kind of on that theme in Acts for another few weeks as we go through chapter 1. Chapter 2 is an incredible promise that is fulfilled. I'm hoping to get to that Sunday, but tonight the title is, Oh Lord, Ignite My Soul. Oh Lord, ignite my soul.

I just like that title. I don't know why, but as you can see, it's more from Acts 1. So what I'm doing on Sundays is pulling out some of the notes and then going to preach those on Wednesdays. That way I don't just rush through the series and we'll cut out this, cut out that, just to get through it.

I think this is the time where we need to just press in and if we need to spend a whole week on one verse, that's okay. And just really dig in to see what God wants us to do. Oh Lord, ignite my soul.

And of course, it comes from Psalm 84. My soul longs, my soul longs, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Now sometimes we can say amen, but other times we say I want that, but I don't experience that right now. How many of you, well maybe don't raise your hands, but how many of you cannot say that? I will tell you there are days where it's hard for me to say that. Lord, I want that.

And what I'm trying to do is, I remember coming back to the Lord, I'm going to talk about that Saturday morning, men be here at seven for the breakfast, eight o'clock I'm going to talk about walking in the Spirit so you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. And then a little bit more of my experience with the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. But I would read biographies, Christian biographies, and I would read stories on past revivals that were legitimate.

And it would fuel a hunger inside of me that was very intense. God, I want that. I want to see that.

We need more of that. Because when that happens, that's how you change a community. You want to fix California? I mean as much as we need the right politician, that's not going to do it.

The right politician doesn't usher in revival, revival ushers in the right politicians. The right politician will not bring a spiritual awakening. But a spiritual awakening will bring the right leaders.

That's the key. That's what we need. We need that in our country.

We need that in our nation. And don't clap. I borrowed that from Instagram.

I saw it. I don't remember a friend of mine, Landon Scott or Shane Pruitt, I think they're out of Texas. He posted that.

I'm like, that's pretty good. That's absolutely true. But that to me, that's why I'm passionate about it.

That is our only hope. Our only hope is for God to awaken His church. For the church to be alive again.

To do great exploits. And even if the Titanic's going down, at least we're saving people. But right now, we're being lulled to sleep.

Be quiet, church. Don't say anything. Don't get too excited.

Just have your... Can you imagine if we left here with the fire of the Spirit? As you walked into Trader Joe's, and Sprouts, and Vons, and Arco, and Chevron, and you just were excited with this. My soul longs... Can I pray for you? I sense that you're not... I just can tell that you're not feeling well, or there's some heavy heart. And then we begin to minister to people.

That's really what the church is. Or the church should be. Do I do that every day? No.

But we want to begin trying. We want to ask God, Lord, revive my heart. So my point is this.

Even if you don't necessarily feel it, we don't go by feelings. We should say, Lord, I want that. My soul longs for you.

God, even my... I faint for you in the courts. And what that means is, of course, you know, the famous verse, for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. So my soul longs.

It wants so much to be in your presence. The courts were in the temple, correct? The presence of God, the Shekinah glory, the inner court, the outer court, the holies of holies, all these things where God would meet His people. And He's crying out, God, I long for that.

And see, the more you long for something, the more you're going to fulfill that desire. And so the enemy wants to get us off track and not desiring the things of God. Whereas you... And so that's my hope.

That's my encouragement to you is, okay, you don't feel it right now. You're at a hard spot right now. Well, welcome to the Christian walk.

But that's why you push those aside and say, Lord, I want that. I long for that. Now, you're going to have to back that up with some action, though.

It requires turning off the TV and the social media and begin to press into God like never before. Present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy unto God. And that is your reasonable service.

Therefore, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So the more we're conformed to this world, this world's way of thinking, this world's mindset, the more we're not going to be transformed to the Word of God and the will of God. And we won't have passion for the things of God because of that.

Arthur Wallace wrote an incredible book in the 1950s on revival. The title is In the Day of Thy Power. I forgot to write it down.

In the Day of Thy Power. And it's actually going to be it's on scriptural principles for revival. And that's actually going to be our theme for Ren the Heavens.

