They Found The Secret

The title is, They Found the Secret. They Found the Secret. And so can you.

They Found the Secret. Let's go ahead and put up the verse from Acts that we've been looking at. And if you're new tonight, or if it's your first time, or maybe you haven't been in a while, on Sundays, I'm unpacking the book of Acts.

And it's been building a lot of momentum. I'm hearing from a lot of people in the prayer room, on email, online, just that are really being radically changed by God as they fully surrender their lives. And it's contagious, isn't it? Sometimes it takes a little while.

Sometimes we've got to be encouraged, and then we have to hear it again, hear some stories, and look at Scripture, and then that hunger for more of God begins to build and build. And you have to have that. It's called seeking Him.

Seeking Him, and you will find Him. But this is where we've been leaving off, and I'll start going this Sunday now through Acts 1, Acts 2. We'll be going verse by verse, and there's so much in there. If you can make it, be here, because it's such an important topic on this is how the church is to function, even in these dire times.

And remember, Sunday, if you were here, if not, I'll read it, they were assembled together. So all the disciples came together, about 120 of them, and Jesus said, do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for what? The promise of the Father, which He said, you have heard from Me, for John truly baptized you with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now. And just that term in a lot of circles, Pentecostal, Charismatics, Conservatives, Reformed, Baptist, Vineyard, what are the other ones? Calvary Chapel, you know, all the different, that term sometimes, baptized with the Holy Spirit.

It's kind of that, maybe you don't know what I'm talking about, maybe some of you know exactly what I'm talking about, but a lot of churches use that to really excuse weird behavior. Oh man, that's just the Holy Spirit. Why are they acting like an animal, and barking, or doing this, or drunk in the Spirit? And you know, we can't attribute weirdness to the Holy Spirit, because He's also a fruit of the Spirit of self-control, but we do know when God really comes upon a person, their life is radically changed.

They may begin weeping. They may begin just joy, just celebrating with tremendous joy in their heart. And that's what I like even about tonight's worship is, did you know it's okay to be joyful during worship? You know, it's kind of biblical.

It's a fruit of the Spirit. Joy, it's okay to be joy and excited, even when you're gonna crush the enemy's neck. I'm going after Satan, and I'm excited about it.

God's gonna give us the authority and the power to pray for people, and to see real change take place. And as a church, you know about the pardon of Calvary, but do you know about the power of Pentecost? Let me say that again. We know often about the pardon of Calvary, but do we know about the power of Pentecost? In other words, our sin was pardoned on the cross, but as believers, we're given this incredible gift of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit.

And I will tell you, I've not mastered this. I've not perfected this. My wife will tell you I'm not completely full of the Holy Spirit.

Those closest to you can assess, but it's a pursuit. It's a work in progress, because I'm also pulling around 220 pounds of flesh that doesn't want to follow God. I want, the Spirit wants to, but what does the flesh want? Feed me, feed me, feed me, so I can destroy you.

That's what the flesh says. And this power of the Spirit is so important. I wanna tell you, we're gonna concentrate a little bit on the Scripture, but also, they found the secret.

It's gonna make some sense in a minute. But I remember, anytime this topic of the Holy Spirit is preached, I mean, if you do it once in a while, you're okay, but anytime you do a series on it, or if I talk too much about it, people sometimes say things. I remember in Lancaster, I remember one family was leaving the church, and one of the reasons was because I talked too much about the Holy Spirit.

And I think I've mentioned this before, if you remember. But I told them, well, we're in a six-week study on the Holy Spirit. Back when that book was popular, The Forgotten God, and I did a six-week series on it.

But there's something about the deeper life that not everyone wants. They don't wanna really go deeper. It's like, you talk about the Holy Spirit once, okay, okay, okay, I got it.

Let's get off that topic. Like, you ever reprimand your kids at home? They're like, okay, okay, I got it. Stop talking about it.

And that can happen sometimes when we talk about the power of the Holy Spirit, that deeper life, that passionate pursuit of Christ. And if people aren't there and they don't wanna go there, they don't want you to keep talking about it. And it's often why many Christians who have been Christians 20, 30 years, 40 years, even older Christians, sometimes get jealous and upset at the younger believers on fire for God.

Because they see in them something they themselves no longer have. And that's one of my concerns is with a lot of, I mean, they're having in October, I don't know what state it's in, but there's actually a conference. It's a cessationist conference.

I don't know if you've been following that at all, but they're actually gonna have a conference and tell you why the gifts of the Holy Spirit don't operate anymore today. A whole conference. You can pay money and they'll tell you why the Holy Spirit, and I talk to these guys on Twitter.

We kinda go back and forth a little bit. It's just, it's sad because the very thing they need is the very thing they're making fun of. And they pull these bizarre clips from these people and I'm like, well, and they use that to support their view that the Holy Spirit does not do that anymore.

The supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit are not available for us today. And it's sad because they really live in a deficit. I believe that.

I believe they do not have everything that God has for them. If you deny the power of the Holy Spirit, the supernatural and the working of the Spirit, the pressing in, the petitioning, the supplication, prayer meetings, and worship and rent in the heavens meeting every night, if you suppress that and you don't get that carried away or that emotional, boy, that can be a very, it's formalism. Going through the motions without the power of the Holy Spirit.