Our theme of Ren the Heavens is In the Day of Thy Power. And we're going to talk about all those spiritual principles for revival. And each day I'll be speaking to Ray Abram.

I'll be speaking to Abram. We're going to rotate and we're going to have this incredible theme. But he said this is very important.

It is a deeply solemn matter to seek God's face for revival, for he may deal with us as he does not deal with others. I don't know if we have that quote up there. I might have put it in a little bit too late.

It is a deeply solemn matter for us to seek God's face for revival, which many of us are, correct? For he may deal with you as he does not deal with others. In other words, I'm hoping to be more talk to you about this topic more as we go through. But the obedience is so important, guys.

Obedience is so important. You cannot be revived with God's Spirit and be disobedient in areas where he's calling you to be obedient. Obey immediately is the order of Scripture.

And what we're doing on Sundays is talking about the book of Acts and the Acts of the early church. The Acts of the early church. It's a small group.

Think about this. It's a small group of people who turn the world upside down. How is that possible? They overthrew governments, not by just military force, but by the Spirit of God.

They toppled dictators and they crushed organized religion. This is a few group of people on fire for God. And that's why you have to realize if Christianity was fake or false or Jesus didn't really raise from the dead, it wouldn't have got any momentum.

It would have stopped right at the beginning because nobody's going to be killed for a lie. Yeah, we hit his body, but you can behead me. I'll lie.

And his followers were martyred. They were just excruciating death that many of them experienced. How many of you have seen this name before? Flavius Valerius Constantinus.

Better known as Constantine. He was an emperor in Rome. Check this out.

Rome is killing Christians. Nero is burning them on the city streets like candles. As time goes by, Constantine becomes a Christian and now says everyone must become Christian.

A couple hundred years later, he's known for his conversion to Christianity and the Christianization of the Roman Empire. Now, of course, reading the history there, I don't know how sincere he was. You can't really make a whole Roman Empire Christian.

You can't force it on people. You have problems there. And that's what big difference between Islam and Christianity is.

One is forced religion. The other is relationship. Huge difference.

Regardless, I would probably rather live under Constantine than Nero. Just saying. So you can see God moving in this area.

His conversion was motivated supposedly by a vision he experienced at the battle of Milivan Bridge in Rome in 312 AD. Again, other religions, you are forced to follow their rules where Christianity follows Christ. And so we can see that's what's exciting about the book of Acts.

The book of Acts, how many of you know how many chapters it has? 28. Well, you are Acts 29. This is that God keeps moving and working through His church.

And so when you see these incredible movements of God, I don't know, I'm just naive enough to believe that God can still do it today. He can change government. He can change government officials.

I mean, think how easy this is. God could whisper in Gavin Newsom's ear tonight and give him a very vivid dream that quick. Do I think it's going to happen? I have my doubts, but God can do that.

This sovereignty, that's why we trust in His sovereignty. His sovereignty is my sanity and your sanity. And you are seeing, I'm encouraged by seeing a lot of these people, more people becoming believers.

You know, regardless of your feelings, like what Tucker Carlson will say, or one of the most popular Navy SEAL podcast, Sean Ryan, how he's switched over and Eddie Penny, one of the Navy SEALs that have a very popular podcast with him. And you begin to listen to these other people talking about their faith. I think Joe Rogan's close.

And you see that God is definitely stirring hearts and something is going on. They realize there's no other hope. They see how crazy our nation is getting.

And so that's where the gospel comes in. The book of Acts, you take this fisherman and tax collectors, fill up the spirit of God. They do great exploits.

Some of them are killed along the way. Some of them are martyred. You see Christianity going up into Asia Minor, and that's where the churches were in the book of Revelation.

They're about 600 miles north of Israel. It all spread in there in Greece and Italy and Rome, and the church is growing. Did you know how many believers there are in China right now? Muslims are coming to faith through dreams.

How many Christians initially were even in Korea, North Korea, South Korea, when it was one. And you see this huge movement of God's spirit. So that's why we cannot give up hope.

I refuse to give up hope because God just needs one person on fire for Him willing to do what He wants them to do and change can take place. The problem is if you're like me, sometimes disobedience can stop you. Sometimes things get in the way.

I truly believe because I don't believe and I know people don't agree and disagree. That's okay. It's not an area to fight over or argue over.

It's just my conclusion is I don't think a person, a genuine spiritual believer, can lose their salvation and walk away from it and then come back to it later and then maybe walk away from it again. I've talked about this so many times, I'm blue in the face because you're sealed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is given to you as a guarantee.

You're a child of God. However, what He can do is discourage you. So you'll no longer do anything for God.

You just exist. How many of us feel that way sometimes? I mean, we don't want to get too convicting, but when was the last time you led someone to the Lord? I've honestly talked to people and they say I've never have. Now, it's not easy sometimes, right? But there should be a tendency in your heart to want to talk to people, to want to lead them because that's the Holy Spirit working.

How many times have you prayed for someone or seen God move in a powerful way at the hospital? But He wants to get us in such a frame of mind that it's all about us, our job, got to make enough money, got to pay the bills. Then I get home and Netflix has my time for three hours. Then I get up and I drink my Christian crack and I get to work.

You'll get it later on the way home. I get to work or I'm dealing with the kids and it's a busy day and all these things going on, these problems. And then, okay, and then I'm back to home again and then see nothing.

No wonder we're not making a difference. Many people are. I mean, many people are, but many people aren't because they need that stirring.

They need that conviction. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, many secular historians are ready to agree that it was the evangelical awakening in the time of Whitefield and the Wesley's that probably saved this country from experiencing such as they had in France in the French Revolution. The church was so filled with life and with power that the whole of society was affected.

I think he's talking about Europe because he's in London. He's writing, D. Martin Lloyd-Jones had the famous church there in the London area. But, and Wesley and Whitefield were also came from Europe in the 1700s.

However, you could say the same thing affected our nation. Many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence read their works. Benjamin Franklin knew George Whitefield well.

They would actually preach on political hot buttons from the pulpits. I've political sermons preached back then. And they would reference a lot of these things.

And so you see the Christianity when so filled with life and power, it changes society. Tackling the homeless problem, tackling fentanyl, they just do massive things for God when we're filled with the Spirit. That's why that downpour of God's Spirit is so important.

And that's why I don't get caught up on the technical terms, right? The baptism of the Spirit, subsequent feelings of the Holy Spirit, the unction of the Spirit, the power of the Spirit, the anointing of the Spirit. The bottom line is the Holy Spirit has you and He's doing something with you. You can call it whatever you want.

I feel the love and joy of God. I can't stop. And that should be a desire in all of us.

That should be a hunger. Lord, I'm going to press in. I want more of You.

And what I didn't get to Sunday, I'll read it now in Acts, Joel 2.28. I talked about, but I didn't read it. It was fulfilled. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh.

That's pretty significant. I think that has a little bit more to do with being full of the Spirit than full of self. Pouring out His Spirit on all flesh.

And what will happen? Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. It's speaking God's Word boldly. There's no way around that.

And I realized this early on when I was, I was what they called a motivational speaker in the 1990s. And even when I came back to the Lord for a while until God called me away from that. Motivational speaking.

What's the goal of motivational speaking? To motivate you, but guess what else? To not upset you. Correct? Think Joel Osteen. And that's a motivational speaking.

And I've talked about before, but after I would go and I'd speak places, they would fill out surveys from one to 10. What did you think of our speaker? And would you have him back again? And you know, you want high scores and you want everybody to like you and you're people pleasing. But when the Spirit of God comes upon you, this is not going to go well.

If you're pleasing men, it's an abomination on the side of God. Jesus said, you can't please man and God because the Holy Spirit upon a believer, you're going to have to speak the truth in love. We have to have both those, correct? But that's what's coming upon, they're going to prophesy.

They're going to say, I love you so much. That's wrong. That lifestyle is wrong.

Two men can't raise a little baby. That's wrong. You can't have women's products in men's restrooms and boys can't be good.