John Piper said, I think being filled with the Spirit means basically having great joy in God. And since the Bible teaches that the joy of the Lord is our strength, it also means there will be power in this joy for overcoming besetting sins and for boldness in witnessing. And once you receive and feel that, just the overflowing power of the Spirit in your life, it does help you conquer besetting sin.

Doesn't mean you become holy or they call that perfect holiness or I forget that movement I've talked about a few weeks ago, perfectionism, where you get to reach to a point where you never sin again. That's kind of hard to imagine, but they believe that because some Scriptures they'll use because it is possible to make decisions, but it's impossible to live there every single hour of the day because pride comes in and the lust of the flesh. But being filled with the Spirit, there is a new power to say no because there's a fullness of the Spirit.

You're not as inclined to cave in to that sin because now you're on fire for God. You love God. You're running away from those things that used to draw you back.

Doesn't mean they won't pull you back again and snare you. And that's what we believe a demonic stronghold is. Once you give place to the enemy, you go back and you give the flesh more strength than it should have and you begin to cave into these things and now it's got a demonic stronghold on your life.

We have to be very careful in these areas. I mean, many of you have seen if you're going to the grocery store on the magazines, there's one called Witches. It's got this witch on front.

Witches and kids can play and look through the magazine. Then these little tarot card and the occult and all these things. These are open doors.

These are open doors. I was driving by the mall yesterday and I saw that store Spirit opened. Why do you call it Spirit? For Halloween decor.

Yeah, I don't know. Come on, right? We know that there is that spiritual aspect of darkness as well. But why am I preaching on this topic so much, even on Wednesdays? My goal is quite simple.

To spark the flames of personal revival. To spark the flames of personal revival. And we get this.

We got it at the prayer line on this long Sunday. And people praying for this more of the Spirit and crying out for more of God. And just the testimonies of people being radically changed by God.

It's contagious. It's exciting. It's addictive in a good way to want to see people experience more of God.

When they experience more of God and full of the Holy Spirit, counseling goes down. Arguments go down. Church division is way down.

Holding on to offenses goes down. Unity is increased. Because the Holy Spirit in you and the Holy Spirit in the other person is not divided.

It's impossible. And so, this breakthrough comes and that's why some churches experience what they call that term revival, which really means awakening God's people out of spiritual darkness. Out of spiritual apathy and into spiritual joy and excitement and power and passion for the things of God.

It's a very important topic right now. And although there is no guarantee of a large corporate revival, even though that's what many of us are praying for, correct? For our nation, we understand that without that, it is getting really interesting out there. And without another spiritual awakening, I like to be honest with people and not mislead.

It doesn't look too promising unless God awakens His church and awakens believers and ignites. And even in that, there's going to still be difficulties. But at least more light is pushing back the darkness.

But what I'm saying is although there is no guarantee of a large corporate revival, I'm well aware of that, there is always a guarantee for personal revival. Did you know the Bible promises that? You'll have as much as God as you want. The more you seek Him, the more you find Him.

As John was singing this evening, I thought of, you know, some of you have fruit trees and different things. The fruit isn't like working hard and laboring and oh, it's so hard to be an apple. They just abide in the vine.

They just abide and grow. And if we can get that vision as believers, abide in the vine, the Bible says that. Just rest in Him.

There are things we have to do, of course, in being vigilant and like Paul said, discipline our bodies and things like that, but we rest in Him. For example, when fear comes upon us, we put it on the Lord. Lord, You're sovereignly in control.

Your sovereignty is my sanity. I rest in You. Hey, this is going on in our life.

Lord, I trust You. And you begin to throw it back on Him and abide in Him. It is so important.

We find what we pursue and we are satisfied with what we hunger for. So when it comes to the things of God, we find what we pursue. Many Christians are not pursuing the things of God.

That's why Jesus said, choose who you will serve. As for me, in my house, Joshua said, we're going to serve the Lord, but there is a process there. The more we serve the world, the less we're going to want and enjoy the things of God.

The desire for a deeper life often unlocks the door to personal revival. It has to start here, I believe. It has to start with a desire.

You have to want that, because if you don't want that, you're not going to get that. Like the deer that pants. Like the man that seeks.

Like the father that pursues, right? There's got to be a desire. Say, Lord, I want that. I don't have that.

I need that deeper life. I want to experience more of Your Spirit. I want that abiding love.

I want that joy. Unspeakable. I want those things.

Lord, help me get it. Help me get it. And to those who say there won't be a large-scale revival because we're approaching the end with perilous times, you need to remind them that it was in very difficult times that the church was born.

The church was born in revival when Rome wanted to kill them, when everyone was against them. We are familiar with difficult times. Actually, that purifies the bride.

That's where the purification process takes place in the tribulation and being challenged because if tribulation is there, it really sorts out what's genuine in you and what's not. If I'm being persecuted for my faith, that faith is solid gold, is it not? If I'm holding on to that faith, that means I'm really believing Jesus. I'm believing God.