This is wrong. Wrong. I love you.

Because see, there's so much, the truth is bubbling out. When you're full of the Spirit, you're full of truth. So it's really hard to be quiet when God wants us to speak the truth in love.

And I don't know if people don't read the Bible, but they think Jesus was just some pushover, love everybody, don't say anything. Man, that guy said some tough things. Very tough things to those who needed to hear it and encourage those who needed the encouragement.

Woman caught in the act of adultery. Don't do it anymore. Go and sin no more.

I don't judge you. And I'm going to judge the jokers who brought you to me and I'm going to call them whitewashed tombs. And he would speak that truth in love.

And he never conceded and backed off and backed away and said, okay, yeah. And he would love the sinner, but he wanted to pull them out of their sin. And so a byproduct of being full of the Holy Spirit, you can try to suppress it.

It's almost like pushing a basketball underwater. Eventually it's going to knock you right in the jaw. It's boldness.

And your sons and daughters will prophesy. Prophecy, and we'll get into it later, of course, it's a real short Greek word. It's about, I think, four letters.

It's basically speaking for someone else is what it means. You're speaking for someone else. So when somebody legitimately prophesies, they are speaking God's Word that He's stirring in their heart.

His Word is in my heart like a burning fire. Who put it there? I didn't put it there. He put it there.

And you prophesy, thus saith the Lord, but it's Scripture. It lines up with Scripture. Now, of course, we can get into the gift of prophecy and that could have something to do with it.

Was it Wayne Grudem on his book on Systematic Theology? It's a pretty good book. It's a real thick book. He talks about it's when God supernaturally brings something to mind that you aren't already aware of.

And those who have that gift, they're talking that something just comes to their mind and they prophetically speak to that person to help them or to convict them. I've heard of stories where they'll convict people in a really hard way, a bad way. I mean, good but bad for them because convicting, but good in a God way because it leads to repentance.

And so that's what happens. The Spirit of God, that's why these gifts are so important. He pours out on the people and because of that, they're able to discern the spirits.

They're able to give a prophetic word when needed. And the difference from teaching and preaching is you have some notes. Here's what the Bible says.

Here's the historical context. But when the Holy Spirit comes upon a preacher, sometimes they'll go off on tangents that really minister to people that they had no plan on saying it. It's not in their notes.

That was the last thing on their mind. But because they're on this principle, because they're on this point, because God's Word is living and active, it comes upon them to say something very key and very critical. I see this a lot when I'm praying with people in the prayer room and they say a certain point in the sermon, this really helped this.

And half the time, it's not even in my notes. I had no plan on saying that as God is my witness. But for some reason, it convicts them.

It hits them right where they're at, right where they needed to hear today. It's like, you read my mail. That's everything I've been thinking this week.

And I go, I didn't read your mail. God is wanting to speak to His people via His Word, but also guiding and directing those of us who are speaking His Word. So the Spirit's going to be poured out.

Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men, and I think old men has to do with maturity, wisdom. God will give them dreams, maybe times of warning.

There's a man, I think Agabus, that we'll get to in Acts. I think I pronounced his name right. He actually had a dream of Paul being bound.

He used a belt. He goes, Paul, if you go in Jerusalem, they're going to bind you. They're going to take you to prison.

And maybe preparing Paul for that trip, but it was meant to be a warning, but Paul didn't stop going. He still went. So because of this dream, because of this vision, and young men, I will give young men, it could be obviously young women, they will see visions.

Often, God will give you a vision for the future of your life, what He's calling you to do. As the Holy Spirit comes upon you, young adults, it could happen if you're older too, but I know this happened with me many times. I would have, I would see a sea of people, I'm speaking, and a sea of people, and I'm like, Lord, I don't want to public speak.

Are you kidding me? I'll go get a root canal instead. That's the last thing I want to do. But He'll show you what He wants you to do.

He gives you an idea, a glimmer of what He's wanting to do in your heart and in your life. And so these visions, these dreams, now we can get carried away with these things. Have you ever seen those people carried away? Here's the key to not get carried away.

That kind of rhymes. Keys to not getting carried away. You don't look for and seek after the gifts.

You seek after the gift giver. So as you follow Christ, these things will come upon you to minister to others. When you start looking for these things, you start going to weird churches and what are the prophets saying? And what is this saying? And you start to look for this sign.

You start to get all worked up and you start to want to have a Holy Spirit pep rally. And you think the louder you pray, Oh God, come down in this place. Oh, and you start to use all this great Christian.

You start to speak in King James. Thy power and thy name. And you're trying to do all these things.

That's, that's emotionalism and that's gimmicks and that's games. But when you seek and pursue Christ and you begin to be broke and humble and He fills you with this spirit, these things will be a by-product of that. And that's what He's saying here.

Joel, I think Joel was 500 years or so. Don't quote me on any of this. Many, many hundreds of years before Jesus came, before Peter came.

And he said, I will pour out my spirit in those days. And then the next verse is when this actually happened. We're going to get to this in the weeks to come.

Acts 2. Then Peter said to them, repent, let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin. In other words, repent and then be baptized as an outward profession of your faith. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy spirit for the promise is to you and to your children and to all those who are far off as many as the Lord, our God will call.

Amen. That last verse, that last part, there's a good proof text for Calvinism for those who are Calvinist. That's a good point, right? But God calls certain people for the promise.

What is the promise? Jesus said, wait for the promise. And that's what we talked about Sunday. Go and wait in the upper room.

The promise of the Holy spirit is going to come, but we're in a different setting. Correct? The Holy spirit's already here. Jesus has been lifted up, ascended way back then 2000 years ago.

The Holy spirit is here. So what is the struggle then? The struggle is asking this question, do I need to be filled or do I need to be refilled with God's spirit? Am I quenching and grieving the spirit of God? This is what is the hindrance in the lives of many Christians. Number one, besetting sin.

I didn't talk as much Sunday about it as I want to, but I want to talk about briefly here, besetting sin. What does besetting sin do? It quenches the work of the spirit in your heart, in my heart. What do I mean by besetting? Well, sin is, you know, I hate to drop some bad news tonight, but it's not going anywhere.

Uh, right. The spirit's been redeemed. The spirit's renewed, but we still live in this body that is flesh.

Doesn't like the things of God. So it's like I kind of view it as you're saved. You have the Holy spirit, but you're not going to carry around this, this dead, decaying flesh that is still wanting to draw me back away from God, right? The flesh still desires things that are not godly.

Paul, Galatians, the spirit and the flesh walk in the spirit. You will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. So the flesh is lusting the spirits.

It's this battle. That's why life is exhausting. Sometimes.

Amen. I want to do good, but evil is present. Oh, wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of sin and death.

Did I say that? No, Paul said that who wrote the Bible. And so what happens is if there's sin, Lord, I need help. I repent.

I make restitution. I'm going to stop that. I need accountability.

I need to quit, you know, and you, Lord, I'm, I'm repenting. I'm turning from it. Doesn't might, doesn't mean you might not struggle again later, but I'm turning from it.

Lord, I'm done with that. I'm dealing with it. God, please.

I need that fresh filling of the Holy Spirit. And, and, and you, there's that something that something is broken there. There's a, there's a fresh renewal.

Besetting sin means I'm going to keep doing this one. I like this one. Yep.

This is my one little vice. Just going to carry this one around for a while, feed it, nurture it. Oh, I know it's not right, but boy, I sure do like it.

It's besetting. It's got you. You're not going to give it up.

You know, you should, but you're not. This is what will quench and grieve the spirit of God as well. It's a sin that we just keep going back to.

I'm not talking about falling into it's been a while and things are it's you're trying. And that's, that's a, that's a Christian journey. In many cases, this is that one.

You don't want to let go. If you want the fullness of the spirit, you will have to be more sensitive to God's voice. Disobedience, even in the small matters will hinder and limit the work of the spirit in your life.

I hate being transparent, but I know it helps people. So here we go. There's been times where God's been convicted me like to apologize to my neighbors.