But if I can easily walk away, then did I really have faith? That's what Jesus said when I come again, will I really find faith on the earth? So let's spark some flames real quick. It's not a long sermon. Let's spark a few flames.

And the title came from this book I have. They Found the Secret. They Found the Secret.

Don't worry, this is not an Oprah. Just 20 lives of people that were radically changed. Hudson Taylor, when he was filled with the Spirit of God, this chapter is called The Exchanged Life.

Another chapter, The Cleansed Life. The Highest Life. The Radiant Life.

The Powerful Life. The Disciplined Life. The Burning Life.

The Overflowing Life. The Prevailing Life. The Dynamic.

The Fragrant. The Satisfying Life. All these different aspects of how the Holy Spirit changed them and pursued them.

Does this sound familiar? In all of these stories, they believed on the Savior, yet they were burdened and they were bewildered. They were unfaithful and unfruitful, always yearning for a better way and never achieving by their efforts a better life. Then they came to a crisis of utter heart surrender to the Savior.

And they met with Him in the innermost depths of the Spirit and they found the Holy Spirit to be an unfailing fountain of life and of refreshment. And see, that's what many believers need. Many believers need that.

I can go through and talk about Hudson Taylor. How many of you have heard that name? He became a Christian at a young age, but couldn't live the Christian life. The Bible was boring.

I can't get excited about it until he fully surrendered his life. What about Samuel Logan? He was with the Red Cross. John Bunyan.

Anybody heard of John Bunyan? Pilgrim's Progress. Amy Carmichael. Oswald Chambers.

Charles Finney. Adonai Judson. John Hyde.

Dwight Moody. And on and on it goes. Different people.

Some you've never heard of. Where in all their cases, they started in the ministry. They started.

They were Christians, but they never had the power of the Spirit in their hearts and in their lives because they didn't fully surrender. And there's a few points we can glean from this and from Scripture. What did they do in order to receive the fullness of the Spirit? Remember, as a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit.

But again, does He have all of you? If we're quenching and grieving the Spirit, we don't know anything about the abundant life. What they did and what we have to do is give up the fight. Cease resisting God and yield to Him.

Give up the fight. Do you ever feel that fight inside of you that you don't want to give God everything? It's okay to admit that. How many of us don't want to give God everything? A deep work of the Spirit cannot prevail when there is a defiant and rebellious heart.

So God wants to do a deep work in our hearts. A defiant and rebellious heart is going to push that away. And what these authors did and what others have done, number two, they humbled themselves and they repented of this apathy.

They repented of this hardness of heart. They said, oh God, forgive me. They repented.

And like a magnet, God is attracted to humility. Here's something interesting about humility. It's true to some degree.

But it's not necessarily less of me. Really it is none of me. Well, less of me.

You try to humble yourself. Oh gosh, thanks guys. But it's not about you at all.

It's about none of me. It's about Lord, whatever Your will is, whatever Your way, I humble myself before You. I'm putting others first or the situation first.

As you humble yourself, God comes in and begins to fill you with His Spirit. And then number three, in this war, there is no terms of surrender. There's no terms of surrender in this battle.

Okay God, I'll surrender if You do this. He's got eternity to wait. You ever remember that show, Let's Make a Deal? God says this is the deal.

There's no terms of surrender. It's complete surrender. And leading into this Sunday, I'm talking about preparing the heart.

Preparing the heart. There's so much truth behind prayer and supplication. Have you heard those terms before? Prayer and supplication.

Prayer is requesting certain things. Supplication, though, is like a person in trouble. And they realize it's a desperate prayer because I'm in trouble or there's a dire situation.

So there's prayer, normal prayer, and there's supplication. Crying out to God and pleading to God. Oh Lord, deliver me.

Oh Lord, release me. Oh Lord, avenge me. Oh Lord, hear my cry.

Hear the cries of Your people. And guys, what's so hard about this topic is our flesh doesn't want to embrace this topic. Our flesh doesn't want more of God.

We're satisfied. And we have to get to the point where I'm not satisfied. How long are we going to allow our nation to fall apart in the school districts and our homes without being so dissatisfied about what's going on and having that righteous indignation, and having that holy fire that draws us even closer to God? So it does begin with those things.

You have to be desperate. You have to say, I crave that. I want more of that.

I don't have that and I need that. It's an empty vessel being filled with God's Spirit. And one who surrenders their life to Him.

And I don't want to keep repeating my own story or the stories of others, but you need to have your own personal story. And ask yourself, is God's Word coming alive in my heart? Is worship coming alive in my heart? Even though I don't maybe do it every day, is there a desire to witness? Is there a desire to be bold? Is there a desire to pray? Why are prayer meetings the least attended meetings at church? Next Wednesday, all we're going to do is pray. How many people will be here? Oh, four.

That's good. That's good. Really good.

Let's try that again, right? But there's a pull of the flesh that's very difficult for that life of the Spirit to come forth. We want more of God, more of the Holy Spirit, but that flesh keeps pulling its way. You can't deal with that.

You don't have enough willpower. You don't have enough strength. You have to repent.

Say, God, I need help. Help! Help! Because God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.