Let's say like, Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope. Not today. Come on guys.

Can you relate? Yeah. Nope. Nope.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

Nope. Nope. And here it's just, it's just keeps gnawing on me.

Nope. Nope. It's what's a big deal.

It's not a big deal. I really didn't do anything wrong, but often it's not about what you did wrong. It's And so these little things, these little things that we don't want to obey God on, and we can get uppity about it.

What's a word I'm looking for? Sassy. Yep, yep, yep. Sassy.

Sassy. Uppity. Arrogant.

Yep, that one too. And that will keep quenching and grieving the spirit. Because the fullness comes from that cleansing of the heart.

And this is also where the Bible says grieving the Holy Spirit. Grieving the Holy Spirit. Wrong attitudes.

See that up there? Wrong attitudes. I could spend a whole hour on this one. Holding on to an offense holds off the fullness of the Spirit.

Guys, I would say this is one of the most destructive forces in the church today. You offended me. And I'm going to hold on to that.

And you think it's getting me, but it's not. It's getting you. It's hurting you.

You have to let that go. It's a poison to the believer. I do it too.

I've held on to offenses. What is an offense? It's when somebody does something that upsets you. And being in hundreds of meetings, I can tell you this, the enemy plants thoughts in my mind.

Oh, they didn't really mean that. Or they did this. Or this is their motive.

And they begin to fuel those thoughts. And now you're really upset at them. And because pastoring a church, because thousands of people have been here over the years, I saw a lot of people at GraceFest with 5,000 people there who still have personal offenses against me.

I'm like, guys, it's not worth it. I don't care if you go to a different church. I don't care.

You don't want to hold on to these things. And many times, it's because we have to go to somebody and lovingly correct them. I wish I could tell you that a lot of people like that.

But they don't. They want to correct you. Now, do we need to be corrected? Yes.

Yes. I just left a message, hey, if there's anything you see I need to work on, because you talked a lot about the man if I offend, let me know. I asked Pastor Abraham that, if you see anything, the elders, if I'm doing anything, the office, I asked him, let me know.

I'm going to work on these things. So you have to be open for it. But I'm not going to listen to a critical Kathy or a judgmental Jerry try to critique me because they don't love me.

They're trying to pull me down. And they're allowing that offense to fuel the fires of their anger. And I saw it was sad to see.

It's sad to see that they're holding onto this offense, little tiny things that the enemy will multiply. The enemy will multiply. I'll give you a few examples.

And I hope this helps people. But I'm wondering, I hope I didn't offend anybody. If I did, I have to apologize.

But we have, our handicap is full, right? So if I say, hey, if you don't need the spots, you know, let somebody park there who has a wheelchair where it was low on spots, that probably offended people. Like, well, you tell me I can't park there. I've got the handicap.

No, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, be considerate if you, and see how even those little things, and basically no matter what I say, it offends people. I've came to that conclusion.

No matter what I say, it offends people. So I just have to get over it and understand. But my concern is you hold onto it.

Work it out with the person. That's why the enemy doesn't want you to talk to the other person. Because you can clear the air and put out the fiery darts.

Oh, we talked it through. Oh, I thought this, or I thought this. Yeah, the enemy thought that.

The enemy planted those seeds. But when a person carries around offense, you think they're full of spirit? That you can just look at their face, they're upset. Love, joy, peace, yeah, right.

Anger, retaliation. But guys, we gotta get to the root, don't we? Some of the closest relationships I have with this church over the years, we've had some hard talks together. We work through it.

And we come out stronger and better. That's unity of the Spirit. The flesh is divided, the Holy Spirit's not.

So make sure you go to people and you work it out and you talk to them. And you might not like what they have to say sometimes. That's called a different perspective.

That's called a different opinion. But I see this, I just dealt with it a lot at GraceFest and at other places. They are offended.

They're offended at the church or at leadership or at me. And they don't wanna talk about resolving and then it's gonna quench and grieve this Holy Spirit. You think the Holy Spirit's gonna use them mightily? One of the reasons I think God made me a pastor is for just as much for me as for others.

Because I can't hold stuff in. It'll affect the church at a very deep level. It'll affect my... You think I'm gonna come up here and preach when I'm ticked off at 10 different people? I don't know why they're here.

Why are they here? I'm not gonna say hi, I'm gonna avoid them. You know the avoiders, come on. You say, oh gosh, there we go.

All right, they're gone, they went to the bathroom. Let's be honest. When you're honest, you can get to the root of the problem.

But I've learned now just to go to people, hey, I love you, is there anything... And you make it work, because the Holy Spirit is never divided. So if you're divided with someone, if you're offended at someone, the Holy Spirit's not divided with the other person. The Holy Spirit in them and the Holy Spirit in me is not divided.

Where's the division coming from? And it will quench. It's actually a grieving. The Holy Spirit's grieved because you have this offense against others.

And you have to let that go. And I try to extinguish this as much as I... Did you know people have bad things to say about every single church in the El Valley? People are coming to me all the time about, oh, Highlands this, Vineyard this, Grace Chapel this, Calvary Chapel this. I can keep going.

I hear it all the time. Guys, you don't know, the pastor's got great hearts or good churches. You just need to work it out, because we hold these offenses in.

And I kind of get concerned when somebody comes here with an offense at another church, because give it a few months and I'm going to be your target. That's just how I'm telling... Nine times out of 10, that's just how it works. And we've got to get rid of those.

And can you imagine a church just on fire, loving each other? Hey, you took my parking spot. I don't care. You were rude to me.

I don't care. You said something I didn't like. I don't care.

I know you love me. And just having the joy again and the peace, I just feel for people that are so bound by bitterness. And because I've been there before.

I know. I used to go to church. Hello.

I used to sit there. There was one church in town. This guy, this associate pastor.

I didn't go every Sunday, okay? Anybody can relate. I would go based on how I felt. Even as a Christian, I don't have to go.

In other words, another reason God made me as a pastor is I don't have to go to church all the time. But he'd always go, where were you last week? Like, I do not want to run into this guy. We actually left the church because of this guy.

Just on me, harassing me. Dang, man, leave me alone. Even now I got issues.

But see how if you hold on to those things, I mean, I'm joking or I let it go and I know. But I think, I hope, I don't know. But even, it will stifle spiritual growth.

And that's what we, we don't talk to our kids a lot about church, the negative stuff or families that are, because we want them to not have to experience that and get this view of church. And we try to correct. Just right before the church started, I'm not gonna say his name.

Hey, miss seeing you guys, if I did anything to offend you, I apologize. And he said, no, you did nothing wrong, we've just been busy, we'll see you Sunday. And I'm always on the alert.

Did I do something? I don't know, I haven't seen them for a month or a month and a half. They're friends of mine. And you have to be that strategic and you have to own it.

You have to own it. And tell people, hey, I didn't handle that correctly. I'm just, I don't do things perfectly either.

We learn, but here's the difference. Do you say, you know what? Yeah, I can work. And you grow.

Or do you like, nope, just the way I'm German-Irish. Suck it up. I'm gonna get off this point.

But holding on to offense at home. With spouses, because I'm only saying this because this has brought more destruction to the church than anything else I can think of. Besetting sin, yeah, people falling back into old habits and bad habits and addictions, but friends holding on to offenses.

Holding on because they were hurt. Well, guess what? Welcome to the club. Getting hurt.

It comes with life. People have a bad day. And they have to apologize.

They don't always handle things correctly. So don't hold on to offense because it will hold off the fullness of the Spirit. See, I want more of God's Spirit.

I wanna deal with God directly. I wanna do and have all that God wants for this church. And we fight for unity.

We fight for unity. It's alarming how disgruntled we can become over certain things. Here's my encouragement to you.

Don't hold the offense in. Understand the enemy. The only way, the Bible talks about the fiery darts of the enemy.

And again, I've said many times, I've never been hit by an actual fiery dart. Ow! But I have here and here. Right, could it be discouragement? I opened up, I had a hard, you know, even especially after COVID, I mean, a lot of us pastors felt like quitting.

Especially when people leave the church, they have all these ridiculous reasons why you're not doing this right. You're discouraged all the time. And here comes those darts.

But thank God for many of you because you're very encouraging and you put out those darts. But you have the same thing, the fiery darts. Well, what about this? Or what about if my brother meant this? Or my sister meant this? Or my friend, what about if they meant that? And here, he's shooting.

I believe they can plant thoughts into your heart. I don't know how it works. I just know it's not every thought is yours.

And just dwelling on it, dwelling. Do you ever dwell on things? You just get so mad you can't go to sleep? Over little things? Lay those offenses down at the foot of the cross tonight. And then the final point that I'll conclude with is how we miss the fullness of the Spirit.

And in the sermon title, Oh Lord, ignite my soul. What quenches that igniting? And sometimes it feels like I'm gonna explode with the presence of God and the love of God. But other times, I'm just getting through the day, amen? Just getting through the day.

But number three, do you desire it? Do you desire it? Because some people don't desire it. They truly don't want all of God's Spirit. They don't want to deal with besetting sin.

They don't want to deal with their offenses. So you have to want it. You have to desire it like the psalmist writes about as that deer, right? The pants, it looks for the water brook.

You've got to look for God. Lord, I don't feel you tonight. I don't even want to be here, but I don't care what my feelings say.

I'm gonna press into you like never before. Oh God, change my heart. I long to stand in the courts of the living God.

One day in your courts is better than a thousand years elsewhere. God, brave, begin to come into my heart and give me that passion and that desire. You see up on the slide where I put Samaria.

I don't know if it was up there. Samaria versus Gadara. Might've been on the last one at the bottom.

Samaria versus Gadara. One place urged Jesus to stay. The other told him to leave.

Think about this. In Samaria, the woman said, come and meet a man that's never told me everything I know. And they wanted him to stay there.

Come, Jesus, stay here. Tell us all about these things. We want to draw close to you.

But the Gadarenes, when he healed the demoniac, they said, get out of here, Jesus. And Christians can do that if we're not careful. I don't want too much of that.

And I've heard that many times. A West Side Christian fellowship. Oh my gosh.

Man, that guy's loud. The worship's long and it's convicting. I don't want that.

I'm comfortable. If you're comfortable in this world, you will never know the fullness of the Spirit. It's impossible.

So you have to desire, just like a plant will die without water, you'll wither spiritually if you don't desire more of God. You've got to desire that. I think I'll talk about this Sunday, but we feed on what we desire.

We go after what we want. We pursue things that are a passion. You've got to make God a passion again.

He needs to be the all-consuming fire. And we say, God, come and let it burn in my heart. I'm pursuing you.

I don't feel like it. I don't care feelings. You're following me.

I'm not following you. And you tell your flesh what to do. You say, I'm pursuing God.

I'm gonna follow Him with all of my heart, with all of my strength. Our prayer must be, oh Lord, ignite my soul. Hannah said, I have poured out my heart to the Lord.

And Lord, if you give me a son, I will commit him to you. And she committed to the Lord and she followed through on that act of obedience. And then the Bible says something interesting.

Then she worshiped. Then she worshiped. Now remember, Hannah is barren.

She's crying out to God. God, give me a son. Give me a son.

And if you give me the son, I'll commit to give him back to you. And instead of going home and being bitter and resentful, I'm gonna worship. Some of you need to get the heart of worship back.

You've been stifled. You've been quenching the Spirit. You've got handcuffs on.

Your emotions are dead to the things of God. You say, God, ignite my passion again. My soul longs, even faints for the courts of the Lord.

My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Oh, if we could get that passion again. Oh, my heart cries out for the living God.

Does your heart cry out for God? If not, that's okay. Say, Lord, I want that. Do you know that's a prayer he'll answer? Lord, I'm pretty ticked off right now.

I don't like what Shane's saying. I'm pretty convicted, but I want that. I desire that.

I need a fresh feeling of your Spirit. I need the Holy Spirit in my heart and in my life again. And that's a prayer God will answer if you're sincere.